Random Thursday for February 22, 2018

Unrelated comments, in no particular order.

Candlelight Vigil 4

Considering the Parkland shootings:  I’ve wondered where the expressions of sorrow are from the gun rights advocates.  Other than the usual “thoughts and prayers” from politicians, I haven’t heard anything beyond Wayne LaPierre’s opening remarks at CPAC and he mentioned it on the way to making another point.  Where is the sorrow that young people died?

In light of Billy Graham’s passing, I’m wondering why no other evangelical pastor has Graham’s standing.  It seems that more pastors should have Graham’s reputation for integrity.  Discussions abound about whether or not Graham was used by Nixon; Graham was able to emerge without a lasting stain on his reputation.  It seems so ironic to talk about that now, in light of the relationship between evangelicalism and today’s president.

(Image is “Candlelight Vigil 4” by “Ben Townsend” on FlickrCC-BY-2.0.  Pray for Parkland.)

Random Thursday for October 13, 2016

Unrelated comments, in no particular order

Happy Birthday to my good friend Teri Harrington!

If you’ve read these before, you know I’m neither a conservative nor a Trump supporter.  This blog is about the hard work you have to do to arrive at the best answers and I want to give credit to people who are doing just that.  Please take the time to read this conservative blog post, which I think offers both clarity and a call to responsibility.

trump - you own him

Kelly Oxford asked women to share stories of their sexual assaults under the hashtag #NotOkay.  The response exceeded everyone’s expectations.  Maybe this will create the kind of change we need.

image

Random Thursday for December 17, 2015

Even though I call this Random Thursday and say “unrelated remarks in no particular order”, people still complain about how these posts are disjointed and don’t hang together.

definition of random

 

I hope that helps.  (Thanks to Merriam-Webster)

UNRELATED REMARKS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

As a member of the radical middle, I hoped the GOP would go so far to the right that they’d go right off the map.  I wasn’t prepared for how many were willing to go off the edge with them.

I have some new songs to share:

This is All Will Be Well by The Gabe Dixon Band.  Anyone who is working in ministry, either professionally or as a volunteer, will appreciate this song.  It rings true and helps me through the frustrating times.  Lyrics are courtesy of Google PlayClick this link to hear the song.

The new day dawns,
And I am practicing my purpose once again.
It is fresh and it is fruitful if I win but if I lose,
Oooooo I don’t know.
I will be tired but I will turn and I will go,
Only guessing til I get there then I’ll know,
Oh oh oh I will know.

 All the children walking home past the factories
Could see the light that’s shining in my window as I write this song to you.
All the cars running fast along the interstate
Can feel the love that radiates
Illuminating what I know is true,
All will be well.
Even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself,
All will be well.
You can ask me how but only time will tell.

 The winter’s cold,
But the snow still lightly settles on the trees.
And a mess is still a moment I can seize until I know,
That all will be well.
Even though sometimes this is hard to tell,
And the fight is just as frustrating as hell
All will be well.

 All the children walking home past the factories,
Could see the light that’s shining in my window as I write this song to you.
All the cars running fast along the interstate
Can feel the love that radiates
Illuminating what I know is true
All will be well.
Even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself
All will be well.
You can ask me how but only time will tell.

 Keep it up and don’t give up
And chase your dreams and you will find
All in time.

 All the children walking home past the factories
Could see the light that’s shining in my window as I write this song to you.
All the cars running fast along the interstate
Can feel the love that radiates
Illuminating what I know is true,
All will be well.
Even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself,
All will be well.
You can ask me how but only time will tell.

 All will be well.
Even after all the promises you’ve broken to yourself,
All will be well.
You can ask me how but only time will tell.

You can ask me how but only time will tell.

Adding some balance to your Christmas music playlist:  Jackson Browne’s The Rebel Jesus.  Here are the lyrics, courtesy of Lyrics FreakClick this link to hear the song.

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants’ windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
They’ll be gathering around the hearths and tales
Giving thanks for all god’s graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by the prince of peace
And they call him by the savior
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
As they fill his churches with their pride and gold
And their faith in him increases
But they’ve turned the nature that I worshipped in
From a temple to a robber’s den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why they are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

But please forgive me if I seem
To take the tone of judgement
For I’ve no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In this life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan

On the side of the rebel Jesus.

 

 

Random Thursday for October 1, 2015

Here are your random thoughts for this week.

Another day of people trying to convince me guns have nothing to do with shootings.

cow staredown

From my Facebook feed:

wade reck

Is ‘contestation’ a word?

We have fewer ways to communicate with teenagers.  They don’t do e-mail or Facebook.  I hear Twitter is on its way out.  Are Snapchat and Instagram all we have left?  What social medium is actually working?  We have so many methods to communicate, but it gets harder to reach someone.

I googled “man laws” and got a bunch of sites about how men are supposed to back each other up with women, how to figure out who rides shotgun, and when your buddy’s ex-girlfriend is officially dateable.  I googled “woman laws” and got a bunch of sites about equal pay for equal work and abortion.  Are there woman laws in the same way we have man laws?

“The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne’s are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demanding that God yield up His answers, perhaps some day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God.” ― Mary Doria RussellThe Sparrow

(Image is “cow staredown” by Ray Dumas on Flickr.  CC BY-SA 2.0.  They think shootings involve guns.)

Random Thursday for September 3, 2015

Referring back to my blog Six Degrees of Adolf Hitler, I’m happy to read how Richard Parker chose not play the Hitler card in a recent column in the Dallas Morning News:  “To put Trump’s bad idea [deporting illegal immigrants] into perspective, no nation has experienced forced repatriation on the scale he proposes since 20th century Germany. No, nothing compares to the Holocaust, so I won’t try.”  (Richard Parker, “Trump’s bad immigration ideas are a good chance for true debate”, Dallas Morning News, 18 August 2015)

Back in class after a summer off, taking Intro to Worship.  One of the instructors said when you sing together in worship, you breathe together (since the music requires it), but it also synchronizes the congregations heartbeats and brainwaves.  You are truly united in song.

Check out this video of a youth group race.  It’s so cool.  I’m going to have to try this.

dawes and mumford

Great song of the week:  “When My Time Comes” by Dawes.  I’m late to the party on this one, as I usually am, but what a great song.  Check out this video with Dawes and Mumford and Sons.  Goosebumps.

(Image is “Dawes with Mumford and Sons” by Stacey Kizer on Flickr.  CC BY-NC 2.0.  A different venue than the video.)

Random Thursday for August 13, 2015

Once again, Random Thursday is on a Friday.

I wasn’t going to give Trump any more time, but then Mark Davis, someone I don’t agree with often, wrote this in the Dallas Morning News (Tuesday, August 11, 2015)

“Every once in awhile [sic], we all need an inner voice that says:  ‘I shouldn’t say that.  It’s over the line.’  If we ignore that voice and mouth off anyway and get roasted for it, we should not whine about political correctness.  Maybe we should look in the mirror and learn when to shut up.”

Someone else (not sure where I heard this) said, “The opposite of political correctness is not vulgarity.”

That’s enough of that.  Here’s a couple of great songs I want to pass along:

lucius

Two of Us on the Run by Lucius.  Here’s the video.

  • “There’s no race, there’s only a runner, put one foot in front of the other”
  • “And we’ll one day tell our story of how we made something of ourselves now”
  • I served communion at a worship service this week and the band sang this song.  As someone on the road to being a second career pastor, I thought about the story I’d tell one day.

Divisionary (Do the Right Thing) by Ages and Ages.  Here’s the video.

  • This song came about as the band went through a lot of changes:  the deaths of parents and birth of children.  Great chorus.
(Image is Lucius – Greek Theater – May 2, 2015 by starbright31 on Flickr.  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.  Starbright31 didn’t invite me to the show.)

Random Thursday for Aug 6, 2015

No matter how low you set the bar, Donald Trump finds a way to go under it.

In the midst of the outrage about the outrage over Cecil the lion’s death, there was an insightful comment in the Dallas Morning News, in a letter by Don McElfresh, published on August 3, 2015.  Cecil’s death represents a loss of innocence, because “. . . most people, down deep inside, want to believe that not everything is for sale.”

cow staredown

Jon Stewart ended his run on The Daily Show with a lecture on three different kinds of B.S.  “If you smell something, say something.”  Words to live by.  I’ll do my best.

An impressive article by James Fallows in The Atlantic (Jan/Feb 2015 issue) called “The Tragedy of the American Military” gives words to feelings I couldn’t express:  “Reverent but disengaged” and “we love the troops, but we’d rather not think about them.”  Doonesbury had a good one, too.

It used to be that saying “I’m not politically correct” was a way to try to communicate an uncomfortable truth.  Now it’s a lame excuse to give in to your dark side.  I’m talking to you, Donald Trump.

(Image is “cow staredown” by Ray Dumas on Flickr.  CC BY-SA 2.0.  Don’t look them in the eye.)

Random Thursday for July 30, 2015

We need a leader who inspires us to be our best selves, not one who makes us comfortable with our prejudices.

It’s important to remember that Dylann Roof didn’t kill nine people at Mother Emmanuel AME Church with a confederate battle flag.  What have we done to prevent another shooting?

Other interesting articles on guns and shooting:

On a lighter note, I saw this image on Facebook.  Things like this are why I started this blog.  You can’t finish a thought until you’ve taken in all the available facts.  Socrates would be proud.  Many thanks to David G. McAfee.

si and thor

Random Thursday for July 23, 2015

This week Random Thursday is on a Friday.

This is a good one for The Jabbok Ford:  “I read others’ sermons to remember that I am not the first person to wrestle with these texts; other preachers do too, and their scars are beautiful.” From Anna Carter Florence, in “7 Essential Books for Preaching”, Christian Century, 10/20/2009, page 45 (italics mine)

Ramones

“Ramones’ songs are like circles. The very first person to ever draw one was a genius.  Everyone who has done so since is in kindergarten.”  From Willa Paskin in “Sex & Drugs & Middle-Aged White Guys”, Slate Magazine

Starbucks should charge some people rent.  I’m looking for a table for some social time with a friend and they’re taken up by business meetings.

I knew Trump would self-destruct sooner or later, but over POWs?  Really?  Here’s a great letter to the Dallas Morning News asking other billionaires to take Trump to task.  Here’s an op-ed piece explaining that Trump either isn’t a billionaire or that you may be one and not know it.

Can we get people to stand guard at movie theaters and AME churches?

(Image is “RAMONES – Manchester Apollo – 1980” by Harry (Howard) Potts on Flickr.  CC BY 2.0.  I wasn’t at the concert.)