Let’s face it, everyone is a liar to one degree or another. Lying is so prevalent in our society that we are assumed to be a liar until we prove ourselves honest and even that proof has a limited time span. We all have serious scars from being lied to. We lie to ourselves — We say we did the best that we could when … Continue reading Everyone Is A Liar……
This just popped up on my Facebook page. I don’t know if the figures above are valid but they are rather sobering. Yes, the church should be taking care of all these things and obviously they are not. But they could be if we forced them to do it via taxes. What an interesting thought!!! Continue reading If Churches Paid Taxes…
MIDDLESBORO, Ky. (AP) — A snake-handling pastor who appeared on the National Geographic television reality show “Snake Salvation” has died after being bitten by a snake during a weekend church service in Kentucky. SOURCE: Snake-handling Ky. pastor dies from snake bite – Yahoo News. While this is maybe of the extreme part of the spectrum it is still a typical example of how we pick … Continue reading Our Own Version….
What they haven’t been doing is giving extra cash to employees, despite s a year of solid – and often record – profits and huge cash hoards. A survey by Aon Hewitt on compensation trends for 2014 shows that companies plan to raise salaries by just 3% this year – the highest since 2008, when the average raise was 3.7%. Economist Ed Yardeni notes that … Continue reading If companies shared their cash with employees
The vast majority of donations come in from middle-class-to-poor people who give twenty-five to thirty dollars a month and often even less. The vast majority comes in from this class of citizen, and not just in number of people giving, but in number of dollars given. Sure, I have people on our list giving hundreds. Some churches dropped four figures on our project, but most … Continue reading The Total Sacrifice…
The company “unveiled” the new product in an online video this week. In the ad, which refers to the offline world as “the thing that happens when you run out of battery,” people buried in their phones have a eureka moment when an absurd red funnel is placed on their heads and they’re forced to witness sunsets and look into other human beings’ eyes. SOURCE: … Continue reading Coca-Cola Social Media Guard Commercial…
“I don’t suppose there ever was a time when everybody knew as little about what they were talking about as they do today.” – Will Rogers, 19 September 1933 I often wonder what Will would say about the current crop of politicians that we now have in DC? Continue reading Except Maybe Today….
We know that the majority of households now require both spouses to work outside the home. That fact has contributed significantly to the number of seniors in nursing homes and other assisted care facilities. Simply put there is just no one at home to care for aging parents or grand-parents anymore. As a result more seniors are institutionalized than ever before. Of course this is … Continue reading Dual Income Requirements…
What About The Bible… ? (Chapter 3) How did the Bible get so filled with things that have nothing to do with the messages of Jesus? That is one of many questions I have pondered over the last decade. I want to study more about King Constantine and how the Bible was put together under his watchful eye. Here is the crux of what I … Continue reading How Did The Bible Get So Filled…
He went on: “The answer is to promote views that are open-minded and tolerant towards those who are different, and to fight the formal, informal and internet propagation of closed-minded intolerance. “In the 21st century, education is a security issue.” SOURCE: The West needs a global strategy to deal with terrorism threat, says Tony Blair | World | News | Daily Express. Even though I … Continue reading Religious Tolerance When Dealing With Extremeism…
A new study shows that the jet stream over Northern Europe and North America may be taking a longer, more meandering path as a result of a rapidly warming Arctic narrowing the differential between upper and middle latitudes, reports the BBC. Temperatures in the Arctic have been rising two to three times as rapidly as the rest of the globe, and as the difference in … Continue reading In Case You Wondered….
And there’s more. A few years ago researchers made an unexpected discovery that, around the age of forty, people begin to experience feelings of dissatisfaction and a diminished sense of well-being. They were surprised to find this in men and women, rich and poor and all over the world. But the bigger surprise was the rebound effect. At around the age of fifty, feelings of … Continue reading Feelings of Dissatisfaction…
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Their backs stooped, dozens of elderly North and South Koreans separated for six decades reunited Thursday, weeping and embracing in a rush of words and emotion. The reunions come during a rare period of detente between the rival Koreas and are all the more poignant because the participants will part again in a few days, likely forever. SOURCE: Tearful Korean … Continue reading The Re-Unification of Korea….
The United States spends almost $1,000 per person per year on pharmaceuticals. That’s around 40 percent more than the next highest spender, Canada, and more than twice as much as than countries like France and Germany spend. So why does the U.S. spend so much? Is it because Americans take more medicines or because they pay higher prices? Can Americans afford the drugs they need? … Continue reading Why do Americans spend so much on pharmaceuticals?
The church frustrates me. I was once asked by a wealthy church what they could do to help end homelessness. I looked around and saw the thousands of square feet that lie empty every night, the dozens of toilets, the showers in the family life center, the full industrial kitchen and wanted to say, “It is a two step plan. 1) Read the Gospels. 2) … Continue reading Not Taking Jesus Seriously….
But with pensions for non-government workers on a path toward extinction, federal employees get little sympathy from most experts. “Their private sector counterparts would be jealous of the benefits they’re maintaining,” said John Ehrhardt, a principal at the actuarial and consulting firm Milliman. While 38 percent of private industry workers received pensions in 1979, just 14 percent did so in 2011, the most recent figures … Continue reading Federal workers’ pensions targeted in budget deal
I’ve been using the word ‘empower’ for years. It’s a great word – one that implies giving dignity to others; the whole ‘give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime’ type story comes up when I hear the word empower…. It had never crossed my mind before that what this … Continue reading Empower vs. Inspire….
What About The Bible… ? (Chapter 2) I know that from all the rhetoric about this topic you are expecting the next word in the title to be “Clear” but actually for me it is “Fuzzy”. I don’t know how many times in my life I have heard the phrase “just study the bible for the answer to your problems. When a child dies from … Continue reading I Read The Bible And Everything Became….
There are two ways to look at the great debate over light bulbs. One is that government regulations meant to save energy by filling the nation’s roughly 4 billion light sockets with vastly more efficient light bulbs are an outrageous offense to personal freedom. The other is summed up by a funny Internet spot last year for Cree’s super efficient light emitting diode (LED) bulbs: … Continue reading More Heat Than Light…
Communities like RLC (Red Letter Christians) are so important because the Church, those of us who claim to follow Jesus Christ have more responsibility to be constantly examining our actions and behavior than anyone. This isn’t about being “self-hating Christians” or “criticizing the Church” it is about growing up. In the end, the wisdom and understanding needed to change the world and do real good … Continue reading Critizing The Church…..
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” ― John Steinbeck Continue reading Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaires….
I often wonder why I turned out to be such a social justice advocate. Was I born that way or was it due to some early childhood experiences? I am certain that growing up in a single parent household at the lower end of the economic ladder was a significant part of it. But I don’t think that was the driving factor. Like so many … Continue reading Being A Social Justice Advocate…
The main reason Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on basic economic facts is that people—including politicians and economists—seek out the facts required by their values. When faced with complicated or ambiguous evidence, human reasoning is notoriously bad at asking “what is the truth?” Rather, we start with a conclusion that we hope is true, and then we ask: “Can I find any evidence to support … Continue reading The Truth…
This is installment four of my melancholy posts for this week. I know there are those who lament how bad things are right now. Unemployment is higher than it should be and many are stuck in low paying jobs that are way below their capabilities. Due to corporate greed and the overwhelming wealth that is stagnated at the top it now takes two jobs to … Continue reading How Good We Have It…
According to a 2013 study by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institute, 23 percent of 18- to 33-year-olds are religious progressives, 17 percent are religious conservatives, and 22 percent are non-religious. By contrast, only 12 percent of 66- to 88-year-olds are religious progressives, while about half are religious conservatives. Second, the conversation about income inequality in the U.S. and abroad — the … Continue reading Religious Conservatism On The Wane….
This is installment three of my melancholy post for this week. Do any of us ever lead as full a life as we had dreamed? That is the topic of this post. The short answer to that question should be no. If we live up to our dreams then we probably weren’t dreaming large enough. But this post is about the longer answer. I’m sure … Continue reading As We Dreamed…
Shirley Temple, along with Will Rogers were the mega-stars during the 1930s. They both brought a little bit of comfort to people during the Great Depression. Shirley died this week at the age of 85. She was a star both in her childhood and as an adult. Continue reading Here's To You Shirley…
One of the first books I read as a young man was Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities. The opening words of that book has been in my mind since that time. It would not be the last book by Dickens that I would read. Many of his books were about social reform. When his father was thrown into debtor’s prison Charles had to step forward. … Continue reading Best Of Times, Worst Of Times….
Can a capitalistic consumer driven society survive when so many have so little money to spend??? If nothing changes I guess we will soon find out the answer to that question… Continue reading Capitalism….
I have been pretty melancholy for the last few weeks. I’m sure part of this is because of the isolation due to all this miserable weather we have been enduring. Because of the sub-zero temperatures I have regrettably missed more of my soup kitchen sessions than I have made in the past month. I am beginning to seriously miss all the people I interact with … Continue reading Finding Our Tribe…
What About The Bible… ? (Chapter 1) I have been spending quite a bit of time lately thinking about the Bible and my experiences with it over the last decade or so. Around 2003 I decided to take up a serious study of theology and in particularly those around the words of Jesus. I naively thought I could get some clear directions for my spiritual … Continue reading The Thing Is…..
Make no mistake, there are some horrible people in prison, people who delight in the power of causing others suffering. Some are mentally ill. Others have been wounded first and learned that way of life. There is no excuse for violent crimes. I just want you to see their eyes for a moment. I want you to see the pain and the fear. Their eyes … Continue reading Look Into Their Eyes…
There must be one-hundred cardinals at our feeder today. I think they sense that more snow is coming. But they are not the only ones here. As you can see the hairy woodpeckers have joined the crew at the suet cakes. The more the merrier…. I have downloaded some larger photos this time. Click on the image to see it in more detail. Continue reading More Birds Of Winter
RJ's Corner 