Things I Think…
1. My apologies for my absence…fighting through another bout with kidney stones…
2. The #metoo social media tag for women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted has the potential to turn some big churches inside out…
3. While I have no stomach for constant self promotion,perhaps it’s time the church reminded everyone who the first people who show up for disaster relief are…this would be a real counter balance to simply being identified as a partisan political group…
4. While I have no stomach for constant self promotion, it’s the only way to sell books these days. It still makes me sick to watch it, let alone participate in it. This was my epiphany when I was struggling for reasons why I can’t finish a book I’m writing…I fear being the dog in another dog and pony show…
5. On the other hand, maybe the church doesn’t really need my book…or I want everyone else to promote me, for me…
6. The #metoo campaign is pointless if names aren’t named…but the names can often bear the sword…
7. Kay Warren tweeted #metoo…Kay Warren is a national treasure in my book…
8. The fabric of the church is torn whenever we convince another godly servant that anonymity is a problem to be overcome…
9. Sometimes I wonder how long it will be until churches are named after the pastor like restaurants are named after chefs…
10. Revival almost always comes from groups on the margins and it comes when it seems like religion is in decline. We are in a qualifying time…how will we react when revival breaks out amongst those we scorn? Who do we scorn enough for God to bless them with an outpouring of the Spirit?
#3 – I pointed this out here at the PP yesterday that 80 of the private funds, supplies and volunteers were Christians, Churches and Church organizations.
But I was not pointing it out to the hostile world which normally hates churches – I was pointing it out to those in the church who would always point a finger stating that the church is not being the church or in other words the church is no better that a warm pile of cow dung.
#9 – I’ve often wondered why the Lutheran Church took on Luther’s name for their church, I doubt Luther would have wanted it that way. (Any history buffs here, please feel free to rebuff me on this. )
While I mostly align with the theology (and have attended a Lutheran church for years), I often hesitate to mention that I attend said church because the name is easily construed as following a human.
Reminds me of Paul in 1 Cor 1, upset over the divisions in the church regarding the different leaders.
It was a mocking name given by the church enemies. Luther was against the church named after him – but they couldn’t shake it.
The division came from Rome when they excommunicated Luther. He wasn’t looking for a new church – just trying to reform the errors of Rome.
It was the Calvinists and the anabaptist who made the radical break and toss out anything if it had a whiff of Rome.
Ah, okay then. Good to know, thank you.
There have been many times when I’ve been asked which church I attend, and as soon as I mention the name, the conversation immediately shifts to “who’s Luther, and why does your church follow him?” Then I feel like I have a lot of explaining to do….
Owen,
The explaining should be a good time. I can almost guarantee that for anyone asking that particular question, this would be the first time they heard the true unadulterated gospel. 🙂
Good point, MLD…
I have made many references to the theses, mentioning points such as Luther’s revelations that we can do nothing for our salvation, and that the church of the day was pretty much making people buy their way in. Also that he translated the Bible into the language of the people, so they could read it for themselves.
I still find, however, that some are turned off by the apparent adherence to the name.
Owen, whats ya gonna do? Can’t please everyone.
I tell people I follow the most famous man in the world, Jesus, and they get mad at me.
True enough.
See, you mentioned the stumbling block. Does it every time. 😉
Owen – this is why I am against Methods and the consultants. It has it’s basis in “if we do it differently we can be successful” – with no context that there is a spiritual war going on. Sometimes the church is lucky to just hang on – sometimes it makes advances.
Jesus is the stumbling block – with no help from me.
I’m wondering when it will be OK for men to post #metoo
Corby,
I haven’t been following the tag closely, but there ought to be a place for men to do likewise…
There ought to be. But knowing our culture I suspect that would make people mad and be scene as devaluing the purpose of the tag. Nothing says America like a double standard.
Unless an artist (musician, author, etc) has a benefactor, they are in the business of self promotion.
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Suck it up 🙂
Michael
Can’t engage as before on your blog as my own circumstances preclude it. However, if I may say, we do pray for you here. My father was a man of 6′ 4″ and was reduced to writhing on his hospital bed when he had a bout of kidney stones. Nothing to mess around with. May God give you a touch today. We also wish you well on your book. Thinking that we finally found someone who would put some truths in print and expose the rot of which many of us were a witness, has given us hope. We pray it will indeed come to fruition and we thank you for your perseverance in the matter.
Corey Feldman talked about the pederasts in Hollywood after his friend Corey Haim died. He was largely ignored as a washed up hack. Women are not only victims. Milo inadvertently exposed the “bacha” boy culture here, little different that that sick culture in Afganistan (which my Army buddy saw as well).
I was held down against my will at 11 by a larger 13 year old girl who forced kissed me. #metoo
When I was in my late 20s, an older and senior female co-worker mostly stripped and came onto me sexually in a room full of her friends, including her 13 year old niece and her friend. One, gross (in addition to her live-in bf, I knew she was sleeping with several other people. Two… well, does that count as a #metoo? Or that she didn’t really have power over me?
How about the real abuses that go on, becuase every person who may have had a pass made at them seems to be gloming onto this.
#mymother (raped by her father for many years)
#myex (molested by her maternal grandfather)
#mydaughter (likely molested by her teenage uncle)
#mybuddy (whom I suspect was the victim of sexual abuse by his mother…. and look up “mdsa” which is all but denied in this mother-worshiping culture, but it’s real; I’ve connected with two people who were victims of it into adulthood.
What sickens me is that this is suddenly coming out as something new when it isn’t. And the real horror stories go on behind closed doors.
***How about the real abuses that go on, becuase every person who may have had a pass made at them seems to be gloming onto this.***
The original posts I’ve seen regarding this all reference sexual harassment in addition to sexual assault, so women who have had inappropriate passes made at them are not “gloming” on. The #metoo phenomenon is directed toward them also.
While I would not argue that street harassment is on the same level as actual sexual assault, it is still inappropriate and harmful, and I suspect that men who catcall women they see are more likely to commit sexual assault. Probably the only thing keeping them from being like Harvey Weinstein is the fact that they don’t have his money or his power, but it’s not lack of desire.
“What sickens me is that this is suddenly coming out as something new when it isn’t. And the real horror stories go on behind closed doors.”
It was WW2 and everyday women were entering the workforce in droves, in areas where their presence had not previously been needed… my mother was forced to give up a very interesting and profitable job that required her to work odd hours – her supervisor (male) when she needed to be there on the graveyard shift was determined that she was fair game – she got tired of being chased (literally)… that is true harassment that, thankfully, today would not be tolerated
although it was uncomfortable to be the target of wolf whistles, the “boys,” usually construction workers one felt had some kind of obligatory code that required them to audibly salute any young female going past, i never felt they were a threat… and i suspect that many of those types thought that it was a compliment 🙂
at some point it does go from annoying to predatory… the most uncomfortable instance, one that passed from discomfort to harassment, was walking the 60 or so feet past front of a large fire station and having the “boys” standing in the open bays making comments and laughing as a friend and i walked past on the sidewalk… those jerks were a threat and i wouldn’t have wanted to find myself behind closed doors with any of them… again, i don’t think that would be allowed today
so it goes from uncomfortable, to harassing, to actual threat, to physical harm… i wonder if there ever was or will be a society that respects women & vice versa as God intends… or will it always be in many ways an unjust world? i suspect so…
*** that is true harassment that, thankfully, today would not be tolerated***
I’m not sure you can legitimately differentiate between “true” harassment and something that presumably isn’t “true” harassment.
I fully understand that there is harassment that leaves a woman feeling uncomfortable and there’s harassment that leaves them feeling outright threatened but that doesn’t mean that harassment that “merely” leaves women feeling uncomfortable isn’t wrong or harmful. For example, the first time I was ever catcalled, I was 12 years old walking down the sidewalk minding my own business. A man who was at least in his late twenties possibly all the way up to his early 40 catcalled as I walked past. He never left his porch. I did not feel threatened. But, the reality is that man was expressing his sexual desire for a child. That is something that only comes from a deeply diseased mental and moral state. It’s disgusting to me that a man would allow himself to become in any way aroused by a child. And it disgusts me that that sort of behavior is dismissed as not that big a deal. At a very minimum, that guy was fantasizing about statutory rape. And that is very, very harmful.
J2, what you’ve described. @19 is a threat whether it made you feel threatened or not… when an adult dismisses these types by saying, “oh, he didn’t mean anything by it, he’s harmless,” is evil
funny story perhaps
we had one of these guys in the neighborhood where I grew up- he called me to the porch and tried to bribe me (about age 6) with ice cream – as I sat on his lap, his wife appeared, “What’s she doing here?” she demanded. I innocently spoke up and said that I was waiting for some ice cream. She turned on me with her Italian guns blazing, ” We don’t got no ice cream! You get out of here! ”
Totally confusing to me at that age – I don’t think I told anyone, but it was God’s provision perhaps as I gave that family a wide berth for the rest of my childlike.
Auto spell got me again … rest of my childhood
Late to the game.
Back in the late 70s, and early 80s I knew a fellow who, today, would be identified as a sexual predator. He would rape, and insinuate himself on any female who he could get alone with. He was a drummer who was in a band I was in. I was able to get a great deal of distance between him, and me after a few years.
At one point, My wife and I lived in a mobile home park. Well, low and behold, this fellow moved in to the park. After the discovery, I had a serious talk with my wife. I told her, “Do not, ever, be anywhere near Jim.” We moved shortly there after.
With the openness right now about the subject, men need to take a stand. Are we strong enough to stand up to guys like Jim, and say enough.
It’s been difficult over the years, as I look back. I think to myself, “Self, why didn’t you do something about Jim back in the day. Your dad taught you how to treat women, and you let this guy do what he did.” I Do feel guilt for not doing something. This animal destroyed a lot of women, and girls. He actually devastated a lot of people in broad circles around him.
It’s time for this society to stop letting this happen. I don’t know how to do it, but I’ll sure help all that I can.