There have been many things I could have written today. I thought about writing about how the economy has been said to have turned the corner. I could have written about the layoffs at work. I could write about the beer-flavored potato chips I have found intriguing tonight (for sale at ALDI).
I admit that I am writing with a harder attitude tonight. I am being critical of a public figure. I would be surprised if she reads this because I am sure this is not being picked up by Google.
But it is the eve of Barack Obama being ignaurated as the 44th president of the United States. Some of the idealistic black and white thinkers are expecting him to be the magical liberal who is really going to make changes.
I work during when The View is on but I get to see clips now and then. On this show, I see ignorant people talk about politics. They are far more personalities than they are intellectuals and it shows.
Joy Behar is someone that comes to mind the most. She comes across as the consumate ignorant, self-righteous liberal who talks in black and white terms in all the clips that I have seen. Bush was all bad. Obama is all good. According to my source, she wore her 01-20-2009 button today. Well Joy, you do not have my respect.
For the record, I respect educated liberals. My favorite was the late Patrick Moynihan, senator from New York. I also respected the late Paul Simon, distinguished senator of Illinois (whom I personally met in 1987). On TV, I like Allen Colmes, and I hope FOX puts him back on soon. Eleanor Clift also impressed me. Bob Bechtel also seems to impress me with his ability to give grounded analysis. But Joy is not one of them.
Also For the record, some Marxist analyses such as that by David Harvey and Christopher Pickvance makes sense to me. We can thank them for giving us Urban Political Economy and new objects for study and to give some critical thought about neoliberal economics.
But Joy, I say two words to you: disjointed incrementalism. It is the principle identified by Clarence Lindblom that says government moves slowly and in very messy directions. What this means in our current context is that President Obama is going to be obstructed by Congress--both the DEMOCRATS and the Republicans.
Did you get that Joy? There will be gridlock. We actually like it that way because we as Americans do not like change--contrary to Obama's election campaign slogan. It got the vote of all the overly-idealistic people. The majority of on-fire liberals have no concept of this.
Obama is not going to get all his plans accomplished. He will get very, very few things done. Surveys will show in a few years that the American public will be dissatisfied with him.
Yeah, he will pick a few pieces of low-hanging fruit by executive order, but he will not resolve the Middle-East wars. One of the greatest secrets, Joy, is that both Democrats and Republicans were in favor of us going over there, and many Democrat Representatives to the US House are going to keep their options open for spin purposes in the 2010 elections. They will keep voting for us to be over there to be the iron hand.
Now, if you are reading this, and you are not Joy Behar, I think that the first step in reducing your sense of disappointment about the upcoming months and years of more of the same Washington gridlock, is to accept disjointed incrementalism. Do not expect miracles out of Washington, D.C.
The only way we will get any dramatic change is if there is another national crisis like 09-11-01. The only way we will get nationalized medicine is if there is a national crisis in healthcare. Otherwise, it will be business as usual because to many people have their hands in the pot and have too much money at stake.
Last time I checked, this was America. Yes, you have a choice. You have a choice to think for yourself, even in this time of crisis. Getting some understanding on how government works makes for improved coping in times like these.
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Monday, January 19, 2009
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Keeping your head about Obama. Cool the anti-Christ talk.
I am going to talk about religion today. More precisely, theology. I trust that this will still be interesting.
I was originally going to write about being thankful on this day. I am thankful. My dissertation has been accepted by the graduate school of the University of Louisville, and I am now just waiting for graduation. I am also pondering my next move in my career.
But it was far more interesting to write about Obama and religion. My sister-in-law and my brother were talking at Thanksgiving today about how Obama could be the anti-Christ. My wife discussed with me today on the way home about what other women are saying at our church about Obama. They feel that we are now in the last days or end times. One woman in particular is being very dogmatic about how she feels that we are in the end times (that woman is a borderline who is nothing but emotion).
For those of you who have had a little bit of Sunday School, the academic word for the end times is Eschatology. It comes from the Greek for end Eschatos + logy. It means the study of end things. There are people in our churches that throw around the word as if they know something.
Yes, they probably know something. What they do know is enough to be dangerous and irresponsible.
In my experience, the ones who have thrown around their knowledge about Eschatology have had an inflated sense of self-importance. When I have talked to some of them to flush out their views, they were pretty guarded. There many ways I could go with Eschatology. There are many aspects of it (death, Heaven, judgment). It is also supposed to be a source of comfort—that God knows how things are going to end. However, the parts of Eschatology that most people are interested in has to do with sensational topics of the rapture, the great tribulation and the anti-Christ.
My history or emotional baggage
I grew up in Des Moines in the 1970's. I swear that city was the center of rapture talk. Des Moines was where the movie A Thief in the Night was shot. People I knew or had met were in the movie as supporting actors such as Clarence Balmer (his son Randall is a scholar worth reading).
David Breese, (who had a show on TV before he died, and has a Wikopedia entry) came to my church several times in the 1970's before he became famous. I think mom even had him at the house once.
My pastor at the church preached almost every Sunday night about the end times. At the church I grew up at, the worship choruses included Larry Norman's I'd wish we'd all been ready and Signs of the Times
I was made to listen to Oliver B. Greene, a radio evangelist at bedtime. Greene was from Greenville, South Carolina. Greene only talked about the rapture and the anti-Christ. I had many dreams about the rapture as a child.
I would say that I was immersed if not submerged in it. As an anxious child, I was overwhelmed by it. I had wondered a number of times if I had been left behind?
On top of all that, I have a mother that continues to obsess about the rapture and the anti-Christ. Mom would say frequently that some world figure was the anti-Christ. She watches Jack Van Impe and his wife Rexella.
My Quest
One of my quests when I went to seminary was to decide what I believed in terms of Eschatology. I made it some of my pet projects during breaks to read Eschatology. I chose to make it my optional project in systematic theology. I was out to understand the essence of how people arrived at their views. I sought to understand the difference between pre-tribulation, post-tribulation, pre-millennial, post-millennial and amillennial (no millenium).
I also engaged in conversations with people from other countries around the world. The focus on the anti-christ turned out to be a North American distinctive. People from South America, Europe, India, and Africa were awmillenial.
I tried sitting with an open Bible watching Jack Van Impe and got dizzy. He went too blooming fast and lost me. However, much centered around how he interprets one particular chapter in Ezekiel.
My conclusions
I discovered that for those who were fundamentalists in the north, Dispensational Eschatology was the standard for inerrancy (versus orthodoxy). I moved to the South and found in the 1990's that Southern Baptists focused more on denying women in ministry as the standard for orthodoxy.
I decided that there are many people who hold very similar beliefs on Salvation, Sin, God, Jesus, the Church, but differ very much on how things are going to end. They all believed in the need for a personal faith. They believed in original sin and the need for holiness. They all believed that Jesus was coming back again.
I asked the question: Is it essential to have a particular belief in how the world is going to end? No, it is not. Your view of the rapture is not going to get you into Heaven. I believe that confessing your sins and believing in Jesus as your personal savior is going to get you into Heaven.
Dogmatism about the end times has been more divisive than unifying. I saw too many people obsessing about the end times and it was not productive. They made themselves worry warts.
I also saw that the obsession about the rapture was a North American trait. A fellow student in seminary from India pointed that people around the world have been suffering while people in North America have had it very easy for the better part of 150 years. North America did not have two world wars tear up the landscape like Europe did.
Am I an expert? Hardly. I have decided what I believed. For the record, I am a post-tribulationist. I question whether the 1000 years or millennium will be a literal thousand years or a figurative amount of time.
How did I arrive at my view: it was about the interpretation method. What is the context of the scripture? As a result, I do not let the newspapers interpret the Bible for me.
Did my mother like my own opinion? No. She questioned whether I was even saved?
Some lay people even tried to convince me otherwise in 1990. When I did a student chaplaincy in 1990, I stayed with a retired pastor and his wife. The second question that came out of the pastor's wife was about my view of the end times. They had some friends who wanted to argue with me. They had no insight into how they were reading things into the scripture.
People who tend to focus if not obsess about end times things tend to be overtly emotional. They are black and white in their thinking. When their little worlds get shaken, they jump to conclusions which includes labeling people as being the anti-Christ.
For many, Barack Obama is a powerful symbol of change. He is a (really bi-racial) black American who by his very ethnicity is a change. He is the second change of magnitude in the past eight years with the 9-11 attacks. Again, many people's world views are shaken—they are accustomed to a white man in the White House.
I frankly think that Obama at best will be a doctrinaire democrat. I expect that he will do many of the mainstream things that other presidents do. He will have a low popularity rate in year 3, and maybe years 6 and 7 (should he be re-elected).
I expect my taxes to go up with his policies. However, my freedoms as a United States citizen will be unchanged. I will still have the right to pursue happiness.
Obama may have some connections to some Arabs. Yeah, but he will be subject to the same laws and restrictions that all presidents have been subject to. He will not be a dictator. The United States is still a republic with a representative democracy.
My Admonitions
So, Republicans, let's lay off the anti-Christ talk. You have choices, go campaign for your candidates with passion in 2010 and 2012.
Otherwise, live your life and take care of your day to day business. It does no good to obsess about who is the anti-Christ. Work for justice, show mercy to others and walk humbly with God.
I also would recommend that you avoid the Left Behind books, the Left Behind movie and the Jack Van Impe TV show. The Left Behind books are not the Bible. Furthermore, I find the Van Impe show to be of little practical value for someone who really wants to learn about the end times.
I am not trying to take food from any one's mouth, but if you must read Hal Lindsey or John Walvoord, also read something from George Ladd or Millard Erickson (good book on the options) to balance your picture of Eschatology. If you are looking for these books, Amazon or any of the online book sellers can hook you up with these authors.
Well, if you have questions, feel free to post them.
I was originally going to write about being thankful on this day. I am thankful. My dissertation has been accepted by the graduate school of the University of Louisville, and I am now just waiting for graduation. I am also pondering my next move in my career.
But it was far more interesting to write about Obama and religion. My sister-in-law and my brother were talking at Thanksgiving today about how Obama could be the anti-Christ. My wife discussed with me today on the way home about what other women are saying at our church about Obama. They feel that we are now in the last days or end times. One woman in particular is being very dogmatic about how she feels that we are in the end times (that woman is a borderline who is nothing but emotion).
For those of you who have had a little bit of Sunday School, the academic word for the end times is Eschatology. It comes from the Greek for end Eschatos + logy. It means the study of end things. There are people in our churches that throw around the word as if they know something.
Yes, they probably know something. What they do know is enough to be dangerous and irresponsible.
In my experience, the ones who have thrown around their knowledge about Eschatology have had an inflated sense of self-importance. When I have talked to some of them to flush out their views, they were pretty guarded. There many ways I could go with Eschatology. There are many aspects of it (death, Heaven, judgment). It is also supposed to be a source of comfort—that God knows how things are going to end. However, the parts of Eschatology that most people are interested in has to do with sensational topics of the rapture, the great tribulation and the anti-Christ.
My history or emotional baggage
I grew up in Des Moines in the 1970's. I swear that city was the center of rapture talk. Des Moines was where the movie A Thief in the Night was shot. People I knew or had met were in the movie as supporting actors such as Clarence Balmer (his son Randall is a scholar worth reading).
David Breese, (who had a show on TV before he died, and has a Wikopedia entry) came to my church several times in the 1970's before he became famous. I think mom even had him at the house once.
My pastor at the church preached almost every Sunday night about the end times. At the church I grew up at, the worship choruses included Larry Norman's I'd wish we'd all been ready and Signs of the Times
I was made to listen to Oliver B. Greene, a radio evangelist at bedtime. Greene was from Greenville, South Carolina. Greene only talked about the rapture and the anti-Christ. I had many dreams about the rapture as a child.
I would say that I was immersed if not submerged in it. As an anxious child, I was overwhelmed by it. I had wondered a number of times if I had been left behind?
On top of all that, I have a mother that continues to obsess about the rapture and the anti-Christ. Mom would say frequently that some world figure was the anti-Christ. She watches Jack Van Impe and his wife Rexella.
My Quest
One of my quests when I went to seminary was to decide what I believed in terms of Eschatology. I made it some of my pet projects during breaks to read Eschatology. I chose to make it my optional project in systematic theology. I was out to understand the essence of how people arrived at their views. I sought to understand the difference between pre-tribulation, post-tribulation, pre-millennial, post-millennial and amillennial (no millenium).
I also engaged in conversations with people from other countries around the world. The focus on the anti-christ turned out to be a North American distinctive. People from South America, Europe, India, and Africa were awmillenial.
I tried sitting with an open Bible watching Jack Van Impe and got dizzy. He went too blooming fast and lost me. However, much centered around how he interprets one particular chapter in Ezekiel.
My conclusions
I discovered that for those who were fundamentalists in the north, Dispensational Eschatology was the standard for inerrancy (versus orthodoxy). I moved to the South and found in the 1990's that Southern Baptists focused more on denying women in ministry as the standard for orthodoxy.
I decided that there are many people who hold very similar beliefs on Salvation, Sin, God, Jesus, the Church, but differ very much on how things are going to end. They all believed in the need for a personal faith. They believed in original sin and the need for holiness. They all believed that Jesus was coming back again.
I asked the question: Is it essential to have a particular belief in how the world is going to end? No, it is not. Your view of the rapture is not going to get you into Heaven. I believe that confessing your sins and believing in Jesus as your personal savior is going to get you into Heaven.
Dogmatism about the end times has been more divisive than unifying. I saw too many people obsessing about the end times and it was not productive. They made themselves worry warts.
I also saw that the obsession about the rapture was a North American trait. A fellow student in seminary from India pointed that people around the world have been suffering while people in North America have had it very easy for the better part of 150 years. North America did not have two world wars tear up the landscape like Europe did.
Am I an expert? Hardly. I have decided what I believed. For the record, I am a post-tribulationist. I question whether the 1000 years or millennium will be a literal thousand years or a figurative amount of time.
How did I arrive at my view: it was about the interpretation method. What is the context of the scripture? As a result, I do not let the newspapers interpret the Bible for me.
Did my mother like my own opinion? No. She questioned whether I was even saved?
Some lay people even tried to convince me otherwise in 1990. When I did a student chaplaincy in 1990, I stayed with a retired pastor and his wife. The second question that came out of the pastor's wife was about my view of the end times. They had some friends who wanted to argue with me. They had no insight into how they were reading things into the scripture.
People who tend to focus if not obsess about end times things tend to be overtly emotional. They are black and white in their thinking. When their little worlds get shaken, they jump to conclusions which includes labeling people as being the anti-Christ.
For many, Barack Obama is a powerful symbol of change. He is a (really bi-racial) black American who by his very ethnicity is a change. He is the second change of magnitude in the past eight years with the 9-11 attacks. Again, many people's world views are shaken—they are accustomed to a white man in the White House.
I frankly think that Obama at best will be a doctrinaire democrat. I expect that he will do many of the mainstream things that other presidents do. He will have a low popularity rate in year 3, and maybe years 6 and 7 (should he be re-elected).
I expect my taxes to go up with his policies. However, my freedoms as a United States citizen will be unchanged. I will still have the right to pursue happiness.
Obama may have some connections to some Arabs. Yeah, but he will be subject to the same laws and restrictions that all presidents have been subject to. He will not be a dictator. The United States is still a republic with a representative democracy.
My Admonitions
So, Republicans, let's lay off the anti-Christ talk. You have choices, go campaign for your candidates with passion in 2010 and 2012.
Otherwise, live your life and take care of your day to day business. It does no good to obsess about who is the anti-Christ. Work for justice, show mercy to others and walk humbly with God.
I also would recommend that you avoid the Left Behind books, the Left Behind movie and the Jack Van Impe TV show. The Left Behind books are not the Bible. Furthermore, I find the Van Impe show to be of little practical value for someone who really wants to learn about the end times.
I am not trying to take food from any one's mouth, but if you must read Hal Lindsey or John Walvoord, also read something from George Ladd or Millard Erickson (good book on the options) to balance your picture of Eschatology. If you are looking for these books, Amazon or any of the online book sellers can hook you up with these authors.
Well, if you have questions, feel free to post them.
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