CLEMENTINE

A movie that has profoundly inluenced me is ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND.
I think it is a very beautiful movie some themes of which are redemption, forgiveness, acceptance of imperfections of others and of life. (The movie-mainly by Charlie Kaufman (yeay for Charlie Kaufman)- DOES include sex outside of marriage. Though Charlie's characters embrace that lifestyle, and the movie portrays that as a possible root to happiness-which is not part of my value system, I accept that as a story line that appeals to many people.)
I want to talk a very beautiful part of that movie that really expressed a concern/phenomenon that I believe really needs expressing. I AM GIVING YOU A SPOILER ALERT HERE IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE MOVIE W/O KNOWING STUFF ABOUT IT: At the start of the movie, which we later find out is closer to the end of the story, the two main characters/the dear ones/ the romantic couple meet for what they think is the first time. When she tells him her name is Clementine, he, Joel, says, "Oh cool. Did you know that means 'merciful'?" It was only later that I realized that Joel was only able to come up with that true original meaning for the name "Clementine" because all of his previous memories of meeting Clementine and learning her name had been erased. Because of that, all the "joke-y"
meanings -"Oh my darlin', oh my darlin'. . ." , the cartoon hounddog, and the diminutive delicious oranges- had been erased from his memory along with all his previous memories of her. How sweet and transcendent that Joel thought of 'merciful' when heard "Clementine." Was Author Charlie commenting on how clogged all our communications are with silly, "joke-y" talk; that we are so geared
toward making jokes and being amusing (and amused) and appearing smart, that we have become poor in meaningful communication?

COMBINING

i now cannot gain access to my other blog "APOLOGIA" at rethinking1776.blogspot.com. therefore, i will put all my stuff, such as it is, on this site and theologica.ning.com. the access denial has to do with my having started the other blog using a non-google address. maybe i'm not supposed to be doing this anyway.

ONE THIRD, ONE THIRD, ONE THIRD

Well, It's time for me to write about this topic specifically- The American Revolution and how the decission to fight it fits with the Christian worldview as put forth in the New Testament.
Just an update for now.
When I first started researching this when my children were in elementary, I could not find more than a tiny bit of info on the 1/3 of the colonists who were against the Amer. Rev. based on their Christian convictions. I found in EERDMAN'S RELIGION IN AMERICA that it was about one third of the total population who were pacifists or consciencious neutralists; and one third were loyalists to the British Government; and one third ( the 1/3 that won the war) believed that the colonists were justified in fighting a war against the government over them- a war in which people died, people had to leave all that they had to escape the anger of their neighbors who believed different than them, etc.
Way back there when I was starting the research (circa 1993), my husband's comment when I told him I couldn't find info, was "The winners get to write the history books."
Well, I was over at the U of Houston recently and decided to see what they had. I looked up "loyalist literature" as I had tried to do 17 years earlier. I was delighted to find that they have in the library quite a few books on that subject. However, when I looked at the books I realized that maybe none had to do with Biblical objections to the war. Back to search again. I will google "Anabaptist" and "Quaker".

NOT EQUIVALENT

A Bible teacher here in Houston that I appreciate when I have been able to hear her- Mary Jean Pigeon- was once talking in passing about a woman who seemed superficially to be doing all the right Christian things, but had gotten into a very rough place in her life that seemed to come out of the blue.
Sister Pigeon said in the course of her teaching ( tho' she did not say this to the people involved in the discussion of this woman's troubles) that she COULD see where this woman had fallen down on the job in some way that led in part to these troubles (Sis' Pigeon did not elaborate.)
I could understand that.
What I mean by the title of this blog is that two different women going to church, with approximately the same observeable level of involvement, and approximately the same type of cordial interaction with fellow churchgoers could have radically different whole-life styles which could bring forth very different futures, including their children's attitudes toward the established christian church and the standards that christians agree are important.
My reasons for putting this post out are not theoretical.
That's all I have to say for now.

FUTURE POSTS

The focus of this blog space is more about the specific effect that the "1776 decision" has had on american culture, american christian culture and of course, by extension, world cultures, christian, secular or otherwise.

(I am, of course splitting up my efforts onto this blog, and theologica.ning, and APOLOGIA, which is at rethinking1776.blogspot.com. Also, I need to do actual physical things in my part of this universe.)

future posts, I hope, will be:
-NOT EQUIVALENT
-LOVE IS . . .
-

RAHAB OF JERICHO

Here's a poem about Rahab:

Rahab was a prostitute, but she had a heart of gold
She could see beyond the walls of her city - Jericho, Jericho

She heard of that mighty nation, made mighty by their God
She heard it thru the grapevine; She knew He weren't no fraud

She rescued the spies from the king's fearful search
Her peoples' hearts were all melting for fear,
After hearing that the jew-God
parted the Red sea,
and destroyed Pharoah's army
and killed kings Og and Sihon

Jericho folk were gasping for air
gripping their chest
darting about, pulling out hair

Perhaps in their heart of hearts
They all knew Jericho was going down, down

But Rahab was the one
She had the opportunity
She could have gone either way
She could have remained blind
and stopped those jew guys
stopped those jew spies
She could have turned them in

But she knew,
She could see
And she declared!
"For Yahweh your God is God in heaven above
and on the earth below."
She became a jew right then and there!
Hallelu !

LET'S GIVE THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES SOME CREDIT

I haven't written here in so long that I know I must write something, in case someone's passing by.

First, it was by the means of some old J.W. literature that the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin; and I came to have a saving relationship with Jesus- or at least I came to understand my need for a "savior" and to accept Jesus' and God's gift of Jesus' sacrifice be the punishment for my sins. (I talked to God from time before that. I really do think I had some kind of relationship with Him based on that.)

It happened thus: I was raised in a Christian home; but if my parents or my church ever spoke of an need for a savior, it did not sink in for me. I had an estimation of myself as "ok" and even a goodie-two-shoes. And since I thought I was "ok", there was no need for a savior.

When I say "ok" , I was pretty uncritical of myself, really. There were lots of ways in which I went against God's way.

Well, this J.W. literature was about the LORD'S PRAYER. IN explaining and teaching on "Thy kingdom come" the anonymous writer(s) made note of the fact that the governments of the world-yes, even the old U, S of A- were not the same thing as the kingdom of God. The laws of the land are not the same as God's laws. One can obey every law of the land and still sin against God. Wow!

WOW!

I had something on my conscience at that timethat was not against the law. That teaching nailed me. I was convicted. Then, I understood why we all need Jesus to take the punishment for all our sins. And I was filled with love for Jesus for doing that.