These people make me so angry. I have to say once and for all…. Christians are not like this. The people who have truly been affected by the grace of God could never say these things. I hope that God completely overwhelms them with His love so that they have no choice but to see how idiotically stupid and overwhelmingly hurtful they have been.
My heart hurts that people who use the name of my God could be so… evil.
Heath Ledger was found dead today.
I’m honestly still in shock. I usually don’t care about celebrities, and stories of their overdoses don’t affect me. But this one is different. I’m going to sound like a crazed fan here, but I almost thought I was going to cry when I heard the news.
I never expected to hear that Heath would OD.
May his family find some sort of comfort.
New content went up on Common Ground today. Only one person contributed this week (business engulfed the rest of us), but her post is beautifully written and really makes one stop to think. Go on over and check it out.
One word.
Wow.
I’m having one of those nights. You know, the kind where you enjoy copious amounts of self-pity.
Yeah. One of those.
It started out great. A friend of mine was supposed to come over for a night of Rent. But he called to cancel. Then my roomie and I went to see 27 Dresses. It’s a fantastic movie. Really, it is. But I have come to the conclusion that I should never watch another romantic comedy. At least not while I’m so hopelessly single. Especially the night I get a “rain check” (read: rejected) from the man I’m hopelessly in like with.
I really hope he isn’t reading this.
Then…
Do people ever make you feel utterly insignificant? It happens to me a lot. I have to tell myself I am significant. I matter. But sometimes, that internal dialogue just doesn’t help much.
So you end up like me. Sitting here, alone in my pjs, full of self-pity.
Isn’t that a pretty picture?
I wrote this post once already, but my computer at work ate it. Here’s the second try…
Unless you live in a cave somewhere, you’ve probably heard all of the hullaballoo surrounding the video of Tom Cruise that the Church of Scientology demanded YouTube take down. If you don’t know about it, there was a video of Tom Cruise talking about Scientology that the Church of Scientology demanded YouTube take down.
Up to speed? Good.
The first thing I noticed about the video is that Tom Cruise should never ever wear turtleneck sweaters. Ever.
Once I got past the chubby chin and really paid attention to what he was saying, I noticed a few things.
Tom Cruise is really passionate about Scientology. He genuinely and sincerely believes what he’s shouting to the world. I can’t help but admire him for it. If only all of us were so vocal about our passions and beliefs.
The strange thing is that a lot of the things he said remind me an awful lot of the things I’ve heard conservative fundamentalist Christians say.
“We have a responsibility.
“We are the authorities on getting people off drugs, we are the authorities on the mind, we are the authorities on improving conditions… we can rehabilitate criminals.
“If you’re a Scientologist, you see life, you see things the way they are, in all its glory, all of its complexity and the more you know as a Scientologist, you don’t become overwhelmed by it.
“So it’s our responsibility to educate, create the new reality. We have that responsibility to say, ‘Hey, this is the way it should be done because we do it this way and people are actually getting better.’
“And let’s get it done. Let’s really get it done and have enough love and compassion and toughness that you’re really going to do it and do it right.
It kinda sounds good, doesn’t it? Now I know that the beliefs of Scientology go deeper than that and some of them really are whacked out. And my point isn’t to compare Scientology with Christianity. My point is to show that Mr. Cruise is a man who stands for what he believes in, and he gets called crazy. In our culture, we teach our kids to make a stand for what they believe in. But when this guy does… what happens? He’s considered a wacko. For telling people about what he believes to genuinely be a better way.
And you wonder why more people don’t talk about their faith and belief systems.
For many, sexuality is simply what happens between two people involving physical pleasure. But that’s only a small percentage of what sexuality is. Our sexuality is all of the ways we strive to reconnect with our world, with each other, and with God.
~Rob Bell, Sex God
This is a profoundly true statement that goes against everything that American culture embodies. I love the way Rob describes a celibate man as sexual:
A friend of mine has given his life to standing with those who have been forgotten and oppressed by most. He’s in his early thirties, he’s single, and he talks openly about his celibacy. What makes his life so powerful is that he’s a very sexual person, but he has focused his sexuality, his “energies for connection,” on a specific group of people.
Some of the most sexual people I know are celibate.
They sleep alone.
They have chosen to give themselves to lots of people, to serve and give and connect their lives with beautiful worthy causes.
He goes on to describe the Red Light District of Amsterdam as a place full of sex but devoid of sexuality.
When it’s just sex, then that’s all it is. It leaves the person deeply unconnected.
You can be having sex with many, and yet you’re alone. And the more sex you have, the more alone you are.
And it’s possible to be sleeping alone, and celibate, and to be very sexual. Connected with many.
I need to take this opportunity to explain that this isn’t just another instance of a Christian saying sex is bad (speaking of, did anybody catch the “No Sex Allowed” song on AI last night? wow). That’s not the point at all. And nowhere is anyone saying that sex is bad.
Rob’s idea is that a person’s sexuality is the connection that people have with people. The connection that people crave with other people. It’s not just physical intimacy.
It’s a radical idea. But after reading Sex God (again) I have to agree with him.
My winter is now complete. American Idol started last night! It’ll be on again tonight – 2 hours of Dallas auditions.
I know I haven’t really posted anything of substance lately. For that, I apologize. When I get home from work, my brain just doesn’t work well enough to get stuff down. There are posts rolling around in my head. There are things I want to say. I just can’t seem to get them from my brain to my blog.
One day.
Kudos to Terri for her thoughts on inerrancy.
I have slowly moved away from a strict belief in the inerrancy of The Bible. It almost pains me to say that because it feels like betrayal to my faith of the not so distant past. It shouldn’t, but it does.
This statement speaks volumes. And it’s exactly how I’ve felt. It does feel like you’re betraying your faith to admit something like this.
Terri explains what she means:
To say that I don’t believe in inerrancy is not to say that I don’t believe the Bible. It doesn’t mean I think the biblical stories are legends. It doesn’t mean I think that everything in the Bible is figurative, outdated, or irrelevant.
It does mean that I won’t go to gymnastic lengths to justify every word I read against every other word I read in my Bible. It means that I recognize that God spoke to people then as He speaks to people now. He uses their personalities, their talents, and their situations to express His truth.
She hits the nail on the head when she explains why people rely on this idea of inerrancy:
Declaring inerrancy is not really proclaiming faith. Instead, the concept exists solely to create a safety net of false certainty in a believer. And..it works! Most of the time, that is. Minor problems can be swept away by a quick recitation of the mantra. However, it can actually keep people from deepening a true reliance and faith on Jesus. Instead of actively listening to Him, we can just open our handy-dandy “Instruction Book” or “Love Letter” or “Guide Book” and figure it all out for ourselves.
She questions, somewhat sarcastically, what would happen if people don’t believe in inerrancy:
One of the ideas that fuels a fundamentalist view of inerrancy is the fear of what will happen if people don’t believe in inerrancy. If people don’t believe the Bible is perfect in every way and circumstance, then what will hold the Christian faith together? How will we cling to Jesus if everything we know about Him comes from a tainted book? Won’t people begin to slowly peel away all the theology we have, all the while reminding us that the Bible is not inerrant?
You know what? I’m going to stop pasting Terri’s thoughts here. Go read them yourself! (Don’t forget this one too). She does an incredible job dissecting the fears behind inerrancy and brings it all together in an eloquent conclusion.
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