Things I Think…
1. I’m bone tired of speaking to the current crises in the church, but some things have to be noted as they could be historic and cultural warnings of things to come.
One of those markers may be that right wing Christian commentators were faced with a choice after the events in Minnesota…either admit that the administration has gone beyond constitutional and biblical laws or justify murder.
Many of them have chosen to justify murder.
If they can justify the murders in Minneapolis…they can justify the murders of anyone outside their bubble…believing that they are performing a service to God…
2. Before you think “that can’t happen here” think of all the things that you have already said that about…that have already happened…
3. Being the cynic that I am…I think some of the aforementioned commentators are more interested in culling favor in the tribe to sell their books and get speaking engagements than in ideological or spiritual commitments…some just have finally found a way to express their deep seated meanness in Jesus’s name…
4. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT-SE)
I rarely see this “fruit”…even in myself.
We’ve all decided the stakes are too high to be “biblical”…but we all think God is on our side…
5. As long as I’m in sin…Turning Point U.S.A. is doing an “alternative” Super Bowl halftime show featuring Kid Rock. Go ahead and go to the last page of the linked article to read some of his lyrics…obviously a headliner for faith, family ,and country…
6. I’m afraid of heights, mean dogs, and Meghan Basham…I’ll repent this afternoon…
7. #4 is the root of most deconstruction…if we don’t really believe it, why should anyone else?
8. This is the CEO of Anthropic…telling us things we need to know…
9. I was highly amused at all the AI depictions of cats cooking, playing music, and blowing things up …until I noted that if I knew nothing about cats, they would seem like nature videos…we can no longer trust our eyes…
10. I get an email every few days from Goodreads that shows what some of my friends are reading…it also shows what I am reading…a comic book. Humility is often learned by accident…
Cats….blowing things up.
i might not sleep well tonight lol!
Seriously though, things ARE happening here that were unthinkable a few short years ago. And Christians are cheering on the demise.
I just had to take my desk back from Liam….I’ll sleep with one eye open tonight….
Yes, cats.. one of the more stable things in my life. Kitty knows when I get up (or he gets me up), when to have breakfast, when to have snuggles, when I leave (and he looks sad)…He provides some stability and routine during these crazy times.
I had to look up Megan B. I totally ignore that sside of the media because I really can’t stand them. When Charlie Kirk died, I had to confess to the Lord that , although I was horrified at the way he died, I wasn’t going to miss him that much. I just don’t do well with people who lie in my face every time I watch the 6 pm news.
One popular TV show in Australia is Media Watch, a quarter hour every week pointing out dishonesty, corruption & ineptitude in the media (even on its own network).
This week’s episode included a section about the events in Minneapolis and how it was reported in the US and Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGa-Lg2urKs starting at 6 minutes in.
It showed some clips from Sky News (our Fox News). One pundit spouts the right-wing lines, caring little about the truth, followed by her fellow right-winger who is not shy about calling out Team Trump’s lies.
As things get worse, more spokespeople on the right will dissent more often, hopefully making others feel that it’s ok & normal to do so. And in this instance (from my limited watching it), even Trump changed his approach a bit, giving commentators friendly to him permission to do likewise.
Linn,
Without Liam, I don’t know what I’d do…he keeps me well enough for the day.
MB’s twitter feed is something to behold…
Eric,
If anything, people are digging in here…it’s a sad sight.
The actions of this administration and its agents are only going to get crueler and more inhumane; this train is going all the way to Hell, and many professed Christians are fully onboard.
I nominate #6 as quote of the year. Maybe the decade.
Ted,
Thanks 🙂
She is a nasty person…
AI is the freeway to transhumanism; transhumanism is a technological substitute for the Incarnation and Resurrection. What cannot be encompassed by that technological substitution is the humanity and divinity of Christ — it can only encompass that hideous strength.
ICE agents mocked autistic woman for asking for wheelchair after dragging her out of car
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-ice-2675076839/
A woman who was recently released from custody by immigration agents described the horrifying way she was treated by President Donald Trump’s immigration agents during a stop last month – one that resulted in her further disabled – and the terrible conditions inside the Minneapolis-area ICE facility.
Aliyah Rahman, an autistic South Minneapolis resident with a traumatic brain injury who needs a wheelchair for mobility, told lawmakers during a Congressional forum on Tuesday that she was stopped by ICE agents while on her way to a doctor’s appointment.
She said agents violently arrested her, including threatening multiple times to “break her f—— window” when she did not immediately comply out of shock, and slashing her seat belt with what appeared to be a hunting knife.
She said they also dragged her by her arms, face down, from her car to an ICE vehicle, even while she was screaming at them about suffering from disabilities.
“I now cannot lift my arms normally,” Rahman said. She claimed the agents never read her rights, and the Trump administration never charged her with a crime.
More from the linked article.
The conditions she witnessed inside the Minneapolis-area ICE facility were even more concerning, Rahman said. Outside of the center, she saw hordes of “black and brown bodies” being mushed along by screaming federal agents.
“I continued to hear the word bodies, because that is how agents referred to us,” Rahman said.
The conditions she witnessed inside the Minneapolis-area ICE facility were even more concerning, Rahman said. Outside of the center, she saw hordes of “black and brown bodies” being mushed along by screaming federal agents.
“I continued to hear the word bodies, because that is how agents referred to us,” Rahman said.
A little more…
“You have no reason to think you will make it out alive if you are already being called a body,” Rahman added.
She said the agents inside the facility taunted her for asking for a wheelchair, with one of them saying, “You were driving, right? So your legs do work.”
Are there no men of courage in the House and the Senate who will stand up to the Tyrant?
4, I am incapable of producing that on my own. I always thought it was my job to make it happen. It’s not. It’s the fruit of the Spirit, not me. Also, God is on my side. Always has been.
What small things bring you joy in this season?
Taskmaster, although profane at times, really hits the right spot.
Walks…a hot tub when I can…
Some dogs can be mean, but you don’t see meme’s of dogs blowing things up, like some cat’s might do. A dog would probably just eat the explosive anyways.
I didn’t know who Bad Bunny is, but there is a small part of me that will cheer for him after I learned that an unnamed NFL player complained that there are no American’s in the Super Bowl halftime show anymore.
Bad Bunny is Pueto Rican.
He’s an American.
Said NFL’er just exposed his ignorance.
What small things bring my joy this season? The words “Pitchers and catchers” bring me hope and joy. A warm day. A good song that speaks to my soul.
Dan, just 6 days until Pitchers & Catchers!
Pitchers and catchers, indeed!
I check this site probably too often during the winter…
https://www.springtrainingcountdown.com/
It’s down to single digits!
Bukele at the National Prayer Breakfast, as an honored guest, makes the whole event like a demonic parody of Christian piety.
Things that bring me joy in this season:
1. My new grandson. He’ll be 3 weeks old tomorrow.
2. Music. I don’t think I could survive without it.
CK, Big congrats on the grandson!!
My wife and I will be first time grandparents in a few weeks, God willing.
Kevin H and bob1…barely a break between the Super Bowl and pitchers and catchers.
Geoffrey R. Treloar, Lightfoot the Historian (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998)
Anglican Biblical Interpretation in the Nineteenth Century, ed. J. Garry (Leiden: Brill, 2023)
Peter Nockles, The Oxford Movement in Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)