tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post4205467850371342726..comments2023-10-21T23:57:46.155-04:00Comments on Wheat Among Tares: Permission to be Freeterrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-18657036977253936822010-10-23T12:28:17.407-04:002010-10-23T12:28:17.407-04:00As for the contemplation, I find that Genesis, pre...As for the contemplation, I find that Genesis, precisely because so much of it seems problematic or even repellent at first, is similarly powerful. We know that we apprehend poorly. Is it not likely that it is the doors we have dared not open contain the missing pieces?<br /><br />Evangelicals tend to be very epistle-oriented: codifying, organising, smoothing out all problems. The parables send us in the opposite direction, into puzzles and difficulties. Standing in the sandals of the local Essenes, or Zealots, or Sadducees, or Pharisees - slaves or nobility, women or men, Jews or Gentiles - can help us hear it anew. Few of these were primarily concerned with "Gee, can we work all this info into some overarching <i>theory</i> that we can write down and tuck away as settled," but to hear if God might be interested in them and their state, and what He thought of their plight.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-36584165908738525252010-10-23T12:25:32.700-04:002010-10-23T12:25:32.700-04:00AVI :
(1) I am not sure I think "EVERYTHING&q...<b>AVI</b> :<br />(1) I am not sure I think "EVERYTHING" unique to Christianity is bad.<br />(a) There are tons of different types of "Christianity" with many offering strong contradictions to each other. So it depends on which ones you are speaking.<br />(b) Indeed, most aspects of the various Christianities are shared some other faiths, I think. I am suspicious of an uniqueness except details of any faith's particular story. For many deep principles (some contradictory) are shared between faiths.<br /><br />(2) I am definitely not a person who says, "Hey, we are all just the same. Why not just get along." I am highly critical of much of Buddhism and presently pissing off lots of Buddhists on their sites and ones who have commented on mine. I hope you can see me as equally cancankerous! Smile.<br /><br />(3) You are mistaken to feel that in my "mind [I} have seen the reality, which Christians shield themselves from by prettifying."<br />I am curious if you have read my blog. Sorry if I gave you that impression. <br /><br />(4) I am not totally sure I follow what your last paragraph is suggesting to me. But I agree that the irony of forming a creed which is above all other creeds is a silly delusion. Instead, I am suggesting self-doubt and humility. Or at least I am hoping I am. Maybe you are catching some of my many hypocritical slips! Smile.Sabio Lantzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12963476276106907984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-5600121029836915252010-10-23T12:13:30.914-04:002010-10-23T12:13:30.914-04:00Sabio/Jōsen
Well, that's certainly been your ...Sabio/Jōsen<br /><br />Well, that's certainly been your ongoing theme - that everything good about the Christian faith is found in all other faiths, and everything unique about it is bad. It puts me in mind of GK Chesterton's quote "she was the sort of person who kept patiently explaining to you that Buddhism and Christianity taught the same thing - especially Buddhism."<br /><br />"lots of faiths and non-faiths wrestle with all this stuff." No, really? None of us Christians had ever heard that before.<br /><br />I am sure it is not merely rhetorical and argumentative when you describe Christian doctrines in such a slanted way - I don't doubt that in your mind you have seen the reality, which Christians shield themselves from by prettifying.<br /><br />Consider the possibility that to be above all creeds, seeing through each and seeing better than their adherents, is an emotionally satisfying belief that provides great psychological benefits. For this reason, the self-examining person will take especial care to make sure he has removed that advantage in his imagination - so far as such things are possible - before adopting it with such certainty. That is, the "crutch" argument works better against unbelief than it works against belief.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-37456955675033079462010-10-21T08:03:25.584-04:002010-10-21T08:03:25.584-04:00see ya later then ..
My point: lots of faiths and ...see ya later then ..<br />My point: lots of faiths and non-faiths wrestle with all this stuff. Their various answers vary even within their own systems and what the average believer does is another matter.<br /><br />It is just that I encourage looking at the humanity behind it all -- at our common efforts with tons of different jargon, rituals, magic and philosophies covering up what is only essentially human.<br /><br />And addressing that humanness is excellent -- as your blog does.Sabio Lantzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12963476276106907984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-1017433730962018862010-10-21T07:56:19.601-04:002010-10-21T07:56:19.601-04:00"in born dirty sin"
I don't think t..."in born dirty sin"<br /><br />I don't think that I believe in Total Depravity, in capital letters, anymore...but I do think that human beings can and do generally suck sometimes. We do things we know are wrong. We injure the people closest to us. We are sometimes self-destructive.<br /><br />Total Depravity is simply a way to try and explain what we can easily see with our own eyes.<br /><br />Humans can do terrible, terrible things...many times without traceable provocation.<br /><br />I'll get to your other points later....I'm headed out the door right now.terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-90792570183962136842010-10-21T07:33:22.558-04:002010-10-21T07:33:22.558-04:00Yeah, I like the idea of acceptance, I dislike the...Yeah, I like the idea of acceptance, I dislike the idea of :<br />- in born dirty sin<br />- need to kill to please a god<br />- our way is the only way<br /><br />I know you don't hold those, but I am always puzzled by those that keep putting them forward even though they radically transform them. But I am not temperamentally a traditionalist.Sabio Lantzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12963476276106907984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-36483355797815723062010-10-21T07:23:42.414-04:002010-10-21T07:23:42.414-04:00Sabio,
Death is always with us. WHile you might ...Sabio,<br /><br />Death is always with us. WHile you might dislike the image of a sacrificial death....it's just one way of incorporating what we see around us...a world full of death and injustice.<br /><br />This post is not about substitutionary atonement, its about what's behind it.terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-45603246410207622102010-10-21T00:07:37.828-04:002010-10-21T00:07:37.828-04:00,"I know all the times you have blown it and ...<i>,"I know all the times you have blown it and screwed up and been less than you should be....but I just want you to know that you, and your life, have value and worth and acceptance in my eyes."</i><br /><br />Lots of faiths say that.<br />But no one had to die to make it true.Sabio Lantzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12963476276106907984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-67855287084030325202010-10-17T22:47:58.538-04:002010-10-17T22:47:58.538-04:00"Somehow, this message gets lost in some of o..."Somehow, this message gets lost in some of our incarnations of Christianity. The message becomes one that was for "those people" in the first century; Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and lawyers. Yet, we are the same as "those people", we have only exchanged the Jewish law and pathos for our own law and pathos."<br /><br />Great quote!Like a Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15991265512226039592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-91868496862852814162010-10-17T20:53:41.839-04:002010-10-17T20:53:41.839-04:00Thanks for your comment Retriever.
Sorry I didn&...Thanks for your comment Retriever. <br /><br />Sorry I didn't respond sooner!<br /><br />I'm not mad at your Hollywood depiction. The stories we latch onto and that have meaning for us are tied to who we are.<br /><br />You frequently invoke tigers, lions, wild animals and gladiator analogies in your writing... the ferociously untamed and simultaneously majestic and noble.<br /><br />Those images speak to you and give you strength...and that makes them useful!terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-57289450593551821322010-10-16T01:04:14.759-04:002010-10-16T01:04:14.759-04:00Well done. Did me good to read it, thanks Terri! ...Well done. Did me good to read it, thanks Terri! Particularly since I have been in Pharisaical mode myself lately, weighed down by cares,worries, not inspired at all...<br /><br />I think one tends to judge most harshly when one feels (or is) most under the boot onself. Not that that is any excuse, but it explains SOME of it.<br /><br />Also, don't get mad at my cheesy Hollywood example, but for some reason as I read your description of freedom after being weighed down by law, history, failure, etc. I had a mental picture of that scene in the movie Gladiator where Russell Crowe and those dispirited gladiators are tossed out to the arena where they are supposed to be sliced and diced by the charioteers for the amusement of the watchers. Only he uses his training and experience as a general to muster them and organize them "strength in numbers" or "stand together" or whatever it is he says. And they stand and fight and win. Like free men. Not slave victims. <br /><br />Probably not the kind of example ou were looking for, but it seems that much of our life feels like slavery, burdens, judgments, failures. But Jesus came to give us life, and more abundant life. And that life is not just about picnics and stained glass windows, but about strength and courage to endure thru pain and trouble, to not be imprisoned by them, to face danger, enemeies, as well as to overcome ourselves, as well as the courage to act lovingly despite our fear of rejection or ridicule, etc.Retrieverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09036341287285545932noreply@blogger.com