Thoughts and Prayers are the Inverse of the Gospel

Yes, this is "piling on".

Yes, "thoughts and prayers" has already jumped the shark.

Yes, senators and congresspeople are now saying things like, "our prayers are with...." because the phrase has moved from a joke to toxic in a few weeks.

That said, whatever will come post-"thoughts and prayers" will serve in its place, another empty platitude in the place of actual action.

And that's the point. Prayer is never a substitute for action.

Let's try out the parable of the Good Samaritan with thoughts and prayers....

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.^... But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. The Samaritan told the man, "You will be in my thoughts and prayers," and continued on his journey. 

Or how about this one....


 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me your thoughts.  I was a stranger and you prayed for me.  I was naked and you posted on social media.  I was sick and you felt sad. I was in prison and you felt bad for me.

Or how about one more... 

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”  They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “My thoughts and prayers are with this woman."

Thoughts and prayers in the place of action is the actually inverse of the gospel. It's heresy. The good news was not about platitudes and "feelings" but compassionate acts of love. 

Of course we should pray for those in mourning and for healing but when we only pray for healing and fail to actually act to prevent further pain, we make our Christian faith perverse. God works in mysterious ways, but never though the NRA.

Similarly, I have found many Christians blaming the fact that God is "banned" from schools. 

This t-shirt. This was obviously designed by an elderly person or a 11 year-old. Look at those fonts, and COMIC SANS. A prayer in COMIC SANS.

Who knew that God can be held out of a solidly built brick building? Is this like the silver bullets of theology? God is all knowing and all powerful....well, except in schools! It's bad theology and it's factually incorrect. Students can pray, bring their holy books and schools must make accommodations for religious groups and meetings after school hours. It's also a slap in the face of teachers living out the gospel with their actions. American Christianity has become a cult of fantasy and anti-science, of trusting politics and laws rather than changing hearts. Embracing "winning" over ethics and morals that were supposedly important. Evangelicals see themselves as victims, even though they are in the numerical majority. American Christianity is in its final fits of it's spiral of death. Death is ugly but the rebirth is necessary. May God save us from the Christians. 

(To cover my bases #notallChristians)

Frumpy Wintery Fragments

It's been awhile, so here are some fragments from the fam.

Tucking in 5 year-old H the other night and as he was slipping away into sleep he asks me, "Dad, what's 15 +15?"

Love that kid.

Look I know every parent thinks their kids are awesome, but our kids have won character awards every single year, every single one of them. Pretty impressive, thank you very much.

As a reward each winner gets a free ticket to a Spurs game or hockey game, look the games are usually against terrible teams but this means in all eight games I have taken my kids to over the years, we are undefeated. I also know it's a huge scam to get you into the arena, but they enjoy it and so do I.

So, H won his character award in November and we finally got to go this January to his first Spurs game (against the Kings). We were slated to be maybe eight rows or so before the last row in the entire arena, but some old man saw us walking in, asked us where our tickets were and gave us a huge upgrade down on the floor, about 22 rows up. Random act of kindness...pretty sweet.


On the way out of the game H asks me, "Dad when do you marry mom?" "I was almost 27." "Wow." "Is that old, buddy" "Oh yeah." H half whispered. "When do you want to get married?" "15 or 16". I laughed. "I don't think so, buddy you would still be in high school" "Dad, it's my life, I can do what I want. It's my life."

E was in a local church production of Annie. It was really quite an impressive production for "only a church production" she was one of the "Hoover kids" in the Hooverville. This means our whole house has been singing the songs of Annie, now even a week after the shows ended.  I have a feeling it won't be her last show, she had a great time and she showed a lot of moxie and showmanship for her first show.

C continues to do great in school and run her photography business (although things have slowed down in the winter). She's an amazing kiddo, but she was out with the flu this past entire week.

The oldest always gets a little more rewards and the last few months, C stays up with me to watch some TV on occasion. Now that she's 11, she's been able to see some classics, Indiana Jones, Gremlins and whole bunch of Star Trek: TNG. Oh yeah, I'm a great dad. We're in the middle of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (we skipped Temple of Doom and of course Crystal Skull crap). The other day both girls were sick and we watched Groundhog Day. So fun to share classics with your kids.

Quick Hits:

Last Jedi: Mixed thoughts, overall good but plot holes and some general blah feelings about some choices. Also, too many new Star Wars movies is a bad thing, capitalism ruins everything. Not excited for Solo. Don't care about all that crap. I thought Rouge One was technically well-executed but ultimately, horrible. I dread the idea of watching it again.

Winter Olympics: shrugs

Concert Updates: I got tickets to the The Breeders show in Austin in April. Can't wait. I missed Built to Spill a few years ago and now they are coming back on a double-bill with Afghan Wigs but I'm not crazy about Afghan Wigs and the venue will be pricey. Weezer is going to be in Austin with Pixies this summer but my plans are up in the air (India and/or traveling to Wisconsin). Speaking of Weezer.....

Weezer: Pacific Daydream - Yawn. Kinda terrible in a non-offensive way. Background music at a restaurant. Big disappointment from the White Album and even EWBAITE.

Dr. Mario: I got addicted. Holy Batman I am addicted. Up to 15 on Medium speed, trying out 17 (I skipped a few to  get up to that high)....can't do it. So hard. 

New David Letterman Show on Netflix: Thumbs Up. Wish there would be more than six.

Spurs: Sigh I literally sighed typing "Spurs".  Just not working out for them this year. The rumors with Leonard even more troubling. If Lady Luck is still a thing with this franchise, either something magically will happen this off season or the jig is up. Pretty crazy run though.

Prez Trump: A bumbling fool. A bumbling frightening fool.

Still watching a lot of MSTK 3000 on Youtube.  About half my week I fall asleep in bed watching one. Love it.

Winter: I am tired of cold weather and especially cold feet.

I should be grading papers.

So until then, take a look out your window and enjoy and don't forget to pray for world peace.