Things I Think…
1.Two people who were icons in my life died recently… Coach Bud Grant and the queen of rock and roll, Tina Turner. Neither were Christians. I pray that God has mercy on them, but their eternal destiny does not change the fact that they brought great joy to my life and I’m grateful to God for them. Neither does their spiritual state at their passing diminish the loss I feel or the good I gleaned. I will unashamedly celebrate the gifts they gave and mourn the loss…the world is a lesser place without them.
2. Sadly, I won’t feel any loss when many of this generation of “Christian” leaders pass…I tried to negotiate a trade with God where we get Tina back and send Him Franklin Graham…
3. I’m noticing a trend in some evangelical spaces where violence against evil in the Old Testament is used to justify the possibility of something similar by Christians against the current culture…which is not only garbage exegesis of the OT text, it results in garbage exegesis of the NT text…
4. I consider The Sermon On the Mount as authoritative as the Ten Commandments…so did Jesus…
5. I’ll say this again for the slower ones out there…Jesus overcame the powers of evil by sacrificial love unto death and the followers of the Lamb will overcome the same way…the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but carnal weapons are a lot more fun to wield…
6. The words “hate”, “bigot” and “woke” have all be redefined so far from their original meanings that I try not to use them at all anymore…
7. All of the seven churches of Revelation were situated in places where the prevailing culture was in direct conflict with Christianity…but Jesus critiques were directed toward the churches, not the culture. Why are we not as mindful of His priorities and His warnings?
8. The politically active Christians accuse me of “doing nothing” to address the darkness descending on the land…and I hear them accusing their congregations of the same. First of all, judgement begins in the house of the Lord…and I’ve done all I can to address what will bring that judgment…publicly and under my name. Second, if like me, you make an effort to pray against the darkness and those who may be caught up in it, teach and try to follow the word of God and try to love God and your neighbor as yourself…you are doing more to advance the kingdom than those who will sell their soul for a place at the table of the Beast…
9. Let me put this even more simply…the narrative of Scripture is that as time goes on the beast powers will grow more beastly…it has been decreed that this be so. Our responsibility is not to try to slay the beast, but to strengthen the church so that we can endure whatever comes faithfully…our job is not to make America great again, but to make the church holy and safe again as we await His coming…
10. Anyone have a summer reading list yet?
Hi Michael! A few responses…
1. AMEN! Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot also passed away the beginning of May. My dad was a fan of his and I became a fan as well as a way to connect with my dad in a way that I couldn’t when my dad was here.
2. I can think of a few more trades that I’d like to do as well.
3-9. I have noticed this trend too – some are lifting random texts and making these to be our guide, as opposed to the 10 commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. I just don’t understand or get it how some believers protest when unregenerates act like unregenerates. What’s even more frustrating is when you try to point out that our first priority is not to change culture, but to be pure and holy, and you get flack from fellow believers, who should know better.
10. I am in the process of transitioning my book collection to digital copies as I am getting older and my body can’t handle moving all those books from place to place.
And just today found out that Chick-Fil-A is incurring the wrath of…wait for it…conservatives!
Why? Because CFA penned a DEI document of inclusiveness. So now here is yet ANOTHER culture war to distract us from what’s really important.
Dan,
Non Christians brings gifts as well as believers…and we should be free to enjoy them.
I’ve spent most of my life defending my fandom of Jerry Lee…I don’t bother anymore.
Folks want an excuse to ignore the very difficult teaching of Scripture that tell us we’re change agents by our witness and faithful love. Loving an enemy is the hardest thing anyone can do…
I’m clearing out a bunch of books…stuff from other theological stages. I’m eventually going to have to move and don’t want to haul John MacArthur around with me…
The owners of Chik are savvy business people…and they have to operate within current law.
It’s pretty simple…
Dan–when all the boycotters vacate the drive through line, I’ll be there to snap up some goodness!
Summer reading has started–City of Thieves by David Benioff (my yearly visit to one of my all time favorite novels) , Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck, and Edison by Edmund Morris are my starting three.
Galatians 5: 14-15 is the text that comes to mind regarding your #8.
Michael, maybe if you had thrown in Mark Driscoll, Paula White, and a pastor to be named later into the trade, you could have gotten the deal done. 🙂
“For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.”
(Galatians 5:14–15 NLT-SE)
Amen, fil…
KevinH,
I was more than willing to negotiate… 🙂
Reading list : When I realized there was no use reading theological works for a while, I decided to try some current fiction. I looked up a list of the best novels of the past 20 years, went to a used book store and bought a lot of them. I hadn’t read non-fiction probably since high-school, and my hypothesis was that story can tell truth just as well as “historical facts”. Maybe even higher truth that the bare facts can’t comprehend. I am thrilled to find that my hypothesis was correct.
So far I’ve read: Gilead, Life of Pi (maybe the best book I’ve ever read), and A Visit from the Goon Squad. Currently I am reading Gone Girl with The Road by Cormac Mcarthy on deck.
#8 reminds me of a line from a late 90’s Stavesacre song “They’ll say we love the darkness, but I say we hate their half-light.”
If not also traded I’d like to see Benny Hinn and Paula White, Jessie Duplantis and Mark Driscoll in the transfer portal!
Josh,
Good on youI wish I had an appreciation for fiction, but I have some sort of mental block.
I did try to read “The Road”…brilliant writing but was too dark for me to handle.
“I hadn’t read non-fiction probably since high-school, ”
Should have said I hadn’t read fiction since high school. And there only begrudgingly and still not much. I understand the mental block. I got into true crime for a while because it was factual but read like a novel. 99.999999% of my reading for the last 20+ years has been theological / biblical studies / christian living, etc.
Gilead was slooooowwww – but is a take on the Prodigal Son story and got me thinking about that and imagining all of Scripture filtered through that story.
Life of Pi is an incredible piece of literature. So many possibilities of what is being said, and the author says it plainly “Which is the best story?”. He talks about agnostics missing “heaven” because they didn’t have the imagination to believe a better story. And gosh, for some reason, that idea resonates with me so much.
A Visit from the Goon Squad was fun, but i don’t think life-changing in any way.
“He talks about agnostics missing “heaven” because they didn’t have the imagination to believe a better story. ”
Now that, I find interesting…been thinking a lot about imagination and the Scriptures…
Summer reading so far:
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig. First substantive bio of the man in the last
30 years. Lots of new source material included.
The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism by Daniel Hummel. Similarly,
looks like the only substantive work in the last several decades. According to a quick perusal, the system is academically dead and has been for awhile. Stick a fork in it. Even Dallasites have contributed to its demise.
Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan. Nauseating and true story
of the Klan’s resurgence, with its leaders from Indiana.
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece: A Novel by Tom Hanks. Fun so far.
Hope in Times of Fear by Tim Keller
Augustine: A Very Short Introduction by Henry Chadwick.
Summer Reading for School-American Nations: A History of the eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard
The pretext of the book is that the country is made up of 11 historical nations, each with their own spin on the role of religion in public life, what it means to be “religious”, and what it means to be American.
My school is all about DEI and I sometimes find it amusing (I’m waiting for someone to show up some day and identify as an eggplant and see how they respond). Some of the summer reading was in the farther end of left field for me, but this book looks well-researched and actually plausible. By the way, I need to be respectful to my school for being fair to those of us who don’t buy into some of the current thinking on 31 flavors of gender. As long as we all get along (i.e polite to one another),I can do that and share the love of Christ as well.
Linn,
It’s a very interesting book…read it a couple years ago…
bob1,
That book on dispensationalism is on my list as well…
Micheal…the brunt (>99%) of my music listening choices do NOT fall under the rubric of “Christian”, and I am fine with that.
Overall I just don’t get the knee-jerk hysteria about DEI and wo***ess. Seems like more fear mongering and misplaced focus.
fil…I would be my salary that those conservatives protesting CFA will still populate the lines of cars in the CFA drive-thru.
Dan,
The only “Christian” music I own is Mahalia Jackson…
Michael,
Thanks for the recommendation. It will definitely keep me busy (I’m also teaching English to kids from Asia again and supervising 3 staff, so I’m anticipating a busy summer!).
Michael, it looks very substantial! I was fortunate to be able to check it out from the public library system.
i have an ambitious summer reading list.
I’m currently finishing up Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Peter Scazzero
Looking to read:
To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donohue
Turn My Mourning Into Dancing, Henri Nouwen
Psalm-Shaped Prayerfulness, Margaret Daly-Denton
The Third Desert, Fabrice Blee
Humble Aspiration, Bernadette Mc Nary-Zak
The Climate of Monastic Prayer, Thomas Merton
The Gift of Being Yourself, David Benner.
Falling Upward, Richard Rohr.
Wish me luck!
I just finished reading ‘ The Abolition of Sex; How the Transgender Movement Hurts Women and Girls’ by Dara Lipinkski ( I know, I’m a glutton for punishment.) It really pained and shocked me to read this book, but I have two daughters and two grand daughters (and one grandson!) and I just can’t look away. The author has appeared on Fox News multiple times ( which I don’t usually watch) . The left-leaning media won’t give her a platform for her views, and she’s been banned by Twitter. This book shocked me ! I taught in public schools for over 30 years, but if this book is correct, then the transgender agenda has already infiltrated our legal system, our schools, and our media to an extent that is terribly alarming. I don’t think I could teach in a school that was embracing these extreme and ridiculous value – they are harmful to children especially! I’m an Independent voter, but it’s no consolation for me. I’m not happy with either party. I read Beth Moore’s new biography before reading this critique of the transgender movement. At least Beth Moore has God and prayer to help her navigate this sinful world. I am fully in support of Republicans who are standing up to the trans activists who are trying to reshape our world in such a destructive way.
Michael:
I’m reading a practical theology book called “WHY?: On Suffering, Guilt, and God” by A. van de Beek. Roger Olson highly recommends it and has been writing a series of reviews on the content starting at
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2023/05/why-on-suffering-guilt-and-god-part-1/.
I’m still trekking through my 84 book reading list on exorcism, demonology, spiritual warfare, Enoch literature and related topics. I finished Francis Young’s excellent histories of Anglican and Catholic exorcism and Brian P Levack’s The Devil Within, which is a history of western European exorcistic traditions in Christianity. The counter-intuitive proposal that emerges was that in an era in which many scientists were also alchemists who believed spirit possession was possible and animal magnetism/mesmerism were real, it was the hardline Dutch and English Calvinist cessationists (Brian Levack’s proposal) who truly disenchanted western Europe. Francis Young has written Anglicans were so adamantly skeptical about exorcism and so entrenched in their formal cessationism they inadvertently had their stance boomerang on them via David Hume.
It struck me that the dots that don’t get connected by Levack and Young are that the places that were ardently cessationist as an anti-Catholic stance that ALSO had stridently postmillennial stances were in the UK, New England, and Netherlands. For the “ideas have consequences” crowd that favors postmillennialist reconstructionism, have they considered that four hundred years after polemical cessationism was invented and wed to postmillennialism that the cultural downstream results have been super-apostate regions? The older I get the more grateful I am that I grew up in western Oregon where a Pentecostal kid could hear about Gordon Fee and know that it wasn’t a bad thing for a Penteostal to have a scholarly interest. I wasn’t anticipating that reading about battles over whose exorcisms were legit would spill over into observations about how eschatologies and theories of exorcism overlapped. I thought the theocratic reconstructionist types had bad exegesis and misread the Bible but reading more about the postmil/cess stance combo it seems that if “ideas have consequences” the reconstructionists of today should look at Boston or London or Amsterdam if they want to see where cessationist “optimillennialism” has already gone. Somehow I doubt the Doug Wilson fans would concede the point.
I can’t help but say this about 1. Tina Turner rocked so hard that even Bryan Adams couldn’t help but rock singing a duet with her! Plus she was great in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome even if that was, for me, the weakest Mad Max entry.
WtH–so much fun reading your post—going “huh? huh? huh?” then “OH YEAH, Mad Max & Tina!!” Can honestly say I’ve never heard the word “optimillennialism” before. Even more surprising, spell check didn’t kick it out. I loved your comment regarding Gordon Fee and western Oregon. Fun times!
WTH,
I’ll chew on this for a week…but amen your word about Tina now…
Dave,
Thanks for the heads up…I’ll take a look.
WTH WTHell — epic note!
“…have they considered that four hundred years after polemical cessationism was invented and wed to postmillennialism that the cultural downstream results have been super-apostate regions?”
Good stuff
What if, when faced with people who disagree with us or differ from us in some major way, instead of learning how to better fight them we learned how to better love and accept them?
according to ACLJ there is a natiion in Affrica that haas killeed 90% of their Christian population PRAY
Josh,
That is the Christian ethos…along with the understanding that some will hate us anyway…and some things are unacceptable.
Many folks don’t know what the Law of God is, and might as well tear those pages out of the Law of Moses.
Sadly they don’t want to know or be bothered to learn but we can try to teach them anyway.
I believe Josh’s comment might have been directed at me in response to my comment about the trans movement hurting women and children. Not sure, if it was but I’d just like to qualify my statements saying that I do believe in love and maybe even acceptance of trans people in some circumstances. However, men who have transitioned to women ( which make up the majority of trans people, there are fewer female-to-male trans people),are demanding, and have gained access, to women and girls ‘safe spaces’. in California, where I live, they are allowed into women’s domestic violence shelters, girls locker rooms, women’s bathrooms, changing areas, and even into women’s prisons. There have already been cases of women and girls raped by so-called ‘transwomen’ which are still physically fully intact males. Very few of the men have the surgery to change their ability to function sexually as a man -only a very small percentage. I also don’t believe children under 18 should be give puberty blockers, hormones, or surgery to change their gender. In the U.K., the medical establishment there, (similar to our American Medical Association) has just recently publicly changed its recommendation for treating children who are trans. They now say that new research shows that often children outgrow the desire to change their gender before they reach adulthood. In other words, just like parents and teachers have always known it’s often ” just a phase” that kids outgrow. Its common practice to ban a person from Facebook or Twitter ( I’m not on either) just for refusing to use a trans person’s’ ‘preferred pronoun’ or for saying ‘only women can be pregnant’. A judge in court once forced a woman who was raped by a man to refer to the defendant, a man as ‘she’ in the courtroom during a trial . Many reasonable people are asking the U.S. to slow down and allow for more open discussion of these matters. The book I read asked readers to engage in dialogue with friends and family and reject the ‘intolerant’ label because what is at stake is just too important.
Janet Linn,
I agree wholeheartedly.
Thank you, Michael. I taught for over 30 years in the public schools of California, and I loved all of my students – Mexican American, Samoan, Aspergers syndromre kids. I had long- haired,pony,-tailed boys, and little girls with tattooed eyebrows from Asia. I had many students who I knew came from families who had immigrated here illegally. I loved and taught them all. My youngest daughter is married to a young man who is an architect who grew up in Puerto Rico and has a black Jamaican father and a Hispanic mother. I KNOW that I’m not ‘intolerant’. Reading this book really opened my eyes.What did I learn? That many trans women identify as lesbians. That means that they are men wearing a dress who are still sexually attracted to women, and we are letting them into very private ‘safe spaces’ where women are supposed to feel safe. My sister was raped as a young woman, and I was such sexually molested by a male relative at age 13. All of my life I was taught (rightfully so, and I also taught my two daughters) to be modest, dress modestly, and to avoid wearing any provocative attire in public. It is too dangerous for women! And now men wearing a dress are allowed in spaces where women must undress, such as high school swim team changing rooms. The trans issue is very difficult for most of us to even comprehend. I know it has been for me, but we have to pay attention, I think. Thanks for allowing me to post this.
Janet Linn,
I’m still of the school that believes in corporal punishment for biological men in females spaces…
I believe that most people born in the 50’s and 60’s (and before) understand that we can vehemently disagree with other people, believe what they are doing is harmful, wrong, immoral, illegal, etc. and yet STILL hope for the best for them, pray for them, ….love them. It seems that many children of the 70’s and after have lost the understanding of what it means to want the best for someone, but believing they are completely wrong on what they are speaking, doing, or affirming. I don’t hate anyone, but I stand 100% with what Janet Linn has stated. I can’t understand why we are affirming and encouraging mental illness, but (more likely) adolescent confusion in children. How can anyone justify mutilating children with drugs and/or surgery? Do I hate trans people? No…absolutely not. I hate what is being done to children, in the name of gender ideology and I grieve over how women are being erased by mentally ill men.
Nonnie,
I agree…
Fear. Always fear.
Josh,
With all due respect, that’s a ridiculous response.
The idea that minor children are emotionally competent to make body and life changing decisions, especially in the face of cultural pressure is not only wrong and irresponsible, it may well be satanic.
Everyone’s afraid to say anything lest they be described as “hateful, or “fearful”…as if loving, secure people would let immature children mutilate their bodies or take drugs that have irreversible effects.
I… am not afraid…to protect kids from themselves and stupid, spineless parents.
Sometimes fear is appropriate…and when we already have kids who have grown out of this stage regretting what can never be changed…along with the clown show that is biological males competing against females in sports…it’s time to stand and speak.
It’s still fear. (and it is ALWAYS fear of something. Last thing to be fearful of was appropriate too.)
Fear will never take us where we want to go.
Josh,
You’ve deconstructed past the point of reason.
This is not a difficult issue to parse…if you think it’s ok in any way to allow children to mutilate themselves, you have badly lost your way…not as a Christian, but as a human.
The cost of this in ruined lives and ended lives in a few years will be enormous…and if that’s fear, I guess I’m terrified.
I was hesitant to engage on this issue because the initial cry were raised by people who I don’t want complete identification with in terms of a larger agenda.
At this point, this is such obvious insanity that we all need to be crystal clear about it.
In my state, they want to make it illegal for parents to intercede on behalf of minor children…and I’m glad I don’t have any minor children in my care anymore, because things could get messy if I did…
“You’ve deconstructed past the point of reason.”
Ok. Nice talking to you.
Josh,
There’s not a whole lot to talk about.
When a generation of our children are being led to mutilation and lifetime regret that will result in many suicides and your only reaction is to claim that people are “fearful”…that conversation is pretty much over.
There is no universe, Christian or atheistic, liberal or conservative, where this stuff is acceptable.
Thinking it’s “loving ” to allow it is irresponsible insanity.
I’m old and tired…have another appointment in a couple hours to see if I need another major surgery.
The last thing I need is another fight…I want to go away and feed stray cats with the few years I have left.
However…I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the destruction of innocent children happen on my watch without standing.
Re-read my comments and ask yourself what you are fighting against.
I’m good. Just don’t see the point in discussion if every time I am disagreed with (this time you actually agreed with me) its “you have deconstructed past the point of reason.”
Like I said. OK. No need to engage with a guy that has lost touch with reason.
Just go make your stand against the destruction of children, which it seems you imagine that I am for.
Josh,
The only comment you made was to insinuate that concern over this matter was simply “fear”.
I consider that an insult and beneath your intellectual capabilities.
If I misunderstood you, then clarify and I would most certainly apologize.
When faced with disagreement, or people who are different than us, our first reaction is always fear. We then run to and nurture that fear, find reasons to justify that fear, and then act on that fear.
It doesn’t look to me how Jesus reacted to situations.
Then you need to more closely at Jesus…He dropped the gloves when dealing with those who used their position and influence to harm others….’better they have a millstone around their neck”…
Just for the record…I’m not afraid, I’m ready to fight like hell…better they have a millstone around their neck than mutilate or poison the innocent…
You keep arguing as if I’m fighting to harm the innocent. Fear leads you to see those trheats in my comments.
Josh,
I see any defense of the current ideology as threatening to innocent children…because it is.
You keep stating that this is fear…when the only thing I fear is the harm done to innocent children.
I have all the grace in the world for people who genuinely struggle with gender dysphoria…and for kids that are confused by the current culture.
I have no grace for those who would deceive them and ruin them for the furtherance of a political agenda.
If you want to engage anything that has actually been written, you’re welcome to do so…but simple accusations that this is only a fear based response based on ignorance are not going to be received graciously…
“I see any defense of the current ideology”
Fear leads you to see me defending current ideology. Read the thread again. Its not there, friend.
I’ve read it multiple times.
I see you keep stating that this is fear without affirming any of our concerns…and I fear I’m getting ready to get really angry.
For clarity, what is your position on this matter?
Alright.
Nevermind.
Josh,
That ain’t the way it works here.
You make unfounded accusations, get called on it, and then refuse to clarify?
How does that possibly work to further any discussion or understanding?
I think you’re just fearful…
Where did I make an accusation? Fear? You admitted that was true and said it was justified.
It seems that I’ll toe the line, get equally as worked up, and react to the fear the same way or I’m the enemy.
That’s weird.
Josh,
I’m not reacting to fear, I’m reacting a real threat to real children.
You can clarify your position on this issue and defend it… but you’re not going to continue minimizing real concerns as simply being fearful and pretend you’re taking the high ground.
I need to condemn some vague group of trans activists who want to castrate children in order to be in good graces here?
OK, consider them condemned.
I think maybe there is a better approach to responding to these situations, but who cares. Lets keep fighting the same ghosts.
Josh,
Here in Oregon, that “vague” group is succeeding in passing legislation to allow children to be chemically or physically castrated without parental consent.
This is no longer a few whack jobs making noise…it’s a real threat backed by the rule of law.
We need to be clear that this is wrong and unacceptable.
If you have a way to deal with this, then by all means share it.
First – I think leading with fear has gotten us to the point that we are at.
“we’ve” been loud and opposed to this stuff all along, and yet, here we are. I just wonder if we led with compassion, rather than fear, if we could make a dent. Doesn’t seem like it, but the current strategy has failed, and what I am suggesting, to me, seems to be how Jesus dealt with things.
Michael,
First, I am praying that you don’t need more surgery and that the doctors can come up with a better treatment plan.
Then, thank you for taking a firm stand on gender “appropriate treatment” for minors. Here, in California, it’s actually been taken to the level of reporting parents for child abuse because they refuse to do the treatment., which means the child can be removed from the home, put in foster care, and treated by the state. That’s already overreach, but it can go so much farther if that becomes the norm.
Linn,
Thanks for praying…I’ve been referred to a pain clinic and physical therapy and I’m getting therapeutic massage on my own.
We’ll see if it works.
I’m usually loathe to address this kind of issue, but the insanity is now more than I can be quiet about.
Josh,
Leading with compassion is always the Christian way.
I have no idea what that would look like in this situation.
In general, I think the idea is the same for any opponent: Read what they say, not what their oppositions says they are saying, think the best of them, get to know them and really listen. We may find that they are horrid and need to be destroyed, but we may find some understanding and a better way forward.
If we start by reading all that we can that is written against them, “horrid” and “muyst be destroyed” will be the only options that present themselves.
Josh,
Having listened and researched the matter and found that this is is cruel and destructive to the innocent…what do we do now?
If you’ve done that, proceed as necessary.
You are in the 1% that has actually done so.
I think of myself as a pretty optimistic and non-combative person. I’m all about bridge building as much as possible, but there are times when a line has to be drawn. It’s a matter of justice. It takes a lot to push me there, but as Michael said, when kids are involved, someone has to do the defending. The sad things is that we are being harassed and impacted by rabid activists on both sides of the spectrum, liberal and conservative. Where I live in North Idaho, our community college is being pushed to the edge of extinction by extremists driven by fear. Liberals pushed a radical agenda, and then the conservatives rallied with a bunch of nonsense of their own. Common sense has been tossed aside. Respect is something that must be a two-way street. In our current culture, I don’t see that happening much.
PH,
We’re being dominated by radicals on both sides…and both think they’re on the side of the angels…
We are exiles, but like Daniel and others, we don’t have to bow to every idol. I’m not mad and I’m not fearful. But I’m not stupid and I won’t compliment the emperor’s clothes when he’s not wearing anything. I’ll flex whenever I can to be salt, light, and an ambassador for Jesus. I’ll do my best to love my neighbor as myself.
I’ve never been a boycotter. I typically don’t lead or participate in movements against businesses and corporations. I actually prefer doing my commerce with non-Christians rather than shop within a holy huddle. But I will withdraw my business when I feel like I’m unabashedly being force-fed an ideology. And I’m “equal opportunity” toward the right or left. A few years back I had to kick a pro-life group off our church property that was protesting us because they didn’t think we were pro-life enough. And I refuse to join in the silliness of some of our pro-Trumper/MAGA churches in town.
Doesn’t postmillennial expectation expect a church that is not in exile but increasingly exercising the tipping point influence in culture. Isn’t that a postmil thing and wasn’t that the impulse that filled the colonies. These things are very hard to sort.
As for the trans stuff — well, when you reach the point we are currently experiencing — the battle is lost. The transing of our culture is a done deal IMO. So there the exile motif grows more appealing.
When Obergfell came this stuff was settled and we just didn’t know it. Because you can legislate human behavior. What you cannot legislate is the heart. A clean heart cannot be codified by law effectually. Morality is malleable by laws. People conflate legal with moral all the time.
So we have the Bud thing and the Target things… but today is June 1 and soon the corporations will show you how widespread this virus has become.
Anyway, none of this is hopeful or clear but it is fairly predictable.
I’m well aware that Obergefell was not explicitly about trans rights but the link was obvious if you thought it through.
At least that’s what I told my wife would happen in 2015. Probably wrote it here as well.
The battle is indeed lost, but we must speak anyway.
We need to commit to the fact that we are in exile and make our churches places where exiles can be encouraged by Word and Spirit…and discouraged from trying to find a place on the back of the beast…
As a pastor, it can be challenging because many people on our churches want us to help them climb on the beast’s back. :-/
PH,
I hear you and thank God that I don’t have that problem …I’d quit if I did.
Oh, they just leave our church. 🙂
Josh said:June 1, 2023 at 11:33 am
If you’ve done that, proceed as necessary.
You are in the 1% that has actually.”
Josh,
I believe many, many of us are proceeding as necessary as we are witnessing the manipulation and mutilation of children.Yes, we care about mentally ill adults, but we care MORE for innocent CHILDREN who are being manipulated and led by these people with an agenda. I can say honestly that I hold no ill will toward anyone, but I will stand with Jesus and declare that those evil ones who use and abuse children should be thrown into the depths of the sea. with a millstone around their necks. To love someone and want the best for them does not mean that i have to affirm sick and demented men and women who are set on mutilating children, in the name of gender ideology .
As for your 1st point, Bud Grant (and Joe Kapp) were a thorn in my side during my childhood as the Vikings always seemed to beat the Rams in the playoffs on the frozen turf of Minnesota. As I got older, I came to appreciate their fortitude.
Nr. 2 is about as straight-up and to the point as one can get, and I agree!
Give us Tina back in exchange for Graham.
I’d rather hear her than him any day of the week and six-ways-to-Sunday.
My company shared a Pew Poll that said 20% of Millennials and Gen-Z Identified as non-heterosexal. If true, that is the end of the human species. My 7th grader experienced sex-ed in the California public school system yesterday. There was no boy/girl or male/female, but “person with a penis/vagina.”
PH,
Bud will always be the coach of the Vikings in my heart…
Muff,
I heartily concur…
TNV,
It’s an American and Western European phenomenon…our only hope for needed growth…is immigration…
Michael
Regarding your back and pain issues, I live with back and knee pain 24/7. Like you, I’ve sought treatment. There don’t seem to be a whole lot of options for treatment. But I went to a pain specialist here in town and had an epidural in L5 and 4. Brought some relief for a month then the pain began to return. But, it was worth it to have some relief if only for a month.
I’ve gone back for two other shots but with only minimal relief.
My pain specialist recommended a spinal stimulator. After watching another guy go thru that procedure, I opted not to do it. He was in more pain that before the surgery.
But an epidural may work and if you have insurance it’s free. May be worth a try.
I like my pain specialist. I can give you his name if your interested.
Officerhoppy,
I was referred to the pain center yesterday by the surgeon.
I’m going as soon as I can.
Today would be good…
Michael
Perchance, is it the pain institute on Bennett St.?
New Victor-you can opt out of sex ed for your child, if you want, in California. It’s a legal parental right. I know parents who have done that, and other parents who review with their child what they are learning in the class.
Officerhoppy,
I’m not sure…still waiting for them to call.
New Victor – I sure hope they are teaching the girls that ‘ persons with penises’ can still rape and impregnate ‘persons with vaginas’, even if they both are considered ‘women’! And to think, it once was all so simple.. I would definitely discuss that with your kids, and review what is being taught to them in the school Sex Ed. Class. I did that with my kids, though not all patents do.
“You can opt out”
That’s a condom with a lot of holes.
I did a surface perusal of the material, but if was kind of confusing, like a portal as if I were a teacher signing up to teach. I only saw outlines. I should have made more effort. I knew we could opt out, but I’m not sure that was right either. This is the world we live in.
When my company moves to a new site next year, I saw reference that there will be gender neutral bathrooms. Single use like Kaiser did, but lockable, or open use, hard to say… what about the gym locker rooms?