The unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates

I repent, I repent,
of my pursuit of America's dream.
And I repent, I repent,
of livin' like I deserve anything.
Of my house, my fence, my kids, my wife,
in our suburb where we're safe and white.
Oh, I am wrong and of these things I repent.

I repent, I repent,
of parading my high liberty.
And I repent, I repent
of payin' for what I get for free.
And of the way I believe that I'm livin' right.
Trading sins for others that are easier to hide.
Oh, I am wrong and of these things I repent.

And I repent,
of judgin' by a law that even I can't keep.
No, no, no.
Of wearin' righteousness like a disguise,
to see through the planks in my own eyes.

I repent, I repent,
of trading truth for false unity.
And I repent, I repent,
of confusing peace and idolatry.
Of caring more of what they think,
than what I know of what we need.
Of domesticating you, until you look just like me.

Oh, I am wrong and of these things,
Oh, I am wrong and of these things,
Oh, I am wrong and of these things,
I repent.

Derek Webb

ChristianiyToday on Derek Webb

The Heterosexual Revolution

By STEPHANIE COONTZ
Published: July 5, 2005

Olympia, Wash.

THE last week has been tough for opponents of same-sex marriage. First Canadian and then Spanish legislators voted to legalize the practice, prompting American social conservatives to renew their call for a constitutional amendment banning such marriages here. James Dobson of the evangelical group Focus on the Family has warned that without that ban, marriage as we have known it for 5,000 years will be overturned.

From the NYTimes
In a related piece United Church of Christ Backs Same-Sex Marriage

For my part, it seems we have more multiple divorces and re-marriages than ever before. So it isn't as if the heterosexual community is demonstrating any more respect for the institution of marriage than anyone else.
See: andrewsullivan.com

The Earth As It Is

From your Daily Dig by Leonardo Boff

Is it possible to live in peace and happiness when you know that two-thirds of human beings are suffering, hungry and poor? To be human we have to have compassion. This solidarity is really the defining factor of our humanity and is gradually being lost in a culture of material values. It’s not only the cry of the poor we must listen to but also the cry of the earth. The earth and human beings are both threatened. We must do something to change the situation...

There won’t be a Noah’s Ark to save only some of us. To meet people’s fundamental concerns change is needed. The world as it is does not offer the majority of humanity life but rather hell. I believe that change is possible, because I cannot accept a God who could remain indifferent to this world, but only one who cares about the poor and the suffering.

John Ikerd questions a time-honored pursuit.

I heard a story a while back about 'rotational farming'. Instead of keeping cows in stalls they are allowed to graze on an array of pastures through which they are rotated. This allows the pasture to recover from the grazing, and the cows get excersise and fresh air. Thus making them healthier without chemicals. They will also yield more milk. Not having to buy grain to feed them saves the farmer that cost, and saves land. Because whether the grain is bought or grown locally, it takes land to produce. It just seems to make too much sense to me.

7 Great Lies of Organized Religion

From Perry Marshall ~~~Lie #1:

'If you live a moral life, deny yourself pleasure, follow the prescribed rituals and give us enough money, you'll have a decent shot at being accepted by God.'

~~~

Remember that scene near the end of the Wizard of Oz, when Toto is pulling back the curtain? The sound system is bellowing, 'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN!' And There's a little man behind the controls, talking into a microphone.

Kind of reminds you of certain religious institutions, doesn't it? Short little insecure men, hiding behind names and titles, sending everyone on Mission Impossible
while they themselves indulge in secret sin. The preacher stands in front of thousands and shakes his finger. Nobody else knows that he had a stripper in his hotel room last night.

Somebody tells you, 'Here, follow all these rules and be the best person you possibly can, and you might have a shot at being accepted by God someday.' Then they string you along and get you under their thumb.

No wonder people are cynical.

Well it's no accident that Jesus' own biggest enemies 2000 years ago were precisely those same self-righteous hypocrites. When Jesus showed up, they were terrified of losing their cushy jobs and political clout. Eventually they murdered him for exposing their racket.

True spirituality had been buried in a big pile of bureaucracy, and the religious establishment used it to gain leverage. To have power over people, to get priority seating in expensive restaurants, and to line their pockets with cash.

They had everyone thinking that pleasing God was a never-ending performance marathon.

Well Jesus painted a totally different picture. He told this
story:

'Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a holy man and the other a tax collector.

The holy man stood and prayed, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this lousy tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.'

But the tax collector, standing far away, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'

Jesus explains: 'I tell you, this tax collector went home forgiven, rather than the holy man; for every one who praises himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be praised.'

Beware of the proud holy man who hangs a bunch of rules around your neck.

That humble tax collector had it right. He was doing the only thing you and I can do to be accepted by God. He just asked, with humility.

Tomorrow I'm going to attack Lie #2:

'God is huge and unapproachable, and He wants you to labor, struggle and live in guilt.'

Thanks for reading!

Respectfully Submitted,

Perry Marshall

Coffee House Theology

Just a thought

If we live our lives on this earth as if there is an afterlife, something more, and in the end it turns out we're wrong, what harm is done? Conversely, if we live this life as if there is nothing more, that this is all there is, when we're dead we simply cease to exist, and based on that live this life like there's no tomorrow as they say, in the end if we turn out to be wrong we spend eternity in somewhat less than desirable conditions. I say, why take the chance? What's seventy or so years compared to eternity? I'd rather live in expectation of eternity and be wrong, than live arrogantly denying eternity and be wrong.

The Cause of Unhappiness

by Anthony de Mello

Another offering from Daily Dig.
Loosely related to the 6/9 post 'Like a Butterfly'

If you look carefully you will see that there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness.

Again and again we need to let go...

Opting Out in the Debate on Evolution

I heard someone say on NPR recently that there are more important things to be debating about. The more important question isn't how this all came to be, but why. Whether it took seven 24-hour days as we know them, or 7 millenia, does it really matter? Seems rather academic to me.

I would concede, in their position, I would also opt out.

From the NYTimes Science page by Cornelia Dean, published June 21, 2005

On Faith and Creativity

In the interview, Jack White's statements on creativity are inspiring!

A White-Striped Trip: 'Get Behind Me Satan'

Jack and Meg White are the singer-drummer duo who make up the White Stripes. Their fifth CD, Get Behind Me Satan, is being hailed as an extension of the raw, energetic sound of their earliest work.

From the NPR program Fresh Air from WHYY with Terry Gross

A related story from the NYTimes: The White Stripes Change Their Spots

Video "games"?

Chinese gamer sentenced to life

More gamers are taking disputes over virtual property to court. A Shanghai online gamer has been given a suspended death sentence for killing a fellow gamer.

From the BBC News UK edition

Like a Butterfly

by Emmy Arnold

It dawns on me more and more how trivial and short our lifespan is. It is like smoke; like a butterfly—it passes so quickly, flying away. Nobody, no one can bring back wasted years. One wishes that one would have always lived with eternity in mind.

Five years ago today, he died at the age of 22...

Source Daily Dig

more later...

Day after Day

Every evening the rabbi of Berditchev examined in his heart what he had done on that day, and repented every flaw he discovered. He said: "Levi Yitzhak will not do this again." Then he chided himself: "Levi Yitzhak said exactly the same thing yesterday!" And added: "Yesterday Levi Yitzhak did not speak the truth, but he does speak the truth today."

He used to say: "Like a woman who suffers overwhelming pain in child-birth, and swears she will never lie with her husband again, and yet forgets her oath, so on every Day of Atonement we confess our faults and promise to turn, and yet we go on sinning, and You go on forgiving us."

Excerpted from "Tales of the Hasidim", Martin Buber, foreward by Chaim Potok

Debating America's Christian Character

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Morning Edition, originally aired May 5, 2005 · In recent years, religious conservatives have been fighting the culture wars with new assertiveness. Many observers see a widespread nostalgia for America's early days, when most of the founders were Protestant and, some religious conservatives believe, Christian principles reigned.

From NPR

Blogging as Modern-day Epistle-writing?

This is one of those times when someone makes such an obvious correlation, one has to wonder why it took so long.

Kudos to ricoblog

Success? Money can't buy happiness

Ecc 5:12 HCSB The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep.

From Johann Christoph Arnold at Bruderhof Communities

Source: Daily Dig

And in a loosely related story from the NYTimes website this morning: The Mobility Myth by BOB HERBERT
Published: June 6, 2005

The Benefits of Restlessness and Jagged Edges

by Kay Redfield Jamison
Morning Edition, from NPR, June 6, 2005

I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers...Unless one wants to live a stunningly boring life, one ought to be on good terms with one's darker side and one's darker energies.

Kay Redfield Jamison is a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her most recent book is Exuberance: The Passion for Life. She was honored with a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2001.

This I Believe XML feed

Honda FCX: What a Gas! A Week in Suburbia With a Hydrogen Honda

I know this might seem a bit out of context, but stay with me. Aren't we called to be good stewards of what we've been given? People tend to put stewardship in the context of money, but it certainly applies equally—maybe even more importantly—to the world around us. A zero-emission vehicle would be the ultimate in good stewardship toward this earth we've been charged with caring for. Subdue doesn't mean consume, but command. One can choose to command justly, or not.

In the introduction of his book "Caring for Creation: Responsible Stewardship of God's Handiwork, by Calvin B. DeWitt (Baker Books and the Center for Public Justice, 1998)." Calvin DeWitt describes the vision that drove him to write the book. It was an image of humanity standing at the judgement seat of God, their hands dripping with oil and chemical waste, their feet crusted with concrete and asphalt. And God asks the simple question, "What did you do with the garden I loaned you?"

On homosexuality

So this morning, we heard Mike Haley of Focus on the Family speak on the subject of 'Preserving Gender'. That title put me off a bit, but what he said was very realistic, and intelligent. He promoted the idea that, loving the sinner, but hating the sin missed the mark. He said, in the context of sexual preference, people tend to identify/define themselves as being homosexual. Thus, if you try to tell them that you love them, but hate what they do, it doesn't work.

He talked about decisions we may be presented with as Christians: your lesbian neighbors have just been artificially inseminated, do you congratulate them? He's says, yes! The creation of life is a sacred and blessed event, no matter the context. Do you attend the same-sex ceremony of your gay acquaintances? Not a good idea. That would be condoning a sin. There is a difference. Your lesbian co-worker just got dumped by her partner. Do you offer to pray that her partner will return? No, but she is hurting. You can pray with her that she will stop hurting. Loss of a relationship is painful as a human being, no matter the circumstances. Appeal to her humanity.

Mike says how, at the foot of the cross, the ground is level:

1Co 6:9-10 HCSB Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived: no sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, (10) thieves, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom.

So don't approach gays any differently than you might approach anyone else you are trying to help. That makes sense to me. We are all imperfect humans.

He said some gays tend to have a chip on their shoulder, in reference to Christians. They've gotten used to being scolded for 'choosing' that lifestyle and being rejected. For one thing, Mike says, no one would choose to feel what gays feel, it's not easy. Sometimes he says, they will be bitter to Christians in anticipation of rejection. If they do, it won't be so bad when they are finally actually condemned by someone and rejected. However, he says, if we look past that and remain loving, compassionate, and caring. We will be much more effective.

He talked about how often people think what a gay man needs is simply the love of a 'good woman'. He says it's not a good idea to trade one kind of lust for another. The better answer would be the love of good, Christian men. Someone to fill the void of male companionship and affirmation that they didn't get growing up.

The talk lasted about an hour, there's allot more. But overall it made sense, to me, very refreshing. It was some of the most rational, realistic talk I've heard in a while on the subject of homosexuality. I must concede, I was impressed.

more from 'Focus on the Family: What should be the attitude of Christians toward those who are gay?

"The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience"

Sider: the Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience

e-church points to this Christianity Today article by Ron Sider, an excerpt from his new book "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience". It is a careful and well-documented look at how little those who claim to be Christians differ in their moral behavior from the general populace. Well worth reading and deeply contemplating ...

The Scandal of the Evangelical ConscienceWhy don't Christians live what they preach?By Ronald J. Sider
Once upon a time there was a great religion that over the centuries had spread all over the world. But in those lands where it had existed for the longest time, its adherents slowly grew complacent, lukewarm, and skeptical. Indeed, many of the leaders of its oldest groups even publicly rejected some of the religion's most basic beliefs.

more...

Update

I've added some new pictures to the series at left. They're a little small now, but I intend to link them to larger versions in the near future. These are all pictures I took while on a mission trip to Haiti in March of this year. I went there with a construction crew to help with the setting up of an orphanage in the capitol city of Port-au-prince. My task was to build desks and chairs for the kids. We were to build thirty sets in the week that we were there. The kids were not shy about lending a hand in the least. It made me think. We have kids here in the U.S. going to therapy because they can't seem to cope. They've got every necessity met, they have nearly everything they could ever want, yet they can't seem to handle it.

How many times have you heard someone talk about when they were kids, how they had so much, everything they could ask for, and how happy they were? Not too often, if you ask me. I can think of several times when I have heard stories of not having anything as a child, about making your own fun. I know someone who—now quite comfortable—never seems to tire of telling the story of when she was child and her parents never owned a home. Her and her sisters used to go to bed in the summer with an oscillating fan in their attic bedroom and wait in anticipation of the breeze blowing in each one's direction in turn.

How many times have you heard someone say, 'We didn't have much, but we had each other.'? You hear of people who've finally made it, and realize it's not all it's cracked up to be. They opt out, they say the money didn't make them happy. Some even chuck it all, and unplug as it were, from the rat race. (See Not everyone chooses a life of ease. from 'God at the Edge, Niles Elliot Goldstein' as presented in Daily Dig ).

But I digress. I was talking about the kids in Haiti. The mean life expectancy there is around 52. You don't see people in wheelchairs. You don't see elderly people. This is one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere. Yet, the children I met, ranging in age from 2 years to 16 years were remarkably happy. We had to use a generator to work. The public utilities are sporadic at best. The kids were advising me on how to start the generator! How many ten-year-olds here would be able to do that?

It just amazes me that compared to us, these kids have nothing and are noticably happier. It's makes one re-consider what's really important. Should we really be so enraged at the guy who cuts us off in traffic? And, having the modern conveniences that we do, we should appreciate them as such, not as a given, or a necessity. It's okay to enjoy a hot shower, but be mindful of the fact that not everyone is so priviledged. Be ready, willing, and able to do without, thus making the comforts that much more enjoyable.

Historical Discovery? Well, Yes And No

A new discovery based on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri offers insight into the ancient world, but it's not exactly the Holy Grail.

From the NYTimes Arts section.

By SARAH LYALL
Published: May 30, 2005

A New Take on an Old Debate

Teaching Science: A Balanced Perspective on the Evolution vs. Creation Debate
by Johann Christoph Arnold

The root of the word “science” is “to know,” and its original meaning is simply the possession of knowledge as opposed to ignorance or misunderstanding. God gave us our brains and the ability to discover, to observe, and to learn. For us who believe, what we learn gives us reason for praise; it fills us with wonder at the omnipotence of the Creator and the beauty of everything he has made — from the sky at morning to the buds of spring.

Excerpted from A Little Child Shall Lead Them, available FREE in e-book format.

From Bruderhof Communities online

Celebrating Nature

When I was a boy, I went to a summer camp that had a 'chapel' in the woods. It was an assembly of split logs on stumps for benches in the middle of a clearing. No building, no walls. That impression of worshiping surrounded by God's creation has never left me.

Imagine this. Ministers casting off ties and suits and rolling up their starched sleeves. Church matriarchs replacing designer hats and shoes with sneakers and sweatbands. Gold-plated doors flung open and congregations spilling into the brilliant sunlight. Dust particles sinking silently to rest in the shadows of abandoned churches.

From Bruderhof Communities online
by Kirk Wareham

Sims creator takes on evolution

Another from BBC News UK Edition
Alfred Hermida Technology editor, BBC News website, in Los Angeles

The creator of the hugely popular Sims game is working on an ambitious title in which you can truly be God.

See related article

Beer mat ads to recruit priests

The Catholic Church has decided to use beer mats and posters as part of a campaign to recruit more priests.

From BBC News UK Edition

Give Peace a Chance

A somewhat different take on the state of the world. This would seem to fit quite well with the idea that good news doesn't get as much attention as the bad. We don't hear about the days that pass peacfully, that's not very interesting. Add to that the speed at which news travels in general in today's world and we get the impression that there is little, if any good present. Just something to think about.

You would never guess it from the news, but we're living in a peculiarly tranquil world.

By NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist, JOHN TIERNEY
Published: May 28, 2005

A Natural Alliance

Liberals and evangelical Christians can work together to fight poverty at home and abroad.

From the NYTimes' Op-Ed Columnist, David Brooks, Published: May 26, 2005

Related link: Saddleback Church

Google's books online under fire

A US publishing organisation has accused Google of breaching copyright rules through a plan to put university libraries online.

We start letting people read books for free and there's no telling what might happen. He said, sarcastically.

more from the BBC

Christians purge video game demons

The Devil, they say, has all the best tunes. Until now he has also had the video games market sewn up.

from the BBC

And now, for something completely different...

Americans look to Jesus for diet

Five loaves, two fish and a goblet of red wine could be on the menu for Americans if a new diet takes off.

Somebody's paying attention

I was listening to a speaker this morning who posited the idea that instead of blaming the media or trying to shield our children from its evils, we take responsibility and teach them how to resist. What a concept! I think that would fall under the heading of 'parenting'.

We often tend to be a society that is wont to point the finger, blaming others for our problems. When very likely they may have been prevented by some strategically implemented attentiveness on our part.

On a Christian Mission to the Top

From the NYTimes

This article has got people talking,
For further reading:
Christian Engagement With The Ivy League from Apprehension
What's Wrong with Evangelicals? from Religious but not Right
Christianity and Class at Brown from Daily Pepper

Tell Me the Old, Old Story—and Make It New

Apologetics for our time, by Lauren F. Winner

Jesus in the Media

First from ABC News:
Resurrection

Then from Beliefnet.com:
The Resurrection of Jesus: An Interview with Lee Strobel

Just Do It

Humanly speaking, it is possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. But Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience - not intrepreting or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his words. He does not mean for us to discuss it as an ideal. He really means for us to get on with it.

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906–1945

What does it mean to take Jesus at his word?

source: Daily Dig

Losing your religion

The experience of losing your faith, or of having lost it, is an experience that in the long run belongs to faith; or at least it can belong to faith if faith is still valuable to you, and it must be or you would not have written me about this. I don't know how the kind of faith required of a Christian living in the 20th century can be at all if it is not grounded on this experience that you are having right now of unbelief. "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief" is the most natural and most human and most agonizing prayer in the gospels, and I think it is the foundation prayer of faith.

~Flannery O'Connor, 1925–1964

Source: Daily Dig

See C.S. Lewis quote in left column.

Enter the BiblioBloggers

posted by Jim Davila at his paleojudaica blog.

Conflicted America: The Ironies Abound

This is from November of last year. I'll concede that it is not exactly breaking news, but it's still worth a read if you haven't seen it.

The first paragraph:

When America sat down last week for its annual rite of national Thanksgiving, some would argue that two different nations actually celebrated: upright, moral, traditional red America and the dissolute, liberal blue states clustered on the periphery of the heartland. The truth, however, is much more complicated and interesting than that.

Read more...

Six Blind Men and the Elephant

I was reminded recently of a story I've always enjoyed. It's the tale of the six blind men and the elephant.

As the story goes, these six men encounter an elephant. And having never seen one, did not know what to expect. The first man exploring a tusk, says an elephant is very like a spear. The next, grabbing the trunk declares the elephant to be more of a snake. Near the elephant's head a third man, catching a breeze from an ear proclaims an elephant to be fan-like. Further on, a man walking into a leg announces an elephant to be not unlike a tree. Just behind him, the man at the middle is convinced an elephant is as wide as a wall. Finally, at the back, is the man who argues an elephant is nothing more than a rope.

The point of the story—as I interpret it—is not that they all be chastised for being wrong. Even as they are certainly not to be applauded for being right. It's much more complicated than that. The one thing they all are— is limited in their knowledge of what truly constitutes an elephant. Incomplete knowledge is not wrong knowledge, however. What could be wrong though, is opinions that might be formed based on that limited knowledge. The second man (finding the trunk) could decide to avoid elephants because he doesn't like snakes for example. His response would be misguided. Yet we cannot condemn him for it if we aren't willing to expand his knowledge. If we attempt to do so, and he refuses to listen, or be persuaded, so be it. But we've done our part.

Another parallel I see is that the six blind men are the various religions, Protestant, Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, et al. They each have their own take on scripture and how to interpret and live by it. None blaringly wrong, yet none wholly right. Myself, I certainly do not profess to have the final answer on any of it. I believe it is beyond the scope of our intellect. See post below: After all we are only human

After all, we are only human...

The secrets of the most high God, who created all things, cannot be obtained by our own ability and perceptions. Otherwise there would be no difference between God and man, if human thought could reach to the counsels and arrangements of that Eternal Majesty.

ANF 7.9 Lanctantius

Quite a statement...

I believe it to be a great mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it.... We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus meek and mild was so stiff in his opinions and so inflammatory in his language that he was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever his peace was, it was not the peace of an amiable indifference.

—Dorothy Sayers, 1893–1957

Source: Daily Dig

More on Gestures of Worship

The bows, the stretching out [of the hands] during the Divine Office, the continual genuflections during prayer, confer on the monk, during the constant standing of the Office in the presence of God, humbling and abasement of the mind, warmth of the heart, purification of the body, ardor of the soul, and diligence in thought. For without prostrations, bows, stretching out the hands, and genuflections, the Office of the brothers will be routine, cold, and shallow, as will be the prayers said during it.
Devote yourself therefore to these things, my son, with all your strength, forcefully, ardently, and courageously, so that your offering might be pleasing to God.

J.-B. Chabot, "Vie du moine Youssef Bousnaya", Revue de l'Orient Chrétien 4 (1899): 411

What My Jesus Would Do

An entry from the blog of author John Scalzi.
Within the above entry he refers to his earlier post.

Don't Forget To Grieve

Telling insight from one Bob Hyatt. Husband to Amy, father to Jack and lead pastor to the evergreen community in Portland, OR.

Other offerings from Bob definitely worth the read:

bob.blog
nextChurchnetwork.org
Next-Wave: Church & Culture

A simple photograph...

From ricoblog—

Christian Rock for Muslims

From the NYTimes art & music

Catholic Devotion, and Doubts

From the NYTimes

NYTimes.com article on video games

NYTimes.com: 'Playstations of the Cross'

We are a product of our environment

You are not only a Christian; you are either a male or a female whose life, in fact if not in theory, is as much determined by your sexual as by your religious needs and desires, thoughts, and instincts. The Christian community is not the only community you belong to. You are a member of a family community; you are a husband or wife, father or mother, son or daughter, brother or sister. And much more of your life is spent (or should be) concentrating on the success or failure, happiness or misery of your family relationships (or lack of them) than on church activities. You are a member of one race or another, one economic class or another; and more than likely even the particular congregation you belong to has been brought together far more obviously on the basis of common racial and class ties than on the basis of common theological convictions... In short, part of your life is colored by what goes on in the church, but much of it is also colored by what goes on in the home, bank, supermarket, courthouse, and movie and television studios. Even when you leave the “world” to go to church, you take your worldly life with you. Insofar as you are in the church, the world is there too. Even when you put aside the newspaper and other secular literature to read the Bible...you bring to your religious studies all your secular problems, desires, and opinions—whether you want to or not.

Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine: Revised Edition (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994), 3–4.

Ducks

From Tony Campolo

Perhaps my favorite Kierkegaardian story is his parable of the ducks. He describes a town where only ducks live. Every Sunday the ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddle into the sanctuary and squat down in their proper pews. The duck choir waddles in and takes its place, then the duck minister comes forward and opens his duck Bible (Ducks, like all other creatures on earth, seem to have their own special version of the Scriptures.) He reads to them: "Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fences can hold you! You have wings and you can fly like birds!"All the ducks shouted, "Amen!" And they all waddled home.

Gestures of Worship

I hear talk of the proliferation of physical calisthenics the Catholic Church incorporates into their services. One genuflects at the pew, kneels, stands, makes the sign of the cross, etc. It's been described as so much useless activity. And that it may well be—if one is not engaged. But how different is all that from raising one's palm/palms toward the stage during song, which is not uncommon at some other churches. The Catholic Church has its Liturgy which has been perceived by some as being just so much mindless routine. But is it really so different from the predictable format of the service at other churches? See quote from C.S. Lewis on worship. If I say, 'the car is red' or 'el coche es roja' it means the same thing, but sounds and looks completely different. I feel worship is the same, there are as many different ways of worshipping as there are individuals in the world. It's not a matter of right or wrong, good or bad. There can be bad worship if it's not sincere. But whatever form it takes, if the individual is sincere in their hearts, how they choose to express that outwardly is not for us to judge. Whether that is raising the palms toward the stage, or clutching a rosary.

Hip New Churches Pray to a Different Drummer

Courtesy of the New York Times

Evangelicals: Beyond the Label

From the Chicago Sun-Times