for your reading pleasure: a Pauline analysis.

So I was sitting in my New Testament Analysis class on Tuesday and we're looking at Pauline letters. My professor brings up the issue of slavery and how both the North and the South used the same Pauline letter to argue their case. So he sent us on a little scavenger hunt through all of Paul's letters to see if we could decipher what his exact thoughts on slavery were based on his comments in these letters. 

*boring? wrong. I LOVE this kind of stuff*

Anyway, we grouped up and looked through the Pauline letters and came up with our ideas. When asked to share what we had come up with I raised my hand and said something like -

Well, based on Paul's very brief and scattered comments, it doesn't seem as though he is concerned with slavery itself. He is more concerned with being the best Christian one could be regardless of circumstances.

- I was sure I nailed it. 

My professor smiles and says, "Carmen that is very insightful, but I call bullshit here. I asked whether or not Paul condoned slavery, and that was not a real answer to my question."

As I reread my entry about dancing with life and death I felt like calling bullshit a little bit. Don't get me wrong, the irony in this situation is almost rosy. I am an eternally obnoxious optimistic person. But if I just left it like I did in that post I'd be ignoring a huge chunk of what this entails. 

It entails a man losing his life. A man who is not yet 50 years old. A man who has two daughters to walk down the aisle. A man who has yet to watch his youngest child graduate from high school. It entails a disease that is painful, ruthless, and fast. It entails drugs that make his body toxic and come with their own host of side effects. It entails a man who has selflessly stood in my corner when nobody else was standing there. 

He is losing his life, and it makes me pretty sad. Sure there is a message here about life and death, and sure he will certainly be in a better place when it's all over. But at the end of the day, I am sad that he won't be a phone call away. I'm sad that truck-butt won't ever carry the same laughter, but instead a pang of sadness. I'm sad that I'll have to teach the boys about participating in the dinner experience myself, because he certainly is he one to learn from. I'm sad that his story is ending too soon. 

For the record, Paul was convinced that the world was ending like tomorrow and was more concerned about living for Jesus than the political ramifications of slavery. It is because of this, that whatever arguments the North and South found were taken completely out of context and should have been considered void in a court of law. 

Also, 9 weeks pregnant tomorrow. Bunny will be the size of an olive. Big steps here, folks.