Misconceptions of WHO God Is

I like to read a blog authored by Father Jonathon from FoxNews. He is preparing to do a post on the Scientology craze, but before he addressed his opinions on Scientology he wanted to take a look at common and false depictions of the divine. I found it interesting and must admit it hit a little too close to home. Thought maybe some of you might be interested in his thoughts as well.

Today, however, I want to approach the question from the opposite direction: what is turning people away from traditional religion?

I think there are lots of reasons, including the scandalous antics of some religious leaders. But, from my experience, the biggest reason is a misconception of who God is in the first place.

Below, I will lead you through a few categories of what I consider to be common and false depictions of the divine. Each, I believe, influences negatively our understanding of God, and therefore makes more attractive the latest craze in religious expression, whatever it may be.

1) God the Vending Machine

God the Vending Machine is a machine we use to get what we want. Drop the coins, express our wish, and hope it works. Once we’ve got our product we are back to our busy life and the vending machine is long forgotten. When we don’t receive an instant response, we assume the God machine is broken. We press the buttons harder, just in case, and hit the coin return to get our money back.

2) God the Clockmaker

The clockmaker God is the Supreme Being who sets things in motion, like the inner workings of a good Swiss watch, and leaves us to our own fate. He is “out there somewhere” but is not really in touch with reality. He looks down on the world from a distance and doesn’t really care or just can’t do anything about our problems. He is a bit like us when we watch a bunch of ants fighting a life-and-death combat. At most he is amused, but he surely won’t interfere. He is the watchmaker who got the thing going and now just watches it tick. The wise creator has capped his quill pen and allows us essentially to write our own demise. If the world is to be saved, it’s up to us because God USN’t about to intervene.

3) God of the Buffet

Perhaps the most common depiction of someone like God is what I like to call God of the Buffet. As we go through the buffet line we pick what we want: a salad, a little pasta, roast beef, some potatoes, another veggie, and then some fresh fruit and a little cheesecake to top it off. Likewise we pick out our beliefs. We may take Buddhist meditation, Hindu mysticism, the Jesus figure of love and forgiveness, a touch of New Age, and, of course, we leave out the rules.

In the end, the God of the Buffet boils down to intellectual and religious relativism. It holds that truth is subjective, and so each of us can choose his religion as he likes, all of them being equally valid. Instead of acknowledging that God is perfect, the God of the Buffet is mutable. He is employed as a motivating, comforting, or disciplinary force when it’s convenient. He vanishes when we no longer need belief.

4) God the Cop

He’s the cop just waiting to catch me speeding. If I’m not perfect, he’s against me, and eventually he’ll catch me. He is the wrathful God of fire and brimstone. We subordinate God’s supposed attributes of love and forgiveness to images of a vengeful God—based primarily on recollections of Old Testament accounts.

God is not a father. He is not a mother. He is just an old man ticked off by so much sin. We fear even minor infractions may stir him to strike back, to send a lightening bolt hurling from the heavens. God the Cop keeps us in line by offering punishment and reward. We are much like a puppy that will roll over or beg once he learns that he won’t get a treat if he dozen’t.

5) God as Dessert

God is dessert sitting in the freezer for later. He is the fine china collecting dust in the cabinet that we think we might need for some important dinner party at some point in the future.

In other words, I don’t need God now. I’m saving him for later. God and faith require too much time and energy. I want to spend the prime of my life on other things. Not getting too involved in religion also keeps me in the bliss of ignorance. I prefer to live without the guilty conscience that I assume will inevitably accompany the pursuit of religious truth.

Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your time.

God bless, Father Jonathan

Minster Opens Kansas Senate Session With Bold Prayer

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people.

When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will and to openly ask these things in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest

In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.

The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa, and Korea.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation under God."

Warning on Immigration From 1907

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." - Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Changes

Your Moral Compass will be undergoing some modifications. Over the coming weeks, I will be transitioning to a new hosting service. Additionally, I will be starting to learn the intricacies of WordPress. I aim to implement these changes with as little disruption as possible, but my name is not Zach and my knowledge on these new technologies is limited at best. Please be patient with me, as I will rely heavily on the assistance my friend Zach.

Finally, I am finishing up my National Registry process. I will be having several tests over the next month in preparation for my graduation. My posting will likely be less frequent through the second week of March.

Smokers Don't Have The Right To Pollute Others' Air, Part II

So, I’ve received some feedback from my previous posting on this topic. The opposition, predictably, claim infringement upon the smoker's and business owner’s rights. They also made the point that if you don’t like the smoke then go to a business that chooses to remain smoke free. They argue that measures like this are first steps to an invasion by the government against civil liberties. One person even declared that I was a liberal and not a conservative as I proclaim to be.

Most of the time, I would agree with the average person about limiting government regulation on most any topic. This, however, is different. This, for me, is more than just a matter of a person's freedom to choose. I work in health care. I see, nearly everyday, the results of smoking; both first and second hand.

I agree that there is a certain element of the establishment's right to choose, but we're not just talking about something that affect's only the smoker. Smoker's actions have a direct effect over everyone around them. My son, for instance, is a moderately bad asthmatic. He has a very difficult time after being in the house of a smoker; they don't even need to be smoking around him, because it's in the house. The same is true of a business...we have to limit the types of places we go for his benefit.

Some can argue that is our tough luck and they're right to a certain extent. However, no one should have to subject themselves to the effects of smoking. If you want to smoke in your own home, on your own property and as long as you're not adversely affecting anyone around you than more power to you.

Conversely, I feel that if you have a business that is open to the public, then you have a certain obligation to insure the public's safety. Just as you have to insure that meat is cooked through and through and that it passes inspection criteria, so to, you should provide a reasonably healthy environment for them to be in.

I am not interested in infringing on anyone's free choice simply because they choose a lifestyle different from my own. I am interested, as a human being and as a health care professional, in limiting the health effects of smoking on the public. There is no way to smoke in a public building without the toxins violating other occupants of that space and, as such, the business has an obligation to make the environment safe and healthy. I see only one way for that to happen, and that is to prohibit smoking in public buildings.

You can candy coat it into civil liberties all day long, but the fact is, that just as with other potentially dangerous items of interest, the burden to protect the public lies with the businesses open to the public and the people demand that protection through the government.

Smokers Don't Have The Right To Pollute Others' Air

I found this Letter to the Editor in today's Peoria Journal Star. I think it is well written and is at the heart of the smoking ban issue. I personally support a measure to protect the health and welfare of my family and myself.

I have been hearing a lot lately about smokers' rights. Imagine, if you will, that I have an aerosol can and I carry it with me wherever I go. My can contains a noxious, foul-smelling substance that contains known carcinogens.

Now imagine that you have gone to your favorite restaurant for dinner. You have to wait for a table, so you go to the bar to have a drink while waiting. I sit down next to you and begin spraying my aerosol can all around the area without regard for whom I may be annoying.

The smell disgusts you, it clings to your hair and clothes, and you know that your health may be adversely affected by this substance.

Next, you are seated at your table for dinner and I am just a few tables away, busily spraying my can all around me. The stench eventually reaches your table, ruining the enjoyment of your meal.

If anyone actually did such a thing at a restaurant or bar, they would likely be asked to leave and possibly charged with a crime.

Smokers don't have the right to pollute everyone's air. Please, Illinois legislators, pass the indoor smoking ban and protect everyone's right to breathe clean air.

USS New York

Befittingly, the felled World Trade Center lives on in a San Antonio class of amphibious transport dock ships in the US Navy.

The USS New York is being built in New Orleans and scheduled to be launched in mid -2007. Twenty-four tons of steel from the World Trade Center have been recycled for the project. About seven tons were melted down and poured into a cast to make the bow section of the ship's hull. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there." Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up." "It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back." Several workers have postponed retirements for the honor of working on the USS New York.

"This new class of ships will project American power to the far corners of the Earth and support the cause of freedom well into the 21st century," said Secretary of the Navy Gordon England when the project was announced in 2002.

It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

The half-built ship also has the distinction of surviving the destructive force of Hurricane Katrina, which slowed construction and left hundreds of shipyard workers homeless in August 2005. Many of the workers took up temporary residence at the shipyard so they could continue with the project.

Other ships are being born out of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In addition to the USS New York, the USS Arlington will be named because of the location of the Pentagon, which was hit by American Airlines flight 77. The USS Somerset will be named after the county in Pennsylvania in which United flight 93 crashed after being taken over by hijackers.