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Inspired by a post at Messy Christian’s blog, I started thinking about the difference between a fundamentalist, a liberal and a postmodernist during a conversation I was having with my son.

While we were chatting, I responded to something he said with, “You bet!”

We talked some more, but I started thinking about what a fundamentalist, a liberal and a postmodernist might each say in response to that.

So, what are the differences in the three responses?

A fundy most likely would reply, with a censorious frown, “No, sir! I don’t gamble!”

The liberal might respond capaciously, “I bet you’re right!”

The postmodernist, ever to immerse, embrace and go-with-the-flow, and the experience will quip without batting an eyelid: “I’ll see your bet and I’ll raise you!”

A speaker at a business seminar that I attended today was advocating the virtues of servant leadership as a contemporary business management philosophy. During the discussion we had a couple of exchanges about the fact that the concept of servant leadership does not have to mean that the leader adopt a position or attitude of weakness.

In other words, a leader who adopts an servant leader approach does not do so by renouncing his authority or command of the organization. Nor does he do it in a subservient manner, pandering to the interests of all and sundry. However, it is an attitude that is inclusive, empowering and prioritizes the needs and interests of not just his followers, but also that of his consituents. This includes taking the needs and interests of the organization and the community into account in his tasks and objectives as leader.

What surprised me was that the seminar leader went on to say Read the rest of this entry »

You probably already know about A9.com, the search engine that is linked to Amazon.com, and if you use it often enough you get a small discount when you purchase most items from the online retailer.

But did you also know that if you were to use the maps and directions from this site, you get more than the usual digital maps? You also get to view a snapshot of the main streets, via the video cameras that are installed on most traffic lights and street corners?

The picture you see here is from Broadway & W 46th Street in New York City. So! Now I can monitor the activities of my daughter! Heheh! But, hey! Go have a try for yourself!

My wife is taking classes at the local community college. This is her third attempt to complete her college education begun over twenty years ago. One of the classes she is taking is Speech Communications.

She is working on a homework assignment right now and it is about literary interpretation. She gave a reading of literary piece of her choice, and she chose to read the opening paragraph from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She got full marks for it!

Now she is asked to write a paragraph describing her experience of interpretation of literature and in doing that exercise, we had a lively discussion regarding what it was like for her to interprete the piece she had chosen, and about interpreting literature itself as an experience.

We talked about how it was like touring, and visiting a whole new city or country. There is the problem of understanding the differences in culture, the social dynamics of the local society, and there is also the experience of seeing, hearing, tasting, observing and perceiving through the tour guide as well as the first hand experiences from one’s own perspective. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible to have a mature faith that admits of doubt? In my first post on this topic, I started fleshing out some of the ideas relating to faith, intellectual belief, doubt and certainty. Both the first and second post in the series dealt mostly with the Scripture passage in Romans 14: 23 where it appears to disallow any doubt in the life of a Christian. I proposed a different reading of this passage and went on in my third post to examine other relevant passages to show that doubt can be very much a part of one’s spirituality.

In this post, I would like to further my thoughts in this idea, focusing on mature faith. Is it possible to live a vibrant, healthy and mature life of faith in God, and yet experience moments, even seasons, of doubt?

Going back to the Romans 14 passage, it does seem that Paul was quite unequivocal on the issue if one were to disregard the context. He says that whatever is foreign to faith is sin. Peter Kreeft’s comments in this regard is instructive. Kreeft distinguishes three senses to the word “faith.” Read the rest of this entry »

My BlogExplosion Blog Tenant of the Week is Kitchen Fun with Donna & Friends. Please go over there to visit. You can either click on the link on this post or the one in the sidebar and your visit will still be registered by the Blog rental system. As the title suggests this blog is all about recipes. So, if you are interested in getting new ideas for that special meal, or you have just run out of steam and not have any more inspiration to whip up that late night dinner for just the two of you, hope on over and you will find a ton of recipe ideas. I seem to have done very well for my tenants and have brought good traffic to them, so don’t let Donna and Friends down now, go over to visit, and let them know that the Bloke sent you over!

The Lunar New Year 4704 according to the Chinese calendar is around the corner. While many of you are all busy breaking your annual resolutions, Chinese families the world over are busy preparing for the Spring Festival (that’s the character for Spring you see on the right), as it is also known. Houses are cleaned, cakes and candies are baked or prepared, debts are cleared (although in this day and age, this might not be practical or possible, but people still try), new clothes are bought and generally, the anticipation of celebration, good food and drinks and family and friends get-togethers are high.

This is the year of the Dog, the Fire Dog to be exact. The Chinese Lunar calendar is named after animals on a twelve year cycle. The cycle starts with the Rat, followed by the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Sheep, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog and the Pig. The twelve-year cycle is further modified by the five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, making the complete cycle of sixty years. More information can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »

At a company meeting a few weeks ago, our company CEO made a remark that I thought was very profound. He said, “When I die, I want my tombstone to say: ‘Good men always win eventually and this man lived to prove it!’ That is the driving force of my life.”

I raised this question earlier over here, but probably did not frame it properly, or maybe I mixed it up with other thoughts in that post.

In any case, I did not get much of a response from my readers (are you out there???) So, here I am again (as usual), asking the same question, more directly this time.

What would your tombstone say? What would you like it to say?

If you have a chance to script your own epitaph for your gravestone, what would you like it to say? Why do you think those words would describe your life? Why are they important? How would you live your life so that your words on your tombstone would be an apt description of that life?

Let’s hear it! Post your answers in the comments!

Blog Explosion has stood the test of time because they keep on introducing innovative ways to keep bloggers interested. And, it is still a good source for traffic boosting to one’s site. One of the first services on BlogExplosion is the good old surfing for traffic. So, there I was tonight, surfing through various blogs, when I came upon this double vision. So, which panel do you click in this case?

Recently I explored certain attitudes that while they may be prevalent in religious circles, they can also affect other areas of life. These are attitudes that surround the very human need for certitude in one’s beliefs or belief systems. Whether they are religious, or scientific, it is possible to fall into the trap of dogmatism, the staunch, unflinching attitude that my position is the correct, or my party, nation, church is the only group that has got it right. Historically, we all know how treacherous and pervasive such attitudes can be, especially when they reside within leaders who are authoritarian and toxic.

In my recent reflections on these matters, I examined a verse in Romans 14, which taken out of context can be used to fuel the view that doubts have no room in a life of faith. In my two posts examining the Romans passage, I question that line of interpretation, and offer an alternative reading. Read the rest of this entry »

A little while back, I wrote a post questioning whether Jesus revised the law. Normally, when we think about this topic, we stop at juxtaposing the New Testament’s emphasis on grace with the Old Testament on the Law. Perhaps, passages such as Romans 6 or Galatians 2 where Paul talked about grace vs. law, or even John 1: 17, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” underscore for us the contrast between Jesus’ morality and the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament.

In a couple of previous posts, I examined the undertones of grace throughout the law, but I was surprised that I haven’t noticed this before: even in the Old Testament, there were numerous “revisions” of the law similar to Jesus’ momentous announcements, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago… but I tell you…” of Matthew chapter 5. We find incidents when God not only condoned, but actually encouraged the “Neither do I condemn you” theme of the gospel of grace, in His dealings with His people. (By the way, the last link is a post I wrote quite a while back, but it is representative of my thinking and writing on this issue and I highly recommend it to you if you haven’t read it yet). Read the rest of this entry »