A New Take On Baptism?

It's that time of year again. In early June, our church holds a baptism service, which means our pastor has lost his ever-lovin' mind. Take this week's sermon title as an example: he titled it “Baptism and Communion”, and in the 40 minute sermon, he spent 40 minutes talking about why everyone needs to be baptized. See a problem there? Oh, sure, it was communion Sunday. We have a communion Sunday every month (I think; my schedule doesn't let me attend every month). But last month, they didn't title the sermon “Share … and Communion” or the month before that “Contagious Inviters … and Communion”, because they recognized that Communion, while part of the service, was not part of the sermon. But for some reason, this week they felt the needed to include Communion in the sermon title, even though they wouldn't actually be talking about it. Reminds me of last year, when he actually raised the question, “Does a person need to be baptized to be right with God?” and he would not answer the question. Hint: The answer is no. But something about Baptism turns our pastor, who I otherwise genuinely like, into an advertising guru, or possibly a grifter, shilling his shell game.

My pastor is not alone in this phenomenon. A few years back, I was … not happy … with some aspects of my church, including this attitude about baptism, so I decided to look for another church. I went to church after church after church in my area, and they all said the same thing: “You need to be baptized. Oh, baptism isn't a requirement for salvation, but you need to be baptized.” Really? Why? No one can actually give a satisfactory answer for that. They just say, “It's a sign of obedience.” But is it, really?

Churches, well, Protestant churches, are fond of quoting The Great Commission: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) Okay. I actually believe the Bible. I believe that it's the Inspired Word of God, and good for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16) What I don't believe is that God requires us to climb into a pool of water and have someone shove our heads under while that person recites the magic words (“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”).

One of the things the pastor talked about during his sermon was what he called, “a brief history lesson.” During Old Testament times, or The Days of the Prophets for those who don't recognize two Testaments, in order for a gentile to become a Jew, he would submit to circumcision, to obedience to the law, to a sacrifice (probably of a bull, ram, lamb, goat, doves, what have you), and to a ceremonial washing. Today, to become a member of the Church, a lot of churches gloss over obedience -- yes, they say you should be obedient, but they don't really talk much about The Law, they no longer demand that a person not have committed adultery, or that the person not be divorced -- and they certainly don't demand an animal sacrifice or circumcision. If those aren't necessary, why do they still insist on a ceremonial washing?

I don't like literalism. I do, however, like understanding. The Greek word “βαπτίζοντες” (past-participle of βαπτίζω) means “to dip under, to immerse, to soak, to sink, to wash”. To a literalist, that means to cover the person in water. Okay, you want to be a literalist, then why would you say “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” instead of their actual names, “I AM” (אֶהְיֶה or EHYEH or Yahweh), “Jesus” (ישוע or Y'shua) and … well, I don't know the Holy Spirit's name, but is that really why they don't use the others? When we talk about how Jesus said, “Ask anything in my name...” he didn't mean that saying “In Jesus' Name, amen” at the end of a prayer will magically make it come true. He meant that if the prayer is in accord with his name, with his identity, then God will do it for you*. (This does not mean that only prayers God was going to do anyway will come true, which would make prayer ... redundant.) Moreso, if you're going to be a literalist, the Bible doesn't say, “Be baptized,” it says TO baptize. So the impetus would then not be on the members of the congregation, or new believers to submit to baptism, it would be on the pastors, teachers and missionaries to baptize people. Maybe that's why they push it so hard. Mind you, there are many, many reasons I don't like literalism.

Because, no, I do not believe God has commanded missionaries to shove people under water while spouting The Magic Words.

Jesus said a lot of things while He was alive (one of which was not, “Always capitalize when referring to me in the third person,” but I digress). He said, “You must be born again.” He called himself a vine, a gate and a shepherd. He called his followers sheep several times. None of these were actually meant literally (and when He said, “sheep,” He did it in love). No, you do not need to crawl back into your mother's womb and come back out again to be a Christian. Many Christian faiths even believe that when he said, “This is my body” and “This is my blood,” he was not speaking literally, that he did not transform crackers and grape alcohol into human DNA, while still standing in front of his disciples.

So, maybe, just maybe, when Jesus said, after his death, to “go and make disciples of all the nations, βαπτίζοντες them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” what he meant was not, “go and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in water and saying, 'in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit',” but, “go and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” immersing them, not in water, but in the very identities of who the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are (figuratively, the name). After all, it seems to me that in Jesus' teaching, the state of a person's heart is far more important than outward signs of religiosity.

So that's why I've made the decision to not be baptized as an adult, not because I'm unwilling to be obedient, but because my reading of the Bible tells me that it's not an issue of obedience. I haven't done a search to find whether this is a new idea or not, but I did go looking for a church not that long ago, and couldn't find one that believed in the Bible but didn't believe that baptism was necessary. So call me a trendsetter, call me a trailblazer, hey, you can call me irresponsible, since it doesn't matter what you call me. But seriously, don't judge me. And don't judge others while you're at it. If you want to hold a baptism service, you go ahead. If you want to be baptized, you go ahead. And if I don't, then you might want to consider that I'm not the one being disobedient or hard-hearted.

* This is not a guarantee. It's a truism. There are several reasons why God's answer to a prayer is or seems to be "no". Of course, most of those can probably be summed up by, "It's not in accordance with His identity, at least not right now."

What do you call 5 politicians at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.

 Okay, so it's not exactly William Shakespeare

We asked 2016's Presidential Hopefuls to answer this question.
Why did the chicken cross the road?

Hillary Clinton

Bernie Sanders


Martin O'Malley


Lincoln Chaffee


Ben Carson

Ted Cruz


Marco Rubio


Rand Paul


John Kasich


Carly Fiorina


Jeb Bush


Mike Huckabee


Rick Santorum


Chris Christie


Rick Perry


Scott Walker


Jim Gilmore


Donald Trump


Jim Webb


 

Why I'm a Democrat. Yep. Politics.

The other day, a person I consider a friend posted on her Facebook timeline defending the friend's Republicanism. I wanted to respond to that, but didn't really want to do it on that friend's thread because it's that friend's thread. It's not about me. For the same reason, I'm not identifying that friend here (you know who you are). This blog IS about me, not that friend -- although any friend is welcome to comment.
I post very little on the Internet about politics. I can't say I don't post anything, because I probably have, but it's been few and far between. Or maybe it just seems few and far between compared to my more strident friends. I'd much rather post about David Giuntoli, Matt Bower, how brilliant I think the current season of American Crime is, or how stupid DC Comics was to ... do whatever stupid thing they did last. But there has come a time when I just have to explain and hope that people will understand.

I'm gay. I see you're shocked. Yes, everyone who knows me as LJ should know by years ago now that I'm gay. And the Republican Party has proved time and time again that it does not like the gays. When a Republican politician stands with Kim Davis, who refused to grant licenses to gay couples to get married -- after gay marriage had been made the law of the land -- it's a slap in the face to me personally. It's telling me that I should not have the same right of personhood as a straight person. It doesn't even matter whether I want to get married or not; they're saying that I shouldn't be able to do it, even though the United States Supreme Court has said that I should. Now, you can say, "But that's not what I believe," but here's the problem with that: in the George W. Bush era, somewhere around 2004, the Republican Party put into writing its platform, and declared that to continue to be a Republican politician, you *had* to agree to all of that platform. (Unfortunately, more recently, Republican voters in Virginia were going to be required to sign a loyalty oath before voting in the primaries -- since apparently repealed -- so I can't find the information on this on line.) There is no room, at least among candidates, to say, "I'm Republican, but I don't agree with everything the party stands for."

The Republican Party is quick to defend a person's right to Religious Freedom, especially when that person's religion wants to discriminate against homosexuals (because THEY CLAIM that homosexuality violates God's Laws), or when that religion wants to stop a woman from terminating an unwanted pregnancy, or when a Christian who is a public school administrator wants to say a prayer at the start of the school day. But it falls a bit short when the Religious Freedom is of someone who is Muslim, or who doesn't want to pray in school be prayed at in school, or who doesn't believe that a collection of cells in a uterus is a living person. Well, here's a surprise for you: I want organized prayer out of school BECAUSE I'm a Christian. I don't want to be led in a prayer to the Madonna and the Saints, because that's not who I worship. And I don't expect you to worship the same God I do, even if you call your God "God". Even if you, "believe what the Bible says," because there are dozens, if not hundreds of religions out there calling themselves Christian, that say they believe what the Bible says, and say the Bible says different things. They want, "one nation, under God," in the Pledge of Allegiance? I don't even want to say the Pledge of Allegiance. (Yes, go ahead, defriend me now.) According to MY religion, the Pledge of Allegiance is wrong. (And please remember, these are my beliefs; you do not need to share them.) I am to give my allegiance to God alone, not a flag, not any flag. But that's MY religion. The great thing about religious freedom is you don't have to agree with me. You don't even have to respect my belief. You do, however, have to allow me to have my belief. And since I'm going to have my belief anyway, you might as well allow it. So, if you like the Pledge of Allegiance, go ahead and say it. Just don't start demanding that anyone else say it. And please go back to the pre-McCarthyan, more grammatically sensible, "one nation, indivisible".

And abortion? I hate abortion. I think it's a terrible choice. But it IS a choice, one that I will never, ever have to make, thankfully. Because it's one that I will never, ever have to make, I cannot support any effort to prevent the people who do need to make that choice from being able to make it. It's kind of funny that the Right says that if we criminalize guns, only criminals will have guns. But they think that if we criminalize abortion, women will just stop getting them, when history has shown us the opposite: if a woman who is that desperate can't get an abortion legally, she will get one illegally, and that's when women start dying or being mutilated. Further, I'm not going to tell a woman who was brutalized by an abusive ex, who became pregnant before she could get away from him -- assuming she *did* get away from him, and leaving aside rape for this post -- that she now has to carry that a****le's seed growing inside her. It's her choice, not mine. I also think anyone considering an abortion is having a hard enough time without facing the possibility of prison.
And let's not be fooled. The Republican Party is not pro-life. If it were, it would be supporting options to prevent unwanted pregnancy, and I mean any options that can work, not just the ones that their Approved Religion okays; and putting in place programs to care for unwanted children. And it's not, because that's certainly not "small government". In fact, if you're going to say that a woman who can't care for a child, for whatever reason, can't have an abortion, then you'd best be ready to care for that child yourself, for the rest of its life. And I don't mean from birth to 18, I mean you pay for the child's college tuition, and take in that child every time it gets laid off from a job, and take in that child if need be, when it retires, or when it becomes so injured that it's no longer able to work. THAT's pro-life. Anything less is just anti-abortion.

You say you hate Obamacare? I hate the name, "Obamacare". The Affordable Care Act has made my medical care actually affordable -- go figure. Due to the economic downturn, I'm currently living below the poverty level. And, no, do not blame president Obama for the economic downturn, which actually started in 2002, but didn't become widespread enough to be recognized by anyone who hadn't been personally touched by it until 2007, the time of the FIRST Economic Stimulus Package. Remember that? When we all got checks, mostly for $300, which did nothing to actually stimulate the economy. Even the SECOND economic stimulus package was in 2008, when they gave bags of money to the banks, and President Obama didn't take office until January of 2009. Anyway, before the Affordable Care Act provisions were accepted in Pennsylvania, I had to pay for doctor visits, lab test, prescriptions, etc, at a time when I couldn't afford to pay for food, clothing and shelter.

So, yes, supporting a Republican candidate who wants to "defend traditional marriage", "preserve Christian values", and "immediately repeal Obamacare", is an attack on me, personally.

I've left gun control to now because it's not my issue. It's not one I take personally. Not only have I not been a victim of gun violence, I don't know anyone who has been (thankfully). But let's go ahead and talk about gun control. Barak Obama has been in office now for 7 years, and NO ONE has come for your guns. So you don't get to hate Obama because he's coming for your guns. He's not. That's just paranoid Republican Party propaganda. That said, how many school shootings will it take for you to admit that the current system IS. NOT. WORKING. (Yes, that last one should be a question mark. Somehow, a question mark doesn't fit the construct.)
They claim that the Second Amendment is inviolate because it's The Constitution. Well, read the Eighteenth Amendment. It says, "After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." So go ahead, report your local liquor store or TGI Fridays to the police. Why not? Because of a little thing called the Twenty-First Amendment: "The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed." Will you look at that? An amendment to the Constitution wasn't working, so we got rid of it.
But speaking of the Second Amendment, have you ever read it? This is the exact wording of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." [sic -- the comma between "bear Arms" and "shall not" is incorrect.] It does not actually restrict what those arms can be, partly because it was written in 1789, when the ultimate weapon was a blunder bus or a dueling pistol, neither of which are known for their accuracy, range or ability to pierce a bullet-proof vest. Just like the First Amendment says in part that "Congress shall make no law" that is "abridging the freedom of speech" doesn't grant a person the right to yell "Fire" in a crowded movie theater, the Second should not be used as a defense of stockpiling weapons whose sole purpose is to end the lives of the most people in the shortest amount of time.
It does, however, say that the right to bear Arms is to serve a well regulated Militia. How can you have a well regulated Militia without regulation? Without regulation, any bad of nut jobs can take over a National Park in Oregon (or wherever) and claim they're practicing their Second Amendment Rights.

So, yeah, I'm not a big fan of the Republican Party.

My Reaction to Global Terrorism

I was reeling from Friday's attack on Paris. When I saw it on Dateline, I thought, "How could I have not heard about this on Social Media?" I hadn't quite connected that it was so new that it hadn't made it to Social Media when I was there (which was three or four hours before Dateline aired). Needless to say, when I got back on, my feed was covered with images of the Eiffel Tower Peace Sign and people's avatars in French Flag colors.
I love and support all of you for standing with France and don't want to diminish that by putting what I'm feeling into words.
What I'm feeling is that terrorism is a global problem. It harms everyone. It harmed the victims of the Paris attacks. It harmed Shiites in Baghdad and a family in Mount Hebron, the West Bank that same day. It has claimed victims in Lebanon, Cameroon, Chad, and, yes, Iraq; Egypt, Israel and Somalia have also been hit this month alone. Every lover of history and of art was hurt when ISIS / ISIL was destroying Mesopotamian Antiquities that can never be replaced.
In the US and throughout the world, we feel the impact of Terror every day, it seems. Terror is a global problem that hurts everyone. It even harms the terrorists, although they're too stubborn/hate-filled/fanatical to see what living with that constant level of hate is doing to them.
So, to recognize that terror is a global problem, I created the following images of the flags of the world, to try to show that we're all connected. My thanks to the US CIA (cia.gov) for providing images of the flags to the Public Domain.

The first is cropped close to the flags image, the second is in a square space.

I chose a gray background simply because none of the flags had a that gray in them, at least, not on the edges (and purple didn't seem appropriate for the statement).
I'm declaring these images to be in the Public Domain as well. I'm pretty sure that's all it takes. If you want to use one for any purpose, go ahead. But you should probably credit the CIA as the source of the flags.

Addendum: The squared image with black bands on top and bottom, symbolizes mourning over every loss of life, every human driven from his or her home, every priceless -- or not so priceless -- item destroyed by the intolerant.

Ball Inspection

Is it too late for this one?

Gender Privilege isn't always what it's cracked up to be

Okay, let's get real. I am not going to sit here and pretend that men don't have it all over women in the United States (I don't live in other countries, so I'm not addressing their gender-privilege issues; I am, however, acknowledging that the Internet is a global thing). We do. We get better pay (statistically, if not in my personal recent experience). We are thought more highly of when we're in a position of power. Hell, our reputations are improved by the accusation that we've had sex. In a lot of ways, being a man is pretty awesome (sorry, ladies).

But I recently stumbled across a link on Facebook to this article: Proof of Male Privilege that lists various proofs of, well, male privilege, and I was taken a little aback by #4: that men can show skin. Oh, sure, he's talking about a man's ability to go home, throw on a pair of shorts, strip off his shirt, and go out for a jog, letting his nipples breath the fresh air.

My thoughts, however, immediately went to the workplace. Let's look for a moment at what's considered "Professional Dress" for men:

Please note: this is from an Internet Search for "professional dress". My professions have generally allowed jeans and a polo shirt, but this is more the standard for Professional Dress.
Now, let's look at professional dress for women:

 Do you see what I see?

Like I said, I don't want to pretend that men don't live in a near-constant state of privilege around here, but there is one place where women have a distinct advantage, and that is dress. Not only can any of the women above go strolling through the city on a June day and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine on their arms and legs -- and in some cases, parts of their cleavage (oh, the poor man on the far right who has to run out in a heat wave in that three-piece monstrosity ;) ). but look what else women have.
Women have COLOR! Fuscia, ivory, aqua (not pictured), lavendar (np). And, of course, they can wear gray if they so desire. Men? Well, sure we have color choices. We can wear slate gray. Or we can wear charcoal gray. Or we can really get wild and crazy and go for NAVY! Nope, if a man wants color, to express his individuality, well, I suppose he has the tie.

I'd move on to beach wear, but I'm pretty sure that *is* a case of male privilege. With the teeny tiny beach wear I see available for women, it just screams that women are required to have large chests and itty-bitty waists, whereas men get to just take their shirts off. It was clearly designed by heterosexual males so they could ogle women, just like board shorts for men were designed so men wouldn't have to be accosted by each others' more private parts.

Anyway, before you go off in a rage about how I'm ignoring the very real ways that women are still subjugated, let me say again what I said at the beginning: Male Privilege definitely exists. The article I linked to at the beginning makes some real points about how advantaged we are. It's just that to say "We can show skin and they can't" is a little ... short-sighted. Also, please don't take me overly seriously here.

100 Most Influential Albums? Why?

I've seen several people on Facebook taking a "100 Most Influential Albums" "quiz". And fool that I am, I commented to one of them, objecting to the whole thing ... because I'm opinionated that way. *g* But really, never mind the fact that people think they need an app when a list would work just as well -- and who knows what else that app is doing while you're telling it what albums you have and don't have -- and giving it access to all of the personal information that Facebook demands that you provide it. Remember the days when we didn't put any personal information on the Internet because, "Who knows what kind of people are out there?" -- And never mind their use of the word "quiz" instead of "survey": quizzes have right and wrong answers, and really -- it's not *wrong* to not own Bob Dylan's Another Side of Bob Dylan.
This is just one problem with the quiz, which Citysound Bohemian conveniently posted here -- why run "some fool app" which is going to gather all of your personal information (because Facebook is fun that way) when the survey would have been just as well served by a list. Or if they really wanted to display a score, it could be done much more simply with a little bit of javascript.
That brings me to what's really wrong in this "quiz" -- I also saw a list here, "The 101 Most Influentual Albums in Rock 'n Roll History" and guess what? They don't agree. Why? Because they're the list-writers' personal opinions. And to both of them, I say, "Pfft!" Lots of 60s "classic rock" and "folk rock"; plenty of Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. But how many of those were influential? How many of them actually changed the face of music? And how many albums that did change the face of music were ignored because this person just doesn't like Pop? (Never mind that in 1964, the Beatles were pop.)
And where are the women? Okay, they did include women. But seriously, the "quiz" doesn't even include Carole King!They included Patti Smith, Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell -- one album each -- but how about Aretha Franklin? How about Heart (Ann and Nancy Wilson)? How about Janice Joplin? Every pop diva since has credited Whitney Houston with being her inspiration. If that's not influence, I don't know what is.
They included plenty of the first British Invasion (of the 1960s) but what about the second? What about the "New Wave"? Where is the Disco era? Where is Rap? Don't like Disco and Rap? Well, guess what? Not all influences are good influences. If you're seriously going to list the 100 most influential albums, you're probably going to have to include albums you don't like and any "Influential Albums" list worthy of the name has got to include the Hues Corporation's Freedom for the Stallion, which made Disco popular, and Run-D.M.C's self-titled album, which brought rap to the mainstream. Justin Beiber's first album may have been loaded with garbage, but it was the first album to spawn from a "YouTube Sensation". Love it or hate it, it should be listed in any list of Most Influential Albums. Somebody started the Disco Era. Somebody also killed the Disco Era. I blame credit Barbra Streisand for the album Guilty (because, really, if Streisand is doing disco, it's past its prime), but it would probably be more fair to say that Dance killed Disco. Maybe the credit should go to an album like the Fame soundtrack, so maybe it should be listed among the 100 most influential albums. Certainly something should.
Speaking of soundtracks, I think it's safe to say that the first movie soundtrack ever, and the first Broadway musical soundtrack ever can predate whatever influential list you want to make ... otherwise, you're going to get bogged down in Beethoven, Bach and Brahms. But in the early 1980s, something changed in the movie soundtrack industry. Before 1980, movies had a theme song, but to have a musical, the cast broke into song. Now, movies are just loaded with song after song so that the movie makers can have a soundtrack album without someone asking, "Why are New York City gang members singing and dancing?" The transition may have began with A Chorus Line and the aforementioned Fame, where it actually made sense for the characters to sing, but the most influential album of the New Musicals was probably Flashdance. The story of an exotic dancer who wants to go to "serious dance school" bridges the gap from A Chorus Line and Fame to Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun (and more) where music serves as a background to the action. Plus, it predates Footloose by 1 year.
The first Backstreet Boys album should be on the list, since it started the Boy Band craze -- even if The Beatles and various other mop-topped bands of the 60s started out as boy bands -- but including them won't please the folk/rock fans the list writer was trying to appeal to.
Where would Blake Shelton, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood be today if Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbit, Dolly Parton and Crystal Gayle hadn't opened the pop charts to country music in the early 1980s? But which one makes the "most influential" list? Well, Kenny Rogers' The Gambler and Eddie Rabbit's The Best of Eddie Rabbit (which started his cross-over success with the single "Every Which Way But Loose") both came out in 1978. Dolly Parton's Here You Come Again came out in 1977. Crystal Gayle's We Believe In Magic came out the same year, but is credited as the first album by a female country artist to go platinum. But in 1976 (the first year platinum albums were designated), The Outlaws' Wanted was certified platinum. (The Outlaws were Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Jessi Colter in case you were wondering). Of course, I wouldn't object to having two country albums on a list of The Most Influential, especially since Gayle shattered Country's "glass ceiling" so darn quickly, so she gets the female credit. Alas, reviews say that Wanted is not a very good album -- but as I said before, we're talking influence here, not good music.
So, really, "influential" doesn't mean good, and "influential" doesn't mean you want it, so who cares how many truly influential albums you own. Like Citysound Bohemian said, buy what you like and listen to what you like, and if you want to know what influenced the music industry? Go for it. There's a world of Internet sites out there to tell you what influenced the music industry. And if you don't have all those albums, it may just mean that you have good taste.