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Welcome to beholdtheblog.org:
essays and observations for the thinking man who looks at the way things are and wonders why
the reality of life isn't coming close to the written standards we claim to uphold.

Featuring two books-on-line:
The Neighborhood House Church
and A Template for Bible Study

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Last updated on July 4, 2009

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Recent articles:
Click here Perhaps the most influential writer and theologian of the period known as the Protestant Reformation was John Calvin. Although Calvin's works appear from today's perspective as a highly ordered system, a look at the process by which he arrived at that system reveals a carefully worked-out blending of extreme reaction to the excesses of the Roman Catholic ideas prevalent in that time with an embracing of certain other characteristics which may turn out to be surprising. For such an intelligent man as Calvin to swing across the spectrum of ideas from mimicking certain problematic practices on the one hand to a quite staggering departure from certain others, some very odd inconsistencies surface. Uploaded 7/4/09
Click here Even at its lowest point in the 1930's, the worst number the Dow Jones Industrial Average had was 41.22 on July 8, 1932 (the lowest point ever was 28.48 in 1896, the year it was started). For all its ups and downs, the "Dow" is still considered the best barometer of the overall health of commerce in the United States. Yet there are forces at work in our government and in other sectors which would downplay or even negate the usefulness of the free market to our economy, thus working to change our system into one in which the federal government has a much greater level of control over how businesses are operated, and dictating many of the specific actions that a company can take. This is hardly a new phenomenon, yet it has been building to a point where now we may be on the brink of a societal transformation that would greatly damage the concepts of our Founding Fathers including their vision of a small federal government and the paradigm of liberty of commerce. Uploaded 5/5/09

Click here What are the contents of a well-stocked Christian library? Most of us, when pressed, can think of a few books that have helped us along the way. But if you think about it a little harder, you know that there are certain ones that well-read Christians throughout the years have considered the best of the best. This is my humble attempt to provide you with a definitive list of genuine classics, some personal favorites, and a few that you should know about for other reasons. Uploaded 3/7/09

Click here When someone says "checkmate," they usually mean that the game is over. But if a match consists of several rounds and the checkmate applies to only the latest round, the provision is that not only is there more to come, but that the winner of the most recent game is most likely to win it all; and perhaps that makes for the best understanding of my title here. By the way, this is not an article about chess, but rather a perspective on the war on terrorism that may be unusual to say the least. The role of the war in Iraq in the overall scheme may be more clear when addressed in a particular way. And besides, it gives me a great opportunity to hurl some pejoratives at Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda lackeys. Uploaded 1/22/09

Archives:
OK, I Admit It
    - a theodicy concerning love, altruism, and the pain of the world.
My Dog Ate My Bible (and Other Lame Excuses)
    - things that just should not be.
The Christianese Top Ten List
    - about the imprecise use of popular Christian vernacular.
Chain of Command
    - concerning concepts of Biblical authority and its potential misuse.
The Bad Evangelist SeriesPart One - Part Two - Part Three
    - don't try this at home.

On Interpreting the Constitution
    - the role of the electorate and its abuse by the judiciary.
Size Does Matter
    - on the role of government in private life as seen from the Bill of Rights.
The Religious Marketplace
    - the stand of the American Founding Fathers on church-state relations.
Who's Responsible for April 15th?
    - one of the less-discussed reasons why the tax code needs an overhaul.
Carbon Footprints in the Sand
    - the ridiculous nature of public reaction concerning the environment.
Adventures with a  Light Bulb
    - some things just aren't as ready for the consumer as we might think.

Books on line:
Table of Contents:
Blankets on the Baby
Winning the Argument Without Winning the Soul
Organized Religion
Of the World, But Not In It
The Profits Have Spoken
So, What's Left?
Always the Problems
Companion Articles:
The Successful Pastor Dialogues
Discussions with the Church Staff
More from the Staff Meeting
When There is No Revival Without Rebellion
Are Ya Excited this Mornin'?
Number One
Koinonia in TV Land

Table of Contents:
Introduction (A Template for Bible Study)
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
Supplements:
References & Tools
Teaching Styles
Barbecued Milk

All caricature art appears courtesy of Philip Hatter at Thistledown Puppets: www.thistledownpuppets.com

Are we supposed to take you seriously?

The thoughts and messages as expressed in these articles are products of much prayer, study, and self-searching, and do not reflect only my thinking, but that of many other Christians who long to see genuine growth in the Body of Christ, especially here in the U. S.  It is impossible for anyone who cares about this to say nothing while the church in America denigrates herself by faltering from her original purpose and becomes increasingly weighed down with unnecessary bureaucracy and ecclesiological superfluity while many of the forces in the realm of government attempt to relegate all religion to the lunatic fringe.  I hope that the fact that I have chosen styles that use various pop culture references and diverse forms of presentation, sometimes humorous and occasionally sarcastic, will merely add to the readability and relatability of the things that I have to say to an audience who sadly loses its line of thought too easily.

The issue here is really one of effective communication; the point is to get the point across.  In a world where we find increasingly short attention spans and a maddening tendency to jump to conclusions, clarity becomes all the more important.   So for those who thoughtfully consider the points made here, these liberties will pose no problem.

As for me personally--I don't take myself too seriously, which is why I put in these pictures of my potential demise.  The package is disposable, but whatever truth you find therein may be indispensable.  So as long as you look seriously at the message, whatever you happen to think of the messenger is of no importance.  Hopefully, most of you will accept the old maxim "don't shoot the messenger;" but if you don't accept it and wish me silenced, at least the artwork is already here.

So should we even be reading this?

Maybe not—if you have no intelligence, no sense of humor, or a closed mind toward out-of-the-box thinking.  Don’t bother if you’re some anal-retentive theological egg-head, some cultist with a specialized theology to try to prove, or a critic who is masquerading as a saint.  Go away if you have a specific partisan agenda or a reliance on historical development and precedent to justify variant readings of a plain thought from the original writings.  Don’t waste time here if you’re the kind who is swayed by every opinion that comes down the road, or who tends to blindly follow anyone who sets themselves up as an authority.  Please save us both the anguish—just get out of here now.

Maybe you should—if you are prepared to be challenged, stretched, or possibly even corrected (I often faced a need to correct my own thinking or actions as a result of my preparations for these essays).  And don’t feel put off if you don’t have a mastery of the specialized vocabulary (especially the legal or theological jargon) that so many people feel compelled to use in this type of discussion.  I may use some long words at times, but they are English words and not lawyer-ese or preacher-ese; and if I do include a term that is specialized, I usually try to explain it as I go.  As far as the references to the documents, I must presume that the reader can look up and check the veracity of those on your own.

Remember, it is often unimportant as to who is right or who is wrong.  I've occasionally found myself in the position of not believing in an idea when I first hear it, but later I would enter a situation in which it applies quite well.  At such times I'm glad I had it "on the shelf" when the time came.  So please realize that I wouldn't take the time or trouble to commit these things to written form if I were not convinced that they are profitable.
The Firing Squad
Burning at the Stake

What are your qualifications?

When I decided to express some of my potentially controversial ideas in a public forum such as this, I was aware that there would be a lot of readers who might ask what makes me feel as though I’m qualified to make these statements.  Of course, my first impulse as an American is to bring up freedom of speech and of ideas.  But this doesn’t really cover it; if anyone can say anything, why should anything that I might have to say command any respect beyond merely the expression of one more opinion?  In order to have any validity, I knew I would need to heed the old maxim, “The only good opinion is a well-informed opinion.”  Therefore, allow me to give three characteristics in my defense, not so much to only explain where I’m coming from, but also to describe the type of reader who will be genuinely engaged by reading this blog.  As Charles Darwin once wrote to his son George:  "... remember that an enemy might ask who is this man ... that he should give to the world his opinions on the deepest subjects?"

The first thing you need is a working brain.  This should go without saying, yet it amazes me how many self-obsessed people prove to be incapable of genuine well-balanced thought.  After watching the X-Men movies, I have to wonder if the possession of normal cognitive ability qualifies one to be a mutant.  (Magneto: “What’s your power, boy?”  Blogger: “Common sense.”  Iceman: “Wow!  A level five!”)

Next you need keen and accurate powers of observation.  Many tacitly refuse this merely by allowing life to make them scatter-brains, and many more who think they possess it are really only listening to other people and eschewing independent thought.  Some actually practice the art of ignoring everything around them, as though either to say that they are afraid of others, or that they just aren't interested in anyone but themselves.  The capability to scrutinize various ideas side-by-side with unprejudiced observation skills is necessary to distinguish genuine intelligence from mere commonness of thought.  Only then can one clearly see what is really there.

Finally, and perhaps most important, one needs an authentic respect for the written standard.  By this I mean that if we claim adherence to a documented model for life and action, we must maintain its integrity and not twist it to suit our convenience or give it mere lip service.  Such devils most often attempt to hide themselves behind the word “interpretation.”  The only truly valid way to interpret any such writing is to uncover, as best as we know how, the authors’ originally intended meaning; any subjective meanings must be held subordinate.  After all, is this not the correct way to read any great literature?  I hold two such written standards to be mine: the Christian Bible and the U. S. Constitution.  So if it seems paradoxical that I insist upon face-value readings of such documents, but yet I propose that careful study and research be applied so as to question those embellishments which some might consider obvious adjustments or acceptable historical development, don’t get excited.  I may simply be asking WWGWD (what would George Washington do?).

Where did you get the name?

It took a long time and a lot of searching to figure out how I could sum up in a name exactly what I was trying to do in this blog.  Since I wanted to deal with both the Christian and political realms, I thought of “Two Taboo Topics.”  That could have been a bit awkward, especially if I had tried to abbreviate it somehow.  And even though I have some pretty bombastic things to say, I became less and less enthralled at the sound of it as time passed.  Another cumbersome idea was “Respect the Written Standard,” even though it was the right idea.  “It is Written” was already taken in several forms, so I moved on.  But then when I decided on this as the theme I wanted to portray throughout, I looked into some Greek words (the original language of the written New Testament) that might bring out the idea of holding a documental standard in high esteem.

When I found the word apoblepo, not only was I amused by the sound of it to my English-familiar ears, but I was pretty much floored by the definition given by one source, “to look away from all else at one object.”  Another source showed it as being translated to have respect or regard, and the root was also translated as behold.  The word itself still didn’t work for my purpose--it just sounded too funny for a “dot-org” name (OK, so I'm not really an organization, but I'm not a company either--so I chose not to go with "dot-com").  And yes, I’d have some humor, but this was a bit ridiculous; my hurdle then became making behold usable.  “Behold the blog” might have proven to be a little misleading, because it might be seen as a call to look at this blog rather than seeing the written standard as I intend.  So I added the colon, and that did the job.

As for what to do with the word apoblepo—I had another drawing from my caricaturist that I still didn’t know what to do with.  After he did the other drawings of me which you see scattered throughout these pages, he thought it would be funny to turn me into Jar-Jar Binks.  So the connection came easily—and the rest, as they say, is history.
Apoblepo the Gungan

Poem: A Butcher's Prayer (written 12-27-82)

    I am a hunk of flesh,
    a cut of meat,
    carved out of the Adamic carcass.

    Beat out my tough places,
    make me tender,
    that I might not be spit out.

    Season me with the salt of wisdom,
    a preserevative from above,
    to make me palatable.

    Trim from me the fat,
    remove the excesses,
    so I may be a good steward of your blessings.

    Cook me in the oven of experience,
    passing from raw and rare
    to become well done.

    Marinate me with scripture,
    so that those who would consume me
    would taste only the Word of God.

    Let there remain no leftovers
    to be wrapped in the foil,
    but let my Lord the Master Chef be fully pleased.

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