Monthly Archives: March 2014

Let the Crimeans Decide

I’m certainly no fan of Russia nor of Vlad the Beefcake Clown Putin. But as an American, part of a country which went to war over self-determination, I don’t see why we oppose the Crimeans choosing to leave the Ukraine and become part of Russia. If that’s what they want.

Why don’t we just say, “The people have spoken”? Do we require a war to make it official, because that’s the way we did it?

We tend to be highly selective with foreign policy issues of this nature. We applauded when all the Eastern block countries disconnected from the USSR. We support Taiwan. We were okay with dividing Yugoslavia into several countries. We supported all the countries of the British Empire becoming independent after World War 2. We supported East Germany merging into West Germany. We supported created two countries out of the Sudan. So, why not let Crimea decide their future?

On the other hand…we supported Texas when they didn’t want to be part of Mexico, but went to war to keep them from seceding from the USA. Like I said, we’re kinda selective.

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Book: A Climate for Change

climate-for-changeI’m encouraged by the number of evangelicals who have become engaged with climate change (though mostly off the media radar). A growing number of Christian books focus on the issues surrounding climate change. I just finished one of them.

“A Climate for Change” is a superb book by scientist Katharine Hayhoe and pastor/author/professor Andrew Farley. This short book gives a non-alarmist, non-partisan explanation of what is happening climate-wise, responds to the common objections, and provides ways Christians can respond. It’s a quick and easy read. For Christians sincerely interested in learning about this subject, I highly recommend “A Climate for Change.” (Buy on Amazon)

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Those Were the Days

Google has eliminated underlined links from its search pages. Years from now, I’ll be sitting around with other old codgers saying, “Remember when all links on the internet had blue underlines?” Then we’ll all thoughtfully chew our gums.

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Cracking Walnuts, Pakistan Style

In Pakistan, a man set a world record by smashing 155 walnuts with his head in one minute. Smashing walnuts with your head–that’s among the saner things that happen in Pakistan.

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The Making of a Folk Hero

A mix of the disturbing and of the encouraging. George Zimmerman was to appear at the New Orlando Gun Show, but it was cancelled because of community backlash. (Cheer.) Instead, he appeared at what’s described as a “scaled down” version of the gun show at a local store. There, he signed autographs.

Seriously? People came to get George Zimmerman’s autograph? Some kind of folk hero?

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What We Did

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The deadliest air raid of World War 2 occurred on March 10, 1945, when 300 American B-29s fire-bombed Tokyo–three streams of bombers over a three-hour period, dropping bombs packed with phosphorous and napalm. Bomber crews toward the end said they could smell burnt flesh as they flew over Tokyo. The conflagration killed over 100,000 people, and destroyed nearly 270,000 buildings (most Japanese buildings were made of wood).

By the end of the war, over 60 Japanese cities received similar treatment.

The goal was to break the enemy’s morale, but as in Germany with the firebombing of such cities as Hamburg and Dresden, that didn’t happen. All it did was kill hundreds of thousands of non-combatants–men, women, and children.

A Japanese photographer named Ishikawa Koyo captured the carnage in some stunning photographs which are just now coming to light. Three of them are above. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

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The Lent Exemption

Anchor Community Church hosted an ecumenical event on Sunday night. A United Methodist pastor, before getting dessert, said he had given up chocolate for Lent but, because Sundays are exempt, he was getting a chocolate dessert.

Huh? Sundays are exempt? This was new to the three United Brethren at the table.

He explained that Sundays are a biblical day of celebration. He said you don’t fast on Sunday, either. He was surprised that I hadn’t heard about this exemption.

Do we United Brethren just have a hole in our theology?

When Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness, I’m wondering: did each Sabbath find him in Jerusalem at the Golden Corral? I’m thinking not.

My brother Rick pointed out that it reverses things. “Instead of being bad the rest of the week and being good on Sunday, you are good the rest of the week and bad on Sunday.”

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If You’re Poor, Stop Being Poor

Aasif Mandvi has become my favorite correspondent on the Daily Show. On Thursday night, he did a segment on American healthcare. Throughout the report, he interviewed Fox Business commentator Todd Wilemon. Toward the end, Mandvi mentioned that a lot of Americans don’t have healthcare because they can’t afford it. Wilemon’s solution was brilliant: “If you’re poor, stop being poor.”

It’s really that simple. If you’re cold, put on a jacket. If you’re thirsty, get a drink. And if you’re poor, stop being poor. Anybody who is poor can, if they would just stop being utterly lazy, just flip a switch and become not-poor. If you want to become a millionaire, then become one.

What’s so hard about that? This is America, after all. Just ask the business experts at Fox.

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Batkid Scrubbed from Oscars

The Make-a-Wish Batkid from San Francisco got cut from the Oscars. They flew him and his family to LA for the Oscars, and he was to appear at the end of a segment about superheroes. But they cut him. I guess they were too busy serving pizza to the crowd. The Academy paid to send him to Disneyland instead. Hey, he’s just a 5-year-old kid with leukemia. He’ll get over it.

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A Day (or Week) for Everything Under the Sun

There seems to be a national day or week for everything. In March we have Horse Protection Day (1st), Doodle Day (7th), No Smoking Day (12th), World Kidney Day (13th), Puppy Day (23rd), Purple Day (26th), Skipping Day (28th).

And then we have awareness weeks. In the upcoming months, we have National Stationery Week, Orphan Week, Sleep Awareness Week, Gardening Week, Homeopathy Awareness Week, and much more.

The religious community is missing out on some public relations opportunities. I propose:

  • Wesleyan-Arminian Awareness Week.
  • Substitutionary Atonement Day.
  • Worship Team Appreciation Day.
  • Save the Organ Week.
  • Potluck Appreciation Month.
  • Progressive Sanctification Day.
  • Hermeneutics Sunday.
  • Egalitarian vs. Complementarian Understanding Day.
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