05.23.10
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations at 6:12 pm by Administrator
People never cease to amaze me. Life, it seems, really is a struggle between good and evil. The trick these days is being able to identify which is good and which is evil. Our news outlets, be it with misinformation or lack of information, makes that task difficult at times. But since the Bible tells us that there’s no law against love and that it is the first and foremost commandment, and that we are nothing without love, then I would assume that charities and humanitarian aid to the needy is a good thing. So I’m kinda excited about the news that the Freedom Flotilla has finally hit the seas after years of planning.
Only a few more days and the Freedom Flotilla should be arriving at Gaza. The convoy of nine ships, both cargo and passenger ships is from the UK, Ireland, Algeria, Kuwait, Greece and Turkey, and is comprised of 800 people from 50 nationalities. They are carrying humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza in hopes of helping the Gazans as well as breaking the almost three year long siege. In response to their efforts, Israelis have claimed that they will dispatch two boats to coastal areas around Gaza in order to prevent a convoy as they claim that this “aid” is against Israeli law.
Israel claims that they are concerned that the aid could fall into the hands of Hamas, but some of the items listed as “banned” for entry are things like crayons, nuts, fabric, many building materials such as cement and wood, plus water purifiers, generators, and other necessities for rebuilding the damaged neighborhoods in Gaza. Sure Hamas might get a hold of some of those items, but they are necessary for the civilians, too, especially the crayons. . . No doubt this type of ban would severely affect the normal lives of civilians since it would make it extremely difficult to rebuild their damaged city. I believe there are about 2000 items on the banned list. Here’s a small YouTube clip that lists a few more of the items on the banned list.
And here’s a short clip of the Rachel Corrie (one of the ships in the flotilla named after the U.S. gal who was run over and killed with a bulldozer as she tried to help protect/save a Palestinian home), which left around the 14th of May from Ireland and shows more of the humanitarian supplies they are carrying to Gaza.
I’m hoping that all works out well, and hope that there won’t be any harm done as a result of the “standoff” these people are likely to face with the Israeli Navy and Israeli protesters. According to this article titled, Israel’ navy will have it’s work cut out, this flotilla is taking along two months supply of food for everyone on board in case it takes that long to get the supplies in to Gaza. They are anticipating they might meet resistance before they can deliver their goods. They are also hoping for more international recognition, so hopefully that will make their plight safer and successful. Now let’s see if our mainstream media even bothers to give them any air time.
Marlakins
Permalink
05.07.10
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, quotes at 4:37 pm by Administrator
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
–Paul the Apostle, Galatians 5:22-23
Permalink
04.27.10
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Playing the Tourist, knitting and crocheting at 12:13 pm by Administrator
Some people like to accuse Christians of disregarding the earth because of what they “think” is taught in Genesis 1:28.
28“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
It’s the word “dominion” that they like to run with. And in reality, I can see why some people run with that word because I have seen it myself where “some” Christians do in fact reason that this world is only temporary so we have every right to do with it as we please be it cut down all the forests and pollute the land and air with wild abandon. They want no restrictions. However, I would like to assert that not all Christians believe that. I for one think that Genesis 1:28 refers to man being good stewards of the earth, and the “dominion” part of it has to do with our ability to reason and our capacity to think and plan/organize. This is a far cry from recklessly plundering our natural resources without regard of the future ability of the land to regenerate healthfully. Just think that within the very same verse God instructs man to “be fruitful and multiply.” How can man fulfill that command if he pollutes the environment so badly that nothing will grow, and animals struggle to reproduce, and their own children are born with birth defects as a result of that pollution? Therefore, I submit that having dominion refers to being good stewards of the earth that God provided for us, not a license to rape the land, air, and oceans.
So in my little ways, I try to be a good steward of the earth, too, by trying to do green things. Granted sometimes it seems so overwhelming as I look at our trash cans and realize that we do in fact contribute to a lot of waste that clogs up our landfills. I have endeavored to recycle and cut down on plastics and anything toxic that I can think of. But I am guilty of owning and going through several computers and various electronics, consume countless batteries and other excess packagings, and enjoy long-distant traveling. But with this duality, I have become sort of a pack rat with things that aren’t donate-able. I hate to waste and throw things away. . . so I try to donate old stuff when I can. But what to do with the undonate-able stuff? Then on Earth Day I happened to see a video of a woman using scraps of fabric from old shirts and turning it into yarn that she knit up into scarves. Oye! I’ve got lots of old rags. . . even old jeans and bed sheets that aren’t really donate-able, but I still don’t have the heart to throw away. What to do?
Well, I decided to try it and make a small rug out of one of my old bed sheets. Here’s how it looked when I started. I had already started ripping before I thought I should take a picture of my progress.
After I stripped the sheet down, I started to connect the pieces by just tying the ends together and wrapping it up in a ball.
Then it was ready to knit. This is what it looked like half way through.
And here’s my little rug completed!
Yeah, I know, kinda of a funky rug, but hey, it works! Not sure if I’ll just leave those ties sticking out or tuck them in or what, but I’m loving that now my old sheet that was essentially unusable is now going to be used again. It’s completely washable, too! And the added bonus to this project is that I not only recycled, but “upcycled” something. Heheheh. I love it.
Okay, so that’s my little recycle project, but while at Santa Monica last weekend we saw a larger scale green project in the works there. It’s a system called “SMURRF,” Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility.
The yellow tank in the foreground has dirty, gritty, oily water in it where it is filtered and cleaned. As the water passes through the system it ends up cleaned as shown at this stage.
As described in the placard, the water that is captured in the SMURRF system comes from the city storm drains, which contains a lot of debris and which ordinarily would go straight into the ocean without being processed first. But this system captures some of that dirty water, cleans it, then recycles it to water the landscape. I love it! Not only is the dirt prevented from entering the ocean, but the lawns are also fed and maintained.
Thank God for people who have the genius to know how to put these facilities together. Now that’s a good use of a scientific brain, and what I think would qualify as a good steward of the earth.
Marlakins
Permalink
02.28.10
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Playing the Tourist, food and restaurants at 1:43 pm by Administrator
Today I thought I would continue with my travelogue and share some of our pics from Thailand. I thought they had an interesting looking airport. It was rather large and sci-fi looking. Dad said it was a bit freaky looking, which I can see, heheh. Here’s a small sample of the building as we approached.
Imagine this same structure stretching out for a couple miles or more. Not sure why, but it kinda reminded me of a big insect or insect dwelling or something. Maybe I’ve watched too many Alien movies. . .
The hotel we stayed it was called the Baiyoke Sky, and is the tallest building in Bangkok. Here’s what the building looked like as we approached it.
Our room was on the 40th floor. Aaron and I shared one room even though there were three beds in the room. For a fancy hotel with large rooms, I found the interior design surprisingly a bit plain. Here’s what part of the room looked like.
On the opposite side of the beds there was a small lounge, bar and TV.
Hmmm. Not very exciting decor, no? But the room was clean and very spacious including the bathroom, which was probably more than twice the size of my bathroom at home.
After doing a little snooping around the room I found a Bible written in both English and Thai. Very interesting writing. . .
I found the Thai language difficult to repeat, and being that their written language is so different than English, I found it doubly challenging to figure out what things were. For instance we’d pass a lot of building with Thai writing and I’d have absolutely “no” idea what was inside.
Here’s a picture of some Thai currency.
It looks to me to be the picture of their king on their money. The exchange rate at the time we were there was about 31 or 32 bhat to 1 US dollar depending upon where you exchanged money. Speaking of their king, it seemed like they really loved their king and often spoke highly of him. His pictures were in so many places throughout the city.
Here are a couple views of Bangkok from our hotel room window.
Apparently, the shadow to the right is our hotel. Here’s another angle from the same window.
Large city, huh? I didn’t know what to expect from Bangkok, but somehow I didn’t expect it to look like this. It was pretty crowded and had a little similarities in the way to the Philippines. However, I admit that it’s a bit cleaner than the Philippines and their roads seem more orderly even if it’s still a bit crazy. One difference is they drive on the left side of the road like the Brits. The Filipinos drive on the right side like us Americans. They did have little tricycle-like taxis called “tuk-tuks.” The name comes from imitating the sound of their engines. Here’s a pic of one.
Breakfast was served between 7 to 10AM on the 79th or 82nd floor depending upon the day. This was part of one of my breakfasts.
Along with this.
Yum, I really do miss that kind of breakfast. It really hit the spot for me. They actually had a very large buffet, which included many types of breakfasts including the regular ham and eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, french toast, yada yada, but there was no way I was going to eat like that when I had all this other stuff to try.
Okay, so after breakfast we headed down to meet the tour guide. I’ll post some of those pictures on the next Thai post.
Marlakins
Permalink
02.22.10
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Historical Trivia, Playing the Tourist at 10:10 pm by Administrator
To continue on with my travelogue, after we left Hidden Valley in Laguna and arrived in Manila we decided to go to Marikina and visit Auntie Nora, Ophi, Cynthia, and the Cainta property. We really wanted to visit to check out Cynthia’s roof as it was damaged from the recent flooding there in Marikina. Since we were heading there, we decided to pop into the Cainta property so that I could see it. Mom and Dad called up Auntie Lits and Uncle Al and we stopped off to eat first before heading the the lot. Turned out that the place we went to eat was Kapitan Moy, Daddy’s old school. This is the school my dad went to when he was about 12 years old and just before WWII broke out in the Philippines. He was actually in this building when the first air strike flew over Marikina, Philippines.
Today this building is a restaurant with rooms available for rent for various functions. We really couldn’t see much downstairs as the rooms were closed off, but I could tell some of the rooms were banquet rooms. We did eat at the little restaurant towards the back of the lower level, which looked like this from the inside.
Inside the small restaurant there was an old piano, which Mommy started to play. There were no other patrons in the restaurant at the time so we asked if it was okay for Aaron to try the piano, too. They were all very nice and didn’t mind at all. Here’s Aaron playing on their piano.
I sat there eating and listening to Aaron play when I told my dad, “Bet you didn’t think years ago when you were here at school at 12 years old that one day your ‘grandson’ would be playing the piano downstairs, huh?” Ha! Yeah, we all had a little chuckle at that, then I asked where dad’s classes were held. Apparently, they were upstairs.
We asked one of the restaurant workers if it was possible for us to look at the second level of this building because my dad said it was upstairs where his classes were held. The restaurant worker was nice enough to ask the guard to unlock the door and let us see the second floor. First you walk up through this door from the first level.
Then make a sharp left and walk up these steps.
Through those doors at the top of the steps was where my dad’s classes were held. My dad said that they have taken all the room partitions down and now it’s just one big room. This is what the second floor looks like today with Mom, Dad, and my youngest son, Aaron standing in the middle.
Although the building is no longer a school, at least is has a plaque that explains that this building was once a school for making shoes. Marikina was known for their shoes and my grandfather was a shoemaker. He taught all his sons how to make shoes and apparently, he also sent them to a school that made shoes! Or at least the founder of the school made shoes. Here’s the sign in Tagalog.
After we visited Auntie Nora and the rest of the clan, we all decided to visit the Cainta property. Here’s a pic of all of us there.
And then we took a pic along side their church van. Apparently, one of my cousins is married to a pastor, and since there were so many of us going and couldn’t all fit in one vehicle, they took their church van.
I’ve never been to their church, but if they’re anything like my other cousins on that side of the family, then I’m guessing they’re pentecostal. The rest of my family are basically Catholics. I think I only know of “one” aunt who is born again Christian in the sense that she is no longer Catholic and she doesn’t believe in praying to the saints. Her kids (my cousins) don’t get her, heheh.
Anyway, after that we went shopping. . . oh, and one other pic I wanted to share is this lot right next to ours that had these interesting chicken coups. Very simple, but pretty effective. I liked how each chicken had it’s own place and enough grass around it. Check it out.
Okay, that’s the end of that day. The next couple days we spent shopping, getting ready for Bangkok, and visiting with relatives.
Marlakins
Permalink
01.05.10
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Historical Trivia, food and restaurants at 8:28 pm by Administrator
The first book I’ve finished reading in 2010 is Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I assumed before I read the book that it was going to be an appeal to become vegetarian, and for the most part, it is. Being that I’ve already gone down that road before, and due to health reasons I found that my body works better when consuming some animal products, I had no intention of going back to veganism. However, I still wanted to read the book because I thought it might have more information that I had not be aware of. And that has been the case. Thus I’m happy that I’ve read the book because it was informative, and Foer didn’t come across as beating in down our throats that we should all be vegetarian. Rather he tried to give the viewpoints of both vegetarians and ominvores, which I appreciated.
So what did I learn from this book? Well, first of all my diet choices have been primarily formed around health issues. So I’ve been concerned with cleanliness and nutritional value. Secondly, I have been concerned with our environment and excessive chemical uses and genetic engineering because that also results in affecting our health. While I had known that animals in factory farms are not in the best of health, and thus not the best source of high quality, clean nutrition, I had not really considered their “suffering” aspect of it. I’m not really talking about the fact that animals have to be killed to eat them, but rather their treatment before they’re killed. As a Christian, I have great respect for what’s written in the Bible. The Bible doesn’t prohibit eating meat from animals, and even encourages it in Genesis 9:3-4 when God discusses with Moses what he can eat after the flood:
“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”
There are many other examples from both the Old And New Testaments that allow eating animal products. Even Jesus eats fish and feeds it to the multitude. But on that same note, the Bible does address the welfare of animals. Proverbs 12:10 states:
“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”
I believe some vegetarians will say that it’s not right to kill an animal just to eat it and that killing it in itself is cruelty. Judging from the Bible, I don’t agree with that because God commanded and required animal sacrifices and Jesus also clearly ate meat. If any one of us is righteous, Jesus would definitely fit the bill. He was not cruel, and thus the mere eating of animals is not a cruel act.
It was also mentioned in Eating Animals that the conditions of factory farms and slaughterhouses promotes violence and disregard for animals. While I can believe that may be true under the current conditions of the factory farms, I don’t believe it is necessarily true for all methods of killing animals for food consumption. Otherwise I don’t think God would have commanded that animals be sacrificed or that livestock be provided for the many feasts that the Israelites held several times each year. God clearly wants us to be good people, not violent mad men. And so God lists many things that we must do to be good people, and nowhere does He state that we should not kill animals for food because it makes us violent. But I do appreciate that Foer describes the violence committed against many hundreds of factory farm animals because honestly, I had not really taken much time to consider their plight. I am disturbed at how many slaughters don’t go as smoothly and painlessly as possible, but I was horrified to read that many of the workers were just downright violent with the animals and literally physically torturing them by beating them and stabbing and slicing them while alive for no apparent reason than that they are frustrated with the animals. I also knew that the living conditions of factory farmed animals were atrocious, but I had no idea of the extent to which the animals suffered in those conditions. From reading war books and realizing the devastating health effects of poor nutrition and living conditions for people (civilians and prisoners of war), I can now understand a little more the extent of suffering factory farmed animals are forced to endure. And it is heartbreaking.
Foer doesn’t only expose the problems with factory farming of land animals, but he also touches upon sea animals. Our family generally purchases wild-caught seafood because we have wanted to avoid farmed fish because they are also fed antibiotics and questionable feed, not to mention many farmed fish like salmon are genetically engineered. We’ve done this for about the past 8 years now after we stopped being vegetarian. But Foer points our that in trawling for specific fish many other hundreds sea life species not intended for food are dragged up and killed in the process. I had heard about how some fishing operations drag net that are about 35 miles long, but naively, I didn’t even “think” what that meant for all the various sea animals in those 35 foot nets’ wake. Again, it’s heartbreaking and disturbing to me. I know from reading older sailing books that our oceans were once more heavily populated with sea life. The accounts of sailors back in the 1500 and 1600s comment on that and had impressed upon me while I read those stories. So to know that our current methods of fishing are seriously depleting our oceans of fish is disturbing.
So what does this all mean to me? Should I go back to being a vegan? From learning the hard way, I see that my body really does much better with some animal products. I personally believe that anyone with a blood condition like I had should have some animal products for optimal health. I know that vegetarians claim that we don’t need animal products to be healthy, but my experience has shown me that animals are the best source of B12. Plant sources of B12 are analogs and thus can actually deplete our B12 stores. B12 is essential for blood production in our bodies, and it’s likely God knew this and thus allowed man to eat animals after the flood. It may have been that before the flood we didn’t need animal meat, but it seems our living conditions must have changed after the flood, which may have required eating animal meat to keep us healthy. Consider the animals in the wild how they also eat other animals. Eating other animals is essential for some of their survival. And example of this is a story I read in Weston Prices’ book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, about lions in captivity. He wrote that the first lions in captivity would fail to thrive, and they were unable to breed. In order to understand this an man observed the lions in the wild and found that when the lions killed it’s prey, the first thing they would eat was the liver. From that observation, liver was fed to the lions in captivity and they subsequently thrived AND were able to reproduce. Obviously for lions liver is required, and liver doesn’t grow on trees or any plant. There are other aspects of plant vs animal nutrients, but that would be for another post. The bottom line is that I don’t think that everyone can thrive well being vegans. I know my health was not optimal that way, and there are likely many others like me.
In the end, I do appreciate Foer’s book. I like how he writes about the importance of social eating. That has been a big issue when I had originally gone vegan, then back to meat products, but all organic. What we eat has been, at times, a very touchy and uncomfortable subject for me because there always seems to be someone not happy or offended that we won’t eat certain things. And at times it has been frustrating for me that not more places offer organic fare. So now I have more to consider, more to weigh on my conscience. While I don’t think, for health reasons, that I will stop eating animals, I think I am going to be more conscientious and perhaps cut down on my animal consumption. The year has just begun. Let’s see how it goes.
Marlakins
Permalink
09.22.09
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Uncategorized at 7:09 pm by Administrator
This morning I saw the title of an article which stated that a 79-year-old Japanese man won a body building contest. I tried to click onto the link, but my state-of-the-art computer refused to cooperate. Apparently it was a video that just kept loading and loading. All I saw were the comments that he looked really good.
I’ve had an interest in centenarians and aging ever since I read Genesis because I was always fascinated by the accounts in the Bible of how certain people lived to be 900 years old. Noah was said to be around 600 years old during the flood and from reading the genealogies in the Bible, there were many more who lived to be at least that old. I know there are those who don’t believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible, but I do. And as a result, while our current life expectancy is around 70-80 years old or so, I believe that our bodies were designed to live much, much longer. So I wanted to see this 79-year-old body builder.
I didn’t find the video or picture of this 79-year-old body builder, but I did find some other interesting videos of very fit older people. I will say that it was very encouraging to see these people, and I am now inspired to make a bit more effort to do some weight training. I admit that I don’t enjoy exercise just for exercise’s sake. I’m one of those people who have to be going somewhere to walk, not just to walk for exercise. And so just sitting there lifting weights feels like a waste of time to me. However, I guess I should try to incorporated some weight training in my daily routine since I’m no spring chicken and aging and osteoporosis could be just around the corner for me, yikes! So with that thought, I found some women body builders who I find inspiring. Check out this 78-year-old-woman!
What great skin tone! I thought the saggies were inevitable, but she looks pretty darned good. . .
If that wasn’t encouragement enough, I found another woman aged 86 who also looked great. Check her out.
This reminds me of the story in Genesis when the Pharaoh spotted Abram’s wife, Sarai, and wanted her as one of his women. I mean at the time the Bible describes her to be about 100 years old! Yet, she still looked good to the Pharaoh. I figured Sarai was obviously not aging the way we do today. Times have changed. . . But seeing these body builder women gives me a glimpse of how the human body is really capable lasting longer in a more healthful or youthful condition than expected.
And then I also found this cute video of a 98-year-old man. I love the way he’s spending his time, particularly with the children. What a wonderful way to live.
Now I am inspired. There were more videos at YouTube of other fit elderly people, so that’s very encouraging. Hmmm. Between household chores, errands, preparing food for the fam, and knitting I’ll have to find some time to work in weight training. How else can I last long enough to see and “carry” me grand babies that I keep dreamin’ ’bout? Hmmm. Maybe I’ll start by lifting my iron skillets while stir frying, heheheh.
Marlakins
Permalink
09.04.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History, Uncategorized at 10:34 am by Administrator
The Skull Measurer’s Mistake by Sven Lindqvist is a short, but interesting book dealing with racism in history. Lindqvist writes that, “The history of racism is not only about racists. Throughout history there have also been people who have seen through the errors of racists and protested against their abuses. This book is about some of those people.” In keeping with Lindqvist’s writing style in Exterminate All the Brutes, Lindqvist writes in an easy to follow and straightforward narrative. He quotes many people in history including the references from where those quotes and ideas come in reference to the climate of the times. Once again, he has taught me much more about our history, particularly in light of racism. Understanding racism a bit better helps me to recognize it more easily when I see it. Many racist ideas and terminologies have continued to carry on in our world today and is more evident now that we currently have an African-American president.
I grew up hearing the terms “white people,” “black people,” “brown people,” “yellow people,” and “red people.” It was normal for me to hear that when referring to different people of different ethnicities. However, when I met Brian, he didn’t like it when I used those terms. He would tell me he didn’t know what I was talking about. He asked me how did I judge or know who was white or black? People can be mixed (and more often than not are), but it’s not always evident. But most of all, the reason he didn’t like those terms were because he believed they were racist terms used primarily for slavery. And it has only been relatively recent that I find that I’ve been somewhat confused about the term “racism,” too. And upon reading the news recently regarding issues dealing with Sotomayor and Obama, I’m seeing that many other people are also confused by the terms racist/racism and ethnic or ethnicity, etc. Sadly, I’ve only seriously examined racism more recently as I’ve been reading about Africa and our history of colonialization. And now after reading Sven Lindqvist’s books, The Skull Measurer’s Mistake and Exterminate All the Brutes, it has been made much more clear how those terms of skin color have been used throughout history to create a system by which anyone other than “white” aka the “superior class” naturally would and could be subjugated by inherent right. Terms separating the colors of people were fabricated to justify colonialization and subjugation by various Europeans. People other than white were considered less than human, less intellectual, barbaric and unfeeling, no different from animals. However, as Lindqvist (and even Brian) pointed out, it’s very subjective how one is deemed either white or “non-white.” This becomes more evident when we look at the history of how the Jews were looked upon as well as the Irish, the Egyptians, the Armenians and Turks, the Boers, and many other ethnic groups. It becomes much more difficult to determine who among them were white or black (non-white) solely by looking at their skin color, yet amongst the subjugators, they were not all looked upon as white, but rather inferior and even given labels such as “white negroes.” Today we see it termed “white trash,” and other names. The terms live on, and we use them today unwittingly further validating that such designations truly exist, and are even “neutral” to describe a people. They are not neutral and I see now, more than ever how it is a mistake for us to continue using those terms. We do not have a black president, we have an African-American president. Black is a racist term, African-American is the proper designation of his ethnic heritage. And for those who said during the election that Obama isn’t black, but Muslim when referring to his ethnicity, well that was really messed up because the term Muslim isn’t an ethnic term either, but a term used to denote religious affiliation, not ethnic affiliation. From reading comments online, I see that there is a lot of confusion out there.
In discussing the issue with the Jews in Germany, Lindqvist wrote,
“Those who captured Alsace-Lorraine from France in 1870 are now applying their racial theories to the French Jews there and calling them “Semites.” The Germans have always loved to give their hatred a veneer of science. But “semitic” is a linguistic term that describes a language group–that there should be a corresponding biological race is only an assumption. To want to found the nation on a common race, as the Germans do, is just as backward as the Russians wanting to found theirs on a common faith. ‘All modern nations are racially mixed. We are all half-breeds.’
So cultural fellowship is more important than biological. Let us quite simply admit, says Leroy-Beaulieu, that in disposition, abilities and intellectual habits, a French Jew, even if called a Semite, is far closer to us than an Indian Brahmin, even if he is called Aryan.”
From the viewpoint of the Christian, these separations of color should be ridiculous because if we believe the Bible, then we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. We are all essentially one blood despite the fact that many of us have been separated for generations and certain characteristics may have become dominant or recessive. Charles Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, the strong will eliminate and conquer the weak is contrary to the Bible in more than one way because not only is the theory of evolution contrary to the account of creation in Genesis, but it is also contrary to Jesus’s teaching that we are to care for the weak such as the orphans and widows. The king’s duty, according to the Bible is to advocate for the poor, not to subjugate them or take away their lands and rights and colonize.
Lindqvists quotes many people in history who have questioned racism which raised very thought provoking concepts. One such concept was that race was somehow aligned with the degree of primitiveness. That is, the African due to their inherent race was unable to build a sophisticated society as evidenced by their current cultural way of living. Lindqvist wrote:
“The white races have succeed in convincing themselves that God almighty has created them as lords over not only animals and plants, but also over the rest of mankind. Two hundred years ago, this doctrine was accepted quite uncritically and the subjugated races believed in their own inferiority. But today there is a constantly increasing number among them who accept nothing else except equality between the races.”
Lindqvist quotes Theophilus Scholes who challenged the notion that primitiveness was related to inferior races and thus reflected upon the color of one’s skin. Scholes uses the Egyptians as an example of how they were once considered white while they were admired; however, once they began to be despised, they were considered colored. The Greeks were thought to be the core of European identity, says Martin Bernal, and romanticism idolized the Greeks with their culture and asserted that only racially “pure” civilizations could be creative it followed that racial and cultural mixing in Ancient Greece had to be denied.
What it boiled down to was that only cultured civilizations could be born from the “superior white races.” Scholes challenged that “unless it can be proved that the Egyptians were white at the time when they were the most civilized people in the world, and the white races were black at the time when they were primitive tribes–unless that is proved, the theory that progress and greatness go together with whiteness, and inferiority with black skin, cannot be believed.
“Racial prejudice rests on delusions, much as slavery and the burning of witches do. . . ”
Among other historical events Lindqvist covers is the treatment of the American Indians in the U.S. He writes of the continued broken treaties with the Cherokee and their subsequent loss of land and rights as it relates to racism. Lindqvist’s book, The Skull Measurer’s Mistake has been very enlightening to me. It amazes me how much of history is obscured and not ordinarily taught to our children. We are taught that the importance of history is so that we don’t repeat our mistakes, but ironically we aren’t taught history effectively. I think this is evident with the current widespread continuance of racism and the general lack of understanding of it.
Two thumbs up for The Skull Measurer’s Mistake by Sven Linqvist. I’m going to try to get a hold of his other book called, A History of Bombings. I’m anxious to see his insight on that subject.
Marlakins
Permalink
08.02.09
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Uncategorized at 10:57 am by Administrator
It seems like there has been so much going on lately that I’m not focused on blogging these days. Now that we’re headed toward the last stretch of summer, I hope I’ll get more organized again. I was going to do another book review/comments on Me Against My Brother, but Brian handed me the August issue of Voices of the Martyrs and pointed out an article called, To Call Jesus “Messiah”. The article exposes persecution some Messianic Jews are experiencing in Israel from some ultra-Orthodox Jewish organizations including Yad L’Achim.
Messianic Jews are Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah and who follow the teachings of both the Old and New Testaments. Ultra-Orthodox Jews do not adhere to that and apparently can be hostile to those ideas and beliefs. Voices of the Martyrs mentions a few examples of Christian persecution in Israel and the West Bank as follows:
~May 15, 2008: Residents of Or Yehuda publicly burned hundreds of New Testaments in front of a synagogue while students danced around the burning books.
~May 1, 2008: Two chief Rabbis cancelled their International Jewish Bible Quiz after they learned a 15-year-old finalist was a Messianic Jew.
~March 2, 2008: Ami Ortiz– a dual American-Israeli citizen and son of a Messianic Jewish pastor–was seriously injured when a bomb exploded in his home in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. This bomb was left on his doorstep as a package for his dad. Months before, an unknown group circulated fliers in several Jewish cities. The fliers warned the public to be wary of missionaries who try to “steal souls.” They also contained pictures, names and the addresses of Messianic Jews. It is likely whoever left the bomb for the Ortiz family identified them though that flyer.
~November 8, 2007: A group of Austrian bishops were barred from the Western Wall, because they refused to remove crosses they wore. The Chief Rabbi said the crosses were “insulting and provacative.”
~October 23, 2007: Arsonists firebombed a church in West Jerusalem shared by Baptists and Messianic Jews.
When I read this article, I thought of Luke 21:12
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.
Deliver us up to the “synagogues?” I think Christians need to understand this better. The reason I think this is because I remember during the elections when Palin stated something to the effect that she (or we Christian Americans) was friends with Israel. Well actually all the candidates claimed that they were friends of Israel. However, I single out Palin because she claims to be a Bible-believing Christian. And from her “generalized” statement, I was left to wonder how much she (and many of us Christians) really understands about Israel and the Jews. I understand that our Christian faith has ties to Israel’s history and founding, which gives many of us Christians respect for the nation of Israel, but does she (and many of us) know that there are different types of Jews and that some persecute other Jews for their belief in Jesus as the Messiah? Does she know that there are Jews who hate gentiles, which include us Christians? And that they have a perjorative term for us non-Jews–”goy?” Often we are inundated with the radical Muslim idea of wiping out the “infidel.” This idea tends to rile up the masses to fight in the middle east. We are incensed that we would be thought of as the “infidel” worthy only of death. Yet, we don’t hear much about the ultra-Orthodox Jews who likewise would like to rid their areas of us “goys,” aka gentiles or non-Jews or essentially, infidels. If we aren’t to be completely removed, then our only value would be to use us for labor such as work that they would prefer not to do or for work that needs to be done on the Sabbaths when they are not allowed to work because of their religious beliefs. So really, to both the radical Muslim and the ultra-Orthodox Jew, we Christians are the outsiders. I find it interesting that we would favor one over the other, or villanize one over the other when both despise us. And while Muslims don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah, at least they have a respect for Jesus in that they claim Jesus was a prophet. The Orthodox Jews do not afford Jesus that much respect, if any at all. To the Orthodox Jew, Jesus is neither the Messiah nor a prophet of God. It’s not only the Palestinians that some Orthodox Jews want out of Israel, but also all the Christians. Why then would any Bible-believing Christian claim “unconditionally” that they are “friends” of Israel? Respect, yes, but “friends?” when they persecute our brothers and sisters? Were the pharisees friends of Jesus? Did Jesus claim He was friends with the pharisees?
Marlakins
Permalink
07.18.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Uncategorized at 12:19 am by Administrator
Saving Grandma is the second part of the Calvin Becker trilogy by Frank Schaeffer. Knowing that the storyline is about a young boy growing up in a Reformed Protestant family, I assumed that the “saving” part referred to Calvin’s grandma’s need for salvation. While I was right about that, the story does take a little twist in that grandma did need another kind of saving. To avoid revealing a spoiler, I’ll leave it at that for those who may not have read the book, yet.
I’m not sure why, but this book had a different feel to it than the other two parts, Portofino and Zermatt. While Calvin’s character still remained true to his usual funny and mischievous self, in this book Calvin had a more serious side to him which was evident in how he eventually cared for his grandma, his love for Jennifer, and his concern for his spastic friend, Jean-Pierre. In the other two books Calvin seems more happy-go-lucky, while in Saving Grandma, he seems to have more of the cares of the world weighing on him. As a result, I thought it gave the book a slightly different feel. Calvin spent a lot more time day-dreaming about Jennifer than his usual imaginings of trying to figure out the mysteries of women in general. I think this gave the book a different feel by way of a different literary style.
Since a major aspect of Calvin Becker’s life is that his family is part of the Reformed Protestant religion, it’s impossible to escape the message Frank artfully weaves into the story of the down sides of organized religions, in particular, Calvinism. While the story is a bit extreme, the point is well-made how the best of intentions can result is wacky behavior. The “church split” was laughable, but before I could dismiss it as “out-of-the-ordinary,” I recalled a family feud wherein one of my own uncles climbed up on the roof of my other uncle’s house and cut down his TV antenna. Ha! And then consider the myriad of civil and domestic cases that require police and court intervention. The church split magnified the irony of how one of the main themes of the Bible is to love one another as Christ loved us, yet, we continue to find reasons for divisions in the name of the Bible. Instead of displaying love, we commonly display intolerance.
Another concept that stood out to me in Saving Grandma was regarding “real work.” Calvin’s grandmother had a major issue regarding Ralph and Elsa’s “work” in the ministry. Grandma didn’t think that missionary work was “real work.” She claimed that her husband, who worked the coal breakers, did real work. While I can kind of see her point, it’s also a bit confusing because what then does work mean? A desk job is not work? Only manual labor? How about someone who just stands in an elevator pushing the buttons for clients? And really work is relative in that work is work whether or not someone gets paid for it or not. I mean what’s the difference between washing your own dishes at home and washing the dishes as an employee at a pizza parlor? Both are work, although at home there’s no pay, while at the pizza parlor there is pay. I can give advice to a friend for free, but I can also give advice to a stranger for a fee under the guise of counselor. Likewise, I can share the gospel for free, but then we can pay missionaries to do that instead. And there’s the rub for me. I think the gospel should be free, so why do religions make a business out of their faith? There are so many “warnings” in the Bible how the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, yet, so often religions focus on accumulating more and more money and even imply that if a believer “gives” then they will also receive wealth in return. I think not enough focus is made regarding what are the blessings the Bible tells us we are to receive if we obey. Often church members are lead to believe blessings equals prosperity and prosperity equals more money. But didn’t God give prosperity to Joseph while he was in prison?
Genesis 39:21-23
“But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. 23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.”
How does one “prosper” in prison? Somehow I don’t think it was monetary, but that he was shown favor. Good health is also a form of prosperity. So this is where I think the rip-off comes in terms of various religions leading their followers to believe if they give to their church they will receive monetary blessings. It may happen that they do receive monetary blessings, but in light of the fact that the Bible teaches us not to strive for riches on earth, and that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, it seems contradictory that God would want to reward us with money as a primary blessing. So back to grandma and her concept of “real work,” the Bible tells us that there is profit is all labor. That profit my not be money, but rather in all work/labor, there is benefit/profit. In that respect, missionary work is work just like any other, thus missionary work is real work, but since I think the gospel should be free, I think it should also fall into the category of washing our own dishes. We do our own dishes for free just like we can share the gospel for free. Missionary work should not be work in the sense of work for monetary gain. Matthew 10:8 reads, “Freely you have received, freely give.”
Finally, the issue of Calvinism is complicated. Among the many issues is that of evangelism. I mean if the chosen are chosen, why bother with evangelism? I know it’s not that simple amongst Calvinists and they have their counter to that. Actually there’s so much written about Calvinism that while I’d like to comment more on it, for now I’m gonna leave that alone.
As with Portofino and Zermatt, I recommend Saving Grandma to mature readers who have a good sense of humor, are not offended by sexual content, and can take some religious criticism. All three books definitely have laugh-out-loud moments. I give the trilogy two thumbs up.
And that concludes my comments on the Calvin Becker Trilogy.
Marlakins
Permalink
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
