I posted last week about ordering 3 meters of copper tape to upgrade a Epiphone Les Paul Special II. The company that I made the previous order with has refunded my money after several back and forth emails of me sending photos and writing “This isn’t 3 meters!” and them responded that I only bought 1 piece of tape. Finally after sending a screen capture of the wording of their auction they agreed and refunded my money.
Today the 10′ of copper tape I order from another company arrived. You wouldn’t think it but as you can tell there is a big difference between 3m and 10′. 🙂
I decided to fix up an old Epiphone Les Paul Special II (Adam’s first guitar). Nothing super special or difficult. I am just going to replace the wiring, sound and tone pots (Potentiometers)1, and pickups2. I am also going to cover all the cavities where the electronics sit with copper tape to protect against interference. So I bought some copper tape off of eBay with which to cover the cavities.
As you can see from a screenshot of my order above I ordered 3m of 50mm wide tape. I thought it was a great deal for $0.99. It was going to take a little while to get here but that was fine because I’m not in a hurry to finish this thing.
The photos below are what I actually received.
Ahem, mooncake815 this isn’t 3 meters worth of tape. This isn’t really going to prevent much interference. 🙂
Yes I have asked for a refund of my $0.99 from eBay.
First, Happy Independence Day. I hope that we are able to celebrate our freedom in such a manner that we are encouraged to help others be free also.
While I’m preaching the value of the original (i.e the Weber) let me also encourage everyone to repair instead of replace. Replaced the vent blades on one of my Webers today and the handles on another one. Like that, for $15 each are as good as new.
Second, I want to share a trick that I just learned that has changed the way I light charcoal. You see I am a firm believer in Weber charcoal grills.
Weber Grills are classic. They are intimately connected to the formation of backyard grilling (read this article by Food Network for some history). The Weber Grill is the Ford Model T of grills if the Model T was still able to hang with modern cars in functionality. Weber grills are the original and they still function better than most modern grills. So I love grilling on Weber charcoal grills (which explains why I have 3 of my own, have been known to chew friends out who where getting rid of theirs, and have picked up and found new homes for Webers that I have seen put on the curb).
Since I use charcoal grills I use a charcoal chimney starter for lighting my charcoal. I’ve been using a chimney starter since my dad and I first saw one on a Boy Scout camp out more years ago than I care to remember. You throw a little newspaper in the bottom of the starter, charcoal on on top of that, light the paper, and wait 10 minutes. BAM! You have hot coals for grilling. Every now and then you have to put paper in the bottom twice.
My chimney technique changed this week when I was looking for a cover for my Weber Smokey Joe Portable Grill. While reading the reviews on a cover one reviewer wrote that she lite her chimney but using two paper towels with a tablespoon of olive oil or vegetable oil on it. I tried it today and it was wonderful. Seriously, I don’t think I will ever use another method again. It was perfect.
SIDE NOTE – My kiddos take everything I do well and then do it better. While cooking the pork chops for our meal today Adam asked if it was OK if he threw a few chive stalks on the grill. After they were finished grilling he chopped them up and mixed them with a little olive oil and pepper to put on top of our grilled chops. This tasted so good.
Yes I know I didn’t char this side of my pork chop. I realized it after the fact and decided I was ready to eat so there was no need to go back to the grill.
I posted Friday that I was struggling with responding to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders using the Bible to justify taking kids away from parents and to try and get their “church friends” to stop complaining about the separation of children from their parents who are seeking asylum. My struggle has been two fold:
the action itself
the attempt to use the Bible to justify the choice of taking the action
I believe many other people have done an excellent job of explaining why the action is wrong (basically just ask yourself “What Would Jesus Do” and I am fairly sure that you will have a hard time coming up with the answer “He would take those frightened kids away from their parents and just tell their parents that they are taking them away to be bathed, and do all of this in such a manner that it will be seen and understood as a threat to anyone else who might seek asylum or try to immigrate to the US from our Southern border.”) Therefore, trusting that subject has been covered I am going to talk about the poor (at best, and evil at worst) use of scripture.
You see just because scripture always requires interpretation doesn’t mean that all interpretation of it is good. When we read the bible we are reading inspired writing from millennia ago. It is a different time, a different place, and a different culture, so therefore, you are always interpreting it when you try to understand what it means in a modern context. Actually we are always interpreting everything we hear and experience. Sometimes our interpretations are good and we understand what someone is saying or writing, and sometimes we misinterpret and completely miss the mark (if we are doing it accidentally) or twist someone’s words to mean something it didn’t actually mean (if we are doing it intentionally). Jess sessions interpreted Romans 13:1-7 when he paraphrased it. Here is what Sessions said.
“Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution, I would cite to you the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order. Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.”
By saying this our Attorney General indicated that in his opinion it is proper to use this passage of scripture to address not only the separating of kids from their families but also that those Christians who are criticizing his actions should stop.1 Therefore, we need to consider if he interpreted the scripture properly.
Let’s look at the passage
Romans 13:1-7 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.
6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Let’s consider who this passage written too? There are three parties in this passage: 1) God, 2) the ruled, and 3) the rulers. So who is being told to be subject to the law? I know this sounds simple, but if you are going to say you are simply following scripture then you should make sure that the scripture you quote was written to you. In this case the group being encouraged to be subject are those that are ruled. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House Communications director Sarah Huckabee Sanders can say they are merely being obedient to scripture and following the law but they are acting as the rulers in their roles and not as the ruled. Scripture had different words for the rulers. It is the responsibility of the rulers to act justly. But Sessions does not seem to be concerned with whether or not these actions are just. He’s just concerned with the ruled obeying. This is a government official basically saying, “Scripture says you have to obey the law, therefore you don’t get to ask if the law is just or not.” That is why some have pointed out that slave masters used this same bad interpretation of this passage to try and control slaves. It was wrong then and it is still wrong now.
Kierkegaard also wrote “The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”
Sessions and Sanders made the interpretive mistake of picking a scripture that pertains to someone else2 and trying to use it as a weapon to force someone else’s behavior. In Sessions case it was Christians who have supported Trump who were now saying “No!” to these actions. Sessions wanted those Christians to hush up and stop saying the actions were unjust. But when we read scripture it is our own sins that we should be concerned about and that’s not what Sessions was doing. As the Danish philosopher and believer Søren Kierkegaard wonderfully wrote, “When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, it is talking to me, and about me.” Sessions and Sanders are acting out the opposite. “When I read God’s word, it is talking about you and what you must do.” That’s not how this works.
So here are a few other passages that talk to rulers concerning God’s expectations of them that Sessions and Sanders might want to consider.
Proverbs 29:12-14 – 12 If a ruler pays attention to falsehood, All his ministers become wicked. 13 The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The Lord gives light to the eyes of both. 14 If a king judges the poor with truth, His throne will be established forever. ((Good interpretation requires that I acknowledge that this speaks of the poor, but since the “poor” are linked with the oppressed in verse 13 it is applicable to the oppressed too. ))
Proverbs 16:12 – It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts, For a throne is established on righteousness.
Micah 3:9-10, & 12 – 9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; 10 who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. … 12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
I haven’t yet even broached the subject of whether Paul meant in this passage that we should always follow the law or not. After all, Paul spent more than two years in jail for his actions of preaching the good news of a kingdom of a Messiah who was crucified because he was viewed as a threat to the stability of the Rome empire. I won’t do that in this post because it is already long enough. Yes, I know this is a long post and it is also a dollar short and a day late for most of this discussion. Therefore, I will just end with a reminder that if you are going to use scripture you need to interpret it well.
Let me just add that nothing pleases one’s “church friends” as much as having a person misinterpret their scripture in an attempt to get those “church friends” to stop complain about evil actions. [↩]
Yes. I know we live in a Democratic Republic so technically they are the ruled and the rulers at the same time, as are we all, but they were operating as rulers in their roles. [↩]
Festival Foods I’m pleading with you to come to the Point area (i.e. Stevens Point, Plover, Whiting, Park Ridge, etc.). I have found the perfect location for you.
A year and a half ago I used the above photo “edited” of the statues of the Satyres en atlante which depicts Omphaloskepsis (navel gazing) during a message at Tapestry. I used it to talk about some a tendency people sometimes have to contemplate what seems deep but actually doesn’t matter to real life, i.e. navel gazing. I had forgotten that the statues were located at the Lourve . So when we went to Paris I was thrilled to walked into the section of Roman antiquities and see it standing in the middle of one of the rooms.
I left my photo unedited because of two things:
It is on my own self-hosted blog and not a 25′ screen at church, and
The bulge that I covered up is actually just the knot of the wrap that is around their waste. I just thought it would be too distracting during our worship gathering to leave it uncovered and try to explain that it was merely where the wrap was tied. Also, covering the knot with the word “art” was pretty funny, so that was also a win.
SIDE NOTE – if you are considering a vacation anywhere you should talk to Pam. She is amazing at planning. You would not believe how little we paid for all four of us to go to France and basically be able to do anything we wanted to do because of her skills in vacation planning.
Yesterday Pam referenced that she would kind of like to have a goat. I thought that sounded like fun and decided to do a little research to discover if we can keep a goat on our property in the great village of Plover. Unfortunately, from my reading of the ordinance we aren’t allowed to have a goat in residence on our property (here’s the ordinance). That stinks.
While reading about goats I was struck by the specific list of exotic animals that are forbidden from being housed in the village of Plover. Here’s the list:
All poisonous animals, including rear-fang snakes.
All nonhuman primates, including but not limited to apes, chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas, orangutans and siamangs.
Baboons.
Bears.
Bison.
Cheetahs.
Constrictor snakes.
Coyotes.
Crocodilians.
Deer.
Elephants.
Game cocks and other fighting birds.
Hippopotami.
Hyenas.
Jaguars.
Leopards.
Lions.
Lynxes.
Monkeys, either old world or new world.
Ostriches.
Pumas.
Rhinoceroses.
Sharks.
Snakes not naturally indigenous to Portage County.
Snow leopards.
Swine.
Tigers.
Wolves and wolf hybrids.
I’ve emphasized the ones that I personally think are funny. Obviously, the village board has these in the ordinance because they are concerned there is a very real possibility of someone in the village thinking “You know what would class up this place? A hippopotamus in the front year. I’m going to get me one of them.”
There are things I read and podcasts and lectures that I listen to concerning various subjects that often become a part of any chaplaincy or pastoral conversation I have. This week the word that is continually fitting into my conversations is “narrative”. Specifically I have been talking about the stories that we tell ourselves and others of the events we experience and live through. Those stories determined so much of how we interpret what happens around and to us.
Are we a victim or a survivor? Am I a hero or a villain? How I perceive myself effects how I interpret my experience.
I’ll probably write more about this after I have thought about it for awhile. Basically we are very much the product of the stories we tell about ourselves and the events we are a part of.
SIDE NOTE – An unrelated and equally awesome podcast is Hidden Brain. I listened to their episode concerning poverty and “mental bandwidth” this week and it was wonderful. Here it is – “Tunnel Vision“.
SIDE NOTE – I regularly see wild turkeys in our neighborhood while walking Clive but today there were three toms blown up and strutting in the road. Unfortunately you can barely see them in this video. You can see the turkeys, just not when they were strutting. The annoying mic noise comes from the fact that I had my earphones in and the earphone mic was rubbing against my jacket.
Dante’s Inferno is poetry not theology so I’m not quoting it as an actual description of the residence of eternal damnation. Still I wouldn’t be surprised if my amendment to his poem was actually reflective of the eternal desolation. 🙂
First Circle – Limbo – For the unbaptized and virtuous pagans
Second Circle -Those overcome by lust
Third Circle – Those overcome by gluttony
MY AMENDMENT – The plow driver who leaves heavy, wet, slushy snow at the end of my driveway.
Fourth Circle – Those overcome by greed
Fifth Circle – Those overcome by wrath
Sixth Circle – The heretics
Seventh Circle – Those who practice violence against their neighbors, themselves, art, nature, or God
Eighth Circle – Those who practiced fruad
Ninth Circle – The treacherous
I am genuinely thankful for the snowplow drivers when I am on the road, but oh how I loath them when I see the pile of snow at the end of my clean driveway. Especially when it has sat there for awhile. My back also isn’t a fan of them.
Yes Sir, we are going for a walk!
SIDE NOTE – I guess the good side is that Clive has enjoyed the massive amount of Spring snow that we have received today. He didn’t really care that I protested that there was too much snow for a walk. “If my short self can walk through it then you can walk through it Buttercup, so get your boots on!” Yes sir Mr. Basset Hound.
At the Place of Peace meal tonight I was repeatedly hit on by an 88 year old woman. I’m not sure that I would normally notice if someone was hitting on me but this nice lady grabbed me and told me I had to give her a hug and then told me twice that I was “so good looking”. I have since told Pam that she better treat me nice because I am now a hot commodity on the over 80 circuit.
SIDE NOTE – If you live in the Point area you should try to get by and hear the Scarabocchio Jazz Listening Sessions. Pam and I love them and go by every chance we can. The next one is March 21st. The video below is just a 10 second clip from yesterday’s session that Pam, Adam, and I went enjoyed.
