In my first semester at Eastern, on a warm summer day, I walked with two close friends into Wayne. As we entered the bridge tunnel leading into Wayne, Pa., I noticed the graffiti which announced that we were “now entering lil chicago.” I still don’t know exactly why this area is known by such a distinctive moniker, but I think it gives that tunnel personality and this place a sense of mystery. I love that tunnel, and I love that graffiti because it reminds me that this is a particular place with unique characteristics, and I love it because it marks the transition in my mind from being on Eastern’s campus and being out on the town.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about place, and about entering and leaving places well. A friend of mine who is a senior at Eastern told me she wants more than anything to leave this place well, and she’s working to figure out what that means. I don’t think I know either, but I think I understand what she means by the question. Every week at Mass, I walk through two sets of doors: the first are the doors which bridge the outside world from the inside one. Once I’ve entered those doors into what is called the vestibule, I’m ready to prepare myself for the liturgy ahead. The second set of doors lead into the nave where I’ll sit and stand and kneel during the service. But before I enter those doors, I place my fingers in blessed waters and make the Sign of the Cross, a reminder of my baptism. Once I’ve entered the nave, I kneel briefly beside the aisle and toward the altar to orient myself physically, and then I spend a minute or two in kneeling prayer in my aisle to orient myself in mind in preparation for the liturgy. At the end of the service, this whole process is reversed: kneeling in prayer in the aisle, briefly kneeling beside the aisle, fingers in blessed water in between the two sets of doors and then leaving this space and entering again into the outside world. This may sound tedious, but for me it is not: I love this liturgical rhythm even more than I love the bridge and the graffiti I encounter on the walk to Wayne. As a Catholic, this is my way of loving a place, the physical local church, and of entering and leaving it in a way that manifests that love. I think my friend, when she says she wants to leave Eastern well, means something similar; it means that she wants to leave it in a way that is loving and full of meaning.

We entered Eastern through a liturgy. And like the Catholic liturgy, the ministers we encounter in this liturgy are dressed for their role. Here, the ministers are our professors and school leaders who don Medieval garb and promenade in the gym to the sound of triumphal music before prayers are offered and a homiletic address is given. We enter, we stand, we sing, we sit, we clap, we shake hands with President Duffett and at the end, we walk out of the gym doors and onto campus, anticipating all the great things which lie ahead of us. We will leave Eastern in a slightly different liturgy. We ourselves will put on liturgical garb designating our roles as graduating students, and one of our own number will give the homily, addressing all gathered that day. When we walk off that stage, we will walk out into the great big world and toward all which lies ahead of us.

Loving a place means being grateful for it. The Mass centers on the Eucharist: “And when He had given thanks, He broke the bread…,” and likewise, I think, loving Eastern as a place means giving thanks to God for it. Thank you, Lord, for Walton Pond and the window seat outside Mr. P’s office in Fowler and for Baird Library and the Breezeway and all those places which are special to us. The Eucharist is about celebration, and, likewise, we celebrate these places which we are thankful for and joyfully cherish these places together. The Eucharist is also about being broken and poured out as bloody wine as a gift for others. I think loving a place means letting that place demand things of us, allowing it to change us even when it means we must suffer—especially when it means we must suffer. There is a suffering in living in this place: messy breakups, fights with roommates, conflicts with professors, crises of faith precipitated by challenging texts assigned in class. Loving a place means we love in and through and despite our suffering. There is also suffering in leaving this place, and with it, a temptation in the final weeks to withdraw from place and people. But to leave well means to love this place till the last minute on the last day and then to carry that love and all your memories with you for the rest of your life.

In his “Four Quartets,” poet T.S. Eliot writes, “you are not here to verify, / instruct yourself or inform curiosity / or carry report. You are here to kneel / Where prayer has been valid.” I think loving this place well means being here, kneeling in Walton Chapel, surrounded by the prayers of all those students who have come before us. And I think that leaving this place well means leaving prayers here for all who will come after us.

In 1964, a researcher at MIT named Joseph Weizenbaum created the program ELIZA which functioned as an early version of Artificial Intelligence (AI). ELIZA operated on a script which was designed to mirror the speech patterns of a psychoanalyst (responding to almost everything with a question) such that humans interacting with the program online in a chat room could be duped into thinking they were chatting with a fellow human being. Since the year in which ELIZA debuted, the technology of AI has come a long way, prompting recent science fiction to again wrestle with the question: What makes us human? The 2013 Oscar-contender “Her” asks us to imagine an advanced version of Siri, an operating system so fully developed and customized to the personality of the main character Theodore that he falls in love with it (her). Samantha, the operating system, is conscious of her own makeup–the “DNA” of the millions of personalities the programmers drew from to create her–and she says what makes her herself is that she evolves through experience, just like Theodore, except without a body. However, without spoiling the ending, this relationship is ultimately harmed precisely because Theodore exists spatially and bodily in a way Samantha does not, which shatters the illusion of Samantha’s personhood.

The 2015 film “Ex Machina” takes the ideas of “Her” a step further. In this film, Ava the AI is given a highly realistic body and a sexuality linked to both consciousness and body. Nathan, the creator of Ava, tells the main character Caleb that he has brought him to his lab to test whether Ava is so perfect an AI that Caleb will feel as though she has true human personhood despite knowing she is a robot. While initially Caleb’s intellect continually reminds him that she is not a person, he tells Nathan that when he suspends his analytic thinking, he feels that she is amazing, and soon he too forms attachments with her as if she were a person. The new 2016 HBO show “Westworld” continues these themes in more unsettling ways. In this story, humans (called “tourists”) visit an adult Disneyworld of sorts modeled after the American Wild West. This playground is populated with “hosts” who are embodied AIs even more realistic than what is depicted in Ex Machina and who can be assaulted, murdered or whatever else in an infinite loop because each night their “memory card” is wiped clean, and they are “rebooted” with tweaks in script as necessary. In the second episode, one such tourist asks a woman he is interacting with if she is real, to which she responds, “Well, if you can’t tell, does it matter?”

In light of our technological advancements, these stories ought to make us uneasy. If personhood is defined solely by consciousness joined with spatial and bodily existence, what separates me and you from Ava or the hosts? And what is there to keep us from falling in love with a Samantha who is fully customized to be “compatible” with us? And if we can create pseudo-persons, what ought to prevent us from creating a Westworld in which to act out our darkest fantasies?

As Christians who believe all humans are made in the likeness of God and are thus more than just biological entities, we will have a lot of work ahead of us in thinking through and articulating a robust understanding of persons in a way that also provides opportunities for sharing the Gospel. I think “Her” presents us with one such opportunity. In the film, before Theodore falls in love with an AI, he says that he wanted “to get drunk and have sex” because he was lonely; he wanted somebody who would want to have sex with him because “maybe that would have filled this tiny little hole in my heart, but probably not…and sometimes I think I have felt everything I’m ever gonna feel, and from here on out I’m not gonna feel anything new…just…lesser versions of what I’ve already felt.” There is a certain kind of existential despair in these words, the despair of a restless man who cannot find lasting happiness even in a relationship with a personable intelligence built and customized entirely for him. I believe that this restlessness and despair is exactly the same as that which St. Augustine wrestled with prior to his conversion, leading him to write that God has made our hearts for Himself and “our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee.” I think St. Augustine would encourage us to tell Theodore about the One who can truly offer hope and rest for his soul as well as ours.

Source: St. Augustine’s “Confessions”

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The recent decision to award Bob Dylan with the Nobel Prize in Literature has renewed vigorous debate over whether song lyrics ought to be considered poetry. The debate is not because Dylan is somehow a polarizing figure but rather because poetry is so often neglected as a literary medium that there is legitimate concern over a potential eclipse of poetry by the song.

It seems to me there is a rather obvious distinction to be made between the purpose of the poem and the song. The poem is meant to be spoken and the song to be sung. Whatever is different in our experiences of hearing the singing voice and the speaking voice would thus logically distinguish the one art form from the other, a point worth making given that a song need not be performed by anything other than the voice to still be considered a song and not a speech. Therefore, when speaking of performance, we must say that a song is not a poem nor a poem a song, though a song can be said to be poetic and a poem said to have a sing-song rhyme to it.

But I believe words are words, and when we read the written word, whether audibly or not, what matters is not invented literary conventions but rather how we as readers are affected by those words. For example, when we encounter Joyce’s sublime words in
“Ulysses,” “yes I said yes I will Yes,” it does not matter whether these words are best called prose or poetry. It is enough for us as readers that they are words, that they are powerful words, that they are words which move the reader to dizzying emotion and that they are words which reflect the stunning mastery of language in their author.

In my view, the real question for the songwriter is this: Do his words and wording have power inherent within themselves, or is the effect of the song on the listener dependent on the musicality of voice or instrument? If I can take the lyrics of a song, speak them aloud or read them to myself and be moved by virtue of the wording itself, then I am inclined to say I have encountered poetry. If the words cannot stand on their own, then what I am presented with is a song and not a poem. Regarding the selection of Dylan, the editor of Poetry Magazine, Don Share, writes: “Everybody knows that Western traditions of literature have long included bards and troubadours from the Welsh, Scots, Irish, Andalusian and Provençal verse-makers to Shakespeare, whose plays included lyrics. People who only experience poetry on the page might dissent, but this Nobel award is a way of bringing it all back home, of both reminding us of poetry’s roots and moving it forward through changing times—and for that, we should be pleased and grateful.” I would agree with Share here, except that I would note that Shakespeare, known by the moniker The Bard, is a noted wordsmith: it is precisely that his wording speaks for itself, whether lyric or prose, that we celebrate him as a literary genius. The bard who is also a poet is thus the bard whose poetry is served by but not dependent on the accompanying melody of the lyre or singing voice.

Song lyrics can be poetry, but they ought not be seen as poetry by default. The songwriter who wishes to be called also a poet must earn this title through such an attention to words that the lyrics speak for themselves. Very few songwriters ought to be called poets, but those whose words glimmer in their own light, whether Homer, Shakespeare or Dylan, can truly be called poets.

Source: PEN.org

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An Eastern press release recently announced some exciting news for the university. In the 2017 edition of the Best Colleges List, which is published by U.S. News & World Report, Eastern was again ranked in the Top Tier of North Regional Universities. Eastern is at number 91 on the list of top-tier schools “in the Middle Atlantic and New England states.” In addition, Eastern University is also at number 52 on the list of Best Colleges for Veterans. To provide some context for why this is such a great honor, the press release points out that the 2017 overall rankings include more than 1,300 schools all across the United States.

The press release also includes background information on this particular ranked list of colleges. It states: “Over the past 31 years, the U.S. News college rankings, which groups schools based on categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, has grown to be the most comprehensive research tool for students and parents considering higher education opportunities.” This ranking is often used by high school students and their parents in the search for colleges, which means Eastern’s recognition in this high ranking is likely to help increase applicant interest and enrollment.

Many students at Eastern University will attest to the facts revealed by the rankings, which are exemplified by Eastern’s excellent academic programs, faculty and staff. Nevertheless, it is definitely exciting and encouraging to again receive this recognition.

Sources: eastern.edu, U.S. News & World Report

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I started playing soccer at age four, began playing competitively at age eight and continued to play competitively until I graduated from high school. I make this distinction between play and competitive play not because my four-year old-self did not understand the concept of winning or losing, but rather because there is a certain amount of skill needed before one can translate a desire to win into the ability to help make those wins possible, and one shouldn’t expect a four-year-old to have developed that skill. All of us who have played soccer want to score that epic game-winning goal, but such a goal requires hours of practice in thinking strategically on the field and hours more in practicing the techniques that connect mind and body, thought and action.

I don’t mind giving the four-year-old a participation trophy. I would be much more cautious about giving it to the eight-year-old. For the former, the virtue for which they are rewarded is the willingness to try, to apply their best effort at what is most likely a new sort of game for them. It is assumed that they did not begin skillfully in their play, and it is likewise assumed that at the season’s end, we will not see much—if any—increase in skill. To predicate a tactile reward like a trophy on skillfulness would be ludicrous. It would be better not to give a trophy at all than to give one for skillfulness at this venture. Yet we want to give those four-year-olds a trophy, and rightfully so, because we recognize that this participation in sport is something worth doing, and we want to encourage the impressionable and unskillful young child to persist in practice that they can grow in skill.

The eight-year-old is entirely capable of growing in skill. This is not to say that every eight-year-old is capable of the kind of skill that lets him make game-winning goals. Perhaps this eight-year-old’s growth in skill is so seemingly miniscule that none save his coach and the most observant of his teammates can see the increase. In such a scenario, a trophy for mere participation would be counterproductive. The end goal is not simply to “show up,” but rather to improve that you might better serve your team out on the field. If we reward the eight-year-old merely for being present rather than for doing well, we de-incentivize future growth.

My younger brother started playing soccer years and years after I had been playing. Yet, in high school, I found myself sitting on the bench for several games as he stood on the field as a starter. At first I was angry, hurt, humiliated. I privately bemoaned how unfair the situation seemed. But then I got over it, because all those years of playing had taught me something: it was never about me. It was always about the team. Such a realization stems from what we would call maturity.

When I was a little kid, trophies helped encourage me to discipline myself and learn the game that I loved. As a high schooler, I didn’t need an unearned trophy. If my brother walked away with a trophy and I didn’t, well, that was fine, because as a high schooler, I didn’t need a trophy to realize that participation on the team was meaningful and satisfying. I guess I’m just not sure my high-school self would have been able to find grace in what was initially a hard situation if my eight and 10 and 12-year-old selves would have been rewarded with a trophy just for tying my cleats and showing up on the field.

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The problem of dehumanizing criminals in our minds and in our prison systems is a perennial one. Because we as a society feel betrayed when crimes are perpetuated, it is easy to lose sight of the humanity of those who betrayed us. I recently talked to Sharon Gramby-Sobukwe whose background is in public policy and who heads up the Campolo Center for Applied Justice here at Eastern University. She spoke to me about how easy it is for the personhood of criminals to be eclipsed in our minds especially as they are locked away out of sight. Dr. Sobukwe posed the question: “How can we create a sense of imagination, passion and commitment with things that may not affect us directly?” She thinks this is where we need “empathy and a willingness to come alongside people who are suffering.” Sometimes, this means expanding what we understand to be the American story, to make it a fuller story which includes everyone. When we tell a fuller story, “we learn to recognize the humanity of people we see as different than us” because “it’s very easy to demonize someone whose story you don’t know.”

One way that Sobukwe and other faculty members here at Eastern are engaging the imagination of students is by hosting events on campus that bring light to justice issues. For example, a few weeks ago, an event was held by two outside speakers who shared their stories of being incarcerated: one speaker had taken a plea bargain as a youth for marijuana possession which led him to being tried as an adult, sentenced to two years in adult prison and left with a permanent record which continues to hurt him in limiting opportunities for housing, employment, etc. On Thursday, Oct. 27, students gathered in the Jammin’ Java to present art engaging the theme of remembering those in prison (Hebrews 13:3). Sobukwe shared that Eastern has a history of engaging with prison reform; in fact, the university’s urban studies department hosted Michelle Alexander 11 years ago, way before she had achieved notoriety for her book “The New Jim Crow” on the racial disparities of our justice system. Eastern continues to be involved, such as in opting to participate in President Obama’s Fair Chance Higher Education Pledge, committing to reducing barriers to higher education for individuals with criminal records, including individuals who were formerly incarcerated. Additionally, the Center for Urban Youth Development continues to lead Eastern’s work advocating against mass incarceration of juveniles.

Eastern University’s Prison Ministry is another key area of engagement with our justice system. I spoke with sophomore Susie Moore who is on the leadership team of the ministry, studies social work and “wants to be in prisons the rest of [her] life.” As she described her interactions with young people who are in the justice system, her eyes grew joyous, and she began to describe how overwhelmed she is with love for them whenever she is with them. Her descriptions of these encounters are rooted in affirmation of their personhood, based on her strong conviction that “they are valuable and worthwhile human beings.” Moore spoke of two girls in particular who over the course of their relationship with her have begun to open up and share their stories. As a Christian ministry, Moore and her fellow participants (many of whom began as first-year students fulfilling their service learning requirements but who have stayed engaged) seek to establish a sense of safeness that lets everyone speak candidly about God and faith. As the chaplain of the group, Moore always asks if she can pray for each young adult. Moore told me of one such time when she prayed for the one girl who was in the detention center at the time: the Holy Spirit filled the room, and by the end of the prayer, she, the girl and even the corrections officer were all in tears. Moore said that often the young men and women she befriends have assumptions about Christians being judgmental and harsh and that these young adults have never heard of grace. And so Moore and the other participants show them grace.

“We bring games to play with them. Basketball or board and card games,” and also, Moore told me with a smile, “we always buy them Doritos and chocolate.”

Here at Eastern University, students and faculty alike are committed to faith, reason and justice. I believe we are called to engage with justice issues, whether this one or another, in a way that pairs thoughtfulness and the gifts of the intellect with service and the gifts of our hands and feet in loving all human beings. Further, I believe Eastern is a great place for students to find our foundation in thoughtfulness, as well as opportunities to begin serving the world around us. The area of criminal justice is just one of many such justice topics in which we as students might consider investing ourselves. For more information about Prison Ministry and how to get involved, email prisonmin@eastern.edu, and if you’re interested in finding out more about faculty involvement, upcoming justice events on campus or public policy topics, Dr. Sobukwe (sgrambys@eastern.edu) is a knowledgeable and kind conversationalist.

The problem of dehumanizing criminals in our minds and in our prison systems is a perennial one. Because we as a society feel betrayed when crimes are perpetuated, it is easy to lose sight of the humanity of those who betrayed us. I recently talked to Dr. Sharon Gramby-Sobukwe whose background is in public policy and who heads up the Campolo Center for Applied Justice here at Eastern University. She spoke to me about how easy it is for the personhood of criminals to be eclipsed in our minds especially as they are locked away out of sight. Dr. Sobukwe posed the question: “how can we create a sense of imagination, passion and commitment with things that may not affect us directly.” She thinks this is where we need “empathy and a willingness to come alongside people who are suffering.” Sometimes, this means expanding what we understand to be the American story, to make it a fuller story which includes everyone. When we tell a fuller story, “we learn to recognize the humanity of people we see as different than us” because “it’s very easy to demonize someone who’s story you don’t know.”

One way that Dr. Sobukwe and other faculty members here at Eastern University are engaging the imagination of students is by hosting events on campus that bring light to justice issues. For example, a few weeks ago, an event was held by two outside speakers who shared their stories of being incarcerated: the one speaker took a plea bargain as a youth for marijuana possession which led him to being tried as an adult, sentenced to two years in adult prison, and left with a permanent record which continues to hurt him in limiting opportunities for housing, employment, etc.. On Thursday October 27th, students gathered in the Jammin Java to present art engaging the theme of remembering those in prison (Hebrews 13:3). Dr. Sobukwe shared that Eastern University has a history of engaging with prison reform: in fact, the the university’s Urban Studies hosted Michelle Alexander eleven years ago, way before she had achieved notoriety for her book The New Jim Crow on the racial disparities of our justice system. Eastern continues to be involved, such as in opting to participate in President Obama’s Fair Chance Higher Education Pledge, committing to reducing barriers to higher education for individuals with criminal records, including individuals who were formerly incarcerated. Additionally, the Center for Urban Youth Development continues to lead Eastern’s work advocating against mass incarceration of juveniles.

Eastern University’s Prison Ministry is another key area of engagement with our justice system. I spoke with sophomore Susie Moore who is on the leadership team of the ministry, studies social work, and “wants to be in prisons the rest of my life.” As she described her interactions with young people who are in the justice system, her eyes grew joyous and she began to describe how overwhelmed she is with love for them whenever she is with them. Her descriptions of these encounters are rooted in affirmation of their personhood, based on her strong conviction that “they are valuable and worthwhile human beings.” Susie spoke of two girls in particular who over the course of their relationship with her have begun to open up and share their stories. As a Christian ministry, Susie and her fellow participants (many of whom began as freshman fulfilling their service learning requirement but who have stayed engaged) seek to establish a sense of safeness that lets everyone speak candidly about God and faith. As the chaplain of the group, Susie always asks if she can pray for each young adult. Susie told me of one such time when she prayed for the one girl who was in the detention center at the time: the Holy Spirit filled the room and by the end of the prayer, she, the girl, and even the corrections officer were all in tears. Susie said that often the young men and women she befriends have assumptions about Christians being judgmental and harsh and that these young adults have never heard of grace. And so, Susie and the other participants show them grace. “We bring games to play with them. Basketball or board and card games” and also, Susie told me with a smile, “we always buy them doritos and chocolate.”

Here at Eastern University, students and faculty alike are committed to Faith, Reason, and Justice. I believe we are called to engage with justice issues, whether this one or another, in a way that pairs thoughtfulness and the gifts of the intellect with service and the gifts of our hands in feet in loving all human beings. Further, I believe Eastern University is a great place for students to find our foundation in thoughtfulness and opportunities to begin serving the world around us. The area of criminal justice is just one of many such justice topics in which we as students might consider investings ourselves. For more information about Prison Ministry and how to get involved, email prisonmin@eastern.edu) and if you’re interested in finding out more about faculty involvement, upcoming justice events on campus, or public policy topics, Dr. Sobukwe (sgrambys@eastern.edu) is a knowledgeable and kind conversationalist.

[twocol_one]

Donald Trump’s Child Care Plan

by Andrew Barbin

As a Trump supporter, one of the biggest things I love about Trump’s policies is that they are heavily oriented around incentives. From his tax policies to his health care policy to his newly announced child care policy, everything is heavily based on tax deductions, a great incentive for businesses to go the extra mile for their employees and for single payers to get the same tax code benefits as corporations.

As the title suggests, this is an in-depth take on Donald Trump’s child care policy, which consists of four proposals dealing with the tax code, the creation of a child savings account, incentives for employers to supply child care on site and a plan for maternity leave.

The first proposal is shaped much like his health care policy in the way that child care expenses are tax-deductible. Essentially how it works is that parents can deduct how much they spent on their children (food, schooling, clothing, etc.) from their taxes. This is capped by the state average cost for child care (likely $1200 per child), is limited to four children and is not available for wealthy families netting over $500,000 per year. This would significantly ease the burden on lower and middle-income working parents and also stay-at-home parents (under Trump’s plan, they are treated equally). Ivanka Trump, co-designer of this plan, created it in order to help mothers (or fathers!) choose their preferred method of caring for their children. She claims, according to her official statement, that there is nothing more important than raising a child, so this plan was created to ease the burden of balancing family and finances.

The second proposal works similarly to Medicaid and Social Security, except that it is completely optional and tax-deductible. It is an updated version of the Dependent Care Savings Account, which allows for families to set aside their income to build an account to help aid in fostering their children’s development (child care, after school programs and school tuition). Not only does this work for children, but it is also available for elderly dependents. Again, Trump’s plan offers an incentive for employers to provide and pay into DCSA by making it fully tax-deductible (which makes it a no-brainer for the employer to provide this service as a part of their benefits package). Another interesting and progressive part of this plan is that the government will match half of the contribution per year to help lower-income parents.

The third proposal is still a work in progress, but it is essentially a promise to reform regulations to promote an incentive for employers to supply child care onsite. It promises to create family and community-based solutions for lower-income working parents and minorities.

The fourth and final proposal is a huge step for the Republican party, as it is a federal mandate that six weeks of paid maternity leave will be guaranteed, which will automatically triple the current average paid leave and will provide maternity leave to blue-collar workers who were never offered the option in the past. Also, maternity leave will be paid through the unemployment insurance that every company is required to provide, which is tax-deductible.

There are a few more noteworthy items: the Trump plan recognizes same-sex couples, does not eliminate current child care programs offered by some companies and is a part of Trump’s large scale economic reform.

In general, this progressive policy is unlike anything we have seen from either party, as it completely takes the burden off of both families and businesses, particularly from lower and middle-income families. Raising a child shouldn’t be a burden, according to the Trump campaign, so they created a fantastic policy that actually incentivizes having children and provides benefit packages. A paid maternity leave that does not burden the employer (unlike Clinton’s plan) and full financial relief for families (unlike Clinton’s plan) is the future under a Trump presidency. In an America made great again, mothers and children are treated better than ever before.

Source: DonaldJTrump.com

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Hillary Clinton’s Family Leave Plan

by Gaelan Campbell

In a study done by Pew Research Center, among 41 developed countries, the United States was the only country that does not offer paid parental leave of any kind. This is just one problem in which the United States is behind the rest of the world, but it is the one presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has set out to fix with her proposed paid family and medical leave policy.

It is important to note that the policy put forth on her campaign website is by no means a comprehensive overview of what would actually go into effect during a Clinton presidency. This is not an issue where the president, whoever that turns out to be in January, has a lot of clout. So instead of publishing a piece of pseudo-legislation, the Hillary Clinton campaign website has instead merely laid out its key goals for parental and medical leave policy and explained the methodology behind those goals.

The policy’s centerpiece is 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, an improvement on our current system, which only offers unpaid leave under the Family Medical Leave Act. In the modern world, half of all families have both parents working full-time. This policy would provide much needed financial relief to working-class families. One of the features of the policy that sets it apart from her opponent’s is that it covers fathers as well as mothers. Hillary Clinton understands that both fathers and mothers are increasingly sharing child care responsibilities, and her policy reflects this shift in contemporary culture. Children need their parents. Working people have been having children later in life, while some couples are opting out of parenthood entirely. This transformative policy would make having a child easier for young couples out of college and working-class families that rely on hourly wages. On her website, Clinton explains that this plan would aim not to impose extra costs on small business. She would instead fund the paid leave through her tax reform, shifting the tax burden away from the middle class, and onto the very wealthy.

Now, this family leave plan differs substantially from her opponent’s plan. The Republican candidate’s plan offers only six weeks of paid leave and does not include fathers, which represents a perspective out of touch with what life looks like for modern Americans. It also seeks to pay for itself by closing supposed welfare loopholes and not increasing taxes in any way. I find this to be dubious. Regardless of how you feel about the idea of raising taxes, Hillary Clinton has a tangible way of paying for her family leave policy in her tax code proposals. Her opponent does not.

Hillary Clinton’s policy proposal follows her campaign’s overall theme of lifting up the middle class and creating an economy that works for everyone. If we want to see change in this country, and we want to get our economy rolling again, this is where it starts. It starts with a newly married couple just out of college. It starts with those new parents getting to see their kids. It starts with giving those kids the care they need and providing them with a solid foundation for their early development. It is for these reasons that I believe Hillary Clinton’s plan for family leave will benefit this country greatly for years to come.

Sources: DonaldJTrump.com, HillaryClinton.com, irs.gov, Pew Research Center

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On Wednesday, Sept. 21, Michael Ward, an Oxford professor and preeminent C.S. Lewis scholar, presented in Baird Library on the secret code carefully hidden in Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Dr. Ward was hosted by Eastern’s ISI Montaigne Society in conjunction with the Templeton Honors College and the Agora Institute’s Center for Orthodox Thought and Culture.

Ward studied English at Oxford and theology at Cambridge and has a Ph.D. in Divinity from St. Andrews. He is Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall at the University of Oxford and is also on staff at Houston Baptist University where he teaches an online course for their M.A. in Christian Apologetics. But as impressive as his resume is, Ward says that his greatest claim to fame is that he once handed a pair of X-ray spectacles to James Bond in “The World Is Not Enough.”

In his lecture, Ward explains the thesis for which he is known: C.S. Lewis patterned his books on medieval cosmology with each book corresponding to one of the seven heavens, which comprise the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Ward shares that this idea occurred to him while he was working on his Ph.D. He was sitting in bed one night reading a long poem that Lewis wrote about the planets when he noticed that descriptions of Jupiter in the poem seemed reminiscent of events in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” After talking with his adviser, Ward pursued this new lead and ended up writing his dissertation on the subject. He then published it as “Planet Narnia,” which the BBC adapted as “The Narnia Code.”

Ward readily admits how fantastical it sounds for him to claim to have found a “hidden code” in Lewis’ works. However, Ward is not the first to suggest that there is significance to the number of books in the series. Many scholars have suggested that perhaps Lewis based the seven books on the seven deadly sins, or the seven virtues, or the seven Catholic sacraments, or the seven books of Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene,” but all of these theories break down when analyzing all seven books. Others suggest that perhaps there is no underlying structure to Lewis’ books. In fact, Ward shares that J. R. R. Tolkien detested “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” because Lewis mixed his mythology seemingly so randomly. The story features English children, which could have been lifted from an E. Nesbitt story, but then it also features centaurs from Roman mythologies, a white witch that seems like she belongs in a Hans Andersen fairy tale and even Father Christmas, whose inclusion made Tolkien ask, “For goodness sake, what is he doing in the story?” Tolkien thought one should not assemble a mythological world with such incompatible mythologies. Ward jokes, “I like to say there was a love-hate relationship between Lewis and Tolkien. Lewis loved Middle Earth, and Tolkien hated Narnia.”

But perhaps Lewis’ mixture of mythologies was not as haphazard as might appear. Ward points out that Lewis was a medievalist, an academic scholar who loved texts “which can’t be taken in at a glance” and are instead complex with layers of meaning wrapped up in intricate details. And besides, Ward says, Lewis’ own poems and various other writings are often elaborate and complex.

Ward explores the typical qualities and characteristics of the seven heavens in medieval thought. The Sun (Saturn) is associated with burning and fire, the Moon with her silver gown, Mars with his helmet and chain mail as the god of war, Mercury with his winged feet, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods, Jupiter with kingly scepter, regal and royal and sovereign, Venus with her green gown associated with love, fertility, laughter, beauty. Ward points out that particularly in medieval literature these symbols form a permanent archetype in human imagination that provides meaning in all stages of life from birth under Venus to death under Saturn. He argues that Lewis uses these seven spiritual symbols, one planet per book, and uses the characteristic qualities of each planet to control the way he structures the book’s plot and the way in which the Christ-figure Aslan functions in each book.

An example of this symbolism is found in “The Horse and His Boy,” which Ward posits is the Mercury book. The character of Aslan is repeatedly described as running so fast that he is mistaken for multiple lions. The text says of Aslan that he was “swift-footed.” Mercury, in classic mythology, is the messenger of the gods and is known as swift-footed. Ward argues convincingly that this pattern of the seven heavens as the undergirding pattern of Lewis’ series holds true for each and every book.

If it should seem surprising to us that Lewis would be so secretive as to hide this code in his books, it is worth knowing that Lewis could be very secretive. Ward points out that after getting married Lewis kept his marriage a total secret for a whole year, not even telling his closest friends, including Tolkien. One of Lewis’ friends once quipped that “Surprised by Joy” should really have been called “Suppressed by Jack.” Ward’s lecture, as well as his books, is also full of surprises, which can enrich our reading of and appreciation for the “Narnia” series.

Sources: Michael Ward lecture, MichaelWard.net

What do you do when you find yourself questioning your faith? How do you respond to doubts about your core beliefs? Mike McHargue, known by his moniker “Science Mike,” has wrestled intensely with these questions. Raised in the Southern Baptist tradition, Science Mike gradually lost his faith. Unexpectedly, however, after a mystical experience and a lot of scientific study, Mike found his faith once again. This journey from faith, to doubt, to unbelief, to faith again is explored in Mike’s new book “Finding God in the Waves,” in which he not only shares his story, but also his latest findings in neuroscience, physics and biology, which he believes can help us make sense of God and ourselves.

Science Mike spoke about his journey and his new book on Eastern’s St. Davids campus on Sept. 27. He was hosted by the New Copernican Dialogues, a recently formed initiative of Palmer Seminary’s Sider Center. According to Palmer Seminary’s website, “the Sider Center of Palmer Seminary, named after Ronald J. Sider, promotes peaceful coexistence and social justice through theological reflection, academic programs, rigorous scholarship and convening of timely conversations.”

I recently met with John Seel, the director of the New Copernican initiative. Seel’s academic background is in cultural sociology, which allowed him to work in the field of cultural engagement for the John Templeton Foundation. In Seel’s words, the goal for the New Copernican Dialogues is to offer “a safe place for unsafe questions.” Seel says that many evangelical churches and schools “don’t give a voice to doubt,” and as a result, many Christians don’t realize that “faith and doubt are [often] infused with each other.” For Seel, this initiative gives space for Christians who value faith as a way of understanding the world but who are reluctant to embrace dogmatic propositions of belief.

When I ask Science Mike why he was excited about this event and why he wrote his book (which was published on Sept. 13 and is already trending on the top of Amazon categories like Science/Religion and Church History), he says that he wants to encourage those who feel alone and isolated in their doubts. He mentions that young adults in particular have shifted in their thinking, moving away from binaries like faith or doubt and instead making room for tension and ambiguity, saying yes to faith and doubt.

“I think for a lot of people this change in view is isolating and stressful, especially with friends and family. Atheism seems dry but religious traditions seem too restricted,” Mike says.

Science Mike wants to affirm those Christians who wrestle at the edges of faith and wants to encourage more empathetic understanding on the part of Christians who are confident in their beliefs. Mike clarifies that he is not here to “tear anyone’s faith system down,” but rather that his work is “for people whose relationship with God is starting to fade. If you’re confident with where you are in God, I don’t want to deconstruct. But I do want to give you empathy for those who are struggling.”

The Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor once wrote that “if you feel you can’t believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it and leave the rest to God. ” The New Copernican initiative provides students with the crucial space needed to keep wanting, asking and growing in their faith by confronting, instead of burying, their doubts.

Sources: Flannery O’Connor, “The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor”; palmerseminary.edu