The headmaster at our children’s school had a Dan Quayle “potatoe” moment but I think it may have been worst considering his love for the Founding Fathers and how much they seem to be at the core of everything at the school. He walked into an elementary school class and they were reviewing a lesson over U.S. currency. He briefly addressed the class and quizzed them on who was on the nickel. In all seriousness, he thought Alexander Hamilton was on the nickel. I’m flabbergastered.
When I say the Founding Fathers are at the core of everything at the school, it’s not hyperbole. For instance, here’s a collage of items you’ll find walking the halls. It’s a great school, no school is perfect, and at the risk of sounding ungrateful for my country, the school can sometimes pour on patriotism a bit thickly.
I heard Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton muse about a light-hearted political theory yesterday – Politicians with three-syllable sounding names tend to get elected over their opponents. He cited that’s why Donald Trump won over Hillary Clinton, Gregg Abbot is our governor, and that’s why Micheal Bloomberg likes to go by “Mike Bloomberg”.
My state representative’s campaign send me yet another text asking if I would consider voting for her. I replied back, “I’ve replied to a previous text that she had my vote as well as on the phone. However, I may change my mind because someone in your campaign put a yard sign in my front yard without my permission and the nonstop texts and calls.”
Texas church with sex offender pastor first to be ousted from SBC under abuse reforms
A Texas church pastored by a man who sexually abused two pre-teen girls is the first to be removed from the Southern Baptist Convention under new sex abuse reforms.
Ranchland Heights Baptist Church in Midland has for years been pastored by Phillip Rutledge, who was convicted of sexual assaulting 11 and 12-year-old girls in 2003, according to court records and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
This would be an interesting topic to have a back and forth with with some of my pastoral friends. People have to be held accountable for their actions, but Christians are taught to forgive and be like Christ. If Christ forgives our sins and tosses them as far as the east is from the west, and if all sin is weighed equal in God’s eyes, at what point can Christians forgive the most wicked of sins after corporal punishment has been served and true repentance of error and sin occurred? For instance, I can’t see how a congregation would allow a convicted sex offender to ever be a youth minister, or any leadership position in the church, no matter how genuine his or her life has been turned around. If a person can’t get a second chance at a church, what hope does hath he? I don’t expect an answer from anyone, it’s really a rhetorical question, but I doubt I’ll ever find an answer I feel comfortable with.
Per their webpage, SpeedZone Dallas Is Permanently Closed.
Dallas’s Geeky New ‘Star Wars’ Themed Pop-Up Bar – Sip a Baby Yoda cocktail in this temporarily Death Star-designed bar
A Baby Yoda themed drink is made with vodka and green melon liqueur, and garnished with limes to resemble The Child’s iconic ears.
There’s a huge six-foot Millennium Falcon model dangling above drinkers, a towering Chewbacca, Darth Vader wedged between two Stormtroopers, and a twinkling ceiling to offset its new Death Star-themed bathrooms. Of course, the cult films will also play on repeat across most of its TVs.
Counterpoint to your Christian forgiveness question: churches may, in the example of Christ, forgive; but they can never let that person serve again for legal reasons. Putting a known convicted sex offender into any position related to work with children is inviting a lawsuit–even if it didn’t violate the terms of his parole and/or sex-offender registry, which it almost certainly would. And that’s true even if nothing actually happens; the potential for any comment or gesture to be misconstrued is far too great.
Real simple KG…In that situation, (if punishment has been served), Forgive but don’t Forget.
When it comes to putting someone with a sex offense into a certain position at a church, I would recommend that the hiring board use the ol’ adage of “God gives all of us a certain amount of common sense, but it’s up to us to use that common sense.”
Personally, I am still sitting here scratching my head at what I read above about Ranchland Heights Baptist Church having a S.O. in the pulpit!
I don’t have any deep theological basis for this, but I tend to think that forgiveness doesn’t mean you forgo punishment and part of the punishment for such an egregious act is being excluded from certain activities indefinitely. Does that make sense? I think that goes along with the idea of “forgive but don’t forget” mentioned above.
The company that owned Speedzone in Dallas is circling the drain quickly. They owned 2 small amusement parks in different parts of the country. They’ve been actively trying to sell them and announced yesterday that one was closing permanently and the other has been removed from their website.
Maybe I’m too Old Testament, but I view offenders (especially true sex offenders involving minors) as permanently carrying the Mark of Cain. Like Alcoholic Anonymous, they should seek normalcy with the support of loved ones, family, and the similarly afflicted, but they are forevermore Sex Offenders. No church leadership, no independent action without supervision, and certainly no placement in circumstances where they can re-offend. Jesus forgave, even on the cross. As much as I strive to follow His path, I’m not Jesus.
I think forgetting has to do with not carrying the past matter and how you felt about it into the present, thus impacting your interaction with them.
If a person were an alcoholic and you had a bad experience with them in that state, you could forgive and forget the incident (not bring that past bad experience into the present moment or continue to relive it when you’re in their presence), but not letting that past “burden” impact the present moment wouldn’t conflict with not offering them alcohol in my opinion.
You’re seeking to promote their continued well being by not drinking around them.
So, the “spirit of forgetting” is about quality of interaction and whether you continue to be “burdened” by someone’s past action… the spirit of forgetting is not about the specific ability to recall an incident to mind nor is it about making decisions in the present (not promoting alcohol use in the presence of an alcoholic; not allowing a pedophile to be alone with children) that promote that person’s continued freedom.
Just my thoughts.
“How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a
Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten
Spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor
Grow up to be featured on our dollar?”
– This is how I imagine your son’s principal singing along in his car…