Evil Capitalists

Wal Mart is at it again! Selling stuff at a loss to put Mom and Pop Shops out of business. Wait, they are selling generic drugs for 4 dollars a bottle? hmmm

Links and Update on the Personal

First and foremost, my fiancee had two of her wisdom teeth taken out today. She’s in some amount of pain, is really hungry, and has had a little bit of trouble staying asleep. She also informed me, ” I wish I could drink 4,000 gallons of water” to which I replied “that probably would hurt a little”. She then said, “I could stick my face under a waterfall with my mouth open….. water is so bad it hurts my teeth”. Needless to say, I thought that the Codene influenced comments were quite funny.

Gas is apparently going to continue to plummet. Oil prices briefly dipped below 60 dollars a barrel today, down from a high of 78 dollars a month and a half ago. The fed is predicting another short term drop of 25 cents per gallon of gas. Some long term projections have oil falling to 15 dollars a barrel with gas around 1.15 a gallon. That would my my drives to Nashville much cheaper.

Greg Kendall-Ball, the only person that I know from South Africa, is thinking of pulling the plug on kendallball.net . Head over and read a little and let him know you want it to stay. He’s been a great voice of reason from graduates of Harding University.

And another update: there was a huge explosion behind my house. It was big enough that it knocked some stuff off of the trees and onto the roof. I walked back there and it seemed like it came from a shed behind the houses that are behind me. There was smoke, and a distinct odor, but I didn’t see any people, and decided it would be best just to stay away from there. Maybe a meth lab explosion. I don’t know.

Christian Nation?

I can’t begin to figure out what my response should be to the Jesus Camp movie.

Radical pentacostalism is not all like this. I know people who attend charasmatic churches that don’t believe what this camp does, but it is definitely a trend that is moving through charasmatic circles (especially premillienial groups) as well as parts of the Southern Baptist Church. This idea that we are supposed to bring America back to God is flawed. At what point was America God’s? Was it when we continually lied to the indians, stole their land, gave them blankets infected with small pox, and raped their women? Was it when we shipped Africans over on over crowded boats and sold them into slavery, splitting up wives and husbands and parents and children? Or was it during the years of segregation in the south where blacks were denied entrance to restaurants, hotels, buses and bathrooms that were used by whites? While we may have had Christians in our country, we were never a Christian nation and never will be. No nation can be Christian, because Christ’s teachings show us that we should exist from a power under structure of serving and loving rather than a power over structure that keeps order by threatening force.

Militant Christian Fundamentalists are just as dangerous as the terrorists that threaten the West.

Jesus Camp

I don’t have a lot of time to post my thoughts on this besides saying who didn’t know it was coming.

 Jesus Camp

Hat Tip Sullivan

All Out Religion War?

This link is scary. The world is in for some turmoil. We should pray that Christ is shown to the Middle East.

Love is a hard thing

Love is hard.

I know that probably doesn’t come as a suprise to most of you that are reading this. I’ve recently been faced with a situation that I didn’t, and still don’t really, know how to deal with. The thing is, I’m going to have to accept the outcome, even though I disagree with what’s going on, and even though my feelings have been hurt through the ordeal. I feel like I’m trying to do the right thing, the loving thing, and yet I am the one who feels terrible about it. If I do nothing, I feel irresponsible. If I stand up for what I believe in this situation, it will cause even more harm. Basically, its a lose/lose situation.

So, love tells me that I have to let the decisions be made by those who are going to make them. Even thought I think they’re wrong. Even though my character has been attacked. I have to let things go. So I’m trying. It won’t be today, and it probably won’t be tomorrow, but eventually things will be ok again. For now, I just pray:

God I do not know how to fix this. I guess I can’t really. What I do know is that my heart cannot forgive unless your spirit transforms me. And it may be a while, but I’m confident that you will remove these feelings from my heart. Grant me the spirit of loving others Father.

Changing Theology: What to do when your viewpoint freaks your parents

Actually, I don’t really have an answer to this. I’m hoping some of you out there have some ideas.

My parents have been moving along with me on a lot of issues from a theological standpoint. The emerging church stuff and postmodern thought, they are totally onboard. They dealt with my move from Republicanism to Libertarianism pretty well. I think they are having more issues with my shift towards Christian Pacifism/Anarchy (otherwise known as the Kingdom of God).

Understandably, my parents have issues with my relinquishing of support for any war waged by any country. It doesn’t make sense. I understand that. It didn’t make sense to me before, and it doesn’t make complete sense to me now. But I know its right. Its the way we’re supposed to behave if we really believe that Jesus means what he says.

Could one involve himself in government without the involvement becoming idolotry? Absolutely. But the temptation is always there. The temptation in voting is to say my ideology is best for the country because I know what God wants for us, so its actually what God wants for the country. How many of us are guilty of saying that? Or thinking it? I know I did. I did it when I was a Republican. I did it when I was a Libertarian (for the year that I was one). Its easy for me to say that because God wants us to be free, we should have the government that gives us the most freedom. Its easy to say that since Jesus rejected the idea of using the government to bring the Kingdom of God, that we should reject involving Government with Kingdom things.

But the problem is, for everything that its easy for me to say, its easy for someone to see it a completely different way. And that divides the Kingdom. When I want a Libertarian Government, and Larry James wants a Democrat controlled Government, it makes it harder for us to be brothers. If we stopped arguing politics and started being the Kingdom, things would be better.

Anyway, this was a big random “musing”. Thoughts anyone?

Weird Google Search Term #4

Today, someone found my blog searching “should my kid wear Fubu?”

If that person comes by here again, my answer would be “no.”

Several links for ya

First, (this should get some comments) Men are smarter than Women???

Global Warming information. I don’t know where this comes from, but its interesting.

From the Seattle-Times, Gas prices to 1.15 a gallon soon?

If you’re into voting, and you’re from Texas, you should vote for this guy.

Jim Wallis And Sojourners

Mick Wright has an interesting post over at Fishkite that shows the hypocrisy of Jim Wallis.

If anything makes me more angry, its people like Wallis who have decided that the answer to a Christian Right is a Christian Left.

The answer to either of these is being Christians and letting the government be what it is, the principalities and powers that are controlled by the evil one.

Governments must look after their own self interest. They also must use force in order to enforce their laws. The only thing that makes people pay taxes, go the speed limit, not steal, etc is force. This is why the government can never be the Kingdom.

When Wallis and others allign themselves with Hezbollah, something is wrong. When Wallis can allign himself with America and say that we can be a Christian Nation, he is wrong.

If the Kingdom could be brought about through government and force, don’t you think Jesus would have done so? I mean, Satan offered him all the Kingdoms of the world… yet he turned him down.

Because force doesn’t change hearts. Grace and Mercy do.