Category: *Having My Say

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The World is Ending….

RJ Walters

Here is my favorite cartoon about the 2012 election results. Whenever the minimum wage is raised there are those who claim it will cost millions of jobs and basically cause the end of the USA. Now that President Obama has been given four more years the same rhetoric bumped up by a factor of ten is echoing now. These guys just seem to be totally shell-shocked! Some one needs to tell them that the world goes on no matter who occupies the Oval office. After all, we survived Reagan and baby Bush didn’t we? :) Continue reading The World is Ending….

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Thank Heavens The U.S. Is Not a Democracy….

RJ Walters

Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_form_of_government_does_the_US_have#ixzz24fhg3VC9 Thomas Jefferson said, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”  Thomas Jefferson, March 11, 1790: “The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.”  f Alexander Hamilton, in debate, said: “Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate government.”  Alexander Hamilton, in Senate: “It has been observed that a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has … Continue reading Thank Heavens The U.S. Is Not a Democracy….

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Saving Jesus — (Part 3) About the Gospels….

RJ Walters

This is part three of my review of the book Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin Meyers. This is somewhat the continuation of the study of the pre-Easter Jesus and the after-Easter Jesus mentioned in the previous text. Here is the quote for this post: The simple fact, that the Bible came to us through a process of review and selection by human beings who condensed an enormous amount of material down to four gospels, a pseudo-history we call the Acts of the Apostles, and the letters that complete the New … Continue reading Saving Jesus — (Part 3) About the Gospels….

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The Cliff……

RJ Walters

Now that the national elections have finally played out there is much talk about the financial cliff. That is the mandated 10% budget cuts and letting the Bush administration tax cuts expire. It seems most of the media treats this event as some sort of catastrophe but in my usual contrarian ways  I just don’t see it that way. Even though I am strongly a social progressive, I am also a fiscal conservative. So here is my take on this matter. Continue reading “The Cliff……”

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Saving Jesus — (Part 2) Post-Easter Jesus

RJ Walters

This is a continuation of my review of the book Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin Meyers. Here are the quotes we will look at on this post: Adoration of the post-Easter Christ so dominates the language and liturgy of the church that the wisdom of pre-Easter Jesus is all but lost. We know that Saul of Tarsus, who never met Jesus, became the apostle Paul through a completely mystical experience and seemed to care nothing for the earthly teachings of Jesus, only his “adoption” as the Son of God … Continue reading Saving Jesus — (Part 2) Post-Easter Jesus

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Is The World Still There??

RJ Walters

One of the first things I do every morning when I get up is to look out the back door to make sure the world is still there. What I see now that my neighbor in back has stripped (he says harvest) all his mature trees is a lone Sycamore proudly standing by itself. It used to be hidden by a large oak tree but is now left to sway majestically in the wind untethered by that mighty oak.  I will continue to watch it in the coming years. It has now become one of my daily friends. Continue reading Is The World Still There??

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Frustrations Of a Soup Kitchen Volunteer…….

RJ Walters

I want to focus this post on the unseen and the unheard. I apologize in advance as I am in a somewhat dark mood right now and I am sure it will show up here. Sometimes even Will’s words can’t lift me up. Continue reading “Frustrations Of a Soup Kitchen Volunteer…….”

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Saving Jesus….(Part 1)

RJ Walters

I am going to spend several posts discussing some of the insightful words from a book entitled Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus  by Robin R. Meyers. This book gave me some pretty profound re-enforcement of my belief that the words of Jesus have been losing focus in the church. Here are the words for today. Strangely, we have come to a moment in human history when the message of the Sermon on the Mount could indeed save us, but it can no longer be heard above the din of dueling doctrines. … Continue reading Saving Jesus….(Part 1)

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The End Justifies The Means….and Thomas Jefferson

RJ Walters

I recently read an article in the October 2012 Smithsonian magazine about Thomas Jefferson and slavery.  I think most of us remember his infamous words that “All men are created equal”. That seems to give him an emphatic view of slavery but this article showed that has now been found to not be the case. It ends up that after studying the numerous documents left by him that he viewed slavery very much as a profitable situation to be engaged in. In 1792 he wrote Washington the now famous, at least among historians, “4% Letter” in which he talked about just how profitable being a slave owner was. He also recommended to some of this friends and relatives to move away from tobacco farming (he said it destroyed the land) and get into the more profitable area of owning slaves. Continue reading “The End Justifies The Means….and Thomas Jefferson”

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Sheer Christianity….

RJ Walters

I came across an article entitled Sheer Christianity in the November 2012 Sojourners Magazine that moved me. I want to tell you a little about it and quote some of the inspiring words. It is by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson who is the general secretary of the Reformed Church of America. I have to admit that I don’t know much about this organization.  Here is a quote that got me to thinking about the issue. The article is basically about another article in Newsweek cover story entitled “Christianity in Crisis” My sense is that people are leaving organized Christianity because it has left … Continue reading Sheer Christianity….

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Who Can I Trust?????????????

RJ Walters

Here we are on the eve of election day and I am strangely somewhat calm. I have confidence that the people of this country will put the good of the country above partisan gain. To me it comes down equally between “who can I trust” and “who will promote the common good“. I, like many of us, have been watching Mr. Romney for months now and the thing that bothers me the most is how he has flipped on issue after issue. He was against the UN and then he was for the UN. As a governor he was for universal … Continue reading Who Can I Trust?????????????

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God’s Will…

RJ Walters

I live in Indiana which is pretty much a red State.  Senator Lugar, who was our long-time representative in the U.S. Senate was defeated in the primary by Richard Mourdock who proudly announced that he is a loyal Tea Party candidate. His stated view on compromise is when the Democrats finally come to agree with everything Republicans want!  I really haven’t been paying much attention to his campaign but I imagine he is a Christian fundamentalist of one flavor or another. Here is a quote I just came across : Mourdock could see both fade after telling a live television … Continue reading God’s Will…

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And Its All Small Stuff…..

RJ Walters
This is a post that I have carried over from my other blog at RedLetterLiving. It is about an epiphany I had several years ago about my spiritual beliefs. I wanted to share it with my readers here.

Posted on October 22, 2012 at RedLetterLiving.net

In 1997 Richard Carlson wrote a very popular book entitled Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff…. and it’s all small stuff. In that book he listed one hundred things to make our lives more peaceful. Some of those topics that I took to heart included: Continue reading “And Its All Small Stuff…..”

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A slightly Changed Quote….

RJ Walters

via Obama, Romney promise change as election winds down. “Candidate Obama promised change, but he couldn’t deliver it. I promise change. I will change my mind almost daily about everything I say or even believe.” Thanks heavens the election is now only three days away. After President Obama is re-elected  the flip/flopping will finally stop. At least the reporting of it. I did something above that I have wanted to do on numerous occasions and that is to “correct” a quote from Mr. Romney. If you really don’t know what I changed look at the original quote in the source above. … Continue reading A slightly Changed Quote….

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Flip……Flop………Flip…….Flop

RJ Walters

Flip……Flop………Flip…….Flop……..Flip……Flop………Flip…….Flop…….. Source:  Mitt Romney offers answer on his FEMA stance And so it turns out that after superstorm Sandy battered the East Coast, Mitt Romney is far more supportive of the government agency in charge of coordinating disaster relief. Only last year, as Romney hewed to the right while battling for the GOP nomination, he seemed to downplay the federal government’s role in disaster response. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction,” Romney said at a debate last June. “And if you can go even further, and send it … Continue reading Flip……Flop………Flip…….Flop

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On Ward Christian Soldier????

RJ Walters

Today Christian families are often also military families but at the beginnings of our religion that was definitely not the case. Up until about the time Constantine made Christianity a State religion (about 350 CE) to be a Christian meant you refused military service. Of course Augustine in the fifth century disavowed this belief and put forth the first rationalization of a “just war”. After that this belief, like so many others, was all but thrown out the window by many future church leaders. Here is a story by Diana Butler Bass from her book  A People’s History of Christianity: The … Continue reading On Ward Christian Soldier????

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The Three Legged Stool…..

RJ Walters

Being in an engineering school in college I didn’t take too many business courses but the one I did take emphasized the three-legged stool as the foundations for our capitalist system.  The three foundations for business at that time were: employees, customers, owners.  It was commonly acknowledged that as long as each of these three groups were given equally importance the operations of a business remained on a level plain. I’m not sure when this theory was thrown out the window but it seems to have virtually disappeared from our financial landscape. Continue reading “The Three Legged Stool…..”

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The Shrinking Middle Class….

RJ Walters

I am adding a new category starting with this post. It is entitled “The Shrinking Middle Class”.

Here is one of the reasons why I am doing that. It is well into the Fall season here in the Midwest and soon all the outside work will be over. That means about five months of pretty much staying in the “cabin”. To ward off cabin fever I usually try to take on a special project for each in-door season. The project this year will be to learn as much as I can about the history of the middle class and the possible causes of its recent decline. ” Continue reading “The Shrinking Middle Class….”

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All Rich Guys Think They are Infallible….

RJ Walters

via Jack Welch: I was right about jobs report – Oct. 9, 2012. Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, had previously contributed content to Fortune, but following critical coverage of his comments on the jobs report and tenure at GE, Welch said in an e-mail Tuesday that he was terminating his contract with Fortune. In his WSJ op-ed, Welch suggests that the reaction to his criticism of “the ruling authorities” was something he would expect in Soviet Russia or Communist China. “Nope,” he wrote, “that would be the United States right now, when a person (like me, for instance) suggests … Continue reading All Rich Guys Think They are Infallible….

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The Common Cathedral…..

RJ Walters

I have often said on this blog that maybe we should give up our stained glass churches and move them to strip malls, abandoned buildings, or other less costly surroundings. For many churches today paying the mortgage and utilities is a the second biggest drain on a small congregation (the biggest drain is usually the pastor’s salary).  That is why there is some validity to the claim that churches are more like clubhouses than anything else. Many spend the vast majority of their money on themselves. For small churches, and most churches are small, these two areas of expense take … Continue reading The Common Cathedral…..

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Its All In The Editing….

RJ Walters

Now that I have passed the 1,000 post mark on this blog and have managed to get a regular and growing following I thought I would give you some “secrets”on blogging.  Even though I am just an ordinary guy and not a Pulitzer prize winner I think I have some wisdom to offer beginning bloggers. Continue reading “Its All In The Editing….”

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Where the candidates differ on foreign policy…. thank heavens….

RJ Walters

via Due Diligence: Where the candidates differ on foreign policy – CBS News. The president wants the military to focus more on nontraditional threats like al Qaeda, and no longer wants the United States to serve as the world’s policeman. He noted on Monday that America spends more on the military than the next ten countries combined – which you only say if you think America is carrying too large a burden. It can be difficult to tease out differences between the candidates on specific issues. But when it comes to the larger, overarching philosophy, there is a clear difference: Romney … Continue reading Where the candidates differ on foreign policy…. thank heavens….

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Religionless Christianity???

RJ Walters

Toward the end of his life, while in a Nazi prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a well known Lutheran theologian, wrote some tantalizing letters to his friend Eberhad Bethage where he wrestles with what he calls “religionless Christianity.”The letters in question were written in 1944 not long before he was executed by the Nazi’s. What did Bohhoeffer mean by Religionless Christianity? Here are some of the words from those letters: What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today. The time when people could be told everything by means of … Continue reading Religionless Christianity???

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Christians Doing Risky Things….

RJ Walters

No this post is not about anything in today’s world. There are some Christians who are on evangelism missions abroad who are doing risky things but for the most part Christians are pretty well settled down in their safe lives much like everyone else in this country.  But that definitely was not the case for many in the early church. Here are some words about early Christians doing very risky things to show that they were followers of Jesus and were intent on following his examples.  This quote is from  A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the … Continue reading Christians Doing Risky Things….

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I am War Weary…….

RJ Walters

I saw a statistic  somewhere that said that 68% of U.S. citizens are war weary.  I am certainly one of them.  Neither party seems to shy away from sending our kids and/or our dollars to fight in this or that conflict. After twelve years of constant war costing us thousands of our kids and $trillions I am war weary. Do we really need to be the policemen of the world even if it bankrupts us? Our war machine has cost us enough! Continue reading “I am War Weary…….”

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I Believe……

RJ Walters

The phrase “I believe” seems to have a lot of weight in today’s world but to me it is a cautionary phrase. We have to distinguish between “I believe” and “I am”. Let me give you an example of that: “I believe that Jesus told us to take care of the poor.” This seems to be a powerful declaration but is it really?  What if I asked the person making the statement “What are you doing to take care of the poor?” and he said “well really nothing but I do believe that we should.”  I’m sure you can see … Continue reading I Believe……

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And Its All Small Stuff…..

RJ Walters

In 1997 Richard Carlson wrote a very popular book entitled Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff…. and it’s all small stuff. In that book he listed one hundred things to make our lives more peaceful. Some of those topics that I took to heart included: Let Others Be “Right” Most of the Time Learn to Live in the Present Moment Surrender to the Fact that Life Isn’t Fair Most of the things we worry about the most have little real impact on our lives.  They are just clutter that gets in the way of having a happier life.  As I have come … Continue reading And Its All Small Stuff…..

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RJ’s Doctrine….

RJ Walters

Tonight is, thank heavens, the last debate for this presidential season. It will be on foreign policy. I can tell you in advance what will happen. Each side will tear into the other saying their opponents foreign policy will assure the total destruction of the United States. There will be little of anything but put-down and counter-put-downs.

If I were running for president I would give you very clearly what I would proudly call RJ’s Doctrine: Continue reading “RJ’s Doctrine….”

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If God Is Love… (Part1)

RJ Walters

I am going to start a series of posts around quotes from some of the many books I have read. One of the favorites is the book “If God is Love” by Philip Gulley. Here is the quote for today: The theology of love begins with the assumption that all people are God’s cherished children and deserving of love. “We love because he first loved us. Those who say ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars, for they do not love a brother or sister who they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not … Continue reading If God Is Love… (Part1)

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A New/Old Kind of Christianity

RJ Walters

From A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith  by Brian D. McLaren: We’re following the best Christian tradition of going back to Jesus and the Scriptures, so our quest for a new kind of Christianity is, in fact, a most conservative quest. In our return to our roots, however, we’re not writing off all the great sages, scholars, and saints of church history. We’re simply going back to the original Evangelists, apostles, and especially Jesus and making sure we’re as in sync with them as possible from this point forward. We’re not trying to explain … Continue reading A New/Old Kind of Christianity

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Memoirs…..

RJ Walters

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that’s Memoirs. – Will Rogers I think almost all of us who have ever put pen to paper so to speak have thought about writing our memoirs. But it seems that only those folks who are famous ever actually get theirs published and I have a sneaking suspicion that many of even those are actually ghost written. I guess I have sort of written my memoirs in that I have been keeping a journal for about twenty years … Continue reading Memoirs…..

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Oh That Founding Father Origen…

RJ Walters

As we have learned in several of my recent posts Origen was one of the most influential theologians in the early church who was later deemed a heretic and then after that a saint again.  He spent quite a bit of time reading the “scripture” of his day. I put scripture in parens here because there was no Bible as we know it today in existence. Today Origen is definitely not one of the more popular early Christian figures with some in our establishment churches. That is particularly true of those that believe all of the Bible comes from God’s … Continue reading Oh That Founding Father Origen…

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More Brainy Stuff….

RJ Walters

I can’t seem to shut my brain off with all this change talk the last few posts. Hopefully this is the last post in this area. Here are some more basic things that need to change in our country in order to go forward with a least a small hope of getting better. I will admit that a some of the items on the current list are said more in jest than seriousness. Schools should be free as long as a kid wants to learn — We are becoming a third class country in regard to the number of our citizens … Continue reading More Brainy Stuff….

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How About Some Changes….

RJ Walters

I guess I am still fixated on the post from yesterday about how so many very sparsely populated States in the U.S. now have so much power. It seems that our country is quite out of balance right now as a result of past decisions.  Maybe it is time to revisit some of that stuff.  Being that I am the fool who rushes in where angels fear to tread I will take a stab at this. If you want to call this the Walters’ Doctrine go ahead. I will take the blame for all of it. Here is my list … Continue reading How About Some Changes….

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Don’t Take It Literally….

RJ Walters

There are many today who believe that all of the Bible must be taken as absolutely happening and the stories are without the possibility of error. But this is not the case with many of us follower of Jesus.. Several of the early fathers of the church warned against taking things literally. One of those was Origen. Here is a quote from People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story by Diane Butler Bass from him: The problem with literalism began, according to Origen, in Genesis: Who is found so ignorant as to suppose that God, as if … Continue reading Don’t Take It Literally….

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The Great American Desert….

RJ Walters

The West has got lots of open country but none that you can live on. – October 1, 1933  Will Rogers Of course when Will talked about the “West” I’m sure he was not talking about the States along the coast but instead those along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains.  But it turns out that he was mostly right in that not many people live in that area of the U.S.  I always remember the old saying that “50% of the people in the U.S. live within 50 miles of the coast”. But, just how many people live … Continue reading The Great American Desert….

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The Kingdom of God…..

RJ Walters

Of course all Christians recognize the phrase the kingdom of God from the Lord’s prayer. But the interpretation of that phrase seems to vary considerably depending on what version of Christianity you follow. Here is what Martin Luther said about it in his small catechism: Your Kingdom Come on earth as it is in heaven: What does this mean?  The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also. How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, … Continue reading The Kingdom of God…..

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That Bearded Guy Up There…..

RJ Walters

I am starting a new category here for some Sunday posts. As some of you know I have been blogging about living by the red letters, meaning the words of Jesus found in the Bible, for several years now. Since that blog, even though it has been running longer, does not get the readership of this one I thought I would bring a few of my favorite posts here for your thoughts. ***** Posted September 20, 1012 ********** Many of us Christians never seem to give up our childhood views of just who God is. We think of him as … Continue reading That Bearded Guy Up There…..

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Early Church Leaders – Ignatius …..

RJ Walters

My study of the early church leaders is to show that there was much diversity in the early church that was later driven out. Many, if not most of the “church fathers” believed things that are now considered heretical. Ignatius was certainly no exception. Ignatius and Irenaeus had definite ideas of how the young Christian congregations should be governed. Both authoritarians, they were hardly advocates of participatory democracy. Still, they respected the remarkable diversity of the churches and did not try to enforce any standardization. — The Future of Faith (Cox, Harvey) As indicated by the above quote for The Future … Continue reading Early Church Leaders – Ignatius …..

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The jobs are there, the education is not…

RJ Walters

Source: The jobs are there, the education is not – USATODAY.com. This disparity has come to be known as the “skills gap” — the divide between the jobs American businesses need to fill and the jobs Americans are qualified to do. Research shows that approximately 90% of the jobs in the fastest-growing occupations in our economy require some level of postsecondary education and training. And 80 million to 90 million adults today — about half of our current workforce — do not have the skills needed to acquire or advance in jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage. Where once we had … Continue reading The jobs are there, the education is not…