Why I Love Gideon

The Bible Gideon is darn cool, but the one I'm talking about more is the one from the Book of Mormon.

This is why he was cool: he stood up to King Noah. He saw wickedness, and he did something about it (most likely because his conscience was getting to him over how Abinadi ended up) in a very concrete way: he went after it with a sword. Then he was (very properly) distracted by concern for his people. Then he was politic and sensitive to Limhi's feelings as he was directing him to NOT search among his own people for the daughters of the Lamanites, and then later on when he was suggesting a way to escape from the Lamanites.

When he was very old, he stood up to Nehor, and that is how he was killed: from Nehor's sword. A city was named after him. This city proved to be more righteous than its neighbors not only on Alma's missionary journey which is the one everyone remembers in Alma 7, but during the great war, it was the city in which Pahoran was able to gather his freemen.

Gideon is amazing. I wish that I were more gutsy-- more like him. I don't think that being gutsy means that you have to be offensive (though some people are determined to be offended, and there isn't much you can do about that). It means being intelligent and kind in how you state your views, so that others aren't taken by surprise when they figure out what you really do think.

Aquinas? I liked reading his stuff in my Ancient/Medieval Philosophy class. He seemed to understand that you can't just say "my was is right, and you just have to accept that." His arguments were well-reasoned and acknowledged that there was logic on the other guy's side. If I'm wrong-- I really haven't done any extensive reading of Thomas Aquinas-- then I apologize. I probably won't change the name of the blog, though. I like the way it rolls off the tongue.