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Politics/religion - yes, this one does fit.

In my web wanderings, I either see or participate in debates where the lines are either drawn between Calvinism vs "something else" OR conservative vs. liberal (either politics or religion.  It's the latter I'm thinking about when I post "Obama's Nazi Straw Man:  an Old Alinsky Trick" - I read "Rules for Radicals" a while ago, to brush up for conversations at work

It hit me the other day that - whether meaning to or not - liberal Christians may use some of the same tactics in religious conversations.

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Gender and religion - on "Straw Women"

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Lutheran SATIRE - "What St. Paul Really Said" (youtube video)

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For those keeping up with Rob Bell and "Love Wins" - here's the chronology from Resurgence

and...Robbed Hell - a spoof...vimeo video

 

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When I'm following my self-imposed schedule, I blog "Reformed" on Sundays - so I'm planning getting through TULIP for the next few weeks, on Sundays.

This all falls or stands together (with the possible exception of Limited Atonement), so I'm going  to start at the beginning.

T - Total Depravity of Man.

“Man, by his fall Into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch. IX, sec. III.)

There is a list of Scripture proofs (I'll add them at the bottom) but to explain "total depravity" in my own words is easy.

It's not that we're all equally bad, or that all of us are as bad as we could possibly be.

It's that no matter what part of our own selves we examine, that part is tainted with sin.

It's the knowing my own self well enough, and dropping my own pride far enough to know that there is nothing in me that would seek after God, unless He was the one bringing me into life.

 

  • I Cor. 2:14: The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.
  • Rom. 5:12: Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned.
  • II Cor. 1:9: Yea, we ourselves had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead.
  • Eph. 2:1-3: And you did He make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; among whom ye also all once lived in the lusts of your flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
  • Eph. 2:12: Ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
  • Jer. 13:23: Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
  • Rom. 3:10-12: As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one;
  • There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God;
    They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable;
    There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one.
  • Job 14:4: Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
  • I Cor. 1:18: For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.
  • Acts 13:41: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish; For I work a work in your days, A work which ye shall in no wise believe, if one declare it unto you.
  • Prov. 30:12: There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes,
    And yet are not washed from their filthiness.
  • John 5:21: For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom He will.
  • John 6:53: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves.
  • John 8:19: They said therefore unto Him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye know neither me, nor my Father; if ye knew me, ye would know my Father also.
  • II Cor. 5:17: if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.
  • John 14:16: (And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever,) even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.
  • John 3:19: And this is the judgment, that light is come unto the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

 

 

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We don't think our art teacher is letting our students work up to their potential.  So my lead teacher (Louise) said, "Ellen...go.  Teach art."  So I am.

We're going around the globe with art, starting in Africa.

1) we read the story of Anansi the Spider - and African folk tale.

2) then we read Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters - and African version of the Cinderella Story.

3) then we read about adrinka cloth

4) then we MADE adrinka cloth - but instead of using wooden stamps, we used fruit and vegetables.

  1. cut plain, colored fabric into the size you want - some of us made wall hangings and some of us made over-size pot holders
  2. choose firm fruits and vegetables to use as stamps - we used carrots, broccoli, lemons and apples.
  3. choose 2 or three bright colors of fabric paint and put a little bit in plastic bowls (I save the plastic tubs from frozen lunches)
  4. put the fabric on a piece of construction paper (to blot the vegetables before you stamp the fabric)
  5. Have fun making patterns on the fabric.

 

The finishing is easy - just sew a pocket along the top and glue ribbon along the sides.  Put a dowel through it and hang it up.

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"Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be sin. And notwithstanding what brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night.

"If anybody can show me in the Bible the command, 'Thou shalt not smoke,' I am ready to keep it; but I haven't found it yet. I find ten commandments, and it's as much as I can do to keep them; and I've no desire to make them into eleven or twelve.

"The fact is, I have been speaking to you about real sins, not about listening to mere quibbles and scruples. At the same time, I know that what a man believes to be sin becomes a sin to him, and he must give it up. 'Whatsoever is not of faith is sin' [Rom. 14:23], and that is the real point of what my brother Pentecost has been saying.

"Why, a man may think it a sin to have his boots blacked. Well, then, let him give it up, and have them whitewashed. I wish to say that I'm not ashamed of anything whatever that I do, and I don't feel that smoking makes me ashamed, and therefore I mean to smoke to the glory of God."

HT:  Gospel-Driven Church

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how Guvmint works - Written by a consultant spying on the government
Guvmint and How Guvmint Works

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people, one to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created two positions, a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?"

So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, an Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year, and we are $918,000 over budget. We must cut back." So they laid off the night watchman.

NOW slowly, let that sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter.

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY..... during the Carter Administration?

Anybody?

Anything?

No?

Didn't think so!

Bottom line: We've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency...the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember!

Ready?? It was very simple . . . and, at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND, NOW, IT'S 2011 -- 34 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. ITHAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEESAND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES, ANDLOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?"

A little over 34 years ago, 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

Ah, yes -- the good old Federal bureaucracy!!

NOW, WE HAVE TURNED THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE,AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY OVER TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?

Hello!! Anybody Home?

What are your thoughts on this?

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Things go in cycles and there is a lot of buzz about "porn" right now.

On this blog, I'm going to change the term.  No longer will "it" be called "porn" - I'm going to start using the term:

"sexually explicit material"

How many people really watch soaps for the plot?

How many women really like trashy novels for the accurate history and realistic view of life?

There is a HUGE double standard.  When women use sexually explicit material, it can be okay because...well, it's not "porn" and women are...different.

Sorry, but let's just be real.

Men are visual, women are less so.  Some research seems to say that we're just wired that way.

If men are thinking about what they're seeing and women are thinking about what there thinking and either way, they're getting physical OR mental sexual stimulation from what they are looking at OR reading, the end result is the same.

People are going somewhere other than their spouse for two-dimensional (whether it's computer screen, TV screen, magazine or book) sexual thought patterns.

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I haven't done this for a while - when I'm blogging nearly daily, on Monday (lunes, from when I was taking Spanish classes) I gather all the open tabs from my blog reader and post what I thought were the most interesting ones.  (It has a purpose for me also - if I remember a post that I want to read again, if I put it here, I can find it.)

Fifty Fruits of Pride - a self-diagnostic; from Gospel Centric

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I've been doing reading on Genesis and the creation story -

The meaning of "expanse" in Genesis 1; from True Paradigm

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The Theology of Blame Shifting; from Jonathan Moorhead

No one is guilty of their sin anymore! It is always someone else’s, or something else’s fault. If it’s not your how your parents treated you, then it’s your genes, your surroundings, or maybe even the Devil made you do it. We are all victims!

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On the political side: Hero vs. Zero (one of a series - with lots to work from - from HillBuzz)

From the Advice Goddess Blog

Wearing Red On Friday Can Be Helpful...
...If you are, say, wandering into traffic while staring into your electronic binkie, it may help drivers stop soon enough as to only maim you instead of killing you.

(...)

@amyalkon Go naked on Friday to support anti-asshat-think. Wearing pink doesn't stop breast cancer, wearing red doesn't eliminate heart disease.

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I'm ending up doing a series on porn.  Since I'm a fan of "Read Your Own Mail" - I'm writing this from the view of a wife whose husband is using porn.

The truth is that this is far, far from being a "male user / women victim" sin.

This is from 2005:

* 34 percent of female readers of Today's Christian Woman's online newsletter admitted to intentionally accessing Internet porn in a recent poll.

From ChristiaNet:

"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography,"

Do more men use porn than women?  yes.

But here's a twist - if you figure in "erotica" - and add the typical "romance novels" to the mix - what figures are you going to get?  How many women who really wouldn't like their husbands to use porn, have a collection of "romance novels" and know exactly where "the good parts" are?

In my view, the bottom line is this:

If you are a wife who is reading fiction and enjoying the fantasy of a "knight in shining armor" - whether or not it's erotica - and if you'd like your husband to be "a little more like that..."

You are every bit as much importing an outside ideal onto your spouse, as is a husband who is looking at air-brushed images on a screen.

So when we write about porn and put all of the blame squarely on men, we're missing half the boat.