Monday, November 25, 2013
It was proclaimed from a Baptist pulpit that a generalized pronouncement that one would shoot a nocturnal intruder does not exhibit a proper fear of God. Instead, the believer is to rely on the Holy Spirit to provide a solution in such a situation. But who is to say in such a self-defense situation that it is not the Holy Spirit leading the individual to blow the assailant's brains out?
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Don't Claim All Links Are Equal If You Aren't Willing To Treat Them That Way
The founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian told a university audience, “If all links are created equal, the Internet is the world’s largest stage and platform for ideas.”
But apparently not all links are viewed as equal on the site if a number of moderators are censoring or suppressing access to alternative sources of information through the site to the right side of the political spectrum.
It might be retorted that on a private website it is well within its rights to propagate the vision of the world that it sees fit.
However, in comparing the rhetoric that claims to celebrate the bold expression of all ideas without fear of rejection or of the consequences and a reality where some ideas are forbidden as being less than equal than others, those caught redhanded in such a conceptual cookie jar are in part responsible for the long steady march towards the totalitarianism that Orwell warned about.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Friday, November 22, 2013
According to a story in a local paper, apparently sexually assaulting someone after they get liquored up after playing beer pong is a greater outrage than sexually assaulting someone after simply getting them liquored up. So is it that there is something inherently more immoral about beer pong or that the state is somehow not getting a tax cut from a gaming element being added?
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Southern Baptist Seminary President Insists Pedophiles Should Walk Free & Proud
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If Paula Deen had been scheduled to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her accomplishments in gastronomic broadcasting and just days before the award was bestowed upon her it was revealed that decades earlier she uttered the “N-Word” to her husband after a gun had been put in her face, should she have still be extended this honor? If not, then why was Oprah Winfrey still allowed to receive her's despite salivating on national television over the prospect the deaths of elderly White people?
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
A critic of social media at a Ligioner conference said the words “monetized relationship” like it was a bad thing. But isn’t that marriage essentially is? One partner gives certain things so that they can get certain things in return. Women feigning shock at such an observation wouldn’t marry a poor man if he was the last one on earth and men posturing how much more valiant than these sentiments would have no interest in the relationship if it meant never seeing their wife with her cloths off.
The same leftwing female campus ministers working to set up a place where WOMENNNNN can be inspired through “storytelling, mentoring, and connection” would probably burn their bras in protest if they wore any if news got out that Promisekeepers was conspiring in a similar fashion on behalf of men in an academic setting.
A critic of social media at a Ligioner conference remarked that the sense of COMMUNITY created through these communication technologies is false because no one is there to lift you up should you become discouraged. However, if one turns to those in positions of conventional church authority during such times, you are often just reamed a new one for having fallen into sin over something as minor as not having one of those chicken-excrement smiles plastered across your face.
A critic of social media at a Ligionier denounced these kinds of websites because the providers would rather monetize than connect with you. So I guess the speaker wasn’t provided with a fee for his services and all of the tickets to the event were provided gratis on a first in line basis. Interesting how in Christian circles it’s appropriate for some to make money from the goods and services that they provide but not others.
Rick Warren Throws Support Behind Establishment Of Non-Episcopal Anglican Church
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Tuesday, November 19, 2013
A Baptist pastor complained about contemporary parents having to provide entertainment, activities, or toys for their children. In other words, once those of this mindset have had their fun making the child (with the minimal amount of movement possible in order to avoid the possibility of such gyrations potentially leading to dancing), they pretty much just want a child to make themselves look good. The rest of the time, I guess, the child is obligated to occupy their time rocking back and forth chanting Scripture like a student in some kind of Christianized madrassa. This pastor continued that he did not think that parents do not need to provide their children with toys or activities because these did not exist for centuries. That's because most of your kids would have died before they were five years old, the rest were worked to death in the fields or sent off to fight in their lieges' wars, and the few that made it through all that were probably eager to be planted in the ground by the time they were 45 years old. But those were the good all days were are suppose to be eager to get back to.
According to an anti-movie preacher, those that think that motion pictures can serve as a method through which to reach the lost with the Gospel are guilt of the sin of Uza who was struck dead for touching the Ark of the Covenant to keep the scared relic from falling to the ground. Granted, nothing can replace the foolishness of preaching in spreading the salvation message. However, what is to be done with creative types within the church? The way these hardline fundamentalist churches are operated, there is no way there individuals are going to be allowed to express themselves unless they are part of the in crowd that run these places. Most will be shouted down with a Bible pingpong bashing if they even raise a question that has the hint of clashing with the interpretation preferred by the pastoral staff or Sunday school teachers. If these types ever took over, it would probably be a daily marching out to the equivalent of the Cambodian rice paddies of anyone that dare exhibit literary inclinations.
A pastor opposed to entertainment suggested that parents should toss out anything as soon as it violates the guidelines of Philippians 4:8. Does this include passages of Scripture such as when Tammar was raped by her half-brother or when David got so horny watching Bathsheba bathe that he was willing to have his devoted friend murdered in his pursuit of her? So if ugly details are allowed in the Bible as a way of arriving at more profound truths, why is such a literary strategy to be forbidden in other forms of narrative?
A Baptist pastor bragged how, if his son exhibited any signs of liking or loving something more than Christ, it was gone. Wonder how long until the child learned that particular household it did not matter so much what was happened on an individual's inside so long as the boy learned to squawk the expected platitudes on signal like an exceptional trained parrot.
It seems that the pastor of a series of sermons against the existence of motion pictures has himself been the subject of allegations that he undermined a child molestation investigation of those on his pastoral staff. Seems to me that the Bible speaks more against bearing false witness and that those harming children would be better off with a millstone placed around their necks than whether or not sequential film footage is used in the production of dramatic narrative. A church that has had a pedophile problem on the pastoral staff doesn't exactly have much of a leg to stand on in condemning dating as part of its congregational constitution.
Guess it's easier and a better grandstanding opportunity to hold food drives for their employees rather than pay them a better salary or let them have the day old bread. If Amelia's in PA can sell semi-expired food with no one croaking from it, there's no reason Walmart couldn't do the same for its folks.
Monday, November 18, 2013
The cover of the 11/25/2013 issue of The Nation is titled “The Grand Old Tea Party: Why Today's Whack Birds Are Just Like Yesterday's Wingnuts”. Accompanying the title are caricatures of Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms, Newt Gingrich, Joe McCarthy, and Barry Goldwater. Say what you want about these figures. But unlike the Occupy movement of the pages of this publication best suited to line the bottom of a bird cage, none of these men ever defecated on the side of a police cruiser.
A Baptist pastor I've been listening to an audio sermon tirade against the existence of cinema has linked to the spread of debauchery those seeking pain relief (especially that related to child birth). He then proceeded to denounce the contemporary American as soft and lazy. That's basically code for wanting the pews filled with the brainwashed fanatically doing as they are told. Ministers such as these would probably be quite happy and content in the ranks of the Taliban.
A Baptist pastor condemned Sunday School studies that used as a discussion starter the Beverly Hillbillies and Mayberry. So if cultural references are off limits, is the Apostle Paul to be condemned in his address on the Aeropagus for mentioning the altar to the unknown god or the quote from a pagan poet about in God how we live, move, and have our being? And if no Christian is to be acquainted with the popular culture, how were those assembled supposed to understand the like kryptonite to Superman simile utilized in the sermon? In the kind of regime advocated by these ultralegalists, shouldn't such a remark be grounds for defrocking the pastor?
Martin Bashir Aroused By The Prospect Of Making Wee Wee & Dookie On Sarah Palin
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Apparently the idealized Christian world we are supposed to endeavor to implement before Christ even returns is one where women can’t vote without a man’s permission and where forms of popular culture such as movies and amusement parks are to be condemned (and thus probably forbidden) not in terms of content but rather as forms of expression altogether. I find such a realm no more appealing in which to dwell than a secularized debauched or totalitarian dystopia.
A pastor opposed to the cinema tossed in for good measure condemnation of Vacation Bible Schools that attempt to reach children through entertainment. But if it’s not fun, on what grounds are children obligated to attend Vacation Bible School? Given its not directly commanded in the pages of Scripture, you can’t very well guilt them into attending.
A Baptist opposed to movies condemned cinema because the medium can evoke emotions such as fear in response to situations that the viewer is not actually experiencing directly at the moment. But don’t Bible stories and passages often do something categorically similar? For example, those such as the Book of Revelation that describe death on a planetary scale in the hopes that the reader will come to a particular decision regarding Christ.
Friday, November 15, 2013
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