Don't Be A Putz

I'm with you on the "issues surrounding salvation" being the essentials. I am. I guess I'm just reacting to your suggestion that maybe Boyd should not have done what he did. I think his options were

a) do what he did, announce that his church will not endorse any political figure, or exhort people to go out and vote in Person X or vote down Proposition Y.

b) oblige those asking, even though he is strongly against it.

c) keep saying "no", over and over and over again. Were I him, I'd figure I'd be doing people a favor to say, "look, I'm just going to keep saying 'no', so don't bother asking." He didn't say that everyone who disagrees with him ought to leave; they left of their own accord, as they were free to do. Is Boyd's job to please all of the people all of the time?

I think I overstated my case in saying that this issue may be an "essential". I hold that Boyd can be justified in doing what he did without the issue being an "essential".

Is Boyd allowed to preach on anything other than "essentials"? If so, does he constantly have to pepper his speech with "now, this is just me talkin' here" or "I could be wrong, but" or "let me delineate the different positions on this issue, but my own feelings are a private matter"?

Make your own “Title” Box…

At some point truth has to trump "unity". I understand the whole "grace in non-essentials" bit, but in my opinion, this may not be so much of a non-essential.

See—the fact that we don’t necessarily agree on this may help support my point. Where do we draw the line as to what is and is not essential? Salvation? Salvation + Morality? What is Morality? Many Christians are beginning to suggest that a national policy of security through preemption is not moral.

So is the Bush doctrine on the “non-essential” list? Should we stop at preemption, especially when there are loads of other immoral actions? What about all those check-advance / pay-day-loans / car-title-loan predatory-lender slime? (Or others that profit off the enslavement of others.) What about a Christian car salesman, who knowingly sells cars to people that cannot or should not buy (afford) them? What about the abortion continuum? Does the life of the mother mean anything—or should we just have faith? What about the people that may have intentionally lost count on the amount of morphine they administered to the dying patients in Intensive Care in a flooded hospital that was out of supplies and energy while being evacuated without any type of support? What about the pharmacist or drug-store-employee that deals with the day-after-pill? What about the high school teacher that works at a school teaching goofy stuff like slippery-slope-sex-ed or moral relativism? Where’s the line drawn?

So what’s your truth Matt? And is your truth the same as mine? To quote my heritage, In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love. In my eyes, the essentials are the issues surrounding Salvation. Everything else appears to be open to interpretation.

Hey... why don't I have a "title" box? No fair.

I really don’t see where his statements were all that controversial. Controversial enough for 20% of his congregation, but I think we (on this board) have already deduced that God is likely to be apolitical.

Well, unfortunately, what may be a "no duh" to the four of us is not so obvious to a good amount of the Christian population. I wasn't trying to stir anything up here, just a general "yay" (or, to be Christian-culturally-correct, "a praise").

Is aggressively touting apoliticalness its own form of politicization? Gregory Boyd chose to make it an issue, and his issue resulted in Church divisiveness. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

I've heard similar arguments--for example, explaining why there's really no such thing as agnosticism. I don't think it works here. At some point truth has to trump "unity". I understand the whole "grace in non-essentials" bit, but in my opinion, this may not be so much of a non-essential.

And I’ll have to debate the Open Theism thing at a later date. Either you’ve misrepresented me, or Wikipedia is inaccurate as written.

Probably the former--my bad.

Hold on there, Tiger...

As far as this Greg Boyd thing… I really don’t see where his statements were all that controversial. Controversial enough for 20% of his congregation, but I think we (on this board) have already deduced that God is likely to be apolitical. Politics is a philosophy, God is faith. The two just don’t mix.

While in DC, the mega-church in which we attended purposefully and willfully stayed clear of all political debates, but was very clear on issues that were directly Biblical. (Abortion and Homo included.) Their choice to remain apolitical ensured that political philosophy didn’t become a stumbling block for those in a politically charged city. It allowed a unified and central focus on God and His Word.

The linked article did have a few interesting comments from the disgruntled, such as

"A case in point is the abortion issue. If the church were awake when abortion was passed in the '70s, it wouldn't have happened. But the church was asleep.”

“You can't be a Christian and ignore actions that you feel are wrong.”

And to be honest, I’m not sure how I can respond to such comments. Other than to suggest that there’s a fine and personally-interpreted line between “Biblical” and “Political” issues.

But here is my question—Were Gregory Boyd’s actions, by his very definition, contrary (at least in part) to what he was preaching? He could have continued to ignore the hawkish requests by his congregation, or have chosen to deal with them in an entirely different way. But he chose to aggressively counter their ideas with his own. And on a Sunday morning. Is aggressively touting apoliticalness its own form of politicization? Gregory Boyd chose to make it an issue, and his issue resulted in Church divisiveness. I’m not sure that’s a good thing. The church has to allow for diversity of opinion in how the non-essential parts of the scripture are interpreted. Apparently, Gregory Boyd may not think so—or at least in this case.

My final thought on the issue is to pontificate this concept. The muslims are in a holy war. Many of us in the Christian west deliberately choose to not view it as such. Does it really matter how we view it? Is a war still a war, when half of those engaged refuse to view it as such? Some wars are pretty easy to delineate between the War and God; but this one’s different in that: (1) the conflict is an entirely new paradigm of “war via militia”, and (2) one side of the conflict is deliberating bringing their god into it as the motivating force.

And I’ll have to debate the Open Theism thing at a later date. Either you’ve misrepresented me, or Wikipedia is inaccurate as written.

Good for Greg! Greg Boyd, that is.

Before the last presidential election, [Boyd] preached six sermons called "The Cross and the Sword" in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a "Christian nation" and stop glorifying American military campaigns...

By the time the dust had settled, Woodland Hills, which Boyd founded in 1992, had lost about 1,000 of its 5,000 members.

Welp... Don't let the door hit you on the kiester on your way out.

Prior to this, Boyd was best known as the primary touter of Open Theism (which our Greg dabbled in at one point in time--and maybe still does?!?). I can't get with him on that, but I'm glad he's making a stand here.

A couple of items...

I'm all for cleaning up the air waves and such, as "edgy" is really nothing more than being on the other line of offensive. And as "edgy" continues to become mainstream, the line keeps on getting pushed down that slippery slope. However, I read this article a couple of minutes ago--and it's making me reevaluate my stance on the subject. Thoughts? Because if cleaning up the air waves includes *this*, then I don't think I want to be a part of that. I'll just use my on/off button thank-you-very-much.

Secondly, what's an appropriate prayer for a child? Do we pray to Jesus or God? Do I bring up that whole intercessory thing, or just let nature take its course? For now, it's a simple "Thank you Jesus for this food. Amen." ... but I always feel a little goofy with that.

Finally... Forgive me brethren, for I have sinned. I have gone trolling for mormons, and found them on YouTube. I have goaded them, exposed their inconsistencies, and mocked their beliefs. (By many of their accounts, I am not going to hell.) I even brought Lucy Harris into it. I know I was wrong--but I am a weak, weak man; and I need help. I am powerless to this addiction (step 1), and I believe that a higher power can help me (step 2). Step 5 should be around here somewhere...

Tim: There are such things as apartments, you know. And many even have convenient month-to-month leasing options. (I've used such an option, and with very good results.) And no--I'm not thinking for your family, I'm thinking for you. Your sanity (and marriage) may very well be worth the money. Either that, or kick them out. Dang.

Scott: Don't you think you're mischaracterizing my statements a wee-bit? To compare WWII battles with caring for those in an Acute Care Wing without access to modern medicine is a bit of a stretch. If you can't recognize or admit this, then there's not point wasting my time on it. As far as the faith option--Ya, point taken. However, it's not really a part of the medical model. My whole point was to suggest that we really don't know what went on, and to convict those that were there (and who made the decisions they thought best at the time) seems just a bit irresponsible. I'm certainly not going to do it.

Secondly--regarding Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton... Been there, done that--lest you forget. I saw practically the entire journey when I was in the Antarctic. Elephant Island is really a nothing of an island. After crossing South Georgia without a real map, he climbed this hill (from behind) and set eyes on civilization.

Sir Raymond Priestley (1886 - 1974), a British Geologist and Antarctic explorer who accompanied Shackleton on the 1907-1913 Antarctic expeditions, said, "For scientific leadership, give me Scott; for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen; but when you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems to be no way out, get on your knees and pray for Shackleton."

Anyone hear from Tim lately?

So now we're on to the subject of ethanasia...? Couple of thoughts here. One, I am still unclear as to whether these patients were killed against their will or at their own request. There is a huge difference there (as I am sure you would agree). Secondly, I'm surprised that you went the whole everything-is-looking-grim-so-let's-give-up route. Not very in line with your admiration of the allies during World War II. The simple fact of that matter (as I see it, of course) is that no one has the omniscience to know whether or when help will actually arrive. Who knows, Sean Penn could have come storming through those hospital doors, shotgun in hand, mere moments after they euthanized the patients. So not only did they possibly rob the patients of their lives, they robbed Sean of his potential to become a national hero (instead of joke). Thirdly, on a theological level, the doctor's approach seems to arbitrarily rule out the possibility of divine intervention. So we're going to have to disagree here.

But on a lighter note, I have a movie/book recommendation for all of you. Several years ago, I read a biography on Ernest Shakleton entitled Endurance. In short, it is the true story of a man and his crew surviving entrapment in the Arctic ice. Just an unbelievable story of human courage and the will to survive at all costs. If you're not much of a reader, the Kenneth Brannagh 3-disc film is also quite good. A little slow on the front end, but still quite good.

Scott

P.S. Lastly, if you are going to quote Ghostbusters, can we at least go with "Ray, when someone asks if you are a god, you say: 'Yes!'"

You know Scott--I'm not sure I'm buying this evil euthanasia bit. At least maybe not in this case. So much so, that I just may call shenanigans on the whole thing. It is just so easy to call it repugnant or unbelievable (even by today's standards) with 20/20 hindsight, beyond the immediate context in which these care givers faced. Now, don't get me wrong--I'’m trying to neither condone or condemn the alleged actions of these people; however, let's look at it from their perspective: No water; No power; Generator power probably gone; No refrigeration; Supplies are likely running low--if not absent or lost due to lack of power / refrigeration; You've been told that there will be no rescue effort; You have to evacuate, but without support; You have the Acute-Care Wing filled with patients that you can no longer care for: If you try to evacuate them, they die. If you keep them at the facility, they die. If you leave them (and evacuate to save yourself and others), they die.

Remember where America was at this point: mass media coverage of New Orleans. Crazy inner-city thugs shooting at everyone; Sean Penn comes with his shot-gun to save the day; mass looting, raping, and black people forced into cannibalism. Deliveries to the Super Dome are being denied, because of reports that hoodlums are out of control. Cats and dogs, living together... mass hysteria! (Who can guess the movie quote?)

I see this situation as a desperate lose-lose situation. They can't evacuate them; they can't evacuate themselves; they can no longer effectively care for them; they can't feed them or hydrate them; they're being kept alive by a modern medical model that they could no longer support. So I going to hold off on boarding the 20/20 "they're monsters" bandwagon. Deliberate euthanasia and doing your best with what is available to allow the dying and soon-to-be-dead to die with peace...that's a big difference in my book. If I know my acute care patients are about to die a crappy death, and they ask me to help them with their pain--I'll give them morphine. And if they want more, I'm not going to refuse them. I wasn't there; I don't know all the facts in this case; I do believe that the condemning pseudo-righteous mass media is likely to misrepresent the facts as the medical care givers saw them at the time.

So am I to understand that these patients were "euthanized" against their will? If so, that's pretty unbelievable! Even by today's moral standards...

Don't even get me started...

But I am kind of interested about what people think about this...

Interesting Observations from the Mideast ...

Is it me, or do you see certain ... how to say? ... national characteristics on full display here? As of yesterday:

64 Americans out of 25,000 living in the region have requested evacuation.
800 French out 20,000 living in the region have requested evacuation.

I could be wrong, but I believe the remaining French are currently building a protective wall that they earnestly hope no one will go around.

Coming at Bill Mallonee from a completely different angle ...

Years ago, a Wheaton prof turned me on to the writings of Douglas Coupland. If you recall, he was the guy who responsible for bringing some sociologists obscure reference to a "X generation" into the mainstream by writing Generation X. In my humble opinion, his first several books were absolutely brilliant (with Life After God and Microserfs being the best). But then he entered this unbelievably mundane period of time where he simply rehashed his own work and became a parody of himself. His books were neither bad nor good -- they just were. And that may be the harshest indictment of all. Anyway, I just finised reading his newest, entitled jPod, and I am happy to report that it was a return to form. In fact, I even have a theory as to what he was doing with these later books.

Anyway, all that to say, it made me think of our good friend, Bill, and I said a silent prayer for his happiness. If Coupland can return to form, perhaps Bill too might once again find his stride...

Being a former window AC user, it is clear that you still have much to learn. :) First, you'll find that there will be a finite number of electrical items you can use at once. Exceeding this limit will result in a trip in the circuit. Second, you will learn that once a circuit trips, it will trip much quicker and easier in the future. (The way around this is to let the circuit cool a bit, as most are heat triggered. Of course, you're out of power while you let it cool.)

As an aside, I took my AC unit apart in the bedroom, and lined it with dynomat--which is the anti-vibration-padding that is used in high-end car-stereo installations. It made the unit much more quiet.

I just can't believe it took you this long. The dehumidification is worth that price alone.

Don't know if I told you guys about our wheat field--but it's still growing strong. I've cut about 3/5 of it this morning, and will finish it off in a minute or two. It's just so discouraging to pay for a lawn, and have the builder put down dead sod. You pay for it again, and then the landscaper inadvertently plants a wheat field over your high-end scientifically engineered hybrid Bermuda grass seed. All I want is to have a lawn for my daughter to crawl on--but life seems to conspire against me at every turn. To be honest, I don't know what to do--take it to the mattresses with this most recent wheat-grass landscaping eff-up, or just shut-up and live with it.

There was a time when I loved tinkering with HTML and CSS. Well, "loved" may be overstating things... I liked getting pages to look just so... which had me resorting to Notepad as well. All those WYSIWYG editors... man, I just shudder to think about all the junk extra code they'd leave around. Anyway, I just don't have the time or patience anymore to be as particular as I once was about how my web pages look. Therefore, you are looking at one of the standard Blogger templates, 100% unaltered. And I'm okay with that.

So... how 'bout this weather? Early yesterday morning I broke down and purchased two window AC units at Home Depot. I got a 5000 BTU for $79 and a 6500 BTU for $99. The former is in the bedroom, and the latter is trying its best on our living/dining room area--it's a bit big for it. But it's definitely better than nothing. Anyway... so we spend the day wondering how we'd gone without for so long, and settled in for a comfortable night's sleep... then at around 2AM I woke up, realizing that a) it was a little too quiet, and b) it was stuffy in our room. The power had gone out on the whole block. Great. No fans, no nuthin'. I reported the outage to the electric company, then tried to get back to sleep--I think I was successful.

Then this morning Michelle gets up for work, and we look at her clock, which is still blank. No power. I go back to sleep. Then later Michelle comes back in and says she just realized that the bathroom light is working, after having been using it for a while. I guess our power came back on, but there were a couple of fuses that were tripped (namely those containing the AC units), so I flipped 'em back, and we're back in business! Today was forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far, so... I was happy.

Everyone else surviving okay?

"Just 1's and 0's telling me if I got it right or wrong based upon what I want it to do in the end ... Sounds pretty relaxing."

Oh... this should be fun. Just make sure you close the door when coding so Ethan can't hear daddy swear.

This is so frustrating. The whole purpose behind my purchase of the software was to assist my friend with his church plant. He is going with little to no backing from my church, and I thought it was a way to get some free advertising up for him on the web. Anyway, we met with them for dinner last night, and the church has once again found ways to undercut him. Now it is once again unsure as to whether he will go through Harvest Crystal Lake, all because he dared to challenge them on whether they were preaching out of The DaVinci Code or out of the Bible for five weeks. Seriously, in a church that contains the word "Bible" in its name, he fought for making sure we were in the Word, and he is once again getting spanked.

Regardless, I know he will plant at some point, so I'm going to work on putting this together. While it will certainly be of assistance to him at some point along the way (hopefully sooner than later), I have my own motivations as well. I used to love working on computers, and I've longed to get back to something that functions on a binary level. No emotions, no boyfriends threatening girlfriends, no kids dying. Just 1's and 0's telling me if I got it right or wrong based upon what I want it to do in the end ... Sounds pretty relaxing.

Right now, the site will be posted on www.scottiemcdoogle.com. But don't expect anything up there for a bit. I'm still working my way through this nasty manual and we haven't gotten to "uploading your site."

Peace.

Hey Scott--I'm a big believer in making templates, as they can save you a world of time in the long run. If the site will only have a handful of static pages, then it's probably not worth your time... but if the site's pages will have dynamic content or navigation in the future, then I think it's definitely worth your time.

But with all that said, I end up coding my sites in freakin' notepad--which results in a lot of swearing in the long run--along with promises to buy those expensive html editing software packages...

Why not share the domain, if you want some feedback along the way.

So believe it or not, I am finally getting around some work on a website for a friend of mine. This is my first foray into the realm of web-design, so I may stop by from time to time to ask some questions. Let's start with the basics. Do any of you work with Macromedia's Studio MX. The very-difficult to comprehend manual that was included suggests that I start with a site template in Freehand, which will automatically lay out the basics in Dreamweaver. What do you think? Is this a helpful approach, or will I be learning two programs at once (when only one is needed given the nature of the site)?

Scott

I don't know if you guys actively follow the whole Middle East thing; my time there, as well as a good friend of mine, keep me engaged in Israel's history and current events. And the more I follow their current events, the more I notice a public and media anti-Israeli bias.

So let's take a look at today's public and media bias:

"World powers have pleaded for restraint to stop the fiercest Israeli-Lebanese clashes in a decade slipping into all-out war." Ok--let's think about this. Forces from Lebanon (Hezbollah) invade Israel and take 2 soldiers. Clearly--Israel needs to only fight on the level in which Lebanon can compete. (And for the sake of time, let's just leave Hamas out of this.) And while an argument can be made that attacking Lebanon may result in the deinnocentinocent bystanders--at some point, I'm not buyin'. Terror is an Islamic movement; those within Islam need to police themselves. Those within Lebanon need to police themselves.

"UN Security Council members Russia and France condemned Israel's "disproportionate" use of force." Ok--again, nearly the same argument as above. Second, why are nations (and seemingly the media) focusing on Israel's response, rather than the original offense that started it all? Mainly--the invasion and abduction of 2 Israeli citizens on Israeli soil?

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a joint press conference with Bush, called for a "de-escalation", stressing the starting point had been the capture of the Israeli soldiers." Ok--this quote just confuses me. Almost like a liberal weenie press guy is trying to spin something. She wants Israel to back off, while stressing the point that they were invaded and had their people abducted?

"Russia, France, Britain and Italy criticised Israel for its "disproportionate" use of force." First, news.yahoo.com has a typo? (Must be an international thing.) Second--I can get France and Russia, but Britain'’s response disappoints me. Again--they'’re focusing on Israel'’s response, rather than the original offense in the first place. Had Hezbollah never invaded and abducted Israeli citizens, or had they simply returned them, this wouldn'’t be happening right now.

I could go on and on, but it would be flogging the dead dolphin, as one could say. Peace will come, as peace always comes, when one side soundly and thoroughly defeats the other. Liberals need to read a damn history book.

This entry is brought to you by Apple’s new MacBook Pro. All I can say is, Pages kicks MSFT Word’s butt.

You know Scott, your post was moving in its reality--as well as your passion on the subject. Apart from the obvious loss of life, what hit me is how one short-term easy-way-out decision will haunt her for the rest of her life.

What would motivate such an action? I’m still trying to figure that out. 17 year old brains don’t work right; she had to have been scared out of her mind; and she must have though that she had no other choice. Hence, the 17 year old brain wasn’t working right.

I don’t know if I told you guys, but back when I took that sex-ed class at Wheaton, they brought in a guest speaker that had not one, but two abortions. She later got her life together, got married, and had (and subsequently kept) 2 children. The entire class was pretty dumbfounded; most of us didn’t say anything--but one guy (who’s name I forget) just ripped into her. [And I can see the guy’s face; one class above me; married; red beard; always wore a leather jacket until Mark Kang stole it. He later recovered the jacket after Mark Kang broke into the guy’s house. His wife startled the perpetrating Mark Kang, who then dropped the keys (found in this guy’s stolen leather jacket) and fled. Somehow, this guy got his stolen jacket back from Mark Kang, yet the perp didn’t get kicked out of Wheaon? I honestly wonder if Mark Kang was the one that stole my portable CD player, back when portable CD players cost a lot of money. But I digress.] In any event, I don’t have pity on the 17 year old--as she will have to live with the consequences of her actions for the rest of her life. Yet, I feel sorry for the 17 year old, that will have to live with the consequences of her actions for the rest of her life.

I had no idea that you had to pay $150 bucks for the original Hobo. What a generous undertaking.

Well, I was already paying, like, $60 or so for my own Typepad site, and I thought I would use the features that upgrading was going to bring me a lot more than I actually did. I like this arrangement a lot better.

And Scott... that's just awful about your co-worker's client. I mean... I guess all I can say is, you're made of sterner stuff than I, dealing with such things (maybe not always that bad, but I'm sure you see some tough cases) on a daily basis. I'm sure you and Michelle could commiserate. God bless you.

So I had one of the worst days I have yet experienced at Tri-County yesterday morning. I was talking to my new Center Director and she was relating to me the story of a girl she has been counseling.

This girl, a 17-year-old Latino, unexpectedly became pregnant three weeks ago and found herself in our offices, bawling like a two-year-old. She is a believer, an honor student, and the possessor of a full-ride scholarship to a D1 school in the fall. Quite simply, she couldn't see how a child fit in with all of this, so on her first visit, she announced that no matter what my Center Director said, she was going to abort. End of story.

On her third visit, my CD noticed that the girl was rubbing her belly during their entire time together. So she asked the girl why, and this is the response she received. "My baby doesnt' have long to live, so I'm trying to love on her as long as I possibly can." She aborted the child three days later.

I can't decide if this makes me sick to my stomach with rage, with sadness, or with a sense of impotence. This girl has no illusions about this simply being a blob of tissue. She new it was a child and still she took its life. And even writing this makes me want to sob. Just how sick are we as fallen people...?

Hey Matt,

Thanks for the taking care of this. I had no idea that you had to pay $150 bucks for the original Hobo. What a generous undertaking.

While we're one the subject of Hobo, I want to take a moment to let you all know how much I have really enjoyed the increased contact over the last year. I think this has been a great forum for keeping in touch, and I honestly look forward to reading your posts.

This somewhat-maudlin, slightly-gooey moment has been brought to you by Scott William Bryant - a simple hobo looking for a few friends.

Well that was... easy

How's this? Everything's free--though they might put an ad at the top, which we could get rid of for a small fee.