Opus 2022-090: A New Strategy

The spam bots have found me again.  Where did I go wrong?

Then I put on my tin foil hat.  It really helps me think.  I wonder if this is a new plot by social media.  Instead of banning us they have decided to change their algorithm to start sending ridiculous responses to guilty parties.  At least it isn’t offers of generic Viagra or Russian brides, or at least not yet.

Am I being paranoid or are they really after me?  Could it be both?

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-089: Craven Conformity

The older I get the more I realize my education has some serious vacuums.  Some is total lack of information.  Other times it is a slanted and distorted narrative that is off base enough to give a total lie to what I think is truth.  The resistance of Christians in German to the rise of the Third Reich is one of those areas.

I had always heard that the church cooperated with Hitler and was joined at the hip with him and his perversions.  I am currently reading Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas and as he works through the life of the man I find that there was a very active and adamant attempt by the real Christians of Germany to keep the faith.

Bonhoeffer is famous for being executed shortly before the prison was liberated at the end of World War II.  He had been involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler.  He was arrested and condemned.  What gets lost in the shuffle is his life long opposition and defiance to the Nazis.  He worked with the leaders of the ecumenical movement to censure the attempts to turn the German church into an arm of the socialist state.  Obviously he did not succeed but that is not because he did not try or because there were not others involved in the resistance.

I am only half way through the book at this point but I see many parallels with the spiritual condition of the United States.  The majority of American churches and pastors are more concerned about fitting in and being comfortable than presenting the truths of the Bible to a needy culture.  Bonhoeffer ran into this in Europe.  They seem to think Paul said to be conformed to this world in Romans 12:2.

There are so many parallels to what is happening in the United States and what went on in the great upheavals of the French Revolution, Russian Revolution and the rise of the Third Reich.  I wish people would pay attention.  I pray to that effect.

Think.  Speak out.  Dare to be counted if given the opportunity.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-088: Oxymoron Coffee

I am staying in a time share and in a moment of curiosity used the coffee they had left me.  It was labeled “gourmet roast coffee”.  I am sure that somewhere there is someone who does not drink coffee that thinks that might be true.  If you keep reading you see that it is decaffeinated.  My coffee snob credentials are still in the mail, along with my check, so I am not sure I am qualified to make a value judgement but it seems to me the words “decaffeinated” and “gourmet” are not meant to be printed on the same surface.  

Have you been in those coffee roaster stores that have lots of open bags of coffee beans?  Each variety is labeled with the name and an exotic description of the unique qualities of the coffee below.  It has been a long time and I was not looking at the time but I don’t think the coffees that were priced in the $60.00 a pound range came in decaffeinated.  

I could be wrong and as hard as it is to imagine, I could be right.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-087: Monetizing Wokeness

Perhaps we have the making of two new team mascots for the NFL.  I found the inspiration in my previous post.  Two unclaimed monikers are the Deplorables and the Abjects.  

What a headline that would be, Deplorables vs Abjects in the Victim Bowl.

Sponsors would fight for advertising privileges.  Think of all the CEO’s that would want to claim a place to take a stand against White Privilege.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-086: Pick Your Adjectives and Nouns

Most real Americans both guffawed and gnashed their teeth when Hillary called us “deplorables”.  Obama got the same reaction when he talked about how real Americans cling to guns and religion.  King David had a better line in Psalms, which I read this morning.

(Psa 35:15 KJV)  But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:

Notice that he called those he had contempt for “abjects”.  I like that.  

In Psalms the Abjects were the people who did not cling to religion and swords.  They were the ones who mocked David while he was sick.

While I am here notice that David had been praying for them when they were sick.

(Psa 35:13-4 KJV)  But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.  I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.

People who hate America don’t seem to understand why we are different.  One of the key Christian concepts in of our culture, or maybe I should say “was in our culture”, is to love our enemies.  What many don’t realize is that the basic concept is rooted in the Old Testament.  All Jesus did was preach what the Jews already knew.

So all you Abjects out there, get to praying for the President and our political leaders.  Just because they seem to hate God doesn’t meant that you can’t link their name to “Thy will be done.”  There may be a few pastors that you can add to the list.

Get with it you deplorable Abjects, or is it abject Deplorables?

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-085: Time Tested Fantasy of Scholars

I am exploring the world of You Tube.  Jordan Peterson is popular right now and with You Tube it is possible to get a feel for who he is without having to spend money on a book I don’t read.  I think one video I watched was a speech he gave on his 12 rules book.

I find that I don’t like videos that are snippets.  Usually they are click bait that doesn’t deliver.  In regard to Peterson one blurb said something about the stunning question he asked Bill Maher.  I watched it and didn’t see anything stunning about his question.  In fact it was a typical liberal set up where he said something and a group of four liberals started with their talking points.  Instead I watch his interviews and lectures.

He has a series of lectures on the Bible.  In the first one he says,

“There’s four sources in the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible—four stories that we know came together. The first one was called the Priestly.”

What he is talking about stems from something called Textual Criticism.  It is a legitimate attempt by scholars to try to figure out what the original documents said.  Keep in mind that we do not have any of the originals, called autographs, for either the Old Testament or New Testament.  Scholars work from copies of copies, done by hand over the years.  The honest ones are trying for truth but keep in mind that Biblical scholarship has its share of charlatans and glory hounds.  Always keep in mind what their real goal is.

This topic was old when I studied it 45 years ago.  The earliest reference that I could find was in 1753 and claimed two sources.  What Peterson is referring to goes back to the 1870's and a German called Wellhausen.   The end result he is referring to is called the PJED theory.  I learned it as the JEDP theory.  How you arrange the letters depends on how you are trying to make yourself famous in the book you are writing.  Much of their claims have been refuted by archeology.  If you want to look into it there are serious problems with the claims.

The problem with textual analysis and PJED is not the scientific review of the text.  What is, is.  The problem is the same issue we have with the “science” of global warming.  The conclusion is reached before the computer models are assembled and the output is guaranteed because the “scholars” come with an agenda.  Just because the “research” was done before computers does not mean that scholars were unable to adjust their evidence to lead to a forgone conclusion.

Keep in mind the foundations people have.  As a person who believes in the God of the Bible, I make certain assumptions and go from there.  Atheists and tepid believers start from different sets of facts.  The agenda of the PJED crowd was the same that I see in so much literature today, both fiction and pseudo-non fiction:  They are trying to elevate the limited vision of men over the omniscience of God.  It is the Eden Syndrom:  Ye can become as Gods.

Some things never change.    

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-084: We Are All Geniuses

One of the things I like is when egg-heads have marvelous “insights” that every parent could come up with if they thought it was worth writing a book about.  Here is one shared by Jordan Peterson in his third lecture of his Biblical Series.

“One of the things I really like about Jean Piaget, the development psychologist, was that he was so insistent that children act out and dramatize ideas before they understand them. Merlin Donald, who is a psychologist at Queen’s University, wrote a couple of interesting books along those lines, as well, looking at the importance of imitation for the development of higher cognition in human beings. The notion that we embody ideas before we abstract them out, and then represent them in an articulated way, is an extraordinarily solid idea. I really can't see how it could be any other way. If you watch children, you see that.”

He then goes on at length how this is demonstrated by children.  I would guess that his audience is made up of childless individuals who never had brothers or sisters.  My reaction is, “Well, duh.”

homo unius libri