Dumb things that have been said about the Charleston shooting

“This isn’t about racism; it wasn’t a hate crime.” News people actually said that. Yes, they said it at the beginning, before more facts were known, I guess. But they should be careful about choosing words that turn out to be wrong. Those same people condemn people who say after a terrorist attack, “We aren’t sure if this attack was a terrorist attack” or “Islam was not the cause of this attack.” It seems as though liberals are hesitant to call anything “terrorist” and conservatives are hesitant to call anything “racist.” But they are both wrong. Sometimes things are caused by terrorism, and sometimes things are caused by racism. Why are both conservatives and liberals so quick to pick sides? Wait for the facts before you report.

My thoughts on the Confederate flag

In my opinion, people should be free in America to fly any flag they want, whether it’s a flag of another country, another religious group, a treasonous faction within the United States—Nazi, Islamic, Confederate, Satanist, whatever. I don’t think anyone wants to remove the Confederate flag from the pages of history—delete all those unpleasant facts and pretend there never was a Civil War. Some people talk as though this were part of the debate, but why should it be? History is important, and the facts matter. We need to know history; we need to remember history and have memorials and museums to teach us. However, we should be careful what flags we allow on government property.

Musings on Minecraft and Heaven

I bought Minecraft for Paul, and he loves it, but being a Sim fan myself I have discovered that I love it, too. There is a lot of potential for an entertaining game, whether you are playing in Survival Mode or Creative Mode. It was in the Creative Mode, however, that I started to philosophize about the afterlife—the real one, after life on this earth. Many people wonder what we will do in a world where we don’t have to worry about death and suffering, where we won’t get sick or hurt or have survival needs. Actually, I think the answer of what we won’t do is shorter than what we will do. We won’t die. We won’t get sick. We won’t do wrong or hurtful things to others. We won’t hurt ourselves. We won’t be jealous or mean or sad. But what will we do?

The Dark Sides of Voodoo

                Recently I saw a travel article giving tips on how to get out in the world and “experience” some voodoo. Voodoo sounds pretty cool, with interesting-looking artifacts, music and dance, and an ancient connection to African culture. But as a missionary, I have learned some things about voodoo that go beyond the curious, into a dark and destructive world.