joining with the PhxP peeps here as i know all are praying for the terrible test that the earthquakes are giving folk south of the border… some events on the planet are beyond sorrow – God make Yourself and Your promises real to us all…
One positive about the Phx code of conduct is that you have the power to enforce it. I too have a code of conduct for my 7th grade social studies classes. It is required to have these norms posted in the classroom for all to see. However, there is no power of enforcement, and the students know it.
This is my 23rd year of full-time teaching, and while it has never been easy (I never expected it to be), I’ve honestly never encountered the level of disrespect that I’m dealing with this year. Sending kids to another room to write a “reflection,” recess detention, calling parents, sending kids to the office, etc. have absolutely no effect whatsoever.
The state education code says that no one has the right to disrupt or prevent a teacher from teaching and/or a student from learning. That, being translated, used to mean, remove them and do not allow them back. Now, because we need every kid’s test score and the money for their attendance, removal is only an option if offenses include weapons, drugs or violence.
Every day, I pray for wisdom, compassion, peace and breakthrough. I’ve never been one to just quit, but honestly, I’ve considered it more than a few times this year. When I come within a fraction of a second from back-handing a kid across the room or taking a kid down with his face to the floor, I have to wonder if I can continue. It is weighing heavily on my mind and my body, neither of which are in their healthiest states right now anyway.
I’m glad you ranted.
I heard the exact same sort of rant from one of the local sheriffs the other day about this generation of young people.
It breaks my heart.
Here, we had people who would not write for us or even comment here because they did not trust that this was a safe place for the exchange of ideas.
That had to end…and as long as I do have the ability to enforce things, I must.
It costs too much to do otherwise.
I’m with you on the level of disrespect. Our oldest (although she’s been out of high school for 2 years now), still mentions how shocked she was at some of her classmates. She would tell us about how some of them treated police officers, principals, etc…
My opinion is, it has to start at home. Used to be, when a kid got in trouble at school, the parents were the first ones to deal with their child’s attitude, and would actually apologize to the teacher. When did we move from that, to “don’t discipline my kid! He’s innocent!” ?
Oh, and don’t get me started on school bus rides, either……I could tell you stories.
Captain K, i used to think that i missed my calling because i love those obnoxious 12 – 14 year olds… it was their 2nd chance to receive affirmation and self respect if their grammar school experience hadn’t gone well for them…
you who teach and do it well, you are a hero of mine – good teachers stood between chaos and civilization… (not those who just show up and practice manipulation skills learned in college at the expense of the student – IMHO)
i don’t know what you all can do now, nor how you manage to hang in there – it may not be those ‘end times’ that jerk some chains around here, but today’s atmosphere certainly gives us a visual of what that day will look like… on the other hand, maybe we are in the end times, we just don’t know how far into them we are, eh?
2Ti 3:1 and following:
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
For among them are those who creep into households and capture *weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,
always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.”
*that what the Word says, but not all of us are “weak” … IMNSHO
may God bless and keep the Captain and all teachers of his ilk
I don’t have kids, but I will chime in on this. A coworker’s church recently had a church split. Sad situation-all because a teacher at the churches school had the stones to rightly discipline a misbehaving student! The students grandpa couldn’t believe his grandson would act up. BTW the grandpa was a big donor at the church. This factor and a bunch of other “dynamics” led to the split and the pastors ouster.
Quick question: who needs a timeout here…the student or the adults?
“In Christian living – in seeking to put off the old self and put on the renewed self [cit. omit.] – the individual Christian certainly applies the Word of God to himself or herself and therefore tries to distinguish Law and Gospel. One rejoices in the Gospel’s forgiveness as he repents. Another aches over how God’s Law identifies her sins and failures.
Each of us personally seeks to apply Law and Gospel whether consciously or unconsciously. Yet danger lies close to hand. It may work something like this. A man’s conscience accuses him of sin and he feels guilty. However, because he knows that Christ died for the sins of the world, he tells himself not to worry and he ‘forgives himself.’ It is all quite neat and easy. Guilt’s resolution comes by means of self-assurance under a Law-Gospel veneer.
Or, perhaps it takes a different direction. A woman’s conscience accuses her of sin and she feels guilty. She knows that Christ died for the sins of the world, but she also knows that she needs to repent and because the sin persists, she wonders if she is fully repentant. Her conscience provides no clear assurance. A personalistic approach to Law-Gospel fails her in her need.
The danger on the one hand is that one becomes a David without a Nathan – comfortable and secure in oneself [cit. omit.]. Like David no sinner is equipped to recognize the depth of his sin without the aid of a Word that comes from outside us. Each of us is instead the hapless man who approves his hair with a check in the restroom mirror, only to march forth unaware of the toilet paper stuck to his backside. The Law is indeed a mirror, but sinners need a Nathan to reflect the Law’s illumination in the places we are unable (or unwilling) to see. After all, a central weapon in sin’s arsenal is self-deception. ‘Not the least of errors which have entered the world because of sin is the fact that we sin and want to sin and yet do not want to acknowledge or bear the guilt of our sin’ [Martin Chemnitz].
The danger on the other hand is that one becomes a Cephas without Jesus to restore us to confidence in His grace and mercy [cit. omit.]. Faith is not a psychological gimmick or an act of self-therapy for convincing myself that ‘I’m still okay.’ Faith come by hearing a voice other than my own – the voice of Christ – declaring forgiveness and grace.”
Larry M. Vogel, “Law and Gospel in the Christian Life, The Necessary Distinction: A continuing Conversation on Law & Gospel, p.95-96.
Contrasting Jean’s good words with the Captain’s lament … thinking…
How do we civilize a generation that is absorbed in self righteous displacement of accountability? Even if there is an acknowledgement of a “Supreme Being” that concession is for the purpose of assigning blame… or so it seems to me today…I
If Jonah showed up today, he’d be considered a danger to self esteem
It is my opinion that today’s postmodern apathy and narcissism cannot last forever. Something will happen, I don’t know what it will be, but something will happen. Either the West will fall or there will be an incurable plague or there will be nuclear war with fallout or the seas will rise or some other tragedy will force the population to wake up. It will happen but I do not think it will be pleasant.
Em,
Your last comment could also be speaking of my baby boomer generation – word by descriptive word. I remember my mom complaint about me and my friends and how we were going to flush civilization down the toilet.
#19 – Xenia, your words are frightening, not because you’re being alarmist, but because simple logic tells us that we’re on a destructive path – I think both God’s Word and history back up what you’ve focused on… that said, I pray for God the Holy Spirit to. move us –
our beautiful nation – to repentance
#20 – then along came Chuck Smith and the foolishness of preaching … before him came Billy G and before him Billy S…
and I suspect that it was men (and women) like my grandfather on their knees pleading for their children that moved God to continue to show us grace and mercy…
who prays for the obnoxious children of today?
“It is my opinion that today’s postmodern apathy and narcissism cannot last forever. Something will happen, I don’t know what it will be, but something will happen.”
Xenia, I have to agree. I believe something will happen, I don’t claim to know what that will be. But perhaps it will be His return….
John 20 – prayer often feels like the only defense left in regards to our children.
And so, the dangers that exist on both hands you described, for me become a dichotomy – being aware of and receiving the riches of His grace and mercy, while still being deeply aware of my own sinfulness. As you described, it’s all to easy for one to diminish the other.
As someone on the front lines of evangelism on a secular campus, do not lose hope!
We Gen Xers and Baby Boomers birthed and parented these kids, and many of us created and exacerbated the problems.
The 18 year olds we meet, and this is one of the poorest universities, regularly are messes BUT want to know how to get their lives right with Jesus, want to study the Bible and are dying to know how they can live their lives in a successful God honoring way that works–unlike the train wreck of their parents.
We as believers have incredible opportunities here…though not all will listen. Many will.
I will add, despite their character struggles and poverty, this next generation is very willing to reach out to their peers, to help them know Jesus and His life in ways that someone helped them.
Speaking of looming judgement…
Living on the West Coast, NOKO’s bombast doesn’t seem like empty words and, forgive me if I don’t want to participate in the first blow… What we may have forgotten is that the Korean War never ended – it was paused – North Korea still thinks we are at war and has spent the last half century plus preparing to resume the conflict…
I believe Revelation mentions the merchant ships that won’t come near because of the condition of the prosperous trading partner described as Babylon – . I used to think this nation was too vast to.fit the description…
That said, I am a mid tribber, so there’s some hope. ?
I see that we’ve gotten thru the 23rd… or did I miss something?
JTK, good words and true – it’s too easy to focus on the loud naysayers forgive me for being one of them tonight
That said, Lord keep us balanced and focused on You…
Em (29)…working the overnight shift here…was talking with a co-worker this evening about he Korean War and how, like you said, is in a cease-fire…as in not officially over. My co-worker is a military history buff and was filling me in on what was going with Korea and China and Russia between WW2 and the Korean War. And also the mindset of Koreans as he is part Korean and knows something about the culture. Very interesting but also very chilling stuff going on over in North Korea.
Dan from GA., your co-worker must be an interesting person to talk to… did he mention how Gen. MacArthur was fired by President Truman because MacArthur bucked Truman’s order to not pursue the conflict until the communist organization was completely driven out of all of Korea? not a big fan of the general, but i can’t help but wonder which one of those two men was right…
well, time to shut down here and head bedward… may God give us all wisdom and maybe a little history and humility? … sometimes when we think we’re being kind and humble, what we’re really being is proud and stupid … or so it seems to me – dunno
Em (34), are you sure it wasn’t you I was talking to at work tonight? That is what my friend at work mentioned to me…a significant detail about the Korean War I was never aware of…the whole MacArthur deal. Very interesting indeed. One of my uncle’s died in the conflict…at the battle of the Chosin Resevoir. I was wondering why they were so far north into North Korea.
“I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.”
So let’s see a show of hands. Who today will be ‘taking a knee’ — in church? I will be taking a knee in protest against my selfish will, against my ‘old man’ (and I don’t mean my dad) who too often try to speak for me and run my life.
Anyone else?
Michael, if you saw my Facebook a couple of weeks ago, I have no issue with the protests – takes me back to my 60s college days. As I said there, let’s just stop doing the anthem before sporting events.
If sports is no place for politics, perhaps nationalism should be kept off the field also.
Maybe the apocalypse has come…I couldn’t agree with you more.
That tradition has never made any sense to me.
Especially at hockey games when you have to fidget through the American and Canadian anthems…
Everything is becoming politicized now, it seems. The average Joe Blow who just wants to get his mind off of the everyday grind of life by watching a sporting event, doesn’t want to be inundated with this political showmanship, of both sides.
I suspect many are tuning out not because they are taking a stand based on conviction, but more of a being tired of getting manipulated by people in an arena they view as not being the proper venue for it.
Talk about killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
FWIW – MLDs solution @41 makes sense … but it is kind of fun to watch all the team owners, coaches etc.. scramble to avoid their worst nightmare – a player revolt that stops the money from flowing into their pockets … like they say, follow the money, eh?
I refuse to be affected by all the noise.
Every year I “negotiate” with Direct TV under I get Sunday Ticket for free so I can watch my Vikes.
I play fantasy football.
I enjoy the hell out of it.
The CTE issue may end up causing me to drop football, but politics won’t.
This conversation has me tthinking… does anyone know if the tradition of playing The Star Spangled Banner was begun during WW2? More of an acknowledgement of what was a more serious reality – the soldier who at that very moment was dying to preserve “the land of the free” ?
Curious here and a small tangent…what is your reason/history for being a Vikings fan. Me? I grew up in Minnesota and grew up watching the Purple People Eaters…Page, Eller et al.
Oh, and the NFL in general? A co-worker and I spent some time speculating that the NFL may eventually collapse in on itself because of money or the CTE issue.
Now that the divine service and Bible class are completed I can report back on my ‘taking a knee’. Darned if the pastor didn’t tell us all to take a knee(s) for confession. 🙂
Americans don’t begrudge athletes their free-speech rights—see the popularity of Charles Barkley —but disrespecting the national anthem puts partisanship above a symbol of nationhood that thousands have died for. Players who chose to kneel shouldn’t be surprised that fans around the country booed them on Sunday. This is the patriotic sentiment that they are helping Mr. Trump exploit for what he no doubt thinks is his own political advantage.
American democracy was healthier when politics at the ballpark was limited to fans booing politicians who threw out the first ball—almost as a bipartisan obligation. This showed a healthy skepticism toward the political class. But now the players want to be politicians and use their fame to lecture other Americans, the parsons of the press corps want to make them moral spokesmen, and the President wants to run against the players.
The losers are the millions of Americans who would rather cheer for their teams on Sunday as a respite from work and the other divisions of American life.”
Please unsubscribe me from Phoenix Preacher, the links on email alert to unsubscribe do not work & I cannot find anything on PP to unsubscribe. Thank you.
I’m in my 18th year of public school teaching. I’ve been out of middle school teaching for nearly three years. By the time I transferred, I was in deep despair. I know exactly what you are going through.
I’m now at a continuation high school. Although, we deal with the same kinds of kids, but more grown up, we do have a bit more leeway.
I thought I was done two and half years ago, but now, I can continue for a few more years than I anticipated.
“WE TRY SO HARD as Christians. We think such long thoughts, manipulate such long words, and both listen to and preach such long sermons. Each one of us somewhere, somehow, has known, if only for a moment or so, something of what it is to feel the shattering love of God, and once that has happened, we can never rest easy again for trying somehow to set that love forth not only in words, myriads of words, but in our lives themselves. And when, as must always happen, we sometimes give up this trying either because for a moment it seems unreal or because we are tired or bored or because we forget or choose to forget, we cannot even enjoy our moment’s release for the sense of failure that chokes us. This is of course as it should be. Fruitless and destructive as so much of our trying must always be, and tormented as we are by knowing this and by beholding the shallowness and duplicity of our motives, we have scarcely any choice but to go on trying no matter what, and there is much that is beautiful and brave and true about it. Yet we must remember this other word too: “Unless you turn and become like children. . . .”
It’s all yours today…
The Code of Conduct and the Theological Affirmations are on the right side of the blog in the “Pages” category.
#1 – will there be test? 🙂
joining with the PhxP peeps here as i know all are praying for the terrible test that the earthquakes are giving folk south of the border… some events on the planet are beyond sorrow – God make Yourself and Your promises real to us all…
I’m sure someone will test me.. 🙂
Amen to the prayers for our neighbors…
Amen to John 20:29
“I’m sure someone will test me,” said every public school teacher and student…every day…all day…
One positive about the Phx code of conduct is that you have the power to enforce it. I too have a code of conduct for my 7th grade social studies classes. It is required to have these norms posted in the classroom for all to see. However, there is no power of enforcement, and the students know it.
This is my 23rd year of full-time teaching, and while it has never been easy (I never expected it to be), I’ve honestly never encountered the level of disrespect that I’m dealing with this year. Sending kids to another room to write a “reflection,” recess detention, calling parents, sending kids to the office, etc. have absolutely no effect whatsoever.
The state education code says that no one has the right to disrupt or prevent a teacher from teaching and/or a student from learning. That, being translated, used to mean, remove them and do not allow them back. Now, because we need every kid’s test score and the money for their attendance, removal is only an option if offenses include weapons, drugs or violence.
Every day, I pray for wisdom, compassion, peace and breakthrough. I’ve never been one to just quit, but honestly, I’ve considered it more than a few times this year. When I come within a fraction of a second from back-handing a kid across the room or taking a kid down with his face to the floor, I have to wonder if I can continue. It is weighing heavily on my mind and my body, neither of which are in their healthiest states right now anyway.
Sorry for the rant. Carry on…
Hope everyone has a great day! 🙂
CK,
I’m glad you ranted.
I heard the exact same sort of rant from one of the local sheriffs the other day about this generation of young people.
It breaks my heart.
Here, we had people who would not write for us or even comment here because they did not trust that this was a safe place for the exchange of ideas.
That had to end…and as long as I do have the ability to enforce things, I must.
It costs too much to do otherwise.
To you as well, Dusty!
Capt kevin, everyone needs to vent once in a while. I did not think it was a rant. Glad to hear your heart. Praying for you my friend.
Michael, it is good to see you happy!
Kevin,
I’m with you on the level of disrespect. Our oldest (although she’s been out of high school for 2 years now), still mentions how shocked she was at some of her classmates. She would tell us about how some of them treated police officers, principals, etc…
My opinion is, it has to start at home. Used to be, when a kid got in trouble at school, the parents were the first ones to deal with their child’s attitude, and would actually apologize to the teacher. When did we move from that, to “don’t discipline my kid! He’s innocent!” ?
Oh, and don’t get me started on school bus rides, either……I could tell you stories.
Captain K, i used to think that i missed my calling because i love those obnoxious 12 – 14 year olds… it was their 2nd chance to receive affirmation and self respect if their grammar school experience hadn’t gone well for them…
you who teach and do it well, you are a hero of mine – good teachers stood between chaos and civilization… (not those who just show up and practice manipulation skills learned in college at the expense of the student – IMHO)
i don’t know what you all can do now, nor how you manage to hang in there – it may not be those ‘end times’ that jerk some chains around here, but today’s atmosphere certainly gives us a visual of what that day will look like… on the other hand, maybe we are in the end times, we just don’t know how far into them we are, eh?
2Ti 3:1 and following:
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
For among them are those who creep into households and capture *weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,
always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.”
*that what the Word says, but not all of us are “weak” … IMNSHO
may God bless and keep the Captain and all teachers of his ilk
I don’t have kids, but I will chime in on this. A coworker’s church recently had a church split. Sad situation-all because a teacher at the churches school had the stones to rightly discipline a misbehaving student! The students grandpa couldn’t believe his grandson would act up. BTW the grandpa was a big donor at the church. This factor and a bunch of other “dynamics” led to the split and the pastors ouster.
Quick question: who needs a timeout here…the student or the adults?
I will echo em’s comment and thanks…thanks CK and all the awesome teachers out there!
Dan: “Quick question: who needs a timeout here…the student or the adults?”
YES! 🙂
Thanks so much, Dan, Em, Owen, Dusty and Michael.
WHY GO TO CHURCH?
“In Christian living – in seeking to put off the old self and put on the renewed self [cit. omit.] – the individual Christian certainly applies the Word of God to himself or herself and therefore tries to distinguish Law and Gospel. One rejoices in the Gospel’s forgiveness as he repents. Another aches over how God’s Law identifies her sins and failures.
Each of us personally seeks to apply Law and Gospel whether consciously or unconsciously. Yet danger lies close to hand. It may work something like this. A man’s conscience accuses him of sin and he feels guilty. However, because he knows that Christ died for the sins of the world, he tells himself not to worry and he ‘forgives himself.’ It is all quite neat and easy. Guilt’s resolution comes by means of self-assurance under a Law-Gospel veneer.
Or, perhaps it takes a different direction. A woman’s conscience accuses her of sin and she feels guilty. She knows that Christ died for the sins of the world, but she also knows that she needs to repent and because the sin persists, she wonders if she is fully repentant. Her conscience provides no clear assurance. A personalistic approach to Law-Gospel fails her in her need.
The danger on the one hand is that one becomes a David without a Nathan – comfortable and secure in oneself [cit. omit.]. Like David no sinner is equipped to recognize the depth of his sin without the aid of a Word that comes from outside us. Each of us is instead the hapless man who approves his hair with a check in the restroom mirror, only to march forth unaware of the toilet paper stuck to his backside. The Law is indeed a mirror, but sinners need a Nathan to reflect the Law’s illumination in the places we are unable (or unwilling) to see. After all, a central weapon in sin’s arsenal is self-deception. ‘Not the least of errors which have entered the world because of sin is the fact that we sin and want to sin and yet do not want to acknowledge or bear the guilt of our sin’ [Martin Chemnitz].
The danger on the other hand is that one becomes a Cephas without Jesus to restore us to confidence in His grace and mercy [cit. omit.]. Faith is not a psychological gimmick or an act of self-therapy for convincing myself that ‘I’m still okay.’ Faith come by hearing a voice other than my own – the voice of Christ – declaring forgiveness and grace.”
Larry M. Vogel, “Law and Gospel in the Christian Life, The Necessary Distinction: A continuing Conversation on Law & Gospel, p.95-96.
Contrasting Jean’s good words with the Captain’s lament … thinking…
How do we civilize a generation that is absorbed in self righteous displacement of accountability? Even if there is an acknowledgement of a “Supreme Being” that concession is for the purpose of assigning blame… or so it seems to me today…I
If Jonah showed up today, he’d be considered a danger to self esteem
It is my opinion that today’s postmodern apathy and narcissism cannot last forever. Something will happen, I don’t know what it will be, but something will happen. Either the West will fall or there will be an incurable plague or there will be nuclear war with fallout or the seas will rise or some other tragedy will force the population to wake up. It will happen but I do not think it will be pleasant.
Em,
Your last comment could also be speaking of my baby boomer generation – word by descriptive word. I remember my mom complaint about me and my friends and how we were going to flush civilization down the toilet.
#19 – Xenia, your words are frightening, not because you’re being alarmist, but because simple logic tells us that we’re on a destructive path – I think both God’s Word and history back up what you’ve focused on… that said, I pray for God the Holy Spirit to. move us –
our beautiful nation – to repentance
#20 – then along came Chuck Smith and the foolishness of preaching … before him came Billy G and before him Billy S…
and I suspect that it was men (and women) like my grandfather on their knees pleading for their children that moved God to continue to show us grace and mercy…
who prays for the obnoxious children of today?
“It is my opinion that today’s postmodern apathy and narcissism cannot last forever. Something will happen, I don’t know what it will be, but something will happen.”
Xenia, I have to agree. I believe something will happen, I don’t claim to know what that will be. But perhaps it will be His return….
John 20 – prayer often feels like the only defense left in regards to our children.
John 20,
“How do we civilize a generation that is absorbed in self righteous displacement of accountability? ”
Wow. I think you just described one of the hardest things we have tried to teach our own children – to simply be responsible for their own behaviour.
Jean,
And so, the dangers that exist on both hands you described, for me become a dichotomy – being aware of and receiving the riches of His grace and mercy, while still being deeply aware of my own sinfulness. As you described, it’s all to easy for one to diminish the other.
As someone on the front lines of evangelism on a secular campus, do not lose hope!
We Gen Xers and Baby Boomers birthed and parented these kids, and many of us created and exacerbated the problems.
The 18 year olds we meet, and this is one of the poorest universities, regularly are messes BUT want to know how to get their lives right with Jesus, want to study the Bible and are dying to know how they can live their lives in a successful God honoring way that works–unlike the train wreck of their parents.
We as believers have incredible opportunities here…though not all will listen. Many will.
I will add, despite their character struggles and poverty, this next generation is very willing to reach out to their peers, to help them know Jesus and His life in ways that someone helped them.
JTK,
Thank you for the words of encouragement.
Speaking of looming judgement…
Living on the West Coast, NOKO’s bombast doesn’t seem like empty words and, forgive me if I don’t want to participate in the first blow… What we may have forgotten is that the Korean War never ended – it was paused – North Korea still thinks we are at war and has spent the last half century plus preparing to resume the conflict…
I believe Revelation mentions the merchant ships that won’t come near because of the condition of the prosperous trading partner described as Babylon – . I used to think this nation was too vast to.fit the description…
That said, I am a mid tribber, so there’s some hope. ?
I see that we’ve gotten thru the 23rd… or did I miss something?
JTK, good words and true – it’s too easy to focus on the loud naysayers forgive me for being one of them tonight
That said, Lord keep us balanced and focused on You…
Em (29)…you missed nothing…
emphasis on the word “nothing”
Captain Kevin (16 and 17)…ha!
Keep up the great work!
Em (29)…working the overnight shift here…was talking with a co-worker this evening about he Korean War and how, like you said, is in a cease-fire…as in not officially over. My co-worker is a military history buff and was filling me in on what was going with Korea and China and Russia between WW2 and the Korean War. And also the mindset of Koreans as he is part Korean and knows something about the culture. Very interesting but also very chilling stuff going on over in North Korea.
Dan from GA., your co-worker must be an interesting person to talk to… did he mention how Gen. MacArthur was fired by President Truman because MacArthur bucked Truman’s order to not pursue the conflict until the communist organization was completely driven out of all of Korea? not a big fan of the general, but i can’t help but wonder which one of those two men was right…
well, time to shut down here and head bedward… may God give us all wisdom and maybe a little history and humility? … sometimes when we think we’re being kind and humble, what we’re really being is proud and stupid … or so it seems to me – dunno
Em (34), are you sure it wasn’t you I was talking to at work tonight? That is what my friend at work mentioned to me…a significant detail about the Korean War I was never aware of…the whole MacArthur deal. Very interesting indeed. One of my uncle’s died in the conflict…at the battle of the Chosin Resevoir. I was wondering why they were so far north into North Korea.
“I see that we’ve gotten thru the 23rd… or did I miss something?”
Was something supposed to happen on the 23rd?
“I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.”
– Charles Spurgeon, 1834-1892
So let’s see a show of hands. Who today will be ‘taking a knee’ — in church? I will be taking a knee in protest against my selfish will, against my ‘old man’ (and I don’t mean my dad) who too often try to speak for me and run my life.
Anyone else?
MLD,
I’ll be doing the same.
In the meantime, it looks like the entire NFL is going to protest today.
When I was a young person, my Vikings were known for this…
http://www.twincities.com/2016/10/08/bud-grants-vikings-with-their-strict-anthem-formation-have-varied-views-on-colin-kaepernick/
Times have changed…
MLD,
A good reminder. I shall do the same.
Michael, if you saw my Facebook a couple of weeks ago, I have no issue with the protests – takes me back to my 60s college days. As I said there, let’s just stop doing the anthem before sporting events.
If sports is no place for politics, perhaps nationalism should be kept off the field also.
MLD,
Maybe the apocalypse has come…I couldn’t agree with you more.
That tradition has never made any sense to me.
Especially at hockey games when you have to fidget through the American and Canadian anthems…
Everything is becoming politicized now, it seems. The average Joe Blow who just wants to get his mind off of the everyday grind of life by watching a sporting event, doesn’t want to be inundated with this political showmanship, of both sides.
I suspect many are tuning out not because they are taking a stand based on conviction, but more of a being tired of getting manipulated by people in an arena they view as not being the proper venue for it.
Talk about killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
FWIW – MLDs solution @41 makes sense … but it is kind of fun to watch all the team owners, coaches etc.. scramble to avoid their worst nightmare – a player revolt that stops the money from flowing into their pockets … like they say, follow the money, eh?
I refuse to be affected by all the noise.
Every year I “negotiate” with Direct TV under I get Sunday Ticket for free so I can watch my Vikes.
I play fantasy football.
I enjoy the hell out of it.
The CTE issue may end up causing me to drop football, but politics won’t.
This conversation has me tthinking… does anyone know if the tradition of playing The Star Spangled Banner was begun during WW2? More of an acknowledgement of what was a more serious reality – the soldier who at that very moment was dying to preserve “the land of the free” ?
http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/6957582/the-history-national-anthem-sports-espn-magazine
Thank you, Michael…
Michael,
Curious here and a small tangent…what is your reason/history for being a Vikings fan. Me? I grew up in Minnesota and grew up watching the Purple People Eaters…Page, Eller et al.
Oh, and the NFL in general? A co-worker and I spent some time speculating that the NFL may eventually collapse in on itself because of money or the CTE issue.
Respect is something that is earned. Compliance can to a certain extent be coerced, but not respect.
Definition of “respect:”
a: high or special regard: esteem
b: the quality or state of being esteemed
Now that the divine service and Bible class are completed I can report back on my ‘taking a knee’. Darned if the pastor didn’t tell us all to take a knee(s) for confession. 🙂
MLD…LOL!
Trekkie Alert!
New Series Pilot begins in 5 minutes on CBS.
This is what I was trying to say earlier. This is from a WSJ editorial today. I’ll share 3 paragraphs.
”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-politicization-of-everything-1506291118
Americans don’t begrudge athletes their free-speech rights—see the popularity of Charles Barkley —but disrespecting the national anthem puts partisanship above a symbol of nationhood that thousands have died for. Players who chose to kneel shouldn’t be surprised that fans around the country booed them on Sunday. This is the patriotic sentiment that they are helping Mr. Trump exploit for what he no doubt thinks is his own political advantage.
American democracy was healthier when politics at the ballpark was limited to fans booing politicians who threw out the first ball—almost as a bipartisan obligation. This showed a healthy skepticism toward the political class. But now the players want to be politicians and use their fame to lecture other Americans, the parsons of the press corps want to make them moral spokesmen, and the President wants to run against the players.
The losers are the millions of Americans who would rather cheer for their teams on Sunday as a respite from work and the other divisions of American life.”
I cheered my Vikings on without any problem.
This country is based on the right to protest…I only protested a couple referee’s calls.
I’m with MLD…save the anthem for special occasions… it’s always been my last bathroom break before the game starts.
#54 on the West coast it’s still an hour off and its bookmarked (but not for me. ? )…
Dan,
When I was a little boy I saw some film of Tarkenton and that was that…50 plus years later I’m still a Viking fan and still wear #10…
I amen the WSJ snippet… after all, one can’t kneel and pray on the field, can one? it’s a time and place thing. IMHO
Ahhh..Tarkenton! I was really young during his tenure, and even then I remember his scrambles!
Please unsubscribe me from Phoenix Preacher, the links on email alert to unsubscribe do not work & I cannot find anything on PP to unsubscribe. Thank you.
I’m in my 18th year of public school teaching. I’ve been out of middle school teaching for nearly three years. By the time I transferred, I was in deep despair. I know exactly what you are going through.
I’m now at a continuation high school. Although, we deal with the same kinds of kids, but more grown up, we do have a bit more leeway.
I thought I was done two and half years ago, but now, I can continue for a few more years than I anticipated.
“WE TRY SO HARD as Christians. We think such long thoughts, manipulate such long words, and both listen to and preach such long sermons. Each one of us somewhere, somehow, has known, if only for a moment or so, something of what it is to feel the shattering love of God, and once that has happened, we can never rest easy again for trying somehow to set that love forth not only in words, myriads of words, but in our lives themselves. And when, as must always happen, we sometimes give up this trying either because for a moment it seems unreal or because we are tired or bored or because we forget or choose to forget, we cannot even enjoy our moment’s release for the sense of failure that chokes us. This is of course as it should be. Fruitless and destructive as so much of our trying must always be, and tormented as we are by knowing this and by beholding the shallowness and duplicity of our motives, we have scarcely any choice but to go on trying no matter what, and there is much that is beautiful and brave and true about it. Yet we must remember this other word too: “Unless you turn and become like children. . . .”
-Buechner
#61 – I didn’t know one could subscribe. ?