This just makes me smile.

Yes, indeedy.

Can't we all just get al--(whack!)

I can't help but notice something rather inconsistent about some (certainly not all) liberal Christians: the desire to try and and engage us conservative Christians in meaningful discussion to find middle-ground while allying themselves with sworn enemies of our faith. Take for example, dis link that has two questions that I like and are good for both sides to discuss: "How can liberals and conservatives engage each other?" and "Can you be a born-again Christian and a progressive Christian at the same time?" Wow, you'd think we could go to one of those board rooms with nice chairs to discuss the issue!

However, then on the same sight there's dis link and then there's dis link as well. If you are a conservative Christian who has done his or her research, you know by reading the list of names exactly what I'm talking about. However, if you're wondering what I'm talking about, it has to do with the people list on there. Here's an example:

John Shelby Spong - When we conservatives see this name, immediately an alarm bell goes off in our brains with a loud speaker saying, "Warning! Warning! Warning! HERETIC HERETIC HERETIC!!!!" We consider this man to be one of the top enemies of our faith here in America. He denies the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, inerrancy of Scripture, and many many other things that we hold to be absolutely central to our faith. Basically, we believe that this man is a heretic and does not even belong to Jesus Christ.

Basically, how can we get good dialogue and actually find some common ground if this man is allied with liberal Christians? If you're a liberal or progressive Christian (whichever you prefer to call yourself) and denounce Spong, Borg, Fox, etc., I think you're up for most of the engaging dialogue with us conservative or traditional Christians. If you have no problem with the people mentioned, I and many others would still dialogue with you, but I can't say we'd get very far.

Thoughts on a thorny issue.

Yes, it's still a thorny issue--racism. I assume most of you (whoever you are that read this if anybody does) are not racist at all and will agree with what I say. Well, agree or disagree, here we go.

The biggest thing I have noticed over the years is that racist people are extremely inconsistant. For example, if a football with mostly black players wins a game, the white racist says, "The whole team is great!" If they lose the next game, the white racist says, "It's those black people on the team that caused it!" It's terribly inconsistent.

Of course, racism can go the other way as well. To let everybody know, I'm white. I remember my first racist insult. When I was in Elementary School, I remember celebrating a victory of a football team with a black acquaintance of mine. I specifically remember him walking up to me and giving me a high-five. It was great! We won, the rival team lost. That always elevates your mood if you're into football.

However, the "us and them" mentality the next year went a little too far. Middle School came for both I and this guy. I remember seeing this same guy in the hall and walking up to him to greet him with a big ol' smile on my face and was about to ask him if he still remembered the victory. No smile came from him. He walked up to me and began to diss me because I was white. The basic message was, "I'm black, you're white. We don't hang out together. Stay away you worthless person!"

Needless to say, we never spoke to each other again. Black people have shared similar stories of their first racist insult with me, only theirs tend to be at a much younger age than mine. Looking at American history, this problem has significantly gotten better over the years in many different ways. However, there's still a ton of work left to do.

Let's look at another thorny part of the issue: family. There's enough racism going around that makes me believe that most families have at least one racist member. I also believe that one of the reasons interracial marriage doesn't happen very much in America is because of fear of losing relations with racist family members. They may be racist, but they are still family. The thought is, "Why be hard on my own family by marrying someone of the opposite race when I can marry a person of the same race and have no problems in that area?" In addition, people are often told be family, "I don't want you marrying a black/white/asian person."

And those are my thoughts.

"Are you a Hare Krishna?"

I was walking outside the library the other day when a guy approached me and told me I looked like a smart young man. He told me that he was a traveling monk and that he wanted to give me a copy of what he said was the original word of God--the Bhagavad-Gita. I took the copy he gave me since I have no problem with studying other religions.

I asked him and found out that he was a Hare Krishna monk. He also asked for a donation to help him make more copies of the Bhagavad-gita. I told him that I was a Christian and a propagator of the Holy Bible. He then told me that he thought that Jesus was a great prophet and that people in his religion liked Jesus. He also told me that he wasn't trying to convert me, either. I'm not sure I believe this, though. Walking across the U.S. and giving people copies of his Scriptures seems like evangelization to me. He still asked for any amount of money to help him out.

We then talked a little further and I found out he was taking a poverty vow and fasting that day. I asked him how much he paid for the book he gave me. To which he replied that it cost him $6. This sounded quite believable since the book was in fresh condition and probably did cost that much (possibly more) to print. Anyway, I paid him $6 dollars and I hope he'll use that for a meal some time this week. But let God be his judge on that one.

I regret that I didn't give much of a witness to him. I think both of us on some level were actually in a hurry to make the conversation quick and get on to our next business. Anyway, Christian brothers and sisters, be sure to pray that God will save this man and that He will send an evangelist his way.

Until then, I'll probably read the Bhagavad-gita so I can know how to better witness to people like him. It'll be good to compare it with the Holy Bible as well. In the future, I may just make posts on their similarities and differences.

This kid is really a ninja in training...

Don't believe me?

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/515756.html

The news thinks so.

Hiiiiya!

Yes! I finally made the blog!

Intro: roll that beautiful bean footage.

Hello everyone. I am T-Shirt Ninja. I like wearing T-Shirts for ninja masks, saving old ladies from bank robbers and medical insurance agents, animals (especially exotic ones like zebras, apes, and emus), people, nerdy historical stuff, theology, Christian apologetics, football, and so many other things that if I listed them you would walk away from your computer and go take a 2 day nap.


I hope to have a good time on this blog, and I hope you do, too!