mennonite monk

Glenn Beck and communist churches

Dale — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:48:18 +0000

Eugene Cho has a nice commentary on Glenn Beck’s recent remarks about the communist churches in America.

I usually don’t listen to Glenn Beck becuase he gets my blood boiling. Today, I happened to catch a few minutes of Glenn Beck and finally my pressure cooker went off and I need to respond. He was speaking about his remarks concerning the social justice movement in church and he challenged his listeners to find a passage that Jesus supports the redistribution of wealth. Of course, there isn’t any clear cut passage.

Here is the lack of logic in his argument. Can you find a passage where Jesus is against abortion? How about slavery? Can you find a passage where Jesus supports capitalism? Or democracy? Of course you can’t. I could argue, using Glenn Beck’s logic, that God loves chickens more than turkeys because Jesus never endorses turkeys in the gospels. There are many topics that the gospel writers did not write about or that Jesus never spoke about. But we make religious claims about those issues based upon the intent of Jesus’ words or by comparing Scripture to Scripture.

The quick point is that Jesus never explicitly condemns or endorses the redistribution of wealth. But clear arguments can be made that the redistribution of wealth could be supported Biblically and perhaps by Jesus. The Old Testament points to the more equitable distribution of wealth by calling the people to care for the widows and orphans. God when He sent manna sent it in such a way that the ones who had much didn’t have too much. Those who gathered little didn’t not have too little. There was some equity, though not uniformity, in the distribution of food.

Paul elaborates on this when he says that the church has fulfilled this manna call (2 Corinthians 8:13-15). The early church lived in a community that redistributed its wealth (Acts 2:44). Glenn would probably go nuts in the first century church.

Lastly, Jesus taught us to pray: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Is there poverty in heaven? Are there large discrepancies in the wealth of people in heaven? Since there probably are not large discrepancies in heaven, we should work to do the same on earth. Jesus said that some of the last will be first and the first will be last. Does that apply to economics? How about those sheep who looked after “the least of these”? I think a strong case can be made that Jesus had some intent of social justice.

Here are a couple sites talking about Glenn Beck’s latest tyrade:

Wantagh posts their response on their sign

AlterNet talks about the nazi Jesus

Recent happenings: Music Recording

Dale — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:20:38 +0000

Last night I received a call from Pastor Revenel Benoit. Things have taken off suddenly for the various recording projects we were working on. Apparently he has a donor who wants to get things moving musically. Here is what is going on:

Aseline – Aseline’s CD is looking to get printed within the next month, if everything goes as planned. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. It is a very solid CD.

Recording Studio – A recording engineer from Port-au-Prince has relocated in Gonaives due to the earthquake. He has plans for the recording studio. He sees that we have nearly everything to get the studio up and running. Pastor Benoit is going to take a computer back to Haiti when he returns this Wednesday. The engineer hopes to have the studio up and running by mid-May.

We are working on getting other equipment (mics, monitors, jacks, etc.) for the studio. We hope to get the equipment to Haiti in mid-April.

The studio is going to be an answer to prayer in several ways. Most of the recording studios were located in Port-au-Prince and the earthquake damaged or destroyed some of them (I don’t know how many). With the shortage of studios, this studio will have an instant demand for its services. It will provide funds for the LCH and jobs for musicians and technicians that I know.

Infant Baptism

Dale — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:35:04 +0000

Infant Baptism

I don’t know much about this website but I think this is a very thoughtful article about the historicity of infant baptism in the church. Both for and against can be argued from Scripture and church history. Is it possible that we have two paradigms that, although mutually exclusive, represent two legitimate ways of following Christ? Though early Christians disagreed about this issue, there is no record of it being considered heresy to be one or the other. Could it be that the early Church agreed to disagree? Maybe we need to learn to get along and get on with the Gospel message.

Sarcastic Christianity

Dale — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:16:58 +0000

Sarcastic Quotes and Quotes about Sarcasm from Early Christian History

Why I love being a Christian. Sarcasm has deep roots in Christianity – think of Erasmus. Think of God – God gives Job quite a tongue lashing for thinking that he understood the ways of God. Anyway, some sarcastic fun…

Vegetative Patients Can Think!

Dale — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:25:38 +0000

Patients in ‘vegetative’ state can think and communicate – Telegraph

A very profound article that has lots of implications to the issues of life and death in patients in a persistent vegetative state. For me, it reminds me to never assume that a patient cannot hear or understand you. Even when a patient is unresponsive, treat them as if they are there and respect them as humans.

Haiti Relief Response

Dale — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:42:51 +0000

Claridon Christian Fellowship is partnering with “Mission: Haiti” from Gloria Dei Church in Davie, FL to provide relief supplies to those affected by the recent earthquake. We are now collecting supplies to send to Florida where they will be loaded into a shipping container and sent to Haiti. Supplies will be collected at Claridon Christian Fellowship on January 27, 9 am to 7 pm and January 28, 7 am to 3 pm. The supplies will be taken to Florida where they will leave for Haiti on February 1st.

Please pray for the people of Haiti and for the efforts of those who are helping.

We are collecting the following:

bottled water
canned food with pull tabs
nutritional bars and shakes
first aid supplies
antibiotic ointment
over-the-counter medications (Tylenol, Advil, etc.)
dishwashing liquid
bar soap
washcloths & hand towels
toothbrushes & toothpaste
hygiene items
baby formula with pull tabs
shovels
buckets
bed sheets
clothing (boxed and labeled)
duffle bags & tote bags
cleaning supplies
tarps
rope

Monetary donations also can be made. Any funds collected will be used solely for disaster relief, to purchase needed supplies, medicine or transportation. Distribution of relief supplies will be through our accountable partners on the ground in Haiti.

MISSION: HAITI is an IRS recognized 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization. All donations are tax deductible and you will receive a tax receipt and updates on the relief effort.

Address for donations: MISSION: HAITI 7601 SW 39th St, Davie, FL 33328

Personal contact:

Dale Miller, Claridon Christian Fellowship, 440-856-5065, zoelavie@gmail.com

Carrie Miller, Claridon Christian Fellowship, 440-477-0427, c.bear70@hotmail.com

Helen Roenfeldt, Mission: Haiti Treasurer, 954-868-8218, hondee1@aol.com

Backing Up Email in Ubuntu

Dale — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:33:28 +0000

I have long been frustrated by trying to backup my email in Windows. The files seem buried in hard to reach places. Every time I backup and restore, I seem to loose something. I relied on a lot of various methods to try to secure my data.
Now this newly born Ubuntu evangelist has seen the light. Ubuntu’s default email program, Evolution, has a super easy way to backup and restore files. There are some command line tutorials out there but the most useful I have linked to below. Backup is done right from the program and is only a few clicks to get through. Needless to say, I am again impressed.
Working with Evolution Email Client – Back up data « Taufan Lubis – Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu Crash

Dale — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:00:47 +0000

Well, I had my first unfortunate Ubuntu experience a few days ago. I was cleaning up some junk files using help from some forums. Well, I somehow deleted something important and it froze and eventually wouldn’t boot up. This is nothing new to me. Early in my Windows carrier I did the same thing.

Not knowing too much about restore functions in Ubuntu and having only a couple days of info on the computer, I decided to re-install from scratch. The installation went smoothly and I was back up and running in 1 day. For a comparison, it takes 2-3 days to get everything configured the way I like it in Windows.

Needless to say, even in an unfortunate event, I find myself becoming a fan of Ubuntu and the Linux experience.

Ubuntu Hurdles

Dale — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:48:43 +0000

Though I am happy that I have migrated from Windows to Linux/ Ubuntu, there are still some things that I have to work out:
1. Command line – There have been several times that I have needed to use a command line in order to install and configure software. Not being familiar with the programming language, I have to rely upon tutorials to walk me through it. Not to difficult if you can follow directions exactly and the tutorial is for what you need.
2. Sometimes glitchy – The Linux system overall is very stable and doesn’t hang up as much as Windows. But I have noticed when I install or remove programs that I get an error message. The program installed but I just get an error.
3. Learning a new “language” – I am used to the terminology that is used with Windows. The same concepts seem to be there in Ubuntu but sometimes the wording is different. Once or twice I have run into a new concept but it may be that it was so buried in Windows that I didn’t know that it existed. Fortunately there is extensive help on web for most of the problems I have found.
4. Not as many software options – Windows, the old behemoth, has so many more developers because of its ubiquity. Ubuntu just does not have as many software options so far as I have found. If I want a media player, I only have a few choices. But the choices I have found are solid and overall are more user friendly.
Overall, I wonder what I would have said 15 years ago about working with Windows. I probably would have many of the same questions as I now have with Ubuntu. Having grown up with Windows, my knowledge has grown in fits and starts with the various new versions of Windows but now I know what I am missing and want instant gratification in Linux. I need to have some patience with my learning curve.

Ubuntu 101

Dale — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:47:48 +0000

On Christmas day, I converted my Windows Vista laptop to run Unbuntu, a Linux distribution. The decision came after years of looking at Linux and wanting to try it. Finally, I got around to it and made the leap to Ubuntu.
Here are a few of my first impressions:
1. It runs a lot faster than Windows. This may be obvious to some but it still amazed me how much faster it was, especially when recognizing peripheral devices.
2. It takes a lot less room. For me, it reduced the size of the OS installation by about 40 gigs.
3. I don’t need to defragment my hard drive. I am (was?) a big advocate of keeping your hard drive clean: Delete your junk files, clean your registry, and defrag. But with Linux, you don’t need to defrag because the file system constantly keeps it optimized. No need to clean the registry because there is none. Junk files are much decreased as far as I can tell.
4. I don’t need some of the standard Windows internet security features. I don’t need a firewall because Linux doesn’t show open ports (something like that, please excuse my novice ways). No need for antivirus – viruses are theoretically possible but no one writes them, except a few to prove that it can be done. No antispyware software is needed because spyware is written for Windows (similar to viruses in that regard).
The last two of these have been the most difficult to wrap my mind around. It is like getting let out of prison and not knowing how to handle the freedom. It feels wonderfully strange.