Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • David Ker is Underemployed

    He did this.

  • More on Campaign Finance

    While deploring the hypocrisy of Obama’s switch on the issue (though still preferring him to McCain), I will be very happy if his action is the death-knell of public campaign financing as suggested in this NYT article (via MSNBC).

  • Moderate Christian Blogroll Feed Problems

    Read about them here. I am working to resolve these. They do not relate to the database problems I’ve been having, but rather to some software that has fallen behind the times.

  • Robert Reich on Offshore Exploration

    One of my disappointments in John McCain is the amount of pandering he has done to various people. I regard his vacation from gas taxes as simple pandering. It solves no problems. It potentially creates many more. The only reason to favor it is that some people who don’t think beyond the next paycheck.

    Now before someone accuses me of elitism, I should note that I have been hit badly by the high gas prices. They hurt. But sometime, I expect within my lifetime, we’re going to have to bite the bullet, change the way we use energy, reconstruct some of our infrastructure (public transportation), and use less energy. I’m not one of those who think we will have to give up huge chunks of lifestyle to do this. I think there’s a very good chance technology will allow us to do very well whilst using much less energy. But there will be a cost. Developing, and more importantly implementing new technology will cost money.

    Which leads me to the actual topic. I think McCain is pandering on offshore drilling. It’s the wrong way to solve our problems. I would say it’s a short term solution, but it’s really a solution that will take a long time to provide a short term result.

    Robert Reich has a post today on this that says it succinctly, titled No To Further Offshore Drilling. When Reich was labor secretary in the Clinton administration I didn’t think much of his opinions, but I have now become a regular reader of his blog. He has been providing very wise advice on things like infrastructure spending, and now on oil drilling.

    It’s worth reading and considering.

  • Public Financing, Integrity, and Mixed Emotions

    Barack Obama has opted out of public financing for his presidential campaign.

    I greet this event with mixed emotions. On the one hand, Obama said that he would accept public financing and the limits that go with it. He is a supporter (or so he says) of public financing. Thus there is a question of integrity. It is simple political tactics–one might say politics as usual rather than “change.” On the other hand, I regard public campaign financing as a very bad idea, and I hope its time is passing. Obama’s action, I hope, will help underline the problems.

    I view public financing as an effort to limit free speech. I know the arguments in favor, in particular the idea that “ordinary” people get more say when you limit the contributions of the rich. But I simply don’t think that is a function that government can or should perform, and I think the history of campaign finance “reform” amply demonstrates that. In effect we have taken the power from those who have money, and given it to those who know how to manipulate the legal system.

    So while Obama has broken a promise, I hope that some good will come of it. The best good, in my view, would be complete elimination of public financing of elections, and also the end of the choking of free speech by attempting to regulate the money. Of course, that is way too optimistic, but I too can dream, can’t I?

  • Database Problems

    For those who may read others of my blogs, or some of the other blogs I manage, my hosting provider has been having database connection problems. It doesn’t appear to have impacted this site, but the Participatory Bible Study blog has been very slow and giving sporadic connection errors, and the Running Toward the Goal podcast has been very slow. This has also impacted some subdomains of my energion.com site.

    The hosting provider is working on it, and it is somewhat better this morning, though not fixed. I will post again when the problem is truly resolved.

  • Gray Areas

    Here’s a good post/discussion on complexity and the gray areas. HT: Kouya Chronicle.

  • Studying the Bible for Yourself

    One of the key foundations of my participatory Bible study method is my firm belief that individual Christians can and should study the Bible for themselves. I believe this study will depend on the work of experts in many cases, and that it should be accountable within a church community, but the individual, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is capable of studying and discerning.

    The fact that people differ in their opinions does not change my mind. Experts also disagree. There is no level of theological training that will make everyone come to the same conclusion. In your study, you should not fear errors. Do your best to correct errors with the best information you have. Be correctable when others point errors out, but don’t let the possibility, not the probably, in fact the certainty of errors hold you back.

    I really shouldn’t link to one post from two different blogs, but considering that my first one was for the Pacesetters Bible School Newsletter blog, a group blog, I’ll do it here. Peter Kirk wrote an excellent piece on this, and as a bonus he is relating this to the discussion of the Lakeland Revival. Check it out.

  • Rapture Foolishness

    There is nothing that brings out quite so much strangeness as discussion of the end-times. Nonetheless, I consider it fun.

    It has been commercialized in books, movies, and a video game, and now there is a special web site, You’ve Been Left Behind, which offers to allow you to send e-mails and files to unsaved friends who miss the rapture. (News story here, HT: Adventures in Revland.) Apparently God doesn’t have things quite under control, and thus it is necessary to try to communicate after you’re in heaven. One wonders if God does not, perhaps, have a purpose in not making this a standard thing.

    One of the things I suggest when teaching from Daniel or Revelation is that one should never stop with one commentary. The same thing applies to someone who is teaching a lengthy and details timeline for the end-times. Any one person can sound convincing, but timelines are generally built up from a wide variety of texts, often used out of context, or more precisely in a contrived context. Reading another writer, equally convinced and possibly equally convincing will show you how many different scenarios can be supported if one is just

    As an exercise, I suggest taking passages that one is applying to the rapture, tribulation, and millenium, and study them as part of the whole book. This can be done fairly easily with a book like Joel, or with several visions from Daniel, such as Daniel 7-9 studied together. You may find it quite interesting to note the difference in how people will understand certain end-times texts based on the original context versus how they are presented as part of an end-times scheme.

  • Working on Bloglines

    A reader told me that my feed wasn’t updating in bloglines. I have confirmed that indeed it is not. I’m trying a run through the claim process to see if it will repair itself.