Facebook statuses provide an amazing medium in which to rant.
Moreso than on message boards, because Facebook does not allow anonymity (as much as we might pray for it).
The families of victims and survivors of 9/11 are SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE on the issue of the mosque, so it's not as black and white as some would have us believe.
As much as we might idealize "separation of church and state," politicians can still sway the masses by using emotionally charged religious language, just as religious authorities can sway their congregations by using emotionally charged political language.
But when all you have is emotion, you're basically running this way and that screaming about the thing-to-be-angry-about of the day like a chicken with its head cut off, and REASON never has a chance to enter the equation.
Thus the reason I don't follow politics anymore.
It's impossible to be HAPPY when your happiness hinges on flawed human beings whom you have never met, whose decisions are beyond your control, and whom your fellow politico-addicts are telling you to hate one day and love another.
As for the mosque itself, let the people of New York City vote on the issue.
The mosque won't be in anyone else's back yard, so let the local government decide, and then let the rest of us ACCEPT THEIR DECISION.
Some claim that letting the mosque be built is somehow an insult to our military.
But this claim ignores the fact that just about everything the American military has been forced to do since 9/11 has been either idiotic or illegal.
Idiotic in "declaring war" against an ideology..we've seen how well that's worked in the "war on drugs."
Illegal (by our own standards) in that we've invaded two countries without a single declaration of war.
Congress is supposed to have sole authority in deploying our military against other nations, but because it's been labeled a "war on terror," the presidents have basically skipped over that little check on the Executive branch in order to throw American lives wherever.
We haven't played by our own rules (i.e, the CONSTITUTION), yet we expect other countries to play by our rules? Stupidity at its most basic level.
I'm just waiting for the inevitable backlash against our "Team America: World Police" nonsensical foreign policy. With our current delusional mindset of indestructibility, and the pattern we've set, eventually we'll go up against a country willing and fully able to blast us back to the stone age (Russia, China,...the list is building as we wallow in our ignorance).
There IS NO MORALITY in this situation. The presence of a mosque is not causing American Muslims to take up arms against anyone, and if it causes American "Christians" to do so, it is on the heads of those "Christians," not those who built or worship at the mosque.
The situation is amoral.
Personal bias for or against does not equate morality.
So, give NYC the power to decide, and then LET THE ISSUE GO, regardless of their decision.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
"Turning Back to God"
Yay for Glenn Beck giving me a great reason to rant.
Basically, the whole country's ranting/complaining/praising whatever version of God they believe in that Beck is holding a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial...supposedly to ring in America's return to "christian" morals and values in the political realm.
...when in reality (something Beck refuses to believe in) Christian morals and values (however you define that) don't EXIST in the political realm.
We should probably stop the contradictory notion that we are a "christian nation" AND YET are so sinful that Sodom and Gomorrah demand a note of apology.
...in addition to completely throwing out the idea of a "Christian nation" anyway. Read... the Treaty of Tripoli for a lesson in what our government (and, in reality, the constitution) thinks we should be.
Nations aren't Christian. Individuals are Christians. We can't throw spiritual bombs and assume everyone caught in the blast radius is going to instantly toss their old selves and start believing in/following Christ.
Our responsibility as individual Christians is to those in our circle, whom we influence and interact with on a daily basis, NOT any of the groups we try to box others into in order to feel superior to them.
Glenn Beck and his ilk, in addition to being power-hungry warmongers, maintain a good-old-days delusion, that at some point American WASN'T dealing with the spiritual issues which it faces today.
The only difference now is that we are more free as a nation to BRING THOSE ISSUES TO LIGHT, not sweep them under the rug by order of the Church's traditions.
Those who maintain that delusion don't want to have to remain intellectually present in the spiritual and political realms. They are addicted to a black-and-white world of "absolutes" (read: catchphraes/soundbites) which has NEVER existed except in name, and NOW is fading away even in name.
If anything, it is time for America to step up as a nation and throw off the shackles of black-and-white blanket thinking, and admit that the spiritual and political issues with which we each struggle daily do NOT have easy solutions or clear-cut answers, and finding some sort of resolution to them requires contributions from EACH OF US, each bringing his or her own experiences and reasoning ability to the table.
Basically, the whole country's ranting/complaining/praising whatever version of God they believe in that Beck is holding a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial...supposedly to ring in America's return to "christian" morals and values in the political realm.
...when in reality (something Beck refuses to believe in) Christian morals and values (however you define that) don't EXIST in the political realm.
We should probably stop the contradictory notion that we are a "christian nation" AND YET are so sinful that Sodom and Gomorrah demand a note of apology.
...in addition to completely throwing out the idea of a "Christian nation" anyway. Read... the Treaty of Tripoli for a lesson in what our government (and, in reality, the constitution) thinks we should be.
Nations aren't Christian. Individuals are Christians. We can't throw spiritual bombs and assume everyone caught in the blast radius is going to instantly toss their old selves and start believing in/following Christ.
Our responsibility as individual Christians is to those in our circle, whom we influence and interact with on a daily basis, NOT any of the groups we try to box others into in order to feel superior to them.
Glenn Beck and his ilk, in addition to being power-hungry warmongers, maintain a good-old-days delusion, that at some point American WASN'T dealing with the spiritual issues which it faces today.
The only difference now is that we are more free as a nation to BRING THOSE ISSUES TO LIGHT, not sweep them under the rug by order of the Church's traditions.
Those who maintain that delusion don't want to have to remain intellectually present in the spiritual and political realms. They are addicted to a black-and-white world of "absolutes" (read: catchphraes/soundbites) which has NEVER existed except in name, and NOW is fading away even in name.
If anything, it is time for America to step up as a nation and throw off the shackles of black-and-white blanket thinking, and admit that the spiritual and political issues with which we each struggle daily do NOT have easy solutions or clear-cut answers, and finding some sort of resolution to them requires contributions from EACH OF US, each bringing his or her own experiences and reasoning ability to the table.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Random God thoughts...
TRADITION.
Simply "we've always done it this way, so this is the way it should be."
'Tis the source of many Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox doctrines and practices which may or may not have any scriptural basis.
Does that make them essentially satanic? By no means.
However, we should all recognize that many of the things we profess to believe do not come from a single source, and thus we should not use a single source for discernment regarding which we should continue professing.
Tradition -> we stand on the shoulders of spiritual giants and learned men who oftentimes have already delved into the areas we seek to understand. We should seek to add to the accumulated wisdom, even as we acknowledge and rely on our forbears' contributions.
Reason -> God-given ability to think. Drawing lines of logical progression between church practices, doctrines, even terminology, OR seeing that no such logical progression exists.
Experience -> Our testimony. What God has already done in our lives. Does it match what we claim to believe about God, the church, or ourselves?
Scripture -> Multiple translations, multiple interpretations, multiple collections. Many times a bundle of paradoxes, but still a tool for ours and God's use. Does our personal interpretation of the Bible match our circumstances, our beliefs, our relationships?
These four are our primary sources for discernment, and each must be used carefully, even as we find connections among them.
An individual's belief should be the current conclusion of the combined filtering through tradition, reason, experience, and scripture.
I say current, because it is an ongoing process.
God is not dead, and always has more to show us.
God has not changed in the two millennia since the end of events described in the Bible.
Our understanding and perception of Him, however, which influenced the creation of Levitican and Mosaic law and how humanity reacted to the person of Christ, has changed DRASTICALLY, to the point that we must be constantly vigilant in discerning what Biblical principles came from God, and which came from man.
For anyone to say "I HAVE FOUND THE ONLY WAY" until that MOMENT, demonstrates extreme arrogance, the likes of which have not been seen Satan offered Christ the whole world if He would only bow down.
Our discernment will not end until we see God's face and the complete truth, unknowable to us in this life, will be revealed.
Simply "we've always done it this way, so this is the way it should be."
'Tis the source of many Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox doctrines and practices which may or may not have any scriptural basis.
Does that make them essentially satanic? By no means.
However, we should all recognize that many of the things we profess to believe do not come from a single source, and thus we should not use a single source for discernment regarding which we should continue professing.
Tradition -> we stand on the shoulders of spiritual giants and learned men who oftentimes have already delved into the areas we seek to understand. We should seek to add to the accumulated wisdom, even as we acknowledge and rely on our forbears' contributions.
Reason -> God-given ability to think. Drawing lines of logical progression between church practices, doctrines, even terminology, OR seeing that no such logical progression exists.
Experience -> Our testimony. What God has already done in our lives. Does it match what we claim to believe about God, the church, or ourselves?
Scripture -> Multiple translations, multiple interpretations, multiple collections. Many times a bundle of paradoxes, but still a tool for ours and God's use. Does our personal interpretation of the Bible match our circumstances, our beliefs, our relationships?
These four are our primary sources for discernment, and each must be used carefully, even as we find connections among them.
An individual's belief should be the current conclusion of the combined filtering through tradition, reason, experience, and scripture.
I say current, because it is an ongoing process.
God is not dead, and always has more to show us.
God has not changed in the two millennia since the end of events described in the Bible.
Our understanding and perception of Him, however, which influenced the creation of Levitican and Mosaic law and how humanity reacted to the person of Christ, has changed DRASTICALLY, to the point that we must be constantly vigilant in discerning what Biblical principles came from God, and which came from man.
For anyone to say "I HAVE FOUND THE ONLY WAY" until that MOMENT, demonstrates extreme arrogance, the likes of which have not been seen Satan offered Christ the whole world if He would only bow down.
Our discernment will not end until we see God's face and the complete truth, unknowable to us in this life, will be revealed.
Monday, July 26, 2010
My Faith Story
I was raised in a Christian home, attended church all the time, fortunately didn't attend "Christian" secondary school due to the fact that the local "Christian" school basically housed all the kids who couldn't function in normal school (mostly due to drug use, gang violence, etc.)
For most of my public school years, I was rank-in-file with my parents, even though they encouraged me to look beyond them and our church to form my own beliefs, especially since we attended a very loving Baptist church, and my parents didn't believe in once-saved-always-saved.
I attended a "Christian" college for three years, mainly because it is my parents'/aunts'/uncles'/grandparents' alma mater.
I did grow in my faith during that time, especially in the area of identifying and forming adequate questions, but monetarily it was a waste. I sluffed off the last two semesters, even getting straight 0's on my transcript during the last one.
I met my future wife during my last year there, and during the following year off from college, God worked amazing things in my life through her, especially in teaching me true selflessness.
I also made my first atheist friends during that year, and God taught me the importance of LISTENING, and to value PEOPLE more than doctrines or dogma.
As my future-wife and I plowed through the struggles of her mother's lung and eventual brain cancer, I returned to school at a community college, meeting more diverse people than I ever would have at the "Christian" university, again spending more time listening than speaking, and speaking only in love and understanding.
I gradually stopped attending church during that time, mainly due to my Sunday School teacher's complete inability to do anything other than lecture us (and come on, we were in COLLEGE...we didn't need ANOTHER lecture every week!).
My then-girlfriend hadn't been raised in church, so it wasn't a big deal for us to to treat Sunday as a much-needed rest day, and nothing else.
We did end up finding a community which reached out to us, and we were eventually married in that church.
During the struggles with her mother's health, my girlfriend asked me many times why I didn't just pack up and walk away, since it wasn't really my fight, so to speak.
I know now it was God's influence that kept me around, but at the time it just seemed like it would be a jerky (for lack of a better non-censored word) move to just walk out when the going got tough.
Her mother eventually died as a result of uncontrollable brain tumors which began as a single malignancy which had metastasized from her lung, three months before our wedding.
As it stands now, I can look back and see God's hand in all of the major changes I have gone through, and feel Him still at work in my life as I try to be the best husband I can be with His help.
But I don't feel the same personal sense of His constant presence that my elders describe.
Maybe it's just because I have too many distractions right now, as a husband, college student, and employee trying to also be a church keyboardist.
For most of my public school years, I was rank-in-file with my parents, even though they encouraged me to look beyond them and our church to form my own beliefs, especially since we attended a very loving Baptist church, and my parents didn't believe in once-saved-always-saved.
I attended a "Christian" college for three years, mainly because it is my parents'/aunts'/uncles'/grandparents' alma mater.
I did grow in my faith during that time, especially in the area of identifying and forming adequate questions, but monetarily it was a waste. I sluffed off the last two semesters, even getting straight 0's on my transcript during the last one.
I met my future wife during my last year there, and during the following year off from college, God worked amazing things in my life through her, especially in teaching me true selflessness.
I also made my first atheist friends during that year, and God taught me the importance of LISTENING, and to value PEOPLE more than doctrines or dogma.
As my future-wife and I plowed through the struggles of her mother's lung and eventual brain cancer, I returned to school at a community college, meeting more diverse people than I ever would have at the "Christian" university, again spending more time listening than speaking, and speaking only in love and understanding.
I gradually stopped attending church during that time, mainly due to my Sunday School teacher's complete inability to do anything other than lecture us (and come on, we were in COLLEGE...we didn't need ANOTHER lecture every week!).
My then-girlfriend hadn't been raised in church, so it wasn't a big deal for us to to treat Sunday as a much-needed rest day, and nothing else.
We did end up finding a community which reached out to us, and we were eventually married in that church.
During the struggles with her mother's health, my girlfriend asked me many times why I didn't just pack up and walk away, since it wasn't really my fight, so to speak.
I know now it was God's influence that kept me around, but at the time it just seemed like it would be a jerky (for lack of a better non-censored word) move to just walk out when the going got tough.
Her mother eventually died as a result of uncontrollable brain tumors which began as a single malignancy which had metastasized from her lung, three months before our wedding.
As it stands now, I can look back and see God's hand in all of the major changes I have gone through, and feel Him still at work in my life as I try to be the best husband I can be with His help.
But I don't feel the same personal sense of His constant presence that my elders describe.
Maybe it's just because I have too many distractions right now, as a husband, college student, and employee trying to also be a church keyboardist.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Wife vs. God
I've been a husband for a grand total of 10 months, 14 days.
My wife and I have been together for about 4 years total.
In that time, God has worked amazing changes in me through her, keeping me close to her as she suffered through her mother's lung and brain cancer, and death last May at the age of 46.
I didn't know that I could achieve real selflessness until God brought us together (via the Internet, no less).
As a result, my identity is so deeply wrapped up in her, and was looong before our marriage, when I finally was able to loudly proclaim it as such.
This of course is contradictory to what most marital counseling advises.
But, then again, they seem to be more interested in preparing couples for divorce right off the bat rather than for lifelong commitment these days.
Anyway, we're both Christians, but we come from completely different backgrounds.
My parents had me in church every time the door was open.
Her parents were cops, so Sunday was a welcome rest day, especially when they'd get home around 5 AM the night before.
Basically, the problem I'm finding is that my marriage matters more to me than my relationship with God.
I find my wife to be much more forgiving of my inadequacies (we both feel the other got the short end of the stick) and eager to move on than I've ever felt with God.
Of course, this could just be due to my wife being physically present, her voice clear and unclouded by the other voices in my head, and her embrace real and comforting, not metaphorical.
I don't feel at a loss when I don't feel God's presence, but my wife's absence from home makes all activity, especially hobbies and even reading, seem pointless and boring.
Even both of us are engrossed and don't speak a word to each other for hours, merely her presence fills me with comfort and an assurance I didn't realize existed until she got a job which required her to work all day and sometimes into the wee hours.
Thusly do I sit at this moment, devoid of her presence and thus any meaning in anything I do.
Isn't that how I'm supposed to feel about God?
My wife and I have been together for about 4 years total.
In that time, God has worked amazing changes in me through her, keeping me close to her as she suffered through her mother's lung and brain cancer, and death last May at the age of 46.
I didn't know that I could achieve real selflessness until God brought us together (via the Internet, no less).
As a result, my identity is so deeply wrapped up in her, and was looong before our marriage, when I finally was able to loudly proclaim it as such.
This of course is contradictory to what most marital counseling advises.
But, then again, they seem to be more interested in preparing couples for divorce right off the bat rather than for lifelong commitment these days.
Anyway, we're both Christians, but we come from completely different backgrounds.
My parents had me in church every time the door was open.
Her parents were cops, so Sunday was a welcome rest day, especially when they'd get home around 5 AM the night before.
Basically, the problem I'm finding is that my marriage matters more to me than my relationship with God.
I find my wife to be much more forgiving of my inadequacies (we both feel the other got the short end of the stick) and eager to move on than I've ever felt with God.
Of course, this could just be due to my wife being physically present, her voice clear and unclouded by the other voices in my head, and her embrace real and comforting, not metaphorical.
I don't feel at a loss when I don't feel God's presence, but my wife's absence from home makes all activity, especially hobbies and even reading, seem pointless and boring.
Even both of us are engrossed and don't speak a word to each other for hours, merely her presence fills me with comfort and an assurance I didn't realize existed until she got a job which required her to work all day and sometimes into the wee hours.
Thusly do I sit at this moment, devoid of her presence and thus any meaning in anything I do.
Isn't that how I'm supposed to feel about God?
Friday, May 7, 2010
Iron Man 2...
Tops the first film in every way, if that's possible.
Deeper interactions between the good guys, a more passionate and complex villain....and we get to see Scarlet Johansen beat the living crap out of a small army.
Yeah...Scarlet's the real star of this movie, as far as the "action film" part of it goes.
The best word to sum up this movie as compared to the first: DEEPER.
Everything, every character, even the random SHIELD agent from the first movie, the villains, plus the little extra after the credits (it's a good thing that was worth the wait...after almost 3 hours I had to PEE).
Since this is a blog, I don't give a crap about spoiling it for people.
There's less humor in 2 than in 1, but that's mainly because Tony spends the first half of this movie DYING.
Yeah.
There's a scene where he gets drunk while wearing the suit, and a fight with Rhoadie (also suited) ensuits...er--ensues.
Don Cheadle owns the part of Rhoadie in ways that make Terrence Howard look like an amateur.
Yeah...War Machine...looks awesome, kicks ass...and even provides a little comic relief.
Of course the movie wouldn't be complete without Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vankov, possible the deadliest SANE supervillain yet to appear in a comic book film.
Electric whips, mastery of robotics technology, and the biggest axe to grind outside of Sakaar.
Blacklash + Crimson Dynamo = Ivan Vankov in Iron Man 2.
And what a sweet love child it is.
My one and only complaint:
Whoever let Sam Rockwell play Justin Hammer needs to be shot and speared and castrated with a red-hot spork.
Seriously.
If they were worried that audiences would be too stupid to see a difference between Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer, they seriously didn't know their freakin' audience.
The audience that showed up tonight in thousand-dollar Iron Man and War Machine and Thor and Captain America and Wasp (shout out to the big girl at Q. Springs!) costumes, and quite possibly knows the characters better than anyone who's never worked for Marvel.
Seriously guys, your target audience KNOWS THE CHARACTERS...except when you butcher them in favor of a metrosexual villain!
Then you didn't even give us the pleasure of seeing Hammer sliced in half by one of Ivan's whips! WTH?!
You'd already shown Ivan to be a master hand-to-hand fighter!
Show us Ivan snapping Hammer's neck or something!
Not that I'm ranting or anything.
Deeper interactions between the good guys, a more passionate and complex villain....and we get to see Scarlet Johansen beat the living crap out of a small army.
Yeah...Scarlet's the real star of this movie, as far as the "action film" part of it goes.
The best word to sum up this movie as compared to the first: DEEPER.
Everything, every character, even the random SHIELD agent from the first movie, the villains, plus the little extra after the credits (it's a good thing that was worth the wait...after almost 3 hours I had to PEE).
Since this is a blog, I don't give a crap about spoiling it for people.
There's less humor in 2 than in 1, but that's mainly because Tony spends the first half of this movie DYING.
Yeah.
There's a scene where he gets drunk while wearing the suit, and a fight with Rhoadie (also suited) ensuits...er--ensues.
Don Cheadle owns the part of Rhoadie in ways that make Terrence Howard look like an amateur.
Yeah...War Machine...looks awesome, kicks ass...and even provides a little comic relief.
Of course the movie wouldn't be complete without Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vankov, possible the deadliest SANE supervillain yet to appear in a comic book film.
Electric whips, mastery of robotics technology, and the biggest axe to grind outside of Sakaar.
Blacklash + Crimson Dynamo = Ivan Vankov in Iron Man 2.
And what a sweet love child it is.
My one and only complaint:
Whoever let Sam Rockwell play Justin Hammer needs to be shot and speared and castrated with a red-hot spork.
Seriously.
If they were worried that audiences would be too stupid to see a difference between Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer, they seriously didn't know their freakin' audience.
The audience that showed up tonight in thousand-dollar Iron Man and War Machine and Thor and Captain America and Wasp (shout out to the big girl at Q. Springs!) costumes, and quite possibly knows the characters better than anyone who's never worked for Marvel.
Seriously guys, your target audience KNOWS THE CHARACTERS...except when you butcher them in favor of a metrosexual villain!
Then you didn't even give us the pleasure of seeing Hammer sliced in half by one of Ivan's whips! WTH?!
You'd already shown Ivan to be a master hand-to-hand fighter!
Show us Ivan snapping Hammer's neck or something!
Not that I'm ranting or anything.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Waiting Up
It's kinda weird.
My wife spent so much time looking for a job that I got into a rhythm, which involved her always being at home when I was.
Now that she has a job (waitress), she's out late at night (downtown no less)...and I feel lonely for the first time in probably a decade or more.
Today she had to be at work at 11 AM...and 12 1/2 hours later is still working.
In contrast, I had to be at work at noon, and finished at 5 PM.
In the long run it'll be good, both of us bringing in money, and on the financial side could greatly reduce our stress.
But I wonder how much time with each other we'll lose when she's getting home dead tired in the wee hours of the morning night after night, and I sit at home bored, restless, and lonely night after night.
Tonight I'll force myself to stay awake long enough for her to get home, even if that requires a second trip to Wal-Mart and a case of VAULT.
Oh, and just to clarify my moping:
We've been in a two-income situation before, but she worked set hours (kinda hard as a waitress), so we always knew when we'd be able to spend time together.
I hope our marriage doesn't suffer as a result, no matter how much money we earn.
My wife spent so much time looking for a job that I got into a rhythm, which involved her always being at home when I was.
Now that she has a job (waitress), she's out late at night (downtown no less)...and I feel lonely for the first time in probably a decade or more.
Today she had to be at work at 11 AM...and 12 1/2 hours later is still working.
In contrast, I had to be at work at noon, and finished at 5 PM.
In the long run it'll be good, both of us bringing in money, and on the financial side could greatly reduce our stress.
But I wonder how much time with each other we'll lose when she's getting home dead tired in the wee hours of the morning night after night, and I sit at home bored, restless, and lonely night after night.
Tonight I'll force myself to stay awake long enough for her to get home, even if that requires a second trip to Wal-Mart and a case of VAULT.
Oh, and just to clarify my moping:
We've been in a two-income situation before, but she worked set hours (kinda hard as a waitress), so we always knew when we'd be able to spend time together.
I hope our marriage doesn't suffer as a result, no matter how much money we earn.
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