Monthly Archives: November 2006

Theological Reductionism

Reductionism is the concept of taking a biblical doctrine and reducing, summarizing or ‘boiling the doctrine down’ to one finite statement that could very well be an oversimplification.  Worse than that reductionism may be ignoring the entire counsel of the Word of God in favor of one passage.  One premium example of this would be the polarized views of Calvinism or Armenianism.  Both of these views (when taken to their logical extreme) can be examples of reductionism.  The scriptures put a great amount of tension on the subject of God’s undeniable sovereignty and man’s undeniable responsibility for sin and other actions.  Are these two different ideas mutually exclusive?  No.  The scriptures present a paradox wherein God is sovereign and man is responsible for his actions.  This isn’t inconsistency, its the complication of mankind being created in God’s image and therefore having a will and God’s being God and not having any of His power lessened by man’s ability to desire and will various things.

Reductionism is what fans the flames of fanaticism or doctrinal narrowness in areas where the scripture presents a message that is more broad.  Baptism’s relationship to salvation is a good example of people reducing all theology down to a few passages even though other passages in no way require water baptism.  Or furthermore the idea that tongues is a heavenly prayer language… their is only one text that could be gone to for proof text and that is not what the context of the passage that I Corinthians 13 is referring to.  Reductionism is what allows bad theology to stay bad and what keeps believers blind.

When you study a doctrine make sure that you review what the whole word of God says about that doctrine and in the correct context.

Wheezing the Juice

Polly Shore, one of America’s most famous not-so-funny comedians (apologies to those of you who really, really enjoyed him) was in the movie “Encino Man,” and in that movie he used the phrase, “Wheezing the juice,” while inside of a quickie-mart type establishment. Write now I’m feeling like my juice has been wheezed. I haven’t written anything good and funny in a while and I’m not 100% sure why.
As my buddy Trint said, I need to get downtown so that I can see the inspiring sites. Basically I’ve got to get out more. I’m in a routine now where my evenings are spent running errands at places like Target or going to the chiropractor. Those are two incredibly hilarious places, let me tell you. No, don’t let me tell you. There isn’t anything to tell. Last night I had Bible Study, which was good, but its not good for comedic material per se. I’ve had some Mormons visit me the last few weeks and I’ve gotten together with them, but they just make me angry because they refuse to engage their brains – their whole religious system is based on turning off their brains.

So, I’m going to try to be extra observant at the mall this weekend as we try to actually get all of our Christmas shopping done in one day. And then come home and write the funniest thing I’ve ever written.

Counted.

I went and voted this morning. Growing up I was told by my parents that I had relatives that didn’t vote because they didn’t think that it mattered. That was hard for me to grasp. While I knew that certainly I wasn’t a dictator, I also knew that I had been given power to change the way things happened in this country, my state, my county and my city.

If you haven’t voted, and for some reason are sitting on the fence, please consider printing out a provisional ballot, going over the ballot (this could take a while depending on where you live), and getting to the polls. Sure, you and I may have voted differently on various things, but we’re exercising a right. And the thing about rights that every citizen must understand: each right is a responsibility, if you’re not responsible with your right – they may take it away. Then your vote won’t be counted because it won’t exist.

Floaties

Flickr Photo

Floaties

Originally uploaded by RandyPeterman.

When you think that maybe you got an extra large amount of grounds at the bottom of your cup it can be quite a surprise to discover that you actually have letters put in as a gift by your one year old. I wonder if I can get Starbucks to create an alphabeccino.

The Kissing Ice Cream Shop

Abby and I went on a little daddy-daughter-donut-date this morning. As we passed a shopping center Abby announced, “There’s a kissing ice cream shop!”

To which I asked, “Why is it a kissing ice cream shop?”

Her reply was that the logo was some red lips. Which logo you might ask?

This one:

Dairy Queen

Never saw the lips before. Now I’ll probably never see the words 🙂

My Fiend Flicka

No, I didn’t misspell ‘Friend’ in the title. The book ‘My Friend Flicka’ has been made into a movie. I read that book as a ‘tween and recall that on a very bad day for me I was reading it. I had some sort of argument with my mom and crawled into the secret room in their house (at the time, they no longer live there) and read the book and cried off and on during the day. Sure, that’s not too manly but I had enough hormones surging through me on that day that I’m pretty sure that I would have qualified as a lab rat.

Anyway, I got to the end of the book and was all weepy and then my dad came home from work and searched me out. He was a bit upset that I had given my mom a hard time. I probably through one of the biggest tantrums of my post-kid life that day and I’m pretty sure my dad was ready to send me to Siberia. I can’t remember much about the book, I just remember being a completely goofy jerkwad to my parents.

Thanks Mom and Dad for not finishing me off that day when I probably deserved it 🙂