When will we ever learn???? In case you have lost track, he is the LAX shooter. Considering there have been a couple more in the news in the last day or so I guess this is old news… How sad is that??? Continue reading When Will It End???
I admit that I find the gospel of partnering with God for the healing of the world much, much harder than the gospel of God loves you and wants to give you a ticket to heaven. It’s harder emotionally, physically, financially, socially and culturally. It’s tiring. Without the Holy Spirit, without worship, without community I’d give up and go back to that old gospel. It was easier in those days, for sure. It was easier when it was about me and my blessing, my healing, my salvation and inviting other people to enjoy my amazing new life. It was much … Continue reading The ‘Other Gospel’ was easier
Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wants his old job back. This time, he’s running as Democrat. Crist filed paperwork on Friday, and plans to make the official announcement Monday in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Republican-turned-Democrat is considered a front-runner for the Democratic ticket. He would likely be up against current Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican. Scott represents a far more conservative version of the GOP than Crist ever did….. “I’m an optimist but let’s face it, the last few years have been tough: government on the fringes, donors in politics above you the people,” said Crist in the video. “You’ve … Continue reading A Sign Of Things To Come???
Our political system has increasingly been working in ways that increase the inequality of outcomes and reduce equality of opportunity. This should not come as a surprise: we have a political system that gives inordinate power to those at the top, and they have used that power not only to limit the extent of redistribution but also to shape the rules of the game in their favor, and to extract from the public what can only be called large “gifts.” — The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (Stiglitz, Joseph E.) — Continue reading Our Warped Political System….
The person close to the talks told CBS News’ Stephanie Lambidakis that the tentative settlement was sealed Friday during a 6 p.m. phone call between Attorney General Eric Holder and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon along with their top lawyers. SOURCE: JPMorgan Chase, Justice Department reach tentative $13 billion deal over mortgage-backed securities – CBS News. $13 billion is a lot of money for most corporations so this settlement had to hurt JPMorgan. But what I don’t understand is that the agreement was “sealed”. That means that no one can see what actual agreements were made. I am a firm believer that … Continue reading JPMorgan Chase, Justice Department reach tentative $13 billion deal over mortgage-backed securities
Despite his having written an entire biography of Paul in Acts, Luke seems to be curiously unaware of Paul’s life and ministry as reflected in Paul’s authentic letters. None of Paul’s letters are mentioned in Acts. The language and theology of Paul’s speeches as told by Luke are so different in vocabulary and theology from the Paul of the authentic letters that it seems much of Luke’s Paul can be chalked up to dramatic license. The authentic Paul emphasizes justification and reconciliation while Luke’s “Paul” preaches righteousness and forgiveness. In other words, Luke’s Paul preaches in the theological language of … Continue reading Studying The Bible….
I have been kind of watching the preliminaries for this latest “super committee” forming in Washington to come to some sort of budget deal and I am not impressed. On the one hand my Republican friends often scream that Medicare doesn’t pay enough for the services rendered. That doctors are dropping out of the system due to not making enough money. And then comes the first salvo of this latest round of budgeting. The first thing the GOP comes up with is cuts to Medicare?? I know that many on that side of the aisle are for a total defunding … Continue reading The Irony Of It All…
“A nation is just like an individual. If a man’s neighbors all hate him and he is continually in trouble, and all his fights and troubles are always over in the other fellow’s yard, he must be wrong.” – Will Rogers, 30 March 1927 Why we continue to always be fighting in the other fellow’s yard is beyond me. I am very thankful that for the most part our fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are over. We will likely on leave a couple hundred thousand of our soldiers there but that is considered a withdrawal by modern standards. . ;) … Continue reading In The Other Fellow’s Yard….
Punditry is an industry built on confirmation bias. Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck and Arianna Huffington, Rachel Maddow and Ann Coulter—these people provide fuel for beliefs, they pre-filter the world to match existing worldviews. If their filter is like your filter, you love them. If it isn’t, you hate them. You watch them not for information, but for confirmation. Be careful. People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things . . . well, new things aren’t what they expect. They like to know that, … Continue reading Man Bites a Dog…..
In science, you move closer to the truth by seeking evidence to the contrary. Perhaps the same method should inform your opinions as well. SOURCE: “You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself” (McRaney, David) I have a lot of quotes from this book now residing in my database and will be bringing them out from time to time. I am a scientist so the words above ring very true to me. Being a scientist got me into trouble in the Christian … Continue reading Seeking Evidence….
This is kind of a continuation of yesterday’s post about why Republicans hate Obamacare. One thing I didn’t come across in my one hour search of why they hate Obamacare but I have seen it used as part of their opposition is that it puts too many additional people into the system. They say adding 30 million more consumers of healthcare will overwhelm our system. This seems to me to be a somewhat typical complaint among many of my conservative friends. They look almost exclusively at themselves and the status quo when they see changes being made. That is why they … Continue reading Too Many People…
I recently googled the above title and then spent an hour looking at the first one hundred or so sources that came back. I was hoping someone would give some insight into why Republicans, without exception in congress, hate something that gives people the opportunity to purchase affordable healthcare. I was really looking for some well nuanced explanation of what is wrong with Obamacare. I was open to any common sense arguments about this four year old law that is finally being implemented. Instead what I got was: Republicans hate Obamacare because it mandates personal insurance. — Never mind that … Continue reading Why Do Republicans Hate Obamacare?….
“There is such little eating being done in the homes now that a dining room is almost a lost art.” – Will Rogers, 1 April 1923 Note the date of 1923. And you thought this was a recent phenomenon….. Of course ten years later it was because of the Great Depression and fewer people had food. It will be that again soon since congress is in the process of slashing Food Stamps to the bone so they can buy a few more robot drones to do our killing for us….. Continue reading Eating At Home…
17th century French philosopher Rene Descartes said, “ If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” If he’s right, seeking the truth about Jesus might require mentally distancing ourselves from everything we’ve been programmed to believe and instead becoming open to discovering the true Kingdom of God. SOURCE: Stephen Jarnick: Robotic Christianity | Red Letter Christians. These are very powerful words to me. I am just the type of person who questions everything. They were spoken in the source post relating … Continue reading Doubt Everything, At Least Once….
Mark Driscoll, the attention grabbing minister of the Mars Hill megachurch, is at it again. He’s pushing his badass Jesus who has, as he put it a few years ago, “a commitment to make someone bleed.” Driscoll has a personal need for a sacred tough guy because he has some sort of theological kink or character twist or… whatever, that leads him to declare, “I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.” It sounds to me like he’s looking for a swaggering gang leader to follow, not One who said, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke … Continue reading His Own Version Of Jesus….
Have you ever wondered why people with advanced degrees in climate science or biology don’t get online and debate global warming or evolution? The less you know about a subject, the less you believe there is to know in total. Only once you have some experience do you start to recognize the breadth and depth you have yet to plunder. — You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself (McRaney, David) — Continue reading The Less You Know….
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 