Wonderful Matters

My morning devotional time is now being spent reading the letters to the church in Corinth. I've always put forth those Scriptures as the text for my web ministry work , and getting into it again is just mind-blasting. Well, soul-blasting , really. It is phenomenal how much the Corinthian church mirrors the church today. Yesterday I heard a Christian-type dude on the Christian radio station say this,"2015 is the time for the church to start evangelizing the church ." After hearing this I just went  errgghnckrrrghnck  inside the depths of my psyche. That people have to say that and most Christianly people hearing that just about always think "Yupp, that's it, yupp we gotta get the church back to being Christian and all that." It is just so annoying because they've been saying this for eons and eons and eons. Sorry. 2015 won't be any different . Unless. Unless the church actually does something so radical, so revolutionary, so... Apoc...

The eve of the Fifth of November a cable station broadcast V for Vendetta.  Makes perfect sense. I thought I'd settle in and peek at a bit of it again. The film is smartly written, even though much of it is preposterous, melodramatic, even ridiculous. It is entertaining. It also reveals something I've come to call "The Great Folly." It's not as if this folly is anything revolutionary, but part of its greatness comes in people still not getting it after millennia and millennia and millennia. They're still fools, they do the most foolish things to rationalize it all, and their rationalizations are varied and great. As The Preacher once said, nothing is really new at all. That the Folly is so Great makes it that much more tragic. V for Vendetta  reveals that folly in all its glory. The protagonists are not just "V" and Evey, but are all those intractably convinced that they need no authority over them and their wretched behavior. One of the things t...

The big story these days is about the large washing-machine-sized instrument that landed on a comet. Very impressive. I wonder about the instrument that has yet to land on the souls of so many. That instrument is the Bible, and yet it has been so sabotaged by Catholicist forces that it cannot do the job it was intended to do. Register the connection to that which is most important. Right now I am so tired that I simply cannot put much more into this blog post. I would, I would love to. I live to share truths with anyone who'd like to read my blog. There is so much more I could say about that. I see the most heinous things related to sexuality and I so long to add cogent remarks. Homosexualism explodes, yet in Hollywood right now a documentary called An Open Secret  is going to expose some of the most renowned filmmakers as the worst sexual deviants. Huh? I see the most idiotic remarks made about the glories of oppressively hegemonic government, and when the realities of...

There are so many things I'd like to blog about, sometimes I actually get around to it. Thing is I'm so busy with work and family. I regularly work 10, 11 hour days, and on Friday nights my son plays high school football. His team has a bye week this week, so I'm able to sit here at the computer for just a bit. Another thing I've been doing is struggling to keep my sports celibacy. Since 1998 I've sworn off watching seeing reading following any sports stuff, simply because I get too emotionally involved. Really, sounds melodramatic, but I just do. Too many heartbreaks just get me. I actually do pretty well, I really do... But yes, often I'm weak. Like this week. I have to tell you, I'm a Kansas-born boy who was raised in the San Francisco bay area. I now live in the Los Angeles area so my favorite pro sports teams are the Chiefs, Giants, Royals, 49ers, and Angels. If you follow any of this at all, you'd be able to figure how I've been overw...

I thought I'd peek around the web to see where I could find the exact string of words "Islam is a product of Rome". I found them in only two places, one of which was from a gal's inactive blog in the comments section of a 2008 post titled "Wussy Christianity," something like that. Of course the post itself was about how ineffectual modern Christianity is at truly having an impact and yeah, stuff like that. True enough, and related to something I'd thought about regarding my last webzine home page piece . I'd thought about the point I'd made about loving one's enemy, and thought, "Hmm, wonder what men  think about that?" I thought that because I know a lot of men consider being manly as punching people they don't like. On the other hand there are quite a few men who go the far opposite way, because we do live in such a feminized culture. Not that they're homosexual or anything, just that they consider most anything "ma...

In today's Los Angeles Times was a piece by their in-house pundit Doyle McManus, titled "A Coalition of Frenemies." I didn't read it, but I can predict what he'd say. Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't mean to be presumptuous, not at all. But surely he'll talk about how the bestest of bestest diplomacy is required, one that tries reeeally hard to get conflicting interests to just jolly well get together to defeat the common enemy, that dratted Islamicism -- errrrrgh do we reeeally hate that Islamicist threat errrrrrrrgh... Oh brother. What's new. It's all just the latest idiocy from World blappers getting their cues from World megaphone holders many of whom are the most eloquent and erudite blappers in the most revered media and education institutions, and people like McManus just labor to try to sound the most boffo. But nothing changes. People wage war with one another, often in large groups, often asking Caesar to join their skirmishes, ...

Felt like adding a note from the last post to clear up something I'd thought a reader might consider. I'd mentioned that this ISIS Islamic terrorist group was "powerful." Yes yes, I know, it really isn't that  powerful. It really is just a punky mealy-mouthed band of ruffians who are -- at least by the accounts we hear -- reasonably organized and full of devoted followers -- but really no different from any of the other dozen prominent Islamicist groups doing things like marauding about in favor of Sharia law somewhere. The fact is, they are  powerful simply because the World System makes  them such. How often do you behold the media shouting "Lions and tigers and bears oh my!!! " any time they mention them? How often do you hear accounts designed to raise your rage levels when thinking about them? I'm not saying they aren't doing rotten things somewhere somehow. But they sure get a lot of traction screeching through Americanists' psyches ...

A couple things I thought about looking at current events these days. One, this "ALS Challenge" thing that's sweeping the country. People are being doused with ice water like the winning football coaches, only this is for the cause of finding a cure for ALS. The thing I thought about was, hmm, seems like a baptism to me. Getting baptized is what one does after declaring his/her belief on Christ. It is public demonstration of that commitment, much like a wedding is for a man and woman who wish to be married. I was interested in just how explosive this is promotion is. What does it mean? What does it mean for people doing it, issuing the challenges? One of my questions is, if ALS is so bad and it can be addressed with some ample funding, why not just do that? Why not just fund it? Why the showy displays of concern about it? Two, a kidnapped journalist was beheaded in a video-taped act of terrorism, and this barbarism has received the greatest amount of denunciation ...

Tomorrow it will be ten years to the day that I opened my webzine The Catholicist Nation . It is a somewhat bittersweet note to make here, and I am making it today instead of tomorrow because I have a full day of worship and family activities in store. Still, the completion of this day makes it a full ten years of webzine ministry. The bittersweet part about all this is that even much earlier in that ten year time period I'd thought there'd be far more people in the mix of engaging conversation and vibrant interaction about it, and perhaps even committed action on the principles elucidated there. Alas, I haven't seen it. There are a few who see it, read it, send me a note about it. But not many. I'd like to think much of it is because I just haven't taken the time to put together a more comprehensive and expansive web design and marketing program. Most of that is just that I don't have the time or money to do that. I do believe most of it is simply that peop...

Last week I came across a book called Cheap,  all about how the real crushing feature of a shitty economy is how cheap people are. If we'd all get on board with just paying for what a thing is worth then things would just be better. I don't disagree with much of the principled arguments made. After skimming through it a bit, I came across something very interesting on page 196. It was so significant that I'd scribbled a note about it, there, when I had the book in my hands, but I've come to find that I've misplaced that note. Instead of just jotting down again what I saw there, I thought I'd just blog about it. Why not. The number of things I see the World System doing in its duty to fulfill Cain's legacy is huge. And I frequently make little notes about them, stuff them in a folder, and a few do actually make it into my web work . Well, how about if I just share this little note with you right now. Right there on page 196 of Ellen Ruppel Shell's Che...

I was skimming through an amazing article about the ALMA telescope array high in the Andes, an intricately arranged set of radio telescopes designed to gaze at parts of the universe never before seen. I am wholly impressed by the work that goes into it, the ingenuity it takes to use it, and the discoveries derived from the information gathered by it. Now, that's the beauty of the ALMA program. Then there's the retarded part of science. That's  the part that says, "All of this space stuff just spilled out into existence by chance" as well as a hundred other inane scientific blappings that don't as much come from these fine scientists but from the people who've told them to believe those things. Oh, don't worry. Those things are perfectly rational. It is indeed perfectly rational for people who want to give the fullest vent to their sexual gratifications to concoct an entire world view that supposes God's not there and that we're just megag...

I saw a film called Snowpiercers  last night. I'd seen some thing about it, then saw that the reviews were pretty good -- it was said to be a science fiction and political film, perfect, I love that stuff. While it was kind of goofy and very preposterous at times, it did a decent job of keeping my suspension of disbelief intact. It was also extraordinarily violent, but then, when you make a metaphor of the earth out of a train, there's bound to be some bloodshed. A lot of bloodshed. And in this instance, the bloodletting is in tight cramped quarters. Especially grisly. Anyway, just wanted to mention it was quite the bright elucidation of the World. To wit: - Human sacrifice is arranged and augmented by the System and for an ordained purpose, one that is indeed, quite spiritual in nature. - People are deliberately moved to live in benighted indigence to keep them in a simmering state of protracted rebellion, providing the necessary legitimacy to a System required to crac...

Only blogging now to introduce my latest home page piece . After seeing quite a lot of philosophical silliness in and around the spectacular effects elucidating perfectly fine scientific discoveries in the popular primetime series Cosmos , I wanted to add a few thoughts of my own. Yes, there is a science to righteousness. Surely many will holler about the evisceration of the romance and beauty of such a sublime thing, but the enthusiastic pursuit of what it actually is takes nothing away from that. Science is merely about "knowing," which is what the origin of the word means anyway. Do you know about this thing righteousness?  What would you need to do to find out more? And please, don't bother with all that "I'm not so dogmatic" crap. Are you dogmatic about your rejection of dogma? Come on. Lose the pretense. Knowing something is about embracing some truth. So, again, which "truth" are you embracing?

I read a very disturbing piece today from The Atlantic  about the International House of Prayer, a controversial church organization in Kansas City. Don't even remember what it was called, but you can surely find it online pretty easily. Was something about the seven signs of a cult. The article presumed that the ways this church identifies a cult actually applied to them because they exhibited cult-like behaviors exactly like the ones they censure, and it all involved a young woman who killed herself with the implication that she was just in too deep with all the overly devout religion stuff. Now please, I'm pretty much with the idea that intense emotionalism in church settings, no matter how expressive the devotion to Christ, often covers for lack of conviction about truthful things. Got that. I also acknowledge the concerns about IHOP, I too have read and heard things that could easily be considered "cultic". Got that too. But the reason IHOP gets in trouble ...

I had to post a follow-up to the last post about the wretched condition of a world consumed by darkness. The latest was the recognition of nearly 800 forgotten deaths of children born to some the most tragically marginalized people, sexually abused women. I had gotten the idea that the remains were physically discovered, but apparently they were merely found by someone filing through the records kept at the time. Still, apparently there have been anecdotal tales along the lines of "Mommy, look what I found in the empty field down the road" as the skull of a small child is held up for inspection by an adult expressing the requisite incredulity. I simply had to add a remark about something the author of Philomena  had said in his op-ed in the Washington Post, something that more fully reveals his own intractably Catholicist sentiments. What does this mean, Catholicist sentiments? It means that as much as he and a huge portion of the world rage and rail and rant at the Roma...

I simply cannot neglect to put a quick blog post down about that "discovery" of nearly 800 bodies of children dumped in a septic tank near a long-demolished convent that once served as a half-way house for unwed mothers. I did put that word in that first paragraph, discovery , in quotes because one of the small items in mix of all of it is that people had already known about this mass grave of sorts but just shrugged it off as this thing or that thing -- I don't even remember the excuses, the whole thing was so wretched. The deal is that babies and small children who didn't exactly receive the best care at this place and as such died, were pretty much just dumped, and since it happened so frequently those bodies just kind of piled up over a 30+ year period over 50 years ago. Today on NPR's All Things Considered,  journalist Alison O'Reilly elaborated on it all, and she echoed all the ferocious "It's appalling" sentiments. Sorry, but it made...

Yesterday when I heard the news that Steve Ballmer was going to pay $2 billion for the Los Angeles Clippers NBA franchise I just about fell out of my chair. Thing is, I do know exactly why an $800 million team, tops, went for $2,000 million. It has everything to do with the reigning zeitgeist constructors. What the heck does that mean? It means that people are going to pay through the nose for a team that is going way out of its way to ensure everyone that it doesn't have a racist at the helm. Come on, think about it. What is the Clippers? It is a basketball team, reasonably popular, it's made the playoffs a few times recently, it plays in the second largest media market in the country, yadda yadda. But what else? The highest valued professional sports team franchise in the world is Manchester United, the European soccer club, at something a bit over $2 billion. The NFL's Dallas Cowboys is at around $2 billion I'm pretty sure, but I think part of all that involv...

Had an interesting thing happen tonight. Was relaxing, channel surfing, and came across the film V for Vendetta . Thought I'd tune in to it, there in the middle of the film somewhere, see a bit of it. About 14 seconds after I tuned into it, that one scene came up -- the scene I found the most fascinating, the one that gave meaning to the whole thing. I'd even referenced it in a webzine home page piece a number of years ago. Here it is , by the way, there on YouTube. I'd made a point about unavoidable government identification, but as I watched it, I thought about all the applications to my current webzine home page piece . We're all in tribes, all segmented by authoritative segmenters, and we're segmented in ways we can't even see. From those tribes we seethe and rage and simmer and rail and hate and fear and hate-and-fear some more, all the while hoping that our tribal rent-seeking is successful enough to keep our raging crusades justified and our cushy li...

I've named this blog "Wonderful Matters" because the Bible makes reference to such things all the time. Even calls them by name. Wonderful Matters . I was pretty amazed when I heard a pastor on the radio extrapolate the meaning of that word, wonderful . He said the Hebrew can only mean one thing, that the thing addressed as wonderful is indeed only explainable by God. I don't really know how many people are paying attention to my work to get what I think is a modestly substantive take on the Kingdom. I'd like to think there are a few. That's cool. Wherever God puts me on the avenue to share Him with others, I'm good with that. Sure I'd like to speak into the loudest megaphone to a desperate and dying throng of people, people who'd just turn the ear, see if they could get it, and turn . To Him. He's blessed me tremendously with a good friend who's been able to work out my website , at least for now. I'd been concerned -- as I pos...

I am mostly adding this post to my blog because I presently cannot work with my website , and I simply want to add the most meaningful notification that I possibly can about this present situation. I confess I feel quite resigned in this world overrun with the most fetid folly. Yes, I know, this is really not much of a new thing. The most murderous folly has virulently infected things for eons upon eons. I guess when it is particularly gruesome around you, the sorrow is quite acute. Anyway, the main thrust of this notification is that necessary program updating and concerns about viral computer invasions has put my web work on hold, for as temporarily as I pray it would be. It'd be nice if I could simply use the computer I've had for years, the programs I've had for years, with the security protections I've had for years, but information technology folk feel everything must be updated to the point where anything old gets jettisoned. And if you don't have connect...

Thought I'd post again, here in the blog, so soon after the last post, simply because I guess I have to. Juuust  to be out there in the blogosphere, you know, have the presence , all that. Sorry, but I don't have a comments section. I'd love to, but when I've tried to re-enable it, it just doesn't . So, hey, still, if you like my take, email me from my webzine . I'd love to hear from you. Anyway, felt like I needed to just add some thoughts about some thoughts in my latest blog, thoughts that I thought would surely get some to go "Whoa Nelly that's  kinda dicey there Dave!" There was this, if you recall: The Bible is a science textbook. I know why so many go "NOW-WAIT-A-MINUTE-THERE" so readily. They've been seduced by two of the greatest World operative grunts in the history of philosophy, David Hume and Immanuel Kant. When you get right down to it, here's what each has said. Hume: "There aren't miracles becaus...