Opus 2014-7: New Terms: PD

On Monday I was required to attend what is called Professional Development by the education crowd.  This year they had a new name for it, PD.  They may have used it before but I wasn’t listening.  It is new to me.  It is new to you.  If you hear someone talking about PD think of a group of public employees sitting around drinking coffee, collaborating, eating bagels because donuts are so old school, sharing out, writing on newsprint stuck to the wall, taking a lunch break and planning the future of your children.  All of this is done with tax dollars that you paid to the federal government.

There is an expression that I am hearing repeatedly.  I heard it at a meeting several months ago and thought it was the confused rambling of a school district administrator.  It seems to be the going concept for Common Core Curriculum (CCC).  Only educators would come up with a saying as silly as “we are building the airplane as we learn to fly it.”  I don’t know about you but I would not fly on an airline that had that as a slogan.

The future of your children in in the hands of these people.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-6: Rejoining the Working Classes

I had to go back to work yesterday. 

Don’t feel sorry for me, or for any other teacher.

Next time a teacher complains about being underpaid, just give them three words:  Christmas, Easter, Summer.  From my reading, most Americans don’t even take the two weeks vacation that is traditional.  Teachers get that just at Christmas, or, as they say in the trade, Winter break.

I am quite willing to take more money.  I can always use it.  I don’t feel like I am getting rich.  At the same time I don’t feel like I am living on starvation wages either. 

We need to get a handle on the economy.  The government is spending too much.  We teachers are lined up at the government trough just like all those regulators in the IRS.  Hold our feet to the fire.  Don’t make exceptions for education.  We have shown that when you throw throw money at us we just develop a thirst for more.  We spent the whole day in meetings to deal with the new Common Core Curriculum (CCC) I have written about.  They raved about the lady who planned the meeting and her staff of five.  It was shared that this was all being paid for with money from the federal government, money earmarked for this new thing from the elitists.  I made the point several times during the day that with the money they spent on this training they could have restored the librarians to all the middle schools on the district.

But no one was listening.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-5 Should-a-Beens: Highway Revival Day

Wouldn’t it be nice if people who called themselves Christians would act like it?

How about a Highway Revival Day.  Why not have congress pass a resolution for a special day in which all people who claim to follow Jesus drive with patience and kindness.  Think about what that would involve.  No rushing to cut people off.  No passing on the right.  No tailgating to keep anyone from getting in front of me.  No glares.  No texting.  It goes without saying that there would be no one finger salutes.

Certain things would be allowed.  You can sing as you drive.  You can smile at other drivers as long as it is sincere.  None of those carnivore-looking-at-a-rabbit smiles allowed.  You could even pray for the people driving like pagans. 

How would that change our day and our culture?  Dramatically.  Maybe we could call for a series of days in which Christians apply their faith to one point of their lives:  Driving, Sunday shopping, entertainment, tipping in restaurants, etc.

Of course this would move us to the top of the potential terrorist list that the government seems to be compiling.  Relax.  If you are serious about your faith, you are already there.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-4: Kinks to the Right of Me, Kinks to the Left of Me

Back in December I had the car radio on for some reason.  I caught a story about a 22 year old who has been arrested for having sex with his neighbor’s dog.  I would have just let that roll over my consciousness but there was a twist, or what I consider a twist.  Maybe it was a kink.  The charge being brought against the young man was cruelty to animals. 

You read that right. 

There was not a hint of outrage about sodomy or morality.  The outrage was over cruelty to animals.  It may have been cruel, but is that the big issue?  Perhaps it was a consenting relationship.  Was the dog a minor in doggy years? 

What a world.  My guess is that he was not a Republican.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-3: Not a Paid Advertisement

Google gives interesting insights into our culture.

In my other blog, Perpetual Proverbs, I was preparing a post and an old saying came to mind.  “What goes around, comes around.”  I Googled it to get an insight into what it really meant.  Instead of a link to explain the term I was swamped by repeated references to a song by Justin Timberlake.

So we have a culture that defines terms in relation to celebrities, not by actual history.  We live in a world that has lost it’s connection to the past and has no clue to why and how things work.  It is all what the latest heart throb is fixated on.

The most interesting insight I gained by looking down the listing was the word “Karma.”  I had never thought about it but Karma is a good understanding of the saying I was looking up.

I see the same phenomenon when I Google my blog, “Medley of Worship.”  Some guy named Darwin Hobbs dominates the screen.  I am not sure if he recorded an album or a single by that name.  I managed to be number 5 on the list but everything else belonged to him.  I had this title in my mind for a few years before I set up the domain.  If I had waited a little longer it would belong to him.

Find out the values of our culture.  See who is setting the standards.  Google.  (This is not a paid advertisement.)

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-2: Monday Pulpit: Flip Wilson Theology

My mind tends to wander in church.  Often a seed is planted in the sermon or it might come from a totally unknown source.

I ask you, which is worse, “the devil made me do it,” or “God made me do it”?

Most older people are familiar with the Flip Wilson comedy routine and his line, “The devil made me do it.”  Most people understood the root of the humor was in the fact that we all look for excuses in our behavior and the devil is a convenient fall guy.

I would submit that some people use God as the fall guy. 

Some I would categorize as hypocrites or false prophet types.  These are the people that go out and set up kingdoms in the name of God that are really covers for their own dreams of grandeur or frustration.  They use God as a club to force people into submission or brainwash them to conformity.  We all know that and can avoid it with a little thought.

A more dangerous trap is those who live good lives and “follow the rules” but they only do it because they have an unhealthy fear of God and obey grudgingly.  God can coerce and I am sure does at times but being forced to do something is not the heart of being a follower of Christ.  It is not about being forced to be good. 

When we place our trust in Christ what happens is that He defeats the power of sin and rebellion in our hearts and minds.  That makes it possible to do the things God wants to because we want to, not because we are being forced. 

How about an example.  When I am tempted to gossip about someone I can resist through biting my tongue and clamping my jaw.  I can focus on the reality that God is listening and will judge me for what I say.  Or I can allow the love of Christ to control me and make it possible for me to actually want to make things better for the person I could have gossiped about instead of getting satisfaction from doing harm.  Both tendencies are there at the beginning.  The grace of God makes it possible for me to follow my higher inclinations.

Turn your life over to Jesus.  Let God change you.  Take the high road because you like the view, not because you are afraid you will get your shoes wet.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-1: AD, AH or ABHO?

What year is it?

The first few months of the year I have a tendency to forget to write the proper date.  This January I will keep writing 2013 by reflex.  This got be thinking about how the anti-Christian influences in or culture are trying to detatch everything from Christianity.  One way they are doing this is by saying it is 2014 CE instead of A.D. 2014.  They replace the Latin “Anno Domini” which means “Year of the Lord” with “common era.”  The Lord, of course, is Jesus thus this must be changed.

I don’t think that will be good enough for the Progressives.  It is still a date based on the birth of Jesus even if there are disagreements on which year Jesus was really born.  It will soon be time to find a different reference point.

You may have seen some of the alternatives used in other cultures.  To a religious Jew this is the year 5774.  Their date is based on a calculation of lives back to creation.  They arrive at this date by adding 3760 to our traditional year.  Muslims start from the year 622, the Hagira.  This was the year that Mohammad was driven out of Mecca and fled to Medina.  Thus this would be 1392 AH (after Hagira).  I doubt if the current Israel haters in our elite cliches will go with 5774 but I could see some proposing the Muslim dating.

Ancient Rome dated from the establishment of the city of Rome and the beginning of an emperor’s reign.  We have already seen this indicated as a choice by our president.  Remember his words,

“I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.”

So maybe soon we will be getting calendars marked with the date that BHO became president.  That, after all, was the date that things began to really change.

For good or for bad is the question.

Happy New Year?

homo unius libri