Category: rants

for those who read my plane post and are worried that i’m depressed or completely freaking out i just want to let everyone know that i am fine. all i was doing was posting my thoughts at that moment. those feelings are my real feelings sometimes but VERY RARELY. in other words, I’M OKAY MOM.

i’ve been amazed by a few phrases from the3 books i have recently been reading. here are two quotes which i have found myself particularly caught up in.

as you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it – whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.
harper lee, “to kill a mockingbird“

i was talking with my dad the other day and i told him that i thought that statement would be more true today if it was said socio-economically. a person who has the best of education, social life, and resources who takes advantage of someone who has the least of these, “that person is trash.” i have been acquainted with far too many people who have made their living off cheating the poor. now please understand that i don’t mean by this those fine people who provide services in lower socio-economic areas. those people are just trying to make a living. that’s fine and dandy. making a living, a profit, and evening prospering is just fine by me as long as it’s done without regularly and continually cheating “the weakest of these.” for a case in point let me talk about my dad. one of my dad’s hobbies is running what in alabama is known as a “we finance” lot. these lots are used car lots that will finance anybody buying a car. depending upon the lot most of the people who buy cars probably won’t be able to get one through any other means. these leads to two groups of people running these “we finance lots”:

1. people like my dad who treat their customers fairly (i.e. my dad rarely gets the full amount financed back and doesn’t go after it just because he can – my dad is fair with everyone. he “hobby” makes a decent “living” for him but he by no means abuses the poor.).
2. people who have found a legal way to be the used car equivalent of “loan sharks.” these people take advantage of the situation that their customers are in to enrich themselves without regard to what will happen to their customers. i’m not talking here about a decent profit (which i find nothing wrong with).

i’ve been acquainted with people who have cheated through poor through various other means (i.e. slum lords, some sub-prime lenders, some check cashers, etc.). though i believe we are all sinners and stand in the need of GOD’s mercy and grace, i am not biggest fan of these guys and girls so my relationship with them usually stays at the “acquaintance” level. thankfully i know more people like my dad (who i am a fan of).

i’m pretty tired right now (after a long day of unpacking, going to the county fair, refusing to pay $8 per person to watch the county fair’s demolition derby, cooking out steaks, and making smores around our fire pitt) and therefore, i will talk about the other quote tomorrow. it may actually be a series of quotes because this book (augustine of hippo’s “on CHRISTian doctrine“) simply kicks butt.

yesterday i received a few negative anonymous comments on one of my church planting posts. they were pretty vulgar and therefore i didn’t allow them to stay up. the thing that gets me is not the fact that they were negative, personally i like people feeling comfortable enough around me to disagree with something i write or say. instead what gets me is when someone posts the comments anonymously. i know i’ve posted on this before but it really drives me nuts. these comments were most likely just random comments from someone who accidentally surfed in and therefore they probably didn’t come from someone who actually want to do anything other than be rude. of course, i’ll never know since the comments were left anonymously.

i’ll probably just skip commenting on anonymous comments in the future.

i’m not sure what i have done to offend the u.s. post office but it must have been something big. in the past week i have received two packages that were messed up in route to my house or office. the first package was a timex watch. this is the watch that i use while running. i bought it about four months ago and two weeks ago it died. i took it back to walmart (the evil empire where i bought this watch in a moment of weakness) and they gave me a box to place the watch in and mail to timex for a warranty repair. after a week i received a box with a brand new watch in it. unfortunately, during the postal process one of the buttons of the watch was continually pressed in and thus the battery was dead when i received the new watch. i called timex and they told me they would send me a new one which i received in working order yesterday.

the second package is a longer story. for pam’s birthday i order an autographed copy of a book from an author she likes. i figured it would be a great little gift. unfortunately, when the book arrived it wasn’t autographed. i called the company up and they said it was obviously their fault and they would correct it by sending out another book that was autographed. they mailed it and it arrived yesterday. when i picked up the package it felt a little lite. when i opened the envelope i realized what was wrong … the envelope was empty. since i can’t imagine a company mailing an empty envelope i prefer to blame the post office. i think that over the years all the increases in the price of a stamp have lead to a surplus of research money within the post office. the postal workers have used this money to developed a dematerializing laser that can go into an envelope and remove it’s contents without every opening the envelope. this way the post office can mess up the plans of husbands and make them look bad. this is part of the post office’s master plan to cause a revolution. if they tick off enough wives, by making the wives think ill of their husbands, they will eventually reach a critical mass of upset wives and a civil war will begin. married women all over the nation will go crazy and cause major destruction. this will cause people to forget the term “” and instead think that “going wival” is a better term for going crazy.

last night i received a rather rude comment from the youth ministry website. i’ve editted the comment due to language but here it is:

You “Christians” are such HYPOCRITS!!! ****?***?***!!! You shun us homosexuals and “evil, immoral people” and stay hoarded up inside your CULT. (Yes, I DID say cult) I am a proud Atheist, and if god did exist, he’d be STRIKING YOU WITH LIGHTNING!!! You should Treat other people nicely, like your bible and god says…

wordpress has a built in moderation feature that i had setup on the comments posted on the youth ministry website. this means that comment was just sent to me for approval rather than being posted on the website. since, the commenter left an email address i figured i would email him/her back. if he/she responded back and was okay with me editting out the profanity then i would consider allowing the comment to be posted – though i do think it is rude to go to an organization and post such comments. so i emailed the following response to the commenter who listed his email as “freethinker@hotmail.com.”

hi freethinker,

my name is robert terrell, i’m the youth minister at parkview, and the person who runs the youth ministry website that you left the following comment on:

“You “Christians” are such HYPOCRITS!!! ****?***?***!!! You shun us homosexuals and “evil, immoral people” and stay hoarded up inside your CULT. (Yes, I DID say cult) I am a proud Atheist, and if god did exist, he’d be STRIKING YOU WITH LIGHTNING!!! You should Treat other people nicely, like your bible and god says…”

apparently you know things about me that i don’t know. the people i know who are homosexual have never told me that i shun them but i guess i’ll take your word for it. all though i know allot of people of many faiths (and lack of faiths too) i’m not sure i know any people that i would describe as “evil, immoral” but maybe you can point some out to me so i can stop shunning them. i will agree with you that we/i should treat other people nicely … which is what i try to do though i do fail every now and then (kind of like going onto someone’s website and chewing them out for no reason).

is there something specific on our website that offends you or are you just interested in judging us based on stereotypes? if there is something specific i would gladly listen. until i hear something specific i probably won’t be allowing your comment to stay on the website. i am serious though i will listen to any complaint you have concerning what i have placed on the website or personally done and i will consider changing it.

robert

of course, the email has a fake email address and therefore my email was returned to me as undeliverable. COWARD! i don’t have a problem with someone disagreeing with me. i’m cool with people questioning what i believe. i’ll freely admit that i mess up in following what i believe and i need people to point it out when i do. yet i don’t really have much respect for someone who comes on the website that i run and leaves such comments anonymously.

freethinker please “man up” or sulk to the coward’s place on the internet.

my run for the day
distance – 2.0 miles (speed work of 4 half mile quick runs)
time – 13:34
pace – 6:47/mile

is thanksgiving america’s modern holiday of pilgrimage? it seems that thanksgiving is the one of the least commercialized holidays within the united states yet possibly the most well traveled. holiday within the u.s. during the thanksgiving holiday you travel, eat, sleep, and watch football.

three things i need to say:

• thank you – to everyone who made our fall retreat (the JESUS project) a success. thank you for your time and willingness to be a part of the weekend.
• see you tomorrow – i just wanted to remind anyone who is reading this thing that tomorrow we will not have a normal “view” at church. instead we are doing a potluck together. i’m deep frying chicken for everyone. else join us in the student center at 6:15 p.m. and bring something for everyone to eat.
• my rant – i’m tired of people sending me protest emails that are unfounded. i’ve received three this week (and it’s only tuesday). all three of them have been based on unfounded or at least inaccurate information. i don’t expect businesses to act like they are believers because most of them are not. i do expect businesses to be run ethically and treat people fairly but i don’t expect them to spread a gospel they don’t have as their highest priority. i figure it’s believer’s jobs to spread the gospel – not unbelievers.

my run for the day
distance – 3.0 miles
total time – 24:35
pace – 8:12/mile

thursday i was listening to paul harvey and was stunned by what i heard him say. during his normal routine of slightly funny stories and personal experience based commercials harvey read a study on whether or not people actually listen to commercials on the radio. he said the study showed that most people actually did listen to the commercials and this prompted him to say over and over again “good for you.” he then began to expound why it was good for us to listen to the commercials by saying that often the commercials that we heard were more true than the stories of the programs/news we would be listening to. he stated that if it wasn’t for commercials we wouldn’t know that there really was a bed that could help us be healthier by improving our sleep or that there was a radio that could produce sound so true to the source that you couldn’t tell the difference between it and a live concert. i kept waiting for him to laugh or something. sadly he didn’t. it’s hard to believe that at one time paul harvey was pretty controversial. at an early age pam and i taught our kids to shout at the t.v. “that’s a lie” whenever they saw a commercial that was making false claims (which is quite often).

thursday i was shouting “that’s a lie” at paul harvey.

my run for the day
distance – 4.1 miles
total time – 35:54
pace – 8:45/mile

almost twenty years ago tony campolo wrote an article within his book “twenty hot potatoes CHRISTians are afraid to touch” called “should pastors preach against footbal.” if i could find a link to the article online i would link to it for all of you to read. as i remember it campolo’s point was that football within america had reached a point where it might be causing more trouble than it is worth. he discussed not just the amount of resources put into the game but also the way families are effected by an intense love of the sport.

now before i say anything else i want to say that i love the game of football (and sports in general). for a significant part of my childhood and youth playing football was very important. my family took me to practice, we went to games, and we watched games regularly. i still love football. there is little that is more inspiring than a great sports story and watching college games on saturday and pro games on sunday are both enjoyable times for me (both conscious and unconscious).

yet i’m really getting to a point where i am disturbed by almost all the “major” sports within america. this week i went to a middle school basketball parent meeting where it was said that the purpose of the middle school program was not to win middle school championships but rather to act as a feeder program for the high school basketball team. the coach said the middle school team’s purpose was to make it where the high school team could win championships. these were 6th,7th, & 8th grade kids that are now a part of a “feeder program” for high school sports. of course, this is nothing new for some middle school football programs.

there is so much more than a simple parent meeting that concerns me. parents sent home with play books and drill books so that they can practice their kids when they are at home (i’m all for dads and sons doing things together – but is it really family time when all you do is practice for a sport? – for some this might be “yes” because they are able to do this with their child and make it a bonding time). kids who are basically in year round practice that is done in ways to avoid the state regulations (practices with the coach sitting in the stands rather than being on the field). team programs that constantly sell their kids supplements to encourage a body shape that probably won’t be kept after high school. these are all things that concern me.

the catch for me is that i really love the good aspects of sports. i love seeing a team form together and strive after a common goal. i love seeing people push beyond themselves in order to achieve what others think is impossible. there is so much that is good about sports which is why i encourage my own kids to play and participate (though within the past few years i have become much more in favor of promoting the non-major sports – i.e. wrestling, running, etc). i’m just concerned at this point.