Iphone iblog

I sit here in my car at 606 am est waiting for someone to open the building I work in. Not that I am excited to actually work but rather because I had to drop me room-mate/friend off early. I decided this would be the perfect time to post the first blog from my iPhone. It is harder then I would like but I am getting pretty good at typing on this thing. My topics are, fighting, work and who knows what else!

Word on the street is Rampage is out of shape and still beat jardine. This is a scary thought because “the dean of mean” Jardine is a great fighter and if you can beat him you gave a chance against any one if you are in shape. The Evens vs Rampage fight should be a beauty!! Frank Mir has postponed his death sentance with lesnar do to surgery he just had on his knee. Kind of a bummer that he just can’t seem to stay healthy for very long.

I was talking with a great friend of mine (www.bretttilford.com) and we were discussing the possibility that “the word” (the bible) could be… …more of an alogorical book (especially earlier books like genesis) One of the topics we discussed was the talking snake we find in chapter three. Was there really a talking snake? Was there really a tree or specific garden? Or is it possible that genesis is written to show the choice man has in his/her life? We have come to the conclusion that we are just unsure of the answer.

For those of you who do not twitter I would like to announce something very important, I the author of this post, am engaged to be married to my beautiful and awe inspiring fiancée, Cat!! I am very excited, it will be a longish engagement because wecwant to wait until I am out of the Marines to get married, I am so stoked!!

That is all for now my friends!!!

I was thinking

I was sitting here waiting for my laundry to dry, lost some where between a race and a basketball game when I started to think about my blog.  There was nothing in particular, I was not thinking of any one blog or any future blog for that matter.  If there was a topic to my thoughts it was how has my blog changed the world.  Not the 6+ billion people that exist on this planet, but the 25+ people that read my blog, have I helped them to think about their view points differently?  Have I added new light to their already well lit “arenas” of thought?  or have  i merely contributed to the billions of thoughtless, mind numbingly dumb posts, tweets or any such things that occur on the Internet.  Am I truly just one more person in an Internet world that hosts millions that adds nothing good or new to this world?

I think that for the most part the answer is yes!  How sad, I don’t want to be that person at all, I don’t want to add nothing to this world all the while filling it up with useless drivel!  And so here is the end result of this train of thought, I Brandon Montgomery, will post nothing.  I will post nothing until something that I think will add to this world in a positive matter!  I am not saying that the current post I am working on is the answer, but simply an announcement that I will work hard to ensure that my blog is one of the few that is not self serving, not just in existence to throw random tidbits out, but is here to be provocative, and challenging.

I got a text from my mother on Saturday letting me know that Rush Limbaugh would be speaking at the CPAC conference, he was supposed to have twenty minutes and ended up taking about an hour and a half.  I must admit that there were times when my skin rose in goose bumps, he is a very gifted speaker and he did bring up some great points.  He scoffed at the idea that the “Regan Era” was over, for all practical purposes telling Newt Gingrich to shove it.  He said that, “He hopes the president will fail.”  And I found this to be interesting, he has said this before and the media lost it’s mind, however, he seemed to ignite the crowd with his statement.  I don’t think that he means he wants this country to fail, but rather that he simply wants the policies and bill’s that the President is putting  forth to fail.  But I am getting into a topic I rarely talk about so I shall move forward.

Religion:

I have been doing some thinking of late, mostly in regards to creation and the insane concept that is brought to us in Genesis.  My first thought was, how cruel is God.  And I know some of you die hard, bible beating types are sitting there praying that God would remove the demons that make me ask, or say such things.  But just follow me here and you will see.  My first thought was why would God put the one thing Adam couldn’t eat in the middle of everything he could? Second, why would he point it out? (Notice I give you a panel of all green buttons and one Dark green button and then I say don’t push the dark green one, you can push all the others, just not that one, your going to push it) then on top of that he creates an animal that is “craftier” then the others, and then either creates it with evil intent and the ability to talk, or he creates it’s ability to speak and then allow-es Satan (Lucifer if you prefer) to in habit such an animal and on top of it all, puts it in the garden with the tree!?  Doesn’t that sound like Man  was set up for failure right away?

I have to run, but I have many more thoughts and they will follow soon as I can find some time to put them down!

 

I have been intrigued to say the least about this whole idea of a “post” modern church.  I will try to chronicle my mental adventure as it has been carried out thus far:

 

“Dude, B, you gotta read this, it is crazy!” that was my introduction to Brian McLaren (Goodness, does the current church just love this guy!) and the idea that the church is or could be growing from its current state. 

 

“Yeah, sure dude, I will get right on it.”  And that was my response to my friend, Brett, who had told me about it.  I had the book, and it sat on my shelf in my closet for about 2 months until I was so bored one day I said fine, I will read it.  I picked it up and began to reading the book as I promised… …hey I never told him when I would read it, just that I would.  Eventually I just couldn’t take it any more, I was tired of it blowing my brain away and deep down I almost had the retching type feeling.  As if I was going totally against what I had been raised to believe, if not practice, my entire life.  (I feel now that I am allowed to say that phrase since I am a couple months shy of being half a century old). 

 

Brett: “Dude, have you read it yet? You got to finish it!”

Brandon “I started it, but I had to put it down, I mean I am SoOOO busy with this school (I got off every day, or most days at around two in the afternoon for about two months.  I will as soon as I get out of this school.” 

Brett: “you will love it man, I think it might be what you have been searching for.”

Brandon: “yeah sounds great….” Here I began to trail off and try to distract him from the fact that it had been about 4 months since I had received the book. 

 

Finally I had run out of material to read so I broke down and really started reading the book.  I was thrilled, appalled and intrigued by the ideas that the book presented me.  Here were some of the more pressing thoughts:

 

1. Okay, I get that we are in a post modern time frame in our world.  But if God is unchanging, how can anything he is affiliated with change? 
2. I have been struggling with how the current church is running much to the point where I have refused to even attend any more. (outside of when my mother begs me to)
3. The idea that God’s word is more of a “family” story, rather then factual data is a little risky. 

 

There were some great emails between my friend and me, but I have been unable to get his permission to post bits and pieces and therefore will leave them out.  Needless to say (I hate this phrase because I will eventually say what is not needed to be said) it left me with plenty of things to think about and debate internally and with discuss with others. 

 

I eventually let this go and decided I needed a break from this, so here I sit trying to find some books to read for the trip I have just taken to Florida for work I might add, and I see A New Kind of Christian (ANKoC) yet again.  I decide to take another crack at it, and while I was at it I figured I would Google the topic and see what I can find.  Here are just a few of the words associated with the “Emergent Church” from all corners of the globe:

 

1.      Careless

2.      compromising

3.      reductionists

4.      unbiblical

5.      (my personal favorite) Alley to the Al Qaeda (clearly whoever wrote this article had not met them,  Not so much Alleys)

6.      Ambiguous

7.      Relativists

 

And the list goes on.  Most of these are coming from “Scholars” and southern Baptist preachers (no shock there).  And then they wonder why so many people are growing weary of the same hell fire and brimstone speech.  I mean, come on, “The boy who cried wolf” any one? 

 

When I read this book again, here are some of my new thoughts (it is amazing what you see when you are not shocked):

 

1.      Modern Christianity pre-supposes that God is in control, like a machinist is in control of the devise he is using.  Where pulleys and buttons make every movement possible.  But is it not possible that God’s control could mean something entirely different?

2.      Modern missionaries have usually spoken out against cultures mixing their way of life into a “Christian” life.  Native Americans were told there dances to the Great Spirit (a form of worship they enjoyed) were not suitable. 

3.      In the Modern church the bible is the foundation to everything!  Should not Christ be that foundation?  Not a book that has been translated more times then your cars odometer has changed!

 

Well, that is where I am at currently, I plan on continuing my thoughts on this Emergent church!  I will let you know if and when I stumble on something!

“Ripped like Jesus”

I am tired of being constantly bombarded by the idea that Jesus (very funny man, but a bit foul with the language so watch out)  was the most appealing man to ever walk the planet.  I am no genius, but I am willing to bet that after 40 days and nights in the dessert he was probably smelly, and probably didn’t look very well kept.  Is the reason we make him into this beautiful man who carries sheep just cause he wants so that he will be more appealing to the public?  Do we make him out to be this sweet gentle man because we are afraid if the truth was out there people might not be attracted to him?  I don’t know what he looks like but I can almost promise you he wasn’t blue eyes, he wasn’t ripped.  It saddens me that we feel we have to dilute the message of Christ and try to make him more pleasant and desirable.  Just saying shouldn’t his offer of a life filled with his love and the love of the father be enough?  Should not the sacrifice he made on the cross be enough of a message, should not the words He spoke be enough?  Just my thoughts

I just Kant understand

“Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good with out qualification, except a Good Will…. …a good will is good not because of what it performs or effects, not by its aptness for the attainment of some proposed end, but simply by virtue of volition, that is, it is good in itself, and considered bye itself is to be esteemed much higher than all that can be brought about by it in favor of any inclination, nay, even of the sum total of all inclinations.”

Read that today while I was sitting in my office doing nothing.  it is out of the “Fundamental principles of the metaphysic of morals.” By Immanuel Kant I found it to be interesting my first thought was that this guy was nuts, I had read his works before, but it had been a while and I had read it under the influence of a “Bible Beating” mindset.  I found now that when I read it, while I don’t agree, it was at the very least and interesting concept.  It seemed to say that you are either born with good will or you are not and that everything else is determined by such circumstances.  I am still a believer, for those of you that might question, but my walk is far different. I refuse to blindly accept everything as the “Truth” based on “Faith” with no other evidence for it, but rather I am now in a place where I question everything.  One of those is whether we are truly born inherently born “sinful.”  I know that there is plenty of evil in the world.  But there were also plenty of people that were just as good, as some are evil.  I am really not sure where I am going with this, but to say, is it really impossible that some truly want to do good from the start? Just something to chew on!

newest thoughts and rants!

I have been doing a fair amount of thinking since I started my blog, most of my thoughts have been on what on earth am I too blog about.  When I was on the outside looking in I always figured that I had plenty to say, cause I do and I am usually quite the loud mouth.  But once you get close to time to hit that “publish” button suddenly a terror hits, “is what i am about to talk about really that important that I need to publish it so that the whole world has an opportunity to read it?”  I asked one of my friends who is a blogger and he said, when asked what I should blog about, “Everything.” was his quick and very enthuesiastic reply.  He went on to explain what he meant but really that is what you write about. No subject, no thought, no discovery not even the newest commercial is off limits in this no holds bar world of blogging.  Instantly after I discovered that I wanted my blog to not fit the mold of everyone eles’s I wanted it to be very disctinctly me.  That is why at times it looks like I am writing for the local sports section.  Sports are a passio of mine so I am certian while I have written about them a few times there will be more.  This blog however may and should be very interesting I have a few things I want to rant about, a few things I want to rave about and I am sure there are some topics some where in between. 

Rant- I am tired of the “Christian” thoughts that no other religion holds any merrit or any amount of truth or value.  Tell me what the world be like if we had the patiance of Ghandi, the Devotion of the muslims, the work ethic of the mormans (giving up two years of their lives for their missions)?  I tell you one thing I can’t imagine we would be in the world we are now, i would be willing to guess that many things would be changed.  “Oh no, is he talking about tolerance?”  Call me a blasphemer, call me a heretic I don’t care what you call me, I have been called worse I promise you (Don’t forget dear reader I am in the Corps!) 

Rave:  Anderson the Spyder Sylva, is the best fighter in the world POUND FOR POUND.  I don’t care what class he fights in he is un-beatable when he fights his type of fight.

Not Even A Question:

I picked up my bible this evening and after a thorough dusting I was finally able to read my name engraved in gold on the front.  The reason I picked up my bible is in all reality lost on me, I am unsure why I did, I have not read it in quite some time.  But I suddenly had this strong desire to read about Abraham and his being tested by God.  You may or may not be aware of the story it goes like this:  (this is my paraphrase)

 

God:  Hey Abraham

Abraham: Sup

God: Take your kid, you know the one that you legitimately had with Sara, not the one you had with the slave broad.  Ha Ha, boy that will be a mistake.  I want you to go on a journey with him, and when you get there I want you to kill him in my name.

 

In my bible there is no response so I imagine it to be so:

 

Abraham: (ROTFL) You are one funny guy, I finally have the kid you promise me and now you want to him to die, and you not only want him to die, but you want me to kill him for you.  Oh! Wait, you’re serious? Get tha… …seriously?

 

The next day he gets up and gets his donkey, some servants and his son and goes.  But can you imagine the conversation that had to have happened between him and Sarah (this also is inferred, there is no recording of any conversation taking place):

 

Sarah: Morning my dear, what do you have on your plate today?

Abraham: Oh, what, umm… …Oh yes, I have to feed the camels, check on the sheep, sacrifice our son, plant some corn…

Sarah: WHAT!? Go back a couple things, you have to do what?

Abraham: Check on sheep

Sarah: no after that

Abraham: plant corn

Sarah: No in between those two!

Abraham: OH, sacrifice our son, yeah, no worries God told me to, it’s cool! (Insert nervous chuckle)

Sarah:  Abraham, no only is he our only son, I am friggin like a thousand years old!  I can’t have any more babies, and I don’t want to!  

Abraham: No, don’t worry, God and I have an understanding, I do this and he some how saves the day, don’t worry, seriously.

 

Now he goes and gets his son, his two servants and they begin there trek to where ever they are going.  I am pretty sure it was far away and I have a feeling this was on purpose.  Here is my imagined conversation:

 

Isaac: so uh, where we going pops?  

Abraham: You will see it is a surprise

Isaac: Are we there yet?

Abraham: no, and stop asking, that is the seventh time you have asked and we have been on the road about two hours.

Three hours later

 

Isaac: Seriously, this better be cool, are we there yet? I am hungry and I have to go to the bathroom

Abraham: Look we just stopped ten minutes ago because the slaves had to go the bathroom why didn’t you go then?

Isaac: I didn’t have to go then, but I have to go now

Abraham:  We will be there soon just hold it (under his breath) thank goodness I have to kill you when we get there

Isaac: what was that?

Abraham: Nothing

 

Finally they get there and Abraham loads Isaac down with all the wood needed to build the alter for the sacrifice and he grabs the knife and the fire and they start heading up to the spot.  Abraham smartly leaves the witnesses (the slaves) to watch over the donkey.  I think by this point Isaac is starting to figure out something is strange and he asks where the sacrifice is, Abraham quickly says God will provide and they say nothing more.  They are now ready to make the sacrifice Abraham ties Isaac up, which did Isaac just let him? Was it a game they played?  Then Abraham lays Isaac on the alter and begins to plunge the knife down when God calls from heaven:

 

God:  You are one crazy man, obedient, but certainly crazy!  Look over in that bush there is a ram there, he got stuck this morning and his pretty tired now, had you not taken so many bathroom breaks on the way up here he would have been fresh.  However, take him instead.

 

That is pretty much the whole story, Abraham names the mountain “The Lord will Provide” and then they went to the nearest city, town or village.  

 

Now that we are caught up on the story I have a few questions.  One, how messed up was Isaac after that?  Honestly, think about it, if your dad had tied you up and put a gun to your head and said, “God told me to kill you.” Would you not think he was insane? Would you not question the God that he served?  Secondly, what was Abraham thinking? Did he at least question? The bible makes it seem as if it was a great thing.  If Abraham loved Isaac so much don’t you think he would have at least offered everything his household had to God in exchange for his child’s life?  For those of you that have children can you imagine God telling you to go and kill your most loved child?  Your only child? And you complying to it with out a moments hesitation?  Doesn’t that strike anyone else as a bit extremist? And then we wonder why the Muslim culture is extreme, look at the example Abraham set to Ishmael.  If any one has any answers to these questions feel free to respond.  My goal was not to offend anyone who read this; however, it was to put a little humor into the topic.

 

These were just some of my musings as I read that passage.

Couple quick notes

1.  Kimbo Slice is a joke.  Yes yes, he could woop my ass but only cause he weighs like 50 lbs more then me.  But if you watched his fight you learned two things, one he can’t really do anything on the ground if he were to fight a Randy Couture or a Jeremy Horn he would be submitted in no time, and second he has to be the ugliest person in MMA!!

2.  Rambo 4 was far better then I thought it would be, sure I am behind the times, but I saw it for the first time today and it is by far the best.  Granted that isn’t saying to incredibly much, but still give the 57 Sly a break.

3.  Gina Carano is pretty much a BAMF.  If anyone saw her tear apart Caitlin Young last night they would have to agree.  I mean hell her nickname is Crush on American gladiators (which is actually pretty damn good-okay good is not correct but it is entertaining). 

4.  Did anyone else see Dana White talking about the MMA world and more importantly did you see him rip, and I mean rip the Elite XC for putting up a “a poor display” of what MMA is all about.

5.  If you haven’t read A New Kind of Christian then you should pick it up, B, you were absolutely right, I am just over half way and it has brought tons of questions and some great answers

6.  I think I will enjoy this blogging thing

7.  You are probably tired of reading my numbered posts, I assure you there will be more, but not for a little while

8. Finally,  there are plenty of things I am passionate about, my beautiful Girlfriend, my wonderful family and Sports.  The sport I am most into right now is MMA (see numbers 1, 3 and 4).  Here is why I like it, first it isn’t as boring as boxing.  I can hear it now, “Heretic!!  How can you dog the sweet science.”  But come now first of all were are the real contenders? they don’t exist.  Since Tyson lost his mind, Lennox lost his heart and Holyfield lost his ability there have been no heavy weights.  Sure you say those ruscis are pretty BA fighters, but they haven’t done anything, and everytime some flash in the pan shows up they lose.  ‘But Floyd Mayweather is the savor of the sport.” Oh right, and I am the second coming of Rocky marciano!  Floyd Mayweather has beat the only legit contenders in his weight class.  Ricky Hatton and the 2000 year old golden boy.. ….what is his name Oscar de Lahoya.  Secondly.  the reason boxing sucks now is that they allow so much hugging, if I wanted to watch grown men hug I would go to the Tool Box on 5th ave in NYC!  they should lose points for all that hugging.  Here is why MMA is a better product (please note that I am referring to all of the groups signed under Zuffa). 1.  It is constant action, when there is a lull they are stood up and started again.  2.  there are more legit contenders with 100s more showing up ever day.  3.  It is a faster paced event which is exactly what we desire and crave in this generation.  4.  finally, and this is for all you mothers and safety queens, it is safer.  Sure it seems brutal but there have been no deaths and no serious injuries in MMA in the last 15 years.  Football has close to at least one paralysis a year and I believe badmittion is up to two eye losses a year.