We all been there, man.

A BIG HUGE THANK YOU!

Hey you guys, thank you for your gift. I've had a real negative out look on things lately; and your act of kindness has put an abrupt stop to it. I still can't believe I've got such awesome friends, but I'm really glad that I do. I love you guys. I know that I might not show it the way most people do, but you all mean a lot to me.

our version of "the other guys"

Hot diggity. I can post.

Continuing the discussion about prejudice...

We've each got our prejudices, to be sure, but is it possible that because of our age and location and (hopefully) our propensity toward peace, race isn't one of 'em? Maybe that's why we had a difficult time making it through the last chapter and coming up with examples of how we can help to heal the gaping race wound. We don't seem to have issues of racial disparity slapping us in the face in these parts. Native Americans face the most discrimination in our state, but again, there aren't many of the Native population anymore in the white bread Flathead Valley, or if so, I am not aware of Christ-following Natives worshipping separately. Doing cursory google and phonebook searches, I can't find any churches that list themselves as being particularly Native or Polynesian or Hispanic or what have you, whereas that is common some places. For sure it was in Anchorage.

What if, as a group, our prejudices are instead toward those in the mainstream christian subculture? I have to admit that, on a personal level, mine often are. I tend to assume that people who wear massive amounts of "christian paraphenalia" (as if that's even a logical phrase, because can things be christian?) or listen to christian radio all the live long day, or agree with everything a pastor says aren't really thinking. And, that might be true. But does that make my prejudice justified? Does that make the people involved any less valuable? Nay!

Leaving group last Sunday evening, Jason and I talked about how interesting it was that we were lamenting the intense segregation of churches by their denomination when we ourselves are pretty much creating yet another split. We know that the house church / small group concept is much more biblically and historically accurate than clustering up according to specific theological stances to meet in buildings and to pay staff to do the important stuff.And yet.

How can we maintain ties with a larger family / network of believers, even if we don't agree with their chosen format, and do it with honesty, keeping it real? Or is it necessary to maintain such ties? I was going to suggest that we skip ahead to the chapter about falling under the church's authority, but I see now that it is the next chapter. I haven't read ahead, but I'm guessing that may be an important next point of focus for this group.

Indians

So what do you guys think about the plight of the native Americans? And if there were a tribe trying to regain it's independence from the United States what would you think about it?