With the daily podcast, Thoughts on the Journey, moving full steam ahead, I figured I should compile a show for all the current Trying to Follow podcast listeners. Basically this is a compilation of 6 of the daily podcasts I’ve been doing through the month of October. This is being posted in the podcast section so it will show up on the itunes podcast page for all my Trying to Follow listeners.
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Tag Archives: faith
Tennessee 2006 Election
Well folks, across the country, Election day is just around the corner. I’m amazed that Tennessee is as progressive as they seem to be in their effort to give everyone a chance to vote. Early Voting has been available for anyone and everyone to go to a number of locations throughout the city and cast their ballot for the two weeks leading up to election day, including Saturdays. Considering how un-democratic our Presidential elections have been, with one day, a work day, not an official holiday, most polls closing after business hours, on top of all the terrible fraud and deception you hear about across the country.
So, my hat goes off to Tennessee who I think our doing an excellent job of making this a truely democratic election.
I don’t want to write too much here, I’m hoping to encourage some discussion in the comments about the election and who folks are planning on voting for and why. I’ll give some material to start us off…
- I’m torn between voting for Ford and Lugo. Ford is your standard politician and I honestly think he won’t bring about much change from the status quo. Yet, the possiblity that he might have a chance of getting elected and actually set a precedent or new standard for African Americans in the Senate from southern states seems worthwhile.
Chris Lugo, seems like the ideal candidate for me. I know him, he’s down to earth. He has an agenda of fighting for peace, promoting many great causes, and challenging the status quo of politicians. I have to believe in the world I want it to become and so I’m definitly leaning towards voting for Lugo. Some will say I’m throwing my vote away, but I believe you have to start somewhere. - I’m disgusted that the Marriage Amendment thing even made it on the ballot. I’ll say it loud and clear, all you Christians who have been promoting and advocating for this amendment, you sadden me. I’m really ashamed to be affiliated with you. I don’t understand what you see as Christian about pushing your moral agenda on other people. The government can never be the means by which we promote or relugate our religious beliefs. You talk about Freedom in this country and yet you advocate it only for those who think and believe like you. That’s not freedom at all. Vote NO on 1.
Any thoughts on my thoughts?
Pushing the podcast: Recent Minutes with Ariah
I haven’t had time to sit and type as much this week, but I have been putting a lot of short podcast up at the new A Few Minutes with Ariah (the podcast). I figured I should take a minute to pitch it to you so you know some of what inticing sound bits are available:
A short Economic Lesson in Opportunity Cost – You might have learned about it in High School, but let me explain how it should impact your life. Be warned though, it forces you into some pretty troubling conclusions.
First in line at a Buffett for 6 Billion – Close your eyes and imagine with me for a moment… And may it challenge you in how you live today.
No Poor, No Wars? Applying Scripture would be hard! – Some people reference Jesus saying “The Poor will always be among you” as an excuse to not do anything about poverty, I say it’s a blessing from the Lord to help us idiots follow Christ better.
Don’t base your convictions on Probable outcomes – It’s the basic idea of not letting the Ends justify the Means, and yet we as Christians seem to do it all the time. And we call ourselves a people of faith!
The War supporters have their age-old Question to ask the pacifist, now us pacifist have one for you.
For all you email subscribers, the audio for each of the podcast I describe above are embedded right into the blog so you should be able to play the clips right at http://blog.iamnotashamed.net or you can visit the podcast listing at Evoca, or Odeo, or iTunes
10/5 Material Possessions and the Love of God
The daily podcast continues with some pretty harcore preaching on I John 3:
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast if you don’t want to miss any postings.
Quoted in a published article
I’m famous or something, Sam asked me some questions and quoted me in an article he recently wrote at Ethics Daily entitled, Genocide for the Digital World:
Ariah Fine, a socially aware Christian who works with teenagers in Nashville, finds the game very unique. “The target audience of the gaming community is another big step in raising awareness to an audience that might not have otherwise heard about Darfur,” he says. “I work with high school students and they aren’t constantly checking BBC news for the latest humanitarian crisis, but they are playing plenty of games online. This project helps them hear about the issues in Darfur.”
Even though the game is packed with facts and stories in the small print, the die-hard gamer may not stop to read them all while playing. But, the simple fact that the game exists, coupled with MTV’s backing, is a conversation started in itself.
Says Fine: “A game like this is a great ice breaker and tool for bringing up the conversation with a group that might not otherwise care or know about the issues in Darfur.”
Read the rest of the article.
A reading review
By way of the suggestions of Lynette, I thought it wise to take a concious look at my blog reader, and see what ethnicity and sex the authors of the blogs I subscribe to are.
I figured I would be sadly disappointed to find it dominated by white males, but it’s actually 50-50 in both sex and white/not-white.
That didn’t include my friends blogs (people I know personally) but after further research, those are split about 50-50 too.
I think it would be wise to lean a little more heavily away from white male dominated influences, so I’m going to try and still think through that a little.
I think I’m going to take a few picks from Lynette’s great list of female bloggers…
Maybe we are just pleasing ourselves…
I’ve been really bothered about something for the past week or so. The genocide in Darfur has been on my mind a bit lately, ever since the rally that happened last Sunday in New York. I’ve been thinking about the fact that for the last two years, I along with thousands of others have been “taking action” against the Genocide. We’ve blogged, written letters, rallied, met with congress people, bought wristbands, sent money, and a whole bunch of other things, from the comfort of our desk chair, coffee shop or school library.
We’ve declared, “Not on Our Watch,” and yet three years have gone by, hundreds of thousands have died, millions have been displaced, and I still sit in my comfy living room choosing which news article to link to or picture to post in my latest advocacy.
I think all our words are empty, because they are not stopping this horrible evil we seem to say we want stopped. I’m beginning to think maybe we are just interested in causes to the degree that they benefit us, usually through intrinsic, ‘I feel good about myself’ kind of ways.
I say this with the acknowledgement that I am far from willing to take this step…
We need to go to Darfur and stand in those places. We need to stop blogging and rallying and asking a government that isn’t listening to us, and we need to go take action into our own hands. I’m not talking about fighting, I’m talking about going and stopping it.
Imagine hundreds of planes full of people that decided to put their money were their mouth is, flying to Sudan, walking into the borders and declaring that they have come to spread peace, and that they could not stand idly by and let injustice come, that they would stand in the place, and if necessary take the beating, punishment, death upon themselves, rather then see others die.
There is an army of people who say they want to help stop the genocide. When will we decide we aren’t stopping it and that we need to find another course of action? When will we be willing to stand in and go to stop it ourselves, not through violence, but through creative non-violence.
Who shall go?
Recycling is Biblical (part 2)
This is a follow up to my intro in part 1 (which according to my friend Josh, sounded grouchy).
If someone is hoping I’m going to pull out the verse in Habbakuk 13:8 that says, “Any container that can be reused or returned to it’s natural form should. The punishment for not doing so is death,” I’m sorry to disappoint you but that’s not the verse I’m preaching on today.
I’d rather pull a few phrases of Paul, “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial,” and “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God,” and finally, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”
First of all I want to point out that my desire to argue that Recycling is Biblical does not come from a point of condemning those who do not currently recycle. We are not bound by the law anymore and therefore my goal is not to place this as the 11th commandment, but rather to simply argue that it is worth considering recycling as opposed to not recycling as the more “Christ-like” thing to do. When Paul says “Everything is permissible for me,” he is exclaiming the fact that we don’t live under the law, but then he points out it is not all beneficial. In light of that I’ll ask, what is better for you and your great grand children, recycling or not?
Whatever you do, you are to do it for the glory of God. Now, you well know that that does not mean that we are to lie and cheat to the glory of God. There are some things that given the option (between lying and telling the truth) one is clearly not as glorifying, or not glorifying at all. Currently, as it relates to recyclable products in your home, there are two options. You have the opportunity to recycle those items, contributing to a more sustainable world, and not recycling. You’ve got taking care of God’s green earth (recycling, composting, using less trash and less gas, gardening, etc) and then you take not doing those things (draining resources, creating tons of trash, etc). I’m not sure it’s too difficult to argue that one is more God glorifying then the other.
And, last but not least, you have your weaker brother here. There is no law binding you to recycling. There was no law keeping Paul from eating meat. But Paul was willing to sacrifice the exercise of his freedom, so that he did not become a stumbling block for his weaker brother who felt recycling was so important it was almost a sin not to do it. One might choose to recycle, not because they are selfish, nor because they have been compelled by the evidence of the benefits of recycling, nor because of the Scriptures, but simply because they see the trauma it causes their brother in Christ when they don’t recycle.
-your weaker brother
I know you read this…
It’s come to my attention recently, that there are people from the church I have been attending, Mosaic, that read my blog.
Those that have posted a comment on here before I appreciate that, it establishes your presences and acknowledges to me that your out there.
Some though, have been lurking in the shadows, investigating into my thoughts and writings without hinting that your there. If that’s you, I want to encourage you to come out of the shadows.
I’m not looking for anyone to comment all the time, but I would like to know that your reading what I’m writing. I think that would be courteous. Don’t worry, I’m not offended or anything, it would just be good for me to know who I’m talking to.
If it’s nothing more then a quick comment or an email (ariahfine at gmail dot com) the gesture would be wonderful.
Recycling is Biblical (part 1)
Earlier this week I sent an email out to some friends informing them of the new recycling policies in Nashville.
At the end of the letter I went out on a limb and threw in a statement saying that it’s “Biblical” to recycle. Well, I think it took a few people back and rubbed them the wrong way or something. So, I’ve got to give some explanation.
I think this will only be two parts, but no guarantees.
First of all, with any issue we address as Christians, we need to stop beginning our thought process from a societal worldview. What I mean by that is that the society we live in views the world a certain way and when we look at the Bible and try and consider the most “Christian” thing to do, we must try our hardest to begin thinking about it from a clean slate rather then the already established worldview.
It’s interesting that when I say “recycling is Biblical” that the burden of proof is on me to prove that it is indeed supported by the Bible. If we are going to step back and then we need to consider how Biblical NOT recycling is.
I’ll write more in part 2 about why I think particularly Recycling is a good thing to do and try and support environmental stewardship as a Biblical step. However, for now I think we need to start seriously considering many of the actions in our lives.