(via jumpingmonkeys)
I’ll admit that I really just follow Megan Morrone because I still have a bit of a crush on her from her days on TechTV. Since I’m not a working mother, I’m not really in her target demo…. but this link is AWESOME!
Those who disagree with drilling here usually cite one of a few standard arguments:
“It’s not going to help for another 10 years!”
Here’s the thing. America is a long-term plan for me. I don’t know where these people plan to be in 10 years, but I plan to be here. This is, of course, the same argument heard around President Clinton’s veto of ANWR drilling in 1995. Among other things, if we had started drilling ANWR then, oil would be already flowing. At its peak, ANWR could supply 1.45 million barrels per day, enough to tell Hugo Chavez and all his Venezuelan oil to shove it (with a little change left over).
Of course, Clinton didn’t have Chavez to deal with back then. If only he were thinking 10 years into the future.
If you describe your tumblog using the word “musings”, more than likely there is little amusing about it.
— Anonymous
Weather is neat!
There is a kick ass storm rolling through here right now. I watched a black and green wall of clouds roll in with lightning and wind and it was so cool!
We haven’t lost power yet but its only a matter of time.
My deck chairs are bouncing around the deck and the rain is coming down sideways in several different directions. Awesome!
[There is] a time of war, and a time of peace.
—
Let’s talk about this verse. After I posted my snippet from the beatitudes complicatedshoes posted a snippet from Ecclesiastes, along with an admonition that nothing is as simple as I think. (This is probably true, though I may not be as simple as complicated shoes thinks.)
When studying the Bible, context is always important, but it is doubly important in Ecclesiastes, which includes verses like, “A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.“ The book is, in essense, an exploration of the futility of earthly material and earthly accomplishment.
The verse is perhaps most famous for the Byrds recording of Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!”, but the catchy folkiness of the song doesn’t do justice to the anxiety of the original passage. One of the upcoming verses, which didn’t make the song, is “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” In otherwords, we long for the eternal, but all we see is things in their appointed time. There is a time of war and a time of peace—but both end when their time is over.
I do not read this as an imperative to go to war or an endorsement of war. Rather, I see it as an acknowledgment of the existence of war without any statement on the justice, value, or even necessity of war. The passage lists opposite extremes and concludes that in the end, “The dust returns to the ground it came from, / and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”
(via squashed)
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
As you say, context is important, and your original post, lacking context, was clearly meant as a “passage grenade” intended to tick off a select few by supposedly underlining the hypocricy of Christians in favor of war.
We can examine the context of that passage as well, taken from what we call the Beatitudes… the beginning of Jesus’s sermon on the mount which illustrates to His believers the behaviors in line with the pathway to the Kingdom of God. Pacifists look to the passage you quoted to mean that there is never justification for war. Peace is the only answer. But its been often turned around to mean the opposite. Can one bring about peace through force? If you inject yourself into a non-peaceful situation in hopes to bring about a peaceful end, would you not also be a peacemaker?
As far as war is concerned, the idea of “just war” has been debated forever. In defense of my position, I will say that even Jesus instructed his disciples to purchase swords to defend themselves (Luke 22:36).
If anything, we can both certainly agree that while the main objective of the Bible in regards to war is to promote peace, to take a suicidal approach to self-defense doesn’t make a whole lot of sense either.
I would argue that most Christians that consider themselves in favor of the war in Iraq would justify it in these terms. We can argue this war on the merits of whether it was necessary to go to war in the way we did, but to say it’s biblically hypocritical to do so is certainly not so simple.
I can agree to disagree with you on the merits of one argument vs another, but I won’t stand by and allow myself to be called a hypocrite.
On the Waterboard
How does it feel to be “aggressively interrogated”? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America’s use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere. VF.com has the footage. Related:Believe Me, It’s Torture,” from the August 2008 issue. “
How about tickling? Can we tickle the terrorists?
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
—
This one’s worth memorizing.
(via squashed)
You might want to think about this one too. Nothing is as simple as you think.
There is a time for everything.
There’s a time for everything that is done on earth.
There is a time to be born.
And there’s a time to die.
There is a time to plant.
And there’s a time to pull up what is planted.
There is a time to kill.
And there’s a time to heal.
There is a time to tear down.
And there’s a time to build up.
There is a time to cry.
And there’s a time to laugh.
There is a time to be sad.
And there’s a time to dance.
There is a time to scatter stones.
And there’s a time to gather them.
There is a time to hug.
And there’s a time not to hug.
There is a time to search.
And there’s a time to stop searching.
There is a time to keep.
And there’s a time to throw away.
There is a time to tear.
And there’s a time to mend.
There is a time to be silent.
And there’s a time to speak.
There is a time to love.
And there’s a time to hate.
There is a time for war.
And there’s a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
