i just added a link to a blog by a former professor of mine, brint montgomery. he's a super bright philosopher with a sharp wit, and it comes across well in his writings. hope you'll take a few minutes to peruse his most recent post regarding "the real problem in afganistan."
also, i recently started reading rob bell's first book velvet elvis. i'm curious who else out there has already read it - i know it's been on my list for a couple of years and i'm just now getting around to it. like most of rob's stuff, it manages to strike a strong balance of challenging, compelling, and amazingly sensical.
the thing i like about rob bell is that he seems very...i don't know, real, or normal, or something. he asks questions, he expresses doubts, he takes a pretty open approach to the faith. and sure, maybe he's not - maybe it's just a fancy front he puts up to attract people to what he's doing so that they'll buy his stuff and he can get rich.
the thing is, and i think we're all aware of this, is that this type of behavior - being transparent, being open & honest, being willing to say that we don't have all the answers - that is attractive to others. i appreciate rob that maintains an appreciation for the mysticism that our judeo-christian heritage promotes while also acknowledging that throughout history, the church has gotten things really wrong many times.
for example: in 1633, galileo was excommunicated from the church for teaching that the earth revolved around the sun. think that's silly? the catholic church didn't formally apologize and admit that galileo was correct until 1992.
i have no doubt that the church will continue to flex and stretch with culture. if it doesn't, it will surely die, and if there's one thing the church wants to do more than anything else, it's live.
which raises another thought: i'm making a distinction between the goal of the church and the purpose of the church. the purpose of the church has forever been to spread the good news of christ by teaching his prescribed way of life - the goal of the church has pretty much been to not die, which is done primarily by getting more people to agree with what they're saying. ideally, fulfilling the purpose ensures the goal will be achieved, but there are so many occasions where the church's direction strays from the original purpose and instead treats the goal as the purpose.
i have some thoughts on what the church needs to do in order to stay alive in our culture, but i'll wait to get some comments on this post before i post that. until then, here's a ridiculous anti-obama video that is definitively not the right approach to things:
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tag..I'm it
ahh, the age-old game of blog tag. its like a passive chain letter, or like those dumb bulletins on myspace. thanks, steph, for the tag, and for the overt challenge (have at thee!) to be amazingly random. no promises on the "interesting" component, though.
so, here are the obligatory rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag
and now for Amazing Answers About Andy:
1. i have really big feet. all this hub-bub about michael phelps and flipper feet - ha! in 7th grade i wore a size 12, but out grew them so quickly that i was able to hand them down to my dad. i was up to a size 14 when in 10th grade, and have since upgraded to size 15. let me tell you, son, it's a pain in the keister to find shoes, unless you want to wear ginormous solid red high tops and look like ronald mcdonald. and i don't. but, thanks to online shopping and build-to-order services, even a yetti like me can have appropriate footwear.
2. i collect[ed] pez dispensers. i have over 100 of the hinged-head candy caddies. i added the [brackets] because it's not really an active collection; due to frequent moves and lack of space to display them, i have held off on purchasing any for the last several years. in case you don't know, ebay was started by a guy whose wife collected pez dispensers, and it was originally designed as a portal for pez lovers to connect and buy/sell/trade online.
3. i'm a huge computer nerd. casey claimed that he's a comp nerd, too, but i think i have him beat. when i was kid (like, 7 years old), my dad would give me circuitboards to play with in the garage. there's been a computer in my house since i was tiny. i played king's quest I (which was just called king's quest back then). i used the internet before al gore invented it. i've hand-built every pc i've ever owned. i went to computer camp in the summer. i took computer programming and calculus classes for fun. i hacked TI-85 calculators. i've had 13 email addresses (down to just 3 now). during undergrad i worked with a friend to infuse an entire computer lab (and several of our friend's personal computers) with a trojan horse program that would allow us to control the computers from our dorm rooms, even doing things like opening and closing the CD-ROM. i've never paid for any microsoft software
4. classic rock runs in my blood. as a child, it wasn't christmas for me until i heard bruce springsteen's santa claus is coming to town. and still to this day, the perfect saturday must include lots of sunshine, open windows, and a radio blaring a playlist consisting of led zepplin, aerosmith, the beatles, clapton, skynrd, the black crowes, the rolling stones, ac/dc, and the like. (i sang several songs by the doors in the shower yesterday, in fact.) over the years other genres have crept in, but its hard to compare with what the '60s and '70s gave us: the the guitar solos from stairway and freebird, the moving melodies of let it be and american pie, or the anti-establishment lyrics of ohio and revolution. man, where is m ipod when i need it...
5. my eyes are different colors. if you haven't noticed this yet, you will now, i'm sure. somewhere around seventh or eighth grade (presumably when puberty really started kicking in) my eyes went from dark brown to...something else. like most people, their difference varies slighty based on what i'm wearing, but on the average day one is brown and one is green. makes me think of wayne's world 2.
6. i have a tendency to talk to much. of course, if you've been reading this post, you've probably figured that out already. and so, i'll something that is random for me, and just stop here.
i now have a dilemma: everyone i know with a blog has already been tagged, except for one person: joe. so, my friend, whenever you happen to read this, you're tagged.
so, here are the obligatory rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag
and now for Amazing Answers About Andy:
1. i have really big feet. all this hub-bub about michael phelps and flipper feet - ha! in 7th grade i wore a size 12, but out grew them so quickly that i was able to hand them down to my dad. i was up to a size 14 when in 10th grade, and have since upgraded to size 15. let me tell you, son, it's a pain in the keister to find shoes, unless you want to wear ginormous solid red high tops and look like ronald mcdonald. and i don't. but, thanks to online shopping and build-to-order services, even a yetti like me can have appropriate footwear.
2. i collect[ed] pez dispensers. i have over 100 of the hinged-head candy caddies. i added the [brackets] because it's not really an active collection; due to frequent moves and lack of space to display them, i have held off on purchasing any for the last several years. in case you don't know, ebay was started by a guy whose wife collected pez dispensers, and it was originally designed as a portal for pez lovers to connect and buy/sell/trade online.
3. i'm a huge computer nerd. casey claimed that he's a comp nerd, too, but i think i have him beat. when i was kid (like, 7 years old), my dad would give me circuitboards to play with in the garage. there's been a computer in my house since i was tiny. i played king's quest I (which was just called king's quest back then). i used the internet before al gore invented it. i've hand-built every pc i've ever owned. i went to computer camp in the summer. i took computer programming and calculus classes for fun. i hacked TI-85 calculators. i've had 13 email addresses (down to just 3 now). during undergrad i worked with a friend to infuse an entire computer lab (and several of our friend's personal computers) with a trojan horse program that would allow us to control the computers from our dorm rooms, even doing things like opening and closing the CD-ROM. i've never paid for any microsoft software
4. classic rock runs in my blood. as a child, it wasn't christmas for me until i heard bruce springsteen's santa claus is coming to town. and still to this day, the perfect saturday must include lots of sunshine, open windows, and a radio blaring a playlist consisting of led zepplin, aerosmith, the beatles, clapton, skynrd, the black crowes, the rolling stones, ac/dc, and the like. (i sang several songs by the doors in the shower yesterday, in fact.) over the years other genres have crept in, but its hard to compare with what the '60s and '70s gave us: the the guitar solos from stairway and freebird, the moving melodies of let it be and american pie, or the anti-establishment lyrics of ohio and revolution. man, where is m ipod when i need it...
5. my eyes are different colors. if you haven't noticed this yet, you will now, i'm sure. somewhere around seventh or eighth grade (presumably when puberty really started kicking in) my eyes went from dark brown to...something else. like most people, their difference varies slighty based on what i'm wearing, but on the average day one is brown and one is green. makes me think of wayne's world 2.
6. i have a tendency to talk to much. of course, if you've been reading this post, you've probably figured that out already. and so, i'll something that is random for me, and just stop here.
i now have a dilemma: everyone i know with a blog has already been tagged, except for one person: joe. so, my friend, whenever you happen to read this, you're tagged.
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