TonioTimeDaily

"How do you know if solo polyamory is right for you?

If you’re interested in exploring solo polyamory, it’s a good idea to consider what your core values are and how your relationship fits into those values, if at all.

“If you really prioritize alone time, if you don’t see yourself merging finances or moving in with a partner, and if you’re not interested in the institution of marriage, then maybe solo polyamory will be a good relational framework,” says Gabrielle Alexa Noel, director of marketing and lead portal developer at #open. “Even if you are open to those things but want the freedom to configure your relationships in ways that don’t assume they will happen, solo polyamory could be for you.”

This is 100% me! 

"Building on Hume, we see that the fallibility of human reasoning means that a person cannot obtain absolute certainty in any matter save for trivial cases where a statement is true by definition (as in, "all bachelors are unmarried" or "all triangles have three angles"). All rational statements that assert a factual claim about the universe which begin with the statement "I believe that..." are simply shorthand for the statement "based on my knowledge, understanding, and interpretation of the prevailing evidence, I tentatively believe that..." For instance, when one says, "I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy," said person is not asserting an absolute truth but rather a tentative belief based on an interpretation of the evidence assembled before them. Even though one may set an alarm clock at night, fully believing that the sun will rise the next day, that belief is tentative, tempered by a small but finite degree of doubt, since there is always some infinitesimal measure of possibility that the sun might explode or that that person might die, and so on." https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Agnosticism 

"Religious investors can advance disability inclusion by encouraging their portfolio companies to embrace best practices for employing people with disabilities. To start, they can encourage companies to utilize a third-party benchmarking tool such as the Disability Equality Index (DEI) to assess their disability inclusion practices. Religious investors can sign the Joint Investor Statement on Corporate Disability Inclusion, an effort led by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read. Meanwhile, religious investors can work to advance disability inclusion within their own institutions.

Religious entities with 15 or more employees are covered by Title I of the ADA and may not discriminate against qualified applicants and employees with disabilities. A religious entity may, however, give preference to individuals of its own religion and may require that all applicants and employees follow the entity’s religious rules.

Additionally, members of the clergy and other employees who perform essentially religious duties, such as conducting religious ritual, worship or instruction, are generally excluded from the protections of the ADA and other employment discrimination laws.

This “ministerial exception,” which only applies to employees who perform ministerial functions, limits government interference with the free exercise of religion and is well established by the courts.

That said, just because the law grants religious entities an exception doesn’t mean they must take advantage of it. Religious employers can go beyond what the law allows to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including positions of leadership and ministerial roles."

"But what I did not say to my new friend — there really is no point in arguing on Twitter except for the personal satisfaction of believing you are right — is that people refusing to acknowledge that past are living in delusion, or worse, in baleful ignorance.

I am a white, middle-class, middle-aged Christian male. I am well aware that I have benefited from that identity over and over again. I never have felt in danger during a traffic stop, never been in danger in casual encounters with law enforcement, and never ever felt that when I left the house in the morning there was a chance, I would not return in the evening based on the color of my skin.

I benefited and continue to benefit from structures set up generations before me to ensure that I can go all day without having to acknowledge or even think about my skin color.

On the other hand, the median wealth of Black families in America is 15% that of the median wealth of white families.

The racist mythologies white people have advanced for 400 years in this country justify this tragic inequity by claiming that Black people are lazy, stupid, criminal or simply not as advanced as whites. These racial mythologies are self-confirming, as they lead to more Black people being excluded, red-lined, imprisoned and dumped from public assistance that has been freely given to white people."

"Over the past year, I’ve engaged in an ongoing conversation with a forty-year-old clergyperson struggling with institutional religion. Like many other pastors, he’s grown weary of church work. COVID certainly didn’t help. However, he felt close to burnout even before the pandemic arrived. It wasn’t just routine congregational pettiness, conflict, and criticism that troubled him. “I can put up with church crap,” he told me. “But I can no longer tolerate the disconnect between Jesus and the institutional church. They don’t remotely resemble each other anymore. I’m not sure they ever did.”

Several months ago, he resigned from his church, left vocational ministry, and took a job as a social worker. He also quit going to church and doubts he’ll ever return. He explained his life-altering decision by saying, “I’ve finally come to the sad conclusion that if I want to authentically follow Jesus, I have to leave organized religion.” 

Being in the church has been like staying in a long-term abusive relationship. The problem is I love the girl so much. At least I think it’s love. Maybe it’s infatuation. Perhaps it’s Stockholm syndrome. I’m not sure. Anyway, I stayed because I had this stubborn hope she would change. I dreamt of being the valiant hero who came along, swept her off her feet, and dramatically transformed her into the stunning princess she was meant to be. Unfortunately, nothing I did seemed to work. Over the years, things just seemed to get worse.

Time after time she abused me. She verbally assaulted me. She tried to control me. She manipulated me. She gaslighted me. She stabbed me in the heart with a rusty and serrated knife. But like a lovesick idiot, I kept coming back. I thought, “Maybe tomorrow it will be different. Maybe tomorrow she’ll love me for who I am, in all my theological quirkiness.” But she didn’t. And after some reflection, I finally came to the realization we needed a break. (p. 15)

In his best-selling book, If God Is Love Don’t Be a Jerk (WJK, 2021), well-known blogger John Pavlovitz speaks openly about his disappointment and disillusionment with institutional religion in America, especially in the evangelical sector: “I am sickened by this thing claiming to be Christianity. . . this monstrosity. . . would be unrecognizable to him. . . . Sadly, the American Church has in many ways become the greatest argument for someone not becoming a Christian, for rejecting organized religion and never looking back” (pp. 136–37).

In the introduction to her most recent book, Freeing Jesus (Harper One, 2021), Diana Butler Bass puts a provocative spin on the theme of leaving church. She tells about a religious experience she once had while looking at an image of Jesus at the Washington National Cathedral. As she knelt at the marble altar, prayed, and gazed at a massive icon of Christ, she heard the voice of Jesus say to her, “Get me out of here.” Diana’s husband still laughs about “that time Jesus asked you to spring him from the slammer.”

Source: The Complete Library of Christian Worship, Robert E. Webber, General Editor

Throughout the history of the church, preachers have developed different styles of proclaiming the Word. These styles of preaching are often related to the hermeneutics of the preacher. Broadly speaking, the preacher approaches the task of speaking with one of three starting points. The first of these starting points is the Bible. The preacher approaches the text with the question, what does it say? Sermons that fall into this general category are evangelistic preaching, expository...

Evangelistic preaching aims at producing a response. Specifically, by preaching of the gospel and emphasizing sinful condition of each person, the hearer recognizes the need for repentance and confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Expository preaching is based on the grammatical, historical, theological method. Such sermons may be drawn from a verse or a passage, or they may develop a biblical topic or Christian doctrine.

In recent years, the paradigm shift from a rationalistic worldview to a world in motion has shifted attention in biblical studies and preaching away from propositional statements to story. Narrative preaching draws on the Scripture as a story and seeks to communicate through the form of story.

Prophetic preaching condemns particularities and affirms generalities. It points to those values and hopes that are consistent with the reign of God and calls people to live by those values.

Textual preaching is more than making a comment or two on a text. Textual preaching, in contrast to expository preaching, focuses on the thematic unity of a biblical passage, challenging the preacher to seek the text's central truth.

Catechetical preaching, or preaching sermons based on the consecutive "Lord's Days" of the Heidelberg Catechism, is a centuries-old tradition among Reformed churches and has historical roots in the Calvinistic reformation of sixteenth-century northern Europe.

Doctrinal preaching teaches and builds up the body of faith through a deepened knowledge of God.

African-American preaching arises out of the cultural and religious experience of the oppressed. It reaches people in their dislocation and relocates them in God and in the promise of a brighter future."