Tuesday, June 29, 2004
New 'Bible' changes the truth
File under: False Doctrine. A new Bible translation purports to present God's message in a "new, fresh and adventurous" translation of the Christian scriptures. The title of the book, "Good As New" takes the world view of Christianity and sells it as the Gospel.
In a World Net Daily article, Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury praises the new translation as a book of "extraordinary power," but admitted many would be startled by its content.
Frustrated? This is a clear ursurping of God's Word, not Paul's words. "Good As New" will give creedence to those who think the Bible is rigid in its morality (and it is, as God's way is the one and true way) and that it needs to be adapted to today's society (it was never intended to ride moral-busting waves of discontent.)
The article linked above has several examples of both the King James/Authorized versions and the "Good As New" Version. I'll present two of these pairs, which almost seems as a Proverb of right and wrong. By the way, to further "humanify" the Apostles, they are renamed, with Peter becoming "Rocky."
Time to let our churches and our friends to avoid, and take a wide path away, from "Good As New." For it is only as new as the world sees it, not as God sees it.
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In a World Net Daily article, Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury praises the new translation as a book of "extraordinary power," but admitted many would be startled by its content.
| "Instead of condemning fornicators, adulterers and 'abusers of themselves with mankind'," says Ruth Gledhill, the London Times religious affairs correspondent, "the new version of his first letter to Corinth has St. Paul advising Christians not to go without sex for too long in case they get 'frustrated.'"
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Frustrated? This is a clear ursurping of God's Word, not Paul's words. "Good As New" will give creedence to those who think the Bible is rigid in its morality (and it is, as God's way is the one and true way) and that it needs to be adapted to today's society (it was never intended to ride moral-busting waves of discontent.)
The article linked above has several examples of both the King James/Authorized versions and the "Good As New" Version. I'll present two of these pairs, which almost seems as a Proverb of right and wrong. By the way, to further "humanify" the Apostles, they are renamed, with Peter becoming "Rocky."
| Matthew 26:69-70
Authorized version: "Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, 'Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.' But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest." New: "Meanwhile Rocky was still sitting in the courtyard. A woman came up to him and said: 'Haven't I seen you with Jesus, the hero from Galilee?" Rocky shook his head and said: 'I don't know what the hell you're talking about!'" 1 Corinthians 7:8-7 KJV: "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." New: "If you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated." |
Time to let our churches and our friends to avoid, and take a wide path away, from "Good As New." For it is only as new as the world sees it, not as God sees it.
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Friday, June 25, 2004
Moon over Washington
I have been surprised, slightly, to the extent of the (Rev.) Sun Myung Moon's empire, and have seen it grow steadily as more converts give more money to this crackpot. Yes, I think he is way over the edge, and knowing a Moonie convert, think he and his organization is a very dangerous one.
Come Tuesday this week is a news item that didn't reach the news organizations until bloggers and the Christian press sought it out. The story tells of a bizarre meeting in the Dirksen Senate office building between certain congresspeople invited to what appreared to be a photo op of a peace-loving organization. What they found, and more importantly, what happened then is the bizarre part. Quoting Tony Norman in the Post Gazette:
There's more. He was wearing a velvet robe and was crowned! The King of Peace and God on Earth! This is blasphemous, and the fact that the "crowning" has happened before that Moon is orchestrating a plan to envelop Washington with his dangerous nonsense.
John Gorenfield's blog has been keeping track of Moon sightings and has been very busy this past week with the news. He wrote of a Moon initative back in 1996 called "Free Teens," ostenibly to provide the concept of abstinence to teens. As Gorenfield reports, having sex before marriage in the Moon view means certain death to the participants. Since 1996, the initiative has been quietely dropped in certain areas once the Moon ties were learned. But its message continues to be strengthened today, and is seen as a thinly veiled recruitment tactict.
Moon bears watching, if only to see how easy it is to win friends and influence people for a cult of vast proportions. Check out the links for the senators and congresspeople who have been a part of this nonsense. Most have tried to distance themselves, but the base message has been embraced by more than our current congress. President George Bush (the former) spoke before an audience of Moonies while he was in office. And the current President appointed a Moon official to the VISTA program in 2002. Gorenfield writes:
Stay tuned.
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Come Tuesday this week is a news item that didn't reach the news organizations until bloggers and the Christian press sought it out. The story tells of a bizarre meeting in the Dirksen Senate office building between certain congresspeople invited to what appreared to be a photo op of a peace-loving organization. What they found, and more importantly, what happened then is the bizarre part. Quoting Tony Norman in the Post Gazette:
| On March 23 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, Moon declared himself the messiah. Of the dozens of politicians who were on the guest list and reportedly in attendance, including Pennsylvania's Republican U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., of the 7th Congressional District, no one rushed to denounce Moon's act of spiritual chutzpah.
Modest to a fault, Moon told the audience, which believed it had gathered to honor "community peacemakers" from districts around the country, that the founders of the world's greatest religions had already agreed to acknowledge his pre-eminence as the "King of Peace." |
There's more. He was wearing a velvet robe and was crowned! The King of Peace and God on Earth! This is blasphemous, and the fact that the "crowning" has happened before that Moon is orchestrating a plan to envelop Washington with his dangerous nonsense.
John Gorenfield's blog has been keeping track of Moon sightings and has been very busy this past week with the news. He wrote of a Moon initative back in 1996 called "Free Teens," ostenibly to provide the concept of abstinence to teens. As Gorenfield reports, having sex before marriage in the Moon view means certain death to the participants. Since 1996, the initiative has been quietely dropped in certain areas once the Moon ties were learned. But its message continues to be strengthened today, and is seen as a thinly veiled recruitment tactict.
Moon bears watching, if only to see how easy it is to win friends and influence people for a cult of vast proportions. Check out the links for the senators and congresspeople who have been a part of this nonsense. Most have tried to distance themselves, but the base message has been embraced by more than our current congress. President George Bush (the former) spoke before an audience of Moonies while he was in office. And the current President appointed a Moon official to the VISTA program in 2002. Gorenfield writes:
| And Moon has also made impressive headway into the current Bush White House. Other administration officials have attended Moon events, including then-incoming Attorney General John Ashcroft, who attended Moon's Inaugural Prayer Luncheon for Unity and Renewal, just before George W. Bush took office. And perhaps more important, other former and current members of his Unification faithful have ascended to high levels of the Bush administration. |
Stay tuned.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Pillow talk
So I am tearing apart the beds in the house, ready to wash and change the beds for the benefit of Mr. Kite or whoever the prospective buyer of the blog house is tonight. And I remember some sage advice from somewhere that said "you should wash your pillows at least every two months, to get rid of dust mites and other allergens." My pillows look ok, save for the persperation stain that the pillowcase doesn't prevent. So I take the pillows to the washing machine and check the care label. "Cold water wash or dry clean, cool dry." Hmm. Does cold water and soap kill dust mites? Oh well, I stuff the pillows into the machine, pour the soap and a little bleach (the label said 100% cotton, so I didn't think it would hurt.)
I check the machine a little while later, and it is full of water in its wash cycle. And the water doesn't come up to the top of the pillows! I'm thinking that they won't get washed as well as the rest so I squish them down and they pop back up. Oh well. I leave it alone.
Later I take the pillows out of the machine and under the low light (note that it is romantic near the washing machine, mind you) it looks like the stain is out of one pillow and... been transferred to the other side of the other pillow. I'm not making this up. I am through with these pillows now, so I put them into the dryer, on low heat and walk away.
Later still, I return to take the pillows out so I can finish making my bed. The pillows are dry and look alright, but when I take the pillowcases out and try to put them on, the pillows have grown. Like two balloons, they are twice the size they were before. I picture my neck going out of joint sleeping on one of these now. So, I do what any Single Dad does, I stuff the pillows into the pillow cases. And finish making the bed.
I hope that the couple who visits my house tonight comments on how nice the pillows look. Because if they don't notice, I will be very, very annoyed.
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I check the machine a little while later, and it is full of water in its wash cycle. And the water doesn't come up to the top of the pillows! I'm thinking that they won't get washed as well as the rest so I squish them down and they pop back up. Oh well. I leave it alone.
Later I take the pillows out of the machine and under the low light (note that it is romantic near the washing machine, mind you) it looks like the stain is out of one pillow and... been transferred to the other side of the other pillow. I'm not making this up. I am through with these pillows now, so I put them into the dryer, on low heat and walk away.
Later still, I return to take the pillows out so I can finish making my bed. The pillows are dry and look alright, but when I take the pillowcases out and try to put them on, the pillows have grown. Like two balloons, they are twice the size they were before. I picture my neck going out of joint sleeping on one of these now. So, I do what any Single Dad does, I stuff the pillows into the pillow cases. And finish making the bed.
I hope that the couple who visits my house tonight comments on how nice the pillows look. Because if they don't notice, I will be very, very annoyed.
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Survivor 2004 - The First Sleepover
Can I take back my "happy day!" salutation to the end of school? Because this means your kid is with you ALL SUMMER LONG. And what does summer mean but sleepovers? Last night, being the first night of summer (Andy was in school yesterday, watching "Haunted Mansion" and commenting on the swear words he heard,) it was time for a sleepover. And I DO mean the first sleepover EVER, as Andy's room is now CLEAN enough for any other Mom to say it's ok. Only Andy picked the wrong kid to sleep over.
Kid comes to the house with a rolling backpack (good sense so he won't throw out his 10-year-old back.) And inside is an evil Playstation 2, which Andy happily asks me to connect to the behemoth professional monitor-in-the-living-room-that-has-never-been-connected-to-a-video-game. And it won't on my watch, Andy has never had a TV video game (he's got a computer, for cryin' out loud.) So, Andy throws a temper tantrum, then thinks, "well what about the little TV (that we use on long trips to keep him from looking out the window.)" So, I acquiesce (which is a word that means I'm a sucker,) and they connect the little TV to the console.
Five minutes later his friend wants to log onto Andy's computer. Apparently, this is his attention span length, because that lasted about ten minutes (bonus time, I guess.) Then it was to the Gameboy, while Andy filled up on cartoon mayhem through the courtesy of Sony. Then it was time for bed (10 pm for those clock-watchers out there.) Video game disconnected (and TV removed to my room,) and two good boys tucked in for the night. And that is when I also attempted to go to sleep.
My parental bent is to leave both bedroom doors open, ostenibly to hear my son choking on a piece of gum while he is asleep, or something like that. I was then unprepared and kept awake by two giggling boys for an hour and a half. Oh and by the way, the air was punctuated with my voice also, saying "Go to sleep" and other succinct phrases. Finally, Andy came into the room and told me that his friend was keeping him awake. I told him that it was likely both of you keeping him awake by responding to him. And when I entered his room, I found his friend packing up his stuff to leave.
Remember that he is ten-years-old? I asked him who was home, and he said no one. So, being the paranoid, responsible parent I am, I told him that I won't let him go to an empty house. So, he takes out his cell phone (not really his, but his mom's) and calls a bunch of people but not his mother. It is now a quarter to twelve. And when asked why he won't call his mother, he is afraid she'll be mad. Because his mother is elsewhere and took the night out with her son presumably safely sleeping in a neighbor's house. Hey, I'd do that too. But then, the boy tells me that he can't sleep over anyone's house, he just doesn't sleep. I really thought it had something to do with the two cans of Coke he drank at Andy's baseball game earlier. But I digress.
The Mom comes on the phone and tells me she will be here in a half hour. It is now twelve-thirty, and I can't see beyond my nose, I am so tired, and my voice sounds like it has a gravel truck running back and forth in it. The boy sits in the living room, alternately falling asleep and waking up (and I think to myself, why can't he just do this upstairs? Andy is completely asleep now.) The mom comes and takes her son, and I tumble into bed at 1 am.
The last stupid thing I did was to tell the mom that the boy is welcome to sleep over at any time. I kicked myself and almost fell down the stairs while on my way to my bed.
It's going to be a long summer.
UPDATE: 2:27 pm Andy calls me to sleep over his friend's house (yes, THIS one.) As is customary, I call the Mom, and it turns out she will be out tonight; and wasn't asked by her kid about the sleepover, so the answer is NO. Bed time, on time tonight.
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Kid comes to the house with a rolling backpack (good sense so he won't throw out his 10-year-old back.) And inside is an evil Playstation 2, which Andy happily asks me to connect to the behemoth professional monitor-in-the-living-room-that-has-never-been-connected-to-a-video-game. And it won't on my watch, Andy has never had a TV video game (he's got a computer, for cryin' out loud.) So, Andy throws a temper tantrum, then thinks, "well what about the little TV (that we use on long trips to keep him from looking out the window.)" So, I acquiesce (which is a word that means I'm a sucker,) and they connect the little TV to the console.
Five minutes later his friend wants to log onto Andy's computer. Apparently, this is his attention span length, because that lasted about ten minutes (bonus time, I guess.) Then it was to the Gameboy, while Andy filled up on cartoon mayhem through the courtesy of Sony. Then it was time for bed (10 pm for those clock-watchers out there.) Video game disconnected (and TV removed to my room,) and two good boys tucked in for the night. And that is when I also attempted to go to sleep.
My parental bent is to leave both bedroom doors open, ostenibly to hear my son choking on a piece of gum while he is asleep, or something like that. I was then unprepared and kept awake by two giggling boys for an hour and a half. Oh and by the way, the air was punctuated with my voice also, saying "Go to sleep" and other succinct phrases. Finally, Andy came into the room and told me that his friend was keeping him awake. I told him that it was likely both of you keeping him awake by responding to him. And when I entered his room, I found his friend packing up his stuff to leave.
Remember that he is ten-years-old? I asked him who was home, and he said no one. So, being the paranoid, responsible parent I am, I told him that I won't let him go to an empty house. So, he takes out his cell phone (not really his, but his mom's) and calls a bunch of people but not his mother. It is now a quarter to twelve. And when asked why he won't call his mother, he is afraid she'll be mad. Because his mother is elsewhere and took the night out with her son presumably safely sleeping in a neighbor's house. Hey, I'd do that too. But then, the boy tells me that he can't sleep over anyone's house, he just doesn't sleep. I really thought it had something to do with the two cans of Coke he drank at Andy's baseball game earlier. But I digress.
The Mom comes on the phone and tells me she will be here in a half hour. It is now twelve-thirty, and I can't see beyond my nose, I am so tired, and my voice sounds like it has a gravel truck running back and forth in it. The boy sits in the living room, alternately falling asleep and waking up (and I think to myself, why can't he just do this upstairs? Andy is completely asleep now.) The mom comes and takes her son, and I tumble into bed at 1 am.
The last stupid thing I did was to tell the mom that the boy is welcome to sleep over at any time. I kicked myself and almost fell down the stairs while on my way to my bed.
It's going to be a long summer.
UPDATE: 2:27 pm Andy calls me to sleep over his friend's house (yes, THIS one.) As is customary, I call the Mom, and it turns out she will be out tonight; and wasn't asked by her kid about the sleepover, so the answer is NO. Bed time, on time tonight.
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Monday, June 21, 2004
Do ya feel lucky?
Last day of Sanity, er School
No, really I am glad Andy will be home for the summer. This will be a tremendous transition for him: watching me build my new business, moving out of our house into an apartment, and spending "know" time with my fiancee. As a parent, I need to be extra patient with him in everything. I am glad that he is ready to move, though. With a new bunk bed so he can have sleepovers (he's never been able to before,) a swimming pool and basketball court; he is ready to have fun. The weekends, for now, will be spent in the company of my bride-to-be, and I am praying that he finds her as delightful and loving as I do. For me, it is shoehorn time again, and I spent some time last night playing with scale drawings of the bedroom to see how my study furniture will fit into it. It won't. The work table and media cabinet will, but the bookcases and records will need to be stored elsewhere. I fear that the walk-in closet will be stuffed with things and not clothes.
The news this week hasn't been that good in Saudi Arabia, and the 9/11 report has been a good read for its breezy, conversational style; a huge change from some of the government reports. It has been amazing to read the minute by minute events of September 11, and essentially, how unprepared we were to deal with what happened.
The concert Saturday night was nothing short of awesome, though the sound system
could have had an assist from me, I think; the choral voices sounded very muddy at times. I was amazed to learn that the chorus was made up of people between 8-years old and over 70! The highlight was the appearance of 12-year old Robyn Bollinger (right), a violin prodigy from New Jersey. She performed Mendelsson's violin concerto E Minor Opus 64 and a great and technical gypsy rondo. The evening concluded with the traditional "1812 Overture" with the church bells, cannon fire and fireworks by Grucci providing a thrilling finale.
Today I plan to finish the demo video of one house and call my realtor to see what has happened, though nothing much probably did or he would have called me. If anyone wants to buy an adorable 3-bedroom English Colonial for $239,900, let me know.
Have a wonderful day, everybody
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The news this week hasn't been that good in Saudi Arabia, and the 9/11 report has been a good read for its breezy, conversational style; a huge change from some of the government reports. It has been amazing to read the minute by minute events of September 11, and essentially, how unprepared we were to deal with what happened.
The concert Saturday night was nothing short of awesome, though the sound system
could have had an assist from me, I think; the choral voices sounded very muddy at times. I was amazed to learn that the chorus was made up of people between 8-years old and over 70! The highlight was the appearance of 12-year old Robyn Bollinger (right), a violin prodigy from New Jersey. She performed Mendelsson's violin concerto E Minor Opus 64 and a great and technical gypsy rondo. The evening concluded with the traditional "1812 Overture" with the church bells, cannon fire and fireworks by Grucci providing a thrilling finale.
Today I plan to finish the demo video of one house and call my realtor to see what has happened, though nothing much probably did or he would have called me. If anyone wants to buy an adorable 3-bedroom English Colonial for $239,900, let me know.
Have a wonderful day, everybody
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Saturday, June 19, 2004
Saturday Morning Confusion
Well, not so confused, but I remember Bobby Russel's song from 1971, and getting up and out for a baseball game is very hard when you've gotten to sleep at 1:30 in the morning and awake at 7. Now, I'm not complaining, because this kind of thing happens all the time when I am traveling to see my fiancee.
Today will be a great day as my son and I travel to Westerly, Rhode Island for the annual Pops concert, featuring a full orchestra, chorus, live cannon fire and fireworks (can you guess what the closing number is?) Some members of my high school graduating class will meet before the concert to barbecue, and we'll all head to the park before 6:30. One tradition in the town is that you can stake your claim to a spot in the part the night before by laying down a blanket, and this morning, the park will seem to be a sea of blankets.
Andy has one more day of school and it's summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime, summertiiiiiime!
Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!
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Today will be a great day as my son and I travel to Westerly, Rhode Island for the annual Pops concert, featuring a full orchestra, chorus, live cannon fire and fireworks (can you guess what the closing number is?) Some members of my high school graduating class will meet before the concert to barbecue, and we'll all head to the park before 6:30. One tradition in the town is that you can stake your claim to a spot in the part the night before by laying down a blanket, and this morning, the park will seem to be a sea of blankets.
Andy has one more day of school and it's summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime, summertiiiiiime!
Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!
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Wednesday, June 16, 2004
When are you?
When are you what? Oh take the quiz. I saw this at Sue's.
Sunrise - You seek to learn all you can so that you
may teach the wisdom of the world to others.
You enjoy tranquility and peaceful beauty, and
like to feel at one with the world.
When are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
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Sunrise - You seek to learn all you can so that you
may teach the wisdom of the world to others.
You enjoy tranquility and peaceful beauty, and
like to feel at one with the world.
When are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
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I watched...
... as the old man with the white beard pulled and poked at the junk in front of my house. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Only this time, the trash/treasure was the remains of my son's train table- a few pieces of pine, plywood and screws. He looked over the pine bookcases that I built back in college with my friend Billy. But he left, only taking the pieces he needed. He carried each piece of wood carefully across the street to his truck. And the next time I looked out the window, he was gone.
So goes the first of many days as the house begins to empty.
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So goes the first of many days as the house begins to empty.
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Monday, June 14, 2004
I'm back
Well, figuratively anyway! It wasn't the sinus infection that brought the web site and my blog down, it was an upgrade of my site that I couldn't forsee. But I'm back and ready to write again.
When last we met, I was getting ready for a special weekend and that happened. I am now engaged to be married to my beautiful fiancee! A wedding date has not been planned as yet, more time is needed for my son to get used to the idea and that has been a bit harder than I imagined.
So, that is the latest news. Mail and posts will flow once again from the blog house, soon to be moving!
Au revoir!
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When last we met, I was getting ready for a special weekend and that happened. I am now engaged to be married to my beautiful fiancee! A wedding date has not been planned as yet, more time is needed for my son to get used to the idea and that has been a bit harder than I imagined.
So, that is the latest news. Mail and posts will flow once again from the blog house, soon to be moving!
Au revoir!
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