how not to forgive

I’ve been trying to figure out how to “relaunch” my blog. Specifically, I want the “new and improved” version to be less negative. You know, more rave than rant I guess. And, more in line with with my role as a minister.
In my search for a topic, however, it looks like it’s going [...]

friday queue cleaning–april 11, 2008

The queue is kinda boring this week.  A lot of the same old stuff going on.  Obama and Clinton still don’t get along.  Clinton’s husband seems to still be losing it.  Howard Dean doesn’t seem to like John McCain very much.  A general and an ambassador said that we still have work to do in [...]

sound of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whisperd in the sounds of silence.
–Sound of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel
 Dear friends, let us love one another, [...]

off your soapbox

I came across this blogpost the other day.  For those of you who don’t like opposing view points, it’s pretty harsh on religion, and there is profanity involved.
It really reasonated with me, though.  I have the exact opposite religious views, and yet, I feel the same way he does on this subject.  He writes about his [...]

frc and nambla: frc’s reply

So, I finally received a reply to my concerns that I sent to the FRC last week.  Little of it involved any clarification to my concerns.  Basically, they sent four “points.”  The first basically said this would bring us closer to “government controlled health care” (ie socialized medicine).  Secondly, this would “bring up the price [...]

gilligan’s deadly sins, part 2

So, it turns out that I was wrong in my analysis of how the Gilligan’s Island characters represent the new deadly sins.  It turns out that Ginger should NOT represent drug abuse.  Andy sent me a link, and it looks like Mary Ann should be the one who represents drug abuse. 

7 deadly sins: new characters on Gilligan’s island

Back around 1996, when email forwards were funny, I got one telling me about how Gilligan’s Island represented the 7 deadly sins.  Each character represented one of the sins.  There are two variations, but it goes something like this:
Professor–Pride
Ginger–Lust
Mary Ann–Envy
Mr. Howell–Greed
Mrs. Howell–Sloth
Those tend to not vary. However, the last two, there are 2 versions.
Skipper– In [...]

frc and nambla, on the same side?

I’m not a big fan of most of the right-wing Christian political activist groups, such as Focus on the Family or Family Research Council (to be fair, I’m not so keen on some of the left-wing groups like Sojourner’s, but that’s another post alltogether).  I saw on slacktivist (see link to the right) the other [...]

another natural disaster averted

So, I remember back in the 80’s, acid rain was all the rage.  I remember learning all about it in school.  I even remember a very special “Diffr’nt Strokes” (there were a lot of those) telling us about the horrors of acid rain (Kimberly washed her hair using rain water and the acid rain turned [...]

doctor dollar

Late last week, I was watching “Nightline.”  Along with their election coverage, they had a peice regarding Sen. Charles Grassley’s investigation of several “word of faith” preachers.  If you aren’t familiar with the concept of “word of faith,” it is also called the “name it and claim it gospel” or the “prosperity gospel.”  Essentally, it [...]

disciples of whom?

Recently, I overheard someone talking about the church they attend.  Among the things that they described, the mentioned the “quality of the worship (for those not attending ‘contemporary churches’, they meant music).”  Their assessment was that it was “okay, but not as good as ‘fill in the name of previous music minister.’
This is something I [...]