Pagan birth;
The date and the tree.
Christian birth;
What matters to me.
Presents and packages,
Ribbons and bows,
Show little concern
For little freezing toes.
The children want Santa,
The parents want rest.
Selfishness covers
How much we’ve been blessed.
Love without cost,
He came to give.
New directions and purposes
For how we live.
Consumerist attitudes
Cover all bases;
Loving through action
Corrupted to baseness.
We speak of Him
In memoriam,
Each time the day is spoken.
Yet the state calls
A consortium
Each time our silence is broken.
Yet with each of its probes,
The state’s fear grows
That a giant will rise
To counter its blows.
Time was rocked with this baby’s birth.
Each day of our lives proves this baby’s worth.
Until the day of His return
Consumerist wiles we’ll continue to spurn,
To prove that love’s the reason
For this newly-selfish season.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Palin vs. Obama
I was asked the following question earlier:
"If Sarah Palin runs against Barack Obama in 2012, who would you vote for?"
My couch.
My couch has never lied to me, never tried to make me believe it was a recliner.
It has never stopped being comfy just because I didn't sit on it for awhile.
It hasn't advocated that its look and feel are the IDEAL look and feel for couches.
It has never claimed that its position in the living room is the only right position, and that all couches everywhere should be so positioned.
My couch has never tried to convince me that because other couches don't look the same, aren't made of the same materials, or aren't made in the same country as mine they are somehow inferior.
It has never told me to go sit on the ottoman because the ottoman never gets sat on and its feelings are being hurt.
So yeah. I'll vote for my couch.
"If Sarah Palin runs against Barack Obama in 2012, who would you vote for?"
My couch.
My couch has never lied to me, never tried to make me believe it was a recliner.
It has never stopped being comfy just because I didn't sit on it for awhile.
It hasn't advocated that its look and feel are the IDEAL look and feel for couches.
It has never claimed that its position in the living room is the only right position, and that all couches everywhere should be so positioned.
My couch has never tried to convince me that because other couches don't look the same, aren't made of the same materials, or aren't made in the same country as mine they are somehow inferior.
It has never told me to go sit on the ottoman because the ottoman never gets sat on and its feelings are being hurt.
So yeah. I'll vote for my couch.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Judge Not!
Something's been bugging me all day, hearing about more Westboro BS.
Didn't Jesus basically say that if we judge others, we shall be judged according to the same standard?
I dunno about anyone else, but I fail to do the good I know to do (and fail to refrain from doing the bad I know not to do) as often as the worst "sinner."
I don't judge people because I know I would fail if measured by the same stick.
However, there is a difference between judging people and acknowledging that their actions do not measure up to our personal moral standard (even as we acknowledge that OUR actions do not measure up).
This is the difference between saying "You lied. Lying is bad." and "You are the sort of person who lies."
In the former instance, we are stating that an individual action is immoral.
In the latter, we are stating that a PERSON is immoral, that everything which makes them who they are is flawed, degenerate, etc.
We are called to do the former, in love, acknowledging that while the action is immoral, the person who did the action has the capacity to, with God's help, rise above the tendency to commit immoral actions.
We are forbidden to do the latter, especially online (yeah, I know).
God alone knows the heart, God alone knows each and every one of us in the totality of our being.
Hate the sin: acknowledge the failure to live up to divine standards.
Love the sinner: embrace each and every person as a child of God, and allow His love to move through you to make a difference in their lives.
Didn't Jesus basically say that if we judge others, we shall be judged according to the same standard?
I dunno about anyone else, but I fail to do the good I know to do (and fail to refrain from doing the bad I know not to do) as often as the worst "sinner."
I don't judge people because I know I would fail if measured by the same stick.
However, there is a difference between judging people and acknowledging that their actions do not measure up to our personal moral standard (even as we acknowledge that OUR actions do not measure up).
This is the difference between saying "You lied. Lying is bad." and "You are the sort of person who lies."
In the former instance, we are stating that an individual action is immoral.
In the latter, we are stating that a PERSON is immoral, that everything which makes them who they are is flawed, degenerate, etc.
We are called to do the former, in love, acknowledging that while the action is immoral, the person who did the action has the capacity to, with God's help, rise above the tendency to commit immoral actions.
We are forbidden to do the latter, especially online (yeah, I know).
God alone knows the heart, God alone knows each and every one of us in the totality of our being.
Hate the sin: acknowledge the failure to live up to divine standards.
Love the sinner: embrace each and every person as a child of God, and allow His love to move through you to make a difference in their lives.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Video Games...
It amazes me how much the video game "debate" (which isn't even really on the radar anymore) brings out the worst in grown-ups, in the same way the comic book scare in the 1950's did.
Just to lay it out there:
The video game medium is not the sole cause of any acts of violence or crime, just as comic books weren't the sole cause of juvenile delinquency in the 50's.
If video games bring out some psychotic tendency within a person, that tendency was ALREADY THERE. Playing Grand Theft Auto didn't somehow implant the desire to beat up old ladies with a baseball bat (though within the game it's FUUUN!).
It is in no way the game designer's or marketer's fault if their games bring out impulses in players, regardless of age.
Parents who blame video games for their child's behavior are merely refusing to take their responsibility AS PARENTS, preferring (like so many others) to push the fault on something outside the home AND hoping to push responsibility on the government so they can continue to live as children themselves, instead of placing their offspring on a higher priority than their own whims.
Video games are simply a relatively new medium of entertainment marketed solely to children and teens, which narrow-minded adults (being something other than the party marketed to) want to either destroy or regulate into oblivion simply because their children's tastes are not matching their own (again like comic books in the 50's).
God forbid our children have their own opinions.
Also, it amazes me how many hardcore conservatives (who typically scream bloody murder against bigger government) want video games regulated into the ground.
Double standard much?
Or is it just because this is a "moral" issue ("We have to protect our children!") that regulation (and by it destruction) is so vehemently sought?
Just to lay it out there:
The video game medium is not the sole cause of any acts of violence or crime, just as comic books weren't the sole cause of juvenile delinquency in the 50's.
If video games bring out some psychotic tendency within a person, that tendency was ALREADY THERE. Playing Grand Theft Auto didn't somehow implant the desire to beat up old ladies with a baseball bat (though within the game it's FUUUN!).
It is in no way the game designer's or marketer's fault if their games bring out impulses in players, regardless of age.
Parents who blame video games for their child's behavior are merely refusing to take their responsibility AS PARENTS, preferring (like so many others) to push the fault on something outside the home AND hoping to push responsibility on the government so they can continue to live as children themselves, instead of placing their offspring on a higher priority than their own whims.
Video games are simply a relatively new medium of entertainment marketed solely to children and teens, which narrow-minded adults (being something other than the party marketed to) want to either destroy or regulate into oblivion simply because their children's tastes are not matching their own (again like comic books in the 50's).
God forbid our children have their own opinions.
Also, it amazes me how many hardcore conservatives (who typically scream bloody murder against bigger government) want video games regulated into the ground.
Double standard much?
Or is it just because this is a "moral" issue ("We have to protect our children!") that regulation (and by it destruction) is so vehemently sought?
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