What to accept?

I begin this write by reviewing my actions this morning. A strong interest in things biblical, I read a lot. Some of it does not fit my understanding - my "belief." Some of it - most, perhaps - does. I have been reading What's So Great about Christianity (btw, that is a statement and not a question) by Dinesh D'Souza, a book I have had in my library since October 2009. D'Souza writes, to me, a different sort of understanding/acceptance of Christianity. This morning, I decided I did not agree enough with his presentation and decided to put the book in the trash. Imagine that! (I will give you a clue later, why.)

My next act, shortly afterward, was to purchase online a book, a Bible commentary, written by authors with whom I thought I could agree more. A lot of them are from the "church of my belief." Some are not. But, the background offered about the book, a 700 page one, gave me the impression I might agree with all of it. Now, would I? Probably not. Still, I think I should read it, so I bought it.

BTW, isn't it that all books are commentaries? I think so, either on what the writer writes or what he writes about what someone else wrote. whether it is called a commentary or not does not matter, methinks.

Having bought the book, and now awaiting its arrival, The Transforming Word, I began to think, "Now, I have spent close to $80.00 to buy a book that I might not agree with. Would I put it in the trash, as well?" This led me to remove the first book from the trash can for it to go back in my library. Surely, everything in my library is not what I agreed with, I thought.

So, I say this to say, within certain limits it is ok not to agree with everything one reads. It is not ok to reject within limits even the consideration of what folks write that might not agree with how I see it. Now, I know that is perhaps shaky ground if one wants to stay the same. It is not shaky ground if one wants to at least consider what others say and either accept it or reject it based on logical and informed understandings. I fear we do ourselves harm not to at least know what others say or propose. By knowing we can at least argue our point better. Right? I think so.

My first response to throw the book in the trash was way off the mark. What I can do, and will for the benefit of anyone later who might look at the books in my library, is make a note in the front of the book summarizing my observations on the writing. I do that a lot. Seems a good thing to do.

This is my thought on readings, acceptance and non-acceptance of what is out there. I think I have taken the correct approach. Who knows, I might even go back and finish D'Souza's book - someday. So you'll know, I still cannot accept that I came from a fish to be a Christian. Does that matter, as long as one is a Christian? Not sure that it does. (shhhh!)

Things are getting worse

I am sure things are getting worse. I thought when all the talk of failure in everything money wise was talked about that surely appropriate guards would be put in place to keep it from happening. Well, I think things are worse now than they were at the beginning. Advertisements I see and hear on the television and radio tell me that the scam artists got out of the pen, that the gate has been opened wider.

This has a lot to do with health care costs. Just the other day I saw an advertisement that affects Medicare in a very negative way. Don't remember the product, but the advertisement went something like this: It used to be that Medicare only paid for four (of these) per month. Now, they pay for 200! Wow. The adv was to the effect, just call us, we can send you 200 a month, and Medicare will pay for it. Imagine that!

I watched just yesterday C-SPAN, which was covering a Senate committee looking into Medicare fraud, and I did not hear a thing about the situation of Medicare paying for 200 when they used to pay for just four. Yet, I wanted to scream through the television set, Hey, you guys! Watch a little TV and you will know why our costs are going through the roof.

There are so many of these kinds of advertisements. If not health care, something else. There is one advertising that the IRS has decided to be lenient with collections, and now they will take ten cents on the dollar. Just call us, we will fix it for you, the adv says. I can't imagine that, and I doubt seriously that the IRS is going to take less that what is rightfully owed. The poor people who owe and going to wind up paying huge sums for someone to say, but, but, it is not you, but, but, we can fix your problem in some way, which is not to say the the IRS is going to take ten cents on the dollar.

And, there are still the car dealers who advertise, no credit, bad credit, no problem! The cable new I watch that talks about all kinds of problems in our government has advertisements that follow, much like I have mentioned above at every news break. Imagine that.

This commentary just touches the helm of the garment if that much. It is much worse. I know it is.

So, have we gotten so big that nothing can stop the stealer's of our money? Maybe so. I do know that we must do something, but what?