Archive | July, 2007

What is the Deal With Cindy Sheehan?

By on July 31, 2007 in General Interest

Old Cindy is back in the news again. Now she thinks she can run for public office, like anybody cares. This is a good sugue though for me to begin sharing my Toastmasters speaches with you guys again. My first of ten on the road to the Advanced Communicator Bronze designation is from the Speaking On Television manual.

The objective was to give a T.V. editorial. I taped it with my camcorder and everything. My question back on Tuesday, March 26, 2007 was, “What is the deal with Cindy Sheehan?”. Here are my thoughts. What do you think?

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Who is this lady getting all the undue media attention over something that doesn’t even concern her? You know, the one who has been camping out near the president’s ranch and pulling other publicity stunts because her son got killed in Iraq? She claims the president is responsible for her son’s death and she is mad at Bush. Of course the media is all over it and people are nodding their heads in agreement. Are you kidding me? Excuse me but don’t people get it, that she’s actually upset with her dead son and not the president? I don’t think she even realizes it.

Just stop and think about it. Sheehan is your typical peace at all costs pacifists. No war is a good war and World War II may be the only one in recent memory that had any merit. Sheehan’s problem isn’t with the president. Her real problem is that her son didn’t share her pacifist views. Instead he was a duty bound, nation loving young man who signed up to kill and die for his country, just like thousands of young men and women have done through out the history of the nation. He wasn’t drafted; no one put a gun to his head and made him sign up. He did so simply for love of country and he went the total self-sacrificing distance.

No, Cindy isn’t mad at George. Cindy is mad at her son Casey, a decorated war hero mind you, and she’s taking it out on George. Why? Because she knows people will follow any crazy old thing without thinking about it. And as much as I sympathize with her loss she isn’t using a lot of common sense herself.
Hey, instead of encouraging this woman to constantly make herself look ridiculous in public, why don’t the people closest to her help her to realize that her son was a grown man who made a grown man’s decision like responsible adults do every day. The fact that her son’s choice didn’t reflect her political views is her problem to deal with, not everybody else’s, least of all the President’s.

O.K. Look, I’d like to give her my own little history lesson to help her get over it. Cindy, listen to Martin. Nations are built on war, nations are preserved by war. It has never happened any other way and it never will happen any other way. Do not be naïve. Diplomacy is not always the answer to all the world’s ills. In fact history gives us many examples where too much talking and maneuvering has actually lead to the outbreak of war. Too much deliberation and too little action has often allowed the wrong side get the jump. Hello Pearl Harbor.

Through out history, from time to time, nations simply have to duke it out old fashioned style and the winner has their way. It’s not nice, it’s not neat but that is the way of the world. And like it or not your son has followed the heroic ideal to the end. He has done his part to ensure that we continue to live in the same free and sovereign republic that the founding fathers fought and died for to create in the first place. So stop embarrassing your son’s memory. Instead honor his duty and his service by getting on with your life and doing something more constructive with it.

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The Baptists Are Missing the Point…Again

By on July 25, 2007 in Faith

I think some in my denomination have lost their minds. Either that or the marbles are dribbling out of their ear lobes one by one. I can say this because I am a Baptist but not the type you may be used to. Here’s what I’m talking about in particular. A recent AP article out of San Antonio summarizes the mood of the Southern Baptist Convention’s feeling that speaking in tongues, a mostly Pentecostal tradition which is spreading across all denominational lines, should be denounced as a practice and that “seminaries and other agencies should set standards preventing the hiring of people who advocate speaking in tongues.” Clue #1. This position is a direct conradiction of I Corinthians 12:10.

So much for de-emphasing denominationalism and emphasing Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It’s exactly these types of irrelevant, inane and assinine, discussions that are the likely reasons people are leaving the Baptist church if it truly is an issue as the story claims. If population loss really is a problem then it’s these backwards attitudes about scripture that are the cause. On the other hand if your church is becoming more “Baptecostal”, then Hallelujah and Praise the Lord! By the way, this same ignorance mentioned in the AP story is spoken of in reference to prophecy and women preachers in the Baptist church. Maybe I’ll deal with that later though.

Anyway, the Bible makes it clear that all gifts are relevant and none of them were limited to a particular place, person or time period in history (Romans 12:6) which is what some Baptists seem to believe. Apparently some extremely hard core Baptists really can’t deal with the freedom that God actually offers to everyone to minister and yes, even pastor. Let’s also remember fellow Christians that I Corinthians 7:7 tells us that all gifts are relevant and no one believer is blessed by God to have them all. If it’s not yours, don’t worry about it! It doesn’t make it illegitimate just because the Good Lord hasn’t ingrained a particular thing into your spirit.

How in the world can you pretend to limit God’s gifts and say that they only served a limited purpose and time period anyway? Read all of I Corinthians chapter 12 for proper reference. Again, I say that some are going way overboard with doctrinal disputations. Sure, Paul spoke about pure doctrine to Timothy and Titus but he also wrote in Romans 14:1 about not getting hung up on disputable matters. When you look at things in total scriptural context I  think this qualifies as a childish, disputable matter.

Now, of course I grew up in a Baptist church that has had female preachers for more than thirty years. I got married in another Baptist church which has emphasized and encouraged all the fruits of the Spirit specifically because the Baptists have wrongfully de-emphasized and not taught fully and truthfully and properly about the Holy Spirit. We’re good on Father and Son, but the Holy Spirit is way too mystical and emotional for us brainy, too-darn-intelligent-for-our-own-spiritual good Baptists. So much for actually being true to the trinity.

Again, I’m qualified to criticize because I am one. But I’m only Baptist for the sake of familiarity not for some sense of doctrinal or denominational loyalty. I just know what to expect in a typical Baptist church and that’s good enough for me. My only doctrine is the Bible itself though. The fact that we parse the parts that we want to – specifically going against the scripture’s admonition not to add or subtract from it – invalidates the silly arguments.

So Baptists, when are you going to get over yourselves and let God move the way He wants too move and not only in the ways you feel like letting Him do it? I welcome comments from all Christians on this one but since I’ve hurled the accusation against the Baptists and thrown down the gauntlet against the conservative branch this one is for you. Give me a shout and let’s deal with it.

Martin

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Is Engagement the New Page View?

By on July 24, 2007 in General Interest

That could be the case if Nielsen’s web site rating system catches on. John Chow’s recent post discusses how they are beginning to meaure time spent on a web site as a guage of interest. It may be a new metric in the making. Check the link as see what the hub-bub is all about.

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God’s Time

By on July 24, 2007 in Faith

Here’s a “paraphrase of the day” that I got from my pastor a couple of Sundays ago.

God made time, man invented watches.
God doesn’t wear a watch.

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Football Conduct vs Futball Sadists

By on July 23, 2007 in General Interest

Interesting contrast in the Tuesday, June 26th USA Today sports section between American style football and soccer – known as futball to the rest of the world – and how one carries oneself. This one is about perspective. I’ll compare and contrast alternate groups in both sports – the fans and players.

NFL Commissioner Roger Godell briefed the 255 newest draftess on the league’s stricter conduct rules. At the mandatory rookie symposium he talked to the new young professionals about how to be just that, professional on and off the field. It covered handling finances and relationships and how to prepare for life after football. With all the craziness we here about from some of these guys with no apparent home training (Michael Vick and half the Cincinatti Bengals), it’s good to see the league taking initiative that will impact these young guys the rest of their lives. From this day forward they will have no excuses because they can’t say nobody told them what was expected of them.

American style football is probably the most physically demanding game in the world except maybe rugby and soccer. Our fans can also be callous, verbally and physically. Players thru the decades have talked about racial and sexual comments from the stands and beer, popcorn and other stuff being thrown at them between the field and the tunnel at certain stadiums. But I have never heard of football fans fighting each other in the stands enmasse or in the stadium parking lot riot style. The occasional individual drunks jaw jacking and going at it are to be expected from time to time. But that’s usually it. Pretty small scale when it happens.

On the other hand, futball fans around the world apparently go psychotic on a regular basis. In the same USA Today column was an article detailing how rival fans of Argentine soccer clubs in Buenos Aires were swinging metal pipes and throwing rocks at each other. The melee spilled out onto a freeway during rush our. C’mon now, the fans stopped traffic with a fight from the stadium to the highway! One man killed, fourteen people injured. I’m sure their counterparts in Great Brittain – the hooligans, yep that’s what they call them in the British isles – or the European mainland won’t want to be outdone by their South American brethren so I don’t doubt that we’ll be hearing about the next fisticuff on the other side of the Atlantic very soon.

It just warms my heart to see stories like this after hearing how we backwards Americans won’t embrace the world’s most popular sport. Hey, if it drives the people to madness like that then to heck with it. And I played for a year and do appreciate the game but the fanatics have to get a grip. Americans fans almost never do that and when we do it’s for a national championship of some kind, not a daily game occassion. Besides those points is our variety of althletic choice. Fact is it’s an outward expression of our freedoms. We participate in what we like because we have options not because we’re obligated to the only thing around. That’s not about being better than everybody else in the world. It’s simply called freedom. And like a lot of the syndicated sports talk hosts will tell you, our home grown sports are more fun anyway. Just look at how every one of them have taken off in popularity all over the world.

Well, anyway, be a fan of your sport(s) because you like the game not because you’re having a “We Are the World” moment. If you think socker sucks or you believe it’s human chess to the greatest degree go with your heart, not with obligation. And be you athlete or fan don’t be a hooligan.

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My PC Has Flaked Out For the Last Time

By on July 10, 2007 in General Interest

Loyal readers, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. My desktop finally took a dive late last week. I’m only now getting the time to put up a post at the library. Thank you tax dollars at work!

We’re going to replace the nearly ten year old unit – yeah I’m frugal – with an Apple of some sort. Then I’ll be back on pace in the comfort of my own home again!

Until then hit me up with some comments and tell me how you’ve been.

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