I have been blogging for a few years now and in the next week my blog will reach one million views. I know in the scheme of things….one million is not super huge….but it’s a smile point for me…..If this was a book I had written and had a million reads I would be stoked. So please indulge me as I do I little celebration.
Here are my Top Ten Most Controversial Blogs:
- Today the World was Outraged by the Wrong Thing – The Mitchell Pearce Incident.
- Israel Folau: You Sir Have Committed A Speech Crime….The Message From Australia’s Dictatorship.
- A Blog on Boobs.
- Bill Shorten:- The Car Crash Today And My Cynicism About The Photo Op.
- Guest Blogger: The Partner of the Woman at the Centre of the Bill Shorten Motorcade Accident: Shane Lee.
- An Open letter to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
- What is Lent and Why I Don’t Celebrate It.
- I Doubted I Would Ever Write A Blog About Periods…..But Here It Is.
- An Open Letter to Atheism.
- Australia’s Misdirected Passion When it Comes to the Bali Nine Pair.
Categories: Controversial
peterpilt 
You sir deserve to celebrate. Pity there wasnât a few more Pete Pilts in the world who have the same passion to see the lost saved
Keep punching above your weight . Like a great man once said â Its not how hard you hit but how hard you get hit and keep getting upâ.
Well done good and faithful servant.
Your Mate
Bob
How many have disagreed with you? Is it an echo chamber. Have you ever changed your mind on the basis of new evidence. Many of the responses have not challenged your viewpoint but just reiterated they agree with you. The creationists in Family First party who insist on a young earth or the evangelical scientists over on Biologos.org who argue the earth is billions of years old. I have always hoped I can be intellectually honest and change on the basis of new evidence. The book that made me look at the Bible differently was The Bible Tells Me So and point out contradictions and yet accept the Bible as scripture. As pastor many in your congregation will accept your viewpoints on matters not theological and those who don’t might feel estranged. One of the former Presidents at Fuller Seminary has written a book on civility. Now days with Trump in office being civil is a challenge.
What do you think of Trump?
Well:- What I have learnt very depressing after 8 years of Obama who has no sexual scandals, inherited an economy about to go into a crises. (Banks Housing lending etc) and left it going upwards on the mend. Trump has been one big crisis.
!. He has been bankrupt several times
2. He does not always pay his bills
3. He has borrowed money some from Russian sources
4. Been having affairs while married.(Three times) Many women have accused him of harassment. Cannot all be wrong. Would you as a father of a teenager entering a beauty contest object if the male organizer walked into the dressing room while the girl was changing.
5. Many lies documented. http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/
6. Has inflated view of himself. “I know words, the best words” “I am more presidential than anyone else maybe except Lincoln” “I could shoot someone in the street and I would still get elected” “I moved on her like a bitch”
7. Maybe the contents of the Steele dossier will be proven true especially the pee pee tapes” Trump was angry at Obama at the comments he made at the WH Correspondents Dinner about Trump.So peeing on the bed in Moscow in which the Obamas slept was IMO a kind of revenge.
8. Sadly Franklin Grahams comments has brought attacks on evangelical Christianity. Jon Oliver has a great video on prosperity preachers like Dollar, Copeland and others.
9. He keeps calling Hilary Clinton “crooked Hilary” I thought someone was innocent until proven guilty. I think the worst thing she did was being careless with her emails. Some nonsense has been spread about the Clinton foundation. Check this site for the truth. https://www.factcheck.org/2015/06/where-does-clinton-foundation-money-go/
10. The economy was already on the mend under Obama. This administration has borrowed money to give tax cuts to the majorityof rich folk. Has it gone in wages or buybacks of shares?. How are they going to service the debt? China has bought a significant amount of this debt.They may cut things that help the poor like Medicaid and Social Security. Tax cuts were tried in Kansas by a GOP Governor and the result were potholes in roads growing class sizes ,teachers supplying materials out of their own wages. It became so bad that the GOP members sided with the Democrats to override the veto of the Governor to increase taxes. The economy is based on consumption. Low wage growth makes people spend less. This is happening in Australia.
11. Climate change. The US pulled out of Paris accord. Appointed a fool to the EPA. Watch a youtube video where in a committee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZvc-3h7RnU&t=374s Senator Udall points out how Senator Udall Rips into a squirming EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his “DISASTROUS” EPA.
12. The international community are starting to see they are on their own with no real leadership from the US. China is slowly getting various countries in debt to them by building infrastructure etc They have missiles now on those islands created for bases.
14. What has Trump done to get the Russians out of Ukraine? Will the Baltic states be next. They have minority Russian populations. Russia poisoned two people in the UK. People in Russia who oppose him are either jailed, die from some mysterious illness or stopped from running for election and yet Trump makes no objection.
15. His supporters seem to get their only information from FoxNews. Obama was falsely accused of being born in Kenya, a secret Moslem. Murdoch the owner of Fox married several times, his newspapers found guilty of phone hacking. Fox Pundits go on and on about the “Deep State” People seem to like and repeat conspiracy theories.
What I find with Trump supporters even evangelical Christians have preconceived ideas and keep repeating falsehoods just on the hope that Trump will appoint Chief Justices who will oppose abortion. Christians have been involved in child abuse (Catholics), adultery etc.
Some economists believe the world is in a similar situation to the late 1920s just before the depression. I hope they are wrong. We worry about North Korea’s rockets. The Chinese have them also. If we ended up with a war with China Australia would be hit first at the Pine Gap communication base. Trumps trade war with China doesn’t help.
Regards
Noel
Ezekiel 16:49-50 New International Version (NIV)
49 “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
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Certainly Christians that are fans of Trump seem to do so blindly without looking at the bigger picture.
What I have noticed about Trump is he has said nothing about the METO movement and the reports of women who have been sexually assaulted by movie mongols , News Presenters etc. I may be wrong but have not heard anything.
I haven’t heard anything either…He can’t really say anything after those recordings of him surfaced about him being a misogynist.
In my Early Church History Class I learnt a principle they applied to new believers. Believe, Belong Behave. It is sad Evangelicals don’t speak out about Trump’s behavior. . There are GOP leaders who have but they are in minority. Senator Jeff Flake or example from Arizona who is a Mormon has attacked Trumps attack on the media etc. Mitt Romney another Mormon has also been critical of Trump’s behavior. The pastor who prayed at the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem has said both Jews and Mormons are going to hell.
Augustine of Hippo, a Christian wrote around 414AD “Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens and the other elements of this world, about the motions and orbits of the stars and even their sizes and relative positions… Now it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of the Holy Scriptures, talking nonsense on these topics, and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.”
It was an Interesting blog you wrote on friendship. No one seemed to comment. I read one book where the author categorized friendship as either ladder friendship or circle friendship. Ladder friendship occurred in the workplace where a superior might take one under their wing and mentor their career.It broke down when the mentor or staff member moved on. Circle friendship was basically among equals. In the workplace They formed with teamwork completing a particular task or uniting against a difficult manager. The difficult time is when you leave work for either retirement or another job. What I notice is that communication between oneself and your former work colleagues becomes more sporadic. You lose interest in office politics. You swap office politics for neighborhood politics. You talk more to your neighbors and find out about organisations like the neighborhood center.The difficult thing with neighbors is that you can fall out with them and it is hard to avoid them.
I think one needs to acknowledge that many people are either extroverts or introverts.Extroverts talk first then think while introverts think first then talk. I noticed this in workplace meetings when the usual suspects the extroverts do most of the talking. later after the meeting the introverts might make their comments one on one to their colleagues. Extroverts are good at small talk while introverts like deeper talk which may scare some others off. Keep everything light.
Adam McHugh has written a book on Introverts in the Church. He seems to argue that introverts prefer a more sacramental type of church. 1 Introverts are energized by solitude. Extroverts from outside themselves 2. Internal processing – Our thinking precedes our speaking which means we will often pause as we reflect and carefully choose our words. 3. Depth over breadth. Because we often prefer to spend time on one to one interactions rather than group socializing our relationships can run deeper.
I believe we need both types in our lives.
I had better stop before this becomes a thesis. It would be interesting research to find if introverts find Pentecostal churches with their free type of service something they can attend. I find in the Lutheran church with a liturgical type of service of real benefit when reciting the creeds makes one realize how ancient the church is.
That is my two cents worth .