I hate to inject anything approaching humor into the tragedy in Norway, but Jon Stewart’s take on the Fox News “rapid response team” is something to behold. Fact-based, showing clearly the blatant hypocrisy of the reporting, and adding enough humor to avoid anything approaching shrill. This man is one of the few “fingers in the dike” keeping this country from losing its collective mind. Watch on:
Archive for the ‘Words of Christ’ Category
Thank You, Jon Stewart
Friday, July 29th, 2011 by JELAn Oasis
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 by JELI’ve been a daily reader of Andrew Tobias’s blog for many years. Financial pundit, DNC Treasurer, extremely rational and thoughtful man, Tobias is often an oasis of fact-based sanity amidst an ocean of nutballs. Yesterday’s post dealt with a survey from the Christian Family Coalition:
I got an email from the Christian Family Coalition asking me to take part in a survey. The survey question was: “Should House Republican leaders cave in to President Obama’s demands and raise the debt ceiling again?”
The Christian Family Coalition? I’m frankly not sure this is the loving way Jesus would have framed the question. For one thing, everyone is demanding we raise the debt ceiling, not just President Obama, for the simple reason that Congress has already incurred this debt. The alternative is for the United States to default on its commitments, wrecking its credit. By the tone of its question, is the Christian Family Coalition saying that’s what we should do?
Apparently so. When the results of the poll were revealed, 85.2% said, no, we should not raise the debt ceiling (and another 3.2% were “unsure”).
It seems to me that “bully pulpit” has in recent years come to take on a whole new meaning. It’s bullies, preaching from the pulpit. In this case, preaching on behalf of those who would cut aid to the needy in order to protect millionaires and billionaires from having to pay even one cent more in tax on dividends and capital gains than they are paying today (15%) – let alone the 28% they paid under Ronald Reagan.
85%! Given that Jesus devotes so much of his teaching to helping the poor and needy, I think the Christian Family Coalition should find a new name.
So Refreshing
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 by JELOne of the articles I linked to yesterday, the one about proseltyzing, referred to a You Tube video of Penn Jillette, the famous magician/comedian (and atheist) talking about receiving a book of Psalms from a fan after a show. It’s really nice to see how Penn thinks about this interaction. He’s open-minded, sincere, and respectful even though he doesn’t believe in the same things his fan does. As Penn says in the video, if you’re a Christian who believes in heaven and hell…
“how much do you have to hate someone to NOT proseltyze?”
Anyway, give the video a look:
Tuesday Smorgasbord
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 by JELThere were a bunch of items in the news today that caught my eye, so rather than make a decision, I’m presenting the variety pack:
1. Herman Cain, presidential candidate on the Republican side, believes that towns and communities should have the right to prevent the construction of mosques in their neighborhood. Very interesting. Would a Buddhist church be okay? How about an ashram? Or a center for white supremacists?
2. I’m a big believer in keeping your religion/faith to yourself, but Greg Stier wrote a piece in the Christian Post regarding “Bible believers are obsessed with converting people from their belief systems to Christianity. If they’re not they should be. Here are 3 reasons why:” And he lists them:
- Jesus told us to. Stier uses Luke 24:47-49 as his reference, but I think there are clearer examples. Heck, Jesus is always out telling people to spread the word.
- It’s good news. “Proseltyizing gives us a pedicure in a way we could never imagine because our feet are carrying good news to everyone we meet.”
- It saves people from hell.
Personally, if I were starting a religion, I would include lots of orders to proseltyze in my manual and mandatory 2-year missions and any other such built-ins I could think of that would help grow and perpetuate my religion.
3. 74% of Americans believe in heaven and 60% believe in hell. Who goes where? Kim Lawton has a nice summary piece.
Calamities
Friday, July 8th, 2011 by JELGay marriage is now legal in New York. Some people are thrilled, others think it’s one more sign of the world’s collapse. I think you can safely put John Piper in the latter category. He’s the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and the author of several books. Here are his thoughts:
“Homosexuality has been here since we were all broken in the fall of man. What’s new is not even the celebration of homosexual sin. Homosexual behavior has been exploited, and reveled in, and celebrated in art, for millennia. What’s new is normalization and institutionalization. This is the new calamity.”
Racism has been around since the fall of man, yet slowly progress has been made. Women forever found/find themselves second-class citizens merely by being born, yet slowly, at least in some countries, progress has been made. Ask any homosexual since the fall of man whether he or she was gay by choice. They’d probably give you a funny look and reply something to the effect of “why would I choose this persecution?”
The calamity is not the normalization of homosexuality. It is the rejection of Jesus’ message of love and tolerance and acceptance by people who, judging from their job titles, should know better.
Moral Choices in the Budget
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 by JELCongress is working on a debt agreement and let’s hope they come up with something thoughtful and substantial very soon. $14 trillion is a lot of money to be in hock and borrowing more to meet obligations seems scary, stupid, and immoral. What will we be leaving our children? A trashed planet and hyperinflation?
There are two sides to every budget equation: income (taxes) and expenditures. Like any business, America will have to try to push both levers by raising taxes and cutting spending. But who and how do you tax and what programs do you cut? The military and healthcare are the biggest cost items in the budget. Getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan seems not only moral, but prudent.
The video below is of interest to us all:
Watch the full episode. See more Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
Christian Flag Mystery
Friday, July 1st, 2011 by JELLast October I wrote a post about the Christian flag. I had never heard of such a flag and I ‘fessed up as such. Now, this blog is on the WordPress platform and when you go into the back-end, you can see all sorts of stats about how many people came to the blog, which pages they visited, and what search terms they used to find it.
Well, day after day, many people find us by searching for “christian flag.” Given that only one post out of a couple hundred dealt with the flag, I’ve been a bit mystified. So I went to Google and typed in “christian flag,” thinking I’d see our post pretty high in the search results.
Nope.
I went through quite a few pages and never found us. So the mystery deepens. How are people interested in the Christian flag finding us, and why are they coming to a site that deals with our book and trying to set the message straight about Jesus’ teachings. If you have any info, pass it along in the comments.
Hatred, or Disbelief?
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 by JELPerhaps you’ve seen the firestorm of coverage regarding U.S. Congressman Todd Akin’s (Missouri-R) comments on a Family Research Council radio show. In case you missed it, Akin said:
“at the heart of liberalism, really, is a hatred for God and a belief that government should replace God.”
The use of the word “hatred” seems kind of silly. Those liberals who are atheists don’t hate God; they simply don’t believe in Him/Her/It. It’s illogical to hate something you don’t think exists. And those liberals who do believe feel much the same way as believing Christians. Just another example of trying to get people all riled up over nothing.
Others agree. Rabbi Jim Bennett of Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis was “deeply disturbed” by Akin’s “grotesque politicized attack.” The Rev. Krista Taves of Emerson Unitarian Universalist Chapel in Ellisville, Missouri, said that Akin’s comment:
“shows how very little he knows about liberals, and how very little he knows about God. I’m a liberal because I love God and all God’s creation. I value equality, fairness and compassionate justice because my faith informs my politics.”
How’d It Go?
Monday, June 27th, 2011 by JELAfter posting about the Wild Goose Festival last week, I was wondering how it went. It was really hot in North Carolina over the weekend, I know that, but I was curious about the turnout, reaction to the speakers, and thoughts about another Festival next year.
The National Catholic Reporter has a nice story online about Day 3. The opening of the story sets the tone:
After their interfaith panel discussion Saturday afternoon, Rabbi Or Rose and Muslim chaplain Abdullah Antepli walked side-by-side talking quietly. It was quite a site in the South — long known as the “Bible Belt.” The pair, Rose wearing a yarmulke, had just spent an hour together in a tent with former Catholic priest and scholar Paul Knitter discussing interreligious dialogue, and what it is they admire — even love — about each other’s faith traditions.
So it went on Day 3 of The Wild Goose Festival at Shakori Hills Farm, a rural section of Chatham County, not far from the bigger places — Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh. While Wild Goose is predominantly Christian, ecumenism and interfaith dialogue have been major themes of the four-day festival that may be the first of its kind in the U.S.
Smiling, sharing, babies in bathtubs, “Love Your Enemies” t-shirts, even “light and humorous” discussions on death. Sounds like some new connections were made.
Take the Christianity Quiz
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 by JELThere’s a new group called Changing the Face of Christianity with a mission to “reverse Christian intolerance, hypocrisy, homophobia, judgmentalism, and other negative Christian stereotypes, by helping Christians to be more like Jesus Christ.” Sounds like our kind of group! And one where What He Said should help play a role.
They’ve developed a “How Christian Are You?” quiz that is pretty illuminating. Try to be honest with your answers; it’s pretty obvious which response is the most Jesus-like. Go on, take the quiz ! >>
If you’re interested in more information about the group, check out the video below.
Join What He Said Online