May 16, 2014
In the Balance
My on-line math lab Algebra
class is beyond challenging. Between the homework, review questions, quizzes,
and tests, there are literally thousands of math problems to solve. Added to
that curriculum are video lectures, essays, and the requirement that you must
have a “C” in order to pass the class. This one-credit class is by far more
demanding than any three-credit class I’ve already taken. There is such a
glaring misalignment of credits that it seems students are doing the work load
for a three credit course, but only receiving one credit. The unbalanced weight
of the credits reminded me of the tax collectors in Jesus day. They collected
taxes for Rome, but had the reputation for adding their own personal service fee. Proverbs
tells us, “The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his
delight” (Proverbs 11:1 NIV).
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Gail;
-----I believe when I was in college a course’s credit hours represented how much class-time it involved. There was no difference whatsoever for how hard or easy or how much or little homework there might be. As far as that is concerned, some students with math skills might find the course to be a snap and wonder why it awarded any credits at all. The point about scales is that their weights are not only accurate, but that they are also unchanged by personal perceptions or conditions.
-----When I was still a teeny-bopper, my best friend often claimed to be a kleptomaniac. I know. I shouldn’t have been his friend at all. But our friendship began the first day of first grade. So it was rather set by my teen years. To me, stealing was just not a consideration. Other people’s stuff was a part of them. To steal it would be like tearing off a finger. Resistance was a snap. My friend was not surrendered to his claimed condition. I imagine kleptomania was more an excuse than an actuality. And I used to lecture him and rebuke him every time I knew he had stolen. And he took it all repentantly and everything. I spent time pondering how much harder it is for people with faulty head wiring to do right, or who were brought up with bad family education. It was like additional weight on their scales to achieve goodness.
-----Another example is this gay issue. We tend to unite around the idea that people are not born gay. I reject that idea. I keep a video clip on my computer of a guy I call “Tarzan born prettier than Jane.” He is indeed a beautiful woman, and not by sex change either. He was born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. His prenatal development did not track his male chromosomes, obviously. The only thing male about him is that he does actually have male chromosomes, and that he has testicles where the ovaries should be. Outside of that, he is completely woman, indeed lovely, including the ability to sing well enough to be a star, in my opinion. He was born so much like a woman that he didn’t even know himself that he was a male until nineteen when his wicked stepmother told him the family secret as a payback for arguing with her. I’ve met many boys and men who are very effeminate in their thinking and feeling. So I don’t doubt there are different degrees to which either AIS or other processes can physically confuse the gender condition.
-----But such fact, like the kleptomaniac fact, does not change the balance of God’s scales. Stealing is wrong whatever. Homosexuality is wrong whatever. It’s just that those people unfortunate enough to be born or conditioned to think or feel or be otherwise than God’s determined ways do have more load to bear in pleasing Him, yet they are required to please Him all the same. To them, the math class should award more credits. And probably, to them, grace and mercy seem more refreshing.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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