Monday, April 06, 2015
Of his online critics that claim their primary loyalty is to the universal church rather than a particular church or congregation, Pastor Jason Cooley snapped in a sermon titled “Grumbling Against God = Death” have the universal church rather than a pastor preach your funeral. Fine with me. It’s not like the departed probably even know about what goes on at their respective funerals anyway. Furthermore, a “proper” funeral is not required to get into Heaven. If you are relying on one for such, you are already on your way to Hell. The funeral is for those that most likely didn’t give a damn about you while you were alive anyway but who are eager to gawk at your lifeless corpse.
Sunday, April 05, 2015
Saturday, April 04, 2015
Friday, April 03, 2015
Rural Woodsman Condemned For Prophetic Insight
At a prayer breakfast in Florida, the backwoodsman took direct aim at the ethical bankruptcy of moral relativism.
In the example, Robertson postulated an atheist family where not only are the daughters raped, the wife decapitated, and the father threatened with bodily mutilation but where the Nietzschean assailants revel philosophically in their debauchery in light of the possibility that there is no transcendent standard by which these actions could be categorized as wrong.
Media elites such as those at the Huffington Post are insisting that Robertson's remarks are part of a bizarre and disturbing fantasy.
However, the elaborated scenario is not that markedly different than what is taking place across vast swathes of Islamist controlled territory.
And if all there is is what transpires in the realm of physical matter, on what grounds does civilization stand against these kinds of atrocities?
By the moral vision and worldview of ISIS, it is perfectly acceptable to not only brutally eliminate the infidel but to enjoy carnally defiling the women of the targeted population while engaged in such genocide.
The atheist views human kind as little more than an animal.
In nature, all that matters is continued survival, the propagation of your particular genetic line, and your own pleasure.
It is not unheard of for members of a particular species to inflict all manner of what would be categorized as violence by polite society upon their own kind in pursuit of these particular goals.
Others will insist that, even if Phil Robertson is correct in his observations, he needs to be sensitive that his verbal formulations might unsettle a number of those in the listening or viewing audience, particularly liberal females.
Interesting how these very same marms that don't want Phil Robertson heinously describing heinous acts certainly didn't mind plopping down their money at the bookstore or cinema for “Fifty Shades Of Grey”.
Others certainly don't mind overlooking the violence utilized as a literary device by Stephen King, especially if as part of a narrative for the purposes of making traditional religion look bad.
The cultural and moral relativism the Duck Commander warned about in his prayer breakfast homily is a nefarious and manipulative thing.
Under it's rubric, we are obligated to not only refrain from criticizing but must also enthusiastically applaud balladeers from the ghetto celebrating all manner of crime and debauchery.
Educated effetes in metropolises such as New York and Los Angeles might not be accustomed to the plainspokeness of rural elocutes.
However, by the same standard such elites impose under threat of ruination for those failing to abide by it, if they are not members of Phil Robertson's culture and demographic, who are they to impose their values upon despised White Christian Southerners?
By Frederick Meekins
Thursday, April 02, 2015
Frau Obama Outraged National Parks Lack Ghetto Vibe
Maybe the welfare leeches can burn down national forests the way they do inner cities.
Click On The Headline.
Why Aren’t Sodomite Bakers Forced To Violate Their Convictions Like Christians?
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
A radio report categorized the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act as not friendly towards homosexuals. What about the number of court rulings handed down inimical to the adherents of particular religious convictions that require this variety of legislative response? This statute could be carefully modified to protect industries, artisans, and craftsmen below a certain size. Large corporations, for the most part, don’t oppose the disputed lifestyle. They have, after all, been at the forefront of indoctrinating the American people into embracing this form of social decay.
CNN propagandist Chris Cuomo, in violation of his professed Roman Catholicism, exasperatedly in a defense of gay marriage asked a Christian rhetorically offered up in the arena to the lions, “You cannot fix gay, do you understand that? This is who these people are.” So why is the only apparently inalterable aspect of the human psyche that which pertains to whom you enjoy rubbing your privates against? So what if the Christian turned this interrogation around and responded “This is who we are. You can't alter our beliefs against our will. Don't you understand that?” Why are Christians obligated to violate their nature? Why must the carnally licentiousness be allowed to revel in who the are but not the religiously devout?
In a sermon, men were rhetorically challenged that, as their lives were ending, would they have rather spent their lives watching every episode of their favorite TV program or having given oneself to the faithful service of God’s church. But in this era of DVR’s, DVD’s and even Youtube, is this really an either or decision? Why can’t one do both? But more importantly, given that the sermon addressed the topic of leadership positions within the church, what if one’s church situation does not allow for such opportunities or attach so many extra-Biblical regulations governing the position that filling the office is not worth the trouble?
It was said in a sermon that it is selfish to work for wages or from a perspective of what can you get out of it. Would the homilist prefer we otherwise not work at all? Where do they think the money slipped into the collection plate otherwise comes from? Selfish ambition would be more using immoral means to acquire what one desires or to somehow cheat the individual with whom has entered into a contractual arrangement thought to be mutually beneficial to the involved parties.
So if a gay performer shows up at an audition and the script promotes an explicitly anti-homosexual message, can such a thespian be compelled to participate in the production against their will? If not, one what logical grounds should an Evangelical or Roman Catholic photographer be compelled to document a sodomite nuptial?
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
At a missions conference, it was asked how generous are you with what the Lord has given you. Now is the person making the inquiry doing so from a genuine position of detached pious altruism? Or are they positioning themselves in the hopes of getting a percentage of what you are being manipulated out of?
Is Ted Kennedy Still Swindling The American People From A Ringside Seat In Hell?
A radio report categorized the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act as not friendly towards homosexuals. What about the number of court rulings handed down inimical to the adherents of particular religious convictions that require this variety of legislative response? This statute could be carefully modified to protect industries, artisans, and craftsmen below a certain size. Large corporations, for the most part, don’t oppose the disputed lifestyle. They have, after all, been at the forefront of indoctrinating the American people into embracing this form of social decay.
In a sermon, men were rhetorically challenged that, as their lives were ending, would they have rather spent their lives watching every episode of their favorite TV program or having given oneself to the faithful service of God’s church. But in this era of DVR’s, DVD’s and even Youtube, is this really an either or decision? Why can’t one do both? But more importantly, given that the sermon addressed the topic of leadership positions within the church, what if one’s church situation does not allow for such opportunities or attach so many extra-Biblical regulations governing the position that filling the office is not worth the trouble?
It was said in a sermon that it is selfish to work for wages or from a perspective of what can you get out of it. Would the homilist prefer we otherwise not work at all? Where do they think the money slipped into the collection plate otherwise comes from? Selfish ambition would be more using immoral means to acquire what one desires or to somehow cheat the individual with whom has entered into a contractual arrangement thought to be mutually beneficial to the involved parties.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Creflo Dollar Demands 65 Million Of Yours For Aeronautical Swag
This is because of an engine failure that nearly resulted in tragedy but which was averted through the skill of an experienced pilot.
With a new aircraft, the ministry assures that Dollar will be able to continue the mission of spreading the Gospel around the world.
In an age of instantaneous global communications thanks to high speed Internet, why is this even necessary?
Savages in Third World sewer pipes have certainly mastered social media technologies such as Twitter and Youtube in uploading their own propaganda.
Are we to assume that these are too complex for the likes of Creflo Dollar?
Is Dollar that conceited and full of himself that he believes that the Great Commission cannot be fulfilled without him?
Is he so far about the remaining dregs of humanity that he can't fly Southwest Airlines or Jet Blue like everybody else?
By Frederick Meekins
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
Interesting how professional clergy get all excited about urban ministry yet have seen some remark that their building looks like a “country church”. What’s so wrong with a “country church”? I know must of those folks are White, but don’t they need Jesus too? Apart from massive cathedrals, “country style” churches tend to be the most photogenic.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Minions from the Obama regime denounced the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. I am not really a proponent of secession. However, applying this logic, does Obama intend to denounce Union occupation of the Confederacy? And while we are at it, if self determination is to be elevated to the highest priority, why aren't Christian bakers allowed to determine for themselves whether or not they will bake gay wedding cakes? If the President is such an enthusiast for self determination, why does he allow interference in jurisdictions that have already settled through plebiscite the issue of gay marriage?
Homeschool Activist Insists Converts To Catholicism & Anglicanism Little Better Than Serial Killers
In his tirade, Swanson went off on how could anyone could go from the perspective that the just shall live by faith alone to one where an anathema is pronounced upon those that undermine the role of works in securing eternal salvation.
One cannot speak to the nature of the Baptist church attended by these twins in their youth, but in some of these hardline Baptist and Presbyterian churches in Swanson's orbit, often the soteriological formulations on either side of the Reformation divide have degenerated pretty much into a distinction without a difference.
Granted, this particular variety of Protestant talks an exquisite game regarding the nature of salvation as a free gift and how our works are as filthy rags.
However, from the clarifying expositions and admonitions of these pulpit homilists, it is not enough for the believer to strive for the big virtues such as loving your family, refraining from sex outside of marriage, and slipping a few dollars into the collection plate every once in a while.
According to this particular strain of Protestantism, you might not even be a Christian if you don't share particular viewpoint regarding the propriety of denying females access to education, the necessity of begetting more than five children, and the imperative of being married by 25 years of age.
Perhaps more would hold to the liberty that is claimed to be found in Christ if they were allowed to experience the liberty found in Christ rather than being forced into the spiritual slavery found under another form of legalism.
Kevin Swanson isn't even Baptist but rather Presbyterian.
So how would he like it if some fanatic Baptist raved that Presbyterianism was a slide back down into Rome's eventual embrace?
Instead of insinuating that your formerly Baptist child is one step away from being a serial killer if they become a Catholic or Anglican, perhaps Kevin Swanson will also give as much time reflecting upon what might have pushed these individuals away from a Reformed understanding of the faith in the first place.
By Frederick Meekins
Phil Robertson Enunciates One Of The Greatest Apologetic Arguments Of All Time
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
O'Reilly Plays Stupid Regarding Obama's Transformation Threats
But in the analysis of this policy under consideration, Bill O'Reilly instead decided to spoof and lampoon the President's most profound reason for making this suggestion.
“Transformative” is a euphemism invoked in support of mob rule and the socialistic redistribution of resources and property.
Instead of warning the American people as to this danger, O'Reilly wasted valuable broadcast time feigning ignorance by inquiring if “transformative” referred to some kind of “robot thing”.
O'Reilly knows full well that the “robot thing” is a Transformer.
The correspondent did, after all, make a cameo playing himself in one of those films.
This verbal obfuscation means that O'Reilly is deliberately deceptive or more profoundly dimwitted than expected.
And regarding which, to borrow a slogan from his own network, we report you decide.
By Frederick Meekins
It was said in a sermon that, if one visits a foreign country and one is identified as an American before one is identified as a Christian, there is something wrong in your life. Not necessarily. And what exactly is a distinctive Christian mode of dress? Given that the minister making the remark is explicitly Baptist, it is doubtful that this pastor would think that highly of clergy shirts, habits, vestments, or monastic robes. Secondly, it is not someone’s fault if they look American in terms of their physical appearance. Granted, Europeans often share a similar genetic ancestry with run of the mill Caucasian Americans. However, one is forced to admit that many Europeans possess a more gaunt or malnourished countenance. Just because the residents of the Old World might not be as fastidious in terms of their grooming, it does not follow that Americans are obligated to adopt similar practices of deliberate slovenliness
Monday, March 23, 2015
Ministerial Red Lights Necessary To Prevent Ghastly Church Accidents
In one of the the remarks, he observed that one hand must be on the wheel.
He expanded on that declaration by saying, “At the church house, someone has to be in charge. A leader is a necessity. The pastor is the scripturally appointed, God-anointed person to be the leader.”
Smith further clarified, “Many of our churches are sitting idle and getting nowhere because just before they put the pastor in the driver's seat, they tied his hands behind his back...So let's get real! And let's be scriptural about it! Let's get a driver who knows how to handle the vehicle and let him drive it. Amen!”
Very well then.
Let us be scriptural about the matter in compliance with Shelton Smith's admonition.
Where in the corpus of divine revelation is blind obedience to the pastor commanded?
If anything, it seems that quite the opposite might be called for.
Acts 17:11 reads, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scripture every day to see if what Paul said was true (NIV).”
Let's continue a bit with the driving analogies.
Despite dealing with her own doctrinal challenges as she navigates reconciling the demands of celebrity and the Christian faith, Carrey Underwood exclaimed “Jesus, take the wheel.”
How is what Shelton Smith is arguing for that much different in kind than the papal infallibility and the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church where those in the pews are expected to keep their mouths shut if they want to be considered acceptable members?
If anything, isn't the pastor more of a tour guide than a driver that is not to be questioned or challenged?
For is not Christ or the revealed Word of God in Scripture the one theoretically driving this bus?
In the age of the child predator, the fit parent reinforces in the mind of their offspring not to get into a vehicle with someone they don't know, don't trust, or have a suspicious feeling about.
In this day where all kinds of abuse (both spiritual and physical) is taking place in a variety of churches across Christianity's vast theological spectrum, contrary to the impression given by the likes of Josh Harris in his book “Stop Dating The Church”, you as an individual created in the image of God are free to get off the bus of a particular congregation any time you want.
A minister that insists upon broad pastoral powers without teaching that these are curtailed within explicitly delineated boundaries has neglected his responsibilities in a manner not that markedly different than an intoxicated motorist as he veers into lanes in which he ought not to travel.
By Frederick Meekins
Of the seven siblings that died in a New York fire, fuss is being made that they were Orthodox Jews. Would careful delineation of their ethnic and religious backgrounds been announced if they were ordinary White Protestants? If the fire was the result of their religious practices, the incident certainly serves as a warning as to the dangers posed by a religion based upon works.
The White House held a science fair. Did President Obama stroll among the projects, bluntly reminding the young contestants that, despite their effort and hardwork, “Hey, you didn’t build that.” The purpose of the event was to highlight the role of women in science. But does the objective experimental methodology take into account whether the researcher possesses a penis or a vagina?
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
The April 2014 issue of The Atlantic asked a panel whom they thought was the most influential teen in history. Harvey Cox missed what should have been a grand slam for someone that professes to be a Christian theologian. The Harvard professor went with David when the shepherd lad slew Goliath. But shouldn't this honor have been extended to Mary and perhaps even Joseph? We are, after all, approaching the Easter season.
Regarding a local arts organization, the acting director said in the community newspaper, “Our role is to serve the community and not everyone is coming into out doors.” Maybe not everyone likes the arts. Furthermore, perhaps other enjoy the arts but don't like it when these forms of expression are utilized to promote leftwing causes.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
Don't Complain About Immaturity & Then Interview Potty Humor Comedian
In particular, it was mentioned that, in Biblical times, an individual was considered an adult at the age of 13.
Yet in contemporary America, the adolescent period can extend into the 20's as education is completed and the young adult strives to figure out their place in the world.
Nothing was said about most being dead by the age of 40 in the era when adulthood was conferred at the age of 13.
However, don't you undermine your own argument when on the same episode you interview a longhaired comedian who proceeds to make a punchline about his bladder freezing in the Wisconsin cold?
Seems to me there is more set in Biblical stone about it being shameful for a man to have long hair then about adulthood being thrust upon thirteen year olds.
by Frederick Meekins
Why Is The White House Celebrating Iranian Pagan Rites?
Click On The Headline
What kinds of folks are unsettled by the infant sleeping in the flag as a cradle? Technically, isn’t that a violation of flag protocol? Are these folks generally anti-American or pro-American? Veterans deserve respect. However, that does not give them carte blanche to do as they please without question. The primary issue to consider is the criticism leveled anti-Veteran or pro-flag.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
A blog post at Christianity Today suggests that Evangelicals should reevaluate the moral legacy of Margaret Sanger. Rather than judge her as a founder of abortion front group Planner Parenthood, ethicists are urged to also consider the good that has accrued as a result of families not conceiving more children than they could afford. But in light of the millions that have been aborted as a result of her movement, isn't that akin to extolling Hitler for his appreciation of Germanic culture and efficient railroads.
Islamists So Mentally Deranged That Mention Of Swine Sends Them Into Psychosis
Isn’t “Dancing With The Stars” fostering heteronormative stereotypes by partnering NFL washout Michael Sam with a woman rather than a man? Interesting how those insisting upon how broadminded they are in regards to fundamental human relationships cling to bigotry and prejudice when it comes to superfluous entertainment.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Don't Hide Behind Piety During Totalitarianism's Rise
From the clip highlighted as the sound bite of the week, one gets the impression that articulating a defense of the gunned down editorial office's freedom of expression isn't really all that much of a priority.
After all, the ultimate concern of the church is not so much with things such as innate or constitutional liberties but rather with the proclamation of the Gospel message.
That might be true in regards to those called to the ministry in the strictest sense of that narrow vocation.
However, not everyone within the church is required to emphasize the exact same aspect of the comprehensive Christian worldview.
Given that this program is Lutheran, one would think they might be quicker to remember the wisdom of Martin Niemoller who reflected how, because he remained silent as the acolytes of totalitarianism hauled off a variety of dissidents, that there was no one left to protect him when the Fascist hordes came to take him away.
Christians don't have to applaud religiously offensive artwork.
However, when bloodthirsty savages begin murdering those that they disagree with, the believer needs to realize that it won't be long until these demoniacs gun down worshipers for little more than singing doctrinally distinctive hymns or reciting the classic creeds.
By Frederick Meekins
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Lack Of Racial Diversity Does Not Necessarily Mean Hostility
Depending upon how the question was formulated, that might not even indicate any discernible resistance on the part of the common pewfiller.
These responses might indicate nothing more than a satisfaction with things the way that they are or that this issue is not seen as that big of a problem when compared to other issues such as a decline in overall morality.
One story regarding the conclusions of this survey observed that most White, Black, and Hispanic Southern Baptists attended churches where the majority of parishioners were of the same racial or ethnic background.
So long as they are not blatantly hostile or cruel to others different from themselves, does this really matter?
Perhaps those surveyed simply did not want to alter their basic order of service to satisfy newcomers.
For example, why should 85 year old WASPS that have enjoyed a solemn liturgy their entire lives have to put up with the more “exuberant” Black way of doing church where it is not unheard of for those gripped by a moment of spiritual ecstasy to run up and down the aisles banging on a tambourine.
As has been observed, often Baptists sleep in the pews while Pentecostals jump over them.
Should an Hispanic church that conducts its affairs in Spanish be required to alienate its congregation by switching to highly articulated English?
If Southern Baptist leaders such as Albert Mohler and Russell Moore are so troubled by this finding among Southern Baptists, do they intend to relinquish their own prestigious and highly paid positions so that these can be filled by minorities?
It has been claimed that attendance at Souther Baptist churches has declined for seven straight years.
That could be in part because of this ongoing effort to wrack the average person in the pew with overwhelming guilt for having done little more wrong that simply having been born White.
By Frederick Meekins
Speaking on picking up the mantle of Elijah, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist remarked that the reason more men don't start churches is because they are too enamored with material comfort. Maybe so. But these same ministers that emphasize an extremist position on ecclesiastical separation would probably go out of their way to prevent someone going into the ministry that did not embrace a particular perspective or ideology regarding an assortment of nonessential secondaries.
Monday, March 09, 2015
Feminist Undermines Masculinity & Gripes About The Results
What she is asking for simply isn't a lad that protects the innocent and provides his own way in life while giving his mom a heartfelt hug once in a while.
What she wants is one that surrenders without resistance to multiculturalist dictatorship.
She further writes, “Most stories about maleness suffer from the myth of redemptive violence...the dangerous narrative that violence is a natural means to order and stability.”
This translates as she would have preferred her son to have been conceived as a girl and no Superman or G.I. Joe stories for this poor lad.
Wenches like this get on national TV and insist with a straight face that the key to resolving the ISIS threat is an additional government jobs program.
Throughout her article, she struggles with finding an appropriate male role model or mentor for her son.
That means she should have gotten married before deciding to breed and picked a more appropriate individual with whom to procreate.
By Frederick Meekins
Wednesday, March 04, 2015
Frosted Flakes Might Not Be That Great But Neither Are They All That Bad
Reworking his classic catchphrase, he declares, “THEY'RE GR-R-ROSS!”
Additional copy on the cover reads, “Carbs, sugar and stubbornness are killing Kellogg.”
How is this dietary staple any more disgusting than these so-called “health foods”?
“Organic” is simply a euphemism for having been grown in digestive excrement.
The same hipsters and neo-beatniks vowing never to feed these breakfast confections to their own spawn certainly had no problem pigging out on these foods in their own childhoods.
It has always been said sausage is a food that you do not want to see being made.
Apparently the same is true now in regards to breakfast cereal in a world where what constitutes nutrition is as much about embracing the proper politics as about keeping a body energized.
A government panel suggested that Americans cut back on the consumption of meat not so much as a way to prevent clogged arteries but rather to prevent global warming.
Interestingly enough, this proclamation was handed down amidst the coldest winter temperatures in years.
If Businessweek insists on being this blatantly honest regarding what we are eating for breakfast, do the editors intend to be as graphically startling as to what transpires in the average abortion clinic or during gay rights parades?
By Frederick Meekins
Tuesday, March 03, 2015
Could Kent Hovind Have Avoided Prison The First Time If He Wasn't A Tax Cheat?
In response to adoption, Christians often have it rubbed in our faces about how eager we should be to adopt the orphaned because God adopted us. Using these kinds of strained Biblical analogies, should we threaten to nail one of our kids to a cross for breaking our rules since that was the price God required for breaking His?
Monday, March 02, 2015
If Nothing Wrong With Pot, Why Limit Quantities & Distribution Methods?
In Washington, DC, it will be legal to possess up to two ounces of marijuana or to posses three mature plants for personal use that cannot be sold. If there is nothing wrong with marijuana, why can't a resident posses three ounces and four mature plants?
It is fascinating how, in this day of social decline, being strung out on dope is acceptable but attempting to earn a buck isn't.
You will find in DC that it is just as illegal to be a compensated tour guide without a license as it is to sell your three pot plants.
You will probably be sent up the river for the same amount of time whether you are caught selling pot holders (the kind that one holds cookware with) without extensive revenue agency paperwork or pot (as in cannabis consumed for, you know, medical purposes of course).
By Frederick Meekins
Sunday, March 01, 2015
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Pastor's Reflections Regarding The Single Life Border On Christian Sharia
The preacher revealed that he prefers warm weather. Yet he resides in an area where he must preach outdoors wear multiple layers while exposed to the cold because that is the will of God.
It might be, but not to the extent to which the Bible explicitly forbids carnal sins such as fornication and adultery. Those are not choices in the sense such as where the pastor decides to live or the methods he decides to employ in evangelistic outreach.
From this rhetorical peek, this exposition only went downhill.
Pastor Jason Cooley proclaimed that his children (especially his daughter) will not be allowed to leave home until they are married. If they are not sufficiently brainwashed, what will prevent them that does not violate the laws against unlawful detention from fleeing home once they reach the age of majority?
Pastor Jason Cooley further remarked that it was never appropriate in a church setting for a woman to join in on a conversation with a group of men during a time of fellowship. What would they be talking about at a church function that was so filthy that a proper Christian lady should not be present to either hear or comment on to begin with?
In this sermon on singleness, Pastor Jason Cooley asked what are singles doing to help others. Given the increasing tax burdens, they are helping with approximately a third of their incomes every day that they go to work. They are not responsible if government authorities then squander what the productive have provided.
In a sermon on singleness, Pastor Jason Cooley suggested that the single women in a congregation where obligated to render assistance to those that were married with children. If married church people have procreated to the extent that they are unable to take care of their own progeny, perhaps they should have been less vigorous in their reproductive undertakings.
Pastor Jason Cooley in a sermon on singleness insisted that there is no such thing as a Christian feminist. It would depend upon what is meant by the term.
It would be accurate in terms of God not approving of acts such as abortion or a promiscuous lifestyle even though Christians might fall into those particular sins. However, what these hardline pastors lump under the banner of feminism can include women doing little more than wearing pants, being at the beach at the same time as men, failing to change out of one's night cloths while a college dorm is burning to the ground, and apparently talking to a group of men following the conclusion of these asinine kinds of sermons.
By Frederick Meekins
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
In a sermon comparing those that don't hold formalized membership in the congregations that they attend to shacked up whores, the preacher claimed that if you don't belong to a single church, you won't know what pastor to submit to. There isn't that much divergency in orthodox formulations of the faith that the teaching is going to pull you in two competing ethical directions. If you don't hold a position in a church beyond that of pew filler, no church should be allowed to control you to such an extent. If you need someone to control you on the personal level that you can't decide for yourself what constitutes solid teaching and sound morals, you are afflicted with a profound mental or emotional deficiency.
Those holding to a Reformed perspective taking delight in being little more than God's toy to be discarded if you happen to be a Bespin guard or Jawa rather than a Boba Fett or Luke Skywalker in terms of action figure like to boast how the sinner's prayer does not save. A recitation of the mere words might not. However, believing them does. It is a reasonable wager that fewer were damned for reciting the sinner's prayer than for relying on their infant baptism without ever exercising their own belief.
The murderer of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield was sentenced to life without parole. Had he only killed Chad Littlefield, would we have even heard about this tragic incident? Given this media precedent, will we be informed through national broadcast and journalistic outlets of every other murder verdict handed down in the state of Texas?
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
To What Extent Should Wheaton Punish An Apostate Graduate?
In opposition to Rob Bell's support of homosexuality, the hosts of Generation's Radio suggested that Wheaton College (the school from which Bell graduated) should do more than simply stop selling the apostate's works in the campus bookstore.
Instead, the university should revoke Bell's degree and hold a book burning.
Is that the direction American's ought to take cultural disagreement in this country?
Should similar policies also be applied to those holding to explicitly conservative religious positions?
For example, the host Kevin Swanson holds a degree in engineering from a secular university.
Should it be revoked not for reasons of academic corruption but rather on the grounds of his opposition to wanton debaucheries such as gay marriage or upholding orthodox Christian belief such as those pertaining to the divinity of Christ?
By Frederick Meekins
Southern Baptist Functionary Lays Claim To You Extraneous Income
The justification for this principle can be found in the admonition that godliness with contentment is great gain.
Interestingly, Platt is not providing this advice so that you might provide better for yourself in the rocky times ahead likely to result from a declining economy.
Instead, you are expected to give the abundance away (no doubt towards programs from which Pratt's own bottom line will ultimately benefit).
Perhaps the first extraneous expenditure Christians ought to eliminate from their budget should be the purchase of any books published by Pastor Platt.
Secondly, if we are to live our lives in a hyper-Biblical fashion, perhaps Christians should cut donations to Christian organizational bodies found nowhere in Scripture.
The first of these coming to mind might be none other than the International Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
By Frederick Meekins
What Does It Matter What Scott Walker Thinks Of Obama’s Religious Profession?
Outrage has erupted over Scott Walker not being sure whether or not President Obama is a Christian.
What does it matter what Scott Walker conjectures regarding the President's soterilogical state?
Scott Walker holds no office in any church exercising ecclesiological authority or oversight over Barack Obama.
Nor does Scott Walker exhibit any signs that this perceptual thread in his comprehensive epistemic web will prompt him towards any act of violence.
In a podcast regarding church government, it was postulated that you can’t go hobnobbing on social media with someone voted out of a church. The control your church exercises over you should not be that pervasive unless you are on the payroll possibly. And that is not so much from the standpoint of some lofty moral principle possibly but more from the organization’s power to ruin noncompliant hirelings financially.
In a podcast regarding church government, it was postulated that you can’t go hobnobbing on social media with someone voted out of a church. The control your church exercises over you should not be that pervasive unless you are on the payroll possibly. And that is not so much from the standpoint of some lofty moral principle possibly but more from the organization’s power to ruin noncompliant hirelings financially.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Is Focus On Christian Sufficient Grounds For Church Unity?
Pastor Sean Harris on SermonAudio.com suggests in a sermon nearly of the same name that the way to eliminate divisions within the church is to focus on Christ.
So what happens when that focus on Christ leads some to believe that His Eucharistic remembrance actually becomes the literal body and blood of the Savior, some that his presence is somehow contained within the elements, and yet still others simply are a symbolic contemplative commemoration?
And whose teaching is to prevail in the way Sunday School positions or slots on the deacon board are doled out when the focus on Christ leads some to conclude that He returns to retrieve His church prior to the Tribulation and others to conclude after the Tribulation?
In his homily, Pastor Harris ruminated what the church in America would be like if there were no denominations.
Provided people did not just abandon organized religion altogether, the situation would return to the upheaval characterizing the Reformation and Counterreformation if it was required that only a singular opinion would be allowed to exist within the boundaries of a unified Christendom.
Christian Broadcaster Uses Brian Williams As Pretext For Male Bashing
Isn't it a testament to how much more frightening the female ego is that hardly anyone would dare raise the specter of Oprah Winfrey's own journalistic embellishments or programs such as the View as examples to which the base impulses and deficiencies of character tempting to that particular gender have been allowed to run rampant throughout the media?
Is it really male ego that prompted Brian Williams to fabricate news accounts or rather a media complex that requires increasingly extravagant spectacles to gain ratings?
How is what Williams did all that different than the “evangelastic” tales many missionaries elaborate in order to guilt-trip congregations into filling collection plates?
Eddie Murphy refused to portray Bill Cosby in a Saturday Night Live skit. The reason given was the impropriety of kicking a man while he is down. But hasn't that been a fundamental modus operandi of Saturday Night Live over the past forty years? Would the show even exist without that variety of comedy?
Friday, February 20, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
During an episode of Generations Radio, some woman was giving one of those testimonies where they air all of the dirty laundry of their past lives as justification as to why you have to live a super strict lifestyle renouncing nearly every convenience of the modern world. In this verbal pity party, the lady remarked that she had never had a honeymoon. Given that she had six children by that point and was banging against the headboards with her now husband before he had divorced his previous wife (mind you, this is from the same movement where your daughter is classified as a street whore if she holds hands or kisses someone prior to the wedding ceremony), hadn’t she already had a honeymoon multiple times over?
Interesting logic. Because some overly sheltered Christians went hog wild into debauchery once exposed to the secular university campus, a number of homeschool podcasters insist that those in the listening audience aren’t supposed to aspire to anything beyond a life of manual labor even if they do not possess an affinity towards tasks requiring mechanical alacrity or to attain any knowledge other than that possessed by their parents. Sometimes I think about being a preacher. But if this represents the kind of reasoning we are supposed to nod in agreement with while verbalizing a hearty “Amen”, I sometimes think it is more my purpose to be more like a Mark Twain or Chesterton and just expose some of this foolishness.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Christian Filmmaker Befuddled Over The Relationship Between Media & Religion
In the synopsis, he name drops that the upcoming film features Harry Anderson.
The cinematographer reminds that Anderson, before his descent into obscurity, starred as the judge on the sitcom “Night Court”.
So if the truly sanctified believer is to refrain from these kinds of wordly entertainments, how is anyone in the listening audience even supposed to know what “Night Court” is?
Admittedly, I saw a few episodes of Night Court in my youth.
From what I remember, the comedy was heavy on innuendo,
I will confess I enjoy doubled-meaninged word play a little too enthusiastically at times.
However, I don't host a podcast insinuating that your daughter is going to end up being a lesbian if she's too infatuated from a literary or dramatic standpoint with the world of “Little House On The Prairie” as Generations Radio suggested some years back.
Are we to take away that it is acceptable to watch “Night Court” but we need to repent if we find “Hunger Games” to be an intriguing dystopian projection of the world to come in a few decades?
For this very same director that bragged about casting a former celebrity from “Night Court” insisted that it is not enough for a movie to be family friendly, wholesome, or make valid moral observations.
Rather, to be acceptable, a movie must deliberately push Christianity onto the viewer.
Christiano went on to lament how Christians don't get excited over Christian movies.
Sorry, but I don't plop down $10 for any movie where the characters do little more than sit around crying about their everyday feelings and common disappointments.
To be theater worthy in my opinion, considerable spectacle is needed such as some kind of mass battle, talking animals, robots, superheroes, space aliens, clashing wizards or spies.
Christiano further observed that someone couldn't remember what their pastor preached about a month ago but could recall details about “The Wizard of Oz” despite having not seen it in years.
Before heaping hellfire and damnation upon those that might respond similarly, a number of things need to be taken into consideration.
Firstly, how old are they now compared to when they first saw “The Wizard of Oz”?
So isn't that more of God's responsibility for how He allows the brain to decay overtime where it is often easier to recall things that happened to minutest detail 30 or 40 years ago but you can't for the life of you remember what you had for dinner last night?
Secondly, perhaps the blame should be placed more upon the pastor for lack of showmanship and presentation rather than upon the average Christian for failing to retain the intricate details.
For I am sure the next time that there are flying monkeys and dancing midgets in church that you are going to remember it.
Which brings the discussion to another very important point.
One goes to the movies precisely to see an out of the ordinary spectacle.
That is not the the case necessarily in regards to a church worship service.
Upon further consideration, what is retained from a sermon might not be all that different from what is retained from a film.
For example, unless one sees especially at a young age a particular film over and over again, does anyone really retain much beyond a memory of the basic plot usually?
As I approach middle age, sometimes I find I can't recall what happened the previous week on some of the dramas that I follow quite closely.
Thus, instead of condemning a congregation or group of random Christians if they can't elaborate the specifics of a single sermon, shouldn't the professional clergy be more pleased and concerned that those under their care recall the main points of the comprehensive Christian saga rather than the obtuse actions of a single Old Testament character with a name that defies pronunciation?
Along the lines of this criticism about the moviegoer longing for innovation and spectacle, Christiano lamented how movies never satisfy and people always want to see the next big blockbuster.
Let's apply that presupposition to other aspects of life one would otherwise consider wholesome, admirable, and desirable.
For example, according to this logic, shouldn't it be enough to go to church once and never have to go again to quench one's spiritual thirst?
If one's marriage is truly based upon love and not upon the titillation of fleshly desires, by Christiano's thinking, would a couple need to enjoy carnal relations more than once throughout the course of their entire marital union?
Media spectacle will never replace sermonic exposition as the primary didactic methodology through which concise doctrinal content is transmitted to the believer.
However, it often seems that certain Evangelical factions aren't that interested in making much use of these supplementary media formats to augment the learning experience.
In regards to the upcoming “AD” miniseries, the hosts of one program after remarking just moments before about the tendency of a number of Christians to stay in their own bubble, didn't really give much of a reason to avoid the production other than that its producer Roma Downey is a Roman Catholic with mystical New Age tendencies.
Wouldn't it have been better to wait and see if there are any factual errors in Downey's narrative rather than condemn the production on the basis of whatever errant peculiarities she might gravitate towards in the personal aspects of her devotional life?
After all, most conservative Evangelicals allow the King James Bible to stand on its own merits without the homosexual and Romanist proclivities of the monarch for which this translation of divine revelation is named allowed to detract from its literary, historical, or theological merits.
Like it or not, believers find themselves in a culture surrounded by media.
It is therefore imperative not only to figure out how the media can be used to disseminate the Christian worldview but to also understand where the methodologies of entertainment and the church can diverge from one another without there having to be a spirit of hostility between the distinct purposes of each of these modes of communication.
By Frederick Meekins
Monday, February 16, 2015
Friday, February 13, 2015
Worldview Clashes In Super Bowl Commercials As Riveting As The Actual Game
A variety of assumptions worthy of additional comment were propagated for public dissemination through a number of Super Bowl commercials.
In one anti-bullying spot, a social engineer instructs the one to be mentally reconditioned to run or fight like a girl.
Upon compliance, the unenlightened male is subjected to Pavlovian denunciation (akin to what one would receive in a prisoner of war camp) over how he has insulted his sister.
Rather than an instructive analysis of preconceived notions, the lesson to be learned from the public service announcement is that, irrespective of whether you comply with or ignore orders issued by a women, you are going to be reamed a new one anyway.
For if the ambushed lad had not been told to run like a girl, he would have not likely perpetrated the offending action.
If producers of this broadcast spot are so outraged about thought crimes regarding gender, it would be interesting to hear their perspective regarding the commercial featuring perennial pottymouth Sarah Silverman.
In that one, she says after delivering a baby to the parents, “Sorry, it's a boy.”
Would such blatant denigration of the female gender be permitted in a similar commercial?
Lastly, what about the Scientology advertisement?
In 2011, Fox rejected a Super Bowl commercial that broadcast the message, “John 3:16, what's that mean?” on the grounds that the message contained too much religious doctrine.
Of course, that is unlike the moral-free content of the constant litany of erectile dysfunction commercials where the term “partner” but never “spouse” is constantly verbalized.
It is certainly instructive that programming executives at NBC had no problem, however, with a commercial for Scientology, which is a cult that believes that human beings are reincarnated space aliens and whose sexfiend founder tried to live aboard a cruise ship in order to elude capture for his assorted crimes.
It is easy to assume that the commercials are a momentary distraction allowing the viewer time for a quick trip to the bathroom or to grab another handful of chips.
However, in those brief 30 second spots, there is a contest underway for minds and at times even souls that is as pitched as any struggle on the gridiron
By Frederick Meekins
Thursday, February 12, 2015
In the book “Stop Dating The Church”, Josh Harris popularized the analogy that church membership is akin to marriage. As such, when things become difficult, according to Harris, one should not set out in search of greener pastures but instead endure through the misery. So does his resignation as pastor at the scandal-ridden Covenant Life Church constitute a form of abandonment akin to divorce? In most doctrinally conservative churches, the divorced cannot usually remarry without a profound curtailment of their ecclesiastical privileges and opportunities. So by the logic of his own analogy, should Josh Harris be forever denied another ministry position?
On an episode of “Standing Up For The Truth with Mike Lemay”, it was claimed that experiments in Christian communal living in the 1960's and 1970's fizzled out because the participants became materialistic and wanted their own possessions. But is that really sinfully materialistic or merely the way that God has wired human beings to maximize individual well being? The sharing of resources mentioned in Acts 2 is more a description of a specific historic incident. It is not elaborated as categorically imperative doctrine.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
A number of Christians have suggested that, if the state sanctions gay marriage, it might no longer be appropriate for believers to acquire a marriage license. Though the state sanctioning gay marriage undermines the institution, how would that impact the quality of your own relationship if you as a heterosexual acquire a license? You are in no way forbidden from pursuing a partner of the opposite sex. If a state allows unmarried couples to own the same piece of property, does that mean a devout Christian couple should not purchase a house or take out a mortgage?
Regarding Christian Reconstructionists opposed to Fifty Shades Of Gray. Are they so much opposed to a firm hand of discipline or that someone might actually enjoy it? Isn't there more wrong with that film than a blind fold and a pair of handcuffs as one homeschool podcaster seemed to go on and one about?
A number across the political spectrum are outraged that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore would attempt to block the establishment of gay marriage in that state. You know, the law is the law. So in the future, should the inheritor of his judicial mantle step aside as easily as they suggest when Jews are once again onto box cars and octogenarians assert the right to 12 year old child brides? Given the advancement of Islam across the globe, don't kid yourself about the aforementioned scenario being beyond the realm of possibility.
Conspiracy Theorists Ponder Is The Greek Prime Minister Possibly The Anti-Christ
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore issued an order forbidding the issuance of marriage licenses to gay couples. The proponents of solemnized deviancy accused Roy Moore of grandstanding. But unlike that of the Ferguson insurgents, at least this jurist's political theatrics don't result in the widespread destruction of property.
Monday, February 09, 2015
The following phrase was used in a podcast posted by a prominent Evangelical seminary: “Held accountable in community.” What that means is that you might not have violated anything concrete from the pages of Scripture. Rather, it means you just violated the nebulous sensibilities of the group. What can they do to you if you don't show up? If no other church will take you because of a sentence imposed by another ecclesiastical assembly, what is to prevent the dispossessed from forming a church of their own? The churches being openly defied can't very well complain about it when nearly the same thing occurred in their own backgrounds and origin accounts.
It was entertaining to see Grand Moff Tarkin on an episode of the Star Wars Rebels animated series. However, it was a bit of a let down when the episode opened with the shuttle dispatched from the battle cruiser with the Imperial March playing (known popularly as "The Darth Vader Theme") without Darth Vader emerging before the assembled stormtroopers.
Radical Homeschooler Invokes Abuse Statistics To Justify Denying Women Education
Saturday, February 07, 2015
Did Chuck Swindol Overreact To Elijah's Declaration Of Despair?
A Facebook theologian has commented in agreement with Christian broadcaster Chuck Swindoll that we should never pray for God to take a loved one home to eternity.
It is contended doing so can apparently derail His sovereignty.
Apparently, if we believe that He is sovereign, we should know that He is fully capable of taking us home when He believes that the time has approached.
Isn't that formulation itself an affront to God's sovereignty?
For if God is sovereign in an absolutist sense and the religious thinker not precise in their statements worthy of considerable condemnation as the ultra-Reformed insist, doesn't God KNOW rather than BELIEVE?
In such a theology as being advocated by this Facebook theologian, prayer is not about bringing our requests and concerns to God but rather about formulating statements that we think will make us appear exceedingly pious before certain audiences.
Just how far are we to take the presupposition embodied by this religious postulation under consideration?
If it is wrong to pray for God to mercifully end a life that is suffering, is it just as wrong to pray that God restore life and vitality to a life that He might prefer to draw to a conclusion in this world?
And given that this criticism was posted by someone that is quite vocal in expressing their support of a predestinarian understanding of soteriology so thoroughgoing as to deny any place for human choice and liberty, it must be asked is it a sin to pray for the salvation of a family member that God would rather see slip into Hellfire and damnation?
As justification for this position, the account of Elijah is referenced.
In I Kings 19, while on the run from Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah succumbs to a moment of despair where he declares to the Lord, in verse 4, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors.”
From the Lord's response, apparently unlike Chuck Swindol, the Lord did not find what Elijah asked that much of an outrage.
Instead of chastising Elijah for his despondency, on two occasions the prophet was given a meal so that he might have strength for the journey that was ahead.
Thus, about the only conclusion that can be drawn from Elijah's lamentation that God end his life is that God does not always answer our prayers the way that we would like.
And if He does not, we might find Him lending us assistance in ways that we did not initially expect.
By Frederick Meekins
Friday, February 06, 2015
Thursday, February 05, 2015
Do The Truly Redeemed Retain Health Insurance?
Furthermore, it is pointed out, if you retain traditional insurance, you are sending your money to a large corporation rather than assisting fellow believers.
So long as I get the services I contracted for in a satisfactory manner, what do I care if a corporation is large?
The broadcasters claimed that insurance allows for control over people's lives.
Instead, believers would be better off if oversight over medical affairs were transferred to the church.
But what is to prevent the church from exercising increased control over people's lives or from allocating access to healthcare in a preferential manner?
For example, would ecclesiastical medicine be dispersed to the truly ill or to the missionary couple with the saddest sob story with so many children that you can't help bring to mind the old nursery rhyme about the old woman that lived in the shoe?
During the 1990’s, Christian broadcasters would dedicate entire episodes of their programs shilling for a telecommunications provider with the angle that if you remained with these companies you where as complicit with these companies in the part they played in furthering the agendas of pornography and homosexuality.
Despite such grandiose moralizing, the thing was that this service was a pain in the backside to use when you needed it the most.
Do you really want the same thing to happen to you in terms of securing essential medical services?
by Frederick Meekins
So why not a wear red day for heart disease in ALL PEOPLE irrespective of gender? Men that die from it somehow less dead? Both of my mother’s parents died from heart ailments. I don’t remember going to the cemetery and getting to talk some to grandpa despite him being dead but not grandma. If men were as callous as these women that only care about assorted health concerns unless specifically targeted towards women, you’d never hear the end of it.
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Too Spiritual By Half?
The Lutheran seminarian insisted that this symbolically represented the precedence of the spirit over the human tendency to emphasize the body.
The expositor lamented that such a characteristic was the result of the sin nature.
But how is it our fault that the aspect of reality that is the fist to overwhelm our perception on an instinctive level is the physical?
We did not ask to exist as embodied intelligences.
That was part of our original design even in the sinless state.
Unless the demon was cast out first of the person whose body Christ healed and He then had them wait in contemplation for a time before He healed their biological infirmity, isn't this reading too much into the passage?
If one wants to be that attentive to the text, the first miracle in the chapter is actually the bodily healing on the Sabbath of the man with the withered hand.
And what about taking the Four Gospels as a comprehensive totality?
If so, isn't the turning of water into wine at the wedding feast actually thought to be Christ's first miracle?
So do we want to start reading meaning into these as well other than what we are told in the text?
The case could be made that, in terms of a miracle, turning water into wine would appeal more to man's extraneous physical desires than a desire to avoid overwhelming pain and disability.
You make a choice for wine; by design you feel a compulsion to seek the alleviation of pain.
Furthermore, are Lutherans really sure they want to open the door of reading profounder spiritual meaning into the miracles beyond the miracles themselves?
John 2:3 reads, “And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, They have no wine.”
Since Christ ultimately relented to her request, why shouldn't we build detailed Christological speculations like one particular denomination does about how Christ's decisions are especially swayed by her contemplative petitions if we are going to read profound truths into something as commonplace as the order in which Christ performed these miracles?
If the definition of God's omniscience is that the Deity knows everything, wouldn't that also include alternative temporal potentialities?
Therefore, isn't it just as valid to conclude that, if Jesus went first to heal Peter's mother-in-law, Christ night not have gotten around to this particular demoniac before this pitied soul's life ended in some convulsive spasm?
Among Bible scholars and theologians, the Gospel of Mark is noted as a summarative action oriented narrative.
Why would there need to be some esoteric reason as to the order in which the events described transpired other than that this was the order in which events “organically” unfolded around Jesus?
By Frederick Meekins
The Obama Administration has issued a report hoping to spark a national conversation regarding future transportation needs. That translates as the American people are to be mentally reconditioned to accept restrictions on individual travel and daily movement analogous to the limitations being implemented in the name of healthcare reform.
Tuesday, February 03, 2015
Monday, February 02, 2015
Christian Publisher Targets Children With Leftist Indoctrination
According to the synopsis, Edgar doesn't like company but notices he is followed by a worm. So he tries to get away from the invertebrate.
The summary reads, “Edgar asks for the other animals on the farm to help him, but eventually he realizes he might have been part of the problem all along.”
One cannot comment definitively without having read the story.
However, the question can be raised why does a children's book need to paint those that might prefer to be alone to as if they are defective or some kind of villain?
Will there be a sequel to the story teaching the worm about the impropriety of pushing his affections upon those that don't want them?
Perhaps the text could be titled “Wiggly Worm & The Restraining Order Process Server”.
Some might think that I am reading too much into a children's book.
Eerrdman's has published another storybook by the very same author titled “The Chicken's Build A Wall”.
That book is advertised with the following copy: “At the farm, the chickens are building a wall, convinced that the hedgehog that wandered in must be trouble. But eventually they discover that he might not be as dangerous as they thought.”
Only the most obtuse liberal (of the variety those publishing this propaganda hope children will be indoctrinated into becoming) will refuse to acknowledge the kinds of agendas such a narrative is promoting.
Firstly, just because the first hedgehog is harmless, isn't it just as much an act of unconscionable prejudice to assume that the next hedgehog is just as affable?
Secondly, if the barnyard or however else you want to categorize their enclosure belongs to the chickens, on what grounds are the chickens obligated to allow the hedgehogs to remain there?
And if the flock does allow the one hedgehog to remain there, are the chickens obligated to allow his entire hovel to take up residence in the chicken coop?
Furthermore, if the hedgehog decides to move into the chicken coop, shouldn't the hedgehog learn to cluck like a chicken or will the chickens be required to grunt like a hedgehog?
It must also be taken into consideration how many hedgehogs can be allowed to move onto the farm before the farm begins to more resemble a hedgehog burrow rather than the original barnyard.
And perhaps most importantly, since it seems that the perimeter can be breached by an animal as innocuous (we are assured) as a hedgehog, shouldn't that serve as a warning for those chickens to get that wall erected before creatures of far more nefarious intent such as foxes, wolves, and weasels make their way into the chicken coop?
At that time, will these carnivores form lobbies and activist networks insisting that, since the hedgehog was allowed to take up residence without protest, that they too be allowed to remain even though their intention is to prey upon the chickens and destroy the avian way of life since these species have been in conflict with one another for nearly two millennia?
To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a story can be just a story.
However, when an author or publisher is explicit in conveying didactic propaganda through the medium of a children's narrative, the discerning should not slink back in fear.
It is because such impressionable young minds are potentially on the line that such concerns must be raised with renewed vigor.
By Frederick Meekins
Transcendence: An Encyclopedia Of Transhumanism & The Singularity
Friday, January 30, 2015
Don't you just hate those multi-roll toilet paper dispensers in public restrooms? There is really no way of seeing how low the current roll is. You can be left there mid-business having to grind on the contraption that barely moves in order to get the next roll to drop into place. But I guess if you say anything about this, employing the logic that if you complain about jury duty you must support the abolition of the entire judicial system, it means you must, in terms of hygiene, practice “left hand Arab style” or prefer a communal rag hanging on the wall.
It was suggested that public schools ought to close and education ultimately be put back in the hands of parents. That sounds wonderful on paper. But what is to be done with those that the fangs of organized religion have not sufficiently sunk into or when the skills of the parents are mismatched with the aptitudes of the child? The religious schools are controlling enough with the public alternative looming down their necks. How much worse would they be if they became the prevailing monopoly?
Seattle residents caught filling their trashcans with more than 10% of food will be publicly shamed with a red lid. The program is not intended to stop the waste of consumables per say. Rather the purpose is to prevent food items from being sent to the landfill. But what's the big deal about food items in the landfill. Aren't they by definition biodegradable?
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Pastors Should Be Careful Of Reading Their Own Biographies Into The Apostolic Chronicles
In the account, a number left their previous occupations.
Given that Christ does not explicitly appear before us, it does not follow that we cannot follow Christ in the occupational status that we find ourselves in unless it is something inherently evil such as organized crime.
As an existential application of this passage, the exegete revealed that, if he had listened to his father, he might not have become a minister and certainly not have gone to the mission field.
So why is it deemed more righteous in certain Evangelical circles to leave your elderly family members behind to go minister to other elderly people thousands of miles from where God has already placed you?
Technically, can't it be a greater sacrifice to actually care for one's family because you can't very well gadabout from church to church patting yourself on the back over what a spiritual person you are for driving your parents to the doctors or send out a direct mail fund raising letter insinuating those refusing to send you a check for such spiritual labors are of dubious soteriological standing.
I especially fail to see how those refusing to dump attachments to family in favor of the mission field equate with those in Romans 1 described as allowing homosexuality to gain a foothold in society.
by Frederick Meekins
Will "Prison Break" Return To Fox?
The show was an excellent concept the first two seasons.
Even the third season was not without creativity as it focused on South American prison culture.
However, by the fourth season where the characters had become a government covert operations team the concept seemed strained beyond credibility.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
Pastor Overly Critical Of Social Media
However, in a sense, isn't it better to blow off steam online rather than physically slapping the taste out of the mouths of those that they are ticked off about?
As an example, he referenced those that post about getting shoddy service at Starbucks.
But as expensive as those beverages are, shouldn't you be able to vocalize your dissatisfaction somewhere?
But without complaining, wouldn't a pastor be a bit like a firefighter without a hydrant or something akin to a one armed boxer?
Complaining about things is the bread and butter of the ministry.
A pastor remarked that a status update is nothing more than an attempt to be a star for a moment.
So how is that in essence much different than what a pastor does whenever they ascend the pulpit and do anything other than a rote recitation of the Scriptural text?
A pastor admonished that Facebook friendship does not constitute real friendship.
But still isn't it better than nothing at all for those that do not derive much satisfaction through traditional human interaction or happen to be someone most don't really desire to interact with?
Most of the same information can be conveyed through a variety of posts that would otherwise be collected through means that would be categorized as “human intelligence”.
The pastor attempted to solidify his argument by insisting that Facebook friendships are not Biblical friendships.
But frankly, doesn't any relationship where you do not fornicate with, steal from, or murder the involved party pretty much pass Biblical muster?
By Frederick Meekins
The cover of the winter 2015 edition of the UTNE Reader was about women around the world that do not possess what would be considered equal rights. Pictured on the cover was a man and women adorned in what looked like 1950's apparel with the man having a disco ball for a head. Granted, people were not as happy back then as the portrait of idealized domesticity that they were expected to project to the public. However, to be more accurate regarding the threats posed to women outside of America, shouldn't someone have been depicted in Islamist dress or chained in an East Asian sweatshop?
Thursday, January 22, 2015
The Obama Administration is outraged that the Speaker of the House invited without prior approval the Israeli Prime Minister to address Congress. It is claimed that the action constitutes a violation of diplomatic protocol. But a breach of protocol is not necessarily a violation of law. It is not only protocol but a matter of constitutional provision that the actions of the Executive Branch be authorized by statutes enacted by the Legislative Branch rather than by fiat executive order. However, Obama certainly isn't that concerned with procedural precedent any other time.
ISIS is targeting educated women. To be consistent with the standard that they enunciated in reaction to the Charlie Hebbdo massacre, are Pope Francis and William Donahue of the Catholic League going to insinuate that these individuals will also be getting what they deserve for blatantly offending the Islamists?
An instructive study as to how times have changed. The first time an American was displayed as a human prop in the observational gallery during a State of The Union Address occurred during the Reagan Administration. That particular individual jumped into an icy river to rescue the victims of a jetliner crash. Under Obama, those exhibited are dragged out to illicit guiltrips for increased government spending.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
The Pope's Advice Regarding Speech Raises More Concerns Than It Answers
The Catholic News Service has the Pope on record as saying “It's true, one cannot react violently... But...one cannot insult other people's faith, one cannot make fun of faith.”
Such a standard would seem perfectly reasonable in a culture steeped in Christian values.
However, in a profoundly decayed postmodern era, the Pope's recommendation raises more conundrums than his attempt at sage advice actually resolves.
For example, how is insult or making fun of being defined?
Some of depictions of Muhammad (as well as of Christ) published in the French satire magazine no doubt crossed the boundaries of good taste.
However, in this age obsessed with sensitivity to the point where certain agitators can't seem to shake off the sting of an insult after a few hours, the bar as to what constitutes being offended has been shockingly lowered.
For example, there are those that insist it is improper for adherents of one expression of the Christian faith to criticize what are believed to be the doctrinal shortcomings of another.
At the same time, those uplifting such a spirit of ecumenicity in the next breath let loose with a litany of rants against the brand of Christianity adhered to by the person being badgered into acquiescence and silence.
Likewise, what if the legitimate beliefs of a religion compel that religion to act in ways or profess beliefs that are perceived as offensive or insulting to others?
Muslims aren't too keen on the doctrine of the Trinity; is the Pope willing to renounce this foremost Christian fundamental in order to comply with the spirit of the age?
There are some that believe that it is not the place of church functionaries to bar an individual from the elements of Communion or the Lord's Supper.
So what if someone feels slighted by the Roman Catholic Church assiduously monopolizing what adherents of this understanding of Christianity believer are essential ingredients in the liturgical pursuit of salvation?
Likewise, to what extent is the remark “...one cannot insult other people's faith, one cannot make fun of faith” to be adhered to?
To some, an insult to faith can be little more than to insist that your doctrine is right and someone else's is wrong.
It must be remembered that when an American hears these sorts of principles, they are more like rules of etiquette in that they are good ideas to aspire to but not all that much will be done to you if you decide to ignore them.
However, when nearly anyone else around the world says these sorts of things, they mean these notions should be imposed as a matter of statutory law with punishments such as fines or incarceration.
It, therefore, must be asked does the Pope stand with those wanting liberty to prevail throughout the world or does he side with those wanting to plunge civilization into an interminable tyranny?
By Frederick Meekins
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
At the State of The Union, among those scheduled to be exploited like livestock on display is a 13 year old alleged to have written a letter to Santa claiming that all the child wanted was safety. What 13 year old, unless they are “developmentally delayed”, still believes in Santa Claus as an actual being?
If Wrong To Persecute Christians, What About Oppressing Deficient Theologies?
According to this concept, when the higher level civil authority imposes a policy, ruling, or law that undermines freedom and liberty, it is the duty of the lower level magistrate to oppose such a constitutional infringement.
On the surface, such a theory sounds like a practical check and balance against unbridled state power.
But who will protect the citizens when local authorities rise to the level of a tyrant?
One theologian in particular promoting this viewpoint through his opus “The Doctrine Of The Lesser Magistrate: A Proper Resistance To Tyranny & A Repudiation Of Unlimited Obedience To Civil Government” is Pastor Matthew Trewhella of the Mercy Seat Christian Church in Wisconsin.
In my column titled “Pastor Suggests The Suppression Of Witches”, I referenced a sermon by Rev. Trewhella where he analyzed the Salem With Trials.
The pastor's criticisms were not so much that the Salem Witch Trials went too far but rather that these judicial proceedings probably did not go far enough.
From Trewhella's homily, the listener takes away the impression that practitioners of deviant forms of spirituality and belief such as witchcraft are to be denied permission to meet and congregate under he First Amendment in an America sufficiently Christianized to his liking.
So just how far do these proposed deprivations of liberty extend?
What about Jews?
How about Catholics?
Will any penalties be imposed upon fellow Protestants that adhere to differing interpretations of soteriology or eschatology?
Now that a number of Christian radio programs such as Standing For The Truth hosted by Mike Lemay have more than sufficiently applauded Pastor Matthew Trewhella on the point of his sociopolitical theology that is correct, how about an examination of those aspects where he might be in profoundly dangerous error?
After all, these ministries certainly don't mind tossing aside any of the good accomplished by the likes of Joel Osteen or even a few of the Emergent Church pastors because of where these religious figures have deviated from sound doctrine.
By Frederick Meekins