True of False:  Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker is the best movie villian of all time.

If false, then who is?  And, if true, who else is among the top?

The should get this guy on 60 Minutes instead of that “Micky Rooney” guy:

On the compter in our meeting area, we have the x3 acountablitiy software running on it (provided by xxxchurch.com).  Recently, I added myself as one of the people getting the report.  Today, I got my first report, and it turns out that this very blog is one of the sites that has been flagged as “questionable.

The Dark Knight was awesome.  That’s all I’m going to say about it. 

I was not aware of this phenomenon, but apparently, some Christian news sites refuse to use the word “gay” and insist on using “homosexual.”  I’m not sure of why such a distinction is important, but I suppose that’s thier choice.  And, I guess homosexual is a better choice than sodomite.  Anyway, the site onenewsnow.com is such a site.  Apparently, they have a find and replace filter that they use to edit wire stories to make them compatible with this policy.  This led to some unintentional comedy with a story about Tyler Gay, a US swimmer.

This morning, I found an old notebook of mine.  I noticed a bunch of planning notes for the FOCUS worship team from back in the spring of 2005.  As I was thumbing through the pages, I found something odd.  it simply said:

Some people are dying
Some people are making out

I really wish I knew what the context of that was.

A few trailers for “24:Exile” have leaked to the internet.  This is the 2 hour prequel to season 7 that Fox is offering us as an appology for postponing the season due to the writer’s strike.  It looks pretty cool, sort of a “Hotel Rwanda” kind of story, only if Jack Bauer had been there.

This site has six different trailers, but they are just barely different.

Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So, it may be asked what value is there to human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye . . . I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one’s life with meaning. That I think you do not understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worth of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here. Do you understand what I am saying?

______________________

“why do you cry, Father?” he asked me once under the tallis. “Because people are suffering,” I told him. He could not understand. Ah, what it is to be a mind without a soul, what ugliness it is . . . .”why have you stopped answering my questions, Father?” he asked me once. “You are old enough to look into your own soul for answers,” I told him. He laughed once and said, “That man is such an ignoramus, Father.” I was angry. “Look into his soul,” I said. “Stand inside his soul and see the world through his eyes. You will know the pain he feels because of his ignorance, and you will not laugh.” He was bewildered and hurt. The nightmares he began to have. . . .But, he learned to find answers for himself. He suffered and learned to listen to the suffering of others. In the silence between us, he began to hear the world crying.

_____________

Both of the above quotes are from the novel, “The Chosen,” by Chaim Potok. I just reread it over the past couple of days. It possibly my favorite novels. I first read it as an assignment for my Judaic Religious Traditions class as an undergrad. In that same class, I read “Night” by Elie Wiesel. “Night” is quite possibly the most important book written in the 20th century. If you haven’t read it, you must. It is a memoir written by a holocaust survivor.

In discussing “Night,” my professor talked about when he learned of the holocaust. He described it as one of those overwhelming things where you feel that you have to do something, but have no idea what you could possibly do. At the very least, he decided, he would make it his mission to make sure people were aware. And, assigning us the book “Night” was one way of doing so.

When I was working for a law firm in Cincinnati, one of the attorneys I worked for was on the board of the local chapter of the Red Cross. And, on the door of his office, he once had a postcard. On it, it listed, starting with the Holocaust, each genocide that has occurred since then. It also said, “never again.”

That was the promise that was made after the Holocaust. We would never let something like that happen again. But, we have. Granted, never to the tune of 6 million people. But, clearly we have yet to learn from our mistakes.

I bring this up because, today, with the above quotes swirling through my head, I went to a restraunt that had some “Save Darfur” information on the counter. Darfur used to be a pet project of mine, for a short time anyway. Somewhere along the way, I quit caring for some reason.

I suppose there are many reasons. One is the same as my professor: what can I do, anyway. One is that over the 3+ years I have been aware of the issue, nothing has happened. Supposedly, the first time Pres. Bush was briefed on this issue, in the margin of his notes he wrote, “Not on my watch.” Years later, it has all happened on his watch. And my watch, and yours.

What bothers me the most is that we don’t care. None of us. Sure, there is a part of us that doesn’t like that it is happening. We all wish it would stop. But we don’t care. People are suffering, but we don’t weep. We all have minds without souls.

I still don’t know what to do. I won’t, until I begin to weep.

“Stacy in Lousiville” wrote the following comment in response to a post on stuff christians like . . .
I dated myself a Bible college grad who was absolutely shopping for a wife. He told me I sneeze like a horse. I told him you preach like a Mormon.

Why I didn’t break up with him sooner, that is.

In the previous post, I mean to link to this.  It’s an outstanding column about what Jesee Jackson meant in the early days of his career.

It seems that over the past week, there have been a lot of Jesees in the news.  First of all, there is news that Jesee Ventura may run against Al Franken and Norm Coleman for the Senate seat in Minnesota.  Franken v Coleman should be, ummmm, entertaining, if nothing else.

But, it’s the other 2 Jesses that I find more interesting over this past week.  I am, of course, talking about Jesee Jackson and Jesee Helms.  They are two parts to a much bigger story, the struggle for civil rights and race relations in this country.  Many consider each to be heroic, while others demonize them for their sins and struggles.  Reality is usually more complex than either side of the story.

I really don’t know a lot about Jesee Helms.  Most of what I know comes from satire.  My earliest awareness of him comes from MAD magazine.  I don’t remember what the article was, but I just remember in the background was a picture of Helms, holding a piece of paper that said, “Helms essay contest:  500 words on the Benefits of Bigotry.”  In another MAD article, this one a bunch of “caps” for various products, had Helms’ face as a cap for a can of compressed air.  And then, there was a Letterman Top 10 list, top 10 ways you know your senator is stupid.  Number 1, “you live in North Carolina.” 

Reading up on Helms over the last week doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of him.  While many lauded him as a pioneer of modern conservatism, what you find is a guy who constantly fought against civil rights, even the most basic ones, and used race baiting as a campaign strategy. 

Yet, I also read something written by an African American woman, who, as a child, visited Helm’s office on a school trip.  She said he was very nice, put his arm around her, and was quite encouraging. 

Make no mistake–that doesn’t change the fact that Helm’s political record on such issues is deplorable.  But, it makes me wonder about the man.  What was going through his mind when he was visiting with that girl,  Was he a good guy with messed up political views?  Was he putting on a show for the girl?  I wonder the same thing about him that I wonder about Fred Phelps.  If that name doesn’t ring a bell, he is the “godhatesfags.com” guy (if you haven’t visited that link, don’t).  Anyway, I read that at one time, he was the top civil rights attorney in Kansas.  And now even the most homophobic people think he’s insane.  And while I don’t put Helms in the same category as Phelps, I have to wonder about both:  what happened?

Jesee Jackson, on the other hand, has spent time both being what’s right and what’s wrong in the civil rights movement.  I wasn’t really aware of Jackson until the 1988 Presidential election.  In the time since then, I’ve mostly seen a man trying to hang on to his fame and importance, and to struggle mightily to do so.  He has had some moments, though, particularly his negotiation for the release of hostages on several occasions. 

But, I found this column last night.  The writer talks about the early Jesee Jackson, and what he meant to the civil rights movement.  I’m not going to comment on it much other than to say it was fascinating.  In particular, she talks about seeing this appearance on Sesame Street, and what it meant to her as a child growing up as an immigrant from Haiti.

As she points out, some of Jackson’s increasing irrelevance has been his own doing.  I think that one of Jackson’s biggest struggles is that he’s had trouble adapting what it means to be a civil rights leader over the years as the racial dynamics have changed.  At the same time, some of it is everyone’s fault.  We too easily dismiss what we don’t want to hear. Regardless of how or why though, it’s tragic, because he is clearly a man of great talent and we still have a lot of work left to be done on race relations.

Which brings us to the reason that Jackson was in the news this week–comments made regarding Barack Obama.  Personally, I think we should cut him some slack on this.  We’ve all used hyperbole in expressing our frustration with someone. 

But, I think this column really addresses the underlying issue on Jackson’s comment.  In particular, he talks about how the civil rights movement began as a group fighting from the outside.  One of the struggles Jackson has faced, to his detriment, has been continuing to fight it like that.  Now, there is a good chance that it’s going to be fought from the very top.  Anyway, read the article, it makes a lot more sense than I will.

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 to start with a “rant.” But, at least it’s a very important rant, and I think quite in line with my role as a minister. Brandon had linked to this post on Gary Lamb’s blog (and here is Brandon’s reaction). Apparently, Lamb is a very important in the church planter circles (I say apparently not sarcastically, but because I am a bad pastor and don’t keep up with such trends like I am supposed to, and had not heard of Lamb prior). If you read the link, you find that one of Revolution’s (the name of Lamb’s church) trailers was stolen.

Lamb responds by writing an “letter” to the person or persons responsible. He starts by telling them that God loves them. Then, he says that the church forgives them. He points out that they don’t want to, but God says that they should, so they do.

I think that this attitude is valid to an extent. Forgiving is not our natural reaction when we have been wronged. It’s something that we have to learn how to do. We start by doing so out of obedience, even if we don’t want to. And, as we grow, it becomes natural, to the point that we do it because that’s the person that we are, and not so much out of obidence.

But, if you’ve clicked the link, you see what Lamb means by “we forgive you.” And, quite honestly, if this is Lamb’s idea of “forgiving,” then I don’t want to see what he’s like when he’s holding a grudge. He calls them names (scum bag, lowlife), and assumes that they stole it to buy crack. Mostly, he threatens physical violence on them. Not only does he want the people to be beat up, but he wants to be the one to do it. And, he wants it to be slow and painful.

Two things alarm me the most. One is that this blog post, while “addressed” to the culprits, is really addressed to the congregation. In other words, this is his teaching his church about forgiving. Secondly, he takes pride in being “probably the only church you have ever heard of that will honestly break your legs once your are found.”

It’s not often that one takes pride in being a church that ignores the words of Jesus. There is no “turn the other cheek” (or in this case, give them your other trailer) or “vengence is mine says the Lord.” Lamb wants vengence to be his.

I will say this: I don’t know Gary Lamb. So, I’m trying to be careful not to judge him personally. We all have shortcomings, including pastors (even me, I know, it’s hard to believe). And, I know firsthand what it’s like to have a blog post come back and bite you because it’s taken out of context, and I know firsthand what it’s like to have a blog post come back and bite you because it was stupidly written regardless of it’s context. All that to say, I don’t think Lamb is a bad guy for writing this, nor do I think he is a bad pastor. My guess is that it comes from one of two places. One is that it’s just an area he needs to grow in. If so, that’s for his church leadership team to handle with him (which is actually a weakness in church planting, but that’s another post). If not that, then it’s an attempt at being real by being totally “honest.” If that’s the case, then he’s failed. The idea in such a post would read, “I want to do all this to you, but I won’t, because I forgive you.” The “real” emotion is addressed, but then the correct reaction is then given. As it is written, Lamb’s post says, “I say I forgive you, but really, I don’t and if I had the chance, I would get revenge.”