Empty

A customer calls. She cannot access the online tool she purchased 6 months ago and is now getting around to using it.

“Hi, this is James. What can I do for you?”

“Yes, I can’t access the data that I purchased because I can’t log in.”

“No problem! Do you remember your username and password?”

“I remember my username, it’s my first initial and last name all lower case, but I can’t remember my password.”

“That is quite alright. I can email your password to you.”

“Just tell it to me before you try to email it to me?”

“Ahhhhh. Let me unencrypt it.”

James tries to sound busy by lightly tapping the keys on his keyboard so it sounds like he was typing, but he’s not really typing. He starts thinking about the word unencrypt. “That’s not a word.” Since it wasn’t a word he thought of the word crypt.

He thought about the 3^rd grade field trip he took to a crypt. It was pretty scary. The class walked over to where there were old white stone coffins. They were raised about 3 feet off the ground. They had black stains that seemed to drip over the side but never hit the ground. Even the stones looked dead.

James remembered pitying the taller third graders because when he walked past the coffins he was at the perfect height to see inside of them but not have to smell inside of them. He was shocked to find that there was nothing inside. Actually, It was the fact that he was so shocked to find nothing inside of the first one that he looked in every single open coffin. They were empty. All of them.

He wondered whether or not the closed coffins were empty. He wanted to open one. He thought it would be like Indiana Jones in the “Last Crusade”. He wondered if he would find a cool sword. It doesn’t matter how much fire is burning around him, he would have picked up that sword and taken it with him.

He wondered if he could hide the sword from his teacher, Mrs. Dutler. Mrs. Dutler was a jerk. James visited her church one Sunday and she told him that he would never be smart or tall because he was not Dutch and because his dad did not believe that women should hold a church office.

“Are you done encrypting the password yet?”

“Sorry this is taking so long. Almost done.”

He squeezed a fist above his mouse to get the blood flowing. When he did that he remembered what it felt like when he thrust the throttle of the tractor so that he could make it up a sharp incline. He remembered how the incline would make his son’s head shift involuntarily from his neck to his shoulder blade as he fell asleep on him. He remembered the gentle hum of the tractor, and clanging like Christmas bells of the chisel and the harrow nervously scratching the soil behind him.

At that moment, there was no hum and Christmas was still far off. The mouse was not nearly as powerful as the throttle. Excalibur did not lie at the bottom of the coffin and 3^rd grade was really just the second half of 2^nd grade.

He wished the password line was empty. He wished it was as empty as the field was from noise and the tractor from people and the coffin from swords and dead people and his typing from actually making words. He wished that the password line was as empty as the meaning of 3^rd grade and the word unencrypt. But it wasn’t.

“Your password is I<3butts.”

“Oh, I used that one” The voice on the other end said with absolutely no remorse like she had an entire arsenal of stupid passwords ready to be deployed at a moments notice. James couldn’t help think that it was odd that she remembered the rather in depth criteria for a functional username but could not remember her very stupid and personal password.

He also thought that it could have been a brilliant tactic to keep a password from being stolen. He though that somewhere a Russian guy named Vladimir with round mettle framed glasses and long greasy black hair that he would often have to be swipe out of the way so he could see out of his left eye is kicking himself saying, “I vould have never guessed it vas zat! Now I vill never know how much a lawyer makes in Cleveland!”

“Would you like me to change it manually?” James asked.

“No, I’m in now. Thanks for the help.”

“Anytime”

New Bag Project

This is going to be what I make next.

This bag is by All Souls Laptop Bag. It sell for £150.00

Boots

There are many worth wile boots. Here are the top three.

1. Alden 405 Indy Boot

These are the 2nd most comfortable thing I have ever put on my feet. However, their durability, style, and fit make them wear like a work boot but look like a dress boot. Due to the durable Horween's Chromexcel leather upper and lining and Neocork sole these boots are good for any occasion which is probably why they were cosen to be Indiana Jone's boots. These boots feel like they form to your feet as soon as you put them on. There is no uncomfortable time frame for breaking them in. Each day you wear them them become for and more you shoes. They are larger boots that also wear like smatter boots.

2. Wolverine 1000 Mile Boot

These are the most comfortable boot I have ever worn. I ranked the 2nd only because they are so nice that I don't wear them as often as the rest of my boots. However, their classic plain toe design and breathable leather sole make them a pleasure to wear. I can't emphasize enough how good my feet feel after a day of wearing these boots. The sole breath so much it is almost like they are make out of lungs.

These boot also feature top quality Horween Chromexcel Leather uppers and linings. In that sense they are similar to the Alden 405. However, a stacked leather outsole and classic welt construction set them apart. Nevertheless, I have been much more apprehensive in wearing them in incubant weather and for that alone I cannot rank them number 1.

3. Red Wing Iron Ranger Boot

The boots are only a little bit more comfortable than your normal shoe, but they really make a fashion statement. They age beautifully, but take a while to be broken in. I have worn mine for 6 months and they are still being broken in. However, they are extreamly durable. The boots feature a Muleskinner leather upper, Goodyear welt construction with a rubber sole, and a cork and leather insole that molds to your foot.

They are third on my list because you can't get more comfortable than Wolverine 1000 Mile boot and Alden 405 boot. Their cap toe construction also sets them apart, but at the same time brought down to the level of a working man. This makes me wonder. If we dressed like worker at an iron smelting plant 100 years ago, would we even need a dress codes?

ReChair

Out with the old and in with the new. This chair is very similar to the sleepy rustic recliners we have in our house in Dorset, Vermont. I found the rustic blood red leather at Salvation Army for $3.50 and fitted over an old couch cushion foam that was "cut to size". I cut it large so that when you sat in the chair it would be a complete concave, hugging the backside and curling the support up the thighs making this chair ideal for sitting back and putting your feet up. I have to say, it works great! The loose design of the leather puts little pressure on the seams but in turn tends you wear the leather in the pattern of folds. The chair folds differently depending on who is sitting in it. Basically, the more you sit in it the better it feels.

New Messanger Bag

This was the first attempt at a bag. The Leather is cow hide and the strap is old fire hose. I have yet to add a hinge to fasten it. MORE TO COME!

The China Condition

This is why China will never be anything more than a cheap attempt at freedom. “The (Chinese) government says... that myth, superstitions and reincarnation are all questionable.”

I will not do what Marx does and point out every failure of the capitalistic system within the socialist system. Instead I will point out that socialism is the vehicle of the agnostic hatred of beauty and imagination. It is it self a failure of epic proportions.

Socialism, like it's cousin, psychoanalytic theory, is a practice based completely on the ability to control. In the case of psychoanalytic theory, it is meant to control an individual and in most cases, an individual sin or condition or phobia or what have you. Socialism is that theory taken to the masses. Socialism is a group of principles that are designed to control the masses. It approached social problem the same way Freud would approach a condition or neurosis. I have no major problem with the Freudian approach to psychoanalytic psychology as long as you call a sin a sin and not a condition. However, socialism generally uses the same principles to come to it's social conclusions.

One can approach a sin or condition or neuroses in their life from the psychoanalytic perspective and successfully identify it and fix it. Often, I feel like one could get the same result by being hoest with themselves. Another words, psychoanalytic psychology attempts to get you to drop your inhibitions so that you can get to the knot of repressed desires, thoughts, actions and so on. A Christian can then attribute the cause of the repressed desire to sin and deal with the sin.

The socialist system applies the same methods to social sins or conditions. They identify the problem of discontent and weed it out. However, a political party is not the same as an individual person. In fact, the church is not the same as an individual person. This is to say that you can approach sin in a church the same way you approach sin in yourself or in another individual. Socialist pagans like we find in power in China, attempt to use the psychoanalytic method to weed out conditions in society. Oddly enough, many christian today attempt to do the same thing in the church by making sweeping statement of condemnation on a certain topic. For example, it is popular in todays church to condemn lazy parents who never have a home cooked meal by attacking the very act of going to McDonalds. This is nothing less than socialism in the Church.

The principles of psychoanalytic psychology are meant to control behavior and in turn better ones life. This is think is a very Christian attitude. However, it is very clear that when individual use these tactics at the church level it infringes all forms of christian liberties just as socialism infringes all forms of social liberties. Instead good church leadership will identify large social sins and deal with them from the pulpit as sins and in faith that the word of God to man is sufficient to weed the sin instead of idealizing a sin as a condition and legalizing an act against the actions. This is the meaning of, "For God so love the world that he gave his only begoten Son".

Idealism was owned my the church until Marx came along and made is kosher pagan's. Before Marx pagan were really just allowed to be completely hedonistic. However, Socialism has the same idealistic draws that the Roman Catholic church has to some Protestant church members. However, this time they get to proclaim that the ideals are not Roman Catholic but merely plundering the tombs of the socialists.

Lastly, this post is not against idealism. It is against socialist method of idealism. Idealism that is based in the word of God is fine, as long as it is an idealism that is based on faith.

AGNOSTICISM AND AGRICULTURE

My wife calls you trend junkies. Yes, you who consider all forms of industrialized farming to be “raping the ground.” Sure (you concede) supporting “unsustainable” farming or eating a McDonald’s hamburger is not a sin. . . technically. You would never ever say that. But you flex all of your wee holinesses attacking it anyway.

Where does this fervor for righteous eating come from? The roots of these concerns (and other similar ones) may have come down from the New Age movement that crept its significant way into the church in the 60’s and 70’s. But this essay isn’t about the New Age movement. That’s old news. This is about a newer pagan movement sneaking into the church.

Much in the same way that the New Age movement came into the church in the form of squishy liturgy, moral ambiguity, and young men and women making relativistic excuses for sin and corruption, the agnostic movement is starting to make the same kind of headway in the church. Only this time it is in the form of the most recent trend to hit Planet Earth (or at least the white and rich part of it). I am talking about sustainable agriculture, the green movement, and progressivist governmental control over the production and distribution of food.

At the outset, I should say that I grow/raise almost all of my own food (from beef to fruits and vegetables) and believe that keeping a healthy diet is a dandy thing to do. Also, somehow, my wife has never eaten a McDonald’s hamburger. I have worked in almost every type of farming and have done so on three different continents. But I’m not using my own experiences to draw methodological conclusions. I am, however, willing to maintain that my eye is calibrated to see the latest cultural trends for what they are as they creep into the church and systemically affect every part of its ministry.

The root of the problem comes from well-meaning agnostics like Michael Pollan. There are many other agnostics and non-committal religious folks that have spoken up on this subject, but I will focus on Pollan since he is the writer that has been brought up most frequently in my own church community.

And kicking the debate up one more inflammatory notch, I need to say that the root of Pollan’s problem flows from Karl Marx. Most of the issues being made about food and agriculture within the church are the result of Christians attempting to glean godly principles from writers like Pollan. However, their principles are based on Marx’s principles of a socialist society.

At the root of Marx is a distinction between needs and wants. Needs are things that are required to support and sustain life and wants are everything else. Marx uses a Hegelian dialectic to set up his universe, and, in my opinion, this distinction is at the root of Marx’s universe. But this is not a biblical distinction.

Now this is not to say that the Bible does not distinguish between needs and wants. The Bible just doesn’t use Marx’s definitions for them. In fact, the Bible usually refers to Christians needing to die as Christ did. Taking the life of Christ as an example we see that the goal is not to live but to continuously die so that life (for others) may persist. Take the life of the apostles as an example; Christ tells them to give up everything, emphasizing that things like food and shelter will be provided by God.

When Marx looks at the world through the glasses of needs and wants, in the background there is a nice and tidy Hegelian dialectic where one can determine the next step of action, which always leads to revolution. If you don’t need a thing then it is a want. If you want a thing, then someone must be profiting off of those desires and using those wants to create and maintain leverage and control over the people—the workers. This is how capitalism creates greedy pigs that profit from placing a desire or a fetish—a want—in a society. And if you doubt that this grandchild of Marxism is in play in the whole foodie discussion, ask yourself where all the language of exploitation is coming from. Why is growing ten thousand acres of wheat and thereby driving down the price of a loaf of bread in impoverished nations considered exploitation (of the land and the consumer)? Why are fast-food laws justified as a protection of the people from the exploitation of corporations (when dollar menus are about the only reason why it’s practically impossible to starve in this country). Needs and wants, needs and wants. And in Marx’s world, wants are always points of exploitation, points where government is needed as a protection. The only thing that could make the whole push more obvious is if the co-opy wise-men started talking about gastronomical justice.

In Pollan’s books on food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, this is exactly the line of reasoning that he is using. He argues that big bad industrial farming is unclean and cruel, and is there in order to promote the fetishes created by capitalistic pigs, marketers, and shareholders. Why would anybody want a bag of Fritos otherwise? Wants equal manufactured desire and manipulation. (Help, I’m being exploited!) He may even be occasionally right (not that I care if some Fritos salesmen don’t actually want what’s best for me—I am not actually coerced into eating those tasty, curly corn fingernails). But the way Pollan arrives at his conclusion is straight out of the godless and mechanistic Marxist playbook.

Some might think Pollan is not an agnostic Marxist bent on leaving the world with more government regulation. To that I would say, wake up. Don’t be so naive. But I’m straying a bit from the point. This is not an essay on Pollan. Not entirely, at least.

There is a Christian response to greed and materialism within a capitalistic society and it is not Pollan’s response. Greed must be dealt with as a sin with every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It is not being dealt with that way, however. The trend junkies and culture-mongers within the church end up using agnostic reasoning to deal with broad undefined “greed.” Because the church has bought into the agnostic principles from the beginning, there can be no useful Christian methods gleaned. This would be more obvious if we were attempting to apply agnostic beliefs to marriage, or child rearing (of course, many do). But, since we are talking about food and world-wide agricultural methods it is far less obvious to us. Doesn’t the sin lie in actual greed? How can sin lie in efficient agriculture? What’s biblically wrong with a farmer attempting to keep his checkbook in the black?

Instead of policing themselves for the rotten sin that lies festering within, and instead of spending their time in an effort to counsel thieves and adulterers in the community, the trend junkies have whole-heartedly attacked the idea of farming and food consumption. As long as he is eating the proper food, the Pharisee can make himself feel quite good warring against someone who does not implement the methods of proper eating. So the Pharisee stands and cries, “I thank you, God that I have the better understanding of how to eat!”

There are biblical principles to guide farmers and hold them accountable. Marx does (inconsistently) point out the sin of materialism in a capitalistic society. Pollan does wish the best for everyone’s health and for the cleanliness of this planet. However, Pollan and Marx do not start with the Bible and they definitely don’t finish with the Bible.

Christians attempting to use Marxist principles are going to end up arguing like agnostics. They define what is healthy and what is environmentally conscious without any use of the Bible, and then they hold the rest of the world to those emotional convictions, emotionally held. And because they don’t have a sure word from God, they will be passive aggressive in how they go about it. This is essentially how agnosticism has entered into the church through the guise of this “stewardship” movement.

Reject Pollan. He knows nothing of our Savior and what people actually need. Do not fall for agnostic principles shrouded in New Age relativism and propped up by a squishy Christianity (when not passive aggressive, it is simply squishy aggressive).

If you think a farmer is raping the earth by not using organic manure, and you go to that farmer and tell him so, then don’t be offended if that farmer replies that you’re full of enough manure for the both of you, manure provided by an agnostic alarmist who wants a lot more government control over everyone’s personal life because of a Marxist lie. Don’t give up godly dominion to the state in order to appease a false conviction placed in your heart by those who would swindle the world of eternal life—and all in order to eat their type of food.