Jesonian… April 8th, 2017

 Jonathots Daily Blog

(3270)

The Disagreeable Disciple

Disciple: I love you, my Lord.

Master: Well, thank you. So let’s get to work.

Disciple: I’m all ears.

Master: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Disciple: I pick up that the key word there is “neighbor,” which connotes they’re neighborly. If you mean being kind to neighborly people, then I get it.

Master: Your neighbor is everybody.

Disciple: I understand your heart, but that seems a little unrealistic.

Master: Judge not lest you be judged.

Disciple: I hear you. Gossip is a horrible thing. But there are things that need to be spoken against. Things that you, yourself, certainly don’t condone. So I believe there’s a difference between speaking up against evil and judging people.

Master: What if I told you that I don’t make that distinction?

Disciple: Interesting.

Master: When you pray, enter your closet, and when you shut the door, pray to your Father in secret.

Disciple: At our latest prayer seminar, we were discussing the power of thousands and thousands of people praying together over a common theme. Sometimes my personal prayers seem so anemic–lonely, if you will.

Master: And the Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.

Disciple: Once again, interesting.

Master: In the Kingdom of God there is neither male nor female.

Disciple: Yet you want is to keep our social roles, am I correct? Women as mothers, men as fathers. Also good to study the different personality traits and emotional leanings. Is this true?

Master: Kingdom of God. Neither male nor female.

Disciple: Much to think about.

Master: And whenever you’ve done it unto the least of these, you’ve done it unto me.

Disciple: Now I know we’re on page! We have a food pantry at the church and we take care of hungry kids in after-school programs. We’re tracking this one down.

Master: By least, I don’t mean social order or poverty. I mean the ones you personally consider the least among humanity. The prisoners, the terminally ill, the outcasts, the individuals who don’t necessarily conform to your moral code.

Disciple: Sounds like you’re suggesting we condone sin.

Master: No, I’m telling you that you’ll be judged by how you treat the people you have deemed to be least.

Disciple: Wow, you’re sure giving me a lot to ponder. But you have to be pleased when you see your people gather to worship you every week in church.

Master: In vain do they worship me, because they teach their traditions as if they are commandments of God instead of mere preferences of this generation.

Disciple: But you do like praise and worship?

Master: Worship should be in spirit and truth–a mingling of our hopes with the impact of reality.

Disciple: You know, I haven’t thought about these things from this perspective for a long time.

Master: I’ve never thought about them from any other perspective.

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Dear Man/Dear Woman: A Noteworthy Conversation … June 25th, 2016

 Jonathots Daily Blog

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Dear Man: So are you a Martian?

 

Dear Woman: What?

 

Dear Man: John Gray, in his book back in 1992, claimed that men were from Mars and women were from Venus. So I guess that would make you a Martian.

 

Dear Woman: And you a Venetian.

 

Dear Man: Isn’t that a set of blinds?

 

Dear Woman: Yes. Can the blinds lead the blinds?

 

Dear Man: You didn’t go there, did you?

 

Dear Woman: I did.

 

Dear Man: I think it’s dangerous to think that the two genders of one species are from two different planets, with no plan to build a space ship.

 

Dear Woman: It’s a cop-out. I’m sure this Gray fellow was nice and all, but he didn’t realize that fostering the ignorance of an ongoing farce is not realism–it’s pandering.

 

Dear Man: Yeah. I guess it would just be easier for me to think you were nuts and I was fruitful.

 

Dear Woman: And easier for me to believe that you are incapable of understanding me.

 

Dear Man: Here’s the truth–we both have landed on Earth. We can’t escape to another sphere of living without jeopardizing our relationship and probably even the balance of life itself.

 

Dear Woman: So rather than making up a conflict or feeding a present disagreement, I think it’s contingent on both you and me to try to get along on Earth.

 

Dear Man: Well said. Let me start off by telling you that the first thing all Earthlings have to realize in order to survive here–whether they’re male or female–is that truth gives you freedom. If you lie, you’re bound to spend all your time covering up the lie. The only way to get freedom–whether you have a vagina or a penis–is to tell the truth. Otherwise, you’re in bondage.

Dear Woman: Can I offer a second? Commonality creates allies. I will tell you–Mars and Venus thinking is just a clever way to cover the nastiness of gender bias, just as the pursuit of “culture” is the new Jim Crow.

 

Dear Man: What do you mean by that?

 

Dear Woman: I mean, commonality creates allies. When we insist we’re different, it separates us into camps, which invites bigotry.

 

Dear Man: I get that. So the more we find in common, the more we become allies. As allies, we don’t need to fight anymore just to prove we’re uniquely male or female. So can I give a third one?

 

Dear Woman: Fire away.

 

Dear Man: Respect preserves love. Once we convince ourselves there’s some sort of quiet mutual disrespect going on, love rots. Love cannot survive disrespect.

 

Dear Woman: Boy, is that true. If I think that you think I’m kind of stupid, I will find it difficult to love you.

 

Dear Man: And if I think you think I’m lesser, I won’t have any motivation to give you my love.

 

Dear Woman: So let me make a bold statement–John Gray and those who followed him may have felt they were being contemporary with their observations, but what they ended up doing was driving a wedge between the only forces that can unite to make the world better–men and women.

 

Dear Man: We live on Earth, not Venus or Mars. We are not separated by outer space. Truth gives us freedom, commonality creates allies and respect preserves our love.

 

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G-Poppers…May 8th, 2015

 

  Jonathots Daily Blog

(2575)

 

For a very brief season, G-Pop taught a college class.

On opening day, he asked his students to take a quiz. Needless to say, the room was filled with quizzical expressions.

He presented them with 10 questions. He told them that in determining their answers they could take into consideration wealth, poverty, male, female, gay, straight, black, brown, Native American, statistics, history, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Hispanic and white.

This was the test:

Who is more likely…

1. …to steal something from you?
2. …to commit violent murder?
3. …to molest a small child?
4. …to open a casino in Nebraska?
5. …to take their children to Disney World?
6. …to graduate with honors in mathematics from MIT?
7. …to be in the military?
8. …to be a billionaire?
9. …to be a genius?
10. …to believe in God?

Even though there were a few mumbles and grumbles from the student body, all completed the test and turned it in to G-Pop.

The next day when they arrived, he passed the tests back to them unmarked.

Then he said, “All of you completed the test. All of you, in some way, shape or form, decided to take into consideration the factors I mentioned in determining your answers. I’m going to allow you to grade your own papers and give yourself a score. I will tell my answers and you can evaluate how well you did.

Let’s start with #1.

Who is more likely to steal something? The answer is a thief.

Commit a violent murder? A murderer.

How about molest a small child? A pedophile.

Who will be opening that casino in Nebraska? A venture capitalist.

And of course, the person who would take their children to Disney World is a good parent.

Who’s the math whiz? An excellent student.

Who would join the military? A patriot.

A billionaire? A budding successful entrepreneur.

How about a genius? I would say a hard worker.

Is there some type of individual who’s more likely to believe in God? Yes. A person of faith.”

G-Pop paused. All the students had their eyes glued to their papers, reviewing their answers. A point had been made.

For after all, social justice does not begin when we recognize blatant bigotry in the world.

It starts when we acknowledge the prejudice in our own hearts.

 

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