Have You Heard Railings Recently?

A banned speech pattern for Christians

ear up to a stair railing

No, not that kind of railing!

My general impression of the term railing has been one that has to do as much with content as with the tone and demeanor of the speaker.

The very day after hearing a definition that was milder than the one I’ve had, I had work-related occasion to check some book sources. Let me show you some of what I found.

dictionary defines the verb rail

OK, so it’s hard to read. See below. Read it all

6 Things Most People Don’t Know About Me

Proceed with caution; you may get what you're not expecting.

Mark Roth partially bares his soleBefore my list, some questions:

  • Why do I think it important to announce them?
  • Why should anybody care to know?
  • What makes people do stuff like this?
  • What drives your interest?
  • Does this look like Facebook to you?

Do you still want to see my list of 11 things most people don’t know about me? Read it all

Putting “Real Life” into My Pleasure

Justifying taking pleasure in unrighteousness. Excusing brushing up against darkness.

In the course of writing material for the Teacher Guide for an eighth grade Bible course, I’ve come to a lesson titled “Evil Will Lose.” It’s based on portions of 2 Thessalonians 1 & 2.

While researching through some of my previous writing on those chapters, I came to this:

I’m talking about pleasure sources that may be amoral or even moral for the most part but have unrighteousness scattered through them.

I know, I know. Life is life, and life has loads of unrighteousness through it.

But why must my “entertainment” present it?

To be more interesting and realistic.

Fine. My concern stands.

This is a strike against many of contemporary Christian novels.

I wrote that almost eight years ago, but it’s pertinent enough that I’m encouraging you to read the entire piece — My Pleasure.

I still stand there. Or do I need to see something differently?

What do you think of including detailed evil in order to make something real-to-life?

Why Mock Goody Two-Shoes?

Because your own deeds are substandard and your target's righteous?

Goody two-shoes? What does that mean?!

It must be something bad. Really, terribly bad. I’ve never heard anything positive about a goody two-shoes. I’ve never heard anyone aspire to being one. Obviously there’s no good in that kind of goody.

Goody two-shoes are mocked, derided, and scorned. They are held in contempt and as a standard of what not to be.

Why?

OK, after writing all that, I looked up the term and found these two helpful entries:

That helps. I’ve even met people like that. And people I thought were like that, but I discovered later my own weakness propelled me to a huge leap onto a wrong, unjust conclusion. Andrée over at World magazine experienced something similar: Read it all

Above all, love God!
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