Monday, July 30, 2007

what do you think when you see......


A friend sent this picture to me a while ago and I put it on my CPU's background. It has received very diverse responses when plugging myself into a projector for different teaching engagements, so I thought I would see if anyone else got a rise out of it.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

McLaren on Justice, Power, and the Kingdom

I mentioned this video to a friend and said I would post it here. Enjoy, it isn't that hard. Peace.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Save Mr. Stogie

Well if my senators (Burr and Dole) and House Rep. (Fox) don't holla back about the farm bill's participation in the exploitation of the Two-Thirds world farmers maybe they will about saving cigars from being lumped into cigarette tax increase. Check it out.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Barmen Declaration 2.0?

A friend of mine asked a number of his friends what pisses them off about Christianity in the key of USA and so here is what I wrote.

What pisses me off...The people of the cross-bearer have become the most efficient cross-builders in human history. This is done through the demonic mixture of nationalism, fear-mongering, militarism, consumerism, and theo-capitalism. The ignorance of the church in American is preserved by its baptism of a mythic view of reality, with reigning myths like 'just war,' the chosen nation, christian nation, innocent nation, and the coming millennial nation. Some how the teachings of Jesus (like the Sermon on the Mount) have become idealistic babble, the confession of faith ('Jesus is Lord') is heard as a requirement for running for president and not challenging the reigning Caesar-like structures of our world, and the resurrection of the crucified one is turned into a commodity the church possesses and lord's over everyone else and not the single most important event in cosmic history where God's coming upside-down Reign is placed permanently on the horizon of history. With this said, I think it is the American church's use of the faith in its colonizing of the globe, truth, and power and its perverting of the gospel into a palatable culture\power dominate civil religion that stands as the source of our problem. The Barmen declaration was a Christian theological statement because it could not exist without shaping the community.

Now I need to go watch my Romero dvd or listen to some Rage Against the Machine....I love the church by the way, so don't get ill if you don't loose sleep over these issues.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Elgin + St. Francis = fun before bed. At night my son-in-process and I have a little night vigil and maybe a little theological discussion so he starts off on the right (or left, depending on who is judging) foot. Tonight Elgin and I did some reading from St. Francis of Assisi, maybe the coolest 'reformer,' and we got to this quote.

"Unhappy is the religious person...who instead of keeping the things the Lord has spoken to his heart and demonstrating them by a life of quality, tries to make them known by talking about it. That person may receive nothing more than an earthly reward, and those who regarded that person's words will take away little fruit."

Hopefully Elgin will talk a little less than his Dad and live with heart felt compassion given to him by his Creator.