1. work. i am blessed with a JOB FOR THE SUMMER. i am really grateful to be working in the gordon admissions office with great staff and at a school i love.
2. watching one too many episodes of friday night lights (not to be confused with the movie). one of the reasons i love this show is because of this character:
forgive me for the crush...i do have more legitimate reasons for loving this show than tim riggins.
especially the 4th & 5th seasons there has been a lot of interesting stories relating to important issues: gangs, the prison system, family loyalty, football culture, abortion, male and female roles, marriage, etc. it's an entertaining show for sure - but it also makes you think.
3. running. trying to exercise more since the past month of college consisted of a lot of ice cream and little exercise ;)
4. book reading: i finished a short romance novel about a cross-country road trip. it was quite cliche but i loved every page.
up next on my shelf:
this past weekend my college partnered with the center for public justice and the institute for global engagement to host this conference (i believe it happens every two years). throughout the weekend, many christian political scientists participated in panels, discussed papers they had written, and engaged in Q & A over a wide range of topics.
one of the speakers, peter feever, spoke about the tension between theory and practice in politics -- and he spoke with experience leading in the white house (foreign policy specifically) under presidents clinton and bush.
gordon's college president, dr. michael lindsay, spoke the following night about his in-depth research through the Platinum Study which studies the top leaders in the United States, and specifically the impact of religion in these positions. it was really interesting to hear dr. lindsay speak as a sociologist instead of as a college president and i was honestly blown away by all that he has done to conduct this study -- 550 interviews and thousands of hours of research to understand how faith has impacted the "elite" in a variety of settings -- businesses, non-profits, political offices, etc.
afterwards, my friend and i approached him to ask a specific question i had been thinking about during his presentation:
what about women??
this past semester i took a fascinating sociology class that made me see a lot of injustices and problems that men and women experience due to gender discrimination and sexism. as i listened to dr. lindsay's study, i wanted to hear what he had to say since most of the "elite" (CEOs, political officials, etc.) are men -- and if they are the ones with the most power, what does this mean for women, and ultimately, is this a good structure for a flourishing society?
dr. lindsay answered the question with a lot of understanding and said that he tried really hard to interview women in his study and out of all of his interviews this totaled to 12%. one of the biggest areas of difference between men and women in these high positions of power was their tension between working in the office and carring for their families. dr. lindsay's research proved that women struggled more with this challenge than did men - meaning that women felt more of a burden to care for their families instead of working in high-power positions (and this is a big deal considering the average person in a position of power worked a LOT of hours -- more than 60/week usually).
i have a lot of questions and am eager to engage in conversation about the study and what it means for women in leadership and positions of power.
the following night, we heard the annual Kuyper Lecture, hosted by the Center for Public Justice. the speaker was Miroslav Volf and he has a long list of accomplishments and teaches at Yale. i'll confess i couldn't follow all of what he said, but he was talking about the compatibility of religious exclusivists (those who believe that their faith is the true way to life and eternal life) pursuing a pluralist political order.
what do i mean by "pluralist political order"?? well i guess having just graduated as a political science major i should have that answer pat-down, but i don't. i'll do my best :)
i think the best way to talk about pluralism is to think of the root word plural, meaning more than one. when we talk about pluralism, we can discuss structural pluralism -- the variety of structures and institutions that compose a society. we can also talk about religious pluralism where many peoples express different religious view points.
dr. volf was interested in proving that as a religious exclusivist, you can support a pluralist political order that supports the flourishing of different religious groups. there are a lot of questions about what this means, what it looks like, especially when various religious (or a-religious) perspectives do not affirm certain institutions, or do not like the way they function (such as education, the family, etc.)
you can find a much better and well-written piece about the conference here if you're interested and haven't fallen asleep while reading this ;)
all in all, it was a great conference and i enjoyed hearing from my fellow students as they presented papers, the guest lecturers, and the panel discussions.
more thoughts to come! :)
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