Dump the Comments

I noticed load time with click comments was a little longer than I think it should be so...

Good bye Click Comments.

Dissonance

In music, dissonance occurs when you have two notes that are in an interval that doesn't please your ear. One such interval is "The Devil's Interval", or the tri-tone. This is essentially a C - F# interval. Played in the right context, however, it can be used to resolve to a more pleasing chord.

I learned a new term on Saturday -- Cognative Dissonance. Cognative Dissonance occurs when what you do and what you believe is in conflict with each other. Romans 7 shows us some great examples. Way to often, when we see cognative dissonance occur in our own life, the response is to either doubt what we believe, or define a new version of what is right (see Romans 1).

I have heard that there is a study that show an amazing number of High School graduates fall away from their faith when they attend College. I wonder if this is due to cognative dissonance? While intellecutally, these students are challenged and those challenges are often blamed for changing student's faith, I suspect a bigger factor is that there are too many temptations that are not appropriately handled. Once they are not appropriately handled, it can lead to a cognative dissonance. It is then easier to give up on my faith than to correct the source of the problem.

Now, my concern is, if Kyle is heading out into the world in a few years, away from Mom and Dad, he will undoubtedly face these issues -- even the Apostle Paul did. The common response from many is to tighten down the screws of legalism. Control the behaviour and you control the person. I can't believe that this sort of response shows that overflowing grace talked about in the Bible. I don't however, have an answer other than prayer.

Cultural Taboos

This is something I deal with daily. Not my taboos but others. You see, I work with several people from India. Most of the Indian's that I deal with are vegetarians who, for religious reasons, find eating meat taboo.

According to one online dictionary, taboo is defined as

1. proscribed by society as improper or unacceptable (adj)
   
2. a prohibition or interdiction of anything; exclusion from use or practice. (noun)
3. to put under a taboo; prohibit or forbid.

Many of those things we count as taboo we have good reason for. Driving while intoxicated should be taboo as it puts others in danger. The Bible has prohibitions on sex outside marriage as it is against God's ideal and as we have found, can lead to contracting an STD, pregnancy, etc.

What is disappointing to me is when we make something taboo when there is no danger to others or prohibition in the Bible. Doing this tends to put us above God.

Today, as part of my Daily Audio Bible listening (June 15th actually as I am two days behind because of some download problems previously) we heard Acts 10. This is where Peter is in a
trance, sees the sheet and is told to eat all the animals previously thought to be unclean.

It is tempting to look at these verses and just think about the pork (or some other unclean dish) we had for dinner. In fact, this is how I looked at it for years.

Looking at the context of the story, however, the trance happens as the servants of a Roman army officer is on the way to ask Peter to hear the message of Christ.

Had this happened one day earlier, Peter would not have seen the servants as they would have been unclean. There was a religious taboo against seeing these men as it was against the laws of Moses. Jesus, however, had set a different example and we assume Peter was there to see most of these examples. Jesus spoke with a Samaritan (taboo) woman (taboo) (John 4). He healed the servant of a Roman Officer (taboo) (Luke 7). He healed on the Sabbath (taboo) (Mark 3). He spent time with sinners and tax collectors (taboo) (Matt 9).

Peter was given new instructions though. It was now permissible to eat unclean animals. It was permissible to talk to the unclean people (like me?).

This brings me to the question at hand. What cultural taboos should I be breaking to better follow Christ's example of reaching those who need him? The other side of this issue is if others are breaking my taboos, do I need to give them grace in order for God to be glorified.

New feature - Click Comments

I added Click Comments to this blog. Why? I don't know. I am surprised when someone tells me "I was reading your blog" or when I get an email to that effect. I have several friends who I know read the blog. I have also found I enjoy the feedback but often, there are people who have had some sort of technical problem leaving a comment.

I have often found that, although I like the feedback and I know others like feedback on what they write, it is sometimes quite brief so this allows you to quickly add a comment, just by clicking, no text necessary!

Interrowhat‽

While listening to the Grammar Girl podcast yesterday, I learned about a new punctuation mark. Honestly, I don't know how new it is, maybe I wasn't paying attention in class that day.

It is called an interrobang and is used in suprised questions. For example ...

What‽ You won the lottery‽

The name makes sense to a computer geek, as it is an interogerative and the "!" is called a bang in unix (computer operating system and C programming) speak.

iLounge - The Free iPod book

If you have an iPod, you may want to check out iLounge . They are offering their "The Free iPod Book 3" for the cost of downloading it. There are a lot of advertisements but also some good information. The need to pay for it somehow though so maybe you get what you pay for!

As of this writing, the download is in a large banner near the top of the page.

Tech Support

A friend recently introduced me to this video. It has to be one of the funniest tech support videos I have seen!

Kyle's World Wide Debut.

A couple of weeks ago, Kyle and I were listening to the My Trivia Podcast #79. Evey couple of weeks they do a "Who am I round" which allows callers (or those who email) to answer the question outside the show being listened to. The answers are given in a later show.

As we listened to the "Who am I" for that show, Kyle knew the answer so I suggested he call the answer in.

If you listen to the answers in Episode #81, you can hear Kyle answer the question.

If you would like to find out more about the show, follow the link to My Trivia Podcast.