themattscott » fail http://www.themattscott.com ramblings-theology-my thoughts Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:59:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Copyright © 2010 themattscott mattscott306@comcast.net () mattscott306@comcast.net () posts ramblings-theology-my thoughts mattscott306@comcast.net No no http://www.themattscott.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg themattscott http://www.themattscott.com 144 144 Life updates http://www.themattscott.com/2009/07/26/life-updates/ http://www.themattscott.com/2009/07/26/life-updates/#comments Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:19:33 +0000 Matt http://www.themattscott.com/?p=500 Well, I haven’t been around much lately. This summer I took a nice size course load to try to get my college “career” jump started again. I don’t think I’ve ever gone into the details of my past failures here (on the blog) so a quick summary is probably in order.

Back in my junior year of high school, I was accepted into a program that would allow me to simultaneously complete my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college. It’s really a great program, but I was, unfortunately, not mature enough to take it seriously enough. In Georgia, as long as you keep a 3.0 (B) average GPA you get scholarship money that pays most (if not all) of your college tuition. I managed to lose hope that year.

Throughout high school I never really needed to apply myself, I graduated with something a little less than a 4.0 GPA (really, something a little less than, I’m not being sarcastic), and I spent my junior year only going to class four out of five days a week. I took that same work ethic into college and utterly destoryed the financial situation. Then, after I lost scholarship money, I began taking out loans to pay for school, yet I still kept that same failed work ethic and actually managed to botch my ability to get any financial aid, including loans.

The greatest part of this whole situation is that it (the complete loss of all financial aid) hit the same semester that I actually began to see the ills of my past and was on pace for straight A’s. I found out a month into the semester that my loan had been revoked due to not attaining what the school calls SAP– “Satisfactory Academic Progress.” It killed me. That was last summer, and I have spent the past year moping around doing jack shit about it.

My parents were kind enough to pay for this past (summer) semester of school, and I managed not to botch things up again (all A’s and B’s), so things were starting to look up. While applying for school for this upcoming (fall) semester, I noticed that SAP is only assessed once a year, after the spring semester. That kind of killed my drive to complete once again, but fortunentally, my boss has offered a loan for this semester.

Anyways, all that to say that I will be (once again) working my ass off this upcoming semester (five courses–15 credit hours) and won’t be around much. I will be around the emergeting world, I have scheduled things out so that I’ll be able to attend both the Cobb and Atlanta cohorts, and I plan on attending the Adventures in Missing the Point conference in November, as well as helping get the South-East Emergence Collective conferetreat sometime in 2010. If you’re local you can catch me at one of those events.

If you’re not local, I’ll still be ’round here a bit. I can’t testify as to how much I’ll actually be posting, but you can catch me on twitter or facebook. Micro Blogging (twitter) is probably the most suitable outlet for my thoughts right now, and I do a fair enough bit of it.

There is also that good old fashioned email thing. matt@themattscott.com

email2friend]]> http://www.themattscott.com/2009/07/26/life-updates/feed/ 2 On The Fourth of July http://www.themattscott.com/2009/06/26/on-the-fourth-of-july/ http://www.themattscott.com/2009/06/26/on-the-fourth-of-july/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:26:47 +0000 Matt http://www.themattscott.com/2009/06/26/on-the-fourth-of-july/ Every year, all over America, churches partake in a celebration of the State, the Fourth of July (you could throw in memorial day here too). You’ll see high flying flags and symbols of America and American power all over the various ‘sanctuaries’ and church buildings, you’ll see those little yard flags lining the parking lots, you’ll see the pastors, preachers, and priests wearing their patriotic clothing, and you’ll probably sing a song or two about America. Your church may even go as far as pledging to the American flag and singing the National Anthem.

I like America; I am thankful for the various freedoms I have, I’m impressed every four years with our peaceful change of power, and I appreciate my ability to write a blog without fear of governmental response. I am not, however, about to take part in singing the songs of America, nor in pledging my allegiance to a flag, and I openly admit that I feel sick whenever I see masses of Christians doing just that.

Perhaps my hermeneutics are a touch off, but throughout the entirety of the New Testament I see both Jesus and Paul doing and saying things that stand against the empire. I cannot see Paul pledging to the American flag, nor can I see him singing “God Bless America,” instead I see Paul pledging only to Jesus and being ridiculed and persecuted for that position. Yet we a church in love with the state, a church that sees no issue with pledging allegiance to the state, and church that’s lost itself.

Jesus taught about two men not being able to serve two masters, he was talking, at the time, about God and Money, but I wonder if He’d now add a third party into that parable were he to give it today, would He add in State? Would He try to tell today’s American Christians that you cannot pledge your allegiance to a State and to Christ? Let’s not forget the order that those pledges are usually said, growing up heres how we did it: I pledge to the American Flag, I pledge to the Baptist Flag, I pledge to the Christian Flag, and I pledge to the Bible. Am I to understand from that my first allegiance goes to American flag? Am I to understand that I can align myself with multiple entities, most of which actually stand at odds with each other at times?

Instead putting things in proper perspective, we get this:

actually heard pastor say this at funeral: ‘not all patriotic americans are christians, but all Christians are patriotic Americans’ Yikes

Are we really American Christians? Is that our identity? Or are we Christians who live in America? Which of the two monikers do we care most about?

Think about that. Join me in not singing the anthem, join me in not pledging to any other but Christ, join me in not selling out your faith for something of this world.


email2friend]]> http://www.themattscott.com/2009/06/26/on-the-fourth-of-july/feed/ 39