Recent activity among the YouTube Christian community has been filled with judgmental, hate-filled commentary against fellow Christians as “not being saved,” etc.
In an effort to divert the attention of the YouTube Christian Community into something positive… let’s try this!
Well-known YouTube atheist Brett Keane wonders why Christians won’t let their little children watch Passion of the Christ, or why they won’t talk about the harsher side of the Old Testament.
Well, Brett… why do YOU sugarcoat? We ALL sugarcoat things for our kids…
So many preaching to the choir… so little time…
For you fantasy baseball geeks, I added the Fielding Independent Pitching statistic (FIP). I’m not sold on the stat just yet, but it is definitely a provocative method of analysis.
Check it out at playertrack.com.
There has been so much talk of religious intolerance by ultra-left-wing-liberals who espouse that Christians are intolerant. But, sadly, many of these folks just don’t practice what they preach.
Yesterday, perhaps the single greatest symbol of change and tolerance in the United States — Barack Obama — did an amazing thing. He valiantly symbolized the call for “tolerance” in a truly wonderful way, making me even more proud of my Obama vote.
He asked Pastor Rick Warren to do the invocation at his inauguration.
This is the same Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life” and founder of Saddleback Church in conservative Orange County, CA… the same Rick Warren who hosted the Obama-McCain religious discussion in August, which put Obama on “hostile ground”… the same Rick Warren who aggressively opposes same sex marriage and abortion rights as a good Christian conservative should.
And, the bastions of tolerance — the Liberals’ — response?
People for the American Way says: “It is a grave disappointment to learn that pastor Rick Warren will give the invocation at the inauguration of Barack Obama.”
A commenter at swamppolitics.com says: “Rick Warren? Are you freaking kidding me?
Why in the name of, well … God, would Obama choose someone whose outspoken beliefs are substantively no different from the James Dobson’s of the world? There’s a thriving progressive religious community in every faith, and many believe the religious left is ascendant.”
I could find a plethora of examples of the “tolerant” being intolerant.
The next time I hear about conservative Christian hypocrisy from an ultra-left liberal, I am going to give a very loud, very belly-based laugh (and, be assured, I have a nice big belly working).
There’s an unknown filmmaker in New Mexico who has come up with an interesting idea to promote his independent film about “two bio-geneticists whose Formula 4708 reverses the whole world’s sexual orientation.”
He is in the process of writing what he calls the “Princess Diana Bible,” so named because of her many “good works.” It might be a more effective name if there was evidence that Diana had spored the two heirs to the British throne rather than have Prince Charles participate in their creation. Then again, putting myself in the shoes of a woman, I cannot imagine a sexual attraction to Prince Chuck so it is not at all logically impossible for me, but I digress.
This filmmaker calls his bible “divinely inspired” and, more interestingly, a “translation.”
“There are many different versions of the Bible, I don’t see why we can’t have one,” he explains on his website princessdianabible.com. I guess “we” means gay people and man haters, all rolled into one. For the father of Cain and Abel was not Adam, but the serpent who tempted Eve. And, that — according to this “brilliant” work — is why men have serpent shaped “members.”
Lo, the fine line between clever and stupid hath been revealed!
The filmmaker’s film looks interesting, and I will be bold enough to add: “almost clever.” It is the year 2017 and Pat Robertson and James Dobson (I imagine this was a last minute cut-addition after the death of Jerry Falwell) win the White House under the platform of a “War on Sex.” To battle this “War on Sex,” Robertson orders the production of this special formula designed to suppress sex, but it backfires and makes everybody gay. It appears that this leads to the creation of the “Princess Diary” bible and rampant discrimination against, well, those who can breed.
If I can be so bold as to help this filmmaker/hack author with the premise: how about making it a “War on Gay Sex,” but the formula backfires, makes everyone gay so we have to start procreating in petri-dishes, and we don’t need to deal with a rewritten Bible at all?
No, that just won’t do. Instead, we have these wonderful additions to the book of Genesis:
Ge2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that this woman be alone; I will make her a mate.
Ge2:19 And the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Aida to see what she would call them: and whatsoever Aida called every living creature, that was the name.
Ge2:20 And Aida gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Aida there was not found a mate for her.
Ge2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Aida, and she slept: and he took one of her ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof;
Ge2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from woman, made he another woman, and brought her unto the first.
Ge2:23 And Aida said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Eve, because she was taken out of me.
Ge2:24 Therefore shall a woman leave her mother, and shall cleave unto her wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Ge3:24 And God drove out the woman; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Ge4:1 And Eve conceived, and bore Cain, and said, we have created a child in God’s image. And God said the male was different than the woman because he was fathered by the serpent. The man’s member is different than the woman’s because it resembles the head of his father, the serpent.
Oh, you just have to love that last one. It would be so well-crafted and clever, if men only fathered boys and women spored little girls.
It is no secret that the infant adoption system that acts a lot like one big baby supermarket is in need of some major reform. An article I read today here proposes the simplest of reforms that could (and should) be immediately made mandatory.
I am sure that some adoption agencies make clear to prospective adoptive parents that a “match [between adoptive parents and a mother considering adoption] is just a possibility.” And, I am sure that some adoption agencies make clear to mothers considering relinquishing their child that inaction on the part of prospective adoptive parents (in not preparing a nursery, or failing to call the child “theirs”) has absolutely nothing to do with the prospective adoptive parents being committed to the child.
The problem is that I fear that most (our agency included) do not do this very simple thing that will keep various, negative emotions (like feelings of entitlement, feelings of anger, feelings of guilt, feelings of being cornered/forced to relinquish, among others) in check.
Jesus didn’t sugarcoat hell. Jesus made things absolutely clear, in the eyes of a Christian like me: He is the bridge to the everlasting. We are all unworthy and therefore doomed like chaff to the fire. Jesus is the Savior, without whom we get no ticket to eternity. It is that simple.
Sometimes, Pastors take an equally subtle approach. But, they make a major error in singling out a particular group. Take this Australian Pastor who has caused the latest uproar. The title of the news article says it all: “Baptist raises hell in Jewish dialogue” — ugh.
A BAPTIST pastor has admitted telling Jewish leaders that Jews were “going to hell” and faced a fate “worse than the Holocaust” because they had not accepted Jesus as their saviour.
. . .
[The Pastor], a US-trained minister from Virginia, said his comments applied to all people who rejected Jesus, not only Jews, and were based in scripture. “The Bible says that all have sinned and all are worthy of hell,” he told the Herald. “That includes everyone, until we receive Jesus as our saviour.
“Jesus and the Apostles were Jewish. They explained that the Old Testament Jewish faith looked forward to the messiah and the New Testament reveals Jesus as the messiah.”
But despite [The Pastor's] attempt to clarify his remarks, [a Jewish person present to hear the remarks] said he was shocked to hear the leader of a Christian congregation speak so bluntly.
“It was a chilling experience,” he said. “While one is only too aware that there are fundamentalist beliefs and extremist preachers out there, his brazen approach and the fact that he is influencing others on a daily basis are the issues of real concern.”
Double-ugh.
The Jewish person’s response refers to the idea that “Jews who don’t believe in Jesus are going to hell” as “fundamentalist.” It isn’t “fundamentalist” in the sense that a liberal would refer to, say, a Christian who won’t let his kids watch Harry Potter. No, the correct word would be FUNDAMENTAL.
The fact is that ANY Christian, by definition, would say that Jews who do not believe in Jesus are going to that place called “hell.” The Bible tells us so.
It’s just that it isn’t just Jews. It is everybody.
Admittedly, this kind of situation isn’t always the fault of the alleged victimizer, so I will give the Pastor some benefit of the doubt. For instance, certain groups (e.g., atheists and Jews) will ask questions that pointedly include their specific group. For instance, in my experience with atheists online, I often hear this question when I’m talking about Jesus: “I’m atheist. So, am I going to hell?”
And, when we Christians simply answer “yes,” we are entirely missing the point and missing an opportunity to help open someone’s eyes to Jesus. A usual response I hear to a “yes” answer given by someoine else is: “Well, you’re condemning me to hell!”
Believers in Christ don’t condemn to hell. God does. So, we shouldn’t single out any particular group because it sounds that way. I remember personally feeling condemned when I was given the “straight scoop” as a non-believer. It never works. It just adds another nail on to the door that Jesus is knocking on.
What we should do is we should always state the simple fact that we are all equally unworthy. In Jesus, we have a way out.
The Pastor, in this case, does explain in this manner in this article… but it is after the fact. A non-believing Jewish person (like I once was) reads the title and intro to this article and won’t see an explanation. He’ll just think he is being singled out for condemnation in hell.
This poor Pastor would have never gotten into this hot water if he, instead, said that “we all are hell-bound without Jesus. So answer the knocking door already!”
I love the Bible. I love my Mac. I love GarageBand. So, why not combine all three? Here is my latest musical experiment solely using GarageBand loops and my Blue Snowball Mic.
