Wow! It’s been almost a full month since my last post! Everyone’s been asking me “Where ya been?” and so forth. Well, things continue to be quite busy for me, but here’s just a basic rundown of what I’ve been doing.
At work, we’re on the verge of releasing not only a new version of our current product, but a couple of new products as well. As you can imagine, in the software industry, that means sweating deadlines and massive testing, re-testing, and testing some more. I don’t deal overly well with stress, and I have to be honest, these kinds of situations take thier toll on me.
At church, I’ve resumed teaching Sunday school, and we’ve picked up Church history with the Crusades. We had lots of fun with the Fourth crusade this past Sunday, since it could possibly be argued that the Protestant reformation would have never occurred if not for an unpaid bill. 
Solid Rock Youth resumes this Thursday night where I’ll be teaching the Jr. high group on the nature and meaning of “the fall.” In my small group with Tieren and co, we’re going to work our way through 1 Corinthians, as the Lord seems to be leading us all to that book over and over again.
At home, Alyssa’s looking forward to resuming ‘Team Kid’ this Wednesday night. Marsha’s excited that her sister Joyce is up from Wisconsin for a visit. We had a great time at my mother-in-laws birthday shindig on Friday night, which included munchies and the singing of many praise songs. As for me, my home has become my sanctuary, a moment of silence in an otherwise noisy world.
Admittedly, my stress levels have inspired me to be a little anti-social. Humans, by their very nature, tend to instigate drama, and that is one thing I would very much wish to avoid. So while I could have much to say on the whole DR drama, that’s not my immediate goal. Even those I care for immensely, like Dr. White, have been subject to my anti-socialness chiefly because folks in his position seem to constantly wade hip-deep in drama, and I am incapable of dealing with it effectively at this point in time.
Speaking of which, time for a semi-related rant… addressed to ALL of the current blogging apologists out there:
I don’t think blogging is working for you, or at the very least, it’s not working for me. While the older tradition is of writing essays and articles on various subjects, often in response to other’s writings, is far more time-consuming and arduous, it does seem to offer a level of perceived decorum and scholarly demeanor that the blog-format seems to lack. While many of the arguments are perfectly valid, they get lost in the Crossfire-esque witticisms that are flung back and forth. It no longer matters if youre on the defending or offending side of the wall, that wall is still covered with graffiti, mud, cracks and a smattering of blood which no one can look at for very long before their stomach voices its unease. I can no longer recommend to those I desire to reach the various apologetic blog sites out there, mainly because it just makes no sense anymore. If, for example, I wanted to send my pastor to a website to get a feel for the key topics with regard to New Perspectivism, the LAST place I would send him to would be the current apologetic blogs. Not only would he have to muddle through the ad hominem and plain ol name-calling (especially on this topic in particular), but he would be confronted with the very same problem that readers have with a book like Debating Calvinism. Dr. White rightly pointed out that, in order to see the arguments in their proper context in that book, you should read it as it was chronologically written. Only then could you see that Dave Hunt was making straw-man assertions about issues that he had already been corrected on. Reading it straight through from start to finish gave you the idea that Dave had not yet received any information on what Irresistible Grace actually is, as defined by the Calvinist. A chronological-order reading would correct that misunderstanding.
So it is with the blogs. My pastor, in order to understand any of the discussions, would have to pop back and forth between literally hundreds of blog entries and their comments, all offering piecemeal expositions of some of the key issues, and reactionary remarks on many issues which remain unrelated or peripheral to the matter at hand (the DR drama in relation to New Perspectivism, for example). Why would I ever do that? What could possibly be the advantage? No, Id much rather point him to a series of articles, or a structured debate on the matter, than have him muddle through the mire of blog-goo thats currently occupying far too much bandwidth for my tastes.
Theres my very practical $0.02 on the matter. These blogs only have real meaning to use who are in them every day, and know the history underlying them. To anyone else (again, only in my opinion), they are all but useless and I would not recommend them to anyone within my small fellowship of theologically-minded brethren. If said blogs were distinct and separated even by a simple link designed for ongoing discussion and interaction, that might be another thing entirely. For now, however, I guess Ill just give my brethren printed materials with the sources clearly indicated rather than sending them straight into the battleground the try to locate those materials themselves.
