Categotry Archives: Rantings

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The Blight of Entitlement

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Categories: Rantings

[smiles with a snarky grin, clears throat, steps onto soapbox]

I observed something quite interesting on my recent trip to Paris–or more specifically, when I got back. (Like many, I believe the real culture shock doesn’t always happen on your trip, but on your return home.)

Here’s what I saw. I spent two weeks in a basically socialist nation, one in which people rely on the government to provide many, many basic services (and to which they pay very high taxes for those services). These are services that many in this country would refer to as “entitlement programs.” And yet, ironically, I saw more instances of people acting “entitled” in the first two days coming back to America than I experienced in my entire time in France.

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Consumerism Christianity At Its Worst

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Categories: Rantings

I remember talking at length in the past about how the modern (American) church functions more as a business than as an organism, and the ways that I’ve observed that church-as-business really gets in the way of our Biblical mandates. Recently, though, I’ve heard about some disturbing trends within the church that have revived this issue in my mind, got me thinking about it some more. It’s more than just a trend for churches to function like businesses–it points to what I’ll call “consumerism Christianity,” something I find not only to be unbiblical, but also dangerous.

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Why Can’t the Christians Leave “Noah” Alone?

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Categories: food for thought, Rantings

So it seems I rarely rant on this here blog nowadays…but something’s got my dander up a bit, so rant I will.

There’s this movie coming out at the end of this month about the story of Noah. It’s called Noah.:) It’s got some really cool actors in it, and it looks like it will be a really good movie. My son The Director really likes the work of this film’s director, Darren Aronofsky, and has been looking forward to this film for a long time.  As for Aronofsky himself, he is Jewish by heritage; he has been entranced by the story of Noah from childhood, so this movie is something of a lifelong dream for him.

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Struggles With Injustice

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Categories: Rantings, Things that Will Probably Get Me In Trouble

Can I be honest? (I’m going to anyway, so you might as well say yes.)

As much as I try to keep a good attitude about life in general, sometimes I still chafe at injustice.

I don’t like when injustice happens. I don’t like it when it happens to others, but especially not when it happens to me. (‘Cause like most humans, I’m selfish that way.) I understand the phrase “judge not,” and I understand that justice delayed is not justice denied. That’s what helps give me the grace to leave vengeance to the Lord, and to be (mostly) gracious when something unjust happens. I truly do believe that God is just, and He is fully capable of making sure everything settles out in the end.

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“A Few Choice Words…”

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Categories: Rantings

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen fit to set up any kind of rant on this here blog. But something happened this week that took me into the past and stirred up a lot of righteous indignation in me. So you get to wade through it here. (Sorry–or as the case may be, you’re welcome.)

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Judge Not…

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Categories: Rantings

In catching up on reading/scanning some of the blogs I follow, I came across one from last week by nakedpastor talking about the dialogue between Christians and atheists, and how quick one group is to mock the other sometimes. Within that conversation he made one statement that resonated within me far beyond the topic of discussion:

“When someone thinks they are superior to another, they also feel no need to understand the other.”

True dat.

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The Dangerous Business of Change

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Categories: Rantings

Does anyone else out there feel sometimes like they just bring out the worst in people?

Despite what some of my longtime readers might think, I’ve never been one to court controversy. I don’t go into a situation with the intent of stirring the pot. Usually, my default mechanism when joining a work place, or a community, or a conversation, or whatever, is to go along to get along. Keep my nose clean. Go with the flow. Make friends. That kind of thing.

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Atrocities and the Nagging Question

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Categories: General, Rantings

Considering the recent events that have unfolded here in Colorado, I am going to interrupt my current two-part series on “A Changing Sense of Mission.” I promise I’ll finish that thought within the next couple of weeks, but for now I have some more pressing thoughts to process.

I woke up Friday morning in fairly good spirits, despite being a bit tired and loopy from the busy-ness of the past couple of weeks. I got on Facebook to find a friend from back in Tulsa posting, “Praying for the people in Aurora, CO.” I scrolled down and found several other messages like this. What happened in Aurora last night? I wondered.

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Why Religion Disgusts Me

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Categories: Rantings, Tags: , ,

The title of this blog, not to mention the nearly four years’ worth of posts within it, should make this clear: I despise religion.

Please understand when I say this that before I go pointing fingers at anyone, I realize that four other fingers are pointing back at me. Before I go on this rant (if that’s what it ends up being), I want to make it clear that I’m not coming from the standpoint of someone who is totally free of religion, passing judgment on those who are not. There are very few Christians who do not have some sort of religion embedded in them, and with all my personal struggles to be free of it, I still see remnants of it in myself on occasion. I see religion as a sort of disease that afflicts us all, one in which healing is mainly gradual, as layers of it are removed from our minds. At least, that’s how it’s been for me.

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In Praise of the Institutions?

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Categories: church, Meanderings (look it up), Rantings

Yesterday, I came across a book review on a blog that got me stirred up about institutional church issues like I haven’t been in a long time. The book is Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion, written by the same guys who wrote Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be).

Now I haven’t read either book, so it would definitely be unfair for me to issue an actual review of something I haven’t read. But the blogger posted some select quotes from the book, and that was enough to get me started. 🙂 Here is just a tidbit from the book:

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