Not Only The Next Generation….

via Ron Paul ‘Revolution’ strikes at GOP state parties – First Read. “Look at the next generation,” Paul said on MSNBC. “I mean, there is so much excitement out there. The big deal is that the next generation are sick and tired of what they’re getting and they’re looking for something.  And what we’re offering seems to appeal to the young people.” I guess anything would be an improvement over what we have now so I salute the folks who are leading this charge to change the Republican Party. The quote above says that the next generation is sick and tired … Continue reading Not Only The Next Generation….

On-The-Road Day 11 — Calling It Quits….

Here we are ending day eleven of our trip heading home. The were a few sites I had picked for visits today but my wife just isn’t feeling up to it. She has really not done well this entire trip.  Maybe the elevation along with all her many usual ailments was too much for her. So we called it quits this morning. Maybe a future trip back to Denver to see some of the sites but that is not likely. Since all we will be doing from here out is interstate driving I will end our 0n-the-road reports here with … Continue reading On-The-Road Day 11 — Calling It Quits….

Citizens as Foreigners…

Let’s start this post with a long quote from A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story by Diana Butler Bass: The early Christian text (from the second or third century) known as the Epistle to Diognetus explains that Christianity is neither an ethnicity nor earthly citizenship but a way of life that is somehow at odds with the societies in which the faithful reside. Christians may look like everyone else, but their actions—including practices of hospitality, charity, and nonviolence—make them different: For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the … Continue reading Citizens as Foreigners…

Emergency NRA Board Meeting…

Here I am heading toward Denver in a few minutes so the most recent gun slaughter is on my mind. I know President Obama will also be heading for Denver. I selfishly hope he doesn’t hold up my travels.  It just amazes me that we in the U.S.  so quickly forget all these types of shootings and there have been so many of them in recent years.  Of course we have many more guns per capita than any other country in the world so it should not be surprising that this occurs on such a frequent basis. We are also … Continue reading Emergency NRA Board Meeting…

On-The-Road Day 10 Canyonlands National Park

When we left Mesa Verde yesterday we headed northwest into Utah to visit Canyonlands National Park.  Canyonland is a very different place but also much like the Grand Canyon in its majesty. Here are some pictures: Have to have one last picture of Mesa Verde that I took just the evening before we left. It is a sun drenched view of the Cliff Palace. I will dream of that place in the days and years ahead. Here are a couple from the Canyonlands: Today we head north to catch I70 east to Denver. We will be visiting a new museum … Continue reading On-The-Road Day 10 Canyonlands National Park

My Travels….

As I mentioned a few posts ago I somehow got myself into an extended FaceBook dialog with a friend about politics. It surprised me that he seems to hate our current president with such a venom that it scared me. I had never seen that side of him before. After an extended comment/counter-comment it shook some of the peacefulness from my current environment. I had trouble sleeping that night and even the next morning his hateful words lingered in my mind. At the end of all those posts it seemed like two one-sided conversation instead of a single thread. There … Continue reading My Travels….

On-The-Road Day 8 –Thoughts about Mesa Verde

Today is a somewhat leisurely day for us. It is our last day at Mesa Verde so I thought I would give you an evaluation of our time here.   This has been one of my favorite vacations for quite a while. Five days in one spot is a record for me. We are usually in the  different-hotel-a-day mode. Being without a TV for all this time has proved to be a boon. It is amazing how creative I have been while I have been here. Without the TV zombie things come to me frequently and if I hurry and … Continue reading On-The-Road Day 8 –Thoughts about Mesa Verde

On-The_Road Day 7 –Working 9 til 5…

For the last hundred years or more the average person went to work for a given number of hours and then went home to his family. He was paid for his efforts and used that money to provide food and shelter. The number of hours demanded for a day’s work has varied over the years but the idea of working for someone else has remained a constant. We tend to think that this is a normal kind of thing. But for many in history that was really not the case. The ancient ruins here at Mesa Verde got me to … Continue reading On-The_Road Day 7 –Working 9 til 5…

Nonviolence – Absolute Pacifism

Let’s start out this post with another quote from A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story  by  Diana Butler Bass. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Origen all specifically condemned participation in war. “The Christian fathers of the first three centuries,” states theologian Lisa Sowle Cahill, “were generally adamant that discipleship requires close adherence to the nonviolent and countercultural example of Jesus’s own life and his sayings about the nature of the kingdom.” It is clear from the early Christian sources that for the first three hundred years or so the People of the Way were … Continue reading Nonviolence – Absolute Pacifism

On-The-Road Day 6 — Can’t We Just Get Along…

Being as I recently saw that the person famous for this quote from the L.A. riots died the quote has been on my mind.  It seems that  just getting along is a hard thing to do now days. Politics puts one set of beliefs at war with another set. Each thinks that they are wholly right and the other is at the worst evil.  How does this relate to my visit here to Mesa Verde? I have been reading quite a bit about the people who inhabited these ruins over eight-hundred years ago and it seems that they very much … Continue reading On-The-Road Day 6 — Can’t We Just Get Along…

On-The-Road Day 5 Mesa Verde – Spruce Tree House

No, the Spruce Tree House is not something up in a tree. It is one of the pueblo ruins found here at Mesa Verde. We made the trek down to it this morning about 9:00am shortly after it opened. We were hoping that it would not be so crowded then and that proved right. But within twenty minutes the hordes came :) First here are a few picture I took of it.   This is indeed a mystical place. To walk on the same stones as Native Americans did over eight-hundred years ago. is thought provoking.  As I sat there … Continue reading On-The-Road Day 5 Mesa Verde – Spruce Tree House

On-The-Road Day 4 Mesa Verde

We are now settled down in our lodge room at Mesa Verde National Park. The photo below is looking out our room window. We plan to spend many hours out on our deck admiring it. The room and especially the view is everything I expected it to be. We spend the day at the visitor center and just vegging  out in the room. Tomorrow we will venture to go down to one of the ruins. We are trying the least physical one first and then going from there. It is about 70 degrees right now at early evening going down … Continue reading On-The-Road Day 4 Mesa Verde

The Didache

Given the amount of weight that “correct” beliefs have with so many churches today it is hard to understand just how little weight the early church put on such things. In the early years Christianity Bibles weren’t available to local congregations because it would be several hundred years before it was formulated by a council of then current day church leaders. But there were several other important documents that were used used by local congregations. One of the most important was what is now called the Didache. You could consider it an instruction book to teach someone who wanted to join … Continue reading The Didache

Colorado On-The-Road Day 3 Cortez Colorado

Here we are settled in for the night at Cortez Colorado. We check in to the Mesa Verde National Park lodge tomorrow for our five-day R&R and spiritual regeneration. We spent today traversing the Rocky Mountains. It was an interesting trip down mainly two lane roads for over two hundred miles. We crossed the continental divide at Wolf’s Pass. It was 56 degrees there and 87 when we turned off I25 south of Pueblo. That was quite a shock to get out of the car with that temperature change. One of the things we encountered during this leg of the … Continue reading Colorado On-The-Road Day 3 Cortez Colorado

On-The-Road Colorado Day 2

We spent the last two days eating up blacktop. Traveled about 1200 miles and we are now in Pueblo Colorado.  We don’t usually like to travel via interstates but since we decided to get here as fast as possible that was the only way to do it.  I mentioned before that I have a new car for the first time in twenty years.  It is an American made Chevy Sonic, which is a new sub-compact for 2012. It proudly gave us very good mileage of around thirty-five miles per gallon for the trip so far. Since the trip here was … Continue reading On-The-Road Colorado Day 2

On The Road Again…..

Mesa Verde National Park Yes, starting today my wife and I are on the road again. This time we will be traveling by car to the great State of Colorado. The majority of our time will be spent at Mesa Verde National Park so expect many photos in the next few weeks. We will be staying at the park lodge for six days of R&R, casual exploring and photographing nature. Although they don’t, on purpose, provide any television they do have wi-fi in the lodge, but not the rooms, so I can send the daily posts as always. We will … Continue reading On The Road Again…..

Hospitality….

Hospitality was a very important thing to the early Christians. They put it above beliefs in their understanding of Jesus. I will use a quote from Diane Butler Bass’ book Christianity After Religionto illustrate this point: Not offering hospitality was a much greater failure than not believing that Jesus was truly God and truly human. Early Christians judged ethical failings as the most serious breach of community, even as they accepted a significant amount of theological diversity in their midst.  Hospitality to these early followers meant following Jesus’ command to love one another. But just what did they mean by … Continue reading Hospitality….

Get Over It……

Source:  Lew Says Republicans Should ’Get Over’ Health Law Debate – Businessweek In Massachusetts, where former Governor Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, implemented a similar law, just 1 percent of the population is subject to the penalty, Lew said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. As the White House Chief of Staff says in this article the Republicans in Congress need to get over it as far as ACA (American Care Act) is concerned and move on to something that will actually do some good for the country. They fought tooth and nail to repeal Social Security, … Continue reading Get Over It……

Stupidity

I was looking at my blog title and realized that I have not posted anything about the current quote contained there. If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out – Will Rogers Most of the things that are going on around us now seem to fit this phrase and the proposed solutions seem to be more of the same. How did we get into this state. Stupidity I guess ;) And the cow sticking out his tongue below the title banner is related to the quote. Continue reading Stupidity

Aside — A Glimmer of God….

As I have said many times on this blog I am perfectly attuned to the Quaker concept of the “light of God in each of us”.  Everyone, including the most evil in history, has a glimmer of God in them. Some have covered it with a very dark and dreadful blanket but it is there none the less. Even those who absolutely deny the existence of God have it. I got to thinking the other day about how some people seem to think that they are fully attuned to God; they seem to think that it is therefore their duty … Continue reading Aside — A Glimmer of God….

Success…..

For that’s all there is to success is satisfaction. – July 29, 1928   Will Rogers It really is as simple as what Will says here. If you are satisfied with your life and what you do then you are a success. Some people equate success with how much money they earn. Some, especially those in Washington and corporate boardrooms equate it with how much power they have. Some say it is the number of Face book friends you have Most definitions of success are based on material goods. Having the right car, home, money in the bank is what … Continue reading Success…..

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due…

Source: Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize – World News. Earlier this year, the Pentagon announced defense cuts of $487 billion over the next decade, as the United States seeks to move to a smaller, leaner and more agile force, putting a new strategic focus on the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The Defense Department in January said that it would remove two of the four U.S. combat brigades stationed in Europe as part of its military restructuring.  In this blog, especially in the past, I have spoken often about our bloated military budgets … Continue reading Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due…

Early Church Growth….

Lets look at just how much the Followers of the Way increased in membership during the Pre-Constantine years. Here is what Wikipedia says about that: Early Christianity spread from city to city throughout the Hellenized Roman Empire and beyond into East Africa and South Asia. The Christian Apostles, said to have dispersed from Jerusalem, traveled extensively and established communities in major cities and regions throughout the Empire. The original church communities were founded in northern Africa, Asia Minor, Armenia, Arabia, Greece, and other places by apostles (see Apostolic see) and other Christian soldiers, merchants, and preachers. Over forty were established by the year 100, many in Asia Minor, such … Continue reading Early Church Growth….

Get Rid of It!!!

It was 1965 when Medicare was enacted. I was just entering college so I still have some vivid memories of what went on around it.  I remember the conservatives in congress were saying such things as: We’ve got to repeal this law, it is bad for the country. Its Socialism. It takes away choice. It will bankrupt the country And the most typical comment that also goes with increasing the minimum wage Businesses will fail because of this law. Now almost a half a century later the same thing is being said about the Affordable Care Act that recently got … Continue reading Get Rid of It!!!

Aiming Too Low….

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it. – Michelangelo Michelangelo was certainly a guy who aimed high. He was so proficient in so many areas! Of course his most famous work today is probably the Sistine Chapel ceiling.  His quote here is as true today as it was in his days (1475 – 1564). My father, God rest his soul, just didn’t know how to aim high. He drifted from one low paying job to another. He just had … Continue reading Aiming Too Low….

No…..

I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I did it myself.  –Albert Einstein After collecting a number of Einstein quotes he is becoming one of my favorites and this is one of the best ones. I know in my life I have always asked “Why is this like ….” I often get the equivalent of “no” as a reply or maybe more accurately “this is the way we have always done it…” or some such as that. Those refusals to take seriously my “why” has made me stronger over the years. It … Continue reading No…..

Subverted Loyalty….

In this post lets revisit one of the quotes from Robin Myers’ book entitled The Underground Church – Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus. Empires seldom worry about religious beliefs that have no real effect on the loyalty of their subjects. But when that loyalty is subverted or replaced, those beliefs must be investigated and the believers crushed… It would take time  before People of the Way came up on the Roman radar screen. I think the Roman emperors thought that when the executed to primary leader of this rag-tag group that would drive them into oblivion but of course the opposite was actually true. … Continue reading Subverted Loyalty….

A Catch 22…..

Source: U.S. employers waiting and watching before hiring – USATODAY.com. Business has picked up. Yet American companies are too nervous to step up hiring.  The economy seems so gripped by uncertainties that many employers have decided to manage with the staff they have. They aren’t convinced their customer demand will keep growing. Or they worry that Europe’s festering debt crisis could infect the global economy. Or they aren’t sure what Congress will do, if anything, about taxes and spending in coming months. This kind of sounds like a catch-22 doesn’t it? Employers won’t hire until the economy comes back but consumers … Continue reading A Catch 22…..

Just Ordinary People….

For the month of July we will be studying just how the early Christians went about practicing their faith. As will be typical of many of my posts I will start them out with quotes from one of my many sources that got me to thinking about the current post.  This quote comes from a book by Robin Myers entitled The Underground Church – Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus. We forget to distinguish between history as a record of the elites and history as a record of the people. While most academics concentrate on the theologians who wrote the treatises and on … Continue reading Just Ordinary People….

Post Truth Politics……

Naming today’s age beginning with the word “Post” seems to be a dominant thing lately. Since I am doing a study of the history of the Christian church over at http://www.RedLetterLiving.net I am very familiar with the term Post-Christian. Here is what Wikipedia says about that: a post-Christian world is one where Christianity is no longer the dominant civil religion, but one that has, gradually over extended periods of time, assumed values, culture, and worldviews that are not necessarily Christian (and further may not necessarily reflect any world religion’s standpoint, or may represent a combination of either several religions or none). In my studies I can see … Continue reading Post Truth Politics……

Small People….

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too, can become great   – Mark Twain While I never really appreciated many of Mark Twain’s books I do enjoy his quotes. They often give me inspiration. The one here is as true as they come. Often times when someone mentions some of their ambitions others tell them that you are not capable of such lofty things!  They say that you will only get hurt if you dream too big. Other might say you are … Continue reading Small People….

Air Force Museum – SR 71

I am starting a new tradition here called Photo Saturday. I have a vacation portfolio of more than 10,000 pictures so I thought I would pull some out every Saturday. I hope you enjoy them. The SR-71 Blackbird has always been one of my favorite airplanes. This one is located at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio. This is kind of a different view.  If you are interesting in the history of flight this museum is top rate. Continue reading Air Force Museum – SR 71

Opportunities….

‎”Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work”– Thomas Edison Thomas Edison certainly wasn’t one to shy away from work. Another of his famous quotes was. Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. People, no matter the period, have always dreamed of striking it rich; we want instant wealth with the least amount of work possible. That is what drives all the lotteries that currently rake in billions of dollars each year. That is what keeps all the casinos that are popping up in almost every State still growing. That is what keeps … Continue reading Opportunities….

A Mosaic….

Next time I will be starting to relay stories of the early church. Up front I want to make sure you understand that this journey into the history of the church and how we got here will be a mosaic rather than a timeline approach. It will also likely be a “people’s history type account. That is it will where possible be based on accounts of the common people rather than the primary leaders of the time. It will be a mosaic instead of a timeline. In each post I will give you a small piece of the history that … Continue reading A Mosaic….

Almost as Good As an iPad….

Source: Windows 8: We kick the tyres on Redmond’s new tablet wheels • The Register. Why is it that the once innovative start-up companies turn into stodgy of slow-moving monoliths? Of course in my mind Microsoft is currently at the front of this pack. I remember when Windows first came out to compete with Apple products.  They were a young and brash bunch back then. They actually started the business by writing an operating system for the current monolith called IBM. The stories about how all the Microsoft guys would dare to show up in meetings between the two companies without … Continue reading Almost as Good As an iPad….

Its About Time — Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S.

source: Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S. – NYTimes.com. After years of speculation, estimates and projections, the Census Bureau has made it official: White births are no longer a majority in the United States. I bet the racist blogs this morning are white-hot, pun intended, talking about this article! But for myself I say it is about time. I think that our strongest point as a nation is our diversity. We generally don’t have one segment of society having total say on the rest of us. Now I am not inferring that the tyranny of the majority doesn’t, … Continue reading Its About Time — Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S.

Getting Someone To Read It…..

Over here you can write whatever you want to. The only trouble getting somebody that will read it. – April 18, 1933  Will Rogers Sometimes we in the U.S. forget just how good we have it. As Will says over here we can write whatever we want.  That is definitely not the case in many parts of the world today.  Yes, FaceBook and such have made putting your words out there easier but they can still cause some bodily harm. Let’s never forget that we have it so well here. But to us authors, I am including all us bloggers … Continue reading Getting Someone To Read It…..

Rummage Sales

Before I get into the “details” I wanted to throw out another unique way of looking at church history.  Here is the way  author Phyllis Tickle describes church history in her book entitled The Great Emergence : The only way to understand what is currently happening to us as twenty-first-century Christians in North America is first to understand that about every five hundred years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale. And, he (Rev Mark Dyer) goes on to say, we are living in and through one of those five-hundred-year sales. Now, while the bishop may be … Continue reading Rummage Sales

Inspiring Words From Gandhi…

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world — that is the myth of the atomic age — as in being able to remake ourselves — Gandhi Gandhi was a firm believer that small actions can result in big things. He spent much of his live doing small things but the result did remake the world. He managed to free India from British rule and he became the godfather of the idea of peaceful resistance which was later used by Martin Luther King and many others over the years. We all need … Continue reading Inspiring Words From Gandhi…

Aside… History Ain’t

I don’t know if you have noticed or not but I have been feeling artsy lately so have been playing with the header to this blog. The quote found there will change often and some of the other things as I get the urge. The quote for today does strike home to me. With the blog I get my chance to tell you what history is.  I definitely feel the power; I hope it doesn’t corrupt me :)   Continue reading Aside… History Ain’t

Worriers….

My wife is a worrier. That is just who she is. I have learned to accept that part of her character over the years.  Sometimes when she is not worrying she worries about not worrying enough. :) I only bring this up here to say I see the same thing in the U.S. stock market. They are just worrier who worry that they might miss something to worry about. Years ago the value of a stock was determined by the performance of the company. Now it seems to be more related to: how the EU is doing, what the unemployment … Continue reading Worriers….