Denny Bradshaw 1960-2008

A philosophy professor was holding a lecture one morning on the nature of objects.

This was a Metaphysics course and the discussion centered on the professor's blue neck tie.

The professor asked the class "what makes this tie blue?" This was not intended as a trick question. "Pigment" one student stated."Refracted light on our rods and cones?" another proposed.Dissatisfied with the answers given thus far, the professor waited patiently to see if more suggestions were offered from the class. Finally a student in the back raised his hand and said "God makes your tie blue. God makes everything happen, so God must be the reason that your tie is blue". The professor was a kind man and a patient teacher. He said to the student "That is a very common belief. But unfortunately you can't have GOD in your ontology." This surprised the student, and he asked "Why?".

The professor replied, "You can't have GOD in your ontology because he does too much work."

Denny Bradshaw 1960-2008

http://www.myspace.com/dennybradshaw

Has the YMCA lost it's Christian Path?

I am a huge fan of the YMCA.



If you don't know, it is a very old (150 year +) non profit organization whose mission is
"To put Christian Principles into practice through programs that develop healthy spirit, mind and body for all."


(disclosure: I work for the YMCA)

The YMCA is in almost every community across the country and in over 120 countries.
It exists to serve and turns away no-one based on an inability to pay.

A friend of mine recently blogged about how the "church" has abdicated its role in saving our communities.


"I believe that most of the work of God in the world today is largely being done by para-church organizations anyway, as the church has abdicated this responsibility.”


http://www.axxess.org/?p=42

Sadly, I agree with his assessment.
This reminded me of a story from a few years back. I was an eager young program director working with a friend of mine at our local YMCA to create community development programs. Some of them included:

• Teen Clubs, Teen Camps
• Grief Support Groups for families who had lost children
• Kids in motion classes
• Classes offering financial strategies for families trying to buy a home
• Healthy Kids day/ Activate America anti-obesity programs
• Workshops for adults with MHMR disabilities
• English for Speakers of Other Languages

etc, etc...

The town we live in has many Spanish speaking citizens (legal or not I do not know, or care) And the YMCA is the largest childcare provider in our town (over 1000 kids daily) so we come into contact with Spanish speakers (breadwinners!) all the time who would benefit from learning English (more importantly their kids would benefit! imagine navigating an emergency room in Mexico with YOUR baby and no one spoke English).

There is a large local conservative evangelical church in the town I live in. And they have an existing ESL program. So we thought, "Hey, why not partner with them? They have the teachers and the curriculum, we have 1000 plus kids and workshop space and buses for transport"

Its a win/ win right?

Not so fast...

We placed a call to the local church and after leaving several unanswered messages, we got their ESL coordinator on the phone and it goes something like this:

YMCA: Hi this is the YMCA and we have heard you have an ESL program, would you be interested in partnering with us to serve more people?

Church: (after a considerable pause) Um. To be honest, we got your messages..

YMCA: Oh great! what do you think?

Church: Well, to be honest, we have concern that the YMCA has deviated from it's Christian path, so I am not so sure how comfortable we would be partnering with you...

YMCA: Uh? We want to see people speak English. I didn't realize that was a point of theological concern.

Church: I will take down your name and number and share this with our Executive Pastor...

YMCA: OK?

Church: Have a blessed day!

==================================

Suffice it to say we never heard back from them.

She was sharing a little code with me: We (the YMCA) are not explicitly anti- Gay, Abortion, Mormon, Muslim, Jewish enough to be CHRISTIAN.
Books could be (and probably have been) written on this small point.

This type of church is indicative of many churches that you have seen. Angry, Narrow and Scared. What is so egregious about their behavior is not just their arrogance (which is pretty hard to stomach) but rather the complete waste of resources. "Giving" to others (like providing ESL classes) with pre-existing terms is NOT charity. Their process of branding everything with their brand of Christianity is such a waste. The result of which is little Christian ghettos where people can only speak to those they agree with. This is a joke and from the outset there is a cautionary tale to be learned for the Emergent set:

If you think you have nothing to learn from the "moderns" you will be doomed to repeat their mistakes... So dialogue and learn from one another...

aloysha

A Jerry McGuire moment (Farewell for now...)

I took a day off from work today.

It is the first day I have taken off in a while.

I did not realize just how tired I am.

Not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

The search for meaning in life is exhausting and I think I am just now beginning to believe something I have probably professed to my family and friends for years.

Ready?

Here goes:

We do not FIND meaning in this life.

We CREATE meaning.

Pithy, cute and straight to the point.

You've probably said it yourself. Heard it a million times yourself.

I do not know how frequently I have said this in the past but today it hit home more than it ever has before.

Does God need a new bass player?

3-2-2008

I went to a party last night in honor of a friend of mine from high school.
There were 100+ people there.
There was BBQ, and beer, and dogs and babies and guitars and a big sprawling lawn.
Sundresses and lots of laughter. And a wheelchair.
The wheelchair belonged to my friend Zac. The evening’s special guest.
Zac and his wife of 9 years moved home from California this week.
After 8 years of battling various types of cancer, there does not seem to be anything that medicine can do to put his illness at bay any longer.
He road worn and tired. Zac has decided to rest.

I don’t want to overstate my involvement with this get together.
Zac is a friend, but not a best friend. We went to Junior High and High School together.
A person in whom I share a reciprocal esteem. We don’t Myspace or email one another, but I felt it was important to show up last night and give him a hug. We don’t see each other frequently, but he is still loved.

I have often thought that we (as a culture) do not handle death very well.
We are afraid of it. We use weird ways of dismissing its finality by saying things like “well maybe God needed a good softball player up in heaven” to make us feel like there is purpose in dying.

There isn’t purpose in dying. There is purpose in living.

The beautiful thing about last nights party was the rare opportunity to participate in life with Zac, if only for a few more moments, rather than to remember life later while participating in a funeral or a wake.

Zac is a brilliant musician.
As I made my exit from the party last night, his musician friends (probably 8 or 10 of them) had made a circle on the porch with acoustic guitars and congas and a steel guitar.
It was beautiful.
Someone gave Zac an acoustic bass to play from his wheel chair (they removed the arms of the chair to accommodate). And for the next several hours they played music from the 90s; music from our Jr High and High School Days. (Sublime,Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Meat puppets, Toadies, STP, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, etc.)

It was wonderful. It was sweet. It was sad. It was life being lived in the present.

Maybe God needs a new bass player? No. That would be a reduction. Right now, Zac’s friends need a friend. And for now, they have one. And he plays bass pretty well.

Apocalyptic Literature

Apocaplytpic literature is the writing of the defeated.
Having lost their vision of national events, they turn away from social justice.
They retreat into private religion, with its rewards in a future outside of history.
They have rejected a vital faith for artificial schemes.

- phyllis trible

Assault on Scientology?

This is the Anonymous video purporting to be a warning of attack against Scientology. If only people would get this mad at Benny Hinn... (spooky)

Here is an entry on a counter- Scientology group called Project Chanology

Seems some people think the uppers in Scientology have not been playing very nice and have mounted an all out computer assault on the Church of Scientology's web presence. According to Wiki, they have taken the Scientology website down a couple of times.

Here is what he says:

"Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind–for the laughs–we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell.You cannot hide; we are everywhere.We cannot die; we are forever. We're getting bigger every day–and solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, for we are many.Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are your SPs.Gradually as we merge our pulse with that of your "Church", the suppression of your followers will become increasingly difficult to maintain. Believers will wake, and see that salvation has no price. They will know that the stress, the frustration that they feel is not something that may be blamed upon Anonymous. No–they will see that it stems from a source far closer to each. Yes, we are SPs. But the sum of suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC.Knowledge is free.We are Anonymous.We are Legion.We do not forgive.We do not forget.Expect us."

Food for thought

http://animalethics.blogspot.com/2008/01/meat-cancer-and-cumulative-case-for.html

Are you persuaded by her argument?