Seven Special Posts

Okay, bored at work again. Which I shouldn't be, since I have work to do. But whatever! Becky tagged me a little while back and I've been keeping it in the back of my mind because I wasn't sure what I'd answer to the categories. But, boredom. So here goes nothing.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL POST

Um. I don't know. I don't think I've ever really set out to do a touching post or anything. If I have to pick one, I guess I'd go with No Book Should Ever Be Burnt. I've written others about death, and I think they might generally be considered more beautiful, but this is the one I think of.

THE MOST POPULAR POST

Based on the number of comments, the most popular post of all this blog's time is VBV Ch. 4 Pt. 11. I was reading this REALLY awful book that was supposed to be about Islam but was almost entirely wrong all of the time and the posts were explaining how I thought they were wrong from what I'd learned about Islam etc. This particular post was about salvation and how one gained it in Islam from the authors of the book's point of view. Which segued into discussion of salvation in Christianity as well.

THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL POST

I...don't know. I can't think of one that was really controversial...I think my blog readership is too small for me to start a controversy. I guess the post that had the most possibility to create controversy would be Menstruation and Communion. Mostly because people are touchy about the subject of menstruation, especially in religious circles, and the idea of closed communion and women being left out or asked not to participate because of something God gave to them could get people in a dither too.

THE MOST HELPFUL POST

I don't try to be helpful either! :D HAH! Mmm...okay. My post(s) on icons, I think. Icons and Icons, Part Deux. Because I think there's a lot of misunderstanding outside of the circles (and probably some within them as well) of people who use icons in their worship and anything I can do to get better information out there and help people understand that icons do not equal worship of the icon is helpful!

THE POST THAT WAS SURPRISINGLY SUCCESSFUL

This really brief, like, 'I'm making a note' post I did a while back while I was listening to an Orthodox radio program called Our Life in Christ. It was on Baptism and Confession. I was surprised, based on the little that I put in the post how many people had something to say about it!

THE POST THAT DID NOT GET THE ATTENTION IT DESERVED combined with THE POST I AM MOST PROUD OF because they're the same thing!

Easy. My posts on the death penalty and whether or not a Christian can, in good conscience, support it. Death Penalty I & Death Penalty II. I think it's because they were so long, but there's no way to make my point in fewer words. It really disappointed me that more people didn't read them. I'm actually half certain that no one but me has ever read the entire post!

And now I'm supposed to tag people, but I suck at that because I can never make up my mind. So consider yourself tagged if you want to do it!

Honesty vs. Rudeness

We have one woman here in the department who is very proud of her faith. I've spoken of her before, Southern Baptist Woman!*

*Disclaimer: Her actions and/or beliefs are not to be taken as universal to all Southern Baptists.

SBW! likes to say that she never lies because lying is a sin. Okay. I'm behind that. I try not to lie for the same reason. I don't claim that I *never* lie, because I do. So saying I didn't would be another lie! I do my best not to lie, of course, but I used to be a nearly compulsive liar. It's a hard habit to break, especially when the truth is something I personally don't like. But this is not about me! :) Anyway. SBW! makes a big deal of her lack of lying. And I'll say that I've never caught her in a lie, so it may even be true. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt there.

My issue is that SBW! uses this 'honesty policy' as an excuse for absolute rudeness. For example: One of the other women in the department is trying out new contact lenses. She's got to use tri-focals, and I guess these are contacts that do the same thing. We're very used to her wearing glasses, so when she came in the first day without the glasses it was very obvious. SBW!, when we were talking about the glasses vs. contact lenses thing, busts out with, 'When you first walked in, I thought you had two black eyes!'. And we all just *stared* at her. Because yes, the woman did have fairly noticeable bags under her eyes - she's not used to having to put makeup on to cover them because the glasses covered them - but SBW! said it exactly that way, in front of the entire department. Rather than just saying something polite, like, 'Oh, I think you look better with the glasses', or even, taking her aside and pointing out that she had bags under her eyes one on one, privately.

And she does this a lot. It's never anything untrue, but the way she does it is rude. There's a way to be both honest and polite, and SBW! doesn't seem to either get it or care about it. She seems to think that as long as she doesn't lie, she can say whatever she wants to say.

That's not true.

It's true that sometimes what we will say, no matter how we try and say it, will hurt someones feelings or make them angry. And sometimes what must be said should be said without sugar coating. But there are plenty of times, most of the time in fact, where a little tact is called for. A little consideration for the feelings and humanity of the person you're talking to.

I bet you all didn't realize my secret identity...

I just started receiving reviews on this story that I'm writing. It's actually part of a series, and the commenter has gone back to all of the stories to comment. Which is awesome. The funniest part: I am apparently an awesome, awesome feminist person who writes and touches on so very many important topics for women. I write strong women who aren't trying to be masculine and it's all very realistic. About abuse and recovery or just plain not dealing with it and how it messes with relationships. Also, the mob's maiden/mother/whore complex vis a vis a woman dating the head of the outfit who does not fit in the 'mob girlfriend' box. I win at life, essentially. *blinks* Hah. AH-HAHAAAHHAAAAAAAAAA.... I am flattered, pleased and amused all at the same time. So, congrats. Apparently I'm secretly a feminist. So secretly, *I* didn't even know it. :D

How Do You Decide Who To Read?

How do you decide which theologians to listen to? There's about a million of them out there, writing books, claiming that this that or the other thing is right.

Personally, I try to only read authors, when I'm looking for theological insight, etc. who are Orthodox. And when I was Catholic, I stuck with authors who were Catholic. Which is not to say that I don't read other denominations' works, just that I don't look to them for theology to base or compare (and try to adapt) my beliefs to.

Does everyone do the same thing? Or do you just read and take the bits and pieces that make sense and adapt them into your personal theology?

Reasons Given Not to Read the Bible

Ugh. So I wanted to do a post on the list of reasons that some of St. John Chrysostom's parishioners gave him for not reading the Bible. But I can't find it! ARGH!

I can only remember a few of them.

1. Don't own a copy of the Bible.
2. Can't read.
3. No time.
4. Can't understand the meaning of the text.
5. I'm not going to be a monk or a nun, so why should I?

Of course, there's an answer to each of these. I think the one I like the best was to the last one, that the person isn't going to be a monk or a nun so why do they need to read the Bible. The answer was something along the lines of, 'If you were going to be a monk I would worry less. As it is, you're living out in the world so you're the ones who really need to study the Scripture!'

Ramadan 'Project'

So for some reason I've decided to read the Qur'an during Ramadan. Shouldn't be too hard, right? It's not a very long book. I decided this last night and then got interrupted by Baby Sis before I could actually start reading. I'll start tonight and we'll see how it goes.

I'm kind of sorry we don't get HBO at my house. I saw a commercial for a documentary that they were playing last night about little kids who were competing in a Qur'an memorization competition. I think that would have been really interesting to watch. Ah well. Maybe it'll come on the Documentary channel or something later on.

And I've found a Bible study online at Ancient Faith Radio called 'Search the Scriptures'. I can download the lessons to my mp3 player and listen to them while I'm at the gym or whatever. I'm only up to lesson three and I only loaded the first seven, but I'm really enjoying it. The teacher, Dr. Jeannie Constantinou has a very engaging way of speaking and explaining things. I haven't actually gotten to any of the Bible lessons yet, she's still explaining who the Church Fathers are in Orthodoxy and base information like that.

Alien or Angel - a post about nothing

First of all, guess what week it is! Go on, guess. I bet you'll never get it. :D

So what do ya'll think about aliens?

I was watching this show on tv this weekend, Ancient Aliens. The premise is that they're presenting evidence and theories about aliens interacting with humanity in ancient times. One of the prevailing theories, according to what I watched is that the aliens came here and created humanity as a slave race to help them mine whatever it was they needed from our planet. And humans worshiped them as gods. They interbred with humans, giving us the 'demigods' and nephilim.

Funnily enough, I'm reading 1 Enoch which (at least in the beginning) deals with the story of the Watchers and how they fell into lust with the daughters of man and forced God to wipe out humanity with the Flood to get rid of their seed and the wickedness they'd caused. Which is one of the stories that the proponents of the ancient alien theory say is an example of aliens breeding with humans and then other aliens putting a stop to it.

Aside from the whole alien thing, I find the idea of angels managing to breed with humans both compelling and odd. If they have no physical bodies, which we don't believe they do, how did they manage that? There're two versions of how it happened (not the mechanics, but the sequence of events). In the first one, the angels (Watchers) saw the daughters of men and were so attracted to them that they just had to have them. Once they were down there, having kids and living with these women, they started to teach them magic and other skills. In the second version, the Watchers went down to the humans to teach them useful things and while they were down there the daughters of men seduced them and led them into sin.

Either way, it ends with God sending out the four archangels to lay a smackdown on everyone and wiping out humanity to get rid of the mixed children, who were monstrous. Hence, the Flood.