sublibrarian's Xanga

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:24:37 GMT

Folks who have read Francis Schaeffer might want to know something of the route his son has taken -- or might be curious about the recent book by the son -- don't confuse Francis (the father) with Frank (the son). I don't totally disagree with what Frank writes, well most of it I disagree with, but mostly I wonder at the tone (article link):

When Republican governors refuse bailout money on “principle,” and Rush Limbaugh—the new enraged face of the Republican Party—has hysterics over the idea of the government helping us get back on our feet, what you’re seeing is today’s political version of the go-it-alone Protestant theology of individualism in action.
...
Since America was founded by Protestants escaping traditional ideas of religion, individualism was embedded in America’s DNA as a matter of faith. It carried over to later generations and dovetailed nicely with certain similar ideas that derived from the Enlightenment.
To the extent that the Republicans became the party of white evangelicals, they are also the repository of the anti-state individualism of the Great Awakening. Conversely, as the Democratic Party became the party of immigrants from Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, and African cultures, it was imbued with a traditional ethic of collective responsibility.
...
Most Americans (including many young evangelicals) know that we live or die together. If two lines were forming and one led to Rush Limbaugh’s (hyper-Protestant) individualistic go-it-alone America, where everyone is on their own, and the other led to President Obama’s America, where each person is his or her brother’s keeper, the majority of Americans would be in Obama’s line today.

Individualism = bad, tribalism = good. (And with that, a belief that Jesus was more a tribalist than an individualist). Sorry, but his writing really is that simplistic!

Frank Schaeffer's attitude might be better 'divined' from another article, also, I think, timed for the promotion of his book (article link):

The bestselling status of the Left Behind novels proves that, not unlike Islamist terrorists who behead their enemies, many evangelical/fundamentalist readers relish the prospect of God doing lots of messy killing for them as they watch in comfort from on high. They want revenge on all people not like them—forever.
...
Christian Zionists are yet another reason why I and countless other Christians, including many of the more moderate evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox are hesitant to be labeled “Christian.” Who wants to be confused with some of the most dangerous and stupid people in the world: nuclear-armed, paranoid evangelical/fundamentalist Bible thumpers rooting for Armageddon and worrying in paranoid “official” documents about being forced to become like “the Europeans”? (Just a thought: does that make high-speed rail service a tool of the Devil?)
Perhaps I’m not alone when I say that it would be tempting to walk away from trying to follow Jesus, if for no other reason than to avoid the constant hassle of having to explain what I’m not.

I can only conclude that Frank Schaeffer is a very bitter, unhappy guy -- though I'm sure he'd say he's much happier now that he's not a conservative evangelical. Either that, or he seriously misunderstands the vast majority of the conservative Christians that are out there (don't get me wrong, there are some fruitcakes, and Frank has certainly known some of the celebrity Christian fruitcakes).

Alleluia

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:50:57 GMT

"Planned Parenthood Director Quits After Watching Abortion on Ultrasound"

Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.
"Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming,'" Johnson told FoxNews.com. "It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers."

Well Put

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:46:51 GMT

Another deeply buried, but cogent analysis of the economic situation, by Johan Norberg. Some excerpts:

The problem, however, was not that we had too few regulations; on the contrary, we had too many, and above all, faulty ones.
Since finding lots of information before acting takes time and costs money, we often go with our gut, following rules of thumb and copying what others have already done. That is why the market has a herd instinct. When others seem to be successful at something and get rich on it, you follow suit. After a while, the hollowness of the enthusiasm becomes apparent, and then it often changes into overblown fear that soon ushers in recession....
...borrowers, lenders, bankers and brokers are not the only ones to be affected. Politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers are at least as likely to succumb to the herd instinct -- and they have special power. If you act in a different way from what they have approved, they may take your money or even send you off to jail. This gives them the ability to head the march of the lemmings and set its pace.

More of the Kid

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:32:54 GMT

He likes trains. He likes them a lot. And it so happens there's a set at the local library...

A Variety of Progeny

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:16:57 GMT

Friends' kids! Nothing formal, just a few snapshots.

Eric:

Asha (and in the last one, with her mommy - Sarah):

Zoo Trip 2009

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:20:45 GMT

[edited 8/12/09 to add more photos, including a petting zoo/goat shot, after the first one, that wasn't there before]

Made a recent trip or two to the zoo...

That last one is my nephew Caleb with his dad.

Meerkats posing dramatically:

Hippo face:

Companions.... or lunch? --

It's a bike... no, it's a stroller... no, it's a bike trailer (and stroller)

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:54:35 GMT

Grace happened to find a good deal on this:

You can see Reed already had it figured out.

Too Much Excitement for One Day

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:26:22 GMT

This was probably the least exciting thing that happened yesterday:

Link to large version

That's a panoramic stitch of three photos. The tree falling was the least exciting thing, because it had already been half-murdered by our landlord, and was likely to fall anyway. Winds from the thunderstorm yesterday evening were what knocked it down. Still, I'm not too happy with the landlord -- what if it had been a windy-but-sunny day, and someone had been outside at the time?

Higher up on the list of exciting things, was Reed pulling our CD tower down on top of himself (just bruised his forehead is all), but that also included breaking a glass lampshade. Fortunately, the compact fluorescent lightbulb did not break, or there would've been mercury all over the floor in our apartment, not just shards of glass!

While trying to deal with the broken glass situation in the living room, I took something down from the closet in the hallway, somehow dislodging a package of -- are you ready? -- lightbulbs (incandescent, fortunately). And one of those broke. So, with a toddler, we had glass shards in the living room, glass shards in the hallway by the closet and -- wait for it -- no vacuum cleaner, and no "dustbuster." Our vacuum cleaner was killed by an errant strand of carpet (we told our landlord about the carpet unraveling along a seam, his solution was to trim the part that had unraveled, well, there was still enough to jam our vacuum cleaner, alright, well, then the landlord replaced the carpet with tile....), and our dustbuster was no longer holding a charge.

So, we kept the toddler out of the glass by restricting him from entering either the hallway or the living room. Then, after I got off work, we went out to buy a vacuum cleaner. During which trip, the Jeep's rearview mirror fell off.

We didn't find the vacuum cleaner we wanted, but we did buy a Dirt Devil brand 'hand vac' (dustbuster), cleaned up the glass, and so on. Aargh.

Lunch and a (Toy) Bulldozer

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:20:37 GMT

A few from a recent 'lunch out' at the local greasy spoon:

Stacking skills are good:

; )

National Donut Day

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:34:43 GMT

Here's a National X Day I can celebrate: National Donut Day. (h/t Dave Barry's Blog)

If it's on the Internet, it must be true...