{"id":5964,"date":"2015-10-08T21:25:06","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T04:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5964"},"modified":"2015-10-08T21:25:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T04:25:06","slug":"why-cant-we-be-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/why-cant-we-be-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Can’t We Be Friends?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"be<\/a><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Can\u2019t We Be Friends\u201d, the funk\/reggae song of the early 1970\u2019s asks a question that begs to challenge the notion of social geographies.\u00a0 The song was played in space in 1975 when Soviet Cosmonauts and United States Astronauts were completing a joint space mission.\u00a0 Whether it is Russia to the US or male to female or black to white; there seems to be a contextualization of people.\u00a0 Social Geographies, Space and Society <\/em>by Gill Valentine is an interesting dialogue in the human ability to cluster or live in geographical frameworks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Valentine presents a theory that humans congregate within eight special scales (body, home, community, institutions, the street, the city, rural, and nation) that are predicted and imposed by the culture.\u00a0 One example given is the role of females in the home or workplace are seemingly constructs from structural designs of a home to their monthly period and ability to be pregnant that restrain them from being equal to men.\u00a0 Valentine is not afraid to address gender modification, tattoos, body building for men and women, urination in public, surveillance, and nationalism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

The analysis that is presented in Social Geographies<\/em> is challenging to a Judeo-Christian ethic and worldview.\u00a0 To state that, \u201cSocial categories (such as class, gender, sexuality, and race) are no longer taken for granted as given or fixed but rather understood to be socially constructed\u201d (Valentine, pg. 3), is diametrically opposed to original origin and God determination.\u00a0 This type of rhetoric is what devalues an eternal God and allows the construct of society to be \u201csocially constructed\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This challenges the fabric of creation by allowing culture and social construct to be the determinate versus God\u2019s purpose and plan.\u00a0 Valentine\u2019s view of gay\/lesbian relationships, black versus white, and the role of male versus female seems to be tainted with an idealism that societal geographies are fixed.\u00a0 As Valentine states, \u201csocial differences were understood in terms of spatial separation\u2026space was conceptualized as an objective physical surface with specific characteristics upon which social identities and categories were mapped out.\u201d (Valentine, pg. 2-3) Valentine mentions Descartes dualistic concept of mind and body, with a slight mention of the soul, yet the thought of the soul of man seems to be remiss throughout the book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The buzz word in churches today is community.\u00a0 If I were to buy in to Valentine’s thought process it would seem that community would be much different than the biblical community that we see in Scripture.\u00a0 In Acts and Revelation, we hear of nations, tribes, and various tongues that are engaged. \u00a0The Pauline writings imply that there is no difference between male and female, Jew or Greek, and slave and free (Galatians 3:28). \u00a0To think that the habitation of the local church and heaven will be social categorized is quite a leap of heresy in my mind. \u00a0The heart of a healthy church is to be inclusive regardless of socially imposed distance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the other hand, Valentine outlines what he references as a \u201cfully realized community\u201d. (Valentine, pg. 111) A \u201cfully realized community\u201d would be one with historicity, identity, mutuality, plurality, autonomy, and integration. (Valentine, pgs. 111-112) Valentine fleshes out the research of Robert Parks, John Carter, and Trevor Jones in a manner that possibly community is achievable if there are shared values and concepts.\u00a0 Whether it is the rural countryside simpleton or the educated city dweller, there seems to be a compelling force to likeness in the face of extreme diversity. \u00a0I am not opposed to the notion that we can lean to certain clans or groups. \u00a0In the end there needs to be caution to allow chasms and divisions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I beg to differ with much of the studies that are mentioned.\u00a0 There are valuable nuggets that can be gleaned on the nature of what draws us and what separates us.\u00a0 In the end I still want to break out in \u201cWhy Can\u2019t We Be Friends?\u201d, no matter the spatial or defined geographies that may divide us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction \u201cWhy Can\u2019t We Be Friends\u201d, the funk\/reggae song of the early 1970\u2019s asks a question that begs to challenge the notion of social geographies.\u00a0 The song was played in space in 1975 when Soviet Cosmonauts and United States Astronauts were completing a joint space mission.\u00a0 Whether it is Russia to the US or male […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[691,638],"class_list":["post-5964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-friends","tag-valentine","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5966,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5964\/revisions\/5966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}