My thoughts

  “The ignorance of conservative white folks is almost too much to bear.” Followed by; “You're blind and ignorant no matter how much education you have!” This was a statement I read on Face Book yesterday. It was categorical. It was definitive. It was all inclusive. There were no qualifiers. There were no percentages. It was blanket. For now, we’ll set aside the arrogance and ignorance (I use the word ignorance literally, not intended to mean stupid) of the statement and concentrate on the broader issue. Unfortunately, this is an all too common mindset found on both sides of most issues. There is little thought of discernment, of considering each individual. It is far easier to lump people into categories. It is…

Thinking Disorder My pastor made a comment a couple Sundays ago in which he said, “you can’t build a Godly life using human wisdom”. This, of course, raises the question, “How can one build a Godly life?” Given that there is only one other kind of wisdom, we need to look in that direction. This is something I have been pondering and pursuing for quite a few years now. 2 portions of Scripture seem to pop up on a regular basis. Sometimes daily, sometimes less frequently, but reoccurring nonetheless. The first one is I Corinthians 3:18-19. “Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For…

Presupposition: to suppose or assume beforehand; take for granted in advance. I’ve often talked about conversations I’ve had with people online. People of all different beliefs. Relatively recently, I had a conversation with a guy that comes from roughly the same background as me, that being fundamentalist Baptist. He experienced much the same on the negative side of things in that environment that I did. The difference between where he is today and where I am today is the result of what could be described as, “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. He has gone through a process known as deconstruction. It would take much longer than I care to take here to fully describe what that process is and his current status of belief , so I will just…

Something I appreciate about modern society is that it is thought provoking to the extreme. When I was young, I had no idea how much thought would be necessary in the future. If it’s true what they say that exercising your brain helps stave off things like dementia and other “old age” problems, I figure I should be the mental equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s physique, that is to say the physique of his competition days. One of the things that is most prevalent in modern society is what I would call advocacy. Advocacy is defined as: the act of pleading for, supporting, or recommending; active espousal. Of course, we are all advocates of one thing or another. There is nothing wrong with advocating for something or someone. However, the proper place…

In present day society, when there are two positions on a subject, there is rarely the putting forth of a case for one of the positions. Rather, more often than not, each side denigrates the other or seeks to distort and exaggerate the opposing position. We see this most often and most blatantly in politics, but not politics exclusively. Neither side appears to be interested in an honest exchange of ideas nor do most seem to have the slightest interest in actually understanding the opposing position. Once key words enter the conversation, each side begins broad brushing and caricaturing the other and this turns off the intellectual process of seeing clearly what is being said. Each side writes the other off as…

The further away one gets from the origin, the more distorted the original gets. We can see this on two primary fronts. First of all, as a nation, established as a constitutionally limited republic, this is evident in the lack of knowledge of, and unwillingness to enforce and continue what the creators of that document (the constitution) said, meant, and intended. Secondly, on the moral front. The sin of man has been consistent from the days of Adam, so don’t get me wrong that I’m suggesting that things are worse now than ever. Not the case. However, speaking about my lifetime (nearly 7 decades), this is the case. We have lost our will to fight the real enemy. Again, the church falls…

Even when Peter chastised Jesus for saying that He was going to suffer and die, and did so out of a kind of innocence/ignorance, Jesus’ response was direct. Of course, Peter’s rebuke was based on what he perceived to be the cause that he was following. It was founded in his wishful thinking. Peter, as I’m sure we could say of most of the other disciples and the throngs of people that followed after Jesus, had his own agenda. He had his own idea of what a “messiah” needed to do. He had his own idea of what they needed to be saved from. He probably looked around himself as we do today and made a judgment call on what the solution…

"Much of today’s world is dominated by ideologies which, if not totally false, are alien to the gospel of Christ. We may talk of “conquering” the world for Christ, but what sort of “conquest” do we mean? Not a victory of force by arms. Our Christian crusade is far different from the shameful crusades of the Middle Ages. Listen to Paul’s description of the battle. “Our war is not fought with the weapons of flesh, yet they are strong enough, in God’s cause, to demolish fortresses. We demolish sophistries, and the arrogance that tries to resist the knowledge of God; every thought is our prisoner, captured to be brought into obedience to Christ.” This is a battle of ideas, God’s truth overpowering…

When we are young, all things old seem insignificant. We roll our eyes at dad’s jokes, we scoff at mom’s warnings to be careful, and we tolerate Grandpa’s stories of bygone eras. When we look at those who came before us, we see a hardness, a rigidness, sometimes a sadness that is almost repulsive. Youth has its own energy. It is an energy that is self-sustaining, though limited in its scope. It is self absorbed and ignorant of its own ignorance. It is an energy that looks out on the world with no frame of reference, no sense of consequence or what is real. If it is not careful, it will become its own worst enemy. Youth was never meant to be…

“In this most awkward cultural predicament, evangelicals must be excruciatingly clear that we do not speak about the sinfulness of homosexuality as if we have no sin. As a matter of fact, it is precisely because we have come to know ourselves as sinners and of our need for a savior that we have come to faith in Jesus Christ. Our greatest fear is not that homosexuality will be normalized and accepted, but that homosexuals will not come to know of their own need for Christ and the forgiveness of their sins.” (Albert Mohler) Dr. Mohler made this statement a couple years ago in a post on his blog. Given the headlines of late, I thought it was a good jumping off…