Brief Statement of Faith and Sin

X. A Brief Statement of Faith No specific practices are called "sin."
However the confession states: ". . . we rebel against God; we hide from our
Creator. Ignoring God's commandments, we violate the image of God in others and
ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death
to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve God's condemnation."
(10.3)

A brief statement of faith came about because of the reunion of the northern and southern branches of the presbyterian church. It was written so as to be able to be used in worship and has a wonderful trinitarian pattern.

Confession of 1967

IX. The Confession of 1967 No specific practices are called "sin." As a
general definition of sin, the Confession states: "In sin, men claim mastery of
their own lives, turn against God and their fellow men, and become exploiters
and despoilers of the world. They lose their humanity in futile striving and are
left in rebellion, despair, and isolation." (9.12)

The Presbyterians wrote this confession to celebrate the reunion of two major presbyterian bodies. We had split over doctrine just before the Civil War and then over the Civil War. This came because of the many changes in culture and the celebration of getting back together.

Theological Declaration of Barmen

VIII. The Theological Declaration of Barmen No practices are called "sin."

This is one of the great documents from the last century. Written from Germany in WWII against the heresies of the culture. It doesn't sound that problematic until one looks at the history of the churches in that time.

Soy and sexual orientation

Soy is a danger. It causes homosexuality according to Jim Rutz.

And this explains a great deal. I'm an identical twin. My twin brother ate a lot more soy growing up. It was a good substitute with all of his food allergies. I ate a more normal diet, but my twin was allergic to wheat, corn, milk and more. One of us is straight and the other is gay. His eating all that soy must explain it.

Oh wait... I'm the one that's gay and he's the one that ate all the soy products.

Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechism

For the PC(USA) these confessions are the lists of sins. As with an earlier catechism that treated the ten commandments, they aren't as simple as they sometimes sound and none of us can claim to have kept a one. You'll want to note my favorite sin - in amongst the list of sexual - is forbidding the keeping of stews.

VII. The Larger and Shorter Catechisms By far the most fruitful source of practices called sin, these catechisms enumerate at least the following (references are to the larger catechism, which appears to the writer to include all sins identified in the shorter):

A. (Q105): Sins forbidden in the first commandment:
1. atheism
2. idolatry
3. failing to acknowledge God as God
4. the omission or neglect of anything due God
5. ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts of God
6. bold and curious searchings into God's secrets (the nature of which is not stated)
7. profaneness, hatred of God, self-love, self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections on things other than God in whole or in part
8. vain credulity, unbelief, misbelief, distrust, despair, incorrigibleness and insensibleness under judgments, hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting of God
9. using unlawful means and trusting in lawful means
10. carnal delights and joys
11. corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal
12. lukewarmness and deadness in the things of God
13. estranging ourselves and apostatizing from God
14. praying or giving any religious worship to saints, angels, or any other creatures
15. all compacts and consulting with the devil and harkening to his suggestions
16. making men [sic] the lords of our faith and conscience
17. slighting and despising God and God's commands
18. resisting and grieving of God's Spirit, discontent and impatience at God's dispensations, charging God foolishly for evils inflicted on us
19. ascribing any good we are, have, or can do to fortune, idols, ourselves, or any other creatures

B. (Q109) Sins forbidden in the second commandment:
1. devising, counseling, commanding, using, and otherwise approving any religious worship not instituted by God
2. making any representation (or image) of God, either mentally or physically
3. worshiping an image of God, or worshiping God through an image
4. making any representation of feigned deities, worshiping or serving them
5. all superstitious devices which corrupt the worship of God, from any source
6. simony and sacrilege
7. neglect or contempt of or hindering or opposing the worship ordinances which God has appointed
C. (Q113) Sins forbidden by the third commandment:
1. not using God's name as required
2. abusing God's name in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious or wicked way
3. blasphemy
4. perjury
5. cursing, oaths, vows, and lots
6. violating our lawful oaths and vows
7. fulfilling unlawful vows
8. murmuring and quarreling at, curious prying into, and misapplication of God's decrees and providence
9. misinterpreting, misapplying, or perverting the Word, or any part of it, to profane jests, curious and unprof~table questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines
10. using the Word for purposes of charms or sinful lusts and practices
11. maligning, scorning, reviling, or opposing God's truth, grace, and ways
12. professing religion in hypocrisy or for sinister ends
13. being ashamed of, or a shame to, the Word by walking in uncomfortable, unwise, unfruitful, and offensive ways, or backsliding

D. (Q119) Sins forbidden by the fourth commandment:
1. omitting the duties of the Sabbath, carelessly performing them, and being weary of them
2. idleness or doing what is in itself sinful on the Sabbath
3. needless works, words, and thoughts about our worldly employments and recreations

E. (Q128) Sins of "inferiors" forbidden by the fifth commandment:
1. neglect of duties required toward superiors
2. envying at, contempt of, and rebellion against superiors' persons and places in their lawful counsels, commands and corrections
3. cursing, mocking and refractory and scandalous carriage which is a shame or dishonor to superiors and their government

F. (Q130) Sins of "superiors" forbidden in the fifth commandment
1. neglect of duties required of them
2. inordinate seeking of themselves, their own glory, ease, profit or pleasure
3. commanding things unlawful or not in the power of inferiors to perform
4. counseling, encouraging, or favoring inferiors in that which is evil
5. dissuading, discouraging, or discountenancing inferiors in that which is good
6. correcting inferiors unduly
7. carelessly exposing or leaving inferiors to wrong, temptation, and danger
8. unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, or remiss behavior
G. (Q132) Sins of "equals" forbidden in the fifth commandment:
1. neglect of the duties required of them
2. undervaluing the worth of another
3. envying the gifts of another
4. grieving at the advancement or prosperity of another
5. usurping preeminence

H. (Q136) Sins forbidden in the sixth commandment:
1. suicide
2. taking away another's life except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defense
3. neglecting or withdrawing the lawful or necessary means of preserving life
4. anger, hatred, envy, or desire of revenge
5. excessive passions
6. distracting cares
7. immoderate use of meat, drink, labor, and recreation
8. provoking words
9. oppression, quarreling, striking, wounding
10. whatever else tends to the destruction of the life of any

I. (Q137) Sins forbidden in the seventh commandment: 1
. neglect of the required duties, which are:
a. chastity in body, mind, affections, words, and behavior
b. preservation of chastity in ourselves and others
c. watchfulness over the eyes and all the senses
d. temperance
e. keeping chaste company
f. modesty in apparel
g. marriage by those who do not have the gifts of continency, conjugal love, and cohabitation
h. diligent labor in our callings
i. shunning of all occasions of uncleanness and resisting temptations thereto
2. adultery
3. fornication
4. rape
5. incest
6. unnatural lusts
7. unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections
8. engaging in or listing to corrupt or filthy communications
9. wanton looks
10. imprudent or light behavior
11. immodest apparel
12. prohibiting lawful marriages
13. dispensing with unlawful marriages
14. allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews (brothels) and resorting to them
15. entangling vows of single lif
16. undue delay of marriage
17. having more than one spouse at a single time
18. unjust divorce or desertion
19. idleness 20. gluttony 21. drunkenness
22. unchaste company
23. lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage plays
24. provocations to, or acts of, uncleanness in ourselves or others

J. (Q142) Sins forbidden by the eighth commandment:
1. Neglect of the required duties, which are:
a. truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts and commerce
b. rendering to everyone his due
c. restitution of goods unlawfully detained
d. giving and lending freely according to our abilities and the necessities of others
f. moderation of our judgments, wills, and affections concerning
e. worldly goods
f. provident care and study to get and use things necessary for our nature and suitable to our condition
g. a lawful calling and a diligence in it
h. frugality
i. avoiding unnecessary lawsuits and suretyship
j. an endeavor by all just and lawful means to promote the welfare of others as well as our own 2. theft, robbery, man-stealing, receiving stolen goods
3. fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing landmarks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts or in matters of trust
4. oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust enclosures and depopulations
5. engrossing commodities to increase the price
6. unlawful callings
7. unlawfully taking what belongs to our neighbor or enriching ourselves
8. covetousness and inordinate desire for worldly goods
9. inordinate attention to getting, keeping, and using worldly goods
lO. envying the prosperity of others
11. idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming and all other wastes of our outward estate

K. (Q145) Sins forbidden by the ninth commandment:
1. prejudicing of the truth, and the good name of our neighbors, especially in court
2. giving false evidence
3. suborning false witnesses
4. knowingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause
5. outfacing and overbearing the truth
6. passing unjust sentence
7. calling evil good, and good evil
8. rewarding the wicked as if righteous, or the righteous as if wicked
9. forgery
10. concealing the truth
11. undue silence in a just cause
12. holding our peace when we should reprove or complain
13. speaking the truth unseasonably or for a wrongful purpose, perverting the truth to a wrong meaning or an equivocal expression to the prejudice of truth or justice
14. speaking untruth, lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting, talebearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling
15. rash, harsh, and partial censuring
16. misconstruing intentions, words, and actions 1
7. vainglorious boasting
18. thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves and others
19. denying the gifts and graces of God
20. aggravating smaller faults
21. covering up sins
22. unnecessary discovering of infirmities
23. raising false rumors
24. receiving and countenancing evil reports .
25. stopping our ears against just defense
26. evil suspicion
27. envying or grieving at the deserved credit of any
28. endeavoring or desiring to impair the credit of another or rejoicing in another's disgrace and infamy
29. scornful contempt
30. fond (ie., foolish) admiration
31. breach of lawful promises
32. neglecting such things as are of good report
33. failing to avoid in ourselves, and hinder in others, those things that damage reputation

L. (Q148) Sins forbidden in the tenth commandment:
1. discontentment with our own estate
2. envying and grieving at our neighbor's good
3. inordinate motions and affections to anything that is our neighbor's

Support our troops

A calendar as the year begins. Good looking people in the picture. Supporting the troops. What more could one ask? Go to Freedom is not free.

Women and equality good for all.

I may have been a feminist before my mother. But my parents as they grew older were more and more into the idea that everyone ought to be treated equally regardless of gender. There's a new report out that says the hope for progress in the Arab world rests on the equal treatment of women. I suspect it's correct.

Religious Warfare

Daily Kos has this article about a game espousing religious warfare. No, it's not muslim. It's from some who claim to be Christian. Something further than the prince of peace is hard to imagine. But there it is. I get upset everytime I hear of it.

Military officials and religion

I thought the rules were clear. Government isn't supposed to support any religion over another. Yet there's a case where military officers - who are supposed to or so I believed - stay out of politics until after their terms of service parading around in a video supporting one particular religious point of view and with no mention that they speak for themselves and not the military.

Torture and Rumsfield

Rumsfield is being sued about torture and a judge is reluctant to dismiss the case. I'm not sure I want our government officials sued, but torture doesn't seem to me to be in the job description of any government official and so... I'm reluctantly approving of anything that will clear up accusations of torture.

Second Helvetic Confession and Sin

V. The Second Helvetic Confession

This confession does not deal extensively with sin. Its focus is limited (5.037) to "the innate corruption of man," occasioned by the original sin of our first ancestors. "Actual sins" are said to arise from this original sin, some of which are more serious than others (5.039), but these sins are not enumerated. Those who say that all sins are equal, or that God is the author of sin, are condemned (5.040). Certain other conduct is specifically disapproved, but is not called sin. As examples, disapproval is given to those who use the doctrine of election to excuse misconduct (5.057), and condemnation to those who deny a bodily resurrection (5.075).

Dorothy Law Nolte

If a child lives with approval, he learns to live with himself.

(Dorothy Law Nolte)

The Heidelberg Catechism and sin

This confession (along with the Westminster Documents) has a section on the ten commandments. We Reformed congregrations and denominations are quite clear on sin. After reading a couple of these confessions and catechisms taking on the sins implicit and explicit we probably will be saying that none of us have kept even one of the commandments.

IV. The Heidelberg Catechism

A. (Q. 4-5) Failure to obey the Law of God as summarized in Matthew 22:37-40 (which commands us to love God with our entire being and to love our neighbors as ourselves)

B. (Q. 94) Violations of the first commandment:
1. idolatry
2. sorcery
3. enchantments
4. invocation of saints or other creature

C. (Q. 97) Violations of the second commandment:
1. making any image or picture of God

D. (Q. 99) Violations of the third commandment:
1. profanation or abuse of God's name by cursing,
2. perjury or unnecessary oaths

E. (Q. 103) Violations of the fourth commandment:
1. failure to attend church
2. failure to participate in the sacraments
3. failure to call publicly upon the Lord
4. failure to give Christian service to those in need
5. failure to cease from evil works

F. (Q104) Violations of the fifth commandment
1. failure to honor father and mother
2. failure to honor all in authority over me
3. failure to submit with respectful obedience to the foregoing
4. failure to bear patiently the failures of the foregoing

G. (Q105) Violations of the sixth commandment:
1. abuse, hate, injure, or kill a neighbor by thought, word, or gesture
2. actually doing any of the foregoing in person or through another
3. desire for revenge
4. harming self
5. exposing self to danger
H. (Q108-109) Violations of the seventh commandment:
1. failure to live a chaste and disciplined life, whether married or single
2. unchaste actions, words, thoughts, or desires
3. whatever may excite another person to the foregoing

I. (Q110-111) Violations of the eighth commandment:
1. theft and robbery which violate civil law
2. wicked tricks and schemes to obtain a neighbor's goods by force
3. wicked tricks and schemes to obtain a neighbor's goods by deception (including false weights and measures, deceptive advertising or merchandising, counterfeit money, exorbitant interest)
4. greed
5. misuse and waste of God's gifts
6. failure to work for the good of neighbor
7. failure to deal with neighbor as self
8. failure to do our work well, so that we may earn enough to help our neighbors

J. (Q112) Violations of the ninth commandment:
1. bearing false witness against anyone
2. twisting anyone's words
3. being a gossip
4. being a slanderer
5. condemning anyone lightly without a hearing

K. (Q113) Violations of the tenth commandment:
1. allowing into our hearts even the least inclination or thought contrary to any commandment of God
2. failure to hate sin with our whole heart

On the Mountains

On the mountains – Nahum 1:15-2:12
begun Thursday, November 02, 2006

We lift our eyes to the hills goes one of the Psalms. We look for something beyond ourselves when we look for the one who brings good tidings. It may be for one who comes in might to break our chains. It may be one who rides in on a donkey to tell of peace. But it is someone bringing a word that we can't quite imagine, but that we know is good beyond our measure.

Nahum is part of this tradition of looking for something beyond. The feet of those bringing good tidings are on the mountains. From somewhere beyond comes joy that we didn't know was possible.

We can explain the feeling of good news from the mountains in several ways, but really we don't have a clue. It is like our descriptions of heaven – they are only imagined and not close to the reality. The good news is of salvation and we cannot know the height or the depths. The boundaries are as far as the east is from the west and the depth of the ocean from the moutaintop.

Nahum 1:15-2:12

[15] Look! On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked invade you; they are utterly cut off. [2:1] A shatterer has come up against you. Guard the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.

[2] (For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their branches.)

[3] The shields of his warriors are red; his soldiers are clothed in crimson. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day when he musters them; the chargers prance. [4] The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like torches, they dart like lightning. [5] He calls his officers; they stumble as they come forward; they hasten to the wall, and the mantelet is set up. [6] The river gates are opened, the palace trembles. [7] It is decreed that the city be exiled, its slave women led away, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. [8] Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!"--but no one turns back. [9] "Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure! An abundance of every precious thing!"

[10] Devastation, desolation, and destruction! Hearts faint and knees tremble, all loins quake, all faces grow pale! [11] What became of the lions' den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and the lion's cubs, with no one to disturb them? [12] The lion has torn enough for his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he has filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

William Butler Yeats

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

(William Butler Yeats)

Sins in the Scots Confession

The third of the documents in the PC(USA) Book of Confession finally does mention some sins. I see the church concentrating on the sexual sins (or perceived sexual sins), but there are a number of other places we should be looking.

III. The Scots Confession

A. (Chapters II and III) Original sin: the act of Adam and Eve in conspiring against the sovereign majesty of God by eating of the forbidden tree (and by implication doing any act that is clearly prohibited by God).

B. (Chapter XI) Being:
1. stubborn
2. disobedient
3. cruel persecutors
4. filthy persons
5. idolaters
6. all sorts of the unbelieving

(Chapter XIII, omitting duplications)
7. murderers
8. oppressors
9. adulterers
10. drunkards
11. thieves
12. workers of iniquity
13. lustful for pleasant and delightful things
14. envious in adversity
15. proud in prosperity
16. ready to offend the majesty of God

C. (Chapter XIV) Acts to the contrary of good works which are commanded of us:
1. not to call upon God alone when we have need
2. not to hear God's Word with reverence
3. to have or worship idols
4. to maintain and defend idolatry
5. lightly to esteem the reverend name of God
6. to profane, abuse, or condemn the sacraments of Christ Jesus
7. to disobey or resist any whom God has placed in authority, so long as they do not exceed the bounds of their office
8. to murder or consent thereto
9. to bear hatred
10. to let innocent blood be shed if we can prevent it
11. to breach any other commandment of the first or second kind (i.e., to do works to the honor of God and to the profit of our neighbor)
12. to do works which have no other warrant than the invention and opinion of man

Anna Freud

Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.

(Anna Freud)

The Apostle's Creed and Sin

The second document in my denominations Book of Confession has for sin...

II. The Apostle's Creed

No practice is called 'sin'

Robert Frost

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence.

(Robert Frost)

Lists of Sins from the Nicene Creed

Our culture seems to focus on sin, but what really is sinful?

I'm quoting from a study done a few years back on the documents of my church and will be doing so for the next several days.


I. The Nicene Creed
No practice is called 'sin'

Preference for the poor

One of the points often made by Latin American Liberation theologians is that God has a preference for the poor. Psalm 12 is yet another example of this. Verse 5 gives the reasons for this preference in "Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up." The preference has nothing to do with whether the poor and needy are righteous. It has to do with their being the victims of injustice.

God loves the righteous and protects the needy. We are called to do the same. One of my employees is a widow. She's not the first widow I've seen in her situation. Her husband's pension was based on his being alive. She cared for him for several years and then he passed away before her – not an unusual scenario. And like several women she had assumed or been told that her husband's pension would continue after his death. And while those statements have been correct in some cases, in her case (and in several more that I know) the pension went with the husband.

This is wrong. Lies have been told to these women. And at a time in their life when grief is near at hand they also have to deal with a huge change in their finances. And this is where those of us who claim the name of Christian should be asking. There are several solution that I know, there are surely more out there.

How about if when the husband or wife retires there spouse has to sign off on the pension disbursement?

How about if when the decision is made about pension benefits both spouses have to review the options?

How about having one defined benefit plan where there are no options and where the benefits continue to any survivor?

And most of these need to be worked out in a slightly more complex fashion, but they all involve getting the spouse involved so that they aren't surprised at a death by the change in pension benefits. And this is one thing that we can do to be on the side of the poor, the widow, the orphan and the stranger within our gates. The call to do so is from both Greek and Hebrew Testaments – shouldn't we be paying more attention to this call that is repeated many times than to some other issues that have been mentioned less?

The question is never about whether we are worthy. As Christians we realize that none of us is worthy to be counted as righteous before our God. The question is whether we seek to meet the needs of others. The question of meeting the needs of each other was asked by Moses when he told the people of Israel that they had a choice between life and death. It was asked when about Cain and Abel when God asked 'where is your brother?' It is asked before each of us daily as we pick up our cross. Are we looking out for the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the one without voice in the councils of the powerful?

Let us say 'Yes, I am."

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Morning: Psalm 12:1-8

[1] Help, O LORD, for there is no longer anyone who is godly;
the faithful have disappeared from humankind.
[2] They utter lies to each other;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

[3] May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
[4] those who say, "With our tongues we will prevail;
our lips are our own -who is our master?"

[5] "Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,
I will now rise up," says the LORD;
"I will place them in the safety for which they long."
[6] The promises of the LORD are promises that are pure,
silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.

[7] You, O LORD, will protect us;
you will guard us from this generation for ever.
[8] On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among humankind.

Albert Einstein

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

(Albert Einstein)

Left Behind

There's now a video game based on the Left Behind series (and I'm not going to link to the site) that has the player killing anyone who doesn't espouse their religious values. Yes, you do became weaker as you kill, but you can become stronger through prayer. A more ludicrous understanding of the end times and what Christ would have us do is hard to find. If there is a war against Christmas, then this sort of gift item certainly is one of the main offenses against what Christ came to do

Carl Jung

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment, and
especially on their children, than the unlived lives of the parents.

(Carl Jung)

More Paul Cameron Idiocy

Paul Cameron is notorious for being kicked out the professional body of the profession he claims for little things like shoddy research, mistating what other scientists say and more. His latest...

"By this selfish action, [Mary] Cheney is not merely disrupting society,
she is being cruel to her child ... Her pregnancy is further evidence that
participation in homosexual activity distorts value systems, inducing
practitioners to harm the commonweal. Our society already has too many children
born without the benefits of marriage; Cheney's action is not only a bad
example, but poor treatment of an innocent child," - Paul Cameron, of
the Family research Institute, on the Christian Newswire.

from Andrew Sullivan

Why isn't Mary Cheney married even though she has had a partner for a number of year? And since every study shows that children raised by gay and lesbian couples fair equally well with those raised by heterosexuals, where is the problem? Could it be that Paul Cameron distorts studies and preaches hatred?

Menninger

"They hang prophets, or ignore them which hurts worse. But by speaking out we shall have tossed on the cenotaph of human history another pebble from thequarry of hope."

Menninger

Junia - reposted

How does one get a book out of a person who is only mentioned once in scripture? (well once that I know of) It's not to difficult if the name is of a woman and she is called pre-eminent among the apostles. One only has to trace the history of attempts to make the name masculine. For an interesting history of biblical scholarship and eisegesis instead of exegesis read Eldon Jay Epp's book JUNIA: the first woman apostle.

Armor of God - reposted

Any of you remember what Ephesians 4:16ff talks about? You and your children can now put on the whole armor of God. Doesn't that sound nice? PJ's ? I'm all for putting on the whole armor of God, but I didn't think the purpose was to make children feel safe. I thought it was so that we would go forth into battle for the truth, for Christ, to proclaim the good news. to face trials and persecutions. To feel safe at night seems an insipid use of the passage. The sort of lukewarm response that is going to be spit out because it is neither hot nor cold.

Abelard

It is namely through doubt that we come to engage in research [and] through research that we come upon the truth.

-- Abelard, _Sic et Non_, 1349

Einstein

"The problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking wherewewere when we created them."

Einstein

Soren Kierkegaard

He who is lost through passion has lost not so much as he who has lost passion, for the former had the possibility."

(Soren Kierkegaard)

School of Flesh

I believe in the benefit of watching foreign films if only for the chance to recover my long lost and, even when being taught, limited knowledge of the language, yet School of Flesh is more than an excuse to pretend I can actually understand French. It's a look at passion and discovery and changing relationships. I'll watch it again.

Nine Dead Gay Guys

I loved the film Nine Dead Gay Guys, while it may be hopelessly self-referential and full of stereotypes it also laughs at itself and with us. With cameos from some gay icons and good acting from Brendon Mackey and Glen Mulhern, it's worth watching.

Depression - anti-depresssants and suicide

I'm always interested in the articles about a possible link between anti-depressants and suicide. Having been through depression myself and on medication and in therapy - the whole drill, I'm inclined to the supposition that anti-depressants don't really increase the risk of suicide, they only stabalize and give enough energy that one might be able to commit suicide. At the worst of my depression committing suicide would have taken energy that I just didn't have until after I was on anti-depressants. But that's my view and research may or may not show that true for depression and anti-depressants. It is worth looking at the study and the note about the study at The Corpus Callosum.

Mark Twain

The Christian Bible is a drug store. It's contents have remained the same but the medical practice continues. For 1,800 years these changes were slight—scarcely noticeable… The dull and ignorant physician day and night, and all the days and all the nights, drenched his patient with vast and hideous doses of the most repulsive drugs to be found in the store's stock… He kept him religion sick for eighteen centuries, and allowed him not a well day during all that time.
["Mark Twain and the Three R's, by Maxwell Geismar, p.107

Science and toilets

Science speaks to the usual things. From Pure Pedantry comes a link to an article about game theory and toilet seats. It seems there is an actual way of determining whether the seat should be up or down. I suspect it doesn't factor in some parts of the equation as in a room mate that I once had who left the toilet seat as it had been before he got there whether he was standing or sitting and had bad aim. After living with that situation I leave the toilet seat up and will probably continue to do so. Knowing the urine is quite sterile doesn't mean that I enjoy the feeling that I've just found some on the seat.

So helpful

There's some kinds of help that just aren't.

I have many things arranged for breakfast in the morning. Sometimes I have containers that are about to run out and there's a helpful person who searches through my cupboards to refill them. Usually I have not filled the container up for a reason. I want to wash the cereal container out. And I have another one ready to go. But it's not in the cupboards and all your looking won't find it. I have another syrup container or two, but if I replace them too soon I'll have a multitude of half-empty containers. It's ten minutes before closing and I'm not ready to open another box of apple-sauce until the last one has been taken to the table. Come and ask me, I'll gladly help. But when I'm trying to make sure to follow health department regulations and keep up the breakfast I just don't find it helpful for someone else to go through my cupboards looking for something that probably isn't there.

I have pens on the front desk. I usually have them arranged in some sort of pattern. But then there's the helpful person who rearranges the pens. Usually just by picking them up and dropping them in a clump. I don't think they even realize what they're doing. And I really do expect the pens to be picked up and used. But one pen out of the pattern is easily put back or replaced. I once had someone pick up my patterned pens just before he signed the registration card. Then I answered some questions and rearranged the pens. And I watched, somewhat unhappily, as two seconds after I put the final pen into the arrangement while he picked up the pens and re-organized them. I didn't really feel like he'd helped me at all.

The swimming pool

Before I worked in a motel I wondered at the policy of not opening the swimming pool early in the morning. When I was staying at a motel I was always at work by the time the pool opened. And I like to swim when I can. And the pool was just there. And how much problem would it be to have a single person swimming laps? Then I found out some of the reasons.

It's not the lap swimmer early in the morning that causes problems. It the swimmers who see the lap swimmer and then come in and have fun and make noise and wake up the people around the pool. So much for not understanding the rules, now I understand all too well. If there was a way of filtering out the noise from the swimmers I'd open the pool. Until I can do that I'll stick with the later opening and explain to some of my best customers why I can't accomodate their desire. And breathe a sigh of relief that some of my worst customers won't have a way to cause more problems than have already happened.

Expectations

I try to meet the needs of my guests. But I don't always meet their expectations. Our breakfast hours are posted as being from 6am to 9am. And if people ask I'll try to have something earlier. But I can't do everything.

For example, my waffle batter needs about an hour to get ready. If I have it pre-made, then it needs to warm up for about an hour before being used. If it's not already made, then it needs to sit for about an hour. If I don't get it warmed up, then the batter is cooked on the outside and runny on the inside - good for eggs served sunny-side up and bad for waffles. If I don't let the batter sit, then the waffles have a gritty granular taste - not good in waffles.

So the other day I had a request from some people staying a couple of weeks to have some breakfast ready early. I had rolls and breads and coffee and cereal out. That was fine for a couple of days, until they wanted waffles. I get here about 5am to start breakfast. I can get here a few minutes early and get a few items out before I start the morning coffee. But somehow the idea that I needed an hour ahead of time to put the waffles out didn't compute.

So I was asked for waffles and I said 'it takes an hour for the batter to be ready.'

'Couldn't you just put a few cups out that early.'

'The batter is prepared in a large container, so I'd have to get all of it out.'

'But couldn't you still have a couple out.'

;The batter needs to be out for a full hour either warming up or sitting before I put it into the pre-measured cups.'

But it's only a little bit.'

I'm not sure I ever really got through that there are some breakfast items that are easy to get out early and others that are more difficult. And so I sigh. I'm happy to get some of the breakfast out early, but please don't try to get me to get everything on the menu out early. I just can't. And if you nag me too much about what I can't reasonably do, then I might not be as enthusiastic about the things I can actually do. Meeting the needs of our guests for an earlier breakfast is soemthing I'm happy to do. Even when I complain a little about it I still want to do it. Getting all of breakfast out early just isn't going to happen.

Being rejected

I always wonder at the purveyors of the idea that Christians will be successful. If we are servants of the living God, then a story like the following from Luke 20 seems to indicate that we’ll be beaten, beaten and insulted, or even beaten, insulted and killed. That’s a very different expectation than that when we become Christian we will be healed or our money problems solved or our family problems be resolved.

Certainly we are promised joy and wholeness and peace that passes understanding. And those things are more than just the simple getting enough money, being healed or any other desire that’s trapped in the world of time. We are to be about our daily tasks rather than trying to get some reward or another just because we professed Christianity or gave some great sum.

In Colossians Paul continues this idea that we aren’t going to have a great life by the standards of this world. In Colossians, Paul rejoices in his sufferings (1:24) and affirms that he is struggling (2:1). The victory is in Jesus Christ, but we are still in this old world and the birth pans of the new world are in process.

To talk of the miracles and other signs of the new realm as if they will come to every Christian is meretricious nonsense. The life of a Christian is rather more likely to be filled with derision, rejection, and sorrow. The Roman Catholic classic hymn “Faith of our Fathers” has it right when it talks of faith living still in spite of fire, prison and sword. That is what we Christians have to look forward to in this life. Christianity is just not wealth, health, family togetherness or any such temporal items.

Luke 20:9-18

[9] He began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time. [10] When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. [11] Next he sent another slave; that one also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed. [12] And he sent still a third; this one also they wounded and threw out. [13] Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.' [14] But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, 'This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.' [15] So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? [16] He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When they heard this, they said, "Heaven forbid!" [17] But he looked at them and said, "What then does this text mean: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'? [18] Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."

Another Elk photo

Another picture of the elk we saw at my family reunion. I've seen elk. I've seen elk with antlers. I've seen elk with antlers and velvet. But this is the most perfect velvet I've ever seen and so close up deserves to be seen by more than just my family.

Audrey Hepburn

Beauty Tips by Audrey Hepburn


"For attractive lips,
speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes,
seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure,
share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair,
let a child run his fingers through it=A0once a day.
For poise,
walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone ...
People, even more than things, have to be
restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed
Never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand,
you'll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands:
One for helping yourself, the other for helping others."

Posed

This is from the early 1960's when we lived in Cuba....

wait for it....

it's not the one that's an island...

it's the town of Cuba in Kansas where my father was one of the pastors in a five point parish. He preached in Cuba and Narka on Sundays and was primarily responsible for the youth activities. I remember playing in the light from a stained glass window that was in the manse and musty smells bring back wonderful memories of worship there. The church building had a leak that had been fixed a number of times, but somehow regularly came back and dripped into the same spot every year.

My mother's siblings.

Since seven of the nine siblings are still alive on my mother's side, and the youngest just won an age discrimination suit, while the eldest is fretting about only walking a mile a day - I hope my longevity and health take after that side of the family. Should I mention that of the two that are missing - one died in a car accident and the other from complications during surgery to correct a problem caused by one of the infectious disease for which we're vaccinated these days - didn't really die of natural causes?

Women in my family

My mother and her sisters.

My mother is the twin holding her youngest child.

No more female genital mutilation

It is certainly not a tenet of Islam and only practiced in a few areas where Islam is the predominant religion, but outlawing the practice is long overdue. Congratulations are due for the scholars who finally took the step to label female genital mutilation as what it is. And it is just plain wrong.

Twins, genetics and Dobson

I recently read an article that focused on Dobson, Haggard and sexuality. In it Dobson is quoted as saying.

"What homosexual activists especially would like everybody to believe is
that it is genetic. That they don't have any choice. And if it were genetic,
identical twins would all have it. If you had homosexuality in one twin, it
would be there in the other. So it can't be simply genetic."

What this really says is that Dobson doesn't really understand genetics. A genetic factor doesn't necessarily mean that something as complex as sexuality turns out to be the same in every set of identical twins. In fact the similarity among identical twin is related not just to genetics but to when the ovum divides. In fact there are many ways in which identical twins can differ throughout their lives as their environment differs.

I'm an identical twin. My twin brother came into allergies before puberty. I didn't begin to experience allergies until later in life.

I'm an identical twin. At one point I was six inches taller than my brother. Later he caught up with me in height.

I'm an identical twin. I'm basically ambidextrous, while my brother is basically right-handed.

There are many differences in the lives of identical twins that can be related to factors that are both genetic and environmental. To say that every set of identical twins must be identical in sexual orientation for there to be a genetic factor is arrant nonsense. Dobson just doesn't know his genetics.

Twins run in the family

For a little while we had three sets of twins in the family. My great aunts, my mother and her twin, myself and my twin. Somehow the only photo we have of all of us is from this newspaper clipping. I remember at least one other visit where all of us were present, but... no one thought to take a picture to remember it.

Valentine birthday

My mother is a twin. She's an identical twin. The girls were born on valentines day. And thus the dresses with hearts.

Richard J. Needham

God punishes us mildly by ignoring our prayers and severely by answering them.

(Richard J. Needham)

Family photo

These photos are from one of the many anniversary parties for relatives over the years.

Thomas Carlyle

If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of him.


(Thomas Carlyle)

Twins - August 2006

I'm the one on the east.

Isaac Newton

If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

(Isaac Newton)

From the 1960's

I grew up to look like the man and the woman in the back, this is from where my mother grew up.

Sir Humphrey Davy

The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by my failures.

(Sir Humphrey Davy)

Grandparents

My grandparents.

I suspect one reason I've never run screaming from disabilities is that little bit of cotton in my granddad's eye. Some of my earliest memories are of seeing him change it to a fresh piece during the day. I also had an uncle who I knew we had to face in order for him to hear. Form him the high pitches just aren't there. And then there was a cousin who was one of the last people to get polio and her surgery after surgery. I just grew up with people of different abilities and learned that we worked within those different situations.

Parents and boyscouts

While the picture is fading somewhat, it is who I am or was.

Pablo Picasso

It takes a long time to become young.

(Pablo Picasso)

Elk and child

This elk didn't seem to have a problem with being close to a building. And certainly didn't move when several of us went out to the porches surrounding where it was. A wonderful time was had by all.

Twins and grandparents

Even without looking at the back of this photo I could tell which one I was and which one I wasn't. Some in my family can do this and others can't. That's what happens with identical twins. Growing up I always thought that my mother and her identical twin sister were more alike than my twin and myself. But my cousins have told me that I was wrong. I suppose I have to trust them even though I have confused my mother and her twin, but never have I been confused over who was whom between my twin and myself.

Oh yes, the gentleman who's not holding anyone is my great-uncle.

Twins at forty something

From our family reunion.

Soren Kierkegaard

What our age lacks is not reflection but passion.

(Soren Kierkegaard)

Abortion - no simple answers

One reason I keep going back to letting the woman and her doctor make the decision on abortion is the wide variety of what nature does. I first heard of this in The Frontal Cortex, but went to the original article to double-check. A child was born with a fetus in his stomach. This is nature at work. I don't like the possibility of a human being aborted, but.... in this case the parents, the person involved and th doctor should make the decision. Don't talk to me of the fetus being human - there's a lot of disagreement about that. Don't talk to me about living - the difference between living and non-living starts at the viral level. Don't talk to me about scripture - there are clear evidences of different treatments depending upon how advanced the pregnancy. Let the people directly involved make the decision.

Offering your best

This passage from the beginning of Malachi (1:1, 6-14) is one that reinforces, for me, the true reformed work ethic. Max Weber has correctly analyzed some of the disturbing perversions of the Reformed denominations idea of work where work becomes more important than why we work, but in basic Reformed theologies the idea is that we should always work for the glory of God and so we work to the limits of our abilities since what we do is not for ourselves or our ambition or our greed or anything less than God.

And it is not easy to always work giving of your best. Yet the idea of work, for the Reformed church, is not that one is always earning bread and butter. Work is part of what you do when you play or worship or any of the activities through the day. We offer everything we do up to God and so we work to make it the best that we can do.

John Calvin often has a reputation as a dour, censorious man. But he played at bowls on Sunday and part of his salary was more than a tun (I never can remember how much this is but it is over 200 gallons) of wine. While I suspect Calvin could be as his reputation sometimes is stated, that doesn’t mean he was always like that and judging from the quantity of wine in his salary and the fact that he played games I suspect those dour, censorious parts are just part of the man. The idea of work as something to be endured is just not a part of Reformed theology.

Work is celebrated and enjoyed. Work is about offering your best. Work is about more than accumulation. Work is for the glory of God.

Malachi 1:1, 6-14
[1] An oracle. The word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. [6] A son honors
his father, and servants their master. If then I am a father, where is the honor
due me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the LORD of
hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say, "How have we despised
your name?" [7] By offering polluted food on my altar. And you say, "How have we
polluted it?" By thinking that the Lord's table may be despised. [8] When you
offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those
that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor;
will he be pleased with you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. [9] And
now implore the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. The fault is yours.
Will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts. [10] Oh, that someone
among you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my
altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not
accept an offering from your hands. [11] For from the rising of the sun to its
setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is
offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations,
says the LORD of hosts. [12] But you profane it when you say that the Lord's
table is polluted, and the food for it may be despised. [13] "What a weariness
this is," you say, and you sniff at me, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what
has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your
offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. [14] Cursed be the
cheat who has a male in the flock and vows to give it, and yet sacrifices to the
Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my
name is reverenced among the nations.

Problems are normal

Paul’s letters often contain phrases like this one from I Thessalonians 3:3 about ‘no one being shaken by these persecutions’ and continuing with ‘that this is what we are destined for’. Yet some of us seem to believe that we as Christians will have lives of health and wealth and ease and comfort and if these don’t happen then somehow we’re just not faithful enough.

We Christians are on a journey, perhaps a journey through the desert. In that journey we experience scorching heat and dry mouths. Every once in awhile we come to an oasis and we can refresh ourselves, but then we pick up our bags (take up our crosses daily) and go back to the journey.

Kosuke Koyoma writes of this many times. The image that is most vivid for me is when Koyama suggests that it would have been much easier had our image been picking up our lunch box daily (in “No Handle on the Cross”). That’s easy to carry, compact and light weight, and business like. But we aren’t given a lunch. We are given a cross. And a cross is bulky, unwieldy and if we carry it we may collapse along the way. The one we follow is despised and rejected and condemned and, ultimately, saves us in spite of our actions.

Now this isn’t to say I don’t believe in miracles. I believe in miracles. I also believe that those same miracles are not about benefiting me – though they may do so – but about displaying the glory of God.

And that, too, display of the glory of God is what we are to be about as Christians. Looking for our own benefit is not something with which we, who are Christian, should be that concerned. Of course some worry about money and wealth is natural. Yet we should consider the birds of the air and the flowers in the field. They are clothed and fed. So, too, God will clothe and feed us. Ours is not to proclaim that our health and wealth are signs that God has blessed us, but to proclaim that salvation comes through God alone and the while wealth and health are nice, they are not as important as following the will of God.

Following the will of God and displaying the glory of God are the tasks of Christians. And doing such may lead us into fire and sword and into persecution and derision; into many places we’d just rather not go. We are called to lives of faith and love rather than to lives of health and wealth. We are called to displays of care and concern rather than to see how much we can accumulate. We are called to lives of labor and holiness rather than to excess and greed.

When we look to the example of prayers from Jesus we find the passages that have been turned into what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” as mentioning ‘give us our daily bread’. The point is not about bread for the morrow, but for the day. And other stories, such as the man who builds granaries and then dies right after they’re built, illustrate this point once again. We may need to take care of tasks today to prepare for the future, yet it is what we are doing today that is important and worrying too much about the future is not for the follower of Jesus.

Health and wealth aren’t in the forecast for Christians. Persecution and problems are. Let’s stop trying to get people to profess Christ out of greed and rather let them know just what to expect.

1 Thessalonians 3:1-13

[1] Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we decided to be left alone in Athens; [2] and we sent Timothy, our brother and co-worker for God in proclaiming the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you for the sake of your faith, [3] so that no one would be shaken by these persecutions. Indeed, you yourselves know that this is what we are destined for. [4] In fact, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer persecution; so it turned out, as you know. [5] For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith; I was afraid that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labor had been in vain.

[6] But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love. He has told us also that you always remember us kindly and long to see us--just as we long to see you. [7] For this reason, brothers and sisters, during all our distress and persecution we have been encouraged about you through your faith. [8] For we now live, if you continue to stand firm in the Lord. [9] How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? [10] Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

[11] Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. [12] And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. [13] And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Albert Shweitzer

"At the point in life where your talent meets the needs
of the world, that is where God wants you to be."

-Albert Schweitzer

Faithfulness and the law

Whenever I read the gospels I keep hearing things that look to the results rather than the particulars. Do people end up protected, healed, welcomed, or clothed? That's the question that is asked. But, the questions of "Have you performed the ritual? Have you obeyed this particular of the law?" seem to be ignored. The passage I'm reading today in my lectionary studies illustrates this.

Luke 16:10-17 begins with the statement about the small things reflecting the large. And it could easily have gone the direction of so you must tithe the mind, the dill and the other small things, but instead goes to the whole question of how we use our riches and our gifts. It is not about being persnickety, but about whom we serve.

I serve a God who claims to be the Way, the Truth and the Life. And following a God who makes that claim means that we should seek to be truthful and faithful. And so being faithful in the small things indicates where we will be in the large. And so working to be honest about the things where the truth won't harm anyone and only inconvenience us is about following the one who says he is the Truth. And the little things reflect our services both large and small to the one we claim to worship.

Luke 16:10-17 (18)

[10] "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
[11] If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? [12] And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? [13] No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

[14] The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. [15] So he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.

[16] "The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. [17] But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.

[18] "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Bette Midler

I never know how much of what I say is true.

(Bette Midler)

Hiring

One of the things I enjoy most about my job is training. I love helping people learn something new. I love hiring people, training them and helping them move to a position with greater opportunities. That's not happening today.

I hired someone to come in at 7:30am to train for the breakfast/laundry position. Since it is past 9:00 am, they don't have a job. It is frustrating. A call saying, "I've decided not to work here." would have saved me an hour or two of waiting and preparation. But that didn't happen. So I missed out on one of the things I enjoy and wasted an hour or two and will have to start reviewing applications and such again. That's the life of a manager.

Italian proverb

The best way to get praise is to die. (Italian proverb)

Biblical Illiteracy

It seems that the evangelical/conservative wing of the church - which sometimes claims to be more biblically knowledgeable or at least more faithful in following biblical principles - is not so biblically literate. My own perception is that most agnostics and atheists know more about the Bible than most people who claim to be Christian.

The question to ask ourselves (that is for those of us who claim the title Christian) is not whether we have a Bible around, but whether we read and study it daily and whether we work to put it into place in our lives.

My experience as a gay man is that many people will tell me that the scriptures are against homosexuality but then when I ask them where it says such they are unable to answer, and being able to defend their interpretation of some of the passages usually cited on the rare ocassions that the people can actually mention a biblical is something that I rarely see. So I guess I go along with the study.

It is a shame. If you believe the Bible is important or inerrant or the rule for faith and life (all descriptions from various Christian traditions) then it should be a regular part of your life. Otherwise all you have is sounds without meaning.

Herb Caen

The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even biggerpain the second time around.

(Herb Caen)

Isaiah and Sodom

If we go by what the world says the sin of Sodom is male same-sex sexual activity, but if we go by scripture the picture is somewhat different. Day in Mamre, Night in Sodom is the most extensive look that I've seen on the question. But we don't have to go to the depth of that book to begin to see that how we've interpreted the sin of Sodom is just plain wrong.

What we can easily do is look at what Scripture says. In Isaiah 1:10-20 we hear a lot about evil and what one must correct, but the call is not to refrain from same-sex sexual activity but "to seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." (vs. 17) and that fits right in with what the men of Sodom and Gomorrah are shouting about. The rape is not about the gender of the visitors but about degrading the visitors (Genesis 19:9). The lack of hospitality – the lack of protection for the weak, the poor, the outsider, and the stranger – is condemned and the specific actions of rape (symptomatic of the way strangers in the city were treated) rather than all same-sex sexual activity is what is forbidden.

There are other passages of Scripture that talk of Sodom or Sodom and Gomorrah. Without exception they focus on the crime of not welcoming the stranger rather than the sexual actions. Our modern ideas about Sodom and Gomorrah and the sins they encompassed being sexually based are plain wrong and contrary to scripture.

Isaiah 1:10-20

[10] Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! [11] What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. [12] When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; [13] bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation -- I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. [14] Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. [15] When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. [16] Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, [17] learn to!
do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

[18] Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. [19] If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; [20] but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Billy Graham

Your casket may already be in town. (Billy Graham)

Arturo Toscanini

I kissed my first girl and smoked my first cigarette on the same day. Ihaven't had time for tobacco since.

(Arturo Toscanini)

I am whole - reposted

I am wounded. This year has been one of accepting that wound may never be healed. I am wounded because I am called to ministry. That call has been affirmed and reaffirmed by my denomination. I have answered that call. And now I am rejected and feel despised. Even when I may be able to take up that call to serve again, the wounds will not heal. Words like 'our congregation isn't ready' or 'we need someone who our married couples can relate to' are less wounding than silence once my sexual orientation is mentioned.

I am angry. The way I've used that anger has been both good and bad. For while I seek to use my anger for good I am not perfect. I have struck out at those trying to help. Yet my anger is justified. My gifts that were used by my denomination in congregation, presbytery, synod and general assembly remain. They remain unused and swallowed by misperceptions.

I am whole and I am yet wounded and I remain angry. I seek God's will for my life. So I am whole. I seek to minister where I am and with those I meet. And so I am wounded and angry and whole. And for the whole of my life I will remain one who seeks to answer the call of God.

As one born blind

So blind I was, eyes did not see
The I that was inside of me
And then with eyes of faith torn wide
I looked and saw the me inside
And then with ev'ry part of me
I knew that I was in God's hand

The one I saw inside of me
Was what God wanted me to be
A man who's gay and free to see
The joys of loving men as men
And though it may seem queer to some
I am as God wants me to be.

Sunday, December 03, 2006
Copyright Roger Victoria, 2006

G. K. Chesterton

"All [people] matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest thing in theology to believe."

G. K Chesterton in The Father Brown Omnibus

two stories

I'm glad that there are two creation stories and four gospels in the holy book of my faith. It is a reminder that there can be different views of the same subject. And that reminder is also seen in the decision making process of Conservative Judaism. The governing body is expected to come with two documents that will be authoritative. One is expected to approve of the subject and the other to disapprove. And this has happened before on different subjects.

Perhaps Christians with out two testaments, with our four gospels, with scripture passages that contradict each other such as Paul approving a woman as noted among the apostles vs. saying women should keep silent, should take a leaf from Conservative Judaism and respectfully disagree.

Depression - a story

As she lifted her head the sour smell of stale sweat from her pillow arose. But it was too hard to move much more and so she lay back down in desperation. She didn't feel as if there were any good reason for her to stay in bed, but she just couldn't move. And that was what she had felt for a long time.

At least it felt like a long time. At this point she wasn't sure how long. She vaguely remembered happy times. But it was as if those happy times were through ten feet of cotton candy and her life now. She could see herself laughing in some photos, but couldn't figure out what that felt like. Yes, she had been happy, but not in a long, long time.

Her living room and kitchen were immaculate. But that was because she didn't have the energy to leave them messy. When she ate – everything was cleaned and put away before she fell asleep. And she didn't buy any food that might go bad. The dried milk she kept on hand didn't taste all that good when she made it up for the meal – it was supposed to sit – but when she had the energy to eat and clean up she wanted to do it then. If she waited any time her burst of energy would be long gone and then there's be the dishes to clean and they'd sit. She'd done that before when she'd tried to wait. And the dishes would sit with the big round eye of a plate accusing her of not doing anything and her mind quivering with the blows of unmet expectations. And she just couldn't face the unwashed dishes one more time. So she made the dried milk up and drank it before it had cooled and as the horrid taste went down – thought – at least I got something in my body one more time.

And at times it was a moment-by-moment decision to keep on existing in such pain. She'd started treatments but so far none of them had worked. And she lived in pain. And she could no longer remember what it had been like before she lived in pain. And the treatments – try this drug and it will take two to six weeks before it works – you've been taking it for eight weeks and there's no change, then stop taking the drug and in two weeks will try another drug – seemed futile. And every day longer until each day seemed like years.

They called it depression – she called it pain.

Bob Frankie

"What can we do with out days, but work and hope; let our dreams bind our work to our play. What can we do with each moment of our lives, but love 'til we love them away."

Bob Frankie, from the chorus of "Thanksgiving Eve".

Enjoying stuff

I got to do something I liked today. I got to thank someone. Usually with our pool I feel as if I'm the big bad guy spoiling all the fun. I go into the area and yell at people for diving and ignoring the no diving sign. I go into the pool area and talk to people about the safety equipment is not a toy and we will kick them out of the motel for misusing it. I go into the pool area and ask people to removed their food and drink from the pool area. And today I had a father watching his sons through the window and teaching them about obeying the rules. He had his drink with him but didn't go into the pool area.

And so I got to say 'thanks'. Hmm. He was dressed in leathers and such. What many in my mother's generation would consider rough. But I've had more problems with some people who are dressed cleanly and in business clothes than this person who was unshaved and in leathers. Looks and dress can be important, but they are not the most important things on which to base an opinion of someone.

Usually I don't enjoy getting on people's cases about wrongdoing (sometimes I do, but… I try to be better than that.). And even when I feel I'm doing the right thing in asking people to obey the rules – which arise out of experience with several sorts of problems – it is not as pleasurable as working with people who seek to do what's right rather than what meets their immediate desires. It seems to me that taking food or drink into a pool area is all about meeting one's desires rather than seeking to do what's right.

I've had people, who think they're being reasonable, arguing with me over having their 'water' in the spa. I'm concerned about them becoming dehydrated, but that's easily remedied by not spending so much time in the hot water. And that's something that they can control. I'm also worried about the possibility of something breaking or spilling in the spa. And that requires work that I just shouldn't have to do. Not bringing food or drink into a pool/spa area is not a rule made up by our motel just to annoy the guests. That rule comes from years of experience. And, judging from the fact that one can find signs about 'No Food, No Drink' in every pool supply catalog in several sizes and configurations, this rule is standard.

Now taking drink or food in the pool is not the worst that has happened. An infant in a dirty diaper was in our pool once upon a time. Actually I can't say that for certain as all we found was the diaper floating in the pool. And then there's the time someone brought a dog into the pool area and claimed that the desk clerk had told them to sneak the dog into the hotel.

Yet these are problems that are few and far between. They make better stories than the ones about 'Oh, they did things so well." And "They had a problem but were polite when they told me about it and it was a pleasure fixing it for them.' And that's as it should be. The best stories are about things that don't usually happen. Politeness, respect should be the norm and when that happens I can tell the horror stories about service in peace and with enjoyment for all.

Benedict J. Groeschel

"If you think you should be loved just because you are you, you missed your vocation. You should have been God."

Benedict J. Groeschel in The Courage to Be Chaste

Processing

People process ideas and sensations in different ways. That seems obvious to me, but isn’t as clear in how most people act. When I’m working at the front desk people often provide a spelling of their name, when I ask for their name. In interacting with most people this is helpful. I usually ask for the name again after the spelling. If they give me the word sound of the name I can get it typed in, but without that word sound I’m in a word jumble. And there are some people who spell it a second time without giving me the pronunciation. And I’ve had people continue to spell the name after I explain that I need to hear the word in order to get it down. I don’t intend to be difficult, but what I need is not what I’m being given.

People process in different fashions. That most people work a certain way doesn’t mean that everyone does. And the differences aren’t good or bad, they just are.

Aristotle

"The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want. Men do not become tyrants in order that they may not suffer cold."

Aristotle in Poetics

Running the church

I once talked to a pastor who had served the congregation where many of my mother's family worship. He said that when he went to that congregation he was warned that the N... family ran the church. So he was a bit cautious. Then he figured out that they spoke their minds, argued their positions and once a decision was made shut up and supported that decision even when they disagreed. They ran the church because they volunteered and worked where needed, but not because they wanted the power or prestige. Somehow I took that as the compliment it was meant to be.

Thomas Jefferson

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day [Independence Day] forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them," - Thomas Jefferson, June 24, 1826, in the last significant letter he wrote (he died on July 4, 1826).

Leave the Gate

Growing up with farmers and ranchers one of the rules was ‘Leave that gate as you found it.’ I learned it through example long before I could express it. I didn’t need to know whether the cows were to be kept in or out or let wander between the fields. All that was important was to make sure that we kept the gates where they were to help granddad or my aunts and uncles do the work on the ranch.

That’s not a bad rule for life. Unless you know what you’re doing, leave things as you find them. The simplest form that I learned before kindergarten is just to leave things as they are. I didn’t always follow it. Sometime when I was about three I wandered into the kitchen and found that things were in a different drawer than I remembered. So I took my time and switched them back to the way they’d been. My mother had to sit me down and explain that she had changed the places of her kitchen utensils. I guess that I might have been following the rule since I thought I should put things back in the way they’d always been.

I suspect I may sometimes have been irritating as a child since I wanted things left the way that I’d put them. My brother and I shared some of our books in music lessons. There was a time when he was teasing me when we were switching places at the piano for practice and he put one of our shared books on the top of the piano. I asked him (perhaps demanded) to put it back. He didn’t. I left it there. And, until he found it, I kept telling him that he was the last one to have it. I told the whole truth, but I didn’t tell enough to help him out. And I gored my own ox since I was supposed to practice from that book. But being a little bit stubborn I didn’t touch the book since it wasn’t where I’d arranged my books to be and my brother hadn’t put it back. I suppose that’s a case of being way to stubborn about leaving the gate as I found it.

My mother once said, ‘You’re the most amenable of my children and the most stubborn.’ I wouldn’t disagree. If I didn’t think it was worth fighting over I’d go along. But once my stubborn side came into play – and I had to have what I thought was good reason – then I was stubborn as a mule.

And I was as stubborn as a mule my grandparents had while mom was growing up. This mule had a tendency to pull back and break the reins when it was tied up. A couple of my uncles thought they’d teach the mule not to do this. So they used a chain in place of the leather reins and hitched the mule to a telephone pole. The mule pulled back. The mule kept pulling back. The mule pulled the telephone pole down on its head. (Trust me, this story made it into the book of family stories that we collected for my grandparent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary.) The mule was knocked out, but survived. My uncles learned not to hitch the mule up to anything.

After I was in college my mother and I were traveling with one of my brothers and an imp of the perverse caused my mother to ask my brother if he knew who had sat in the middle the most while we were growing up. My one brother said the name of my other brother. Mom and I both smiled at each other as she said my name. My brothers fought over who got the window seats and I sat in the middle for three times and then just got in and let my brothers continue to fight over the window seat. I just didn’t want to fight and didn’t think it was that big of a deal. For some reason my brother, even by the time both of us were out of the house, just hadn’t noticed my stubborn streak, but mom had noticed both the amenable and stubborn sides. We’re in our forties and I still don’t think my brother (and this is my twin) has noticed how stubborn I can be at times. Oh well.

One reason I’m reluctant to use my stubborn streak is that it can be destructive. Yes sometimes is the time to get on one’s horse and ride into the battle. But, as in the earlier example of the music book, there are times when it’s just not worthwhile it harms me more than any goal that might be achieved. So I try to figure out what’s a constructive use of my stubborn streaks.

One of the ways I’m doing this is just like my mother. Every year she read through the Bible. In the year that my parents went back to Germany to see where his mother had lived, my mother read through the Bible in German – as she was learning German for the first time. This year my goal has been to read through the New Testament in Greek. I took the language in college and in graduate school, but haven’t used it much lately. So this year – it’s back to learning how to read another language. Next year, I’m back to English, but for one year my stubborn streak served me well.

And I also try to use that stubborn streak along with the lesson of leaving the gate as I found it. One of my issues is conservation. Some things are more easily done than others. But at our motel we save the soaps and lotions that we can’t put out and give them to people who need soap and shampoo. It’s not much but it is something. We also work on reusing what we can. If a key card packet doesn’t have anything written on it, then we can use it for the next customer. I may not be able to stop jump faxes – I tried calling the stop numbers and ended up with more – but I can cut them up, staple them together, and come up with note pads. Sure, it takes a little more time but those things make me feel as if I’m leaving the world as is came to me or a little better.

What are your inclinations that can be used for both good and bad? A stubborn streak, a tendency to jump in feet first, a tendency to hold back and see what’s happening, something more?

Madeleine L'Engle

"Perhaps what we are called to do may not seem like much. But consider what one scientist has called 'the butterfly effect': even a butterfly moving its wings has an effect on galaxies thousands of light-years > away."

Madeleine L'Engle in A Stone for a Pillow

Divorce and sexual orientation

Luke 16:18 "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery,
and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits
adultery.

I’m still trying to figure out why some people will allow divorce but not same-sex sexual activity or relationships. Scripture clearly has differing opinions on divorce with it being permitted in some places and forbidden in others. But homosexuality? That is a concept from the 18th century. Greek culture tended to regard what we call bisexuality as the norm. The Old Testament has a couple of passages about men lying with men as though the were women, but that’s not what’s happening with a lesbian relationship and gay men don’t want to have sex with a man as with a woman – gay men want to have sex with a man as with a man. And the translations from the Greek are even more problematic than the Hebrew in the Old Testament. Divorce is clearly forbidden and the passages about homosexuality are less clear than some believe. But which do we spend our time on?

Elizabeth O'Connor

"While it is a crucial mistake to assume that churches can be on an outward journey without being on an inward one, it is equally disastrous to assume that one can make the journey inward without taking the journey outward."

Elizabeth O'Connor in Journey Inward, Journey Outward

Faith and politics

My faith is an important part of my life. I think that it is one of the reasons I actually got through depression. But really is an e-mail about losing a political race to a Hindu the right place to say “Pay attention...this is very important, Satveer. Have you noticed Jesus for yourself...at some moment in time, yet??? ...” According to the God I worship – whom in the second person I call Jesus – it is not about calling people names or some such when you lose a political race and that’s not the time to blame them for not being Christian. Frankly if I weren’t already a Christian I’d be leaving any possibility of becoming one far behind after such a message.

Truman Dollar

"When I turned 30 I wanted to build a large church. At 40 I wanted to learn how to preach. But at 50 I want to know God deeply."

Truman Dollar in Fundamentalist Journal, Nov. 1987

American civilization

The American Family Association doesn't seem to understand about the idea that government isn't supposed to establish or support a particular religion. They are up in arms about a senator who is taking the oath on the holy book of his religion. It is... the Koran. And the culture of the U.S.A. is now threatened.
A quote -

"He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to
the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization."

Somehow I feel more threatened by the AFA and feel that they are hostile to Islam and the Koran after reading this. I also wonder what burdens they're going to impose on my religious practice.

Arden K Barden

"It is not the way we deal with our human situation that is the basis for hope--hope is the basis for how we deal with our human situation."

Arden K. Barden in a paper, "Spiritual Aging"

The sound of truth

Cipel who claims he is not gay and never had sex with McGreevey now says that McGreevey isn't gay. Huh. Would someone resign because of sexual harassment charges, write a book that tells of male with male sexual activities, and who now lives with another man as his partner be lying about being gay? It boggles my mind to think that one could seriously make the claim that McGreevey is heterosexual and just pretending to be gay. I'd certainly give him the label of bisexual since he's been married, but not gay at all. But that is what an article at 365gay.com reports.

Corrie ten Boom

"Somebody said to me, 'When I worry I go to the mirror and say to myself, "This tremendous thing which is worrying me is beyond a solution. It is especially too hard for Jesus Christ to handle." After I have said that, I smile and I am ashamed.'"
Corrie Ten Boom in Each New Day

Good people?

Those good people
those who silence
those who sit

those tho sit silent and quiet
silent and quiet
about evil
who quiet the voices
leaving silence and quiet
about evil

Not doing
but silent

and quiet

allowing
evil
oppression
to go on

because
it's not nice

because

it's not polite.

Those good people.
copyright 2006 Roger Victoria

Clive Staples Lewis

"Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it."

From George MacDonald, an anthology edited by C. S. Lewis