worth a shot?

a friend of mine sent me this link. it’s about a church handing out shot glasses at local bars that say “give us a shot.” i don’t know anything about the church and so what i am about to say is purely from the fox news article. i’m impressed that they are doing something different and going out into their community rather than just sitting in their church waiting for people to come to them. yet i have very mixed feelings about anything involving the possibility of hard liquor. i don’t have a problem with people drinking alcohol. it’s not my cup of team but i’m fine with it if someone else wants to. i believe the bible is very clear concerning JESUS drinking wine but also very clear about being inebriated being a sin. so i have got to be honest and say that shot glasses are probably a little far for me. i’ve known and been around the effects of enough alcoholics to be pretty uncomfortable with anything that encourages hard drinking. that’s where i have a hard time deciding how i feel about this. i just wish i knew more about this church.

have they crossed the line?

ht spencer

you've got to be kidding

i can’t believe that three of y’all have already contributed to me doing the polar plunge. i posted about it yesterday and i really figured no one would contribute. then low and below jim, jill, and eric have already thrown some money in the till. woohoo!

of course, the said news is that this means i have to go through with it now. i was hoping to talk like was going to do this and then let people forget about it. now, nobody is going to forget about it. thanks guys.

is it irony or hypocrisy?

peta has been nailed for putting to death more than 97% of the companion animals (dogs, cats, etc.) that are brought to their shelters. i was a little surprised when i read this article and was hit by the fact that in 2006 3,061 companion animals were brought to peta shelters and 2,981 of those animals were euthanized . in fact, peta was only able to find actual adoptive homes for 12 of those animals.

at first i thought this might just be the nature of an animal shelter but apparently humane society shelters only euthanize about 35% of the animals that are brought to them. that’s a big difference.

pam and i are strong believers in rescuing animals. our household has two dogs and two cats in it and 3 of these animals were rescues. i think rescuing an animal is the way to go. that’s why i’m a little confused by the actions of peta found within this report.

come on peta. your shelters should be the best instead of the worst. your shelters are a chance for you to make a real difference in an area that most of the general population can actually see. i might be more prone to agree with you on other issues if i actually saw you doing an extraordinary job with the animals i already know and love. if you can’t do it better than the humane society then do all the animals a favor and stay out of the business of running shelters.

of course, the same thing is true for the church. people will be more willing to listen to what we have to say about the “big” things if they see us doing an extraordinary job on the the “little” things. consider what the pliny the younger, the roman governor of pontus/bithynia from 111-113 ad, said concerning the early CHRISTians? in correspondence to emporer trajan he indicated that the CHRISTians not only took care of their own poor but did a better job of taking care of the roman poor than the romans did. no wonder so many started following the early fathers & mothers of the CHRISTian church.

if only, we could follow in those shoes.

if only.