Things I Think…
1. I think that thinking out loud here (or anywhere else) may soon not be in my best interests…thought has given way to reaction and the reactions are based on tribalism…and I am without a tribe…and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you assign me one…
2. We could survive the distrust of the government and the media, but when we no longer trust nurses it’s game over…
3. Spare me the grief about how you don’t trust media…you trust media that agrees with what you want to believe in the first place…
4. Dispensational eschatology is the most fertile soil in human history for conspiracy theories…
5. I was raised to believe that one had to learn how to get along with people who had differing opinions because we were all part of one country…now, none of that sentence seems to apply…
6. I was in my 60’s before I understood that the biblical commandments about behavior toward other people only apply to how you treat people you already agree with…I kid because I care…
7. Once you’ve decided that the “other” is not only deceived, but evil…the only resolution left is combat…praise the Lord and pass the ammo…
8. I have spent my adult life studying Christian history and theology…and every day that passes I recognize less and less of the historic faith in what is practiced today…
9. I am very comfortable with uncertainty and mystery…and horribly uncomfortable around people who are certain about everything…
10. “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:20–21 ESV) Make your own application…
Spare me the grief about how you don’t trust media<<<
I absolutely do not trust the media.
#10 Says it all. We have found a million ways to rationalize and sanctify hate and anger. It actually betrays our disdain for the ways and will and works of Jesus.
vic,
You just said everything I have to say…amen.
Xenia,
We all trust some media to some extent…because media is no longer confined to radio or tv…
Looking at the news and saying to myself “Huh, I wonder if that’s what really happened and what is not being told” is not trust. That is how I approach all the news these days. I am sure I am not alone in this skepticism. We don’t have cable and I gave up NPR years ago. I take a look at AP’s headlines and say to myself “Huh. I wonder if that’s what really happened and what is not being told.”
“I absolutely do not trust the media.”
I believe you, Xenia, but I also believe you are a rare exception, to the rule that Michael has articulated.
As another general rule, people have an intense need and desire to belong. To fulfill that need, people gather around like minded people (to confirm their hope that they are not alone in their thoughts). News media, which today is more opinion than actual news (and/or which news is cultivated to promote a narrative), is one such place where a person, from the privacy of their home, can find belonging.
For example, if you are prone to believe irrational thoughts, like the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan is a false flag to distract Americans from the upcoming release of the AZ election “audit”, then you will be drawn to watch and listen to media platforms which are friendly to QAnon.
If you are looking for which country is Gog or Magog, or for signs of the great tribulation, or the emergence of the anti-Christ, then you will watch and listen to dispensational speakers on media platforms which are friendly to so-called “prophets”.
If you are lonely, bitter, aggrieved, on the fringes of society, down on your luck, or otherwise angry at how life has been unfair to you, then you may with to listen to and gather with similar minded people who together assign blame for their conditions on a race, gender, sexual orientation, political party or nationality.
The intense need and desire for belonging, which is understandable, also very often makes a person vulnerable to brainwashing and radicalization. This is why not a small number of western middle income teenagers (including astonishingly non-Muslims) from the US and Europe traveled to the Middle East several years ago to join ISIS.
Even here on the PhxP I have been skeptical of some of the stories. My comment has usually been “We need to hear both sides.”
Well, it doesn’t matter if I trust the media or not. Michael said a lot of worthwhile things and that’s what we should talk about.
I’ve even stopped listening to some of my favorite Orthodox media people, for the duration, and these are people I don’t want to be skeptical of… but on the topic of the virus/vaccine, I am skeptical.
If you were a dispensationalist in Afghanistan, would you think the Taliban were the beast, since they definitely are making war on the saints.
Yeah, all 3 of them.
bishopdave,
Anywhere a government is persecuting Christians would be an application of the end times taught in Revelation. That is not distinctively dispensational.
What would be more of a dispensational reading would be if someone tried to prophesy or interpret a line from the Taliban takeover to a final battle outside Jerusalem or to a pre-millennium rapture.
“4. Dispensational eschatology is the most fertile soil in human history for conspiracy theories…“
Friggin for sure.
WHY?!?!
It seems like a phenomenon in the prosperous west mostly…I think
I long for a church that longs for Jesus, rather than a church that longs for correct politics or being morally superior or being the resistance. I tire of all the rage and self-righteousness and fearmongering among the believers. I worry about how I’ll teach my sons to be Christian men when so many “Christian men” around us are acting like spoiled brats and pompous asses. They are controlled by their hatred instead of the Holy Spirit. They may be part of the family, but they’re like crazy Uncle Clyde at the family reunion, put him in the corner and keep the kids out of earshot of his angry ramblings.
As Fernando Ortega sang:
“You can have all this world
But give me Jesus”
Xenia,
I approach things much the same way you…whenever I read a story, I go looking for the rest of the story…
Michael,
#8… We are in uncharted waters. As we have moved to the edge of the map we now read, “Here be dragons”…
EricL,
Well said…
Duane,
It feels like we’re drowning in those waters.
I wonder how uncharted they are, however…I need to go back and review the impact of Charles Coughlin and the like in the 40’s and 50’s…
Michael, I wonder if maybe the negative reactions to your thinking out loud have to do with the Enemy not wanting the message you’re giving to be spread….. keep it up, my friend!
Thank you, Owen…we haven’t been wise enough to quit yet… 🙂
I got my decades wrong on Coughlin…it was the 30’s and 40’s…
#2 – depending on the nurse, i trust some more than physicians
Sucks when you lose a loved one to anything, let alone COVID. And people want to diminish your loss because of some stupid pundit they trust or a Facebook post they forwarded, over the experts.
Some people make me sick
Michael
Coughlin never changed his mind… even after WWII and the camps…
#10 could come in handy for me now.
Dan,
It’s a huge challenge for many of us…myself included.
Thanks for relating Michael.
Dan,
It is my unfortunate lot in life to be a Bible teacher and as part of discharging my duties I’ve been teaching through 1 John.
John repeats himself over and over and over again, then when I want to knock someone out, he starts over again.
The whole faith is founded and centered on love…even of people you want to cold cock.
I think I’ve taught it well because we’re all miserable…
Yes Michael, there are times when I want to ditch some friends I have had since last century. Love never fails. I fail a lot in this area.
I have been watching videos of local meetings where government representatives are dismissing citizen concerns about how their rights are being trampled on an we are being herded into government controlled camps. It’s terrible! No no no! We are being asked to wear masts and get vaxed. We have the lowest vax rate in our parish out of all the counties in Merica we have the second highest infection rate in the nation. I have two minister friends who died in the last week- both unvaxed. You would not believe the behavior. I told a friend it’s thinning the herd time. And I hope there will be enough to survive so they ban bury the dead. Maybe I slightly exaggerate but not much.
one of the greatest things we all can do is resist our own paranoia. It is not only in our own interests, but family, friends, and community.
our society has become convinced that ‘they’ are out to get me/us.
They think you are out to get them.
No, they & we aren’t.
filbertz…
THANK YOU!!!!
I cannot tell you how quickly I move on from some comments online once I read “they don’t want…”, “…the liberal media…”, etc.
filbertz contd…
Oh, and yes, I am NOT one of them either. Not out to “get” anyone (whatever the flip that means), not plotting some nefarious scheme.
interesting comments….
one thing that i have observed over my lifetime is that there will always be power hungry people who are looking for leverage, for control over the rest of us….
politicians today fit in that category … IMHO
I think Filbertz is right.
We need to look no further than our own souls and cry for mercy and cleansisng.
The Times of London, around 1910, asked G.K. Chesterton (along with a bunch of other prominent writers). “What’s wrong with the world today?”
His reply:
Dear Editor,
I am.