Thursday, March 30, 2006
The News of the Week
Illegal Immigration--From this side of the water
From that side to this side (a matter of perspective)
Tragic Sex Abuse Scandal
Gun Control Gone Wrong: Agents Secretly Trafficking the Guns(in Portuguese)
Gun Control Gone Wrong: Good Guys Get Shot
Hostage Released Safe and Sound
Thought Provoking Editorial of Christians and Politics
I Had Class and Clouds, but the Pictures of the eclipse are great
Isreal's New Gov't Gets the Shaft and Isreal's New Government
Drunk Redneck Gearheads Use Profanity: Is This News?
Finally, The Final Four Preview
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
One Generation Later
After God expelled Adam, Eve, and the Serpent from the garden, life was much different. Just as God promised, they had to work much harder and endure much pain to sustain their lives on earth. Immediately, the decay of sin began to take effect.
Eve, however, kept the faith in God's promise believing that her sons were a sign that God was going to keep His promise through her seed. There is nothing deep or mystical about women and babies here, just a clear promise of God. Eve trusted and looked for that promised One who would deliver from the curse of sin.
I should not be too bragadocious (if that's a word) on Christian teaching, but this fundamental result of sin is perhaps the most well established scientific fact (simply that as time goes forward, things get more disorganized). Chew on that idea for a while: things are in a constant state of change and increasing confusion. This is the opposite of the idea that evolution brings to the table (to be fair, some evolutionists do recognize the weakness of their theory in this respect). However, the Bible is very clear on one thing: things get worse under the influence of sin. Complexity comes and goes, but the degeneration of creation remains.
It is only plausible then that one generation after the Fall of Man, the generation after would degenerate. It did. Here we are in the Twenty-First Century saying things like "We will never go back to doing this or that" (usually a reference to some great historical atrocity or abuse of power). Adam and Eve ate a piece of fruit. Cain MURDERED his very own brother. He did it over something sentimental. "Oh, God is happier with you than me, eh? I'll show you happy!" How bad is sin? It is so bad that the very worse is predictable in every life of every sinner. This is serious business.
One generation from now, I do not know what will happen. I do know this, that sin is so bad, that right now as I am typing about God's Word I am capable of doing the very worst because of sin. Please feel the tension of this passage. I hold no great hope for the development of a better society as long as sinners rule, myself included. Sin is so bad that Cain, who knew nothing of violence, had no violent movies, music, or video games murdered his own brother. We too are sinners. We have the same capacity and the same problem. We too stand in God's judgment, not just in the next generation but also in the present generation., right now.
Eve, however, kept the faith in God's promise believing that her sons were a sign that God was going to keep His promise through her seed. There is nothing deep or mystical about women and babies here, just a clear promise of God. Eve trusted and looked for that promised One who would deliver from the curse of sin.
I should not be too bragadocious (if that's a word) on Christian teaching, but this fundamental result of sin is perhaps the most well established scientific fact (simply that as time goes forward, things get more disorganized). Chew on that idea for a while: things are in a constant state of change and increasing confusion. This is the opposite of the idea that evolution brings to the table (to be fair, some evolutionists do recognize the weakness of their theory in this respect). However, the Bible is very clear on one thing: things get worse under the influence of sin. Complexity comes and goes, but the degeneration of creation remains.
It is only plausible then that one generation after the Fall of Man, the generation after would degenerate. It did. Here we are in the Twenty-First Century saying things like "We will never go back to doing this or that" (usually a reference to some great historical atrocity or abuse of power). Adam and Eve ate a piece of fruit. Cain MURDERED his very own brother. He did it over something sentimental. "Oh, God is happier with you than me, eh? I'll show you happy!" How bad is sin? It is so bad that the very worse is predictable in every life of every sinner. This is serious business.
One generation from now, I do not know what will happen. I do know this, that sin is so bad, that right now as I am typing about God's Word I am capable of doing the very worst because of sin. Please feel the tension of this passage. I hold no great hope for the development of a better society as long as sinners rule, myself included. Sin is so bad that Cain, who knew nothing of violence, had no violent movies, music, or video games murdered his own brother. We too are sinners. We have the same capacity and the same problem. We too stand in God's judgment, not just in the next generation but also in the present generation., right now.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Congratulations Walter E. Williams
Dick Vitale loves to say give the little guy a chance. This year the little guy took the chance and turned it into a Final Four appearance. George Mason University is a little school with a lot of pride. Since I cannot cheer for Kansas or any Big Twelve team, I will root for the little guy.
Walter E. Williams is a little guy with big brains that teaches at
George Mason University. I have enjoyed every opportunity to hear him speak (he's from the economics department). I have only been able to take his courses on line, because George Mason does not admit people of my skin color (white).
I give congratulations to him for the Cinderella story of the year, though I know he had nothing to do with the winning. My bigger congratulations are for his skill in teaching economics. I have been thinking a lot lately about the problem of poverty. I receive messages regularly through the news, politicians, friends, etc. stating that disparity of wages is increasing and that this situation needs to be fixed.
I come from a country that has the richest man in the world (Bill Gates) and the largest gap between the rich and the poor. What is even more telling is the gap between America's poor and the poor in parts of Africa and Asia. Those people cannot read, have no clean water, live in makeshift shacks, often starve, and live in the most horrible conditions imaginable. The American poor have food, water, shelter, schooling, telephones, some even have televisions, cars, and cable TV.
What really bothers me is that the statistics about gaps between poor and rich are always presented in a framework of envy and penalization for the successful. The idea is that Bill Gates owes me because I he is rich and I am not. In an old radio drama-sitcom called "Duffy's Tavern" the manager Archie bet on a horse that died before he could cross the finish line. He was depressed over this until he heard that Duffy the owner had bet on the same horse. This made him joyful and happy.
Is that what makes people happy in life? "Don't better my situation, just make that rich guy suffer a little"?
I would like to see an end to poverty. I think that any solution involving stealing from the rich to give to the poor is wrong. This is fundamentally why the liberals can never convince me to join a redistributionist model. Rather than investing their funds in enriching the lives of the poor, they build a state run Robin Hood to rob from others, justifiable because they "pay their fair share" (skepticism, skepticism). If the gap is such a big injustice, then sell all you have and give the money to the poor. Live the rest of your life directly sending all your personal profits into good charities.
The problem of the framework of these gap statistics is even more compounded because they come from a centralized ideal of a unified society. This is even more tragic. I really get physically sick when I hear the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." The fact is that this is a lie and a self contradiction. "Whole" and "sum" are by definition the "sum of its parts," and not greater or lesser than such. Society never exists without first having individuals. Compounding this problem of society is the fact that the individuals within society disagree on the nature of society. This is obviously a greater philosophical problem, but consider the issue of poverty in light of this. If society cannot agree nor unite on the issue of poverty without trampling on the rights of another part of society, then it is best left alone. In the case of poverty, we see the great societies of the past only slowing and hurting the economy. In the end the poor suffer more than they would have had they not united to steal from the rich "legally." I want to live in a world where starving people are fed and where poor people receive a better life. I think that we as individuals will have a greater impact on the problem of poverty if we take the responsibility on our own shoulders and generously deal with it from our own bank accounts.
Walter E. Williams is a little guy with big brains that teaches at
George Mason University. I have enjoyed every opportunity to hear him speak (he's from the economics department). I have only been able to take his courses on line, because George Mason does not admit people of my skin color (white).
I give congratulations to him for the Cinderella story of the year, though I know he had nothing to do with the winning. My bigger congratulations are for his skill in teaching economics. I have been thinking a lot lately about the problem of poverty. I receive messages regularly through the news, politicians, friends, etc. stating that disparity of wages is increasing and that this situation needs to be fixed.
I come from a country that has the richest man in the world (Bill Gates) and the largest gap between the rich and the poor. What is even more telling is the gap between America's poor and the poor in parts of Africa and Asia. Those people cannot read, have no clean water, live in makeshift shacks, often starve, and live in the most horrible conditions imaginable. The American poor have food, water, shelter, schooling, telephones, some even have televisions, cars, and cable TV.
What really bothers me is that the statistics about gaps between poor and rich are always presented in a framework of envy and penalization for the successful. The idea is that Bill Gates owes me because I he is rich and I am not. In an old radio drama-sitcom called "Duffy's Tavern" the manager Archie bet on a horse that died before he could cross the finish line. He was depressed over this until he heard that Duffy the owner had bet on the same horse. This made him joyful and happy.
Is that what makes people happy in life? "Don't better my situation, just make that rich guy suffer a little"?
I would like to see an end to poverty. I think that any solution involving stealing from the rich to give to the poor is wrong. This is fundamentally why the liberals can never convince me to join a redistributionist model. Rather than investing their funds in enriching the lives of the poor, they build a state run Robin Hood to rob from others, justifiable because they "pay their fair share" (skepticism, skepticism). If the gap is such a big injustice, then sell all you have and give the money to the poor. Live the rest of your life directly sending all your personal profits into good charities.
The problem of the framework of these gap statistics is even more compounded because they come from a centralized ideal of a unified society. This is even more tragic. I really get physically sick when I hear the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." The fact is that this is a lie and a self contradiction. "Whole" and "sum" are by definition the "sum of its parts," and not greater or lesser than such. Society never exists without first having individuals. Compounding this problem of society is the fact that the individuals within society disagree on the nature of society. This is obviously a greater philosophical problem, but consider the issue of poverty in light of this. If society cannot agree nor unite on the issue of poverty without trampling on the rights of another part of society, then it is best left alone. In the case of poverty, we see the great societies of the past only slowing and hurting the economy. In the end the poor suffer more than they would have had they not united to steal from the rich "legally." I want to live in a world where starving people are fed and where poor people receive a better life. I think that we as individuals will have a greater impact on the problem of poverty if we take the responsibility on our own shoulders and generously deal with it from our own bank accounts.
Monday, March 27, 2006
The River is Up
There was a little flood trouble this weekend as the rains in the area extended into the weekend, but nothing serious.
I had a double experience this weekend, half good, half bad. I was asked to pray in the church service, and I did without too much difficulty. One of the young people afterward apologized for speaking to me in English, after realizing that I could understand him well in Portuguese. Of course, I still have a little swelling in my head as a result of this. However, that afternoon, one of my apartment colleagues (Portuguese) asked me if he could borrow my cereal bowl. I had no idea what he was talking about. He had to point to it because I was so hopeless to understand what he was saying. He then commented that he had heard me speak Portuguese and thought I knew it. He did not understand why I would not know such a basic word. Ouch. I also was told a Portuguese joke that only works in Portuguese. I understood all the words, but I did not get the joke. It was another humbling reminder that I may be able to say "Heavenly Father we pray that you would give us the grace to worship You in a manner worthy of your glory." I still have a lot of things to learn. This too is a form of worship as I prepare for cross cultural ministry.
Please pray that I would continue to learn.
Please pray for the Rodgers, who are getting ready to move to Mozambique. They have been a great help in getting me here, finding an apartment, and many other things. Pray that the transition would go as smooth as possible.
Please pray for the families in Mozambique studying languages harder than Portuguese that they would succeed by God's grace.
I had a double experience this weekend, half good, half bad. I was asked to pray in the church service, and I did without too much difficulty. One of the young people afterward apologized for speaking to me in English, after realizing that I could understand him well in Portuguese. Of course, I still have a little swelling in my head as a result of this. However, that afternoon, one of my apartment colleagues (Portuguese) asked me if he could borrow my cereal bowl. I had no idea what he was talking about. He had to point to it because I was so hopeless to understand what he was saying. He then commented that he had heard me speak Portuguese and thought I knew it. He did not understand why I would not know such a basic word. Ouch. I also was told a Portuguese joke that only works in Portuguese. I understood all the words, but I did not get the joke. It was another humbling reminder that I may be able to say "Heavenly Father we pray that you would give us the grace to worship You in a manner worthy of your glory." I still have a lot of things to learn. This too is a form of worship as I prepare for cross cultural ministry.
Please pray that I would continue to learn.
Please pray for the Rodgers, who are getting ready to move to Mozambique. They have been a great help in getting me here, finding an apartment, and many other things. Pray that the transition would go as smooth as possible.
Please pray for the families in Mozambique studying languages harder than Portuguese that they would succeed by God's grace.
