One Way to Read It

Deciding who goes to hell is a fun game. It keeps me awake at church. A Utah (Mormon?) artist Jon McNaughton has drawn a picture " One Nation Under God " of the saved and unsaved in America. His website has a neato feature ; you can scroll over the faces of the people in the picture, and it tells you who they are. Another website has parodied it. My problem with this is that the people he cast into hell are "others." They are "those sinners" instead of "us sinners." I just wrote about this ; it's a big problem in Utah. For example, he puts Hollywood people, abortion girl and her abortion-loving Supreme Court Justice boyfriend, lawyers, politicians, the liberal media, and evolution professors in hell. What about the hypocrites that Jesus loved so much? Where's the smug self-righteous Christian high-fiving the pregnant lady? Not there, because that, uh, would include us. My favorite was this guy: Looks like the rule to "love yo...

I make one comment in church: "We are sinners, too." I have never said it in those exact words, but that is the general idea. We find it hard to admit that we are sinners. When we read about Lamanites, or Judas, or King David, we think : Those are the bad guys. I usually don't hear people in Sunday school say, "This story teaches us that we should repent." The closest the conversation usually come is "we should avoid people like that." People like that are us. I may not be the king of Jerusalem, but I might commit adultery in my heart . I may not betray Christ for 30 pieces of silver, but I might figuratively trample him under my feet by not obeying his commandments. So when, in Sunday School, I feel the spirit of self-righteousness beginning to stifle out the spirit of God, I raise my hand and say: "We are sinners too." picture's source This isn't Sunday school, but I want to raise my hand, here in America, and remind us that ...

A friend recently read Michelle Malkin's book Culture of Corruption about Obama. I had an interesting argument with him about it. I think the argument is over, but I am not yet finished with Malkin. She recently appeared on the Hannity show, furious that Obama had apologized for the U.S.'s past conduct. How can I describe what they said ? Stupid? Imperialistic? Perhaps uncharitable would be the best word, because it spit in the face of Christ's teachings. Hannity confessed that he worships Satan. Or rather, he worships the idol of democracy with a reverence for Satan's tactics . HANNITY : "But, you know, he [Obama] says democracy cannot be imposed on any nation from outside . He goes on to say -- he said, and the United States of America will never waver in our attempts to stand up for the right of people to determine their own destiny. I thought it was America's belief, our founding document believes that we're endowed by our creator and that we...

I like the way this guy simplifies the issues He simplifies them according to my beliefs, which makes me like it. He makes some good points.

I'm reading Robin Meyer's book . I recommend you read this entire speech. Read some of the bullets if you're in a hurry. There's a video below where he covers some of the same stuff. "As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor. Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian. We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having ...

I'm reading Open Veins of Latin America and just saw this post of 10 Cases of American Intervention in Latin America . Not recommended reading for those who like to close their eyes and pretend that the world is a happy place and that America is a benevolent empire.