Tuesday, June 13, 2006

wdJb?

This one's not as polished as the others, but it's the most useful chart I've made lately. Have you ever considered the testimony of Jesus as a validation or challenge to your own beliefs? Our professor mentioned a handful of stories that Jesus affirms as true, so I wondered if there were other things Jesus beleieved that might be useful to our ears. The prof agreed to let me use it as an assignment, so here's my list of twelve issues people challenge and where Jesus stood on each. See what you think.

I'm tempted to try to sell these (it looks best on 11x17 paper), but I'd need to see if I need permission from the church. Be honest--would anybody buy something like this for a couple of dollars?

For you JC folk, that Jesus is located in Roselawn Cemetary.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would definitely buy one. Let me know once you've produced them. I'll be your first customer.

hope your summer is going well.

Anonymous said...

Wow!! I'm in line to buy one too.

texnartist said...

Steve,

I enjoyed reading it. How can you turn it into a Gospel Tract to use in evanglism, is what my suggestion would be.

there is one point I would rethink.

The first one. Man is given dimion over animals in Genisis.

With the influx of panthism and evolution teaching more and more man is lowered to the level of animals. Today a man can be but away longer for killing a bird than he can for killing his baby.

Cody

f1rststory said...

steve - awesome. i think it could sell. I think it would sell best in a small booklet form that people could carry with them etc. About the size of a small Gideon Bible although not as thick... ;) I think visually you could do more with it too as a little book. Plus, then you could sell it for $6.95 or whatever and get it into Lifeway's etc. I really think you could do that. Actually as I thinking...you could expand it into an actual book - each area could be a chapter and then this thing you already have done could be an insert or "quick reference". I really think that would sell too...of course you'd have write some more...hahahah but it would work. I know it would.

texnartist said...

Alright, I have done some more thinking on why the doctrine part of your John 10:11-13 passage bothers me so much and this is what I have come up with.

Hermeneutics.

The passage can not mean what it did not mean to those people at that time. Jesus was speaking in a metaphor explaining in an example that those people could understand that his people have value to him. He was not saying to them that all animals have value. The example of sheep is something that people of that time could relate to. Sheep equals humans. Sheep does not equal all animals.

Eisegesis is where we force the Bible to say what we want to so that we can support our presupposition. It in no way implies that we should or shouldn't be doing something specific or general with animals. It in no way supports the idea that Jesus values animals. You may find that in other passages, but not in this one.

Cody

Steve said...

Thanks for the input. I think the example is more about the shepherd than the sheep. A good shepherd, which people of that time could relate to, took good care of his sheep and protected them from animals, even if the motive was financial.

I agree it's a stretch to all animals, but I think it does help with the contention that Christians value animals only as commodities. There are better passages, but it's hard to find insight from Jesus himself and I had to saty there for the assignment.

texnartist said...

Spain to Grant Rights to Apes

The liberal government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is moving to grant certain "rights" to apes. These rights are to include recognition as part of a "community of equals" with humans, according to press reports.

This is a ludicrous proposal, based in the Great Apes Project sponsored by Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri. Singer, a professor at Princeton University, is infamous for arguing that the lives of some animals are more important and worthy of protection than the lives of some humans, including the mentally impaired and the elderly.

The ridiculous character of the proposal is the notion of a community of equals. The Spanish Parliament includes no apes as members. They are not equals. I would wager that if any of these legislators had to choose between the life of his child and the life of an ape, the decision would be easy. The ape is not a human.

From Richard G. Stevens in National Review:

It is now nearly 300 years since Rousseau showed us that the defining characteristic of man is not logos, but a sentiment of being. Why parcel out a stingy handful of "human" rights to the apes? Recognizing that all animals are feeling beings, why not have the United Nations look into the formation of a "Universal Declaration of the Rights of Sentient Beings?" If snail darters can be saved, why not rats and roaches too?

Finally, now that affirmative action and the moral cry for "social justice" are on the front burner, let us abandon that favorite of the neocons and the Straussians, the antiquated notion that rights are for individuals, not for groups. We need to recognize that apes are a group with special, cultural characteristics and needs. If it is dehumanizing to suggest that one human culture is less worthy than another, it would certainly be de-being-izing to insist that apes, once freed, be compelled to assimilate their habits to ours.

As the report from Reuters news service observes, the proposal seems a bit hypocritical coming from a nation known for celebrating brutal bull fights.

From Wesley J. Smith in The San Francisco Chronicle:

"I am an ape," Pedro Pozas, secretary-general of the Spanish Great Ape Project, declared recently.

No, Pozas wasn't commenting on his appearance. Rather, he was boosting Spanish legislation that would grant human-type rights to apes.

Then:

Spain's Pozas may think of himself as being merely an ape, but the rest of us should reject his absurd moral reductionism. If we truly want to make this a better world, the answer is not to give apes unwarranted rights, but rather, to embrace the unique importance and solemn responsibilities that are essential aspects of living fully human lives.

texnartist said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
texnartist said...

Steve,

I hope you have a good weekend for the 4Th.

I thank God for you,

Cody

AmberShea said...

THANK YOU FOR VELVET ELVIS!!!!!! i love that book, i just finished it and i am telling all of my friends to read it. I have learned ...well RE-LEARNED alot. I love his fresh point of view on basic stuff...I might blog about it.

but ne ways Rob Bell has encouraged me to dig in to the old testiment... I have become really interested in jewish culture and i have a friend that just got back from Israel and she is going to tell me all about it. i am pretty excited about it.

I might take old testiment survey at milligan this semester if i can get in as a co-op student.

actually i am planning on taking several bible clases at milligan over the next couple of years. any suggestions?

thanks again steve! send wendy and the girls my love.