Author: Sarah Hutchinson

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Opinions

“Through Our Tears We See the Tears of God”

One of my favorite crucifixion artworks is the Isenheim Altarpiece that was painted by Matthias Grunewald in 1516 during the Renaissance in (what is today) Germany. An important fact to bear in mind is that this piece was painted expressly for the Monastery of St. Anthony, which was an order that specialized in hospitalization for the plague and also for St. Anthony’s Fire– a particularly painful skin disease that resulted from the digestion of fungi from various cereals such as rye.

Courtesy of culturedart.blogspot.com
Courtesy of culturedart.blogspot.com

Knowing this, it is hard not to see the marks of these diseases in the artwork. The most gruesome aspect of the piece (indeed it is thought to be one of the most horrifying crucifixions ever painted) is the image of the crucified Christ with his body inflicted with plague-like sores and his skin carrying what is unmistakably the marks of St. Anthony’s Fire. Below the center panel there is also a small panel depicting Christ as if his leg has been amputated, another aspect of the disease that many of the sufferers had to face. But why paint Christ as such when, as we know from the Gospels, he was crucified on a cross and not condemned to a death by disease? Well, because the artist is trying to convey to the patients at the monastery that Christ understood their suffering and, as a man, had even experienced suffering on the cross.

This is the image that has haunted me as I look at the photos of the terror attack in Boston this past week. Images of people with scraps of metal and nails flayed into their skin (not unlike Grunewald’s image of the flayed Christ), images of runners and spectators who lost their limbs in the blast, pain and suffering and streams of blood on an American sidewalk in April. Is God here?

After the past year and a half of there have been extremely violent shootings at seemingly innocuous places from a mall to a movie theater, a Sikh temple to an elementary school, and now a marathon. The innocents that have been slaughtered or wounded in these instances are beyond count. The survivors mourn, we vow ‘never again’, we debate about how to prevent these instances of violence, but, all the same, innocents are still killed at the next instance of human-induced deaths. Why does this happen?

There are no easy answers to these questions — which is why, perhaps, the sufferers at Isenheim found their comfort in a crucifixion scene in which their savior identified with their pain. They could not relate to a triumphant and victorious resurrection scene; their doubts and hurts prevented that. It was the suffering of the incarnate innocent that gave them relief.


Some of you may have had the privilege of attending the campus lecture given by Nicholas Woltersdorff, who has written extensively on the suffering of God, during the semester at Houghton last year. He writes these words: “How is faith to endure, O God, when you allow all this scraping and tearing on us? You have allowed rivers of blood to flow, mountains of suffering to pile up, sobs to become humanity’s song–all without lifting a finger that we could see. You have allowed bonds of love beyond number to be painfully snapped. If you have not abandoned us, explain yourself.”

“We strain to hear,” Woltersdorff continues, “But instead of hearing an answer we catch sight of God himself scraped and torn. Through our tears we see the tears of God.”

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News

President Obama Unveils Budget Proposal

This past Wednesday, President Obama unveiled a new budget plan to be sent to Congress. Obama’s proposal will also be considered next to other plans that have already been proposed, including, most notably, two separate competing plans drawn up by Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in the House and Senator Patty Murphy (D-Wash.) in the Senate.

Courtesy of money.cnn.com
Courtesy of money.cnn.com

Obama’s proposal, a ten year plan, calls for about $300 billion in new spending measures for employment and public works, along with major new taxes for the wealthy, and some entitlement reforms. The plan calls for, among other things, an extra charge of 94 cents added to the cost of a pack of cigarettes. (The proceeds from the charge will be used to help finance programs for preschool education, programs that Obama mentioned in the State of the Union Address earlier this year.) Besides this striking feature, the plan will also call for $700 billion in new tax increases for the wealthy which, not unexpectedly, does not please many Republicans in Congress. However, the President has also made several concessions to Republicans, such as reducing Medicare benefits for wealthy couples.

By far, however, the largest concession that the President’s plan offers the Republicans is to reduce Social Security by applying a chained consumer price index (chained CPI) that will be less generous in calculating benefits. (Along with Social Security, the chained CPI will index  spending and taxes by tying them directly to the rate of inflation.) Compared to the old model of calculating benefits, the new formula will cause benefits to tick up at a much slower rate. This is expected to save the federal government about $130 billion within the next ten years.

This is a bold step by the President, as trimming Social Security is often considered untouchable by the members of his own party. Regardless, some Republicans in Senate are pleased with the concession and see this as a point where Republicans and Democrats can begin to compromise, though many Republicans advocate for higher Social Security costs. Other Republicans, however, do not see Obama’s move as a conciliatory measure and do not think that the concession really reforms entitlements. According to the Washington Post, Representative Ryan said that, “I don’t see this as fundamental entitlement reform as much as clarifying a statistic which does happen to save money.”

Obama’s proposal comes several days late – 65 days, to be exact. Usually in Washington, the president is the one to initiate discussions on the budget but, with several fiscal crises in the first quarter of this year, Obama’s initiative was delayed and the Senate and House of Representatives have already proceeded with their own initiatives.

Republican congressional plans generally seek to balance the budget within ten years and cut spending. Their counterparts, Democrat congressional plans, also seek to reduce deficit, but not to balance the budget. President Obama’s plan is no different in this respect. Regarding the level of national debt, one Republican plan from the House will level off debt within ten years, but another  plan submitted by the Republican Study Committee would reduce it significantly. Obama’s plan, like other Democrat plans, will not reduce national debt significantly and  will continue to let it to swell.

Budget talks in the upcoming weeks will continue to be debated.  Continue to keep an eye on the news for further developments.

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News

Houghton Artists Travel to Sierra Leone

news_jillian&renee4
Courtesy of Renee Roberts

Earlier this year, Renee Roberts, Direct of Exhibitions at Ortlip Gallery, and Jillian Sokso, Assistant Professor of Art, traveled to Sierra Leone for a skills training trip that brought together their gifts in art with acts of ministry.

The two were asked to come to Sierra Leone by a Houghton alum on the board of  Women of Hope International, an NGO that ministers to disabled women in Sierra Leone with the mission statement to “equip and disciple women with disabilities to become life-long followers of Christ who facilitate holistic transformation in their families and communities.”

Women with disabilities in Sierra Leone often face immense challenges. Many have difficulty performing basic tasks, such as drawing water, and sometimes earning a means of providing for their families is difficult. “Some of the ladies we worked with were amputees, a lot of them became disabled through preventable disease like measles or polio and lost the use of some of their limbs or [had] some sort of mobility issue, ” said Sokso. These women sometimes even become outcasts and their families may disown them because of their disabilities.

“The point of this skills training project or skills training trip,” said Roberts during a GCF meeting on

Courtesy of Renee Roberts
Courtesy of Renee Roberts

March 12, “was to facilitate classes for these disabled women who don’t have any other way to provide for their families or for themselves because they are seen as outcasts.” Papermaking and crafts help provide these women with skills to integrate themselves back into society while also making a profit, and it was to this end that Roberts and Sokso brought their talents as professional artists.

The women at the organization had already been making stationary, said Sokso, “But they were using this cheap Chinese cardstock that wasn’t really beautiful, so they were looking for papermakers.” Roberts and Sokso, after being requested to come to Sierra Leone last year, raised money through Printed Matter Press, the Dean’s Office and a faculty fund to help with the finances of the trip.

“The whole entire trip was so amazing to see God taking these things and opening these doors,” said Roberts.

While there, Sokso and Roberts gave classes on how to make paper and also gave a crafting class. Though they had to adjust certain papermaking techniques while in Sierra Leone, as the means and tools for producing paper were a little different than at home, overall the program provided their students with skills that they can use by selling their paper on the fair trade market.

“We talk about integration of faith and learning.  But for me, this was the first thing that I did that I could authentically live out not only God’s giftedness to me and my life, but also to actually help somebody learn a skill that could be profitable to them,” said Sokso, “It was a very visual example of how you can use your gifts to help somebody else.”

Sokso also found the comparison between the fibers that they used in papermaking and the women they worked with very appropriate. “A lot of these women are told throughout their lives that they are worthless or that a demon has cursed them. A lot of their families have literally thrown them away,” she said, “But in the end we held up this grass we used to make paper and said ‘Did you ever think that anything like this could be made into something beautiful?’”

 

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News

Congress Scrambles to Prevent Sequester

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are busy trying to prevent the sequester, massive spending cuts totaling to roughly $85 billion this year and over $1 trillion over the next ten years, that will hit the federal budget on March 1.

Courtesy of ivn.us
Courtesy of ivn.us

Should lawmakers fail to prevent the sequester, it will lop off a good portion of discretionary spending for defense and domestic programs and will also affect some mandatory domestic spending (most notably Medicare.) No programs will be eliminated, but all will be considerably scaled back.

The sequester will also affect federal employment. According to a Washington Post article, about 800,000 employees at the Pentagon will be put on unpaid leave if Congress cannot obtain a solution to the sequester. Military members and their families will also face cuts to benefit programs. Economic growth in the United States is also expected to slow and unemployment will raise a quarter of a percentage.

The sequester is the result of the debt ceiling crisis in the summer of 2011. It was intended to be an incentive for Congress to come to an agreement to cut federal spending, however, no agreement was ever reached. Originally, the sequester was supposed to take place in the beginning of this year (during the fiscal cliff crisis), but Congress made a deal to prevent the cliff and the sequester was delayed for another two months.

Nobody in Congress is pleased with the situation; neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can agree on how to best prevent the sequester.

President Obama and the Democrats are suggesting that the best way is to increase taxes. Obama has advocated for closing tax loopholes and increasing tax rates for the wealthy. The Democrats in Congress are pushing for tax increases, spread out over the course of a decade, and they are also recommending other measures such as cutting farm subsidies and tax subsidies for oil companies.

Republicans, on the other hand, do not want to raise taxes at all and thus find themselves not able to agree with Democrat proposals. Republicans are also very concerned about defense spending being cut, more so than domestic spending, and are pushing for considerably large domestic spending cuts instead. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Speaker of the House, John Boehner, wrote, “The president’s sequester is the wrong way to reduce the deficit, but it is here to stay until Washington Democrats get serious about cutting spending. The government simply cannot keep delaying the inevitable and spending money it doesn’t have.”

Overall, the sequester is another issue in the long debate over the size and role of the federal government, with the Democrats on the side of an expanded government and Republicans on the side of a smaller government. The results of the sequester that arise within the next week should be a test case to the larger debate. Hopefully, though, Congress will find a compromise to the sequester that is appealing to both political parties and will secure the future of American defense and overall well-being.

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News

Next Up in Congress: Immigration Reform?

During the State of the Union Address on Tuesday, President Obama spoke on the topic of immigration reform, saying, “Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away.”

Courtesy of bigthink.com
Courtesy of bigthink.com

During his speech, Obama mentioned three things that he wishes in an immigration reform package. One, he desires to continue to increase border security; two, he would establish “a responsible pathway to citizenship” for illegal immigrants already here; and three, he would reform the process of legal immigration so that there would be fewer waiting periods and would attract those that would help create jobs and help to grow the economy.

This was not merely talk. In recent weeks, comprehensive immigration reform has been steadily approaching legislative reality. A bipartisan group of senators, four Democrats and four Republicans, was formed only a few weeks ago with the task of developing a framework for reform that could possibly develop into a bill. This group has spearheaded the effort to come up with solutions to the many problems of immigration in this country – namely, illegal immigration, undocumented workers, insecure borders, and problems with the process of legal immigration, along with other issues.

For once, this seems to be a movement that will receive much, if not total, support in Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that immigration reform makes economic sense as immigrants are a key part of economic growth and development. Given the current economic uncertainty, immigration is a vital issue to address. The GOP also seeks to broaden its base, especially after the last presidential election where most of the Hispanic vote went to President Obama. Offering solutions to the immigration problem and presenting themselves as open to discussion will help develop support for the GOP platforms.

The public has also demonstrated consistent support for immigration reform. According to a Gallup poll, more than seven in ten Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and more than eight in ten Americans support legislation that would require that all employers verify that their employees are living in the United States legally.

Efforts to reach across the aisle and compromise about immigration also seem to be gaining ground, particularly from Senator Marco Rubio (R.-FL) who is quickly becoming a GOP superstar. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has been consistently leading the effort on behalf of the GOP to get discussion going. However, a hurdle that must cleared for legislation regarding immigration is a pivotal controversy within the Republican Party itself.
There are a significant number of GOP members who do not wish a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, saying that it amounts to amnesty. There are others within the party that disagree. Rubio dodged this issue in his speech in the GOP response to the State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening, but in recent weeks he has shown his support for a process of citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

The United States may well be on its way to immigration reform within the coming weeks. As talks and discussions among Congress become more serious and legislation begins to develop, the United States may even be implementing new immigration reform by the next State of the Union Address in 2014.

Categories
Arts

Things to Eat: Ajvar

Ajvar (pronounced “eye-var”) is a roasted red pepper and eggplant relish commonly found across the Balkans. I first discovered ajvar when I was in the Balkans for the semester last fall. The best way to describe it is as a variant of salsa, only less spicy and more savory and tangy. Ajvar can be used as a dip for grilled meats (quite commonly with cevapi, a type of kebab) as well as used in pasta or as a spread on bread. As the semester progressed, one of my mealtime mainstays became ajvar with feta cheese and olives on a slice of freshly baked bread.

Courtesy of http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/
Courtesy of http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/

I have missed ajvar very much since returning to the United States and so, a few weeks ago, I attempted to make a batch of it myself. The process of making ajvar requires much labor. Not only do you have to cut and roast the vegetables, you must also peel the skins off the hot peppers (quite a mess that stains your hands), scoop out the flesh of the eggplant and pick out the larger seeds, mince the garlic, and mix it all together with vinegar to taste. And it requires extra work without a food processor. However, for me the results were quite satisfying – even though it was prepared by the clumsy hands of a non-Balkans native. My craving for ajvar was appeased. The work was worth it.

A key thing to remember in making ajvar is to not be afraid of blackening the skins of the peppers as you roast them in the oven. Part of what makes ajvar so tasty is its texture; it is silkily smooth. Achieving this is only possible by being sure that the peppers are roasted long enough that their skins are black and they are cooked all the way through.

Ingredients
-6 medium red bell peppers
-1 small eggplant
-Minced garlic
-Vinegar
-Olive oil

Recipe
1)   Preheat the oven to broil.
Halve the peppers, seed them, and place on baking sheets. (Older baking sheets, if you can.)
3)   Cut the eggplant in half, place it on baking sheet, score it with a knife, and sprinkle with salt and olive oil.
4)   Put the peppers and eggplant in the oven to roast, about 15 minutes or until the pepper skins are blackened.
5)   Take the peppers and eggplant out of the oven when they are finished. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover with a dishcloth to cool. The steam will help their skins to loosen.
6)   While the peppers cool, scoop the eggplant flesh with a spoon and make sure to take out the larger seeds.
7)   When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel the skins and place in separate bowl.
8)   If you don’t have a food processor, use a pastry cutter or two knives to mix together the minced garlic and eggplant.
9)   Add the peeled peppers to the garlic and eggplant mix and continue to either use the food processor or the pastry cutter.
10) After you have a relish-like consistency, add vinegar to taste. It helps to balance the strong garlic flavor. Add some parsley or chili flakes.
11) Congratulations! You’ve made ajvar!