A New Meaning for DOA
Most things you receive are guaranteed that they won't be dead on arrival. What if, on the other hand the whole point of its arrival was death? That must have been the thought that crossed the mind of founder of a new e-mail service: MyLastE-mail.
Apparently, the concept revolves around the idea that a person would want to send people e-mail messages when they died (you can send personal messages, not just a generic announcement). Afterall, as the site points out, you never know when you might kick the bucket, and you certainly may have things to say to those who you leave behind after your farm purchase. Yeah, right. I just can't see sending loved ones an e-mail message saying:
Hi there, I'm dead. I'll miss you.-Tim
PS: Don't forget to feed my cats. Thanks!
How about you?
I'm back.
Well, I'm back from an unexpected blogging break. This week was really busy and then the weather change got the best of me leaving me a bit under the weather (pun intended), so I just haven't had a chance to come blog.
I've also spent a lot of time on the phone with FedEx and NewEgg.com. FedEx delivered about $300 worth of parts I ordered to the wrong address (an address which apparently had a waiver that said that FedEx didn't have to get a signature from them). After several days of repeated calling, FedEx finally got the driver to go back, only to find out that the resident of the home it was delivered to took the FedEx package to where you would logically take a wrongly delivered FedEx package: UPS!
After that, they waited around a day hoping UPS would call and report the package. When that didn't happen they had me call NewEgg and ask them to resend the package (saying they'd settled the claim with NewEgg). Of course, when NewEgg called FedEx, FedEx said it was my problem because I signed a signature waiver (rather the resident of where ever they delivered to signed that waiver and even if I had… how's that relate to delivering to the wrong address?!!?!). Finally, after talking to FedEx a few more times, I called NewEgg back and they now have my order shipped again. They were nice enough to up the shipping from FedEx Economy to FedEx 2 Day. Hopefully this time FedEx will get the address right.
Unfortunately all of this also ended up preventing me from getting a few articles on OfB that I was hoping to. On the bright side, one of those articles depended on the parts that are now MIA at UPS, so I couldn't have written the piece anyway. There's always next week.
Moral of the story: this is the second time in four months I've had trouble with FedEx. I recommend UPS at the moment.
What Founding Father Am I?
Which Founding Father Are You?
Political Views (Part II)
Last night when I posted my Political Compass results I lightly speculated on why my score might have taken such a dramatic change. The more I think about it, the more I wonder exactly why that is. I really don't think I've changed my views enough to move me 1/4 of the way over on the scale! In fact, I really don't think I've changed my views much at all the more I think about it. I wonder if perhaps I was feeling cranky the night I first took it and picked tougher standards or something.
I'm still not sure what to make of the scores at any rate. I'm certainly not politically much like Tony Blair — at least I didn't think I was. Nor am I what most people would consider a centrist. I guess what keeps me from the far right is that I am not totally laissez-faire in my views — I support antitrust actions (Microsoft should never have gotten away with everything it did, for instance). I also don't mind the government subsidizing certain useful things such as museums.
But… I also supported those things last summer when I was 2 points more conservative according to the compass. Was it a fluke? Something else? Hmm. If anyone else has tried the compass multiple times, I'd be interested in knowing if you've noticed sizable fluctuations.
Political Views
Political Compass [Link]Your Personal Self-Government Score is 40%.
Your Economic Self-Government Score is 60%.
Economic Left/Right: 2.75 Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.05
This makes me more libertarian than Gerhard Schroder and Tony Blair, but economically about the same.
I think this has to do with my (slightly) lessening interest in economic versus social issues (never fear, I'm not turning liberal or anything awful like that!). So how about you?
I'm off...
…to try out Fedora 1.0, the successor to Red Hat Linux. I'll report on how it goes probably sometime soon.
Gene Robinson and the Liberal Theological Cancer
Could God really want this to happen? There are many things that are happening in the church (and always have been) that God clearly wouldn't want (indulgences, rejection of Jesus' resurrection, and many others). The Episcopal Church has been rejecting many “orthodox” beliefs for years now. This is just the icing on the cake, really.
That doesn't mean God isn't in control anymore. However, God doesn't prevent evil from happening in the world, and I believe this is a case of evil occurring. It also doesn't mean God can't use it to His glory at some point, but I can't even begin to speculate how that might happen - perhaps by splitting the denomination, thus keeping the “orthodox” minority separate from the sinking ship of the neo-Christian majority.
The problem I see with the bishop is not that he is committing the sin of being actively homosexual, but that he refuses to see that it is a sin and try to stop. We all sin, but a problem arises when I say “all that stuff in the Bible that literally says such and such is a sin doesn't really mean that — it isn't a sin and I want to encourage others to do as I do.”
Biblically speaking, the bishop should be given the choice to stop committing this sin or be defrocked. Why? A bishop or any other leader all the way down to the pastors and elders are role models for the church — thus they should not willingly participate in continuous blatant sin.
Consider this: Let's say I'm a big liar that lies about everything (I'm not, no, really!). If this problem is brought to my attention, I should seek to stop lying. If I slip every once in awhile, that's one thing. However, if I refuse to even try to stop, that's entirely another. Either way, I'm not really ready for a leadership position until I stop and repent of that sin.
Point: I have nothing against a homosexual bishop. I have a problem against an actively homosexual bishop. If the bishop renounced this activity, he would be a lot better fitted for the job, in my opinion.
I would also note that he has added insult to injury. Not only is he actively homosexual, but also he divorced his wife and left his children so that he could live with his homosexual partner. He has no problem with any of this. Thus he is saying that (1) it wasn't a sin to divorce without a good reason, (2) it wasn't a sin to engage in sexual activity of any orientation outside of marriage and (3) it wasn't a sin to engage in homosexual activity.
It is this attitude of refusing to repent from these sins that disturbs me. Worse, since he wants to indoctrinate others to do the same, the sin he continues in will spread to others in the church.
And homosexuality is just the beginning. Until just days before his election earlier this year, a youth outreach organization he helps to run also promoted other sickening activities such as bestiality on their web site.
So I don't reject him as a bishop for being sinful (we all are). I reject him as a bishop for refusing to admit to his sin, refusing to stop encouraging others to do the same sin, and refusing to repent of his sin.
The dangerous ideology that he (and those like him) promotes is like a slow cancer on a church. It keeps growing and growing. Many members at the local level may ignore this and figure things are still mostly ok. However, I've seen this before: many in the UCC felt the same way that many in the Episcopal church undoubtedly feel now. The only difference is time. To avoid the eventual destruction of the entire Anglican Communion, the other Anglican churches around the world should sever fellowship with the Episcopal church before its ideology spreads to them. Promoting the creation of a new American Anglican church is the best way, and perhaps the only way, to deal with this and other problems within the Episcopal Church.
More tomorrow.
It was Administrative Night tonight, so it is a bit late to come up with a good post. So, for tonight, I guess I'll just leave you with this important question to seriously ponder: If a person falls in the woods and there are no trees around…
Good Book So far...
If you're like me, and have been an avid reader of the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, I have a good book recommendation for you. It's Soon by Jerry Jenkins and it's very good so far (I've read the first four or five chapters thus far).
Of course, it might be awhile before I finish it — I tend to read a number of books at once. Right now: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul by John Eldredge, The Remanent (Left Behind #10) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Through the Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliot and What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis. Yeah, I should read one at a time, but…
Until last week I was also reading Napoleon by Paul Johnson, but I finished that. I also have a number of books waiting for reading, including Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur, The Loving God of Prophecy by Tim LaHaye and some little book I picked up a flea market from Michael W. Smith. Later on my reading list, I have Traveling Light by Max Lucado and The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancy.
Anyone out there reading any good books?
