Intro to Ethics Question Debunked

In intro to philosophy classes, we always end up talking about how to choose a right action in a situation brings about an evil consequence. For instance, assume you are in Germany at the time of the Holocaust (for some reason, everyone can relate to the extreme situation of Nazis killing Jews, so this example usually takes this form.). Some Jews come to you and ask to hide at your house. You believe it is a right action to hide them, so you agree and let them hide in your attic. Later, some Nazis come to your door and say, "Are there any Jews here? If so, we will kill them. If not, we will move on." What do you do?

A. Tell them the Jews are there, since you believe it is bad to lie. The Nazis come in and kill the Jews. You did a right action by telling the truth, but it brought about an evil result (but hey, you didn't kill the Jews. the Nazis did).
B. Tell them the Jews are not there, since you don't want to take away the implied promise of protection for the Jews. The Nazis leave and the Jews survive (for now). You did what you considered to be a bad action, but you kept your implied promise to protect the Jews.
C. You say nothing, that way you haven't "done" a bad action.
D. Something else?

This leads most first-time philosophy students to Utilitarianism, the greatest good for the most people. The professor then tries to debunk Utilitarianism in the next class, and the cycle begins until the student decides that she can weather the storms of some position.

Now, let me throw everything for a loop. Joshua 2:1-7 (NIV) reads:

"1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. 'Go, look over the land,' he said, 'especially Jericho.' So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

 2 The king of Jericho was told, 'Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.' 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: 'Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.'

 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, 'Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.' 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut."

So here is at least a similar situation recorded in the Bible. Because we know where this story ended up, we like the consequences of the story. But now the question is begged - was Rahab's action righteous? She lied by saying that they had left when they had not. This, however, saved their lives, and hers as well. We make reference to her part in the genealogy of Jesus. We say she acted in "faith" by hiding the spies in Hebrews 11. But James in his epistles to the Messianic Jews, implies that Rahab's actions of hiding and misdirecting the pursuers were righteous (James 2:25):

"In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?"

Sure, it is a rhetorical question, so James doesn't say straight-forwardly that Rahab was righteous for lying to the pursuers, but the implied "yes" of the rhetorical question shows that James believed so.

Is this a biblical example of "sometimes it is okay to lie?"

Rock Of My Salvation

You are the Rock of my slavation,
You are the strength of my life.
You are my Hope and my Inspiration,
Lord, unto You will I cry.

I believe in You, believe in You,
For Your faithful love to me.
You have been my help in time of need,
Lord, unot You will I cleave.

My Name In Lights

Tonight was the first time I've ever played at a coffeeshop. Of course, it wasn't advertized until about a day ago, and it was the coldest night this winter. So, besides Katy, Tim and Nicole, there were only a couple of people that stayed for a song or two. I played nothing original, since I have nothing original. But, here's what I played:

Set 1:
Wholly Yours - David Crowder Band
Unforgetful You - Jars of Clay
Gomer's Theme - Third Day
You Are My God - Enter The Worship Circle
You Are So Good To Me - Enter The Worship Circle
The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding
Here I Go Again - Whitesnake
One - U2
Running To Stand Still - U2
Wonderwall - Oasis
Not Enough - Caedmon's Call
Thankful - Caedmon's Call
Can't Lose You - Caedmon's Call

Set 2:
Come And Listen - David Crowder Band
All I Can Say - David Crowder Band
May The Words Of My Mouth - Shane Barnard
Land Of The Living - Enter The Worship Circle
Rush, River, Rush - Enter The Worship Circle
Great Light Of The World - Bebo Norman
Wait On The Lord - Enter The Worship Circle
Dance, Dance - Enter The Worship Circle
Those Who Trust - Enter The Worship Circle
I Will Not Forget You - Enter The Worship Circle
If I Stand - Jars Of Clay (Rich Mullins)
Blessed Be Your Name - Robin Mark (Matt Redman)
You Said - Shane Barnard
Lead Of Love - Caedmon's Call


I actually hit the high notes in songs like "One" and "Can't Lose You." I think it went well, especially considering I had to use my old guitar since my new guitar was missing a string.

Book It!

I finished a book in less than a week. I read There Is Always Enough by Roland and Heidi Baker. Because of where Katy and I are at in our spiritual journey, this was a real faith-builder. This book leaves me asking, "Now what?" because it calls one to act. How? I'm not sure yet.

However, I did what I always seem to do; I started reading a new book while I'm only 2/3 the way done with another book. However, I broke the habit by finishing this book, and I will finish the other book I was reading, The Hip Hop Generation.

It's Been A While . . .

First, I forgot to mention that some fish died. Actually, four fish died, all around the same time. They were there when we got home from the holidays, but I don't remember seeing them after that. They were the three Otocinculus Catfish and the one Coryadoras Catfish. They were in the heavily planted tank. When I took out the stump and put it into the bottom tank, I couldn't find them. We have determined that they died, and were either eaten by other fish or by the snails (which would have taken probably less than a day).

In other news, Tim has tried to show me how to do cool new things with my blog. For instance, I can make words bold. I can make words italicized. I can also make links to other sites . . .

Since that is the case, I will respond to Tim's blog by posting this:

The Top Five Songs I Should Be Embarassed I have on ITunes:
5. "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" BJ Thomas (Forest Gump Soundtrack)
4. "Chipmunks Christmas Song" The Chipmunks (some Christmas mix)
3. Folger's Commercial Jingles by Rockapella (2)
2. "(I Know I Got) Skillz" Shaquille O'Neal (Millenium Hip-Hop Party 2)
1. "Mmmbop" Hanson (Middle Of Nowhere)

Honorable Mention: Backstreet Boys (The Hits - Chapter One), Disney (The Disney Collection Volume 2), Various (Millenium Hip-Hop Party 1 and 2, Millenium Funk Party), Hanson (Middle Of Nowhere), Journey (Journey's Greatest Hits), Muppets (Muppets Greatest Hits?), Oasis (Morning Glory), Rockapella (2, Don't Tell Me You Do), Salt-N-Pepa (Greatest Hits), "I Wish" SkeeLo (I Wish Single), Steve Miller Band (Greatest Hits 1974-78), Styx (Greatest Hits), Utah Symphony Orchestra (Star Wars Trilogy), Weird Al Yankovic (a bunch of albums), and World Wide Message Tribe (Revivied).

These are simply the ones that made it onto the computer. I left off some things, like B.T.O. and Steve Camp. In my defense, most of these albums were either hand-me-downs from Tim realizing that there is better music out there than Foreigner and Styx or they were albums we got because they were funny.

Driving Me Nuts

Blogger.com has ruined my blog layout. New templates don't work correctly and I can't even go back to my original. none of them work.

And I can't find the button that is supposed to allow me to upload pictures.

New Look

I'm trying something new with the template. Let me know what you think.

I'm also trying to figure out how to upload pictures, so we'll see how that goes.

One Month and Counting

It has officially been one month since we have left the church (not the Church). Our last day of work was Christmas Eve, but we were paid through the end of December through vacation and comp time. This season of rest has been incredible. My life as a Christian has been like a really long race. I kept running and running and running and running. Then, I hit The Wall. At The Wall, my ministry adrenaline kicked in, the point in the race that your legs feel like jello and your eyes get so blurry that you can't see peripherally. As if that wasn't enough, the last whole stretch of the race had been uphill, getting steeper and steeper. Finally, the Coach steps in and says, "That'll do, pig," (name the family movie reference) and takes you out of that race.

The problem is, the Church tells you that you are a runner. This is true. But the misunderstanding is that the Church says you've got to run constantly. Not only do you have to run constantly, but you have to run faster and faster and steeper and steeper. This misunderstanding stems from the racers teaching themselves. If the only thing that you know about running is what you are learning from the person running in front of you, then you will keep running just fast enough to keep up with that person until one of you simply can't go on.

Misconception 1: You have to run faster and faster and steeper and steeper.
Correction: You should be a better runner now than you were in the past. The misconception here is that "faster" and "steeper" are equated with "better" by the Church. [The better Christian you are, the more you are doing to serve the church. A step up from this is that you have a larger sphere of influence. Neither necessarily mean "better."] At some point in the race, it may be better to run slower. At some point, it may be better to run downhill. But if all you know about running is what you see around you, you will either just be following someone else's idea of running, which usually means running faster and steeper, or your pride steps in and says, "I'm a better runner than him, therefore I need to run faster and steeper to prove it to me/him/God." However, if you are listening for the Coach to tell you how to run, you will realize that He has a clearer understanding of what a "better" runner is.

Misconception 2: You have to run constantly or you're not a runner. (By definition, a runner is one who runs. If you're not running, then you are not a runner.)
Correction: A runner is someone whose purpose is to run, no matter how much time they actually run. A toaster is a machine that toasts my bread, even though it is not constantly toasting my bread. Even if the toaster never toasts my bread, it is still a toaster. As anyone who has run a race can tell you, it is better to practice multiple times with breaks in between before the race. Your body doesn't build muscle during a workout but during the rest in between workouts. [Plants are the same way; they grow more when it is dark than when it is light because they are use the light energy differently during the light than after the light.] And, unless you are going incredibly slow in your race, it is impossible to gain more energy than you are using, especially over a long period of time.

The key is: the Coach knows what you need to do to be a better runner. He knows how you need to improve and will put you through tough workouts to do so. He knows your potential as a runner and he will push you to be that runner. He knows that you need to rest and not just run. And the best thing is, he was a runner himself. He ran his race the best it could be done, and now he's helping you to do the same. All you have to do is humbly listen for the Coach's instructions and put them into action.


[Sorry for any inconsistency in my analogy, since I wrote this in one sitting. Also, sorry for any ambiguity in my use of "better" since I realize it probably didn't actually add any clarity.]


P.S. Please pray for us to have perseverance in our faith through this time.