The Problem

There’s something wrong with human beings. This semester, I am taking a class called Death and Dying. Last class period, we watched some YouTube videos of a group of radical Christians and their message. These people are part of an edgy Baptist congregation that teaches God’s hatred to man and his eagerness to punish people to eternal hellfire.

The videos focused on the effects of the message, and the family behind it. The first one was an overview, showing scenes from the family’s anti-military funeral protests and other rallies. It showed footage of the family telling passersby that God hates them, and some of the public’s response.

The other video was a more in-depth journalistic feature story, with a reporter going in, meeting members of the family, and doing an interview. This video featured the story of one of the family members, a young woman who left her family after she realized how negative their message was. It also explained more about the family’s church and its involvement in the story, showing that the church had basically the same message, but that the family was just doing a great job at taking it one step further.

While I watched the first one, I remembered hearing things before about the family. I had heard a few things here and there, and heard them referred to as “the most hated family in America,” but I hadn’t known much more than that. It was interesting to be able to learn more about the story in a visual manner.

I felt very bad for the people the family was attacking. There were family members of dead soldiers that, in addition to having a loved one dead, had to deal with this vicious verbal onslaught from an unknown and unexplained party. This showed me in a tangible way that, when faced with the death of a loved one, people largely want to be left alone so they can deal with it, without having to worry about opinion, controversy, or conflict at the same time that they are processing the death of their friend or family member.

Although I feel awful for the people negatively affected by this Baptist family’s message of hate and anger, I fundamentally remain a thinking man. I try to evaluate situations and experiences objectively, especially when there are strong emotions and controversy involved. In doing so in regards to this case, I found something interesting. Those that disagreed with this very angry family were themselves spreading even more passionate messages of hate, directed toward the vocal churchgoers. They screamed at them, threw rocks, and even chased them down the street in anger. It seems like those that disagree with the haters show an even more hateful message. It’s as if, after thousands of years, humans haven’t even learned how to handle themselves in a disagreement.

We talk about how advanced society is, about how much of what we are is foundationally better than it was a hundred or so years ago, about why humans are progressing and becoming so much more civilized, but after all the talk, we see situations like this arise. One party has a particularly hateful message, and instead of responding rationally like the mature, advanced thinkers we believe we are, we become like feral beasts. We lash out in exacerbated anger, and rip and tear at each other’s souls and bodies in the hope that everyone and everything that disagrees with us will just go away so we can go back to being civilized. There’s something wrong with human beings.

Quite Unred

A man was stranded on an island.

The man was very lonely, until one day a seagull flew up to him. The man was overjoyed to finally have some sort of companion. He and the seagull became friends, and spent all their time together. The man would run around the island, with the seagull flying closely behind, performing impressive loops and spins. They brought joy to each other's lives, and were very happy. But the seagull eventually became disinterested and flew away.

The man survived alone for a month until another seagull came to the island.

This time, the man had a plan. He took some rope he had made from jungle vines, and tied it around the seagull's neck. The seagull tried to fly away, but couldn't break the rope. And so the seagull flew around in circles day after day, and the man sat and watched him. Then one day, the seagull bit through the rope and flew off into the heavens. The man was very angry, and shook his fist at the sky in disgust.

The man was alone for another month.

When a third seagull visited him, the man broke its wings so it couldn't fly, ensuring that the it would stay with him forever. The seagull stayed by the man's side, and the man fed him regularly. But the seagull was violent, and pecked at the man's arms and legs and clawed at his eyes until the man couldn't take it anymore. He broke the seagull's neck and left him to rot by the beach.

Many other seagulls came to the island, but when they saw the body of the last seagull, they were afraid and left immediately, warning all the other seagulls of the danger.

The man lived alone on the island until he died.

Embracing Secularism is Tricky

Right now, it is the beginning of the hours of my Sabbath. Also right now, I am listening to the progressive rock band Angels & Airwaves on my iPod.

I hear a lot of opinion from the camp of Sabbath-keepers advocating that Christians be held to a high standard of behavior and media consumption within the Sabbath hours, as they are God's specially designated time for us to worship him.

I really appreciate these viewpoints, and I can really see where they are coming from, and even sympathize with them to a degree. However, I have a slightly different outlook.

There's an oft-quoted Bible verse that is often used to categorize and gauge which things Christians should do and use on the Sabbath, among other days. You know the one I'm talking about: "Whatsoever is noble, think on these things." However, I think this verse has a great deal of leeway in terms of nobility and goodness.

Now don't mishear me as saying that I believe this verse is so nebulous as to purport that whatever we deem to be pleasing and enjoyable is permissible on the Sabbath and other days. However, I do think that there is a fair amount of material out there that can be uplifting without being inherently Christian. For example, as I write this, I am hearing themes and values in Angels and Airwaves' music that rivals many "Christian" groups and bands (even praise-oriented) in terms of merit and virtue.

I just think that the "Christian" label is somewhat useless in the big picture. I think that we (myself included) need to be much more involved in the selection process when it comes to the behaviors and media to be done and used in our lives. I think that contemporary label is quite thoroughly used up, especially when I see mainstream rockers more perfectly reflecting God's character than some of his own self-professed servants.

Oh, and strangely enough, the song I am listening to is entitled "Heaven."

Two, Four, Six, Eight!

I met Scott at the beginning of my grade seven year, and we quickly became good friends. We would get kicked out of class at the same time, and then walk up and down the halls goofing off. Or we would walk to Wendy's at lunchtime and grab some burgers before high-tailing it back to school so we weren't late to class. He even came with my and my dad for aviation ground school because he said he wanted "to get every license he could," including his pilot's. Well, we hung out a lot during high school, but then I went to boarding school in Washington for my senior year. After that, it was off to Tennessee for college. We ended up growing somewhat apart, with neither of us making a lot of effort to stay in touch. I don't think either of us were alarmed, it was just something that happened.

In the summer of 2008, I was back home until college resumed in August. I planned on meeting up with Scott, because I hadn't seen him in something like a year and a half, and I wanted to catch up. Then one morning, I flipped open my laptop. Scott had been killed in a horrific motorcycle accident. Immediately, I was shocked into the realization that I would never see my buddy again. Our friendship was instantly ripped to bits. I think what made this especially hard for me was the fact that, while we had known each other a long time, I hadn't really told Scott how much he meant to me as a friend. I would never get the chance to.

Scott's death was painful for me, but out of it grew something beautiful. While Scott's death took away my chance to express my thanks for his friendship, it also gave me thousands of new chances. His passing made me realize how many people in my life are constantly making a positive impact on me, and how few of them are ever thanked for it. As a result, I've thought long and hard about these opportunities, and how I can make the most of them.

During the spring break of my sophomore year in college, two of my sisters and I took a long-overdue trip to New England. One day, we traveled all the way up Cape Cod. On the way back, we decided to do something special. We held three simultaneous memorial services for ourselves, right there in the car. Before our tiny audience, we each waxed eloquent about the others' merits, accomplishments, achievements, as well as (most importantly) what they meant to us. I will always remember what a meaningful, eye-opening time it was. I'm sure my sisters will agree.

You see, I believe that there are incredible possibilities right at our fingertips. Thousands upon thousands of human beings are within each individual's sphere of influence, and if we work at cultivating this potential, there is no telling what we might be able to achieve. Appreciation is key. Simple affirmation of a person's positive abilities and tendencies makes them want to continue doing good. Expressing your love and thankfulness of another individual causes them to be uplifted and proactive in doing the same to others.

Proverbs 15:1 tells us that "a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." It is understandable that we all lash out at others because of the stresses and complications of everyday life, but we are called to something higher. We are to be beacons of light for everyone to see, shining outward and spilling God's love on the whole world.

I will be the first to admit that I all too often fall short of this goal, but Jesus' commandment in Matthew 7:12 is clear: "So in everything, do to others as you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Ever since I can remember, I have had a tendency to rely on verbal affirmation. I seek it out, I want it, and I nearly ask for it at every turn. I believe it is God's wish for me to look outside myself, and to spend more time appreciating others than ensuring I am appreciated. After all, that's when I am at my happiest.

All around me, I often see evidences of people caring for, helping, and affirming one another. I want in, and I want more people in with me. I long for the day that, through God's grace, everyone everywhere can be in a constant state of appreciation for those around them, because that really would be heaven. It's going to be much more about relationships than having wings anyway. Besides, I still have a few things to say to Scott.

Life's Litmus

In another post, I recently wrote about my spiritual experience over the past year. I told of some of the most personal struggles and thoughts I've had recently. Today, I want to share the reason for posting. I didn't divulge all this information merely to share, or just to make myself feel good. I had another reason. I wanted to bring something to attention.

My experience is an example of why I believe we need to be more open. Our culture dictates that the most personal of problems, namely those affecting our minds, are to remain personal at all costs. I believe that this is the devil's trick to deprive us of aid from those who can provide help and support in the times we need it most. This can be exacerbated by the stigma that questioning one's beliefs is wrong. To be sure, questioning my beliefs put me at a disadvantage that I am still recovering from, but it was a disadvantage that caused me to grow, whether I liked it or not. At any rate, I think I would have been more open to seeking out help if I hadn't been given such a strong impression that it was wrong to question my beliefs.

I also had one other problem. Throughout this ordeal, I felt that this was something I needed to do on my own. This deep sort of spiritual questioning cannot be fulfilled by any one outside individual. However, there is a middle ground. It is possible for us to band together as a Christian community and support those who are going through times like this, as long as we don't dilute the experience by trying to do the hard work for them. Granted, we won't be able to do anything at all if the individual isn't open and honest about their needs, but I think we can all do better at making ourselves available, accessible, and supportive to these ends.

This is why I want to dedicate my life to the evangelization of those already in the fold, at least by conventional standards. I see a huge, unharvested field of potentially potent individuals for the Lord that are instead stagnating in their hand-me-down faith. I believe this happens not because of their own choice but because of the lack of developmental tools made available to them. Notice I didn't say the lack of truths, doctrines, beliefs, ideals, or morals given them. I think all these are given in spades, and given freely and expertly. I would like to focus my personal attention on helping our people, namely our young people, learn to make something definite, tangible, and above all, meaningful out of these wonderful gifts they have been given.

Spiritually, our young people are somewhat like tamed lions. They have all the makings of a lion: lithe bodies that are perfect for chasing down prey, powerful jaws that can crack open the thickest of skulls, and massive paws armed with retractable, articulate blades that can grab and hold on to the most squeamish of meals. What they don't have is a killer instinct. They haven't been trained how use these tools to make it on their own in the vast, often lonely wilderness that is our world. They lack the ability to hunt down truth, to masterfully bust apart lies, and, most sadly, to hold on to faith at all costs.

But I don't blame our parents for this. I don't blame our teachers. I don't even blame our pastors. I don't think blame will get us very far these days. Instead, I choose to appreciate parents, teachers, and pastors for doing such an admirable job of raising, teaching and mentoring our youth, even when it's not easy or appreciated. I have seen them do so much work for so little credit, while others sit back and criticize their hard work. I am trying to offer an alternative. Instead of working against each other, I want to see our worldwide church family become one steadfast, supportive organization, caring for each and every member and leaving no one astray. After all, I believe that this is what is often imagined and hoped for, but fairly seldomy worked towards.

I admit, I haven't been a very good example of the kind of community I am talking about, but I want to try. I want to spend the rest of my days finding ways of lifting my fellow believers up. I want to focus on the good that we are able to achieve, not the bad we so often do. I especially want to devote my time to ensuring that those already in our church, especially youth, develop into powerful, vibrant people of God. After all, only then can we change the world. By no means am I discouraging the evangelism of non-believers and those outside the church. Instead, I am encouraging that we all take a long hard look at ourselves and our believing neighbors. If we are not even secure in our own faith, what makes us think that we can cause newcomers to be?

I am not trying say that everyone has been in my place, but I do think it is safe to say I am not alone. Thus, I want to seek out those that can identify with what I have gone through. I want to try to use my experience to help give some clarity to the state they find themselves in. Of course, since these are all merely things I want, on my own I can do none of them. So I hope and pray that God will give me the strength and ability to do my fair part in this endeavor. I hope you pray for me too.

Breaking Point

I was sitting on the airplane, about to land in Kelowna, British Columbia when it dawned on me. I was within minutes of returning home for Christmas after four months of classes at Southern Adventist University in Tennessee. I remember looking out the window, lost in thought as the airplane banked for final approach. There had been something welling up from the deepest parts of me for some time now. Even as I went through the motions of my public life, I was basically living another one in secrecy, in solitude. Allow me to start from the beginning.

I was born and raised a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. All my life, I had been taught to honor both my Lord, and those around me. However, something was missing. I lacked an ability to cultivate a deep, meaningful relationship with God, and tried to remedy this through other endeavors. Time went on. I was baptized twice, participated in various outreach and evangelism opportunities, and outwardly seemed to grow.

The problem was that while I appeared to be a sincere, vibrant Christian, I was basically dead inside. I grappled with issues beyond my years, went through periods of depression, and invariably kept up a good front. When I was a freshman in college, I started a Bible study in my dorm room. It became very popular and every week guys squeezed themselves into the small living space to meet and talk about God. However, while introducing others to this fulfilling experience, I remained aloof. All these years that I seemed to learn and grow, something else was growing inside of me. It was a mix of several problems relating to my spiritual and relational life: doubt, dissatisfaction, depression, loneliness, fear, anxiety, and despair.

Throughout all this, I maintained a cheery front, growing and changing in ways that were positive. It was as if, while all these good developments were happening in my life, a huge confused beast was growing inside me and taking over. I kept trying to convince myself and others that I was secure spiritually and emotionally, but at the same time I was wilting inside. I was an Agnostic in practice, yet I refused to let myself accept this possibility.

To make a long story short, it eventually all came to a head. I stopped resisting, and this thing inside me began to take over. I finally snapped. Flying commercially always makes me think about dying, and I guess this time it triggered inside me the realization that I didn't know what would happen to my soul if the plane were to crash and my body implode. I came to the incredibly frightening conclusion that I didn't really believe all the things I had been living my whole life.

This was an incredibly painful yet essentially helpful time in my life. The relative freedom from spiritual expectations allowed me to delve deep into my heart to explore the reasons for my belief. I was able to to examine my intentions, my fears, and my faith. I finally began to ever so slowly build a real, legitimate faith from the ground up.

Granted, I was a spiritual baby, but only because I had been born again. At long last, I think I'm finally beginning to understand what that means. For me, it was having to die to the fake, contrived life I had let myself follow. Only then could I really live, ready to soak up the blessings and truths my Lord had been trying to give me all along.

I eventually wrote a very short article called "Tyler Quiring's Five Steps to Understanding the Conceivability of a God." While the article had supposedly been written for those who needed to be introduced to God, I really wrote it for me. It wasn't very scientific or substantial, but it was another stepping stone in my journey across a vast, swift river of spiritual mayhem. I had arrived at some sort of feasible grounding to allow God to work with.

I am not trying to say that I have made it, or that I am unwaveringly secure in my faith and belief in my Lord. Quite the contrary. If this experience has taught me anything, it is that I never really am spiritually stable on my own, and without constantly investing in this holy relationship, its very basis will crumble and fall.

I guess God tested my faith, and my faith failed. However, this experienced opened my eyes to my deep need for God's constructive abilities. This story has been fairly cut-and-dried for purposes of written coherence. I assure you it is much more convoluted and intriguing than this, and if you are interested in finding out more, I sincerely invite you to merely ask. I am more than willing to explain God's working in my life, and I hope others can learn from my experience as well.

Some other day, I will post on the practical applications of these musings in relation to future generations. Until then, God be with you.

Tyler Quiring On: Media Bias

I often hear people exclaim "but the media is so biased!" in response to many reasonable discussions about the role of media in society. I am a media professional in training, so it is understandable that my own opinions are weighted to some degree in favor of the role of the media. However, for reasons I shall share will you, I feel that this is a weight that is sorely needed to balance out the fervent opinions of the general public. The general statement that the media is unfairly biased is a fundamentally flawed statement, as evidenced by definition, by practice, and by context.

Allow me to get technical. Today's media is comprised of so many different facets that it is nearly impossible to make any sweeping generalization of "the media" without treating at least a few subsets unfairly. In public opinion today, the term "the media" usually refers to television news media, and while it may be apparent to some that the ethical standards of television news are melting away, there are other forms of news media that have even seen great strides in ethical development in recent years. One example would be the print news media, i.e. newspapers. Coming from a Seventh-Day Adventist background, there are other media entities that I feel must be protected from this sort of unfair, overly zealous treatment, even with such treatment being applied by Adventists themselves. One medium that comes to mind is Adventist satellite television broadcast. Surely those of us that accuse the media of being unfairly biased or coercive can't possibly be speaking of this particular subset. It goes without saying that any religious entity will be biased toward their message, something essential for survival in such a field. On the other hand, an aggressive and coercive stance would simply be a death knell to the organization. Religious broadcasts thrive on being open, caring, and wholeheartedly concerned about their consumers. Thus, not every medium can be expected to perform the same, or even to do so with the same goals. As such, we would be remiss to speak of them all as being within the same category.

Speaking generally of the media as a biased presence is itself a problem because of the volatile nature of opinion. Since television news is commonly cited as an example, I too shall use it. When a news package is watched, the viewer very quickly takes a stance on the issue being presented. Since it is the duty of professional journalists to present a fair and balanced set of facts, they most often do. The problem arises through the very nature of human opinion. When the viewer has a very strong disposition to either side of an issue being presented to them (even when the issue is presented fairly), then the natural reaction is to disagree with opposition. Since television news media is such a one-way exchange of information, often the closest thing to opposition is a simple and balanced presentation. The viewer might be shocked, for example, with the careless way a news anchor can handle a story on a brutal killing, while another viewer may feel that there was not even enough information given. You see, we want our media to know exactly how we are going to react to any given story, and then tailor-make that story to our specifications. However, it is not in society's best interest to allow this style of newsgathering, nor is it even possible. What's often left is a volatile story examined by an opinioned individual, and the result is the opposite of that viewer's opinions being projected on the media entity being consumed. Thus, since so much of what we perceive to be bias is, in actuality, fair and balanced news reporting, our own opinions can skew the often unbiased nature of media presentation and lead us to think of them as biased.

The correlation between societal wants and needs and how the media delivers on those demands grows more convoluted still. One main school of thought expresses distaste towards media content and portrayal, citing these as reasons for many of society's ethical and moral dilemmas and problems. However, the problem is that the demands of society give rise to the very nature of the content and presentation of the media. I am once again driven to use television as an example. Suppose a particular culture has a choice between nature-based television shows and car chase shows, and demonstrates through repeated and unwavering consumption that they prefer the car chase shows. As a result, the ratings of the nature shows will drop, the advertisements will generate less revenue, and the shows will be cut in order to fill the time with something more profitable. This is the basic principle of supply and demand. Conversely, the impressionism of society based on the content and presentation of the media is quite apparent. Hobbies, food and clothing choices, and a myriad of other decisions facing the greater population every day are, if not largely based on the media, to some degree influenced and driven by it. The logical conclusion is that media and society are in a constant state of give and take. The media relies very heavily on society to make choices as to the content and presentation of media material, and these choices are in turn mirrored back by the society consuming the aforementioned media. This is why, contextually, society cannot justifiably blame the world's problems on the media. Media is, after all, a creation of man. It is a creation of incredible cloud and power, but, nonetheless, it does remain a creation. If we want societal change, we must strive for it at the root of the problem. If media and its tremendous impact must be altered and tailored to more specifically suit the needs and requirements of the people, it is in turn the people's job to ensure that this happens.

Of course, everyone will have differing opinions on the value of today's media, and how biased it can be, but the point is that we each need to examine the media we consume on a daily basis and understand how different mediums work in different ways. The incredible power of the media we have created comes with an indelible responsibility that rests on the shoulders of each member of society, but in the end, we did create media, we do want it, and it is most definitely far more substantial than mere television.

Beginnings

This is a blog about opinions. About ideas. About theories. About nearly everything I think of and consider, and the conclusions I come up with. I am an expert on almost nothing I write about, and thus here is the venue for me to share my writings where subjective expertise is lacking. This is merely me using the tools available to me to try to understand this world and make something of it. As such, your critiques and comments are wholeheartedly welcome, as long as you keep in mind that these are my thoughts and beliefs, and not particularly those that are the most correct for you or anyone else. I hope I can contribute to some of the great discussions happening all around us. Therefore, I thank you for taking the time to share this journey with me. And with that, let's begin.