The UmBlog

I'm finished. I can't bear to do anymore at this time. I'm sure I will add extra parts as life goes on, but this series was hard . I didn't expect to spend so much time on a mere 10 commands. The commands force introspection, and it's hard to look at so much ugly so often. What is the summary? Love God. What about loving our neighbors as ourselves? I consider it a demonstration of one's love for God. I now present the links to the entire series. #1 No other gods #2 No idols a , b , c , d , e , f #3 God's name #4 Sabbath a , b , c , d , e #5 Honor your parents a , b #6 Murder a , b , c , d #7 Adultery a , b , c #8 Stealing a , b #9 Lying, perjury, slander a , b , c #10 Lust a , b

The history of genocide is grim reading. Yet it can shed light on current conflicts, either due to the history I'm ignorant of or the factors that I never considered. Ben Kiernan boils it down to four things. From the title, Blood and Soil , we can anticipate two, racism and agrarianism (see previous entry on this book ). The other two factors he points to are expansionism and antiquity. Just this body count from a single paragraph in the introduction leaves one sick in the gut. Central to this book are four recurring ideological preoccupations of the perpetrators of genocide, extermination, and genocidal massacres: racism, expansionism, agrarianism, and antiquity. The presence of these four obsessions often seems sufficient for genocidal violence, though not all four are necessary conditions. For space reasons, this study cannot be comprehensive. It excludes some cases of mass murder that deserve more attention, from the Mongols’ slaughter of the inhabitants of Baghdad in 1258 to ...

The struggle over the comprehension of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is well covered in J.N.D. Kelly’s book, Early Christian Doctrines . Some viewed Him as one who manifests himself in three roles (modalism/ Sabellianism / monarchianism ). Some only gave the Father due worship as God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit sub-god roles ( Arianism / Jehovah's Witnesses ). A couple guys named Greg and someone named after a spice, Basil, had some better ideas. This brings us to an element in the Cappadocians ’ thought which their critics often ignore, viz. their belief in the simplicity and indivisibility of the divine essence. In certain moods they seem reluctant to apply the category of number to the Godhead at all, taking up the old Aristotelian doctrine that only what is material is quantitatively divisible. How can we be accused of tritheism, exclaims Evagrius , seeing we exclude number entirely from the spiritual nature of deity? According to Gregory of Nyssa , number is indic...

My library acquired the just-released book Blood and Soil, a world history of genocide and extermination from Sparta to Darfur , by Ben Kiernan, and I was the first to check it out. I don't think I will be able to finish it then record all the quotes before it's due date. So I'm sharing some as I go along. The trauma of this book for me is reading about so many genocides I never knew about before. Kiernan is a fair author so far. The only one guilty is mankind. Sadly, victims become victimizers. It is a terrible cycle. Today's quote points out that victimizers will repeat their crimes when opportunity affords. Genocides not only exhibit similarities, many are actually related events. Their relationships are often personal and generational. For example, we can identify the German precursors of individual Holocaust perpetrators. Heinrich Goring, father of the future Nazi leader Hermann Goring, served in 1885-91 as Reichskommissar of German Southwest Africa (now Namibia)...

Guy Muse references a Southern Baptist missions article . I really like this quote from it. "I often ask, 'How much does your church pay for utilities each year?' Then I ask, 'If you are paying more for your utility bill than you are giving to reach a lost world for Christ, how does that make you a missions-minded church?'" WOW!

When you read a very interesting 500 page book on the development of Christian creeds it's hard to write a one blog book report. I have too many pages dog-eared. Instead of a book report, I will do a blog-a-book and highlight some interesting passages. The book under discussion is by J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines , the 1978 edition. I've already quoted once from this book in regards to the treatment of adulterers in the early church . Over and over again I find myself most frequently endeared to the North African Tertullian . He was one of the earliest proponents of Trinitarian theology. He also became a raving charismatic in his twilight years. For some people that's a negative, but I like him even more because of that. There are a lot of players in the development of church doctrine. Some are saints, some are heretics. No one has it all correct, neither do I. I have given a link to everyone in Answers.com except for the ones who only show up in Wikiped...

Perhaps a perusal of this collection of lynching memorabilia will provide an answer. You can also see more at the African American Holocaust . Warning; graphic portrayal of the depths of depravity of the white, American soul... White on black lynching still happens in our modern times, the last one in America in Texas in the late 1990's. This isn't just about Jena, La. but also about the U. S. Coast Guard Academy in my city of residence, New London, Ct . Nooses were left in an African-American cadet's room and an officer who conducted race relation training afterwards . There are more blog thoughts here (over 90 at this point) on the African-American experience . I also have many blog thoughts on human rights abuse .