Monthly Archives: July 2008

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My favorite coffee shop:  Biggby (used to be Beaners - as in coffee beans) made the top 50!  (they most likely had my help)

The Future 50, identified by Technomic, Inc. as the fastest growing chains with sales between $25 million and $50 million, includes 32 that defied the odds to grow sales by 20 percent or more in 2007. Of those, a dozen hit 40 percent or higher sales growth. As a group, they’re hot, they’re nimble and they’ve got what many of their large competitors don’t right now—momentum.

(Note:  when Biggby changed their name, it was not because of a lawsuit, complaint or any such thing.  It was because somebody told them that the name had the potential for being offensive and they did not want to offend anybody.)

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And MORE  randomosity.

Dog bites man???  Not news.

Hippo bites woman?  Okay.  News.

The woman keeper was bitten about 9:45 a.m. in the outdoor hippo exhibit as she and colleagues were doing desensitizing training on Mahali, a 5-year-old male, to make dental work more comfortable for the hippo.

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I've written on this a little bit in other places and it is a volatile topic and one that is difficult to discuss without getting emotional (for anybody).  I am writing from a philosophical point, not an emotional point.

I AM NOT "PRO-SLAVERY"; the post is to encourage the philosophical and Biblical viewpoint of calling sin "sin" and making sure that which we call "sin" is.
1) God does not regulate sin - He prohibits it.

If Scripture never tells us that an activity is sin, the burden of proof is on the one who calls it "sin".

The easiest way to prove slavery "sin" is to stand on the "golden rule".  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  If you would not want to be a slave, don't enslave others.  As a Christian...that makes perfect sense.

The next question would be:  might there be (or ever in history have been) a reason that being a slave might be better than the alternative?  Are there any circumstances that slavery would be beneficial/harmful to either the individual or the society.
2) right off hand, I can think of four different kinds of slavery  mentioned in Scripture:

  • debt slavery
  • kidnapping for the purpose of slavery
  • prisoners of war
  • punitive slavery

---Debt slavery:  If a person finds themselves overloaded with debt, they have the opportunity to work off that debt to the person owed.  They are released at the end of the time, they are free of the debt.  They are able to bail themselves out.  (that's a definition, not a judgement.)

NOTE:  I do not see this as being a good or practical thing in the society that we have today.  Looking at the "debtor's prisons" that we read about, it might have seemed a good option at the time.

SIN or not? (from Scripture only, please)?  (I'd rather have a discussion than put forth my thoughts - but would most likely play devil's advocate either way)

---Chattel slavery:  there is no justification of this act.  Slave trade was on the list of Tyre's condemnation and no matter what I might find about the other sorts of "manditory labor", the kidnapping and enslavement of a group of people - and the further keeping of their descendents in slavery is wrong.  Sin.  Condemned.  There is no justification for this.  (I believe that the preying on impoverished parents of children and purchasing them for the purpose of slavery that we see to day in parts of Africa and Asia are included in this segment.

---Prisoners of war:  three choices - dead.  refugee camp.  slave.  None of them are good choices.  (Again this is for discussion purpose and I'll gladly play devil's advocate for either side - but argue from Scripture)

NOTE:  the Geneva Convention permits the use of prisoners of war for "forced labor".  There are strict guidelines about what sort of work can be done, working and living conditions and prohibits the use of forced labor on actual military jobs.  A prisoner of war can be made to work in an agriculture setting, but cannot be made to manufacture bombs.

Using a prisoner of war for "forced labor" is not the same as conducting a war in order to get prisoners in order to get slaves (see kidnapping)

---Punitive slavery:  Sorry, but I think I could convinced to be at least a little bit in favor of this one.

California:  a "soccer mom" was loading stuff into the back of her car and was rear ended by an "illegal alien" (undocumented immigrant) - who happened to be driving under the influence of alcohol.  This wife and mother lost the use of her legs and looks forward to many months of rehab and the expenses incurred not only as part of treatment, but also with living as a person with impairments.

- instead of being shipped back to Mexico - again - after being caught driving drunk - again - what if this man were put in a place where his labor contributed to the income of the woman that he injured?

Michigan:  A man shoots and kills a cop, depriving the officer's wife and children of his love, support and income.  We now have a single mom with three kids.

- instead of being imprisoned for life, what if this man's labor went into a college fund for the children of the man he killed?

Anywhere:  a young man steals a car and wrecks it.  The insurance company pays, the owner of the car pays, the young man may lose time.

What if a person who steals property and destroys or damages it was made to work for the owner of the property in order to make restitution?

From Scripture, please?

(NOTE:  this post is only philosophical ramblings...mostly due to the continued and wearying and offensive habit of some egalitarians of comparing a Godly marriage where the husband is the leader...to chattel slavery)

What we think of as slavery (in the modern sense) fits into the "kidnapping for slavery" slot.  Race-based slavery fits into that slot.  Kidnapping and breeding of a group of people for the purpose of slavery is sin.  Condemned.  Wrong.

This  "chattel" slavery (and subsequent denial of the slave's humanity) can (in NO WAY) be justified.  The other three (especially in Scripture) have no impact on the way that the humanity of the slave (or bond-servant in some cases) was seen.  In two of the cases the "slavery" was more "manditory labor" which was brought about by the actions of the person in bondage.

Again, I am not in ANY WAY advocating for a return of the chattel slave system, a dehumanization of a race, the manditory

From an emotional standpoint:  I have no desire to be a slave or own a slave.  To my modern mind, the idea is not at all attractive.  As a Christian:  slavery is to be avoided and I think that it is sin for a Christian to seek to be a slave.

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At least for the time being...I've got posts on all sorts of topics coming off my keyboard and I tend to enjoy blogs more where I don't have to scroll down a bunch to read all the new posts...so I'm going to try to "schedule" mine a little bit.

I've got a post on the "gift of tongues" in pagan religions (including Mormonism), I've got a post on Christ and church/husbands and wives/Adam and Eve.   I'd like to cover the life and times (and theology) of John Calvin.  And there's a lot of political stuff going on that is interesting (especially since Michigan has the worst single-state economy in the country...what Granholm has done for Michigan, Obama wants to do for the country.

There's also room for "randomosity".   Mostly I know that I can have a tendency to become a "one trick pony" and I'm not that.  A flexible basic outline keeps me from hyperfocusing.
Sunday seems good for Sola (Reformed stuff) - also, randomosity.
Monday (lunes in Spanish) seems to be the day for the links I've collected over the week.  I'm going to start adding links to my other "little" blogspot blogs, which include diet/exercise and what I'm reading.

Tuesday (I don't why) I'll think more philosophically.  Other world religions, deep thoughts about life and living.  Stuff.

Wednesday is a good day for the "gender" topic (and Wordless Wednesday)

Thursday...Thursday photo challenge (my favorite photo scavenger hunt) and politics

Friday, Fit Friday

Saturday:  TN Photo Hunt (my other favorite photo scavenger hunt) and  denominational stuff (although that can overlap with politics...and philosophy.  And gender).

Just so you all know...I'm enjoying blogging, but I love variety...

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I still don't have the capability to post youtube videos on the blog...but PLEASE go watch this.

Lisa Gerrard is best known for her deep, haunting contralto voice. She has received a Golden Globe award and an Acadamy Award nomination for the score for the film "Gladiator" (which she collaborated on).

Gerrard has achieved her greatest fame by never saying a word. Rather, she sings in tongues, a habit formed and nurtured in the early days of Dead Can Dance, continuing through to her present-day solo and soundtrack work. It’s a technique that allows her voice to join the chorus of synths, organs, strings, and (why not) dulcimer, basically, any instrument that can play a note for a very long time, without the words that could potentially distract from that chorus (...)

While these tracks are pretty, however, Gerrard shows in other places that she can lend this technique a lyrical quality that just about doubles the intensity of whatever song it appears on. “Swans” is a solo standout, on which Dimitry Kyryakou provides an incredible, almost dance-like bouzouki backdrop that sets the song far apart from the Dead Can Dance material and the soundtrack contributions. Gerrard reciprocates with a vocal line that sounds like a narrative except for the fact that there are no words. Even without the words, however, we can hear her story slowly increase in intensity, lull, climax, and slowly fade, mindful of the repercussions of the events that precede that fade. It’s an all-encompassing sort of story arc, allowing us the opportunity to provide our own words to the music

There is some indication that Gerrard claims Christianity...but what is important about this story is that

1)  singing in tongues is a habit

2) it is formed

3) it is nurtured

4) in Gerrard's case it has nothing to do with the religious experience.

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(AD HOC) organization of the week:  ConnorWatch.

Connor Williamson: son, brother, nephew, and friend, has been seriously injured while diving at camp.

This is a place for friends and family to communicate their hopes, fears, pain, and thoughts, and to not be alone during this worst of times.

Most of all, this is a place to see the hand of God at work.

Join us as we journey with Connor.

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also from California...
POTTER VALLEY, Calif. —  A Mendocino County woman who was trying to kill mice in her trailer with a gun ended up shooting herself and another person.

The 43-year-old woman pulled out her .44-caliber Magnum revolver after she saw the mice scurrying across the floor of her trailer on Highway 20 in Potter Valley, sheriff's officials said.

But she accidentally dropped the gun, which went off as it struck the floor. The bullet went through the woman's kneecap, bounced off the keys sitting on the belt loop of a 42-year-old man in the trailer and grazed the man's groin before ending up in his coin pocket.

Authorities did not release the shooting victims' names.

The mice escaped the shooting unharmed.

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For those who like to compare complementarianism to Islam:

“Honor killings” are distressingly common throughout the Muslim world. Phyllis Chesler reports that “in 1997, in Cairo Egypt, twenty-five-year-old Nora Marzouk Ahmed’s honeymoon ended when her father chopped off her head and carried it down the street. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘the family has regained its honor.’ Nora’s crime? She had eloped.” And “in 2002, in Tehran, an Iranian man cut off his seven-year-old daughter’s head after suspecting she had been raped by her uncle. ‘The motive behind the killing was to defend my honor, fame, and dignity.’ Some people called for this man’s death under Islamic law, but ironically, only the father of the victim can demand the death sentence.” (...)

“Last I checked my history books common Europeans didn’t go around killing their daughters for marrying ‘wrong’ and neither did their ages old Monarchs.”

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Gay man sues Bible publishers:

A homosexual man who has a blog on Sen. Barack Obama's campaign website is suing two major Christian publishers for violating his constitutional rights and causing emotional pain, because the Bible versions they publish refer to homosexuality as a sin.

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On the political scene...from the Michigan Republican blog comes this blurb:

OBAMA OFFERS MORE OF THE SAME...GRANHOLM-OMICS...which put Michigan in a single state recession for the last 6 years. Obama's economic policies are almost identical to those that Granholm has implemented here in Michigan.  America can't afford the risk!

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(OFF COLOR ALERT) From Jamaica:

Tesha Miller, the reputed leader of the Clansman gang, could be charged with possession of contraband after the police took a cellphone from his butt yesterday.

THE STAR was told that a search of the accused man's cell was organised after police believed he had a cellphone in his possession. The police theorised that he had been using the device to contact his cronies.

An initial search of his cell found one cellphone; however, as the police were about to leave, another device rang.

Gloves used

This led to a further search and after combing the cell thoroughly again, it was discovered that the device was inside the accused man's body. Gloves were said to have been requested, and the phone retrieved from the man's body.

In a release last night, the Constabulary Communication Network said the phone was was found in Miller's rectum.

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I'm actually thinking about these (because they look cool)

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Resolved, To act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings, as others, and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.

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When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others mocking said, "They are filled with new wine."

(...)

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." (ESV)

In Pentecostal churches, people receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the initial evidence of which is speaking in tongues.  If you don't have tongues, you don't have the baptism - based on this passage of Scripture.

You are saved (first act of grace) and then you speak in a language that nobody but God can understand (second act of grace).

But...let's read the Scripture...

The people who had received the Holy Spirit began to speak in other tongues...yes.  But...at the sound, devout men from "every nation" came together and each of them heard in his own language.  Those who were there spoke in tongues and the other believers heard in tongues.  Who were the ones who did not hear in their own tongues?  The mockers...unbelievers.

The "moral" of the story?  If somebody around you is "baptized with the Holy Spirit as a second work of grace", and you can't understand - you cannot hear in your own tongue...

you may not be one of the saved.  It bears thinking about when coveting the gift.

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Really.
For some (me) the passing out of peanuts is its own form of torture.  The last few flights I've been on, pretzels have been the treat of the day.  At any rate...

The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.”  Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if the passenger got out of line.

Clearly the Electronic ID Bracelet is a euphuism for the EMD Safety Bracelet, or at least it has a nefarious hidden ability (thus the term ID Bracelet is ambiguous at best). EMD stands for Electro-Musclar Disruption. Again, according to the promotional video, the bracelet can completely immobilize the wearer for several minutes.

So is the government really that interested in this bracelet?Apparently so.

According to this letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, which was written to the inventor whom he had previously met with, Ruwaldt wrote, “To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in . . . the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”

wow...just...wow.

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Two "favorite quotes" from one article...

""You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense,"

And...

"A venomous snake isn't a pet. You don't play with it. If you do, you're an idiot."

or...

A member of a Kentucky Full Gospel Tabernacle...

HT:  "I Really Don't Have Time To Blog" (but I'm glad she does)

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we climbed "Castle Rock" (in the background).  I remember it being so much bigger when I was a kid.  But we all made it to the top.

We also stopped at a place called "Oswald Bear Ranch"...okay...tourist trap, right?  Not quite.  This is a place where the "naughty bears"  and rescued bears go to live.  They have mama bear who made her den under the foundation of a house in Minnisota.   They moved her once, but she came back.  So now she lives in Newberry, MI.  They also have a pair of cubs who fell out of a tree when lumberjacks cut it down,  Below see Bonnie (or Clyde...or both)

The cubs know that when people come into their pen (always with a handler and only one family at a time) they're up for a photo-op.  One or both of them climb up onto one of these chairs and the folks sit or squat behind the chair.  Tom had something on his pants (we were camping...it happens)

I, on the other hand, had been chewing on a tea-tree-oil laced toothpick.  My hair was still wet (or rather I had used a different "product" and it didn't get dry all day) and I wasn't planning on photos of me and the bears.  But he was so CUTE!

He licked my teeth...and handler (the dad of the family that owns the place) kept saying..."that's a good picture..."

By the time Amanda got her photo taken alone with the cub (since he tried to get into Tom's pocket and he licked my teeth and pretty much didn't pay any attention to Amanda)...

he was pretty tuckered out...

If you go to the website, at the top there's a picture of a white-haired guy.  He (I think) is the "grandpa" to the bears.  The cubs get all excited and wound up and need to be calmed down (just like little kids).  We saw this guy sitting in there in one of those green chairs, one of the cubs in his lap.  The cub was sucking on the man's "double chin" and making a sort of "purring" sound like a cat (only raspier and louder).  I asked if bears purr and he said, yes...and I'm the pacifier.