Church is boring

I was reading an article in Homelife by a guy that was in my college/youth group and he was talking about how men are leaving the church in throngs. His basic premise was that men are bored.

I agree with him to some degree. It is boring because it has become too feminine.

Do you ever watch kids play? What are the girls playing? In general they are practicing to be nurturing adults. They play house or they play with dolls. They want to be beautiful.

What do the boys play? All war games all the time. They want to be dangerous. They want to be brave. They live for blood and glory.

Church has become girly.

It is so uncomfortable (for a guy like me) to be in a worship service where some breathful sensitive guy is leading you to sing stuff like:
"I'm desperate for you.. I'm lost without you... you are the air I breathe"
"I love you with an undying love"
"I want to hear your voice, know you more, touch you, see your face"
"I neeeeeeed you"
"Jesus o Jesus you are beautiful"

I could go on and on.

Warriors do not say these kinds of things to their commanding officer.
Worship leaders are expecting warriors to become gushing girlies when they come to church... "OOOO Jesus.. you are sooo wonderful.. you are soooo beautiful."
This is not appropriate. (would Warf on StarTrek EVER tell his captain how beautiful he looks in that crisp red uniform?)

Guys are made to be warriors.
"As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free...His truth is marching on"
"Onward Christian soldiers.. marching as to war..."
"A mighty fortress is our God.....and He will win the battle... one little word shall fail him (the devil)...."
"There is power in the blood..."
"Victory in Jesus..."

If I understand the story correctly, Jesus is coming back soon.

He is not coming back to cuddle or to listen to us tell him how wonderful and beautiful He is.

He is coming back as a conquering king.

There is going to be blood, sweat, gore, fighting, glory, honor. Extreme good versus extreme evil. An epic battle. A battle in which men will gladly lay down their lives.

There is going to be victory - and rewards.

Let's get past this mushy girly idea of who Jesus is and see him for what he claims to be.

Swords coming out of mouth and slaying thousands. A conqueror of death and hell.

A leader that is worthy to be followed into battle.

A conquering hero.

Lord of lords.

King of kings.

When the battle is over, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is the victor - the Lord of all.

The time that we spend on this earth is a battle. Its not a love in.

When the church realizes this truth and begins to equip warriors for battle (rather than asking them to tell another warrior how beautiful he is), the men will return.

Shotgun Healthcare

I just suffered the agony of paying some pretty hefty health care bills last month.

Fortunately, I have pretty good insurance, so the bulk was paid by the insurance company.

Interestingly, the amount of insurance premiums paid jointly by me and my employer is MORE than my total medical expenses for the past 12 months.

It occurred to me today that health insurance is really just a savings account - a savings account that loses money. Your statistics rich insurance company knows (on average) how much it is going to cost them to pay your bills. Double it, divide by 12, collect the monthly premium, and you have a business model.

If my employer would just pay me extra money instead of paying my health insurance premium I think we would both be better off. I could get some really cheap "major catastrophe" insurance and pocket the difference. When medical needs arise, I could either pay for or finance the costs - just like financing a car purchase (not that you should ever finance a car... but thats another subject). Having a baby? $150 per month for 36 months. Heart bypass? $450 per month for 60 months. If you don't pay, we repossess your heart (ok.. the system has a kink or two).

Charities and churches should handle the people that "fall through the cracks." I think it was Jesus himself who said something about "true religion" being taking care of widows and orphans.

What if I decide that I do not want to have health insurance AND I do not want to pay for my own medical bills? I have another alternative.

I could go to my nice neighbors and force them at gunpoint to "contribute" to my medical bills. I want them to feel like they are making a voluntary contribution rather than being robbed at gunpoint. Therefore, the choice of weapon is very important. What says "you are making a voluntary contribution" better? A cute little "Saturday night special" or a double barrel sawed off shotgun? Automatic weapons are definitely too bullyish... want to keep it simple. I just don't know... I am still working on this part of the theory.

Maybe a better idea is to appeal to my government. If I could only get congress and a willing McBama** to forcibly extract my neighbor's income under the threat of imprisonment... that would certainly feel more like a voluntary contribution than an armed robbery. Problem solved! None of my neighbors have to look down the barrel of a gun (unless they don't pay -but even then its a government gun and not my gun).

We can vote to take involuntary "contributions" from one American and then give the money that is "collected" to another (more deserving) American. Of course we can't present this idea as one group of Americans stealing from another group of Americans. We have to be a little less truthful than that. We have to make it sound more appealing.

How about "universal health care." That has a nice ring to it.





** President McBama - two candidates- two liberals - just different shades of brown.

Angry White Man

I think I resemble that remark...

From the Aspen Times..

There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.

Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.

There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

The rest of the article...

http://www.aspentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Dato=20080209&Kategori=ASPENWEEKLY06&Lopenr=198091324&Ref=AR&template=printart

Homeschooling

Since I am the only one that ever reads this blog, here is a link that will help me next time someone asks me about homeschooling.

The Bitter Homeschooler