Women in church leadership

SO - women serving in church leadership, is it right or wrong? Why? It's an honest question, and I'm looking for an honest answer. OK - go!

Rick Santorum and his very bad logic

I respect Rick Santorum and his right to his opinion. He should be able to state his own personal beliefs and not be booed. However, In my opinion, comparing gay marriage to polygamy is about as productive as comparing homosexuality to pedophilia.

Watch the video below (full story here) and comment if you'd like to share your answer to his question - what is the public purpose served in changing the law? How do you feel Santorum should have handled this question? Or was he right on?

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The Christmas Story

One of the best kids' presentations of the Christmas story I've seen in a long time - way to go St. Paul's of Aukland, NZ!

 

What's the word I'm looking for?

Ouch! You can read the entire article here.

An Open Apology to Amy Koch on Behalf of All Gay and Lesbian Minnesotans

Dear Ms. Koch,

On behalf of all gays and lesbians living in Minnesota, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for our community's successful efforts to threaten your traditional marriage.  We are ashamed of ourselves for causing you to have what the media refers to as an "illicit affair" with your staffer, and we also extend our deepest apologies to him and to his wife. These recent events have made it quite clear that our gay and lesbian tactics have gone too far, affecting even the most respectful of our society.

We apologize that our selfish requests to marry those we love has cheapened and degraded traditional marriage so much that we caused you to stray from your own holy union for something more cheap and tawdry.  And we are doubly remorseful in knowing that many will see this as a form of sexual harassment of a subordinate.

It is now clear to us that if we were not so self-focused and myopic, we would have been able to see that the time you wasted diligently writing legislation that would forever seal the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, could have been more usefully spent reshaping the legal definition of "adultery."

Forgive us.  As you know, we are not church-going people, so we are unable to fully appreciate that "gay marriage" is incompatible with Christian values, despite the fact that those values carry a biblical tradition of adultery such as yours.  We applaud you for keeping that tradition going.

And finally, shame on us for thinking that marriage is a private affair, and that our marriage would have little impact on anyone's family.  We now see that marriage is more than that.  It is an agreement with society.  We should listen to the Minnesota Family Council when it tells us that marriage is about being public, which explains why marriages are public ceremonies.  Never did we realize that it is exactly because of this societal agreement that the entire world is looking at you in shame and disappointment instead of minding its own business.

From the bottom of our hearts, we ask that you please accept our apology.

Thank you.
John Medeiros
Minneapolis MN

Unwinnable argument #1 - Does God exist?

Whoa, hold on a minute, am I really going there? You betcha!

Just by simple observation of the title of this post, you should be able to deduce that I do, indeed, believe there is one God and He does exist. Because I capitalized the word "God." In fact, I capitalize even the pronouns referring to God, and even other names for God, including the word "name" when I'm referring to His Name, for example.

But I digress. I want to keep this simple, and just give people an opportunity to state their position - be it 1) yes, He exists, 2) no, He doesn't exist or 3) gotta be honest, I'm really not sure. And then state why you believe as you do. There are no wrong answers, and while I can't stop people from asking questions in the comments section, I will delete any comments I find to be disrespectful or offensive. Because, as with most unwinnable arguments, especially one between an atheist and a person of faith in God, in the end it most always ends in "well, I'm right and you're stupid for not agreeing with me." Yes, yes it does - don't try to deny it. You may say you respect the other person's views and that you want to agree to disagree, but deep down you're really thinking the other person is a delusional, uneducated idiot.

For the record, if you are an atheist, I totally respect your beliefs (I'm lying). And I know you have the same respect for my beliefs (you're lying, too).

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, and you can see how futile this sort of argument is - let's all agree to not argue at all, OK? For once in our lives, let's just write why we believe what we believe and read what others believe without taking offense or feeling like it's our personal mission to save each other. Why do this? Because if we can do that here, maybe - just maybe - we will each begin to learn how to develop respect for someone in our lives right now who believes differently than we do, and learn to love them for who they are. Because...

Unwinnable arguments don't change hearts and minds.

I'll start - Does God exist? Yes.

I'm so convinced He exists that I don't even say I believe He exists anymore, it's just yes - yes God exists. Do I have moments of doubt on occasion? Sure - when I'm watching "Nova" sometimes, but more often than not, the scientific realm simply confirms my belief in God, and that He really did create all this. For me, it would require a whole lot more faith in the notion that all this happened by accident - not just the simple beginning of the universe itself, but every single organism in existence. Nothing, then a protein, then POOF everything is orderly and making perfect sense and fitting together properly by accident, isn't it grand? Sure, I'm over-simplifying, but for me, belief in a Creator of all things is not a stretch.

But it's more than just the whole "why do we exist" question - all human beings, I believe, are pre-programmed to believe in and have a relationship with their Creator. Why? Because I've experienced God working in my life, and in the lives of others over my 48 years here on earth. I have a book called the Holy Bible that tells me all about God dating back thousands of years - it's a piece of history, and it's God's story. The more I read it, the more I learn. I believe He is omniscient and omnipresent, and through His only Son Jesus Christ, I can have a relationship with Him right now and for all of eternity when He calls me home. I believe He hears my prayers, speaks to my heart, comforts me, and uses me and the gifts He's given me to help others know Who He is.

In a very small nutshell, this is what I believe, and why I believe it.

Do you believe God exists, doesn't exist or you're not sure? Why?

Matters of faith, theological debate and those pesky un-winnable arguments

There are lots of arguments that are futile, because sometimes, despite our best efforts, they're just downright un-winnable.

Who's responsible for the budget deficit?

iPhone or Droid?

Who sucks worse - Yankees or Red Sox?

If those don't raise your hackles enough, however, I submit to you that nothing brings out the absolute best and worst in a human being than arguments over spiritual matters. You know what I mean, and I'm sure you can name a few. I've alienated people who I thought were my friends just by stating I believed differently than they did, or by the mere questioning of their beliefs, and after a prolonged period of them pulling out scripture verses (sometimes valid, sometimes grossly out of context) and trying to twist them around to support their desired conclusion and win the argument, it almost always ends like this - "I believe this because it's true, and you don't, so you're wrong, and I don't want to talk to you anymore until you decide to stop being stupid and agree with my beliefs." Is it any wonder that people of different faiths never find any common ground?

People don't like it when they have to defend their beliefs, because more often than not, they are beliefs rooted in faith rather than fact. After all, if religion was 100% fact-based, everyone would believe - because belief in what you can see, touch, smell, taste - well, that's easy! But no, we call it faith because we don't have anything other than the stories of others and our own personal experiences to convince us of the validity of our faith, and hence the validity of what we believe to be real and true.

But, what if we're wrong?

For years, when it came to matters of the Christian faith, and in particular the way I practiced my faith, I subscribed to the motto of "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." It's a great motto to have when you can't articulate why you believe what you believe. I found, though, that as soon as you start looking around and asking questions, you're branded a rebel or a deviant - you've "gone astray" and people become suddenly "concerned for your spiritual health." God is a God of clarity, they say, and Satan is a spirit of Confusion, so if you're questioning your beliefs, you must be under the influence of the Enemy. Sound familiar? Can I get an "amen?"

Let me state for clarity - I believe asking questions is good and healthy. It has helped solidify my own beliefs, giving me a more solid foundation to stand on, all the while appreciating why others believe differently - and that appreciating is what builds bridges, folks. I've learned, finally, that I don't have all the answers - and that's OK.

I got thinking about this whole topic while on Facebook yesterday, as I inadvertently found myself being dragged into a theological debate I did not want to have. I found that people don't like it when you point out logic fallacies (mistake #1) which makes the whole debate thing on Facebook, at least for me, confusing, pointless and frustrating...especially when the debate (you weren't invited to in the first place - mistake #2) is taking place on the wall of an acquaintance you don't know well with others you don't know at all (mistake #3). Combine that with the fact that most people (at least in my own experience) engaging in theological debate don't really want to know what you believe, they just want to convince you that they're right...and well, to be blunt, I just don't have time for that nonsense.

All this to ask - in your opinion, what are some of those "un-winnable" spiritual arguments? Let's get a list going, and then I'll open them up one by one here, and we'll see what you've got! I promise, unlike Facebook (which I only enjoy for the social and networking aspects!), I will always start by clearly stating what I believe about a certain topic and why I believe it. I also promise that I will not try to convince you that you are wrong and I am right - but I do want to hear, sincerely, why you believe what you believe.

Here's my short list:

Is there a God?

6 Day Creation, Intelligent Design or Evolution?

What is necessary for Salvation?

Baptism

Divorce

Homosexuality

Women in church leadership

Some of you are already thinking "what do you mean 'un-winnable?' I have all the facts to prove my beliefs on every single one of those topics!"

Great! Bring it.

Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe this is going to be a LONG list, LOL. That's OK - lots of great discussion can take place here, I think. I hope. Let's learn from one another.

Comment moderation is now OFF. In the comments below, list your topics! Don't get into them just yet, just list the topics. :)

Two Lesbians Raised a Baby and This is What They Got

Haven't posted a really good "threshing floor" post in a long time. This comes via MoveOn.org. What are your thoughts after you watch this video? Comments are usually moderated, but I will open them up to everyone for this post. Please - no comments that are hateful, inflammatory, spammy or rude, or that contain gross and idiotic generalizations about any group of people. In a word - keep it respectful, or you will be eliminated - well, OK, your comment will be. :)