Religious tolerance...

“27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest:” (Mt 13:27-30a)

I confess to being near the top of the list of those who have at some point extracted a meaning from a parable that Jesus never intended. The devil is in the details. In the case of parables, he is often in the striving for too much detail. Here, however, I fear that I have not done justice to the obvious.

"There can be no question but that the great principles of freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, and voluntarism in religion, so basic in American Protestantism and so essential to democracy, ultimately are derived from the Anabaptists of the Reformation period,"  from Parade of Faith: A Biographical History of the Christian Church, by Ruth A. Tucker Kindle edition, location 6805.

Ya gotta love a quote like that from a non-Baptist historian!

They found my God spot, but I'm not epileptic...

Is This Your Brain on God? :NPR  (Quoting from Part 2: The God Spot)

During epileptic seizures, sufferers often claim to hear the voice of angels or of God. Some epileptologists believe that many of the great religious figures, such as Moses and St. Paul, had epilepsy. Now neurologists believe they've found the sweet spot for spiritual experience -- in the temporal lobe. Some scientists say the temporal lobe, which is associated with emotion and memory, is the seat of spirituality. It's also where epileptic activity takes place.

How does the capacity for reasoning, present in us all, produce such varied perceptions and conclusions? One would assume, with all that we share in common as human beings, that our individuality and deep moral/spiritual convictions emanate from choices arrived at via personal experience, culture and learning, combined with the exercise of our own wills.

Life in someone else's shadow...

  November 29, 2011, Richland County, Wisconsin... the only daughter of Joseph Stalin died. Quoting from a Time.com article marking the passing of LANA PETERS:

Lana Peters

In an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal in 2010, Peters revealed the psychological impact of some of the cruelty her father had inflicted upon her. “He was a very simple man. Very rude. Very cruel,” she said. “He broke my life.” [...]

“Wherever I go,” she said [...], “here, or Switzerland, or India, or wherever. Australia. Some island. I will always be a political prisoner of my father’s name.”

I wish that it had been different for her; I would like to think that she found a life out from under what had to have been a long, oppressive shadow.

The journey and the quest...

Hmmm... I wonder who will not be seeing "The Hobbit" when the movie comes out in 2012? One of my favorite lines in the story appears about 2/3 of the way through. After an arduous, adventure-fraught enterprise for Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves:

"They were at the end of their journey, but as far as ever, it seemed, from the end of their quest. None of them had much spirit left."

They had already been through so much, but the thing that they had set out to do was just now barely upon them... and it looked to be the most daunting task of any that they had faced.

I'm not overly concerned about the outcome of a superbly written fantasy. I am concerned that I might be closer to the end of my journey than I am to the end of my quest. And, honestly, sometimes I don't feel like I have much spirit left, either.

One year later...

Yes, it was one year ago today: Linda suffered congestive heart failure while we were visiting family in MN and WI. For 9 days in Cardiac ICU, we were not offered much hope of her coming back. Obviously, she did!

Today, she is 50+ lbs. lighter and with the aid of her walker, she is walking 45 minutes every day at the Mall, something she has not been able to do in years.

The chronic back pain from the scoliosis and previous major surgeries will always be there; she suffers from chronic bronchitis. It seems that the walking has helped her to get past the bouts of severe shortness of breath.

If Linda had not come back, she would be in heaven now with our Savior. She gave her heart to Christ many years ago... actually about 6 weeks before I did. It was her prompting that got me to start listening to what the Gospel was really about.

We don't understand the "why" of many things that have happened to us. But Linda and I both desire that it would all be as it was for the Apostle Paul:

“But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things [which happened] unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;” (Philippians 1:12)

If you are not absolutely certain of where you will go when you die... or if you think you are religious enough to make it to heaven on your own: we ask that you would take just five minutes of your time to look at the video in the blog entry below: "Keeping it simple..."

We hope to see you soon... if not here, then forever together in heaven!

Thank you for reading; thank you for praying for us.

Keeping it simple...

Are you a good person?

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3)

“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” (Galatians 3:10)

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:28)

The virtues of a small footprint...

ECOLOGICALLY:

This mini-home comes equipped with a ladder for the loft (sleeping space); also a bathroom, but its bucket with sawdust does require a compost pile nearby!

A minimalist lifestyle is often associated with ecologically conscious folks who work at leaving as small a footprint as possible. In other words, they study ways in which to reduce the drain on our planet's resources generated by their own presence. That may include trying to build living spaces with less material, less waste, with a net result of significantly reduced CO2 emissions. "Small footprint living" intersects at times with Zen Buddhist concepts of simple living, clarity of mind, an uncluttered life.

My uneasiness about this comes from Jesus' own lifestyle and teaching. (Matthew 6:24-33) It would appear that we ought to be examples of the same principles: simple living, clarity of mind, an uncluttered life (1 Timothy 6:6-8).