Don’t torture your conscience over whether or not, on any given occasion, to give or not give to a panhandler.
Go with your gut.
Monthly Archives: December 2016
Arctic vortex
Back when I was a child, in Ohio in the early 1960s, I can remember times when temperatures dropped into the teens, or even significantly below zero. There would sometimes be thick frost on the windows. (Does that still happen in Ohio now? I wonder how cold it must get for that to happen.) No one used the language “polar vortex” or “arctic vortex” back then. Maybe — 50 years ago — such language did not yet exist.
Jesus’ outrageous parables
(Originally posted 10/11/13. Transcribed from an e-mail I sent my mother 24 August 2010.)
Jesus said any number of things in large part, at least, for shock value.
Their outrageousness is easily lost on 21st Century students, for two reasons. First, we have heard or read these things so many times that any shock value they might have at first had for us — when we first heard them, say, perhaps at age 4 or age 5 — has long since worn off. We’re not likely to remember it, and also not likely to give the opinions of our 4- or 5-year-old selves, the credit they, in this case, deserve.
Second, by virtue of “respect for authority,” for centuries students of Chrstianity have trained themselves to ignore, deny or suppress any outrage they might feel at anything The Teacher says. Instead, one expects oneself and all one’s fellow students, approvingly, to “tip my hat … take a bow … smile and grin …”[*]
[*]The Who, “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
“BLESSÈD ARE YOU POOR.”
Continue reading Jesus’ outrageous parables
Poverty, not racism, causes the achievement gap
Arnesha Bowers update
2016-11-10 – 2 plead guilty in rape, killing of 16-year-old Baltimore girl
2016-11-29 – Testimony Played Again in Teenager’s Case of Arnesha Bowers’ Murder
2016-12-02 – Jury returns partial verdict in Raeshawn Rivers trial
2016-12-05 – After Split Jury, Teen Accused In Bowers Murder To Be Retried In March
I continue to be scandalized over what I perceive as a lack of outrage, as indifference, in the community over this crime.
Previous posts:
– 2015-06-22 – Burglars rape, murder, burn high school junior
– 2016-04-04 – Names with issues; issues with names
About the Parable of the Talents
Main points:
(1) God always provides more than you need.
(2) Use well what you’ve got now; only then will you get more.
(3) What you abuse, you lose.
(4) Absent a disease process, chronic poverty is not a natural condition.
I write as a man with next to nothing, concerned principally for others who have next to nothing. God put me in this position for a reason.
I am strongly tempted to want to rename it “The Parable of the Bootstraps.”
What’s a “talent?”
“Worth his weight in gold.”
A talent was an amount of money intended to correspond to a man’s weight in gold. Thus, a man who possessed a single talent could be said to be “worth his weight in gold.”
But just how much money was this?
The Parable of the Talents
(Originally posted 10/08/13.)
Matthew 25:
14 “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
24 “Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’
26 “But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’[”]
On the one hand, I don’t believe Jesus ever said these words. (Link) On the other hand, I firmly believe in the principles expressed, and will have occasion to refer to this text many times.
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