It was pretty interesting that both prime time sporting events were both in St Louis last night, but I have a feeling most of those at the Rams games would have rather been watching baseball.
Man, David Ortiz is having one heck of a series at the plate, I think he’s 11-15.
My father had me very late in life and was a longtime smoker, so he wasn’t in great health most of my life and I can’t recall doing anything athletic with him, even playing catch. Last night DaughterGeeding asked me to “coach” her to kick a soccer ball and play catch and not only did I jump at the opportunity, I cherished every second of it.
BoyGeeding walked in on me peeing (in the toilet this time) and when I finished he asked me to do more. I told him there is no more, and then he just started to cry and whine. A lot of times he’ll walk in on me working out and when I finish a set or get off the elliptical he’ll also ask me to do more, and a lot of times despite being barely alive, I do it for him.
The Obama Administration has done a terrible job at educating the public about ACA and healthcare.gov is an embarrassment, heck, even I think they should delay things up to a year.
Rumor has it if you look at the healthcare.gov code it’s copied straight from an old GeoCities website.
I had a lot of concerns that the Wall Street Journal would lose a lot of journalistic integrity when Rupert Murdoch’s New Corp acquired them. Well, now they have Suzanne Somers as a somewhat regular contributor labeling her an expert. Her latest article is title “The Affordable Care Act Is a Socialist Ponzi Scheme.” Too bad John Ritter isn’t alive to write a dissenting view.
Highland Park Presbyterian Church will be moving from the PCUSA to a more conservative denomination, and I expect my church will do the same in the somewhat near future. I am bugged by the interim senior pastor’s quote of, “we are not walking away from our Presbyterian values; we are restoring them.” That just sounds like a passive or indirect way of saying that those who disagree with you have no values.
Organized religion drives me batty sometimes. That being said, in an effort to better understand and appreciate different views and theology, I can see myself switching to another denomination every five years or so, but that’s harder now with family. We did visit our local Methodist church a few weeks ago, and that was only because DaughterGeeding attends preschool there and they had a special event on a Sunday for her class, but it did leave an impression on me. But to be honest, I can also see myself leaving organized relgion all together.
What’s so great about the Old MacDonald GEICO commercial is that the audience knows he’s going to misspell the word with e-i-e-i-o, but it’s his dagnabbit that puts it over the top.
Just curious….what is your definition of "organized religion"? And, if one is not wanting to be a participant in such, with whom does one gather to be amongst like believers?
If you look further down in the comments you will see a sincere reply from Ben W. and he echos a lot of what I feel, though not totally. You can also throw a little bit of Anne Rice in there: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor…
Briefly, and in this particular context, I'm saying any organized religion is any Christian denomination as well as other recognized branches of the Christian faith such as Catholicism. These organized religious groups seem too busy standing up and fighting for things or making a point rather than loving God and their fellow person. I'd list examples, but I'm sure you're familiar with them, and all parties are guilty.
Ben W. listed some ways to be amongst like believers, but I will admit there's nothing like the a church congregation for fellowship with like believers.
My answers here are very curt and I worry about folks taking my reply out of context, but I think most understand where I'm coming from. And of course, I have a family, which means any decision I make can't be made for my selfish feelings, but have to be made with them at the forefront.
Re: Suzanne Somers, on the first day the Wall Street Journal had to print three corrections to her story about historical quotes and a magazine cover she got wrong…all easily Googleable. What kind of fact checking system does the Wall Street Journal have?
What makes her a "health care expert"? Again, a peg or three below what one would expect from "expert journalism" in the Wall Street Journal.
Your comments on religion struck a chord with me this morning. Over the last 3-4 years my wife and I have been on a spiritual journey that has led us to stop attending "church" by its mainstream definition. I understand and sympathize with your frustration regarding organized religion, with my frustration stemming largely from the apparent discrepancies that exist between many religious denominations and the way Christianity looks in the Bible. It is this very disconnect that has led us to stop going to "church," despite having ingrained into our personalities from the time that we were children that you should be there every time the doors were open, and failing to do so was sinful.
But this does not mean in the slightest that we have given up on God or Christianity. Rather, our practice of Christianity has been reformed to look more like the New Testament and less like the American evangelical view of what Christianity is. And, in response to the question raised earlier in the comments, we actually do still meet with a group of believers – we just do it in a different format. We were fortunate to find a group of people (2-3 other families) that share our sense of dissatisfaction with "religion as usual" who want to be Christian but not in the manner that is most often demonstrated today. Our group meets informally, in each others' homes, a few times a month. We laugh, we talk, we encourage, and we console one another. And we talk about God and the Word, in ways that are not possible, encouraged, or even permitted in the churches I have been to in my life. We talk about scriptures and their meanings, how they impact our lives, about Christ's lessons, and about how we can go into our community and show the love & grace of God to others. We focus on love, faith, hope, and charity, and how we can act out these virtues as a group, as our families, and as individuals. And we discuss our thoughts, opinions, theology, and questions. We do all this without judgment or derision, and with the understanding that there are some questions which will never be answered, and that is okay. We have found a safe place to question and discuss, and these people have become like family to us. Our goal is to look the the church did in the book of Acts.
(Had to split my comment into 2 parts – that should be a clue for me to shut up, but here goes:)
So what has been the net effect on our family? One of the biggest concerns we had was the impact on our children (13 & 6), because they wouldn't be in a Sunday School program or a youth group. The results have been amazing. Our 13-year-old is actively engaged in our meetings, asks questions and gives her opinions, and knows more now than she ever learned from youth groups she was involved with previously. As for the 6-year-old, he seems to understand some, but it's still a bit early for him. We talk about God and spirituality and Bible stories with him on our own, something we didn't do when we had just farmed out that responsibility to Sunday School teachers. (And yes, I acknowledge that failing is ours, not organized religion's.)
As for my wife and I, we feel that we are more spiritual now than we have ever been. Our walk with God is no longer based on following the list of rules prescribed by the denomination we attend, but rather is based on a relationship with Christ and the desire to be a better example of Him to our community. We want to help people, not help a church meet its numbers quota or build a bigger building. We donate time and money to charity, which we had (sadly) never done before. We feel like we are stronger spiritually than ever, even though we don't meet the standardized American version of Christianity. And yes, we're the kind of Christians that love and support gay people, don't like war, feel like healthcare should be a right not a privilege (even though the ACA is a terrible way to achieve this, IMO), and believe the culture of violence & guns in America is harmful. In the course of the last 2-3 years, my wife and I have talked about, debated, and discussed God and scripture and theology more than we did in the previous years of our life combined. And as a result of that we have uncovered things that we were taught that are clearly false and we have realigned our understanding of scripture to bring it closer to what we understand God's intention to be, as opposed to man's interpretation & manipulation of the Bible for selfish purposes.
But we also understand that what works for us in our journey will not work for everyone, nor do we condemn anyone for continuing to worship in the manner in which they see fit. Based on our conscience and convictions, we can't go sit in a denomination church. But we aren't judging people still involved in organized religion because there are certainly things that we believe that others won't or can't understand. Some day we may return to an organized religion setting. In my research of denominations, there are aspects of many that speak to me, but no single denomination that fully encapsulates my understanding as it stands now. But I'll keep looking, and reading, and researching, and thinking, and searching.
Ultimately, I think the goal of all Christians should be to follow Christ and to show love to the people around them, as stated in Matt. 22:36-40. We were on the road to apathy and inaction sitting in a church. We weren't showing the love of Christ and we weren't following after Him with our everything. Without question, breaking out of that mold and trying to find God for ourselves liberated us.
(And sorry for writing a book – there's just no quick & easy way to explain my thoughts on the topic!)
Just curious….what is your definition of "organized religion"? And, if one is not wanting to be a participant in such, with whom does one gather to be amongst like believers?
If you look further down in the comments you will see a sincere reply from Ben W. and he echos a lot of what I feel, though not totally. You can also throw a little bit of Anne Rice in there: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor…
Briefly, and in this particular context, I'm saying any organized religion is any Christian denomination as well as other recognized branches of the Christian faith such as Catholicism. These organized religious groups seem too busy standing up and fighting for things or making a point rather than loving God and their fellow person. I'd list examples, but I'm sure you're familiar with them, and all parties are guilty.
Ben W. listed some ways to be amongst like believers, but I will admit there's nothing like the a church congregation for fellowship with like believers.
My answers here are very curt and I worry about folks taking my reply out of context, but I think most understand where I'm coming from. And of course, I have a family, which means any decision I make can't be made for my selfish feelings, but have to be made with them at the forefront.
Re: Suzanne Somers, on the first day the Wall Street Journal had to print three corrections to her story about historical quotes and a magazine cover she got wrong…all easily Googleable. What kind of fact checking system does the Wall Street Journal have?
What makes her a "health care expert"? Again, a peg or three below what one would expect from "expert journalism" in the Wall Street Journal.
Keith –
Your comments on religion struck a chord with me this morning. Over the last 3-4 years my wife and I have been on a spiritual journey that has led us to stop attending "church" by its mainstream definition. I understand and sympathize with your frustration regarding organized religion, with my frustration stemming largely from the apparent discrepancies that exist between many religious denominations and the way Christianity looks in the Bible. It is this very disconnect that has led us to stop going to "church," despite having ingrained into our personalities from the time that we were children that you should be there every time the doors were open, and failing to do so was sinful.
But this does not mean in the slightest that we have given up on God or Christianity. Rather, our practice of Christianity has been reformed to look more like the New Testament and less like the American evangelical view of what Christianity is. And, in response to the question raised earlier in the comments, we actually do still meet with a group of believers – we just do it in a different format. We were fortunate to find a group of people (2-3 other families) that share our sense of dissatisfaction with "religion as usual" who want to be Christian but not in the manner that is most often demonstrated today. Our group meets informally, in each others' homes, a few times a month. We laugh, we talk, we encourage, and we console one another. And we talk about God and the Word, in ways that are not possible, encouraged, or even permitted in the churches I have been to in my life. We talk about scriptures and their meanings, how they impact our lives, about Christ's lessons, and about how we can go into our community and show the love & grace of God to others. We focus on love, faith, hope, and charity, and how we can act out these virtues as a group, as our families, and as individuals. And we discuss our thoughts, opinions, theology, and questions. We do all this without judgment or derision, and with the understanding that there are some questions which will never be answered, and that is okay. We have found a safe place to question and discuss, and these people have become like family to us. Our goal is to look the the church did in the book of Acts.
(Had to split my comment into 2 parts – that should be a clue for me to shut up, but here goes:)
So what has been the net effect on our family? One of the biggest concerns we had was the impact on our children (13 & 6), because they wouldn't be in a Sunday School program or a youth group. The results have been amazing. Our 13-year-old is actively engaged in our meetings, asks questions and gives her opinions, and knows more now than she ever learned from youth groups she was involved with previously. As for the 6-year-old, he seems to understand some, but it's still a bit early for him. We talk about God and spirituality and Bible stories with him on our own, something we didn't do when we had just farmed out that responsibility to Sunday School teachers. (And yes, I acknowledge that failing is ours, not organized religion's.)
As for my wife and I, we feel that we are more spiritual now than we have ever been. Our walk with God is no longer based on following the list of rules prescribed by the denomination we attend, but rather is based on a relationship with Christ and the desire to be a better example of Him to our community. We want to help people, not help a church meet its numbers quota or build a bigger building. We donate time and money to charity, which we had (sadly) never done before. We feel like we are stronger spiritually than ever, even though we don't meet the standardized American version of Christianity. And yes, we're the kind of Christians that love and support gay people, don't like war, feel like healthcare should be a right not a privilege (even though the ACA is a terrible way to achieve this, IMO), and believe the culture of violence & guns in America is harmful. In the course of the last 2-3 years, my wife and I have talked about, debated, and discussed God and scripture and theology more than we did in the previous years of our life combined. And as a result of that we have uncovered things that we were taught that are clearly false and we have realigned our understanding of scripture to bring it closer to what we understand God's intention to be, as opposed to man's interpretation & manipulation of the Bible for selfish purposes.
But we also understand that what works for us in our journey will not work for everyone, nor do we condemn anyone for continuing to worship in the manner in which they see fit. Based on our conscience and convictions, we can't go sit in a denomination church. But we aren't judging people still involved in organized religion because there are certainly things that we believe that others won't or can't understand. Some day we may return to an organized religion setting. In my research of denominations, there are aspects of many that speak to me, but no single denomination that fully encapsulates my understanding as it stands now. But I'll keep looking, and reading, and researching, and thinking, and searching.
Ultimately, I think the goal of all Christians should be to follow Christ and to show love to the people around them, as stated in Matt. 22:36-40. We were on the road to apathy and inaction sitting in a church. We weren't showing the love of Christ and we weren't following after Him with our everything. Without question, breaking out of that mold and trying to find God for ourselves liberated us.
(And sorry for writing a book – there's just no quick & easy way to explain my thoughts on the topic!)