Category Archive: Foundational Thoughts

This is where I start my thinking.

Sep 07

Consciousness: the Human CHOICE.

Consciousness The Human Choice (Click here to listen to an Presage Publishing MP3 Audio production)

By John Immel

The challenge before me, in my ongoing quest to address the sources of tyranny, is the dual task of deconstruction and construction.

Responding to historic tyrants and the philosophical bulwark offered by modern day theological and political shills is the process of deconstruction. It takes some effort to unravel what people from antiquity have said and why. And it takes more effort to cut through the intellectual demagoguery and elitism that masquerades as thoughtful, magnanimous wisdom. People need to see that the academic issues are not as cut and dried as those in the ivory tower, or under the miter and simar, would like to pretend.

The process of deconstruction is necessary because so many people don’t even know they are being tyrannized. They suffer the pain of authoritarianism but the historical doctrines tell them the pain is normal, the correct outworking of spiritual “truths.” So the work up till now has been to point to the pain and the ideas driving the pain and say: “uhh…hey… that isn’t the way that’s supposed to be.”

But the other side of this is offering an alternative, a superior synthesis of freedom.… Read the rest

Share by e-mail or Tweet!

Jan 19

Dear Christian Chicken Little

You’re scared and you don’t know why. You remain scared after so many years have gone by. And now, finally, after all these years, you are reading the stories: they differ in detail but the elements, the arguments, and the outcomes are eerily, unnaturally similar.

People (like you) who did what they were told, listened to Pastoral counsel, gave over profound amounts of personal transparency, and admitted flaws as a matter of doctrinal course.

People (like you) who found themselves required to obey counsel that was flawed, even catastrophically dangerous, or ridiculously heavy-handed.

People (like you) who bought into the Matthew 18 ethic as the essential conflict resolution process only to find that when called to account SGM leadership, replaced transparency with a stonewall of authoritarian posturing, ruthless character assassination, and a machine dedicated to personal marginalization.

People (like you) describe the aftermath with blunt similarity: profound confusion, heartache, and despair.… Read the rest

Share by e-mail or Tweet!

Nov 07

Defining Insanity

By John Immel

Defining Insanity (Click here to listen to an Presage Publishing MP3 Audio production)

All tyranny requires these elements to be successful.

************

The following is from Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership, by Alexander Strauch.

Shared Leadership should not be a new concept to Bible-reading Christians. (page 36)


By definition, the elder structure of [Church] government is a collective form of leadership in which each elder shares equally the position, authority, and responsibility of the office. There are different names for this type of leadership structure. More formally, it is called collective, corporate, or collegiate leadership. In contemporary terms, it is referred to as multiple church leadership, plurality, shared leadership, or team leadership. (page 39)

The challenge with excerpts is whether they really capture the overall point the author was trying to represent while being an effective referent for subsequent commentary.Read the rest

Share by e-mail or Tweet!

Jun 15

So You Want to Tell People the Truth

A boy sought advice on how to show people the truth. He heard of a great man living atop a mountain. He walked many miles, slowly ascending the mountain, all the while thinking of all the truths he would show people when he learned the secret.

He found the man sitting cross-legged in his house, eating a Big Mac. The boy sought to introduce himself, but the words failed him.

“I know who you are. You are a fool,” the old man said and  took a bite of his Big Mac and said, “You came here because you want to become a great speaker of truth. Of course ,I can show you how. I can explain what binds foolishness to men’s souls. I can show you how to reduce all arguments to dust and ashes. I can show you how to make men clamor at your every breath.”

He took another bite of his Big Mac and then a drink of his Coke.… Read the rest

Share by e-mail or Tweet!

Jun 05

The Arena of Ideas

The following is excerpted from a book I self-published in 2000 called Blight in the Vineyard. (I’ve got a new version of that book coming, so there will be more later.)

Welcome to the Arena of Ideas

Do you feel the expanse of the coliseum, and the crowd looking on, and the tides of opinion ebbing and flowing? Do you feel the wind whipping around your mind? Do you feel the soft cool sand under your feet? The Latin word hara is sand, and Harna came to mean the part of the Roman amphitheater that was covered with sand. In the ancient Roman coliseums they put sand on the floor to soak up the blood.

How is that for a vivid image? Do you have the courage to stay here? Or does the thought of shedding blood for Ideas bring a tremble to your soul? This place is not for the faint of heart, or of the faint of mind.Read the rest

Share by e-mail or Tweet!

» Newer posts

This blog is protected by Dave\'s Spam Karma 2: 79604 Spams eaten and counting...