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| Curmudgeon Consulting |
Rick Perry on Israel. This week Rick Perry said he is for Israel “as an American and as a Christian.” No problem with his being for Israel as an American citizen. But, as a Christian? It seems almost impossible for American evangelicals to get past making a connection between the ancient nation of Israel, which was the kingdom of God, and the modern state of Israel which is not. It appears we cannot get to the place of regarding Israel as we would any other nation. We fear not being on the side of “God’s people.” But, whatever we think of ethnic Jews (how many are yet to be saved), the state of Israel is just another country to be looked at the same we look at any other nation regardless of the ethnicity of its inhabitants. If I am for Israel, it has no more to do with my being a Christian than my being for Thailand or France. Statements like Perry’s give us reason to think about what the election of a Perry-like evangelical could mean for the church.
You Can’t Trust Those Stars. An approximation of something heard on Rick and Bubba this week: “The speed of light may be 186,000 miles per second today in a vacuum, but who knows what it was 1,000 years ago?”
Power and Being Right. Being right may not be all it’s cracked up to be when it’s joined to power to act. The temptation is to use power to accomplish ends that to you are self-evidently right. You think: (1) “I know I am sincere. In my heart I am certain my motives are pure and good.” (2) “My cause is right. What I want to accomplish is a good thing. It serves righteousness.” (3) “Other good people support me and my cause. They confirm the rightness of what I am doing. ” So, does it really matter how a good person accomplishes a good thing? But it is possible for good people to do good things by wrong means. And sometimes good people do wrong things by wrong means. This is where law and procedure are essential in both the civil and ecclesiastical realms. They protect others from us and us from others. All of us are wrong often enough that we should be thankful for the checks that slow us down, even if sometimes they slow us from doing what we with all sincerity believe is right – in fact, even if they prevent what we know is right from ever being accomplished. It’s too easy for passion to hang the guilty without a trial when there are no legal constraints.
Bill’s Bean Soup. Here is more help for my fellow homemakers.
If you use dried beans, then by all means soak them
overnight in order to minimize certain digestive issues– but, I usually just use cans of beans – anyway have beans ready to use – something like navy beans or great northerns or whatever you like
Put some chicken broth in a pot
Add some water
Chop up some onion(s)
Chop up some celery
Mince some garlic – lots I prefer
Simmer them all together awhile
Add some sausage
Simmer some more
Add beans (if not canned, will need a lot more time)
Simmer some more
Add salt, black pepper, red pepper
If soup too thin, mash up some other beans and add
Simmer till ready to eat
Take Beano unless cast member in remake of Blazing Saddles
Serve with cornbread or some kind of crusty white
bread
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