Two Rants

I am about to go on two rants that will not be thought much of if we think of them as rants.  Because all I want to do is to make a statement, and a few related statements that brought me to my conclusion, and to have everyone agree with me.  I don’t want to huff and puff about them.  I certainly don’t want to go to all the trouble of trying to persuade people with carefully researched arguments – which usually doesn’t work anyway. 

1.  Laughing at people should not be thought rude unless it is clearly intended to be so.  Children laugh with delight – at fun things, at spectacles, at themselves, at comedy.  It is associated with being in good humor.  I know I am not often in very good humor, and I would like justification for expressing it when I feel it.  If something you say makes me laugh, please do not think that I find you merely comic – or that I am intending to tease or ridicule you.  You delight me.  Please continue.

2.  I used to think I was conservative: a conservative Christian, conservative in politics.  It’s possible I am conservative about language, or conservative with resources.  But when conservation and ideals share ground, if you are an unsuccessful conservative for long enough, you have to stop!  I can’t be conservative for the sake of conserving!  I’m not conservative just to oppose changes.  The idea is that I want something to be stable, for goodness to be maintained.  But for quite a while, evil has been gradually overwhelming my ideals.  The status quo isn’t ok with me, either in our nation’s government or in our churches.  So I am a revolutionary.  I am a submissive revolutionary.  Some people rather derisively (or at least dismissively) call me an idealist. 

To God be all glory.