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Are you tired of it yet? There has got to be a better way than the way we do it now. Sometimes I think Detroit street gangs in the ‘60s had the right idea. They settled leadership issues with a fight. No weapons, no help; as many who wanted to compete could. When it was settled, the winner was locked in for two years (more or less) before he could be challenged again. Now seriously, wouldn’t it be a guilty pleasure to see the leading party candidates in a wrestling steel cage match battling it out for the Presidency?

Before I begin at my beginning I need to lay one more piece of pipe to my story...Douglas McArthur Parsons - my so called ‘retarded’ brother.
I have learned in life that “Perception is Reality”. What you believe is your ‘truth’.
My Mom and Dad never could perceive Dougy as anything but ‘retarded’. So that is how they treated him. Sadly, since that was the way he was treated - that’s how he acted. Truth is he wasn’t/isn’t/or-ever-will-be ‘retarded’. You see I have a different perception of him. (Confused yet?)

It is about time for a disclaimer. Most of my family’s story is oral history. I have tried to get at least two accounts of incidents. Things I could not confirm by a second witness I regard as lore and have not included it. Besides, could you make some of this stuff up?

My Grandfather, Hiram, is the only Grandparent I met. I saw him twice. The first time he didn’t acknowledge me; the second time he looked at me and said, “Who the h*ll are you?” Daddy proudly claimed me as his son. To which Hiram said, “Just so long as he isn’t mine.” Hiram died in 1965.

John Mark Reynolds has dropped a blog over at ScriptoriumDaily that I could hardly agree with more:

Forget the good old days, this is a great time to be alive. When I remember the stories my grandparents told me of their childhood, then it puts todays headlines in perspective.

Number 1: The Christian church is booming globally.
....

from The Constructive Curmudgeon by Doug Groothuis

Concerning Obama's relationship to the Jeremiah Wright:

1. Either (a) he knew of his irrational, conspiritorial, and divisive views or (b) he didn't.
2. If (a), Obama is culpable for supporting egegrious error.
3. If (b), Obama is an ignoramus about the basic teachings of his own church, and not a serious church goer (even though he avows that he is and is appealing to many religious people for this reason).

My mom and dad married each other on the rebound.

My mom (Nyla Myrtle Mathews) was unceremoniously dumped by her fiancé when he found out her mother (my Grandmother) was bi-racial. My Grandmother’s father was a freed slave and her mother was Cherokee. When that came up in conversation, my momma’s fiancé walked out on her.

My dad (Press Parsons) had been dating my mom’s younger sister for a couple of month’s when he met this sweet little girl for whom he fell head over heels. They planned to marry but her father put a stop to it. He said that daddy was nothing more than poor white trash and forbade her to marry him.

These two events occurred on the same day.

"I walked not in the way of righteousness. … But the Almighty God, who sits in the court of heaven, granted what I did not deserve." - Constantine (280-337)

Just day’s after becoming a Christian, we sang Amazing Grace at the Bethel Church of Christ, Bethel, Ohio (elevation 892 feet) and I understood for the first time, what it meant. I finally understood what it all meant. I saw grace not just as a word used in church but as a gift from The God who cared about this homicidal 15 year old. I felt grace in the freedom that my soul had...I was still struggling with the sin in my life but I felt freedom from the bonds that had held me. I was no longer controlled by it, just tortured by it (there is a difference!)

I didn’t understand, but for some reason...I was worth something to somebody. That Somebody was the Creator of the universe...That is some heavy stuff - that is...

I really hope this doesn't sound like whining. My goal is actually to share encouragement that I have received.

Last week was awful! I was wrongly accused. I felt conspired against. I felt ensnared. I was assailed. I felt beaten down. When I left school Friday, I was seriously considering other options for a job. I was wrestling with the commitment I made to my boss about staying put with the school. I was seriously considering homeschooling the boys.

I was tired.

But this little incident has always lingered in my mind as a sort of parable. Most modern histories of mankind begin with the word evolution, and with a rather wordy exposition of evolution, for much the same reason that operated in this case. There is something slow and soothing and gradual about the word even about the idea. As a matter of fact, it is not, touching these primary things, a very practical word or a very profitable idea. Nobody can imagine how nothing could turn into something. Nobody can get an inch nearer to it by explaining how something could turn into something else.

Well, well, well!!! I have been "gone" quite a long time from this space. First of all, I am sorry I haven't checked in with all of you "OD"-aholics.
God has been very gracious to me over the past 7 months or so. On two seperate occassions the MDs said I was going to die. Obviously the Father proved them wrong. As quickly as I had gotten sick, I was healed. Actually faster than getting sick.

Virtues cannot be created instantaneously; the process by which they are acquired is part of the nature of having them. Each of us is given an opportunity to develop into a better or worse person. But we cannot grow in an environment that is free of risk and danger and disappointment. Just as God had good reasons for creating us with free will and for placing us in a lawlike environment, God also had good reasons for placing us in an environment that is challenging, that tests us.
-- Ron Nash, Faith and Reason, p 204

I did an upgrade on the site software earlier this week, and that has caused some kind of problems for our in-line flash player that I prefer. I tried frantically to debug the issue for a while on Tuesday, then just gave up and switched to a less desirable alternative. At least it works.

I'll try to make time to figure out what happened with the first string player. In the mean time, if the current player bugs you, bug me. (That'll inspire me to make it a higher priority.)

It's always very tempting lie to defend ones self against all kinds of accusations. Sometimes we even want to defend ourselves from the truth with a lie. It may be more tempting to lie to defend organizations, groups or causes that we are aligned with because of our commitment to them. Lying to defend others is actually a little easier because it's harder to know for sure that we're actually lying, and harder for others to verify that we're "billowing smoke."

The "Problem of Evil" (wikipedia) has been and is probably the toughest question atheists have posed to Christians. A theist's answer to this problem is called a "theodicy." It takes a good theology to pose a good theodicy, but maybe I'll cover that later.

What I'm primarily interested in right now is not the threat that the Problem of Evil poses for Christianity, but the problem it poses for atheism.

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
- Steven Weinberg

Well, Steven, there's a problem there.... a fairly obvious problem, once you've looked at it.

It seems that there is a lot of interest in Christian education about teaching kids and adults how to debate for their faith. I probably agreed with this one day in my past, but I've come to the conclusion that this is a very, very, very bad idea.

I'll pretend that someone is interested in knowing why I think it's a bad idea, and I'll tell you. I am probably more prepared to debate scientific, intellectual and philosophical reasons for believing in Christianity than 95% of Christians in America.... and I've had my head handed to me time after time.

I have a lot of thoughts I'd like to share about atheism, and how it fails for me intellectually and philisophically, but it seems that when I get ready to try to write them down, the thoughts never condense into words. It feels a bit like standing in a field with butterflies flying all around you, but never being able to get them to land in the right places.... or not.... that's a worse analogy.

Maybe I'll try capturing my thoughts in a wiki and see if I can hammer them into something worth reading.

Looks like there's not a lot of interest in the "Big May Giveaway." So far, a grand total of 5 people have signed up. Dan and I have decided that we may have included something in the prize package that people don't want. We will be sending, along with the winner confirmation message, a note stating, "if there's anything in the prize package that you don't want, let us know, and we'll keep it."

Tell us what your favorite shows are.... We'd like to know.

It's been a long week. I just pushed tomorrow's show to the server, and I should have had that done hours ago.

I've been fighting with software, and my truck is overheating. I finally got the software to start cooperating, but I have to take the truck into the shop tomorrow (which means the whole day is pretty much shot at thT point).