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Mole

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Everything posted by Mole

  1. I just watched that response and it's very thoughtful and compelling. The idea that she's some kind of intellectual lightweight just doesn't hold up when listening to this or much of her other work. She might step in a hole and say something stupid from time to time, but everyone does this and much of that perception is likely due to selective editing. Pretty much anything anyone says can make them look like an idiot if it's edited and framed properly. It's hard to listen to her speak unedited and come to any conclusion other than that the Fox News framing of her is based on racism/misogyny. She's well to the left of me, but she's no doubt smart and thoughtful.
  2. Question for the law dogs: these cats who are solipsism incarnate - Gaetz and the like - is that a product of legal training or is it just self-selecting? Basically, are they born that way or is it a choice?
  3. I bet you feel a little bit foolish calling anything lame now that you know the real name.
  4. It’s kneeling during the National Anthem part 2. Take a wedge conflict that’s dying down and amp it back up to make it into a political crisis.
  5. From MAGA to MOCA. Can we get that on a hat?
  6. How’s that different than MAGA?
  7. What’s fat Jimmy Carter have to do with this?
  8. You know times are serious when the board ignores a drag rat vs drag worm debate.
  9. I had YouTube playing in the background when Eric came up offering me a chance to get on a list of 100 of people that Trump would personally look at - they had their list and were just waiting for me to join. I’ve seen that in here, but hearing it was something else. I was sure it was satire until Trump said he approved the message. Also, just to give the latest idea making the rounds of some more conspiracy-minded evangelicals: testing is a means of control. If you get tested, they’ll tell you it’s positive and force you into quarantine. I’m not sure who “they” are, but you definitely shouldn’t get tested or you’ll have your constitutional rights stripped. I’m not sure if that’s foreign propaganda, bad-actor domestic propaganda, or just organic madness, but it’s out there. This stuff gets exhausting.
  10. Early 80s, but I was listening to the Circle Jerks Wild In The Streets the other night. The subject matter of the entire album sounds like it could have been written last week. Also, Living Colour was full of brilliant musicians. The band was ahead of their time as far as musical developments of the 90s and quite simply better musicians than almost anyone else.
  11. I live in the sticks. I was able to see it by looking a bit to the side of where it is. Once I focused my eyes on it, gone. Saw some nice meteor showers as well
  12. I feel like so many missed the point of How to Lie With Statistics. It would be hilarious if not for all the death.
  13. I read the thread title as “2020, Thinking College Football is Available.” I thought it was the optimist/delusional thread for those of us who’d like to imagine there will be football this fall.
  14. Question for the law dogs: what responsibility does law enforcement have to identify themselves? Even if you view government agents as the good guys, this seems ripe for abuse by impostors.
  15. Sounds like justifiable grounds for excommunication to me.
  16. The church of mine where it worked was exactly like that. We formally met for church/community 2 or 3 times a week and regularly hung out with each other during our leisure time. Sunday church was often all day, but much of it was food, games, and watching sports. They were my closest friends. Of course, there can be a point where that can lead to questionable situations as well or simply becoming too insular, but mature, responsible, open, community leadership can avoid those pitfalls. Absent deep church community (Koinonia isn’t just a smokin’ Christian jazz fusion band), church discipline is an invitation for abuse. I also appreciate anyone sharing about abusive church experiences. It’s good to learn, grow, and see how our actions and beliefs might cause others harm.
  17. The church I was in where it "worked" was: 1. extremely small, so interpersonal hurts were pretty hard to hide 2. full of very close-knit friendships, many going back decades - the relationships were well-established, so everyone felt empowered to draw appropriate boundaries 3. with dispersed and diluted authority - not really a pastor, but some folks I guess operated as something like an elder, but it wasn't formalized and was more of a group understanding that arises in many groups of close friends; preaching was an open forum for anyone who felt called 4. supremely concerned with not hurting their friends and loving them well 5. pretty diverse theologically, even on the social issues of the day 6. self-aware - the movie Marjoe was a popular topic of discussion and seen as an important movie for new believers; if you're going to walk this walk, it's important to be aware of how you might be taken advantage of 7. even though it almost reads like it, they were not Quakers; the meetings sometimes felt like Quaker meetings in terms of organization and the patience required I think it can work in a culture where everyone is fully empowered to make a defense for themselves and where everyone loves one another more than they "hate sin." If there's a central authority leading the group or a culture of deference, that seems like a recipe for disaster. I've known very few pastors that I would trust with that kind of authority. The ones I would trust wouldn't take on that kind of authority.
  18. That sounds traumatic. I spent years as part of a church that practiced a kind of church discipline and it managed to function without turning abusive. I’ll admit that it was a very special set of circumstances and personalities that made it work. Our reading of the church discipline practices sounds like it was far different as well. There are many biblical practices that can easily turn abusive and this one is clearly one of the more easily abused ones. I wish pastors spent more time meditating on James 3:17 than trying to bludgeon souls into agreeing with John 3:16 (as wonderful of a message as it is).
  19. The early church seemed to have an interesting relationship to sin within the church. Paul expressed the destructive nature of letting it fester. Of course, there's also references to pretty insane debauchery. On the other hand, Ananias and Sapphira were killed for their greed. It seems that there was more willingness to call things out within the church. Of course, we only get to see one side of the conversation, so we're left with limited insight into how well it was received. Very few American churches practice any kind of church discipline. It seems totally foreign to our American culture. There is a pretty healthy biblical model as to how to accomplish this, but it takes significant interpersonal investment and it can get messy. The church shopping consumer model that we use doesn't lend itself well to this.
  20. More succinctly: What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
  21. The Old Testament is full of examples of God letting people have the wicked things they desired and then suffering the consequences. It's one of the central lessons of the Bible: eventually God might let you have the desires of your heart. That it doesn't happen more is an act of divine mercy. Among other things, the Sermon on the Mount was a profound lesson on the wickedness of our hearts. Trump is the personification of the American id. He's the absolute worst of us, but he's the perfect representation of who we are. We've been given the very thing that we've been begging for and are suffering the consequences. Fortunately for believers, another central lesson of the Bible is repentance.
  22. It makes us feel smart to say that policy is supreme, and it is important, but I’m glad to see more and more people of various political persuasions recognize the more fundamental issues. A president’s view on abortion isn’t relevant in the face of the compounding disasters of 2020, or the 2008 financial crash, or the 9/11 attacks, yet we let these and other issues define how we vote. These policies no doubt matter, but they pale in comparison to making sure that our leaders have the qualities of leadership that will carry us through the inevitable crisis that faces every presidency. Even worse, we let the identity of these policies define how we vote rather than the character of leadership. Policies matter, but are less important than leadership; abstractions of policies (partisan identity) are the worst way to choose a leader.
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