Wretched Wednesday - Female Elders

Where did this movement of having women in the role of church elders come from? I can't understand the desire of large, established churches to theologically slit their wrists and place women in positions that the scripture forbids. 

I've actually heard the excuse that Paul isn't Jesus so we shouldn't pay as much attention to him. If that's the case, then I can say that neither Matthew, Mark, Luke or John were God, so are you going to ignore what they wrote also? Then there's (my favorite) 1 Timothy 2:12 was written for an earlier time, we're a more open, enlightened society now, etc, etc, etc. If that is true would it also be permissible to say that we are a much more populated world now so Exodus 20:13 is passe also? Oh wait, Planned Parenthood already has that one covered.

My New Coin

The La Fayette Escadrille was a French fighter squadron defending that besieged country in 1916. It was an experimental unit, made up of French commanders, French airplanes, French ground support, and American pilots. A wealthy American lieutenant had coins made for his fellow pilots, each coin contained the squadron's symbol. One pilot was shot down on the east side of the western front and was captured and relieved of all identification by the Germans except for that one coin. He escaped in the night and made it back to the Allied side of No Man's Land and was captured by the French as a spy, until they saw his coin and realized he was un pilote Américain.

This started an Air Force tradition of carrying a "challenge coin" where if you arrive at a (generally unofficial) Air Force function someone could challenge you for your coin. If you couldn't produce your coin the drink is on you, but if you could provide your coin, the drink is on them. Needless to say, carrying your "Challenge Coin" is an Air Force tradition, and it has spread to all other branches of the armed forces, and other groups where people gather to do things as a group such as police forces, fire departments, and biker gangs. And churches mentored by retired military folks too.

I have coins from different units and different functions. My collection contains a USAF coin, a 5th Bombardment Wing (Heavy) coin, an 80th Fighter Squadron (Juvats!!!) coin, several 429th Electronic Combat Squadron coins, one for Operation Southern Watch and one for Operation Provide Comfort. I would like one for the 81st TFS Wild Weasels (I was a weasel feeder before weasels were cool (again)) and a Buff Stuffer coin to add to my collection, but looking through the coin rack at Buckley AFB I found this one. 

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Wow - the towers of the Tech mighty are sure shaking. Mark Zuckerburg (Facebook) is being called to testify before congress because he handles your private private information the same way Bill Clinton handles women, the president of the United States is calling out Jeff Brazos (Amazon) for ripping off the Post Office, and Elon Musk (Space X and Tesla) is in danger of ending up in the poor house as his financial empire based solely on $5 billion of government subsidies begins to crumble due to his failure to deliver.

As you may know Blogger, the site I use to publish this blog, is owned by Google (which may explain why Blogger hasn't upgraded their interface in years). Yes, Google is one of those companies that hands out your personal information faster than a used car dealership hands out your phone number to every fly by night telemarketer (and if you didn't know that car dealers do that, then shame on you). But so what? I've been saying this since 1995: Don't put anything on the internet that you don't want everyone on internet to use. There are no secrets on the web, so why is everyone shocked that Google and Facebook are suddenly doing everything that I've been saying that they could be doing? Am I going to pull my blog off of Blogger because it's owned by Google? Of course not, in fact I'm going to leave it on Blogger in the hope Google reads my blog and learns something. And I hope they also learn this: Because of Google's insane left wing bias, when I use a search engine, I use DuckDuckGo

Despite the bad press, Facebook is a handy tool. I use it to find old military buddies. Andrea Eels used it to find his husband's other wife

Bibles are disappearing from online bookstores in China, meanwhile Chinese guards in riot gear storm Christian schools

George Washington University is holding a workshop about the most persecuted religion on earth: they are combating "Christian Privilege"

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman just signed his own death warrant

Despite the Vatican's furious backtracking, Mr. Pope still hasn't stepped back his claim that there is no hell, there is no eternal damnation. Cardinal Raymond Burke called Mr. Pope's heretical utterance as a 'Profound Scandal'

WWUTT Wednesday: Jesus Christ Superstar

I remember when Jesus Christ Superstar first came out, I remember it like it was merely 48 years ago. I personally believe that this musical was the beginning of what is best described as the Contemporary Christian Music Industrial Complex. The ONLY good thing about that entire musical was that the song "I Don't Know How To Love Him" can be used as a litmus test to separate those that can sing from those that can howl.

To me the whole thing just seemed wrong but at the time in my very early teens, I just couldn't enunciate my reasons why I knew it was wrong. Was my revulsion over this production the Holy Spirit guiding me away from a blasphemous heap of noise? In retrospect I'm going to have to say yes. I didn't watch the live airing of it on Easter Sunday, but if you did, did you play Spot The Heresy?

He Is Risen!