Elegant dinner for the homeless

Let's get involved making some good news.

http://devour.com/video/prank-it-fwd/

Climate change and the 'Age of Endarkment'?

UPDATE: An excellent article.

When it comes to climate change, look for 3 factors:
- money: who loses and who gains?
- models: we're doomed; it's too late; climate will inundate us, melt all the ice and destroy our cities. These conclusions arise from models - predictions of things that haven't happened. Models can be wrong.
- euphemisms: oops, we can' call it "global warming" during a polar vortex. Let's call it "climate change."

For more thought on lockstep thinking and the need to be skeptical, see my post on lemmings.

An interesting and somewhat lighthearted discussion addressing opposing views:
Age of Endarkment

Should we or should we not follow the money? Lotta dough

Possible solution - a tradeoff: fund some sensible climate-change initiatives in return for a balanced-budged amendment, both of which might benefit of our children and grandchildren.

Transform your life with the wisdom of the ages

Skeptics often throw Bible verses at me, out of context. See my theses 42 and 72. Sometimes they tap into another skeptic on the Internet who borrowed out-of-context lists of verses to prove some goofy point.

A text without context is a pretext for a context.

You could not possibly read a book that can have a more profound impact on your life forever than the Bible, especially if you are a sincere truth-seeker. Even a non-believer can profit from the historical and insightful richness of the Bible.

Sometimes people complain that the Bible is too boring or massive to tackle, and they give up on the most enriching experience of their lives.

An article that can help spice things up and lead to more appreciation and understanding of God's Word is 5 Mistakes People Make When Reading the Bible

I recently finished listening to The Daily Message Bible, an audio reading I got free when I signed up for Audible.com - a truly enjoyable experience.

Get creative. Soak in the wisdom of the ages.

My Indy pastor nails sin

College Park Church's Mark Vroegop nails sin while preaching on Romans 7 

Whose rights?

How about the rights of women and minorities yet unborn? Unique viewpoint  

What I taught interns about making mistakes

"The better a man is, the more mistakes will he make, for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top level job who had not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise he is sure to be mediocre" -Peter Drucker [Don't miss the poem below]

From my 71st thesis above: Is the Bible sexist? Jesus lifted the status of women more than any other. "Many take offense at using the masculine word 'sons' to refer to all Christians, male and female. Some would prefer to translate Galatians 4:26: 'You are all children of God' (as the NIV 2011 does). But if we are too quick to correct the biblical language, we miss the revolutionary (and radically egalitarian) nature of what Paul is saying. In most ancient cultures, daughters could not inherit property. Therefore, 'son' meant 'legal heir,' which was a status forbidden to women. But the gospel tells us we are all sons of God in Christ. We are all heirs. Similarly, the Bible describes all Christians together, including men, as the 'bride of Christ' (Revelation 21:2). God is evenhanded in His gender-specific metaphors. Men are part of His Son’s bride; and women are His sons, His heirs. If we don’t let Paul call Christian women 'sons of God,' we miss how radical and wonderful a claim this is." -- Timothy Keller

By the way, I also had my staff eliminate sexism from government's prose and images. One feminist thought, however, some sexist literature was just fine, such as this:
As a rule,
A man's a fool;
When it's hot,
He wants it cool;
When it's cool,
He wants it not;
What it is,
He wants it not.

Lemmings

Have lemmings gotten a bum rap over the years?

Are you a lemming?

Put on your big boy or big girl pants and knock it off.

Lemming "suicide" is a frequently used metaphor in reference to people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal consequences, according to Wikipedia. You can picture lemmings following each other off a cliff. But just as "spending like a drunken sailor" insults a drunken sailor who knows enough to stop spending when he runs out of money, the furry fellows may not be as dumb as their go-along human counterparts.

We see the error of fickle crowd psychology or peer pressure a number of times in the Bible: Children of Israel rebelling against Moses and God; the masses crying "Hosanna" on Palm Sunday and "Crucify him" a few days later; the crowd condemning Paul as evil when a snake clung to him, and then revering him when he flung it into the fire with no ill effect.

Such is the danger in uncritically accepting dire warnings about climate change, foods, or tap water. More than those, think about this: the lemming hazard permeates even your most sacred halls of learning.

Take virtually any subject: OK, climate change, artificial sweeteners, Calvinism or entire sanctification. One pursues a higher degree and joins like-minded colleagues in the study of your chosen subject, be it in a laboratory, classroom, dig or seminary.

Let me take an example not so close to (my) home. On PBS, and perhaps still available today online, you could view the thoughtful series, "The Mormons." The series portrayed the good, bad and ugly. Long before the series, my own studies found the Mormon history bogus. The Book of Mormon talks about magnificent ancient cities in the Western Hemisphere. In a chat room, I presented to a Mormon historian the notion that the Bible had ample documentation in the form of archaeology and other sciences. And yet, no archaeological discoveries documented the existence of the Mormon cities. None.

The historian in my discussion responded, "Yes, Dave, you're right. There is no archaeological evidence. You must accept it all on faith."

The PBS backed up that fact. Professors of history at Brigham Young University approached the Latter Day Saints leadership with the discovery that the history was without evidence.

The church excommunicated the professors. Later, PBS interviewed them, and some dissolved into tears. Their premise was correct and courageous, but they missed the community terribly.

Accordingly, my "lemming" theory goes like this: You see error in the party line: the earth is cooling, not warming; Calvin never taught "Calvinism" as it is generally accepted today; you observe folks who claim to be "entirely" or "wholly" sanctified, but you don't see corresponding behavior.

But, you have invested half a lifetime in your denomination/hospital/university/lab/team. You have tenure. Gravitas. Speak up or write about what you have discovered as error and, though colleagues are kind, loving, cordial, they see you as something less than orthodox, no longer a team player, a fly in the ointment, marching to a different drummer. So much for that choice assignment, promotion or publication.

Here's the good news: Romans 8 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That means you can live a life of risk, doing what no one else can do, things that would shock the world. Do the right thing. Do the courageous thing. Do the meaningful thing. Do the God thing.
Don't be a lemming.

The lemming myth may be a cruel joke on these lovable, furry animals, but humans too often act like the mythical conformists.