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The absence of Reason

Posted by Doctor Bart on Sunday, May 11, 2008 11:27:34 PM
I just read a comment on a post at Politico.com.  The article was on the weakness of the Republican brand and how it would be difficult for John McCain to overcome that.  The poster's comment- "There are two things that would make be abandon John McCain, pandering to the base and selecting Mitt Romney as his VP choice."

It is fascinating to me that anyone could even make such a statement.  How can someone react in such a fashion and claim to have any rational basis for doing so?  I am not a big McCain fan, but the alternative in Barack Obama is so far to the left that as someone who leans conservative there is no choice but to support him.  "The if I don't get it exactly my way I'm going home" mentality is evidence of a mindset that is more emotional than rational.

A similar analogy would be a vegetarian saying, "If you give me vegetables sautéed in animal shortening I am going to leave and eat a porterhouse steak!"   Such a statement would suggest that an individual's anger, his or her emotions, are the driving force rather than his or her values.

I see this everyday.  What people feel is becoming more important than what people think.  Their beliefs and values are so lacking a rational foundation that they change like the weather.  I see this in my practice.  People feel badly.  They want to get better.  They want antibiotics.  I give a detailed scientific explanation as to why that would be bad medicine.  The response I usually get, "I don't care, I want to get better."  To them their feelings are equal to my medical training.  My opinion is no better than theirs.  They want something, and that is all the justification they need.

Unfortunately, when people want conflicting things, there is no way to get what they desire.  You can't eat fatty foods and be thin.  You can't have a good marriage and live like a selfish pig.  You can't have a stable Iraq and abandon it to Al Qaeda.  You can't placate terrorists and be left alone.  This is not the reality of the world in which we live.

Rational people understand this.  Unfortunately, it seems that rational people are becoming an endangered species.

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What 20 years at Trinity say about Obama

Posted by Doctor Bart on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:43:19 PM
The role of Pastor/Mentor/Counselor is significant. This is the man who was the pastor for Barack's children. He let his children be repeatedly exposed to inflammatory, racist and bigoted rantings. He allowed those declarations to go unchallenged. There is a degree of agreement in his 20 years of silence.

The responses of the congregation at Trinity to the outrageous remarks indicate that the congregation has heard such comments before and is in agreement. These were not occasional remarks. These comments reflect the theology and philosophy of the pastor.

A man of character and conviction, a man who valued truth, would have stood up to Jeremiah Wright a long time ago.

There are only two reasonable explanations as to why Obama did not.

1- He knew the remarks were wrong, but believed it politically expedient to go along. He needed that man and that church to support his career, so he willfully looked the other way.

2- He agreed with the sentiments, but is now denying them because it is politically expedient to do so.

Both choices are repudiations of his stated desire to transcend traditional politics, and both reveal him as a fraud.

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Know Thy Pastor

Posted by Doctor Bart on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:52:25 AM
In my adult life I have regularly attended four churches.  One for 15 years, the other three for about 4 years each.  The first church we attended as a married couple was pastored by Charles Swindoll,  a well known Bible teacher.  We stayed because he taught the Bible well.  We stayed even when we moved 30 minutes away, because he taught the Bible well.  When we left after 15 years it was because we thought our children would do better if they went to a church where they could develop friendships closer to home.

After 10 years and three churches we are now driving back to the original church.  Why?  Because in all of the other instances we over time learned that the pastors weren't who we thought they were.  For one is was doctrinal, there were beliefs about ministry that were controversial.  The pastor tried to keep these views hidden early in his ministry, yet allowed them to come out over time.  When those beliefs came out, we left.  For another church it was relational.  The pastor  turned out to be superficially good, but in reality he was spiteful, vengeful, controlling and arrogant.  As I became more involved in the church these traits became more obvious.  When my efforts to approach these issues were rebuffed, we left.  The third instance was one where the pastor appeared to get lazy in his doctrine.  Over the years the sermons were more agenda driven and less scripture driven.  The Bible passages would get tweaked to support his point.  Not to the point of heresy, but it was clear there was a lack of diligence.  We decided to find a place that honored God's Word more.

All of this to say-  people who truly have faith, people who truly love God, people who are truly serious about their spiritual lives, don't tolerate incompetence in a Pastor.  We can deduce a lot about Senator Obama from the last 20 years, and none of it is good.

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