Just a short note on the last blog...I'm not liberal. Not in my theology or my politics. I was merely conjecturing that a lot of people (particularly Christians) fight for a lot of misdirected social change. I think that all the attention and energy wasted on picketing abortion clinics, lambasting the evils of drugs, and criticizing what society sees as marriage could be used to counsel those with unplanned pregnancies into other choices, help people out of addiction, and show the Love of God as the basis for all love in all forms, physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual. My explanations of my thoughts on the particular situations were largely to demonstrate that the issues are not as difficult as we think they, despite their complexity.
Joshua
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Legalize everything!
So here's where I skate an interesting boundary. I want to start this with a serious and heavy disclaimer: I do NOT endorse drug use, sexual promiscuity or immorality from the Christian perspective, or abortion. What I am about to say is a political and social commentary on a few slightly but constantly disputed topics in American society.
With that said, let's proceed.
When it comes to gay marriage, abortion, and drug use (not just medical marijuana either...I mean everything from weed to crack to meth...all of it) there is strong opposition almost constantly from ultra-conservative groups both religious and secular. For the sake of this discussion, though, I will be taking this from a Christian perspective. I had a brief discussion on the abortion end of this with Liz a little way back, and more recently talked to my dear friend Mr. Maberry about the drug portion of this thought process.
What I've been thinking about is the legalization of things that are largely moral issues. While I am not fighting to make these legal on a personal level, I'm not opposed. Why? Let's consider the alternatives.
Abortion obviously already is legal. A life is a life; from concetion to old age a human is a human. Not a choice or a fetus. With that in mind, I don't think it helps anyone to show pictures of dead babies or talk about how you're murdering someone. So why, then, am I not vehemently opposed to legalized abortion? Because the alternative, for the unfortunately desperate souls that may not realize truly what they are doing, is the old "back-alley abortion." While they're not always done literally in a back alley, they are unsafe and unregulated. What does this mean? This means you're putting TWO lives at risk now...very likely preventing them BOTH from seeing the truth of Christ. So why not at least give one person a chance? They may be on the process to ending a life before it begins, if they haven't already, but we should not judge them for it and should give them the grace that we also received and help them see where they need to go from this point forward.
A brief aside before moving on: I am not trying to be insensitive...I know people that have this situation going on in the lives of those close to them, and I am not trying to say it's okay for them to have an abortion.
So what about gay marriage? Why is that fine? Well, as I will take time to say on every point it's not...but in terms of being a legal issue this is the easiest one to handle. People are going to do what they're going to do. I realize there are issues that deal with sharing insurance and benefits that people fight against, but I think that's not really a big deal. I'll be honest, I don't think much of this one because it seems like much ado about nothing. But I also am not as informed about it either. :P
Now we come to the big one. The legalization of drugs is historically an interesting topic because a lot of what the war on drugs fights against today was at one point completely legal. Cocaine, heroin, and other opiates were over-the-counter drugs at one point. This was before the FDA, also, and before much more research was done on the effects of those drugs. Obviously the research was in favor of making these drugs known as dangerous substances. Remember, though, that alcohol was also thought of as terrifying dangerous as well during the 20's.
You may now be asking "Where are you going with this?" Well, The ATF was created to handle dangerous crap, to put it very technically. We also have the FDA to make sure that our food won't kill us and that pharmaceuticals are safe. While I have little faith in the latter duties of that department, it still does its job to a reasonable degree. With that in mind, all of the substances on the streets would be subject to regulation in both purity and safety. Laws could be put in place to keep people from using these substances while driving, just like with alcohol.
The big change would be in crime rates. Obviously the quickest drop would be in convictions for usage. But the longstanding changes would be in larger trafficking operations and the economy. Why would people buy bathtub crack made with cleaning fluids when they can go to the store that sells it in a way where you won't get shot buying, and won't get a bad batch with too much bleach in the mix? Drug trafficking would more than likely die off, much in the way that professional moon-shining did when prohibition ended. While both would still exist, they just wouldn't be profitable anymore and would naturally disappear. The economic change that would occur would be a nice bulge in tax collection. I'm not the first to say it, and I won't be the last. Tax the CRAP out of controlled substances. That oughta put a dent in the budget deficit.
So that's that. People are going to do what they're going to do, and we need to remember that. If you don't know the Truth you can't live by it. What we, and I mean the Christian community, need to do is reach out with the Gospel and change lives. I'm not saying that if a bill comes down you should vote yes to legalizing these issues because everyone else will...I know that confusing because I just seemed to endorse all this. But remember what I've said all along, I'm NOT endorsing these decisions, and when asked to vote I would likely abstain. (The drug issue would be the exception on my list with a yes vote.)
Forcing our morality into the lives of people who don't share our views is not how the Gospel gets spread. America is not a theocracy, and we shouldn't have the dream of that reality as our primary mission. Our primary mission is people...connecting people that God has placed in our lives back to Him. It's through a relationship with Jesus Christ that people will learn not to abort babies, overcome drug addiction, and learn of God's plan for relationships between men and women. Nothing else has the power of permanence as a solution as the Cross. And even then will still may struggle...but in a community of believers and with the Holy Spirit as our guide, we can be on solid ground in hard times.
Joshua
With that said, let's proceed.
When it comes to gay marriage, abortion, and drug use (not just medical marijuana either...I mean everything from weed to crack to meth...all of it) there is strong opposition almost constantly from ultra-conservative groups both religious and secular. For the sake of this discussion, though, I will be taking this from a Christian perspective. I had a brief discussion on the abortion end of this with Liz a little way back, and more recently talked to my dear friend Mr. Maberry about the drug portion of this thought process.
What I've been thinking about is the legalization of things that are largely moral issues. While I am not fighting to make these legal on a personal level, I'm not opposed. Why? Let's consider the alternatives.
Abortion obviously already is legal. A life is a life; from concetion to old age a human is a human. Not a choice or a fetus. With that in mind, I don't think it helps anyone to show pictures of dead babies or talk about how you're murdering someone. So why, then, am I not vehemently opposed to legalized abortion? Because the alternative, for the unfortunately desperate souls that may not realize truly what they are doing, is the old "back-alley abortion." While they're not always done literally in a back alley, they are unsafe and unregulated. What does this mean? This means you're putting TWO lives at risk now...very likely preventing them BOTH from seeing the truth of Christ. So why not at least give one person a chance? They may be on the process to ending a life before it begins, if they haven't already, but we should not judge them for it and should give them the grace that we also received and help them see where they need to go from this point forward.
A brief aside before moving on: I am not trying to be insensitive...I know people that have this situation going on in the lives of those close to them, and I am not trying to say it's okay for them to have an abortion.
So what about gay marriage? Why is that fine? Well, as I will take time to say on every point it's not...but in terms of being a legal issue this is the easiest one to handle. People are going to do what they're going to do. I realize there are issues that deal with sharing insurance and benefits that people fight against, but I think that's not really a big deal. I'll be honest, I don't think much of this one because it seems like much ado about nothing. But I also am not as informed about it either. :P
Now we come to the big one. The legalization of drugs is historically an interesting topic because a lot of what the war on drugs fights against today was at one point completely legal. Cocaine, heroin, and other opiates were over-the-counter drugs at one point. This was before the FDA, also, and before much more research was done on the effects of those drugs. Obviously the research was in favor of making these drugs known as dangerous substances. Remember, though, that alcohol was also thought of as terrifying dangerous as well during the 20's.
You may now be asking "Where are you going with this?" Well, The ATF was created to handle dangerous crap, to put it very technically. We also have the FDA to make sure that our food won't kill us and that pharmaceuticals are safe. While I have little faith in the latter duties of that department, it still does its job to a reasonable degree. With that in mind, all of the substances on the streets would be subject to regulation in both purity and safety. Laws could be put in place to keep people from using these substances while driving, just like with alcohol.
The big change would be in crime rates. Obviously the quickest drop would be in convictions for usage. But the longstanding changes would be in larger trafficking operations and the economy. Why would people buy bathtub crack made with cleaning fluids when they can go to the store that sells it in a way where you won't get shot buying, and won't get a bad batch with too much bleach in the mix? Drug trafficking would more than likely die off, much in the way that professional moon-shining did when prohibition ended. While both would still exist, they just wouldn't be profitable anymore and would naturally disappear. The economic change that would occur would be a nice bulge in tax collection. I'm not the first to say it, and I won't be the last. Tax the CRAP out of controlled substances. That oughta put a dent in the budget deficit.
So that's that. People are going to do what they're going to do, and we need to remember that. If you don't know the Truth you can't live by it. What we, and I mean the Christian community, need to do is reach out with the Gospel and change lives. I'm not saying that if a bill comes down you should vote yes to legalizing these issues because everyone else will...I know that confusing because I just seemed to endorse all this. But remember what I've said all along, I'm NOT endorsing these decisions, and when asked to vote I would likely abstain. (The drug issue would be the exception on my list with a yes vote.)
Forcing our morality into the lives of people who don't share our views is not how the Gospel gets spread. America is not a theocracy, and we shouldn't have the dream of that reality as our primary mission. Our primary mission is people...connecting people that God has placed in our lives back to Him. It's through a relationship with Jesus Christ that people will learn not to abort babies, overcome drug addiction, and learn of God's plan for relationships between men and women. Nothing else has the power of permanence as a solution as the Cross. And even then will still may struggle...but in a community of believers and with the Holy Spirit as our guide, we can be on solid ground in hard times.
Joshua
Monday, August 11, 2008
I read a lot.
The question popped into mind recently: "Is all of this reading I do purely for the reasons I want it to be?" The reason why I thought of it is because I try and read everything. Not literally everything, but subject-wise...I read books of history, politics, classic literature, modern literature, and Christian life. I'd be a liar if I said there was NO personal pride in it...but really I'm shooting for something that not a lot of Christians know and strive for...knowledge of the world around me.
Now I'm not saying that I'm some special force in the world and everyone should be like me, or that most Christians intentionally stay unculutured. But I've noticed that sometimes a thing like your reading list, if you have one (if you don't, then make one ;) ), will be filled with books on the Bible and Christian living only. There's none of the old college "well roundedness" going on. The reason why universities, religious and secular, make you take things like math when your an English major, or interpretive dance when your study to design spaceships, is that they don't want you to live in a bubble and know only what you need to do one thing for the rest of your life. Who more than Christians, then, should have a semblence of the world around them? To know of the social struggles of those both in the houses on their block and in the countries across the sea? To know God's word inside and out, and to be able to connect it with an allegory of meaning with someone in a well known novel or poem?
I recently purchased Timothy Keller's The Reason for God: Faith in an Age of Skepticism. When I went with some good friends to his lecture at UPenn a few months back, I was inspired when someone asked him the question "what do you read to stay informed?" (It was something of that nature...I can't recall the exact question.) His reply, basically, was "I live in Manhattan, so I'm a New Yorker. So I read what New Yorkers read...but on top of that there's all of the theology and Christian books. So it's a lot more than the average person, but I read both what Christians read and what the people around me read." (Emphasis mine.)
So that's my goal. I want to know God's word, and know the people around me culturally. I want to be a good steward of my mind, in both making it the mind of Christ and like one of the sons of Issachar, who had understanding of their times.
Joshua
Now I'm not saying that I'm some special force in the world and everyone should be like me, or that most Christians intentionally stay unculutured. But I've noticed that sometimes a thing like your reading list, if you have one (if you don't, then make one ;) ), will be filled with books on the Bible and Christian living only. There's none of the old college "well roundedness" going on. The reason why universities, religious and secular, make you take things like math when your an English major, or interpretive dance when your study to design spaceships, is that they don't want you to live in a bubble and know only what you need to do one thing for the rest of your life. Who more than Christians, then, should have a semblence of the world around them? To know of the social struggles of those both in the houses on their block and in the countries across the sea? To know God's word inside and out, and to be able to connect it with an allegory of meaning with someone in a well known novel or poem?
I recently purchased Timothy Keller's The Reason for God: Faith in an Age of Skepticism. When I went with some good friends to his lecture at UPenn a few months back, I was inspired when someone asked him the question "what do you read to stay informed?" (It was something of that nature...I can't recall the exact question.) His reply, basically, was "I live in Manhattan, so I'm a New Yorker. So I read what New Yorkers read...but on top of that there's all of the theology and Christian books. So it's a lot more than the average person, but I read both what Christians read and what the people around me read." (Emphasis mine.)
So that's my goal. I want to know God's word, and know the people around me culturally. I want to be a good steward of my mind, in both making it the mind of Christ and like one of the sons of Issachar, who had understanding of their times.
Joshua
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Why I'm glad Rick Ross was a C.O.
I work with two guys who are involved with hip-hop on both a local and national level. Sometime recently I overheard talk of "I can't believe Rick Ross was a C.O., man!" I don't listen to a lot of newer rap because honestly a lot of it is the same garbage about keepin' gangsta and having lots of cars, and this guy is of that pedigree. From what I know he has taken his name from an actual convicted felon and raps about being a drug trafficker.
So now we come to the present, where he gets "accused" of working for a Florida prison facility as a corrections officer. I honestly hope it brings him down. Why? Because the world doesn't need anymore anti-heroes. There are enough bad-boy heroes in TV and movies and books and comics and music and real life that it's such a poor image of what a real hero is. And no...I'm not going to go cliche and talk about public servants or armed forces, because let's just assume that they are heroes. I am trying to say that whether in fiction or reality, we have been given a picture of heroes needing to bend the rules and be a little bad to be good. The Rick Ross situation is the far end of the spectrum, whereas he's good because he is a criminal. His drug dealing and usage makes him respectable.
All this has significance to me not just because Ed Cole wrote a chapter about it (I think it may have been Maximized Manhood...if not it was in Courage), but because you have tons of people looking up to thugs like this. And when you combine that with rampant fatherless in our country in general, but specifically in low-income areas, it makes a mess of a picture of what a man should be.
Maybe someday rap will go back to being street poetry and not CSI stories set to a beat.
Joshua
So now we come to the present, where he gets "accused" of working for a Florida prison facility as a corrections officer. I honestly hope it brings him down. Why? Because the world doesn't need anymore anti-heroes. There are enough bad-boy heroes in TV and movies and books and comics and music and real life that it's such a poor image of what a real hero is. And no...I'm not going to go cliche and talk about public servants or armed forces, because let's just assume that they are heroes. I am trying to say that whether in fiction or reality, we have been given a picture of heroes needing to bend the rules and be a little bad to be good. The Rick Ross situation is the far end of the spectrum, whereas he's good because he is a criminal. His drug dealing and usage makes him respectable.
All this has significance to me not just because Ed Cole wrote a chapter about it (I think it may have been Maximized Manhood...if not it was in Courage), but because you have tons of people looking up to thugs like this. And when you combine that with rampant fatherless in our country in general, but specifically in low-income areas, it makes a mess of a picture of what a man should be.
Maybe someday rap will go back to being street poetry and not CSI stories set to a beat.
Joshua
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
I will soon make noise, much to the dismay of my neighbors.
With the upcoming re-launch of ReaLife, I though that it would finally be time to invest money into fixing up the Little Drumset That Could. As a result...I went shopping! But after the discouraging grand total of the few things I needed to get rolling and not sound like crap, I thought "some of this I can get used and it will still be awesome." When the dust cleared, I saved about $240 by purchasing only what I needed new on GC, while the heavy duty gear that will work used was found on eBay. Fun things:
So basically I will be working with a nicer and purpler version of this:
...and I'm really excited because it's been about a year since I played a real drum set. :D
Joshua
So basically I will be working with a nicer and purpler version of this:
...and I'm really excited because it's been about a year since I played a real drum set. :D
Joshua
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