The Dish Thread “What’s a Bisexual Anyway”

Posted on April 8, 2014 by PaulVK

The Dish

In the June 19 edition there’s a long story of a man and his journey.

There is much fluidity and much striving for definition. What is a definition in our cultural context? Are these sexual-identity platonists? Fascinating.

NYT on bisexuality

Posted in Daily Links and Notes | Leave a comment

CT: 5 Things that surprised me when I moved to a secular job

Posted on April 8, 2014 by PaulVK

ht: Voices via Bill Vis

CT Leadership Journal

  1. In ministry it’s harder to leave work at work.
  2. Public vs. private: in ministry there is an expectation of a personal relationship
  3. Criticism in ministry tends to be more personal
  4. Charitable giving vs. pay for service
  5. Working with volunteers rather than paid employees.
Posted in Institutional Church | Leave a comment

Suicide as Contagion

Posted on April 8, 2014 by PaulVK
Posted in Daily Links and Notes | Leave a comment

Jesus Creed on Bonhoeffer’s Life Together

Posted on April 8, 2014 by PaulVK

Jesus Creed

Posted in Daily Links and Notes | Leave a comment

This Preacher’s Monday Morning Therapy

Posted on April 7, 2014 by PaulVK

Blog Reading

I usually try to do some blog reading on Monday mornings. On some Monday mornings I’m particularly weary and needy. Not all, just sometimes.

So I’m reading a particularly well done blog post by someone offering some very helpful information. I also read a new blog by a friend of mine earlier and was going to drop the silly comment on his Facebook page “blogging is a waste of time” just because I believe it isn’t.

So I’m reading the post about Bart Ehrman’s book and the thought bubbles up “what do I want from blogging?”

Of course my defensive self jumps up and says “I want to be helpful, write helpful things, practice writing, keep my list of links and thoughts…” but the more honest critic of my needy, small self says “you want to be noticed, you want attention, you want to be loved, valued, validated.”

Yup. Those needs are there. They are valid needs. I just have to keep my eye on them so that they don’t become rats in the basement chewing the beams, the wiring or the plumbing.

So as I’m reading this fine blog piece thinking “Do I pay attention to the writer of that piece?”

I might add that author to my feedly feed, or I might not. I’m fickle about what I devote subscribe to. More mysterious stuff below the surface sometimes. Sometimes it just depends on what time I have. I subscribed to my friend’s new blog because he’s my friend and I want to read him because I love him, no matter what he writes. If his mom does feedly she will too.

(ADHD also hits hard on Monday mornings if the blues are there too…)

Mostly I care about the piece (the Ehrman piece), not so much the author. I value how he took the time to lay out the books so I can evaluate them without spending the time or the money to necessarily go through them. I make a link list so if I want to find this stuff again I can. I used the information, the author is incidental to me at the moment.

Your Well-being At My Expense Continue reading →

Posted in Devotional Reflection, Pastoral Identity | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Bart Ehrman’s book and the Response Book

Posted on April 7, 2014 by PaulVK
Posted in Link Compilations | 2 Comments

Millennials, Pluralism and Indecision

Posted on April 7, 2014 by PaulVK

NYT

We anxiously avoid casting moral judgment. Because with absolute truths elusive, what claims do we have to insist that our moral positions are better than those of someone from a different nation or culture?

Consider the challenge we might face when confronted with videos from the popular youth-oriented news outlet Vice. Here, viewers can watch videos of communities, from across the globe, participating in a host of culturally specific activities, ranging from excessive forms of eating to ritual violence to bestiality. While the greater Western culture may denounce these acts, a substantial millennial constituency would hesitate to condemn them, in the interest of embracing “difference.”

Posted in Daily Links and Notes | Leave a comment

Barbara Ehrenreich writes about her experience of God

Posted on April 6, 2014 by PaulVK

Barbara Ehrenreich author of Nickel and Dimed has a new book coming out. Clearly the book promotion, a bunch of interviews

No. What happens is, here you have this amazing, charismatic, madly generous Jesus, who says that when someone asks for your coat, give him not just your coat but your cloak also. Someone sues you in the court of law, give him everything. Then he turns into God, or the Son of God, and becomes the risen Christ. Now everything changes. Because now there is a personal selfish goal to be achieved in following this faith. To get into heaven. To get into heaven.

Posted in Link Compilations | 1 Comment

Why Do Zebras have Stripes? What is the answer beneath the question?

Posted on April 6, 2014 by PaulVK

The Dish

What strikes me about the question and the theoried answers is how the premise behind the answers are leading. “Why” is assumed to be answered by a Darwinian motivation, survival. The stripes must (we assume) contribute to their competitive advantage. The “why” can’t include, we imagine an aesthetic motivation, which is probably a principle motivation by us for our interest in them. We do the same with beautiful birds or insects talking about mating advantages, etc.

This isn’t to say that there isn’t validity in all of that, but consider the opposite. Why are there so many counter-productive elements in biology? Why haven’t we evolved beings to not die? Why don’t we reproduce more? Why aren’t we stronger, faster, etc? Surely all of these things would be beneficial to our survival? These questions we don’t ask. Why not?

Posted in Daily Links and Notes | 3 Comments

Jewish Philosopher explains how he’s a religious naturalist

Posted on April 6, 2014 by PaulVK

NYT

  • can be a mathematician without a belief in the metaphysical existence of numbers
Posted in Daily Links and Notes | Leave a comment