An online survey of issues, events and ideas
Guan Un / 15th August 2004
Okay, a warning: this short post will mention Fahrenheit 9/11 and Michael Moore, while judiciously avoiding any mention of politics.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is a film that I liked and disliked simultaneously, but probably the one part that really caught my ear was the following statement by Michael Moore: “Immoral behaviour breeds immoral behaviour.”
The question that comes to my mind is: how is Moore defining immoral behaviour? Is it immoral to setup false or questionable circumstances and cite those as truth, as some accuse Moore of doing? Is it immoral simply to wage war?
Or is the ultimate test of immorality to live lives without acknowledging our Creator? Under this definition, Moore may be more accurate than he realises.
Guan Un / 12th August 2004
Note to self: must keep my eye out for bulk deliveries of typewriters and monkeys to Matthias Media, otherwise I could be out of a job.
Ian Carmichael / 12th August 2004
U.S researchers have reported that they have successfully used a “gene blocker” to turn “procrastinating” monkeys into “workaholics”.
This will no doubt come as welcome news to many monkey employers around the world who blame “procrastinating monkeys” for their rising costs and their inability to compete globally.
As the proverb says...
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. (Prov 6:10-11)
After all, how many monkeys do you know who can afford real estate with panoramic harbour views? ... Well, yes, there are some here in Sydney, but they are the exception, I assure you.
But if they can just get a whole lot of those “gene blocked” monkeys, sitting at a whole heap of typewriters, I think they might just be onto something.
Ian Carmichael / 10th August 2004
Giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “have you found Jesus” is this report from Florida. It seems somebody has stolen a 5-foot fibreglass statue of Jesus from off a cross outside a church in the city of Kissimmee. (Seriously, that's the name of the city.)
Interestingly, it is also reported by the parish coordinator that “you can still see the shadow of the corpus, or statue” on the cross.
There must be a compelling sermon illustration in there somewhere.
Gordon Cheng / 9th August 2004
Spotted in the March 2004 Atlantic Monthly, buried in an article by Robert Kaplan on leading soldier-diplomat Tom Wilhelm—not himself a Christian—is a surprising paragraph:
The full flowering of the middle ranks [of the US Army] had its roots in the social transformation of the American military, which, according to Wilhelm (a liberal who voted for Al Gore in 2000), had taken place a decade earlier, when the rise of Christian evangelicalism had helped stop the indiscipline of the Vietnam-era army. “This zeal reformed behavior, empowered junior leaders, and demanded better recruits,” he said. “For one thing, drinking stopped, and that killed off the officers' clubs, which, in turn, broke down more barriers between officers and non-coms, giving the non-coms the confidence to do what majors and colonels in other armies do. The Christian fundamentalism was the hidden hand that changed the military for the better. Though you try to get someone to admit it!” (p. 66)
Christianity changes lives.
