The Future

Temporally, I have minimal hope 

     regarding future of the world... 

But I can have great hope for the eternal future, 

     of any person within it...

My Mom... A GREAT Mother To Her Sons

John Wesley: How We Should Judge The Church

Of Unsaid Contributions, Related To My Father and Father's Day

In light of Father's Day, I thought that I would post one of the few pictures that we have of both my parents early on in their life. They were married March 29, 1951. Apart from choosing to invite Christ into his life, a few months before his death, his marriage to Barbara Jean Morris, was the best decision of his life... My dad was 5'11" and weighed 135 lbs... soaking wet... Clearly I did not get that part of his genetic makeup!  Actually, according to my mom, I most resemble her grandfather Smith, who was a 6'3" lumber jack who lived up near Somerset Pa.

Despite some of the significant challenges he presented to us as children, there were a number of really good things that he passed on to his four sons.

He could be amazingly funny and until he reached mid-life was known to be the life of any party. My dad was an effective communicator and surprisingly very articulate... capable of artfully turning a phrase or colorfully describing an image — especially when it came to humor (this probably helped him a lot as a salesman). Despite having only a 6th grade education, and then eventually getting a GED (His obituary incorrectly states that he graduated from Washington High School), he could be very analytical and insightful... even philosophical at times. He taught us all to be very proactive and assertive in the protection or our family. He passed on to all of us his profound (and now ours) love for the outdoors — particularly when it came to where we prefer to live, love for animals (especially dogs!), hunting and recreational activities outside. He clearly passed on to us our love and passion for the 2nd Amendment and the possession of firearms as well... Without question, he insisted that we all have a healthy respect for "authority," particularly parental authority... Both he and my mother are buried in Ten Mile Creek Cemetery, in Prosperity Pa, on the Northeastern slope, of a very high hill, overlooking deep wooded valleys and green pasture lands. It could hardly be more appropriate... These are some of the redemptive things that he has passed on to me... and for that I am very thankful...

Proper Action and Authentic Intellectual Honesty

Of all the things in life, 
That are the most elusive, 
Authentic, intellectual honesty... 
That compels us to right conclusions 
And proper action 
Has to be one of them...

Take Your Pick: Sympathy or Empathy?

When we refuse to be SYMPATHETIC towards others, 
Because of their struggles related to things like:
Powerlessness, poverty and spiritual depravity and spiritual brokenness, 
Then don't be surprised if God allows for you new challenges 
That will encourage you to become EMPATHETIC instead... 
Which do you prefer?

Government Coercion And Orthodox Theology

And it will not stop here... 
This too is a strategic and dangerous precedent... 
Just one of many more to come... 
Designed to inexorably chip away at the Eternal Stone Tablets of the Holy Law of God, 
Until what is eventually sculpted from it is a facsimile of "Social Progressivism" itself - 
Humanism's idealized version of Michaelangelo's "David..." Temporal, distorted, brittle, crafted, undersized, flaccid and impotent, moribund and soulless... 

http://www.alliancedefendingfreedom.org/News/PRDetail/9215

Yes!

PC and Pan Unipolarism

Think what you will about whether a professional sports franchise should draft an openly gay athlete (see web address link below). The real troubling issue is how you can be excoriated by the PC Media Police, until you get in line, and think, value and believe everything that they do... In this case, here are the four stages, that make up the trajectory towards Pan Unipoalarism... To violate any one of them, is often conflated as a position about "hate." Ironically, the ethic often referred to (dubiously enough) as "Tolerance," doesn't go both ways... Coach Dungy apparently broke number two....

1. I think your life-style choices and values are wrong (e.g. Homosexuality) = judgmental and bigoted

I.e You are never permitted to think this way, it is evil...

2. I didn't publicly support your life-style and values (e.g. Gay Marriage) = passive aggressive bigotry

I.e. You must be sympathetic and affirming to what is important to me

3. I haven't privately and publicly demonstrated genuine enthusiasm for your life-style choices (e.g. Coming out of the closet) = bigotry vis a vis apathy

I.e. You are being irresponsible and counter-productive by not affirming my values, and by not supporting and advancing my cause

4. I have never done, nor am I ever willing experiment, or do, what you value and practice as a life-style choice (E.g. Same gender sexual interaction) = bigotry because you have no empathy

I.e. You cannot speak to, evaluate, judge or even really affirm enthusiastically and tragically not empathize, unless you have tried my Life-Style choice

(This stage is already in play over the abortion debate I.e. "Men should not be permitted to speak on this issue, since they are male, cannot be pregnant and could never have an abortion)

Will this all happen comprehensively tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Next year? Probably not... But it is all happening and progressing (growing) in various degrees, in certain sectors and among certain people...

Expectations, when it comes to freedom of action are one thing. But freedom of thought and the freedom to disagree on values and life-style, culturally is moving inexorably closer to being an endangered species...

Precedents matter... It's never "just this." Because the "just this" is always a migration from "just that," or, "what was..." Into a new direction of "what will be..."

This is the essence of history... And our evolving future...

http://www.mrc.org/articles/dungy-pathetic-homophobe-saying-he-wouldnt-have-drafted-gay-player?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Marketing&utm_term=Facebook&utm_content=Facebook&utm_campaign=Dungy-Attacked