There is a small minority of Christians, (who happen to be quite loud), who don't really represent the Church or the religion begun 2000 years ago in Judea. They are the ones who are the "go-to" people for MSNBC or other bastions of leftist atheist philosophy, in order to get, what they KNOW will be crackpot answers to any question regarding Christianity. You'll never hear an interview or read an article focusing on a thoughtful orthodox Roman Catholic Priest or Bishop who they know can actually articulate the real Christian position on some idea or issue. No....they give you Bubba from the Church of Christ babbling about God hating fags, and everybody going to hell, (except themselves), because they're "saved". Not a man among them has ever even cracked open the Summa Theologica, or The Imitation of Christ, or any number of great spiritual classics of rational classic, orthodox Christian thought, which is about as tightly woven, and perfect as philosophy gets. They are either rednecks, who were full of hate before God, and then found God and remained full of hate, but now feel justified in it, or they're hokey health and wealth evangelicals looking to show you how you deserve to be rich since you found the Lord.
It is, or course, possible one could read St. Thomas Aquinas, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, etc. and still come away without being a believer. That's fine. Because one must still feel a call, and no book can provide that. But it's nearly impossible to imagine someone studying the richness of these theologians and philosophers, and still come away with ideas like the 6000 year earth, and judgementalism being representative at all of true Christian thought. This smacks more, I'm afraid of using Bubba as a yardstick of what Christianity is. To understand real Christian insight, better to take a look through "Confessions" by St. Augustine, than to watch a news story about Fred Phelps.
Only modernist Christians can give you ugly thoughts about Christianit. But seriously..........a VERY small (though admittedly vocal) minority of them.
All I can do is pray that things change over the years, but whether they do or don't, it shouldn't be a division between us.
People are always wanting to NOT talk about religion and politics. Well what the hell does that leave anybody to talk about? Religion and politics are the only things that matter to anyone's life at all. It's no big surprise that they have become the least favorite topics of modernism. It's because authentic religion and politics makes people stand somewhere. To take positions. To get uncomfortable in their surroundings. They call for choices, reasoning, and good old fashioned thinking and studying. These concepts are anathema to modernists.
I'm JUST starting to get into soccer (football). The only U.S. Sport I follow at all anymore is baseball. Although NFL might be interesting for me this year if the 49ers are going to be as good as everybody says. I do really miss those guys from the 80's. I'm really looking forward to world cup soccer getting going this time around though. I watch fox soccer channel sometimes, and I half assed follow Manchester United in English football. They're my favorite team to watch so far. I've never seen the men's US team play yet, since I got interested. English football is awesome though. Anyway, you're right on the Olypmic stuff. Say....those posts are bit aged, you know.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! & put so eloquently too... especially at the end. I'm not so sure about the aliens though... but that's one of the special things that makes us all unique. I believe 'Be kind to one another' is the only religion any of us need to subscribe to.
E-mail???? When??? We could really correspond regularly with E-mail. I'll pay for the emails. I'll also help with the MP3 player if you can hold on for a few weeks till we're on our feet. MP3 music isn't as high of quality imho as CD's, but it is covenient, and it's the way of the world. Not sure how they work that gig out inside, but a decent player out here is about 100.00, and songs are .99 - 1.49 or 9.99 per album.
Hey - Lots of turmoil on this end too. I have a couple letters to answer for you, and not sure this is the place to do it, but I'm really trying to get a little time together this week, and get something over to you. I don't know what to say about Cat and Jeanette. I have a few thoughts, but they're more oriented towards mail. Blogs are kind of outgoing outlets for the blog owner, when it comes to personal stuff. I wish I had more info on them for you, or knew what was going going on with that. I would share it with you if I did. I'll keep working on things, but I'm not exactly at the top of their call list either. I'm probably going to be able to help you with a little bit of $, but it may not be for a few weeks, as we're sorting through a bit of a fiscal problem ourselves. Thank you for continuing to write. Thank you for being understanding when I don't. And yes, I'd be happy to have and/or find good homes for your old tunes. Love you son, and I will write very soon.
Now.....blog stuff: It would flat out suck to be cut off from Breaking Bad. That and "Son's of Anarchy" (FX) are a couple of our favorite shows. I can send synopsis of the episodes if you'd like this season, unless you'd rather not have the spoilers. But really, I don't know when this Dish network crap will be over with. They just won't pay the networks enough money for the shows. I've got cable, and we still have BB for now.
Romney? well - I had other ideas for choices, but he's the guy the party picked. The country will have a great deal of trouble keeping from becoming an out and out communist country if we're forced into a second term of President Obama, so my prayers are actually with Romney. I really do like Paul Ryan, by the way, so that helped me swallow the idea a little bit better. Until that move, I was pretty much going to vote 3rd party......again. I don't think people of conscience can afford to vote third party this time around.
Haven't seen John Carter yet, but I hear great stuff about it. I'm looking forward to "The Hobbit" around Christmas, and plan on renting Humger Games now that it's out on DVD. How were those books? Kristal said the movie was pretty good, but she hadn't read the books.
RSS
It is, or course, possible one could read St. Thomas Aquinas, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, etc. and still come away without being a believer. That's fine. Because one must still feel a call, and no book can provide that. But it's nearly impossible to imagine someone studying the richness of these theologians and philosophers, and still come away with ideas like the 6000 year earth, and judgementalism being representative at all of true Christian thought. This smacks more, I'm afraid of using Bubba as a yardstick of what Christianity is. To understand real Christian insight, better to take a look through "Confessions" by St. Augustine, than to watch a news story about Fred Phelps.
Only modernist Christians can give you ugly thoughts about Christianit. But seriously..........a VERY small (though admittedly vocal) minority of them.
All I can do is pray that things change over the years, but whether they do or don't, it shouldn't be a division between us.
People are always wanting to NOT talk about religion and politics. Well what the hell does that leave anybody to talk about? Religion and politics are the only things that matter to anyone's life at all. It's no big surprise that they have become the least favorite topics of modernism. It's because authentic religion and politics makes people stand somewhere. To take positions. To get uncomfortable in their surroundings. They call for choices, reasoning, and good old fashioned thinking and studying. These concepts are anathema to modernists.
Just my 2 cents. Sorry for the little rant.
Love ya,
Dad
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! & put so eloquently too... especially at the end. I'm not so sure about the aliens though... but that's one of the special things that makes us all unique. I believe 'Be kind to one another' is the only religion any of us need to subscribe to.
Take care.
Nicki
Keep us posted,
Peace,
Dad
Now.....blog stuff: It would flat out suck to be cut off from Breaking Bad. That and "Son's of Anarchy" (FX) are a couple of our favorite shows. I can send synopsis of the episodes if you'd like this season, unless you'd rather not have the spoilers. But really, I don't know when this Dish network crap will be over with. They just won't pay the networks enough money for the shows. I've got cable, and we still have BB for now.
Romney? well - I had other ideas for choices, but he's the guy the party picked. The country will have a great deal of trouble keeping from becoming an out and out communist country if we're forced into a second term of President Obama, so my prayers are actually with Romney. I really do like Paul Ryan, by the way, so that helped me swallow the idea a little bit better. Until that move, I was pretty much going to vote 3rd party......again. I don't think people of conscience can afford to vote third party this time around.
Haven't seen John Carter yet, but I hear great stuff about it. I'm looking forward to "The Hobbit" around Christmas, and plan on renting Humger Games now that it's out on DVD. How were those books? Kristal said the movie was pretty good, but she hadn't read the books.
More later,
Love
Dad