Blowing in the Wind or Blowing the Whistle

Posted on March 14, 2012 by ehurst

I’ve blown the whistle at times, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Try to understand, I wish harm to no one. At one time I suffered a bit of self-righteous pique, but it went away quickly enough. I really no longer care much what happens to folks I might expose; it’s not about them and it’s not about me. It’s about the facts.
Living the way I do right now, there is hardly anything to which I’m privy and worthy of exposure. But I walk the talk; if you dare to ask, I would expose my entire personal history. Memory fails me on some things, but I’m pretty good at recalling my failures. There are skeletons, but not hidden in closets. I’m willing to bet it would bore you to tears, but I’d tell all to anyone who asks. I believe that justifies my eagerness to help others expose their skeletons, whether they like it or not.
From time to time I try to point out less specific things I discover hiding in closets. My crusade against cultural mythology is more like painting the elephant day-glow pink and green. The only reason people don’t already notice the elephant is because it’s been there too long. They’ve lost the sense it doesn’t belong there. Someday the floor will collapse.
Sometimes I try to find more concrete examples. The Syrian government restricts foreign reporters. Sure, their own reporters keep painting a smiley face on stuff, but the foreign reporters lie blatantly. It’s one thing to have a difference of opinion about conflicts raging. It’s altogether a different thing when someone sees nothing at all, then describes a blood bath. Most of the foreign reporters in Syria are telling lies they know are lies. Some of those reporters are literally hired and paid by the CIA/Mossad terrorists whom the Syrian government is actually fighting. But my noting this isn’t whistle blowing, because I’m not there to present concrete evidence, forced as I am to rely on more honest reports from people with a far better track record.
Of course, that’s not the same thing as folks who are all wrapped up in mere facts. They have their place, but far too many of them seem to miss the really important stuff. They seem to enjoy that whistle just a little too much. There’s no particular thrill in blowing the whistle unless you are just about as morally weak as the folks you target for this treatment. The emotional rush becomes the reason, more important than the facts. Yeah, like “investigative reporters” who sell stuff to the MSM. Anything to distract you from the important stuff actually coming to hurt you.
Not that you could do much about it, but something in the human soul is radically different when it makes truth a priority. This is something which connects us to things far bigger than ourselves. I can’t even allege it makes life worth living in any sense you recognize. Yet, when I find folks really interested in truth, even if they have trouble finding it, they seem so completely different from the rest of the human race, I can’t just ignore them. It seems they return the favor if they have time.
This is the audience for whom I would blow any whistles. They’d understand what it’s about, and not run off shouting and screaming as if the house was on fire. We can’t stop the screamers from doing what they do, but we can put our fingers in our ears, offer a knowing wink and nod to each other, then decide for ourselves how to respond, if at all. We are not team players, and we don’t really like the us-versus-them nonsense. Each of us could offer our own list of reasons for avoiding the herds, but the real reason is the herds never gather where we are. For which we are grateful.
My mission in chasing truth sometimes means I’m passing through the herd, blowing that whistle which is mostly inaudible to folks who can’t be made to care. Anyone who perks up marks themselves as perhaps needing a little more truth, and I try to lead them out of the herd. Seems to work often enough I keep doing it.
So while the folks who proudly call themselves “whistleblower” are fighting for the limelight, I’m just looking for a pair of bright eyes.

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Paying Tribute

Posted on March 14, 2012 by ehurst

It’s one thing to recognize contributions for which you owe a debt of gratitude for the good things people have added to your life. It’s an altogether different thing when someone makes your life possible. There is one fellow out there who owns a piece of my soul. When God ends all things and we stand before Him, everything likely to show up on God’s record of my life will always go partially to the credit of this one man.
Reverend Thomas Duncan never bothered with getting a degree. His mission in life hardly required one. There were three periods in my life when I spent any significant time with him. The one which matters most was quite early.
Sometime around age 7 I passed through the Baptist conversion ritual. Baptists don’t like calling it a ritual, but it doesn’t vary across the entire world where such churches exist. I recall the ritual, but nothing of the discussion which was supposed to justify the ritual. Among the frequent moves we made when I was young, I turned age 9 at Purcell, OK. We attended Union Hill Baptist Church outside of town, and Tom was called as pastor that year.
It was because Tom was the kind of man he was, that his wife was the kind of woman she was. It was she who recognized my youthful turmoil was not merely typical kid stuff, but meant something. It was she who with a single sentence led me to reach out and touch the Spirit Realm which called me. She skipped all that conversion talk and offered what little could help. Subsequently, it was Tom who taught me how to do business in that realm.
He didn’t try to teach me that. No one can. It’s not taught, but caught. Indeed, most of what he tried to teach me never stuck, because it really didn’t matter. Precious few of our conversations were memorable. What was memorable was the way he operated hard-wired to Heaven. All his flaws and limitations had no bearing on what he accomplished, because his vital energy and peculiar sense of what was important did all the work. The things he could tell me were simply his own peculiar intellectual grasp, but he was one of the precious few who seemed comfortable with God looking over his shoulder.
So at the tender age of 9 I caught it. Nothing was ever the same. From that time forward, I remained sensitive to the Spirit Realm. I was flatly incapable of ignoring it. My conduct was always in check.
There are plenty of secret scars on my soul, things which were quite awful when measured internally by the standards of the Spirit. But I defy you to find evidence by which I actively, intentionally harmed anyone else. For this, I owe much tribute to Brother Tom. A genuine spiritual awakening will tend to restrain self-interest, and put the focus on something much bigger than yourself. In religious language, you hunger for holiness more than anything else. Tom was that kind of man himself, and it branded my soul for life.
There are no words of thanks adequate for such a gift.

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Game Frame and Casual Social Encounters

Posted on March 13, 2012 by ehurst

I stood in front of the bookshelf at the thrift store, letting my gaze wander over the random titles. A fellow next to me crossed in front of me, offering the typical, “excuse me.”
My response was, “You’re okay.” Then I followed up with a very clichéd, “I can see right through you, man.” He laughed heartily and walked on down the aisle.
It was his choice. I engaged him with my standard personality response, clowning. It was my mission to make a kind of love offering, telling him he was significant, a human in my eyes worthy of at least that much effort. There was no desperate need in my approach, but no dismissal, either.
Being needy is a social disaster. It destroys everything in this world you could hope to build or achieve. I don’t need your approval; I am my own man. I have my mission from God and I will assume you have yours. Prove me wrong, but I will avoid proving anything at all, if I can.
Needy people would seize upon me in such encounters and unload everything in their minds, which tends to an awful lot. I take that risk. Most will simply take what I offered, as the man mentioned above did, and move on with one more smile than they had before. A rare few would be intrigued enough to actually respond with some limited offer of fellowship. Thus, I engage my world and offer what little I have, and grow from whatever response I get.
It’s possible you feel compelled to avoid human contact. That’s a hard row to hoe, but for some, it’s the best they can do. Then do it right, and carry an air of strength, not hiding in weakness. Do it right, and even being aloof and superior can make the world a brighter place.
The worst thing you can do is surrender in any way. Examples from a man’s point of view adaptations for women:
1a. Some hot babe wearing entirely too little shows it off, and you can’t take your eyes from her. You’ve already lost. If you must, take one good look, just a second or two, then deliberately look away and avoid becoming absorbed. If you stare, she dominates you, and may try to take advantage of you. Of course, if you enjoy being that kind of loser, no one can help you. (Note: If she really wants you, your aloofness will only make her more eager. Otherwise, whatever else it is she wants, you won’t enjoy it in the long run. In my case, women who put on this sort of display are already disqualified for my attention.)
1b. Ladies, if he’s hot and flirts, he’s a predator. If he’s hotter than you by any measure, the best you can hope for is abuse. Don’t smile at all; turn away and ignore him.
2a. Someone bears a strong visual affinity (dresses like you, etc.) and you quickly become engaged in insider chatter. In the process, do not engage in soul-baring. Yes, there is a time and place to share your sorrows, but this isn’t it. Listen; it’s the best gift you can give. Be reticent while friendly, letting them be the weak and needy one. You can’t stop needing, but you can stop displaying it and surrendering. Stop talking about yourself because it’s not about you.
2b. Women who chatter too much in girl talk are grasping at any strength in numbers advantage. The woman who can avoid being sucked into this is always more desirable to men, and very competitive against other women. While the other gals may take this as a personal insult, they’ll still wish they were like you.
3a. Some not-so-hot gal attempts to engage you in conversation. If she starts asking questions aimed at pinning you down in one political/social category or another, be evasive. Do this even if you happen to agree. Learn how to answer without content, or ask questions in reply. Start with, “Why would you want to know that?” Force her to reveal her biases and demands. Be civil, but don’t allow her to maneuver you into any pre-defined pockets. Come up with answers totally off-the-wall. It’s not a matter of winning her affections — you may well do so — but to practice dominance even when it doesn’t matter. That’s because, in the long run, it always matters.
3b. When a guy pulls this stunt with a woman, it’s more likely he’ll try to find out where she is and chase her there. Ladies, if you offer no definitive answers, he can’t pretend to be on your side. Losers think being your friend is the best way to get closer romantically. Don’t even smile, unless you intend to bite. Of course, if you are a barracuda, these guys are begging to be misled, manipulated and abused.
Fundamentally, it’s really not about dominance, but freedom. Don’t be ruled by others when you can avoid it. The problem is, human nature being what it is, the vast majority of the human race insists on operating in comparative terms. Thus, by insisting on freedom, you take dominance in their eyes. Given almost all humanity wants things measured in such terms, give them what they demand on that point — dominate where you can’t disengage.
In the vast majority of casual encounters, no real content can be exchanged directly. You first have to establish the right to speak. It won’t matter what your message is; you still have to get an ear. You still have to speak the language, which invariably includes measures of dominance. You cannot possibly avoid the underlying sexual dynamics; humans are hard-wired to operate with such a consideration, even if unconsciously. Best to be conscious of it and stop pretending it has no effect.
Men admire and cooperate with dominant men. Precious few will feel threatened; let them make a fool of themselves. When they become violent and hostile, they actually lose some measure of dominance, displaying insecurity. Few love what they fear. Need I explain you can take a beating and still win dominance? Women are actually more likely to be hostile, but less overtly, when one of their own displays feminine dominance. Still, the admiration is there in the form of envy, because women are not men. There are inevitable differences between the sexes on how this works out. With men it’s a question of “what” and with women it’s “whom.” A dominant male is focused on his mission and doesn’t really need anyone, but knows when he’s found someone worth holding. A dominant woman knows whom (what kind of man) she needs and how to get his attention.
Most of life is playing off those factors even when they aren’t directly pertinent.

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Fake Personality Inventories

Posted on March 13, 2012 by ehurst

Any personality inventory which forces you to make a false choice, or excludes your real choices, is fake — not just useless, but dangerous.
One of the things I learned under Dr. Tom Yarbrough’s tutelage was never trust personality inventories. To this day, it seems everyone swears by the Myers-Briggs personality type test. We were shown some of the background of how this test was constructed, along with several others. In our single class, we found a significant minority felt excluded by the test. I am one of them. The unspeakable arrogance of those who write and use such tests, when you tell them you find certain questions unacceptable, is simply amazing. No, you do not have to settle for one of whatever answers are offered; stop the test and walk away.
It’s as if you aren’t permitted to be different. In reality, the people who develop these things are not the least bit interested in knowledge, but control. They are forcing the whole world to fit into their neat little categories. When you find as many as three questions wrong for you, the whole thing is broken. Their model of human behavior becomes no better than a conversational working model, and it’s not serious science any more.
Granted, the whole point here is helping people to understand the very limits of any such testing. Regardless how widely it may be accepted, it says more about the folks using it than it does the people tested. It helps to indicate how unwilling they are to actually think about what makes people tick. If they use something so completely acceptable to everyone else in the same business, it becomes an excuse to avoid self-examination.
We who sincerely wish to help other folks find some measure of peaceful negotiation with the world in which they live should never forget our limitations. I can only help you with those things I understand. If I admit up front to the limitations of my abilities, you won’t be suckered into making me some kind of guru. I become just a friend who views the world from a different perspective, and can broaden your options when you make a decision. The whole point is enabling a decision to act in one way or another, and you feeling better about the choice.
Fundamental to the counseling field is helping people bring themselves closer to reality, or to something identified as normal. At the very least, we should be helping folks understand realistically the cause and effect of choices they make. If you do this, you should expect others to respond with that. When the model by which we seek to establish what’s normal, or at least what’s common, is broken, we can’t offer so much help. If we who offer help understand we have limits, we can be honest and send you elsewhere when your needs exceed our ability to help. When we construct highly involved frameworks for this work, and forget it doesn’t include every single person we encounter, we are breeding our own form of blindness to reality.
There is a small move in the field of counseling psychology which finds less is more. That is, instead of attempting to answer all your questions, we offer just the bare minimum to help you answer the very biggest problem you have at one time. Instead of pretending we are experts with all the answers to the world’s ills, we humbly insist we can’t really answer our own all the time. But what we do have, we offer. We have a wide body of evidence you can work out most of your own answers with a very minimum of pointing out things you would not think of on your own. We have noticed, given some time, most people come up with a pretty good answer. Counseling consists of guiding you to actually think it through with your best capabilities, without cheating yourself. Once that single worst blind spot is exposed, that job is done.
We don’t want you dependent on anyone who is clearly not big enough to carry you. That would be any human counselor alive on this earth. That includes the geniuses who came up with all those wonderful personality assessments, and insist your answers which don’t fit in their neat little matrix are simply not important. Again, if there are a hundred questions and you find three which don’t fit your reality, that assessment will not help you. The whole thing is broken and pointless, at best. It will create an image of you which is false enough to miss your needs, and runs the risk of misguiding you for a very long time afterward. You trade one false reality for another.
You are in charge of your own counseling. The most powerful moral force on this earth is someone voluntarily doing the right thing. If something inside you needs to keep bouncing off brick walls until you are ready to stop the pain, then I should be willing to wait. If, in the process, you keep hurting others, then maybe I need to find a way to help others stay out of your way, or maybe even force you to find other brick walls to bounce off, but there are always distinct limits to what I can do or should try to do. Yet, even if what I say causes a reaction, a rejection, which then puts you in a better place, I call that success. I am hardly the final judge of success, when the whole cause for you coming in the first place was pain. However you find peace, that’s the best hope I can have.
Don’t let anyone ignore your reality and pretend to have all the answers you need.

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Game and Frame of Reference

Posted on March 12, 2012 by ehurst

The fundamental issue for a man is dominance in his own world.
Something in the bigger picture of my college education made me understand something few of my peers would even accept, much less understand. This was the overwhelming necessity of ignoring whether a gal was fun and exciting to me, and considering whether she was as committed to my mission as I was. Benighted as I was, not really knowing what my mission was, I most certainly knew that my mission was I knew whomever I married would first and foremost have to be burning with a desire to serve the same religious calling.
And I knew beyond all doubt a solid romantic attachment would follow in due time. That was my secret weapon, so to speak. I wanted to avoid that emotional intoxication (cathexis) which leads so many people in the wrong path, and destroys more marriages than it builds. It’s not about love and romance, but partnership. It’s human nature; that other stuff takes care of itself if you pay attention to what really matters. It did.
I intentionally married someone with a slightly lower sexual market value (SMV). Not that I was the pick of the litter by any means, but I knew hotter gals had reached out to me, and what they had in mind was something entirely different than what I knew I had to do. What mattered most was that sense of divine calling, and I found someone convinced of that herself. She was cute enough, but that really wasn’t much of a consideration. Now, nearly 35 years later we still have a roaring hot romance, and she’s my best friend. We never betrayed each other’s trust, either. This is how it was supposed to work, so I’m proof it can.
There is a considerable amount of Game lore which fills out the details, but the fundamental issue remains one of the man’s dominance. Whenever I’m asked to counsel, I ask questions which help me understand the relative SMV and how each perceives that. With women, my primary effort is getting her to see she and her husband are partners first, and lovers second. Then I help her see ways she stop turning her guns on him and start targeting the outside world, which is the biggest threat they face, otherwise. She has to get some serenity — accepting the things which cannot be changed by either of them, and taking charge of those she can and should fix.
For him, it’s building dominance. If he has it, she will always respond and be less trouble. The form of dominance depends a lot on her and him and the chemistry. But often it’s a combination of helping him raise his SMV — physical fitness, developing a sense of self-assurance, etc. There will always be limits, but he needs to take it as far as it can go. But all of that means nothing, if they don’t have a unified sense of mission.
Very often the biggest barrier there is lack of clarity about convictions and how they work, how your conscience is merely your intellect’s interpretation of your convictions. Convictions in themselves are too subtle, too substantial, and too ineffable to be so easily described. Your conscience will shift as you get a better connection to your convictions. Convictions are best seen as more durable than your life. Once I get a man to grasp his identity is best understood in light of his character and convictions, the self-assurance tends to come naturally. He needs to be at home with himself.
The corollary to this is aplomb. The man hard to stir is the man who remains dominant. Granted, my being a clown offers the same effect. That is, whatever I tend to be all the time hardly changes when the conditions bounce off track. My way of handling tension and lack of tension is pretty much the same — I don’t take myself that seriously. That’s because it’s not about me, but it’s about the mission. Other men exhibit disentanglement in other ways, but failure to engage is simply not an option. You engage, but when the world is crazy, you remain who and what you were before. Same thing when she gets crazy, too.
It’s quite unlikely she won’t. She’s a woman, and her impulses are more variable than yours. That’s what makes her so interesting. Let her have everything she asks, so long as you know it won’t affect the mission, which includes your dominance. Draw firm lines and when she tries to seize the steering wheel, you have to break her grip or stop the ride. You can’t force her back on course, but you can refuse to be drawn off yours. Whatever it takes to keep from handing her too much control of the wrong thing is what you have to do.
That includes not putting her on a pedestal. Don’t give her the privilege of being the center. The mission is the center, and you hover over it closely. All the attention goes to the mission, and you honestly report to her how she’s doing as your partner. Don’t praise her for simply being a woman, nor for simply being involved. Praise her genuinely for accomplishments along the path of improvement, and for trying. Let her know honestly when you are disappointed. Obviously, you’ll have to learn the art of communicating to her so she can hear what you say, and not get lost in the subtexts of her own mind. Her security rests entirely in her commitment to the mission, not in any other thing.
Meanwhile, be sensitive to her feelings, even when you can’t do anything about them. She’s the only one who can make her happy. That you notice shows engagement, and if you can learn the art, strive to meet her where she is in her feelings. Lift her when she’s weak, reassure her when she’s feeling insecure, and remind her often you are so glad she’s on your side. But don’t ever accept responsibility for how she feels. You’ll screw up, for sure, but that’s being human, and you can apologize pointedly for the real mistake without groveling. You can clean up your messes without losing your authority. She must be able to depend on you for a solid consistency. She is dependent; you are reliable.
Strive to adhere to the fundamental truth: You could do without her, but you’d rather not.

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Paying Dues

Posted on March 12, 2012 by ehurst

The only reason to celebrate those who’ve touched your life is because that touch made things work a lot better.
Whatever else goes on in my life, I always know what I have to do. There may be some moments where I juggle the options, but only so long as it takes for all but one of them to drop and break. It won’t matter what crazy crap the world tosses at me, I’m ready.
I got that way due in large part to a bunch of people who contributed to the process. As regards my intellectual development, three names loom yet large in my mind from my time at Oklahoma Baptist University (1974-1978). So far as I know, the first on the list is the only one still living, but their contribution lives on in me, and surely others in this world.
Dr. Robert Clarke, Philosophy: Not just the history of philosophers, but logic and the art of thinking itself. He also awakened me to Ancient Hebrew epistemology. We were on the same wavelength from the start. Admittedly, most of what I learned from him was packed away into my subconscious, because my intellect was simply not up to it in those days. Yet over the years I keep stumbling across some long-forgotten understanding he managed to bury in my head, rising up from the depths in his voice, with his face and dynamic delivery.
Dr. Rowena Strickland, Bible: She was the only professor in the Religion Department who actually understand the Book. Shocking it may be, but at a Southern Baptist college, all the other professors tried to tear away whole chunks in naked disbelief. She showed me I could trust the Book. I still don’t understand how this scrawny little old lady managed to keep a bunch of rowdy Baptist preacher boys in check without once calling into question anyone’s manhood. She managed to cling to the biblical image of womanhood and still shot holes in a bunch of silly mythology. She understood the whole genesis of the Dispensationalist delusion, watched that heresy rise during her tenure, and crushed it intellectually. Oh, and she was one the first few women to get a ThD from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and her thesis covering the Messianic Expectations of the First Century Jewish scholars has only been confirmed repeatedly since then (explains the source of the Zionist heresy).
Dr. Tom Yarbrough, Psychology: A professional clinical psychologist, he showed us in a single course how to integrate clinical studies of human behavior with ineffable spiritual realities. He was able to explain unmistakable clinical symptoms of genuine spiritual change. Just our one class of students walked away forever changed by his ability to integrate the two in our understanding. No one else I’ve heard or read has ever come close.
Because of them I understand this world is a prison, death is my friend, yet suicide would be utterly stupid. Had I taken any other path but the high road of personal denial these three made possible, I’d have died in shame long ago.

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Chasing That Uneasy Feeling

Posted on March 11, 2012 by ehurst

Neurosis is a layer of denial trying to hide from yourself some legitimate suffering or unease.
I’ve had an uneasy feeling the past couple of days. At the time, the only thing I faced consciously was my first chance to teach a bit at the church I attend. Because I already know I’m the most alien man in the place, I wasn’t sure if I would be embraced, ignored or run out the door. At least the last of those didn’t happen, yet. But upon reflection I discovered this wasn’t really the issue in the first place.
I’m very uneasy from a source over the horizon of conscious intellect. It’s the sort of thing like the Kony business in Uganda. Funny how the MSM notes there are differences of opinion about that video making the rounds virally, but stops short of reporting the contentions of the opposition to the message of Kony 2012. Since when did the US decide Uganda mattered? When oil was discovered. And the organization behind Kony 2012 is almost surely a CIA front. And Kony hasn’t been in Uganda in six years, but we gotta send troops to Uganda.
And I have to wonder if the ruling elite here aren’t just a little angry that Kony seems to be poaching from their pool of children for rape (shades of Franklin and Dutroux). The elites never did appreciate competition. Hint: A certain Senator from a certain state is all wrapped up in Uganda just like he’s in Monsanto’s pockets and is a member of “The Family” — which is just as bad as the Mafia, but a totally different flavor. They advertise their conservative Christianity, of course. Too many Okies are in this, and it makes me just a bit edgy.
As if that’s not bad enough, something tells me we already have lots of military people running around inside Syria. I don’t mean a handful of CIA/Mossad provocateurs, but serious military covert action with pretty large units — boots on the ground, as they say. I’m just a bit on edge waiting to see what, if any part of that, will be officially admitted. They never did admit we had troops in Libya until it was supposed to be over, then said they were “contractors.”
I’m not one to shy away from internal conflicts. Internal peace means more to me than just about anything, so I’ll gladly open myself up for radical changes if that’s what it takes. But as I kept chasing this ghost in my own conscience, I ran across some stories about Kony and Syria, and suddenly the ghost came into the light. It wasn’t me. It will probably affect me, since so much of it is rooted here where I live, but it’s not from me. The part which makes me ill at ease is knowing for once, someone else is making a huge mess, but I’ll still have to help clean it up.
I almost forgot to mention the only problem I face at church is the high likelihood some members there are solid supporters of all this warfare madness. I’m wondering if my different viewpoint will become fodder for some unpleasant words, or worse, and I’ll be forced to look elsewhere for fellowship once again.
Beware the Ides of March.

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Clowning with the New Camera

Posted on March 10, 2012 by ehurst

Ed shirtless with garden and shovel

Dead bodies make good fertilizer.


You can steal this picture, but if it makes you money, it would be nice to offer me a cut.
My wife and I have been keeping our eyes open for a good deal on a cheap digital camera. This one cost less than $50 US because it was the last one on display. While I seldom pose like this, I’m just clowning. The shovel is real, and so is the garden, but I am a pacifist, so don’t believe the caption for a second.
For those dying to know: 5’10” (1.78m) and 230 pounds (104kg), 55 years old.

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No Significant Difference

Posted on March 10, 2012 by ehurst

I’m reading through a book I’ve been asked to use in a series of sessions, in which I will be leading a men’s discussion group. We were warned it was not the best, but a decent place to start. The name of the book isn’t important, because it’s just one of dozens you could order from the same few publishers.
These books all present a mythology of recovering Christian manhood. They presume to push the envelope, engage in a bit of cultural warfare, reacting to what they regard as an attack, an overt politically correct progressive cultural assault. Here’s the crazy part: The books are produced by the same commercial entities which publish and profit from these perceived attacks.
This particular book comes from writers participating in making some of the hit films from Sherwood Pictures Ministry, which is based at Sherwood Baptist Church, Albany, GA. Having been a Baptist myself, nothing in this whole thing offers any surprises to me. It is wholly and utterly predictable. That is, everything is a reflection of socially conservative, middle-class American culture. Worst of all, they do not understand how this is merely another flavor of the same culture they claim to despise. (From what I can see of their marriage books, they have zero understanding of Game.)
Would it surprise you to discover nothing about Sherwood BC indicates they aren’t Dispensationalist Christian Zionists? The vast majority of Southern Baptist churches are. Those who aren’t usually say so because they want no part of that garbage. Churches are the religious Zionist propaganda machine, and Hollywood the secular version of the same thing. The manipulative message is pretty much the same when you strip away the flavoring. It’s the same Neocon imperial message we have come to expect with all sorts of disguises. These are good Baptist folks who want Americans to die attacking countries who’ve done us no harm, for whatever reason the NWO has, but seldom reveals. The main difference here is they at least are willing to send their own sons for cannon fodder, because they are true believers.
I can’t fault the authors of this book for offering the best they know. They sincerely believe this is godly. They can’t imagine how very far it is from what the Bible actually says. The can’t imagine how utterly foreign is the Ancient Hebrew intellectual background to their dreams of a perfect world. So in this book, the authors keep coming right up to the doorway of truth, but never passing through it.
This should not surprise anyone who so much as visits their websites. You’ll be bombarded by the same despicable intrusive advertising, the same tracking cookies and web bugs, the same manipulative garbage we expect from Hollywood. They are associated with Sony Entertainment, for goodness’ sake. With each successive movie they produce, Sherwood is more and more exactly like the sleazy Hollywood they claim to attack, using the same head games, the same money grubbing “artistry” and in every other way just like the sinners they say they want to convert.
As Jesus said, it won’t matter what architecture you use, if you build in the same sand as those you ridicule, your structure will collapse for the same reason.

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A Christian Psychology of Loss

Posted on March 9, 2012 by ehurst

To Christian men:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)

There is nothing in your life here which owns you. It’s all forfeit from the day you realize you cannot avoid following Christ. You need not mimic every action He took, only absorb the level of commitment characterized by His teaching and conduct.
Let’s take the most powerful element of human existence to clarify this: sex. You already know Jesus forbids sex outside the lifelong commitment to a Christian spouse. That has nothing to do with a marriage license or even a ceremony in front of other Christians. It’s what is inside you, and presumably your spouse. You already know you do not seek a spouse on the open market of this world, but must work from within the closed market of Christians. You weren’t supposed to seek happiness, but a partner who contributed to your calling willfully.
Yeah, you have a mission, a calling which holds you and won’t let you go. Nothing else matters.
So let’s assume the worst. One: She dies. Yeah, it hurts. You’ll miss her terribly, and feel lonely. If you weren’t already prepared to face those things, you’ll be in bad shape quite often, never mind if she dies on you. That means somehow you must nail all that to the Cross before it happens, find some way to experience that death while still living. Then you are ready to take her death as the best opportunity for her, because going home to be with Jesus means she’ll be far better off than she was here with you. You’ll get over it.
Two: You discover she’s been unfaithful. This assumes established fact, not paranoid fears. Killer blow. Same issue, though. When I counsel folks going through divorce or similar relational turmoil, I tell them it’s the same as bereavement. You face it pretty much as you do their death. The person you loved died, despite their body still running around. Again, if you didn’t already nail it to the Cross, you did it wrong, and weren’t ready to marry in the first place.
So you shut off those emotions for a time, and you ask her what’s next. What are her plans? There’s only one answer you really want to hear, that she plans to break that crap off right now and straighten up. Any other answer means she isn’t ready to stay in your life. Let her go. Kindly and with good grace. Have pity on her, but cut her off from your life, because you can’t afford any further distraction from your mission. If she wants to work her way back, consider whether you should work with her, for whatever reason.
Three: You’re the one who screws up and is less than faithful. Ready for that? Not in the sense of looking forward to the sin, but someone who realizes he is always capable of failure. In many ways, your next step is in the hands of the victims. Your mistake surrendered your freedom to choose a lot of options. This is likely to seriously interfere with your mission, so back off and spend some time with yourself in as much isolation as you can get. Worst of all, you’ve stepped on God’s heart, and that’s a big mess to clean up. He’s better equipped to handle it than any human, but His pound of flesh comes first. What does He demand of you?
Yes, the children will suffer. You do remember this world is fallen, right? You knew bad stuff could happen with your kids and to your kids before you knew they were coming. It’s painful, but you can’t get perfection on this plane of existence. Your hopes and dreams should have been nailed to that cross already.
The problem is most of us utterly fail to produce that hammer and nails at any point before these things happen to us. Get it right. Not only do you use them, but you keep them handy, ready for daily — hourly — use. Every time something comes at you, the proper response is drag them back out and nail some fresh piece of you up there. It won’t matter if its something less traumatic than romantic heartbreak; the basic principle is the same. If your whole world comes tumbling down when your romance fails, you were all wrong in the first place, and you deserve the sorrow. It’s not you shouldn’t invest yourself in the welfare of another, but your sense of dependence which made that thing your god. Never let anything steal your soul, most of all not romantic entanglements. If she’s that intoxicating, she’s probably wrong for you.
Take up that cross, and never be satisfied with what’s nailed to it.

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