The practical joke

 The little paper dixie cups full of water were everywhere in the office. In every corner, covering the desk, under the desk, on the chair, surrounding the wastepaper basket, on the shelves, everywhere. The only place there weren't any was a space to allow for the office door to close.

This was a practical joke set out by the office's occupant by his workmates. When he arrived from his weeklong vacation he was forced to take each soggy cup one at a time and place it in a bucket. By the time he was done the floor, the desk and his cloths were as soggy as the cups. He was not a happy camper. However, his workmates were more than happy with their efforts.

The end.

Don't blame the crazies

 All through history the insane have been the favorite punching bag for many of society's ills. If someone did something truly horrible, then the person was most certainly insane. Not much has changed. Our 45th president drove this point home on more than one occasion, blaming domestic terrorist attacks on the mentally ill, despite constant assurances by mental health experts that such is not the case.

Without a doubt, mentally ill people can be violent and have committed terribly crimes. But such cases are rather rare when compared to similar crimes committed by people who are not mentally ill. But my point of this article isn't to argue that point. Rather, I want to discuss a defense I hear given for the mentally ill committing domestic terrorism. It goes something like this, "Only someone who is mentally ill would kill a bunch of people". They will qualify this with the words "random" and a location such as school, nightclub, restaurant, concert, etc. The logic, in their minds, is solid. Since shooting up a bunch of innocent random people is something only a crazy person would do, crazy people are responsible for doing it. QED. 

Of course, this opinion, whether someone is "crazy", is completely subjective. Many times the attacker takes their own life. Therefore, professionals are typically left with anecdotal data to try and make some sort of diagnosis with. But more often than not, the person isn't found to be insane. But that doesn't stop the nonexpert and the man on the street from making their own diagnosis. And, well, the President said it so it must be true.

They other thing we have to ask our selves is, are there any cases in which a person killing a bunch of other people is not considered the act of an insane person? What about a soldier following orders? What about a police officer who is being attacked? What about a woman who is the victim of a home invasion? "But that is different!", someone might object.  But why? Why is it different? Because they are being attacked? Because they are following orders? Because of the rules? Ultimately, the "reasons" are arbitrary. All the parties believe they are justified in doing what they do. That is, they have reasons, right or wrong, for committing the acts they do. Attaching the epitaph of "crazy" to one and not the other is merely one of convenience for us and nothing more.  It helps give us an easy answer to an act we would rather have a different answer to than the obvious one. You see, with the other acts we don't mind the answers. The soldier, policeman, and the woman are all doing noble things. Things we would like to think we would do in their shoes. Things that most of our society consider good. However, the terrorist is doing something we can all agree is horrific. Something no one likes to imagine themselves doing. So the last thing we want to admit is that we have the capability to do that very thing. If we can convince ourselves that the terrorist is something other than ourselves, i.e., crazy, then we can comfort ourselves with the thought that we could never be that person. But once we admit that they were perfectly in their right minds (and they most likely were), we are forced into a very uncomfortable reality. One we are desperate to avoid at all costs.

The 'H' Word

 Christianity, like many, if not all religions, suffer from the general problem of its adherents being unable to live up to its ideals. Or, if we were being honest, less desirous to do so. This may sound harsh, but it is an honest assessment of over forty years of observation. Christianity makes a lot of claims for itself and demands for its disciples that, when taken seriously, lead to a rather odd and difficult life that very few people find palatable for very long. This isn't to say there aren't groups who haven't come closer than others to living out the ideal, and for longer periods of time. It is only to say that, by and large, most do not. That is, unless you are planning on being a monastic, you probably aren't going to take the teachings of your religion very seriously except in a very few and specific areas.

When I was young I, like so many, foolishly though that the teachings of Scripture, all of them, were meant to be followed and adhered to. All of them. I am not saying I did this consistently or well, but I did feel and teach they were to be followed and made various attempts to do so. For example, Jesus taught that we are not to worry about where we were to live, wear, eat or even worry about tomorrow,

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:25-34)

To my wife and I this resulted in never buying a house, never getting life insurance, no savings, no retirement, etc. Why? After all, God was going to take care of us. Besides, to do any of those things was to demonstrate a huge lack of faith in our God. 

It wasn't until years later that my wife and I really started noticing that most Christians we knew had large savings, life insurance plans, house loans and more. Why weren't they following Scripture like we were?

Because of my reading of Scripture I never voted. Why? Because the Bible taught that the government was establish by God,

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." (Romans 13:1)

 Yet all the Christians we knew voted. In fact, the church we attended admonished all its parishioners to get out and vote every election season. 

We sold all of our possessions and moved into a Christian commune (twice!) because of the book of Acts, we spanked our kids because of the book of Proverbs, my wife wore a head covering because of 1 Corinthians 11, my wife submitted to me and I was the head of the household because of...well...the entire bible. Yet, few Christians we knew followed any of these teachings. And the ones we knew of chose other passages to ignore. 

I am not writing all of this to show you how good we were or to call all Christians to repent and align themselves with the teachings of Scripture. Quite the opposite. I now know that most of the teachings of Scripture aren't worth following in the first place. Head coverings, spankings, submission, slavery, genocide, anti-scientific claims like miracles, supernatural claims, and so on, are the imaginings of superstitious and uneducated men who simply didn't know any better.  I am writing all of this because it is time we acknowledge this and stop being hypocrites, pretending we are following the teachings of a 2,000 year old book when, in fact, we are not. Not even close.