Dr. Forbush Thinks

A few weeks ago I was invited to join a peloton. Of course I didn’t know what a peloton was, but I was able to infer its meaning from the context of the conversation. The invitation was to ride our bicycles across town and up some incredibly steep road, then stop, and watch as the cyclists from the “Amgen Tour of California” come racing up the hill.

As I have written here several times in the past, I am in much better condition than I was just three years ago. I am aerobically fit, from my daily workouts at the pool and my weekly jogging expeditions. But, my experience on a bicycle is not very recent. About 15 years ago my bicycle was my main transportation to and from work. I road a couple of miles on the bike trails in The Woodlands, Texas. And, I road a couple of miles each way to work in the rains of northern Germany. But the bike riding wasn’t really enough to keep me fit, because I managed to put on a few pounds even with the cycling. I rode, but I never made the trip a challenge, cycling was just another mode of transportation.

Since I hadn’t ridden my bicycle for quite some time I knew that it needed some maintenance. A quick look showed me that my tires were basically rotting on the rims and one of my brake cables was about to break. I bought new tires and inner tubes, but the little piece of brake cable wasn’t a standard part at the “big box” sporting goods store that I visited. The salesman suggested that I visit a “bike shop” to find the piece that I needed.

One might want to reflect on this little incident, if we remember that the “bike shop” is having difficulty competing with the “big box” sporting goods store across town. The “bike shop” is actually a neighborhood sporting goods store that also repairs bicycles in the back of the shop. The “big box” store has only been in town for about a year. I ended up buying the tires and the inner tubes at the “big box” store and then traveled across town to see if the “bike shop” had the piece of cable that I needed. I spent about $20 at the “big box” store, and the bike shop had the small cable piece I needed for $2. They also had the tires and inner tubes, but I had already bought them at the “big box” store. Obviously if other patrons behave the same way that I did it is easy to read the writing on the wall - the “bike shop” really isn’t going to survive. When I realized what I had done I looked around for something else that I might need. And I found a $20 bicycle pump that I thought that I might like to have, and I bought it. But, this was a charity purchase that I didn’t really need to make. Most people don’t even think in those terms, so I began to lament the demise of the “bike shop” before it has happened. We will all loose the ability to find those “little pieces” that the “big box” store won’t keep in inventory because they don’t sell that fast. We’ll end up needing to go online, find these things, and order them “next day” delivery instead.

With all the parts in hand I attacked my bicycle. I tore it apart and then put it back together again. I even used the new bicycle pump to fill the tires. I petitioned my family to go on a bike ride so I could test my handy work. Of course I was greeted with a blank stare questioning my sanity. My wife, feeling guilty, joined me on a short ride of about ten miles. The bicycle seemed to be in working order - ready for the peloton.

My brother-in-law works at a big “bike shop” that actually sells high-end bikes to professional racers. His store sponsors at least one race a year and maybe more. He sent us a professional bike-racing shirt that I thought would be appropriate to wear on this journey across town and into the world of bike racing. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I figured that bike racing wasn’t really as popular as the Super Bowl or the World Series. I figured that we would ride up the hill that was blocked off from automobiles and we would find ourselves alone, as I expected the typical overweight out-of-shape Americans to stay at the bottom of the hill and root from there if they even decided to watch the race at all.

I was slightly surprised when I met up with our peloton and discovered what cycling enthusiasts they were. Two of them had also wore their cycling jerseys. Three of them had very nice bikes, where mine was at least 20 years old with about 20,000 miles on it. At least it had new tires on it.

Well, as we started off I felt at ease knowing that these guys had major cycling experience. They used cycling hand signals to worn us of potential dangers, like cars. They knew how to ride through traffic and signal to the cars. And, I just followed their example. All of my cycling experience was basically on bike trails or in bicycle friendly countries. So, I followed, watched and learned.

We rode for several miles until the hill emerged ahead of us. I anticipated the hill looking forward to testing my ability to climb it with my bike. Of course the riding became slower and my heart pounded harder as we began to climb. And eventually I stopped and walked my bike a short distance up a very steep section. Then I hopped on the bike and pushed ahead a bit more. Then I was completely embarrassed when one of the experts in our group asked me why I didn’t down shift my gears. Well, I had down shifted my rear gears, but I completely forgot to do the same in the front. And, of course that made things much easier.

We rode about 1 mile up this hill and found a sharp turn in the road where we could wait for the professionals to race by. And, to my surprise the crowd had not thinned out on this stretch of the course. People were crowded and they clutched their cowbells. In fact, as we rode by many of the people rang these cowbells “just for fun” as they waited. The crowd was quite large. I imagined that the number of people crowed along this mile up the hill was larger than the number of people that gathered for the last parade that I attended. And, the people seemed to be more excited than the crowd at the last parade that I attended. Many of these people had chalked messages on the road as they waited. “Floyd was Framed, ” “Go Levi,” and “Super Fan” were some of the messages that I remember. But, the road had hundreds of these. I couldn’t imagine that any of the cyclists would even read them, but you never know.

The particular spot where we stopped had a Fox News TV camera set up on a tripod. At the time we had no idea who owned the camera, but later in the evening some footage showed up on the local Fox News affiliate taken from that vantage point. It also helped to have “Super Fan” choose this spot to root for the cyclists.

Super Fan is a guy who wore a big fuzzy wig, a red, white and blue jump suit and a red, white and blue cape. The guy was obviously an attention seeking person possibly with a mental disease. (;-}) And, he managed to get himself on the evening news acting like a loony, so got some of that attention that he was seeking.

We waited for over 30 minutes to see a couple of minutes of bike racing. First we saw a few cars and motorcycles traveling the course 10 to 15 minutes ahead of the cyclists. Apparently they are looking for loonies like “Super Fan” that might decide to disrupt the race. Super Fan got a lot of coverage on the local TV station, but he didn’t have a message. Perhaps if he were protesting something or making another statement the advance cars might figure out a way to detain him before the cyclists were to reach that spot. Behind these advance cars were several units of police, on motorcycles and in cars. These guys yelled at the crowd that walked into the street as we waited for the cyclists. More motorcycles and cars came through until finally the first group of riders came riding through behind a motorcycle that stayed just in front of the leaders.

Well, I certainly appreciated the effort those cyclists made as they pumped their way up that hill after my earlier attempt. It was amazing to me how close those guys hung together as they climbed that hill. The skill they demonstrated to me went beyond the simple ability to power that bike 650 miles across the California landscape. Controlling that bike, in that pack of cyclists pushing up and then racing down the hills, is certainly beyond my ability. Being there and witnessing the actual event is difficult to put into words, simply because so much was happening that made the event and writing about it can only be done by excluding so much.

After just a few minutes the cyclists had passed and we were on our way to the next vantage-point. As it turned out the cyclists went up the hill and around a loop. In about 30 minutes they were due to pass by once again. So, we rode back down the hill to another place to wait for them to come around their loop. And, as we waited it got colder and I began to freeze. One of the guys in our peloton made a break away and decided to ride the five miles from where we were to the finish line. But, I decided to wait instead of ride basically because I had a meeting back at work that I didn’t want to miss.

As we waited the Girl Scouts came by and sold us cookies. As I imagine this phenomena 20 years hence I see businesses exploiting this by selling soft drinks, hot dogs, ice cream and more. Once they identify the “hot spots” where all the people come to wait for the racers fly by the venders will fill in the vacuum.

The ride back afterward was fast. Most of the ride was down hill, except for a short segment uphill and into the wind. Most of the ride was effortless, aside from that little climb that I pushed hard against. But, that little fight just before arriving at my destination brought back memories of those professionals climbing that hill. My struggle made me want to fight harder. But, I wondered how long I could keep up that fight. One quarter of the way up that hill was tough, but the professionals had ¾ of the way more to go up that hill after almost 100 miles of riding. Wow.




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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



Reflection

I am of Scots decent. My family has been in this country since 1654; maybe longer because I don’t every ancestor 12 generations or more back 350 years. Over these past 350 years my family has lost the taste for haggis and the urge to toss the caber. In a strange twist of history my ancient ancestor was born after the time when the old style philabeg (predecessor of the kilt) had been banned by the government and before the new style kilt was invented in 1725. My ancestor from Scotland who was captured and brought to the “New World” against his will and sold as an indentured servant had only ever worn pants. It is quite strange to think of the idea of a Scottish Highland games that glorifies the kilt, but had never been part of my Scottish family’s heritage.

Actually there are quite a few ironies and distortions in our relationship between our ethnic heritage and our ethnic culture.

Did that last sentence sound strange to anyone? I am saying that ethnic heritage and ethnic culture are two different things. This is because people no longer live in the same small village for their entire life. More people travel than they used to. And, more people especially in America move around and live in different places. This mobile culture “overwrites” our “hometown” culture. And, when we leave a particular place our memory of that place becomes frozen in our minds as the way that place “IS.” But, the reality is that the place continues to evolve after we leave that place. And, the new place that we find ourselves a part of begins to change because of the ideas that we bring to it.

When we go to another country we take our “American” ideas with us. But those “American” ideas might be a mixture of 1970s Chicago, 1980s rural Texas and 1990s rural California experience plus everything we “know” from TV about America. And when the German who meets you learns about “America” he will form an idea about America that isn’t the same as if she had met a person who has a 1970s New York, 1980s LA and 1990s Seattle experience of America. In fact, it might make sense to talk about a “personal” culture at some point.

But, underlying these experiences of American life that give us an American culture we also have an ethnic culture that is passed down through our family by means of ethnic tradition. But when you live close to people from many different backgrounds it is likely that you will pick up bits and pieces of the cultures that surround you. We see this all the time in regard to food and drink. We eat Mexican, Chinese and Japanese food all the time. We serve bagels, falafel, pita pockets, hummus, coffee and tea that all came from other places and other cultures. We absorb new words and descriptions when we hear our neighbors use them. We wear clothes and shoes that we see our neighbors wear. Culture flows, it isn’t stagnant. But our mind freezes what we see today and we call that American culture. Maybe that is why many of us don’t like change. We have learned to like the culture that we have, because it gives us comfort, but as the culture changes as it always will we find ourselves looking for that old culture that we once knew so well.

My grandmother came to the United States in the early 1900s. She was following her father who was looking for a better life. He first travel to Leadville, Colorado where he went to work in the lead mines. After a short while he learned that the lead mines in Colorado were dangerous. They were dangerous because the owners of the mines owned the town and they knew that the workers didn’t have enough money to just pick up everyone in the family and move to a better place very easily. But my great grandfather was all alone and he didn’t have to pick up the family and move. He just needed to move himself, and so he did. He went to the coalmines in Pennsylvania and worked there, where he found that competition had forced the mines to be safer, although not completely safe.

When my grandmother and her family finally reached Pennsylvania they brought the culture of the “old” country with them. They made friends with others from their country and they attempted to save the traditions that they could. Some of their holidays fell on workdays in Pennsylvania, so they found that they couldn’t celebrate them in the same way. They found that those who wore the latest fashion quickly ridiculed them for wearing their native dress.

With all of this talk about culture, maybe we should define it to make sure that we understand what we mean by culture. And, what it comes down to is that culture is the same as values. What we value is a function of our experience and tradition. When the religious right talks about values they are talking about culture. And, the issue is that some people desire a common culture where everyone understands the standard values of the whole. The problem is that there is no such thing as a common uniform culture in a world where everyone is mobile. People bring their values with them as they move around the world and they leave their values with the people that they have contact with.

There are three broad categories of values: utilitarian, moral and existential. Utilitarian values are the foods and material things that we value. We might say that Americans value hamburgers as utilitarian value. We rank our favorite foods as a country and we determine what we value as the best foods as a culture. If we had a more uniform culture we might be able to have an “American” Restaurant where everyone would agree that “American” food was served there. Maybe it would be called Applebee’s or Marie Calendar’s. It is quite obvious that American food really isn’t a very strong utilitarian value. With so many different ethnic foods brought to the American dinner table our culture is extremely diverse.

Moral values are what we view as a culture to be right and wrong. The Christian right is correct when they say that our moral values are largely based on a Judeo-Christian ethic. This is because people with a Judeo-Christian heritage founded the Untied States and they brought those values with them. But, just because they passed those values down to us does not mean that those are the best moral values that exist. Many cultures have explored moral questions and those cultures have discovered different answers to those questions. Philosophers and theologians have explored the questions of ethics and morals and public discussion on these issues would be a good way to approach the problems we have with moral values. The main problem with our current understanding of morals is that they are based in many different religions, and many people find it difficult to question their personal religion. Therefore many issues such as gay marriage or abortion have little room for debate. There are too many people out there with an absolute view on the issues. If too many people have an absolute view on a religious issue they will not be persuaded by argument, and they will not accept the decision by the majority. If a minority feels strongly about a moral issue that they regard as an absolute, they may resort to violence and believe that they are justified by a higher power.

Even more important than moral values are existential values. These are the values that we have about our purpose as a species, society, culture, family or person. These questions are so important that we are afraid to think about them. We often teach our children to find their purpose through their religion, prayer, meditation or spiritual ritual. Since most of us have little confidence in what our purpose truly is we often defer the question to someone older and wiser, which also have no idea. And, sometimes we just “know” what we are meant to do. Currently, however our country is not united behind any specific purpose. We have determined earlier that we are “not the world’s policeman.” We have also determined that we should “spread democracy throughout the Middle East, starting in Iraq.” But what should our purpose as a country be? With the country being run by a group that believe that we are in the “End Times” predicted by the Bible purpose is not weighing on their minds. And, if we do not have a purpose articulated to the people, then the next crisis will make us ripe for the extremists to take another shot at grabbing for power, like the Bush administration did after 9/11/2001. Next time it might not turn out as well.

The point that I am trying to make with this post is that America is a land of diversity. The diversity is “good” in that it gives us plenty of choices when it comes to culture. Naturally as we experience different cultures we take what we value from them when we can. We take foods and art and ideas. We also take moral and ethical ideas as well when we see that they make more sense or solve social problems. But, with so much diversity we lose a sense of communal culture where we know what everyone else likes and believes. This makes things more difficult, because we need to communicate more to find out what our neighbor thinks. And, when we don’t have a defined purpose as a country, which is most often communicated through the culture, we could find ourselves vulnerable to extremists who could tell us what we should do in time of the next crisis. People will respond more easily if they do not have a clear picture of our purpose. This is a dangerous place for our country to be.

The solution is to discuss these things before we have our next crisis, so that we will be on the same page as a country and not be vulnerable to some crazy lunatic in the next crisis.






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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



Reflection

Yes, I have been to a nude beach. Or, as the signs around the beach proclaim, “clothing optional” beach. To my surprise however, not many people that I know have actually participated at a “clothing optional” beach. So, the mystique of nude beaches persists through our culture.

Now, of course my experience was many years ago quite far away from where I live. It wouldn’t be very likely that I would go there again, even though I enjoyed the experience quite well. That being said, my experience and my expectations at the outset were quite different. And, I believe that the expectations, false or real, are at the root of the misconceptions surrounding the whole idea of nude beaches in American culture.

I expect that many Americans who happen to go to nude beaches do so because of expectations, or in a way similar to my experience. I never planned to go to a nude beach, it just happened. I was on a trip and a group of people that I knew suggested that we go swimming. It was summer, and we had several breaks through out the day for lunch or other things. So, the time to go swimming was available. However, since swimming was not on the agenda for the trip it, most of us hadn’t brought swimming suits, or even shorts for that matter.

As we began to complain about not bringing the normally required attire, one the members of the group explained that there was a clothing optional beach within walking distance. Since our group was coed I had expected sigh of “Oh well.” Instead I was surprised that the group was in favor of giving the beach a try at lunchtime. Maybe it was peer pressure, maybe it was curiosity or maybe it was the expectation of something forbidden, but all of us got together to trek to the beach at lunchtime.

I had known the people I was with for some years by this time, but I had never seen any of them naked. At the time I wasn’t in top physical condition, but neither were they. Curiosity and expectation gripped me, and so I never thought much about embarrassment. Like Popeye said, “I yam what I yam.”

We actually had to climb down a fairly steep sea cliff in order to get to the beach, which was secluded from the road above. Trees grew high up and down the cliff, so there was no possibility of a casual observer being surprised by what was on the beach. And, furthermore signs along the path warned that the beach was clothing optional.

When we reached the bottom of the cliff I didn’t pause to contemplate the situation. I quickly found a place to put my clothes and I took them off and piled them up. We all carried towels from the hotel we were staying in, but no one rapped themselves in it. Instead we did what anyone who goes to the beach does; we put our towels on the beach and sat down.

The perfection of the experience must have been with the people I was with. No one acted embarrassed or insecure. Everyone continued to talk about the things we had talked about as we continued to watch the people around us. After a while some of us decided to sun bathe while others went in the water for a dip. In fact, I don’t remember exactly what I did moment by moment. Instead I remember the experience as something exotic and unusual.

My expectations might have been along the lines of something potentially erotic, but the reality of the situation was more along the lines of something freeing. Of course that sounds like some type of liberal mumbo jumbo, but the experience is easier to experience than to explain.

Maybe painting a picture would help to explain the experience. There were about 100 people on the beach, maybe more. Most of them were sunbathing, but some were swimming in the chilly ocean waves. The weather was warm and comfortable, not windy at all. There was a logging company a short way up the beach in one direction, but there was little activity taking place there. There were several seals in the area, many of them were climbing huge stacks of logs and jumping into the water. They chased each other around the piles and we all watched them from time to time. As I sat down and looked around I began to notice the people who occupied the beach. It was easy to spot the regulars, because they were the ones who were completely tanned - no tan lines at all. One of the regulars was a woman, in her thirties. She walked up and down the beach selling drinks. She carried a cooler but covered nothing what-so-ever. It was obvious that she rarely if ever had worn a bra, because her mammaries hung low, much lower than anyone else’s on the beach.

In that first hour at the nude, or clothing optional, beach I began to enjoy the freedom to observe and freedom from the restriction of clothes. The novelty of the experience hadn’t worn off and I felt a sense of accomplishment that I had actually done something that cultured society doesn’t normally approve of. We spent a week at this meeting and we skipped several lunches in order to go back to this special place. The weather cooperated and we had a great time.

But, like with anything there are always problems normally unforeseen at the outset. Imagine for a moment what happens when a male is erotically stimulated. Now, imagine a beach full of erotically stimulating females. Trouble can happen in the form of embarrassment if one isn’t careful. Actually, this is in one form a relief for some females at the beach, because they may have some insight into the men that she may encounter on the beach. On the other hand the men on the beach need to put some restraint or control on any fantasies that might happen from time to time. I found that this wasn’t as big of a problem that I had imagined, which surprised me in a strange sort of way.

Some things can not be controlled. And, on a nude beach I found this out as well. As I opted to sunbathe on one occasion I drifted off to sleep in the nice warm sun. And thirty minutes later when I had awoken I discovered an artist sketching my anatomy. Apparently I had a mildly erotic dream and an artist had taken his opportunity to draw me in my pose. I wasn’t upset, after all there wasn’t much that I could have done about it. And, what difference did it make to me. But, it was certainly not something that I had expected when I had thought about the potential of going to a nude beach.

Over the years since this experience I have often thought about it in the light of experience. One thing is for certain; I appreciate the functionality of clothing more than I had before my experience. It has also allowed me to separate the difference between nudity and eroticism that is based in reality. Before this experience I had imagined a quick jump between naked bodies to sex. Instead I appreciate the important human relationship aspect of the whole process. Of course, I am not saying that I appreciate human relationships because I went to a nude beach. Instead I am saying that this experience lead to a different point of view that assists in drawing the whole picture. Relationships are tricky, and any insight into how they works seems to be a good thing from my point of view. And, if nothing else, the experience showed me that the crazy religious right that is afraid of nudity because they think that it will automatically lead to sexual promiscuity have their facts wrong. There were no wild and crazy sex orgies on that beach. There wasn’t even one couple making out on the beach that I saw. In fact, I would say that nudity may have prevented some of those things because of the embarrassment factor I mentioned above. So, if I have any words of wisdom from this experience they would be, “Try it yourself, you’ll be surprised. If you ever have the opportunity go to a nude beach and experience it.”






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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



Reflection

When does one man’s freedom become another man’s intrusion?

Sometimes these things are simple to understand. If you don’t like someone you do not have the freedom to harm him, because your freedom intrudes on his freedom. However, these things are not always black and white.

Think of the situation where a salesman wants to sell something. He believes that he has the freedom to walk up to someone’s home, knock on the door and offer his wares for sale. It is certain that the home owner had no intention of buying whatever is being offered, but the salesman believes that he has the right to ring the door bell and intrude on the homeowner.

Most often the homeowner doesn’t feel put out. The homeowner might feel annoyed. The homeowner might just want the salesman to go away. Or, the homeowner might suddenly realize that the wares that the salesman is selling are the magic that is missing in his life and he would be lucky to pay $19.99 for whatever the salesman is selling.

Some people are lonely and they hope that a salesman will come knock on their door in order to break up the monotony and loneliness. But, if you ask most people they will tell you that they dread the strange knock at the door because it is most often a salesman trying to unload his wares.

People often erect “no soliciting” signs as a warning to those who wish it sell their goods. Apartment complexes and buildings also erect these signs. And, many mostly affluent cities have ordinances prohibiting solicitation. And, these signs and laws often have very little effect on curbing the eager salesman from offering his wares.

Actually, we should face the reality of the situation. No one likes to be marketed to. We don’t like to be told what we should buy. It doesn’t matter how great the product is; we would like to learn about it ourselves. When the salesman appears, then we all would like to have time to think about the product. And, when the salesman is about to leave, then we fear that we will have missed the opportunity to buy that special product.

Dealing with a salesman at the front door is one thing. It is a small intrusion that we are willing to forgive if he offers something that we either want or need. However, the intrusion is less forgivable when the wares are not wanted or needed. One particular salesman has a monopoly on the product that isn’t wanted or needed (At least from my point of view.). This, of course, is the religious salesman selling his faith. These guys aren’t asking for money, they are asking for your faith. In fact, these people are asking for your faith based on a short talk crafted to convince you that their faith is the one true faith.

Now, I am not arguing that there aren’t people out there that don’t need some guidance, and perhaps religious guidance might be the right fit. But, doesn’t the idea of fast thoughtless religion put a bad taste in your mouth? Since people are naturally drawn to ask these philosophical and religious questions, I would expect that people searching on their own are more likely to find their best personal way to God on their own. People who are spoon fed a simple spiritual solution at their doorstep will be disappointed down the road when the doorstep religion slowly becomes real. However, that assumes that religions are all basically equal with no religion better than another. This might be the case, however for most religions there is only one true way. And, of course that one true way is through their doors.

People can be compelled to do many strange things when they are taught to believe that those who don’t share the same faith are likely to be lost souls condemned to eternal damnation. Imagine the sorrow you feel for that dog that was lying dead on the side of the road. Imagine the greater sorrow you feel for the child that died of a terrible disease. And, if you were compelled to believe that that child was condemned to eternal damnation because they weren’t saved by your religion. How could anyone let that happen? And one way to do that is to go out and sell your religion.

As a nation we have created public safety laws that we believe help protect our society from needless death and suffering. Seatbelt laws, traffic laws, drunk driving laws, and Arizona even has a stupidity law that are meant to protect the public from unnecessary death and injury. And so, to the religious it would only make sense that we pass similar protection laws that would protect the public from eternal damnation. After all, isn’t damnation worse that simple death? Well, it is if you believe in it. And, being hounded about damnation might be worse than death if you don’t believe in it.

Conservatives have been known to argue about the ridiculous overreaching of the liberal laws passed to protect us from death and injury. They protested against seatbelt laws. They protested against smoking bans in public places. They argued against clean air and clean water. The only safety laws that conservatives have agreed with over the last few decades have been those dealing with alcohol. This however could be based in the religious morality issues dealing with drinking more than an actually concern with safety. This is because many religious believe that the effects of alcohol and drugs is to disable the personal moral control of a person. From observed evidence of protection laws passed by liberals and conservatives it is clear that the main concern of liberal is to protect the body and the main concern of conservatives is to protect the spirit. Conservatives will argue that government should not waste money on laws that protect stupid people from doing stupid things. And, liberals argue that the government should not enforce religious laws. In both cases each groups intends to take away someone’s freedom for their own good. And both groups feel justified in doing so.

So, the final question here is - If you own a business and you want to protect your clients should you be allowed to exclude dangerous clients? For example, if you have a paintball range are you allowed to exclude people who don’t follow the rules? Not following the rules could result in bodily injury of you or another patron.

This seems to be a straight forward question with a straight forward answer. Of course you should be allowed to exclude those who you deem to be dangerous. After all, if someone is injured at your place you could be sued.

So, for a religious person who believes that damnation is worse than death, should he be allowed to exclude people who he deems dangerous to the spirituality of the others at his place? Or, in simple language, could the exclusion of non-Christians from Christian business owner’s place be allowed? Or, would the exclusion of non-Christians from his place be considered a form of discrimination?

I ask this question because I read of the owner of an athletic club that demands that his swim team members sign a contract that list all the rules of the team. One of the items on the list is “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior.” Of course in all honesty non-Christians would not sign this contract and the net result is that the non-Christians would not be allowed to swim on the team. Of course the owner of the athletic club sees himself as protecting the spirituality of the other children on his team. Read about it here.






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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



Reflection