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12 Reasons Belief Beats Politics

October 10, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Belief Is Easily Possible And Results In Endless Benefits

I’ve been a Christian for decades – more than I care to share – and I’ve spent a lot of time in church services, Bible studies, and general conversations with other Christians. The topics were always related to God, the Bible, theology, Christian living, and the like.

More recently, politics has dominated those conversations and it’s changed the perspective a lot. Now, favored political candidates are as popular as Moses and David. The opposition, of course, is worse than Pharaoh.

Participating in the electoral process is right up there with daily devotions. If you don’t vote you’re backslidden. Even worse, if you vote for the wrong candidate you’ve spurned the will of God. Blasphemous!

When the candidate of choice wins office, it’s the emotional equivalent of crossing the Red Sea!

That line of thinking is problematic. You can’t synthesize government and religion. The purpose of one is totally different to the purpose of the other. The two will never fully mesh.

The church is commissioned to evangelize the world. The government is commissioned to manage it. Neither is commissioned to make it absolutely right. They act separately and for different reasons.

We obey the church not because we have to but because it is supposed to represent the voice of wisdom and reason. Or, that’s the hope. There’s no guarantee. Several churches and church leaders (all denominations) have gone off the deep end (adultery, pedophilia, embezzlement, etc.).

Those that don’t go quite that far can still border on the moronic and we should be careful enough not to follow.

Belief Exercises Reason

No names mentioned but several years ago I came across an individual who was instructed by one of his church’s elders (the prophet) that God wanted him to marry a certain person. The church’s teaching was that elders speak directly from God so he complied.

He married the young lass and after several years of intentional effort, the relationship never gelled. It was then they realized that God had nothing to do with it.

I wasn’t involved in counseling that particular situation.

All of that is to say that obedience should be taken with a grain of salt. Instead of obeying one person or one tradition, we should learn how to ascertain collective wisdom. Speak to many people and gain a broad understanding of the issues.

There is an art or skill to learning how to do that and the discussion could be quite long but there is no space for it in this post.

From a parenting perspective, however, instead of teaching your kids to do what you say, teach them to think about the “whats” and “whys” of their choices before imposing commands. They’ll be better served in the future.

But you’ll need to be ready for the unexpected. They may choose something different to what you planned and you need to be big enough to live with that.

Back to my line of thought. [Read more…] about 12 Reasons Belief Beats Politics

Trump’s Town Hall More Of The Same

September 17, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Not Sure Anyone Was Convinced

Did you miss Trump’s Town Hall, the one sponsored by ABC? If so, not to worry. You didn’t miss a thing.

You know how some actors don’t act but simply perform, and the performance never varies. What they are in one production, they are in another. Well, that’s what we got in Trump’s Town Hall last night.

The difference is with actors, you know it’s not real so there’s entertainment value. With the President, it worries.

Accept in this case, his performance was reassuring. If his intention was to win a few votes by presenting a different version of Trump, it didn’t work. The performance was too predictable to change voter sentiment.

I admit, there were a few fleeting moments when he seemed to affect a bit of concern, but they didn’t last long. He quickly reverted to his usual mannerisms: dismissal, deflection, condescend, talk past and talk over anyone sharing significant facts.

And there was nothing new. He repeated the same narratives with a few new twists sprinkled, of course, with how great he is and how many people endorse him. If it wasn’t for misinformation and self-flattery he’d have nothing to say at all.

His performance demonstrated no significant change and that’s both good and bad. It’s good because I can’t see how any undecideds were drawn in. It’s bad because if he wins, we can expect the same chaos in the next four years. If anything, we can expect it to get worse. There won’t be another reelection to induce moderation.

I agree. All politicians lie. And to a point, that is understandable. It’s impossible to answer general questions about policies with full disclosure. It’s like trying to explain why the sun shines to a two-year-old. Some details will be left out, others distorted. You can’t give a short answer to what is a sunspot without expecting an endless number of why’s.

Trump, however, takes lying to an all-new level. He’s bald-faced. There’s no holding back. It’s automatic.

Of course, we know that. It happens so frequently it’s become the norm. Whatever fact reaches public attention is mitigated, not with adjustment, but with a complete rewrite.

I’ll share a few facts but before I do, I need to ask – how is it so many people can trust and defend a man who contorts the truth with such abandon? This is a character issue. Bad character can’t be counted on to make the best decisions at crucial moments. The only thing is in this case, the whole country will pay the price.

We expect five-year-olds to ignore good advice, barge into trouble, and throw tantrums. We expect more from the President.

The Facts

Now for a few Trump sound bites.

Everybody owns stocks.

That was Trump’s response when pressed on why the economic recovery was benefiting mostly wealthy Americans who invest in stocks. His response wasn’t an answer but it was typical Trump. Dismissal. Don’t bother answering the question, just lie, ignore, redirect.

The truth is only about half of all Americans participate directly in the stock market and the ones who invest through retirement funds are woefully underprepared for retirement.

Stock ownership is heavily concentrated.

The complaint, by the way, is not that there are ultra-wealthy people or that those people are getting more wealthy. Personally, I think it’s great that wealth can be amassed!

Party on!

No one disapproves.

May more individuals join the club.

The question is can the President introduce policies that stimulate the economy from the bottom up. It’s easy to feed the top but that approach, long term, is self-defeating. It’s like building up muscles in your right arm while ignoring the left. [Read more…] about Trump’s Town Hall More Of The Same

The Good, Bad, And Ugly In Racial Politics

September 5, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

All Lives, Including Black Ones, Matter To God

George Floyd’s murder caused a fundamental change in the psyche of our nation. It didn’t change the facts surrounding racial issues – yet – but it did change how those issues are viewed by the white public. That is an important first step.

Floyd’s death is only one among many but its galvanizing effect has reverberated around the world.

Even law enforcement is coming around. Although the killing of African Americans in similar situations in the past was often explained away as the police doing their duty to protect the public, an astonishing number of law enforcement leaders have referred to Floyd’s death as “murder.”

However, my focus in this post is not on law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies don’t make the laws, they enforce them and it isn’t strange to believe they take on the attitudes and sentiments of the legislators who authorize their work. So, we need to look at Republicans and Democrats. What is their track record on the matter of race? What have they done or not done relative to racial issues? That is the focus here.

One clarification, though, before I say more.

“Black Lives Matter” (BLM) was catapulted into celebrity following Floyd’s murder but it isn’t a new movement. It got started in 2013 just after the murder of Trayvon Martin. From the beginning, though, they have been the object of ridicule, mischaracterization, and suspicion.

As an example, shortly after recent protests began, I was told on one occasion that BLM, the organization, is communist, and on another that BLM opposes the concept of the nuclear family. That’s just the start. The misrepresentations and insults never end.

If you research the issue you’ll find that BLM is decentralized. It’s chapter-based so you find individual groups spread throughout the States and those groups don’t necessarily connect. There is no single person dominating leadership. The group is concept-driven and the concept is simple: black lives matter.

I’m sure if you look closely you might find a few unsavory individuals involved but isn’t that true of all organizations. The bigger the organization the more likely you are to find individuals harboring off-kilter ideas.

But before you cut me off, and to be quite clear, no, I’m not a communist. In fact, I have no leanings toward any totalitarian forms of government and I’m very much in favor of the nuclear family. From what I can tell, most of the BLM folks are democratically minded salt of the earth types, which means the accusations are more a smokescreen than a concern.

It’s a deflection. It’s an expression of insecurity.

And to be fair, President Trump’s personal life and political manner are arguably the worst of any President to date and it isn’t a matter of debate. Everyone agrees even his staunch supporters and that’s kinda the point. His faults – the ones we know of – are routinely dismissed even his fascistic tendencies, which isn’t communism but it is totalitarian none the less. To quote a member of the Republican Party and an ardent supporter of Trump:

He is egotistical, bombastic, and brash. He often lacks nuance in his statements. Sometimes he blurts out mistaken ideas…that he later must abandon. He insults people. He can be vindictive when people attack him…He has been married three times and claims to have been unfaithful in his marriages. These are certainly flaws, but I don’t think they are disqualifying flaws in this election.

In a word, he’s erratic. Not even Trump knows what he will do next and that should be a concern for all of us. Wars have been started for less.

Make sure you clarify who you’re talking about when you insult BLM because unknowing listeners may think you’re talking about Trump. If you can stand the President’s dirt which glaringly affronts every decent person every moment of every day, then maybe we should give BLM a little slack.

For the sake of clarification, though, when I refer to Black Lives Matter I’m talking about racial issues, not the organization. The organizers – who are relatively few – and their personal philosophies – whatever they are – have nothing to do with the protests. You don’t need to agree or disagree with their personal views to react to the brutal murder of a civilian.

The protests associated with BLM are driven by justice and freedom for all (the ideas we pledge allegiance to in the national anthem). Racial disparities and discrimination are the issues. When I refer to BLM, that’s what I’m talking about.

We must keep the main point the main point: all lives, including black ones, matter. And they are equal.

It’s an unfortunate fact that there are still people who don’t believe that. Racial bias has a long shelf life. It’s been around a long time and it won’t fade easily but the protests are proof that things are changing at least where the white public is concerned.

Minorities, by the way, have understood the problems all along. I’m sure they are happy to see change occurring and this post is focused on the what and why of that change.

Public Sentiment Changes Slowly

With the clarification aside, what is happening right now is quite remarkable because public mindsets don’t move quickly. On most issues, sentiment remains boringly steady but that’s not the case at the moment.

Within two weeks of George Floyd’s murder, public sentiment gained an incredible eleven points and that upswing follows two years of steady upward trends.

Two and a half years ago, January 2018, public support for BLM averaged out at zero. Some were for it and some were against it and the average rating was zero. The movement started in 2013 and it took five years (2018) just to get to a neutral rating. By January 2020 the average moved seventeen points to the plus side. That’s seventeen points in a span of two years.

Then, two weeks following the murder, average public sentiment moved an additional eleven points to twenty-eight!

That’s twenty-eight points over two and a half years and eleven of those points came in just two weeks.

The breakdown in where the support came from shows that everyone except Republicans are seeing the light. The following stats are courtesy of Civiq.com. The NYTimes also has an article on the topic here.

Democrates: +84
Independents: +30
Republicans: -39

Most Democrats get it, a large number of Independents are catching on but Republicans are backpedaling. [Read more…] about The Good, Bad, And Ugly In Racial Politics

Living Is Counseling

January 1, 2019 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

You Can Be Neutral
Only If You Declare Your Neutrality

In most cases, counseling is something that happens only when necessary and is usually arranged by special appointment. People who require counseling for non-medical reasons are dealing with problems stemming from past experiences and those problems are effecting the quality of life in the present.

That’s the short explanation, what we’ve been led to think, but it raises an important question. How do people avoid problems in the first place?

The counseling process is complicated. In fact, it’s mysterious because humans are complex and experiences, both good and bad, add to that complexity. We’re not as normal as we like to think, or even worse, maybe we are.

The most popular version of counseling is after-the-fact crisis management. It’s the solution we turn to not because we have a problem but because the problem, undetected heretofore, has been around long enough for us to reach overload. It’s entrenched and won’t be easily dislodged. Counseling, where we hope to find the answer, is more like a slow and tedious untangling process than a quick fix. There’s no pill for this.

The process includes a bit of self-discovery, others discovery, and experience analysis. These three elements are the basic influences in every person’s life. They teach us how to think and act.

But what I just described is only one type of counseling. The people who provide it are professionals and it only takes place after the fact. It’s corrective, not prophylactic.

The Bigger Picture

But what about the rest of life? How do people learn to believe in themselves or not? Why do some people develop a fear of water? When do people become afraid of crowds? What influences these outcomes?

Nature plays a part but only a small part. The website, Very Well Mind, provides a short list of 98 phobias. It’s only a partial list but it’s long enough to show there aren’t enough natures to go around. The bigger causes must be found elsewhere.

Medical News Today says,

It is unusual for a phobia to start after the age of 30 years, and most begin during early childhood, the teenage years or early adulthood.

They can be caused by a stressful experience, a frightening event or a parent or household member with a phobia that a child can learn.

And there you have it. It’s more about timing than nature. All the input is external and happens in the most formative years. Nature is not the culprit. Phobias are nurtured.

Both good and bad qualities, strengths and weaknesses, are being shaped by people and experiences.

Counseling Happens Everyday

Counseling happens 24/7 in everyday life. Living is counseling. If you’re alive, you’re counseling and being counseled.

There may very well be times when a special problem arises that requires professional attention, but at all other times, I am counseling others by the way I live. The way I manage money, time, relationships counsels others in how to manage these things too.

Everything I do, everything I say and every attitude I entertain sends a message to those around me. I am counseling everyone around me, and everyone around me is counseling me.

It isn’t intentional, but it is real.

The more influence one has, the more their counsel takes hold.

What About Moral Issues

We like to think we can live our own lives completely to ourselves and separate from everyone else without interfering, intruding or asserting influence. Not so! [Read more…] about Living Is Counseling

IT – Life’s Biggest Obstacle

June 21, 2017 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

IT kills but IT won't die.

You Either Fight With
Or Against IT

Fight IT!

Not him. Not her. Not them. Not that.

IT! That is the trigger. You need look nowhere else.

IT is the obstacle, the non-personal problem standing in your way. IT is that thing that says you can’t do better, you’ll only get worse so there’s no sense trying. Just give up.

And IT is universal. Everyone is plagued with IT. IT is the same for everyone.

IT looms larger for some only because they see IT, observe IT, discuss IT, name IT and believe IT, but they rarely get IT right.

IT isn’t outside you or around you. IT doesn’t happen to you. IT is not the kids, the boss, the wife, the school or anything you can see.

IT loves your inabilities and will take on the appearance of something you can’t do only to draw attention away from all the things you can do. What you can’t do, your inability is not IT.

IT is not god but IT craves and feeds off belief. God wants you to win. IT wants you to do nothing. IT is inertia. IT opposes constructive activity of any kind. Circumstances may flatten you. IT works with circumstance to keep you down.

IT is internal, the little guy on the inside with the annoyingly persistent chatter. The whisper we magnify. But IT has no voice other than the one we give it.

And forward progress isn’t the only issue. The obstacle, whatever IT is, naturally moves us backward. The evidence of IT is self-absorption, self-satisfaction, self-pity and smug complacency. The fruit of IT is insidious decline.

IT is the reason we can’t lose weight, get fit, develop a new skill or reach the goal.

The problem is you can’t destroy IT. IT kills but IT won’t die. IT is always in the background. The trick is to never give in to IT, feed IT or believe IT, but don’t waste time or energy hating IT. IT fades only when we focus on the next step, the one IT doesn’t want us to take.

THINK!About……IT