WWJD

Not even Jesus wanted a Pay Czar:

3 Jesus was eating in Bethany at the home of Simon, who once had leprosy, when a woman came in with a very expensive bottle of sweet-smelling perfume. After breaking it open, she poured the perfume on Jesus' head. 4 This made some of the guests angry, and they complained, "Why such a waste? 5 We could have sold this perfume for more than three hundred silver coins and given the money to the poor!" So they started saying cruel things to the woman.

6 But Jesus said: Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. 7 You will always have the poor with you. And whenever you want to, you can give to them. But you won't always have me here with you. 8 She has done all she could by pouring perfume on my body to prepare it for burial.

Mark 14:3-8

It's nobody's business what people do with the money they make. Even Jesus said that what looks like an indulgence to others looks very different to him. He was very thankful that this woman used her perfume because it was part of the "annointing" the dying. He probably saw the woman's kindness and generosity as a gift from God and as the sign that his demise was imminent. (Recall that the next thing that happens is Judas betraying him.)

Well, I just don't think that Obama really believes in Christian values. Some people think that's great, I guess, but his actions reveal that he is not looking at the world through Christ-like eyes. - Whatever problems people have with religion, I think that they are also not seeing the obvious fact that modern Christianity is a provider of guidelines for looking at the world in a way that is irrationally kind, generous, charitable, grateful, and loving. - Obama is acting like the people yelling at the woman for "wasting" her perfume. And it is this view of the world that drives his need to appoint all these control czars of every flavor.

Summer Break

Now that school is out for the summer and the baseball season is winding down, I hope to have more time for blogging. It is not that there haven't been plenty of things to talk about. There is so much! And I have to confess that I've been a bit of a facebook "hoe" over the last several months. Well, it's a faster and more efficient way of keeping in touch with friends when time is tight. If you would like, send me a friend request.

A Must-See For Everyone

"even makes the weather perfect every day"

Economy Blogging

There just hasn't been much time for blogging this year, mostly due to the economic situation. It's really a simple equation: less money = more work = less leisure time.

There are just a few quick things I'd like to say.

Hypocrisy is so prevalent these days that it is nearly impossible to trust anyone. It surprises sometimes me when the honest truth is so hard to find and when honest, truthful words are suppressed or punished even by those who claim to promote them.

There are just flat-out mean people in the world and no amount of empathy or sympathy will help them.

For a large majority of people the more complicated questions of existence are trivial. This is just a fact and not some indictment against anyone or anything. Their time and energy are concerned with survival and living. (And that is why they are sometimes too easily manipulated by the "elites" who want to control them through fear and oppression.)

It is not "anti-science" to acknowledge the social realities and truths of our world. Just because something is sociological in nature does NOT make it less valuable or important. (Unless you live in a cave or other fantasyland and never interact with the real world.)

There is a lot of angst all around these days, but sometimes I doubt that it is really any more than there was at other times in history. There have been much worse times in the world than now.

Happy Easter!

Lonely Places

The Temptation of Jesus

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’”
5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”
9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’
11 and, ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Luke 4: 1-13


12 Once Jesus was in a town where there was a man who was suffering from a dreaded skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he threw himself down and begged him, "Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean!"
13 Jesus reached out and touched him. "I do want to," he answered. "Be clean!" At once the disease left the man. 14 Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go straight to the priest and let him examine you; then to prove to everyone that you are cured, offer the sacrifice as Moses ordered."
15 But the news about Jesus spread all the more widely, and crowds of people came to hear him and be healed from their diseases.
16 But he would go away to lonely places, where he prayed.

Luke 5: 12-16

One Year Later

The world has changed quite a bit since my dad died last April 1. I am sorry for all of my social inadequacies, especially the hermitness. Back in the old days in some cultures the grieving were allowed to be odd for a year or so. I feel pretty well beat up. I had hoped to have written a worthy eulogy by now, but the words just haven't happened. While losing my dad to cancer was painful, it might have been even worse to have seen him devastated by losing all of his retirement independence. His funds had already begun to drop in the year before he died. The coming market crash should have been more apparent to those who were gambling with his money. But I guess they figured they were getting-rich-quick and didn't care about the future.

I can hear him now talking about the anarchists and socialists throwing fits in London. "They hate capitalism but they love its money and technology." Socialism is just another get-rich-quick scheme, and it's a sham too. Without capitalism the socialists wouldn't have anything.