blogs/faith/On Porn/Philosophy

On Porn: Defining Porn, and Double Standards

Posted on by Eduardo / 8 Comments

I would like to thank my readers for their kind comments on my previous post on porn. This indicates that many people feel that this is something that really needs to be addressed. Today I plan to differentiate porn against some cultural artifacts that might point out to double standards.

Let us start with a working definition of porn:

A cultural artifact whose chief aim is to bring sexual arousal to its consumer.

As you might see, the key parts are (a) we are dealing with a cultural artifact (the genus), and (b) the fact that those artifacts are intended to bring arousal (the species).

Sadly, one of the main factors behind the pastoral failure when dealing with porn is the application of a double standard. This double standard is a direct result of ambiguity in delimitation of both genus and species, and is manifested in the following way:

  1. A particular kind of content is deemed as porn; therefore, “people of our own” accessing it should be exposed, disgraced, shamed, and disciplined; and
  2. That same particular kind of content is expressed as something else that is not porn; consequently, “people of our own” accessing it should be left alone undisturbed and unquestioned.

The double standard exists. This might not be so obvious to you; but this is evident to anyone with a minimum acquaintance with both porn and regular cultural products. However, as I also plan to show, reasons for the currency of this double-standard are complex, and hypocrisy is just one of them. The emergency of this double-standard touches such deep questions as the role of art and beauty for a Christian worldview, the real value of porn, and the extent of depravity as manifest in many cultural artifacts.

For the sake of this discussion, instead of doing a full analysis of both genus and species, let us consider a working differentiation of porn against four types of cultural artifacts:

  1. Porn vs. Arabian Nights.
  2. Porn vs. The Turkish Bath.
  3. Porn vs. Harlequin novels.
  4. Porn vs. Maxim.

Let us consider each of those cases. For the most part, I will try to set up hypothetical situations where your pastor is discovered in a compromising situation. As a typical example of pornographic material, I simply put “Playboy.” You are free to replace that name for another if that represents pornography better for you.

Porn vs. Arabian Nights

The double standard manifests here as follows: Sexually explicit depictions are deemed as porn in certain kinds of material, but on others they are deemed as “great literature.” In this way, if your pastor’s hard drive harbors sex stories saved from the Internet, he is a sinner and pervert barely above child molesters in the scale; but if you are reading Arabian Nights (for example, in the Burton version) you are just reading good literature. I could provide other examples (such as recent books by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, or older material by French writers and poets Pierre Louÿs and Charles Baudelaire) but this would suffice.

This is a question posed by ambiguity of the whole definition of porn. Both the Internet sex story and Arabian Nights are cultural artifacts. Both have erotic content. However, are they both intended to provoke sexual arousal? On the first case, yes; on the other, a definite maybe. But one is regarded as smut, and the other, as great literature.

In order to solve this ambiguity, we must seriously consider as a Christians what is the place of the erotic in art and literature, and how Christians should regard instances of generic erotica. In other words: Is it permissible for Christians to produce or consume material intended to bring sexual arousal? Is the seeking of sexual arousal sinful per se? Or, are we relieved of our responsibility if the material is “a great art masterpiece”?

The chief text employed against permitting sexual arousal is Matthew 5:27-28. However, this injunction (a) is against actually looking at someone; and (b) this refers not to sexual arousal, but to actual coveting motivated by sinful lust (cf. Greek epithumesai, from epithumeo; sorry for my awful Greek transliteration. The operating idea here is coveting). Thus, it seems that for this to be applicable, you must actually think of someone and you must actually covet her. Thinking of Scherazade in Baghdad or some unnamed lady in some unknown state as the main character of the Internet sex story, it seems to me, does not fit the bill.

Consequently, this double standard really points out to this unresolved area: the place of erotism for Christians and Christianity. We need to seriously consider this question if we are to avoid the catastrophic pastoral failure of porn.

Porn vs. “The Turkish Bath”

This is one of the most painful double standards for anyone victimized by the Church’s attitude towards porn. It manifests in the following way: Let’s say that your pastor is found with some topless photos on his hard drive. Again, he gets the whole rundown: shaming, exposure, discipline, and his placing as a “pervert.” Then, you go into the Louvre on a tour, and watch The Turkish Bath by Ingres among the general oohs and aahs of awe at seeing such a masterpiece. But no, you are not watching porn. You are not a “pervert!”

My choosing of Ingres’ Turkish Bath is by no means coincidental. I won’t provide a link; but if you see it you will notice that it contains more naked female pictures than a Playboy Collector’s Edition, and it could be argued that the poses of Ingres’ painting are even more enticing. But the Playboy is “porn,” and the Ingres is “art” How come?

This differentiation points out to the power of images, the place of visual arts in a Christian worldview, and more specifically, the place of the naked human form. We must answer such fundamental questions as “what is art?,” “what is the purpose of art?,” and others more to the point such as, “is it lawful to paint nudes?” “are those nudes ‘art’?” “is it lawful for a Christian to paint nudes?” “is it lawful for a Christian to pose as a nude model?”

Those questions might appear as petty and byzantine, unless you happen to be affected by them. What would you do if your church decides to open a Christian college? How would you educate your art majors? On one side, you could play it safe and ban all nudes; but then, you risk losing a rich, legitimate art tradition that spans several millennia. On the other, you could close your eyes and allow nudes, and perhaps risk a serious moral compromise on people whose parents expect you to teach Christian moral values to them.

Is in this context where the “topless findings” I mentioned earlier should be placed. Those might be sinful; but then, if those are sinful, then why Ingres’ paintings, Canova’s sculptures, or certain very revealing Indian reliefs are not? Here lies this double standard, and this double-standard is certainly hard to overcome. Meanwhile, people is still being labeled as “perverts” by churches for looking at images far less risqué than many art masterpieces.

Porn vs. Romance Novels

Another double standard comes out when you compare a standard porn icon such as, say, a Playboy magazine, with the typical “romance novel.” When we compared porn with works such as Arabian Nights, we could offer the excuse that the latter was “established quality literature” while porn was not. Similarly, when we compared porn with an Ingres painting, we could say that the painting was an “art masterpiece” while porn was not.

However, when we compare porn to romance novels of the Harlequin type, these excuses fade away. Here we have run-of-the-mill pulp literature that cannot be counted as “quality writing.” And yet, it has some characteristics commonly thought of porn. It is an artifact that brings sexual arousal. But what is the difference? That its content and its nature is geared to women. For a small explanation, see this Slashdot comment together with its associated discussion.

And here lies the double standard: A Playboy (or a sex novel, such as those by Harold Robbins) is labeled as porn, because is used to bring arousal in males. It should be sold behind covers, and if your pastor is caught off with one of those, all hell would break loose. On the other hand, a Harlequin romance novel is sold openly at every newstand, and if the average church lady is seen reading or buying one of those, no one complains. And yet, those novels cater to women in the same way that Playboys cater to men.

This brings out the question: Is the Church’s crusade against porn not more than a selective indictment of male sexuality? This double standard seems to reinforce the notion that women are incapable of committing sexual sin when consuming cultural artifacts while at the same time men are dangerous, perverted beasts that should be caged and tamed lest they become molesters and predators.

And believe me, this is bollocks. We are all sinners. Ed Hurst’s Holy Cynicism has it: (Hu)mankind is fallen. Sinners will sin. The notion that pornography is mostly a male phenomenon is patently false. What might be true is that pornography aimed at males is more high-profile, and thus females can think they are safe and holy while they are actually debasing their views of human sexuality in fantasies riddled with lust and eroticism.

To overcome this double-standard, we do not need to become more repressive towards women, or romance novels. What we need is a fresh, non-Victorian understanding of the place of pornography inside the normal human mind, and address this fact with a truly Christian, pastoral intent.

Porn vs. Maxim

I reserve this for last because it is mostly a straw man. That is, for most purposes the items compared are the same thing; and yet we need to make some precisions on the issue.

I won’t talk about your pastor here; but picture yourself with a teenage or college-age son. What would upset you more: discovering a Playboy, or discovering a “men’s magazine” such as Maxim, GQ, FHM, etc., in his dorm? For most Christian people, the usual answer would be “Playboy,” and here lies the double standard.

Why should a Playboy upset a parent more than a Maxim? Because the latter has some tiny cloth over the model’s private parts and the former doesn’t? One could say that Playboy presents women as mere objects; but if that is true, how is that Maxim women are not mere objects, too? In both cases, we have pictorials of beautiful women showing their scantily-clad bodies for all who buy the issue at hand. And yet, for the popular mind one is “porn,” while the other is not (although, I admit it, for a very narrow margin).

The double standard undoubtedly exists, and this is the most hypocritical of all. This is more a result of a society’s double morals than a particular pastoral mistake made by Christian congregations. Nevertheless, it still needs to be resolved.

Concluding thoughts

Please note that I am not endorsing pornography, and I am not trying to discharge persons guilty of consuming it. What I am trying here is to point out that there is a double standard in the Church’s understanding of pornography, and that this fact needs to be addressed to avoid the catastrophic pastoral failure of the Church’s dealing with porn.

God willing, I intend to pursue my analysis of porn as a pastoral failure in upcoming posts. Firstly, I plan to look at the usual arguments employed against porn, noting that most of them are intrinsically flawed and really point out to other, less public and less convenient, reasons. Secondly, I plan to take a look at responses towards porn at several levels: community, spousal, and pastoral. Nevertheless to say, in all stages your comments will be appreciated and welcomed.

blogs/Books/faith/General

A Skete’s Library?

Posted on by Eduardo / 1 Comment

My brother and friend dunefan (aka PenguinBoy) tagged me for this meme, and I am happy to spread it on. The blog is just this question: “If you could only take 5 books of yours somewhere what would they be?”

Well, that’s a difficult question due to its size limitation. But after some reflection, these would be my choices:

1. A Spanish Reina-Valera Bible or an ESV English Bible. If I could get one of those in the USB Study Bible format it would be better.

2. A Spanish version of Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. I prefer the Spanish version since Spanish is closer to Latin.

3. Wolfhart Pannenberg’s three-volume Systematic Theology.

4. Abraham Kuyper’s To Be Near Unto God.

5. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

Note: I may substitute one of #2-5 for the Book of Common Prayer (a classic edition, not a modern one).

I invite everyone interested in joining this meme.

General

New House!

Posted on by Eduardo / 4 Comments

Looks like we found a new house! Yesterday I signed the lease contract for a house that is located not too far from our actual home. The keys will be handed on Saturday morning, and after that we can start the moving process. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and support, and praise God for His faithfulness! And please keep praying for a safe and streamlined moving process.

faith/On Porn/Philosophy

On Porn: A Catastrophic Pastoral Failure

Posted on by Eduardo / 9 Comments

If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy.

— C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”

I do not tolerate movies with nudity. What saddens me is the number of my Christian friends who think nothing of nudity in movies. It just seems so hypocritical to me to believe that God created everyone equal, and yet they attend movies whose nudity content turn women into mere objects.

— Fia Kilbourn, in a Christianity Today Movies article.

A personal word

I have a confession to make. I had been in contact with pornographic material during a large part of my life.

It started when I was a little boy, seeing those huge centerfolds posted at the wall of that cobbler shop where I went when my shoes needed fixing. It went on for the most part of my grade school, seeing those titillating Playboy covers hanging on street newsstands.

This deepened when I entered puberty. From that time on, I went through intermittent periods of building and stacking several skin mags. This brought a lot of grief in my life, because almost invariably those mags would be discovered by Mom, who had a strong disregard for the privacy requirements of any of her children. I am the only son of my family; my other siblings are two sisters, younger than me.

In those occasions Mom would enter to my room to inspect it. She did it when I was away, and she was ruthless in her inspection. She even went through my personal notebooks, my teenage love poems, everything; and of course she ended discovering my smut collection. That was the climax; at my return I was met with some funny looking stares from my mom and my sisters. Later on, I would discover that Mom got hold of my porn and burned it all in a great pyre. She then would lecture me, telling me that I was a “degenerate”, a pervert, and a sure candidate to burn in the flames of Hell. I had to exercise mortification of the flesh if I wanted the Virgin and all the Saints to rescue me from Purgatory at the end.

My dad? never raised a finger to correct or change anything. He just told me once, “hey, try to be more discreet because your Mom is very upset over such things”; yeah, as if discretion could survive without privacy. As I grew older, I found better and safer methods for stacking my mags, so thankfully this ceased to be a problem. I loved my mags; some were highly satisfying in a sort of way.

When I was a teenager, I also went to some seedy theaters downtown. This led to some funny encounters when I found some acquaintance in the proximities, doing some work or some errand in the office buildings, and he or she stopped to greet me…

When I became an evangelical Christian twelve years ago, this predilection for pornography almost disappeared. Almost. But not totally. For some years I maintained a stash of titillating magazines, until one day I decided to do something about it. At the next early morning, a neatly-folded, carefully-wrapped package showed up at one neighbor’s garbage can, to be picked by the 8.00am garbage truck. And I am in a constant struggle to keep my purity ever since. As you might conclude, I know what pornography consumption is.

A pastoral failure

Now, Christians consuming pornography is not something uncommon. In a society full of eroticized messages and a sexual ethic damaged beyond every possibility of repair, this is something that should be expected. A cursory reading of Romans 7:15-23 should hint at that; and this is strenghtened by the doctrine set forth by questions 5, 8 and 13 of the Heidelberg Catechism. We should really adopt the School of Holy Cynicism’s motto so brilliantly conceived by my brother Ed Hurst: Mankind is fallen. Sinners will sin.

However, an examination of the usual responses at the discovery of pornography in the life of a Christian would belie that. There is a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth, of self-righteous finger pointing, a loud hollering decrying the enormity of the sin committed. This is usually followed by a chain of destruction involving everything from divorces to firings, and the sinner becomes a leper, a pariah, a “pervert.”

Most of the responses are somewhat understandable, and please note that I do not identify them as products of hipocrisy, even though they might be. What I have to say is that any response to sin that tends to reinforce feelings of self-righteousness in persons close to the sinner, and creates a leper, a pariah, is evil in and out of itself, and is tantamount to a pastoral failure of catastrophic proportions.

As in most cases, this pastoral failure leaves casualties: men, women, children, families, and whole communities of faith. And I would like that to change, and for that reason I intend to explore in upcoming posts some connotations of the phenomenon of pornography in the life of Christians. My analysis will be, of course, totally one-sided, biased by my own experience and convictions, and perhaps I might not be completely sensitive to perspectives from other groups of people. However, I sincerely regard my concerns as pertinent, and I don’t see that the Church is addressing them properly.

My intention is to conduct this exploration engaged in full conversation with you. Such an issue requires respectful dialogue. May the LORD be glorified through all of this, and may He deliver all of us from evil.

blogs/Books

Books

Posted on by Eduardo / 6 Comments

This is a book meme that is making the rounds on the blogosphere. I got it from The Hermitage (formerly known as The Cloister/dunefan/PenguinBoy). I am buried on work but I simply couldn’t resist this one.

  1. A book that made you cry: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. I have to confess it: I cannot help but cry not only in the last moments of the book, but also when I read about the Rohirrim riding to their certain death at the battle in the outskirts of Minas Tirith.
  2. A book that scared you: C. Everett Koop and Francis Schaeffer, Whatever Happened To The Human Race? That did the job. It scared me witless like no spooky story could. The human heart is capable to reach such unfathomable depths of evil that raises my hair.
  3. A book that made you laugh: Donald R. Morris, Warm Bodies. I got it in the form of the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books, vol. 4 1957. According to the only review on Amazon:

    This warm-hearted comic novel about a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the peacetime US Navy of the 1950s should be back in print, it is a minor classic of its time and place. [… T]he book has a wonderful charm and it’s filled with rueful stories about the Navy that will ring true with anyone who’s ever been in the service–or been in love, because it is a pretty good love story too.

  4. A book that disgusted you: Most novels by the Paraguayan writer Gabriel Casaccia. He had a strong erotic fixation on older women, and his books were required reading in high school. I remember one where a 65 year-old woman plotted to involve herself in an affair with a teenager. Being myself a teenager at that particular time, I found that disgusting and revulsive.
  5. A book you loved in elementary school: Edmondo de Amicis, Cuore. This was the first book I ever owned. It was a very special present for my 8th birthday from my beloved Aunt Virginia. It was a huge hardcover edition, and my aunt wrote a beautiful dedication in her delicate handwriting. I still have the book with me and I regard it as one of my special treasures. On the other hand, I also loved some encyclopedias, like this one.
  6. A book you loved in middle school: There were several, but one of the ones I remember fondly was the book by German ethologist Vitus B. Dröscher, Sobrevivir: La gran lección del Reino Animal (Survival : The Great Lesson of the Animal Kingdom). Another great book was a gem by another German ethologist, Herbert Wendt, El descubrimiento de los animales : de la leyenda del unicornio hasta la etología (The Discovery of Animals: From the Legend of the Unicorn to Ethology)
  7. A book you loved in high school: Garrett Hardin, Biology: Its Principles and Implications. I know very well what Garrett Hardin stands for, and I thoroughly disagree with his convictions. However, the late Hardin wrote what only could be regarded as a superb textbook, filled with insight, reflection, and excellent prose that stood even its Spanish translation. I loved it; and I read it for leisure!
  8. A book you loved in college: Tom Clancy, Red Storm Rising. This is just too well known :).
  9. A book that challenged your identity or your faith: That would be the book byu Joseph Zacchello, Secrets of Romanism. This is the book that convinced me to leave the Roman Catholic Church and join the Reformation. Today this book is continuously lambasted in Roman Catholic apologetic circles, but what it said was thoroughly true of the Roman Catholic Church at the time of its writing, and I didn’t see too much of a change for the positive at the time of my leaving.
  10. A series that you love: I usually don’t read serial books, but if you can count it as a series, I really dig the “Jack Ryan” saga from Tom Clancy.
  11. Your favorite horror book: I don’t read horror books; but I liked the short story There Are More Things (English version) by Jorge Luis Borges.
  12. Your favorite science-fiction book: Dune by Frank Herbert.
  13. Your favorite mystery book: I don’t have any (yet…)
  14. Your favorite biography: St. Augustine, The Confessions.
  15. Your favorite coming-of-age book: It’s difficult to single out one. I remember reading Summer of ’42, but I didn’t like it much.
  16. Your favorite book not on this list: Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present. This is a superb book! The writing is one of a kind, and the clarity of exposition and insights of Professor Barzun are just amazing.

As you have seen, I didn’t have much to say on some categories, because my readings tend to go more to the essay/argumentative side rather than the narrative. But all in all this is a great meme, and thus I would like to gently tug some great friends of mine into doing this meme. Of course, anyone could feel free to participate. Enjoy!

General

More on Hispanic Names

Posted on by Eduardo / 3 Comments

My post on Hispanic names was very well received, and I got some nice comments for that. I really appreciate the kind thoughts expressed. I would like now to round off the subject with additional observations I forgot to mention at the time.

1. A mistake to avoid when referring to married women: You might know that a traditional pattern of calling a married woman in English countries is this:

Mrs. Husband’s_name

so that if Jane Wilkins married Peter Smith, she could be referred to as Mrs. Peter Smith. This is especially true when you refer to the whole couple, as in Mr. and Mrs. Peter Smith.

The scoop: there is no exact equivalent to this usage. For our study, let’s say that

Pedro José Giménez Mora

and

Virginia Ruth Prieto Villalba

are married. (Last names are italicized.) In that case, the following differences to English usage apply:

a) As usual, the lady would call herself Sra. (Mrs.) Virginia Prieto de Giménez.

b) There is no equivalent to the usage of Mrs. Husband’s_name, so an usage of Sra. Pedro Giménez is glaringly incorrect. Avoid it at all costs!

The closest thing to it would be referring to Virginia as “la señora de Pedro Giménez” (Pedro Giménez’s wife); but this should be done in the middle of a sentence and never as a naming scheme.

c) There is an equivalent to the usage of Mr. and Mrs. Husband’s_name: Pedro Giménez y Sra., but it is not too widely used.

2. Widows. Using the same name as in the previous case, we might agree that the lady would be called Sra. Virginia de Giménez. Now, imagine that Mr. Pedro Giménez passes away, and Virginia is now a widow. In that case,

a) She could choose to keep calling herself with her married name; or

b) She could adopt the following scheme:

Mrs. Widow’s_name viuda de Husband’s_last_name
Sra. Widow’s_name Vda. de Husband’s_last_name

Thus, the phrase “viuda de” (“widow of”) or its abbreviation is introduced as a modifier in the married name of the wife to signify its widowing status. Thus, Virginia could call herself something like:

Sra. Virginia Vda. de Giménez
Sra. Virginia Ruth viuda de Giménez
Sra. Virginia Prieto vda. de Giménez

… and so on; you get the idea.

3. A treatment of respect. Sometimes, you will hear someone being called as don/doña. In Spain, this is a treatment used with the nobility and priests, and it’s roughly equivalent to the English usage of “Sir”. However, in most parts of Latin America “don/doña” is just a mark of respect given to highly influential persons, or persons that are old and wise. Here is how you should use it:

a) It should be written in lowercase. For example, “don Pedro Giménez.”. However, this usage varies in the practice.

b)It could be used with the person’s first name, as in “don Pedro.” Contrast this with Italian usage, where the “Don” particle is capitalized and is preferently used with the last name, as in “Don Corleone.” However, this usage varies in the practice, especially because there are so many people of Italian descent here, and they have retained the original usage.

General

Moving: Back to square one

Posted on by Eduardo / 0 Comment

After some prayerful consideration, my wife and I decided to walk out of the rental application we mentioned earlier. We were not entirely convinced of the realtor’s integrity and there were some serious issues to deal with.

Now we are back to square one with the search process. Please pray that we find a new and adequate house, soon.

Books/computers/General

Updates on the Home Front

Posted on by Eduardo / 1 Comment

Moving On with Moving. Things have been quite busy around here lately. I continue to be very busy at work, and that is also true of my wife. At the end of the day, we both crash our bed quite exhausted. But we should be happy that both of us have jobs in a country with unemployment figures totally out of control; and I am grateful.

One of our constant sources of concerns is our house. We rented a house one month before our wedding, and that house has been our home until now. However, my landlord asked us to vacate the house on July 7th (that’s right; on today’s date) because he wanted his daughter to live there, so we went off looking for a house to rent. Thankfully, our landlord is understanding, and he is graciously letting us continue the renting agreement over that deadline if we do not found a suitable house… but I do not want to wear out that courtesy.

After a very tiresome search, we found some promising houses, and we are right now in the process of applying for a rental. The paperwork is cumbersome, so I have to be patient.

Please pray that we could find a good house, that the Lord could provide us the resources to make the necessary amends and improvements to the house, and that all this transition –including the moving– could proceed well.

At the Book Fair. My wife and I went last Sunday to the Libroferia, or Book Fair. This is an annual event sponsored by the Paraguayan Chamber of Booksellers and Publishing Houses (CAPEL). The place was packed, and it was rewarding to see so much people interested in reading. However, the disappointing note was the fact that most books were on subjects that fell on roughly four areas: (1) Self-Help; (2) Esoterism/Mysticism; (3) Marxism/Communism; and (4) Marketing/Commerce/Business. Well, at least this is a begninning.

Computing bits. I noticed that OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 has been released. Since the download for i386 GNU/Linux is a whopping 120M, I have to exercise quite a bit of patience… In the meanwile, the grapevine is buzzing with rumours of the imminent release of Slackware 11.0. Let’s see what happens in the next few days.

General

The Fourth of July: A Plea And Plenty of Fireworks

Posted on by Eduardo / 0 Comment

Please bear with me; I am going to rant a little bit about politics.

Today we commemorate the Independence Day of the United States of America. It is an occasion to celebrate the legacy of those men who gave everything, including their own precious lives, so that the American people could live in liberty and dignity.

This legacy is precious, and the task of propagating the ideals of freedom and human dignity should be a commission to the American people to stand, proclaim and propagate those values everywhere.

I saw by myself what America stands for. I was there for nearly two years, as a lawful resident alien with a student visa, and I came to know the values, convictions, and the warm hospitality of the people of this great nation. However, when one goes around the world, is there appreciation for America? Maybe yes; but there is also a great amount of anti-Americanism, and this fact worries me a lot.

Why do people hate the U.S.? America is, after all, a nation founded on the ideals of liberty and dignity, and this should be welcomed by most. But we see deep hatred, mostly (but not rightly) justified by actions taken by U.S. government foreign policy. And employing a rhetoric of Anti-Americanism can take you places: witness the emergence of leaders such as Evo Morales in Bolivia, or Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. The average Latin American see the average U.S.-American as full of himself, arrogant, selfish, foolish, rude, and an all-around bully. And you know that’s not true… but they don’t. They just know what they experienced or what they learned through the media. First and foremost examples of that behavior are the people working in American embassies, right from the Ambassador to the lowliest attaché.

The State Department should really get its act together in Latin America. They might be highly efficient in implementing foreign policy guidelines and actions in Latin America, and they might be excellent in representing American interests, but in the propaganda department they are a failure of strategic proportions, a failure that is dangerously mounting to a vicious backslash.

Our recent ambassadors, for example, were people who were busy pressuring our government. In moments of great civil unrest and political crises, they helped to support one president (Juan Carlos Wasmosy) while they helped to depose another (Raúl Cubas). They are pressuring our government on areas such as drug trafficking, money laundering “piracy,” “intellectual property,” and so on. And they do not forget about the cultural and humanitarian aspects: we have the Peace Corps, USAID, and USIS. We have Medrete medical missions with the US Army. But somehow, the people remain unimpressed; there seems no real outreach to them.

How can this state of things be better? Should America desist on its foreign policy goals and actions, pearhps? By no means. But reach out to the culture! Get some radio program on the airwaves where you could put the best of American music, bring some noted artist to visit the country, and engage the embassy itself, and not an appendage, in visits to the country. These should mark a good beginning. Reach out to the people in the street with a message he is interested to hear!

Thankfully, the situation has improved here. The current U.S. Ambassador, Mr. James Cason, is someone who projects the image of a “friendly guy”, and not just a bureaucrat. He is fluent in Guarani, the indigenous national language of Paraguay spoken by 95% of the population, to the point where he can joke in it; and believe me, Guarani jokes are full of double-entendres in a way that only a true mastery of the language and its surrounding culture could make them possible.

So, this is my plea. Now, Happy Fourth of July! Have a nice barbecue or any other big karu guasu (“really big holiday dinner”, in Guarani) of your choice, and crack plenty of fireworks!

Books/faith/Philosophy

On the Interpretation of Ecclesiastes: Approaching the book

Posted on by Eduardo / 2 Comments

When one opens the Ecclesiastes, one might perceive that one is looking at a book that is totally different from other books in the Bible. That’s right; Ecclesiastes is unique and unmatched in so many counts. Because of this, it is my contention that we must employ an approach that pays respect to the peculiarities of the books.

On the other hand, Ecclesiastes is a book written by God as his Author, and He inspired it for our benefit and understanding. Therefore, the most important point of approaching the Ecclesiastes is precisely that: to open the book, read it, meditate on it, and make it part of our lives.

Taking all this into account, and after years of reading this fascinating book, I would like to submit to your consideration the following guidelines for an interpretation of Ecclesiastes:

1. First of all, this is a book whose message should be known. Therefore, read it! Read it one, two, three, one thousand times… but read it. It is God’s word for us.

2. This is a book of philosophy. Ecclesiastes is, first and foremost, a philosopher’s book with a honest, open account of this person’s search for ultimate truth and meaning in the universe. You might find some statements that are apparently contradictory; these are steps in a philosopher’s reasoning.

A cursory reading of this book will make it apparent that the author was considering questions of teleology, natural theology and theodicy, ethics and deontology, metaphysics and, especially, antropology, and all of those are given a treatment that is surprisingly contemporary and accessible.

A corollary of this point is that if this is a book of philosophy written by a philosopher and if this is a sacred book inspired by God and part of the Holy Bible, then we find that philosophy is an intellectual endeavor approved by God.

3. This is a book intended for the benefit of teenage boys. The only place where you could get an education in the Ancient Near East was in the court scribal schools. Those were schools where the male children of court bureaucrats were trained in the court business. Nevertheless to say, most of the Wisdom literature originated in this way. Thus, this is a book written for young people, dealing with things of interest to young ones, and accessible to them.

4. This is not a misogynist book. Some people have thought that Ecclesiastes is a misogynist or chauvinist book, because it warns against “the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters” (Ecclesiastes 7:25-28). That might be a somewhat serious charge, unless one thinks of the intended purpose of the book. That’s right: in a book meant for teenage boys, what would you expect?

This is nothing more than a warning against entering into a dangerous and destructive sexual relationship. I am certain that if the book was written for young women, we would be reading “beware of men, they are all mean and evil and they want just one thing from you” or something similar. How many times have the ladies complained about men, about how they are all the same, and so on? A woman reading Ecclesiastes 7:25-29 could invert the sexes of the passage and profit from the reading.

5. This is a talk about “the facts of life.” In my opinion, the best way to approach this book is to regard it as an extended talk about “the facts of life” especially for young boys. Just look at some of the things dealt with in this book: politics, administration, work ethics, friendship, the future, sex, money… and God. Those are things an older and wiser parent or teacher who has “been there, done that” would discuss with any young boy placed under his care in order to instill wisdom in him.

blogs

Time for a (cosmetic) change?

Posted on by Eduardo / 0 Comment

I am considering the possibility of changing my blog theme. The current one is a way too hacked version of the Blue Theme by Alex King, originally made for WP-1.0, and while I like the general look of it, I think the blog could use some changes in its appearance. Of course, I do not plan to make a radical change of appearances; the general outlook of the blog will remain. What do you think?

blogs/faith/Music/Philosophy

Just Shut Up And Take It Like A Man

Posted on by Eduardo / 2 Comments

The title might look shocking, and it is. And yet, there are too many Christians and churches that are happy to tell their brethren to act like this as their answer when sincerely and honestly questioned, all for the sake of maintaing “the bond of peace”. The problem is, it’s very good to be a peacemaker unless you get the short end of the peacemaking stick.

Doug McHone of Coffee Swirls fame has written along these lines in Worship Wars. See, for example:

If it is someone who says that Jesus is not eternally God it is one thing. If it is someone who prefers to sing only a capella, it is another. The controversy may be important or it may just be a matter of preference. If it is preference, share your preference, but guard your heart from legalism.

This is another formulation of the same old thing: Worship is non-essential. Therefore, if you don’t see that the worship (and this goes to the choice of musical styles) is OK, the title applies: just shut up and take it like a man. Otherwise, you will be labeled as a divisive, whining, troublesome jerk.

Obviously I am overstating the case, but I hope you see the point. Doug’s article is excellent in many levels, and is a passionate plea for unity in non essentails, and the use of Christian charity when we have to deal with non essential things we don’t like. If only all worship leaders and planners were like Doug I’m certain that worship “skirmishes” would be far less traumatic.

The problem however, is that Doug, like so many other Christian leaders, take worship, or rather, the particular choice of styles of delivery during public worship of our Lord, as a non essential. That is, I am afraid, not entirely true.

I understand that it is hard to argue against one style and favor another, because most of the time it is just a matter of taste. However, this begs the question: which taste?

I tried to set forth the importance of an appropriate worship style on aesthetics grounds on The Aesthetics of Christian Worship. True worship should express Beauty in the most sublime form allowed by the particular culture we’re immersed in. If our worship is not commensurate with sublime Beauty in our culture, i.e., if it is just a manifestation of tasteless kitsch, it is not worthy of our Lord.

Additionally, worship is an expression of how do we view God. Who is the One we approach in worship? Is a holy, terrible, just yet merciful Person, or is just a jolly good fellow? The answer to this question will impact forcefully on our worship style.

But there is another issue that is somehow relative, yet important: Worship is a public expression of our loving of the Lord. It is public display of love for love’s sake. It is the most intimate of the public encounters with the triune Lord God. And this should bring a pastoral concern: Imposing worship style changes is imposing changes in our way of expressing public love to our Lord. This is done all the time, and the ones who dare to protest are treated with the whole “just shut up and…” mantra.

Now, think for a moment: If someone tells you that you are no longer allowed to kiss your significant other in public, and that instead of it you should just wink with one eye, would you take that? What if you dare to protest, and your concerns are dismissed, and you are treated like a “divisive”, “troublemaker”, and other less edifying labels?

Worship wars aren’t wars just for nothing. You are dealing with the intimate and the sacred. Until this fact is properly dealt with by worship “engineers” or leaders, the casualties will escalate.

blogs/faith/General

Two World Cups

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Right now there are at least two world cups going: One is the famous FIFA Football World Cup. Paraguay is supposed to play in the next hours against Sweden, after being beaten 0-1 by the Brits on Saturday. I’m not a big sports fan, and I definitely don’t care for football (soccer, for you Americans), but it seems difficult to ignore an event of such magnitude. Here, the country practically stops every time there is a match played by the Paraguayan team.

The other one is much more interesting, at least for me. Patrik Hagman of God in a Shrinking Universe is hosting a World Cup of… theologians! Yes, that’s right… you can see matches like Pannenberg vs. Brunner; these get hot. Other matches are complete duds, like John Hick vs. Rosemary Radford Ruether. Enjoy ;)!

blogs/faith/Philosophy

Kant Paper in Paraguayan Daily

Posted on by Eduardo / 3 Comments

Some of you might remember my paper “Influence of Protestant Dogmatics in the Thought of Inmanuel Kant” (abridged English version, full Spanish version). I am pleased to announce that the first part of the full Spanish text was published by the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color, which is the most widely read and influential newspaper of the country. (To put it in perspective, the U.S. equivalent would be to be published by the NY Times.)

The paper published just the first part of my article, due to its length. The two remaining parts are expected to be published on upcoming Sundays. Even though it is not properly formatted, you can read my work at the paper’s website.

Nevertheless to say, I am very pleased by that. I hope this article could contribute to raise the visibility of Paraguayan evangelicals that are NOT like Benny Hinn or Paul Crouch or… well, you know. Soli Deo Gloria!

computers

KDE 3.5.3 installed

Posted on by Eduardo / 3 Comments

This is a short note to tell you that I managed to download and install KDE 3.5.3 (a whopping 231 MB of Slackware packages!). I do not perceive any functionality changes (and I shouldn’t, by the way), but on the whole the environment seems to be more robust, stable, and more willing to coexist in a machine with several hardware constraints.

The press release specifically mentioned that this release should start faster, and I can confirm that. On goyeneche, the 128 MB Celeron 466 IBM PC 300 GL I use at office, KDE start times were as follows:

  • KDE 3.5.2: 41.64 s
  • KDE 3.5.3: 28.51s

The time was measured from the moment the key Enter was pressed on the startx command (in init 3, of course) to the point where control was given to the user.

As you can see, there is an improvement of about 31.54% from KDE 3.5.2. Kudos to the KDE hackers!

faith/Philosophy

On the Interpretation of Ecclesiastes: God as a Fellow Traveler

Posted on by Eduardo / 2 Comments

The Old Testament is a gagged book. Indeed, a careful reading of the Hebrew Bible will show whole books, chapters, and verses that have been silenced. A prime example of this are the imprecatory psalms, such as Psalm 137 (see especially Psalm 137:7-9); but there are some examples that are lesser known, such as Ecclesiastes. But why is it so? Because those texts have the power of making ourselves or our church leaders uncomfortable. Very, very uncomfortable.

After all, how could one preach about God’s love and then read the Word of God where the Psalmist vent his desire of squashing some babies against the rocks? How could one reconciles the image of God as Father and then read a prophet claiming that he was practically raped by God (!)? Or, how could be a king, renowned for its practical wisdom and sharp intellect, contemplating suicide (Ecclesiastes 2:17)? It is undoubtedly a challenge; but it is the Word of God. We cannot simply ignore it and pretend that those texts do not exist, as we are doing now.

Because of this, I would like to offer a hermeneutical model that might be helpful to approach those texts. My goal is to do justice to the message of those portions, while at the same time preserve the analogy of faith that obviously regards rape and the murder of babies as unworthy of a loving, merciful and just God. This approach is going to be the undercurrent for my interpretation of Ecclesaistes. I would like to call this hermeneutical model as “the Fellow Traveler.” Below are some guidelines for the model:

1. The starting point of the model is an unyielding conviction of the integrity of the Word of God and its normativity for the Christian faith, (2 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 8:20, etc), and the fact that God has spoken (Hebrews 1:1,2). This Word is eminently true and our path to holiness (John 17:17).

2. However, the text we are approaching is not an “easy” one. It seems to contradict our expectations of the Word of God. It usually runs counter to many Christian discourses today. And we are to be faithful both to the problematic text (the pericope) in particular, and to the message given by the whole corpus of revealed literature, in general.

3. We know that God is a loving, merciful and generous Father. He is Almighty, yet He gave His only Son so we would have salvation. He knows the meaning of loss and despair. And He delights when His children engage Him in powerful dialogue.

4. Therefore, I would like to offer that these problematic texts, such as many Psalms, some portions of the Prophets, and a great deal of Ecclesiastes, are reflections of God’s character. These “problematic” texts shows us a God that:

  • Is aware of our grief. He knows about our grief, our pain, our sorrow, our depression, our losses, our hidden fears, our intimate corruption. And truly so, God, as the Revelator, was pleased to inspire the authors of the Bible to let us know that He is aware of what we feel.
  • He respects our affliction. Not only is He aware of our sorrows; He respects us by way of the silence (see e.g. Job 2:13). When our suffering is “very great”, the best answer is simply to remain silent. What else we could say to someone beaten by the rod of human loss?
  • But, moreover, and especially, God show His care by the simple gesture of “being there.” Like the friends of Job, in these harrowing passages he is showing us nothing less and nothing more than His presence. The inspiration of those “problematic texts” without any correcting commentary by our Lord definitely shows that He is there with the ones who are suffering, and yet, He is silent. God is with those who suffer, with those who find absolutely no trace of meaning in the midst of a horrid life; He is walking with us in our pilgrimage, perhaps offering His shoulder to grab so we could keep walking despite all the wounds. Yes; the fact that there is an inspired record of these “texts of despair” is definite proof that God is there with the suffering.
  • Finally, God show His care to the suffering by inspiring these texts and allowing them to become, thanks to His gracious will, part of our Holy Bible, the Word of God. This should be concrete evidence that there is nothing so insignificant that does not merit concern by God. Even when these texts might be apparently against more “standard” teaching, God wanted those stories of grief and sorrow to be heard. He does not take the sorrows of His people lightly.

Anyone who has had the slightest experience in pastoral care of the bereaved and the wounded knows that these texts are very helpful in situations of personal crisis (see this article by Jeph Holloway for example). Many persons feel reflected by them, and they learn that God knew somehow how they feel, and therefore, can begin a path towards the healing of the soul with a renewed, dependent and confident relationship with God.

In the midst of a world tha can be justly called “horrible”, God is once again, our only comfort in life and death.

blogs/computers

Two Big Software Releases

Posted on by Eduardo / 3 Comments

1. This morning I saw that WordPress 2.0.3 was released. This is mostly a bugfix and security release that includes an issue raised by Bugtraq some days ago. Upgrade is recommended for all WordPress 2.x users.

2. On the other hand, this press release was issued yesterday:

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.5.3, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes. Unusually for a maintenance release, new features were implemented due to the long release cycle of the eagerly-awaited KDE 4. Stability and speed were also improved, along with increasingly complete translations in 65 languages.

Among some of those new features, the startup sequence was re-ordered to improve startup times. Yeeehaaaaaw!!!! :D. Slackware packages are available in the relevant “contrib” directory.

I guess wget will be really busy these days… 😉

faith/Philosophy

On the Interpretation of Ecclesiastes: Some Common Interpretations Offered

Posted on by Eduardo / 4 Comments

The question of how shall we interpret the Ecclesiastes is in some ways related to the larger issue of Old Testament interpretation. Ecclesiastes has suffered greatly because of the reductionism; but the bulk of the Church’s mistakes on Ecclesiastes are due mostly to silencing. Ask yourself: When was the last time you heard a sermon on Ecclesiastes that wasn’t about Ecclesiastes 3, or Ecclesiastes 12:1ff? That’s right; for the Church, Ecclesiastes is, sadly, a closed book.

I have always been more or less amused when the most preachers and Christian writers try to wrestle with the book. How it is that they manage to explain away its contents? There are several answers.

1. Life stages. One fellow from the Plymouth Brethren camp actually told me this funny theory that I would call the “life stages theory.” According to this line of thought, the special characteristics of the book should be explained by noting that this book corresponds to the “later” stage of the life of King Solomon. That is, the Song of Solomon would correspond to the younger stage; the Book of Proverbs to the maximum height of Solomon’s prestige, power and wisdom; and Ecclesiastes would come as a book of reckoning, written after a deep reflection on the events told in 1 Kings 11. In this way, one could explain the pessimism and cynicism of many verses of the book. Of course, this is pure speculation, and I note it here only due to its novelty value. However, it seems that this is a widely held notion among preachers in my country.

2. Under the sun. This view is maintaned by the Scofield Reference Bible among others (see, for example, the note on Ecclesiastes 9:10), and states that Ecclesiastes reflects the viewpoint of the life “under the sun”, i.e., a life without the trascendent dimensions of existence, or rather, a life without obedience to God. This is often put in contrast to traits deemed consistent with a godly life; you can see often some of the darker musings of Ecclesiastes being contrasted with other statements from the Gospels or the Psalms, or even with Ecclesiastes 12:9-14.

This has the advantage of being based on a study of the text, and of trying to be fair to its message. Furthermore, it has gained widespread acceptance in the evangelical community. However, it fails to treat the book as an unity, and is guilty of imposing a preconceived worldview into it, trying to cast the book into its pious mold. Because of these reasons, this view cannot be considered as adequate.

3. All is meaningless. This school of interpretation is based on two premises: a) an existentialist point of view, that maintains that everything is meaningless, that death is the defining event in the life of a human being (hello, Mr. Heidegger!), and we are responsible for our actions; and b) a disjointed approach to the book that maintains that Ecclesiastes, as we have it in its current canonical form, is the result of the work of several editorial hands that tried to alter in some way the real intent of the original work to make it more palatable to prevalent theological opinion. Thus, we have a book that is totally laden with pessimism, angst, and lack of meaning. Everything else is ignored because it is “editorial.” Some proponents of this line of thoughts are the Roman Catholic scholars Gianfranco Ravasi and José Vílchez.

This line of thought is refreshing in the sense that it does try to make a sincere approach to the darker parts of Ecclesiastes, instead of “explaining away” those passages. However, it tampers with the integrity of the Holy Scriptures, and under the pretense of discerning some ancient editorial work, it puts itself into the role of editor, putting away everything that might not be in line with this particular approach. Therefore, it is also inadequate.

****

Now, how are we going to understand Ecclesiastes? If we are to offer a good understanding of our book, this must be done honestly, without conscious presuppositions, and trying to take into account the nature of Ecclesiastes as a whole, with its light and its darkness.

faith

Quiet Time Guilt

Posted on by Eduardo / 1 Comment

This writing by Greg Johnson really rang a bell with me:

It’s ironic, but the Quiet Time has become the number one cause of defeat among Bible-believing Christians today. At one time or another, nearly every sincere believer feels a deep sense of failure and the accompanying feelings of guilt and shame because he or she has failed to set aside a separate time for Bible study and prayer. This condition is called Quiet Time Guilt. And it’s a condition with many repercussions. The shame of Quiet Time Guilt manifests itself in even deeper inability to fruitfully and joyfully study Scripture. Prayer becomes a dread; Bible study a burden. The Christian suffering from Quiet Time Guilt then despairs of seeing God work in his or her life, until finally he or she simply gives up. He may continue outward and public Christian commitments like church attendance, but secretly he feels a hypocrite. What is the root of Quiet Time Guilt?

[…]

The problem was heresy. Any heresy wounds the soul.

This is a great reading, although I found it rather lacking in the area of theology of prayer. You will have to fill the gaps, but this is a timely article, and thoroughly recommended.

Hat tip: Andrew from Puritas.

faith/Philosophy

On The Interpretation of Ecclesiastes: The Value of the Old Testament in the Christian Church

Posted on by Eduardo / 0 Comment

This is the beginning of a series on my favorite book of the Bible: Ecclesiastes. I plan to write later about the reasons why Ecclesiastes is such a favorite of mine, and why I am writing about it. However, I would like to begin with some consideration on its interpretation that will put forth my assumptions that rule my undertaking. The following is a very brief summary; I intend to post a longer article later.

Any question on the interpretation of Ecclesiastes should start from the larger question of how should we interpret the Old Testament. Ecclesiastes is one of the Wisdom books, and as such has special requirements and characteristics, but it also shares some common traits with other Old Testament books.

This task is problematic because of the Church’s history of Old Testament interpretation. OT interpretation suffers from two vices, one scholarly and other popular.

1. The scholarly vice is that of reductionism. Some fellow decides that he would like to write a theology of the Old Testament, and then he feels that he must have a theme. He devises a theme that fits well or not so well with the whole corpus of the Old Testament, and then he goes on to shoehorn every piece of the Hebrew Bible into it at any price. The result is that we get a very distorted view of the Old Testament in general and Ecclesiastes in particular. Notorious culprits in this area are Eichrodt, who saw everything in terms of the covenant; Von Rad, who saw everything in terms of the different oral traditions; and we’d better not mention Noth and others.

2. The popular vice is that of silencing. The church leaders are not well trained to preach from the Old Testament, so they claim that the the Old Testament “is difficult”; and somehow, this view is transmitted to the pews. Thus, one can see people that is actually afraid (!) of reading whole portions of the Bible and, when they venture into it, they do so with the preconceived notion that they are dealing with some mysterious, esoteric book full of arcana that only the “illuminati” can understand. Related to this is the attitude seen in so many preachers when they approach an Old Testament text. They apologize for the text, as if it were a relic from more uncivilized times. They claim that they find it difficult to deal with all the blood, slaughter, sex and violence in it.

This “popular” vice is so outrageous that it should be picked up by the bollocks detector of anyone. First of all, Old Testament isn’t hard to understand at all. Despite all the literary style put forth by the different human authors, and the special peculiarities offered by Hebrew poetry, the language of the Old Testament is the language of the people, frank, straight, and to the point. There is usually no point of contact with weird,
elaborate cosmologies and (neo)-Platonic sophistry as you can see in the Pauline epistles, for example. The fact is that the Old Testament is, in many cases, very approachable, and it is an easier read than some Epistles.

This state of things calls for a whole re-examination of the role of the Old Testament in Christian worship, doctrine and life. The Apostle Paul said that the whole of the Old Testament (the “Scripture” of 2 Timothy 3:16) is not only inspired, but good. Why are we ignoring the apostolic advice? We need to divest ourselves of hypocrisy and political correctness, and for once start talking plainly about matters of life, death, violence, corruption, sex, politics, war, hatred, love, man, and God. If we do so, we will not only be better Christians; we will be able to address forcefully our culture and all its blemishes with God’s power.

And finally, we must remember: the occurrence and authority of special revelation demands the correct apprehension of every source of it. Sola Scriptura has Tota Scriptura as a presupposition. Ignoring the Old Testament falls short of it.

General

Ed Hurst: Wordless Longings

Posted on by Eduardo / 0 Comment

My brother and namesake Rev. Ed Hurst has the rare gift of writing with Biblical wisdom, clarity, sensitivity and uncompromising force. I regard him as a modern-day Ecclesiastes because he will say things as they are.

In Wordless Longings he is no different. Here is a piece with a very insightful look into the real reasons behind most sexual misconduct. Worth reading.

General

A Hidden Tax on Foreigners

Posted on by Eduardo / 6 Comments

This is a pet peeve of mine and I am going to rant against it. Please bear with me. I hate tipping. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I hate it. My dislike, however, is not due to stinginess or me being a miser. I hate tipping because too often it becomes a hidden tax on foreigners.

I don’t have anything against people that can expect to be tipped in an almost universal way: bellboys, waiters, and similar others. And I do believe in fair and even generous tipping to people; because people that expect to be tipped in their local business system usually do a very hard work to please you. Besides this, however, there are some very annoying circumstances in the world of tipping:

1. First of all, the kinds of people that expect to be tipped varies from country to country. In some countries you tip the pizza delivery boy; in others, you tip the cab driver. And in others, you tip the barber. If you are new to the place, how in the earth can you tell someone is to be tipped? Tough life, man.

2. Second, there is no sign that says “I should be tipped. Feel free to add x% to the amount of the transaction” with those people. Thus, they quote you a price, you pay it, and you feel that that’s the end of it… But no. And if you walk out right away thinking you have done what was expected of you, you will appear to those people as a jerk.

3. Third, when “tippable” people do not receive a tip, they try to communicate that fact to you by every indirect mean. They will use glances, gestures, double-entendres, whatever… everything but the straight talk that says “Sir, I am sorry if you are not aware of this, but I expect to be tipped.” I am a male human being, naturally resistant to double-entendres and side glances, and it seems that I also belong to some strain that is even more resistant than others (just ask my wife ;-)), and I resent that such an important fact should be communicated in such an indirect way. Ask and ye shall receive!

So, the gist of the matter is this: when you are a newcomer to some place, you are bound to trip into this hidden barrier. You are guaranteed to step on someone’s toes because in some way or another you will not tip to anyone who is expecting it according to local customs. You, as a foreigner, must pay a hidden tax: appear as a jerk and then make the necessary efforts to repair the misunderstanding.

How could we fix this?

blogs

Spammed (again…)

Posted on by Eduardo / 1 Comment

The frequency and volume of spamming directed towards this blog has increased enormously over the last week. I had to alter several parameters of my setup in order to deal with those lowlifes peddling their wares in such a despicable way.

One of such measures is the adoption of a comment blacklist. Until now, every new commenter and every suspicious post was directed to the moderation qeue. But from now on, the presence of certain words (related mostly to certain medications, card games, and similar stuff) will cause a post to disappear in the digital limbo with absolutely no trace of its existence. This blacklist will be added to my current moderation policy, so you are warned NOT to use those words to make a comment here. 😉

General

A Primer on Hispanic Names

Posted on by Eduardo / 8 Comments

This is a short post aimed at helping my English-speaking readers on how to correctly parse and distinguish Hispanic names. Given the facts of an increasingly globalized culture where many naming schemes are employed, it is convenient to avoid any embarrassment due to misunderstanding in the naming schemes used.

1. For starters, I assume that the English name is structured in the following way:

First Middle Second, where the bold ones are mandatory and the middle name is optional. Thus, a name such as John Fitzgerald Kennedy could be rendered in these ways:

John Kenneddy
John Fitzgerald Kenneddy
John F. Kenneddy.

2. Now, Hispanic names are completely different. Let’s assume we have a complete Hispanic name below, as in a passport or application requiring the full name of the person:

Pedro Javier Martínez Ramos

So, the proper way to render it in two words would be Pedro Ramos, right? Wrong!. The proper scheme for a Hispanic name is:

Name_1 | Name_2 … Name_N Last1 Last2

That’s it. Thus:

3. Hispanics have one or more first names, and they can use any of them; for public usage, they pick the one it suits them best. In our example, the Hispanic fellow has two first names: Pedro and Javier. He could use Pedro, or Javier, depending on his liking or other practical reasons.

4. Hispanics do not have middle names. Funny, isn’t it? For most of us, middle names are like temperatures in Farenheit and fluid ounces: weird things Americans insist on using ;-).

5. There should be at least one last name, and at the best, two. In the case of our example, there are two last names: Martínez and Ramos.The first one (Martínez) is the paternal last name, the name of the family. It is inherited by the father, and it is written in first among last names.

6. The second last name (Ramos) is the mother’s maiden last name. It does not inherit, and when it is written, is written last.

So, in our example, we could say that Mr. Martínez married Miss Ramos, and the child they had was given the first names of Pedro and Javier. The offspring of Mr. Pedro Javier Martínez Ramos would carry the last name Martínez, along with the maiden name of Mr. Martinez Ramos’s wife.

7. Therefore, Mr. Pedro Javier Martínez Ramos could use these names:

Pedro Martínez
Pedro Javier Martínez
Pedro J. Martínez
Javier Martínez
P. Javier Martínez
Pedro Martínez R.
Pedro Javier Martínez Ramos

… well, you get the idea.

8. Women’s married names are a special case. Let’s assume that a lady that goes by the name:

Laura Concepción Espinosa Rodríguez

… gets married to Pedro Martínez. In that case, the laddy appends “de [husband ‘s last name]” (English: “of [husband ‘s last name]”), in this way:

Laura Concepción Espinosa Rodríguez de Martínez

… and her last name would be, not Espinosa nor Rodríguez, but Martínez, and she could be called as:

Mrs. (Señora/Sra.) de Martínez
Laura de Martínez
Laura Espinosa de Martínez

… etc. However, this usage tends to disappear slowly because laws no longer require it, and women are reluctant to change their names just to indicate that they are someone’s possesion (as indicated by the “de” particle).

9. Then, let’s say that Laura and Pedro have a kid named Juan Carlos. The complete name for him would be:

Juan Carlos Martínez Espinosa

10. The presence of two last names might be seen as cumbersome; but it is important. Having two last names shows that both of your parents recognized you as a child. This would be business as usual in a normal marriage, but when pregnancies out of wedlock are rampant (as is the case with Paraguay, my country), the father usually is absent to the point that he does not recognize the child. Such children have only one last name: their mother’s.

Well, I hope that this could be of help at the time of sorting out those weird looking Hispanic names 🙂