Open Blogging
It’s all yours today… here’s my only thought for the weekend.
“The line between good and evil does not lie between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ between the West and the rest, between Left and Right, between rich and poor.
That fateful line runs down the middle of each of us, every human society, every individual.
This is not to say that all humans, and all societies, are equally good or bad; far from it.
Merely that we are all infected and that all easy attempts to see the problem in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’ are fatally flawed.”
~N. T. Wright, from Surprised by Scripture
Last night I resolved that starting today I was going “list free.” Yes, that’s right, no more lists, cold turkey. My house would officially be designated a “no list zone.”
This morning started out great, I felt like a free man; no more list guilt. Everything was going perfect, that is until my wife came downstairs for breakfast and handed me my weekend honey-do list. I said: “Honey, did I forgot to mention that starting today, I’ve gone “list free.” That’s right; I’m not using lists anymore. I learned earlier this week, courtesy of my friends at PheonixPreacher, that we should free ourselves from lists; that lists are the handiwork of the devil to make us feel guilty. So, I’m not using them anymore and I feel better already. Please join me in this new freedom. The Spirit will let us know when we need to do something.”
Well, at this point I could see my wife’s lips pursing (and, no, not for a kiss). Then, she got all legalistic on me, telling me about how things will never get done if we wait until we feel like it. I asked her, “Can we at least try fasting from lists for a few weeks, kind of like a Lenten fast, to see how it works?” My wife replied, rather sarcastically, that if my honey-do list didn’t get done, then she was going to fast from doing the laundry and cooking dinner.
So, alas, my freedom from lists was short lived. It felt great while it lasted. But, I really like clean laundry and, of course, I can’t live without my wife’s great cooking. I better conclude the post; my honey do list is calling. 🙂
I hope this works as it’s from FB. It should be required viewing for all who participate here!!
https://www.facebook.com/allan.adams.75/posts/10204514713294871?notif_t=like
Jean, she sounds like my wife…good woman!!
Thanks JimB. I thought I would do a little experiment to see if humor works on this blog. The jury is still out, but I hope I put at least a few smiles on folks’ faces this beautify morning.
Michael, thank you for “introducing me” to NT Wright. He causes me to think and look at God’s word from a fresh perspective. It’s good. Bless you, my friend.
Jean, I am glad you have joined the ranks of the PhxPeeps.
Read this article last night. Bet you did not know how feminist friendly polygamy is.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/04/legalize_polygamy_marriage_equality_for_all.html?utm_content=buffer1fe96&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
I found this quote interesting from it:
BTW, this article is not a joke either.
Derek, when I think about polygamy and what it might mean for me, I’m reminded of Harry Mudd from the original Star Trek and how he was left with 500 copies of his shrewish wife Stella. That would be my luck. 🙂
That whole article is just the most bizarre thing I have read this week.
Nonnie.
I love to share good stuff with my friends… 🙂
I saw that NT Wright quote on Ps40’s Fb page this week. Totally speaks to the small mindedness of my fallen nature. I’m seeking the grace to be more ‘gray’ when needed, more black and white when truly needed. It’s getting so confusing these days… I understand how people become hermits.
I love lists. I make one every day…. then, usually lose it. When I do follow it, I find great satisfaction in crossing off the various items. The list is for me. If my Honey wants a list, he’ll have to make it himself. We both do our fair share in keeping the home. After over 28 years of being the ‘designated blamee’ in our previous marriages, we’re both astonishingly meek and agreeable now. Best marriage ever.
I find this beautifully refreshing http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2011/10/why-it%E2%80%99s-good-to-doubt-god/
Here’s a question. When (not if) polygamy is licensed by the state in the USA, will A) The mainstream Mormons go back to it publicly and B) Will there be Christian churches, as there are with homosexual marriage, participating too.
I believe it is legally inevitable for one simple reason – bisexuality. To my knowledge, bisexuality has an equal status with homosexuality in every single anti-discrimination law except marriage. Nobody speaks of just homosexuals without including the “B” in the LGB community.
How can bisexuals be protected legally from discrimination in our laws and yet be told they have to pick either a man or a woman to marry, as they can’t marry both – even though they love both. That is marriage discrimination and not marriage equality (so the argument will go)
There already is a lot of rumblings for polyamorous marriage (one marriage unit with more than 2 people) so maybe that will be the legal answer instead of polygamy (multiple marriage units for the same person(s))
Steve, I never thought of it that way, but your argument is disturbingly plausible.
America is like a denying alcoholic. Perhaps we need to hit rock bottom – disgust even ourselves and then let the pendulum swing the other way.
I think that if polygamy is made legal it won’t take long for the Mormons to start practicing again.
It is sort of part and parcel of their afterlife theology.
It goes hand in hand with their afterlife inequality of men and women.
The men can become gods and the women are forever their concubines to give birth to the spirit populations of the worlds they will be in charge of.
And yes, definitely think this is the next step past homosexual marriage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OGvZoIrXpg&feature=share
Finally, a WWII movie about tankers!
It does my 19K MOS soul good.
Derek,
My son is a tank commander at Fort Hood. They are an endangered species. The movie appears to be one I’d like to see, though Brad Pitt in a tank and not the leader of the Jewish Freedom Fighters in IB is going to be an adjustment. 😉
Here’s another one to put next to Derek’s polygamy article.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118451/what-transgender-tipping-point-really-means
If you don’t want to read the article, I pick just one paragraph to note once more the strategy…claim victim status and villify those who disagree. Because if we believe in man or woman at birth we really want to beat up or imprison the other side, and if we refuse to accept the new normal then we just want to shout down the opposition.
——————————————————–
It is increasingly clear that gender is not a binary. Unfortunately, we’re living in society which has organized itself for centuries on the principle that it is, and that everyone who disagrees should be shouted down, beaten up or locked away.
Jean,
You were everybit as good as Larry David/Seinfeld
The transgender thing is far more dangerous than any of these other things.
The way some of their parents are “letting” their pre-teen children choose gender is plain and simple child abuse.
They are treating their children like experiments and really choosing their choices for them.
It is hideous and will mess these children up for life.
Wish I had the article link, but can’t find it right now.
Found it.
http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/06/03/this-poor-child-is-confused-not-transgendered/
He uses the same hope as MLD in #15 in the first paragraph.
Here is the paragraph that stood out to me:
Speaking of reality, because I care and because this thread is Open Blogging:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/26/alcohol-deaths-states-us_n_5532034.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing11%7Cdl5%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D494195
Note: Moderate Drinking = 1-2 per day. The maximum drinks per week does not mean at one time, nor does it mean that one drink does not impair a person judgment and vision, for it does–check out the stats on this for highway fatalities. Stay off the road if you are going to drink.
Reminds of the trip I once took as an young adult to see my folks in Canada. One evening, during dinner time, they had a guest visitor, a gentleman who lived own the farmland next to them about 5 miles down the road. Don’t know exactly how the topic came up, but it had to do with drinking and driving and how after every wedding, the men would go out and deliberately have a free for all, knock down with one another, while being as drunk as can be. Well, some term was used that I didn’t understand at that time. And the story of this gentleman unfolded. He had been castrated, as a result of drinking and driving—his combine tractor, of all things. What was even more startling was that this was not an uncommon occurrence among the men-folks, that is, if they were fortunate not to lose their lives altogether. What would happened, they would hit a hole or a rock that would jar them right off the tractor, laying them down under the tractor combine. The blade would sweep over them, and with one swift swipe, relieve them of their manly treasure. Those that survive, this gentleman claimed had the wherewithal to roll away in the opposite direction that the tractor was going in, as it was still in gear and moving.
On our highway, streets, and roads, we simply don’t have the right to put the lives of other at risk—no matter how well we think we can handle our drinking. The fact is, as soon as we have one drink, reality becomes distorted and we make decisions accordingly.
Anyone who takes an offense from what I have shared have every right to do so, however, it still doesn’t change the facts. As I stated, I share because I care—-do you?
Big day at the church today. I attended 2 services to be installed as the congregation president, taught my Bible class in the Book of Danie between the 2 services.
This afternoon we had our 4th of July celebration and sang patriotic songs – it’s funny that many when you read the words are almost Christian hymns. Our Bells group played each song first, and then we sang it. The pastor read Casey at the Bat (he still struck out) and we even sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
We sang the 4 service songs and this was the first time in 40 yrs I stood up to be recognized for my military service (I must be getting over it). We finished off with one of our ladies playing Taps on her trumpet.
After, we gathered for the church picnic – burp – I ate too much.
Good times.
Oh, and the Dodgers tied the Giants for 1st place this afternoon 🙂
Michael, the quote from Wright is quite similar I believe to something the great Russian writer Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (a shrewd observer of the human condition) said in The Gulag Archipelago:
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
Logos Bible Software (I have the free version) is offering for the month of July for free the book, The Righteousness of Faith According to Luther, by Hans J. Iwand, Virgil F. Thompson and Randi H. Lundell (Jun 1, 2008). In addition, for an additional $0.99, Logos is offering, Being Shaped by Freedom: An Examination of Luther’s Development of Christian Liberty.
The the books look interesting. Has anyone read either one? Oddly enough, the first book has MLD’s mug on the cover. Wonder how they got that? 🙂