Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Further Reflections of a Muddled Mind
Forecast: Brainstorm Reduced to Braindrizzle, May Become Drought!
I finally went online and reviewed my own blog (how vainglorious!). I set out with the advice: "Have an overall theme for the month." Great advice; so I chose the grand idea of blogging about "Bible and culture"; how our culture makes explicit and/or implicit use of biblical themes and ideas. As I re-read the three (count 'em: three!) entries I have made so far, I did discover they are united by a theme, but not the theme I chose! Almost every entry makes some sort of reference to my mind being confused, overworked, or "mushed".
Here I am, finishing a Master's degree, and my only coherent thought is: "I can't construct a coherent thought!" Oh yeah! I'm definitely the new poster child for my seminary. (Cue up cheery radio ad music) "Want a successful academic career in Old Testament studies? You ought to come to (name of my seminary, which I choose not to reveal to prevent their embarrassment); it's a great place to learn! Consider Jared Runck, former student; he now spends his days at a nursing home playing pinochle with his 85-year old friend George. He enjoys long walks in the park and lolling about in the shade, like his golden retriever, Sparky. Of his seminary education, he says, 'Bluhbluhbluhbluh' . . .
OK, so I let my imagination run away with me! At least I found a theme; you are now reading the new official blog of "muddle-mindedness". I guess I truly am an "absent-minded" professor, because it sure feels like my mind has taken a semester-long vacation to some nice Florida beach, and left my body in STL to seethe in jealousy.
Mark McGwire, Plagiarism, and Chinese Media Pirates
So, the big news close to home today was that Mark McGwire didn't make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Furthermore, he didn't make it in because of his rather scandalous snubbing of a congressional subcommittee investigating the use of steroids and other performance enhancers in professional sports. When asked if he had used steroids, he infamously and arrogantly remarked: "I'm not here to talk about the past." Well, duh, McGwire! What are you there to talk about?! The price of tea in Asia?! Come on! As you can tell, I'm not really a McGwire fan (as a confession, I'm not a huge professional sports fan in general; some find this surprising since I am a die-hard college football nut, but it's the money in professional sports that turns me off).
Well, on the same day that McGwire receives the snub, we have our first faculty meeting. One of the topics that came up is that there have been a few incidents of plagiarism; it's become a topic that needs addressing. Now, for those of you who just backslid over the thought of an Apostolic youth committing plagiarism in Bible college, let me first assure you, people are people, even if they are Apostolic people. Secondly, I must note that what makes this so noticeable is that these incidents (involving various students) occurred almost back-to-back. Mainly, incidents of plagiarism have been so isolated and far apart that the previous incident has entered the glorious realm of Gateway "urban legend" before the next one even occurs.
So when more than one incident happens in one semester, it raises an eyebrow. Needless to say, why plagiarism is on the rise occupied the faculty lunch table today! Really, it's not so surprising; just note the current rise of piracy of CDs and DVDs. I'm sure you've seen that ubiquitous trailer that begins: (Cue music from a heart-pounding car chase sequence) "You wouldn't steal a purse . . . You wouldn't steal your grandfather's false teeth" . . .you know how it goes. Anyway, any student who doesn't feel it's wrong to rip a CD or pirate software will probably not blink twice about finding their paper for Church History online.
Which leads to my first main observation: the rise in plagiarism is directly related to the rise of Internet usage among our students. The point I'm making is not the necessity of banning the Internet (I'm not part of the "to-be-Apostolic-you-must-wear-a-Roman-toga-like-Paul" crowd); but it is obvious that the Internet is changing the way we consume and utilize information. Notice how I referenced that article about Mark McGwire above; I used a hyperlink--I didn't give you the name of the source or the author; for all you know, the website I hyperlinked to could have been my own creation (it wasn't; it's the STL-Dispatch website, if you must know).
Which leads me to my second observation: the reason this is such a problem in Asian countries is that they live in a predominantly and anciently oral (vs. literate) culture. By "oral vs. literate", I'm not implying that Asians cannot read; I'm arguing that in their culture, stories are told from generation to generation, not written down. The study of orality is quite a burgeoning field (I have a friend who is using orality in his Ph.D. dissertation at his seminary); we are just beginning to understand how different an "oral" culture is from a "literate" one. One of the primary differences is that stories are considered communal property. Though they are told by gifted storytellers, the story is never seen as the storyteller's property. In fact, using a storyteller's method or version is a great honor to that storyteller--however, you do not have to "cite" him or her. Those in your audience who know the story will understand your reference. To my mind, much of the Asian piracy problem boils down to basic cultural differences; I don't think we recognize that yet.
Which leads me to my third and most important observation. I was struck tonight that there is a connection between McGwire and those who plagiarize or pirate. It's a lack of integrity, and it's the "American disease". Our country is in a spiraling crisis of lost integrity. It's why the war on Iraq is such an issue(BTW, we're getting out by sending in more trooops? How does that work?); for better or worse, I think Bush lost integrity in the eyes of common Americans when we didn't find the WMDs he said were there. That's a grossly unfair and probably an uneducated opinion, but that's what happened. It's also why corporate scandals seem to hit the news every other day; it's why Mark McGwire didn't make the Hall of Fame.
And it's why (some) Bible college students plagiarize. The Church is called to "come out" from the world; here we are following right along with it. It is precisely because of our loss of integrity that we have lost our witness. Francis Bacon once said (I summarize): "Argument is like a crossbow; it is of equal force even if used by a child. Testimony is like a longbow; its force completely depends on the one who shoots it." We are called to testify to people, not argue with them; our testimony is directly dependent on the strength of our integrity. If young people in the Church sacrifice their integrity, they sacrifice their witness. If they sacrifice their witness, they sacrifice their mission. iI they sacrifice their mission, they sacrifice the Church!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
I finally went online and reviewed my own blog (how vainglorious!). I set out with the advice: "Have an overall theme for the month." Great advice; so I chose the grand idea of blogging about "Bible and culture"; how our culture makes explicit and/or implicit use of biblical themes and ideas. As I re-read the three (count 'em: three!) entries I have made so far, I did discover they are united by a theme, but not the theme I chose! Almost every entry makes some sort of reference to my mind being confused, overworked, or "mushed".
Here I am, finishing a Master's degree, and my only coherent thought is: "I can't construct a coherent thought!" Oh yeah! I'm definitely the new poster child for my seminary. (Cue up cheery radio ad music) "Want a successful academic career in Old Testament studies? You ought to come to (name of my seminary, which I choose not to reveal to prevent their embarrassment); it's a great place to learn! Consider Jared Runck, former student; he now spends his days at a nursing home playing pinochle with his 85-year old friend George. He enjoys long walks in the park and lolling about in the shade, like his golden retriever, Sparky. Of his seminary education, he says, 'Bluhbluhbluhbluh' . . .
OK, so I let my imagination run away with me! At least I found a theme; you are now reading the new official blog of "muddle-mindedness". I guess I truly am an "absent-minded" professor, because it sure feels like my mind has taken a semester-long vacation to some nice Florida beach, and left my body in STL to seethe in jealousy.
Mark McGwire, Plagiarism, and Chinese Media Pirates
So, the big news close to home today was that Mark McGwire didn't make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Furthermore, he didn't make it in because of his rather scandalous snubbing of a congressional subcommittee investigating the use of steroids and other performance enhancers in professional sports. When asked if he had used steroids, he infamously and arrogantly remarked: "I'm not here to talk about the past." Well, duh, McGwire! What are you there to talk about?! The price of tea in Asia?! Come on! As you can tell, I'm not really a McGwire fan (as a confession, I'm not a huge professional sports fan in general; some find this surprising since I am a die-hard college football nut, but it's the money in professional sports that turns me off).
Well, on the same day that McGwire receives the snub, we have our first faculty meeting. One of the topics that came up is that there have been a few incidents of plagiarism; it's become a topic that needs addressing. Now, for those of you who just backslid over the thought of an Apostolic youth committing plagiarism in Bible college, let me first assure you, people are people, even if they are Apostolic people. Secondly, I must note that what makes this so noticeable is that these incidents (involving various students) occurred almost back-to-back. Mainly, incidents of plagiarism have been so isolated and far apart that the previous incident has entered the glorious realm of Gateway "urban legend" before the next one even occurs.
So when more than one incident happens in one semester, it raises an eyebrow. Needless to say, why plagiarism is on the rise occupied the faculty lunch table today! Really, it's not so surprising; just note the current rise of piracy of CDs and DVDs. I'm sure you've seen that ubiquitous trailer that begins: (Cue music from a heart-pounding car chase sequence) "You wouldn't steal a purse . . . You wouldn't steal your grandfather's false teeth" . . .you know how it goes. Anyway, any student who doesn't feel it's wrong to rip a CD or pirate software will probably not blink twice about finding their paper for Church History online.
Which leads to my first main observation: the rise in plagiarism is directly related to the rise of Internet usage among our students. The point I'm making is not the necessity of banning the Internet (I'm not part of the "to-be-Apostolic-you-must-wear-a-Roman-toga-like-Paul" crowd); but it is obvious that the Internet is changing the way we consume and utilize information. Notice how I referenced that article about Mark McGwire above; I used a hyperlink--I didn't give you the name of the source or the author; for all you know, the website I hyperlinked to could have been my own creation (it wasn't; it's the STL-Dispatch website, if you must know).
Which leads me to my second observation: the reason this is such a problem in Asian countries is that they live in a predominantly and anciently oral (vs. literate) culture. By "oral vs. literate", I'm not implying that Asians cannot read; I'm arguing that in their culture, stories are told from generation to generation, not written down. The study of orality is quite a burgeoning field (I have a friend who is using orality in his Ph.D. dissertation at his seminary); we are just beginning to understand how different an "oral" culture is from a "literate" one. One of the primary differences is that stories are considered communal property. Though they are told by gifted storytellers, the story is never seen as the storyteller's property. In fact, using a storyteller's method or version is a great honor to that storyteller--however, you do not have to "cite" him or her. Those in your audience who know the story will understand your reference. To my mind, much of the Asian piracy problem boils down to basic cultural differences; I don't think we recognize that yet.
Which leads me to my third and most important observation. I was struck tonight that there is a connection between McGwire and those who plagiarize or pirate. It's a lack of integrity, and it's the "American disease". Our country is in a spiraling crisis of lost integrity. It's why the war on Iraq is such an issue(BTW, we're getting out by sending in more trooops? How does that work?); for better or worse, I think Bush lost integrity in the eyes of common Americans when we didn't find the WMDs he said were there. That's a grossly unfair and probably an uneducated opinion, but that's what happened. It's also why corporate scandals seem to hit the news every other day; it's why Mark McGwire didn't make the Hall of Fame.
And it's why (some) Bible college students plagiarize. The Church is called to "come out" from the world; here we are following right along with it. It is precisely because of our loss of integrity that we have lost our witness. Francis Bacon once said (I summarize): "Argument is like a crossbow; it is of equal force even if used by a child. Testimony is like a longbow; its force completely depends on the one who shoots it." We are called to testify to people, not argue with them; our testimony is directly dependent on the strength of our integrity. If young people in the Church sacrifice their integrity, they sacrifice their witness. If they sacrifice their witness, they sacrifice their mission. iI they sacrifice their mission, they sacrifice the Church!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
# posted by Luke @ 7:56 PM 
