MY 500TH POST

I have been blogging for over twelve years and it seemed to me that number 500 should be something special; but since no particular topic came to mind, I'll just post some rambling thoughts.

I keep a hard copy of every post, and save them in 3-ring notebooks of 100 each. So this one will fill up my fifth.  The first four notebooks took about two years each to fill up, but this last one took four years.  It's not that I have run out of stuff to say, it's just that much of what I have to say I've said before and I feel that I'm boring enough without repeating myself too much.  Plus, often when I think I need to speak up on a matter, I find that someone else has already written an article saying it better.

If there are any out there who have been reading this blog regularly over the yearsthey may feel that my thinking has changed in many matters, but as I re-read my old posts I feel that I have been reasonably consistent (although there are a few posts I feel need correcting or updating and a few need to be thrown out.)  I feel rather that my thinking has sharpened in many ways.  I'm only 81 years old and still learning.  Writing does have that effect on ones thinking, or as Sir Francis Bacon said:  "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."

Though I have undoubtedly failed many times, I have attempted to keep my thinking and writing within a Biblical/Christian world view and I am open to correction whenever I appear to stray from this goal.  I also have attempted to think with a "liberal" mind, by which I mean a mind open to new truths.  And I believe strongly that there is such a thing as truth and that "All truth is God's truth." (Though I can't find an original source for that quote.)

I believe that ethics, morals and politics have been changing within American culture, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better.  And sad to say, ethics, morals and politics have also been changing within the church, at times going right along with those of the culture around us, at other times in a reactionary fashion.  This, I suppose has not been happening only in my last 12 years of blogging, nor in the years of my lifetime, but since the beginning of the human race.

"If you see something, say something" is a current exhortation.  Well I suppose that much of what I write on this blog is just that; when I see something that I feel requires me to speak, I must speak.

I have found quite a few would agree with my thoughts and quite a few would disagree.  I still welcome any comments.  A few requests for those who disagree:

            - If you are a Christian please make sure of where your disagreements come from.  Are they compatible with a Biblical/Christian worldview? It's very difficult to resolve matters when we are starting from different points.

            - Please avoid ad hominem arguments and please avoid trying to put me in a box and please don't think you've proven anything because you've called me names. ("You think that way because you're a ...!")  I've lately been accused of being a "liberal blowhard," a "Marxist," an "American-bashing historical revisionist," "delusional" and a few more.

Actually I take some comfort when disagreements and criticisms degenerate into name calling.  I figure I must be saying something right when these are the only arguments that can be mustered.

I welcome any suggestions for further posts.  Of course, then I'll have a buy a new 3-ring binder.