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 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
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| The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
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| It all started with... |
 Mother's day.
The American civil war, women's sufferage, and pacificism all contributed to a banding together of women - notably the poet Julia Ward Howe - who proclaimed the first "Mother's day" in 1870, but especially Anna Marie Jarvis - who pressed for an nationally recognized day to commemorate mothers. The first nationally recognized mother's day (May 12, 1914) was held on the anniversary of Anna's mother's death. It is Anna therefore who is considered to be the 'mother' of Mother's Day.
Yet by the 1920s Mother's Day had become so entirely commercialized that Anna (along with her sister Ellsinore) began to campaign against it - eventually spending their entire family inheritance attempting to bring to an end the commercial hijacking of what was (arguably) intended to be a sentimental vehicle by which pacificism could be promoted.
It was during Anna's promotional phase however - (before the commercialization of Mother's day) that Anna's zeal impressed a certain (Mrs.) Sonora Smart Dodd. Sonora's father had been was a civil war vet, and as a single parent had raised five children.
Think that through for a second. The driving force behind Fathers Day is that one man had managed to do something that mother's have been doing since wars were invented - parenting children solo.
Anyway - in the wake of Anna's mothers day promotion - Sonora, wanting to commemorate her Father's "mothering" of her siblings - she began to promote the idea of a Father's day - a day to commemorate Fathers!
As it happened, the anniversary of old man Dodd's passing was in June - so the first "Father's Day" was celebrated on June 19, 1910 (which actually missed the anniversary date by a couple of weeks - but it was celebrated nevertheless.)
Father's day didn't get off the ground quite as smoothly as Mother's day did however. Early supporters such as William Jennings Bryan, and President Calvin Coolidge gave unofficial support to the day, but it wasn't until Nixon, in 1972 that Father's day became nationally recognized.
Most people are under no illusion - Father's day, and Mother's day, are often referred to as "Hallmark Holidays" - that is, they are the day of the year when you buy mom a card and a flower or dad a card - not because you love them and want to honor them - but because someone said this is the day that if you don't buy them a card (or recognize them in some way) you will be a bad son or daughter.
Really - this reminds me of our sinfulness.
I like to give the example of the father with four children - who determines one day to give three of them ice cream. None of the four have done anything to warrant the ice cream - but the father, being kind and generous, determines to give ice cream to three of his children. He certainly could give ice cream to all of them - but for reasons that are entirely his own, he determines to give ice cream to only three of the four.
Now, if you were the fourth - the one who didn't get the ice cream - you would probably think - THAT IS SO UNFAIR! Why do they get ice cream and I don't? They don't deserve ice cream any more than I do - this is UNFAIR!!!
But that attitude is entirely carnal. The reality is that having earned nothing, we deserve nothing. The father has done absolutely nothing wrong in being generous to the three and not the fourth. He is under no obligation to give any of the children anything - in fact, it is only our utterly selfish perspective that demands the fourth child -must- receive ice cream, and we charge the father with cruelty if the fourth child doesn't receive the same as the others.
This is what depravity looks like - imagining that we deserve something for no other reason than someone else who, like yourself, has no right to a thing - but gets it anyway - we immediately presume that give us some right - but we are depraved indeed to imagine that charity and grace are ever deserved.
But it is this same depravity that we are all so familiar with that drives most of us to celebrate "Hallmark Holidays" - we don't want to leave our parents feeling "left out," or "less loved" than other parents - so we buy mom flowers and a card, or buy dad a card - or make some special effort - a special phone call, or having them over - or do whatever it is we do to make ourselves feel that we are not bad children for neglecting to be appropriately superficial and commercial twice a year.
It is good to love and honor our parents - it is the first commandment with a promise - but these "holidays" only remind me how commercial and superficial our culture really is. I know some of you reading this will agree, and some will want to remark that they use the time to reflect - and that such reflection is healthy and good - and they are right - it is - but I am not talking about reflection and right thoughts so much as the commercialism and wrong thoughts.
I am not complaining - just free associating.
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posted by Daniel @
9:48 AM
 
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| 3 Comments: |
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I'm still gonna preach my Father's day sermon from Ephesians 6:4, so there!
*sorry, just a little fiesty today, ha ha!*
Actually, I'm excited that a young lady I ministered to at summer camp said today that she thought that God was making her want to do the right thing, and that she just couldn't go to that party, because it wouldn't glorify God!
Hallelujah!
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Interesting history lesson, and I agree with your summary. I see it as a "Hallmark" holiday (in fact I'm headed over there right after I finish this), but I never bothered to look into the history of it.
Regardless, I hope you have a great weekend. :-)
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Commercial and Superficial? Whatever, all I know is I want a flat panel, surrond sound theater system for father's day.
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I'm still gonna preach my Father's day sermon from Ephesians 6:4, so there!
*sorry, just a little fiesty today, ha ha!*
Actually, I'm excited that a young lady I ministered to at summer camp said today that she thought that God was making her want to do the right thing, and that she just couldn't go to that party, because it wouldn't glorify God!
Hallelujah!