¡Hola Uruguay! /Hello Uruguay!

 Uruguay has just been added to the list of 140 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The total number of blog views as of today, 17 January 2025, is 503,933. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.

מרנאתא

¡Hola Bolivia!/ Hello Bolivia!

Bolivia has just been added to the list of 138 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.

מרנאתא

Saints on the Loose! Tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".

        On this blog, Saints on the Loose!, there are two useful tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".

        The "Search This Blog" drop-down tool provides the reader with access to over 1700 subject listings from Christian doctrinal issues, social and cultural issues, sports, health, movies, food, books, television programs, history, Christian heresies, apologetics, and many other subjects.

        The "Translate This Blog" drop-down tool allows the the reader to select a language other than English in which they may read the blog post. This tool uses the Google Translate function and, as of January 2025, can translate 249 languages. A detailed but not excessively technical discussion about Google Translate can be found on Wikipedia.

        Use of these two tools in tandem can greatly increase the usefulness of this blog to you.

        The Google Translate tool provides what is probably a very literal, but readable translation.  Idiomatic meaning and some subtleties unique to particular languages may be lost. The following two example translations are of a portion of this post, in Traditional Chinese and in Spanish..

在這個部落格 Saints Loose! 中，有兩個有用的工具：「搜尋此部落格」和「翻譯此部落格」。

        「搜尋此部落格」下拉工具為讀者提供了數千個主題列表，包括基督教教義問題、社會和文化問題、體育、健康、電影、食品、書籍、電視節目、歷史、基督教異端、護教學，以及許多其他主題。

        La herramienta desplegable "Buscar en este blog" proporciona al lector acceso a miles de listas de temas, desde cuestiones doctrinales cristianas, cuestiones sociales y culturales, deportes, salud, películas, comida, libros, programas de televisión, historia, herejías cristianas, apologética, y muchos otros temas.

Predictive Text Technology Threatens Chinese Ideography

An recent article in the USA Today newspaper talks about how the use of cell phones and computers with predictive text technology is causing a degradation in the ability of Chinese users to write the traditional Chinese language ideographic symbols. Many say that the technology causes the user to become fast but inaccurate.

Modern cell phones and word processors use predictive text technology in which one key or button represents many letters or characters. When the user enters a key or button, the program chooses the most likely next letter or character (a “prediction”). The next entry results in a smaller set of possible letters or characters based on the first two entries. As more keys or buttons are entered, the predicted text becomes increasingly likely. (Google and other search engines use predictive algorithms of words instead of letters to hone in on your desired search subject as you type in your request).

Predictive text technology as applied to the Chinese language makes use of the pinyin writing system. Written Chinese is an ideographic system rather than an alphabetic system. Alphabetic writing systems  represent sounds by using a set of distinct letter symbols. Ideographic writing systems use symbols to represent ideas or concepts. Alphabetic writing systems are much more compact and flexible than ideographic systems and are able to incorporate foreign or “loan” words much more easily.

Alphabetic writing systems (and the number of letters used by each) include English (26), German (26), French (26), Italian (21), Arabic (28), Urdu (38), Korean (24), Spanish (29), Russian (33), Greek (24), Vietnamese (30), and Hindi (46). In contrast, knowledge of 4000 characters is necessary to achieve functional literacy in written Chinese.

Chinese predictive text programs used in cell phones and word processors make use of the pinyin system which they “translate” into Chinese characters. Pinyin is the official phonetic system for transcribing the sound of Chinese characters into Latin script in China, Taiwan, and Singapore. An example: 北京 is represented in pinyin as Běijīng, which, in English is rendered as Beijing. In the older Wade-Giles system this was presented as Peking.

Some Chinese have become concerned that as the digital predictive text technology proliferates, traditional Chinese calligraphic script will fade away. That process has probably already begun with pinyin eventually being the victor. This is a sad phenomenon because written Chinese is visually beautiful, but it is probably inevitable at some time in the future

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/november/chinese-typewriter-historian-112812.html

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/01/04/5218/

To demonstrate the beauty and the complexity of the written Chinese, see the following quotation from Acts 28:31, the verse from which this blog takes its theme.

“Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.”

In the Greek, the final word of this verse is ἀκωλύτως, “unhindered,” hence, “Saints On the Loose!”

Acts 28:31 in the Simplified Chinese characters:

宣布神的国度，并教导有关主耶稣基督 - 所有的他勇气和！不受阻碍

Acts 28:31 in the Traditional Chinese characters:

他宣布神的國度，並教導有關主耶穌基督 - 所有的勇氣和不受阻礙

Acts 28:31 in Pinyin transliteration:

fang4dan3 chuan2/zhuan4 jiang3 shen2 guo2 de* dao4 , jiang1/4/qiang1 ye1su1 ji1du1 de* shi4 jiao4dao3 ren2 , bing1/4 mei2you3 ren2 jin4zhi3

Film Comment: El Evangelista

You say that you want to see a Christian comedy about a professional drug gang enforcer/assassin?  Well, here it is.

Pablo (J. Salome Martinez) always pauses before killing his victims to allow them the chance to make their peace with God.  Whether or not they do, he then fills them with bullets.  Surprisingly, though the film is extremely violent, there is no cursing.

Pablo and his assistant are bumbling hit men who eventually are able to carry out their assignments.  There is a lot of running around and shooting and killing.

The turning point for Pablo comes when he is assigned by his boss to assassinate a Pentecostal pastor who is interfering with the local drug trade.  Pablo becomes a Christian and turns his life around.  This is where the real problem with El Evangelista (2006) lies.

Pablo moves to another area and begins his happy new life.  What about his probably vengeful former associates?  What about his responsibility for numerous murders?  Did he have a responsibility to self-report to the authorities?  Should he have given his knowledge of the drug trade to the police?  Is repentance without confession really repentance?  Can we escape temporal consequences for our actions?

This is a Spanish language film with English subtitles.

The Lord's Prayer in Spanish

Religious Place Names

Frascati, Italy: This resort town is named for the Church of St. Mary and Sebastian “in the bushes (frascati) ”

Omdurman, Sudan: Named for Um-Marium (1646-1730),  a Muslim saint.

Lima, Peru:  This city was founded in 1535 by Francisco Pixarro as Ciudad de los Reyes (City of the Kings).  The modern name is derived from the name of an ancient deity, Rimac, and means “he who speaks.”

Munich, Germany: Munich was built on the site of a Benedictine monastery and the name derives from the Old High Germany word “munih,”  meaning “monk.”

Concepcion, Chile:  With a Spanish name meaning “conception,” this city was founded in 1550 on the day of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Christian Illustrators: Karen Hargett

Christian illustrators often work in secular markets.  Karen Hargett is a Christian artist (pencils and pastels) in Buda, Texas (USA).  She is a professional working artist who does nature scenes, animals portraits, and work for commission.

Karen Hargettt lives in Buda, Texas, a rapidly growing community.  In the 2000 census, Buda had 2404 residents; in 2010 the population had grown to 7295.  Originally known as DuPre, the town became Buda late in the 19th century.

There are two possible known derivations for the name of the town.  Both sound plausible.  Perhaps both sources contributed to the name.

The Carrington Hotel in Buda is popularly known as the "Buda House"because of the "viudas" (Spanish = "widows") who worked in the kitchen.

The second explanation is that the town is named for the hometown (Buda) of Hungarian refugees who settled in the area after the failed 1848 revolution in Hungary.  Budapest, Hungary was formed from the merging of the cities of Buda and Pest. 

The city name Buda may derive from the name of its founder, Bleda (Buda), the brother of the Hunnic ruler Attila.   It may also be derived from the Slavic word "вода, voda" ("water"), a translation of the Latin name "Aquincum", which was the main Roman settlement in the region

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Duccio di Buoninsegna: (b. ca. 1255-1260, Italy – d. 1318-1319)  Painter.  He worked on commission and provided paintings for churches, cathedrals, and government buildings.  Many of his works are now lost.

Frederick Fyvie Bruce: (b. 1910, Scotland –d. 1990; aka: F. F. Bruce) Biblical scholar, university professor, specialist on the life and ministry of Paul, wrote over forty books and biblical commentaries.  In his classic work, New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, he showed that the New Testament documents have better historical attestation than any other ancient documents.

Allan B. Bicknell: (b. ca 1890, USA –d. 1948) University professor of French, Greek, Latin, and Spanish at Bridgewater University for forty-one years (1906-0917), opera singer.    

Asa: On 6 June 2012, a pastor identified only as Asa was arrested for proselytizing in Laos.

Joseph Elliot Giradi: (b. 1964, Illinois, USA) Major League Baseball catcher anf manager. 2006 National League Manager of the Year.