I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard a lot about “playing the victim” or “having a victim mentality”. This is condemned as bad and unhelpful. A friend of mine pointed out that, if not balanced, this could be used to shame and blame honest victims. It’s true that the way some people talk, it’s
Category: General
Honoring Truth — Allowing for Questions (A Follow Up)
I think some people are afraid of questions related to their beliefs. They fear that they may not have all the answers. More importantly, they fear that their beliefs may be found to be deficient. However I don’t think we should dissuade people from asking questions. After all, if they are seeking the truth and
Book Review: The New Tolerance, Part 2
(This review is a continuation from part 1.) As mentioned, the first half of “The New Tolerance” basically says “liberal ideas have come and are taking your kids away from you!” However I feel the authors mainly argued against a straw-man. They defined “new tolerance” rather than having someone who fairly represents a thoughtful liberal
Questions for Understanding Beliefs and Productively Engaging Disagreement
People have disagreements about many things. When a person is passionate about an issue, I venture to say it’s typically because their belief represents one or more values which are important to them. When people have disagreements over an issue, they’re often talking past one another without digging into what is really driving the other
Truth Is Not a Process, Belief Is
Update: I submitted this blog to the “Bridging the Divides” syncroblog. I feel the following concept is important for having respectful dialog with those with whom we disagree. We all have beliefs about various things. This is fine. However, some people expect everyone to agree with them. Or in other words, they expect everyone should
I Am Hurt By Christians – World Vision Aftermath
The events of this week have left me nearly speechless. I’m just now trying to figure out what to possibly say. I have a couple of main thoughts. First, I’m hurt by how Christians have been acting. Granted, the behavior is nothing new. But it has been brought poignantly into focus this past week. The
Rich vs. Poor
This is part 2 of a blog I recently wrote regarding one of Dave Ramsey’s blog posts. Please read at least the first few paragraphs of part 1 for some important context. In Ramsey’s original post, he shares a list of certain activities and the difference in the percentage of wealthy vs. poor who participate.
In Honor of Men
Men receive a lot of criticism, both from women as well as other men. Some criticism is deserved; there are certainly men who are making poor, hurtful, irresponsible, and/or immature choices. But it seems that the criticism often isn’t counter-balanced with honor for good men (unless you’re a soldier or firefighter or the like). “I’ve
Major Announcement: Website Relaunch!
I’m very excited to announce my new website! (Or depending upon how you look at it, the redesign of my old website.) I wrote my previous website, including the CMS, from scratch seven years ago. Since then, a lot has happened on the web. There have been a number of features I wanted to add
Miley Cyrus
Do the VMAs reflect worse on Miley or on us? I don’t follow celebrities but with the popularity of Hannah Montana, I’m guessing people wanted Miley to stay a cute little girl forever. So is what she did at least partially about forcing people to recognize her as an adult? (Because after her performance, people