Martin Luther

A theologian is born by living, dying, and being damned ----- by thinking, reading, and speculating.

(Martin Luther)

Scripture

Anything that is not based on faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

anon

The Gospel is experienced by those who are in touch with their misery.

Another pregnant lesbian

Mary Cheney is pregnant and she and her partner though unable to get married will be raising a child. There are some rants and raves from the ex-gay, Focus on the family and such about how it is so horrible that a child will be raised outside of a heterosexual family. Yet every study shows that it isn't the gender of the parents, but having more than one parent that makes a difference. Dobson (see earlier posts on this for links) has misquoted Gilligan and Pelk, saying that they show heterosexual families are better, but even in the natural world instances like Roy, Silo and Tango show that the problem is not in the gender of the partners, but the lack of a partner in raising young.

anon

Life is a mystery to be lived and not a problem to be solved.

FW: Which reindeer are you

I'm having trouble figuring which one of Santa's Reindeer I'm most like. But then I keep changing my answers everytime I take this. But that probably makes it just right for a pub discussion. Which of Santa's reindeer are you most
like?

This last time...

***You Are Dancer***
Carefree and fun, you always find reasons to do a happy dance.

Why You're Naughty: That dark stint you had as Santa's private dancer.

Why You're Nice: You're friendly. Very friendly.

Preparing sermons

I've never been able to re-use a sermon of mine, let alone one written by someone else. They can help in the sermon process and there are some that I think are wonderful, but they aren't in my voice, even the ones that I've written are no longer in my voice. I've changed, the congregation has changed.

I once served a three point parish. The sermons ended up differently in all three congregations even though they were preached in a four hour period on the same text and on the same day. Even when I used a manuscript, the sermons were different.

There are certainly weeks when my preparation time was shortened considerably, but if I didn't take the regular time to study scripture, to study commentaries, to pray and reflect, to look at like and unlike passages, then my sermons and worship presence suffered. It may not have suffered for a month or two, but eventually the lack of both prayer and study that goes into a sermon became clear to me.

There's a pianisst who once said if he didn't practice one day, then he heard, two days and the critics heard it, three days and everyone knew.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN ABOUT MARRIAGE FROM THE BIBLE

Go see this article, if you don't laugh I'll be surprised.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN ABOUT MARRIAGE FROM THE BIBLE

Carl Jung

Ask a man what he thinks of his mother, and he will show you how he treats his wife.

(Carl Jung)

Dobson - one more link

Timothy Kincaid has a good analysis of what is happening with Dobson and his misuse of science. It's better than anything I could do at exgaywatch. There are links in the article to other pieces about deception in the ex-gay movements. Wayne Besen and more...

Corrie Ten Boom

If Jesus were born one thousand times in Bethlehem and not in me, then I would still be lost.

(Corrie Ten Boom)

Eating Disorders

There's an indication that web sites, even those about treating the disease, on eating disorders contribute to the problem. Further studies have to be done to make sure of the correlation and possible causation, but... it's worth looking at.

Thanks to Corpus Callosum for the tip.

anon.

If you are a Christian, you will be absurdly happy, you will be completely fearless, but you will always be in trouble.

And the lawless revealed

One of the less obvious aspects of this passage from 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 is the idea that we may not know the lawless until they are revealed at the day of the Lord. Certainly there will be rebellion and wars and rumors of wars. But those things are happening through the world today, yesterday and all the days between the writing of Thessalonians to now.

And one of the more important statements for my theology is that about the ones who have refused to love the truth. There are many who claim they have the truth and love the truth, but yet don’t have the truth in them. And one of the signs of this is shutting people up when they ask questions about the ‘proclaimed truth’ or ‘received truth’.

And whenever one is unable to ask questions or told which questions are proper, then there’s good reason to question whether what is being taught is the truth. I’ve seen this adoration of what is received in many fashions. Whether it is in the distortion of the word objective by saying ‘we have the most objective source on the planet since our scripture was written by God and so is from a completely outside source.” or “If one thin in the Bible is proved false, then I can’t believe any of the Bible and can no longer be a Christian.” or a multitude of other formulations that come down to, ‘if it isn’t the way I think it should be, then I’m going to stop playing and go home.’

The lawless one is not the one who asks questions, but the one who wants things their own way. The lawless one is not the one who wants to discuss the questions, but the one who wants to dictate the answers. The lawless one wants things there very own way.

But seeking the truth and following God is about wanting to give up our own way and searching for where God is guiding. The emptying of self is not to fill with one doctrine, but to open self to hearing the Word of God.

A couple of thousand years after this letter to Thessalonica we still are waiting for the day of the Lord that is already here. We are called to live as though it is in the next minute and ass though it may be another thousand years. Scripture may say we don’t know the day or the hour and some groups have used this to proclaim the month or the year. That sense of Scripture is that we are in the now and not yet of waiting. We are in the koinonia, but don’t know the chronos.

Many of the people who set themselves up as those to be worshipped, don’t necessarily say that’s what they’re doing. They may not even realize that they’re setting themselves up in place of God. But whenever someone says, ‘this is the way that God wants us to act and don’t question me about it’, then they are setting themselves up in place of God. They’ve forgotten to look to make sure that what they are saying is the truth and set themselves up to be lawless even as they are very stringent in how they act and what they say. But what they say and how they act is not according to God’s design. Not when they stop the testing and avoid the questions.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 [1] As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, [2]
not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by
letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already
here. [3] Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless
the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for
destruction. [4] He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or
object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring
himself to be God. [5] Do you not remember that I told you these things when I
was still with you? [6] And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may
be revealed when his time comes. [7] For the mystery of lawlessness is already
at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. [8] And then
the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the
breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. [9]
The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all
power, signs, lying wonders, [10] and every kind of wicked deception for those
who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. [11]
For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what
is false, [12] so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in
unrighteousness will be condemned.

Anon

Death is life's way of saying, "You are fired."

And where would I go

Carlo Carretto has a poem that ends "And where would I go?" (posted recently) that I love. My experience in the church has been wonderful and wonderfully painful. I love the denomination where I was raised and yet.... my experience of coming into acceptance of my sexual orientation has left me bruised and battered. My family has been turning out pastors, elders, and deacons in the Presbyterian church for a number of generations. Calvinist theology is in my blood. And yet... and yet... when I here people misusing scripture to condemn me because of my sexual orientation rather than my actions, when I hear people ignore reformed theology which states that we are all sinners in favor of condemning what they consider to be a particular sin, when I listen for a welcome that isn't there, then I wonder why I should stay. But the church and this denomination is who I am. They may throw me out, but I cannot leave.

Carlo Carretto

How baffling are you, O Church, and yet how I love you!
How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe you!
I should like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence.
You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand sanctity.
I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity,
more compromised, more false,
and I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful.
How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face,
and how often I have prayed to died in the safety of your arms.
No, I cannot free myself from you,because I am you, though not completely.
And where would I go?

From "The God Who Comes" by Carlo Carretto

hate and?

I'm really wondering in what world this person lives.

"As a Christian (of sorts and kind of), I know it is harsh, uncivil,
boorish and very unchristianlike not to wish someone a speedy recovery.
Nevertheless ... he's a Democrat. Democrats are the most horrific> >
enemies this Christian, conservative nation will ever face. They are committing
crimes against humanity and the conservative peoples of the United States.
Democrats are sympathetic to Muslim terrorists who want to murder conservatives.
They will dismantle the Patriot Act and Homeland Security in order to facilitate
and encourage terrorist, Jihadist activities against white conservative America.
Democrats, for the sake of harvesting votes, encourage the banding together of
all minorities in a united effort to destroy the white conservative. Democrats
praise African-American leaders who call for the extermination of the white race
To me they are the same as an enemy soldier trying to kill me. No wait!
Democrats are indescribably worse. The enemy soldier and I in Vietnam were only
doing our duty. Democrats are cowardly, spiteful, racist, hateful, self-serving
hypocrities. Not only do they want to kill me, but my children and grandchildren
as well. Democrats are more dangerous than "radical" Muslims. "Radical" Muslims
take great pride and delight in announcing they want to kill us. Democrats are
too cowardly to admit they want to kill us. I have more respect for "radical"
Muslims than Democrats."

To align with one party as the party of God? That's over the top. And I keep thinking back to passages like I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. If that is so, the search for truth or to help people live should be primary. Not the ringing in of one political party as the only true tone with which to find God.

Einstein

No problem can be solved by the same conscience that created it. You have to step out of what you are thinking to see things differently.


--Einstein

Dobson and links to his problems with science

In an earlier post about Dobson I didn't include a couple of links. Both of these are to Holy Bullies and Headless monsters. One relates to Carol Gilligan, the other to Kyle Pruett. Cherry picking sections without putting them in context just isn't science and really isn't telling the truth.