SeekerThoughts

Halloween Pics

2008-11-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

Just posted some new pics of the family from Halloween.

GOD DAMN AMERICA

2008-11-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

We've all heard the Rev. Mr Wright, our new President's former pastor, make this statement in his sermon. I estimate I have heard at least 50,000 sermons in my lifetime...preached a few thousand of them, myself. Rhetorical statements are made for effect all the time in sermons. Sermon titles are often designed to evoke disagreement, provoke thoughts or opinions, and stir interest.

Still, "God damn America" sounds pretty strong, doesn't it? Should Mr. Wright and all his church members be "deported" as one ignorant redneck commented this week?

If so, then what about Jerry Falwell's church members (Brother Jerry died already, so he obviously can't be deported), David Wilkerson and his supporters, Pat Robertson, and all the other gazillions of Evangelical preachers who have gleefully predictedAmerica's impending doom over abortion, gay marriage, the theory of evolution, and the ACLU?

I haven't seen any God-fearin', America-lovin', gun-totin' patriots calling for the deportation of preachers who claim 9/11 was God's judgement on America, or "prophets" who both pronounce and predict that God will, indeed, damn America.

Guess Rev. Wilkerson just wasn't the right denomination and color to make a statement like this.

AMERICA'S NEW PRESIDENT!

2008-11-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

Just about everybody who reads my blog probably already got this in the email I sent to my whole address book, but I thought I'd put it here for posterity's sake!

_______________________

11/05/2008

Hey Everybody!

We have a new American President.

He's black, and he's liberal. He also won both the popular vote and the
electoral vote. As John McCain so graciously stated last night, "The American People have spoken."

I'll also quote Lynyrd Skynyrd: "That's where we're at. If they don't like it, they can just GET THE HELL OUT."

Obviously, a minority in our country is unhappy he won. During the next 4 or 8 years, many won't agree with every policy he proposes or tries to push through Congress - even those who voted for him. Some of his own party will oppose some of his policies. Little will change in the country. None of his campaign platforms will be implemented automatically; they'll have to fight their way through Congress, as usual. He will get it right sometimes, and he'll get it wrong sometimes - just like all Presidents always have.

But like it or not, Obama is your President. SUPPORT HIM. Use your vote and your 1st amendment rights to support or oppose policies according to your personal conviction. But if you're an American, RESPECT YOUR PRESIDENT!

I've received some "jokes" and heard some comments about the results of America's Presidential election. I have a message for those who send, forward, or laugh at these kinds of "jokes":

If you can't live with a black US President, then go back to Wales, or England, or Germany or wherever the hell "you people" come from. But if you're going to stick around, don't bother to send any more of these dumbshit "nigger in the White House" jokes. Don't bother sending any more of these sick "assassinate the President" jokes. They're about as funny as your "kill a queer" jokes.

Anybody who sends a "joke" like that is an asshole... nothing more, nothing less.

John McCain's concession speech was one of the classiest, most gracious speeches I've ever heard. A few times, he had to stop his own supporters from booing their new President. I hope those who supported him during the campaign will follow his wise and patriotic example!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

--
Steve Brogdon

Rant

2008-10-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of campaigns having more to do with marketing technique than policy or plans. I'm sick of politicians trying to win votes with stupid subliminal messages like Huckebee's cross and phony contrived TV persona.

Mostly, I'm sick of stuff like this actually working. People are enthusiastically ignorant...staunch in their convictions, which are not even their own but have been foisted upon them by whoever they look to for leadership. Issues mean nothing, only perceptions.

Cognitive Bias reigns supreme in this system. No matter how ludicrous a claim, it will be believed as long as it supports the opinions already held.

And god forbid you should publicly question and/or embarrass one of these crooked, evil bastard polititians - you'll be hounded to your grave...every skeleton dragged out of your closet, every piece of dirty laundry hung from the international flagpole of the media.

Why is it necessary to grope through pile after pile of steaming rhetoric to find a single undigested kernel of truth???

BAN POLITICAL ADS! More political debate, zero political marketing.

Sing together, everyone!

Imagine there's no political campaigns
I wonder if you can
No need for campaign finance reform
That bullshit's all been banned
Imagine all the people
Thinking for themselves
ooo, ooo, hoo

;0)

Campaign Finance Reform

2008-10-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

Hey Mr. Change and Mr. Maverick...which one of you is going to make a REAL reform of campaign finance? Here's what I propose:

Set a cap of, let's say, $0.00.

Political campaigns should not exist in the United States. They're a disgusting and hypocritical waste of resources. A polititian should never be allowed to ask for money to help get elected, period. NO political ads should ever be allowed. Political rallies should be banned completely. Not one thin dime should be spent on such foolishness.

Let the sonsobitches debate every night on television for 90 days. Let them hash out the issues and fight it out night after night. That might keep them at least halfway honest.

While you're at it, do away with the electoral college. I'd like to have a vote that counts.

Who knows? With no political campaign circus, and with a real vote for every American, our country might stop being a fucking joke.

I hate politicians

2008-10-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

I guess I've never felt less in control of my destiny, or more cynical about the world.

Government strong-armed banks into making bad loans through the Community Redistribution Act.

Then, when the natural consequences came to fruition, the government makes taxpayers foot the bill, and uses the situation to usurp even more power.

It doesn't matter who we vote for, and it doesn't matter who wins. It doesn't matter what voters tell legislators to do. We are going to get screwed no matter who is president, and no matter who is in Congress.

We can buy gold to protect ourselves from government scams like this, but then they can just make it illegal to own gold again.

Foreign oil, domestic oil...what's the difference? We have the technology right now to make cars run on water, electricity, or vegetable oil...but the government won't allow us to implement it. Then they have the gall to accuse us of being "addicted" to oil.

Nobody wants to keep abortion legal more than the conservatives - that's what energizes their support base.

Nobody wants to keep gay marriage illegal more than the liberals. Where would they get their millions without that issue?

And while politicians are parading across our tv screens bemoaning the economic meltdown, they are breaking spending records on their bullshit political campaigns.

I don't even think I'm going to vote.

Plus...TX beat OU today. Damn.

Mt Rushmore

2008-09-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in a hotel room in South Dakota where I've been working this week. We went to Mt Rushmore yesterday after work...pretty awesome. One of America's greatest monuments was built right in the middle of the Great Depression. The workers who hung from ropes with jack hammers for 14 years had to walk up 700 steps every morning, and of course walked down them every afternoon - but they walked the steps on their own time. Mr. Borglum (son of an immigrant from Denmark) didn't believe in paying them for their little "commute" up and down the mountain.

Blasting that granite day after day in the hot sun or freezing winds...man they were some tough s.o.b.s!

New Photos at Seekerpics

2008-09-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against John Grisham

2008-09-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 18, 2008
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge has dismissed a libel lawsuit filed against best-selling author John Grisham and two other writers over books they wrote about the wrongful conviction of two men in a 1982 murder.

The lawsuit was filed last year by former Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Peterson, former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation investigator Gary Rogers and Melvin Hett, a state criminalist. All three helped win the original convictions in the slaying of cocktail waitress Debbie Sue Carter.
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants conspired to commit libel, generate publicity for themselves by placing the plaintiffs in a false light and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
But U.S. District Judge Ronald White rejected those claims in his ruling Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Full Story

The Golden Rule

2008-09-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

I was looking up some graphics for work and ran across this interesting diagram showing how many religions have some version of the Golden Rule. Unfortunately, most seem to be better at quoting it than practicing it.

That's what makes the next "diagram" so funny:

The Battle is Won

2008-07-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a helluva fight. I couldn't have done it without Kelly. Today is her birthday, by the way. I felt like crap having her go to court on her birthday, but she never complained, of course...my God, that woman is amazing!

A couple of years ago, the girls started asking me to talk their mom into letting them come live with me. I told them to talk to her themselves, if that's what they really wanted. When they finally did, she responded by dragging them into the pastor's office, where he told them that in public school, "The boys will hold you down and pull your panties off, and when they have sex with you, blood is going to gush out everywhere."

So, I filed for custody. You can't negotiate with terrorists, you know.

Then she took them to her parents, who went berserk. Their grandmother screamed at them, said there was "something wrong with them" and they needed counselling, called them "Judases" and said they were "letting Satan win." The mantra everyone (grandparents, teachers, pastors) chanted was, "How could you do this to your mother? Your father abandoned you, she's done so much for you, and now you are slapping her in the face!"

Of course, they are all too stupid to realize that they are the people who drove the girls away from their mother. The fact that the girls felt their mother was subjecting them to these assholes rather than protecting them made them desperate to escape.

In April, Ashley's mother dropped her off and said she wouldn't be picking her up...if Ashley wanted to live here, fine, she could live here. It was right in the middle of the semester, but Kelly called the school and they agreed to let Ashley enroll. The Ada High School counselor called Windsor Hills Baptist Schools for the transcripts. The next day, Ashley's mother called to say she'd changed her mind and was coming to pick her up.

Back in school, Ashley was forced to spend her days in the principal's office to prevent interaction with the other students. Her grades plummeted. Finally, she was expelled for "speaking disrespectfully to a teacher."

At home, Ashley had lots of time to prowl, and came across some of her mother's notes. They were going to claim I was an unfit parent.

The lawyer she hired was a high-dollar, high-powered gal in OKC, recommended by the pastor. Rather than wisely trying to negotiate an agreement to let these two teenagers live with the parent of their choice while ensuring a continued relationship with their mother, she had decided to make it into a full-out fight.

The custody battle is the main reason I've stopped blogging. They (the girls' mother, her family, and her church, Al Queda Baptist) were reading my blog, they subpoenaed my work records, etc. trying to build some sort of case. They looked into the possiblity of every claim they might possibly make - even child abuse and child molestation. I'm not kidding, folks...these people fight dirty, and they go right for the jugular.

I took the girls to see Judge Landrith a couple of weeks ago. They told him what they wanted, and why.

Their mother's lawyer sent a settlement offer last weekend, offering joint legal custody. We rejected it.

I don't know who paid her lawyer bills, but they've got a bloody nose right now. The lawyer made two trips to Ada. Today, she looked snazzy in her pink suit with her two assistants in tow (20-something boys in dark suits with HUGE briefcases). I estimate the bill for today was close to $3K; it's a 4-hour round trip from OKC, an hour in court, plus the pre-trial paperwork, meals for her and her two boys. The last trip was probably less than that, since there was no actual hearing that time, and she only brought one boy. All together, I'd say $8K -$10K is a realistic estimate. That sure would have bought a bunch of nice school clothes for the girls, huh?

Apparently, the judge wasn't impressed by the big-city lawyer come to show us ignert okabillies how it's done.

Upshot of it was, the lawyers went to see the judge, came back out and advised their clients to accept the agreement they had reached. All parties agreed, and the judge signed off on it, and talked about how impressed he was with my daughters. No testimony, no witnesses, no questions. I thought the girls' grandparents were going to have a stroke, right there in the court room. Their grandfather actually got up and walked out, muttering, "This is pathetic!"

It was simply what I had asked for 6 months ago...sole legal and physical custody of my two teenaged daughters.

Once again, their mother has wasted thousands of dollars trying to keep the girls from having a relationship with me, and lost. The point is, it shouldn't have even been a battle.

WHBC

2008-07-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

I want to thank everyone for helping spread the WHBC news story around! It's all over the blogosphere, and news channels all over the country picked it up. It's also on several news websites. Google "church cancels teen gun giveaway" and you get a TON of hits. I saw one site from the UK. People need to know what these people really are.

Why does WHBC do it? The answer is simple: they are trolling for slave labor.

Here's how it works: Vineyard gained a following while working for Jerry Falwell and later Jack Hyles (Hyles was not as well known as Falwell outside independent Baptist circles, but had a stronger influence within it). Once the following was in place, he took the pastorate in OK - a church with a few hundred members, and a few millionaires.

With the cash flow from the millionaires, he immediately opened a Christian school and Bible college, following the megachurch pattern established by his former employers. This created new cash flow with which he hired full time staff to build the church. Now he was able to get rid of the millionaires and their control.

He traveled extensively to promote the college, and tour groups from the college would later do this as well. Students from these churches were sent to the college to prepare for ministry.

Once in the college, strict control is in place. Students are required to tithe 10% of their gross income to the church (and encouraged to tithe 15% in case they received some other income they might forget...just to be safe). In addition, students are pressured to give to the missions program. The "faith promise" mission offering is sometimes more than the tithe. Part of this money is used to finance the pastor's "missionary" endeavors.

Single students are required to live in the church-owned dormitory, and pay room and board on top of their hefty tuition fees. "Board" consists of three meager meals per day, which are often missed by working students because the schedule is inflexible. Married students with children are required to enroll them in the Christian school and pay the school's exorbitant tuition on top of their own college tuition.

All students are required to work in the "bus ministry" their first two years, and are under pressure to continue working in this ministry throughout their college careers. In this "ministry," they are required to pay their own expenses - gas, fliers, refreshments for the children who ride their Sunday school buses, etc. None of these "ministry" expenses are deducted from their tithes, of course.

So, in the name of teaching young ministers to "sacrifice for Jesus," they are bled dry to feed the vampire church and uphold the very comfortable lifestyle of the pastor. It is not unusual for a college student to be putting more than 70% or 80% of his money back into the church.

Youth Conference is designed to attract juniors and seniors from Christian high schools of "like-minded" (i.e. wacko) churches, put on a fancy show, and get them signed up for the college. It's worth it to them to give away an $800 assault rifle...they'll get the money back many times over.

Church Cancels Teen Gun Giveaway

2008-07-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

Please pray my daughters will be able to escape from this dangerous cult!

Just finished an interesting book

2008-05-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

Just finished The Pontotoc Conspiracy by Phillip Swatek. It's about Ada's lynching, depicted in this photo.

"Deacon" Jim Miller was lynched, along with alleged conspirators, for the murder of Gus Bobbitt here in Ada on April 19, 1909. "Deacon" Jim (as he was affectionately known) was a staunch Methodist, was acquitted of a number of murders in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. The tactic was to get out on bail while awaiting the hearing, then travel around the region conducting Bible studies. During these preaching tours, all the witnesses would mysteriously disappear, never to be seen again. Sort of an Enoch experience, you might say.

To prevent this from happening in the Bobbitt case, a number of Adans (there is some dispute about the actual count...somewhere between 15 and 200) got together and strung up "Deacon" Jim, along with the two ranchers who were believed to have hired him and the go-between who arranged the transaction.

The photo above was memorialized in a postage stamp, and you can buy post cards of it to send home to your loved ones. If you're ever through here, be sure to stop by and admire our beautiful lynching memorial, erected at the site:

As the memorial states, the old west stopped right here! Ya gotta love this town!

TOP THIS, A!

2008-04-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, Aola...maybe you DID smoke dope with ZZ Top in the orchestra pit. But I had a drink with ELVIS this weekend! So, whatcha think about that? HA!

Possum Country

2008-04-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

Friday morning, Kelly and I saw an opposum in the road that had been run over and killed by a car last night.

As we drove by, Kelly exclaimed, "Gross! It has a rat crawling on it!" But it wasn't a rat - it was an orphaned baby opposum climbing on top of it's dead mother, crying "Mommy? What's wrong? I'm scared, Mommy...wake up!"

So when I got to work, I called Hailey (she was out of school for a snow day) and said "You want a baby possum?" eagerly recounting the story. She answered, "Are you kidding me? You woke me up for that??? Possums are ugly and they scare me! I'm going back to bed."

"Sorry," I said. "I was just afraid you'd be mad at me if I didn't tell you about it." "Mmmhmmm," she answered sleepily (or irritably...it's hard to tell). "Thanks."

Then, 3 hours later I get an email from Kelly: "You and Hailey have adopted 8 baby rodents. She wants to know where to put them."

My 15-year old daughter and a friend had actually put on work gloves, reached inside the mother oppossum's pouch, and rescued the babies. I tried to find some good advice at work about what to do with them. "You could dock their tails and pass them off as South African Chihuahas in the Wal Mart parking lot," one of my coworkers solicitously offered.

When I got home, I called the game warden's office, who, rather than offer to come pick them up, instructed me how to take care of them. "You can feed them cat's milk," the expert explained.

"But, I don't know how to milk a cat," I answered in a panic. "No...you can go to Wal Mart and buy cat's milk in the pet section. If they don't have it, goat's milk will work, too."

My intelligent wife avoided the embarrassment of asking what aisle the cat's milk is on, and picked up a can of goat's milk. The oppossums didn't seem to be bothered by it; they greedily slurped up dropper after dropper of the stuff. I had a great time explaining to my kids that are oppossums are NOT rodents - they are marsupials...little North American koala bears.

"They don't look like koala bears to me," Kelly noted. "They look like rats. And rats are rodents." I wisely decided not to even bother explaining that they are also related to kangaroos.

After a long night and three full meals the following day, I couldn't keep the kids from naming them. "This one's name is Ratatouille!" announced 4-year-old Stephanie. She's her mother's daughter.

Unfortunately, we had a cold weekend. Sometime in the early morning hours of Sunday morning, all the oppossums died peacefully in their sleep. At least, during their short journey upon this earth, they knew the joy of a little Brogdon love and compassion!

So, we tossed ‘em on the grill and had a delicious supper…just kidding! We took advantage of the opportunity to teach the kids about the Circle of Life by burying one of them under each of the many trees we have in the yard, until we ran out of trees.

Now I’m on the lookout for some raccoons. Like I said, we have a lot of trees.

2008-03-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

Made a 4-mile run today and it really feels good. I did 3 miles on Thursday and felt like I had some more in me when I was finished, so I just decided to go for it this afternoon.

I made a new playlist for my iPod for running...Starts with ZZ Top's "Tubesnake Boogie" to set the pace, then builds til I hit my stride and goes to some Eagles and slower Lynyrd Skynyrd to regulate my breathing, then finishes out with some Ozzie and G&R when I pick up speed toward the end and need some extra adrenaline.

I know 4 miles isn't a marathon, but at 42 I'm happy as heck to be able to do it.

Pope Baptizes Muslim Convert

2008-03-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

The Pope baptized a high-profile Muslim convert on Easter. You can read the story here.

"Conversion is a private matter, a personal thing and we hope that the baptism will not be interpreted negatively by Islam," Cardinal Giovanni Re said.

Well, ain’t that a zinger! Might as well hope for it to rain Merlot tomorrow.

“Interpreted negatively by Islam” apparently means "by the Islamic world," since Islam is of course an impersonal entity and can’t have an opinion about anything. Wouldn’t the world be a great place if “religions” didn’t interpret proselytizing in a negative light! Funny that "Catholicism" doesn't tend to extend the same courtesy they hope for from others.

I remember the “bad ol’ days” in Mexico, baptizing dozens and dozens of Catholic converts to Baptist fundamentalism. Baptized over 1,000 of them in the 13 years I was there. Boy, did “Catholicism” ever interpret that negatively. The parish churches circulated fliers, spread rumors, and I even received some death threats. Some of the church members had stuff thrown at them and were roughed up occasionally, though that never happened to me.

Religions don't tend to take it lying down, because they can't afford to. It's not about spirituality; it's about power.

Good Friday

2008-03-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

Since today is Good Friday, a remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, I am reminded of the numerous crucifixion legends among various religions. In Mexico, the Aztecs venerated Quetzalcoatl as god of the sun/wind. Here is a depiction of that god's crucifixion.

Crucifixion legends are found in the stories of Khrisna,Thammuz, Esus (Druid) and Mithra. What do you make of this, and why?

Here are some other images:

Dionysus

Krishna

Also, as everybody knows, the symbol of the cross played a role in many pre-Christian religions, even when not directly associated with crucifixion. Comments or observations?

I don't have definite answers to this, but it intrigues me. I've been fascinated by the Aztec dieties Quetzalcoatl and Tonantzin from my early days in Mexico.

Here's a depiction of the Mayan cross in Palenque, Mexico:

The illustration below seems to me to suggest the most satisfactory explanation for the crucifixion of sun gods in religions around the world:

Convention

2008-03-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Spent Thurs - Sat at a convention in OKC. Governor Brad Henry spoke, along with some other politicians. Exciting.

Robert Kiyosaki was there, author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." He was a little more exciting than the politicians, but sort of crass.

Mike McCoy, author of "The Silent Crime-What You Should Know About Identity Theft" also spoke. He was pretty good.

My boss spoke, and put a pic of me on her PPT slide presentation on the big screen at Cox Convention Center in front of 15,000 people to talk about the training seminar I helped develop - I'm famous now, speaking invitations should start rolling in any time (lol). She was going to put my employee ID photo in there until I found out about it; We took another pic and put it in. Of course, that was my favorite speech of the week!

It was a more or less laid-back convention for me. Mostly, all I had to do was attend and socialize.

Anyway, that's where I've been in case anybody missed me!

2008-03-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

This is from Justagirl's blog...pick ten of your favorite movies, go to IMDB and find a quote from each, post the quotes, and see who can guess your favorite movies. And no Googling allowed!

"I'm going to pick a fight."

"I'm a parent; I haven't got the luxury of principles."

"Here's a good stick, to beat the lovely lady."

"It's what people know about themselves inside that makes them afraid."

"Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing. "

"Be cautious; you are holding the bad color."

"Oh, yes, and one more thing, dear Lord, about our enemies, ignore their heathen prayers and help us blow those little bastards straight to Hell. Amen."

"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth."

"Now and then, for no good reason, life will haul off and knock a man flat. "

Sunday Picnic

2008-03-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

It was one of those Sunday afternoons we never get enough of, so they have to last. . .

just lazin' in the sun with that old hound dog who has adopted us . . .

. . . a little taste of Heaven right here in our own back yard...

The most special days are the ones made special for no other reason than that you spent them with the ones you love.

BUSY WEEKEND

2008-03-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

Our second grandchild, Aubree Delane Mast, was born Saturday morning! She's healthy and beautiful. We kept Devon at our house. I had picked up Ashley, Holly, and Heidi the night before, so we REALLY had a full house!

Photo Blog

2008-02-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

I started a photo blog in case anybody wants to glance at it! Just go to my profile and follow the SeekerPics link.

Christian School vs Public School

2008-02-24T16:34:00.000-08:00

My 13-year-old told her mother she wants to come live with Kelly and I.

To convince her otherwise, she told her that in public school they would force her to watch pornography in sex ed class, and that the kids had sex under the stairwells.

When she told her the public school kids would laugh at her because of the way she dressed, Holly answered that she wouldn't be dressing the way she does now (tea-length skirts or dresses, and cullottes). That prompted a visit to "The Pastor."

"The Pastor" there now is actually "The Pastor Jr." Father retired, and the Son took over.

He told her the boys in public school would pull her panties off.

Are these sick bastards, or what?

30-Day Sex Challenge

2008-02-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

For the Love of God, Get it On

This article at MSN is just weird. Whether a Pastor is telling church members when to have sex, or when to abstain from it...just stupid.

Did they have a deacon's meeting to discuss this? Was a sex committee formed? Or did this preacher just make the decision on his own to get his perverted jollies fantasizing about all his yuppy church members getting it on?

What counts as sex? If you do it twice one day, do you get the next day off?

I'd walk out of that place and tell the preacher to go have sex with himself!

The Duggers

2008-02-18T20:33:00.001-08:00

One of the kids came running into the room tonight and said "You've gotta see this family on TLC!" Turned it on and saw, for the first time, The Duggers.

I said, "Oh, yeah. They're fundamental Baptists, and Gothardites (Bill Gothard). They've got the look."

Sure enough, Googled them and I was right...so proud of my infinite wisdom. Kelly said, "Yes, Steve, you do know your freaks!"

It is weird what we dudes are proud of...like who has the loudest farts, and who can guess the religion of weirdoes on tv.

These people have a life goal of demonstrating to the world that girls can have fun in culottes. They think they are projecting a "godly testimony" on nationwide tv, completely oblivious to the fact that they are nothing more than a freak show. Sad - especially for the kids.

2008-02-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

Ashley (16) was telling me today about a little debate she had last week at school. They had read the story of Jehovah commanding the Jews to slaughter all the Amalekite babies along with the men, women and children.

"How come we don't believe in abortion?" she asked. The answer was, "Abortion is taking the lives of innocent unborn children."

"So why is it wrong now, but not in this story?"

"Well, because God commanded them to do it."

"How do we know God hasn't told some people to abort their babies, then?"

"God wouldn't tell someone to do that."

"But, God commanded them to kill children and babies in this story."

"That's because God knew they would have grown up to be evil adults who would fight against the children of Israel."

"So...how do we know some aborted babies wouldn't have grown up to be evil adults?"

Not sure where it went from there...

She has been labeled a rebel at the Christian school...what can I say? I have no idea where she gets it.

Of course, I don't believe for a minute that God commanded the Jews to do that. But you're on pretty thin ice defending an anti-abortion stance from the standpoint of the sanctity of human life while simultaneously claiming to believe this account and others in the "Holy" Bible.

He's got a point!

2008-02-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

Early Anniversary Presents

2008-02-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

She gave me my iPod already, so I didn't want to wait until Feb 14 to give her the present I got her. This is what I got Kelly for our anniversary. We broke it in last night. Awesome!

Massage Night starts with a hot bath, a glass of Zinfandel, scented candles around the room, and New Age relaxation music.

When the massage oil is nice and warm from the crockpot, she lies on the table and I brush her hair out before starting the massage. She fell asleep on me last night! Must've been the rupee I dropped in her wine! lol

Seriously - massage is a million times better on a massage table than just lying on the bed. The table's portable, so we can take it with us when we go to the beach sometime!

2008-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, to prove I'm not a senile old man posting photos of his cat on a blog, I'm posting a photo of my beautiful wife and me with our...er...grandson.

Aw, forget it! I AM a senile old man!

CAT

2008-02-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

Pixie doesn't want to grow up. Can't say I blame her!

My God what has happened to me? I never thought I'd be posting pictures of a cat on my blog. Does this mean I'm old now?

Footloose

2008-02-04T19:06:00.000-08:00

We went to the high school play “Footloose” this weekend. It was interesting to Ashley, Holly, & Heidi!

The church they attend is like a town, with the pastor as mayor. Numbers of the people who attend the church also work there as either teachers in the school or college, secretarial pool, or custodial, etc. Dozens of people live there, as the college dormitory is on the church grounds. Several streets in the vicinity of the church will have mostly church members living on them. Almost all social activities revolve around the church and it’s “ministries” – the school (and related sports teams), youth group, camps, college, etc.

So “Footloose” – the story of a town, controlled by a preacher, where dancing is illegal – sounded very familiar to them!

Stephanie went with us. She calls the play, "Fruit Loops." I think she's right on the money!

I DON'T BELIEVE IT AND NEITHER DO THEY

2008-02-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

With Super Tuesday 08 coming up, there’s a lot of buzz about who is a true conservative. Of course, the primary role of Huckabee and Romney has been to split the vote between bickering conservatives and get McCain the Republican nomination. It’s been amusing to watch them squabble, especially when neither they nor their constituents believe a word of the political rhetoric.

Huckabee is a preacher who has spent his life drumming up contributions for his own benefit. Now, in his circles, he’ll be heralded as their missionary to America. He has worn his religion on his sleeve since the beginning for the simple reason that this is what it has all been about from the beginning. He’s not expecting to win the presidency; he’s building religious alliances.

The conservative politician’s stand on social issues is, of course, bogus. They know it’s all bullshit.

The duped ones are those who naively believe it’s true. They’re the Bible-thumpers who claim to believe abortion is murder and that people who die without their religion go to Hell forever.

Anyone who believed abortion were murder would have no problem killing an abortionist. Of course, there are a few abortionist-killing lunatics around. Conservatives line up to condemn them, even though they support the death penalty for “real” murder, and thump a Bible that permits vigilante killing to halt criminal acts. They don’t believe a word of it, but they think they do.

Nobody really believes in the heaven/hell thing, either. Of course, the politicians never talk about that part, but it’s usually a big part of their constituents’ belief system. I said “belief system,” not their true personal belief. If anybody really believed that, you wouldn’t need a second look to know it – they wouldn’t spend a penny on luxuries, would spend every waking moment witnessing or otherwise saving souls and gaining heavenly rewards. They’ll crucify anyone who admits to not believing it, but they’ve never believed it themselves a day of their lives.

Sorry everybody…just a rant.

CHILDREN OF THE POD

2008-02-01T04:52:00.000-08:00

It was a seminar on motivating employees called “Motivating Generation X,” conducted by brilliant Customer Service Specialist Maya Fischer, who administrates a law firm in MN.”

"These kids were raised on iPod...etc,” she explained while discussing generational paradigms.

I thought, "iPod??? That's just music. I grew up with music, too. Hell, my kids go to Rock concerts with Kelly and me. We're cool parents...who cares if I've never had an iPod? There’s no generation gap here. What is she talking about?"

That mysterious little phrase has bugged me for two years now. What does iPod have to do with anything? I admit, it left me feeling a little insecure.

Until my awesome wife bought me an iPod Shuffle for our anniversary!

I have finally joined the iPod Generation!

Wow! I finally get it! These kids grew up with a unique freedom and
their own little world-inside-a-world inside their heads. Nobody without one of these thingies can comprehend it - and neither do the kids who've grown up with it.

Nobody - not even the god-like radio DJ - tells me what to listen
to, or when. Forget corny DJ monologues! And no more "Greatest Hard Rock Hits of the 70's" albums – There’s always some idiot who decides to throw in a Peter Frampton song on those things. Frampton was like, one notch below Disco; "Show Me the Way" doing right after "Cat Scratch Fever" - WTF??????

The empowerment is intoxicating.

Now I see why these kids are sincerely puzzled when you try to make them understand that you really do expect them to actually follow your instructions!

Complete freedom of movement. No more forgetting to take my headphones off and yanking them out of my computer when I turn my head, embarrassingly revealing to all my coworkers that I happened to be in a Fleetwood Mac mood this morning (none of their dadgum bizness!). It doesn't matter that my pickup has no stereo or radio. And if a song I'm into is only half-finished when I get to work, who cares? I just turn off the ignition (music keeps playing in my ear), I get out of the car(music keeps playing in my ear), and walk to my desk (music keeps playing in my ear), boot up my computer, (music keeps playing in my ear)...well, you get the idea. Amazing. I'm still getting used to it.

"What do you mean, I have to actually sit in this little square box (work cubicle) until my breaktime?" This kind of immobility is a completely foreign concept to Children of the iPod.

"Solitude-in-a-Crowd" doesn't quite describe it, but that's the closest I've come so far (maybe y'all can help). It’s the coolest part of iPod. I can wear an earphone in one ear while I'm talking to you. Though I'm partially in your world, I still have one foot in my own...a world you can't hear or be a part of. It's a strange new ownership of self. It's almost like what I think autism might be like - your own little world and way of thinking inside your head, on a completely different level from everyone around you.

I think I'm sort of starting to see what they mean when they go around saying "You don't know me!"

It completely changes the idea of community. You know, I almost miss the kids fighting over the radio. They don’t fight anymore because they don’t have to share – each one has her own music in her ear.

And Steve Jobs is a marketing genius; my iPod clips onto my clothes and has my name etched onto it!

Yes, it took me a few years, but I'm way groovy now. Plus, I look like a Secret Service agent. Like, far out! So, if you see an old codger in a beat-up '89 4x4 pickup swerving all over the road, it might just be me fiddling with my iPod while I look around for new fishing holes.

I don’t know why I have to write a freakin’ essay every time I have an experience, but I should get a few extra hits on my blog from mentioning a famous person! Thanks for the hits, Maya!

ONLY IN OKLAHOMA

2007-12-23T08:18:00.000-08:00

Steph's day care had a Christmas party last week, and Santa showed up. Each little child (3-4 yrs old) climbed up in Santa's lap in turn and told him what they wanted for Christmas.

I heard it with my own ears; Two of the boys asked for cattle rope, one asked for a calf-roping saddle, and one asked for a hunting rifle.

Yeeeeehaaaaawwww! We's in REDNECK, USA! lol...ya gotta love it!

Seeker Update

2007-11-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

I haven’t blogged much, but it’s not because nothing is going on in life. Actually, I’m sorta looking back to a couple years ago when the pace was much slower.

My job has morphed into something a lot different than what it used to be. I’ve been traveling a lot, doing customer experience seminars at our law firms (customer service is “out”…customer experience is “in”). In VA, I spoke 8 hours a day for two days – the seminars are 4 hours, and I did four of them. Lots of fun for somebody who loves the sound of his own voice as much as I do. I’ve also been to TX, TN, and CA, but tag-teamed with another team member. It’s been a lot of fun.

It took me a month to develop the seminar – had to work with a committee, which always takes longer, but was definitely the right way to do it. Now, some of the law firms are bringing in other attorneys in their network and taking them through the same material. Pretty cool.

We’re working on a video training for all the attorneys in our network. They’ll access it thru a secure website, and we’ll be able to track who completes it. It’s a major, major project.

Still writing monthly feature stories for our corporate magazine, and loving it. My company’s been running some shows on Court TV, and one of the women I did a story about is going to tell her story in January, I think.
So, here I am, more wrapped up in my job than I probably should be, but really enjoying the challenges, the opportunity to be creative, and of course the opportunity to talk about my opinions for hours on end!

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

2007-11-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

Time with family is a wonderful. A couple extra days off work is great! It's a great time together to relax and reflect on all the blessings we've been given. Overall in my life, the good far outweighs the bad. Just kicking back with my favorite people.

But it would all be meaningless and vain if not for the cornbread stuffing and cranberry sauce!

Pixie

2007-09-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well, here's the kitty! Her name is Pixie, and she is already spoiled rotten. As you can see, somebody around here is happy about it!

First Kiss September 4, 1980

2007-09-04T19:24:00.001-07:00

Twenty seven years ago, my lips had never touched yours; I had never tasted your kiss, held your body tightly against mine, or been caught in the spell of those deep, magickal eyes.

Though I didn't know it then, I began to be me the moment I saw you, and that night's first kiss was the spark that began my life. Everything I am became yours forever, and "yours" is all I ever want to be.

I love you, Kelly. Happy 27th 1st Kiss Anniversary!

Weedeating Irony

2007-08-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

So, I was weedeating the dense vegetation that has grown up around my riding lawn mower over the last couple of weeks since it broke down and I thought, “Man, this is about as redneck as it gets.” Then I began to wonder if this actually made me more redneck than my parents, or less.

You see, I’d have never weedeated around my riding lawn mower when I was a kid, for a number of reasons. First, riding mowers and weedeaters were both kind of a novelty. I remember when I first heard about the idea of a lawn mower that you didn’t have to push around. I thought it was an amazing idea then, and still have optimistic hopes that somebody will eventually invent one.

Second, because “weedeat” was not a verb when I was a child. Now, years later, I have witnessed the induction of a new verb into the English language, with all its conjugations. I’ve used two of them so far: “I was weedeating (past progressive)” and “I’d have never weedeated (past perfect).” Other conjugations are “Are you going to weedeat today? (infinitive)” and “Have you weedeaten around the riding mower yet?(present perfect)” One might think that weedeated is incorrect, simply because “eat” is an irregular verb - you don’t say “eated.” But this would fail to acknowledge that, with the induction of this fascinating word, a new conjugation has been invented; it is always incorrect to say, “weedate.”

Third, because we were too poor to have either. This is where I have truly risen from my humble roots; unlike my poor, rural, southern, parents, I am now sufficiently wealthy to have both a riding lawn mower, and a weedeater to cut the grass around it.

OUTMANEUVERED!

2007-07-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

"Daddy, I want a kitty," Stephanie announced as I was buckling her into the car seat this morning.

"Who put you up to asking?" The kids routinely have Stephanie ask for things they want, since they intuitively know that a 3-year old asking for a kitty is more adorable than a 13-year old asking for a cat.

"Nobody, I just asked because I want one."

"Well, honey...kitties make Daddy sneeze." This has been my watertight excuse for not getting a cat over the last 15 years of adorable little girls and teenagers asking for kitties and cats.

She sat there a few moments while I buckled myself into the front seat. As we were pulling out of the drive way, she counseled, "Well Daddy, don't get you a kitty if they make you sneeze. Just get me one."

Wiping away the tears (from suppressed laughter), I used my watertight backup answer, which has long been used to divert conversations with children from all distasteful subjects such as cats: "Okay, honey. I'll think about it."

She continued, "I don't want two dogs anymore. I just want one dog and one kitty." So I strategically fell back from "I'll think about it" into the impenetrable fortress of "Okay, we'll see," foolishly hoping the matter would be forgotten by the time she got home from day-care.

Not convinced that the objective had been reached, she pressed her advantage; "I want one dog and two kitties." That was just unreasonable. I have no intention of getting one cat, much less two!

"Honey, two cats is out of the question." I was rather proud of myself for taking such a hard, clear stand.

"Okay Daddy! Just one dog and one kitty," she cheerfully countered, fully confident that we had each ceded enough to ensure all parties were satisfied.

My wife gave me that sideways glance and grin that seems to say, "Answer that, smart guy!" My own smug expression slowly faded as the realization hit me that I hadn't actually won that round.

Now I'm sitting at my desk wondering how I was negotiated into a corner by a 3-year old...and how I'm going to find a kitty before Stephanie gets home.

Paul Potts

2007-06-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when somebody that no one believes in makes everyone sit up and pay attention? This guy just knocked em dead! Everybody I've talked to was brought to tears by this video.

http://webmail.tds.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fvideo.yahoo.com%252Fvideo%252Fplay%253Fvid%253D646496%2526fr%253Dyvmtf

Simple Truths

2007-06-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

I answered CV's comment, but wanted to make sure everybody saw this...anybody who is in customer service should go to SimpleTruths.com and click on "Inspirational Movies." My favorite is "Simple Truths of Service" but they're all good!

2007-06-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to deliver a speech to a group of about 120 lawyers and their staff last week. My subject was "Building Customer Loyalty Through Relationships" and I'll be making the same speech to our department later this month.

I'm really enjoying the new opportunities my job is offering. I've started writing feature stories for the company magazine, and my first one comes out in next month's edition.

Beats throwing papers all to hell, that's for sure.

Paperboy Nomore!

2007-06-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

One week ago tonight, I slept from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. - eight uninterrupted hours - for the first time in 165 straight days. It was like Heaven! I felt so good after the second night that I wanted to cry.

Since last December, I have been getting up at 1:50 a.m. every morning to run a paper route as a second job. I would get finished about 5:00 a.m, then during the week, sleep about 45 minutes, get up and go to work at my "real" job at 8:00 a.m. I was finally able to quit it last week. Yea!

Everybody needs to run a paper route for at least a couple of months in their lifetime. I've learned something about accumulative effects from the last 5 1/2 months:

1. Money (income): 0.50 isn't much, but when it is multiplied by 4 it comes to $2. Still not much, but after 5 days it is $10, and the equivalent of a .25 per hour raise.

2. Money (expense): driving 1 extra mile out of your way each day, at 60 mph will take you 7 minutes per week. If you have to drive it back again, it is 14 min per wk, 60 min per month.

If you get 20 miles per gallon, you will use 3 gallons of gas and it will cost you 9.75 at 3.25 per gallon. So if you only make .25 a day for delivering that guy's paper ($7.50), you have paid $2.75 for the privilege of delivering that guy's paper. He gets dropped!

But if the guy is on your way somewhere else, you didn't spend anything taking the paper to him, so the $7.50 you made is for about 3 seconds' work of slowing down enough to throw a paper in his driveway.

3. Clutter: 5 papers on your back porch x 30 days = a 36-inch stack of papers.

4. Weight: I don't know about the straw breaking the camel's back, but don't try to lift that 36-inch stack of papers all at once.

5. Fatigue: I can force my body to get out of bed, but I can't force my brain to work at full potential on 3 hours of sleep a night after 5 months.

Everything looks different when you are exhausted. It is easy to get depressed.

6. Sometimes, under VERY extreme circumstances, sleep is preferable to sex.

Which reminds me of one more thing I've learned:

7. Everything has an upside and downside - I love to point out that my wife's ex is such a loser that I got a second job to support his kids because he isn't man enough to pay his child support.

But I hate to think he gets the credit for making me fall asleep w/out sex...makes me wonder if he did the whole thing on purpose, and is secretly laughing about it now!

Sometimes you can't have it both ways.

I Am Not a Volitionist!

2007-05-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

Over the last 9 months, I have become increasingly convinced that we do not choose our beliefs; the mind cannot be willed to believe something it knows to be false. I am no longer a volitionist, and have sworn off the phrase "choose to believe."

People are not atheists, Christians, Jews, or Muslims because they choose to believe the tenets of these religions, but because they have no choice but to believe them. For whatever reasons, the doctrines "make sense" to them.

Of course, once a belief has been espoused, a person can certainly choose to insulate the mind against contrary beliefs, and expose the mind only to ideas, arguments, and values consistent with the belief system. Cognitive bias comes into play, usually unbeknownst to the individual, so that the mind subtly rejects opposing views. But the belief must already be held before this kind of insulation is effective.

For example, if an adult decided to believe in Santa Claus, knowing that there is no Santa Claus, he could surround himself with children who believe in Santa Clause, watch only television programs, movies, etc. and read only books which depict Santa as a real person. He could spend years developing elaborate theories on how Santa could deliver toys to children all over the world in a matter of hours. But in the end, he would still know it was a ruse. With every conscious effort to convince himself of Santa's existence, the idea would become more entrenched that he has to go to such elaborate lengths to convince himself precisely because it is untrue.

On the other hand, there is a man in my home town who believes in Bigfoot. Aola knows Dave; he was on a Discovery Channel documentary. He is obsessed with the idea that there really is a Bigfoot - or maybe even a whole Bigfoot family - living around Gerty, Oklahoma. He didn't decide to believe it; he just believed it based upon whatever arguments to which he was exposed, and has followed the normal course of attempting to affirm his beliefs with more conclusive evidence. Naturally, he is drawn toward others who have similar interests and inclinations, and avoids those who would make fun of him. If Dave tried to force himself to stop believing, the result would be the same as the man who tried to force himself to believe.

The question that interests me is, why do adults hold to such superstitious beliefs, even in the absence of proof, and sometimes even contrary to evidence?

My theory (for all it's worth), is that many of these beliefs are formed in childhood and adolescence. This is the time when the frontal lobe is not yet fully developed, and opinions are formed in the emotional center of the brain. Religious beliefs have a built-in resistance to future doubts - the Devil. New converts or novices are forewarned that the Devil will send temptations and doubts, so that resistance becomes automatic. In this way, doubts actually reaffirm the belief.

Once espoused on an emotional level, it can be painful to let go of a belief. Memories, fantasies, relationships, and values become associated with the belief. Nevertheless, once the mind has been exposed to persuasive argument, the belief will begin to break down.

I realize all of this is an over simplistic explanation, but at least it's a start!

Grandparents

2007-04-28T03:18:00.000-07:00

Well, this is what I get for bragging.

Next day after I blogged, I came home from work, fell asleep at 6:30 and slept right through to 2:00 a.m. when I had to get up for work.

Last night, Kelly spent the night at the hospital with Linz b/c she went into labor yesterday afternoon. I'll be a grandpa by the time most of you read this!

A grouchy grandpa who hasn't had any in two days.

I did sit down and start writing out my thoughts about volitionism, but haven't distilled them enough for human consumption...working on it!

I'm Back...Hello?

2007-04-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I doubt anyone even stops by here anymore...it’s a long story, and one I won’t bore anyone with. Not even sure I’ll be able to get thru a whole blog now...takes more focus than I have lately.

I’ve been working a 2nd job since Dec because my wife’s loser ex has been unemployed and hasn’t paid child support. He’s about $2,400 behind. I don’t understand a man who won’t work, and I don’t understand a man who won’t support his children. I guess the key word is "man."
We went to court and listened to him grovel for awhile, then offered him a chance to pay it out, now that he got a job a week before court. We’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, I’m not quitting the 2nd job just yet.

Job is going all right - just got another promotion and a little bit of a raise. I wrote an article for our company magazine last month, and tomorrow my boss is pitching an idea to the execs of letting me write a monthly human interest type story as a regular thing. Man, I hope it flies with them. It would be awesome to actually get paid for writing something!

It was no surprise that I came out on top when I took the ex-wife to court for full visitation rights. The judge just looked at her lawyer and said, "What am I missing? All he’s asking for is the normal state visitation schedule." She then insisted the child support be recalculated, so they did and it turned out I was paying about $40 a month more than required. I’ve just kept paying the same amount...it’s stupid to bicker over shit like that.

So now I have my girls every other weekend. About time! It’s working out great.
Steph is demanding constant attention now...as 3-yr olds do. She is such a joy and makes us laugh a lot.

Kelly is more beautiful than ever. I love and need her more than ever. She makes life worth living. We still hit it once or twice a day ...the 2nd job cuts my wind some, but Kelly never fails to rock my world. She is the perfect woman....I can’t imagine being with anyone else. I’ve never met another woman like her.

I guess that brings all interested readers up to date on my life. Tomorrow I’ll try to put some thoughts down that I’ve had lately about volitionism vs existentialism. Now THAT should be exciting!

Small Town Justice in the Bible Belt

2006-10-30T18:34:00.000-08:00

Finished Grisham’s latest book, “The Innocent Man.” He’s got our little town pegged pretty well.

Adans sentenced a man to death on the grounds he gave them the creeps and lived too close to the victim.

The cops didn’t even get fingerprints from the last person seen with the victim the night of the murder, because they were buying meth from him.

Absolutely no evidence was submitted by the prosecution. Photos were shown of the body, the prosecutor told the jury the defendant did it and deserved to die. He was weird, so they found him guilty and recommended the death penalty. He stayed on death row for 12 years.

After he was exonerated by DNA evidence and he was released, his pastor refused to allow the First Pentecostal Holiness Church fellowship hall to used for a homecoming meal. The first (and only) Sunday back, the pastor acknowledged that “God loves everyone, even Ronnie.”

After he sued half the state of Oklahoma for $100 million, Pastor Mickey Keith of Evangelistic Temple was glad to let him join – providing he sign a commitment to pay tithes.

Ask around town now, and people will tell you “I still think he did it.” Why? “Well, I just do. Something was wrong with that guy.” Well, there certainly was. He was completely insane, but that little detail was never brought up during the trial.

The first chapter begins,

“The Bible Belt runs hard through Ada. The town has fifty churches from a dozen strains of Christianity. They are active places, and not just on Sundays. There is one Catholic church, and one for the Episcopalians, but no temple or synagogue. Most folks are Christians, or claim to be, and belonging to a church is rather expected. A person’s social status is often determined by religious affiliation.”

B&B

2006-10-29T18:20:00.000-08:00

Just got back from celebrating my 41st birthday (a couple of days early) at a bed & breakfast in Guthrie, OK. It was awesome.

It's the third one Kelly & I have been to. It has become a yearly tradition that I hope to continue forever. Each one is a new adventure...An adventure without ringing telephones, crying toddlers, or whining teenagers!

We grilled some steaks, drank a little Merlot, soaked in the hot tub awhile, and made lots and lots of whoopie.

How could a birthday be any better?

**Oh, I almost forgot. I lost my massage virginity, too. Kelly ordered us up a couple of in-room massages. I got Kelly her first massage a few years ago, and this was my first time...awesome!

WHICH ONES HAVE YOU DONE?

2006-10-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, Jen, Aola and CV have done this, so I’ll follow suit:

The ones I've done are in bold.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain (hiked to the crater of a volcano)
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula (They never bite)
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you’ and meant it!
09. Hugged a tree (just to climb it)
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Visited all 50 states
40. Taken care of someone who was drunk
41. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
42. Watched wild whales
43. Stolen a sign
44. Backpacked in Europe
45. Taken a road-trip
46. Gone rock climbing
48. Midnight walk on the beach
49. Gone sky diving
50. Taken a train through Europe
51. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
52. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table, and had a meal with them
53. Milked a cow
54. Alphabetized your CDs
55. Sung karaoke
56. Lounged around in bed all day
57. Gone scuba diving
58. Kissed in the rain
59. Gone to a drive-in theatre
60. Started a business
61. Taken a martial arts class
62. Been in a movie
63. Crashed a party
64. Gone without food for 5 days
65. Gotten a tattoo
66. Got flowers for no reason
67. Performed on stage (church)
68. Been to Las Vegas
69. Recorded music
70. Eaten shark
71. Buried one/both of your parents
72. Been on a cruise ship
73. Spoken more than one language fluently
74. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
75. Been to the Statue of Liberty
76. Had plastic surgery
77. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
78. Wrote articles for a large publication
77. Lost over 20 pounds
79. Piloted an airplane
80. Petted a stingray (well, actually I held it and later ate it)
81. Broken someone’s heart
82. Broken a bone
83. Eaten sushi
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Parasailed
86. Skipped all your school reunions
87. Shaved your head
88. Caused a car accident
89. Pretended to be "sick"
90. Surfed in the ocean
91. Saved someone's life
92. Fainted
93. Been in the room while someone is giving birth
94. Hitchhiked
95. Adopted a child
96. Been caught daydreaming
97. Been to the Grand Canyon
98. Called off a wedding engagement
99. Donated your blood
100. Become a follower of Jesus Christ

Another Searching Blogger

2006-10-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

I thought this was interesting...there are so many blogs out there published by people who are struggling with their beliefs.

http://shannonswhispers.blogspot.com/2006/10/should-i-come-out.html

2006-10-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

She came to me at darkest midnight, riding the wind.
Flaming hair whipped about angelic face.
Bewitching eyes saw my soul and healed it.
Sick was I, and dying. Her kiss breathed life and I rose again.
Love cast a spell; I’d sooner burn in hell than break it.
She drew me in, all else is illusion. Only her fantasy is real.
“What a glorious dream,” I whispered, and she laughed. “You are not dreaming; I am.”

FREETHOUGHT

2006-10-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Why I am not a true Freethinker

As you might guess, I had my girls again this weekend, and drove from OKC to Ada alone with my thoughts. My thoughts today revolved around Freethought.

A basic tenet of Freethought seems to be the refusal to believe anything that has not been scientifically proven.

I don’t find within myself the logical discipline of thought to do that. There are certain things I do accept by faith.

I believe there is an essence of each individual that transcends the physical. I don’t know or care if this should be called a spirit, totem, or aura. I don’t know if it will ever be proven, and can’t say exactly why I believe it, but I do.

I believe the love I have for my wife is something magical, and is something more than a lucky combination or reaction of chemicals in my brain. If that’s all it is, I don’t really want to know, and will probably reject any evidence presented to me.

I believe that the way my wife and I think each other’s thoughts is more than coincidence or the result of shared stimuli. Anyone who disagrees just doesn’t understand.

I believe that creation is a result of, well, creation. Can’t prove it, don’t want to, and don’t care whether or not anyone ever does. Don’t know a damn thing about who might have created it, but think it would be really cool to meet him/her/them/it.

To me this is true faith. I believe these things, and without any need for evidence. If I had evidence for them, my belief in them would not be based upon faith. I admit that I believe them simply because I want to.

Perhaps I will someday evolve enough to change the beliefs I currently hold by faith. But right now, I have no desire to do so.

QUIZ: WHO SAID IT?

2006-09-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

Is the US a Christian nation? Was it ever? Should it be? Here's a fun quiz to test your knowledge of some well-known historical figures:

1. “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…the United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.”

A. John Adams (Founding Father, 2st US President)
B. Madalyn Murray O’Hair (Founder of American Atheists)
C. Charles Darwin (Author, “Origin of the Species”)

2. “I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!”

A. Abraham Lincoln (US President)
B. Jerry Falwell (Founder, Moral Majority)
C. George W. Bush (43rd US President)

3. “And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.”

A. Thomas Paine (Founding Father, Author of Age of Reason)
B. Thomas Jefferson (Founding Father, 3rd US President)
C. John Wesley (Founder, Methodist Church)

4. "As to Jesus of Nazareth…I have… some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it.”

A. Albert Einstein (Physicist)
B. John Dewey (Founding Father of Modern Education)
C. Benjamin Franklin (Founding Father, Author, Inventor)

5. "Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . We need believing people."

A. Jerry Falwell (Founder, Moral Majority)
B. James Dobson (Founder , Focus on the Family)
C. Adolf Hitler (Nazi Dictator)

6. “ Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life”

A. Islam Founding Prophet, Mohammed
B. KKK Grand Wizard, Nathan Bedford Forest (1821-1877)
C. Jewish Prophet, Moses

7. “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”

A. Moses (Jewish Prophet)
B. Alexander the Great (Conquerer)
C. Mohammed (Islamic Prophet)

8. “I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms.”

A. Allah (Muslim god)
B. Jehovah (Judeo-Christian god)
C. Zeus (Greek god)

9. “Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death. My advice, as I said earlier, is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss in sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire. That would demonstrate to God our serious resolve and be evidence to all the world that it was in ignorance that we tolerated such houses, in which the Jews have reviled God.”

A. Sadaam Hussein (Former Iraqui Dictator)
B. Anwar Sadat (Egyptian President)
C. Martin Luther (Protestant Reformer)

10. "When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod, and the slave dies under his abuse, the owner must be punished. However, if the slave can stand up after a day or two, the owner should not be punished because he is his [owner's] property.”

A. Moses (Jewish Prophet)
B. Mohammad (Islamic Prophet)
C. Jefferson Davis (President, Confederate States of America in 1861)

11. “And often it is necessary to deceive, and to do the greatest benefits by means of this device, whereas he who has gone by a straight course has done great mischief to the person whom he has not deceived.”

A. Bill Clinton (President of the United States)
B. Anton LaVey (Founder of the Church of Satan)
C. John Chrysostom (Bishop of Constantinople)

12. “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

A. George Washington (Founding Father, 1st US President)
B. John Adams (Founding Father, 2nd US President)
C. Thomas Jefferson (Founding Father, 3rd US President)
D. None of the Above

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
ANSWERS:
1.
A: Treaty of Tripoli, read aloud by John Adams and ratified unanimously by congress on June 10, 1797
2.
B: Jerry Falwell, in "America Can Be Saved" 1979
3.
A: Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823
4.
C: Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Yale President Ezra Stiles
5.
C: Adolf Hitler. April 26, 1933, from a speech made during negotiations leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of 1933.
6.
C: Moses, quoting Jehovah in Leviticus 25:44-46 (NIV)
7.
A: Moses, quoting Jehovah in Numbers 31:17-18 (NIV)
8.
B: Jehovah, to King David in 2 Samuel 12:18 (NIV)
9.
C: Martin Luther, Protestant Reformer, “The Jews and Their Lies” (1543)
10.
A. Moses, quoting Jehovah in Exodus 21:20-21 (NIV)
11.
C: John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, "Treatise on the Priesthood, Book I"

12.

D. None of the Above. Though widely attributed to George Washington, there is no evidence of its validity. According to Wikipedia:

"Washington is known to have made some official statements of public piety, but this is not one of them. Though this assertion is very widely reported to have been said in Washington's Farewell Address (17 September 1796), this is not actually the case, as any search of the documents would reveal."

This text is reproduced here under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See the GNU Free Documentation License at: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

CREDIT

2006-08-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

I wanted to mention where I got my new favorite term, so you aren't led to believe I found it on my own!

I followed Mechphisto's profile link from Jennifer's blog. Mech included the term with a link to the Wikipedia entry.

Great site! Thanks Mech!

COGNITIVE BIAS

2006-08-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

I've been babbling on for weeks about cold drinks, chaos and order in the universe, and how little our beliefs are influenced by facts, while all along there is a great big important-sounding name for it: cognitive bias. I'm always the last to find stuff out.

I have a LOT of reading to do at this page and all the links provided:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

I absolutely love Wikipedia.

Oh well, if these smart guys thought up this stuff already, maybe I'm not too far off base.

LIFE-CHANGING BOOK

2006-08-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

Aola's and Jen's discussion of books brought on a nostalgic mood about a book I've never mentioned here.

One book that changed my life and gave me the courage to leave the ministry was Elmer Gantry, written by Sinclair Lewis in 1927.

The book was given to me by one of the most colorful, tragic, mentally unstable people I’ve known, the slightly insane William Denker.

William was the son of a millionaire American entrepreneur who lived in Mexico. He has photos of himself with Amelia Earhart and Shirley Temple, among other celebrities.

I met William when he staggered into a church service I was holding in a rented conference room, in Mexico City, in 1991. For the next decade, he alternately marvelled at my brilliance and derided my ignorance, depending upon his mood.

His house looked like a small, filthy library. Specially built, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves covered the entire lower floor of his house, and were completely filled with thousands of books and magazines. He had read them all, and could discuss them. His favorites were Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Elmer Gantry – at least those are the ones he always wanted to talk to his minister friend about.

When drunk, which was almost always, he loved my sermons, wept and laughed appropriately at my anecdotal illustrations, and gave me $5,000 to put the roof on our church building.

When sober, which was only at my insistence, he was bored to tears before I finished reading my sermon text, and hinted that he wanted his $5,000 back. When I smiled and handed him back the un-cashed check I had held onto for months, he was amazed I hadn’t spent it yet, refused to accept it, and went back to drinking.

William constantly raged about people who borrowed books and never returned them, and then lost almost every book I ever loaned him. He also raged about deforestation, Mexican politicians, and the postcard that displayed one of his photographs for which he had never received credit.

But most of all, he raged about the man who had stolen most of his fortune. During one of the perennial Mexican political upheavals that have plagued the country since the Teotihuacan period, Memo had become concerned the government would appropriate all the money in his bank account, so he withdrew a half-million dollars and gave the cash to a friend to invest in the US. The money disappeared and he has spent his entire life since that time hating the person who stole it and plotting to recover it someday.

He gave me a copy of Elmer Gantry and loaned me a copy of Carl Sagan’s “Our Demon-Haunted World,” (with the customary rant about how he hated people who didn’t return books…and I did return it). Though I resisted as fiercely as Billy Sunday when he called Lewis “Satan’s cohort,” these two books pried open my eyes and changed my life.

Sinclair Lewis wrote the biographies of Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart decades before they were born. Many preachers I knew personally were also mentioned in the book though they of course didn’t exist at the time of its writing.

Except for the outdated language, you would almost swear the book must have been written in your own lifetime.

Have any of you read it?

Cold Drinks, Continued

2006-08-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

Given the circumstances of my previous post, a study might reveal that the doctor’s patients to whom he recommended abstinence from cold drinks recovered more quickly than those to whom he did not make this recommendation.

Depending upon the motives of those conducting the study, it might be concluded that abstaining from cold drinks actually does aid in recovery from upper respiratory infections and that, conversely, cold drinks contribute to such ailments.

My theory is that the study would be widely accepted as authoritative, especially by those raised in rural areas where cold drinks were never available. It would be cited confidently by those who had previously affirmed, in the absence of scientific evidence, that cold drinks were harmful; a welcomed confirmation of an already universally known “fact.”

Cold Drinks

2006-08-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

In Mexico, it is a common superstition that cold drinks will give you a sore throat. Even educated people often avoid iced drinks for this reason. Even soft drinks are consumed barely cool. Ugh!

A country doctor there told me once that, since practically everyone believes this, he is obligated to advise them to avoid cold drinks when they come to him for their upper respiratory ailments. If he didn’t tell them this, he explained, his patients would think he was ignorant, and would pay no attention to other recommendations such as antibiotics and hygiene.

“That doctor is so dumb, he didn’t even tell us not to drink cold drinks! I’m not taking this medicine! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”

So he would prescribe antibiotics, instruct them in personal hygiene, and remind them to avoid cold drinks.

Harmless, and effective. But it also perpetuated the myth.

“I KNOW cold drinks make you sick, because my doctor said so!”

When I pointed out that germs make you sick, not cold drinks, and that I drank cold drinks all the time without getting sick, the Mexicans would just smile condescendingly. On the rare occasion I came down with a sore throat, they would say, “See? That’s what you get for drinking cold drinks. My doctor always advises against it.”

DIARY OF A NEW OKIE

2006-07-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

June 10th
Just moved to Oklahoma! Now this is a state that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! It is beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it
here.

June 14th:
Really heating up; got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I'm
turning into a sun worshipper.

June 30th:
Had the backyard landscaped
with western plants today; lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing the lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th:
The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least, it's kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th:
Fell asleep by the community pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body); missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though - got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:
I missed Lomita (my cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car at
noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag, then popped like a water balloon. The car now smells like Kibbles and $hits. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat. Good ol' Mr. Sun strikes again.

July 25th:
The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!! And it's hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th:
Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now, $225,000 house and I can't even go inside. Lomita is the lucky one. Why did I ever come here?

Aug. 4th:
It's 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85. I hate this stupid state.

Aug. 8th:
If another wise ass cracks, 'Hot enough for you today?' I'm going to strangle him. Damn heat. By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

Aug. 9th:
Tried to run some errands after work - wore shorts, and when I sat on the seats in the car, I thought my ass was on fire. My skin melted to the seat. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and ass . . . Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried butt, and baked cat.

Aug 10th:
The weather report might as well be a damn recording . . . Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do shit for two damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week.

Doesn't it ever rain in this goddamn state? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700 worth of cactus will just dry up and blow over. Even the cactus can't live in this damn heat.

Aug. 14th:
Welcome to HELL! Temperature got to 115 today. Cactus are dead. Forgot to crack the window and blew the damn windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me??? "Hot enough for you today?"

My sister had to spend $1,500 to bail me out of jail. Freaking Oklahoma. What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here??

I'll let you know how court turns out.

Why?

2006-07-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

Why is it so much harder for a child to believe her father when he says “There is no such thing as monsters (or ghosts, etc) than it is for her to believe “Oh, those monsters hate the light. If you turn the lights on, they can’t get you?”

Why does it make perfect sense to some people that God wants them to blow themselves up in order to kill as many unsuspecting men, women, and children as possible?

Why do Christians believe that God is using the US military to open doors for the Gospel in the Middle East, but consider repugnant the idea of Muslims waging war on other nations to spread Islam?

Why was it so easy for me to believe that every word of the Bible was directly inspired by God – making it that absolute standard for all morality and doctrine?

Why do I believe the things I believe now? And why do I no longer believe the things I once did? How is it possible that things which seemed so logical at one time seem so ludicrous now ? There were people 20 years ago who believed what I believe now and still do, and there were people 20 years ago who believed what I believed then and still do. Have I seen the light or gone blind?

One fool can ask more questions than seven wise men can answer – I know this cause it says so right there in the Good Book. But I can’t stop myself from asking them…And maybe if I keep asking, the answers will become clear some day – at least to me. At least for awhile.

Future Olympic Champion Swimmer

2006-07-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

We're loving our pool! It was a great investment. The kids have been practically living in it this summer.

WHY I HATE DRIVING ALONE

2006-07-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

This always happens to me when I drive by myself. Since we traded in the minivan for an Altima, there isn’t enough room for everybody in the car. So when I took my girls back to OKC last Saturday, I had to ride back by myself. My mind starts wandering…so you might not even want to bother reading the rest of this. It will probably bore your socks off.

Ethnologist Emile Durkheim taught that all belief systems are grounded upon a basis of truth. From his study of aboriginal tribes in New Guinea, he concluded that religion started with the notion of soul, which originated as follows:

“In sum, belief in the immortality of souls is the only way man is able to comprehend a fact that cannot fail to attract his attention: the perpetuity of the group’s life. The individuals die, but the clan survives, so the forces that constitute his life must have the same perpetuity.”

I think most, if not all, belief systems have a basis in fact, and I don’t think most of them choose to accept certain facts and ignore others. But they do choose to consider certain facts as elemental and others as subordinate. They interpret some facts in the light of others. I think that influences other than the facts themselves determine which facts come to be considered elemental.

It seems to me that belief systems are an attempt to harmonize seemingly contradictory facts. For example:

Both order and chaos exist in the universe. Some explain chaos in light of the order, while others explain order in light of the chaos. Social influences, personality, and life experience may lead some to believe that the universe is orderly, with chaos occurring as an aberrance and others to believe that the universe is chaotic, with order occurring as an aberrance.

Theists tend to view the universe as orderly, and explain the chaos in terms of rebellion. Atheists tend to view the universe as chaotic, with order occurring as a temporary accident. Sincere and knowledgeable adherents of both viewpoints take into account the facts of order and chaos, each giving priority to a different fact.

All major belief systems include a number of subgroups. Fundamentalists, moderates, liberals, traditionalists, nominal adherents and zealous apologists comprise all religions. Then, there are always heretical splinter groups. Each group is armed with an arsenal of facts which debunk the belief systems of the other subgroups, as well as other major belief systems. This is true even non-theistic belief systems.

But facts are the least important reason for believing a thing. More important are the psychological, sociological, and emotional factors that lead us to determine which facts to make foundational.

Even me liking this idea in the first place is more dependent upon my experiences, emotions, and prejudices that upon the validity of the idea itself.

Good God, I’ve got to stop now. This is all I can take. You’re crazy if you actually finished reading this!

THE TALK

2006-06-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I had the talk with them last night. Kinda freaked them out, but I think it was effective. I started out with this article:

http://www.reformation.com/CSA/martin2.htm

An excellent article because it outlines how molesters pick their victims, groom them, escalate, etc. Gives some good tips. This was an fundamental Baptist pastor, too, though my girls didn't know him.

To my 11 yr old and 9 yr old, I had to explain what “molestation” meant.

Then I went on to explain that most molesters are often trusted leaders, family members, or friends that nobody suspected. Then I showed them this article:

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/02/loc_loc1amin.html

My 14-yr old knew about this, but it freaked out the younger ones because this was a friend of ours. We had stayed in his home, he had visited us in Mexico, supported us heavily, etc.
I then told them about Bob Gray and showed them the article. The two older girls remembered when he came to preach in Mexico at a missionary conference, because some friends of theirs at an orphanage provided the music for that conference.

Then they started questioning why I was bringing this up, so I told them I wasn't comfortable with the way their pastor handled situations like this, and showed them this letter:

http://www.fundamentalforums.com/showthread.php?t=5799

They were a little reluctant to believe their pastor had written the letter, so I am going to see if somebody has a pdf file of the letter on church letterhead.

I also explained that, not only had their pastor invited a child molester into their midst 3 years ago and seemed to be encouraging another one to join the flock, he had allowed a potential one to stay in the Bible College for a time after I advised him about it. This is the one I wrote about here:

http://exfundy.blogspot.com/2005/05/loyalty-for-sale.html

That young man's father was a child molester, also, and was a teacher in the church for years before the leadership knew about it. I wanted to stress that anybody might be a molester, not just the convicted ones that have been invited into the group.

Then I brought out the news article from when their pastor talked dirty to a young girl, and explained to them that they shouldn't be in a room alone with any of the adults there. They should always make sure they are accompanied by their mother, etc. That article is here:

http://www.channeloklahoma.com/news/3299380/detail.html

That's pretty much how it went. Got finished at around 11 pm last night. It was kind of stressful, but I'm glad I did it.

BOB GRAY

2006-05-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in my stuff there is a photo of me with an elderly preacher named Bob Gray.

He was considered by many to be a patriarch of the independent Baptist movement, pastored a church in Jacksonville, FL for around 40 years which grew to a membership of many thousands. I think the average Sunday school attendance was around 3,000 when I was in bible college. His church sponsored a bible college and missionary agency, as well. I don’t recall him preaching at the church while I was there, but I remember one of The Professors saying in class that The Pastor considered the man to be his mentor and often called him for advice and counsel.

He was well-known in the circles where I circulated, and his ministry was largely free of controversy. He was less strict in dress code than was the church where I was a member (women could wear pants), but was seldom criticized for it. His integrity, the size of his ministry, and his loyalty to the movement kept even those who disagreed with him or were jealous of him from voicing their criticism.

In the nineties, many were shocked when he announced he would resign his church and go to Germany as a missionary. Still, it was seen as an extraordinarily humble and spiritual move to follow God’s leading from a prominent and influential ministry to start all over again on foreign soil.

He never seemed to spend a lot of time in Germany after that, but concentrated on the conference circuit, traveling and preaching around the world. His preaching was not particularly deep, interesting, spectacular, or controversial, but his reputation made him in constant demand.

The photo I had with him was during one of his visits to Mexico to preach to a missionary conference. It was about 5 years ago, and he was in his mid 70’s.

Last week, he was arrested on charges of child molestation. He is in jail as I write this blog entry. 15 or more women have come forward to testify that he molested them when they were small children.

Here is a link to the story.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12913217/from/RL.2/

Today I read a letter The Pastor sent him in prison. Here’s a link to that letter:

http://fundamentalforums.com/showthread.php?t=5799

This is the church where my daughters attend.

I would rather them be in a bar than this church. A convicted child molesting preacher has been set loose there for the last 3 years, and now The Pastor is trying to get another one in there. I am so stressed right now, I don’t know what to do.

Junior High Prom

2006-05-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

Chase on Prom night.

Kelly calls him Fabio.

The girls just call him...and call, and call, and call.

NOBODY HURT ME

2006-04-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

I get emails from time to time commenting on my “SeekerTrek” blog.

Almost all of them repeat the same well-intentioned mantra:

1. It is terrible that those people hurt you.
2. They were phony Christians (implied – not real Christians like me)
3. Don’t turn your back on God because of what people did to you.

I’d like to make a comment about that: Nobody hurt me. I don’t feel hurt by them now, and never did.

Even with some of the terrible things that I’ve written about in SeekerTrek, I never felt victimized at any time. Please, everyone, stop saying, “I’m sorry you were hurt by those people.”

I didn’t leave fundamentalism because of what anyone did to me. I left because I came to believe it was untrue. I’ve said all this before, and hate to beat the same old dead horse, but the first thing that made me realize it was untrue was prayer. I simply saw that prayer in Jesus name is no more effectual than prayers of any other religion. Any form of Christianity that claims otherwise is, in my opinion, fundamentalist, and as such requires the surrender of critical thinking skills in order to adhere. (Knee-jerk reaction counteract: I did NOT say that God doesn’t answer prayer.)

The second thing that opened my eyes to the falsehood of that belief system was the claim of supernatural change. I saw that the conversion experience (new birth, salvation, etc) failed to produce real change in individuals with more consistency than other religions, or even non religious life events. (Knee-jerk reaction counteract: I did NOT say that Jesus doesn’t change lives.)

These conclusions are based upon fairly broad experience observed over a period of more than 20 years, praying alone and with others, preaching in hundreds of churches in a half-dozen countries, staying in homes of dozens of the most dedicated and sincere families in those churches, interacting with Christians over two decades as their children grew to adulthood, observing the progression of Christian experience in my own life and in hundreds of other families with whom I was closely acquainted.

They weren’t “phony” Christians. I still don’t view even most of the leaders with whom I was acquainted as “phony.” Grievously mistaken, emotionally unhealthy, and spiritually dangerous, but not for the most part insincere or ill-intentioned. They don’t mean to hurt anyone. They honestly believe they are doing the right thing when they insist on advising young people who to marry. They are trying to protect people from evil by the manipulative rules imposed upon them. They are dreadfully wrong, but their error is caused by a warped worldview that has been shaped by their religious beliefs.

In other words, they are as deceived as I once was.

Sexy

2006-04-03T05:02:00.000-07:00

There is pretty, and there is attractive, and there is beautiful.

And then there's sexy.

I sat looking across the table at my wife Friday night and it struck me (not for the first time) how sexy she is. She has an intangible quality of sexiness about her that I can't exactly describe.

She doesn't try to act sexy. She doesn't dress slutty. She doesn't tease or strut. I don't think she even fully realizes it about herself.

But she has me absolutely spellbound. No other woman can even come close. It is impossible for me to imagine myself with anyone else.

Paul Meyer

2006-03-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

Spent the weekend at a big company convention. The Gov. of OK spoke, along with the Attorney General and the Insurance Commissioner. Mike Moore, former A.G. whose claim to fame is the $4 billion + judgement against the tobacco industry in MS several years ago, spoke a couple of times.

Paul Meyer spoke, as he does every year. He is a very fascinating man, and speaks on success from a position of flabbergasting success in just about every area of life you can imagine.

He’s considered by some to be the founder of the self-help movement, and has written profusely on the subject. Much of his focus is on positive thinking. Can’t swallow all of it…guess I’ll miss out on becoming a billionaire because of that. But it was still a fascinating speech.

Anybody have an opinion on Paul Meyer?

DID PLINY THE YOUNGER MENTION JESUS?

2006-03-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

DID PLINY THE YOUNGER MENTION JESUS?

This writer, an early 2nd century governor of Bithynia, is often cited by apologists as the source of an ancient record that gives credence to the existence of Jesus as a historical person. The text referenced is a letter from Pliny to emperor Trajan. There are several reasons to discount this document as evidence of the historicity of Jesus:

1. Pliny was born 30 years after, and wrote 50 –70 years after the date Jesus is believed by Christians to have died, so he is not a contemporary, nor does he claim to be an eyewitness.

2. His mention is not of Jesus as a person, but of the group of Christians living in Bithynia.

3. The mention is that “Christians sing to Christ as a god.” Don’t they? If he were to have said, “They sing to Apollos as a god,” would that lend any support to the historicity of Apollos?

4. Many historians have dismissed this letter as a later Christian forgery, as it was not quoted by any of the church fathers. The actual text was purportedly discovered by a 15th century monk, Joannes Iucundus of Verona, then lost again a few years later. The texts used today claim to be copies made from his manuscript.

For additional Research:

http://www.probe.org/content/view/18/77/ (This letter is credible evidence)

http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0105JewChristian.html (This letter is not credible evidence)

INTELLECT VS EMOTION MAKES TIRED BRAIN!

2006-03-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, it looks like the Historicty of Jesus discussion has burned itself out.

Why did I do it in the first place? Do I believe that Jesus was a historical person or not? The truth is:

I DON'T KNOW, AND NEITHER DO YOU.

It's all right not to know.

I keep seeing, "This is making my brain tired." What you are expressing is the conflict between your intellect and emotions.

Count the number of times this was said in the discussion. The people who said it are intelligent, thinking people...people who often ponder deep thoughts and ask tough questions. And honest people, as far as it is possible for us to be truly honest with ourselves. Your brains got tired because you are people of high intellect as well as powerful emotion, and it makes for a hell of a conflict.

It is hypocritical to pretend we know something we don't. But it is grossly dishonest to tell ourselves and others that we know something, when we have refused to even examine the evidence.

If someone wants to believe that every person who ever died without believing a bunch of unsubstantiated claims about Jesus will be tormented in hell forever, then they should admit that they believe it because they CHOOSE to believe it - not because there is a shred of evidence for it.

If someone wants to believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father, they should be honest and admit that this belief is purely subjective.

As Aola's blog says, "I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than closed by belief."

DID TACITUS MENTION JESUS?

2006-03-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

Did Tacitus mention Jesus as a historical person?

One historian, Edwin Yamauchi, calls the mention in Tacitus “probably the most important reference to Jesus outside the New Testament.”
The quote, supposed to have been written around 117 AD, reads:
“Nero fastened the guilt . . . on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome .”

This passage is interesting for several reasons.

The discussion is of the sect of “Christianity,” not Jesus Christ. Jesus is mentioned only with reference to the Christian claim that he was their founder.

This is of little importance, however, as the passage is likely a forgery perpetuated by Church not for the purpose of providing evidence for the historicity of Jesus, but to promote the idea that Nero persecuted Christians for burning Rome.

1. No contemporary historians record a Neronian persecution of Christians.
2. Nero’s famed minister, Seneca, wrote extensively but never even mentioned Christians in Rome.
3. Eusebius never refers to this passage when makng the claim of Neronian persecution.
4. Tertullian quoted Tacitus extensively, but never refers to this passage.
5. No commentator who quoted Tacitus ever made reference to this passage before the 15th century.

The reason no commentator made reference to this passage before the 15th century is that the entire “Annals” in which it appears was unknown until the purported “discovery” made by Johannes de 1468.

It is always cause for suspicion when a copy of an “ancient” writing by a famous historian is suddenly discovered, centuries after the death of the author, containing passages radically different from other writings by that author which enjoyed continuity. The fact that those touting the discovery had a vested interest in the spurious passage makes it even more doubtful, as this provides a motive for the forgery.

For additional study from both viewpoints:

http://www.tektonics.org/qt/taylorr01.html (The Annals is not a forgery)
http://skeptically.org/newtestament/id6.html (The Annals is a forgery)

DID SUETONIUS MENTION JESUS?

2006-03-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

Is Jesus ever mentioned by ancient secular historians as a physical person?

Finding themselves forced to do so, apologists may provide a number of references to secular historians to support the historicity of a literal religious leader named Jesus.

All of these examples consist of a negligible mention of either the name Jesus or the title of Christ inserted in the midst of voluminous works of history.

This in itself is suspect. If Jesus was a real person of such influence and controversy as recorded in the Gospels, whose life was marked by spectacular miracles performed before thousands of follower, and whose death was accompanied by astonishing supernatural phenomenon, one would think a historian might dedicate more than a sentence to him.

Many of these examples are provided in poor scholarship, as is the case of Josh McDowell’s assumption that “Chrestus” is a misspelling for “Christus” in the works of Suetonius. “Chrestus” is a Greek word which means “Good One.” It was a common name in ancient Rome, quite distinct from the title “Christus,” which means “Annointed One.” The reference he quotes regards a man named Chrestus instigating the Jews to rebellion against Claudius in Rome. The rebellion took place around 55 AD, so it is difficult to see how this could refer to Jesus.

Even more alarming is the discovery that a number of these are outright forgeries, created by desperate church leaders in a twisted attempt to use lies for the furtherance of truth.

DID JOSEPHUS MENTION JESUS?

2006-03-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

Was Jesus a historical person?

No contemporary historian mentions this person. No secular ancient writings record his existence.

What about Josephus? Well, Josephus was not a contemporary with Jesus. He could have never seen him with his own eyes, as he was born some time after Jesus’ alleged death. Still, his writings could lend some credibility to the historical existence of Jesus Christ. He would appear to be a neutral observer of historical data, which is why the Church inserted two forgeries into Josephus’ writings to make it appear he believed in the historical personage.

The first passage was admitted by the Church to have been a forgery and most likely inserted by Bishop Eusebius, who is known for teaching that it was acceptable for Christians to lie in order to further the Kingdom of God.

The second is called the Testimonium Flavianum, and though controverted, some Christian apologists still cling to it. It is clear that the Testimonium Flavianum was not part of Josephus’ original writings, because it was never quoted by any Christian apologist before Eusebius:

1) It is not quoted by Chrysostom, though he often refers to Josephus
2) It is not quoted by Photius, though he has three articles concerning Josephus. In the article Justus of Tiberius, he expressly states that Josephus “has not taken the least notice of Christ.”
3) It is not quoted by Justin
4) It is not quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus
5) It is not quoted by Origen. Origen clearly states that Josephus, who had mentioned John the Baptist, “did not acknowledge Christ.”

Here are some websites dealing with the subject from opposing viewpoints:

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/josephus-etal.html - Testimonium Flavianum is a forgery
http://members.aol.com/FLJOSEPHUS/testimonium.htm - Testimonium Flavianum is genuine

Discombobulated Discourse

2006-02-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

I guess you could say I started this blog as a way of exploring the reasons why I may have been drawn into such an extreme fundamentalist form of religion, why I stayed so long, and how I could protect myself from committing a similar error in the future.

Belief systems have always fascinated me. As a preteen, (before I became a pothead and temporarily lost my love for reading), I spent hours pouring over books on Greek and Roman mythology. I don’t know why.

Religion has virtually no place in my life now, but I am still drawn to discussions on the subject, still fascinated by it. I think slowly. It takes me a while to work through a thought. After investing all that effort, it’s hard to give it up.

Anyway, I'm reading “Elementary Forms of Religious Life” by Emile Durkheim, a gift from my wonderful and caring wife. He explores ethnologically what I have tried to explore on a personal level.

Religious fervor seems to be a part of human nature. Even rational secularists tend to accept dubious evidence if it supports their presuppositions. Skeptics are sometimes dogmatic. Atheist tend to be evangelistic.

There is still the tendency to view with suspicion those outside the heterogeneous group, and to lend irrational trust to those within it.

But I can’t bring myself to be dogmatic about much of anything anymore. I don’t know what group I belong to.

Dogmatism about even what is considered empirical evidence is simply ridiculous. Evidence always changes as research continues, and with it the conclusions arrived at from the evidence.

DNA evidence was beginning to be considered irrefutable until it was discovered that some bodies contain more than one DNA code.

New archeological discoveries alternately prove and disprove previous conclusions.

It has even been suggested that mathematical equations may not be universal; 2+2 might not equal 4 in every location of the universe.

I used to thrive on debate; now I am a terrible debater.

Ideas are defended with vehemence proportionate to vested interest. When the proponent was also the originator of an idea, his pride is at stake. When a career has been based upon an idea, the proponent’s financial stability, family, future, and posterity is at stake. There is no idea in which I have any vested interest. I’m just peacefully enjoying my life and my family.

In order to debate, a framework has to be established. It is easy to debate biblical doctrines once the rule has been established that the bible is the sourcebook of ideas. It is easy to debate philosophy, because one’s own ideas become the framework. It is easy to debate the virtues of existing evidence for or against a theory.

If everyone refused to be dogmatic, based upon the idea that all evidence is transient, there could be no debate, only speculation, which becomes quite boring. But debate provides motivation, sharpens the mind, and gives passion to an idea.

Still, the debaters never arrive at a real conclusion. Only those who watch both sides of the debate can ever see any logical answers. But the silent observers are looked upon with disdain by those on both sides of the debate; dullards who lack the intelligence to agree with either side.

No wonder religion’s greatest enemy is skepticism. Attempts to disprove a religion are easily confronted. In debate mode, no religious devotee can lose. This is the reason C.S. Lewis’ character in The Screwtape Letters advises his protégé not to attempt to convince his subject of anything, but rather to just cause doubt and confusion.

If you attempt to prove a religion false, you fuel the passion of its adherents. But all that is required for a religion to die is for its adherents to believe only so far as convenient, not believing quite enough for great sacrifices or extraordinary devotion. If there is enough doubt to prevent total devotion, then proof is not required.

Well, I’ve rambled on for two pages and obviously haven’t distilled these thoughts enough to be more concise. I apologize to any readers for subjecting you to such wordy bullshit.

2nd Anniversary

2006-02-12T17:47:00.000-08:00

Spent this weekend holed up in a cozy bed and breakfast with the woman I love. Feb 14 is our second anniversary so we took advantage of the weekend and celebrated early.

It was a nice place. My favorite feature was the fireplace right next to the heart-shaped whirlpool.

The best thing about the weekend was a day and night with my lady all to myself. No sharing, no interruptions, no disturbances. For a few blissful hours, our whole world was a little cottage.

Wonderful!

MORE ON RELIGION

2006-02-03T17:25:00.000-08:00

re·li·gion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r -l j n)n.

1.
a. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
b. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
2. The life or condition of a person in a religious order.
3. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
4. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

I respect personal faith. However, the essence of faith is that there is no proof or evidence to support it, making any attempt to prove the tenets of faith counterproductive.

faith ( P ) Pronunciation Key (f th)n.
1. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
2. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. See Synonyms at belief. See Synonyms at trust.
3. Loyalty to a person or thing; allegiance: keeping faith with one's supporters.
4. often Faith Christianity. The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God's will.
5. The body of dogma of a religion: the Muslim faith.
6. A set of principles or beliefs.

I have found the claims of the Bible to be false, and choose not to place any faith in them. If someone chooses to believe them in spite of the evidence, that is true faith.

Faith (belief) is harmless until it is forged into a system of dogmas and becomes a religion.

The nature of some belief systems may be more inclined toward abuse than others.
For example, any religion claiming exclusive truth has an obvious proclivity to aggression; When a system of morality purports to be based upon divine revelation rather than logic, its only recourse is to attempt either covert or overt imposition of that morality upon others.

Adding the doctrine of Hell as punishment for refusal to accept the dogmas of this type of exclusivist system further promotes a degrading view of humanity, and inevitably results in some degree of intolerance. It’s horrendous implications provide justification for countless barbarities.

THE DRUG

2006-01-31T19:09:00.000-08:00

For years, I responded to the Marxian claim that “religion is the opiate of the masses,” by affirming the opposite, that true Christianity is a stimulant. Did not Christianity outlast the Communism in Russia that Marx helped to create? Was it not Christianity that gave spirit to the American Revolution? Christianity doesn’t lull men to sleep and make them easy to control; it gives men a thirst for freedom.

Then, when I realized that the claims of Christianity were hopelessly false, I began to feel that perhaps it was neither opiate nor stimulant, but perhaps a placebo. If not real, at least it gave people hope, peace, and purpose. It provided community, stimulated creativity, and motivated to excellence.

But I have increasingly come to view religion - Christianity included - as a dangerous hallucinogen, a mind-altering drug that hinders its users from perceiving reality…spiritual meth or crack, turning its users into monsters who murder children as if they were inanimate objects and seem to be wholly unaware of what they have done.

The effect of religion that has caught my attention is its ability to justify the worst behavior while allowing its adherents to view themselves as righteous.

Religion allows its followers to proclaim themselves unworthy while believing they are uniquely chosen for God’s favor. Unworthy, yes, but wiser than others who have not come to this knowledge. Unworthy, but a few steps ahead of those who still alternately languish or revel in the sins they themselves saw fit to leave behind.

This, while disguising sins infinitely more hideous than those they condemn; more deeply damaging, more permanently scarring, more repulsive, more wicked. Victimizing sins. Hypocritical sins. Committed by saints who gaze down pious noses at the less fortunate who have not been blessed with such a pension for holiness as they.

Weird Dream

2006-01-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I was having strange dreams last night...something about my bodyguard Arnold Schwarzenegger beating up these two other body guards who were after me while I was giving my wife a naked massage. (only we weren't married in the dream, we were both spies)

Whatever...

Anyway, in part of my dream I was reading something that said "We learn to hate those we cannot fix; we answer tellers more than askers."

I would correct the sentence for whoever designed that weird dream to say:

"We learn to despise that which we cannot repair, and answer proclaimers more than seekers."

I don't know whether I was remembering something I read somewhere, or the Dream Master stuck something original in there. But I woke up thinking about it and thought I'd better blog it before I forget it.

2006-01-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

Fundy Gossip-Mongers

2006-01-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

I discovered here today that I have become unrecognizable because of my long hair and beard, and that I live with an old girlfriend, with whom I have two children (I believe this was intended as derogatory)! I can picture the shaggy, barefoot hippy, smoking a doobie, living in a van down by the river!

I know you think it's a waste of time for me to read that forum, but I do so occasionally to keep up with things in my daughters' world.

I found it amusing, actually. I don't know who the poster is, but he/she obviously hasn't seen me in awhile. My hair is as short as it's been since I was in college. I'm married to my highschool sweetheart whom I love with all my heart and soul, and have one beautiful daughter with her. I work 8 - 5 every day at a white-collar job, live in a brick home in the country and LOVE LIFE.

However, I am considering taking the minivan down to the river to smoke a doobie...without our 7 children, of course!

Just another typical religious nut....blah, blah, blah.

BON JOVI

2006-01-16T05:02:00.000-08:00

Took Kelly to see Bon Jovi at the Ford Center Saturday night. Pretty Awesome.

Just glad we weren't down on the floor. The lights would go out, and when the spotlight came on Jon Bon Jovi would be standing on a little platform right out into the middle of the sea of people playing his acoustic guitar. Then he would stroll back up to the stage, still singing.

Once, he just stopped and kissed a lady right on the lips. Yeah, I'm glad we were up in the nosebleed section, far away from hot loverboy's rosy red lips! Ha!

Kelly says he is the "second" best-looking guy in the universe.

We got home at about 1 a.m. and then laid around the house all day Sunday recuperating for the real world we'd have to face on Monday!

New Blogger

2006-01-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

I'm excited that one of my friends from Bible College has started a blog!

Someone to validate my stories!

Her blog should be interesting, especially for the gals. I'd like to encourage everybody to drop by there and let her know you're reading! She just put her first post up this week.

McMom's blog is The Berry Patch

The Possession of Emily Rose

2006-01-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

Just finished watching this movie. Pretty creepy!

My thought after watching it is that fear of the devil causes more people to believe in God than any kind of actual evidence.

That was actually the whole theme of the movie...Emily was OK with being possessed because it would make people believe in the spiritual. Her quote:

"How can people refuse to believe in God when I show them the devil?"

sums up nicely what "evangelists" have been doing for 2000 years.

Back in the Groove

2006-01-05T17:03:00.002-08:00

It’s been so long since I’ve posted, I don’t know where to start!

Christmas was fun and stressful, as holidays usually are I guess. I had my daughters with me for a week. This was our first Christmas together since the divorce.

It has been such a journey to blend these two families! The kids come from such different backgrounds – I’ll never forget the first summer they were here, when they called Kelly and I at work because they were having a big fight over whether Jesus made fermented or unfermented wine!

Holly (11) is having some real problems with depression, so we had a loooong talk that seems to have helped a little. I wrote their mother to recommend therapy. That’s going to go over like a lead brick, I’m sure. Fundamentalists aren’t big on real therapists - her mother takes her to the assistant pastor for "counseling", who “gets onto her” as Holly put it. I swear to god if the perverted pastor there ever talks dirty to her like he has been known to, there will be Hell to pay.

I got some time off work to spend with my family, and that was wonderful. I am very thankful for my job.

Kelly and I are dieting now. I weighed in today at 201. My target weight is 190, but I don’t know if I’ll be alive to celebrate, if I ever get there.

We're selling the Malibu, if anybody knows anybody...

2000 Malibu 4D LS
App. 60,000 miles
Aluminum alloy, CD player, Cruise Control

$5,500

Well, I know I’m rambling. Just trying to get back into the blogging groove.

LOVE EVERYBODY!

Principles of Mind Control

2005-12-31T08:07:00.000-08:00

I cut and pasted this from XS Forums

Eight Marks of a Mind-Control Cult

by Randall Watters

Brainwashing has become almost a household word in the last two decades or so. In 1961, Robert J. Lifton wrote the definitive book on the subject, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, after studying the effects of mind control on American prisoners of war under the Communist Chinese. Lifton outlines eight major factors that can be used to identify whether a group is a destructive cult or not. Any authoritarian religion should be held up to the light in order to determine just how destructive their influence is on their members. Judge for yourselves.

Milieu Control

"Milieu" is a French word meaning "surroundings; environment." Cults are able to control the environment around their recruits in a number of ways, but almost always using a form of isolation. Recruits can be physically separated from society, or they can be warned under threat of punishment to stay away from the world's educational media, especially when it might provoke critical thinking. Any books, movies or testimonies of ex-members of the group, or even anyone critical of the group in any way are to be avoided.

Information is carefully kept on each recruit by the mother organization. All are watched, lest they fall behind or get too far ahead of the thinking of the organization. Because it appears that the organization knows so much about everything and everyone, they appear omniscient in the eyes of the recruits.

Mystical Manipulation

In religious cults, God is ever-present in the workings of the organization. If a person leaves for any reason, accidents or ill-will that may befall them are always attributed to God's punishment on them. For the faithful, the angels are always said to be working, and stories circulate about how God is truly doing marvelous things among them, because they are "the truth." The organization is therefore given a certain "mystique" that is quite alluring to the new recruit.

Demand for Purity

The world is depicted as black and white, with little room for making personal decisions based on a trained conscience. One's conduct is modeled after the ideology of the group, as taught in its literature. People and organizations are pictured as either good or evil, depending on their relationship to the cult.Universal tendencies of guilt and shame are used to control individuals, even after they leave. There is great difficulty in understanding the complexities of human morality, since everything is polarized and oversimplified. All things classified as evil are to be avoided, and purity is attainable through immersion into the cult's ideology.

The Cult of Confession

Serious sins (as defined by the organization) are to be confessed immediately. The members are to be reported if found walking contrary to the rules.There is often a tendency to derive pleasure from self-degradation through confession. This occurs when all must confess their sins before each other regularly, creating an intense kind of "oneness" within the group. It also allows leaders from within to exercise authority over the weaker ones, using their "sins" as a whip to lead them on.

The "Sacred Science"

The cult's ideology becomes the ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existence. The ideology is too "sacred" to call into question, and a reverence is demanded for the leadership. The cult's ideology makes an exaggerated claim for possessing airtight logic, making it appear as absolute truth with no contradictions. Such an attractive system offers security.

Loading the Language

Lifton explains the prolific use of "thought-terminating cliches," expressions or words that are designed to end the conversation or controversy. We are all familiar with the use of the cliches "capitalist" and "imperialist," as used by antiwar demonstrators in the 60's. Such cliches are easily memorized and readily expressed. They are called the "language of non-thought," since the discussion is terminated, not allowing further consideration.

In the Watchtower, for instance, expressions such as "the truth", the "mother organization", the "new system", "apostates" and "worldly" carry with them a judgment on outsiders, leaving them unworthy of further consideration.

Doctrine Over Person

Human experience is subordinated to doctrine, no matter how profound or contradictory such experiences seem. The history of the cult is altered to fit their doctrinal logic. The person is only valuable insomuch as they conform to the role models of the cult. Commonsense perceptions are disregarded if they are hostile to the cult's ideology.

Dispensing of Existence

The cult decides who has the "right" to exist and who does not. They decide who will perish in the final battle of good over evil. The leaders decide which history books are accurate and which are biased. Families can be cut off and outsiders can be deceived, for they are not fit to exist!

Paul MIrecki

2005-12-14T18:23:00.000-08:00

I've been following this story: Link

"Mirecki hospitalized after beating

December 5, 2005

Douglas County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the reported beating of a Kansas University professor who gained recent notoriety for his Internet tirades against Christian fundamentalists.

Kansas University religious studies professor Paul Mirecki reported he was beaten by two men about 6:40 a.m. today on a roadside in rural Douglas County.

In a series of interviews late this afternoon, Mirecki said the men who beat him were making references to the controversy that has propelled him into the headlines in recent weeks."

Mirecki was forced to resign his post as chair of religious studies at the university this week.

Link

Still Here!

2005-12-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been so quiet lately! I've just gotten sidetracked. Between holidays, work, sick kids, and broken-down cars, my head hasn't been clear enough to blog!I just added a couple of links that I may discuss more in the future. You might want to check them out.

http://www.truthbeknown.com/christcon.htm

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/C20/

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

2005-11-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

Slept late, spent the day putting up Christmas lights on the roof and shrubs, got a babysitter while I took my Lady to see "'Walk the Line," then we went to the park and made out like a couple of kids.

I LOVE HOLIDAYS!

Love

2005-11-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

I used to think it was silly that people wrote songs about love.

I mocked at the young who seemed to think they were the first to experience an emotional attraction to the opposite sex. Why, every couple since Adam and Eve has felt the same thing, and they all act like no one else can possibly understand what they feel.

It seemed irrational to make such a big deal over what really amounted to nothing more than some chemical reactions to sexual stimuli, added to commitment, and followed by years of exhausting efforts to be selfless.

Until I fell in love with Kelly.

I lay there last night looking at her, and thought, “No one in the world can understand what we have. How could I ever put it into words?” It made me want to write a song or something. Then I laughed at myself for feeling like a love-stricken teenager, and then laughed at myself again for waiting so long to feel that way.

Sigh...you see how I get when they give me a couple days off work and life slows down enough to just think? Just plumb goofy.

Forcible Sodomy in a Small Town

2005-11-23T17:04:00.000-08:00

ADA — A local man was recently arrested after an Ada police officer reportedly discovered him publicly engaged in illegal sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl. Ada resident William Victor Finley, 22, was arrested on a charge for the suspicion of forcible sodomy when he was allegedly found conducting illegal activities in a parked vehicle along Scenic Drive with the girl.

Rest of the story at Ada Evening News

Used to go to church with this guy when he was a wee little lad. His dad used to preach about how his kids were going to turn out better than everyone else's because he didn't allow them to watch television. Guess it didn't work.

My heart goes out to his parents. It is tragic they bought into a phoney system that let them down.

David Ludwig

2005-11-21T18:49:00.000-08:00

David Ludwig

I’m not against home-schooling.

But, I have often found myself defending public school to my three formerly home-schooled daughters who are now enrolled in Christian school, and who believe a child is in mortal danger every day he sets foot in public school.

Part of that defense includes compiling information about home-schooled adolescents who behave the same way their public-schooled counterparts do.

David Ludwig was home-schooled, as was the girlfriend whose parents he murdered. They were fans of a Christian band called Pillar, whose concert they attended last month.
Did Christian education, Christian family, and Christian community somehow cause this tragedy? No. No more so than they prevented it. And no more so than anything in the public school system caused Columbine.

The Truman Show

2005-11-10T18:26:00.000-08:00

Truman was happy. His life was perfect. But in this bizarre story, we learn that his every movement was controlled, manipulated, and observed. Everything in his life was an illusion.

A number of movies in the last decade have explored the concept of breaking an illusion in which people believe they are happy, but choose the harshness of reality over the bliss of delusion: The Matrix, The Village, Vanilla Sky, etc.

My wife read a Danielle Steel novel that gave her nightmares about her ex-husband. The woman in the story became aware she was in an abusive relationship after hearing another woman make a public speech on the subject. As we discussed it, I peppered my wife with questions:

“How could she have been in an emotionally abusive relationship without realizing it?” “How can someone think they’re happy if they’re not, and what’s the difference - if you ‘think’ you’re happy, aren’t you?” and “If an abused person can think they’re happy and be unaware of the abusive relationship, how can you be sure you’re happy now, and everything we have isn’t an illusion?”

We talked about it for nearly an hour, while she explained as could only someone who has been in such a relationship. Several observations emerged in our conversation:

Emotional abuse stems from an abusers need to control.

While violence is commonly present in such relationships, it is primarily used to enforce the emotional dominance over the victim - in my wife’s previous marriage, the violent outbursts would only be necessary a few times per year. That is, until she decided to go back to college. That was when her husband saw himself losing control, and the violence became increasingly frequent and intense.

The key to emotional abuse is isolation.

By insulating the victim from outsiders, an abuser may successfully convince his victim that the relationship is normal, that any problems are the fault of the victim, and that manipulation is in the victim’s best interest.

Life may remain moderately happy as long as the victim’s fear and insecurity keep her from questioning the authority, superiority, or wisdom of the abuser. If thoughts of dissatisfaction or unhappiness creep into the mind, the victim is conditioned to reason that it must be the result of some innate defect or abnormality.

In order to imprison the victim in this relationship, it is essential that whistle-blowers be silenced and refuges abolished; exposure must be limited and escape cut off.
When third parties begin to point out unhealthy tendencies, note flaws in the abuser, or encourage the victim to exercise reason and human rights, they become a danger.

Close friends, for this reason, must be eliminated from the victim’s life, and new friends selected by the abuser. Family members who do not support the abuser wholeheartedly must be alienated.

Television programs, movies, books, and music must be carefully censored.

A victim’s job outside the home could also represent a threat to the abuser’s control.

As the abuser drives wedges between the victim and others, the relationship becomes more insulated and the victim becomes more dependent upon the abuser.

In effect, an alternate reality is created – a separate world revolving around the abuser and abused, the manipulator and manipulated, the perpetrator and victim, in which everything supports the rationale that the relationship is normal. In this surreal world, it is possible for even the abuser to be unaware of the true nature of his actions.

It is often only when “outsiders” break into this world and force their voices to be heard that the illusion begins to break down.

Even then, leaving can be terrifying. The victim has been led to believe there is nowhere to go. There may be repercussions from the abuser. Self-doubt, feelings of guilt and failure, and fear of the unknown are the overwhelmingly powerful chains of this dungeon.

Good God! I swear it was like an epiphany. I honestly thought I would never be able to understand the concept, because of never having been in such a relationship. How did I fail to see that I lived in exactly such a world for over 20 years?

Fundamentalist Christianity creates both abusers and victims, then insulates them in the cocoon of church and denomination where the illusion is supported and perpetuated.

Males are established by this society as spiritually authoritative, and are told they are responsible for the holiness of their wives and children, and in the case of ministers, of their churches. Those who seek an opportunity to dominate are given the powerful backing of God himself., but even the innocent are unwittingly made into abusers.

Relationships with outsiders are discouraged. Television programs, movies, books, or music which would promote an alternate moral, philosophical, or theological structure are considered subversive.

Emotional dependence upon the church and its leaders is formed as the church becomes the victim’s only community. Confusing rules, based upon obscure Bible passages only understood by a few, establish ministers as arbiters of truth and thus essential to the believer’s spiritual/emotional well being.

It is constantly reiterated that adherents are sinful, weak, and inherently evil, so that any doubts or failures are the fault of the victim. It is for this reason that domination, control, isolation, restrictions, and sometimes even punishment are for the victim’s own good.

Leaving is terrifying, because the church/denomination/religious movement has become the victim’s only community. The victim’s only friends are there, and have all but replaced family members now alienated by the religious extremes. Sometimes, the family members themselves are part of the religious community, making the bonds even stronger.

Since the religion has played such a large role in the victim’s life, he feels he has little in common with those outside of it. Fear of rejection by those he himself once rejected encumbers his departure.

As the relationship ends, there is a feeling of failure, of quitting, of giving up the race. The “us” versus “them” mentality that has been fostered creates a feeling of betrayal as the victim leaves “us” for “them.”

But once the façade has been revealed, the observer will never see the illusion in the same way again.

BEAT HIM WITH THE ROD

2005-10-31T09:50:00.000-08:00

“You have to make them think you’re going to kill them.”

The pastor seemed to have an ideal Christian family. One of his sons was a missionary in Argentina, and his daughter was a missionary in Mexico. Two of his sons (twins) were associate pastors in the 600 + member church, and another was in Bible college, preparing for the ministry.

I had gone to Bible college with several students from the church, and they always stood out as exceptionally dedicated and spiritually perceptive.

The church was a little too close-knit for many in our movement; the pastor was a patriarchal figure with a large house where the church often gathered for Thanksgiving or other holidays, and some church families even lived in the house on a temporary basis. The members tended toward a holistic view of health, and an all-natural philosophy of living. Several of the women chose to give birth with a midwife, and some even gave birth to their children at the pastor’s house.

I always enjoyed being with them. There was much laughter and warmth at the church and at the pastor’s house. The Christian school was as much a part of the church as was Sunday school or the daily 6 am prayer meeting, and the students traveled around the country to compete in Scripture quoting, academic, or musical events, and always excelled at these competitions.

The church was more than a group of believers who congregated for worship and teaching; it was a holy society whose lives revolved around their faith; a theocratic community of families whose mayor was the pastor; or as I would have defined it in Scriptural terms, a family related through the blood of Christ, of which God was the father, and the pastor an elder brother.

There seemed to be a healthy balance of openness, holiness, and mercy: When a young pair from the church who were expelled from the Bible college for immorality returned home in disgrace, the pastor brought them before the congregation and took up an offering for them.

To me, it seemed to be all that a church should be. Faith was more than just a sideline. Members of the congregation were not strangers. There didn’t seem to be a gossip problem, simply because everybody already knew everything about everybody else. But they were not a closed society; they evangelized constantly, sending buses around the city to pick up children for Sunday school, preaching on the street corners downtown, and knocking on doors to carry the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The pastor was a firm believer in spanking, and had it down to a science. Children should be spanked with a “rod,” as the King James Version of the Bible instructs. They should be spanked for every act of disobedience, never for accidents, never in anger, never because of the value of something broken, but for the act of disobeying. They should be spanked until their will is broken – this could be discerned when they stop screaming defiantly, and start whimpering softly.

Some of the teachings would land a parent in jail:

(1)“ …chasten thy son while there is hope…” Pr. 19:18

(2)“Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.” Pr.23:14

(3)“Stripes for the back of fools.” Pr. 19:29

(4)“The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil.” Pr. 20:30

From these verses, it was determined that (1)discipline should start in the cradle, with gentle spats on the bottom for “lying” by crying when nothing is wrong. (2) As they get older, they should be spanked with a rod, and (3) land one across the back now and then when necessary. (4) Proper discipline should leave stripes and bruises. The pain of a spanking is nothing compared to the pain they’ll feel in jail as adults if they aren’t disciplined adequately.

The goal is for a parent to dominate the child’s rebellious and foolish will with the parent’s morally superior one. It is psychological and spiritual warfare. “Sometimes,” the pastor counseled me, “you have to make them think you’re going to kill them.”

The proof was in the pudding. One of his daughters had been especially rebellious as a child. Once, he had spanked her more than 100 times because she refused to say “I’m sorry” for disobeying! But here she was, over 18 and with a cheerful disposition, still in the church and even teaching Sunday school. She testified that she was glad her dad was godly enough to spank her. The kids weren’t morose. They didn’t seem to be abused. They seemed happy. They didn’t torture kittens or pull the legs off grasshoppers, or anything like that.

Then, his kids who had gotten married and had children of their own had followed the example. I was amazed at how their 2 or 3-year-old children would sit quietly through a church service with practically no supervision. They rarely had to be scolded or taken out of the service for correction. Perfect little angels.

Just before I left the ministry, as my faith was falling to pieces and as I was for the first time really seeing the world I had lived in for the last 21 years, a news story was broadcast in Mexico, on CNN. Two young assistant pastors(twins) had beaten a 12-year-old Mexican boy almost to death at a church camp.

The boy had been misbehaving, and hadn’t memorized his Bible verses. He was quite the problem child and his parents, members of the church, had asked the youth director and Spanish ministry director to help them get him under control.

In court, his parents testified that one of the young men had held him while the other “spanked” him with a tree branch – over 100 times.

Such wonderful results the biblical disciplinary methods had produced! The boys had never experimented with recreational drugs or alcohol. A cigarette had never touched their lips. They and their wives were virgins until their wedding nights. They were serving the Lord faithfully in their church and community. No rebellion. No worldliness. Hard workers. Faithful to their wives. All-around fine, upstanding young Baptist preachers.

Closest thing to any heartache they ever caused their parents was when they nearly killed a little boy. One is now serving a 26-year sentence, and the other a 14-year sentence.

I know them well, and honestly believe they felt they were doing the right thing. It was what they had been taught. I know and love their parents, and though we have not spoken in over 2 years, I honestly believe they would lay down their lives for me or sacrifice to help me in any way possible. It is my opinion that they believed and still believe they were doing the right thing.

It is not always the people of fundamentalism who are evil; It is the Book they read and believe that teaches them to do evil things.

For a chilling look into this culture, go to www.remembermybonds.com and view the video testimonials.

DUMPSTER-DIVING FOR JESUS!

2005-10-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

DUMPSTER DIVING FOR JESUS

I didn’t know whether to pity the married students, or admire them. Some of them had 4, 5, or 6 children. Birth control wasn’t expressly forbidden by The Movement, but some branches from which students came followed the teachings of John R. Rice or Bill Gothard in this respect, and did seem to feel it indicated a certain lack of faith.

Students were required to enroll their children in the Christian school that functioned as a ministry of the church. Tuition/books came to around $100 per student, per month. College tuition was comparable. A few parents chose to home-school, and though this was frowned upon, it was allowed, but was almost as expensive. Public school was absolutely prohibited for the children of college students or church staff.

It was possible to study part-time at the college, but this practice was touched upon regularly in chapel services as demonstrating a lack of faith, discipline, character, etc. Later on, I learned what pressure the professors were under when it came to enrollment. Their salaries were based upon it, and most of them had to find other jobs in the summer months. This may have contributed to their Spirit-led messages directed at the faithless part-timers.

The God-ordained method of a prioritized budget was taught emphatically from the pulpit and in the classroom:

1. Tithes
2. Offerings
3. College tuition
4. Christian school tuition
5. Bills (utilities, etc.)
6. Food
7. Everything else

So, the first four items in the budget were paid directly to the church (#5 and #6 were also paid to the church by those of us living in the college dormitories – as was required of all non-married students). Failure to pay any of these was tantamount to stealing from God himself and would surely bring retribution; God had plenty of imaginative ways to collect on his debts, as a thorough reading of the Bible will reveal.

Usually, item # 7 was nonexistent; Sometimes, so was item # 6.

It became known that some of the married students had turned to “dumpster-diving” - getting food and other items from trash dumpsters in order to provide for their families. It even became a badge of honor for some of them, and in a sermon to the student body, one commented in a sort of boastful way that he wasn’t too proud to dumpster-dive for Jesus. It seemed to be his way of showing his love for and dedication to God.

Some of the students had started asking store employees for day-old bread or donuts, expired milk or juice, burger patties left over at closing time from fast food restaurants, etc.

But store managers began to worry that this might be abused or exploited, and stopped allowing it. However, they did agree to leave the day-old, expired, or leftover items on top of the dumpsters so that the men wouldn’t have to dig through the garbage for it.

It was a blessing from God, an answer to prayer, an evidence of faith rewarded.

Until the college faculty got wind of it.

The Pastor has carefully cultivated his social/political reputation in the community for years. The city council has named a day in his honor. The church honors police officers every year in a special service. J.C. Watts and other prominent politicians have spoken in the Sunday services (J.C. actually delivered the Sunday sermon – others have typically brought very short addresses).

In those days, The Pastor himself owned a $150,000 + home given to him by the church (not bad for the Midwestern USA in the 80’s), a new Suburban, a high-end fishing boat, an array of expensive guns and fishing equipment, and took regular hunting/fishing trips to Canada, Alaska, and other locations.

It just didn’t look good to have his protégés eating out of dumpsters.

The budget didn’t change. The rules didn’t change. The pressure to study full-time didn’t change. No special offerings were taken to alleviate the situation of the married students. Their tuition wasn’t lowered. No breaks were given.

Rather, yet another problem was resolved by adding a new rule to the already interminable list. The embarrassing solution the married students had found to their dilemma was prohibited.

From now on, the students would have to trust in God rather than garbage.

True Colors Show in the Fall

2005-10-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking all week about Aola's comment on my last post. The leaves' true colors come out in the fall, when the chlorophyl no longer makes them green.

Is that what happens when we grow older? I'm still the little boy hunting snakes and lizards in the woods behind our house, the pothead teenager in the VW van, and the fanatical fundamentalist preacher waving a Bible on a Mexican street corner. The person is the same, but the color is different. I feel for the first time (at least for the first time in many years) that I am, finally, the real me.

Kelly said maybe it's because when we get older we just don't give a damn what people think any more, and we are free to be ourselves.

Why does it always take me a page to say what she says in a sentence?

My New Favorite

2005-10-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

Fall has never been my favorite season. It has always symbolized, for me, the death throes of summer before it is finally overcome by the cold deadness of winter.

Until this year. As a matter of fact, until just a couple of weeks ago. It suddenly hit me that things aren't dying in the fall. In a sense, many things are more alive at fall than any other time, because they are dropping their seeds and reproducing. Yeah, I know this is taught in grade school science class, but it must have just taken awhile for it to sink in.

Part of this new fondness for autumn is my wife: I am so totally and completely bewitched by her that her favorites inevitably become mine. Fall has always been her favorite time of the year.

But there is something more; I'm in the fall of my life, and it is the very best my life has ever been. I happen to have "dropped some seed" in my fall season, as well, to which my little two-year-old daughter is living testimony. True, deep, meaningful life seems to be just beginning for me.

I mentioned this to Kelly today, and she said we are like the mums in our front garden, blooming in the fall.

THOSE FUNDAMENTALIST DING-DONGS!

2005-10-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

Fundamentalists seem to be obsessed with genitalia.

I got an email today from a guy with a biblical dissertation revealing that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was actually…yep, you guessed it: ADAM’S PENIS! I couldn’t swallow it, myself. ;o)

This reminded me of a book I read once, called JESUS CHRIST: THE FORESKIN OF HUMANITY. No, he’s not calling Jesus a dick, he actually means it as a compliment. The guy who loaned me the book thought it was the greatest thing ever. Of course, he’s in prison now for molesting little boys.

The Moravian Brethren, at one point in history, became obsessed with the comparisons between the wound in Jesus’ side and the vagina, and elevated sex into an act of worship.

When living in Mexico City, I once attended a museum exhibit featuring European Instruments of Torture. I was horrified by the priests’ laser focus on vaginas and women’s breasts and anuses in their torture methods.

I know that repressed sexuality will always find an outlet of expression. But the Moravians, at least, don’t seem to have been sexually repressed. They practically worshipped genitals, and sang about sex in their hymns.

I wonder if the answer is that simple.