Mary is here.

First, I have come to the conclusion that serving others is the missing ingredient from most churches. I've heard stories and stats about how we are heading for a post-Christian America, and ways to combat it, but it seems to me that if we quit worrying about what is happening and engage the world as servants, not as combatants, we would do more to speak into the world's situations.

Second, which is related to the first, I am beginning to think that some of the legislating of morality is the wrong track. I understand it, but I think that more social conservatives do damage, by trying to legislate their interpretation of morality and lose the ability to speak into others' lives.

So what do we do? I think that the church needs to quit picking at theological issues and instead focus on practical issues. Earn the right to speak into someone's life. Don't be condemning. Like the women caught in adultery, Jesus said he didn't condemn her, and go and sin no more. I also think that eventhough marijuana use is wrong, treating it like we do alcohol, seems a better way than the farce of drug enforcement that we have. We need to listen and find out why someone is using substances rather than judge them for using.

I guess I see very little compassion from the church. That is where we need to start.

Watch the clip from Fora.tv in fact if you have the time, watch the whole hour and change of his talk and the Q/A session after. Fascinating.

Every once i awhile I see things that seem pretty cool. Here is one, although I admit, I missed the better picture about 15 seconds earlier as I was driving home this morning. In this case the smoke from a chimney is going up until the gases and particles cool. The light wind just above the surface then push the particles downstream. At this point the temperature was -17 degrees F.

Perhaps we need to be reminded that Christmas is not about us; it is about Jesus Christ.
Perhaps we need to be reminded that Christmas is not about what we get out of it; it is about what we give to God in adoration.
Perhaps we need to pause to see just how Jesus-centered Christmas is.

Here’s the article.

As a first point as I have learned more about in vitro the more I am against it. Simply because of the reason you state. Although, the extra embryos don’t have to be discarded. There have been successful adoptions of the “snowflake babies.” I feel that it is under utilized. I feel for people that want a baby, but I would much rather see children adopted than the use of in vitro. I put my feelings out about the stem cell issue in a previous post.

Next he asks,

To be up front about the vote, I voted for the medical marijuana prop. One of the local politicians who was against it said that we can’t keep other drugs from being abused so we shouldn’t do it with this. I think that’s an awful answer. With that logic, we should get rid of most of our prescription drugs.

Mary said that she had a big post in response, but the post was lost in the transfer. She got her statistics the Michigan Family forum voter’s guide. I had to dig out the cached version to find the pdf. I have to say that one point is from anecdotal evidence. Which is that it leads to more crime. I saw an article from the LA Times prior to the election that would imply that, part of which was letting people grow their own, and when word gets out then people begin breaking into homes looking for it. To me that is anecdotal evidence, if the state regulates it strictly, then you just have to worry about prescription abuse. Here is one quote from the forum about “pot shops” in malls:

That will have to be monitored and regulated by the legislature or by proposition. They were a little low on siting statistics to research, so I can’t vouch for the veracity of them.

But like I said, I voted for it, on the grounds that if it is a drug that helps and it can be regulated, then there shouldn’t be a block on the medicinal use.

I’ll try to do some more tomorrow. I have a couple more days off coming up.