Dominant Culture Denies Its Dominance

There is a certain kind of awareness that many, if not most, people seem to lack. It is a social awareness dealing with the dominant culture. I suppose this type of awareness is likely a learned ability that few ever learn for it probably offers few advantages, especially on the social level. People who question the dominant culture tend to [...]

What is a Church? Soul vs Spirit

This post is third in a series, but it is more narrowly focused than the previous posts. I wanted to isolate a single issue that I presented in my first post: “Many people have a nonchalant attitude about community. They just don’t understand its value or they don’t appreciate how difficult it is to create and maintain. This is [...]

The Spirit and Spirits of the Season

The following is my response to Matt Cardin’s post, ‘This myth is realized today in us’: On the deep meaning of Christmas.  * * * I listened to an interview with Varla Ventura on Coast to Coast AM. She was discussing her book about Christmas stories and folklore. Between Varla Ventura and the people calling in, [...]

The Monstrous, the Impure, & the Imaginal

This interview about the ‘monstrous’ made me think of a related idea. The monstrous is a more extreme version of the ‘impure’, whether impure in terms of the physical, psychological, social, religious, etc. The monstrous and the impure are both in some way ‘wrong’ at a gut level. They just feel wrong causing an instinctual [...]

Where is early Christian history?

Here are a couple of papers that question what we think we know about early Christianity. It is fascinating. There are so many assumptions we make in trying to understand something. When these assumptions become shared beliefs of a society or of a field of study, a reality tunnel can form. I don’t know if [...]

Backfire Effect, Oppressed Minority, & Political Divide

Here are just a few thoughts, but I won’t offer any complex analysis. This is just some info I’ve come across recently: (1) the backfire effect demographics, (2) the most oppressed minority, and (3) the main US political divide. (1) The backfire effect is very interesting. It’s the cognitive behavior of someone’s beliefs becoming stronger [...]

The War on Democracy: a personal response

I wrote in my previous post about democracy, specifically the war on democracy. Both that post and this post are a continuation of my thoughts in my other recent posts: Is Classical Liberalism Liberal?, Political Labels – Meaningless? Divisive?, and Bashing My Head Against a Brick Wall: Love of Truth or Masochism?. The war on democracy [...]

Muslim vs Rightwing Violence

I was having a discussion on YouTube and terrorism came up. Here are a couple comments from happykillmore88: Wow that video and report are comical and sad. 45 muslem as opposed to 80 non muslem domestic terrorist activities. You have an instance ~30% of all domestic terrorist attacks being committed by one particular unified demographic [...]

Culture Wars Continuing?

See full video here and comments: http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/28/5940666-coming-to-a-state-near-you-the-culture-wars As I’m from Iowa, I noticed that several other commenters to Maddow’s blog had already added a bunch of links to issues here in Iowa: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011101230306 http://washingtonindependent.com/97563/federal-grant-agency-for-faith-based-organizations-lacks-oversight-transparency http://iowaindependent.com/50094/vander-plaats-plans-99-county-tour-targeting-remaining-judges http://www.bleedingheartland.com/diary/4537/new-abortion-restrictions-could-stall-in-the-iowa-house http://iowaindependent.com/51490/iowa-gop-says-focus-is-economy-despite-push-for-gay-marriage-ban http://iowaindependent.com/46519/anti-retention-leaders-iowa-just-the-start-of-gay-marriage-battle Iowa is a good place to look at in trying to grasp where the culture wars are [...]

Televangelist Infidelity Matrix

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/01/5563827-the-televangelist-infidelity-matrix