Hadrian's wall

Back from a trip with my wife to Maui. It was another no phone- no computer vacation, but I am back to blogging now! It was a wonderful time just enjoying the tropics with my love. We did check in with the kids on a regular basis. A friend of ours stayed with them at night and Kristina was overseer (not always successful) of David and Gregory.

There is a sense of security having the cell phone gives with reception all over the island. The challenge is settling arguments the kids are having by saying, "Your in trouble if you do ______", all the while looking at the moon over the water with the lapping waves and warm breeze. I haven't reconciled a getaway without our children as a clean getaway. Even though they are teens and I talked to them about every day, I still missed them.

And it brings to focus again how much teens need their parents to touch base. We are cheerleaders, listeners, advice givers, but in the case of absentee parents vacationing on their own, we are referees. Somehow the sense of justice and parental judges are mixed together. You can have wide boundaries but you are keepers of the boudaries.

I read recently that Hadrian's wall in Great Britian between Scotland and England was set up in 122 AD to keep the Scots out of England. The Romans had conquered everyone else but they couldn't quite get the northern Scots to surrender. So, they figured it was easier to build a wall and keep them out.

Would that work with our kids? Set up a sound proof, padded wall room and strip them of all weapons and lock them up? Kind of like Hadrian's room? Can't conquer them and so we just isolate them from the rest of us?

I don't think it will work. You have to figure out ways to let siblings work some things out on their own without parental intervention, testing out what they will have to do for the rest of their lives in their own families, in the workplace, and so on.

In the meantime, if I hear one more argument...just don't leave a battle axe or a mace laying around the house!

2 John sermon

in today's anything-goes-world, you don't get to aggressively attack me and try to be clever in order to make your point. Let's just examine the evidence together. OK?

The louder and more obnoxious we get, the weaker our position.

now I've seen everything

When you “google,” "Jesus," the number one website is not the Vatican, not Billy Graham’s page, not Purpose Driven Life; it is a dressup doll of Jesus on the cross. He looks to be wearing Jockey briefs and you can dress him in a hula skirt with coconut bra, ballerina tutu, or my personal favorite, a devil costume for Halloween.

Obviously, it wouldn’t shock me if Christians take offense at this. Yet, at least two things stand in the way.

1. We are used to people trying to make fun of Jesus and our faith. That’s been going on for 2000 years.

2. We know Jesus can take care of himself. He is big enough that we don’t lose sleep when people try to be silly, clever, or spiteful against him and Christians. Especially from media in America.


So many Christians speak out whenever people make broad brush characterizations about Islam or speak about it in a ridiculing or offensive way. I would ask that my Muslim friends send an e-mail letting Google know that www.jesusdressup.com is a bit much. It will get more attention coming from you.

what Jesus wants

Do you think what Jesus wants Jesus gets? I do. So when Jesus says (John 12:32),

"And when I am lifted up on the cross, I will draw everyone to myself."

…he means it.

Which means if you are open to being influenced by him you will be. If you are not a follower of Jesus, I have to say, as a Christian, I am not here to do your thinking for you. I am not here to try to persuade you to follow him. I am not here to debate you as to how awesome life with Jesus is compared to life without him. Notice what Jesus says.

“I will draw everyone to myself.”

The influence is up to him.

All I can do is invite you to consider him and not be too much of a jerk so you at least know one Christian who respects you. If you are a Christian reading this, please consider this, as well.

the math of tragic death

Her death was tragic. Her story was tragic. Now it will be revisited ad nauseum by the media, who of course, are a business that needs the attention of the public to make money. Not bad/ not good/ just the reality of the business. The murder of that poor little girl, Jonbenet Ramsey, 10 years ago, will be a major focus now that a guy confessed. One death; a world’s attention.

The battles that occurred for the last month between Hezbollah and Israel have held the world’s focus up until this time. Tragic, with almost 1000 people killed, including children. No one is immune to the ongoing horrors of war, terrorism, civil war, foreign occupation, whatever you wish to call it.

Now let’s do the math.

One.

1000.

And…

According to United Nations reports, every day, 5,500 children across 21 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa alone die before they reach their fifth birthday. The UN reports at least 2/3’s of those deaths are preventable due to the simple means of providing safe drinking water, and disease prevention.

One

1000

5,500

Or…

2,000,000 + in the next year.

All tragic.

Horrible.

But, God have mercy on our math.

Think about this deeply in your own emphasis and prayer life.

christcast 19- psychology 101

Kristina and Dana talk about Freud, Hookah lounges, Alice in Wonderland, two kinds of people and, of course, Frenchmen in speedos.

know your enemy

In biblical language, your “enemy” is someone working against you. To be someone’s enemy is not an emotional response, as much as it is practical application of emotion. Hezbollah is an enemy of the United States. They are the group responsible for killing almost 250 marines back in the 80’s in Beirut, among other things, and they are still an enemy today. Whether you like it or not if you are an American, if you can’t stand American policy, you are a member of the “hate Bush” club and the all the rest, Hezbollah is the enemy. You don’t get the option of choosing who your enemy is, at least from a biblical viewpoint. Your enemy chooses you.

This is why it is so amazing to me the use of photoshopped altered photos (one was a guy dead and then in another later photo he was walking around again! Must be named, “Lazarus”…), staged photos (various brand new Disney toys put on top of a pile of rubble) and the rest, that were being used in the New York Times and other major newspapers until they were called out on it. Turned out that most were from one specific photographer, but they are still coming from other sources after all his stuff was pulled from their websites.

Blatant propaganda is not the place of newspapers in a free society. Obviously, one can’t “balance” everything, yet, overwhelming, news organizations are actually finding themselves going out of their way to aid the message of the enemy. An unbelievable attempt at this occurred yesterday from an AP report. Hezbollah is continuing to fire rockets at Israel. The latest rockets just happened to miss by not reaching far enough. They didn’t get across the border. Here is the AP headline:

Rockets hit Lebanon despite cease-fire
Those Israeli’s are at it again, right? Zionist pigs! Except it is Hezbollah firing the rockets! 99 out of 100 people would not know that or guess that from the headline. Not until the second paragraph do you get the true story:

Highlighting the fragility of the peace, Hezbollah guerrillas fired at least 10 Katyusha rockets that landed in southern Lebanon early Tuesday, the Israeli army said, adding that nobody was injured. The army said that none of the rockets, which were fired over a two-hour period, had crossed the border and so it had not responded.

Help me understand here. I am looking for one example (e-mail me link) of mainstream media doing as severe a slant on a news headline in making Israel look like the “good guy.” Not a pro-Israel headline, but a headline that casts Israel in a good light, though the facts of the article are opposite.

We have known for some time that mainstream news appears to be biased opinion more than news. The challenge is we are not talking about taxes, political parties or the environment. For those of us who are Americans, we are talking about people who want to kill us. We can’t say, “I have no enemies. This is not my conflict.” Alas, we don’t get to choose our enemies. They choose us.

more booze

Here’s to alcohol: The cause of and answer to all of life’s problems.”

- Homer (Simpson, not the Iliad guy)

How many crimes are committed where the criminal is stone cold sober? No drugs or alcohol in their system?

How many traffic accidents occur where everyone involved is stone cold sober? O yah, I forgot cell phones, never mind…

How much at risk sexual activity occurs where all participants are stone cold sober?

Fights…?

Extreme, public rageful behavior…?

Bitter arguments…?

The list could go on. Having spent earlier years as a bartender and bar manager, as well as a drinker of distinction (a Pabst was as good as an Old Style in those days), it’s not as if I am discovering anything new here. It’s just that when we don’t stop and think about things that we take for granted, we don’t have the fun of analysis.

When we think of drinking, it is a difficult topic because it can be done in a healthy, moderate way, and it is part of religious and social custom. For Christians and Jews, for instance, an honest straightforward reading of the Bible gives clear indication that alcohol consumed properly is a natural gift from God. All the inherent problems are addressed, as well, but prohibition is not a biblical mandate.

I don’t have an answer to all of this other than, if you are a disciple of Jesus, it is a good idea not to make an idiot out of yourself. Remember, it’s OK to be different. No matter what team you root for, what party you go to, what you are celebrating, you can probably get by with a couple of drinks as well as a binge twelve pack. No one is going to get terribly upset.

Or, shock of all shocks, you don’t have to drink at all.

1 John 5- "why can't we all just get along?"

why don't church communities have police forces and jails?

when there is serious crime in a church, why does this always make the news?

can human beings actually get along?

booze and football

I had the opportunity to see the Packers play the Chargers (lost bad, but preseason, but again, Packers would have been routed anyway), and it was fun to share the boy’s first NFL game. Also, an opportunity for them to see so many people doing so much drinking and acting so foolish. Somehow different than a Dodger game.

Some of it was good natured, but a lot of it was angry and crude. Booze is an equal opportunity inhibitor destroyer, and so I will make a bold insight: younger people were more crude and obnoxious than older, at least when drinking.

When it comes to drinking there are stereotypically three types of drunken personalities.

Happy drunks
Angry, crude drunks
Sad drunks

Sad drunks don’t generally find themselves going to preseason football games, so you are left with happy and angry/crude. I remember going to games as a kid and seeing guys with blood running down their shirts after Milwaukee Braves games in the 60’s. It is not necessarily a sign of the times thing. But the language and behavior of the younger crowd at the game was more angry than happy. Older drinkers; more happy than angry. And in both cases, many of them were Charger fans and their team was winning.

My conclusion? When you don’t drink, you have a great time doing psycho/social research. Especially when your team is getting killed. Another hypothesis?

Packer fans are so experienced at drinking that even their angry personality types have learned to grow mellow.

terrorists

With the uncovering of the terrorist plot out of Great Britain, it is once again an example that the Marxist analogy of economics fueling all lashing out by “oppressed” people is not logical in case after case of terrorism coming up. This isn’t as simplistic as rich vs. poor, the West exploiting the poor of the Third World and such. It seems that all the suspects are Brits; some more than one generation.

Once again, if you want to understand why people do what they do, let them tell you. As with other terrorists, both suspects and those convicted, economics is not in their language in any strong emphasis, religious ideology, in particular some form of extreme Islam offshoot group teaching is. This isn’t about economics as much as it is about trying to violently force your thinking upon others. This is not the viewpoint of the vast majority of Muslims in the world, though there is cause for alarm.

Here is where deep thinking is required. In Great Britain, before the events of the last couple of days, there was a survey done by the London Daily Telegraph with a random sample of self-identified British Muslims, where 30% of those surveyed said they totally supported or were sympathetic toward the bombings of the subways and buses in London resulting in the death of 52 innocent people a little over a year ago. This is an amazing statistic that greatly calls into question the viewpoint, often stated but never statistically supported, that those who would kill in the name of Allah are a tiny rare fraction of self-identified Muslims. At least not in England where no matter how you look at it, almost 1/3 is not a tiny rare fraction. What does this mean?

Next week.

cell phones

Enough is enough. If you live where there are teenagers and young adults, watch them walk around. It can be 6:30 a.m. and they have a cell phone attached to their ear. Who in the world is a teenager talking to that early? I understand the popularity of constant chatter, but this is a bit much. Cell phones are everywhere.

And don’t talk to me about drivers and cell phones. I need to make a qualifying statement first. I am not much of a cell phone person to begin with. I do speak on the phone in the car on occasion, though I try to use speakerphone when I do. That said, I’m very distracted when I am driving and on the cell, as well.

But you don’t really know about distraction until you try riding your bike in a busy traffic area. Everyone seems to be on their cell, and their driving is overwhelmingly awful. I realize being on a bike is bad enough to begin with, potential danger-wise, but I am very careful, and so what I am speaking of is more observation than close calls.

Though, yesterday I was biking with my son, David, when a young woman in a fancy new Lexus just suddenly decided to do a U turn right in front of me, with a cell phone glued to her ear. So, I gave her a smiling cell phone sign (see picture for example) and she gave me an unsmiling “we’re number one” finger sign. I just laughed and shook my head.

I can’t wait until we just imbed those suckers in our skulls and then we will all just look like we are paranoid schizophrenics. Talking to ourselves wherever we go. It is getting close to this with the Bluetooth ear piece, but hey, let’s go all the way. I ache nostalgically for the phone booth. Private, and not that convenient. I guess we are just more important now, and need to call everyone more than we did before.

discrimination

There are certainly instances of discrimination that occur in various societies. When I am speaking of “anyone except me” ism, this does not mean for the sake of advantage, I may not join forces with other “me first” people and together we work against others. I may well do that as a sinful human. Deciding who is in and who is out is an art practiced by most.

I think of the phenomenon of Elvis. Yes, he had a good “blues” voice and a charismatic presence. Yet, were there black singers at the time who were more talented and more charismatic? Certainly possible. Perhaps Elvis is simply the designated white guy who was allowed to sing the blues music that America, in particular the white American audience, was discovering, though it was actually an art form created and dominated by black Americans. We will never know the possibilities.

Obviously the same can be said for athletics in the 20th century. The film, “Glory Road,” is one look at the situation. For instance, no matter how much retro-observation, we will always be more familiar with a Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth than a Josh Gibson or Buck Leonard. It is just a reality of discrimination having a lasting impact.

more of me

I wrote about hate crime, racism, etc. yesterday, and want to make more observations. When I am accusing you of hate and such, I am speaking of your thought life. I am judging your motives. This is totally illogical.

First of all, I may lash out against you verbally (by far the most prevalent category of hate crime) and not only not hate you, I may have deep care for you. When a parent goes off on their kid with spiteful language, is that “hate crime?” Of course, persistent verbal abuse can be damaging, but it is not classified as “hate crime,” as far as I understand.

Second, what if, rather than “hate,” I simply have a filthy mouth, as celebrated this week with the 25th anniversary of MTV. With the bigoted sexist droll that comes out of the mouths of so many of the celebrated singers, do I think they are all hateful? No, many are probably just crude and foolish. We don’t have criminal categories for crude and foolish, unless it results in crimes against body or property.

Third, I don’t really know myself completely, so how could you possibly be able to tell me with conclusive evidence that you know what I am thinking? It is a mark of self- obsessed hubris for me to be so sure about your motives and thoughts. This is why the Bible spends an abundance of time telling us to be careful of judging what others are thinking.

Even when you think you are a real victim of any of the ism’s of life, perhaps you should begin with not allowing someone else to gain an advantage over you by influencing you to think like a victim. If I don’t allow myself to get offended, I am working from strength rather than weakness.

Christcast 18- back from the wilderness

Dana and Kristina return from an internet free/ study free vacation and live to talk about it. What do you do with all that time on your
hands?

me first

Back from my “wilderness” no-internet, no cell phone vacation. I had a lot of time to think, bask in beauty, and connect with family. We are all alive and well and so that is a good first step. We didn’t kill each other after many weeks together in confined spaces. So, what do I blog on first? What have I been thinking about?

How about starting with the basic problem of humanity without God?

I think I am the center of the world.

This simple fact, that I am at my core filled with self-interest, which can be recognized from self-worship to self-loathing, is so often overlooked.

Think of these topics.


Racism
Sexism
Religious Intolerance
Hate Crime

None of these issues really exist.

This is just something that I accuse you of so I can put you on the defensive. So I can gain power over you. There is no such thing as a racist, sexist, etc. Not logically.

At my core I just don’t like anyone who is not me. I can’t possibly be a racist if I have a problem with everybody. I can only be one thing.

A “every-person-in-the-world-except-for-me”-ist.

This is why speaking of something like “hate crime,” is so illogical and, actually, silly. When I commit a crime against you that is not classified a “hate” crime, does that mean, “I violate your person or property, but all and all, I think you are kind of special?”

No, the problem with all these labels is they are simply ways to try to get the focus off of the real problem which is we all, every single one of us, is out for himself/herself at the core. If it gives me an advantage to label you “intolerant,” at least I will have the upper hand for the moment.