Wednesday, February 10, 2010

my school


i'm sure most fuller students have a photo like this buried in their collection. everyone who has family visit them in southern california, want to take your picture next to the fuller sign. my sister took this picture way back in 2007, shortly after i arrived in pasadena.

this setting might look familiar to those of you who are regular readers of the fantastic post secret website. the idea is simple - mail in a postcard of your deepest secret to be posted anonymously on their site. it has become so popular that the creators have published several books.

this week they posted this photo. interesting, right? i wonder who that is and what made fuller seminary so difficult...

10 comments:

Kim said...

Wow, that's quite a confession! I once heard performing songwriter and former Union Seminary grad student Richard Shindell say roughly the same thing. . .something to the effect that he'd spent $60,000 to find out there was no god. Very sad.
Hey, if you are acquainted with him, do me a favor and share your find with Mark Labberton (professor). I think he'd love to see it (maybe love to is not the right term, but it would interest him :-).
-Kim

ben wideman said...

Thanks Kim, actually I'm taking a class with Mark right now, so I'll pass that on!

Cafe Observer said...

Perhaps, that p-s pic is trying to say educational institutions overemphasize questioning, or creating doubts (tests, exams, essays, etc.) Which understandably wood lead some to believe in doubt or skepticism rather than faith. So, why waste time, money, faith, and effort to weaken one's faith in your beliefs.

But, this is a credit to the many Christian educational institutions as most other religions don't examine their beliefs quite as rigorously.

Of course, it's impossible and impractical to live this life each day without faith.

I wish we could question authority figures in politics at least as much. Creating a bit more doubt rather than faith in them!

ben wideman said...

that is a really great point, Cafe.

Cafe Observer said...

BW, shouldn't you be wearing an FTS shirt instead for your school?

ben wideman said...

C'mon, I had just arrived! I don't even think I'd taken a class at this point.

Plus, EMU will ALWAYS be my school.

Cafe Observer said...

There's planning two bee a potluck blogger conference in Altadena on 3/20. IF you make this one, bring the beer - home brewed or professionally bot, no matter.

Petrea Burchard said...

Wonderful topic, photo and links.

My father was a sociologist with a concentration in religion. I think his vast knowledge turned him off to organized religion, though not to his own beliefs.

ben wideman said...

Thanks for sharing that, Petrea.

I just recently read this blog post that a friend of mine wrote, and it really got me thinking more about what we believe and cling to...

http://gatheringinlight.com/2010/02/10/my-very-own-false-advisers/

Petrea Burchard said...

It's an interesting post. I think anyone who's paying attention, from "inside" or "outside" Christianity, can see it's not one group but many different groups who may be under that big umbrella but are not at all the same. I would no more compare you to a TV evangelist than I'd compare myself to Barney. Yet I think those extremists have done some damage.