I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

I have said/thought some things for a while and now some others have said them in ways better than I can so I'll let you see what they have to say.

Why is there a lack of creativity in Christianity?

Christians Don't Get to Suck

Check them out and let me know what you think.



P.S. Like Andrew I have nothing special for April Fool's Day. However, Andrew's post detailing his lack of April Fool's Day festivities is much better than my puny post script here.

Changing the world...

A friend of mine just recently left me a message saying that he loved my new blog and that it felt like we were sitting in my room changing the world again.

The truth: we never changed the world.

We talked a lot about the world, but we never changed it. Does that stop us? No. We see need for change in our world and we desire so badly for it to happen. The change is not just needed in religious areas (though there is great change possible there), but also in the political realm and the scientific realm and the music realm and the food realm and the publishing realm and the entertainment realm and the realm of people's desire and the lack of reading realm and the healthcare realm and the worldwide poverty realm and the familial relationships realm and the holiday realm and so many other realms.

The truth is that we lived a completely screwed up world, but this does not stop us. We do not allow ourselves to get depressed and pessimistic about the situation of our world. Rather, we imagine. That's right, we imagine. You may be asking how imagining can do anything to change the world. And you'd be right to ask. But I'd also have to say that if you are asking that question you have not imagined often enough or hard enough or deep enough. We imagine, just like John Lennon. We imagine a world that is better than the one we currently live in and we imagine what it would take to see that world come to fruition and then we work with every ounce of our being and our soul to be that change to this world. We help raise awareness for issues like the genocide in Darfur and the utter poverty in our own country and the amazing omnipresence of hypocrisy within the religion that we claim as our own (Christianity).

I echo John Lennon when he said, "You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one." I have been told countless times in my life: "Thomas, one person can't change the world." I reply that yes, one person can. How many times have we seen it. Jesus pretty drastically changed the world (and I don't say this in a super-spiritual-look-at-me-the-good-Christian way, but in an honest way that any student of history, especially religious history, as I am, must admit) and Ghandi wasn't too shabby either. Should we mention the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Tim Berners-Lee (step over Al Gore, he actually did create the Internet) or Mikhail Gorbachev or Frances Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin (the three who discovered DNA). And just so you know that I recognize the other side of the coin. Let's talk about what Adlof Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini and Osama bin Laden. I hope you get my point. We have the ability to do so much more than we tell ourselves that we can.

I am trying to change the world by changing myself and being the change that I want to see. You can do the same.

P.S. If you are looking for maybe an organization or two to get involved with there are two that I would suggest you start with, as they are doing what I'm talking about in the area of poverty and equality. They are making things happen and truly changing lives. The two organizations are Compassion and Kiva.

Kingdom of Heaven

I returned home tonight to find “Kingdom of Heaven” on tv. A movie that I love, for it is brilliant in many aspects, but especially in how it upholds integrity at all costs. Some of you may know just how important integrity is to me. It is one thing that I work vehemently to never lose, for though many things can be taken from us our integrity can never be taken. It is solely our responsibility to keep our integrity. Our actions are our responsibility. I know that this idea is controversial, for our society has almost wholly forgotten what personal responsibility is. No one ever wants to take responsibility for their own actions, but to defer blame to others.







Hear me though, I am not saying that I have never attempted to defer responsibility, only that I make a concerted effort not to and to uphold my personal integrity to the highest degree that I can. This is my own personal conviction and it is on moral and religious grounds. The movie “Kingdom of Heaven” makes claims about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like by making claims about Jerusalem. Balian de Ibelin (Orlando Bloom) is given an oath early on in the movie and then gives the oath to others later on. It is an oath that we could all live by. I only hope that I am halfway able to uphold it. The oath is:


“Be without fear in the face of your enemies,
Be brave and upright that God may love thee,
Speak the truth even it leads to your death,
Safeguard the helpless,
That is your oath”


My integrity is for me in one sense, but it is for God in a greater sense. If we would all live by this oath then maybe, just maybe, we could see the fruition of the kingdom of heaven. In this movie, the kingdom of heaven is in the head and in the heart, that type of kingdom can never be destroyed or surrendered. Let us live for and hold onto the kingdom of heaven, namely one that is courageous, sure, truthful, works for the safety and righteousness of others and upholds integrity.