Too true. But those crackheads don't enter the family business and play off the name of the father. And take the organization down the exact opposite road. I'm a lowercase-f fundamental Christian. I respect Billy Graham. Franklin Graham makes me despair.
I don't have a lot of experience with mega mega churches, those with over 1500 members, say. I do have a fair amount of experience with mega church wannabes, those in the 1000 congregant range, and they are very much like you say. But more perniciously, they are the churches that teach their congregants to forsake the world, be not of it at all. They are the ones building family life centers with basketball courts and holding three times a week youth groups. They are the ones that will criticize American culture, but then turn their backs on it.
I have no real experience with religion beyond going to my local United Methodist church until about 4 and the occasional Bible day camp before ten because it was cheap and my parents weren’t well off financially then. What I know of it comes from relatives and colleagues who belong to some of these churches. They aren’t much different than large over 55 gated communities you find in FL and AZ. If you fit the profile, ie, anyone willing to invest their hard earned cash who doesn’t stir up trouble, then you’re welcome. In exchange, you get the insular benefits: sports facilities, daycare, tons of topical everyday life and scriptural studies, a built in social network. Concerts. Their own 5k members only charity races. It’s an insular lifestyle brand.
They accelerate the anti-social, anti-government, anti-school, paranoid aspect of the Republican party. The kind that shudders at the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. Although actually, most of them are not against villages raising children, as long as the village is all of the same religion/viewpoint.
If you follow the Scripture, in today’s America, you’re going to be a complete weirdo. So I don’t have negative feelings toward those who insulate themselves, in terms of their values and lifestyles. But, it is our calling to set an example. One of the factors in the growth of the early Church was that in many parts of the Roman Empire (my memory is that this was especially prevalent in Egypt, but don’t quote me on that) the early Christians were quasi-communists. The way they took care of each other inspired and attracted others.
This is what I was getting at. The professional colleague isn't really the concern- she's there as a witness that I did nothing wrong. Yeah, this is an anecdote, but it did happen. I know two people who've had a career setback because they were Scottsboro'd. What has he said? I don't know anything about him taking steps to avoid accusations of impropriety. Pence? I don't get that from his speeches or whatever, but I laughed up a lung at "found next year's Christmas presents". Are you sure it isn't just because he looks like Anderson Cooper?
Nah, not that we know for sure that Pence is gayer than a $3 bill with Richard Simmons' picture on it in a San Francisco leather bar or anything like that, but it sure seems that the most homophobic GOP "fambly value" types are often the ones who roll that way. Just pure idle speculation, just like we can't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Glenn Beck didn't rape and murder a young girl in 1990. In the past, Pence has said that his mother told him never to be alone with a woman who is not his wife, mother or sister, because, well, you never know what might happen. Which is such a 1950s attitude when it comes to dealing with female professional colleagues in the workplace. Good luck if you're a female head of a department who needs to discuss something with the VP or anything like that. You shouldn't treat women any different than men, and to do so is patronizing, insulting and sexist.
If you keep your dick in your pants and treat women with respect and courtesy, there will be no hint of impropriety. Which is what he's so afraid of.
I presume Pence's Mom didn't tell him to never be alone with a man who is not his wife/mother/sister....
Have this story been posted somewhere? This scumbag in Ms is in deep s****! Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on a felony count of invasion of privacy in the first degree. The governor is accused of taking a nude photograph of a woman without her consent in 2015, and threatening to release it if she publicized their affair. Greitens has admitted to the affair but denied allegations of blackmail and vowed to remain in office. A reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch witnessed the governor being led away in the custody of several St. Louis deputies at the courthouse on Thursday afternoon. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/missouri-governor-eric-greitens-indicted-invasion-privacy
I was driving up Tucker today past the justice center a bit before 4pm today and it was a zoo. Good riddance. The guy has been after every economic development program in the state's arsenal, even those with clearly high ROIs. Historic tax credits for historic rehabs and workforce development initiatives being two of them. I'm not a fan of subsidies for sports venues because the dollars paid into them are basically cannibalizing other economic activities in a region, BUT...Greitens very clearly should have ponied up some cash for the St. Louis MLS pitch. It would have taken activity from the IL side of the region and deposited it in Missouri. If he was willing to fork over a measly $15 million on the effort, the state would have come out well ahead. If that money had been in place, there were all sorts of viable paths to close the remainder of the financing gap and St. Louis would likely be in the league.
I agree. But I disagree that the reason has to do with certain kinds of churches or loose interpretations of Christianity. Allow me to quote this scholarly work on the true face of religion in America: 80% of Americans don't attend church. Most of them are still religious, but their religion some amorphous blob of religious references from wider culture and some variety of nationalism that never undergoes an internal audit.
I know this is not what you were getting at but it does kind of fit this pamphlet I was handed when walking into the Metro station. Normal con-men don't have to be so blatant.
I've been reading more about Billy Graham, and my initial reaction I now think was somewhat harsh. He was not quite as much of an uninterested bystander as I originally depicted him.
Maybe not harsh enough: Graham was also close to Richard Nixon — so close that Graham took it upon himself to draft a secret 13-page plan to bomb North Vietnam. In his book “The Golden Age Is In Us: Journeys and Encounters,” Alexander Cockburn cites a declassified 1969 memo Graham wrote after meeting with missionaries in Bangkok. Graham’s plan, he wrote to Nixon, “could overnight destroy the economy of North Vietnam.” Had Nixon followed through, that strike could have killed an estimated million people. A recorded 1972 Oval Office conversation between Nixon and Graham, released by the National Archives in 2002, revealed Graham made multiple anti-Semitic remarks. Graham called Jews “Satanic.” He agreed with Nixon that they controlled the national media. “They’re the ones putting out all the pornographic stuff,” Graham said, and their “stranglehold has got to be broken or the country’s going down the drain.” But not to worry, Graham told Nixon — Jews had no idea what he truly believed. “I go and keep friends with Mr. Rosenthal at The New York Times and people of that sort, you know,” Graham said. “And all — I mean not all the Jews, but a lot of the Jews are great friends of mine. They swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know I’m friendly with Israel. But they don’t know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country.” Truman's take was the right take: It’s now time to ask how Billy Graham’s permanent place in governance came to be and why. A man who rejected evolution and science. A fundamentalist believer who deigned himself an expert on foreign policy — guided by the infallible spirit of God, no doubt. A man who taught himself oration by preaching to oil cans and lawn mowers — this man wound up a hallowed advisor to the most powerful men on Earth. Is this a rational outcome? (Harry Truman was not a fan. “Counterfeit,” he called Graham.) Let’s also ask: Would America have countenanced a rabbi? A mullah? A shaman? Our nation was founded on the separation of church and state, yet for decades a for-profit preacher — worth a reported $25 million at the time of his death — was a backroom political power broker agitating, at least twice, for war. It’s not heresy to question Graham. It’s necessary — because the tradition of an installed White House spiritual adviser, and our unblinking acceptance of one, should die with Billy Graham. https://nypost.com/2018/03/03/billy-graham-was-a-dangerous-influence-on-the-white-house/
Sir Roger Bannister -- 88 Famously, the first man to break the 4 minute mile, Bannister eventually left running and went on to become a neurologist and discovered the first test for anabolic steroids. https://www.si.com/2018/03/04/roger-bannister-dies-first-sub-four-minute-mile Speaking about the race to break the 4 minute mile: "As it became clear that somebody was going to do it, I felt that I would prefer it to be me."
I was off school that day and caught it live on TV. It was pretty exciting at the time. He planned the attempt with one of his running buddies, Chris Chattaway. (Geez I remember that ) Chris called himself the Rabbit and ran his heart out to set a fast pace for the early laps with Roger tucked in behind ready to go at the right time. It worked.
His training methods weren't really what we'd use today. He was in med school, so he'd stop his studies in the afternoon, change clothes, limber up, then run a mile. Then back to classes and the labs.
Well, that and the periodic 10x440 in 59 seconds, with 2 minutes rest between each. I did that workout in 67 seconds, at my best. Which was a damn sight short of Roger's best. .
Stephen Hawking R.I.P. Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science. His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we & the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014 pic.twitter.com/FeR4fd2zZ5— NASA (@NASA) March 14, 2018