Axes and Sharp Arrows

Telling lies about others
   is as harmful as hitting them with an ax,
wounding them with a sword,
   or shooting them with a sharp arrow.
- Proverbs 25:18 (NLT)

Sometimes the NLT's wording puts things in such a way that they really hit home. No worries -- no one has told lies about me or anyone I know. This verse just stood out to me. Remember that speaking to someone about an assumption you've made regarding another person's character is likely going to put you in the above situation.

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They're Out To Get Us!

Whew! Sporadic blogging lately. My apologies to those of you who've visited hoping looking for new stuff. Hopefully you'll find today's ideas intriguing.

I seem to be on a spate of talking about things that I've presented here before, but it's been a while on this one. Remember how The Wonderful World of Disney used to come on TV on Sunday nights, when all good folks should have been at church? Conspiracy or just regular ol' programming?

When posting "What Makes a Bad Word Bad?" the other day, I thought about the lyrics to that wonderfully non-potentially-offensive-to-anyone song, "What Made the Red Man Red?" from Disney's Peter Pan, and specifically remembered this part:

Let's go back a million years
To the very first Injun prince*

Huh? A million years? So that's when Native Americans began to populate our soil? Is this Disney's subtle way of instilling old-earth (or evolutionary, though the two are not necessarily intertwined) thoughts in children? (Actually, even by the most hardcore evolutionist's standards, that's too long ago for there to have been any "Injun princes.")

Do you think that we Christians are too paranoid that the world is out to get us? Is paranoia justified, or would you call it realism?

And hey, what about that part in the Red Man song where it talks bad about mothers-in-law?

In the Injun book it say,
When first brave married squaw,
He gave out with heap big, "Ugh!"
When he saw his mother-in-law.*

What gives? Disney's trying to undermine the family unit!

If the world is, indeed, out to get us, how should we react? By fighting fire with fire? What would Jesus have done? Better yet, what did Jesus do when He was confronted with people calling Him a liar or challenging the things that He taught?

Is this this verse is out of context in such a discussion?

He was oppressed and treated harshly,
    yet He never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
    And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
    He did not open his mouth.
- Isaiah 53:7 (NLT)

*"What Made the Red Man Red?" was written by Sammy Cahn and Sammy Fain (odd that they were both named "Sammy," eh?), copyright 1951 Walt Disney Music Company

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A Faux-Hawk and the Gerber Baby

I have a little "faux-hawk" thing going on with my hair most of the time lately. I'm sure you know it, even if you don't recognize the name. It's the kind of style where your hair basically comes to a sort of point up at the top, although mine is not as extreme as some wear it (I'm still partially respectable). I just kept looking for something different to do, and this is about all that my hair length will allow.

Note that "faux-hawk" rhymes with "mohawk" and is an alternative for those who are too scared to get a real mohawk, don't think that bald sides of the head are very attractive, or don't want to look like a complete rebel. (Wikipedia.org says this about it: "It was a term of derision [in the late 80's], aimed at "outsiders" of the underground who would not commit to the social stigma conveyed by a true mowhawk.")

I know that if I've had the misfortune of being photographed recently, in a few years it's going to be the equivalent of us looking back at a picture of someone with a crop-top or a mullet -- could have been cool at one time, but is now (hopefully) very embarrassing.

I recently looked in the mirror and said to myself, "Self, you don't look totally unlike the Gerber Baby." This thought almost made me mash my hair down on top and stop doing the faux-hawk, but then I tried this "Google" thing and did an image search for the Gerber Baby. Guess what...? I was wrong -- G. B. has a cowlick, but no faux-hawk.

This tends to make me think of the questionable or patently false theology and Scripture inferences I hear in movies and music. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Noah's Ark (an obscure made-for-TV movie; do not rent this stinker unless you want a really good laugh, but it's really so far beyond the pale that it stopped being funny after only a short while), "We Are the World," ("As the Father showed us by turning stones to bread...") that kind of thing.

I also think of Christ-followers who hear bits and pieces of end-times prophecy from others and begin to repeat it because it sounds ominous or it fits in with their observation that we live in a sin-filled world that just can't go on much longer. And these things make me think of my not-so-Gerber-Baby hair: a vague recollection that was wrong -- my hair is actually more like Mr. Heat Miser's.

And of course, I think of the Madeline Murray O'Hare e-mails, the one about NASA discovering a lost day in the past, and many others that are marginally fact-based but are false and certainly have no business being spread, especially by Christians!

Have you ever thought you remembered the Bible saying something about such-and-such, and then speaking about it to someone else in a mildly authoritative tone? One that sounds kind of important but still leaves you a way out just in case you have your facts a wee bit wrong? Like, "Well, I think that the Bible does say somewhere that it's a sin to have long hair." Don't do that! If you're unable to back up your "facts," keep them to yourself until you can. This is frustrating because it can make you feel like you're losing an argument or debate (which you possibly shouldn't be doing anyhow), but it's far, far better to behave as Abraham Lincoln advised: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt."

Or something like that. Wait... was it Mark Twain who said that?

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Tax To Be Levied on E-mails!

I've touched on this topic at least twice, I think, one of those times being my inaugural post. I am not writing it in response to any particular circumstance; no worries -- I have not received any goofy e-mails lately.

A number of years ago I received an e-mail from someone whose address book I'd apparently gotten on thanks to Microsoft Outlook's automatic address book updating. It was a forwarded message; one intended to sound the alert to all Christians within possible e-mailshot.

It began with the apocalyptic tone that many e-mails of its kind so often do. Something like, "I was horrified when I read this..." It then proceeded to tell some of the apparently lesser-known details about J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, and the effect the books were having on children -- mass conversions to withcraft and Satanism.

One excerpt: "'I used to believe in what they taught us at Sunday School,' said Ashley, conjuring up an ancient spell to summon Cerebus, the three-headed hound of hell. 'But the Harry Potter books showed me that magic is real, something I can learn and use right now, and that the Bible is nothing but boring lies.'"

Now, even at a glance we should be able to tell that this is satire. However, the e-mail sender did not pick up on it.

After confirming my suspicions (I found that the entire forwarded material was a satirical invention at TheOnion.com -- and I don't particularly advise checking that site out) I did what any good Christian person should do: I clicked on "Reply to All" and proceeded to mercilessly and maliciously chastize the sender, making sure that everyone knew that she was an ignoramus for sending the e-mail. After all, I didn't want any of the recipients giving us Christians a bad name by forwarding it again.

For some reason this wound up deeply hurting the sender's feelings and making me look like a complete jerk. The experience taught me a few things:

- I wish I'd paid attention to Ephesians 4:29 "Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." (Just to put your mind at ease, I didn't swear at the lady.)

- Paul's words resound for me and all Christ-followers: "Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone." (Colossians 4:6, NLT)

- Be wise and cautious in what you say -- or don't say -- to or about others. "Get wisdom! Get understanding!" (Proverbs 4:5, NKJV) "Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive." (Proverbs 17:28, NKJV)

Standard disclaimer for this sort of post: Please, no need to advise me that the book series is either bad or good. I do not intend for this post to be seen as offering any sort of stance on the "Harry Potter" books. I use it and its author for a real-life illustration -- hopefully a helpful one.

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