I am indeed despicable

I watched Despicable Me while "overseeing" my 7 children and 1 nephew and wondering why we think the innocence of children can reform the evil in us.  Having children will quickly bring out your short temper, sharp tongue, and other vices. Children's innocence is beautiful but shallow and short lived.

Privatizing government in Honduras

Honduras Signs Deal to Create Private Cities

Wow.  It is happening.  Privately run cities "with their own legal and tax systems."  Perhaps, we don't need to have sea colonies/seasteads to have these experimental governments.  Will these cities have their own police?  They have to.  Will they have their own military?  It would be fascinating to see how these cities develop.  Who will be allowed to live there?  What is the selling point?

Exporting allergies and some honey.

I saw a sign on Rt 15 in Dover-Foxcroft  protesting the East-West Highway which read "If you want another highway, why live in Maine?"  It is mainly because I want to live in Maine that I think we should thoroughly explore this highway in Maine.  The setting the the sign was a perfect.  It sat in the corner of a huge field of....goldenrod.  A wasted field.  Nothing being raised or grown.  Nothing anyone would want though there is a beekeeper set up nearby.  Clover would be better and sustain a beef critter. Next to that field heading south was the Charlotte White Center, which receives massive amounts of State and Federal funding.  Sure, leave the Maine way of life alone as if change wasn't happening and could be stopped.

It may work in Tahiti but what about Fiji

I was reading Sea of Glory by Philbrick hoping I would learn some about the Pacific.  The book was more about the personality conflicts among the men.  An interesting incident was the crews encounter with Tahiti and Fiji.  Tahiti was considered paradise, beautiful people who worked little due to the abundant fruit and fish.  They were also very...free with their bodies.  William Reynolds, one of the officers, mused "Who can judge one nation by another?" (pg 133)When the expedition got to Fiji they encountered cannibals who kindly offered them a fresh head and eventually killed two members of the crew.  The expedition retaliated with what can only be called a massacre of an entire village and Reynolds seemed to forget his earlier sentiments "{L}et no one say that there was one life too many taken."(pg 231) .  The pastoral idea is nice but the wickedness of man always pops up.  Even in Tahiti, it was soon altered by prostitution and venereal disease (Why would the women sell their bodies--the price was an iron nail-- if life was so good?) and alcoholism(What were they trying to escape?).  If a perfect society has to be protected from every other society (especially "evil" Western ones), I doubt its perfection.

First, do no harm

We've been thinking much about North American missionary efforts.  This statement is from a secular book, echoes-though rather coldly, the premise that you're not helping someone by doing something for them they ought to do themselves.

An important consequence of redistribution among cultures has been to make those who lived in nonindustrial civilization and adhered to non industrial values artificially competitive.  International aid, rescue missions to counter famine and disease, and technical intervention fooled many into believing that their life prospects had sharply improved--without the necessity on their part of updating their values or significantly altering their behavior.

--The Sovereign Individual, Davidson and Rees-Mogg, pg. 394

We have handed them the fruits of our faithful Christian heritage without pressing on them that this is the fruit of righteousness and their low condition looks much like the curse of God on a nation that disobeys Him.  Also at play is the our not believing that the church could so take hold of and transform their culture that they would receive the blessing promised in Scripture on a nation which obeys.

The Sovereign God of “Elfland” (Why Chesterton’s Anti-Calvinism Doesn’t Put Me Off)

I'm going to start a movement to recolonize Elfland

The Sovereign God of “Elfland” (Why Chesterton’s Anti-Calvinism Doesn’t Put Me Off)

In Defense of Christmas

Are Christmas trees evil?

The argument against them I have heard quotes Jeremiah 10:1-2 and was as follows:

• We should not learn “the ways of nations.”
• One of these ways was a unskilled “workman”(KJV) cuts down a tree out of the forest (and other versions changed this word to “craftsman” so they must be up to something).

Concerning the ways of nations, of what ways does this passage speak?  Does this include modest styles of dress, agriculture, architecture, science, decorating with plants?  Reading the whole chapter, the passage is clearly about making graven images. These cut down trees are decorated with silver plates, gold, and purple clothing(KJV) and are the work of cunning men.  

The argument that it was a simple workman cut down the tree is weakened when you look at the Hebrew.  This argument is somewhat typical of KJV-only argument that if a translation uses a different word than KJV; it must be wrong.  Nothing wrong with liking the KJV, but believing that English word choices were the result of divine inspiration is extra biblical.  The real question is what do the original manuscripts say?  In this case it is quite enlightening.The word Charash-2796 in Strong’s is translated the follow ways: Carpenter 11x, Workman 6x, Craftsman 4x, Artificers 2x, Smith 2x. The KJV usually uses the word carpenter to refer to the men who worked on the temple or holy objects.  Every incidence of the English word “craftsmen” in the KJV is this word (2796) so other translations using it here in Jeremiah 10:2 is within the bounds of translation and it is not clear why the KJV translator chose craftsmen or workman is various verses.  2796 always refers to a skilled man and usually refers to the maker of graven images.  We must not worship graven images but it would appear we can decorate with plants.

The process describe in Jeremiah 10 or Isaiah 40 does not match our process of sawing down a tree, bringing it in our house and having the kids hang things on it.  In the KJV  the strong number words 2404 and 2672 are translated as hewer, someone who is less of an artisan and more of a lumberjack.  This would have been a better word choice if Jeremiah or Isaiah was a warning against Christmas tree harvesting.

It is interesting to me that in Jer 10: 5, Israel is commanded to not be afraid of this former tree because it cannot do evil or good.  Avoiding the world can look much like superstition and paranoia.  

Another verse quoted in the discussion was 1 Thess 5:22 “avoid the appearance of evil.”  Most other translations say “avoid every form of evil.”  The contextual and word-definition arguments for the later translation are compelling.  A strong argument is my mind is that the KJV makes an arbitrary standard for the life of a believer.  According to the KJV, how we should act is based of the opinions of others(what would appear evil to them--which could be anything), not the standards of Scripture and what it defines as evil.  To be consistent in their translation, the KJV should have translated “hold fast that which is good.” as an encouragement to appear good.  This passage was written by Paul, the same guy who considered it a right to plop down in the temple of Athena and order some pork chops (I Cor 8).  He didn’t seem concerned about appearing evil.  An interesting article dealing with this passage can be found at http://www.padfield.com/1996/appear.html