January 2009
43 posts
Happy New Year →
We just listened to Big Ben chime in the New Year (on BBC Radio 4 over the Internet).
Maybe I should be making New Year’s resolutions but mostly I’m hoping for better (physical) health in 2009.
December 2008
49 posts
Happy New Year! →
Economically speaking, most people are probably happy to see 2008 end. Not that ending one year fixes anyone’s economic problems in the next, but at least we can hope for something better in ‘09.
…
Virginity Pledges are ineffective, dangerous,... →
A recent study in the journal pediatrics claims to show that so called “virginity pledges”, where teenagers sign a pledge to save sex until marriage, simply don’t work. The study found that…
Simple question →
I’m all Christmased out so this is a quick post with a simple question for discussion.
Is something good because God commands it or does God command it because it is good?
Bombing Gaza–who is to blame? →
In many of the stories regarding the Israeli attacks on starving Palestinians today, one sees a phrase along the lines of “The U.S. blamed Hamas today for Israeli attacks on Gaza”. This because of
AWOL Christians →
I did a wedding last Saturday. The path to that is important.
Two years ago I met John who recorded my first radio spots at a local station. John is a 20-something, lives with a partner and they…
Friday Video–Alexis Marie at the 2008 Urban Word... →
I got put onto these videos of this Poetry Slam by Brooke. Alexis Marie, and all the other participants (you can see a bunch of them here), are teenagers performing their own original poetry. I…
Eliza’s Christmas thoughts →
Eliza posted these Christmas thoughts yesterday (in a comment here).
Merry Christmas! (Or, insert whatever greeting each of you uses this time of year.)
Boy, the “tag cloud” at Todd’s site is…
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays →
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas/holiday.
By the way Todd (pastor of my ex-church) posted a few of the Christmas survey responses received here. One of them looks familiar (no, it’s not…
Christmas in Gaza means eating grass →
Marie Colvin wrote in the Times last week of Jindiya Abu Amra and her seven children, including her 12 year old daughter who begs or scrounges grass for the family to eat. (H/T Joe)
Marie writes:…
Merry Christmas →
April will be back in a couple of weeks. This story came to me in one of those obnoxious emails that get forwarded a million times. I thought it was a great reminder of what we’re about here in DE…
Happy Winter Solstice →
Solstice comes from the Latin (sol, sun; sistit, stands) and is used to mark both the shortest day of the year and the longest day because the sun rises and sets in the same place, it appears to…
Friday Video: animal Christmas song →
Very British and in support of a worthwhile initiative…
Friday Video–Parents are people, by Tim Hawkins →
H/T Martin =)
Rick Warren on gays: “I have always treated them... →
Controversy swirls as Barack Obama has asked Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration. Warren recently surprised some people when he strongly came out in favor of California’s…
Rick Warren to give invocation at Obama’s... →
Eliza emailed me a link to the CBN announcement that Obama has chosen Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration.
Apparently Obama defended that choice today in a press conference…
Listen To Me With Your Eyes →
I thought this was worth sharing. From an article in Christianity Today…just the opening paragraph. Thanks to Helen Mildenhall who saw this and sent it to me!
Listening As Spiritual Care…
Richard Cizik’s resignation from the NAE →
Richard Cizik, national spokesperson and chief lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, resigned last week because of some comments he made in an interview on Fresh Air, December 2.
Doing What’s Doable to Stop Human Trafficking →
I have been searching for ordinary ways to create awareness of what the “rest of the world” is like and discovered I could use my creativity to sell new/gently used handbags to recycle, give a…
How mad are you? →
Over the weekend we have been thinking about mental illness. We were watching the video of a BBC programme (unfortunately not available online to anyone outside of the UK) called How Mad are You?
The Hope Coach →
I get my inspiration from everywhere and last night it happened to be from the program “60 Minutes.” You can view the segment here. It was a story about the USC Trojan’s head coach, Pete…
Stupid questions →
Last week I wrote about being wrong and covered briefly some of the problems with admitting when we’re wrong and how much it can help us when we finally do. An important thing that goes…
Friday Video: Washington to Obama, morphed →
Eliza sent me this video.
the not so magnificant magnificat →
It is a curious thing. I’ve just noticed that in all my bible reading I neglected to ask an obvious question.
Thinking about Mary and the magnificat, this cartoon encourages me to think what…
What Christmas means to me →
Last week I posted about the Christmas survey my ex-church has set up. They’re asking, “What does Christmas mean to you?” My answer, which I sent to the local newspaper, is below.
“What does…
Christian feelings at this time of year →
Doreen mentioned that a Christian wants to post Christian bus ads to counter the humanist bus ads in Washington DC. In the next comment, Eliza picked up on this quote from the article Doreen…
The Hope of the World →
Our last senior ministry of the year finished with a Christmas program for our seniors. For us, it was really nothing special. We barely had two weeks to prepare our program, but for most of the…
Today is Human Rights Day →
Here’s the UN site.
They claim that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the world’s most translated Document, with 360 languages available (of course they must be leaving out the New…
Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich–innocent or... →
According to Huffington Post, yesterday Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested on charges of attempting to sell Barack Obama’s vacated senate seat. An FBI affidavit stated that the FBI…
The Hope of the World →
Our last senior ministry of the year finished with a Christmas program for our seniors. For us, it was really nothing special. We barely had two weeks to prepare our program, but for most of the…
Wrong →
Like everyone else I get to be wrong almost every day in some way. Something I thought was true turns out to be false. Some action I make is based on false assumptions. No matter how I try…
“Godless” →
by Peter Walker
I think my election buzz has finally run its course, and I’m starting to feel the effects of impending hangover.
Surveying the collateral damage caused by a long and…
Interview With A Second Chance Pharisee →
With Pam Hogeweide
The spiritually curious folks in the Off The Map community send each other articles they find intriguing. Recently Randy Siever, Director of Doable Evangelism, sent…
Was Jesus a homosexual? →
Martin emailed me this last week to ask the following question (I think perhaps at least partially in response to the ongoing foofoorah over California’s Prop 8.):
Does the Catholic Church teach…
Should Christians Be Held To A Higher Standard? →
The other night I put this message on my Twitter and Facebook status:
One of my favorite things Christians do: pretend not to see each other so they can avoid having to say hi. So immature…
Two Offers →
While shopping for yard signs to promote our church (Bruce is the senior pastor of this church), the sales person said, “The church I used to go to did that!” I picked up on the “used to go” and…
My son’s performance last night →
It’s not as funny or professionally made as the Friday video I posted today, but if you want to see my son playing a violin concerto with his high school orchestra I posted a video of it on my…
Friday Video: Proposition 8 - the Musical →
Eliza sent me this. I’ve also seen it on a few blogs.
See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die
Coffee vs. napping →
On the subject of how to be gentle to ourselves, today I saw this article in the New York Times. A team of scientists spent the morning teaching group of 61 adults to do a series of motor,…
How Obama got elected →
I ran across the site How Obama got elected recently.
What do you think? Did Obama get elected simply because of the selective way the media presented information about the respective…
Do you prefer anonymous, or nonymous? →
My uber kewl Uncle has recently emailed my entire extended family with a fairly kewl idea. He’s asking everyone to say something nice–what do they appreciate about every one else in the extended…
Blog comment day 2008 →
Since everyone appreciates getting comments on their blog, John Smulo is suggesting we make December 3 Blog comment day by doing the following:
Leave one comment on at least 5 different…
Two interesting articles about human behavior →
Last week’s Economist had a couple of interesting articles about human behavior.
Can the can
The idea that graffiti-spraying and other forms of low-level delinquency promote further bad…
Tuesday video →
Last year, people spent 29 BILLION dollars ONLINE during the “Holiday shopping season”
9 million children will die worldwide in 2008 from malnutrition.
It seems like…
KC to Denver →
One of the best moments from this week was my first plane flight home from “Impact 08″ (an annual conference of Stonecroft Ministries in Kansas City). It was a 6:20 flight from KC to Denver. I was…
What does Christmas mean to you? →
My ex-church has set up a Christmas Survey webpage with the following question on it:
What does Christmas mean to you?
They’re inviting responses from anyone, Christian or not…
Remembering Juan →
Before my son was born, my husband and I discovered a little Mexican restaurant in a less than desirable location. However, the food was excellent and we started to go there nearly ever Saturday…
Children bullied because of their faith →
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/200 … ying-faith
According to the above report the religious beliefs of children (why they are labelled as religious when they haven’t reached an age to…
Proven innocent →
Steven Barnes was released from prison this morning, nearly two decades after he was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in Oneida County. New DNA test results support Barnes’ longstanding…