Evangelical Guilt

A snippet from Slacktivist:

The failure to thus pester these people is often characterized with a misappropriated quotation from St. Paul: "You ate at Denny's without asking the waitress if she knows Jesus as her own private savior? You must be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!"

That phrase is often used to argue that Christians ought to feel really, really guilty if they are not at all times and in all places making themselves into off-putting, conversation-stealing, monomaniacal, conversion-machines.

It is also used as an all-purpose dismissal of people like me. I believe that evangelism, properly understood, is an invitation -- a form of hospitality. I believe that Christians are called to be salt and light -- not to be the kinds of people that no one wants to sit next to on an airplane.

I know what he means.

Weird Computer Problem - The End!

See Part I and Part II.

It's ALIVE!

The beast is alive, once again. Hear him roar!

It was the power supply. Damnit! Twenty dollar fix, that's it. Now I have an extra motherboard--socket 478--and nothing to do with it. Socket 478s are pretty useless now, especially AGP ones. Bah!

What did I learn? Always, ALWAYS go with the cheaper option first. Especially if your certainty factor isn't all that good. Also, power supplies are pieces of shit. Expect them to fail. And when they do, expect them to fail in a way that you would never assume is a power supply fault.

Oh well. Lesson learnt.

Weird Computer Problem - Part II

My desk right now.

See Part I here.

So I got my new motherboard. A very similar mobo to my old one. Moved my P4 chip over to the new motherboard. That took a little work. I had to clean the thermal gunk off and reapply new gunk. That was after I used my dissecting scalpel to pry it loose from the heat sink. Then plugged in the power supply. And...NO GOOD. Still acts the same way.

Great.

135 bucks WASTED.

Now I'm thinking it's the power supply. At least power supplies are cheap.

Is God Merciful?

Freethinking Faith writes a great post on whether the orthodox (traditional) understanding of God is truly merciful. Read it all here.

A few snippets:

Strict orthodoxy tells us that God will cast the overwhelming majority of humans who have ever lived into the fire. Millions and millions and millions feeding the ravenous appetite of gehenna, from the earliest Bronze Age hunter to the modern businessman, factory worker and mother.
...
Swarms of humanity will go into the fire having lived exemplary, unselfish lives. People who walked sacrificially according to the precepts of their religions. Physicians who worked long hours to relieve the suffering of others. Old women who cradled the village children in their arms and spoke to them kindly about their ancestors. All will wake up in ghastly torment of which they will understanding little or nothing.
...
Then there will be many, many professing Christians, those who chose theologically incorrect versions of Christianity. They were Roman Catholics or Unitarians or liberal Episcopalians. They didn't understand the nuances of justification by faith alone or the Trinity. Or they put some trust -- maybe just a particle -- in their own works. So they join heathen and infidel in the furnace.
For millions of Christians, this is the good news, glad tidings. It is sound doctrine that might even garner a Sunday school ribbon. Or a high accolade from one of the faithful: "Yes, he is theologically sound -- sound in the faith. How encouraging to hear someone speak the truth in this age of infidelity. Praise God."