So. The current national conversation is not how our President is pushing us towards war, nor how once again the Congress is trying to take away health care from the poorest amongst us, nor the horrible hurricanes hitting the gulf coast and Caribbean. Nope...it's about whether or not NFL players should stand during the national anthem. I am so glad (sarcasm) we are focusing on such important things.
Personally, I stand for the flag and the national anthem and the nation as a whole, not for the President or the Congress or anything else. I think there are other, better times for people to protest than this, and the fact that kneeling now seems to have become the 'cool' thing to do makes me suspicious. Considering how much even the wealthy NFL owners have responded negatively to Trump's statement that people who kneel during the anthem are 'sons of bitches', I know that much of what is going on is more about Trump and his persecution complex than anything.
Yet people who kneel or sit during the anthem as a protest against whatever do not bug me nearly as much as the many other ways people disrespect the flag, many actions which are actually against the federal code. This article in the Huffington Post in particular I thought was excellent.
-When dumb rednecks (most are great people, but some are morons) fly the U.S. flag beside the Confederate flag out of the back of their pickup until it is ripped mostly to shreds.
-When politicians use the flag as a lapel pin because they are afraid of what constituents will say if they don't.
-When cheap, disposable plastic flags are passed out like candy at parades even as they will loudly say that they are 'made in China'.
-When businesses use the flag to try to sell things.
-When people put writing or other symbols on the flag to get a political agenda across.
-When people wear flag-themed clothing and they do it very sloppily.
-When people combine images of the flag, screaming eagles, and other quasi-patriotic images to say something along the lines of 'America! Kneel or feel our boot in your ___!'
There are so many instances in which the flag has been abused in ways far worse than in the posture of athletes. Just when I think that our country can't get any dumber, we knock a few points off the 'ol national IQ.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Obsessed about Sex
I have a friend on Facebook with whom I went to high school with whose dad was a Methodist pastor. From what I can tell he still considers himself a Christian, but one of those modern types of Christians who would likely be unrecognizable to the orthodox believers of the last two millennia. Whenever there is a religious topic up for debate he's always ready to jump in and regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with the apostle Paul, he's always quick to jump in and say that Paul was a fool.
I've never asked him why, unfortunately...but I would suspect it has nothing to do with Paul's many words about grace or about the unity Christians need to show within the church. Rather, I'm sure it has something to do with sexuality, because I've heard from many over the years who thinks that Paul was repressed, who held to a too-limited viewpoint of what human sexuality ought to be. Thus Paul is definitely wrong, and deserves to be bashed.
It occurred to me today that many conservative Christians have spent much of their lives obsessed about sex. Many of the social forms this obsession has taken on include too much attention to how women dress, about whether or not men and women can work together or (in high-class forms) whether or not they can be even alone together at the same time if unmarried, about high-handedly putting a scarlett A on whomever breaks whatever taboos society has established, or even about regulating how often married couples can do the deed due to religious holy days.
Somewhere in my parents' lifetime, however, the question of 'who is most obsessed about sex' started to change ownership. Perhaps it began with an increasing acceptance of co-habitation or free love or whatever, but for many conservative Christians, sex has almost become a non-issue. This is wrong, because the Bible does speak of sex a lot...but the fervor for this issue has lost its steam. When Christians overwhelmingly vote for and support a man for President who is on his third marriage and has had legions of affairs through the years, you know that this battle is over...Bill Clinton's oral pleasuring in the Oval Office and the outrage is caused now seems quaint by comparison two decades later.
Today it's our liberal friends who are obsessed about sex. Whether it's a demand that all of us approve of (not just tolerate) gay marriage, or something as simple as hating Paul for calling fornication a 'sin', sex is now THE divine right for those on the left. The only prohibtions seem to be rape, incest, and pedophilia...everything else is fair game for two (or more) consenting adults (and teenagers) in the world of swiping on Tinder.
Not only are we told that must we accept any and every kind of sexual behavior, but also as a society we are told that we must accept that the consequences of that behavior are not at all related to the sex that seemed to have arrived with those troubles. Far too many children born out of wedlock? It's not sex's fault...it's not having access to birth control. Far too many STD's? It's not sex's fault...it's not having access to the right drugs. Far too many divorces and remarriages and broken families? It's not sex's fault...it's that we've tried confining people to the monotony of the family.
There will come a day when my liberal friends will need to have an honest look at where the free sex of the past 50 years has gotten us as a society. I'm convinced sex has been a very strong factor for why our society is plunging off a cliff in regards to everything wrong with it. More sex is not the answer.
I've never asked him why, unfortunately...but I would suspect it has nothing to do with Paul's many words about grace or about the unity Christians need to show within the church. Rather, I'm sure it has something to do with sexuality, because I've heard from many over the years who thinks that Paul was repressed, who held to a too-limited viewpoint of what human sexuality ought to be. Thus Paul is definitely wrong, and deserves to be bashed.
It occurred to me today that many conservative Christians have spent much of their lives obsessed about sex. Many of the social forms this obsession has taken on include too much attention to how women dress, about whether or not men and women can work together or (in high-class forms) whether or not they can be even alone together at the same time if unmarried, about high-handedly putting a scarlett A on whomever breaks whatever taboos society has established, or even about regulating how often married couples can do the deed due to religious holy days.
Somewhere in my parents' lifetime, however, the question of 'who is most obsessed about sex' started to change ownership. Perhaps it began with an increasing acceptance of co-habitation or free love or whatever, but for many conservative Christians, sex has almost become a non-issue. This is wrong, because the Bible does speak of sex a lot...but the fervor for this issue has lost its steam. When Christians overwhelmingly vote for and support a man for President who is on his third marriage and has had legions of affairs through the years, you know that this battle is over...Bill Clinton's oral pleasuring in the Oval Office and the outrage is caused now seems quaint by comparison two decades later.
Today it's our liberal friends who are obsessed about sex. Whether it's a demand that all of us approve of (not just tolerate) gay marriage, or something as simple as hating Paul for calling fornication a 'sin', sex is now THE divine right for those on the left. The only prohibtions seem to be rape, incest, and pedophilia...everything else is fair game for two (or more) consenting adults (and teenagers) in the world of swiping on Tinder.
Not only are we told that must we accept any and every kind of sexual behavior, but also as a society we are told that we must accept that the consequences of that behavior are not at all related to the sex that seemed to have arrived with those troubles. Far too many children born out of wedlock? It's not sex's fault...it's not having access to birth control. Far too many STD's? It's not sex's fault...it's not having access to the right drugs. Far too many divorces and remarriages and broken families? It's not sex's fault...it's that we've tried confining people to the monotony of the family.
There will come a day when my liberal friends will need to have an honest look at where the free sex of the past 50 years has gotten us as a society. I'm convinced sex has been a very strong factor for why our society is plunging off a cliff in regards to everything wrong with it. More sex is not the answer.
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