Recently, the first of the memorandums on interrogation techniques were released. They make difficult reading. In fact, in language that is every bit the equal of the clinical language found in files from both the old Soviet Union and the WWII German archives, they describe in detail the painful techniques used to break a person […]
Philosophy of perfection and problems in American history
I had mentioned yesterday that a philosophy of perfection or at least of a high standard of Christian behavior tends to lead to the subtle pressure to minimize one’s faults in order to maintain the image of near perfection. This is particularly true if one has broken away from another group which one claims is […]
Philosophy of perfection and American History
I mentioned yesterday that if you have a philosophy of near perfection, then it can all too easily lead to a minimizing of your imperfections. This is particularly true if your group claims that you separated in order to set up a community that would show what true Christians were really like. This was the […]
On arguing about the Church
Yesterday, I finished my post by saying, “You see, in order to be able to put forth that argument, one has to engage in a self-deception that, in the long run, can leave one open to self-deception in other areas of one’s life.” If you remember, I was talking about the dangers of citing the […]
How not to argue for the Church
On the post I referenced earlier, the conversation quickly fell into an typical Protestant/non-Protestant debate. One of the comments said, in part: I am happy enough where I am because I see behind the green curtain. The ties to RC have taught me there are a lot of wonderful catholic believers, who in many ways live […]
On those who are happy to be Protestant
On a post on another blog, the writer posted a whole note on why he is happy to remain a Protestant. He starts out by saying: Because I’ve been wrestling with Protestant/Catholic issues through-out this past year, I receive a lot of email from those who have moved outside of their lifelong evangelicalism and somewhere […]
Obama about to allow Cubans to visit Cuba
The news came out today that President Obama plans to relax the travel restrictions to Cuba for those of us who have relatives on that island. And, I must admit that something in my heart leaped up and was glad. Please understand, this is not a political comment in any way. Rather, it is the […]
USA Justice is now very frightening
Yesterday the news came out that the Justice Department was asking the courts to not only stop the appeal process in the case of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska but also to reverse the conviction because of what was termed “shocking” prosecutorial misconduct. The judge himself had already found the prosecutors guilty of contempt of court […]
Mission minded congregations are not necessarily nice
Continuing on with some of my comments on missions and fund-raising, I recently posted the note below on another blog. After I posted it, I thought that it might be worth reposting here. Since I am no longer an overseas missionaries, it may be that my memories of how it really was will be helful […]
Multiple Missionary Support by Local Congregations
Have you ever been to a local congregation that has a missions board up with multiple missionaries? I do not mean a large congregation with multiple missionaries. I mean a typical size medium congregation, one with an attendance around a couple of hundred people. Sometimes their missions board will proudly display ten or more different […]
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