partsofspeaking

I work in a public college, and anybody who works for the government knows how much we are told to be inclusive, multicultural, diverse, appreciative of diversity, etc.   I think that is an admirable goal but an impossible dream on this earth.   I also think it is a sign of our yearning for heaven and a place where birth and skin color don’t matter.   I think we can get better at it, that we can grow as a society, that we can protect civil rights of all, that we should teach respect for all, but we can’t legislate people into accepting everyone just like they would accept people of their own ethnicity, tribe, language, etc.   Only in heaven will God achieve this beautiful model, not we ourselves.   We are always going to be a little afraid of difference; of course, that doesn’t mean we hurt or demean people.   In fact, if the Christian faith should do anything for believers, it should empower them to look beyond anything external to see the soul.  ...

Ron Artest changed his name to Metta WorldPeace?

To balance out the recent post protesting the constant browbeating we get from preachers about how we have failed as individuals and the church, I would direct attention to the Good Samaritan.  This passage in Luke 10 is in the middle of a wider argument. Jesus starts with "The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few.  Pray that laborers will be sent forth."  He doesn't want us to get our eyes off the need, which will always be there, "the poor you have with you always."  Jesus wasn't being cold when he said that; he was being a realist and reminding us of our responsibility.  In no way do I want my post from yesterday to be construed as justifying ignorance or apathy about social concerns.  What I want is for us to stop acting like the sacrifices and work that is being done do not exist. After that section of Luke 10, a lawyer comes to Jesus, testing him, and asks about the greatest commandment, which is the Shema, and "love your neighbor as ...

Piddle would be a good name of a search engine for people who just want to waste time looking up random information.  This from a Georgia Communication Association Executive Board Meeting.

This will be my last post of the weekend.  I listen to a lot of Christian radio, although I am not always sure why.  Sometimes it is because they are playing some unlistenable music on NPR station; up until recently it was because I didn't know there is an oldies station again in Chattanooga.  Other times I listen to Christian radio because it's a speaker (like Alistair Begg) I want to hear; other times the music is palatable.  But you end up hearing a lot of things you just have to shake your head at.  It sometimes feels as if they have to fill up 24 hours a day, and the quality just plain suffers sometimes. The other day a speaker was waxing ineloquent about how much we fail as Christians, as the church.  I had to wonder (and only because I get in devil's advocate moods, not because I have any knowledge about the subject) if Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Baptists, and Catholics get told they have failed all the time.  That's just about all we get told a...

Last Sunday we were privileged to hear Dr. Steve Nichols, formerly of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and now president of Tennessee Temple University, speak at our church.  I will skip any observations about my former master TTU.  I hope the place is better now, and I hope Dr. Nichols can save it.  He preached at Brainerd Baptist because he was the mentor and professor of our pastor. He spoke on Psalm 46, God as refuge, river, and ruler.  Nice and appropriate outline. The issue of God as refuge and tower, therefore protection, hit home.  My husband regularly tells me I am defensive.  I have reasons to be, but reasons do not mean the behavior has to continue.  If God is my refuge, I do not need to protect and defend my "self" so much.  Or at all.  It has been freeing.  That's one more step toward happiness.

I have been trying to get to the movies to see The Hunger Games , but life is complicated right now.  So, while doing the grocery shopping at (gasp) Wal-mart, I saw that they had the book very cheap so I picked it up, thinking I would pass it on to a friend who teaches reading.  I read most of it last weekend but had little time for it during the week, so I finished it last night. It is, of course, a great read, not a dull minute, imaginative, and extremely thought-provoking.  The problem with the discussion on Christian talk radio about the movie (and the book) is one of interpretation and audience.  The book is clearly for sixteen-year-olds--not six-year-olds.  Any parent who doesn't have the good sense to read reviews before taking an elementary school child to see the movie deserves to pay all the psychiatric bills they will have to for their scarred and traumatized child.  Beyond the violence, a child under fifteen or sixteen simply would not under...

Mine!  Traveling Through, The Christmas Visitors, and soon, Cross Road and Legacy.                             

I have two heroes in the faith.  Joni Eareckson Tada and Chuck Colson.  Chuck Colson, whose radio program I listened to every morning (or read as an email) has passed away, and in his case that is not a euphemism.  He has passed away from this life and into the total and unique presence of God. He has passed away from his life's work, or at least the second half of his life's work, discipling prisoners and serving as a prophet to the modern American church that we must think Biblically about everything.  He has passed away from those naysayers who couldn't accept that even though he committed crimes, he was transformed and did more for the country and humanity than they could ever dream of.  One time on Nightline we was being interviewed at the same time Bob Woodruff was.  Woodruff had the nerve to act superior; Colson was clearly annoyed by Woodruff's "I got you put in jail" attitude but kept his cool.  And what has Bob Woodruff done for humanity?...

I won the Faculty Excellence in Service Award at Dalton State College today.  It means $1,000 from the Foundation, which will help immensely with doctoral work. Everyone has been very sweet and supportive.

For those wondering, this the photograph circulating around the Internet of Jeff Neely, some official in the Government Services Administration.  It is designed to mock his high spending habits.  It looks like the cover of a Jacqueline Suzanne novel.