I'm not religious...I just love the Lord.

This is a line that I've seen floating around Evangelical circles in some way, shape or form since I was a kid. I think it basically means: "We love Jesus but we acknowledge that sometimes religious people have done things that are an embarrassment to our um...their religion." Anyway, that line has been floating around at least since the 70's but the Emergent Evangelicals are having their own go at is if it's something they just discovered.

I always feel bad for the Emergents, (you know Brian McLaren, Rob Bell and that guy who wrote "Blue Like Jazz").  I mean I get what they're reacting to. Somewhere in the last couple of decades American Evangelicalism seems to have reached it's zenith. Of course, this is debatable but certainly there has been a surge of Evangelical influence in the near recent past and the Emergents were not impressed. Or, if they were impressed, they also experienced a let-down. Some of their criticisms are well placed. It's just that they're wrong about what they propose as far as how to fix things.

Another Emergent, Jim Palmer, prescribes 25 Reasons Why It Is Time For A Religion-Free Bible.
However, I really think Palmer's take really begs a few questions, (which I responded with in red).
1. The Bible is not a religious book.
Question: What sort of book is it then?

Intellectual Hubris

From Purgatorio, Canto 3:

"Insane is he who hopeth that our reason
Can traverse the illimitable way,
Which the one Substance in three Persons follows!
Be ye content oh human race with the queer;
For if ye had been able to see the whole,
No need there were for Mary to give birth;
And ye have seen such sages desiring without fruit,
Whose desire had else been satisfied,
Is given them for eternal grief.
I speak of Aristotle and of Plato,
And many others;"
 
There's an impulse sometimes try to reason our way into salvation - to find the specific clue to our particular brokenness as it shows up in our time and place and present the key to everyone.
Salvation as a simple syllogism.

There's an arrogant frustration that comes in not being able to peer into the depths of infinity and turn the key, as if mere knowledge can save us.
If we just get our theology right, if we just squint our eyes and strain to see the clues it will all click.
This is probably a flavor of Gnosticism -  a mystical knowledge the originates from within.
Otherwise known as plain old worship of the intellect.

There is comfort in Solomon here:
"Vanity, vanities. All is vanity...
All things are wearisome;
Man is not able to tell it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor is the ear filled with hearing."
Ecclesiastes Chapter 1

Or St. Paul:
"Where there is knowledge, it will pass away.   
For we know in part and we prophesy in part;  but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away."
1 Cor 13: 8

Fun With Statistics

So apparently 21% of Atheists believe in God...
And only 97% of Catholics

http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2religious-landscape-study-key-findings.pdf

Big Data and the Stubborn Human Person

I've really been looking forward to getting to this topic, but it could almost be a book. I don't have time or the skills to do it justice. There is some really curious stuff amuck.

Sorry for the cliche. If you can think of a better image for this post please comment

A Poor Man with Money

"A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money"
- W. C. Fields

Where are we going?
Why are going there? 
How will we get there?
Will we be happy when we’re there?

Defending Bill Maher

I like Mark Shea. He is usually correct. However, he seems to go off half cocked a bit more often these days. My guess is that it comes from being spread pretty thin - he does quite a bit of writing and blogging is probably not priority number one for him. So that is my guess as to why his posts tend towards the Twitter/FB side of things and less towards the blog and contemplate side of things these days.

Today he throws out a silly chart on the assumed before and verified after of life with vaccinations.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markshea/2013/03/one-of-the-things-i-dont-get.html
Not his best work...Lazy thinking and sloppy connection to Maher to rile up the tribe.

I posted a response but it seems to have been deleted, (Patheos seems to do that often so I'm sure it was by accident as I don't think I said anything rude). 

Anyway, here are my thoughts...
Certainly, vaccinations have had a positive impact. I’m not contesting that, (and neither does Maher btw). However, I think it is fair to scrutinize any over application or mis-application. It’s like anything else, from antibiotics to alcohol. Everything in its right place.

Now, I certainly wouldn’t line up with Maher, point for point but I agree with him here in any his opening take: “Vaccination is a nuanced subject, and I’ve never said all vaccines in all situations are bad. The point I am representing is: Is getting frequent vaccinations for any and all viruses consequence-free?” 

"Blather, blather, blather. Blah, Blah...Actually I'm making sense if you can get over my rudeness."

Press on

A few years ago, I reconnected with an old friend who had hit on some hard times. 
Actually, this guy is one of those people who seem to have been born in bad times and has pretty much resided there his whole life. I lived with him and his wife when they split up, (for the first time). I was engaged myself while this was going on. His wife got pregnant with some other guy's baby. I went on to marry the woman of my dreams. They got back together to give it another shot for another few years but they were just both too messed up. But I owe this dude and his now, ex-wife a ton. Even while their souls were pretty much bleeding out all over the place they were extremely open and generous with me. I learned a lot about what to do...and what not to do in life from them both.

My wife and I were talking over breakfast one morning about which people we knew that could serve as a good inspiration if either one of us ever gets to write the next "great American novel." Two people came to mind. This guy and and an old boss, (a wannabe thug from Southie Boston area with a big heart, foul mouth and phoney, or not so phoney, IRA connections, who can't say "no" to anyone or anything and subscribes to Military Times AND Mother Jones). Either of them could likely inspire a great story that would be sure to cover all the big things of life. Robert Duval covered some of the ground for this guy's life in his movie, The Apostle. Maybe Johnny Cash did too. Probably the Hold Steady too. OK, so maybe his story is pretty well played out in American rock-n-roll. Anyway, this dude is hilarious and has a perpetually youthful optimism when he's living clean. When he's not, well... the guy is an inexorable narcissist. I don't know anyone that has "hit bottom" more times than this guy. He's only a cliche when he's down. Every time he gets back up he is an original. It's heroic. Every damn time.

"Lord, have mercy on me a poor sinner."