The bad dad

It's been a while since I've been here. I think it must be safe to say just about anything since nobody reads this stuff. Let's see what happens.



I went to Rome, Israel, and Jordan back in March, 2009 and I'll never read the Bible the same way ever again. It has now become 3- Dimensional. All Israeli areas were pleasant and all Arab/Muslim/Palestinian were not. It reminded me of racial divides here in the US. I felt I was watched by the last mentioned group because I was a foreigner, at least, or because I was with a Christian group or I spoke English, or I was a white anglo, or I was an American, or someone heard me speak a few words of Hebrew. Interesting point is that the 'Gazans' quit throwing those unpredictable explosives at Israel just in time for the tourist season. Both sides like the heavy amount of tourist money that comes in every year. If there are no tourists, there is no tourist money.



Another observation, Rome is a filthy city. What a shame. Panhandlers were everywhere and cripples in the street, kids running wild and selling junk. I thought the Catholics would have done a better job for the city and the Roman faithful. All the money, of course, is in the Vatican. What wasteful extravagence!!!! One of the guys in our tour group asked the 'catholic' tour guide if the Vatican had any plans to return any stones back to the Colosseum since so much of the Vatican was built with the missing stones. She said that she didn't know. Of course not.



Don't take this the wrong way. I like everybody and my faith came through Rome. I figured the Pope could ramrod a decent charity for the people. There is a good reason I'm a protestant, generally, and evangelical, witnessing, Southern Baptist christian specifically and that is the Catholic Church is a whole lot of government and the bigger the government, the more inept it is with the individual.



Yes, I believe there are repentant, Christ loving disciples in the Catholic Church. After I saw the City of Rome (yes, I understand that The Vatican is a stand-alone state), I am disappointed with both of those governments.

I have a lot more to say, but I don't have all the time that some folks seem to have. I'll get back to this more often now but give it about a week. Shalom, שלום