X != Y

What it says.

This is Quite Interesting

Two churches, one white and one black, but both part, it seems, of the United Methodist Church, existing pretty much side-by-side for decades. I realize whoever's reading this may well have known about it already, but I definitely didn't. Definitely read the article even if you know the basic story already, though. It's...very interesting.

New York Times story here. My heart goes out to the people in these congregations and their struggle for reconciliation. I'm not quite sure what the proper prayer is here; maybe all I can really pray for is Christian unity in this case.

Edit: Hat tip to GetReligion.

The way this is going, I'm going to have to just start making posts full of theological interesting things, becuase so many of them keep happening.

Blood Sugars Blogging (01-22-09)

I'll be blogging multiple meanings of blood sugar on an approximately weekly basis.

Blood Sugar:

01-22: 172
01-21: 445,309,197
01-20: 224
01-19: 366,289,
01-18: 249
01-17: 220
01-16: 235
01-14: 380

Blood Sugar:

You can find "Blood Sugar" by Pendulum by clicking on the link.

Theologically Interesting Thing

Theological interesting thing:

Jesus was born out of wedlock. What does this mean for our expectations about the Divine, if anything?

"What the Hetts?!"

Hello, depression.

What the hetts?!

It's the Week of Christian Unity!

It's the week of Christian unity here.

What will you do, what prayers will you be saying to mark the occasion?

Personally I'll be doing some praying and thinking about what happens logistically with this sort of thing. It's really easy to pray a big game and forget about the fact that if we're ever going to achieve real Christian unity, someone's theology (or at least, someone's insistence on certain theological constructs) is going to have to change. There's a prayer service I'll be going to later this week for Christian unity, so I'll be watching and listening closely to the words that are said and the implications that are made, if any, for dialogue and theological systems.

The Person You Want to Be

Let X = the person you are.
Let Y = the person you truly want to be. Not "if I were richer" or anything like that, but who you want to be morally, philosophically, spiritually.

Does X = Y?

Why or why not?

Whether X = Y or X != Y, is the fact of the equality or inequality a good or a bad thing?

I've been thinking about this question a bit lately, in particular in relation to relationships (romantic or unromantic.) I've decided it's fine for one person to change another in relationship as long as a) both people are open to being changed, b) both people are working towards a state of X = Y, c) neither of them is being coerced or forced along in an inappropriate fashion.

Silly Quotation Time

From IRC, blatantly stolen from someone's signature on DigitalMZX.

ajs: I like how people talk behind my back when they know I'm asleep. I like to think that it's because I would superbly defeat their lies if I was active.

Bonus! Silly religious quotation!

Terryn: I've never heard anyone take umbrage to "old" and "new"
Es: terryn "old testament" is a horrible offense against the jews
Es: It implies that their religion be not poppin' fresh

I was definitely there for that one, and it was awesome. I wish I still had the full discussion there. That said, if you want to talk supercessionism, or talking behind peoples' backs, go ahead. You can even feel free to talk about supercessionism behind my back here while I'm away on retreat this weekend; I won't be able to do anything about it until tomorrow night!

Good day and God bless!