The video is three hours long. You have been warned ;)
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Answering Questions on an Application to a Non-Profit
1. I was brought up in a Christian home, expressing belief in Jesus Christ at 5 years old. I was baptized when I was about 12 years old. I experienced a change in my relationship to Christ when I was 17 years old and consider that the point of my conversion. Having been brought up in a legalistic church/family, I was pretty aware of my particular weaknesses and bore the guilt and shame of them for many years. My wife and I had a falling out several years back and God sent his servants into our life to keep us on the straight and narrow. It took several more years of me toughing it out before I released us both through forgiveness. For the last 22 months I have experienced the grace of God in a way I could only speculate about before. God healed me. God healed my marriage. God has further saved me from my weaknesses in a sanctifying sense; the battles are won daily by his grace.
2. The Bible is God-breathed and contains everything we need to know about God and how to have a right relationship with him. Jesus Christ is the messiah to the Jews first and the Gentiles by ingrafting. He is the Son of God and God the Son. He is fully God and fully man. He is my Lord and Savior. God raised him from the dead. His words will judge the world of sin in the last day. In his first coming, he came to save the world and not to condemn it.
3. I attend St. Charles Anglican Church in Poulsbo, WA. I am involved on a weekly basis with my church: co-organize a Sunday small group, teach Sunday School once a month, Acolyte once a month, meet up with an accountability group once a week, I am in the process of starting a small group fellowship in Bremerton which by God's grace will result in a church plant, and have just been elected to a three-year term to serve my parish as part of the Vestry.
Self Selected Positive Personality Traits
Adaptable, Agreeable, Alert, Amiable, Anticipative, Articulate, Aspiring, Balanced, Benevolent, Calm, Capable, Caring, Challenging, Cheerful, Clean, Clear headed, Clever, Compassionate, Conciliatory, Conscientious, Considerate, Contemplative, Cooperative, Courageous, Courteous, Creative, Curious, Decent, Decisive, Dedicated, Deep, Disciplined, Discreet, Dutiful, Dynamic, Efficient, Empathetic, Energetic, Enthusiastic, Faithful, Farsighted, Flexible, Focused, Forgiving, Freethinking, Friendly, Generous, Gentle, Genuine, Good-natured, Gracious, Hard-working, Helpful, Honest, Honorable, Humble, Humorous, Imaginative, Insightful, Intelligent, Intuitive, Kind, Liberal, Logical, Lovable, Loyal, Mature, Methodical, Meticulous, Objective, Observant, Open, Passionate, Patient, Peaceful, Perceptive, Personable, Precise, Principled, Prudent, Rational, Realistic, Respectful, Responsible, Scholarly, Scrupulous, Selfless, Self-critical, Self-sufficient, Sensitive, Sentimental, Sober, Sociable, Sophisticated, Studious, Subtle, Systematic, Thorough, Tolerant, Trusting, Understanding, Upright, Well-rounded, Wise
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
The Depth of Leadership
David Marquet is a man who had the know-how and the opportunity to provide a counter-cultural shift in a heavily structured enterprise. Unfortunately his ideas have not been adopted by the bureaucracies that are at the same time threatened by his ideas, so it is no wonder. The military is not known for its innovation and creativity. This aversion to change may seem a necessary quality to some but it really stifles the ability to be human and to interact with others as humans.
Burdensome administration has clearly been identified as one of the hallmarks of the passing guard, but that guard has not yet passed. I think it will be at least a "generation" or more of the leadership changing hands before the cultural is unilaterally shifted. Adoption of Marquet's ideas now is only in the realm of possibility, vice probability. His situation was unique in that his squadron had all but given up on the idea of success of the USS Santa Fe. That being the case, his commodore had little risk aversion to try something innovative and creative.
Fast forward to today and you have an enterprise trying to systematize Marquet's ideas (a recognized "program" of success). Everyone is now ordered to use the phraseology, "I intend to..." and then carry on if there is no interjection by any team member present. But in practice the officer in charge will not carry on with the confidence he exhibits with this expression until acknowledged-essentially permitted-by his superior officer. So you have the enterprise paying lip service to an effective idea but without having the gall to actually live out the idea. Puppetization of followers into bespoken leaders is a far cry from the advice to "give control, don't take control."
Power, responsibility, authority and technical competence shifts up not down in a bureaucracy unless you intentionally change the "natural" process. Leadership is all about accountability. A leader is held accountable for the mistakes of his team. At this point a leader has the choice of blaming his team or making his team blameless (i.e. competent by learning from the mistakes). Trust is an eerily appropriate term to use here. It's eerie because it doesn't seem like it should apply to this aspect of leadership. It's absolutely appropriate because it is the fabric that power, responsibility, authority and technical competence is woven into. When a leader has to take the punishment for his team, he is highly likely to lose trust in his team and hold his supervisors accountable. So the responsibility moves away from the craftsmen to the supervisors. Another mistake and the managers are given the responsibility to ensure the craftsmen and supervisors are "doing their job." The cycle of stripping trust continues to deteriorate technical competence of the craftsman until they no longer have pride in their work. At this point, you will see people "jump ship."
Honesty, clarity and clear goals are paramount. So in a politically driven environment how is one to show s/he actually cares about her/his people? There are two ways to do this. Convince your people that you care about them regardless of your true feelings (unfortunately it works). Or actually do what is the best for them, at your own expense at times (that's leadership). This last course will net you the love and respect of your team but not your co-leaders and possibly your superiors. It is humbling to be honest with your team. In a highly driven environment where humility is reviled and pride is exulted, you as a leader will appear weak, incompetent and unable to measure up to the acceptable and required standard.
I had the moral courage to not give in to the "You're an f****** officer in the United States Navy, you tell your people what to do and they will do it!" I refrained from "all caps" here because I hate how it looks, but it should have been put in all caps. I walked into an environment where the managers and senior leadership were not generally trusted. I could not work with my team on an open and honest level. It took me too long to build rapport with the supervisors and I came so close to the ledge of jumping into the stereotypical "in-charge" leader. By God's grace I did not. I knew it was not me and I could not sustain the role. I also did not want to change into the kind of leader the system was trying to groom me to be. So the system rejected me.
This was my experience. These are my observations. This is my perspective. You can take anyone else from that environment and potentially get a view contradictory to mine on every point. I think you won't. I had the unique opportunity to read David Marquet's book, "Turn This Ship Around!" at the very beginning of my interaction with this enterprise and to stand as an auditor or evaluator of sorts. I am not bitter. I do not hate this community. I forgive it for the culture of bullying. And I love it for the incredible people I was able to meet, influence and be influenced by. I absolutely love submarine technology and will continue to stand as an outside observer and commentator for years to come. I look forward to a day when people are the number one mission, because that really is our mission. Think about it. Peace and Grace.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Church-State...Christians-Politicians
I grew up very much being taught to be politically conservative. But not one to simply carry on, I studied the philosophical underpinnings of what the conservatives claimed: free markets. This inevitably led me to Austrian economics and libertarianism as a result. But from the start I had embraced "Christian Economics" and had arrived by a different gate than most libertarians. Mine came through my theological studies primarily, which is foundational to all of my [good] thinking. Even here I found no refuge and have forsaken all political parties. I have abandoned the idea of "rights" which seem to me to be extremely selfish and have instead adopted the idea of "duties." This is a perspective change, however and not some wholesale pitch of a new ideology. Instead of the right to bear arms I believe I have the God mandated duty to protect my family. Instead of "blah" rights I have "blah" duties before God to do "such and such." Our duty must also be weighed in the balance between obeying our earthly rulers with God's rule from heaven (obedience of course, as long as there is no conflict). This is a very different ideology from Ayn Rand's; I would daresay it's the biblical one. Thus, I reject outright the idea that the conservative party represents Christianity in American politics. In fact, it represents the worst of religiosity's use of "god" to invade other countries, claim more power over men's lives and meanwhile holding themselves up as substitute messiahs (even though they prove themselves philanderers, thieves and cheats).
What is a Christian’s responsibility when it comes to politics? I look to Moses who set up the system of judges. I look to Joseph who was the second most powerful person in Egypt. I look to Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael who served a pagan ruler but did not partake in wickedness. So Christians may be involved. And I would argue should be involved in order to exert a godly influence. My view of the biblical argument: Christians can be involved in government without committing sin. In the cases where Christians are involved, we have an established precedence that where God’s people are, God’s mercy is extended (i.e. mercy is God’s law and love). Anecdotally it's kind of like this; given a controlled culture and government that claims the sovereignty that belongs only to God, I appear as a libertarian or even anarchistic. But if I were to live in an anarchistic country, I would appear as a statist/monarchist/socialist since I would call for the restriction of violence by the state. This always seems to be the rule: moderation in all things.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
This country needs reform, let alone its prisons.
"Fleming is among more than 1,350 inmates exonerated nationwide in the last 25 years."
Wow, that is heart-breaking. How do we stop wrongly convicting the innocent? Is it better to err on the side of more or less people in prison? Traditionally we say to err on the side of safety...don't assume more people in jail is the "safe" option. We place non-violent "criminals" in prison with violent criminals-literally creating criminals that will surely never leave the US criminal "justice" system. Rehabilitation occurs in the real world, not in lockup with [really] bad people.
Political Groupthink
If you think like we do, you deserve the freedom and liberty to be enslaved by groupthink.
If however you exercise the freedom and liberty to think differently you will be enslaved to the court of public opinion.
Enter Bundy.
His words couldn't be less palatable to contemporary sensibilities...but the question isn't "is he right or wrong?"; the question we should be asking is "does he have the right to think differently?".
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Women's Ordination
William Witt's Article Series on Women's Ordination
John Piper and Wayne Grudem's Complementarianism
Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE): Free Articles
Monday, April 21, 2014
New Perspective on Paul, N. T. Wright
N. T. Wright New Perspective on Paul
So…unlike the fear mongering that I am used to from the reformed presby's, N. T. Wright does not engage in 'you're a heretic if you don't believe me.' Now that I am researching/studying Anglican theology, I see another side. In Anglicanism I see ecclesia catholica semper reformanda. I see Anglican theologians working within the constrictions of the 39 Articles…whereas the reformed presby theologians work within the even more narrow thinking of the westminster confession.
Don't get me wrong; I absolutely respect the reformed presbyterians. But I always knew something was missing. Now I know. Now I'm even more convinced I'm Anglican.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Big Bad Bureaucracy
Man who never served prison sentence on clerical error awaits fate
So they made a mistake...but in a bureaucracy you can just shift the decimal, or in this case the date to the right and make it "right." Forget about the human element; forget about forgiveness; forget about his family. If they now incarcerate him, it would be a travesty against humanity. The only "slippery slope" is not punishing the bureaucrats who failing at their job would punish a woman and four children for a "clerical error."
Friday, April 4, 2014
We Have a Crisis in America
We have a mental health crisis in America. I cannot condone the violent actions of the tortured souls that have responded in the only way they thought that they could make their voices heard. It's sad, pitiable, but absolutely a problem that must be addressed. It's also a place where politics should not be involved, but alas politics is already involved. I have a friend who works in special needs and he says we have problems.
Some of the things he outlines:
Segregation
We segregate those who need to have healthy-minded individuals around them to only be around others whom have mental health issues. So instead of the "town fool" of yore, we have mental hospitals (where we don't have to see, experience, or feel responsible to help those whom need it) where those who could live fairly normal lives learn bad behavior from other mental health patients (i.e. we treat them like prisoners; it has been observed that we have created a wicked process by which non-violent criminals are segregated from society with violent criminals and they themselves typically become violent criminals).
Poor Treatment
Who wants to work with the mentally ill or at nursing homes? My friend told me that the treatment is typically poor because the caretakers feel they can easily get away with it (similar to parents who mistreat their children). What recourse do the victims have? Who will take their side? I have seen what it's like in nursing homes.
I'm not saying everyone under care is mistreated and all caretakers are evil. I am saying we should not take the mentally ill out of society. We need to keep them in society. We need to embrace them as members of our community. We may have to watch them a little closer as we would with our children (because we care) but not "treat them as children." With positive peer pressure they will try to fit in as best they can and will be a part not set apart. They will feel heard not ignored. They will feel that they matter, that they have a voice. We need to listen on our terms not their terms because we have a responsibility to care. If we ignore the problem, this is what will continue to happen:
Study: All But Two Multiple Public Shootings Since 1950 Took Place Where Guns Were Banned
(I disagree with the "aggressive institutionalization" statement. Mental health point made.)
Why did the Ft. Hood gunman do it? Because a gun-crazy country let him (Self-admittedly this author has made slop of argumentation, and when corrected stuck to his non-sequitur conclusion, otherwise note his pointing out of the mental health crisis we are in. Instead of advocating for help on this point he simply has a gun agenda.)
Fort Hood Victim's Dad: Gunman Snapped After Seeking Time Off
On the Other Hand
James Holmes: Mental Illness or Social Frustration? (Exactly! Regardless of whether it's mental illness or social rejection or some combination, it is a societal problem not an institutional fix.)
So really, we have a social crisis in America. We have forgotten how to be a community. Mental health is an issue, but how much of an issue would it be if we had true community? We would help each other physically, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, et cetera. We do this to a small extent but on such a small scale. There are pockets of community in this country. Certain churches practice community (but there is a line between community and cult). Certain neighborhoods practice community. In the military there is a sense of community but it's two-dimensional and needs expanding. I will pray for the cultivation of Christ-centered community which will truly enrich the world, because that is what we need now.
It's Official: FB Saves Lives (Tongue-in-cheek)
Facebook post saves girl’s vision as 'glow in the eye' raises alarm
A bittersweet and inspiring story like this leads me to laud progress. The concept of progress can be really open-ended but please don't take it too far or misattribute to me something I am not saying. To be crystal clear, what I praise here is the good that comes from the "information age" in which we live. How amazing is it that through unintentional "crowdsourcing" people are saving and improving lives and livelihood?!
Tax Info for Rental Property
Some tax advice from MSN.com.
Schedule E blunders
"This is the Schedule that is used to report rental property, royalties, partnership income and expenses, estate income and expenses and S-Corp income and expenses," says Du Val, flagging it as the area on the federal tax form 1040 where people are most likely to make a mistake. He adds that anyone who needs to fill this out should be familiar with phrases like "property basis" and "suspended losses." If you own rental property and don't know those terms, you should start learning everything you can about them, as well as "depreciation" and "passive activities," Du Val says. Or, of course, you could hire someone who does, because things can get sticky when it comes to rental property. "For example," Du Val says, "A residential rental property is depreciated over 27 1/2 years, but furniture is depreciated over five years."
Time to start studying real estate laws, if this is my retirement plan.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
The Rise and Fall of the Political Ultra-Rich
The Rise of the Political Ultra-Rich
The most important statement made in this article is the heading of the final paragraph: "How establishment Republicans are trying to survive Tea Party challenges." This is the most telling data point of the whole piece. It clues us in to the reality of the situation: the Supreme Court's decision doesn't affect the Rep-Dem stranglehold on political posturing. The writer indicated that there will be a short-term benefit to Reps but that it would only be short, really short.
So in the least pontificated "paragraph" of the article do we find an exquisite exposition of the incredible implications? No. It reads almost as if the article was truncated. It ends abruptly.
So in the spirit of charitable free-lance, allow me to finish the article which was just starting to get good before it got gone.
How establishment Republicans are trying to survive Tea Party challenges
Turning to Senate contests, we’re seeing examples of how establishment Republicans are trying to survive Tea Party challenges. In North Carolina, American Crossroads is airing a TV ad for establishment GOPer Tom Tillis highlighting his work for voter ID laws. And in Mississippi, Thad Cochran is using guns and abortion as way to strengthen his conservative bona fides.
But saying that they are merely challenges is to obfuscate the symptoms with the source of those challenges. As indicated earlier in the article, the power of influence is via the power of the dollar, traditionally speaking. However the "Republicans" of today are less traditional. In fact, this is a problem for establishment Democrats as well. The establishment's base of support is dwindling due to changes in the culture, largely brought about by reactionary changes from generation to generation as well as the technological changes that have sparked the information revolution.
The response is revolutionary. What is becoming ever obvious to ordinary citizens is that the bureaucratic machine continues to polarize the public and pander to the politically minded. The establishmentarians fail to realize that the new generation of collective, political activism known broadly as the Tea Party is an idealist, intellectually-grounded, free-thinking, and politically-centrist movement of ideologues that cannot be bought by anachronistic advertising. They deal in the currency of ideas. They are neither republican, nor democrat. They are neither conservative, nor liberal. They desire the one thing that a bureaucratic machine cannot deliver: freedom. And like their forefathers, they are ready to fight for it.
Billions of dollars spent on smear campaigns won't deter the coming tide. If the establishment will not change to suit their constituents, their constituents will change the establishment. The rise of the political ultra-rich is also, paradoxically, the fall of the political ultra-rich.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Anglican Bios (wiki)
(T) Listed as "formative Anglican divines" in an article by the Very Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry on TSM website.
(W) Listed as a "founder of Anglican theological thought" on Wikipedia bio for Hooker.
Thomas Cranmer (T)(W)
Richard Hooker (T)(W)
Lancelot Andrewes (T)
John Jewel (W)
Notable martyred Anglican bishops:
Cranmer "the great man of learning"
Ridley "an able theologian"
Latimer "the great preacher among the Reformers"
Hooper
Ferrar
Founders of Anglicanism:
Henry VIII
Queen Elizabeth
Thomas Cranmer
Richard Hooker
John Jewel
George Herbert
John Donne
Famous Anglicans:
C. S. Lewis
N. T. Wright
John Stott
J. I. Packer
Alister McGrath
Episcopal Ministries
Hmmm...may not apply to ACNA. Political possibility. I hope not though. I need to find out...
The Order of St. Luke is a religious order dedicated to sacramental and liturgical scholarship, education and practice (open to clergy/laity, male/female, married/single).
The Order of the Daughters of the King is a Christian community offering spiritual support for women of all ages.
The Brotherhood of St. Andrew is a worldwide ministry to men and boys.
Global Warming and Risk, Risk, Risk! Subtitled: Our Diar[rhea] Circumstances...
Holy Crimea Batman! This piece reads like the alarmist literature it claims to not be. As I got a good laugh out of how it linked all of the world's ills to global warming, I thought to myself, "Why not blame the widening rich-poor gap on global warming too!" And guess what? Unfortunately, I cannot even muster the courage to quote the ridiculousness contained therein. Instead, I shall make a prediction.
I have no idea how long it will take for policy setters...er...modern scientists, to quit their shenanigans. Thus I give no timeline to my prediction. One disclaimer: I don't mean all scientists have disavowed science for politics, I mean that those policy setters wearing the academic garb of scientia are not scientists in any sense of the word (hyperbole). The average person will one day view global-warmers as we now view flat-earthers. Unfortunately, they will probably misattribute the held belief of the common uneducated person to the religious who have opposed the common view if for no other reason than that it fails to align with divine revelation. #endrant
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Best Advice: Stay Out of Debt
$1 trillion student loan debt widens US wealth gap
I have written about this before. There is a problem. Let's take a look at the data.
According to the statistics from BLS.gov on median earnings, you will earn $23,764 a year more if you have a Bachelor's degree compared to your high school graduate counterpart. (Don't take this to be prescriptive though.)
According to this CNNMoney article, the average school-related debt by 2013 graduates is around $35,200. Just read some of the comments..."12% of graduates, regretted their decisions entirely, saying their college education didn't justify the debt burden." That's awful. How were they duped into this (rhetorical)?
CNNMoney isn't trying to scare monger, they offer pretty good advice here.
Why am I pointing this out? There's a problem. Mainstream media says there's a problem. Now what is the root? I say the idea that "you have to go to college" is one of the problems. I think we should replace it with the idea that "you have to count the cost of going to college" which includes the idea of adequate preparation and the possibility of a 'no build' option. (If you are bristling about the idea of a 'no build' option right now, you are making my point.)
The idea that everyone has to go to college leads to high demand...hence rising tuition costs. It leads to the thinking "if statistics show people whom have higher levels of education make more on average, I should seek the highest levels of education"...which brings us to the original article to which I've linked. The number of jobs for PhD's isn't going to change simply based on more people getting PhD's, so all it will result in is that more people have a PhD level of college debt without the PhD level of pay that they were counting on having with which to pay it off. These people are debtor-slaves.
How do you take the people with the greatest potential and marginalize them? Enslave them to college debt. That's the most sinister thing about the issue. Is it driven from that viewpoint? It doesn't have to be. It may be an unintended consequence of poor policies, but that doesn't make it any less heinous.
Oh, and we've only talked about the college graduates. What about those who do not graduate?
The Attitude for an Attempt to Ascent...Applicable Aptitude? (Mt. Rainier)
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Logic and Faith in Christianity (cf. Faith in the Illogical Premise of Materialism)
Tyler,
Personally, I wouldn't say science was founded on the belief that a logical God exists…I would say scientific reasoning relies on logic which presumes the law of non-contradiction. There is no evidence for the laws of logic. And I agree that logic reflects the mind of God.
My reduction of Materialism: I cannot believe in God because there is no proof of his existence. I must see the evidence before I can believe it. I will not put blind faith in anything…except for the philosophy that says I will not put blind faith in anything. The truth is that I put my faith in that philosophical position. I accept it 'a priori' and evaluate everything by that presupposition. But the most important thing to remember is this: there is no proof for my belief system; I accept it on faith and subsequently reject all other faith positions as untenable because they lack the evidentiary basis. I know it is illogical but I'm human so the irrational doesn't bother me.
The reality is that there is a God. I have faith. I am not ashamed to have faith in the unseen and use logic to evaluate that which is seen. It is paradoxical, but that doesn't make it irrational. To me the faith position may be tenable so long as it is not self-contradictory. 'Credo ut intelligam.' I believe the only presupposition to make sense of the world in a non-contradictory way is theism. That is what I believe. To ask for evidence of what is neither provable nor disprovable is intellectually dishonest. The Epistle to the Romans indicates the basis for unbelief is immorality and unbelief is the justification we seek to excuse our own behavior. Belief requires repentance. I do not say it with pride. If not for the grace of God I would not believe. He called me. Thank God he gave me the choice to listen.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Friday, March 21, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
M. G. Kline Resources
Books to buy/read:
Treaty of the Great King
Images of the Spirit
Articles to read:
Kline on Multi-Perspectivalism
Creation in the Image of the Glory-Spirit
Friday, March 14, 2014
New to Anglicanism
My Parish: St. Charles Anglican Church
My Diocese: Cascadia
My Province: Anglican Church in North America (ACNA)
The Anglican Communion: Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON)
Anglican Misc:
https://americananglican.org/
http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/
http://fca.net/members/register
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