WWJD??

There is a reason I don't attend church any more. I feel somewhere along the way Christianity in this country has taken a serious wrong turn...in more ways than one.  But I'm only going to focus on one in this post.

I understand Christians are supposed to share their faith with others.  I'm ok with that.  But let's take a look at what it means to share.  According to the dictionary Share means "to talk about one's thoughts, feelings, or experiences with others". I'm ok with that too. Obviously I like sharing my thoughts, feelings and experiences with others, otherwise I wouldn't blog! Somehow that definition has been forgotten by a segment of Christians...the ones I call the Vocal Minority (VM). The VM has lost sight of a few simple truths.


1. You are to love your neighbour as yourself.  In other words hate and intolerance have no place in a Christian's world
2. It's not your place or job to judge anyone else. Worry about your own house.
3. Only those who have never sinned can point fingers at others.
4. You're supposed to act as close to the way Jesus acted as humanly possible.  You know, the same man who made friends with prostitutes, criminals, cheats and liars. 


Instead, the VM have taken a stance that they hold a monopoly on what is right and moral and they firmly believe everyone must be forced to follow their particular interpretation.  Beliefs, religion or morals are not things you can, or should, force on anyone.  No one has the right to do that. Period. Bottom line. I don't care how right you believe your religion is.  Which leads me to probably the most important truth the VM have forgotten.


Jesus never tried to legislate his teachings.


So what would Jesus do today? I don't know. But I'm pretty sure he'd not be a part of the VM.

Financial Genius

Let's face it, budgets are pretty boring unless you're an accountant....or obsessed with debt-free living like me.  There's one part of Obama's proposed budget though that I find amusing...in that scary 'the government is about to screw us again' way.

Obama wants to put $230 billion towards highways.  I think we can all get behind some highway improvements, yes?  Of course, the next question is how are we going to come up with $230 billion dollars.  We're already in the red (for those in Congress who might be reading this, that means we spend more than we make.....pretty sure you didn't know that).  No worries though, Obama has it figured out!  The way he figures it, ending the wars will save $850 billion...pulling $230 billion out of that should be simple, right?

*blink*

Ummmmm.....I see one tiny little flaw in this logic.  The money we used to pay for the wars was BORROWED!!!!  We never had $850 billion to begin with.  Just because you stop writing bad checks doesn't mean you magically have all that money you wrote bad checks for in the past.

To put it another way, let's say you took out $100K in loans to go to college.  Once you graduate and leave college you say whew, since I'm saving $100K now because I've ended college.  I can afford to use part of that to go buy a $50K car.  HELLO!  You don't have $100K in your pocket.  You don't even have $50K.  You aren't 'saving' $100k now that you're done going to college.  YOU'RE IN DEBT!! 

For you math types out there I'll illustrate it this way....$0 + (-$850) = -$850.  See, it doesn't even require finding 'x'.

So how come our government has such a difficult time with basic math?  BTW....this isn't just a problem with one party.  Apparently neither party has basic math skills.  Maybe we should pass a new law....No Congressman Left Behind......

Seeing the other side

This is going to be about a place that holds a special place in my heart; a place that is more than what the public sees...or what the press chooses to show.  I'm talking about Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I hate how Gitmo is seen as some horrible, evil place that should be torn down, destroyed, gotten rid of.  I understand the general public's perception of Gitmo is based on what the Press says. But really, come on. Is there anyone still who believes what they hear from the Press has ANYTHING to do with journalism or fair and balanced reporting?

See, I've lived in Gitmo so I know how the Press is sensationalizing and only telling about one tiny part of Gitmo. So let me tell you about the Gitmo I know.

Gitmo is a tiny little city. It generates its own power, purifies its own water, makes its own dairy products (or it did when I lived there). When I lived there it had one traffic light and the 'special' treat we had was a Baskin and Robbins!! Gitmo is where I graduated from high school along with another 31 students that year. Its where I learned to play the bassoon which gave me the opportunity to play with the Guam Symphony later. Gitmo is where I fell in love for the first time. My father received his commission there. I will never forget the image of him there in his officer's uniform. Gitmo is a training base for the Navy so our sailors are better prepared to do their jobs on ship. Gitmo was barrel boating with friends and swimming in the bay, huge Fourth of July fireworks shows and out of date movies at outdoor theatres. It was a sense of history, seeing it first hand. Gitmo is my Senior Prom...flu and all. It is a smiley face flag flying at the Post Office on days mail is flown in. Gitmo is a sense of community, of belonging to a group of people who lived somewhere unique, who share an experience, who's lives are forever linked. Gitmo is everyday people, living everyday lives under the continual eye of a Communist dictator, listening to Communist propaganda blare for hours on end from loud speakers set in the side of the mountain. It is Cuban exiles living on base and Jamaican beef pies. Gitmo is wonderful memories of fun times and fascinating people.

There is more to Gitmo than prisoners, detention camps and torture. In fact, those things are only the tiniest part of what Gitmo is and has been for the last 40 years. It doesn't deserve to be judged solely on one small slice of time in its life anymore than we deserve to be solely judged on one incident in our lives. Hopefully people can start to see the other side of Gitmo.

Higher Standards

So a few days ago I asked if you felt people running for office should be held to a higher standard than the general public.  I also asked how much weight do you give accusations of past wrong doings when choosing a candidate to support.  Thank you all for your responses.  I love hearing what others' think.  And, it's only fair I share my views.

When people tell me political candidates and elected officials should be held to a higher standard my question always is 'higher than what?'. You're standards are probably different than mine.  Doesn't make one set of standards are better than another.....just means they're different.  So who exactly gets to decide what set of standards are the one politicians should be held to?  And if I think they should be held to higher standards then am I saying my own standards are low?  Personally I believe my standards are pretty high.  So in answer to my question, no, I don't believe politicians should be held to a higher standard.  I think they should be held to the same standards as the people who elected them.  After all, they were supposedly elected to represent us......a government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people.

As for past wrong doings, I'm pretty much in the same mind as most....depends on the wrong doing AND on if anyone can ever offer more than accusations.  I tend to be rather suspicious about accusations that suddenly spring up when a candidate becomes popular or a threat to the other candidates.  Truth is though, I'm not perfect.  I made mistakes in my past.  It would be rather hypocritical of me to expect anyone else to have a pristine past.

Entitlement

When did the "American Dream" become a bad thing?  When did hard work and succeeding in life become something only 1% of the population did?

Quite frankly I'm tired of the whole sense of entitlement Americans seem to feel these days.  They want what the "1%" have but they don't want to do the work to get it.  They have some twisted idea that it should just be handed to them; that they 'deserve' it simply because they want it.  Well I hate to pop your balloon but guess what, that's bullshit!

Let's clear up some things.
1. The government owes you nothing beyond protecting your right to life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness.  Please note there is no guarantee you will ever achieve any of those things.  That's up to you.
2. Corporate America owes you nothing beyond providing you whatever item or service you paid them for and a paycheck if you work for them.
3. The rich owe you nothing.  They have what they have because most of them worked hard for it.  If you want what they have then work for it too.
4. Life isn't fair.  I know mommy and daddy taught you everyone is a winner, no one loses.  That wasn't true when you were 6 and it still isn't true at 26, 36 or 46.  The simple truth is not everyone wins, sometimes you lose.  Harsh but simple fact of life.  Suck it up and deal with it.

Now that we've cleared those things up let's get a grip on some reality.  Being rich and successful is not an evil thing.  In fact, it's what I want to be one day and I'm working to make that happen.  It isn't going to just happen though.  It's not going to happen if I spend my time standing around whining and wailing about how unfair it is some people have more money than me.  It's not going to happen if, instead of getting a job and working, I choose to spend my days doing nothing that is going to directly improve my chances.  It's not going to happen if I decide to make poor choices and get myself in debt simply because I feel I deserve all the latest toys even if I don't have the money to pay for them.

Bottom line, if you want to change your life then get out and make it happen.  Don't stand around and expect others to do it for you.  There's nothing wrong with going after the American Dream.

Our "Christian" Founding Fathers

Let me make this clear up-front, I am a Christian.  That's a statement however that has no one single meaning. So here's what it means to me.

1. I believe in the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God.
2. I believe Jesus Christ is his son, born of a virgin.
3. I believe Christ was crucified, died, was buried and rose again three days later as the ultimate sacrifice for me.
4. I believe in the Trinity of God, Son and Holy Spirit.
5. I believe baptism is to be by immersion. I do NOT believe someone won't go to Heaven if they aren't baptized.
6. I believe communion is to be served every church service and should be open to any who wish to partake.
7. I believe once in grace always in grace.
8. I believe each person's salvation is a matter solely between them and God. Just because you have determined something is a sin for you does not automatically make it a sin for me.

Now, all that being said, I was also raised to question everything in regards to religion. Never take anyone else's word for what the Bible says or what it means, not even the minister's. And I don't. So blind and mindless belief bugs the hell out of me. It also really bothers me when people twist history to support their position, especially when they try to twist it to support their religious position in an effort to push legislation of their particular religious view.

At this time of year I hear a lot of wonderful patriotic talk, which is a good thing. But I also hear lots of comments about our great Christian founding fathers and how our country was founded on Christian principles. This is when I start to get twitchy. This is one of those things that I feel falls in to the category of “you heard it all your life and never stopped to question it”. Well, I did. Based on their writings and the vocabulary used very few of our founding fathers were actually Christians in the sense that we define that today. For a few examples let's look at Washington, John Adams, Sam Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Franklin and Paine.

• Neither Jefferson, Franklin or Paine believed in the resurrection or the divinity of Christ..
• Of the eight only one, Sam Adams, professed to a belief in the Trinity.
• The two Adams' are the only ones who claim a belief in the Biblical miracles.
• None were ever noted to take communion, nor be confirmed in the churches they attended. Though they all did attend church with the exception of Paine.

The truth is most of them were Deists and, well, the fact is while all Christians are Deists, not all Deists are Christians. Quite a few were Masons which also holds a Deist belief system. So, while our founding fathers did seem to all believe in some form of higher power, it can't really be said with any accuracy that they were Christians.

Then there are those who gloss over this after it's pointed out to them with the “well our country is founded on Christian principles”. Eh, that's a weak one in my opinion. Our country was founded on moral principles, the same ones found in Christianity. However, Christians don't hold a monopoly or moralism. Any number of other belief systems hold to the same moral values as Christianity. So it is just as possible for someone of another belief to say our country was founded on their religious belief system.

There's nothing wrong with having religious beliefs. I have very strong religious beliefs. The problem comes in when people just accept a belief as true because other people have said so. There is nothing holy or righteous about blindly following the words of another human.

Time to let this "reason" go

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on THIS particular argument.....Kelsey Grammer can end a 15 yr marriage by phone, Larry King is on divorce #9, Britney Spears had a 55 hr marriage, Jesse James & Tiger Woods, while married, were having sex with EVERYONE, 53% of Americans get divorced and 30-60% cheat on their spouses.

Yeah, clearly same-sex marriage is going to be what destroys the institution of marriage.