Boyd's Blarney

This is just a place for me to put my thoughts and opinions. My intention is not to criticize anyone or to sway the reader's opinion, rather I've published this simply that you might know what I think (should you happen to care).

The Problem With Schools In America - NOT!
School Taxes In Ohio
Worship Services
Funerals
Riding motorcycles & managing the risk of death and injury
Why I Hate to Fly on Commercial Airlines
Bible Study
The Christian Response to Abortion
Christian Marches & Picketing
On Marriage & Weddings

Do you have the answer to
life's two greatest questions?

The Problem With Schools In America - NOT!

It is very popular to talk about the problems we have in our schools in America. Its clear that many children today are not getting the education they need, but does that mean there's a problem with the schools? No it doesn't.

I was at an IBM conference some time ago, when a discussion about what's wrong with our schools occurred. I let the discussion go on for a while and then said, "My children will get a good education because I will see that they do. I care about my kids and I'll make sure they get a good education." Everyone in the room said, "Yeh, me too." Then I asked, "What's the difference between my children and your children and the children that won't get a good education? Is it the schools?" Of course the answer is that its not the schools, its, the parents that make the difference.

Now, I'll grant you, that many of our schools leave a lot to be desired. But ultimately, who's in charge of the schools? Its the parents. The parents elect the school board, the parents vote on taxes, but most of all, the parents have to insist that their kids get an education. (back to top)

School Funding

In Ohio, schools (the school boards and administration) spend a tremendous amount of time raising money to run the schools. I talked with one fellow who had been a school board member for a number of years and he said that he had only once worked on an issue regarding the actual education of children. All the rest of the time, they were concerned with money - how it was raised and how it was spent. That is a crying shame.

The state legislature should set some value per student that each school will receive from the state and then pay that to the school district. That money should come from corporate property taxes (which there should be none collected on the local level for the local schools.) This would provide the basic funding needed to run a schools. Then if parents in a local school district wish to vote themselves a tax increase to be used for their local school, they should have every right to do that. (back to top)

Worship Services

It has become fashionable in our church to invite visitors to not participate in the offering. If the offering is a form of worship (that's my understanding of it), and we invite visitors to not participate, then I wonder why we don't invite visitors to also not participate in the singing, and invite them to just sleep through the sermon. If we expect the visitors to not participate in the worshiping through giving, then why do we expect them to participate in any aspect of the service? One pastor, when I asked him about this, said that visitors don't know that the offering is a form of worship. I asked him where they would learn it, if they didn't learn it here.

Wouldn't it be better to proclaim the truth? Why not say something like, "We believe that giving is an act of worship and that the Lord loves a cheerful giver. If you don't feel like worshiping in this way, whether you are a visitor or a regular attender, we invite you to pass the offering plate on by with our blessing." In that case, the visitors as well as the members and regular attenders at Berean would hear the truth and know that we are serious about being obedient to God.

Problems with saying that the offering is for members and attenders only is:

It might lead members and regular attenders to believe that giving in the offering is an obligation for them, when in fact, they should know that it is an act of worship.
Visitors who are well founded in the faith and looking for a church home, might well reject Berean because it views the offering as an obligation for its members rather than an act of worship.
Visitors who don't know any better, may well think to themselves, "They don't expect me to give now, but after I attend a couple of times, or certainly should I want to become a member, then they are going to expect me to give. So it seems they are trying to convince me they don't care about money, but in fact they do."

It has become fashionable to cancel services and Sunday School at Christmas time and New Years. I guess people have better things to do than to go to church on those holidays. And I can only surmise that the powers that be in the church think that's OK.

Its has become fashionable to cancel services for most any other reason that can be thought of. I saw that Sunday evening chapel vespers were canceled in January because "you can never count on the weather in January." I'm surely glad we can count on the weather the rest of year.

Its has become fashionable to applaud in church after some people speak or sing. I haven't figured out quite when it is and when it isn't appropriate. I've heard godly people say some godly things, but they don't get applause. I've heard people sing songs that had a nice beat and melody, but that didn't really seem to have that much of message, and they received thunderous applause. I guess I'm just out of touch on this applause thing. (back to top)

Funerals

I really enjoy funerals, especially for people who lived their lives well. To me, a funeral is a celebration of a life well lived.

A funeral is perhaps the only day in a man's life where everyone speaks well of him. (unless you are Ronald Reagan. The democrats had no problem berating him on the day of his funeral).

I would much rather attend a funeral than a wedding. Solomon was of the same mind. Ecc. 7:2 - "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart."

You can read about mine here. (I'm not dead yet.. just what I want it to be)

(back to top)

Why I Hate To Fly on Commercial Airlines

I just came through the security check Columbus, Ohio's airport (Nov. 27, 2006). I had a small tube of toothpaste, maybe 3 or 4 ounces, in my shaving kit. The last time I flew, you couldn't take any toothpaste. Now a 3 or 4 ounce tube is OK. Well, not exactly. It has to be in a zip lock plastic bag. The TSA is so generous to provide a little zip lock bag. I asked the lady handing them out, "What difference does that make?" She just laughed. I'm not sure she understood English.

So, how is it that a month ago, it wasn't safe to take any toothpaste on a plane, now its safe to take 3-4 ounces so long as its in a plastic bag? And oh yeah, a year ago, you could have taken a case of toothpaste tubes if you wanted to. My point here, is that this thing is purely reactionary and for appearances sake only. No one has taken any time to attempt to determine what is safe and what is not. The policies are not based on safety, but rather the appearance of providing safety based on reactions to previous attempts to blow the planes up. Its a joke.

The reason it makes me mad, is that they put me through all these gyrations for the appearance of looking safe. If what they were making me do really made things more safe, then I wouldn't have a problem with it, but its all a charade. I don't have a problem with people playing charades so long as they don't force me to play in their stupid games.

Addendum - July 30, 2007 - I recently heard that now it is OK to take a cigarette lighter on a plane. It seems that all the cigarette lighters that were being confiscated were creating quite a problem because they then became hazardous waste that was expensive to do away with. So now its considered OK to take cigarette lighters on an airplane. I guess we want to be safe so long as it doesn't cost the government too much. I recently heard a fellow on the radio say that they should have a basket at the security point for cigarette lighters. People going on could leave them, and people coming off could take one. Seems like a good solution to me.

May 15th, 2008 - More on why I hate it. I flew to Munich a couple of weeks ago. Going through security to come back home, they did not make me remove my shoes, but they did make me put my wallet through the x-ray machine. Backwards from what they do in the states. So what really is the risk? Also, I'm in Jacksonville, FL right now. I forgot to take my pocket knife out of my pocket when I left home and discovered it was in my pocket in the Columbus airport. I threw it into my computer bag with my change and stuff and they never found it. Same coming back through security in Jacksonville. But in Jacksonville, they saw something in my clothes bag and wanted to check it. The guy paws through my bag.. he asks me if I have some eyewash. I say no, I have mouthwash. He see my deodorant gel, and says, "it was probably the gel stick."
When I came through security in Salt Lake City, this NTSA nazi makes me take my bag plastic bag with toothpaste and mouthwash in it, out of my bag. "It has to be out of the bag." I said, "Your the only airport in the nation that requires that." She just looked at me as she took it out of the bag. What a bunch of baloney.

Bible Study

I attended a supposed Bible study last night called Defining Moments. The leader talked for 45 minutes total, the first 35 of which he never referred to any Bible verses. He was just talking about his view on some particular topic. He did eventually refer to some scripture and then went on to pontificate. He never really examined the scripture, that is read it and say, "Now what does this say? What does it say to us?" Then we were supposed break down into small groups for discussion. I looked at the questions that were in the book and there were none that examined scripture. They were all questions about what the participants thought. My reaction was, I don't need to hear what these other guys think, I want to look at what the Bible says. And I want to do it in an open and honest way, not filtering it with our preconceived notions about religion. I left.