My wife and some girl friends decided to have a girls day out at the coast today. I was not invited, but instead of vegging out at home I asked them to drop me off at Starbucks in Newport. They have free wifi and good coffee. I can surf the web, drink coffee, people watch,and write, all in one place. What more could a man ask for? So here I sit trying to write a blog. I fear the "people watching" may be too distracting to allow for erudite blogging, but I will make the attempt.
Much has occurred in our little world since my last blog. We killed a pathetic old man living in a hovel watching videos of himself and of porn on a 13" tv. Apparently he could not afford a recliner. Sitting on the floor wrapped in a blanket may not be the image he wanted to leave to the world, but there it is. Is this really the guy we spent billions in resources to catch? Is this the man for which the Taliban risked war with the USA to protect? Is this the man for which some high officials in the Pakistani government risked the wrath of their wealthiest ally to protect? If Pakistan losses the billions in aid from the US, where will they get the money to build more nuclear weapons. How will they ever get enough bombs to blow India to one of the many Hindu hells. Was it the fear of this man and his organization that caused us to allow our authoritarian leadership to further erode our diminishing freedoms by passing the "patriot act"? Was he the reason we allowed our leaders to condone the torture of human beings?
Did we really allow this pathetic old man to cause us to sacrifice thousands of our young men and women? It seems to me that we took a pathetic radical religious nut and his followers, and elevated them to the most powerful people in the world. We gave them the power to force us into sacrificing a healthy economy to the god of fear. For them we gave up many of our most precious resources, our young men and women.
And now for the religious portion of my blog. "Goddamnit" when will we ever learn to do what Jesus would do?
Monday, May 30, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Book Review "Fall to Grace"
This is my first attempt at a review of a book for public consumption. The book I am reviewing is "Fall to Grace" by Jay Bakker. You may remember Jay's parents, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker from PTL Network fame,or in-fame as the case may be.
The first thing that struck me about the book was the title, "Fall to Grace" as opposed to "fall from grace". I often heard the phrase "fall from grace" as I was growing up. It was usually a description of someone who stopped following the rules and started doing things or saying things that were unacceptable for a Christian to do or say. Fallen was something I always felt in danger of becoming. "Falling to Grace" implies something very different. It's almost like you need to fall to a level so low that grace is all you have left and the only thing that can save you. And in fact, grace is the only thing that can save you no matter who you are or what you do. You cannot be "good" enough to gain your salvation. It can only be gained as a free gift from God because of and through Jesus. It turns out, much to my surprise, that you don't have to earn, in fact it is impossible for you to earn, your salvation. Wow, what a revelation. I have heard preachers say as much many times in my youth, only to learn that they expected me to earn that salvation by being a "good boy". Like Jay, I found that to be an impossible task. I remember one day I decided that repenting and getting saved all over again every Sunday night was a hassle. I heard that God would hear your prayers and answer if you were earnest in your payers so I devised a plan and carried it out. I prayed and asked God to forgive all my sins and all the sins I was going to commit in the future. It lifted a great burden off my shoulders and for a time I was content in my faith. I made a fatal error, though, that ended my contentment. I told others about my plan. Some people just found it amusing, but others were appalled and said I was just making excuses to be as bad as possible without the eternal consequences. Thanks to Jay, I now find that I was very close to a sacred truth. Thank you Jay, for putting into words what I have always felt but was unable to express.
The last two or three chapters deal almost exclusively with debunking the conservative fundamentalist tunnel vision regarding homosexuality. Wow, it is refreshing to run across a Christian who actually has the cajones to expose the hypocrisy. Even if homosexuality is a "sin", and I don't believe it is, spewing hatred of homosexuals from the pulpit must be a much worse sin.
I highly recommend this book for people like myself who want desperately to remain Christian, but cannot abide the current trends in Fundamentalist Churchianity. I also recommend it to those who reject the fundamentalists, but find the Liberal "High Church" too cold and uncommitted, perhaps ritualistic.
Harvey Childers
May 1, 2011
The first thing that struck me about the book was the title, "Fall to Grace" as opposed to "fall from grace". I often heard the phrase "fall from grace" as I was growing up. It was usually a description of someone who stopped following the rules and started doing things or saying things that were unacceptable for a Christian to do or say. Fallen was something I always felt in danger of becoming. "Falling to Grace" implies something very different. It's almost like you need to fall to a level so low that grace is all you have left and the only thing that can save you. And in fact, grace is the only thing that can save you no matter who you are or what you do. You cannot be "good" enough to gain your salvation. It can only be gained as a free gift from God because of and through Jesus. It turns out, much to my surprise, that you don't have to earn, in fact it is impossible for you to earn, your salvation. Wow, what a revelation. I have heard preachers say as much many times in my youth, only to learn that they expected me to earn that salvation by being a "good boy". Like Jay, I found that to be an impossible task. I remember one day I decided that repenting and getting saved all over again every Sunday night was a hassle. I heard that God would hear your prayers and answer if you were earnest in your payers so I devised a plan and carried it out. I prayed and asked God to forgive all my sins and all the sins I was going to commit in the future. It lifted a great burden off my shoulders and for a time I was content in my faith. I made a fatal error, though, that ended my contentment. I told others about my plan. Some people just found it amusing, but others were appalled and said I was just making excuses to be as bad as possible without the eternal consequences. Thanks to Jay, I now find that I was very close to a sacred truth. Thank you Jay, for putting into words what I have always felt but was unable to express.
The last two or three chapters deal almost exclusively with debunking the conservative fundamentalist tunnel vision regarding homosexuality. Wow, it is refreshing to run across a Christian who actually has the cajones to expose the hypocrisy. Even if homosexuality is a "sin", and I don't believe it is, spewing hatred of homosexuals from the pulpit must be a much worse sin.
I highly recommend this book for people like myself who want desperately to remain Christian, but cannot abide the current trends in Fundamentalist Churchianity. I also recommend it to those who reject the fundamentalists, but find the Liberal "High Church" too cold and uncommitted, perhaps ritualistic.
Harvey Childers
May 1, 2011
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