Prophetic Musings

We're about to start experiencing some really fun weather here, but I think this image really says it all.

Only here in Texas can we SIMULTANEOUSLY be under a tornado watch and a winter storm watch. Good stuff. And yes, I'll be watching the skies all day long. In about an hour, we'll get some good stuff rolling in.

I know, you're thinking it's my dancing ability. But really it isn't. No, really. Have you seen him dance?

Amateur.

.......

OK, fine. I dance like Kevin James in Hitch. You happy?

Anyway, the one thing that I have in common with Will Smith. This quote from MSNBC (skip to the bottom and ignore everything about Paris Hilton):

Will Smith says he and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith homeschool their children because the most valuable things he learned he didn’t get from school. “The date of the Boston Tea Party does not matter,” Smith told Reader’s Digest. “I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class.”

BRILLIANT! Someone gets it. I can learn better from reading about something than by watching someone do it. Just like Will Smith.

I shall now be getin' jiggy wit it.  

I had a great post written up about Thanksgiving and my webhost crapped out and I lost it. I'll write another one later.

URGH.

(NOTICE: This contains a couple mature themes, but nothing that someone who is able to read this shouldn't be able to handle. I apologize in advance if the nature of what is discussed offends anyone.) 

While reading through my daily blog list, I came across this at The Evangelical Outpost. Joe links to an article written by Bart Campolo, son of the well-known evangelical Tony Campolo. From a theological perspective, I just can't understand how someone could come to these conclusions. Go a read the whole article first, because I'm just going to sample a few things.

Campolo writes about a letter he received from a young person, who recants a story Campolo told about how a nine-year old who was gang-raped rejected God because her Sunday school teacher told her that God allowed it to happen for a reason. He goes on to discuss how this person would go to Hell because she rejected God, and he does not want to believe that God would allow that to happen to her. He responds by saying this.

Perhaps, as many believe, all who die without confessing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior go to Hell to suffer forever. Most important of all, perhaps God’s sovereignty is such that although God could indeed prevent little girls from being raped, God is no less just or merciful when they are raped, and those children and we who love them should uncritically give God our thanks and praise in any case.

My response is simple: I refuse to believe any of that. For me to do otherwise would be to despair.

Here is the first flaw in his argument. God does allow things to happen on this earth for a reason, and it is difficult for us with our finite minds to understand that reasoning. Because of our fallen nature, things happen that are not directly of God. If humans had never strayed into sin to begin with, then maybe there would be an argument there.

Ephesians 2:1-2 specifically states that

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

We live in a world where the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Satan) accomplishes things through those who are disobedient to God. We are outside of God's control because He gave us free will to decide what we want to do. God would not stop someone from doing something merely because it would be bad, because then He would be controlling a person's life. That free will which allows us to believe also allows Satan to work in those who do not believe. 

The second thing I want to point out is, to me, much more egregious of a statement. In this simple phrase, he should not be allowed to publish any Christian commentary again. Campolo says,

What I know with certainty, however, is the one that makes me want to go on living, the one I choose for my own sake, the one I deem worthy of my allegiance. I may be wrong in this matter, but I am not in doubt. If indeed faith is being sure of what we hope for, then truly I am a man of faith, for I absolutely know what I hope to be true: that God is completely good, entirely loving, and perfectly forgiving, that God is doing everything possible to overcome evil (which is evidently a long and difficult task), and that God will utterly triumph in the end, despite any and all indications to the contrary.

This is my first article of faith. I required no Bible to determine it, and—honestly—I will either interpret away or ignore altogether any Bible verse
that suggests otherwise.

After reading this, my mouth dropped open. Let's put aside the hubris and arrogance contained in the first sentence and concentrate on the last one. Campolo openly states that he would ignore anything in the Bible which would compete with what he has decided God is. Not only has he put God in a box, he will not entertain any Biblical evidence which would change the shape of the box. By saying this, he is denying the authority of the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Correcting is the key word there. Campolo is not open to any correction from the Bible as he states. I have always been honest with anyone that I come into contact with about the Bible that I don't know everything. I may think I have a certain point down and really understand it, but I may not. If the Bible disagrees with what I say, take the Bible's word for it, not mine. If my blog lasts 2000 years with nothing but grammatical changes to it, then by all means show respect to it, but don't for a moment think that it's anything but words of a man. The Bible is a collection of works inspired by God, written by men through His Holy Spirit.

Should I really be attacking Bart Campolo on this? I don't really feel like I'm attacking him, more just pointing out what looks to be poor theology. I don't know the man, have never read anything else by him, and have never read anything written by his father either. I'll be happy to accept the same back. Am I wrong on this? Let me know.

Well, if last week was the high point of the football season, this week is the low point. My beloved Wildcats lost to the hated Kansas Jayhawks 39-20. (Heh, Firefox 2.0 spell checker told me Jayhawks is misspelled.) One week after looking like a future Heisman candidate in defeating #4 Texas, freshman quarterback Josh Freeman looked like a freshman quarterback. Three fumbles and three interceptions turned into a resounding defeat, proving that this team still has a long way to go.

Bring on the bowl game now!
 

And again I say HAH!

Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and it's making him nervous.

The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income.

In the book, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives -- from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services -- make conservatives more generous than liberals.

See, conservatives are evil and greedy. At least not all of us. 

As anyone who knows me very well is quite aware, I am an unabashed skeptic when it comes to global warming. I will not say that it doesn't exist, but I will say that I don't think it's as bad as Al Gore would have you believe. So, to follow up on that thought, read some of the items in this press release by the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. It seems that there isn't the consensus among scientists that some would have you believe there is.

Why is it that ESPN feels the need to pound stories into the ground these days? First, Barry Bonds is hammered over and over for no reason. Nothing new is coming out about the story, yet he gets brought up all summer long. Second, Terrell Owens is on all the time for every little thing. Now, Bobby Knight hits a kid in the chin trying to get him to look at him, and ESPN won't shut up about it.

True, Bobby Knight has a history of idiocy on the court but this isn't one of those situations. The kid, his parents, and the school don't see anything to it, so why does ESPN have to whip out it's microscope and bring up everything that Knight has ever done? Stupid. 

I've long hated this kind of movie, where they setup something to get a reaction from people. I don't like Candid Camera, I don't like Punk'd, I don't like this kind of mean humor, to say nothing about the scatological aspect of the movie. However, reading this made me absolutely sure I will never see it and won't recommend it to everyone else either.

I think that Sacha Baron Cohen is an idiot and owes at least an apology to the people of Kazhakstan, Romania, and everyone in America that he set up. 

Well, it looks like if they do it in Texas, they get sued. The city of Farmers Branch city council decided to approve a couple of new ordinances in their city which has the citizens up in arms. I'll be picking parts out of this article throughout this piece.

Farmers Branch on Monday (13 Nov 2006 - ed.) adopted strict measures against illegal immigrants, requiring apartment renters to provide proof of citizenship or residency and making English the city's official language.

The City Council also unanimously agreed to let police apply to participate in a federal program that would enable them to check the residency status of suspects in custody and initiate deportation proceedings in certain cases.

OK, so what is the big deal? All they are doing is requiring people who live in apartments in their town to be legal US citizens, and they adopted English as the official language, much like the state of Arizona did in the last election. Plus, they are going to allow the police to participate in a program which would allow them to deport illegals. I'm not seeing the issue here, but apparently some people are.

Some Hispanic activists said they will sue the city over the decisions.

"Tomorrow in the courts. I'm winning tomorrow," said Jorge Rivera, an Irving community activist. When he addressed the crowd after the decision, he said in Spanish, "Don't worry, we are going to win."

Dallas activist Domingo Garcia also vowed to sue.

Representatives of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, however, said the language of the resolutions and ordinances approved Monday are different from what other cities have adopted – and over which they have sued. They said they will have to review the language before deciding whether to pursue legal action against Farmers Branch.

"It's hard for us to have firm, specific legal opinions, but we're all disappointed they chose to pursue this divisive path," said Rebecca Bernhardt, immigration, border and national security policy director for the ACLU of Texas.

Luis Figueroa, legislative staff attorney for MALDEF, said he, too, was disappointed.

"Farmers Branch will likely feel the negative effects of this measure in its economy, as well as with increased racial tensions," he said.

So, the ACLU and MALDEF are going to sue. I think it's interesting that the ACLU spokesperson said "It's hard for us to have firm, specific legal opinions." I read two things into that. First, they don't know what they can attack to make what Farmers Branch has done unconstitutional. Second, it's hard to make something unconstitutional when the people who the ordinance work against don't have protection under the Constitution of the United States anyway.

Further down in the article was another little gem I wanted to point out.

As members of Hispanic and civil rights groups led their followers in chants of "We are Americans," one woman shouted back, "No you're not."

They bore signs asking, "Mr. O'Hare, What would Jesus do?" and saying, "In God We Trust, O'Hare is unjust."

I was looking through some old pictures on the site and found this one.

I've always thought this picture is going to be recreated in about 15-20 years, on her wedding day. Without the scratches on her face obviously, and what appears to be remnants of PBJ on his. This will be after the wedding, during the reception when he's gotten sick of wearing the tie, but she is still being the center of attention.  

My beloved Kansas State Wildcats just beat the #4 team in the nation, the ugly burnt orange Texas Longhorns. Jimmy, Alex, sorry about dashing your hopes to get back to the national title game, but they couldn't hang with the Cats. Good stuff out of Manhattan tonight. Can't imagine that KU is looking forward to next week. I just hope K-State doesn't have too much hangover from this game.

(EMAW - Every Man A Wildcat) 

I got an email this morning from the American Family Association decrying Best Buy for not using Merry Christmas in their holiday advertising. According to an article on MSNBC, Best Buy said this:

“We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them,” said Dawn Bryant, a spokeswoman at Best Buy Co. Inc., whose advertising omits any reference to Christmas.

However, in the same article, Wal-Mart said they were returning to using Christmas in it's advertising along with Happy Holidays.

My opinion on this? I think the AFA is full of crap. If a company wants to use Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas in their advertising, it is that company's choice. If you, as an individual, decide you don't want to patronize that business because they don't say Merry Christmas, go right ahead. My first amendment right which gives me freedom of religion gives them freedom to say whatever they want.

Besides Mr. Wildmon, if you want a big company like Best Buy to say Merry Christmas to everyone, create it. Don't expect everybody to agree with what you have to say though.  

The Dallas Morning News as a story about TXU (Texas Utilities, the main electric company in Texas) showing twice as much profit this year as opposed to last year. A couple of choice quotes from the story.

TXU Corp. nearly doubled its profit for the third quarter compared with last year thanks to higher electricity prices.

The company sold less electricity during the quarter than last year, but fetched higher prices on the market, boosting revenue and profit.

OK, so since they jacked up the price, then they made more money. Seems to make sense doesn't it. However, read this next quote and figure out why they were still complaining.

TXU said the performance wasn’t as strong as officials had expected.

“TXU Energy delivered lower-than-planned results largely because consumers implemented efficiency measures in response to prices and warmer weather. We are also beginning to see increased competitive offers and pricing options,” said TXU Chief Executive John Wilder on Thursday in a 37-page press release.