Category Archives: General Commentary

General comments about anything related, but not specifically a sermon or biblical commentary.

Commentary on Dobson and Focus on the Family

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While I usually post this type of stuff to my other blog, thomascwaters.com, I thought this was really appropriate here.  Focus on the Family bases its message on christian values and the Bible. How easy it is (or is it?) to lose track of one’s original message and go off on some side path, that seems connected but maybe doesn’t have the same value in the end?

If Christians want to uphold the Family and strengthen Family Values, they can do that by focusing on families, not by trying to keep others from having rights.

When groups like “Focus” take the focus away from the family, everyone loses out. The real issues that are destroying the family become lost in the shuffle as the attention s turned towards other things. The problems facing our society  and the traditional family unit will not change if same sex couples can get married, or if GLBT people have equal rights.

I’m all for strengthening families, including traditional families, and if people find the power for that in the Bible, that is fine by me. I’m even OK, of traditional family types do not want to accept that “Family” can mean different things to different people. But, as long as there are reports of sexual abuse in heterosexual households, and drugs and violence, and physical abuse, and a lack of good communication and love, then you folks have enough to worry about. You don’t need to turn your focus to gay people.

IndyStar.com | Thou Shalt | The Indianapolis Star.

Some Hope for the Catholic Church ?

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I saw a post to Twitter about the Catholic Church and Dawrin’s theory of evolution. The twitterer is an evangelical- sometimes extreme- christian blog, where members can post. Everytime I start to wonder why I’m following it, something like this comes up and I am glad that I am.

Now the blogger gets some of it right and some of it… not so much.

While the blogger found the article on 2/27/09, telegraph.co.uk actually ran the story on 2/11.2009. The idea of the Vatican rejecting Christ? Well, that is the blogger’s assertion. Could be a desire for a provocative headline, or a little anti-catholic bigotry?

So how about the basis of the story? Yes, it seems the Vatican, along with some other demonimations, si seeking to mend part of the divide between Religion and Science, and say that Darwin’s theories  can be compatible with religious tradition. Perhaps the church is trying to  learn from its mistakes (remember Gallileo) or possibly they are trying to sort out ways to keep the flood of people who are leaving the chuch. The battle line between Religion and Science has never been a win/win situation, especially for the church. The only potential outcome where the church triumphs would be another middle ages where science is forgotten.

I don’t have any meaningful reply for the blogger in terms of his interpretation and conclusion. He cirtes a few scripture to support his position. Isn’t that the way with scripture? You can always find a passage to prove you are correct? The first passage is I Timothy, where Paul encourages the young apostle to hold fast to the doctrine that Paul has provided to him. This doctrine is all about the second coming of Jesus. But here, the blogger expands that doctrine to much more. Then he uses a passage from Matthew, which is really about divorce, to promote a creationist view.

The Vatican’s position is that what we need is to seek out ways of understanding how Science, and specifically Darwin’s theory can be seen as aligned  with church teaching. Not to take just one or the other alone.

What I find most ludicrous is how the blogger’s position dumbs-down God and the fullness of God’s plan. Or more accurately inflates  a human’s undewrstanding of the whole. For me0- if we can explain the whole of al that exists in the Bible, then God and al that has been created isn’t all that amazing. I don’t need Faith. If on the other hand, I can’t make all the pieces fit nicely like a puzzle. If I am left unclear how these two things can both be real, THEN, I need Faith. Thenn, I see myself as human instead of all-knowing, and I have the opportunity to grasp a bigger understanding of all that is.

The Christian Blog: VATICAN REJECTS CHRIST IN FAVOUR OF DARWIN

The actual article:

The Vatican claims Darwin’s theory of evolution is compatible with Christianity – Telegraph.

Do Family Values Lead to Family Violence?

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Wanted to post think link here, as so much of the arguments raised or discussed are biblical.  A long article well worth the time to read it.

Matthew Herbst : Do Family Values Lead to Family Violence?: A consideration of the idea of family – Quodlibet Journal.

GOD.LOVES.GAYS.COM

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Came across this link today as gays.com began to follow me on Twitter. I certainly no fan of Westboro Baptist Church, but I’m wondering.. what will this accomplish? Fred Phelps and his loonies are a fringe element- very fringe even for most conservative evangelicals. So we have a very real and very big battle looming those who seek to oppress us with the Bible.  What do we need to accomplish more: this interaction with a fringe cult or real dialogue and discourse addressed towards the majority of Christians?

GOD.LOVES.GAYS.COM.

Spiritual Experiences

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Jacob’s is looking for a religious experience in his year-long quest.  Reading this reminds me of the times in my life when I have had big spiritual experiences or awakenings. I think I can count three or four total but the second one is one of the things that the book brings to mind for me.

When I was 21 years old I was already out as a gay man and I had no doubt about being gay. I worked for an insurance company in Columbus Ohio- in the mail room. A few people at work knew I was gay, but most did not. And it happened that a new young lady started to work in my department and for reasons that I couldn’t understand I was just head over heels interested in going out with her, and I kept asking her out and asking her out and asking her out, and she would say no no no, and finally one day she said yes, but the only kind of date- we go out to the christian drive in movie theater.

There was an drive-in movie theater that showed only Christian films and of course I said sure, I be happy to do that because I was going to do anything to go out with her as crazy as that seems, well we never did get to the Christian drive in.

And, she invited me to go to her church with her, and I think that was on Wednesday before a Memorial Day weekend, and we were going to go to the movies over the Memorial Day weekend I think. I went to church with her, and at the church- it was a full Gospel Pentecostal church- I had this amazing experience.

And so I started to go to church with her there and went with her four or five times over the course of a week or two and at some time maybe I’ll write about some of the experience about being there in that church, but I think the the thing I wanted to write about today was that one of the things I got from that experience was what did it mean to really try and be open to God’s call, if there is such as a thing.

If God was really open to welcoming me and that all I had to do is commit myself to God. I was willing to not be gay anymore if that’s what it took and I was really going to give that my best effort, and I did and I quit going out to the gay bar, and I didn’t call any of my gay friends.

I truly gave it my all and and I can truly say that it was an temptation that became a problem for me a although you know that’s the usual narrative that you give something up, and then temptation comes to call and your weak and you loose out and I wasn’t weak, and that never was an issue.

But what did happen that I came to terms with, was that one of the things the church asked me to give up was dancing. Dancing was sinful but I had grown up since I was a little kid dancing, and dancing was always about joy and innocence and good things, and I couldn’t believe that Shirely Temple was to going to hell, because she tap danced.

And as it turned out I realized that God didn’t need me to stop being gay to love me. He just needed me to be committed to living a life that was aligned with the notion of loving others and putting God before all else in whatever language that means.

And so there probably was some sacrifice to my gay lifestyle, but it wasn’t about not being gay any more. It was about having my priorities okay and that’s enough of that story probably to tell today. Thank you for for reading.

Are the Religious Obsessed with Sex?

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The Year of Living Biblically

I’m reading a new book, and it seems that within the Judeo-Christian traditions, people have always been obsessed with sex. I began reading, “The Year of Living Biblically” by AJ Jacobs, and thought I would blog about it as I move through the book.  So, far it is pretty good, but I’m barely half-way through the first chapter, and I’m a slow reader. So bear with me.

Got Religion?

So, Jacobs decided to begin a journey of living as biblically litterally as he could for a year.  Jewish, but raised fairly secular, his life hadn’t had much of a place for religion.  But following his previous book, which involved reading the entire Britannica  encyclopedia from cover to cover, he was looking for a new book idea, and thus embarked on this project. Jacobs, like myself, sees how influential the Bible is in today’s culture, and that played a role in his decision.  He starts with a premise that many religious people today, even those who claim to take the Bible literally, pick and choose which passages they want to observe and which they don’t. So he isn’t going to do that, or so is his plan.  He is going to jump in with both feet, and be as 100% literal as he can be. He writes:

If I had a God-shaped hole in my heart, this quest would allow me to fill it.

That’s a very cool notion, but there lies a problem.  For a number of biblical admonitions are now illegal, and/or require other people (like his wife’s) full acceptance and participation. but I’m a big fan of spiritual quests, and setting out upon a journey to find something that you are not sure is there or isn’t!  I was hooked a few pages into the introduction. I think Religion would “work” for more people, and play a role in making the world a better place, if more people took that approach- that of choosing to go on a journey open-minded enough to see what one might find along the way. Too often, a person embarks upon, or holds fast to their beliefs out of fear.  They don’t want to see what they find- they want to know and confirm that they are right so that they do not have to explore and come to new understandings.

Be fruitful and Multiply!

Jacobs writes:

Conception was a huge preoccupation of the ancients. … Bible’s most famous stories center on the quest to get pregnant.

He doesn’t say much (yet?) about why that might be, but I think it is is a really significant note.  It explains much about why homosexuality and abortion are probably the two hottest controversial issues that seem to divide us today.  I’ll write more about my thoughts on that later. Interestingly, the few stories he decides to consider at first (Sarah and Abraham, and Rachel/Leah and Jacob, don’t seem to be a positive image for the notion of “true marriage” as a marriage between 1 man and 1 woman for procreation!  In both cases (my interpretation) the focus is not upon the family unit of man, woman and child.  But rather, the focus is on women, who can not bear children who try anything to create a baby (let’s get real- they wanted a son and not a daughter), and who in the end could only get what they wanted though God’s action.  Human procreation meant nothing/ was not possible in these stories. This is worth thinking more about.

Prayer

I’ve just passed page 20, and Jabobs is talking about beginning a prayer practice.  These few pages have been wonderful reading, and I think I am really going to love this book. His honesty and openness about what he is doing is refreshng and touching.  He writes roughly a page about what he is doing and then says:

I glance at the clock. I’ve been praying for only a minute.  I’ve promised myself I’d try to pray for at least ten minutes three times a day. 

Reminds me of when I started to meditate! How much can happen/ go through your mind and your body in a minute!

Off to work now, looking forward to reading more and will post again!  Have you read the book?  Anyone interested in getting it and reading along?  We can have a dialogue as we go?

Seeing the Full Moon… and Religion

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Saw this on Twitter:

On this Friday (the 12th of December), you’ll see the biggest, brightest full moon of 2008. http://bit.ly/FSW7

Seems to me Religion serves many purposes, but one of them, and maybe the most important, although often first forgotten, is to remind us of our place in the whole of existance.  Help us orient ourselves within the cosmos.  We are amazing complex creatures but within the biggest picture extremely tiny specks…

I think that is one reason why God is so often understood or imaged as human-like with super powers. We make god in our image instead of the other way around.  But if we stop and allow ourselves to be amazed at the whole of it all, and in the same total complexcity of it all.. and then set a path of exploration to see and explore and recognize how much we don’t know.

To pit Science as against Religion is an attempt to circumvent this recognition of how much we don’t know.  To name all of it as a part of God’s plan, or intellegent design is a way to shut down the exploration, and label ourselves as in control.

Wow.  Not sure this post will make a ton of sense.  Just a few quick thoughts before heading off to work.  Leave me your comments. Okay?

Thoughts about Black Friday. Has Religion Failed Us?

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For a while, a series of posts about how religion has failed has been brewing in my mind.  How religion has failed… oh- how provocative! So I’ll admit, right off the bat, that I don’t think religion can either win or fail.  It (as if it were a thing) is a construct, or a tag we place upon all things done by people in the name of their religious expression. So, people can succeed or fail, but not some construct we use to name things.

That said, isn’t one of the primary purposes of religion as we know it, to teach people a base level of moral behavior? Do unto others as you would have people do unto you… that kind of thing?

And so I’m trying to wrap my head around how two events that transpired on Black Friday could have happened.   The first, being the Walmart employee who was trampled to death by a stampede of christmas shoppers at 5AM on November 28th. A story about it can be found in the Huffington Post and the Daily News: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/02/walmart-stampede-worker-d_n_147733.html.

When the madness ended, 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour was dead and four shoppers, including a woman eight months pregnant, were injured.

A set of video stills captured the events and if it doesn’t sound horrific enough, the images are really bothering.

Witness Kimberly Cribbs said shoppers acted like “savages.”

The second incident seems to me less horrific- mostly because there were fewer people involved, but in reality it is every bit as incomprehensible, and troubling. At a Toys R Us store in Palm DEsert CA, two men shot and killed each other. This from the CBS New web site:

“Some people got into a fight,” said Splain, who spoke with some of the customers. “One of the guys here thought it was over a toy, but it got louder and louder and then there were gunshots.” 

Other news reports suggest that this was a personal dispute between two groups of people, and was not a fight over a toy, but that is sketchy at this point. One account says that two women starting arguing, and this erupted into the one man pulling his gun, and then followed by the other.In the phone call to 911, it sounds as if one of the guys is slumped over, dead- over the cash register.  If this dispute started in one of the aisles, and ended at the cash register- how is that? 

Both stories demonstrate some of our worst as a culture.  Both highlight a lack of respect for life, and a placement on personal gain or need above all else.  Both reverberate with an insensitivity to others.  Imagine the children who were in the Toys R Us at the time of the shootings?  I was only a few yards away from a shooting when I was a 15.  It was terrifying.

So were none of these people even in a church?  Did they never hear a sermon or a Sunday School class about loving others? Or does religion fail to get these messages through to people in ways that matter? It is easier to comprehend the shootings… but the stampede? I can not even begin to get it. I can not find a way to put myself in the shoes or the mindset of anyone involved in that event.

And what seems even more troubling is the lack of coverage it has received, and the lack of discussion it has generated.  It is almost as if “we” as a culture are not sure what to do with it- what to say, s let’s just quietly let it pass by. A blogger on The Point asks what causes people to lose their decency? But even most blog accounts are just a rehash of the news-like facts. The Kvetcher blames this on sales reps who use advertising to lure people into the store with advertised unbelievably low prices. I guess everyone is looking for the bad guy.  Except isn’t the bad guy all of us collectively as a culture? and where did the messages come from that we bought into so easily, and why were these the prevailing messages?  Why were we not more inundated with messages about respect for others, and that sort of thing?