Think For Yourself / Question Everything
I wanted to visit Greenfield Village once more before we close out another year. This visit is a gallery that shows no evidence of the 21st century. That is one thing I truly enjoy about Mackinac Island, no cars allowed). Nantucket is a great place to visit but it is kinda ruined by all the cars that have flooded the island.
Anyway, here is my version of Greenfield of the 20th century:
Actually, I’m waiting for the first one to drop on this whole Trump fiasco. Meuller has been investigating this crooked swamp for what seems like an eternity. It is more a question of how many felonies were committed during his campaign and since, not if. The anticipation is nerve-racking.
I know, given that he still controls the Senate that impeachment is impossible but just seeing so many smoking guns will be satisfying enough for me. I know he will scream FAKE NEWS but I again hope that at least some of his ridiculously loyal base will actually see the truth once it has knocked them to the ground.
I have some pretty high hopes for America in the Post-Trump era:
◉ I look for the day when the term “Evangelical” might have an ounce of respect again but I kinda think that word needs to remain on the ash heap of time to be replaced by something else that is truer to its founder.
◉ I look for the day that morality and truthfulness once again return to the Oval Office. Where we don’t have to put up with bullying tyrannical tweets on a daily basis. Where we don’t have to see that face ever again.
◉ I look for the day that principles will reign over party. I know that is a very long-term wish but it has to start somewhere.
◉ I look for the day where I can once again turn on the TV and instead of the 24/7 swamp coverage I can actually be informed about what is happening in the world that day.
For my winter 2018/2019 project, I have decided to study the topics of philosophy and spirituality and how they intermingle. I am starting out this study by reading a book entitled “Belief without Borders” by Linda A. Mercadante. I will be putting out numerous Sunday posts about it in the coming weeks. Associated with that study, I have also been visiting some of my more than 500 posts over at one of my other blogs at RedLetterLiving.net
This post was originally written on February 18, 2013.
=======================================================
All of this makes me wonder if pews are misleading in churches. They trick people into thinking that Christians learn best by sitting quietly in rows, listening to lectures, and memorizing ideas about the faith. But churches should not be lecture halls.
The above quote grabbed my attention. It is from a book by Diane Butler Bass entitled Christianity After Religion. I came to the same conclusion a couple of years before I read these words. Churches, in general, are very misleading of what Jesus expects of us. Yes, I know some of my Christian friends believe that all we are supposed to do is to accept Christ as our savior and then spend the rest of our lives laying back and letting his grace flow over us. To me, nothing could be further from the truth.
I am not one to have memorized the Bible so I can’t say for sure but I don’t believe that Jesus put much emphasis on us being passive followers. I suspect the folks who are aligned with that belief can quote at least a verse or two that if you twist it just right might infer that we are supposed to be passive. I know I read the red letters frequently and what I see is Jesus telling me again and again to actively love my brother and to love God.
Getting back to the quote at hand, I think churches in general do trick people into thinking they are following Christ by just spending an hour a week sitting in the air-conditioned churches listening to lectures and memorizing selected words to back up their static beliefs. To be quite frank, I just can’t understand all the lavish cathedrals built through the ages by the church. I believe in my heart that Jesus never intended that to happen. I totally agree with Ms. Bass that churches should NOT be lecture halls and that includes lectures by the clergy of your favorite flavor.
If we truly want to reflect the heart and message of Jesus we should shut down our lavish palaces we have constructed in his name and move out into the community as he taught us. Jesus did spend a few sparing times in the synagogue but he did not live there, or hide there as Christians today seem to do. As a matter of fact one of the most visible bible stories is about Jesus going into a church to upset the local traditions of the time. He upset a lot of carts in that story and I think we need to do the same for him today.
Let’s quit spending all the money we collect in God’s name on ourselves and instead put it out in the community. Lord knows there are plenty of opportunities for us Christians to make more of a difference in the world today. If we want to be a follower of Jesus we should take his examples to heart and get out there loving the tax collectors, prostitute, poor and destitute in our day as he did in his.
For this Artsy Saturday, I want to present to you the tag banner that will be used for future Artsy Saturday posts. I have had an artistic tsunami this week so I now have graphics for each type of post going forward. 🙂
My header above shows the seven daily topics going forward here at RJsCorner. I am trying to diversify my neighborhood so it doesn’t fixate on all the madness inside the beltway. I made a promise to you that I would do more to offer hope in these trying times and that is what this new diversification is meant to provide. I hope it works and if it doesn’t I will make more changes. Embrace change is one of my 10 pillars of life and I certainly live up to it here.
Next week I will be rolling out all the tag banners for your perusal. Closing out, no, I didn’t totally create the picture above but I did “enhance” it and added to it.
We in America have a pretty inflated belief that we are the best in the world at everything we do. Why else would we stick our noses into so many other countries’ affairs? We have military bases in over 50 countries in the world. How many other countries’ bases are in the US? We think and maybe at one time we actually did have the best technology, the best engineering and the best software talent in the world. Part of the reason for that is that we recruited talent from the rest of the world. But, as we close our borders that talent will be siphoned off elsewhere.
Source: Eight Myths Americans Need to Unlearn About America
You must admit that at least for the last couple of years we haven’t done much right as a country. Too many of us proudly proclaim that anything our current leader doesn’t like is fake news. Global warming can’t be true because he doesn’t have a gut feeling about it. How far behind are we getting by that ignorance? He said while he was campaigning that he would be the “infrastructure” president but he seems to have lost interest in that topic also.
One of the most egotistical things about us Americans is that so many believe that we can’t learn anything from the rest of the world. I have long known that as “Not Invented Here“. If we didn’t invent it then it is not worth having. Simply speaking we need to get over this idea, especially now.
As an example, EU countries have much better public healthcare than we do and they do it for less than half our cost per citizen. Too many of us are still battling against any form of a single-payer system when others in the world long ago found it to be the best and most affordable solution.
We need to get off our high-horse with the idea that we excel at everything…
I am still refining my new format for RJsCorner and that will probably be an on-going process for months to come. 🙂 When I first set up the weekly post categories I deemed Thursday as American Heroes but pretty quickly decided that was just too confining for what I intended. After a couple of days of contemplation, I decided to make Thursday the day I post about the people and things that inspire me. Being that I obsessively search for just the right phrase, I want to give you my definition of Inspiration.
So, for this first Thursday Inspiration post, I give you Emmanuel Macron. I admit that I don’t know a lot about him yet but what I do knows makes me think that he is a world leader for the 21st century. He is young (41) but appears to have wisdom beyond his years. Maybe that is because he, like me, married a woman considerably older than him. 🙂
His recent interview on CNN’s GPS piqued my interest to learn more. During that interview, he laid out his 5-year plan for bringing France into a leadership roll in EU and the world. I would highly encourage you to watch that interview. For those who don’t have the time to do that maybe my quick very edited transcript which will give you an idea of why he is inspiring to me. Click here to see that.
I certainly hope that if and when the US falls out of dominance that EU will be ready to take up that mantle. This gives me hope that just might be the case. But, I also hope that other young forward thinker like him will rise from the swamp of current American politics. I am just tired of this country being run by old white men.
Here’s to you Emmanuel, viva la France.
