Defining Charity In Biblical Context

 Posted by on Sun, 12/11 at 11:56pm  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Dec 112016
 

There are so many different dictionaries that the internet enables us to use as resources. For some words, simple definitions that contain only a few words, the language of origin, and maybe one or two example sentences do not fully express the full meaning behind the word. I grew up reading the Bible, I use it as a reference for all kinds of trials in my life. When I think about religion I think of the golden rule. All religions agree in their humblest existence on the idea that treating others the way that we want to be treated makes for a happy human world. Well, there has been elaborate action in the complete opposite direction. 2 Corinthians 9:7, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” For many people who have been shown the light of the world through education and love understand the importance of doing what one believes is right. To go against your heart is a great tragedy. Philippians 2:3-4, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his interests, but also for the interests of others.” It is so important to recognize ourselves in other people. People are so quick to judge, but in reality every one has been through a hell of a lot living here. Everyone deserves mutual respect because you never know who you are going to meet or what that person will do in your life. Hebrews 13:2, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels.” I love this message. We should all be so inspired to keep an open mind. The Bible is open for interpretation. Many Christians believe charity is about Jesus Christ. Looking to Jesus Christ by the way he lives his life. I am not sure totally what to believe, but I know that if you follow your heart and do what you believe is best, and most of all to really believe that miracles can happen, then they will. People can divide into groups because they want to believe in tradition or keep a part of culture alive, but for all of us, no matter what we say or do, love will always be the human religion.

The positives of social media (and my thoughts about a negative thing)

 Posted by on Wed, 11/30 at 10:27am  reading, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 302016
 

This article discusses both the positive and the negative aspects of how social media is changing how we see beauty. The standards of beauty are always changing, but with the help of social media, they’re changing even faster. I will focus on the positives that are discussed here and use another article to discuss the negative.

The first and I think the most major positive outcome of social media is that it has given a very large group of women a voice that they have never had before. There is finally a space for women of color to create beauty publicly. This article doesn’t discuss this as much as it should, but it is really important to note what social media has created. The beauty industry has always been white washed, and now there is a virtual space to allow for the coloring of the industry. Like I mentioned in an earlier journal, Lupita Nyong’o was signed with Lancome, a cosmetic brand who has been in business for over 80 years. It took them 80 years to sign a black model- 80 years! Now anyone can create an account on Instagram and teach people how to do makeup that works for darker complexions.

The article mentions something that I didn’t put much thought into: everyone working behind the scenes. We all know that when celebrities step out onto the red carpet (or just post a picture online) they probably didn’t do their own makeup, hair and styling. But previously we didn’t get to see who put them together; however, thanks to social media, we now can. Celebrities may tag their styling team in their selfies or post pictures with the teams. Or the stylists and cosmetologists may have their own following which is what landed them the job of doing whoever’s makeup.

One of the last things that the article mentions as a “positive” I don’t really think is entirely positive. It says that major fashion houses (like Dior or Chanel for example) are only hiring models if they have over 10,000 followers on Instagram. The reason that I don’t think this is a positive is because it objectifies the models. I understand that the nature of a model’s job does often cause them to be objectified as sexual objects and that they are immediately judged based upon their looks. The followers that one has on Instagram just isn’t a fair way to qualify as hirable. In order to gain followers some potential models may post racy pictures of themselves, and that’s fine if the potential model is open to doing that. But what if you’re not? What if you want to be a model without having to have your breasts exposed in order to gain followers so that you can land a gig? One other major negative I see with this is that the more followers you have, the more comments you’re likely to have on posts. These comments could be from “thirst” followers (i.e. someone who follows you because they think you’re hot) and these followers would more than likely leave sexually charged comments on the posts. Social media should create a more positive space to express one’s self, not turn potential models into “Instagram hoes.”

I’ve Become Your New God Now: Superman As Religion

 Posted by on Sun, 11/20 at 9:14pm  proposal, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 202016
 

For years, millions of people have looked up to Superman as the epitome of human and moral perfection. Countless scholars and fans have claimed that the character is an allegory for Jesus while others believe him to be a Moses allegory. However, during his inception, creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster drew inspiration from a variety of sources, ranging from religion to Greek mythology to science fiction pulp magazines, and novels like Philip Wylie’s Gladiator. Regardless of the character’s potential for interpretation, his adventures in the comic books, films, and numerous television shows have become their own sort of religious text, with readers and viewers clinging heavily to established canon as indisputable fact. The character’s adventures and morality have further been used to reshape peoples’ way of living life, as well as prompting many to pursue lines of work that they previously would not have considered without the character’s influence.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which Superman’s tales of triumph in the struggle of good versus evil have generated a devout fan following and initiated discussions of allegorical meaning. Further, this paper will seek to examine the myriad sources from which the character of Superman was derived. Finally, this paper will argue that Superman and his lore have created a new type of mythology, and remolded The Man of Steel into a modern day god on par with ancient mythological and biblical heroes such as Samson and Hercules.

Essay #3: Informal, Brief Proposal

 Posted by on Sat, 11/19 at 11:53pm  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 192016
 

The topic of my third essay will be a continuation of the article reading that I’ve been doing. The essay will be about decision making. I will use information that i have gathered and will continue to gather. I will write about how we were raised and how we raise our children to make the best decisions possible. I will write about the methods that adults use in decision making in their grown up lives. I will write about personal experiences. And I will focus a lot on consequences and life after making decisions in a big way. The last thing is what i will emphasize and take a stand on by siting moments in time when previous decisions have dictated future options.

Factors that affect parenting

 Posted by on Fri, 11/18 at 12:54pm  proposal, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 182016
 

Several parenting styles are being used in our society, authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and neglectful. Each differs from one another. Each of them affect a child differently, depending on the child’s personality.

Also several factors such as socio-economic status and the parent’s personality can lead to ineffective parenting. If the parent was raised by an abusive parent it can also cause the parent to e abusive as well.

 

 

Backlash on Coexist

 Posted by on Sun, 11/13 at 2:48pm  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 132016
 

There are numerous articles written by conservative journalists condemning the Coexist movement. The reasons, nine times out of ten, is the fear that the final outworking of the Coexist movement of pluralism, tolerance and universalism will lead to a global abandonment of all “faiths.” In my opinion, that may not be the worst thing in the world, but I can see how it bothers people with a strong faith in a god. There also seems to be a misconception that it is directly targeting Christianity and it isn’t “fair” because Christians aren’t causing the problems. That belief is summed up in the image below:

While it’s ineffective to the cause to simply buy a sticker to parade how giving and generous a person is, if someone is actually donating and helping out at events there may be some good coming out of the movement. Just buying a coexist sticker is no different than just buying one cancer awareness sticker. Unless the person is making continued contributions and/or helping out at events, there probably just doing it to fill up their bucket, so to speak. It gives people the illusion that they are contributing to a bigger cause when in reality, they really aren’t.

Race in the beauty industry

 Posted by on Sun, 11/13 at 2:37pm  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 132016
 

As much as I’ve been reading about my topic, I never considered what the following article has to say about how social media is changing the beauty industry. I’ve been mainly focusing on the marketing and business side of the changes (which is related to the article) BUT the article focuses on race in the beauty industry. The under representation of people of color is something that I’m totally aware of because I work in the beauty industry. Lancome, the brand I work for, signed Lupita Nyong’o in 2014 to be a model for the company. This is important because she is the first African American beauty ambassador for the brand, but it’s also important because she’s an African American model for a cosmetics company. Lupita’s signing was paired with the brand’s expansion of one of our foundations, offering a range of 35 shades. 35 shades is a lot for foundation, especially considering how wide the range is. It is often very difficult for people of color to find a color match for their skin tone because brands don’t really offer darker shades. Most brands only offer a few shades for darker skin tones, while there’s numerous shades for lighter skin tones.

People of color have fought for more expansive ranges of shades from brands, but few have caught on. This has lead to the creation of brands centered around offering an extensive blend of color. According to the article, this has been paired with the hashtag #blackgirlmagic. This has helped to create a space for people of color to see themselves represented online and in the beauty community. This representation goes beyond seeing one’s self within the community (as a model) and extends into what products are being purchased. For example, lipsticks, eye shadows, highlighters, blushes and anything else that is color looks very different on different skin tones. When brands provide swatches or product pictures, they’re often shown on lighter skin tones. Brands like Colourpop are starting to change this because they offer swatches on all their products on three different skin tones: light, medium and deep. The article cites Cocoa Swatches, an Instagram account that posts swatches of products on deep skin tones so that users can see how a product will look on their skin tone.

Coexist Coffee

 Posted by on Sun, 11/13 at 2:22pm  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 132016
 

While stumbling through the cultural artifact essay, I came across an article that made me change how I felt about the Coexist brand. While I still think that the bumper stickers aren’t any better than a cancer awareness ribbon, I did find that the company behind the stickers is doing some great work around the world.

Coexist began as submission by Piotr Młodożeniec in 2000 to an international art competition. The now CEO of the Coexist Foundation, Tarek Elgawhary, was living in Egypt during the emergence in popularity of the sticker. At first, he was turned off by it but eventually he looked past the crunchy exterior and the underlying message resonated with him.

Being the savvy entrepreneur that he was, he jumped on the opportunity and sought out Młodożeniec to buy the rights and licensing. Now, Elgawhary’s Coexist Foundation is a large, non-profit company that (between donations and purchases) have raised close to $30,000,000 for programs and started 33 projects in 9 countries for efforts including quality education, gender equality, youth empowerment, and economic opportunity.

The staple of the company is obviously the bumper stickers, but a lesser known product that they carry is coffee. The Coexist Foundation website boasts that purchases will not only go towards their efforts of unity, but also supports small farmers.

 

https://www.washingtonian.com/2015/01/25/theres-a-coffee-company-behind-those-coexist-bumper-stickers/

My Own Take on the Gut Feelings

 Posted by on Fri, 11/4 at 3:34pm  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 042016
 

So the last article i read was on gut feelings vs procedural actions and how they affected a sick, now dead, boy. In that particular situation, the answer, at the end of the day, was obvious, but too little too late. I think it must be important to take both gut decisions and normal procedures into account when there is a normal procedure conflicting with a gut decision. Obviously procedures are in place for a reason. But it probably is very important to step back and take a look at why they are in place. Is it for the betterment of mankind? is it to be more efficient? Is it to prioritize money over well being? Was it passed down as procedure and no one really knows why? some of these reasons for procedures are not good reasons, and some of them are. So it’d be important to figure out the reason for the procedure and then weigh that against the gut feeling that is conflicting and also try to foresee the possible outcomes of following through with the gut feeling as opposed to following through with the normified procedure. Bam.. This sounds a lot like a  NORMIFIED PROCEDURE of making the best decision possible. Funny.

Gut Feelings

 Posted by on Fri, 11/4 at 3:25pm  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 042016
 

So for this week, i read a scholarly article on gut decisions as opposed to normified or go-to actions taken, in this instance by doctors. The situation was like this: a boy came to the hospital and was very ill and the doctors didn’t quite know why but they did know that he wasn’t eating. His doctor, initially, figured out that his home life was no so good and that his mother sometimes forgot to feed him. The father was no where around. So the doctor decided that he would try and get the kid to eat. So he tried to make him feel comfortable and eat and it worked. then a bunch of other doctors lamb basted him for not running a thousand tests on the kid before he did anything, because that was the normal procedure. So they turned around and put the kid through a million blood tests, lumbar punctures, and other medical things and the kid became very uncomfortable and stopped eating and died. The doctors did an autopsy on his body and they still couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him, so they ultimately failed. This is a tragic example of normified decisions made by groups of people who basically always just “follow procedure”. If they would have allowed the first doctor to keep going with his gut feeling of just trying to get the kid to eat, maybe he wouldn’t have died. I.e. It is important to take into account our gut feelings, even, and maybe especially, if it goes against what is “normal” or what is “expected”.

http://www.presenttensejournal.org/vol1/in-defense-of-gut-feelings-rhetorics-of-decision-making/

 Older Entries