Month: December 2012

Having My Say3 Comments

Not As Bad Shape….

RJ Walters

We got one thing to be thankful for anyhow. The country is not in as bad shape as the rumors have it. 3 September 1931  Will Rogers One of the things I have always liked about Will is that he seemed to be an eternal optimist. This quote was about three years into the Great Depression and he was still an optimist. But it does go to the heart of another of my favorite quotes and that is things are never as good as you had hoped or as bad as you had imagined. There are so many rumors around about what will … Continue reading Not As Bad Shape….

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Worried About Not Worrying Enough..

RJ Walters

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Source: ‘Fear’ gauge showing little of it.

Wall Street 1Some investors interpret the benign numbers as evidence that worries about gridlock in Washington and the slowing global economy are overblown.

But others worry that the low readings are a sign of complacency, and that the potential for further declines in response to unexpected bad news isn’t reflected in stock prices….

If Wall Street is nothing else it is about worrying.  Those guys buy and sell on the slightest hint of something different happening. The above quote comes from Fidelity Investments as a form of advice to its investors.  What it basically says is that these guys are worrying that they are not worrying enough so something might come up and surprise them. Does that sound like paranoia to you? It sure does to me.

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A Priest Following His Conscience…..

RJ Walters

It always saddens me to see yet another instance of a Christian church exercising exclusion but that is what this article is all about. This time it is the Roman Catholic church. They stripped  Rev. Bill Brennan, a 92-year-old Jesuit priest (that is him in the picture here) of his duties because he performed a liturgy in with a female priest not sanctioned with the Roman Catholic church. Here are some bits and pieces from the source article for our discussion today: source:  Priest stripped of duties for celebrating Mass with woman priest – U.S. News. A Milwaukee-area Catholic priest was … Continue reading A Priest Following His Conscience…..

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The Poor and the “Fiscal Cliff”…..

RJ Walters

  Jim Wallis is one of my current day heroes. He is editor-in-chief of a magazine called Sojourners.  Here is their mission statement: The mission of Sojourners magazine is to inspire hope and action by articulating the biblical call to racial and social justice, life and peace,and environmental stewardship I have been getting their magazine for some years now and from his writings I feel I almost know him on a personal level. He also sends out  frequent e-mails about brother’s keeper issues.  He inspires me to do what I can to love my neighbor no matter his race, religion, … Continue reading The Poor and the “Fiscal Cliff”…..

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Regret Becomes Less Common…..

RJ Walters

I can only say with 100% certainty how I personally feel about things. I won’t speak for others in that regard. I will admit that as I am getting older I am strangely happier and more settled in my life than I ever have been. This is despite the fact that my body continues to tell me I am over the hill.  When I ran across this article this morning it told me that I am not alone in this regard. Here are some of the words from the source: Source:  Good news about aging: Get older, feel better, study finds … Continue reading Regret Becomes Less Common…..

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Institutional Purity…..

RJ Walters

The primary reason there are 39,000+ Christian denominations is that each are trying to maintain “purity” of beliefs. Here is how that logic usually plays out: ” If we allow differences of opinions among us then we will soon reach a slippery slope where we will slide into heresy. For that reason we must be on the constant watch to exclude anyone among us who asks the ‘wrong’ questions or dares to disagree any of our creeds or beliefs.” I have personally felt the stink of one of these churches. But what these church authorities espousing this view overlook is … Continue reading Institutional Purity…..

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Trickle Down….

RJ Walters

I think we kind of need to balance out the post from this morning with a quote from Will Rogers Money was appropriated in the hope that it would trickle down to the needy. Herbert Hoover was an engineer. He knew water trickled down. Put it uphill and let it go and it will find the driest little spot. So money was appropriated for the top in the hope that it would trickle down to the needy. But he didn’t know that money trickled up! Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will … Continue reading Trickle Down….

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Taxes, Its All Relative…..

RJ Walters

Source: Most Americans Face Lower Tax Burden Than in the 80s – NYTimes.com. But in fact, most Americans in 2010 paid far less in total taxes — federal, state and local — than they would have paid 30 years ago. According to an analysis by The New York Times, the combination of all income taxes, sales taxes and property taxes took a smaller share of their income than it took from households with the same inflation-adjusted income in 1980. Households earning more than $200,000 benefited from the largest percentage declines in total taxation as a share of income. Middle-income households benefited, … Continue reading Taxes, Its All Relative…..

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Karl Rove and Fox News……

RJ Walters

Source: Is Karl Rove’s media career kaput? – CSMonitor.com. This question arises as a result of reports that Mr. Rove has been benched by his main television outlet, Fox News. According to New York Magazine, top Fox officials have ordered that producers must get permission before putting Rove or fellow GOP pundit Dick Morris on air. It’s all part of an effort by head honcho Roger Ailes to freshen story lines and change the network’s cast of characters, writes New York’s Gabriel Sherman. Changing the cast of characters at Fox News… Wow, will wonders never cease.  I can’t imagine Fox News … Continue reading Karl Rove and Fox News……

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Taking Back the Bible….

RJ Walters

I read the Bible on a regular basis.  The words of Jesus, which to me is what the Bible is really all about, inspire me to love my fellow-man and to love my God.  Many stories in the Bible  even though they might just be stories, parables, or even myths are inspiring in the lessons they teach. I delight in the sheer narrative power they provide. I am very disheartened by the fact that some Christians today try to demand that the Bible was dropped down from heaven by God and not truly written my men who lived in the … Continue reading Taking Back the Bible….

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Bean Soup….

RJ Walters

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soupIf I happen to have some bean soup, I want to be able to locate, at pretty prompt intervals, some little objects that look to me like beans. I don’t want a bowl of it where the beans have just been driven through it at low tide.  July 17, 1927    Will Rogers

This quote from Will pretty much aligns with the one from this morning except now we are talking about wimpy food instead of people. But come to think of it maybe that is our problem, too much wimpy food.  In Will’s day they hadn’t discovered all the Cholesterol and vitamin  stuff so everyone was pretty much just ate what they wanted.   And for the most part they choose meat and potatoes, and big portions of it.

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Becoming Wimps…

RJ Walters

  In the old days, when we wasn’t sanitary, why, we were strong enough to withstand germs. But nowadays, we have to be careful of the microbes, for if they get a hold on us, we are goners. The old-fashioned gourd that the whole family drank out of, from birth to death, would today kill more of the modern population than a war would   — July 15, 1931  Will Rogers I am kind of aligned with Will here and especially since it has been over eighty years that he wrote these words of wisdom. I think especially since Will’s time we … Continue reading Becoming Wimps…

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Junk Food Tolerance…

RJ Walters

It seems as I am getting older my tolerance for junk food is rapidly decreasing. There is a show on cable TV entitled Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives where Guy Fieri goes around the country reviewing restaurants as indicated in the title. Many of them are famous for some pretty outrageous food. Some stack pancakes a foot high and smother them with mucho butter between each layer followed by a pint of syrup and lined high with  pounds of sausages, bacon, and such around the edges.

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Luke Chapter 6…

RJ Walters

The gospel of Luke Chapter 6 is the most important chapter in the Bible for me. Of course it includes the Beatitudes which are primary in teaching us how to live our lives but they include much more than that.  I want to concentrate on the first beatitude for this post. Luke 6:20 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor,  for yours is the kingdom of God..”  I take these words more literally than some. I believe that those who are treated poorly in this world will have a special place in the next. Conversely … Continue reading Luke Chapter 6…

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I’ve Got This Pain….

RJ Walters

Banner - About LifeOld personI know when I was younger I always got a laugh about how old people seem to always be talking about having this pain or that. It was not of much interest to me to hear about others pain so I couldn’t understand why it seemed a daily conversation with so many old people.  Several of the blogs I browse daily are basically journal of the bloggers daily activity and of course that includes their pains; especially the blogs that have “retirement” in their title.

As I have gotten older I have come to understand this daily ritual. It is not so much that I want to hear about someone else’s pain but instead that I want to tell them about my pain.  Telling someone about your pain seems to make some of it go away. :)  I’m sure the other person is no more interested in my pain than I am about his but it is sort of a reciprocal thing. You listen to mine and I will listen to yours.

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Knowing The Difference….

RJ Walters

  God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr I have run across this quote many times in my life and always wondered about its author. Who was Reinhold Niebhur and what were the circumstances around the quote? This quote is from the Serenity Prayer written by him around 1937. A modified version is frequently used in Alcoholics Anonymous.  The longest version has these additional lines: “Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; … Continue reading Knowing The Difference….

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The Fourth Rummage Sale??…..The Emergent Church of the 21st Century

RJ Walters

This post is about the fourth great rummage sale and that is the “Great Emergence”. In this post I am only giving you a small taste of the emergent movement In future posts we will look at just what the Great Emergence is and where it is going. Lets start off this post again with some words by Phyllis Tickle in her book The Great Emergence: The Great Emergence, like the Great Reformation or the Great Schism or the time of the Great Gregory or the Great Transformation, is a generalized social/ political/ economic/ intellectual/ cultural shift. Like its predecessors, … Continue reading The Fourth Rummage Sale??…..The Emergent Church of the 21st Century