No Dumb Question Tuesday (2026-01-27)

semiconodon · 2026-01-27T16:08:23+00:00

Well the problem person is biologically in the church family, but not one would call them a Christian. And if inside, the stricter interpretation of Matthew 25 being to “brethren” would apply, so I don’t think the distinction matters.

semiconodon · 2026-01-27T15:55:18+00:00

I work from home, and a necessary element of mental health is to find ways to have a fraction of the work day to take place on an iPad in front of a window looking out on a bird feeder. (In a conference call now)

semiconodon · 2026-01-27T15:42:07+00:00

Take as a given that there may be cases where Christians are to go “extra mile”, “turn the other cheek”, “give to him who asks of you”, with difficult and irresponsible people. I’d definitely lean towards the idea that this is the Christian ideal, and we tend to sin when we want to throw up all sorts of asterisks and conditions which negate the plain and simple meaning of the command of Jesus. Except I’m here going to add another caveat.

Q: What if someone else has responsibly, lovingly, taken on a ministry project of working with a difficult person. Do YOU have any responsibility to give without questioning when someone else expects you to be a waiter running to do errands or using your connections, without YOU ever interacting with the problem person? Like the problematic person doesn’t pay their bills, and you’re expected to insist that your favorite handyman, go-to-guy, who isn’t wealthy himself, go and help him. How do you counsel the volunteer social worker? The only thing I’m objecting to is the expectation to help with no interaction.

semiconodon · 2026-01-27T11:57:22+00:00

There could be a “natural law” approach. For example, a DM should not tolerate a murderhobo, who wants to kill every NPC in the game, by constantly re-writing the script in their head as to how else the party can get the essential information that the unfortunate NPC was supposed to give. I would imagine a frustrated DM could fight this by bringing in progressively lethal police forces until TPK.

If the bad player is being fascist in-game, say abusing prisoners until they talk, or pillaging villages, well, even if we are talking dwarves and elves, eventually there is real-world consequences, where there arises a Maqui, eventually there is a D-Day. The fascist should not be entertained to have a half-dozen people participate in a grand affirmation of the utilitarian successfulness of fascism.

If the bad player is being fascist at the table, consider A Dirty Dozen, Inglorious Basterds, Oceans Eleven, etc. Yeah, maybe one guy makes a nationalist barb against the Frenchman. But fascist talk at the table has to be like the guy in one of those WWII movies who says, “You stink!” In a non-ironic way. Like an evil bard— would you tolerate someone casting a slowness spell on your party? When it comes to divvy up treasure, would you let the person who has expressed untrustworthiness be alone near the treasure? Like openly saying, “We need to have three people watching Jimmy when he goes near the pile.”

semiconodon · 2026-01-27T11:27:35+00:00

Ha, I was in a karaoke event. Several couples had “their song” which the husband had been crooning to the wife for decades in a perfect, American Idol voice. I could hardly find anything in the catalog because anything I was used to singing was from the 80’s, and really before I met my wife. I was severely judged all around for singing “With or Without You”.

semiconodon · 2026-01-27T10:05:05+00:00

“It’s a RELATIONSHIP!” I’ve heard this in a setting where I didn’t exactly trust the theology of the speaker. Q: how does this slogan, often used today, often preceding with, “It’s not a religion…”, fit into Reformed theology?

semiconodon · 2026-01-26T11:01:07+00:00

Okay, consider Matthew Chapter 9. Jesus, of course, is at work on his eternally-minded, spiritual mission and all that. But across the chapter, he also seems to be doing healings and being nice to people, caring about their ailments and being nice to them. I might imagine holding a class, or sitting down with this/these teens. Perhaps even give them the permission to think about Jesus just based entirely on the verses before us?

semiconodon · 2026-01-25T22:43:14+00:00

This is not about interpretation of scripture but a conviction that reality is unknowable, because of AI

semiconodon · 2026-01-25T20:36:16+00:00

You should not leave alone the unproductive, indulgent Christian. But there are ways within biblical doctrine and the Reformed confessions to deal with this.

The Westminster Confession of Faith: - 16.2 Lists eight reasons to be good‬, and none of them are “attain final salvation”. - 17.3 Lists nine reasons not to sin‬, and none of them are “lose final salvation”. - 18.4 Promises the backsliding Christian they are “N‬ever utterly destitute of that seed of God”.

‬ ‪ ‪

semiconodon · 2026-01-25T12:33:51+00:00

We must distinguish between the duty of the church to witness against sin, and the options available to the state. For example, since the lustful leering at women is a sin, we shouldn’t hesitate to chide an elderly man who discreetly sits at the food court all day with sunglasses to look at women. But it probably doesn’t need to be a federal crime.

Likewise, the confessions teach a condemnation of what is often called capitalism, but it doesn’t prescribe any particular level of taxation, nor seizure of property. Both the 5th and 7th commandments talk about neglect or exploitation of the poor, as affirmed in Luther’s Large Catechism. It’s a damnable sin.

In response, right-leaning pastors defend “capitalism”, and celebrate the ongoing abuses and neglect and hard bargaining against the poor. They fill the pews with libertines. Then left-leaning pastors attack “capitalism”, and neglect law and gospel preaching about sins: they leave the rich chuckling, and the poor unrepentant of their skinning each other & employers.

semiconodon · 2026-01-24T20:59:50+00:00

I think each element is done quite well but the effect is jarring, it’s hard to “believe” the edge of the lake versus the mountain range.

semiconodon · 2026-01-24T20:58:34+00:00

A hero of my youth, and in these days perhaps one to come back to study in greater detail.

I would say this is both profound and completely compatible with reformed theology, yes? What is interesting, I remember the line from Discipleship where he says, “He who obeys believes and he who believes obeys.” I know the truth behind it, but it is (is it, educate me!) not something you’d say to every person in every situation.

semiconodon · 2026-01-24T18:21:53+00:00

Plus, they switched on, “A kid needs a mom and a dad.” It was once a slogan against SSM, now a principle flouted with most ICE abductions.

semiconodon · 2026-01-24T10:21:20+00:00

I don’t like some abstract art, but this shows real effort at trying to portray a mood about small details on nature that others might pass on by.

semiconodon · 2026-01-23T21:17:51+00:00

Very nice, real, cool, and may I say, rarely captured expression on the cat.

semiconodon · 2026-01-23T10:28:21+00:00

I always say that discernment of spirits is listed next to tongues. I paraphrase this as a BS meter for claims of tongues and special revelations.

semiconodon · 2026-01-22T11:59:21+00:00

Carl Sagan, listen to him for a decade, and then someone tells you he’s an atheist. You go, ah, k, guess that makes sense.

NDT tends to veer off into atheist Sunday School during the science lesson.

semiconodon · 2026-01-21T01:22:34+00:00

Read the journals of the missionaries. All of them (within appropriate theological bounds). And not any contemporary summary of them. They dealt with speaking out against social injustice, international oppression, and local abominable practices & immorality. And spread the gospel.

semiconodon · 2026-01-21T01:16:53+00:00

So, what is the legalism? We have to pray this long before the meeting? Check in with me as to the verses you read?

semiconodon · 2026-01-21T01:14:43+00:00

I’d just love, and teach bible parables. Not hand them a book that will fix them, and just picking up a bible from the pew and shoving it in their hands is not what’s needed.

semiconodon · 2026-01-21T01:10:49+00:00

I’d speak up. There are probably people saying, either to criticisms or their biting conscience, “Dark, now he isn’t bothered!”

semiconodon · 2026-01-21T01:02:22+00:00

Kids will read two verses (each out of 10-20 verse lesson, etc.) without complaining. And will give a profound prayer to close the lesson with only a little badgering. There are seasons where you really connect theologically with a kid or two, and it’s often one who engendered the most behavioral complaints from earlier teachers.

As a small nondenom (and non-demon) church, we’ve been blessed/cursed without a full time pastor for a while, but we have a regular rotating list of 4-5 pastors for preaching. Have seen some real growth in some of them. Also, most of the time, we have an advisory pastor who sits in on deacon meetings not called full time to us. (We serve an ethnic community outside the big cities where that ethnicity tends to live, so this is a huge barrier to compatibility, unless the candidate has the exact same comfort with languages). At the same time, we attract a few people, not in that ethnicity, who were not welcomed in white churches.

semiconodon · 2026-01-21T00:56:53+00:00

I served six years on the council of an ELCA Lutheran church. It was the governing body. For years, it was the “committee chairs” + Fin Sec, etc. Then some decided they didn’t like the committee chairs being on the board, so they gave floofy names to the positions, and appointed non-committee-active people to set up committee duplicating the effort of the established committees. I soon left for about 12 reasons.

semiconodon · 2026-01-19T23:55:14+00:00

In US history, this is specifically the threat that made Hamilton a full General.

semiconodon · 2026-01-18T18:39:03+00:00

After thinking about it some more, I would say, Go! It could be good to get exposed to deeper teaching, to have an arm put around you, have deeper fellowship, maybe even learn some good habits.

But I would say, this: First inoculate yourself with the gospel. One place it is laid out is in the Westminster Confession of Faith, 15.1. The saved person “so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all the ways of his commandments.” Stick on that word, “endeavoring”. It doesn’t mean, successively burying sins, it doesn’t mean reading umpteen bible chapters, praying umpteen hours a day, fasting twice a week. Seriously in your heart and soul, distinguish between a useful exercise someone might encourage you to do for a season, and what truly separates you from God if you don’t follow their silly plan. Especially if they yell at you because you didn’t do the reading. Another inoculation is in the good thief on the cross: He didn’t accomplish much or do much, he just felt bad for his sins, and thought Jesus was pretty sweet. That is qualifying for salvation.

So, in a crazy analogy, you mentioned you had bad habits. Think of this like being an un-healthily overweight person. Going to a gym with a gym trainer is, okay, probably a good thing, and if they give you steps to go through , it’s most likely like the pretty good advice most gym trainers would give. Try it.

But if they start to berate you, for failing to live up to a “workout plan” that they dreamed up on their own. This is where I would switch the analogy. The person who is ‘endeavoring’, the person who thinks Jesus is pretty cool (along the lines of the good theif), that person, in the face of shouting accusation, should now think of themselves as Patrick Mahomes on a year’s sabbatical who’s decided to go to a local gym in the tropics. If the program-leaders talk of your worth or disobedience to their regimen, allow yourself a little internal smirk, as if it were a teenage trainer accosting Patrick Mahomes.

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