SOURCE:  Across Egypt, piles of ash where church pews once stood (+video) – CSMonitor.com. While we are meddling in the various civil wars in the Middle East, and aren’t almost all of them in one form of war or another, how do we choose which side we are one? It seems in Syria and Egypt the “rebels” are the extremists who are burning churches that are not muslim whenever they come across them.  How do we choose where to inject a few billion dollars to affect the outcome. Mr. Obama is trying to make the case to drop bombs and … Continue reading Across Egypt, piles of ash where church pews once stood

“If you are going to write, talk, comment, or argue over any public question, don’t do it by just reading one newspaper….You can tell in a minute a person that only reads one paper.” – Will Rogers, 18 March 1934 Some more words of wisdom for today spoken by WIll Rogers almost eighty years ago. I can say for a fact that many of my conservative friends and past classmates have Fox News running in their homes throughout the day.  I am also sure that is the only source of news many of them expose themselves to.  Well not quite, … Continue reading All About Fox News……

“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 A quote I often cite is “You don’t have to know what you are saying as long as you say it with authority”. That seems to mimic what Will is saying above but I think these times today that has far exceeded what it was in his days.  One example of that might be President Obama. His rhetoric captivated many during the 2008 campaign season (including me ) but lack of … Continue reading Knowing So Little….

Al-Qaeda-linked rebels take Syrian Christian village, activists sayIt is unclear how an historic village just 26 miles from Damascus could be overrun; locals say rebels burned churches SOURCE:  Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News – CBS News. It bothers me greatly that there will likely be severe innocent deaths associated with President Obama’s rush to enter into the Syrian civil war. Yeah, million dollar smart bombs and drones are more accurate than huge shells being blasted from the battleship Wisconsin as in the past but they still kill many who are just trying to survive the conflicts around … Continue reading And My Tax Dollars Support It???

Recent studies show, for example, that wealthier people are more likely to cut people off in traffic and to behave unethically in simulated business and charity scenarios. Earlier this year, statistics on charitable giving revealed that while the wealthy donate about 1.3% of their income to charity, the poorest actually give more than twice as much as a proportion of their earnings — 3.2%. “There’s this idea that the more you have, the less entitled and more grateful you feel; and the less you have, the more you feel you deserve. That’s not what we find,” says author Paul Piff, … Continue reading Narcissism And The 1%….

Skeptical European foreign ministers on Saturday urged the U.S. to delay possible military action against Syria until U.N. inspectors report on last month’s suspected chemical weapons attack. SOURCE: European leaders urge U.S. on Syria: Slow down – CBS News. Will President Obama listen to some of the leaders of the other 95% of the world’s population and not rush into another war, no matter how limited he claims it to be?  Going it alone has cost this country too much in terms of our debt and what we have left spend on the “least of these”, let alone the lives of … Continue reading European leaders urge U.S. on Syria: Slow down

 “Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man … living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money.” ― George Carlin … Continue reading How The Other Side Sees It….

The current Democratic Party is too skeptical of business, too hostile toward wealth creation, and overly abusive of America’s most productive citizens—often because there are votes to be had by poking the rich in the eye. Yes, a modern economy needs regulation, but that regulation needs to be targeted and have minimal costs. Like a good physician, we want to fix the problem—because there are problems that need government fixes—without messing anything else up.  — The Centrist Manifesto (Wheelan, Charles) Some folks, especially my more conservative friends (yeah, I got a few), don’t think I criticize the Democratic party enough … Continue reading Democratic Party Is Too Skeptical…

Right after 9/11, I asked a kid in my neighborhood what we should do in response.  His answer: “Those people did something very wrong…”  He thought pensively and continued, “But two wrongs don’t make a right.”  As Martin Luther King taught us, you cannot fight fire with fire, you only get a bigger fire.  You fight fire with water.  You fight violence with nonviolence.  You fight hatred with love.  As a Christian, a follower of Jesus the Prince of Peace, I am deeply troubled about the possibility of a military response to the violence in Syria.  Jesus consistently teaches us … Continue reading Shane Claiborne’s Statement on Syria – Red Letter Christians

But has Obama damaged the power of the president by allowing Congress its say? Is his decision, in fact, a “historic American retreat” – at least within the context of domestic politics? Certainly, he’s doing something that no recent US president has done. Ronald Reagan invaded Grenada in 1983 and bombed Libya in 1986 without congressional approval, and Bill Clinton committed US forces to NATO air campaigns in Bosnia in 1995 and Kosovo in 1999 and launched a missile attack against terrorists in Afghanistan in 1998 without congressional backing. When Obama signed on to the 2011 Libya operation without involving … Continue reading A Weaker President – Good……….

His reasoning, according to officials who were in the room? He wants members on the record, rather than simply criticizing from outside whatever action he takes. SOURCE:  Obama’s Syria strike decision aims to get Congress on the record – CBS News. I made a personal vow to try to stay out of the latest saber-rattling from a U.S. president. After Mr. Obama’s strong words against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan it has troubled me to see him seemingly repeat the same mistakes. I just hope that when he does it is of a much smaller scale than his predecessor … Continue reading The Hawk’s Delimina….

For two decades close to 40 percent of the highest-paid CEOs in the U.S. have performed abysmally, a new report asserts. These CEOs, according to the report, “ought to be exemplars of value-added performance,” given the prevailing notion that executives earn their high pay by adding value to their companies and to the U.S. economy at large. “Our analysis reveals widespread poor performance.” SOURCE: Highest Paid Worst Performing Chief Executives – ABC News. I generally believe in the saying in the title of this post but obviously it doesn’t apply to all circumstances. Given that yesterday was a celebration of the … Continue reading You Get What You Pay For??? Well Not Always….

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September, that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers. It was first nationally recognized in 1894 to placate unionists following the Pullman Strike. With the decline in union membership, the holiday is generally viewed as a time for barbeques and the end of summer vacation… Following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve rush legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday; President … Continue reading Labor Day…

I like to think of the Great Emergence as reported in the book by Phyllis Tickle as  “Post-Religion”.  It moves beyond what we call currently call religion into the next phase of focusing on the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. It moves beyond building cathedrals to building relationships and love between all of God’s people not just those in our particular version of Christian community. It moves beyond needing to pay someone to lead our worship services and tell us what to believe to our personal study of God’s word untarnished by religious baggage. It moves beyond strictly enforced … Continue reading It Moves Beyond….

I have been in a reflective mood lately. I don’t know why but I have been thinking of things of life. Pretty deep huh??  One of those things is how I feel about myself and my experiences of life. The Mark Twain quote below pretty well sums up one aspect. I am old. I recognize it but I don’t realize it. I wonder if a person really ever ceases to feel young – I mean for a whole day at a time. I don’t really see myself as an old guy like I saw my grandfather (I only knew one). … Continue reading Reflections….

“There isn’t a person on earth that would make fun of a bald three-year-old who was undergoing chemotherapy. And yet, if someone’s acting weird we call them names. … It’s so accepted that it’s frightening,” Laura said, highlighting insults like “whack job,” “nut case,” and “psycho.” SOURCE:  For those with mental illness, stigma cuts deep – CBS News. Let’s face it our society is still pretty much biased against those with mental illness.  Our prisons are filled with many who are in that category. They say about one-third of those homeless who live on our streets are afflicted with mental … Continue reading For those with mental illness, stigma cuts deep

“The liberal media would have you believe that there’s nobody that looks like the people on this stage that have an R behind their name. And that’s just not the case,” said Oklahoma’s Shannon, who suggested that the party should stress its belief in limited government and personal responsibility, two values that he learned from his local African-American church. Agness, the founder and president of the Network of Enlightened Women, argued that the GOP would benefit by tackling the problem of liberal bias in universities….. SOURCE: The Party of Old White Guys Changes Its Look | TIME.com. Here I am poking … Continue reading All Those Damn Liberals…..

On the morning of Saturday, August, 24, Love Wins showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years. We provide, without cost or obligation, hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich to anyone who wants one. We keep this promise to our community in cooperation with five different, large suburban churches that help us with manpower and funding. On that morning three officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute … Continue reading Feeding Homeless Apparently Illegal in Raleigh, NC

North Korea on Sunday accepted a South Korean offer for talks on reuniting families separated by war, but proposed separate talks on resuming lucrative tours to a scenic North Korean mountain in an apparent effort to link the two discussions. SOURCE:  Koreas agree on talks to reunite families separated by war – CBS News. I sure hope that this latest opening between North and South Korea is successful. That country needs to finally re-unite. They have been separated for 60+ years, mainly because of politics and superpower actions.  I love the fact that this latest conversation was started by the … Continue reading Koreas agree on talks to reunite families separated by war

“We never will have any prosperity that is free from speculation till we pass a law that every time a broker or person sells something, he has got to have it sitting there in a bucket, or a bag, or a jug, or a cage, or a rat trap, or something, depending on what it is he is selling. We are continually buying something that we never get from a man that never had it.”       Sept. 24, 1930       Will Rogers Speculation seems to be where all the instant wealth is obtained in this country. … Continue reading From The Man Who Never Had It….

Christians will not be agents of reconciliation and healing as long as they see the world from the perspective of the privileged or fail to even attempt to see from the viewpoints for those who are unlike themselves in important ways.  We have a higher calling than simply to be representative of our race, class, nationality or whatever else defines us in this world. “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12). Source: Craig M. Watts: Beyond Trayvon Martin and Racism | Red Letter Christians. Continue reading Agents of Reconciliation..

3)  We turn Christianity into a culture rather than a lifestyle. We have turned Christianity into a market.  We have reduced Christianity to products we consume, sell, and advertise.  We are more about profits than prophets.  Christianity has become a culture rather than a lifestyle.  We’ve been taught to consume Christian products rather than being Christian.  We’ve been taught to be salespeople for Jesus rather than true followers of Jesus.  Living a Christian lifestyle means Christ’s love has penetrated so deep into our heart that our lives begin to embody that love in real and tangible ways.  We want everyone … Continue reading Inspiring Quotes…

2)  We focus on The Great Commission over The Great Commandment The Great Commission does not supersede the Great Commandment.  Our mission is first and foremost: “Love God with all your heart and mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself.”  What we have done is divorce The Great Commission from the Great Commandment.  We falsely believe our commission to make disciples is separate from our commandment to love.  The truth is, we are commissioned to love–to proclaim and demonstrate God’s love.  To proclaim the gospel is to share the depths of God’s love for the world (AKA everyone). The gospel … Continue reading Inspiring Quotes….

Several things have come together lately that take my focus to the decisions we make in our lives. With that in mind I am going to attempt a series of posts here at RJ’s Corner with the title above. Every day we make hundreds of choices in our lives.  Many of them are things like what to eat, or when to go to bed.  I think most of us are pretty good at making those daily decisions. But I am convinced that many, including myself, are not so good at some of the higher level ones. We just don’t spend … Continue reading Don’t Get Stuck – The Series…. Opening Remarks

I have come to a realization lately that these stories of all us old people living longer is a bunch of phooey. Here I am finishing up my second year of being on Medicare and when I read the obituaries in our local small town paper I see lots of people who are much younger than I am. That fact has kind of startled me and warned me that my years on this earth might be shorter than I have planned. You never know. At our ages if we show up in tomorrow’s obit it probably wouldn’t bring a big surprise … Continue reading Living Longer…