Bouncing Off the Walls

Bouncing Off the Walls

Thanksgiving Eve Worship Service, November 25, 2015

Scripture References for Sermon… (Only those with a star were read aloud)…

Genesis 12:10 – Abraham from Famine

Genesis 12:19‐20 – Abraham from Pharaoh

Genesis 14:11‐12 – Lot from Invasion

Genesis 21:14-16 – Hagar & Ishmael from Persecution

Genesis 26:1‐3 – Isaac & Rebecca from Persecution

Genesis 27:42‐44 – Jacob from Violence

Genesis 47:4 – Jacob from Famine

Genesis 36:7 – Esau from Scarcity & Conflict

Genesis 37:28 – Joseph from Human Trafficking

Exodus 12:41 – Moses & ALL of Israel from Religious Persecution & War

*Deuteronomy 10:17‐19 – How to Treat the Refugee

Ruth 1:1 – Naomi from Famine

2 Kings 17:23 – ALL of Israel from War & Conquest by Assyria

2 Kings 24:14‐15 – ALL of Israel from War & Conquest by Babylon

Esther 2:5‐7 – Esther & Mordechai from War & Conquest

Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel – Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego from War & Conquest

*Matthew 2:13‐14 – Jesus, Mary, & Joseph from Political Persecution

Acts 8:1 – The Early Church from Religious Persecution

Acts 11:19 – The Early Church from Religious Persecution

Acts 8:4‐5 – Philip from Religious Persecution

Acts 12:17 – Peter from Religious Persecution

Acts 18:1‐2 – Aquila & Pricilla from Religious Persecution

*Scriptures that were read before message.

 Deuteronomy 10:17‐19

¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. ¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the refugee, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Love the refugee, therefore, for you were refugees in the land of Egypt.

Matthew 2:13‐14

¹³ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt.

Bouncing off the walls.  That should be normal. But I'll come back to that.

There's a reason I had us sing that silly kid song.  When you’re happy and you know it, when you’re thankful and you know it… Most of us need a reminder of what it means to express ourselves.  Unless you are a musician or "professional" artist, you do not have many opportunities in our society to express yourself... your desires, your hopes, your frustrations.  And no, road rage and Facebook are not what I mean.

We take some healthy opportunities to do this.  We pack a box for Operation Christmas Child, say yes when Kathy Sang or Bob Harris call.  But we take so few opportunities to open ourselves completely to this world and then RESPOND in healthy ways, good ways, ways that show the truth of our faith, the good news we claim, but don't always PROCLAIM.

Bouncing off the walls.

This weekend, we waited to tell Vincent we were going to the RenFest till the last min, as all parents know.  When I walked in the door, he was already bouncing off the walls.  Not about the festival.  But because it was MY birthday.  Not his.  Mine.  When was the last time you bounced off the walls for someone else's birthday?  He had a piece of notebook paper on which he'd drawn me a card and couldn't wait for me to read it.  The walls came off the house when we then told him about the festival.

There's a link going around on Facebook that advertises Google will tell you your future.  If you click, it says, if you care this much about YOUR future, what about the future of others?  What about refugees?

It's a bold question for google.  It's basically a Jesus question.  How many times does Jesus ask his disciples or the religious leaders or the crowds, what about... those people?  What about God's prophets in the whole Old Testament, God's Apostles in the New Testament?

What reaction do you have to all the news?  Sadness?  Anger?  Did you care much at all till the issues was Syrians being resettled here?  Did that change your reaction?

Bouncing off the walls.  That was Vincent's reaction because he knows and loves me.  Do we know the Syrians?  DO we want to?

If you had to guess, what is going on over there?  Do you know?  DO you care?  Do you want to?  Do you have any idea where Syria is?  What’s happening?  How many people?

I want to introduce you to your brothers and sisters in Syria a little bit.  Of the recorded deaths (experts are certain the numbers are higher), 200,000 have been killed.  That's like someone coming to the US, killing every man, woman, and child in Rowan County and Davie, and probably heading down to Concord and doing the same.  Everyone.  Then, for good measure, displacing every single person in the middle and western 2/3rds of the state, and driving the other 1/3rd into other countries.  The entire state, over 10 million people.  Do you have some idea now?

Well, yeah, Brian, but which are Christian and which are Muslim?  That is SO not the question that Jesus ever asks, nor the prophets.  In fact, the opposite.  That list of scriptures in your bulletin are the complete list of our ancestors of the faith who fled and became refugees.  Jesus and his parents are ON that list.  Take a look.

And that's to say nothing of the TWENTY TWO references in scripture to LOVE the REFUGEE in your land.  These are not commands to love the other Jewish people in the neighboring country (or Christians).  It was a GUARANTEE in that day and age that the foreigner, the refugee was of another faith, probably an idol worshipper or polytheist or something far stranger or more barbaric.  These commands are to love and welcome and defend the foreigner, the refugee.  To rescue and provide sanctuary.  And I will tell you right now that God made that command to a people who had no capacity for background checks, to people who were not protected by being surrounded by other countries and oceans and thousands of miles, but to a people right on the front lines, neighbors.

So certainly the loudest voices after these atrocities in a world so full of Christians would be words of welcome and hospitality, right???  Or at the very least, the loud voices of opposition would be from atheists or people of other faiths telling us Christians to not be so naive and foolish and risky!  Certainly any national leader or politician to be quoted in the paper or on TV as denying asylum to the MILLIONS in need would never claim the radical faith we claim and PROCLAIM through our actions of love and hospitality.  Right?

Certainly the worriers and the wise among us who have concerns would be spending all their creativity and resources on SOLUTIONS and ways to provide the love and welcome and sanctuary we are called to as Christians?

Certainly, we would consider the refusal to welcome middle-eastern families with children knocking at our door with the answer, "there's no room here," would be considered the real war on Christmas...  Right?

But Brian, I really do love my neighbor.  I do love the Lord and want to do as he calls me to do, but I'm scared.  Good.  That's honest.  And if you're not scared, you've gotten far too comfortable in your faith.  The Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, his brother, the disciples, the prophets, do we assume they were not scared?  No.  They just knew that to cling to this life more fiercely than the truth we have had revealed is to have no faith at all.  We are not a people of fear, but of faith.  And do we have a faith that we claim, or a faith we PROclaim?  Is it a faith that we intellectually assert and post about and use for guidance, or is it a faith we proclaim in word and deed?  Is it a faith that reminds us to buy a birthday card out of obligation or a faith that has us bouncing off the walls?

At a time when most of Christians are either terrified of who may arrive in our country and what they may do, or we remain blissfully unaware of our brothers and sisters knocking at the door this advent... one little boy in Texas showed a little light to remind us what it's like to be grateful for all the blessings we have and to SHOW it, to be a bouncing off the walls believer...

In the same week that the governor of Texas wrote a letter to the President refusing to accept Syrian refugees in his small state, a mosque was vandalized.  SEVEN year old, Jack heard this news and with the help of his mother, approached Naeem, a board member of the mosque, at the mosque in Pflugerville (a suburb of Austin, where I was born) with his piggy bank, the contents of which totaled about $20.  His mother said that they wanted to show them that what's not happening in Paris is NOT what is happening in Pflugerville. Said Naeem, "Jack’s $20 are worth $20 million to us because it’s the thought that counts,” Naeem said in an interview with ABC News. “Jack is a just a little older than my son, Ibrahim. If we have more kind-hearted kids like them in the world, I have hope for our future."

Jack has a bouncing off the walls faith. Jack is known all over Texas and the world now for his act of love. Will we be known for our security or our love? Our hate or our hospitality? Our fear or our faith? I don't know the name of the innkeeper in Bethlehem who let a young Middle Eastern family into his barn. Maybe history will not remember my name either. But I'd rather be nameless and famous for my compassion… than famous for my refusal to accept the refugee in my land when the prophets tell me my people were once wanderers too. So if you are thankful and you know it, SHOW it.  Don’t claim your faith only, but PROCLAIM it.  As for me and my household, we will be believers who bounce off the walls for our faith. Amen.

Ford's Innovative Idea

You can lay about in bed, but it's hard to lie about it

We went to the Hill this weekend to take in the Alumni basketball game, the Citadel football game and a wedding. We got lots of quality time with Ashley's mom and brother and their in-laws, etc too. i saw a lot of old friends throughout the weekend, which was a great deal of fun and i like to catch up. (See: quality time person) i saw an old friend of mine who kept me sane whilst i was working for the UNC phonathon and then ran into the Steves! The Steves lived on my hall for 2 or 3 years in college and they spent many an hour in my room eating pizza and watching tv, and perhaps locating items that may have wandered off with me. They referred to me as the "hall father" since our RA's tended to be sorta out there.

While tracking down a UNC baseball jersey, i ran into my friend Corinne. We talked briefly, but both failed to mention we were in town mainly for a wedding. When we saw each other the next day at that wedding, it was pretty funny. i knew almost as many people at Ashley's friend's wedding as she did. We also saw Mr. B, my scout leader and session liaison with his sons, all their for the Citadel game (as he and one son are alum).

We stayed 3 nights with Ashley's mom, in Ashley's old room. Ashley's old room has Ashley's old bed. Ashley's old bed was probably purchased from the Flinstones when they traded in for a much softer granite queen size mattress and pummis pillows. When i say firm, i don't mean like the state troopers in Ohio, i mean like King Henry VIII's divorce attorney.

i'm generally a heavy sleeper with very low standards for comfort. i have compiled a list of places i have slept more soundly than my 3 nights on "The Slab..." (apologies to all of those of you who prefer sleeping on firm mattresses. i am apparently not one of those)

-Every single camping trip i ever went on in over 10 years of scouting (including tree roots, washed out gulleys and sleeping through trains running 50 ft away from my tent).
-In a closet in a house in Montreat
-The kitchen at PCM in college
-Dozens of couches
-Jen Kling's arm chair (sideways, all night, i am still pissed at her and Jon for this, mostly Jon, he took the couch)
-My dorm floor
-My dorm futon
-The concrete floor of the bunkhouse at Grier
-A dozen desks in high school
-The floor of my Hebrew class in seminary
-The desk i took my AP Calculus exam on
-The DC Metro
-Dozens of cars, vans and buses
-A chairlift
-The shower
-The Undergraduate Library at UNC
-Davis Library at UNC
-The Student Union at UNC
-Morton Library at seminary
-The futon in the staff lounge at seminary
-The pool table in the youth room at a church
-The sidewalk outside the Dean Dome (once for UT football tickets, once for good riser seats to the Dook b-ball game)
-A 5-tier chain-link bunk on an aircraft carrier
-Dozens of airports, domestic and foreign
-A set of stairs
-The dock at Camp Grier on Lake Refuse, covered in dew, sharing a sleeping bag with 3 other people

i think that covers it. Where have YOU slept that kept you up all night?

Update

This summer, my blog lives here. It's my weekly work blog in my urban ministry internship. You'll have to scroll down to find me amidst the other interns.

Pursuit of happiness...

Let’s imagine a court case. A man goes to a local restaurant. It’s a family establishment run by a little old lady in her 70’s. She’s Baptist and her religious beliefs dictate that she will not abide by drinking nor serve alcohol. She’ll provide water, milk, ice tea, lemonade, sodas, and all kinds of beverages… but not alcohol.

Along comes a man one day who orders a beer. The little old lady informs him that it is against her strict religious beliefs to serve him alcohol but that he can certainly go next door or to any of 100 bars or restaurants or grocery stores within easy driving distance if he so wishes.

The man tells this little old lady that this interferes with his Constitutional rights, his right to pursuit of happiness. She insists her right to freedom of religion is equally important and her right is not preventing him from exercising his rights. In fact, requiring her to serve him alcohol would inhibit her rights and going elsewhere would not impinge his.

The man sues the little old lady and the governor tells her that she cannot prevent him from exercising his right to enjoy alcohol regardless of her own rights.

Seem fair?

Now substitute “little old lady” with “pharmacist” and “alcohol” with “morning-after pill.” Substitute “restaurant” for “pharmacy” and other restaurants and bars for the same. Grocery stores may stay the same. This exact thing happened in Blegoyavich’s town. Now how do we decide these kinds of cases? How far do we let an individual’s rights extend, particularly when there is an alternative? Your thoughts?

Learning from mobsters

What can we learn from mobsters as people? As Christians?

The enemy of my enemy is... my friend.

While someone may argue that this is a cop out, i often argue that we haven't truly earned the right to be arguing about homosexuality over and above any heterosexual "sin" because we've done such a poor job of feeding the sick, clothing the naked and visiting the sick and in prison. i've blogged on this before.

i've hinted at this before, but someone who opposes you on one topic is not your ideological enemy if they are equally passionate about 2 or 10 or 200 things you agree upon. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Who is my/your real enemy? Who/what is your outright, 100%, always and forever enemy? What do you hate and hate with righteous anger? Hunger? Poverty? Injustice? Abuse? Neglect? Cruelty? How many people can get behind hating those things, fighting those things and crossing party lines to do it?

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer...

If this be true for us, and our enemies are hunger, poverty, injustice, abuse, neglect, cruelty and more, and our friends are those who share this enemy, then does it not follow that we keep those friends (even those we disagree with) close and stay ever on the frontlines battling those enemies we share?

Maybe these are not the lessons intended from the Godfather or the Sopranos or Al Capone, but maybe we can learn a little something on how to do justice and love kindness as we walk humbly with our God and all of God's children who share a very real and common enemy.

Who Watches those Watchmen?

Well, i did. While anyone who ever read The Watchmen cannot be disuaded from going to see the film, i would strongly recommend against it if you know nothing about the film. It wasn't terrible, but i give it a B- or C+.

While this long graphic novel would have lent itself more readily to a miniseries than a movie, the movie did justice to the content and story and even improved the ending dramatically with few editorial licenses. The opening credit montage did a phenomenal job of paying homage to the 50 year history done in flashbacks in the novel.

However, the opening credits were also the last time music was used well. The movie tanked in the music department immediately following the credits. Pop songs were superimposed in scenes to make them hokie, rather than intense or profound. This included the worst version of Hallelujia i have ever heard. The songs were also too loud. They drowned out everything else. The music in all the previews made it dark and none of it was pop, it was heavy. Utterly confusing.

i'm really sorry i dragged some of my friends to it because it was not nearly as good as the previews. i will later add a top 10 list of movies with phenomenally high preview to movie greatness ratio.

Best previews: Terminator: Salvation and Star Trek. The new Trek preview reveals a lot more and it looks great! The Terminator movie, starring Christian Bale looks like it takes the best of that franchise and adds the coolest tech and CGI from all the lastest action films and Transformers without being as hokie. INTENSE SUMMER!

Weekend Update

We headed down to Chapel Hill for the weekend to watch the Heels take on GA Tech. Games are always fun, especially in such a winning season, but we got a special treat. We got to be in the building to watch Tyler Hansbrough break the NCAA college career free-throw record. It's been standing since the 1960's and this was pretty awesome to witness. He's also closing in on JJ Reddick's all-time scoring record and he just might beat it. Go Heels!

After the game, we caught dinner at Sakura's with Brian & Ashley (Hummel & Coffey). Was nice to catch up. We then grabbed coffee with Kyle & Jess and called it a night.

We went to Chapel Hill Bible Church and saw some of Ashley's people. i went there all of freshman year of college to teach 7th grade boys Sunday school. i began to think about how old those boys would be and realized they are now coming up on the end of their freshman year of college. They are now the age i was when i was teaching them.

The man sitting next to us looked familiar so i asked him if he used to drive a van to campus to pick up students. He said, "yes, a long time ago." i asked if it was about 7 years ago and he said yes. i told him i'd like to thank him since he helped me have one of my first chances to teach and now i'm graduating from seminary.

A time and place for all things

Ecclesiastes 3:1- There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

There is, in fact, a time for everything under heaven.

i went to see the Vagina Monologues tonight at Union. They were held on campus, in the chapel, Watts chapel.

i went, firstly, because i felt the need to be informed, as i have never been, despite numerous opportunities. i also went, principally, to support my friends who were performing in the production. Several of my friends whom i love and respect were involved, including the professor i respect most of all my seminary teachers.

i can say they did a truly spectacular job. They performed extraordinarily well and delivered a great show. It also caused me to think, reflect, learn, laugh, and almost cry. i also think they are to be commended for their sincere efforts to stop violence toward women and girls in all parts of the world by donating proceeds to worthy causes. All that being said, seeing the play made me all the more certain that it had no business being in the Chapel of our seminary.

The play discussed many instances of abuse and force that threatened and hurt women. It discussed the ideas directly and indirectly that sex has a time and place and that it should not be forced. Sex in the wrong place or time, such as at a young age, or without consent, like date rape or family incest or systematic torture in war are wrong.

My point? Why is the use of a sacred worship space which is not only important to the performers and the audience, but hundreds, nay thousands, of Alumni who may have approved or disapproved of this use of this sacred worship space any different from, well, a woman's body?

There is a time to yell. It's not around sleeping babies. There is a time to discuss your sex life with your spouse. This is probably not around your 6 year old child or someone else's. There is a time to be intimate with that spouse. It's not on the sidelines of your 17 year old's soccer game. There is a time for adults to discuss the rights and the joys and the sorrows and the humor of female anatomy, but it is NOT in a chapel.

Why? It's not just my chapel or the Presbyterian chapel, but God's chapel, and it is a special place of worship of many of God's children. i fielded a phone call from a very unhappy Alumni about the use of our campus space for this (and she didn't even know it was the chapel). She cannot have been the only one, and despite popular opinion, i am by far not the most conservative person on campus or among the Alumni. Like discussed in the play, this was in the wrong time and place, and it was forced. i don't know for sure if hey pooled any or many older alumni to see if they found this an appropriate use of Watts chapel, but i know i was not asked as a current student how i felt about the space i worship, pray, and preach in being used this way or how it might reflect on us as a body of believers and how i will be associated with this seminary when i am looking for a call this summer.

At a time when the seminary is desperately struggling to find money and bring people together, this is a horrible time to do something so controversial. There is a time and purpose for all things, and this was NOT it.

Struggles...

So, in the past 7 or 8 years, i've struggled with certain topics and terminology and whatnot. Some are merely semantic issues. Others could be written off as personal preference or political correctness. Still others are deeply culturally routed. i have had varying degrees of success. Here are some of those things...


Things i've become very intentional about and MATTER to me (in no particular order of importance):

i try very hard not to call dreadlocks, "dreads." i call them dreadlocks or locks if i can remember. My buddy from a YAV discernment weekend had locks and reminded me that they got their name from slave drivers who thought they looked DREADFUL. Since most of them i have seen make me envious, i try to be culturally sensitive and reflect that.

i haven't used the word "gay" to refer to anything dumb since probably 9th grade. My youth group had a mantra, "gay doesn't mean stupid." We had to say it a lot to one of my good friends. i'm kinda of proud of my youth group for this.

i won't say, "i love you, but..." i read an article in Reader's Digest in college in which a man wrote that the 3 most beautiful words in the English language were "i love you," and the 4 most hurtful were, "i love you, but..." i believe this is true. i won't do it.

i rarely, if ever say "your mom" or "your mama" to anyone about anything. i do occassionally slip up since it was prevelant on my hall in college. It was a common cutdown and putdown since i was in grade school. However, too many people have tenuous relationships with parents or have lost parents and it's just not a good idea. "That's what she said," is pretty darn funny though.

Speaking of mama's, i won't ask a woman about her baby or pregnancy unless she herself has told me she IS pregnant. So much trouble to be had there. DON'T DO IT!

i almost NEVER tell jokes any more about women or blondes, even though in the past i told jokes about men and brunettes to balance it out. And i will NEVER tell a race joke, despite my non-belief in race, or maybe because of it. There are too many barriers to unity and harmony already without my speed bumps added to the mix. i will still tell my one Irish joke and i make no apologies. i'm Irish, i love Ireland and it's people (i'm even wearing my Made in Ireland shirt as i write this), it's not that bad, and it's mostly very true. So there. Deal.


Things i still struggle with:

i can't get behind ethnic or racial labels. At all. i have trouble with keeping up with labels of different races because race is a human construction, and as long as we keep labeling it and pointing it out and holding meetings exclusive to one or the other and put it on standardized tests and census forms and driver's licenses and applications and talk about the culture of various skin tones, we perpetuate a divisive myth.

i also struggle with names like Indians or Native Americans or First Peoples. i mean, none are very accurate. 'Indians' is inacurate because it's a holdover from Columbus' mistake. 'Native' is absurd since most scientist recognize they emigrated here on land mass, rather than by boat. 'First People' is rather confusing if you consider they weren't the first people, just the first people on this continent, and that's too long a name. Thus: struggle.

i've also been struggling for the past few years about Biblical authority on various topics. For instance, i've never held myself to kosher eating habits because i read post-Gospel books as repealing those requirements. But i also ignore things like wearing two different kinds of threads in one shirt and i don't blow a big horn every month or wear white all the time or fringe on my shirts, etc which are all Biblical mandates that i never see repealed. So what then do i do with passages forbidding homosexual behavior? Do i decide that's important and should be considered sinful and condemn gay friends or do i lump it into archaic culturally significant requests like women not speaking in church or wearing bonnets? i'm not willing to do that, to simply dismiss anything Biblical. So, i continue to struggle, read, discern, pray and ask for God's guidance and the Holy Spirit to be present each time i read the Bible, and of course, listen to people whom i love and respect.


One no one cares about:

i will NOT buy Girl Scout cookies from a parent of a Girl Scout. Not in a tree, not with a flea. Not in a house, not with a mouse. i WILL buy from ANY GIRL Scout who asks me (much to my poor wife's chagrin). However, i'm pretty isolated from that in my current state of life, so i got away with only buying 2 boxes this year. (this policy may change in protest if the boxes keep going up in price)

**Picture by a friend, Emilie Fingado. She's a rockin' great artist.**

How old are we?

In the wake of recent (last 5 years) news of the epidemic of idiots who act immaturely or inappropriately and then make it widely known on the internet, this news is almost surprising, but not quite. Anyone remember what WWW stands for? Well, as no shock to me, President Obama's 27 year old speech writer has been making the news for this photo.

As a 25 year old male, i think can speak to the maturity a 27 year old should have reached, especially one who is aware of the public spotlight he is under. This article is worth the read, as it is by a democrat and one of the few who seems to be holding this guy to any kind of accountability.

Profound insight...

In responding to my cousin's blog today about her todler, i came to deeply reflect on my personal preferences. i dislike bubbles. i always have. Anyone who knows me very well at all, knows this.

Now, i often assumed it was simply because i don't like soap on me and everything else if it's not soon going to be rinsed off. i would not, for instance, run around the living room or backyard squirting people, flora, fauna and furniture with a bottle of thick runny dish soap, so why bubbles which are slow and harder to aim?

It occurred to me a year or two ago that maybe i also hate bubbles because i dislike polka dots immensely and what could be worse than three dimensional moving polka dots? But now something else occurs to me. Maybe i dislike polka dots in part due to my general dislike for polka music. Something to this?

A shoe in...

Friday night, we had the first of our Cine-meducation nights at Union. We started a group to watch culturally significant films and discuss them informally, at the movie and during the week. Many of the films will be fairly controversial and quite intense. We'll be trying to alternate these with fun, or at least slightly less intense, films.

This week, we watched Birth of a Nation. It was intense. Besides, a 3 hour movie from 1915 with no dialogue or narration is hard to take. i made the comment about 2 hours in, "i've hit my quota of silent productions for the next 10 years."

i forgot that ballets are silent. We went to see Cinderella last night. It was good. The music was excellent. It was pretty hard though with no dialogue or narration for the second night in a row.

By far, the best part was when Cinderella turned into Star Wars for a few minutes in the second act. The "clock dwarfs" came out with Father Time. They were tiny dancers in hooded brown robes. i nearly shouted, "Look, JAWAS!" And right then, they all began turning on their glowing red lights. They looked just like Jawas! The husband in the couple next to us said the same thing during the intermission and we were both clearly more excited for act 3.

A blog i read occasionally got me thinking about presidents and the good and bad legacies they leave. This blogger is no Bush fan, not by a long stretch, but he found 3 major contributions of George W Bush in his 8 years...

1. Faith-based initiatives. John DiIulio, the first director of Pres. Bush' Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, says rightly that George Bush deserves credit for making government-religious organization partnerships a viable option. Religious organizations have always served the public. Government in America has always had partnerships with church-sponsored agencies. Since the Second World War, though, government has been very circumspect about tax money being used for a clearly religious purpose. If a church taught people to read, for example, they could get government money; if they taught people to read the Bible and believe it, they could not.

Some problems, though, respond best to life-changing faith. Getting addicts to change their lives is very hard, and nothing works all the time. Still, approaches that get people to rely on a "higher power" have the best track record. Many people in social services had come to recognize this fact in the 1980s and '90s, even secular activists. If the government was serious about changing the lives of the most troubled and dangerous people, they needed to let God in, and pay the expenses. George W. Bush was the man who turned this once-taboo idea into a real government program. Indeed, Pres. Obama embraced the idea early and enthusiastically, though he plans to expand it beyond Pres. Bush's initiative. Faith-based programs are now part of the bipartisan base of government.

2. Fighting AIDS in Africa. This is a faith-based initiative, and much more. Frankly, I have been surprised that Pres. Bush made this commitment early, stuck to it, and put some real money inton it. It doesn't fit with the rest of the foreign policy of his administration. It produces no immediate benefit for the interests of the U.S. government or major U.S. businesses. I think this one comes right from Pres. Bush's heart.

3. The week of September 11, 2001. The high point of the Bush presidency. He rallied the country. He said clearly that Islam was not the enemy, and opposed all efforts to demonize Muslims here or abroad. An imam was included in the national prayer service for the first time. He went to Ground Zero and praised the emergency responders. The world stood with the U.S. as never before.

i hope i can make a similar list after the next several presidents. i'm waiting...

Because i don't care who is in office...

HYPOCRISY is my biggest beef. Always...

Obama’s Oval Office Hypocrisy
By Steven Milloy

The New York Times reported on Thursday, January 29 that:

“…the capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

Could this be the same Barack Obama who said last May that:

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say ‘OK.’ … That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.”

And could this be the same Barack Obama who is looking to sign a stimulus bill that would spend billions of dollars installing millions of “smart meters” that would enable your power company to prevent you from being as comfortable as he is on hot and cold days?

While our new president is warm-and-toasty in the Oval Office, is he considering the plight of Michigan’s Marvin Schur, a 93-year World War II veteran, who was recently found frozen to death courtesy of a malfunctioning electricity “limiter” device installed by his power company?

Change has come to Washington. Elitism is dead. Long live elitism.

What is...

...this!

i want one. Now. Seriously. Where must i steal one?

Gran Cinema

Went out with Will and Marc last night from school. We took in the critically acclaimed (and for once, correctly) Gran Torino, starring Clint Eastwood and directed by the same. If you liked Million Dollar Baby, you'll love this film. If you didn't like Million Dollar Baby because it was too dark or sad, you'll still love Gran Torino.

i know that every film out there now claims to be a moving story of redemption, but it could not be more true of any other movie. The movie tackles what it means to come to terms with a lifetime of mistakes and regret and make a few good choices before it's all over. Along the way, it tackles in a meaningful and realistic way, issues of racism, cultural boundaries and customs, morals, parenting, war, faith, and love.

Largely, this is a movie made up of relationships, much like Million Dollar Baby. What's interesting is that while Clint Eastwood is a part of almost every relationship, there are so many of them and they all contribute to an amazing picture. His relationship with his now deceased wife, his petty adult children and their even pettier children. His relationship with the Hmong neighbors, particularly their son, and also with his wife's young just-out-of seminary priest. Even his relationships with his old dog and beautiful, mint condition, 1972 Gran Torino come into play.

It's one of the best movies i've ever seen, and i highly recommend it. There is strong language and a great deal of racial epitaphs, but there is no sexuality or gratuitous violence. In fact, the violence is greatly downplayed and most of the movie is about the good and decent relationship forged between Clint and his neighbors. Only about 10% of the movie is as dark as the preview.

Good previews before the movie: Taken, The International. Also, The Soloist looks phenomenal, absolutely fantastic.

Sweet predictability

You know how comforting it is to go to McDonald's sometimes? You know it's not gourmet, it's not home cooking, it's not good for you... but you know exactly what it will taste like and where the bathroom is and you always think it'll be better than it is.

That's what the Daily Show is for me. It's familiar. It's always the same. It's slightly stale. It's not the best out there, but it'll do. And i know... what to expect.

i watched the coronation today and i knew as i watched it precisely which things John Stewart would make fun of, which ones he wouldn't, and how he would do it. It was cake.

i knew he'd poke fun at how Rick Warren said Obama's kids' names. i knew he'd poke fun at the Reverend's closing prayer, but in a cute soft way. i knew he'd make fun of Cheyney in a wheelchair. And i knew he wouldn't make fun of Obama's complete inability to get through his oath of office, despite 8 years of making fun of Bush's blunders.

Then finally... i was surprised... slightly. i noticed that Obama's speech was largely exactly the same as dozens of speeches Bush gave. Not the same ideas... but many were the exact same words. So John did manage to put together a montage of the clips. i'll hopefully have that soon as a link. i'd rather not do the work myself.

Ah, predictability... feels like home.

Identity v. Unity

So, i'm struggling today, on this the day of President Barack Obama's coronation... er... inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America. First of all, why does 1/2 + 1/2 = 1/2 suddenly? No one is half a person. Is a person who is half black only/all black if it makes them historically relevant and more electable? i could just imagine how difficult it would have been if his father's last name had been Guzenberg or Raphael or Wong to claim (or for his campaigners) to label him only as black.

This brings me to the problem i have with all the fuzzy math. How can we ever have racial harmony, let alone equality, if we still conform to labels? These are labels that don't only mean nothing in light of (now) very old genetic research, but which don't mean anything on the surface with a "white" and "black" parent.

i just finished watching Huckleberry Finn (1974) this weekend. At one point, Jim, Huck's escaping slave friend, begins to bleed and Huck says, "Jim, your blood is red just like mine!" Jim answers, "Huck, you didn't know that?" i think Morgan Freeman said it best when asked how to get rid of racism in an interview on 60 Minutes...

"Stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a white man. And I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man."

i don't think that necessarily ignoring race is the best way to truly bring about unity or equality, but i think a start would be to all start making a concerted and clear effort to recognize it as a human construction that has been just as damaging as any man-made barrier or written law. Until people start saying, "i'm a person, i'm a citizen, i'm a human being with the same blood running through my veins, standing on the same earth created by someone who loves me because i am made in the very image of the divine," this country will move toward divisiveness every day, and away from the unity we so desperately need.

i think there's a good chance Barack Obama understands this far better than most of those who support or campaigned for him. i hope that in his position as influential leader, he can bring some change to the way we think and uphold racial barriers through labels and rhetoric.

Bogart

i took a movie actor quiz and it said i'm most like Bogart. Makes my day.

I wanna watch The Watchmen

So, many of you read my previous post on how spectacular the preview for The Watchmen was and how badly it made me want to see it. Well, i didn't know much about it before apart from some basic snipits in the super hero world.

However, as i told you a few weeks ago, i've joined a book group that is reading graphic novels, and our second one for the month of February (just prior to the movie's release in early March) is The Watchmen. Even with all my studying and classwork, i've nearly devoured it. It's a massively huge and detailed novel, which made the top 100 list of Time's best novels of the 20th century. It's phenomenal.

i've now seen more previews and behind the scenes footage and interviews. It probably has more detail than any movie ever made, including Titanic. In fact, it's like Titanic times 10. Why? Titanic's director only had one time period, one specific to a couple of weeks on a location as small as (yes, small) as the Titanic. The Watchmen spans 1938 to the late 1980's and is global in its scope. (It also includes Mars and other dimensions)

Also, some very exciting actors have joined the project, including Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Sleepers, Mission Impossible III) and a personal favorite of mine, Carla Gugino (Snake Eyes, Sin City, American Gangster, Righteous Kill, The Unborn). i'm also interested to see how stars who most recently have played in chick flicks, Malin Akerman (The Proposal, 27 Dresses, Shotgun Love Dolls) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Grey's Anatomy, PS I Love You) will do as action heroes, but the previews sure give me some optimism.

Bragging a little...

On my wife that is...

She has a fun swap thing with this woman in Sweden and in exchange for some fun goodies from there, she sent the woman some hand-knitted items and this was her reaction...

Benita's blog

And so it ends...

My friend has a tradition where she posts the first sentence of the first blog of each month in the past year at the beginning of the new year. So here's 2008 at a glance...

January- Suppose you have a football team with 50 players.
February- Recently, Bill Clinton, while stumping for Hillary said that we "may need to slow down the economy to reduce global warming."
March- That's right. Greek is a fun language (note the sarcasm), and so is Latin.
April- No entries
May- I talked to several of you about this blog a week or two ago.
June- Straight from the NY Times, copied and pasted...
July- When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitled them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
August- ...are the last 10 minutes of the Daily Show and the whole thirty minutes of the Colbert Report.
September- i'll transcribe my written notes on Sunday through Wednesday soon, but here is Thursday through Saturday...
October- i like...
November- Mama Mia!
December- It occurred to me today that many of you have not seen my magazine cover album.

This just in...

Good advice from a blog i sometimes read on Christian outreach and community building:

He says to do church right...

"We look at it as relationship building and stop viewing it as information sharing."

For students of all ages...

i read a lot of articles (most forwarded from Ashley) on helpful links for students, whether they be high school, college, or grad. These are the most helpful i have found in the past year...

Sites...
Wikipedia - An online encyclopedia. Without a doubt the best place to START your search about any topic. However, if you are writing a paper, use this only as a STARTING place and use the sources listed at the bottom as resources.
IMDb - The web's best database for info on any movie, character, actor, actress, director, score, producer, tralier, trivia and mistakes! If you can dream it, it's listed on IMDb and nearly every name is a link to an article, much like Wiki.
AddAll - Probably the best tool on the web for locating books. You can search by Author, Title, Publisher, ISBN, etc and it searches 36 of the web's biggest bookstores and lists the results by price, lowest to highest. The listed price INCLUDES shipping and handling so you don't have to do the math. It also includes a link to go directly there and purchase it.
Drop.io - tool which allows private file sharing via web, email, phone or fax up to 100 MB in size. So you can send MP3's and movies and pictures in a snap.
KickYoutube - For those of you who are not content to merely watch youtube videos, but want to download and send them to friends and/or watch them later when your connection is unavailable (like for a class, presentation or retreat). Simply look up your favorite youtube video. When you're on the page to view it, go up to html and insert the word "kick" immediately after the "www." and before the "youtube.com/" (For example, if the video is it will become <http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch?v=ZpBkc2jK-6w> and a bar will appear, letting you choose what format you wish to download it in)
Encalc - A free web based advanced scientific calculator to help you with long mathematical equations.

Applications...
Digsby - Allows you to use one program for AIM, Yahoo messenger, MSN, and more. You install it and sign in as you would with AIM or Yahoo or MSN and then you add accounts like the aforementioned, as well as FaceBook, MySpace, Gmail, etc. You can choose popup alerts that let you know when you've received mail or people wrote on your wall and so on. It's also a much better interface for Facebook chat, since it's similar to AIM or Yahoo.
Mozilla - Much more stable and much less of a memory hog than MS Explorer. If you don't have it, get it.

Also, if you're not using Gmail yet, what are you waiting for? It has the best interface of any webmail program by far, search capabilities for looking through old e-mails that are unparalleled, and a million other useful tools. Google calendar is among the best tools for staying organized and for sharing your schedule with significant others who need that information. Google reader is also one of the best tools for reading all your favorite blogs in one place. In conjunction with Mozilla Firefox, this is the best way to stay organized and efficient, especially if you're lazy or disorganized, but it's great for everyone.