Praise Habit

In honor of my last day at my current job, I thought I would post the Dilbert that reminds me of it:

Mewwy Chwismas to all!

There seems to be a lot of boycotts going on. From the AFA (American Family Association) boycotting Ford and Target to the boycott of the upcoming film The Golden Compass the church has been getting a lot of publicity around this. Note that when I say “church” I mean the Christianity that is portrayed in the media.

Lets look at these boycotts.

First I mentioned the boycott of Ford and Target by the AFA. These boycotts are about basically the same thing. The AFA has called Ford out for supporting the “homosexual agenda.” Target has added benefits packages for domestic partnerships. Its obvious that they don’t like supporting homosexuals at all.

The other boycott is about The Golden Compass. Kurt has posted about this in depth so I will defer to his take on this boycott. To put it in one sentence: The movie is an adaptation of a series of books that support an atheistic worldview.

While these are boycotts of completely different things, they are similar in that they are pushing their own agenda. These groups see something they don’t like and want to cut it out of culture all together. This is something that mainstream Christianity is doing well. If we don’t like something, lets make the same thing and throw Jesus in to Christianize it.

I’m exaggerating of course.

Actually, I’m quite surprised that The Chronicles of Narnia isn’t a response to The Golden Compass.

In a culture where we can listen to a Christian radio station, go to Christian school or a Christian job and then come home to Christian television and read our Christian books and newspapers, we have completely isolated ourselves from society. We now see it fit to tell others to live the same lifestyle of shelter and imprisonment. I think we have taken Paul’s instruction to the Philippians too literally (Philippians 4:8).

Why do we feel the need to tell others how to live? Am I doing the same thing by asking and suggesting that we don’t?

We are all born with the ability to think and discern. Why don’t we encourage that?

Questions are hard; answers are easy. I guess if we can’t get an answer quickly, we should cast lots or wait for someone to come off a mountain with a new law for us to blindly obey.

Next time something is boycotted or a cause is formed, please think about what it represents.

Barak Obama isn’t pledging his allegiance to a flag. He also refused to say the pledge. He has also stopped wearing the American Flag on his lapel. Has he lost his mind?

I don’t think so. I could spend this post getting on a soap box, but I won’t. Its not for me to have to explain myself, these questions are for you to answer.

So what is Obama doing? That is a question you must answer yourself.

While going through my daily blog check, Kurt posted his proof that his name is evil. Here is mine:

**** THE PROOF THAT Brandon Alexander IS EVIL ****
B R A N D O N A L E X A N D E R
66 82 65 78 68 79 78 65 76 69 88 65 78 68 69 82 - as ASCII values
3 1 2 6 5 7 6 2 4 6 7 2 6 5 6 1 - digits added
\_____________/ \_____________/ \_____________/ \_____________/
3 2 1 9 - digits added
Thus, "Brandon Alexander" is 3219.

Evil, QED.

Are you evil?

Well, I’m married now. That’s all, brief internet time and now back to honeymoon.

Well, its off to Atlanta tomorrow. I’ll let you all know how it went when I get back on Monday (or over the weekend if I get inspired).

That is all.

I’m concerned with how much hate is in the world today.

Jerry Falwell died today and comments that I have heard or read have been very hateful. While I didn’t necessarily agree with some of his political views, I did not hate him. I don’t understand how a person’s political views can dictate how you interact or even think about them.

While this focuses on the bad stuff I’ve read, there are those who care about him and I acknowledge them. The thing that I wonder is about how we see people. How can people have such strong animosity towards a person based on their political views? I know that I’m guilty of this and I do need to work on this. I guess my question is where does compassion end? What is the breaking point for a person? What causes a person to hate any “religious extreme”?

I would love to read any other thoughts on this.

So what do you all think of the new look? I found a nice theme on a site that makes my site look more colorful and tidy.