Saturday Buffet

Hey, what do you know - I'm not late with this edition of the Saturday Buffet!

As always, I've been trolling the internet throughout the week to bring you some of the more thought provoking stuff.

So here we go...

This one goes in the "sad story; ridiculous coverage" category. Here we a story that ought to highlight the extreme poverty these people live in, or perhaps their generosity (notice they shared with a neighboring village). But it seems written mostly to shock the reader, then they throw in a stupid bit about animal rights activists!?

Okay, this one may just get me in trouble. Let's list my troubles with this story:

a) Why are we even conducting such a poll in the first place? Because we know it will likely yield results that are "scandalous" and it'll shock people? I hope not, but I have my suspicions.

b) What good can come of a poll like this? To make a segment of the Christian population feel better about themselves - you know, the "thank God I'm not like the Samaritans" crowd? I hope not, but I have my suspicions.

c) How are we defining a "lie"? Don't get too excited - I'm not espousing some sort of "my truth is for me" view. But seriously, every culture in the world defines lying differently. America is virtually the only country wherein were told that any exaggeration, or anything short of full and complete disclosure is a lie. There are literally hundreds of examples I could give, but I offer just one. Suppose you have a friend who struggles with her weight and she is very depressed about it. Now suppose you overhear the people passing by snickering about how large your friend is. She's had a particularly bad day, and doesn't hear what's just been said. She notices that you noticed them and asks what they said... I would argue that it's just plain hurtful and mean to give your friend "full disclosure", but if you told her simply, "Oh, nothing" you'd be lying ... ?! "Speak the truth in love" doesn't mean you must tell her the hurtful things they said and then offer your shoulder for her to cry on.

d) Wouldn't we be better off spending our time and efforts encouraging the body of Christ, instead of feeding a certain segment of it more "ammunition"?

Okay, I'm finished... You may flame away now, if you must.

Onward....

I think I kind of like Mike Huckabee, in a way. This story doesn't help much, eh?

And finally, this one is (mostly) for an old friend of mine who I just discovered reads this blog. Like me, he's outraged at the nonsense being conducted by the Westboro Baptist Church. You've likely heard of them - the "church" that runs around celebrating the death of American soldiers... They're the folks with the "God Hates _ags" signs (no, I'll not use that word here). I'm not sure I necessarily agree with the lawsuit approach this article references, but anything to put these folk back in their cave is a good thing, if you ask me.

That's all for now. Let me know what you think of this week's edition, eh?

Hatushili