53 Sermon Illustrations on Fool

Calling someone a "Fool." Contempt is also condemned.

A. Jesus says it has a steep penalty - fires of hell.

B. Grandma Holwick illustration.

Years ago my sister and I were messing around in our grandma's

living room.

My sister did something irritating, so I called her a "fool."

Immediately, Grandma whirled around and said,

"Don't call her a fool or you'll go to hell!"

All week long I had been calling her a nitwit and a moron, but

"fool" was apparently special.

On April 9, 1996, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivered an historic address at the invitation of the Mississippi College School of Law, a Baptist school. His speech generated a firestorm of criticism among indignant members of the liberal press. Scalia's address dealt with the ridicule of Christians in the United States and the disdain in which their cherished beliefs are held by the cultural elite. Perhaps his comments on that day were motivated by cover stories in Time, Newsweek and US News and World Report, each questioning the historic validity of Jesus' resurrection. Not surprisingly, those stories ran during or near Easter week, when Christians were celebrating the risen Savior.

Scalia's speech was reported in this manner: "Devout Christians are destined to be regarded as fools in modern society." "We are fools for Christ's sake," the conservative jurist said, giving a glimpse of his private views. We must pray for courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world." Scalia said intellectuals through history have rejected miracles and the Easter story. "The wise do not investigate such silliness," he said sarcastically. "They do not believe (in the resurrection of the dead)," it's "irrational" to reject miracles. "One can be sophisticated and believe in God. Reason and intellect are not to be laid aside where matters of religion are concerned." He took note that the word "Cretin" or fool, is derived from the French word of "Christian."

To be honest about it, that is the view of Christians taken by modern society. "Surely those who adhere to all or most of these traditional Christian beliefs are to be regarded as simple-minded," he told 650 persons. "To many Americans, everything from Easter morning to the Ascension had to be made up by the groveling enthusiasts (disciples) as part of their plan to get themselves martyred."

Collin and a fellow University of Illinois police officer were good friends who shared a disaffection for their employer. They often relaxed after work to gripe about policies and enjoy an unusual game they had invented to relieve their frustrations. They called the game "Sweet Release," "65% Disability," and "Million-Dollar Wound."

On New Year's Eve, Collin's partner handed over his Glock semiautomatic handgun, saying, "Sweet Release." The two men had exchanged their duty weapons in their game on prior occasions, but this night was different.

"I wonder if this is loaded?" With those portentous parting words, Collin stuck the gun in his mouth and played his final round of "Sweet Release."

Investigators interviewed the two men and three women present during the fatal shooting, and all agreed that Collin was his normal, happy self, and did not intend to commit suicide.

Although Collin had been drinking with friends for several hours on the night of the accident, his blood alcohol level at 0.09% was barely over the Illinois legal limit for driving. This level is high enough to dull reflexes, but is not sufficient to seriously impair cognitive function.

The deceased had worked for the Charleston Police Department and the Champaign County sheriff's office before taking a job at the University. But in all his years in law enforcement, he had apparently never fully absorbed the cardinal rule of handling weapons, stated by investigator Jim Rein: "Whether civilian or police officer, the assumption [should be] that every weapon is loaded."

2001 Darwin Award Nominee

Confirmed True

DarwinAwards.com © 1994-2002

Reference: MARY SCHENK of The Champaign-Urbana [Illinois] News-Gazette

A waitress I work with came in with a cast on her arm and nasty bruises covering the back of her head and neck. Concerned, we inquired what happened. Without embarrassment she told us she'd fallen while shaving her legs.

"In the bath tub?" we asked.

"No, in the sink in the washroom at a bar."

"Why were you shaving your legs in a bar sink?"

She explained that she was in a wet T-shirt contest trying to impress a particular guy, so she wanted to wear hotpants too, which necessitated a quick shave. But she was drunk and while her leg was braced on the sink, she slipped and fractured her wrist.

We asked her if the bruises on her head and neck were also caused by the shaving mishap.

"No, after I hurt myself in the bathroom, I went backstage to wait for my turn in the competition. When I walked onstage, it was already wet from the other competitors, and I fell off and hit my head on the edge of the stage. But I won the competition!"

We asked if her head hurt, and she replied, "Yeah but it's not my head that I really care about, it's my wrist." Well, OBVIOUSLY...

DarwinAwards.com © 1994-2002

Submitted by: Tanyss

Anyone watching this year's NFL playoffs has probably seen Miller Lite's newest commercial. The ad features two attractive young women seated next to a fountain. They are debating what's best about the beer: “tastes great” or “less filling”?

Suddenly the argument degenerates into “an angry, clothes-shredding, wrestling match,” and the women end up in the fountain. They strip each other down to their undergarments before continuing the match in a cement trough. How degrading to these women.

The ad then cuts to a bar where it turns out that the fight was merely a male fantasy. It was two guys' idea of the perfect beer ad. In the network version, their dates then look at them in a way that says, “What morons!”

Miller has drawn fire, to put it mildly, for this latest ad, named “Catfight.” Laura Ries, a media and image consultant, called the ad “degrading” and “explicit” in USA TODAY. Miller acknowledged that married women with families, especially those over forty, are especially put off by “Catfight.”

But then, these women aren't Miller's target audience. The beer company claims to have hit a “home run” with twenty-one- to thirty-one-year-old males who, Miller claims, see the ad for what it is: an “insight into guys' mentality” and “a lighthearted spoof of guys' fantasies.”

In other words, Miller is saying that every young American male is at heart what advertisers and media experts call a “mook.” A mook is a perpetual adolescent. He is pre-occupied with sexual matters and cannot rise above the level of the trivial.

As Douglas Rushkoff of New York University says, the mook is entirely “the creation of marketers.” He is designed to sell to young men by appealing to an exaggerated version of their worst instincts.

What then happens is that, in what Rushkoff calls a “feedback loop,” young men imitate what they see on the screen, which in turn prompts similar images -- a vicious circle, in which what people see shapes their self-understanding, as well as their behavior.

That's bad because the mook is everywhere. In one beer ad, the guys depicted are so slothful that they tunnel into their neighbor's refrigerator and steal her Bud Lite beer rather than go to the store. In another ad, guys “debate” the outcome of a battle between the Bionic Man and Wonder Woman.

TV shows are also filled with mooks. Male characters on popular shows like FRIENDS exhibit mook-like characteristics. Anything aimed at a young male audience is expected to feature immature behavior, like bathroom humor and sexual innuendo.

Throughout mass media, the message is usually the same one Ries got from the Miller Lite commercial: “All men are idiots.”

Thus, media and advertisers have succeeded at doing what generations of feminists only dreamed of: rendering young American males as ridiculous, maybe even superfluous -- the kind of dimwitted and trivial being that a woman is better off without.

I'll warn you: Now that you know what a mook is, you'll see him everywhere -- even in church. If you watch the game Sunday, watch it with your kids. Look for the ads with the mooks, and take the opportunity to talk to them. Explain why mooks are lousy role models and how women are degraded in these ads. Better to step in before worldviews get injured in the game.

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION

Michael McCarthy, “Miller Lite's 'Catfight' ad angers some viewers,” USA TODAY, 15 January 2003. http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2003-01-14-beer_x.htm

Douglas Rushkoff discussed the creation of the “mook” in PBS's Frontline report, “The Merchants of Cool.” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/tour/tour2.html

Charles Colson, “Merchants of Cool,” CHRISTIANITY TODAY, 11 June 2001. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/008/48.112.html

Christina Hoff Sommers, WHO STOLE FEMINISM?: HOW WOMEN HAVE BETRAYED WOMEN (Touchstone, 1995).

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Copyright (c) 2003 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #14583]

Human life is exceedingly cheap and but little value is put upon it Never was there a time when man cared so little for life and so flirted with death for a few coins and a little publicity, as now. In New York City, thousands of people halted on Broadway before the Martinique Hotel to see Harry F. Young, “The Human Fly,” climb the outside wall of the building to the roof. It was March 5, 1923. As he approached the top, foothold and handhold failed him and the great crowds experienced the sickening and awful sensation of beholding him fall from the great height to his death on the pavement. His wife, who watched him make the ascent, fainted as well as many others who had stood to watch his human folly in its defiance of all natural laws. As Mr. Young climbed the building, he had attached to his back a placard on which were the words: “Safety Last.”

“Safety First,” is the part of wisdom, “Safety Last” is a fool’s mockery. There are thousands who are more foolish than Mr. Young. They have no protection, no safety, no security in this life or in the life that is to come. They stand on the perilous edge of a yawning eternity to amuse the crowds. “Safety First” is the most necessary thing in the world.

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William Moses Tidwell, “Effective Illustrations.”

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Version by H. A. Ironside:

THE HUMAN FLY

“They ... weave the spider’s web: ... neither shall they cover themselves with their works” (Isaiah 59:5-6)

Some years ago there came to Los Angeles, the great metropolis of Southern California, a so-called “human fly.” It was announced that on a given day he would climb up the face of one of the large department store buildings, and long before the appointed time, thousands of eager spectators were gathered to see him perform the seemingly impossible feat.

But slowly and carefully he mounted aloft, now clinging to a window ledge, and to a jutting brick, again to a cornice. Up and up he went, against apparently insurmountable difficulties. At last he was nearing the top. He was seen to feel to right and left and above his head for something firm enough to support his weight, to carry him further. And soon he seemed to spy what looked like a gray bit of stone or discolored brick protruding from the smooth wall. He reached for it, but it was just beyond him. He ventured all on a spring-like movement, grasped the protuberance and, before the horrified eyes of the spectators, fell to the ground and was broken to pieces. In his dead hand was found a spider’s web! What he evidently mistook for solid stone or brick turned out to be nothing but dried froth!

Alas, how many are thinking to climb to heaven by effort of their own, only to find at last that they have ventured all on a spider’s web, and so are lost forever.

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF BIBLE TRUTH, H. A. Ironside

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Update by David Holwick:

There are some interesting stories about "Human Flies" or "Human Spiders" in the first decades of the last century. The great early film comedian Harold Lloyd was in Los Angeles one morning in 1919 and saw Bill Strother climb the Brockman Building. The event inspired Lloyd's famous scene in his movie "Safety Last!" (1923) where the bespectacled actor dangles from the hands of the skyscraper clock above a busy street. Strother had also been a supporting actor in an earlier movie called "Safety First." Was Harry Young's placard an advertisement for the 1923 movie? [See ]

Harry H. Gardiner (1871-?), better known as the HUMAN FLY, was an American famous for climbing buildings. He began climbing in 1905, and successfully climbed over 700 buildings in Europe and North America, usually wearing ordinary street clothes. He used no special equipment. He also played upon the tension contained in Ironside's illustration; one website says:

The crowd gasped as he let go of all but one hand

and hung there. He swung himself back and forth in

a pendulum motion until he had thrown himself

safely onto the next ledge.

Hand over hand, his fingers finding crevices and

holds between bricks and great blocks, he climbed

toward the roof. An intense moment occurred when,

as Gardiner hung onto the face of the building with

one hand, he reached sideways and upwards with the

other. A piece of stone broke off. The crowd

gasped. Gardiner carefully picked it up and handed

it to his manager, who was looking out of a nearby

window.

George Gibson Polley also spiced up his performances by pretending to slip and fall from one windowsill to another; he climbed 500 feet up the Custom House Tower in Boston in the 1920s.

The danger was not imaginary. Harry Young died in 1923; two others died in stunts in 1924. Many cities subsequently enacted ordinances prohibiting the scaling of buildings. The lure remains, of course. George Willig, a toy maker from Brooklyn, used homemade climbing equipment to scale the World Trade Center on a windy May day in 1977. The building's legal department pressed criminal trespass against Willig, then iced the cake with a $750,000 civil suit. The bad publicity caused them to change their minds. Ironically, Willig's mother working in the Empire State Building when a B-25 bomber crashed into it; she survived. []

The Guinness Book of World Records gives the longest vertical climb on the face of a building as the one by Daniel Goodwin of California. On May 25, 1981, he wore a Spiderman costume as he climbed a record 1,454 feet up the Sears Tower of Chicago, using suction cups and metal clips for support.

Here are a few examples of bad reasoning causing bad conclusions. Though humorous, the principles are based somewhat in truth.

Ignoring the Advice of Experts Without Good Reason:

Example: Sure, the experts say you shouldn't ride a bicycle in the eye of a hurricane, but I have my own theory.

Following The Advice of Known Fools:

Example: Uncle Horace says eating pork makes you smarter. That's good enough for me.

Reaching Bizarre Conclusions Without Any Information:

Example: My car won't start. I'm certain the spark plugs have been stolen by rogue clowns.

Failure to Recognize What's Important:

Example: My house is on fire! Quick, call the post office and tell them to hold my mail!

Blinding Flashes of the Obvious:

Example: If everyone had more money, we could eliminate poverty.

Blaming The Tool:

Example: I bought an encyclopedia, but I'm still ignorant.

Taking Things to Their Illogical Conclusion:

Example: If you let your barber cut your hair, the next thing you know he'll be lopping your limbs off.

Judging the Whole by One of its Characteristics:

Example: The sun causes sunburns. Therefore, the planet would be better off without the sun.

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Source: Quotes of the Day

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #12227]

Years ago, I visited with Malcolm Muggeridge, the great curmudgeonly journalist and convert to Christianity. He was dubbed "Saint Mugg" by the WASHINGTON POST.

During tea, I remarked on one of our many cultural travesties of the day. I don't remember the subject, but I was outraged.

Muggeridge leaned back in his chair and started laughing uproariously. "Oh, Chuck! Don't you get all heated up over these kinds of things. This is simply human folly. What we're witnessing is human beings going through all the foolish and stupid things they do. In the end, God will have to work it all out. At my age" -- Muggeridge was then seventy-three -- "it just all looks so ludicrous, I laugh at it."

I thought perhaps Muggeridge was getting a bit senile, but now that I am approaching that age myself, I appreciate what he said. Some of what goes on is so bad that you'll end up ranting and raving like a madman unless you laugh. It's nothing more than the idiocies of human beings. How utterly preposterous we are!

I thought of Muggeridge when I read a recent article by Frank Rich in the NEW YORK TIMES titled, "Religion for Dummies." Yes, you're getting the point about what it's about. In the article, he took the Catholic church to task for its handling of the pedophilia cases and then gratuitously brought in a few others for condemnation.

He cited Tom DeLay, the House majority whip, who had the audacity to say, to a church audience, no less, "Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world" -- a statement, by the way, right out of my book HOW NOW SHALL WE LIVE?

I had to laugh. What does belief in a religion mean if not a conviction that it provides the ultimate answer for how we're to respond to the realities of life? We all -- including Mr. Rich -- choose a worldview by which we order our lives. And we all believe it's the best response to reality, or we wouldn't have chosen it. Mr. DeLay's statement is no more scandalous than saying, "I get up in the morning and think I'm a human." It's stating the obvious.

I suspect Mr. Rich won't see the humor in this, but it's really comical.

Rich goes on to bash John Ashcroft, the attorney general and target of choice these days for angry liberal columnists. Ashcroft had the audacity to say, "We are a nation called to defend freedom -- freedom that has not been granted by any government or document, but is our endowment from God." Rich writes that "Ashcroft has therefore dispensed with the constitution, which defines our freedoms."

Really? No, Mr. Rich. The Declaration of Independence says that all are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights including liberty. That was the point of the American Revolution. We fought believing that rights come from God, not from King George.

And wasn't it Thomas Jefferson -- not John Ashcroft -- who said that we abide by the laws of nature and nature's God?

Mr. Rich insists that John Ashcroft is "pumping up the volume of his preening sanctimony." Can it be that Mr. Rich really doesn't know American history? He needs to go back to the books.

Rich's column is a farce, and Malcolm Muggeridge had it right. The world is a foolish place filled with foolish people making foolish statements. The best thing you can do sometimes is to laugh.

================

For further information:

Russell Kirk, "Malcolm Muggeridge's Scourging of Liberalism," Heritage Foundation Lecture no. 229, 21 September 1989.

Frances Stead Sellers, "A Satirist in Search of Salvation," THE WASHINGTON POST, 3 March 1996.

Frank Rich, "Religion for Dummies," THE NEW YORK TIMES, 27 April 2002. (Free registration required.)

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Copyright © 2002 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. 'BreakPoint with Chuck Colson' is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

James Watson (co-discoverer of the structure of DNA) said on British television in March 2003 he sees no reason why "stupidity" could not some day be corrected by gene therapy just as other "disorders" are now being addressed. "If you're really stupid, I would call that a disease," he said on the Channel 4 documentary "DNA." "I'd like to get rid of (stupidity)."

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New Scientist, 2/28/03

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate]

Be warned: "Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover."

That label on a pair of shin guards beat out nearly 100 competitors Wednesday to win the Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch's Wacky Warning Labels contest.

Runners-up included:

A label affixed to a toilet inside a public restroom: "Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking."

"Warning: Riders of personal watercraft may suffer injury due to forceful injection of water into body cavities either by falling into the water or while mounting the craft."

A warning on an electric router: "This product not intended for use as a dental drill."

A warning on a novelty rock garden set (called "Popcorn Rock"): "Eating rocks may lead to broken teeth!"

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Source: Pearls of the Net, http://www.topica.com/lists/pearls/

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Another version:

In 1997, Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch (M-LAW) began a contest to expose how frivolous lawsuits, and a concern about potential frivolous lawsuits, have led to a new cultural phenomenon: the wacky warning label.

Over the years, M-LAW has received hundreds of warning labels from people around the world. M-LAW verifies the authenticity of each label and selects the “Top 5” for each year.

Following is a list of some of the best labels from the first five contests:

A warning on an electric router made for carpenters cautions: “This product not intended for use as a dental drill.”

A warning label found on a baby stroller cautions the user to “Remove child before folding”

A prescription of sleeping pills says, “Warning: May cause drowsiness

A sticker on a toilet at a public facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan actually warns: “Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking.”

A massage chair warns: “DO NOT use massage chair without clothing... and, Never force any body part into the backrest area while the rollers are moving.”

A snow blower warns: “Do not use snow thrower on roof.”

A dishwasher carries this warning: “Do not allow children to play in the dishwasher.”

A CD player carries this unusual warning: “Do not use the Ultradisc2000 as a projectile in a catapult.”

An “Aim-n-Flame” fireplace lighter cautions, “Do not use near fire, flame or sparks”

A label on a hand-held massager advises consumers not to use “while sleeping or unconscious”

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These quotes were taken from actual employee performance evaluations in a large U.S. Corporation:

"Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom ... and has started to dig deeper."

"His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity."

"Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap."

"This employee is really not so much of a 'has-been', but more of a definite 'won't-be'."

"He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them."

"This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot."

"This young lady has delusions of adequacy."

"This employee should go far ... and the sooner he starts, the better."

"I would like to go hunting with him sometime."

"He certainly takes a long time to make his point pointless."

"He's been working with glue too much."

"If he were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week."

"Donated his brain to science before he was done using it."

"Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming."

"Has two brains: one is lost and the other is out looking for it."

"If you gave him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change."

"He would argue with a signpost."

"He has a knack for making strangers immediately."

"He brings a lot of joy whenever he leaves the room."

"If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the oceans."

"When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell."

"If you see two people talking and one of them looks bored, he's the other one."

"Some drink from the fountain of knowledge ... he only gargled."

"It's hard to believe that he beat 1,000,000 other sperm to the egg."

"One neuron short of a synapse."

"Takes him 2 hours to watch 60 minutes."

"When she opens her mouth, it seems that it is only to change feet."

"Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thing to hold it all together."

"The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead."

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Rev. Kelly Boggs, Baptist Press on January 10, 2003:

Acting legend John Wayne is reported to have said, "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid."

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As the squad stood in formation at the Naval Air Station, the flight instructor growled, "All right, all you worthless morons fall out!" As the rest of the squad wandered away, one pilot in training remained at attention. Without a word, the instructor walked over until he was eyeball-to-eyeball with the courageous young Marine. Cocking an eyebrow, he demanded, "SO?" The threatened pilot-to-be smiled and said, "Sure was a lot of 'em, wasn't there, sir?"

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Source/Attribution: From www.cleanlaffs.com [20 June 2001]; edited for use, SIEW

Michael Anthone Jacobs, 18, allegedly committed a string of robberies in Mesa, Arizona. But things didn't go particularly well, witnesses say. At the first robbery, he dropped his gun -- and it broke. At the second, he had to pause during his getaway to use an asthma inhaler. On his third, he found his keys locked inside his getaway car. Once he drove away, he was pulled over by the police because he was driving at night without his headlights. He was arrested and charged with three robberies, and is a suspect in two others.

(AP)

Leonard Garland and David DeCristofaro, both 20, saw a lot of cars parked on a street in Ashland, Massachusetts. Figuring it was a party they “crashed” it. Indeed there was a party and, witnesses say, Garland asked one of the hosts if he wanted to “get high.” The host asked if he had something to get high with, and Garland and DeCristofaro produced psychedelic mushrooms and cocaine. They also chatted about a local “jerk” narcotics cop, Matt Gutwill, who the duo didn't like because he was so effective at arresting drug dealers. It was about then that the host identified himself -- as narcotics officer Matt Gutwill -- and arrested them.

“The look on their faces was like they saw death knocking on their door,” said Gutwill, who was wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with “Burlington Police Academy” at the time. It wasn't difficult to detain the two men: most of the 20 people at the party were cops. “I've met a lot of dumb drug dealers,” Gutwill said later, “but none this dumb.”

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Framingham Metrowest Daily News

Comments on Forest Service registration sheets and comment cards by backpackers completing wilderness camping trips:

“A small deer came into my camp and stole my bag of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed? Please call.”

“Escalators would help on steep uphill sections.”

“Instead of a permit system or regulations, the Forest Service needs to reduce worldwide population growth to limit the number of visitors to wilderness.”

“Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands.”

“Ban walking sticks in wilderness. Hikers that use walking sticks are more likely to chase animals.”

“All the mile markers are missing this year.”

“Found a smoldering cigarette left by a horse.”

“Trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.”

“Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness to rid the area of these pests.”

“Please pave the trails so they can be plowed of snow in the winter.”

“Chairlifts need to be in some places so that we can get to wonderful views without having to hike to them.”

“The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying animals.”

“Reflectors need to be placed on trees every 50 feet so people can hike at night with flashlights.”

“Need more signs to keep area pristine.”

“A McDonald's would be nice at the trail head.”

“The places where trails do not exist are not well marked.”

“Too many rocks in the mountains.”

“A big hotel with a golf course and even a convention center would attract more people to this natural beauty.”

“I like all the trees but you need to plant some flowers. Flower gardens would be so pretty in the forest.”

“I was stung by a bee; you should have warning signs.”

“It would be nice to have the Kodak scenic markers so we could identify the photographic sites.”

“More families would enjoy the parks and city children could learn more about nature if the Parks Department would provide services that include arcades, water slides and child care.”

“The giant trees are spectacular but there are too many of the same kind; you should plant different types, for variety.”

“You should have a petting zoo here so that the children could touch the squirrels, deer and bears.”

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Roshan's Humour List

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[Original illustration at this number duplicated material at HolwickID #18837]

Several days after getting out of jail, where he had served time for drunk driving and other charges, Ronald A. Mahner stopped at the Seminole County (Florida) Sheriff's Office to pick up his personal belongings. He provided his driver's license as identification. A clerk checked him in the computer and found the license had been revoked for life. She sent a co-worker to get the license number on the car he was driving. The car, which Mahner had parked in a fire lane, was reported stolen the day Mahner got out of jail. He was arrested as he tried to get back in the car.

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Orlando Sentinel

When Louis Kadlecek turned 21, he went on a bender, drinking for four days straight. He was familiar with the Brazoria County (Texas) Airport, since that’s where he performed community service after “one of his previous arrests.” He went there, broke into several hangers and stole a plane.

Kadlecek, who had never flown a plane before, loaded it with a case of stolen beer, threw the instruction manual on the seat beside him, and took off. Within a mile he hit twin 100,000-volt power lines. The first one snapped and knocked out electricity to two towns. The second one caught his plane and sent it tail-first into a muddy field.

Louis was pretty loose, and crawled out of the plane unharmed. The airport’s director said, “If stunt pilots tried 1,000 times to do the same thing, they would have been killed 999 times.”

Kadlecek blamed poor airport security for his actions. “If there had even been a tall chain link fence with barbed wire on top of it, I would have just turned around and went on home,” he claimed. The jury didn’t buy it, and he got six years in prison. Apparently he didn’t believe it himself because when the police came for him, he had his toothbrush in hand.

Many of us need fences. The Ten Commandments provides this kind of boundary but it is no guarantee you won’t be stupid. Even fences with barbed wire can be overcome.

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See also http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/03/05/drunken-pilot-is-plane-stupid/ and http://forums.jetphotos.net/showthread.php?t=14259

Ronnie Darnell Bell, 30, was arrested in Dallas in 1998 and charged with attempting, all alone, to rob the Federal Reserve Bank. (In the movie “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” knocking off the New York Federal Reserve Bank required a small army of men and truckloads of weapons.) According to police, Bell was initially confused because there were no tellers, so he handed a security guard his note, reading, “This is a bank robbery of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, of Dallas, Texas, give me all the money. Thank you, Ronnie Darnell Bell.” The guard pushed a silent alarm while an oblivious Bell chatted amiably, revealing to the guard that only minutes earlier he had tried to rob a nearby Postal Service office but that “they threw me out.”

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Dallas Morning News, February 27, 1998

In our daily use also, the words “foolishness,” ”folly” and “fool” all have negative meanings. A person who acts in a childish manner might be called foolish.

And it's considered foolish when we do something that needlessly brings harm upon ourselves - like getting drunk, or taking drugs.

Foolishness is also what we call it when someone refuses to accept what seems obvious to everyone else, and stubbornly holds onto their plans against the good advice of caring friends.

But when we begin to talk about the cross, the meaning seems to change, or at least it appears that foolishness isn't such a bad thing after all. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Let's clarify one thing. Paul is not saying here that the “activity” of preaching is foolish. The NIV helps us with the translation “message”. Actually, the word used is “logos”, elsewhere simply translated “word”.

But why is the “message of the cross” considered to be foolish?

It might help to understand where this word “moros” comes from. It probably comes from a derivative of the word “muo”, which literally means “to shut the mouth” - it carries the idea of “mystery”. The relationship with “foolish” is that it refers to those things which hidden, and not obvious to the understanding. “The secret counsels which govern God in dealing with the righteous, which are hidden from ungodly and wicked men, but plain to the godly.”

So it's not “foolish” as we would think about “silliness”, or lacking reason, or mental instability.

It's just that the “Greeks” don't get it. But who are the “Greeks”? Simply those who do not believe. What we have to realize is that faith comes first, then understanding. “I believe, therefore I understand.”

That Jesus died on the cross outside of Jerusalem is a fact of history. But - so did a lot of other people. In fact there have been millions who have died the martyr's death. So why is the death of Jesus different? The world would say, there is no difference. It's “unreasonable”, i.e., “foolish” to think otherwise. But the person of faith says, “Jesus' death on the cross may seem foolish to others, but to me it makes perfectly good sense. Not only that, it is God's power (dunamis) to save.” When the crucifixion and resurrection are both included in the “message of the cross”, it is the display of God's power to save us from our sins.

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Mom and dad baptized the first three boys Methodist. The youngest of four boys wasn’t baptized at all. I’ve always envied my youngest brother a little for never being forced to be baptized

We grew up in a small farming area of Ohio not too farm from Columbus. Once I got in school I figured it was time to give this God thing a try. Actually if the truth be known I started going to the Baptist church because Lisa Maria Yutzy went there and I had a crush on her. Reverend Night was a nice man and all and I was genuinely giving this God thing, this belief thing a try.

My dad was a hard working man and he figured Levi’s work shoes, white sock and a tee-shirt were fine for work and play then they were fine for wearing to church also. Reverend Night didn’t see it that way and pointed out my dress one day in Sunday school in front of the whole class. I stopped going to church at that very moment.

Reverend Night decided to stopped over to our house one Saturday to see why I stopped going to church. When Reverend Night walked through the front door my dad was doing exactly what he did every Saturday during football season. He had two cases of Burger beer sitting by the couch and the game on. Reverend Night fell over the cases of beer.

Reverend Night spent the next twenty minutes telling my mother and father and all four of us boys how we were sinners and we were going to hell if we didn’t start living God’s plan.

Once Reverend Night was done I swore at him and told him that he was not welcome in our home and that I would never enter his church again.

From that point on I decided that God and belief in anything had to be a individual journey and a very personal experience.

I figured church and structured religion was just not the way to go about finding anything out, at least not for me. I have never regretted my decision.

If there were a line that was giving out the meaning of faith I would be the first one in line but here are no lines giving out faith and it takes at least fifty years of a life to finally figure out that faith is oneself is the only form of faith that will allow everything else to make sense.

A wise man is an older man that has lived through his mistakes. A fool is that same young man that died from those same mistakes.

Here are some words to live by, from a warning label on a small tractor: “Danger: Avoid Death.”

That warning is the winner of the 11th annual “Wacky Warning Label Contest,” sponsored by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch. The contest is part of an effort to show the effects of lawsuits on warning labels.

Kevin Soave of Farmington Hills, a Detroit suburb, won the $500 grand prize for submitting the tractor’s “Danger: Avoid Death” label.

The $250 second place prize went to Carrianne, Jacob and Robby Turin of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, for a label they found on an iron-on T-shirt transfer that warns: “Do not iron while wearing shirt.”

Richard Goodnow of Lancaster, Massachusetts, earned the $100 third-place prize for a label on a baby stroller featuring a small storage pouch that warns: “Do not put child in bag.”

Contest organizer Bob Dorigo Jones says the silly labels reflect how broken the U.S. civil justice system is. “Predatory lawyers know they can file ridiculous lawsuits against innocent product makers and blackmail them into a cash settlement - even in cases in which a user has ignored common sense,” Dorigo Jones said.

Honorable mention went to Cyndi LaMonde of Traverse City for a label on a letter opener that says: “Caution: Safety goggles recommended.”

Ann Marie Young of Fillmore, N.Y., took the second honorable mention for a warning she found which cautions users: “The Vanishing Fabric Marker should not be used as a writing instrument for signing checks or any legal documents.”

Two 17-year-old cousins in Plymouth, Wisconsin, wondered what it would be like to be shot. The two decided to shoot themselves to find out, until a 34-year-old relative stepped in and put a stop to it -- by offering to do it for them. Each sought medical treatment after being shot in the leg, and the older man was arrested.

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Associated Press

Construction workers in Dublin, California, watched a man drive up in a new-looking Volvo to their cement truck. He "asked the concrete workers to fill him up for a job he was doing," a police spokesman says. While the driver remained behind the wheel, the workers aimed the concrete chute through the window and did as he asked. He then drove away with wet concrete filling the inside of the car up to the steering wheel. Police say they are "at a loss to explain the case." (Fremont Argus)

Cassingham: It's not so odd. The man found the car in his driveway. It belongs to his wife's boyfriend.

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From This Is True site:

Readers wondered, is this story REALLY true? Several insisted it was impossible: the concrete would weigh too much for a car. The lye would burn the man. He wouldn’t be able to operate the pedals.

Another group noted that it was an old urban legend/joke. I didn’t RECALL seeing such a joke until after the story was out and I found it on Snopes, but I HAVE seen just about every joke that ever went around on the ‘net, so perhaps a subconscious memory is why my tagline and the joke’s punchline are extremely similar. But the entire argument is silly. By saying “it’s just an old urban legend,” these readers seem to be saying it’s therefore IMPOSSIBLE for such a scenario to ever happen in real life. Yeah, right. Doesn’t it make more sense to suppose, when confronted with real evidence like this, that someone may have been inspired by a good joke -- life imitating art? That sounds a LOT more plausible!

Therefore, I’ve been keeping my eye out for updates on the story to help corroborate it, and the OAKLAND TRIBUNE has made my wait pay off. In a 20 August 2002 story, the TRIBUNE notes “he’s been spotted again -- this time on Thursday in Brentwood, across the street from a site he had already visited in May.”

Foreman Ruben Gaytan said Superintendent Bobby Garrigan spoke to the man, who asked for some asphalt. The man had previously been seen driving a maroon Volvo, but this time he was behind the wheel of an early ‘70s, white Oldsmobile station wagon, Gaytan said. “They asked him if he was ‘the concrete guy,’” Gaytan said. “He said, ‘Yes.’”

Gaytan said he recognized the man -- because he was on the job when “The Concrete Guy” visited a construction site in May. At that time, he tried to get construction workers to fill his car with asphalt -- and Gayton said he looked inside the car and saw, he estimated, 800-900 pounds of concrete. He refused the request for asphalt, saying they didn’t want liability for burning him with the hot material. He said Concrete Guy was “filthy and had concrete smeared all over him.” Another story I found mentioned he had concrete smeared on the steering wheel, all over the passenger seat and on his legs and hands. “There was concrete on the steering wheel and all over the passenger seat, forcing the man to sit awkwardly.” One foreman noted, “It didn’t look too comfortable, to say the least.” Concrete Guy is described as skinny, blond, white, and in his 30s.

As for the car, construction workers say “the car leaned to the right because of the weight the concrete put on the car.” He has been reported at construction sites all over the San Francisco Bay Area, including Dublin, Fremont, Santa Clara and Tracy. His last known address was a homeless shelter in Santa Cruz.

Concrete Guy says the police have already caught up with him for a chat, but the police say the man is not in trouble -- he has committed no crime (which is apparently why newspapers are withholding his identity). So why is he doing this? Maybe Concrete Guy is in on the joke. He reportedly has told construction workers, “Well, I’m trying to get back at my ex-wife. She left me and took everything I have.”

Surely we haven’t heard the last of this guy. If nothing else, we want to hear from his ex-wife. At least, we hope she’s not a stiff....

According to Cheryl Crausewell, neighborhood kids “TP’d” her family’s Dora, Alabama, home, throwing rolls of toilet paper into a tree in their front yard. Crausewell and her son cleaned up as well as they could, but there was still some toilet paper stuck in the tree. So, Crausewell decided to burn it out — lighting the toilet paper with her lighter.

The wind blew a piece of burning paper into the yard. “It just popped out into a little patch and we tried to put it out and it just kept going, so I was trying to keep it from going down the front porch and came down the bank and around the back of the house,” Crausewell said. The fire spread into the backyard, where it’s believed a propane tank caught fire, and the house went up in flames.

Nobody was hurt, but the house was destroyed. “I just realize life is really precious,” Crausewell said. “I mean, you know that already but it just brings it home how precious life is and all these things really don’t matter.”

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WBRC Birmingham

Pixar’s Wall-E has proven to be among the most profound and prophetic films of the last 20 years. After hopelessly polluting the Earth and leaving an army of robots to clean up the planet, humans now live aboard a giant ship built by a company that promises to take care of all its passengers’ needs. Thus, humans are left with nothing to do but amuse themselves and eat a lot.

Many Christians wrote off the Pixar classic because of its hyper-environmentalist message. However, the film’s commentary on human exceptionalism and vocation, specifically the inability of our machines to do our most important work for us, was spot-on. In the world of Wall-E, human beings have a purpose, or a telos that cannot be reduced to maximizing comfort, safety, and convenience.

In the biblical account of reality, humans exist to glorify and love God, and to serve as His special representatives and co-rulers in creation. Human inventions should help towards achieving those ends, extending our abilities, and mitigating the effects of the Fall. Wanting to replace ourselves with our devices assumes that humanity is the central problem of the world that needs to be solved.

Recently in First Things, Matthew Crawford argued that an anti-human worldview like the one parodied in Wall-E now dominates our tech and governing classes. Those who are behind everything from smartphone apps to pandemic policy share a basic belief that human beings are inferior to machines. We are, as he puts it, “stupid,” “obsolete,” “fragile,” and “hateful.”

Crawford opens his essay with an example of a driverless car created by Google that froze at a four-way stop. Apparently, the drivers around the car didn’t behave as it had been programmed to expect. However, rather than admit the limits of the car’s “artificial intelligence,” one Google engineer remarked that what he’d learned from the incident is that humans need to be “less idiotic.” The premise is that humans are not the crown of creation but problems to be solved.

Of course, it is quite possible that, once they’ve worked out all the bugs, driverless cars will lead to less accidents and road deaths. However, one of the bugs to be worked out are the programmers who hate humans, which makes the point of this essay ring true. So much of our high-tech culture, from the social media algorithms that tell us what we want to the transhumanist fantasies about uploading our consciousness to computers, assumes that humanity is an obstacle to be overcome.

Much of our public life also assumes the basic idiocy and inadequacy of humans: take health officials more concerned with controlling people than limiting the spread of a virus or legislation quashing parental rights in order to “affirm” gender-confused minors.

C.S. Lewis saw this impulse decades ago and recognized how it would grant growing power to certain people over and above others. In his masterpiece The Abolition of Man, Lewis warned of those he called “conditioners,” who considered themselves above such common human frailties. Of course, as Lewis pointed out, the conditioners are also human, but in denial that they too are vulnerable to the same frailties as everyone else. Their danger lies in the fact that they are oblivious about their frailties, especially their moral frailties.

It is good that humans have bodies that limit us to one location and the need for food, sleep, and friendship. These limits are part of our design. Because we are designed, we must be guided by values and not merely algorithms. It is good that we take time to learn, to appreciate beauty, to feel wonder, and to have burning questions about what is behind all that we see. God made us this way, so that, eventually, our seeking would lead back to Him. Though He intends to redeem us from the ravages of sin, He never intends to optimize us into efficient machines. Apparently, He considers being human as something “good,” even “very good.” So much so, in fact, He took on flesh Himself.

Wall-E got it (mostly) right. Technology is good but needs a telos — a purpose for existing. That purpose cannot be to replace, transcend, or circumvent God’s good design for human beings.

In short, technology and public policy should be human-shaped, not the other way around.

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Copyright (c) 2023 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.