Category Archives: Homelessness

* I don’t believe in belief. Here’s why.

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Arnie (not his real name) has been the sole student of my course on effective prayer.

Sunday after church he told me he’d found a couple online resources about effective prayer, that he hoped we could review together.  Each of them begins with the necessity of “belief.”

When he said this, I became nervous.  There are many such sources online, but I’m not comfortable with them.  On the one hand, trying to make myself “believe” that the outcome I pray for is inevitable, feels too much like wading into the world of delusion.  On the other hand, although there are many New Testament references to “belief” in connection with prayer, I’m convinced that either (a) those expressions don’t come from the historical Jesus himself, or else (b) Jesus used that term to mean something very different from what we normally take it to mean today.

None of those whom I regard as experts in the field ever refer to belief this way.  Never.  Not once.  Ever.

By Monday afternoon, I would feel my reservations had been powerfully confirmed.

Related:  From my diary: Learning to pray
Related:  I will not be disappointed
Related:  When prayer backfires
Continue reading * I don’t believe in belief. Here’s why. →

* The Freddie Gray demonstrations

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As of Monday, 04/27/15, let me say this.  We had five days of completely orderly demonstrations.  Only after that did the interlopers arrive, and only after that did any trouble begin.

Everybody, I think, wants certain things.  We want to find out the facts.  We want appropriate prosecutions, if warranted.  We want …

I’ve just read this article, which indicates interlopers were indeed allowed to address the crowd at the original gathering Saturday 2015-04-25.  They said things I do not believe any native Baltimorean would have said.  They had to rationalize their presence, and in my judgment, failed.

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* Sterling’s companion done in by her own words, recordings

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Bookmarks:
Sterling’s companion done in by her own words, recordings • These devastating videos shatter every stereotype about the homeless • Child abuse • Dr. Oz Needs to Go, Other Docs Say • Telepathy in the news •

Continue reading * Sterling’s companion done in by her own words, recordings →

* The great questions of our time

Career goals, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Local news, National media, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of Peace, The William Tell Show, , , , , ,

In recent weeks it has been a matter of some chagrin to me that my Yahoo! News feed keeps bringing articles from major outlets that prove in my estimation to have far less merit than my own; while my own work continues to be ignored.

Frankly, it seems to me that my work is on a par with that of the Washington Post columnists.  I see myself as in that league.  If I can find my way there, my goal would be not so much to set forth my own views, as to alter the direction of public discourse; to influence, perhaps even at a national level, the way people talk about the great questions of our time.

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* The omen

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He might take me to some unknown location,
and zap out on me, and I’d become a statistic.

Tuesday 2015-03-31

This morning at Dunkin’ Donuts, about 8:45 I stood in line with my arms crossed behind my back, clenching a $5 bill in my left hand. It occurred to me that at McDonald’s, only 100 yards away, I’d never do that. If I did that at McDonald’s, someone would surely snatch the bill and run.

This thought proved to be an omen.

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* I will not be disappointed.

Bible, Homelessness, Job search/Job prospects, OUR BEST POSTS,

Friday  2015-03-27

Yesterday in shower I decided to think about things I’d like to have happen.  I settled on dreaming of having a cat: a black and white cat; playing with it, petting it, holding it, feeding it, cleaning up.

This vision has positive ramifications:  it implies I have my own apartment, and that implies I have a decent job.  My own place, my own food, my own clothes:  as far as material things are concerned, I want no more than that out of life.

Continue reading * I will not be disappointed. →

* Dogmatism vs. pragmatism

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A post from a thread at Messiah Truth where we were discussing “Embracing what is.”

This morning as I waited outside for library to open, that remark about what they give us in chapel was still on my mind.

This is a tangent, and a stretch of the forum rules, so if this post isn’t released, I’ll understand.

“The Five Old Guys” present to us two, sometimes three times a month: the third Monday, fourth Wednesday, and fifth Wednesday, if there is one.  Some months ago, for the Scripture lesson, Bro. Wayne gave us a highly redacted version of Matthew 25:31ff.  I don’t believe this text comes from J., but it’s still one of the focal passages of the GT.

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* Hell has an exit.

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“Embracing what is,” a four-part series:
• As seen on TV: The new, improved hubris
• Belief: The unforgivable sin
• Rationalism cannot save us.
• Hell has an exit.

———— ♦ ————

Night-Sky
Connect the dots however you like. Can you connect them all?

The Serenity Prayer does not depend on belief in God, but rather expresses basic principles of life:

God, grant me
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

This pertains to where one directs one’s attention, how one chooses to feel, and where one focuses one’s desires. These are acts not of the mind, but of the will.

Jeffrey Tayler says, “Given the possibility that terrorists may acquire weapons of mass destruction and nuclear states with faith-based conflicts may let fly their missiles, religion may be said to endanger humanity as a whole. No one who cares about our future can quietly abide the continuing propagation and influence of apocalyptic fables that large numbers of people take seriously and not raise a loud, persistent, even strident cry of alarm.”[15]

Fact: those who direct Iran’s nuclear program aren’t likely to listen to an atheist American Islamophobe.

Continue reading * Hell has an exit. →