a few selections from penn and tellers war on the war on drugs.

"if you live in a free country you have the right to put anything you want into your own body. anything else is bs."

p&t are unwittingly displaying whats wrong with the very notion of freedom. ultimately true freedom means no restrictions and this is apparently what they want. interestingly enough its what i want too but not in the same way. see - they want this freedom without any change in the hearts of the people receieving it. what a complete disaster waiting to happen that is. instead my desire is freedom in christ for all who will repent and turn from their own way. as paul stated in galatians 5:1 it was for freedom that christ set us free and i believe this is the only freedom man can ever possibly know. if scripture is correct then when all is said and done there will  be a new world of people free in christ co-existing in perfect peace without a hint of sin. im pretty sure p&t havent thot that far in advance on their little scheme bc it wont have nearly as happy an ending.

"the freedom to get blind stinking drunk remains every americans right provided they dont harm anyone else - and thats the way it should be in any country that wants to call itself free."

ah the prevaling virtue of our day rears its ugly head - as long as you dont hurt anyone...

what they fail to account for is the damage all these drugs affect on the lives of everyone related to the user in any number of different ways. from psychological harm to emotional distress to betrayal of trust issues. these issues arent merely results of the criminalization of drugs - they are the result of the damaging effects of drug use. the only way to use drugs and not harm anyone is to exist in a vacuum.

their follow up point about the govt inadvertantly creating a black market is an interesting one bc it assumes that its the govts fault for people wanting a harmful substance enough to break the law to get it and that they should have it as a right instead. the ultimate logical end of this thinking is that there should be no laws bc laws are why people do bad things. this is an assenine proposition and they obviously havent thot it thru. they just want to make a tv show with controversial topics for the sake of ratings.

the problem is that our sinful nature is at work and these two pundits dont have any grasp of that. paul states clearly in romans that law brings out the worst in folks. not bc the law is bad - but bc people are sinful. p&t take the oppsite view that people are okay and the law is jacked up.

now dont get me wrong - the whole war on terror thing is out of control and worthless. watch cops sometime as police brutalize a guy for a dimebag. when the present laws reach the streets what we basically end up with is the justification of criminal solicitation for the sake of seizure and incarceration of the buyer. but what happens when they get out? no change is affected and 99% recommit. and the drug producers arent bothered much despite the occassional search and seizure of a bahaman bank account for pr.

"voodoo pharmacology is basically the idea that drugs make people do bad things. that drugs take control of you. whats different about the illegal drugs is that they sieze control of you and force you to sin."

i sat for quite some time this evening wondering to myself how i could humorously open yet another rant on the insanity that is consumerist xianity. i must admit i failed to come up with anything witty so instead picture me in a grass skirt humming a cheesy elevator version of girl from ipenema.

after the trauma has subsided consider this:

yep. hezekiah 9:6 states exactly that and the people at the god squad ™ are not about to miss out on the payday either. theyve developed a jesus doll that any kid would befriend. the words in blue are quoted from the site…

he sings you are my sunshine – bc every kid needs to know that jesus is sad and incomplete without them.

he wears a cross necklace! matching one including for your child too – bc if theres one piece of jewelry jesus prolly really enjoys its a heinous pewter dangle version of his worst day ever.

you can comb his hair to look like yours – bc the whole point of jesus gospel is for him to conform to us.

hes soft and always ready to give a hug – bc after a rough day of playing at the daycare your child needs the cuddly affections of a $29.95 hunk of blasphemy.

his clothes and sandals are removeable – bc for some unknown reason naked jesus seemed like a really good idea for a childs play toy.

and finally hes big and 17 inches tall – bc just being one or the other wasnt quite impressive enough.

they dont plug this but hes also strikingly anglo – bc everyone knows jesus was white (except his mom…..who was jewish.)

i think my favorite part is the 100% satisfaction guarantee they offer at the bottom.

if you dont find this just a bit disturbing maybe you also found yourself humming along when you pictured me in the skirt and maybe you thot that was a really pleasant image. i assure you however that the only people who could intermingle that image of me and pleasant thots obviously do not know me and should never be allowed to ™ my likeness for personal monetary gain without some sort of eternal punishment. for now everyone is safe tho bc jesus comes to kick arse and take names hasnt come out yet...

my buddy billyv made a statement on his blog concerning speaking against the church. please go check it out or my thots below wont make as much sense. just hover his name and click...

ah.....the church.

paul stated in romans 9:6 that 'not all who are descended from israel belong to israel' and it seems to me that this applies directly to the discussion at hand.

i will admit that i am one of those who speak against the church but i want to be clear about what i mean when i say that. words mean things and when scripture speaks of the church it speaks of those who – in christ – are adopted sons of the father. the chosen etc etc. it would be fair to say that it is distinctly applied to those who have been saved – are being saved – and will be saved throughout history.

then again there is the church as defined by the common contemporary understanding. taking a specific example lets say we step into a local gathering by the name of first whatever church of wherever. this local church has 'x' number of members. are they all members of the local church? sure. their names are on the roll. does this mean they are among those being saved? not necessarily.

when we step out to a wider grouping like maybe the county association or diocese the same thing applies – as it will on every level. so what we find is that there are people who claim membership to a local / area / state / regional / national / denominational / universal grouping that is also generally referred to as the church. they may or may not be among those being saved. their claim and full participation in these groupings does not make it so.

and so we are forced to understand the church in 2 very different ways – the bride and the organization. when i speak against the church i dare not speak against the bride. she is precious tho imperfect and wholly loved by christ tho incomplete. but i will speak boldy and without remorse against the organization when it practices what is sinful or gives hearty approval to those who practice what is sinful.

why? bc not all who are in the organization are the bride. those being saved are encouraged by paul in ephesians 5:11 to 'take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them.' so maybe its time the bride confronted her comfortable congruence with the organization eh? maybe – just maybe – its time for her to heed pauls admonition in 2 cor 6 to 'go out from their midst and be separate from them says the lord and touch no unclean thing - then i will welcome you and i will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the lord almighty.'

so theres something i need to get off my chest here...

2 hesitations 8:16-18

and jesus said unto them "truly i say to you that if you have problems with your brother you should avoid settling those problems with your brother. instead you must talk with other brothers about your problems lest the wrath of God fall on your for being up front and honest."

if this were actually scripture then some xian folk who practice such things might have a leg to stand on. as it is they dont.

come talk to me.

who would jesus boycott?

back at the start of the year nbc went out on a limb. they produced and aired a television drama about a dysfunctional xian family. it was a tough look at the life of episcopal priest daniel webster and his family - to be exact. this show peeled back the shiny veneer of faux perfection by exposing its issues right away. the reverend himself abuses pain pills while his wife appears to enjoy a cocktail every now and again and struggles with her sons homosexuality. the son is gay but a republican of all things so he obviously has issues. the daughter deals drugs and the sister-in-law had a lesbian affair.

and nbc had the unmitigated gall to air this in prime time. 

unlike many of the protestors i actually watched an entire episode and i say wtg nbc! sure it poked and prodded every hot button issue with a ball peen hammer but it was altogether realistic. above all it was moving and it understood grace.

enter the american family association and their chairman donald wildmon. wildmon and his colleagues decided the show was offensive to xians and the family. they got their collective protest together and maximized economic pressure by allowing visitors at their site to fill out and e-send a petition stating…

despair.com Ü

im pissed. for everyone who just cringed at that word stop reading now. the rest of this post will only cause you to stumble.

you heard me…..run along.

so in reality - i think im depressed. im depressed by ignorance and cognitive dissonance and dogma all wrapped up with a shiny little bow and presented to the culture as xianity. im depressed bc i feel as tho the image is so dominant and has been shuffled off for so long that its ingrained to the point of saturation and no amount of truth offered will upset its stranglehold on the hearts and minds of the masses. its not the truth mind you - its not even close. those who seek truth realize that reaching the truth it isnt a product of comfort or ease. many give up and slide into complacency. others funnel their efforts into a maginot line of defense - tunneling under everything they believe and popping up turret style in every imaginable arena. if it werent for the presence of the Spirit i would give up hope entirely that anyone would ever be persuaded.

so i have been called into the midst of this hopeless fray in order to do roughly what? get slapped around by the establishment for questioning things? get trampled by the lemming mentality of the greater majority of people who believe in a way that remains totally incomprehensible to me and verifiably incongruous with the life of jesus christ and the historical church of the new testament? take a beating for investing my life in others only to be brought under condemnation as a heretic for asking what if some of our traditionally held presuppositions about things are wrong?

are you kidding me? this is my purpose driven errr….this is what keeps me up late on my knees pleading for intervention in the lives of those i come in contact with? this is what drives me to sink myself deep into the word and its backgrounds in an effort to best understand the truth i have experienced? i dont know what to do with what im experiencing here. i feel hurt for and anger against these folks who have aggressively ruined the soil. i want to help in the healing and tear it all down. i am compelled to speak in love and yet i want to rage. bc this is not about simple disagreements or semantic arguments – its more core than that. its about the shift.

the shift from compassionate concern to fiery condemnation. the shift from spiritual devotion to lackluster infidelity. the brazen shift from a lifestyle that rejects the things valued here to one of complete acceptance and integration. the church has committed slow suicide in this culture and now on the eve of its departure some followers of christ are emerging from the wreckage. and if it werent for the presence of the Spirit i would have never believed it was possible.

and i am one of them but am i like the others? can this whole thing be quantified and categorized and labeled so easily? can it be surreptitiously dismissed by trying to marginalize its participants? no. this is not some preplanned organized effort to overthrow the leading factions of church life in america and bring its historic doctrines down to heretical blapshemy. its a groundswell of dissatisfaction with the spiritually calloused laziness of the church and its increasing isolation and irrelevance to our culture  spurred on by the Spirit. and as i stare into the despairing eyes of religious animosity and grin at the horrid yelps of those with an institutionalized faith i realize that this revolution will not be fought without casualties yet i am ready to do whatever God asks of me bc i died a long time ago and you just cant threaten a dead man.

so here i am. send me.