The Real Pretenders.

Happy New Year!

Sooo, the holidays... they happened.  That's always something.  But now it's 2015.  So, that also happened.

Do you know what my favorite "holiday" is?  And please don't read to much into this, but it's actually Halloween.  You know why?

I love costumes.  It's not the candy, or the "religious" history behind it good, bad, or otherwise.  I just always thought costume parties were super fun.  Getting together with friends and goofing off while pretending you are something else.  Or just dressing up as a walking joke where your costume is both the joke and the punchline.

In that sort of setting, it's all fun and games and good times had by all unless you were the guy who thought he was too cool to play along because "it's dumb and your dumb and costumes are dumb but I came anyway so I could tell you how dumb it is and be hateful."

Him?  He probably should have just stayed home.

But once you get outside of that type of setting and back into "real life", all the pretending becomes problematic.  With your friendships it's a bad idea.  In your marriage?  Definitely not smart.  At your job?  That one will catch up with you as well.  In real life, unless you are an actor, pretending will destroy you or someone else eventually.

Do you know why people hate Christians?  There are tons of great examples of why people hate Christians.  It's not all people, of course.  But of the people who hate Christians, there are tons of stories that illustrate their justified positions.  But the real reason that it boils down to?

Pretending.

Let me explain.

Christians are not the problem that causes people to hate other Christians and, by extension, God.  It's people pretending to be Christians who cause these problems.

Those of you who have experienced this phenomenon might argue that this describes most "Christians".  

Maybe you are right.

But this distinction matters.  Anyone can claim to be a part of something but not actually represent what it is suppose to be.  Christians who claim to be like Jesus, but instead find ways to hate everyone and everything.  They like the club, but not the character.

The problem with Christians is that they aren't all Christian.  This is a truth that needs to be accepted by both Christians themselves and by the people who have been damaged by fake Christians.  Those fake Christians do not represent all of us, even if we all get defined by their unacceptable attitudes and actions.

God is Love.  Therefore a Christian should also be Love.  Love is the very nature of who God is, therefore a Christian's nature should also be that.  Love is patient, kind, merciful, forgiving, and it keeps no record of wrongs.  It hopes, it endures, and it never fails.

People on the other hand... they fail.

A true Christian is one who embodies Love.  Love does not have to agree with someone in order to accept that someone.  Love does not have to agree with another beliefs in order to respect the one who believes them.  Love does not have to agree with another's views in order welcome them with open arms into their lives.

A true Christian would do all those things, and not be threatened by the difference.  If a Christian is threatened by another's beliefs, it's because that Christian isn't very confident in them self or their belief so instead they shift the focus to the other person and convince others that this other person is the real problem so that no one will look back on that particular Christian and find his or her flaws.

These fake Christians have destroyed so many lives for this very reason.  Pretending to be a Christian doesn't make you one anymore than pretending to be a banana makes you one.

You can be a Christian and be friends with someone who is gay.  You can love them, give them hugs, share your home with them, laugh with them, and in general make them a part of your life.  Whether or not you agree with them or their life is completely irrelevant.  If you can't be confident enough in your God and your beliefs to be with someone who is different than you, then it says more about you than it does about them or your God.

Do you think that person who has spent a lifetime confused over their identity needs one more person judging them for their own uncertainties?  Christians are not the judges of the world.  God judges.  Period.  It's not my job.  It's not your job.  Stop doing it.  We are to love.  God will sort out the rest.  We are not the convincers or convictors of the world.  God is.  He will sort that all out.  

You want to show someone God?  Love them.  God is love.  You want them to know God?  Represent a God who cares for them so deeply that they wouldn't want to do anything else BUT know Him.  Because that person who has just finished their gender reassignment surgery has suffered whether or not we wish to recognize it.  They have been judged and ridiculed and have lost friends and family over it.  Whether or not their choice to have surgery was the correct one or not is irrelevant.  We can't change what is.  We can only control our own choice.  That choice is simple.  Will we be a true Christian and show complete and selfless Love without demands or conditions?  Or will we sit in judgment on them proving for certain that we were never Christian to begin with?

May it's not sexual identity.  Maybe it's drugs.  Maybe it's addiction.  Maybe it's gambling addiction.  Maybe it's pornography and sex addiction.  Maybe it's depression.  Maybe it's suicidal tendencies.  Maybe it's any number of other "unacceptable Christian taboos".  But therein lies the issue.  There in lies the lie.  It's not about the taboo.  It's about the people.  And no person is unacceptable.  We don't have to be something we are not in order to accept someone who is.

Hatred and bigotry is a lie.

Love is truth.

God doesn't hate you.  If God hated everyone who had a messed up life, He'd have to hate everyone.  But God doesn't hate everyone.  God is Love.

God has declared all people worthy.

You don't believe me?  I can understand that.  I'll break it down like this.  Perfection does not equal worth.  We are not worthy because we are perfect.  We are all imperfect.  But our perfection or imperfection has zero bearing on our value.

We have value because of Love.  God loves.  He loves us so much He experienced death for us.  He says that He loves us with an everlasting love that has no height, nor depth, nor width that can ever be measured.  It has no end.

God would not sacrifice himself or anything of His for something that has no value.  That which has value has worth.  You have value to God, therefore you have worth to God, therefore you are worthy.

If you are gay, you are loved by God and are worthy in His eyes.

If you are an atheist, you are loved by God and are worthy in His eyes.

If you are an addict, or a murder, or a cheater, or a thief, or any other frowned upon thing, you are loved by God and are worthy in His eyes.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, and if they do, they don't know God.  They probably aren't true christians.  They are the pretenders, because whether or not the details of your lives are perfect, and they probably are not, you are Loved by God and are worthy in His eyes.

That is the truth.  That is true Christianity.  That is true Love.  

Don't let the pretenders drive you from God.  They have no power over you.  They are powerless unless you give them power.  Don't hate God because some pretender hated you.  They do not represent Him.  They may have taken His name, but they did not take His Character.

Whoever you are, give God another chance.  I didn't say "church" or "christians" or "prayer meeting", etc.  Just God.  Start there.  Work that part out and then move on from there.  Learn to know who God is.  Figure that out.  Let that lead your path.  Let love lead your path.

Good night.

Just A Little Something

Hey all!

Well, I'm finally back from vacation.  Actually, I've been back for a week or so, but I got sick during vacation and at the same time as returning had to prepare for all manner of presentations and did not have the time or energy to put out a post.  

But I have a few minutes and felt I needed to put something out, even if it is pretty short.

I could talk about vacation and such, which was great, but instead I'm going to make a small but important point based on an interaction I had with a person at a recent thingy I did.

"Thingy" is the technical term for what us preacher types do.

I spent a day doing presentations and Q and A time after we returned from vacation.  I had almost no voice at all, so, it was a long day.

I won't go into all the details of what we talked about and discussed, but I will tell you what a person said to me after we were all done and my voice was finally completely dead and we were all ready to go.

As is often the case after a presentation or a sermon or a talk of any kind, people will come up and say hi and such.  And, normally there is a broad range of response from people depending on who they are what they took from the whole experience.

One thing I had been trying to accomplish was to encourage people to truly think about their lives and what they believe and what they do with both of those things.  Don't just blindly stumble through like a bull in a Star Wars collectable shop, doing more damage than good.

Unless it was a prequels collectable shop, then stomp away.  

I'm looking at you Jar Jar Binks.

One man in particular came up to me and started the conversation like this.

"I know what you were trying to say."  (First thing people say when they are about to politely disagree.  If they aren't worried about being polite, they just start by calling you names.  True story.)  "But one thing that makes the culture of the country I come from better than yours (he actually just said where he was from, but I'm not trying to hate on his people, it isn't the point or the problem) is that we never question anything.  We just accept it all and stay faithful no matter what.  We always do everything we are told and believe."

Now, at this point I was sick, tired, had no voice and in general wanting to lay down right there and pass out.  Two of the organizers saw me after I finished speaking and they said, "Holy cow, you look horrible!  You need to go home and rest."

That's never a good sign.

So, because of this, I just had no ability to have a long discussion and/or argument with the guy.  It probably wouldn't have helped anyway.

So I thanked him for his thoughts and told him it was great to meet him.  Which it was.

But let's think his statement through for a moment.  

Never question anything?  Accept anything told to you just because the source is "official"?  Never go deeper into the source or material or bother to learn why someone interpreted something the way they did?  

What if that person made a mistake?  What if they didn't know what they were talking about?  What if they themselves were complete ignorant or mislead?  What if they were purposefully deceitful?

Never ever ever just accept something simply because someone said so.  Not even if you agree.  Maybe especially if you agree.

That is super dangerous with a side of extra stupid.  This is how damaging and hurtful beliefs and practices are started.  This is how lives are damaged and ruined.

From a Christian standpoint, the bible even tells us to test and measure.  Using the concept of faith to promote ignorance is evil.

And if you are not religious of any kind, well, the same still holds true.  And perhaps you know it to be true more so than the rest of us.  And for that, I'm sorry.

Never be afraid to ask the hard questions and go against old programming.

You might be surprised the good will do you.  And just as importantly, the good it will do for someone else.

Lesson 20 - Lies From Your Eyes

 Hey all.
So, last week I wrote my post from the seat of an airplane high over somewhere. As such, it was a bit more disjointed than usual. I felt the need to continue the topic. I may yet again in the future. However, as such, todays post is a bit shorter than usual. Just a heads up. That said, here you go.


 Do you know what I like about illusions?

Everything.

They are just fun.  And not just the slight of hand illusions.  I love the visual illusions.  The geometric shapes that do not follow standard progression logic.  The things that you stare at and they start to do funky things.

Like the one where you stare at the white page full of blue dots with the black dot in the middle.  As the rules dictate, you stare at the black dot for about 30-45 seconds.  As you do, suddenly, all the blue dots vanish.

Poof.  All gone.

Until you shift your gaze and suddenly they are all right back where they were.

The dots, of course, didn’t actually go anywhere.  Because of your focus (and perhaps the color of the dots), your brain made them not register anymore.

There is also the one where you stare at the black spiral on the white page.  If you stare right into the center, the spiral will appear to swirl.  It isn’t swirling, but your brain started telling you it was swirling.  As soon as you shift your gaze, everything goes back to normal.

Our eyes and brain can play all manner of tricks on us.  They can create a perspective that isn’t quite as accurate as we think it is.

Just ask anyone who is color blind.  They know this as well as anyone.  Is that a red sock?  A green sock?  A blue sock?  A brown sock?  Black maybe?  You and I take the simple ability of seeing colors, perhaps, a little for granted.  Imagine if suddenly you couldn’t see them correctly.

I know one guy who is completely color blind.  He only sees shades of grey.  No pinks, blues, yellows, greens, or orange.  Only grey.

Learning traffic lights was tricky.  Especially when they started turning them sideways and not telling him which way they tilted it.  

He has adapted remarkably well.  So well, in fact, that you would never know he was color blind.  He admits that every once in a while he picks out that shirt that isn’t the color he thought, or gets the socks swapped, but it’s rare.  But when you have NEVER seen a color other than grey, you learn to perceive the shades.  The subtleties of grey and black and the nuances of non-color.  He is so good at it, that whenever I try to stump him on a color, he almost always gets it correct.

One time I held up an object that had lavender in it.  He guessed correctly.  I was pretty impressed.  

Apparently there is more to sight than simply color.

But not everyone is that proficient at it.  A color blind person knows that things are not always what they appear to be.

As we talked about last time, we don’t always perceive things the way they truly are.  Often, our mind fills in the blanks.  It will add things and subtract things, but rarely ever keep the whole picture in tact.  Usually the additions and subtractions are dictated by what we want to see or not see.

Police officers know that if they interview people at a crash site, they will get many versions of the story.  Similar, but different.  Everyone seeing one event different from another who saw the exact same event.

We rarely see what we think we see.

We have a responsibility to ourselves to reevaluate our perceptions and perspectives.  Of ourselves and others.  Learn to see the shades.  Learn to shift our gaze.  Learn to not let ourselves become so focused on one thing that we cease to notice anything else.

        Learning to see is not always about sight.

Lesson 6 - Cancer Saves Lives

        I want to be very clear about something.

Cancer isn’t funny.

It is a horrible and deadly disease.  The only people who can make jokes about cancer are people who’ve actually had cancer.  They can because they have lived the disease and have therefore earned the right to say anything they want about it.  No one else gets that right and privilege unless it is conferred upon them by someone who has had it.

Ok, I realize that’s not some sort of official ruling.  It’s sort of an understood rule that I’ve tried to put words to, and possibly made up just now.  I tell you all that so that if I happen to seemingly make light of cancer in some way, you’ll understand the context and the ruling.

The ruling is stated above.

The context is… I’ve had cancer.

Twice.

No no, I’m fine.  I’m not currently dying.  In fact, I may be in the best shape of life.  Or at least close to it.

And I have cancer to thank for it.  

No, cancer didn’t make me healthy.  It didn’t give me superpowers.  I had to earn my health the hard way just like every one else.

Although that reminds me of a funny story.

Back in college, I played a lot of role playing games.  Dungeon & Dragons type of role playing, except we rarely played D&D.  What we played was the Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game.  Everyone makes a hero, gives him stats and powers, and then a GM (game master) runs you through a story based adventure or campaign.  I realize this has become the definition of nerdery and geekery, but hey, it’s a lot of fun, so don’t nock it till you’ve tried it.

Well, I made a bunch of different characters over the years we played, with different powers and stories.  But they all had one thing in common.  They all sucked.  Not because the characters were bad, but because it seems I had discovered one of my real super powers.  

The ability to role dice badly.

When the game relies on you being able to role dice well in order to do well, and you can role dice below average as a general rule, the game gets hard very quickly.

That was my first real life superpower that I discovered that I had.

The second was actually unintentionally predicted when I made my first character.

Twice.

I had never made a character before.  Well, I had made ONE before, so I guess this technically was my second.  But I don’t count the other one because it was made through random rolling instead of any sort of creative intent.

So, this SECOND character was tricky.  I wasn’t sure what to do.  I wanted something original.  I didn’t want to make another Spiderman or Captain America.  As we were tossing ideas around as a group we eventually started talking about what powers we would like to have in real life.  At this point the conversation becomes very philosophical.  What power would you have?  What would you do with it?  How would it affect the world and thought and Jesus and babies?  

Or any number of other semi ridiculous discussions.  And by “semi ridiculous”, I mean “totally sweet.”

Finally, one of us said, and I don’t remember which for sure, maybe me, “You know, if I ever had a power, it would probably be something really lame.”  At which point another of my friends said something to the effect of, “Ya, that’s probably more like it.  Your power (he said to me) would probably be the incredible ability to replicate your body’s cells at an increased and uncontrolled rate.  In real world terms, we’ll call that ‘Cancer’.”  

We all laughed.  Yes, this was technically before I had cancer and therefore violated the rule I outlined above.  But it was just so ridiculous and the power of irony was strong.  If I ever were to get a superpower, it would be a horrible and often deadly disease.

That was predictor number one, which was followed immediately by my friend and I going, “Hey, that’s not a bad idea.  What if your character has cancer, and…”  

And there it was.  History was made and one of the greatest characters I ever made was created.  

It was also predictor number two.

Now, don’t misunderstand.  I don’t actually believe these things were predicting my future as a cancer patient.  I’m not that nutty.  And if they were, I clearly didn’t pick up on it.

It did, however, become sort of a running joke amongst my friends.  They would all get cool powers, and I would be the guy who got cancer.

And it was pretty funny, not because cancer is funny, but because of the irony.  Because I was the guy who couldn’t roll dice well.  I could roll two 10 sided die, which gives me 1-100 in terms of possible results (as the game limited the rolls)… and I could roll them 10 times in a row.  In those ten times, 9 of them would be below 40 and 7 below 10.  That’s what we call “bad rolling.”

So, therefore, if any of us got shafted on the powers, it would be me.

It was the running joke.

Till one day my doctor told me I had cancer.  In that moment it stopped being funny.  I actually had one of my friends tell me how bad they felt that we had made the joke for all those years.

In the end, it’s still funny.  I can laugh and make fun of it now.  It doesn’t bother me anymore.  Life is life and it happens sometimes.  But at the time, it wasn’t so funny.  It suddenly became the awkward joke.  We tried to be cool about it, but it didn’t always work.  In fact the second time I was diagnosed with cancer I informed one of my friends by telling him, “So, hey.  Guess what?  My superpowers came back.”

He responded, “Oh ya?  Ha!  Good for you, bud.  (then long pause as the meaning sunk in)… Oh.  OOOOooohhh… oh… (awkward silence).”

It had seemed clever in my head.

What do I know?

It’s been almost four (seven now) years now since that second diagnosis.  And now, I can make jokes and he can make jokes.  The current joke is that I am the jar in which God keeps all his diseases.  “Tony, could you pass the herpes, please?  Thank you.”

No, I don’t have herpes.

It was really the only way we as friends could deal with the awful reality that one of us could die in some sort of untimely and horrible fashion.

And don’t get me started on the realities of chemotherapy.  It’s just… well, it’s just bad.

Instead, let’s talk about how cancer made me a better person.

I was living a relatively isolated life at the time.  My job made it easy for that to happen.  Neither my wife nor myself particularly liked that part of my work.  We were pretty out of touch and secluded from many of the people we used to know.

Once I was in chemo, however, I couldn’t work anymore.  I didn’t have the energy or strength.  At best, I could sit in front of my computer.  Which is when I decided to do a few things.  I started a MySpace page.  Then eventually a Facebook page.  I started a blog that shares the same name as this book.  In fact, this book wouldn’t exist at all had I not came down with the cancer.

Don’t you love it when people put the word “the” in front of a disease name that doesn’t grammatically require the word “the” there?  

It amuses me.

Anyway, I started getting in touch with all these people I hadn’t seen or talked to in years.  Hundreds of them.  And in the process I made some new friends as well.

I was writing in my blog because it allowed me to say what was on my mind and help some people at the same time.  Maybe not much, but a little.

I discovered that there were all these people who were hurting in life for one reason or another, and maybe they didn’t have cancer, but maybe their life was worse.

Through this whole process, I realized I was to able help people in ways I couldn’t have before.  I wouldn’t have known how.  What I should say, or what I shouldn’t say… being able to empathize even if I couldn’t sympathize… knowing how horrible disease could be…

Once I was strong enough, I started visiting the cancer center I was treated at.  I would talk to the patients.  Find out how they were doing, if there was anything I could do for them, or if they just needed someone to talk to.

Chemo completely screws with your head.  On top of having poison pumped through your body, you are dealing with all the emotional trauma of a life threatening illness.  For some of these people, it was a direct death sentence.  There are some people I used to visit with and take treatments with who didn’t make it.  

There was the 30 year old mother of three.

There was the 18 year old high school football star.

I lived and they didn’t.

I was forced to start seeing my life very differently.  I started seeing my purpose and place in the world differently.  My priorities shifted and juggled and changed.

I’m pretty sure cancer saved my life.

I’ve come to realize what a selfish person I had been before.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still selfish.  But I’m trying harder now.

I’ve also tried to stop lying to myself about who I am and what my place in life is.  My illusions were shattered.  I was always the healthy guy.  All the kids who did drugs in school are all healthy.  I was clean and sober my whole life and I got cancer.

Of course, it’s not that simple.  That’s one of the illusions that shattered.

If I hadn’t had cancer, I might not be as healthy as I am now.  I probably wouldn’t have tried very hard.  But now, every moment of good health matters.  Because now I know what bad health is like.  I don’t want to feel that again.

Although, I also know that I have no control over it.  I can be as healthy as I want, but it’s no guarantee.

And maybe that’s the greatest illusion that was shattered.  I have no control.

I have no control.

I have NO control.

Keep saying it.  Maybe it will sink in.  Everyone intellectually will agree that so much of life is out of our control.

But we really don’t believe it.  We have tricked ourselves for so long into thinking that we can control it all that we don’t know how to think any differently.

We think we need control.  We grasp at it with all our strength.  It’s how we deal with life and the things around us.  We create a view of the world that allows us to shape it any way we wish.  And while we do have a say over our lives and we can do so much more than we think, that’s not the part of our view that we cling to.

We cling to the part that brings comfort.  We cling to the illusion of safety.  We cling to illusion of comfort.  The illusion of happiness.  Things are so simple in our illusion.  The danger and risk are minimal.

Everyone remembers 9/11.  It was a horrible day.  So many people died needlessly.  There were so many things wrong with what happened, but do you know what most people took from that experience?

Flying is dangerous.

Seriously.  Flying is dangerous.

Specifically, flying is now MORE dangerous.

Tell me, did flying get more dangerous?  Or had the danger always been the same and now we just realized it wasn’t what we thought?

Those terrorists exploited dangers that had always been there.  Those dangers weren’t new.  They had just never been used that way.

Flying wasn’t and isn’t any more dangerous than it had been before.  We just started realizing that we didn’t know what we were talking about.

In the end, we are like the guy in the move The Matix who wanted to get put back in.  He saw reality for what it was and couldn’t handle it, so he fought to cling to his illusion by being put back in and having his memory erased so he wouldn’t have to know what reality was truly like.

Tell me, were the jokes we made about cancer in school suddenly more offensive when I had cancer?  Or were the jokes always of poor taste and WE changed?

Or maybe it’s not the jokes that were wrong, but maybe it was our perception of the reality surrounding the humor?

I’m not offended by my friends joking about my disease.  I joke about it all the time.  I’ve realized cancer is just a thing that happens that I have no control over.

But real cancer isn’t the tumor you grow in our body.

Real cancer is the illusion that grows in our mind.  It keeps us from seeing the way things really are.  It keeps us from finding the flaws in our world view.  It keeps us from even wanting to find the flaws in our world view.

It keeps us from wanting to change.

It keeps us from being honest with ourselves about ourselves and from desiring to do anything about it.  It deceives us into thinking everything is fine and there is nothing wrong, or that the things that are wrong are something pointless and irrelevant and not the real problems in our life and views.

It keeps us from seeing the truth.

The truth is, physical cancer could still kill me one day, but no matter what, it has already saved me.

The truth is, it’s not the physical cancer I fear(although I do) as much as the mental and spiritual cancer that will most certainly kill me if I don’t allow my self to see it and destroy it.

Blog 9: It's All True Unless It Isn't

Shazam!

Hmm... I keep saying that hoping that one of these times I will turn into Captain Marvel, but it never seems to happen. Don't tell me comic books lied to me again?

Well, today's post is brought to you today by the letters "A" and "Q and the number "3."

Once again, it's been too long. I could make excuses. They might even be true. But they would still be excuses, so I won't bother.

I have a cold.

Ok, that's sort of an excuse. But not really. Did it make you feel bad for me? That was the purpose.

Ok, a question for you. How many of you like it when people who clearly don't know what they are talking about try to speak authoritatively about something in a manner ment to convince you they are correct?

Does that make you happy?

I get it all the time. Good, well meaning people trying convince me about something about which they know nothing about. I sometimes wonder if people think to themselves "hey, there's a pastor, I must attempt dazzle him with my brilliance." It's as if sometimes I think people feel they need to prove something to me.

I'm not sure why. I'm just another guy with a semi fancy title.

I mean, we all get those email forwards from people in which they are trying to warn us about some cleaver scheme or deadly food which turns out to be false 99.9% of the time. But a whole string of someones bought into it and decided to send it around the internet hoping to annoy/help/dazzle/amaze someone by the information there in.

Then there is the christian example. "Doesn't it say in the bible that...(insert idiodic statement here)?" or "I heard some preacher say once that... (insert another idiodic statment here)?" as if because a preacher said it must absolutely be true. You know, because preachers are never wrong.

Then there is the science example. "If you take rocks and frog urine and boil them with ginseng and drink it at exactly 92 degrees, you will never ever get sick." or "my grandma told me once that if you...(you know what to put here)?"

Pick your walk of life. Religious, secular, whatever... there are always people ready to dazzle you with knowledge they don't actually posses.

So the lesson for today? Search out the truth.

Urban legends, religious or scientific myths and other here say abound in our culture. Alot of the time they are part of our knowledge base without even knowing they are there. At some point we bought into the lie and stuck fiction where fact should be. All of us have done it at some point.

I'm no less guilty.

And in casual conversation, when we weren't prepared and we can't remember and we go "You know, I can't remember but I swear I read once that...", well, that's forgiveable. We all do it.

But then there are the conversations that matter. The ones that change lives. The ones where the information presented will alter the way in which someone makes a real decision. Then... it's not so forgiveable.

Myths, legends, old wives tales... call them what you want... so much of it has krept into our way of life. Sometimes it's in the form of our traditions. Sometimes it's in our ritual (which is usually part of our tradition). Sometimes it's in our fundamental belief system.

And sometimes we have grabbed onto it so hard, that even when we are presented with the clear, irrefutable proof that we are being irrational, we still cling to what we think we know instead of learning something new and useful. Comfort and ignorance over progress and learning.

Let's think about it in a political way. I'm not going to expound in any way about our candidates for president. But if we vote based on what we heard someone say about them, instead of actually researching what these people have done and what their history says about them, we would be really stupid.

A wise person votes based on an informed decision, not based on a preconceived notion, or a missquoted rumors.
The rest of our lives should be no different. The history of christianity should teach us that above all else. For hundreds of years christianity committed attrocities and got away with it because of the ignorance of the people. Sure, sometimes it was forced ignorance. But sometimes not.

Today, in an era of unpresidented information dissemination, we have the opportunity to learn in a way no one in history has been able to. All the information we need is at our disposal. The rocks of history have been overturned and the secrets have been spilled.

And yet, there are many who would rather stick to the error of history, than acknowledge it's falicies.
In the realm in which I work and live, I hear all the time things like, "Well, they would never teach this back in my day." or "Give me that old time religion. It's good enough for me."

It's funny. Cause, if it was good enough, then we wouldn't be here anymore. "We need to do the things we did when I was a kid. That's how to teach people."

Right. It worked so well then. How come we didn't finish the job?

We can't afford to rely on the word of people when comes to the things that really matter. Like salvation. Like our spirituality. Like our future. Things of life and death. And not just our life and death, but the life's of those around us.

I spend more time working with people who's spirituality is all screwed up because of false religious myths and teachings than other group of people. "Well, I was taught that..."

Really? Where did they get that? Why did they teach it? Where is the foundation for it? Is that actually true?
And yet, people will base huge life changing decisions based on falicy.

I had a person recently tell me they need to postpone their baptism. I asked why. He said because they had gotten angry with a family member. I asked why that should postpone it. He said because they clearly must not be ready. So I asked if christians never get angry and make mistakes.

He didn't have an answer.

The truth is, he was basing his decision on a preconception of what a christian is. Perfect in everything. Never making mistakes. Never getting mad. Never sinning.

Seriously?

But this is what happens when we gain our knowledge of things second, third and fourth hand. It gets distorted.
Most people do not seem to realize that the Apostles in the New Testament were baptizing polygamists and drunkards and slave owners. They were baptizing them wholesale. And they didn't all change right away. That's why there are so many letters in the bible trying to teach the different groups to focus on God and to let him lead their lives to to live those lives rightly.

It's because those lives weren't right the moment they came to God.

This is just an example of the type of religious knowledge that gets ignored or forgotten. So, as result, the way christianity in general treats people who might be less than perfect is based on not remembering that. By that I mean, we have no tolerance for people who to line up perfectly with what we think a good christian should be. We don't baptize them till they are perfect. Even though the Apostles weren't doing that.

And so because many live their lives constructed around information that isn't true, it spreads to those around them and polarizes societies. People walk away from God because of the ignorance of the people they interacted with. They were taught wrong and took the flawed teaching, made it true and based life altering decisions on it.

I see people struggle so much in there spirituality because of this. This more than any other thing.

All because somewhere at some point, someone decided to get lazy with their learning. They just believed what they heard cause it sounded fine. It sounded authoritative. It didn't matter that it was absolutely false. It just sounded good.

There is a fantasy book I read a few yeas ago called Runemasters. In it, the nobles could purchase runes that would grant them different abilities. The abilities would be tied to other people. For example, if you wanted a rune of strenght, you would by one, the rune would be put on you, but the strength it gave you actually came from someone else. The runes only transferred the power.

That really has little to do with what i'm talking about. But at any rate, there was the evil general that was trying to take over the kingdom. And he had aquired hundreds of runes of glamor and speech. He was so handsome and smooth talking that he marched his army right up to the gates of the main opposition, an opposition that out numbered him and would have won easily in a realy fight, and he smiled and told them he was a friend and spoke eloquently and asked them to lower their defences and let him and his army in.

And they did.

Not one person died. Not one arrow shot. Not one sword swung. It ended in the time it took for him to speak the sentence.

All because he looked the part, sounded good and had the right words to say.

That is obviously an over the top example. But the truth is the same kind of thing happens every day in our lives. We heea things. They sound good. Maybe it resonates because we want it to be true. Or we like to person who said it. They are so nice. They have a great smile. They just sound honest.

We can never trust the words of people. Because even if they aren't trying to lie to us, who says that they didn't buy into someone elses lie and are teaching that?

Just because we are smart does not mean we can't be fooled.

I was trying to get this idea accross to some people in bible study a couple weeks ago. I kept reminding them to always go back and study things for themselves and never take the teachers word for it.

And the one lady, bless her for giving me the benefit of the doubt, kept saying "go back to the bible and your pastor."

I kept saying, "Even the pastor can deceive you or be wrong."

And she kept saying "But you are called by God."

She was so sure of my authority. That I couldn't possibly lead her astray because of who I was. That is sooo dangerous.

In the end I had to make it very clear that just because I may have been called to this life I live, that it didn't mean I wouldn't make bad choices and deceive her. Willingly or otherwise.

She didn't like that. But it was true.

Everyone has an oppinion and that's good. But obviously not everyone can be correct.

The thing I want to stress to today is this. Always check the answers yourself. Always go and find out for yourself. Don't just believe the word of the person telling you something. Or the one book you just read. If it matters enough to you that you are considering making decisions based on the information, then go and do the homework.

Let's not have a string of missinformed decisions change the course of our personal histories.

What I say is true. Of course, you won't know for sure until you go back and do the homework.

Don't just take my word for it. I'm just some other bloke saying stuff that might not be true.

But I'm not. It's all true.

Unless it isn't.

But I wouldn't do that.

Or would I?

Hmm...

Have a great night.