Sadness: The Principal who Hypnotized a Student and the Student Killed Himself

This is a horrific tragedy.

A popular school principal in Florida has been placed on administrative leave after a student who he hypnotized committed suicide.  George Kenney, principal since 2001 at North Port High School, had been using hypnosis for years and made podcasts on reducing test anxiety and improving sports performance through the technique. He also has a website that promotes hypnosis to “banish fear and insecurity from your life.”  But his use of the practice came under scrutiny after Kenney acknowledged he had hypnotized Wesley McKinley, 16, the day before the teenager killed himself in April.

How very odd of a principal.  Very odd indeed.   And isn’t it passing strange that hypnosis is accepted without blinking but if the principal had prayed with the kid there would have been a riot.

Our culture is weird.  Weirdness is commonplace and embraced and Christianity is despised and denigrated.

Indeed, Congrats to Jeremy!

Well done sir, well done and hearty congratulations!  Bob Cargill writes

Congratulations to UCLA’s Dr. Jeremy Smoak, who has been awarded ASOR’s inaugural Aviram Prize for best paper of the year. Dr. Smoak’s paper is entitled, “May Yahweh Bless You and Guard You from Evil: The Structure and Content of Ketef Hinnom Amulet I and the Background of the Prayers for Deliverance in the Psalms.” The paper compares the rhetorical structure of the amulet from Ketef Hinnom to several Psalms that petition Yahweh for protection against evil. The paper will be presented at the 2011 ASOR annual meeting in San Francisco this November, and will be published in the Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions within the next year.

Read the rest of Bob’s announcement.  And again, congrats Jeremy!

The Noah’s Ark Park is Go for Throttle Up

Things are about to get Biblical in Kentucky. On Thursday, the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority gave final approval to grant $40 million in tax rebates to build a biblical theme park called “The Ark Encounter.”   The controversial museum, backed in part by Mike Zovath, a co-founder of the Answers in Genesis ministry which previously built Kentucky’s 70,00 square-foot Creation Museum, got the funding after months of back and forth over the legitimacy of a religious attraction being funded by a state government.  No matter, the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority voted unanimously to grant more than $40 million in tax rebates for the project, which is scheduled to cost $172 million (visitors to the Ark’s website see a “donate here” tab).  Zovath told the Associated Press: “This was the last real hurdle for us as far as I’m concerned.” Zovath’s purpose, he claims, is to dispel doubts about the biblical event.

Nifty huh!  And word on the street is that several faculty members of St. Andrews University, Butler University, Pepperdine University, Southern Seminary, and Duke University are serving as an advisory board!  That’s like the full house of biblical and theological inventiveness!  Not only do those very fortunate faculty folk get the renown to be associated with the enterprise, but they also get a lifetime pass for themselves and their entire family to visit the park as often as they like!  Now that’s fantastic!

Sadly no one from Tel Aviv Univeristy, George Washington University, or UCLA was consulted at all…  Tragic, as those folk could make a real contribution.  But maybe when the ‘Joshua’s Conquering the Enemies of Israel’ theme park opens in Ramallah they’ll get to help out.

[NB- The park was announced back in January 2010!]

If Bibi Didn’t Like it, it Must be on the Mark

Bibi didn’t like Obama’s speech. Awe…

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Office twitter account — run by Dr. Eitan Eliram, new media director of the prime minister’s office –- sent out a rapid succession of tweets stating clear disapproval with the president’s reference to the 1967 borders.

You mean Israel’s hawks may not get their way? How tragic.

When America ‘Liberated’ Iraq, It Undermined and Contributed to the Destruction of Iraqi Christianity

The forgotten casualty of the Iraq war- Christianity.  What’s been happening, and is happening, to the Christians in that ravaged land is despicable and America opened the floodgates making it possible.  There’s no getting around it.

In recent years, a horrifying number of kidnappings, rapes and mutilations of Iraqi Christian girls has been perpetrated by Muslim gangs. Some 700,000 Christians are fleeing this terror, but often find themselves exposed to similar dangers when they arrive in neighboring Muslim countries. With no rights and no help from authorities, they are surely in the most desperate of situations.

And the same is beginning to happen in yet another ‘Muslim democracy’ the United States is underwriting with taxpayer money, Egypt.

Via.

Joel Watts is Willing to Sell His Soul to the Devil to Be #1 !!!!

I was shocked, shocked I tell you to read Jeremy’s post just a bit ago!  I knew Joel wanted to ascend the highest peak but I didn’t know he wanted it this badly!

If this blog is #1 by the end of the month, those who comment below will each receive a share of Joel’s soul.  He will divide his soul somewhat like the Dark Lord Voldemort.  Each commenter will receive the percentage of Joel’s soul that his or her comments make up.  So, if there are 100 comments and Jim West leaves 97 of them (because we know Jim would really like to have Joel’s soul), Jim will receive 97% of Joel’s soul.  How will we distribute the soul, you ask?  In mason jars.

And Joel’s a Mason!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NB- If I do indeed get 97% of Joel’s soul I’ll be forced to turn it over to its rightful owner- the Devil.  Though you know him by his Blogger name- Chris Tilling!]

The American Economy is in a Wreck…

But there’s plenty of money for

Obama [to] announce $1 billion in debt forgiveness for Egypt and $1 billion in loan guarantees to finance infrastructure.

Right.  America has plenty of money for every country but it’s own.  And we’re happy to bribe help new ‘democracies’ where Christians are being killed and churches burned.

It’s sickening.  Our own roads, schools, bridges, and interstates are in decay and 2 billion would go a long way in fixing the most pressing needs, provide many thousands or tens of thousands of Americans with jobs, and help the wider economy tremendously.  But why do that when we can coerce a foreign power which will eventually turn against us anyway (just like we supported bin Laden).

Quote of the Day

“Christ is your salvation. You are nothing. Christ is the beginning and the end. He is everything. He can do everything. He is our righteousness and that of all those who have ever been righteous before God” — Huldrych Zwingli

Baseball Rain Delays Are Far More Interesting than Baseball Itself

Why Does Harold Camping Think it’s the End?

Because of the gays….

But if that were the case, wouldn’t the end have come when the Roman Empire was at its greatest extent?  Oh Harold.  You and Fred Phelps should marry….

What Brad Pitt Thinks of God…

Doesn’t matter a hill of used beans.  What matters is what God thinks of Brad Pitt.  That’s what the Hollywood idol needs to ponder.

Navel gazing Hollywoodites whose lives are consumed with pretending to be something they are not and who receive huge sums of money for doing it are hardly the people anyone should go to for theological insight or information.

Pitt has as much business rambling on about his view of God (no one cares, Pitt, except your worshipers who, like you, are bereft of insight) as Joel does on what it’s like to be #1 (sorry Joel, had to sneak that in there).

Pitt is – like so many others these days – just one of a long line of theological dilettantes whom the media covers (shame on you ABC) because investigative journalism is dead.

Anywho- since I know how much the Hollywood sort love awards, Brad, I’m pleased to present you with one you really deserve:

Journalists Just Aren’t Trying Any More (via rogueclassicism)

So very true. And ‘journalists’ should be ashamed.

In various posts in the past — usually ones associated with reportage about spurious claims — I have often pointed out that the folks involved have titles (usually something like “historian” or “archaeologist” or whatever) which they really have no legitimate claim to have (although one might cynically observe no one claims to be a dilettante). What makes things worse, though, is that the various journalists reporting on such events either mere … Read More

via rogueclassicism

Setting Dates for Christ’s Return is Foolish

Don Barnhouse opines as much in a sermon you can download and listen to for free.  And you should.  And you should tell all of your silly friends who think date-setting is the in thing that such behavior is ignorance and foolishness.  Because it is.

Roland Boer on Biblical Research and Idealism

He calls it ‘unbearable idealism’ in a new essay at Bible and Interpretation.  It’s a great essay concluding thusly-

Ideas find themselves jostling among economic production and consumption, social relations, the tussle of some serious politics (and not the sham of our parliamentary democracies), judicial decisions, and cultural representations. In short, ideas are one small part of a far greater material whole. Relativized and cut down to size, these beloved ideas become the runt of the materialist pack.

Read it all.

More on What Will Happen if Joel Gets to #1

I hate to be the person who has to say such things but someone must.

If Joel Watts becomes the #1 blogger all the angels in heaven will die! It’s a fact!!  Is that what you want?

The Food Stamp Grubbing Millionaire

First, Michigan shouldn’t be giving public assistance to a guy who has won $2,000,000 (nor should the US government).  So that’s their fault.  Second, anyone who has that much money and who still has his hand stuck out begging or his mouth attached to the public teat is a person who has no self respect or regard for others.

A Michigan man who won $2 million in a state lottery game continues to collect food stamps 11 months after striking it rich.  And there’s nothing the state can do about it, at least for now.  Leroy Fick, 59, of Auburn won $2 million in the state lottery TV show “Make Me Rich!” last June. But the state’s Department of Human Services determined he was still eligible for food stamps, Fick’s attorney, John Wilson of Midland, said Tuesday.

Michigan needs to change it’s procedures (I thought all food stamp recipients had to meet certain minimum income requirements).  And Leroy needs to stop being a selfish jerk using resources he doesn’t need.

Here’s the really stupid part though

Eligibility for food stamps is based on gross income and follows federal guidelines; lottery winnings are considered liquid assets and don’t count as income. As long as Fick’s gross income stays below the eligibility requirement for food stamps, he can receive them, even if he has a million dollars in the bank.

Lottery winnings aren’t income?  What moron came up with that little gem?  Is there NO ONE in legislative bodies with a bit of sense?  No one???

“If you’re going to try to make me feel bad, you’re not going to do it,” Fick told WNEM-TV in Saginaw on Monday.  Wilson said Fick told the DHS officials he’d won $2 million but was told he could keep using the Bridge Card issued to him to buy groceries.

Oh Leroy- I don’t care how you feel.  Evil and selfish people never feel bad for what they do.   I think it’s the state’s responsibility to cut your lazy personage off from all state aid and I think they ought to take you to court and recoup every penny they’ve paid you in welfare since you won the lottery.  And, by the way, if you’re so bloody bad off that you need public aid, why are you spending money on the lottery?

Al Kimichik, director of the office of inspector general for DHS, said the department could not comment on individual cases but that it this week began the process of requesting a waiver from the federal government to close the lottery loophole. If it is granted, assets would be counted in determining food stamp eligibility.

It’s a moronic loophole.  Lawmakers, you guys are idiots and it’s your fault that the economy is in the pathetic shape it’s in.

“For Leroy Fick to continue to use a Bridge Card, paid for by the taxpayers, after winning the lottery, is obscene,” said Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge. “What a waste of taxpayer money.”

Rick Jones- a person of sense.  So rare amongst politicians.

Joel Watts: Is He the Kind of Person you Want as #1?

Ok friends, is Joel really the kind of person you want as the #1 biblioblogger when the end of the month rolls around?  Is he?  He’s clearly a person completely unconcerned for the environment.  And he doesn’t care about the disabled either!    Look how he parks (and what he parks) when he goes to work!

Not only does he hate the environment and the handicapped (!) but he also hates little children, old women, the Bible, the Church, Protestants, and worst of all, he hates Zwingli!!!!!!!

Is he the kind of cad you want to represent all of biblioblogdom as #1?  I say no!!!!  Don’t visit his blog.  Visit mine 50 times a day or so (or roughly 1/3rd of the posts I put up in an hour).  Let’s crush Joel Watts this last week of the month.  Down with Joel, Down with Joel!

Mom is the Murderer- And She’s a Texan…

I don’t get it.  She killed her little boy and dumped his body on a roadside in Maine like he was a piece of garbage.

A Texas woman has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing and dumping of her 6-year-old son’s body along a Maine rural road, authorities said.  Julianne McCrery, 42, was arrested Wednesday on a Massachusetts fugitive-of-justice charge, according to a news release issued by authorities in three New England states.  “The fugitive from justice charge arose from an arrest warrant issued in the State of New Hampshire on the charge of second-degree murder,” the release stated.  On Wednesday, sources told ABC News McCrery has confessed to killing and dumping her son’s body.  The Irving, Texas, woman told police that she accidentally gave her 6-year-old son Camden Hughes too much cough syrup, the sources said.

Accidentally?  What a liar.  You can’t give a child too much cough medicine accidentally.  It’s measured out in a little cup.  You have to do it intentionally.  What an evil, depraved, vile human being.  I just don’t get it.  And the part I don’t get is why God gives evil people like this children in the first place.  I get the whole people are basically evil thing.  Understand it well.  But I don’t get why, or how, in his divine providence, God can grant, or would grant, such subhuman beasts the honor and privilege of caring for another human being.  I just don’t get it.

Related articles

• Mother is charged with killing boy, 6 (boston.com)
• Police Arrest Mother in Maine Boy’s Death (foxnews.com)

In Memoriam Adolf Schlatter

He was a brilliant exegete, a knowledgeable historian, a systematician, and a generalist.  And he died on the 19th of May in 1938.  He wrote tons of very, very useful stuff.  Unfortunately the vast majority is inaccessible to non-German readers.

He, besides being a Professor (teaching the likes of both Barth and Bultmann, neither of whom, by the way, were very impressed by him), was also a devoted churchman.

Ben Meyers posted a little snippet a few years ago when he laid hold of the tiny Schlatter biography published in English.  Other than Ben, I don’t think any other theobloggers or bibliobloggers have really noticed Schlatter (probably because they don’t know him).

More people should familiarize themselves with his work.  It really is quite good.  So now, in honor of the day he left this world, a little slideshow.

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