Mr. Deity: "Fully God and fully human, that's how you do the whole 'sinless life' thing."

Jesus: "Well, that hardly seems fair."

I've gotta say: I love the wide variety of blogs I read. In fact, if you just poke through my Other Posts of Note, you can find stuff from a wide variety of perspectives. I mean, just today I've got some John Piper and Evolutionary Morality--to say nothing of the funny stuff I bump into. My hope is that this keeps me sharp and smiling.

So, what should we make of Mr. Deity's inability to make things fair/logical? Well, let's work through it, shall we?

1. Three days (well, 36 hours). Prophecies. This has pinged the back of my mind now and again: Three days? Really? I think the scholarly response would point to how prophecies work, their vantage point of history (with a compressed future), and the fact that it really was the third day. But, in the end, I haven't run into any Jewish teachers who discredit the resurrection account based on this issue, so I think we're cool with this as the three day period.

2. What Jesus gets from this. "Full partner." and 3. Why God can't do it Himself. "I'm not chicken." These points play off the difficulty of the Trinity: God, three Persons, One God. That's a pretty easy one to pick on--as Clint Eastwood does--but if you accept that Jesus and "Mr. Deity" are one, both of these issues disappear.

4. Can't You just forgive? Sin. This is another thing I've thought about, especially in light of Greek mythology. Who has power: The gods or the Fates? So why does God need blood for forgiveness? Who is He bound to? Reading all of Hebrews 9 sheds a little light on the subject, but Hebrews isn't an easy book to understand. It seems that God demands it Himself. Why? I don't really know.

5. Fully God/fully human. We're damned anyway. This goes back to the Fall, where we were set up well and decided to trade it in to become like God. And as humorous as it may be to see Mr. Deity gloat over our destruction, that's not how God is. Instead, He has provided a way for us to get back to Him, despite our demonstrations of human defiance.

6. Created way beneath God. Expected to live up to His standards or be damned. Again, this is a severely distorted view of God. He used to walk with us and connect with us. And then He did it again. His standards are not hard to keep, until we decide to rebel against them.

In the end, all of these points come from the cynical point of view--which is why it can be funny. But cynicism is hardly good discourse. And while I am hardly a Saint, I am one of the saints, and I thought I should point out that there are perfectly legitimate answers to these questions.

And I've learned something by watching Sonlight's general manager: It's easy to be cynical, to declare that you are not "duped" by this or that, and it is really hard to give an answer that will satisfy the cynic. But the great managers, like Wayne, can take such complaints and sometimes offer insights and words of wisdom that cut to the center of the issue.

Because cynicism is rarely--if ever--about really addressing a question. It's about making your point sting so you feel better about your position. I've been there. But seeing really great people respond with gracious, well-reasoned responses that point out the flaws in cynic's thinking has inspired me to try to do the same.

Try is certainly the operative word here. But I am trying.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

I've muttered things under my breath before.

In fact, I think I did that just yesterday.

And this morning, I responded to one of my dad's posts and, after submitting my comment, I began to wonder: Should I have said what I did in the way that I did? I think what I said is accurate, fair, and insightful--like most of what I write <cough>--but would I say it Swanson's face? Would I post such a comment on his blog--assuming he ever enabled comments?

Probably not.

Similarly, how I talk to Amber or Justin about our MathTacular projects is very different from what I would say to my mom. Does that mean that I'm lying to either party? Am I disingenuous?

I don't think so.

I am, however, hopefully responding in such a way that makes sense to my audience. I'm attempting to speak to them in a way they understand. My words change, not because my message is different, but because my audience is. Blogging, however, makes this much harder because anyone can come across my words. That's scary.

And when we are critiquing the ideas of another, how do we apply Psalm 19:14? I want my words and thoughts to be pleasing to God, and part of that is watching my doctrine which often means working through what appear to be errors in others' ideas.

Hmm... now I wish more than ever that Swanson would post his ideas and allow people to comment. Then I could say these things to his face, and I think it be helpful. As it is now, I fear that my words are not as gracious or uplifting as they should be. But I don't know, Jesus wasn't particularly mild when it came to urging for correction...

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

I stumbled across the following quote today, and I liked it, so I'm sharing it with you:

All half-decent parents home-educate their children, in effect, until children learn to educate themselves.

I also read an interesting article about HR 1966, based on some comments by Sebastian which alerted me to its existence.

Here's what I perceive as the dilemma: No one thinks bullying is a good thing--much like hate crimes or other maladies--but in our effort to eradicate them we create much bigger problems. In both of these instances, free speech is eliminated under the guise hope of stopping evil.

And so we take a few more steps toward the world portrayed in V for Vendetta: A world where we give up our liberties for "safety." ...which reminds me of that quote: They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

My guess is that all half-decent people don't partake in hate crimes or cyberbullying, and legislation isn't going to stop the real instances of it happening. And, really, what have the "zero-tolerance" policies of our local schools done to end violence and bullying in the real world, where it is easier to monitor?

May our children learn to be gracious, kind, and loving in a world that is quickly clamping down around them. And may we have the wisdom to know how best to speak in a world that is slowly trying to censor us.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Sonlight's homeschool experience is based on Core programs. These packages include History, Geography, and Literature (as well as Bible in the upper grades). To this you can add other subject options that fit your family: Math, Spelling...

Here's what I learned today: Sometimes customers swing by our site and want to purchase just our History... and they are so excited that they buy it without even reading the description of the package which alerts them to the fact that it's just a package of books and you need the Instructor's Guide for it to be a complete history program... and if you're going to shell out the money for that, a Core would be a great option for you!

They totally don't see any of that.

The same is true for our Literature packages as well.

So, lesson learned. Now we're working on making that clearer. And, honestly, I was super confused for a couple hours while I tried to sort all of this out. Thankfully, I work with great people who very patiently talked me through the steps and everything that goes into this. And, hopefully, I'll be able to do the same for you now too <smile>.

But it's going to take a little time. There's so much to be done.

And if you come across anything that is confusing to you, please let us know. I can't fix everything instantly--wish I could--but I'm always looking for ways to make it even easier to use Sonlight and our site. Thanks!

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father