Another Dharma Talk

Another good dharma talk from this guy. I like the sedate pace of his dharma talks because I don't feel I am being emotionally manipulated. I can just listen and consider. Some of the preachers I used to listen to at TBN got so hyped up that they stopped actually saying anything and were just relying on raw energy to motivate the crowds. That is why I was probably most drawn to Joyce Meyer on TBN because of her straight forward and practical way of speaking. No Paula White style fits of ecstasy there. I think overly emotional and charasmatic presentations get people to focus on the the teacher rather than the message.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eating SDA Style

(This is an essay I wrote for part of a Cultural Memoir Assignment) One former Adventist friend of mine always says, “It was the table that fed me” in referring to our shared Seventh-day Adventist background. My friend was referring to the morals, values and spirituality of Seventh-day Adventism that we still hold onto, even though we disagree with the Church in many ways. I, however, can’t help but think of feeding in the literal sense. Seventh-day Adventism did truely feed us, but in very unusual ways. Seventh-day Adventists have something they refer to as the “Health Message.” Just like the Mormons we have our very own prophet, only she was a woman and not a polygamist. Ellen White encouraged healthy living and vegetarianism in the Seventh-day Adventist church. In many ways this has been a blessing to the church. Adventists who follow the health message are some of the longest living folks in the nation. On the other hand it has brought a spirit of legalistic infighting ove
Read more

Dogs Become Street Stoics

I had a bizarre dream last night in which the phrase "Dogs become street stoics" appeared. Seems prophetic, no? Okay, so I really have no idea what that phrase means. I doubt it means much at all, just random brain twitching during sleep. Another part of my dream did have some events worth considering. Often the issues I am wrestling with, or have wrestled with appear in my dreams. I have dreams about high school insecurity, job fears, friendship and family issues. I still dream about massive fights with my mother even though we haven't really fought for several years. One common dream I was having was the "heaven/salvation" dream in which the end times were upon me and I managed to get saved. I was never "lost" in any of my end time dreams. It should be noted that I have a great deal of will power when it comes to dreaming. I rarely have nightmares, and when something bad does happen in my dreams I can usually work my way out of it. Often i
Read more
Image
I know the feeling stick man...I know the feeling. It's an irresistible urge to correct certain opinions that I strongly disagree with. The urge be to snarky in combating said opinions is especially tempting. Having seen many internet debates devolve into mudslinging and anger I've tried to refrain from engaging (or starting) internet debates. However, I think the real problem is their aren't a lot of safe spaces in our society for people of differing opinions to converse. The media gets people all hyped up into an us versus them frenzy (both sides are guilty of this). People get very protective of their opinions as well. Rather than recognize that we all have a lot to learn, we build up bulwarks of anger and self-righteousness to protect our opinions and then refuse to hear what anyone else has to say. Our opinions must be very fragile things indeed if they need so much protection. I like to refer to this phenomenon and invincible ignorance. The fact is that
Read more