Thursday, November 29, 2007

Badass Bible verses

I've never read the Bible. I know, quite an admission. But it's true.

Boing Boing has a short piece on badass Bible verses, including this one from 2 Kings 2 (New International Version):

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
Wow ... no kidding. 2 bears just like that. Guess he was pretty touchy about his appearance. I may have to find a copy of this and check it out.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Peacebang on the Fourth Principle

Fellow blogger Peacebang, in a post called Fourth Principle: Free and Responsible Search For Truth and Meaning has a paragraph that paricularly struck me:
It seems to me that UUs have yet to acknowledge the fact that while we have made it our "good news" to affirm and proclaim the essential harmony between world faith traditions, we have done so with little or no input or consultation with adherents of those faith traditions. We therefore operate on the assumption that religions "belong" to everyone and anyone who wants to claim them. I wish this was so, but it is not. Religions can only be responsibly understood in their time, place and cultural context. If we want to be a world religion religion, we must take the study of them far more seriously and make education in world religions a staple of our adult religious education offerings. I know that some congregations do this, but not many. Nor has the UUA provided curriculum to help with this knowledge deficit.
Good question. For instance, how do Jews feel when UUs perform the non-Jewish equivalent of a Passover Seder (a Jewish ritual feast held on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover)? I'm not Jewish, but I've enjoyed the few times I've had a chance to be part of one. Do (at least some of) those who are Jewish think we're stealing one of their traditions and treating it lightly? I don't know.

Monday, November 26, 2007

The Nicest Prayer

Here's something that's floating all over the web, but which makes a lot of sense to me, no matter what level of praying you ever do ...

Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares .

Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together .

Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Jim Wallis: My Response to A Muslim Call For Common Ground

Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It says
Christianity and Islam comprise the world's largest communities of faith - 2.1 billion Christians and 1.5 billion Muslims. If these two religious traditions cannot find ways to keep peace between themselves, the world will be in very serious trouble. As Brian McLaren posted earlier on this blog, a group of 138 Muslim scholars and clerics recently sent an open letter to Christians around the world, A Common Word Between Us and You. ...

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Military wants some signing bonuses back

In a new low for the U.S. government,
The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.

Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back. ...

Friday, November 09, 2007

The Religious Right and Moral Absolutes

Grandfather Tree discusses a question I've always found fascinating:
The problem that I have struggled with for a long time is to understand why folks on the "Christian right" have so adamantly and consistently fought against abortion, gay rights, and stem cell research, but are mostly silent on capital punishment, atrocities of war, and various governmental injustices. I just didn't make sense to me. After all, if they are against abortion because it is the killing of another human being, why aren't they equally against the invasion of Iraq or capital punishment, as both involve the intentional killing of human beings?
The writer goes on to talk about the Religious Right's problems with sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, and pretty much anything have to do with "normal" sex within marriage. That's been more my question: why the concentration on things related to sex, and not things related to, say, gang violence.

He touches on much of that in his posting.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Profit-making companies

I ran across A posting on Street Prophets, the idea of which is that the author wouldn't give space to someone who wants to talk about his/her book because it's "pimping".

Personally, I think there's way too much "if someone is making money, it must be bad" attitude going around these days. If I see a book whose topic is somehow related to this blog, and I think it's a good book, I've got no problem with the author providing me some information it and publishing it here.

The whole world isn't non-profit, folks. Let's get a little reality grip.

Monday, November 05, 2007

"I'm Praying For You"

Peacebang (and others) are writing about a recent advice column which which a non-religious writer has a problem when people tell her they're praying for her.

Personally, I think this is simply a matter of politeness. To me, it falls into the same category as receiving a gift or a compliment that perhaps I don't quite feel I deserve.

My response? "Thanks you". Try it a few times, and remember that practice makes perfect.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Westboro Baptist Church lawsuit

The recent Westboro Baptist Church lawsuit loss has me doing a Hillary.

I'm an ACLU member, so I believe in everyone's right to free speech - especially if I disagree with it.

That being said, down deep inside I can't help but be pleased that this lawsuit went against Westboro. Does that mean the ACLU is gonna demand my card back?

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