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In the previous post oh so long ago, we talked about going the extra mile – helping those who can’t give us anything in return. In the intervening four months, we welcomed a new girl into our family and a giant project at work ate the rest of my life (80 hour weeks, that sort of thing). Those are my excuses for the gap between that and this. Of course no one has asked me about it .

Also in that intervening time I have been putting much thought and action into these faith concepts. Since not many people currently read this and no one is dying without new content, I am finding it more important to write something well-crafted than to just write something. But I am also going to try to keep these shorther – people got lives .

All preliminaries out of the way – I have been thinking a lot of how Jesus teaches us to do good things. It seems from the things He says that He is not only interested in what we do, but why and how we do it. Read the rest of this entry »

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A lot has been said lately in our national dialog about concern for the poor (or at least the poorer than you). There’s a raging debate about “spreading the wealth around.” Is it Socialism? Is it good, compassionate fiscal policy? I even heard a guy on the radio expounding on how the book of Acts espouses the same principles and could be considered a Socialist text. This guy was, of course, an avowed atheist of the ilk that likes to quote Bible verses as proof that American Christians are hypocritical. And that got me thinking…

DISCLAIMER: Just about everything in this post is mostly for me. I am not writing to anyone external, I am writing to myself. If you find yourself in the same boat, so be it. And I don’t think I am doing ANYTHING right on this topic in my own life. Think of this as sermon to me, at the end of which I responded to call to repentance and said “yep, that’s me. I suck.”

The early church in Jerusalem for a time had a very communal approach to life. There isn’t definitive evidence that the extreme level of sharing they were practicing extended to every community of faith, but it IS very clear from Church history that concern for the needs of others – especially “the poor” was paramount. Paul even recounts Peter, James and John’s only instruction to him, when they gave him the right hand of fellowship (a phrase we really ought to revive) was to “remember the poor“.

The debate now is fascinating – many Christians have come to believe that a government that cares for the needs of the “poor” or “poorer” (however you define that) by means of taking money from the “rich” (however you define that) is a righteous form of government, and making sure our leaders push through that agenda is more important than any other moral issue. Many Christians believe helping the poor should be the work of the Church, so government should stay out of it and leave the giving to us. Inexplicably, many of the people in camp #2 fight for less taxation and then do very little or nothing at all to directly help the poor (beyond small donations to their local church or some other “distance giving” activity). Which makes the people in camp #1 think the gov. should take their money so they would be forced to do the right thing.

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Is there any word in English that has a more negative connotation than “preach”? Okay, I can think of a few (and no, I am not going to list them here – the internet is forever). But no one ever says “I wish someone would preach at me.” Movies that are too heavy-handed in promoting an agenda are called “preachy.” When I was a kid there was even a song by Madonna (sing it with me…”papa don’t preach…he’s been good to me”…HA! Now that is stuck in your head!).

So I will use the word tell. But I mean preach. In a less negative context. I hope.

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There’s just no way to get around it. I have to talk about Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Now Dog is not always what you would call a sympathetic character. He dresses oddly. He makes baffling hairstyle choices. He and his entire family are arguably three fries short of a happy meal. He vacuums for fun. He has been recorded using racial epithets (an item near the top of the list of  ”public persona unforgivable sins” – a list that does not seem include cheating on your wife or driving while drunk. But I digress).

There are a million things I could say to mock Dog. Most of them are far too obvious to make it worth the time. And for the record, I am not a hard-core Dog-fan, Dog-defender, Dog-catcher, Dog-pound member, whatever you want to call it. I couldn’t tell you when the show is on or what channel. But since confession is good for the soul, I have to admit that on at least four occasions, I have been flipping by that channel and been drawn into an hour of Dog-watching. And he always makes me want to cry.

Let the mocking begin.

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