The Caricaturization of American Morality

Caricatures affect how we see and react to the world around us. It's nothing new, the caricature. It has been used in politics by way of the political cartoon  for perhaps centuries. But the cartoon was only a type and shadow of the real influence that would arrive with motion media. The Church's overall image has suffered seriously with the advent of moving image caricatures. Caricatures paint an unrealistic picture of the Church and her people by accentuating negative aspects, both perceived and real while down playing or ignoring positive aspects.
This has in two ways built a wall between the Church and the culture it serves. The first, and by far the worst way is by distorting how Christians see themselves. One example of this can be found in the book "UN Christian", by David Kinnaman. (1) Kinnaman tells of A church in the Los Angeles area that did a five-week series of talks called "Confessions of a Sinful Church". To promote this event a team passed out postcards at local college campuses with a list of five apologies by the Church:

1. We're Sorry for Our self-Righteousness and Hypocrisy.


2. We're Sorry for Our Endorsement of Slavery


3. We're Sorry for Our Mistreatment of Homosexuals


4. We're Sorry for the Medieval Crusades


5. We're Sorry for Saying the Earth Is Flat

Kinnaman doesn't elaborate on the content of these talks but the questions themselves seem to apologize for a portrait of the Church painted through the use of caricatures by men whom Jesus prophesied would hate and persecute her. (2) As a result these apologies appear pathetic. They center around a distorted view that the Church sees of herself when she buys into the assertions of a caricature that is at best a misunderstanding, and at worst hate filled and intentionally twisted. Perhaps it would be better if the Church apologized for seeing herself through the eyes of her accuser rather than the eyes of her Groom.
Secondly is the wall that exists because of the caricaturized picture that the culture has adopted of the Church. This is more understandable because the Church is supposed to be a light to the culture it serves and as Jesus said, men love the darkness rather than the light. (3) As a recovering heathen myself I personally garnered great comfort in pointing my finger at the failings and presuppositions I had of the Church and it's people. This of course allowed me to ignore my own failings rather than seek redemption.

(1) Un Christian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Baker Books. Page 55-56
(2) John 15:18-20
(3) John 3:19

She called 911, So

Latreasa Goodman is in trouble with the Ft Pierce police because she called 911 three times on March 4th because McDonald's was out of Chicken McNuggets. At first glance this would seem outrageous, but this is one time I'm agreeing with the perp.

There's a couple of things to consider here. It is the policy of the McDonalds in question that all sales are final. Goodman ordered her McNuggets, and as is the custom, paid before receiving her order. I suppose in the yellow McWorld of Ronald McDonald that constituted a sale but there's one problem; the restaurant didn't have any McNuggets to sell that day. The store was happy however to give Goodman something else on the menu but refused to return her money.

Granted, this is no reason to call 911 but consider her circumstances. She was probably educated in a government school where it was drilled into her head for six hours a day for practically her entire life that the government was the solution to all her problems. Furthermore she was likely not taught anything about how government works and what to do when a huge gigantic worldwide chain store basically steals her four dollars and ninety eight cents.

In addition to this, I'm sure she has cable TV and has seen this on the evening news. Perhaps, given Ft Myers' proximity to Ft Pierce, she was actually there when the video below was taken:





It no doubt is a new day and change has come. There is a man in the White House who obviously cares about the plight of people like Goodman, so perhaps he will personally step in and solve all her problems.

McDonalds on the other hand is trying to turn this notoriety into free commercial time for their tasty McNuggets. They have agreed with her that they had done wrong and offered to refund her money, plus a free meal. I'm not one to side with trial lawyers normally but with this is one I wouldn't mind seeing one take a nice little bite out of McDonald's year end financial statement.

An Addition to TNWOA Dictionary

Moderate-Always a Republican and best described as thus: Consider if money were principles. Someone tries to steal a hundred bucks. When caught the thief says "OK I'll only take fifty and we both will be winners; you won't look greedy and I still get something out of the deal." A moderate thinks this is a good idea.

A Conservative's Perspective

So Bob wakes up in the morning after a night with a prostitute. He goes down town, walks into a bank and robs it. In the process he murders four women after a hostage crises develops. Incredibly, he manages to get away with millions and on the way home stops by a Circle K to pick up a couple of copies of his favorite porn magazines. While there he notices a kid in the store slipping a piece of bubble gum into his pocket. He meets the kid outside and tells him that stealing is wrong.

Question: Given the circumstances surrounding the kid's accuser, was stealing wrong for that kid?

In the world of present day politics, maybe not. We can expect to hear in the coming days an "everybody does it" defense for broken campaign promises. This will serve only to muddy the waters because even though this might be true to some extent, read my lips when I say this, it always seems worse when a certain Party is guilty of it. The idea that breaking campaign promises is bad for America is thus averted.

The New World Order American Dictionary

The New World Order American Dictionary

Compassion - giving someone else's money to the poor.

Constitution- an archaic and historic but mostly meaningless document upon which judges can inject and attach mechanisms to legislate grand experiments in their attempts to achieve utopia.

Controversial-conservative

Diversity - A process used in hiring workers based on everything other than qualifications for the job. ie, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

Environmentalism-The established religion of the United States of America. Of course being "established" tithing is compulsory except that it is called taxation.

Gay-A victim class unique in that it admits white males

Government-An entity representing a bottomless pit of money

Greed-disagreement with Liberals on fiscal policies

Hate-the opinion of a person who disagrees with a Liberal on social issues.

Hate Monger-a person who all can hate guilt-free.

Legislation-a vehicle upon which pork is attached

Love-sex

Moderate-Moderate-Always a Republican and best described as thus: Consider if money were principles. Someone tries to steal a hundred bucks. When caught the thief says "OK I'll only take fifty and we both will be winners; you won't look greedy and I still get something out of the deal. A moderate thinks this is a good idea.

Objective Journalism -these words are mostly obsolete but are still occasionally used by self deluded journalist who are trying to appear objective or to conceal their blatantly obvious bias.

Pork-The purchase of power with other people's money

Poor- Must subsist on dog food in order to pay cable bill

Racist- One who believes that a person should not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Separation of Powers- be aware that the meaning of this phrase is somewhat flexible depending on how many branches of government are controlled by Republicans. For example, during the battle over Bush's judge appointments it meant that no party should control all three branches. But now it seems to have shifted back to its original meaning as far as the Legislative and Administrative branches are concerned. There is hope that the Judaical branch will be joining soon.

Social Justice-Some people are fabulously wealthy, some are not. Social Justice is the act of fixing that. It must be noted that the "fixers" are exempt. These would include certain billionaires, media officials, party members and entertainment personnel. The exempted may be as fabulously well to do as they like. Note: These exemptions are not necessarily constrained to wealth, they are also exempt from negative environmental judgements as well.

Special Interest-any grass-roots movement that is conservative. I.e. Planned Parenthood would not be considered one of those evil special interest groups, the "National Right to Life" organisation most definatly is.

LOL (Laugh out Loud)

I saw it first in a Washington Post story yesterday. I do not as a rule read any further than the article titles because I already pretty much know what the stories are going to be, but yesterday I took the bate on this one and read the first paragraph, but not before I LOL. The headline was "Obama's First Budget Seeks To Trim Deficit". (I am finding an incredulous grin on my face even as I write. I can't help it; I know its horrible, but elections have consequences.) It said all I needed to know. He is going to raise taxes on the "wealthy", and cut spending on the military.

I suppose I'm suppose to believe that this is going to trim the deficit that has been increased through pork barrel spending three quarters of a trillion dollars since being in office one month, with more on the way. I would cry I suppose but there will be plenty of opportunity for that later. For the time being I'll be suspending disbelief and L'ingOL.

A Tid Bit of Change

Many have been asking about the "change" that has happened and is happening. Well there's certainly a mountain of it that has come with yet more on its way. Here is some change that might have escaped many people's mind. Hillary Clinton exclaimed these words in a speech: "I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you are not patriotic and we should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration." One change is for certain; this, evidently, is no longer true.

Lincoln, the great unifier?

For some reason I've never liked the abbreviation LOL, which I think means Laugh out Loud. But I was just listening to the radio and heard the top of the hour news report.

It was reported that President Obama said Lincoln was a great unifier today in a speech; or something to that effect. This actually made me LOL. I've said often that the meaning of words are being changed and I suppose this is an example.

This is scary when you think about it though because if these pictures are any indications of unity, then we all should pray hard for less of it!

More Bumper Sticker Thought

Following is a hodge podge of B.G. thinking reduced to a Bumper Sticker. It is actually an old post to which I have added some additional thoughts.

1. If you do not want to be deceived, assume that you have been.

2. Beware of those who's political fortunes are tied to your suffering.

3. Of all the things I regret missing out on in life, I think I will regret missing my funeral the most.

4. I am woefully ignorant. My advantage is that I'm not ignorant of that fact.

5. Genius is not conferred.

6. Greed can most easily be seen in others.

7. If you don't like what a law says, change what it means.

8. A bad education is evidenced by pride in knowledge; a good one by humility in fear of ignorance.

9. It's not nearly as good to be better off than someone, as it is bad to be worse off. (this one is in jest)

10. I wish I was half as compassionate as Liberals think they are.

12. A visionary without discipline is just a dreamer.

13. United we stand, so never disagree with Democrats.

14. I once saw a bumper sticker on a large SUV. It read: "I vote pro-environment". This got me to thinking of a greenie bumper sticker for my SUV: "If you can read this, you're polluting my planet"

14. (a) Another sticker that emerged from the liberal side of my brain, but slipped out the honest side: "If YOU were riding the bus then I Wouldn't be stuck in this traffic!"

15. The world would be a much better place if everyone agreed with any one of it's inhabitants.

16. Weak leaders require weaker followers.

17. Deceived leaders require deceived followers,but deceived followers do not require deceived leaders.

18. Mercy is only as wonderful as sin is terrible.

19. It's one thing to say God loves you; it's quite another to say repent. Yet no-one can truly know the former without the latter.

Merry Christmas To All

To all my fellow bloggers I wish you a very merry Christmas and a very happy new year. This is a wonderful and special time of year when we collectively celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world who was a gift from God in Heaven so that we can have the most wonderful gift of all: reconciliation with God! So, I am taking this Christmas season off from blogging and will see you all in 09.