On Shame and Sexuality, in a Christian context

I love breasts. I'm referring to the breasts of human women here.

I also love (in no particular order) their butts, legs, lips, hips, fingertips, skin, hair, eyes, scent, posture, poise, feet, hands, waist, neck, nose, ears, smile and... I'm not sure there's a particular body part I don't like.

Aw hell, what did I just say? Should I repent? I'm not going to do so. Did I cause a brother or sister to stumble? Well actually, I wrote this particularly for the brother or sister who would stumble at such a phrase.

You see, I have this very strange, this very queer theory in my head. I believe that there is not to be a hint of sexual immorality amongst Christians. But I see it everywhere!

I see it when men are to be somber and stifle their appreciation of how a woman keeps herself healthy and vital. I see it when women are forced to wear long skirts and told that pants are sinful. I see it when spaghetti string and tube tops are forbidden. I see it when a man is told to don his shirt on a sweltering day, while he's playing sport, because it... it... it is attractive to others? Because it is beautiful? Because women so rarely see a man who keeps himself in top athletic shape? Because men want to try and shield their ego? Oh he is that way because of genetics! Genetics! Any excuse besides hard work!

If a person attends to their physical appearance, there must be no other reason than a superficiality of taste! Truly spiritual persons enjoy the wasting away of their flesh!

Immoral idiocy, all of this. And the Christian church is filled with it.

Reformata Semper Reformandum, no?

I think there are 2 big things the Church can do to address its sexual immorality:
#1 - Stop sleeping around and being hypocrites.
#2 - Stop covering people up and being hypocrites.

Who made this body of mine? Was it Satan? Only if you are caught in the throes of a gnostic heresy. God made this body. He made it and gave it to me to steward. I am strong and fast. The testosterone flowing through my blood makes me content and joyous. It helps me recover faster. It makes me aggressive and passionate. It is a blessing from God Almighty. If I fill myself with cakes, cookies, cola, cheeseburgers, chips and cholesterol, I will spit on the vessel of God's image. If I train it vigorously, if I push it relentlessly, I can see God's beauty, live that beauty more deeply.

Christians, end the nonsense.
God gave you a body. Love it.

There's an easy strawman trap. Don't be dumb and fall into it.

Impossible

From Gym Jones':

"Limitations and Impossibilities": At every Olympics there is an athlete whose
performance is so incredible that it transcends greatness. A performance so
magnificent that it shatters our notion of what we previously thought was
possible. In this Olympics there have been two athletes of note who have
challenged the very limits of human performance. Usain Bolt absolutely destroyed his competition in both the
100-meter and 200-meter dash. He set a world record in both events and was so
far ahead of his competition in each that he looked like he was running a
different race. In the 100-meter he ran a world record 9.69 but started
celebrating at the 70-meter mark. In the 200-meter he broke Michael Johnson’s 12
year old record that people said would stand for a lifetime. Bolt’s margin of
victory over his closest competitor was an astonishing .52 seconds in that
event. Michael Phelps is another story. He brought home 8 gold medals,
a new Olympic record for one games and now has a total of 14 Olympic Golds (16
medals in all). What is more unbelievable is that on his way to his gold medal
haul this year he set seven world records and one Olympic record, doing a
personal best time in every event. Serious Athletes plan every aspect of their
lives to ensure that they peak for that special event. To ensure that they are
at the pinnacle of their career when they compete on the world’s stage. Michael
Phelps had indeed peaked for this year’s Olympics and he did what no one thought
was possible. Not a Herculean performance but rather as one reporter stated, a
“Phelpsian” performance. People are already saying that we will never see
performances like these again in our lifetime. People are saying that we have
witnessed the “impossible”. If this years Olympics has taught us anything it is
that there are no limits to what the human animal can do. The only limits are
those which are self imposed. Limits that the human mind places on itself.

-Maximus

The Bucket List

Rule of life: Never apologize for being honest.

100 things I Want To Do Before I Die

001- Have amazing, unbelievable, cry out to God great sex.
002- raise a son and watch him start his own family
003- play catch with my son
004- tell my wife "I love you" on our 50th anniversary
005- watch the sunset over the Pacific
006- watch the sunrise over the Atlantic
007- trek in the Alaskan wilderness
008- climb Mt. Everest
009- see the Grand Canyon
010- have someone honestly compliment my dancing
011- spontaneously dance with a stranger on the street
012- make love by moonlight on the beach
013- vacation in Nice, France
014- swim in each of the 5 Oceans
015- have Argentinian barbeque in Argentina
016- lead someone to Christ
017- be a missionary for 2-3 years
018- have a family vacation where I have to drive for 8+ hours
019- raise a happy, healthy Rhodesian Ridgeback or Black lab
020- get 2 numbers in the same night
021- dunk a basketball on a regulation hoop
022- deadlift 3x bodyweight
023- finish an ultramarathon
024- skydive
025- bungy jump
026- swim in the Nile
027- qualify for the IronMan
028- fly an airplane
029- ride a motorcycle
030- write a novel
031- publish a book
032- speak (and think) nothing but Spanish for a week
033- write fluently in Chinese
034- lead someone to Christ in a foreign language
035- play and sing an entire song on the guitar
036- have another farm animal as a pet
037- take my family camping for a weekend
038- get a degree from a good seminary
039- juggle 3 objects for 1 minute
040- whistle a radio song
041- do street magic
042- drive 100 mph+
043- bake a cake
044- start a fire from scratch in the wild
045- teach my daughter how to throw a punch
046- win a fight that someone else started
047- become a kru in Muay Thai
048- become a sensei in karate
049- visit India
050- visit Antarctica
051- skinny dip in the Arctic Ocean
052- hike and camp in Yosemite with my family
053- hike and camp alone in Grand Teton
054- see wolves in the wild
055- fire a rifle
056- teach my kids their times tables
057- adopt a child
058- step on the field at Yankee Stadium
059- deliver a eulogy for someone I'm not related to
060- deliver a best man's speech
061- take care of my grandkids for a summer
062- grow bitter-melon in my garden
063- honestly enjoy the taste of bitter-melon
064- single-handedly make a Thanksgiving feast
065- have a race on horseback
066- visit Israel and touch the Wailing Wall
067- visit Milan and be complimented on my style
068- run a marathon on each continent
069- visit Charles in Brazil
070- see the Aurora Borealis
071- eat Rocky Mountain Oysters, scrapple, haggis and fugu
072- do the running of the bulls
073- do a walkabout
074- return to China alone for a month
075- fill up every box in my passport
076- share the Gospel in a foreign language
077- lead a bible study series in a foreign language
078- climb a 20' rope, 2" thickness
079- hit a bullseye in darts
080- get a tattoo
081- run a mile in under 5 minutes
082- see a fight in Lumpinee stadium
083- eat sashimi at the Tokyo Fish Market
084- do a handstand pushup
085- see a solar eclipse
086- read the entire Bible from cover to cover with my wife and kids
087- see the stars from outer space
088- hit the bell in the sledgehammer carnival game
089- visit an European vineyard and buy a bottle of wine
090- hike in Romania at night under a full moon
091- get a kiss from a girl who previously rejected me
092- stay under 200 lbs.
093- bench press 2x my bodyweight
094- see my 6 pack
095- jump rope
096- play a real song people would actually care to listen to on the piano
097- order flowers delivered to a girl "just because"
098- eat a steak at Peter Luger's
099- honestly say on my deathbed "I've run the race, I've fought the good fight. I never gave up."
100- love someone for who they are and not what they can do for me

Nietzsche in a new context

"It is by being 'natural' that one best recovers from one's 'unnaturalness,' from one's spirituality..."
-- Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols


I hate Confucius. I hate that I am, by culture if not by choice, his descendant. I despise his teachings. I hope that he and the whole disaster of a culture he spawned would fall screaming into the pit of Hell.

Don said a few months ago that I was 'very Chinese.' Perhaps he thought it was a value-neutral remark, a throw-away statement. I however, took it as if he drew attention to a scar or missing limb on my body. It was an embarrassment.

More and more I realize that my Confucian tendencies are spiritual tumors to be cut out of my soul by any means necessary; veritable sicknesses in need of attention.

You see, Nietzsche criticized Christianity on the grounds that it was primarily a slave religion born out of worthless Jewish rabble straining under Pharaoh's yoke. As slaves, they could do nothing but make new slaves out of any proselyte. Upon turning to Christianity, the word 'freedom' was introduced, a spiritual freedom, which in reality was nothing but a more elaborately concealed yoke of slavery.



What would he have said about Confucianism? Such a deformed, depraved culture... but yet it has produced great things! Has it? Who produced the great wall? Emperors commanding thousands of obedient, dutiful, stupid and helpless peasants. Who produced the oldest continuous civilization? The powerful preying on Confucianally indoctrinated rabble. And who is hosting the Olympics this year, throwing the greatest international show ever displayed? A small group of powerful pulling on the string of national duty. Confucian slaves are perhaps more complete and useful than the slaves that Christianity produces.

Very Chinese? Yes, yes I am. And I hate it. And I will most certainly be rid of it.

Riddle me this

Someone help me out here.

What does a slave, who has been nothing but a slave all his life, think when he hears the word 'freedom'? Can such a word have any meaning for him? Yet he knows he wants it. Why? What does a worm dream of when he dreams of flying?