Amen!

                
John 1:3-4
      3 πάντα  δι’  αὐτοῦ  ἐγένετο,  καὶ  χωρὶς  αὐτοῦ  ἐγένετο  οὐδὲ  ἕν  ὃ  γέγονεν.  

4 ἐν  αὐτῷ ζωὴ  ἦν,  καὶ  ἡ  ζωὴ  ἦν  τὸ  φῶς  τῶν  ἀνθρώπων.

3. Through him, all things were made, and without him, not a thing came into being.

4. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 

"...for if there is to be talk of God in a sense meaningful to men, there must also be at this point talk of the world, as the sphere in which men find themselves." 

-Rudolf Bultmann 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

(Translation by yours truly) 

New Atheism and Its Entailments

Some of you may know, or have suspected, that I am not an atheist.  I am a Christian. As a Christian, I have struggled with notions, and questions of God, justice, and other similar things. As a student, I have also been challenged regarding interpretations of Christian texts that I have just assumed to be correct. Imperialistic, and capitalistic readings have been central to my understanding of the Bible for most of my life; that, however, has changed. Oddly enough, there are imperial interpretations of religious phenomena with the "New Atheist". The article below is brilliant. It seems as though the left is removing itself from new atheism, and is taking a more central approach to religion. The author really puts the American terrorist from North Carolina into context. It seems as though violence is only justifiable with fundamentalism, both religious and secular. Give it a read!!!


https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/12/new-atheism-old-empire/

My Prayer Borrowed from Luke

 Ὁ Θεός,  εὐχαριστῶ  σοι  ὅτι  οὐκ  εἰμὶ  ὥσπερ  οἱ  λοιποὶ  τῶν  ἀνθρώπων,  ἅρπαγες,  ἄδικοι,  μοιχοί,  ἢ καὶ  ὡς  οὗτος  ὁ  τελώνης·  12 νηστεύω  δὶς  τοῦ  σαββάτου,  ἀποδεκατῶ*  πάντα  ὅσα  κτῶμαι.

"God, I thank you, for I am not as the other men, swindlers, unrighteous, adulterers, or even as this tax collector; I fast twice a week, I tithe all things, as much as I get."
Amen.
A quick translation, and short prayer to inspire my reader(s).

Tax Breaks for the Rich

GOP tax breaks will benefit the likes of Conrad Hilton. This degenerate has spoken volumes about the (watch-out! Here it comes!) income inequality from which this county suffers. Read the Washington Post article, and think of the disconnect he has with most of society. Of course, not all rich are like this, but entitlement isn't for the "lazy" that "live it large" off of welfare, or those "benefit-grabbing illegals"; it's a disease that makes all levels of society reek of rotting insatiable flesh.  

Jesus had two kids, one wife, sedan, mortgage and a receding hairline.

Over the weekend, I had two discussions on conspiracies, and things of that nature. One, the first one, was just a quick negating of them, by me, and another person, seemingly, looking at my naivety, because I lack experience. I, of course, believe I lack evidence, and the arguments lack reason, but that might be my next post. Along those lines, which are unconnected (parallels are not connections), we have the same type of reasoning in the latest 'breakthrough discovery' about Jesus. He was married, and had two kids. Granted, this was not how I expected Jesus to be, but there are parallels that 'prove' that I'm wrong. Whilst I needed connections, 'scholars' need similarities (please note, the claims are not by scholars! I respect scholarship, not pseudo-scholars.) Candida Moss, as usual, writes a clever review of the 'theory' behind it, and I will post a part of her response, "Jesus Christ, Baby Daddy?". The title alone attracted me to the article, and Moss' name makes it worth anyone's time.
Here's a bit:
"...The manuscript is attributed to the Christian writer Zacharias Rhetor and, according to Jacobovici and Wilson, it preserves the untold love story between Jesus and Mary and the shocking revelation that they had two children.

Not mentioned: whether Jesus took out the trash or Mary Magdalene stopped making an effort after the second kid was born and Jesus started spending all his time with his guy friends.

We, of course, hear nothing about Jesus’s offspring in the Bible. There’s a line of rice farmers in Japan who claim to be direct descendants of Jesus (irony alert: they’re Buddhists). And there are at least 40 million copies of a book claiming that Jesus’s great-to-the-power-of-n-granddaughter is a cryptographer in Paris. But other than that, we know nothing about this line of potential demigods. Perhaps they turned out to be deadbeats. It’s a tough act to follow, and not everyone wants to go into the family business. Maybe Grandpa spoiled them. Maybe Jesus—who refuses to acknowledge his mother and brothers as real family in Mark 3—wasn’t going to take responsibility without a DNA test and Maury Povich-style reveal. We can only assume that they’re great at feeding the masses at Thanksgiving and can ice-skate outside year ’round, even in California.

There’s just one small problem with the Jacobovici-Wilson theory. Jesus and Mary are nowhere mentioned in the manuscript. It’s one version of a well-known ancient novel called Joseph and Aseneth, which discusses the life and times of the biblical patriarch Joseph (of technicolor-dreamcoat fame) and his relationship with Aseneth, the Egyptian woman he marries in Genesis 41:45.

Not to be a killjoy fact-checker, but this does seem like an important detail to get right. ...."

Read the rest here!

Thank you, Vets.

Veterans, thank you! You have seen the horrid vileness of war. While we sit here comfortably romanticizing it, having disdain for it, benefiting from it, or worrying about it, you were living it. Thank you for that. Though some might disagree, and some will likely be veterans, I think war hurts everyone, except some corporations, at least superficially they don't get hurt. I may not be a fan of war, expansionism or our imperialistic tendency, but I do respect veterans. They fought bravely, and suffer from it. None of us should be ungrateful. War may be one of the worst things in humanity, but there is hope:
Isaiah Two, Verse Four, or Micah Four, Verse Three.
"He will settle disputes among the nations
and provide arbitration for many peoples.They will turn their swords into plowsand their spears into pruning knives.Nations will not take up the sword against other nations,and they will never again train for war."
This is one of my favorite scriptures, and we, as Christians, have hope! 
Vets, thank you! Despite that wretched lot you were given, it will not always be like that. There will be a change, when Jesus returns.
-Steven C.

Gah!

The names and photos have been blurred to protect the ignorant. 

Firstly, what idiocy! This is a conversation among two "conservatives", or just republicans. You read the infuriatingly  stupid rhetoric, and that's how you know they're stupid. The undocumented can't vote, hence they don't. Only citizens get "handouts", hence they would be more likely to vote democrat, if that's what the purpose of voting democrat is. Supposing voting democrat is for want of "handouts" is as silly as supposing voting republican is so benefits can be removed. Also, politics are far more complex than receiving and not receiving, but what would we know as Californians, we never had Rick Perry. Lastly, these halfwits work on little to no sample sizes, have no evidence, but still claim that others "never learn". Hah! Well, maybe I should take back my previous post about voting. Maybe some people shouldn't vote.