Including me.
Here goes . . . .
1. If reversing 2,000 years of Christian teaching regarding sexual practice was the key to revitalizing the church as a whole, then the United Church of Christ would be thriving and Northpoint Community Church would be hemorrhaging. Neither seems likely to happen anytime soon.
2. If more people loved their kids, there’d be less of a call for people who “just love kids.”
3. If violent video games, TV shows, and movies don’t influence behavior, then why does television advertising exist?
4. If I haven’t lost a bit of sleep over the fact that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded, does that give us some kind of moral equivalence?
5. Number of Murders, United States, 2009: 15,241
Number of Murders by Firearms, US, 2009: 9,146
Number of Murders, Britain, 2008*: 648
(Since Britain’s population is 1/5 that of US, this is equivalent to 3,240 US murders)
Number of Murders by[pdf] firearms, Britain, 2008* 39
(equivalent to 195 US murders)
*The Home office reported murder statistics in the UK for the 12 months to March 2009, but these are 12-month figures).
For more on murder by firearms in Britain, see the BBC.
In the case of Britain, firearms murders are 48 times fewer than in the US.
Source: here.
Hmmmm . . . and guns don’t kill people?
6. When MTV broadcasts a show called 16 & Pregnant, it doesn’t do anyone any favors.
7. I’ve wondered if the more charitable services that churches and other non-profits provide, the greater a demand we create. Not sure. Just wondering.
8. Doctrinal unity leads to demographic diversity. The more you treasure ancient truths, the more modern people of all colors and ethnicities will rally around the cause. When will the United Methodist hierarchy realize this?
There are 6 comments
Talbot,
When my wife, son and I moved to Charlotte is 2007…rifts started to develop in my marriage. There were a lot of factors. A very strong willed, intellectual began to influence my wife and soon she was attending church apart from me. I was attending a moderate to conservative church on Arrowood road and she started going to a 100 year old Presbyterian Church closer to Uptown. They had lagging numbers about five years ago and nearly shut down…but they took on a new liberal theology, brought in members from another church, and a fresh pastor, he was new to the clergy from the business world. That particular church began to blossom interms of numbers. I would attend there on occasion to try to combat the spiritual warfare and found myself enjoying some of the music and trappings and the intellect of the pastor….but I still didn’t support the ideas of some pews being guy/guy and during the build up to the 2008 election, congregants were getting up and vocalizing support for Candidate Barack Obama despite his parties opposition to things like Pro-Life positions. It was clear that this was not a healthy environment for me (or my family)….but their pews had gotten full and they had come back from
10-15 member attendance. So the enemy is fully at work.
Spot on, Pastor! Takes me back to the Sunday after Hurricane Katrina when you spoke out against the lottery. You’ve got guts! Thank you 🙂
~
“7. I’ve wondered if the more charitable services that churches and other non-profits provide, the greater a demand we create. Not sure. Just wondering.”
Every time I think of this statement, I think of an individual perhaps not achieving what could be reached on his own because he knows there is a charity that will help him if he falls. Is this what you meant?
It also makes me think of that mindset of “I can sin all I want because God will forgive me.”
In the same way, a person could say to himself, “Whatever. If it doesn’t work out, the church will help me.”
That’s exactly what I was thinking, Jessica. It’s a chilling thought, but one that calls into question much of what churches do in the name of being “loving.”
I have a more concrete story about charities being misused I’d like to share.
When I registered for school once, I informed the school I was hearing impaired. A woman in a department that helps students with disabilities assisted me. She told me that I should contact a local organization about getting a hearing aid with more features than my one at the time had. She went so far as to tell me what to say — and what not to say — when I contacted the organization to be ensured of getting a free hearing aid. I was surprised and disappointed by the conversation.
In my opinion, charities exist to help those in need. Just because a person *can* have access to benefits offered, doesn’t mean he should take advantage of them. The organization in reference surely exists to furnish hearing aids to those who are unable to afford one, not give someone a free, needless upgrade. Personally, I have always been leery of people who seek to benefit from their own misfortunes. The resources available should not be consumed simply because they are there.
6.
I know this is probably for naught, because people are pretty well solidified into their position, but no, Guns don’t kill people. They just make it easier for people to kill people.
A brief exploration through Wikipedia indicates that the US has the highest gun ownership per capita in the world.
And yet, we rank 101st highest in murder per capita and we’re well below the average (not that 101st is anything to brag about.)
While it IS true that we have more murders than Britain (our rate is approximately four times as high) it is also true that their murder rate has been lower than ours historically as well: i.e. even before they instituted a major gun ban. It’s also interesting that their murder rate went UP after they instituted a gun ban and is STILL higher than before the ban.
What’s also telling is that the murder rate in Switzerland is much lower than Britain (0.7-Switz vs. 1.2 Brits vs. 4.8 USA) while Switzerland has less restrictive gun laws.
So what’s my point with all of this? There’s no real data to support that gun ownership is directly related to murder rate one way or the other.
My feeling is that the murder rate in the US is a lot more complicated than any politician or talking head on a network is going to tell you. It’s probably due to a many factors, including our selfishness, our delusions about ‘rugged individualism’, the differing cultures that are present here, the value that those cultures place on ‘each other,’ economic stratification, a culture that’s desensitized to violence, the violent history of this country’s founding, AS WELL AS the number and availability of firearms (maybe).