NowTHINK!AboutIt

3 Reasons Christian Living Is Not Ideal

September 30, 2015 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Consequences For Christians
Are Opportunities To Grow

Let’s start with a question. What do Christians talk about most, when they discuss their spiritual lives?

It’s a good question, and I have no hard evidence to prove my answer, but the conversations I’ve witnessed firsthand are a bit introspective, revolving mostly around personal issues like:

Am I a Christian?
How can I know I really did what is necessary to become a Christian?
How can I be sure that I’m still a Christian now?

And so on.

The focus is inward, not outward or onward. It’s the proverbial all-about-me, in-the-moment mindset.

The Philippian jailer expressed it well:

What must I do to be saved (become a Christian)? (Acts 16:30)

He, of course, had a very good reason for asking the question. But as far as we know, he never asked again. He didn’t repeatedly harangue Paul for reassurance.

Today things are different. People often ask over and over and over again, “how can I be saved” or “Am I really saved” or “How can I really be sure?” The question is overworked. [Read more…] about 3 Reasons Christian Living Is Not Ideal

2 Foundational Underpinnings Of Servant Leadership

September 22, 2015 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Leaders Who Serve
Connect The Highest
And Lowest
Organizational Levels

My small group watched a DVD recently in which the speaker mentioned Servant Leadership several times, without explanation. The assumption was everyone understood.

During the discussion that followed one of the participants, a good friend, asked:

What is servant leadership?

Good question and I knew the answer, kind of. I was familiar with the term but had never really thought about it in detail. I knew it was generally based on the example of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet but beyond that, not much.

I did answer the question, though, and even as I answered I realized how little real thinking I had done on the subject.

In typical sound-clever-waffle-much fashion, my answer was a bit long.

My friend, the one who asked the question (and does business training by profession), gently reminded me that long-winded answers usually indicate a lack of understanding.

He was right.

Following that discussion, I made a point of investigating the topic for myself. [Read more…] about 2 Foundational Underpinnings Of Servant Leadership

4 Reasons I Won’t Vote For Ben Carson And You Shouldn’t Either

September 16, 2015 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Grey Is In
Polarized Thinking
Is Out

First, a disclaimer. I respect Ben Carson. How could I not? He is remarkably accomplished and his success inspires us all.

I learned about Dr. Carson many years ago from a Reader’s Digest article. I cried when I read it but not because of Ben. It was his Mom, Sonya, that made me emotional.

I’ve always believed parents were a big factor in whether or not kids have a chance at success, and his mother’s actions confirmed that belief. She single-handedly put her two boys on a track for success in spite of her disadvantages.

She dropped out of school in the third grade, was married at 13, raised her children alone and worked multiple jobs regularly. She maintained her family on secondhand clothing and homemade preserves, but none of these limitations prevented her from instilling discipline in her kids.

How did she do it? Easy! She restricted TV watching to only a few selected programs a week and required the boys to read and write reports on two books every week. To maintain accountability, she made a show of inspecting the reports even though she couldn’t read.

Her boys were reading and writing while their friends were playing.

The boys weren’t agreeable at first but they eventually cottoned on to the idea. But forget the kids. Many parents viewed this as torture and warned her against it. To her credit, she didn’t flinch.

Before setting the rules, her kids were failing. Obviously, the strategy worked.

Makes me think of Moses’ mother, Jochebed. She didn’t go along with the crowd either.

By the way, her case suggests that ending a marriage is sometimes better for the kids. She instituted the TV/book report rules at about the same time she sent her bigamist husband packing. If she focused more on saving the marriage, instead of managing the boys, her sons might be leading gangs today instead of public opinion.

As a result of her actions, Ben developed a taste for learning – and hard work – that catapulted him to great heights. He’s performed miracles medically, written several books, received an encyclopedic list of awards and was featured in a movie.

There’s a lot to like about Ben but, unfortunately, that doesn’t make him the next Mandela. Impressive, yes, but for several reasons, I’m not convinced he’s presidential. [Read more…] about 4 Reasons I Won’t Vote For Ben Carson And You Shouldn’t Either

Women’s Rights And Cultural Limitations

August 13, 2015 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Culture Is Not
Inspired

My intention with this post is to argue that all people should be seen as fitting into one category, the human race, rather than pigeonholed by limiting and restrictive boundaries.

The focus is primarily on Women’s Rights, or maybe I should say the abuse of women’s rights, but admittedly women aren’t the only class effected. Women represent only one subheading, but how widely spread the abuse of rights is, is not the biggest problem. In the case of women it was endemic to every culture.

The rules – whatever they were, however they were written – that denied women their basic rights (their individuality and personhood) were honored in every home, in every era. The home is the cookie cutter for culture. It’s not easy to escape the shaping of such a widespread mechanism.

It was self perpetuating in an almost unrecognizable way. It was abuse wrapped in “civility.”

To be clear, the argument isn’t that men and women are all exactly the same. We know that isn’t true, but that’s also true for all men and all women. Everyone is an individual! No person is exactly like any other person.

Not all women are athletic but many are, just like men.

The fact is, the difference between one gender and another is biologically determined. Biology! Nothing more, nothing less. No one should be disallowed an opportunity or universal, inalienable privilege because of gender.

Dilly is an induced state. It is the outcome of duncifying cultural rules. Telling a person they aren’t allowed to do something is the same as telling them they aren’t able.

Stereotypical thinking or what I like to call framing, is the problem. We like to fit groups into little boxes with predefined sets of good or bad qualities, and greater or lesser capabilities, and we do this even for the smallest groups.

If you live in a certain neighborhood, you must be smart.

It’s the easy way out. Rather than take each person at face value, and allow them to emerge one way or another, we frame entire groups with what we believe to be the dominant features of the group. If several are headlined as criminals, they must all be criminally predisposed.

The short of it is we like frames, and we particularly like to frame people.

We assume:

All doctors are incapable of writing legibly.
All Asians love mathematics.
All people with multicolored hair are insecure.
All athletes are dumb jocks.

Jannie Du Plessis illustrates how inaccurate these stereotypes can be. Even though he plays at the highest level in one of the hardest hitting sports, Rugby, he’s also a qualified doctor. The man’s got smarts.

Stereotyping is easy. We don’t have to work so hard at figuring people out if we can place them in one of the predefined boxes, if we can assume what they’ll do next. But it’s all wrong. Stereotypes are anecdotally generated and culturally fed. There’s no basis in credible research.

But that’s not all. [Read more…] about Women’s Rights And Cultural Limitations

Catholic Divorce Waters Disturbed By Pope

July 4, 2015 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Pope Requesting
Relaxation On
Catholic Divorce

Pope Francis has made several public statements on divorce since being elected to the Catholic Church’s highest office and his comments are creating quite a stir. Instead of the usual punitive tone, he’s forgiving and understanding and compassionate. He isn’t the first to speak generously on the topic but since he is the most powerful, he can’t be quietly ignored.

It is welcome news! Unfortunately, it comes after centuries of what can only be described as psychological abuse.

The long standing Catholic teaching on divorce is any divorced person whose been remarried cannot take communion in the Catholic Church. That is a scary thought if you happen to believe what Catholics teach about heaven, hell and purgatory.

But since the Pope has spoken, Catholic leaders are debating whether or not divorced and remarried Catholics should be allowed to take communion. It is definitely a positive turn of events but the clerics get no credit for thinking logically or forwardly or compassionately.

The debate was inevitable. Circumstances forced it. Logic was not a factor.

In this case Reality gets the credit.

Barna data suggests the number of divorced Catholics is perilously close to 30%. Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate estimates the number of USA Catholics who have been divorced and remarried without annulment is 4.5 million. That doesn’t include divorced folks who haven’t remarried.

You don’t have to be very clever to realize you can’t treat such a large number of congregants like unwanted infections and expect widespread peace. That’s a lot of squeak to ignore.

Of course, if the ramifications were clear it wouldn’t be so bad, but when it comes to communion and divorce, confusion reigns.

A few divorced individuals can take communion. The squeaky clean ones. The ones whose marriages were worse than an inquisition in the middle ages. But these can only partake if they’ve never been remarried, or in the unhappy event they have remarried, they must agree to remain celibate even though married or get the first marriage annulled.

All other divorced individuals know they can’t take communion. That part is clear. What they can’t be sure of is whether or not getting to heaven at the end of their journey is possible. Some say it is. Others aren’t so encouraging. No one seems to be certain.

To be fair, Catholics tend to be hazy about anyone getting to heaven. The best any Catholic can do is aim for Purgatory and hope the stay is short.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not suggesting Catholics won’t go to heaven, at least some of them anyway, but they tend to be uncertain about the idea and candle makers love it!

I’ll talk further about the relevance of communion shortly but that’s not the only issue. The angst is made worse by the complexity of all the other divorce regulations.

A good example are the rules governing Church Membership for the divorced. We know they are treated differently but a look into Cannon Law reveals just how big the difference is. The following conditions on divorced membership illustrate the tangle. [Read more…] about Catholic Divorce Waters Disturbed By Pope