All posts by Wintery Knight

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News

Football player sees autistic boy sitting alone at lunch, sits with him

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Florida State University football player is a hero
Florida State University football player sees  an opportunity to make things right and takes it

Here’s a story from WGN Chicago that I want to comment about.

Excerpt:

While visiting Montford Middle School with teammates on Tuesday, Florida State University wide receiver Travis Rudolph spotted a boy sitting by himself at lunch, and asked if he could sit next to him according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Later in the day, Bo Paske’s mom posted a photo to Facebook that is capturing hearts.

“I’m not sure what exactly made this incredibly kind man share a lunch table with my son, but I’m happy to say that it will not soon be forgotten,” she wrote.

“He started off and was so open,” Rudolph told the newspaper. “He told me his name was Bo, and how much he loves Florida State, and he went from there.”

Rudolph is the Seminoles’ leading returning receiver, and in addition to earning the praise of his coaches, gained a mother’s love, who says they’re now FSU fans for life.

“This is one day I didn’t have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone, because he sat across from someone who is a hero in many eyes,” the mom stated in her post.

Here’s some of what the mother of the boy said in her post:

Now that I have a child starting middle school, I have feelings of anxiety for him, and they can be overwhelming if I let them. Sometimes I’m grateful for his autism. That may sound like a terrible thing to say, but in some ways I think, I hope, it shields him. He doesn’t seem to notice when people stare at him when he flaps his hands. He doesn’t seem to notice that he doesn’t get invited to birthday parties anymore. And he doesn’t seem to mind if he eats lunch alone. It’s one of my daily questions for him. Was there a time today you felt sad? Who did you eat lunch with today? Sometimes the answer is a classmate, but most days it’s nobody. Those are the days I feel sad for him, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He is a super sweet child, who always has a smile and hug for everyone he meets. A friend of mine sent this beautiful picture to me today and when I saw it with the caption “Travis Rudolph is eating lunch with your son” I replied “who is that?” He said “FSU football player”, then I had tears streaming down my face. Travis Rudolph, a wide receiver at Florida State, and several other FSU players visited my sons school today. I’m not sure what exactly made this incredibly kind man share a lunch table with my son, but I’m happy to say that it will not soon be forgotten. This is one day I didn’t have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone, because he sat across from someone who is a hero in many eyes. Travis Rudolph thank you so much, you made this momma exceedingly happy, and have made us fans for life!

I am friends with a number of high achieving, dedicated Christians. A lot of them are very focused on school and work, and it doesn’t help that I bully them to get good grades and make money. But I worry sometimes about whether, when they read their Bibles, they are really getting the message of taking care of their neighbors. I want them to have the same heart as the football player did in the story, to sit down and spend time with those who are needy or awkward or unpopular.

I remember growing up very poor, and being a different color than all the well-off white students in the school. I would often go to school with messy hair and torn or faded clothes, because we just didn’t have the money to buy me expensive polo shirts like some of the other kids wore. My parents were immigrants. I didn’t get invited to many birthday parties, either. I know what it feels like to sit alone at a table because of things that I can’t control being uncomfortable for others.

The Bible actually has something to say about it.

Luke 10:25-37:

25 And a [a]lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? [b]How does it read to you?”

27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and [c]beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.

31 And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32 Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

33 But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,

34 and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

35 On the next day he took out two [d]denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’

36 Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do [e]the same.”

I will say that today it can be difficult to reach out to the other, especially since so many on the secular left make it a condition of talking to them that you agree with them, that you hide your faith and convictions, that you celebrate everything that they are doing even if it is sinful and destructive. They are so intolerant that they even try to get you fired if you disagree with them on moral issues. Still, there are some non-leftist people who are not popular and who will let you be who you are safely. The man who was beat up was a victim of forces outside of his control, he was being immoral and demanding that everyone celebrate his immorality. He was safe to help.

As long as I am free to be who I am as a Christian, what is it the harm of sitting with unpopular people? After all, as long as I’m an open Christian, I’m probably not going to be accepted by the popular crowd anyway. Sin is popular, today. Drinking and hooking up and sexual immorality are popular. I think we ought to be looking for opportunities to be open and welcoming to those who do not force us to hide our faith and deny our moral convictions. For those people who are “safe”, we shouldn’t resent their demands. Another person’s needs shouldn’t be a deterrent to reaching out to them. Their hostility to our faith and moral convictions might be, if we judge them to be dangerous.

And I think this openness to opportunity is even more important, if they are asking for advice on spiritual things. Every person was made to know God, and when a person comes to you and asks about God, that makes them the most important person in the world. You have to drop everything and handle that opportunity.

News

What are some reasons why God might allow his creatures to suffer?

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Lets take a closer look at a puzzle
Lets take a closer look at a puzzle

There’s an interesting article posted at Belief Map.

He sets up the possible reasons with a very good explanation of the structure of the argument. His explanation allows him to balance the existence of suffering with “greater goods”.

Most Christians can name some of the ones that he talks about: free will, character formation, etc.

But what about this quote from a section entitled “Worldly people turning to seek God is good”:

Seeking fellowship with God is a great good (especially in the context of eternity). This is relevant because, with less suffering, fewer would seek God. Indeed,

• “Religiosity declines as worldly prosperity of individuals rises.”[2005 WIN-Gallup International poll]1

• Studies confirm that Christianity grows most rapidly during hardships.2

• It is intuitively clear that suffering would lead us to turn to God.3

• Eleonore Stump (Philosophy professor at Saint Louis): “Natural evil—the pain of disease, the intermittent and unpredictable destruction of natural disasters, the decay of old age, the imminence of death—takes away a person’s satisfaction with himself. It tends to humble him, show him his frailty, make him reflect on the transience of temporal goods, and turn his affections towards other-worldly things, away from the things of this world.” [“The Problem of Evil” Faith and Philosophy, 2 (1985): 409.]

A bit later, it says this:

This is not to say God causes suffering, or even that that God permits suffering to bring this about. It only says the world is better to at least some degree for God’s not preventing it for a time, and God’s knowing that could factor into overriding his reasons to prevent suffering.

For example:

• Peter van Inwagen: “If God did what is proposed, we should all be satisfied with our existence–or at least a lot closer to being satisfied than most of us are now. And if we are satisfied with our existence, why should we even consider turning to God and asking for His help? An essential and important component of God’s plan of Atonement—this constitutes an addition to our theodicy—is to make us dissatisfied with our state of separation from Him; and not by miraculously altering our values or by subjecting us to illusion or by causing us suffering that has no natural connection with our separation, but simply by allowing us to ‘live with’ the natural consequences of this separation, and by making it as difficult as possible for us to delude ourselves about the kind of world we live in: a hideous world, much of whose hideousness is quite plainly traceable to the inability of human beings to govern themselves to or order their own lives. Let us expand our theodicy: An essential part of God’s plan of Atonement for separated humanity is for human beings to perceive that a natural consequence of human beings’ attempting to order their own lives is a hideous world—a world that is hideous not only by His standards, but by the very standards they themselves accept.” [“The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: A Theodicy” Philosophical Topics Vol XVI, No. 2 (1988): 174.]

[…]

• Paul Moser (Philosophy professor at Loyola University Chicago): “We can make some sense, in Paul’s wake, of why a perfectly loving God would allow certain kinds of pain and suffering. This God, as perfectly loving, would be after something more valuable than human sensory pleasure and the satisfaction of worldly human wants. God would hope that people be liberated from deadly idols in virtue of trusting God as the authoritative Lord who provides genuine human security and contentment, come what may in this world. This divine hope could thus make good use of allowing pain and suffering among us rather than protecting us from all pain and suffering. This would be part of God’s redemptive judgment of human idols, by bringing them to noticeable futility, for the sake of reconciliation of humans to God in volitional fellowship with God. It would be judgment intended, at least characteristically, to correct humans from their reliance on futile idols and to restore them to their creator and sustainer in volitional fellowship.” [The Elusive God (Cambridge, 2008), 42.]

And even mentioned in Scripture itself:

• Psalm 119:71 — It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.

• Philippians 4:12-14 — I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.

If you want to check out some of the other reasons, then click through and read the article here. I think it’s worth it to read something if I learn something new, and I found some new competing goods to God’s permission of suffering in the article. I like the references to academic work and the Bible, too.

News

Gay rights fascists bully man who donated against transgender agenda

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Hillary Clinton and her ally, the Human Rights Campaign
Hillary Clinton and her ally, the Human Rights Campaign

Katy tweeted this interesting story from the Family Policy Institute, about events that just happened recently in Seattle.

Excerpt:

A popular chef got cooked last week.  By the tolerance mob.

Chef John Howie owns a number of Seattle area restaurants and is also the chef for the Seattle Seahawks.  By all account he’s a really decent guy; generous and active in the community. But isn’t that kind of what you’d expect from the guy preparing Russell Wilson’s food?

In addition to being a decent guy, Chef Howie made a modest contribution earlier this year to the Just Want Privacy campaign in Washington State.

Just Want Privacy sought to repeal a dangerous new law that gives men the legal right to be present in a women’s bathroom, locker room, spa, or changing facility simply by declaring themselves to be female.

The chef was apparently part of the more than 70% of Washingtonians who believe it is problematic to take away the right to privacy women and children have long enjoyed in private spaces.

Probably because he is visible and active in the community, last week the Seattle Times and others from the LGBT mob decided to make an example out of him.

Prompted by gay activists, the Seattle Times printed a story about his donation, then:

[…][W]ithin twenty-four hours, Chef Howie had created a video recanting his previous statement.

The video was quickly distributed by a number of local LGBT activists groups including the Seattle Times.

You really need to watch the video.

We’ve all seen statements written by terrorists that were read by hostages. The similarities are inescapable.  You kind of expect there to be a rainbow flag and a guy in a mask holding a knife standing behind him.

An obviously shaken Howie opened with an apology. “I’m sorry to the people that I have harmed or negatively affected with my words or my actions.”

Stating an opinion about privacy in bathrooms is now apparently harmful all by itself.

The chef promised to never support another effort to protect women’s privacy again and concluded by assuring the audience that, “I am reaching out to several leaders in the LGBT community so they can help me to understand their challenges so that I can help them in the future.”

Translation, “Yes, I’ll give you money when you ask for it.”

Everyone understands what happened.  They shook him down.

What do we learn from this? Well, we learn that gay activists don’t tolerate views other than their own. It’s not just that they want to push their views through government, it’s that they don’t want people who disagree with them to earn a living.

A similar thing happened with the former CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich. He made a donation to a pro-marriage group, and then he was forced out of work by the “tolerant” secular leftists.

Do you have an opinion on whether men should be allowed to go into women’s showers and women’s change rooms? If you do, and you either speak it under your own name, or make a donation under your own name, then you should expect the gay activists to go after you and stop you from working. They’ve done it before with florists, bakers, photographers, bed and breakfast owners, and now even a chef.

I disagree with the people on the other side. But I don’t go after their livelihoods, because they have families, too. That’s the difference between us and them, I guess.