Added a new countdown to my sidebar

This coming July 14:

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How Income Inequality Destroys Societies

Posted by JacobSloan on October 26, 2011

“I think the intuition that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive has been around since before the French Revolution. What’s changed is we now can look at the evidence, we can compare societies and see what inequality does.”

British researcher Richard Wilkinson charts the data to show convincingly that in developed countries, everything from health and lifespan to levels of violence, literacy, mental illness, and substance addiction — even school bullying and basic values such as trust — is strongly tied to income equality, and not tied to “prosperity”:

Dirty Old Town, by its original author, Ewan MacColl

with Peggy Seeger (Pete’s wife), and the original lyrics written below:

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed a girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Clouds a drifting across the moon
Cats a prowling on their beat
Spring’s a girl in the street at night
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Heard a siren from the docks
Saw a train set the night on fire
Smelled the spring on the Salford wind
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

I’m going to make me a good sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
Will chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Gin Blossoms

Follow You Down

Did you see the sky
I think it means that we’ve been lost
Maybe one less time is all we need
I can’t really help it if my tongue’s all tied in knots
Jumping off a bridge, it’s just the farthest that I’ve ever been
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
Anyplace but those I know by heart
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
I’ll follow you down, but not that far
I know we’re headed somewhere, I can see how far we’ve come
But still I can’t remember anything
Let’s not do the wrong thing and I’ll swear it might be fun
It’s a long way down when all the knots we’ve tied have come undone
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
Anyplace but those I know by heart
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
I’ll follow you down, but not that far
How you gonna ever find your place
Running in an artificial pace
Are they gonna find us lying face down in the sand
So what the hell now, we’ve already been forever damned
Anywhere you go I’ll follow you down…

Your position in life is ONLY based upon your decisions:

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Great message!

10 Things You Can’t SAY While Following Jesus

If any list has been overdone in the Christian blogging world, it’s this list.

Just about every Christian blogger has done one, and if they haven’t, they’ve thought about it and then thought better of it – because just about every Christian blogger has done one. (See what I did there?)

And yet, here we are.

You. Me. And my list of things Christians shouldn’t say. Hmmmm – must be God’s will. (And I just realized this list should have had 11 things on it. Oh, well. I have no doubt that it’s on one of the lists out there!)

Before starting my list, the editors in my head need me to say a few things, i.e., the requisite disclaimers. I do not consider this to be an exhaustive list. It’s just the list of sayings I most want to talk about right now. Also, as I’ve explained in other posts, in this “10 Things You Can’t Do While Following Jesus” series, I’m not saying that people who follow Jesus don’t do these things; I’m saying that you can’t say you are following Jesus’ example when you do them. Finally, specific to this list, I think people who say these things are mostly trying to be kind, grateful, and even humble when they say some of them. But if we really do want to be kind, grateful, and humble we need to think about these sayings a little more – and then stop saying them.

10) Everything happens for a reason.

Implied in this is a very specific understanding of how God interacts with the world. Specifically, it says God directs all things. So, mass murders? God had a reason for that senseless act of violence. Stubbing your toe on the door frame? I guess God wanted to smite your toe.

This way of seeing God turns us all into puppets — God’s little play things who really have no freewill. Do you truly think a god needs toys? If so, do you really think we’re the best toys God could make to play with?

9) God needed another angel.

God loves you. God loves your loved ones. God is coming for your loved ones.

You think it hurt when God smote your toe? Just wait ’til God rips out your heart. But it’s OK. They needed another angel in heaven.

See? All better!

Really? No, of course not. Now that you understand what you are saying, can we just stop it?

8) God never gives us more than we can handle.

Ever tried saying this to a person contemplating suicide? No? Well, of course not.

Why? Because it is just wrong.

It’s wrong for the reason that #10 is wrong and it’s wrong because factual circumstances of living prove that sometimes this life does bring with it more than we can handle.

7) But for the grace of God, there go I.

Think about that for just a minute.

How about walking in the shoes you’re grateful not to be in for just a minute? Are they where they are because they lack the grace of God that others receive?

Does God pick and choose whom grace lands upon, intentionally withholding it from some people?

I know that people who say this don’t mean it that way, but that is what they are saying – even if indirectly. Feel free to be thankful for where you are but let’s stop heaping coals on other people’s shoulders – even if unintentionally.

6) I must be living right.

Have you ever been riding in a car when the driver pulls into a parking space right in front of the store and proclaims, “I must be living right!”?

Sure, they are half joking but keep in mind it’s only half joking. Statements like this have their roots in that nasty “everything happens for a reason” thinking.

These are the same folks who ask God to help them win sporting events. I hate to burst the bubble, but God doesn’t care which team wins or how close to the store entrance you get to park your car.

Plus, go back to #7. When you say things like this, what are you saying about the folks who had to park in that very last spot next to the shopping cart return where the car doors get all dinged up? And for that matter, if you are “living right,” why didn’t you take that spot and leave the one up front for someone else?

5) Love the sinner, hate the sin.

The problem I have with this one is the comma. It should be a period.

After further thought, I have a problem with the comma, everything that comes after it and “the sinner.”

Who am I (and who are you) to be deciding for someone else what is getting between them and God? I’m all for doing it in regard to our own lives but in someone else’s life? Hands off. Who do we think we are? God?

Now that I think about it, the problem I have with this one is that there’s not a period after love.

Love. Period.

4) It’s okay to judge.

Recently, there has been a rash of Christian bloggers defending their right to judge. I guess it’s a thing. All the cool bloggers are doing it.

I love being cool. And apparently it’s cool to judge others. So, let me judge them for trying to justify judging others. Don’t worry though – I’m loving the sinner, hating the sin when I do it. So, it’s OK. Right?

Oh, give me just a minute though. It turns out I’ve got a log in my eye. I’ll need to take care of that first.

3) Because the Bible tells me so (or “it’s in the Bible”).

The King James Bible tells me there are unicorns – 9 times.

I’m sorry, I got distracted. What was it you were telling me about using the Bible to prove a fact?

2) Have you heard about Jesus?

Seriously?

1) There are no atheists in a foxhole.

Really? There are atheists in church and you honestly think there are no atheists in foxholes?

Look, I get that the point is supposed to be that when faced with death we all turn to God. However, not only is that simply not true for everyone when faced with death, it is really bad logic.

Let me demonstrate.

When faced with death in a foxhole – grenade flying overhead and limbs being blown off the person next to me –I am likely to soil my britches. It does not follow that I should always soil my britches.

In foxholes there are a whole bunch of people trying to stay alive and they pretty much don’t care what the other person believes about God. They just want to stay alive … and possibly a clean pair of britches. (See what I did there?)