by

Our Daily Thread 2-4-13

Good Morning!

What’s on your mind today?

Quote of the Day

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”

Rosa  Parks

QoD 2 parts

Did you watch the Super Bowl?

And if you did, which commercial was your favorite?

80 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-4-13”

  3. Since I am married to a HUGE football fan, of course I wanted the Super Bowl and even a little afterwards. I really thought Baltimore was going to mess up and lose it at the end but they didn’t. I wanted Baltimore to win because yesterday during the PRE Super Bowl Sports Talk all the TV announcers kept picking San Francisco. (I am contrary that way) also I have actually lived in Baltimore and I have never been to San Francisco.
    After the game they asked the winning brother what he said to his losing brother. He said, “I told him I love him”. They asked what his brother said back to him and he said, “He told me congratulations”. THAT is sportsmanship.

    I think overall my favorite commercial once again was the Budweiser commercial with the Clydesdales. If you have seen the movie War Horse you pretty much have the jist of the commercial.

    I liked the Audi commercial because as a former Geek I liked that they boy went to the prom alone, kissed the super hot girl, got a black eye for his efforts but felt good about himself even if the implication was that the car is what gave him confidence.

    I also liked the Taco Bell commercial, because my Geek days are behind me and I most probably will never attend another Prom, but I may be dropped off at the retirement home by my beloved daughter and when I am I fully intend to make up for the sobriety of my youth and become quite scandalous.

    Along these lines:

    When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

    with a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.

    And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

    and satin candles, and say we’ve no money for butter.

    I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

    and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

    and run my stick along the public railings

    and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

    I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

    and pick the flowers in other people’s gardens

    and learn to spit.

    You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

    and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

    or only bread and pickles for a week

    and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

    But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

    and pay our rent and not swear in the street

    and set a good example for the children.

    We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

    But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

    So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

    When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

    Like

    Reply

  4. Alternative Question of the Day. What if you got to Heaven and found it really gay?

    Also, what happened to Ree?

    What would you do if the Pope got a revelation from God that Evolution is true?

    Like

    Reply

  5. Oh, and the cutest thing you didn’t watch was The Puppy Bowl. They were playing the re-run of it on Animal Planet last night as I fell asleep. The Moo-Man popped his little puppy dog head up and was watching it.
    I saw a couple of dogs I wouldn’t mind having, but alas, the hubs wants a big dog, a MAN sized dog, not some little worthless ball of hair. (I had to cover Amos’ ears and scold his step-father!)

    Like

    Reply

  6. My son turned on the game a few times so I saw a bit of it. My husband was toiling on income taxes at the office so as usual he does not get to watch the Super Bowl.

    The only ad I remember seeing was the Coke ad which I did not understand. I asked my son if it related to Lawrence of Arabia. He told me it seemed to have references to a lot of movies. I thought it was not a very good ad because it seemed it would take many watchings to get all the references if it was like he said. Something more simple would have been more effective to reach a wider audience. I guess I remember it because Coke is based in Atlanta, and I guess I somehow feel they in some ways represent the people of this city. I think maybe what they were doing might be termed a “mash-up of movies.” Well, to me I would just call it a smashed movie ad.

    Like

    Reply

  11. QoD: We made wings and sliders and did celebrated America’s highest holiday; at least it seems like that according to the culture. Was really hoping the 9ers could pull it off, but alas.

    Fave commercial was “God made a farmer.” It got all 12 people in the house to stop and stare.

    Heaven can’t be gay because in the new sense heaven is inclusive; there will be no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, no rich or poor, no high or low caste, no Demacrats or Republicans, no Hatfields or McCoys, only one new humanity in Christ.

    I don’t listen to the Pope now, why would I then?

    Like

    Reply

  12. Random, My father in-law passed away on Saturday. We will be heading to Boise again on the 13th. Do you really believe the body, soul and spirit just become fertilizer?

    In all my travels I have yet to find a culture that believes this. Even some stalwart evolutionists I know believe there is another world, another life.

    Like

    Reply

  13. Kare, Hubby just got off jury duty. A murder case. They found him not guilty.

    I am glad to hear that. I am sure it would be tedious and embarassing to have a husband convicted of murder. I am quite sure you would not marry a man capable of such dastardly behavior.

    I once had a (former) (high school student) (when I was a teacher) who was convicted of murdering her husband. I often wondered about her parents. Did they have “unconditional” love for her? Did they visit her in prison?

    She was sentenced to life in prison, but released after 40 years or so. When I blogged about it, what might have been her former brother in law, made threats about “finishing the job.” I thought, this is too deep for me. I sent everything I had to the state police and sheriff of the relevant county.

    Like

    Reply

  15. Do you really believe the body, soul and spirit just become fertilizer?

    In all my travels I have yet to find a culture that believes this. Even some stalwart evolutionists I know believe there is another world, another life.

    Yes. I do believe that. Today I will go get my first PSA test so I can see if I will die of prostate cancer (or perhaps something else, first). When I am dying, sooner or later, if still conscious and coherent, if some Christian comes prating by at me, I will try and be polite when I tell them to shut up and leave my room immediately, but I have a bad temper and most people intensify whatever they were when they get old (or so a friend who had done hospice work told me once), so I might fling bed pans or whack with crutches or whatever. For your own safety, find someone else to prate at to alleviate your fear of death.

    There is absolutely no empirical evidence of life after physical death. None. Zero.

    Reverence for life means “I fear death.” Faith means “I believe in unprovable assertions.” Do I fear death? Of course I do. At least I am honest about it. While I am not always honest, I strive to be. Faith means “wishful thinking.”

    A few of you may have read the blog I once wrote about my granddaughter. For privacy I called her “Random Granddaughter,” “RG” for short. She is about to have her ninth birthday. She is getting her ears pierced. Grandma bought her tasteful earrings, which she will open on her birthday. (She can delay gratification now. Hope that extends into adolescence.)

    I am printing out the material from her blog and putting it in earliest to latest order. (It ended in 2011 because she can read now.) For her birthday, I showed her a huge binder. I said “This is the birthday present you will get when you are 18.” Do you know how many years it will be until you are 18?” Although she is very bright and goes to a school for talented and gifted children, arithmetic is not her strongest skill, and she fumbled for a bit.

    Then I asked, “What happens when you are 18?” She was all over that. “I will be an adult.” I cautioned, “In most things, not as far as beer and wine.”

    I thought, she has learned to say please and thank you and eat vegetables, but she will not be patient about everything and may not be that compliant if mommies become “control freak” mommies.

    I am waiting until 18, because Grandma and Mommies may not like everything I have to say and I want it to be her choice to read or not.

    Among other things, I will say, “I am an atheist, and I hope you become an atheist. However, if I am watching from Heaven and see you are a believer in the fantasy of life after death, I will forgive you.”

    Like

    Reply

  16. You know Random, empirical evidence is not an absolute deal breaker. It cannot prove love exists. Whole swaths of science must be done away with if that is the criteria. I know a lot of non-believeing Phds in physics and biology that would disagree with you. Yours is just one faith among many. You should try in that belief to be tolerant toward others. 😉 We are all dying Random. I am not afraid.

    Like

    Reply

  18. “I am glad to hear that. I am sure it would be tedious and embarassing to have a husband convicted of murder.”

    After I posted I figured someone would go for that easy joke. My average nine-year-old from a private Christian school would have easily gotten the 9 from 18 math problem. They’re doing division and stuff. You sure they’re getting their money’s worth from that fancy-smancy school. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  20. Random – I am reposting this today because I posted it late on 1 Feb and the thread was already stale.

    “Chickens are very stupid at being people. They are pretty smart at being chickens. Probably the way the Lord meant it. I imagine Him sitting up in Heaven looking at a flock and saying, “Here. This is called ‘pecking.; This is calld ‘scratching.’ This is called ‘laying’ [Get your mind out of hen house!] ”

    Random! Good to see you. I thought you don’t believe in the Lord. methinks perhaps, you really do. (Somewhere way down deep in your Random Heart. )
    😉

    Like

    Reply

  21. No, I didn’t watch the Super Bowl — I was invited to a party but decided to pass this year. I missed the Puppy Bowl, too.

    I did, however, hear the SB game — or at least all the reactions to the game — as people throughout my neighborhood whooped it up.

    I have to say that it appears SF gave Baltimore a good run for it. I was seeing the score as the game progressed and apparently SF was able to come from way behind and almost snatch it away.

    It sounds like it was probably a pretty good game.

    Strange that L.A. still doesn’t have a professional football team after quite a few years. When I was growing up we had the Rams, then the Raiders.

    Random knows there’s a God just like all people know there is a God (though many suppress that knowledge). 😦

    Like

    Reply

  22. I not only watched the game, I watched the games. Well, I did not watch them in their entirety. But I caught parts of the Risk game and the Clue game and the Uno game. Pretty exciting!

    Like

    Reply

  24. People, I know you’re all not Catholic, but — honestly — we ought to understand things better.

    The Pope CANNOT get a “revelation” which changes the Catholic church. In fact, the Catholic Church has an entire system set up to keep it from changing significantly from the faith as they feel it was handed to them by the apostles.

    They have something called the “Magisterium.” This is a group of (supposedly Holy Spirit led) Bishops plus the Pope, and it is their job to keep the faith in tact and not allow it to become “interpreted” by every Tom, Dick, and Harry so that everyone believes whatever he or she wants to (which is their beef with Protestants, mind you!)

    The Catholic Church (whether you buy it or not) strongly believes in APOSTOLIC faith, which means the faith passed down directly by the apostles. While it can be understood BETTER (how they explain some of the more minor changes), it cannot be CHANGED.

    So, the Pope can never get some sort of revelation that fundamentally changes the practices of the Church. The rest of the Magisterium would immediately assume he’d gone nuts and needed some help. They would not change fundamental Church beliefs over such a revelation.

    Like

    Reply

  25. We didn’t have the game on in our home, since neither of us are interested in football. I did see a couple of the commercials, because someone was offended. That always guarentee a bit more coverage.

    Jesus says there is no marriage in heaven, that we will be like the angels on that score. I suppose that means no gay or straight–just people enjoying God forever. Only those who will enjoy God forever will go. It would be hell to those who don’t want to have anything to do with Him. Apparently, God gave them what they ultimately want by making them their very own place. There is no end to God’s grace and mercy, but He doesn’t force it on anyone.

    Like

    Reply

  27. Now, as for evolution, the Pope did NOT get a revelation that it was true. What he (and the Church) say is that a Catholic is allowed to believe in it, so long as they believe that God was the power behind it.

    This, of course, doesn’t make the secular, humanist evolutionists happy, because they want to say that it all happened through the blind “force” of natural selection. The fact that the Catholic Church believes God was the force behind it all sort of ruins the theory for these secularists, and they aren’t any happier than if the Church stuck to pure 7-day Creationism.

    Mind you, the Catholic Church is okay with people believing in pure 7-day Creationism too, although I doubt that is the generally accepted belief as the Church has a very strong scholarly and intellectual bent in its upper echelons.

    The Catholic Church does, however, insist on a real Adam and a real Eve at some point in the process (as they must in order to fit with what the Bible says.)

    Like

    Reply

  33. Tammy, I doubt anyone here really believes the Pope gets any special revelations at all, nor cares partucularly much about Catholic ecclesiology except to wish to see it reformed according to Scripture. My response (and possibly any others’) to Random was just a shorthand way of dismissing his profound questions with a basic “meh.”

    Like

    Reply

  34. Grrr. If I’m going to moderation due to the comment, you’d at least think the site would tell me so!

    This is a synopsis of what the Catholic church teaches on evolution.

    But, I’m breaking up the URL, because the site won’t let me post the link. 😦 Corn Fritter! (As my mother would say). You’d think I was trying to post pornography or something, rather than simply a link to a Catholic website. 😦

    So, you’ll have to add the http://

    Then the www.

    Then catholic.com/tracts/

    Then adam-eve-and-evolution

    Like

    Reply

  38. I’m going to be honest. *I* care about Catholic ecclesiology.

    Firstly, because — for 1500 years — the Catholic Church was the Church. Now, I’m well aware of the Great Schism in 1054, but the Orthodox and Catholic churches are still *much* more similar to each other (to the point that to some outsiders, they may often seem as if they are straining at gnats with their differences — as important as those are to each group), than they are to Protestants. There were also a number of more minor schisms, but — again — these churches are still pretty much just a slightly different version of the Catholic Church.

    So, this is 1500 years of OUR history. We tend to overlook it, excuse it, or pick and choose from it, but the Early Church Fathers and all the later Church Fathers — until 1517 — were most definitely Catholic. So, it is good to know what they taught.

    Secondly, because somewhere on the order of 60% of Christians in the world are Catholic. (Protestants come in somewhere around 20 – 30%). So, I think that we ought to be more aware of what 60% of our brethren believe.

    Thirdly, because they ARE our brethren. We — by far — have more agreement in our beliefs than we do disagreements. Even when we include beliefs on Mary (which is a huge sticking point), we still — to an atheist — are more alike than we are different. To them, it’s rather like noting that a Ford Truck is not the same as a Dodge Ram Truck.

    Sure, they’re not. But, to insist that they are worlds different would be silly. They are both big, burly trucks, and ought to be classified together when one is talking about vehicles. 🙂

    Finally, on a more personal note, I care because my son is attending a Catholic university (as a Protestant!), I have a number of in-laws who are Catholic, and I have many friends who are Catholic. So, I have made an effort recently to study what they actually believe. This has been very useful to me, because I grew up with a grandmother who believed that the Pope was the anti-Christ! And, I was taught that Catholics worshiped statues, worshiped Mary, believed that they were saved by “works” and probably weren’t actually saved. Basically, I began to doubt some of what I was taught as I got older, and my research has clarified that it was usually downright wrong. (Fortunately, my mother now works with and for Catholics, so she no longer believes a lot of that either.)

    So, more personally, I dislike seeing strawmen put out about Catholic beliefs. I still have some serious concerns and issues with some of what they believe, but I am most fully convinced that they are brothers and sisters in Christ. So, I like to have their beliefs correctly expressed when possible. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  40. Of course we watched the Super Bowl. And the show after the game. And the show about it after that on the NFL network. And all the coverage this morning. And bought three newspapers. And some of us (not me) are even conniving a way to get to the parade tomorrow. And to Walmart to buy a Ravens-won-the-super-bowl tee shirt. Did I mention we’re from Baltimore?

    Like

    Reply

  41. Thoughts on the following?

    I agree. There will be no marriage or giving in marriage in Heaven.

    But, is Heaven our final home?

    I was reading a study recently, but I can’t remember where. According to that Bible study, Heaven is NOT our final home. Rather, the new Heaven and new Earth are our final destination (and they will be intimately connected).

    God did not make us to be with Him in Heaven, but rather He desired to live and interact with us on Earth. This is why He made Earth and the Garden.

    So, basically, according to Revelation (and other books), our temporary destination may be Heaven, but our final destination is the new Earth where God will dwell with us.

    At that point, might not the original plan — correctly realized — begin to function once again? And, at that point, might people not get married and have children again … as it was in the beginning and intended to be?

    I wish I could remember where I ran across this whole idea. I read a lot, but I don’t retain *where* I get some stuff as well as I’d like.

    I think I’m getting old. 😦

    Like

    Reply

  44. Uhhhmmmm, OK. I was just speaking in shorthand on a relatively obsure (no offense) blog site about a one-off comment made by a guy who doesn’t know the difference between the Pope and poop scoop. A few years ago, the Pope issued a statement effectively attempting to accommodate Scripture to evolution. That’s too bad (it’s *REALLY* bad, but beside the point of my post). The point of my post was that your standard Protestant would give much of a rip about what the Pope says about evolution aside from a general sense of what it says about nominal Christians wanting acceptance among the established scientific community…which isn’t what Random was really getting at, so it’s not much of a relevant point to his question, but whatever.

    Like

    Reply

  45. Tammy, the word “heaven” is used in a whole lot of different ways. Scripture speaks of “the third heaven,” and if I recall correctly that is (1) the atmosphere around the earth, (2) space, where planets and stars are, and (3) God’s dwelling place.

    We also use “heaven” to speak of our eternal home, though Scripture seems to indicate it will actually be a renewed earth. What is the actual connection of the place heaven and our eternal home, I don’t know. I don’t think Scripture tells us. Nowadays I try to say “in eternity” rather than “in heaven.”

    Like

    Reply

  46. Good Afternoon, T’all!

    Watched part…liked the Clydesdale ad and the Paul Harvey ad (reminded me of my Grandpa…but he wouldn’t have ever bought a Dodge!)

    Like

    Reply

  47. Some encouraging news (through our organization) about what God is doing in the Near East:

    Amidst heart-breaking devastation and suffering in Syria, Muslims are coming to Christ and lives are changing forever through experiences not featured in secular news headlines. With more than one million forced from their homes, the need for relief provides us with opportunities. We have helped establish a dozen small fellowships in Syria which are distributing aid to needy communities. As these believers live out their faith, it leads to opportunities to share the Gospel.

    Rare and exciting opportunities have opened within Kurdish areas. Astonishingly, believers have been given permission to show Christian films openly in more than 300 villages and a number of schools. House group meetings have doubled in size.

    Ahmed*, a father of six, felt increasingly helpless as he failed to find work to support his family. One daughter had cancer and urgently needed medicine, but the family had no money. Desperate, Ahmed decided one night to hang himself, but heard a strong inner voice say, “Who will take care of your children when you are gone?” Ahmed wept. As he told his story to a local pastor the next day, the pastor shared how much Jesus loves them.

    Ahmed asked God for forgiveness. The pastor prayed for the child. Later, blood tests showed no trace of cancer in her body! The faith of this family is spreading, and a number of other family members have also come to Christ.

    Like

    Reply

  49. Solarpancake (I’m sorry … do you have another name by which I should know you? As I said, I’m getting old. ;-p ),

    I’m really not jumping on YOU personally … or, at least, I hadn’t intended to do so. So, my apologies for it feeling like an attack.

    We’re good … okay?

    You (and at least one other person … again, it isn’t personal, because I’d have to read back through the thread to see who that is), just pressed a personal “button” of mine. 🙂

    And, I LOVE to talk … especially when I’m really supposed to be doing something else I’d rather not do. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  51. But, of course, Random, Solarpancake is correct in that a Protestant wouldn’t really care what the Pope said, except inasmuch as he or she would be saddened by the 60% of Christians that could lead astray. 😦

    Like

    Reply

  52. It’s cool, Tammy. Like I mentioned earlier, my reference to the Pope was really just in the context of Random’s question, and the answer to said question was basically that Protestants don’t give papal statements any authoritative weight, so his question is kind of a non-starter. I wasn’t really making commentary on Catholic doctrine or anything. So we’re good.

    Like

    Reply

  55. Kim,

    Why would you want to do those things? Except, perhaps, to wear purple. But I do that already.

    Steven,

    As I once said would happen, I got bored when there was no one to argue with.

    Like

    Reply

    • There you are, Ree. Just to be a little obsessive, the spelling on my birth certificate is “Stephen.”

      As I once said would happen, I got bored when there was no one to argue with. Aside from there being no such place as Heaven, I think you have just guaranteed my presence there.

      Reasoning.

      1. Ree is a person of intelligence, correct theology, good character, and virtue, not to mention being born again in Jesus Christ.
      2. A person of such (and probably many more) virtues is sure to go to Heaven.
      3. She will be bored in Heaven. (As most of you know, my theory is that an eternity of ANYTHING becomes boring,thus turning Heaven into Hell. But ignore that).
      4. God and Jesus will ask, “What can we do, oh virtuous and delightful Ree? to kep you interested in Heaven?”
      5. “Oh divinities, please bring Stephen up her. Even with Heaven right before his eyes, he will deny everything and argue about everything.”
      6. Jesus: “How can I bring such a foolish and denying person into our Presence?”
      7. Ree: Bats her eyes fetchingly at God, Jesus, and HG. . .

      Like

      Reply

  58. The hostage situation in Alabama has ended. The boy is safe.

    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/04/16836632-alabama-hostage-crisis-over-after-7-days-boy-safe-kidnapper-dead?lite

    “A 5-year-old boy held captive for seven days in an underground bunker in southern Alabama is alive and his kidnapper is dead, Special Agent in Charge Stephen Richardson said at a press briefing on Monday afternoon.

    “Within the past 24 hours negotiations deteriorated and Mr. Dykes was observed holding a gun,” Richardson, of the Mobile, Ala. FBI office, said in a brief statement. “At this point, FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child.”

    The child was recovered at 3:12 p.m. CT and appears physically unharmed, Richardson said. He is being treated at a local hospital.”

    Like

    Reply

  59. KBells: After I posted I figured someone would go for that easy joke. My average nine-year-old from a private Christian school would have easily gotten the 9 from 18 math problem. They’re doing division and stuff. You sure they’re getting their money’s worth from that fancy-smancy school.

    No, I am not sure. It is complicated, and I am not sure how much I can say. The children rhere are very intelligent, and many of them come from some of the richest families in America. I won’t mention any names, but some you would know. Some of the children, however, are “scholarship children,” including our granddaughter.

    There is a lot of controversy in our society right now about class differences, and about people who are so rich and so isolated from ordinary people that they are quite out of touch. My impression is that the Romneys would fall into that category. Bill & Mary Gates seem to be people who make an effort not to be out touch, and are making a serious effort to give away most of their money. (Seriously, after you have two or three billion dollars or so, what can anyone possibly “need? “The Gates have (sensibly in my opinion) told their kids: “you will only get a few billion, enough to be comfortable, enough to start a serious enterprise if ambitious, but not enough to become “entitled monsters. ”

    So from what I have seen (from a few interactions and observations) 50% of what goes on at the school is conventional teaching of basic skills such as reading and math and 50% is teaching them how to feel and behave and interact like normal human beings. RG’s mother is a teacher there, so she understands the school much more than I do. I do know that she (and I suspect everyone there) puts “compassion” as the top priority of their educational goals.

    They also talk quite a bit about “traditions,” which seems to be their code word for dealing with religion, and the fact that the world is full of varied reigious beliefs, and for encouraging tolerance of various religious beliefs. I have no idea if they consider atheism anywhere in the “traditions” they deal with. I tread very, very carefully in this area. One of the reasons I am providing RG with a “packet” of blog posts on her 18th birthday is that I will say, “whatever you are, I am an atheist, and I hope you are or will become an atheist, but I will not fret if you do something else.” In fact, at the moment, she seems to be learning a bit toward Christianity. I figure the worst thing I can do at the moment would be to get all hot and bothered about it.

    Our policy is that unless the parents are obviously and actively harming the children, grandparents should not interfere with how parents choose to raise children. I worked with a woman in my last job, about my age, and who looked like a very conventional, very conservative matron. However, I learned that when younger, she had led a very promiscuous and sexually libertine life style. Now her daughter was doing the same and my co-worker feared that her daughter was letting a boyfriend molest the two grandchildren. My co-worker was tying herself into knots trying to retain a relationship with daughter and grandchildren and protect the children. I was glad to retire and get away from a horrible situation I could not possibly help with.

    Like

    Reply

  60. As far as your various comments about the Pope and about Heaven, and about other such things, none of it strikes me as making any kind of coherent sense, yet most of you go on and on as if it does. For example (not trying to pick on Cheryl; it’s just typical evangelical-babble to me:

    Tammy, the word “heaven” is used in a whole lot of different ways. Scripture speaks of “the third heaven,” and if I recall correctly that is (1) the atmosphere around the earth, (2) space, where planets and stars are, and (3) God’s dwelling place.

    We also use “heaven” to speak of our eternal home, though Scripture seems to indicate it will actually be a renewed earth. What is the actual connection of the place heaven and our eternal home, I don’t know. I don’t think Scripture tells us. Nowadays I try to say “in eternity” rather than “in heaven.”

    There is NO evidence that such a place exists, whatever you call it. So you can tell me it is this or it is not this and it is all “cloud cuckoo land” to me. We know something about outer space, and other suns and solar systems, and so on. Our knowledge of these matters if very thin, and changes quite a bit, but it is based on empirical evidence collection. But Heaven and God’s dwelling place and badbadabada is based on nothing except books thousands of years old interpreted through mist and legend with NO tangible empirical evidence. Son one comment poster posts one thing and the next something else, and a fine high time is had by all because anybody can say just about anything.

    Like

    Reply

  62. MP, Romney was not my first choice for the nomination but I think you are mistaken about them. They seem like nice people and Ann did not keep servants when the children were young. They also give away a large percentage of their income. They seem much more in touch than say the Kerrys or the Gores or any of the Kennedys.

    Like

    Reply

  64. God gives miracles for those whose faith needs them, not those who demand them. Thank you, Tychichus for encouragement on a difficult day.

    Prayer request–daughter in the ER from a head and eye injury owing to a volleyball kill three days ago. Santa Barbara is a long way from home and she didn’t listen to me when I told her to go in.

    But God is in his heaven and he determines the ways of a man/woman/child, so we praise him for what will come from this.

    Thanks.

    I’ll send NJL an email tomorrow.

    Like

    Reply

  65. Oh please, Tammy, don’t get me started. Suffice it to say that the church fathers (as well as the Magisterial Protestant reformers) were indeed, catholic, but they were most definitely not Roman Catholic. In other words, they didn’t hold to the same ecclesiology as modern day Roman Catholics do nor to the same rule of faith, regardless of what the RC pop apologists would have you believe.

    Like

    Reply

  66. Thanks for the offer, Aj. It’s tempting, but I’m not aware of any substantial disagreements between you and me. Once something becomes apparent, though, I’ll be happy to oblige. 😉

    Like

    Reply

  67. Hope your girl is OK, Michelle.

    I’ve had a stressful day — just before I was leaving to go to work this morning, I heard lots of commotion outside, along with some screaming (but it almost sounded like kids playing).

    When I opened my front door, there was a large, beautiful boxer dog lying in the street and several people standing around aghast.

    The dog was dead (a blessing), and the driver (a young girl from Sweden) stayed, she looked stricken.

    She and a man moved the dog up onto the grassy area near my curb and, while it took a couple calls (and eventually the intervention of the councilman’s press guy, a former photographer of the paper’s, to take care of it) L.A. sanitation finally came and picked the dog up sometime this afternoon, several hours after I’d left for work.

    There were tags but the man who tried calling the #s said neither # was good. So we don’t know who her owner was (the dog didn’t look familiar to me). I’m thinking she may have been a recent transplant (one of the phone #s was out of our area code). Her name was Sandy. 😦 So sad.

    Then the big guns from Canada & back east were at the office, shut away in day-long closed-door meetings of some kind. Probably not a good sign, although maybe they’ll just decide to sell us (which might not be all bad, but it could be worse, who knows).

    Just trying to soldier on …

    Like

    Reply

  68. Ree, thanks.

    My husband has been doing some research to counteract some erroneous teaching of a loved one, and one of the things he keeps running across is the misunderstanding of the word “catholic.” (At least one party was saying we shouldn’t pay any attention to Augustine because he was “Catholic.” And that Martin Luther or John Calvin, I’m tired and I forget which one, was too.)

    The teaching of church history absolutely should go back before the Reformation. But it also should include the very important reasons for the Reformation!

    Like

    Reply

  69. Tammy said: “for 1500 years — the Catholic Church was the Church. ”

    Clarify: it was the established, state church starting about AD 300 (Constantine). It was never, and still is not the church, as the church is made up of all the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what name is over the door of the building where they worship. Sadly, the state church murdered many members of the church by burning them at the stake because they thought they were heretics.

    Like

    Reply

  70. Donna, it never occurred to me to wonder this, but when a dog is killed like that, would they check the body for a microchip? I actually called and updated Misten’s information with the microchip company before I married and moved, and got new tags and put them on her (my husband already had the number, so no one would have called and gotten a wrong number if she had happened to get lost a week before we married). In fact, the man at the microchip company didn’t understand I wasn’t actually married yet, so he was the first person to call me by my married name. 🙂 It sounded rather nice.

    Like

    Reply

  71. Cheryl, the couple who witnessed the accident (they were out walking their small dogs onleash and had their baby in a stroller) told me the dog did have a microchip, I assume there was a tag indicating that.

    The first agency called was Animal Control, which should have been able to scan it, but when the guy showed up (after I had gone to work), they determined the dog was dead, said it wasn’t their “job,” and told neighbors to call Sanitation.

    So I don’t know if there was every any attempt to scan the chip. I did ask my friend from the council office to see if sanitation could remove the collar (I was told they definitely don’t follow up to try to find an owner), but I guess that wasn’t done.

    😦

    RIP “Sandy.” So sad.

    Like

    Reply

  72. “Sandy” had been following the couple out for a walk, he said they tried calling the numbers on her tags but they didn’t connect to an owner. I think it was after that when “Sandy” was hit and killed. I walked out of my front door moments after it happened, apparently.

    Like

    Reply

  73. I also sent an email to the L.A. Boxer rescue, thinking maybe if she was a recent adoption and transplant to our community/neighborhood (which might explain the out-of-date tags) they might be able to ID her, but I haven’t heard back from them.

    Like

    Reply

  74. Stephen,

    I apologize for the misspelling. There’s definitely nothing obsessive about wanting your name spelled correctly as far as I’m concerned.

    The rest of your post, on the other hand, leaves me with nothing to say. How does one begin to respond to such foolishness? Except I suppose to point out that any attempt to try to imagine eternity from our limited time-bound experience is simply absurd.

    Like

    Reply

    • Ree, “Nothing to say?” That does not sound like the Ree I know.

      Regardless, I must decline your proposal of marriage. A woman who will marry a Jain sounds promising, but a woman who will marry several men sounds rather Tibetan Buddhist. I had a friend who married a Tibetan Buddhist after they got cozy (to keep warm, I presume) while she was hiking in Nepal, and it sort of worked out, but I only marry attheists, even if we are from diffeent sects. (Not to be confused with sex, but that’s a different story. After all my daughter just married a womn of a different sect (Methodist), but my daughter converted that woman to atheism. They had a baby, who is now nine years old (or will be in a week). I know this is biologically impossible, and perhaps proves evolution is impossible. I hope to convert AE (my granddaugher) to atheistm (probably after I die, but I won’t know how close to death I am until my PSA test results comes back from my OBAMA CARE HMO, probably tomorrow. Should I tell everybody at Wandering Views about my PSA results, so they have something to look forward to? Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. There’s a naughty two word phrase usually applied to women by men. It runs “XXXX Tease.” Who would think it applies to men and religion. Of course, when I know my results I might just drop dead from shock, and then it would be too late and I would be cooking on the Hieronymous Bosch barbeque spit.

      Like

      Reply

  75. Oh please, Tammy, don’t get me started. Suffice it to say that the church fathers (as well as the Magisterial Protestant reformers) were indeed, catholic, but they were most definitely not Roman Catholic. In other words, they didn’t hold to the same ecclesiology as modern day Roman Catholics do nor to the same rule of faith, regardless of what the RC pop apologists would have you believe.

    *******Ree,

    I disagree. They did hold to substantially the same faith, except, perhaps, that many of the necessary reforms have now been enacted within the Catholic Church.

    Nevertheless, I haven’t seen a substantial difference. My son studies this thoroughly (he’s going to be a theology major as well a philosophy major), and he doesn’t see a substantial difference in present day Catholic theology and that of the Early Church and Later Church Fathers.

    They have refined a few positions, most assuredly, and there are definitely things that my son agrees with the Reformers on, but to say that they were not Roman Catholic … well, I suppose if you go back to when the two Churches (Orthodox and Roman) were the same, then they were not Roman Catholic, but simply Catholic before 1054. Then they were Orthodox and Roman Catholic until the Reformation.

    Like

    Reply

  76. Tammy,

    The church fathers were all over the place on the various issues that divide Roman Catholics from Protestants, with some opinions sounding more like the former, some like the latter, and some like neither. There was certainly none of that “unanimous consent of the fathers” they like to refer to. But more importantly, none of them interpreted the passages the RCC uses to claim its own absolute authority the way modern day RCs do. With the aid of their most famoust convert, Cardinal Newman, the RCC has constructed a philosophical defense of its own historicity and authority that’s unfalsifiable. But when it comes to the particulars, the RCC looks nothing like the church of the early fathers.

    Like

    Reply

  77. Part of the Nicene Creed says, “I believe in the holy catholic and apostalate church”. Catholic with a lower case c denoted the universal church and includes all Christians whether Baptist, Methodist, or upstarts like me, Anglican. Catholic with a capitol C denotes the Roman Catholic church.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to donna j Cancel reply