Overheard #5

Despite being fairly aggresive rivals during the early stages of the Republican Primaries, these two certainly seem to be enjoying each others’ company now.  Tell us what might have been overheard during this conversation.

 

Polar opposites.

On Friday last week, Fox News Online posted two articles about two young women who have, over the course of the last couple of years, received almost immeasurable media exposure.  Both are hugely popular entertainment figures, and it could be safely argued that both are exerting influence on young women and girls, literally around the globe.  One claims to be a role model for young girls and by inference, I think she assumes that she is a “good” one.  I am not sure the other really claims the role model title, but I think it safe to say, given the hysteria surrounding the concert tour she is on, that it would be properly assigned.

Which would you choose as a role model for your daughter, grand daughter, sister, cousin, niece?  It could be that you would say neither.  But if these were your ONLY choices, which would you pick? 

I’m thinking this will not be a hard decision, but maybe I’m wrong. 

Here are your options:  A or B.

I can hardly wait until we celebrate Earth Hour tonight…(not)

Tonight between 8pm and 9pm in every local zone, people all around the planet will “celebrate” Earth Hour.  Or so the effort’s organizer, the World Wildlife Fund, hopes.  The idea is that for this one hour period, everyone should turn off all of their lights to conserve energy.  All of this to remind people of the effect of energy consumption on “global warming” or as the movement now calls it “climate change.”  I contend they have had to adopt this new term because reality seems to argue against “warming,” particularly when record snowfalls and extreme cold weather have been experienced this winter, and unseasonably cool temperatures are being experienced in many areas this spring. Today it is supposed to be 15 degrees (F) below normal in NYC for example.

I have written before that I find the arguments in favor of the notion that mankind has caused global warming to be lacking in credibility.  And the chief proponents of action to correct global warming are both hypocritical in their own personal efforts to minimize consumption of energy and seem to be enriching themselves simply by being out front in the cause. 

Yes, those who participate in tonight’s illumination deprivation will not consume that one hour’s worth of electricity and the fuels needed to produce that energy will not have been consumed.  But I am hard pressed to believe that this one hour of symbolism will appreciably change anyone’s ongoing habits of energy consumption. 

Do I think people should conserve energy?  Yes, absolutely.  But not for the same reasons as those of the event organizers.  For me, energy conservation is an economic consideration first and an environmental one a distant second.  Energy, whether in the form of electricity, or the fuels we consume when driving or operating equipment, is expensive on some relative basis.  So, to waste it, is to literally waste money.  

And waste in any form, energy, food, water, money, even time, seems to be, at its core, self-indulgent.  And that is a heart attitude that should be avoided.

Hey “Big D”, you might want to take another look at your laws!

Fox News and the Dallas Morning News are reporting that a strip club in Dallas hired a 12 year old girl to dance nude over a two week period late last year.  In January of this year, a 17 year old girl was also found to be employed by the club.  However, Dallas city ordinances, as they are currently written, do not allow officials to revoke the sexually oriented business license of the club.

WHAT!  The sexual exploitation of a minor, no, make that two minors, is not sufficient violation of SOME law to justify the revocation of their license to operate the club? 

I suppose that it is perfectly understandable that some circumstance will be overlooked when it comes to the writing of city ordinances, thus creating loop holes.  But would it not seem that the employment of a minor in a sexually oriented business would be a pretty obvious no-no that should have been included as a cause for closing such a business?  I wonder when the next City Counsel meeting will be held in Dallas?  That might be a good time for them to go immediately into Executive Session, and get this problem fixed.  And while they are at it, it might be useful to question the judgment of whoever was responsible for the creation of the current ordinance that failed so miserably to protect a sixth grader from this exploitation.

A dress code?

Thankfully the news has cycled enough that the scandal surrounding former NY governor Eliot Spitzer has quieted although last night it was reported that he may have been linked to a second call girl network.  Nevertheless, The passage of time will get most of the credit, but to some degree, it has also been superseded by the admissions of infidelity and drug use by Spitzer’s successor and his wife, and more recently by Tuesday’s indictment of the mayor of Detroit.

Without trying to add to the piling on, I could not help but be intrigued by the similarities in the clothes that were chosen by Spitzer and his wife when compared with the attire a few years ago when then New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey resigned, admitting to having had a sexual relationship with a male employee while he was in office.

As a former executive, I always knew that a dark suit, plain white shirt, and conservative tie were appropriate for any business situation.  Now it would appear that there is perhaps a specific “look” for both the gentleman and lady for those awkward occasions when one must make a public confession of moral failure.

 

HT: my Dad for the photo

Was bad theology at play here?

A thorny legal and societal issue to say the least.  But theologically, it would seem that scripture is clear on this matter.  In James 5: 14, we are told that if someone is sick, the elders should pray for that person.  So far, so good as this story from Wisconsin is concerned.  HOWEVER, that same passage of scripture also provides instruction with respect to prayer combined with medical treatment!

The NIV rendering of James 5: 14 says:  “Is any one of you sick?  He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.”  The elders were instructed to care for the sick, and that care was to include both prayer and medicine.  Oil was a common medicinal substance in ancient times, as was balm, and salve and wine.  But there was also a specific sequence to the administration of that care that is not so clear in our English translations of scripture.  The Greek text is far clearer, particularly as it relates to the word “anoint.”  The verb tense of the word translated into English as “anoint” is the aorist active participle, so a better reading would be “the elders should pray over him, having anointed him with oil.”  Prayer follows the administration of medicine.

It is God who ultimately heals, with or without the use of medicine.  But it would seem that so-called faith that disregards all the gifts that God has sovereignly and graciously provided to us (in this case in the form of knowledge within the medical community combined with substances that can cure or treat illnesses), starts a descent down the slippery slope of foolishness and mockery.  

WAC

Write a caption for this photo.

HT: my Dad for the photo

Holy Week – Easter

The substance of this day is what all believers pin their hopes upon, insofar as their own eternity is concerned.  One of the great promises of our faith, is eternal life, and hand-in-hand with that, is not just the soul experience, but also a physical bodily presence with God…for eternity.  And that hope is based on what literally occurred on the day Jesus was resurrected.  And if He is not, our hope is lost and that which is of first importance is a lie.

1 Corinthians 15: 3-5

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and to the Twelve.

1 Corinthians 15: 13-14

And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

1 Corinthians 15: 16-17

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

1 Corinthians 15: 20

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead

Holy Week – Saturday

The scriptures don’t have much to say about exactly what was going on during the day following Jesus’ death.  However, we do know that it was the Sabbath (Luke 23: 50-56), so no work was allowed.  But according to Matthew’s gospel, (27: 62-66) we know that the chief priests were worried about people coming to steal Jesus’ body to claim He had been raised, so they asked Pilate to post a guard, which he allowed.

We could speculate on what the disciples were doing, but my best guess is that it was a mix of cowering in fear, combined with reconciliation of the shock of what they had seen and heard the day before along with a potent amount of pure grief.  And perhaps some lingering anguish over their own conduct.

However, I contend that at a soul level, Christ was at work, and for this day, I will simply link back to an article I wrote earlier this year on my contention that Christ descended into hell.

Holy Week – Good Friday

The images in this video speak a thousand words.  And yet as graphic as they might be, they seem somehow more gentle than the balance of the movie from which they were taken.  

If you have never seen The Passion of the Christ, you owe it to your self and your soul to watch it.  This video does not even begin to capture the intensity of the movie, nor does the movie capture the real life intensity of the events that took place on “Good” Friday.  But it does serve to bringing to the front of our minds the awfulness of that day, when OUR sins were atoned for by an innocent man.  And they should serve to replace the secular hues of spring with their pastel pinks and sky blues to the more blunt reality of the crimson red of the blood that was shed and the blackened sky, when for 3 hours the sun did not shine (Luke 23: 43, 45).

One of my favorite parts of the movie that falls in the category of extra-biblical creativity included by Mel Gibson, is shown in the final seconds of this video.  But the symbolism and effect of that tear that fell from heaven is more completely developed in the movie, not in this short clip.  Get the movie and watch it, or if you have it, watch it again.  Good Friday will take on a depth and gravity that it may never have had before.