Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[FlyingVProd]

The Bible says to become wise by walking with the wise people, and that is what I need to do, I need to walk with the wise so that I can learn. And the film school is where the wise people are in my neighborhood, I need to go have lunch there and check the place out. It is only ten miles way, I can ride my bicycle there and have lunch.

Salute,

Tony V.

[josh]

The Bible says to become wise by walking with the wise people, and that is what I need to do, I need to walk with the wise so that I can learn. And the film school is where the wise people are in my neighborhood, I need to go have lunch there and check the place out. It is only ten miles way, I can ride my bicycle there and have lunch.

How do you determine which ones are wise?

[josh]

Stant Litore

Let's talk about Paul - and (un)learn a few things.

In the same way that the actual Norse in history bore little or no resemblance to the machismo Vikings of Hollywood and of white nationalist fantasies, and in the same way that the pop-culture Viking is largely a product of both a few pieces of text and art yanked out of context and the misinterpretation of burial sites, artifacts, and texts when seen through a heavily patriarchal lens ... in the same way, the Paul that we get told about or that we read about in English Bibles, and the teachings of Paul that we get taught are very different from the Paul one encounters in the New Testament epistles in Greek. The problem is that we're taught to read, translate, interpret, and teach Paul very selectively and with little regard for context. Yanking a few verses out of context and with only cursory attention to the Greek, for centuries we've constructed and maintained a version of Paul that teaches silence and submission for women.

I'm probably opening a can of worms with this, but I'll post this quick because I am seeing a lot of posts on the apostle Paul in the wake of recent events, and the Paul that everyone misquotes and talks about is a historical and literary anachronism, a fantasy, just like the Hollywood Viking. Or like the alpha wolf. In the twentieth century, a researcher observing wolves taken out of context - wolves living in captivity - interpreted what they observed as evidence that wolves fight their way ruthlessly up a pack hierarchy, so that there is in every pack an alpha male and an alpha female. But the researcher misinterpreted what he saw, because he was seeing it out of context. Wolf packs in the wild are a single family, consisting of two adult wolves and their cubs; once the cubs are grown, they go form their own packs; captive wolves are a bunch of strangers thrown together by force, trying to figure out who the de facto parents will be. Relationships in an actual wolf pack are not those of alphas and betas, but of parents and cubs. For decades, the 'alpha male' theory was taken for granted; after all, that was what the evidence showed, right? Right?

In the same way, we wrench passages from Paul out of context and misinterpret what we see. Usually, what we think we see tends to confirm prejudices or preconceptions we already have or that we expect the writer to have.

Paul - the Paul that we actually encounter when looking more carefully into the epistles - was taught and mentored in the faith by women. He wrote the letter to Romans in part as a letter of recommendation for Phoebe, a woman and apostle from another church community who was almost certainly the first human being to read, teach, and interpret Romans - delivering, reading, and teaching that letter upon her arrival among the church in Rome. (Letters between first-century churches weren't just dropped in an envelope and delivered to the local mailbox; they were read aloud and interpreted by the person who brought them.) Paul repeatedly referred to women as coworkers, co-ministers (sundiakonoi), and co-apostles. He deferred, in terms of great respect, to women with seniority in the faith, who were "in Christ before I was." He appointed other women to found and lead churches, and honored women repeatedly as apostles and leaders of the early church. According to Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth, he also traveled with a female apostle and co-worker, an "adelphe gune" or 'sister woman.' Paul cited travel with a sister woman as a common practice, noting that Peter and others traveled with female coworkers, too. Clement of Alexandria, in the second century, describes the sister women as members of co-ed apostolic teams. In the gender-segregated homes of many Greek-speaking communities in Asia Minor and Greece, early churches that met in women's private spaces in the house were convened, organized, and granted access to by women. (A lot of things changed in the organization and practice of Christianity - and in how its teachings were interpreted and taught - once it shifted from a faith that was read, taught, and practiced in private spaces convened by women, to a faith that was read, taught, and practiced in public spaces authorized and presided over by men.) Paul traveled, taught, endured prison, and worshipped alongside female apostles.

In his teachings, Paul advises serenity, not silence (these are very different words in Koine Greek!). He and his colleagues taught radical interdependency not only for married couples but for the entire community, and Paul spoke on economic modesty (as did James, at length) but did not speak on what we would recognize as sexual modesty. In a New Testament letter aimed at first-century Corinth, his plea not to wear fancy jewelry and not to flaunt one's hairstyle has nothing to do with not attracting men; it has to with not flaunting your wealth and privilege while partaking of a community where God shows no partiality, where members of all social classes are present, and where all are to be treated as siblings, on equal footing before God. All, regardless of gender, slave or free status, ethnic heritage, or social class and privilege.

We have been taught to read, translate, and interpret Paul through a very problematic lens, and quick passages from texts by Paul have been appropriated to support everything from gender hierarchy to passive submission to worldly governments, things that Paul was actively disrupting in his writings and his deeds in the first century. This kind of thing happens all the time; if a subversive or radical text cannot be suppressed, it gets tamed, sanitized, excerpted, and appropriated by the empire it's subverting, in order to preserve the status quo. That's how, every January, we end up with a lot of white people tweeting about how Martin Luther King, Jr., the nonviolent protester and civil rights activist, would frown on protests against racial injustice. Which is utterly nonsensical, as King was no champion of the status quo. Reading Paul with rather more care than most, King wrote that we have a duty to break unjust laws. King wrote that "a riot is the language of the unheard." And King was repeatedly jailed and finally assassinated. (Paul was, too, actually.) But by sanitizing, misrepresenting, and appropriating King's teachings, one can use King as a literary weapon to maintain the very conditions he resisted. Long ago, the Roman Empire did the same thing with Paul, and we still use cherry-picked and problematically translated quotes from Paul today to enforce views that are inimical to Paul's actual teachings about love, interdependency, peace and interwoven community, justice, and grace.

I examine a lot of this in my book "Lives of Unforgetting: What We Lose in Translation When We Read the Bible":
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NTRT4DP. Chapter 2 is about how we misread biblical passages to support our own gender prejudices; Chapter 10 reviews the lack of scriptural support for homophobia (you might even note that it's significant that Paul never once mentions it when writing to communities in Greece in which what we would recognize as bisexuality was widely accepted, or that the issue never came up again in church teaching until the twelfth century; it's something we read into the text rather than something we get from it); and Chapter 13 looks at what the New Testament has to say, in context and in Greek, about authority.

If you want to understand what passages on modesty meant when read in communities in the first-century Mediterranean world (because these were very different cultures with different premises and concerns from our own), read Richards' and O'Brien's book "Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible":  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BL3JXYE

And if you want a really close look at the textual and linguistic evidence, Marg Mowczko's blog is a fantastic resource for deconstructing the patriarchal lens we wear when we read the epistles in the New Testament; her blog is both meticulously researched and largely accessible to any reader: https://margmowczko.com/

[FlyingVProd]

The Bible says to become wise by walking with the wise people, and that is what I need to do, I need to walk with the wise so that I can learn. And the film school is where the wise people are in my neighborhood, I need to go have lunch there and check the place out. It is only ten miles way, I can ride my bicycle there and have lunch.

How do you determine which ones are wise?

The Bible says that you can tell a tree by its fruit. And right off you know they are wise if they are at the film school, they go through a whole process in order to get accepted into the film school, and you know that the professors are good if they teach there. And you can talk with the people and see who is wise.

And like with me, I attended the AADA, so when the film students are looking for actors they know that I will not just show up and waste their time. I know how to act. Many great filmmakers also attended the AADA including Cecil B. Demille.

When you go have lunch on the campus of the film school, you can expect to meet some really cool people.

And I am going to check out the bookstore, etc.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

Vatican News

Following the World Meeting of Families, Gabriella Gambino, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, discusses the successes the Meeting has shown, especially in demonstrating how the worldwide Church is itself one big family.

--------

Christians need to work together as a team and we need to help other Christians. Especially now with the war in Ukraine.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

Sonny Barger just died, he was friends with my Grandmother a long time ago and he was always nice to her, he was the founder and president of the Hell's Angels motor cycle club, he used to hang out at the original McDonald's in San Bernardino where my Grandmother worked as a car hop, he called her "Miss New York" because he said she had class.

The thing is, Sonny had millions of members in the Hell's Angels, and he was a leader who had a big club, and he could have led them to do great wonderful things, like helping the homeless and feeding the hungry, and doing all of the things that God asks us to do in Matthew 25: 31-46. Sonny taught the Guys freedom and loyalty and they shared a love of motor cycles, and they had brotherhood, but there was no reason to make it about "Hell" and instead imagine if they were just the "Angels" and they rode around on motor cycles helping the homeless and the poor. There was no reason to make it evil, they could have been about doing good things.

And I have been thinking about the music that I listen to, it was all about satan, and drugs, and I do not need to listen to that kind of music. They can sing about God if they want to make it religious. If I was a producer and club owner then I would want to try to help to produce and support the good Christian bands. I know where a Christian music school is in Rome, The Saint Louis College of Music, and you can find Christian musicians there, I lived across the street from the music school on Via Urbana and the whole neighborhood was full of musicians. One guy who owns a shop there used to play guitar for Peter Gabriel. The whole neighborhood is full of Christian musicians.

Imagine the good things that Sonny Barger could have done if he was a Christian, he could have had millions of people in his club to help orphans, etc. And imagine the good things that Ozzy Osbourne could do if he wanted to help the orphans and stuff.

Life is short, and my favorite people have always been the ones who lived life with purpose to serve God, I love good, honest, loving people, who live their lives helping other people and doing good things.

When I was a teen I was in Youth For Christ and it was awesome, we went to Mexico to help orphans, and to help the people living in a garbage dump, that is the kind of stuff that I support. I support helping people and doing good things.

And I do not support big music festivals where all of the bands sing about satan, I am not into it anymore. I would rather go to a music festival about Jesus.

Willie Nelson has shown what good people can do when they use the arts to serve humanity, his Farm Aid concerts have helped a lot of people. The same way that they do Farm Aid concerts then the bands could do other good things. Imagine if the bands were all good Christians and if they were all helping orphans and if they were all doing good things.

Shakira builds schools in Colombia for the children, Shakira is awesome, her charity is The Barefeet Children's Foundation. As a producer then I would seek to produce people who are like Shakira and who have a positive impact on society.

Life is short, and we need to live our lives with purpose. And we can have a better society by elevating the good people who do good things.

And businesses can be altruistic and it is in their best interest as they build a good reputation with the people if they do good things and if they support the communities, etc, and support things like Little League Baseball, etc, and the Cub Scouts, etc.

There is no reason to be evil. And we do not stop wars by being evil, we prevent wars by being good people and by appealing to the best in humanity.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

The Ten Commandments

    You shall have no other gods before Me.
    You shall not make idols.
    You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
    Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
    Honor your father and your mother.
    You shall not murder.
    You shall not commit adultery.
    You shall not steal.
    You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
    You shall not covet.

And the Golden Rule is to love your neighbor and to treat other people the same way that you yourself wish to be treated.

Salute,

Tony V.

[josh]

The Ten Commandments

    You shall have no other gods before Me.
    You shall not make idols.
    You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
    Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
    Honor your father and your mother.
    You shall not murder.
    You shall not commit adultery.
    You shall not steal.
    You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
    You shall not covet.

And the Golden Rule is to love your neighbor and to treat other people the same way that you yourself wish to be treated.

Salute,

Tony V.

That's one version of the Ten Commandments.

We (Jewish people) are taught that there are 613 commandments (mitzvot) in Torah.

And for my money, I prefer the Platinum Rule over the Golden Rule: Do unto others as others would have you do unto them.

It means I buy you the present you want rather than the one I want.

[FlyingVProd]

Today Dr Charles Stanley talked about how we inspire and encourage other people on their relationship with God, and how we help them on their Christian journey.

We need for people to know that we are a Christian by our behavior and by how we treat other people, for instance when we went to poor parts of Mexico and helped the orphans and the needy, then they knew we were Christians by our behavior. And we need to bring good things to society so that we change society and improve society from our relationship with Jesus, and then encourage and help other people on their path with God. Because we are Christian we must make society better by us being here and we must help other people on their own journey with God. We are to be like Salt, and like Light, to bring flavor and clarity to society, and to help other people as they travel their own path with God.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

Dr Charles Stanley always talks about stuff that I need to hear, he is a great preacher.

Today Dr Charles Stanley talked about having gratitude at this time of Thanksgiving, and also about not becoming discouraged as we face disappointments in life.

We are to be grateful because we are children of the all powerful God who created everything, and as such we are to be loving to others, and generous, and kind, etc.

And we are not to become discouraged by disappointments, God is all powerful, and sometimes during the hard times we are being molded and shaped and formed, we are growing and evolving during the hard times, our character is becoming deeper, and we need to have faith in God and we need to keep going while knowing that God has great plans for us, and God will use us to help others. And when others are disappointed then we can help to encourage them so that they do not give up and become discouraged.

There are some very beautiful people who have experienced extremely hard times and who went on to succeed and to help other people, and who are grateful instead of being bitter, and who kept going instead of becoming discouraged, with the help of God.
 
I need to be grateful for my blessings, while I trust that God loves me and that everything I went through was part of God's plan to shape and form me to be the person he wants me to be for the path ahead, as I try not to be discouraged.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

Today Dr Charles Stanley talked about how some people become evil, and with a depraved mind, they shut out God until God just turns them over to their own sinful desires, and then they lose out on everything that this life was supposed to be about, God has a plan for Glory for all of us and it would be a tragedy to miss out on the glory and to become separated from God, and some people become very evil.

Then Dr Charles Stanley talked about Noah, and how the whole world was evil except for Noah, and God told Noah to build an Ark and God wiped out all of the evil people. Noah found favor with God, and Noah listened to God, and Noah trusted God, and Noah obeyed God. We need to listen to God, even if it is making movies instead of building Arks, we need to listen to God as we go through life, and we need to trust God, and we need to obey God.

There is a lot of evil in the world, and Noah was saved when the whole world was evil, because Noah listened to God, Noah trusted God, and Noah obeyed God.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

In Touch Ministries

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24

---------

I learned this at a very young age, even when I knew I was being under-paid and felt like slave labor, then I still did my best for the customers and I did a good job, and God was watching me so God knows. I will have many rewards in Heaven.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

Rest in Peace Dr Charles Stanley, you were a great man of God.

Dr Stanley always seemed to know exactly what I needed to hear.

I hope a great new preacher rises up to replace him on Channel 5 KTLA on Sunday mornings.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

God has given me miracles, and I am so lucky that I have God in my life, so I considered going to a school in Oregon to become a Preacher, but the school turned out to be very expensive. I do not understand why it is expensive for a Christian school, it should be free, as God is not about money.

The world needs free schools to train preachers, and the world needs Christian hippy communes where the people can work and live and where they can worship God.

God is not about money.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

When I went to Mexico with Youth For Christ in the 9th Grade, then all of the most beautiful women from Quartz Hill High School went with us to Mexico, and several of the women were Cheerleaders, the most popular and beautiful women at my High School went with us to Mexico, we were like Bob Hope with the USO when we showed up to help the orphans and the people living in a garbage dump. Back then I was like a young Sean Penn. I was born in the desert and it was only 60 miles to Malibu, the beach is close to the desert. So it was like Sean Penn showing up with a bus full of Cheerleaders to help the orphans. It was a wonderful trip to Mexico, and we created wonderful memories to look back on.

Salute,

Tony V.