Top ten Mitt Romney solutions to our problems

On Facebook this morning, I took a jab at Obama saying: "What do you think will be talked about more today: (1) The controversial Seahawk touchdown or (2) that as the foreign heads of state were gathering for the United Nations convention, the Obama's went on The View?" See Dana Milbank's article here.

(I really should of jabbed the NFL refs as well. Oh well, next time.)

For the sake of being fair, here's a jab for Mitt as well (and no I'm not crossing sports references). Check out Juan Cole's top ten Mitt Romney solutions to our problems.

More like MacGyver...

For this week it's a marriage counseling session (I'm doing a wedding in August), preaching at the KCRM, and preaching at Redemption. In case you don't know, each of these things requires a certain amount of preparation.

It's likely that as I get older I will become more efficient in managing my time when it comes to these things, but at the moment (especially since I don't preach on a regular weekly basis) I just have to give myself over to them. Granted, I'm much better at time management when it comes to sermon prep than I used to be. There is a learning process. But sometimes it seems to take a while to get the creative juices flowing. As a rule, I try to write every day, but there is something intentional about a sermon that requires a little more focus and creativity, which can end up taking time.

Maybe I should become more like MacGyver, flexible, spontaneously creative, entrepreneurial, a clock-buster. Perhaps a sociopath, as suggested, but a nice sociopath. I wonder how many pastors are sociopaths? This might help me not to feel so overwhelmed by my to do list. After all, who else do you want to be like as pastor when you're boxed into a corner, ten seconds left on the clock? For sure, duct tape can fix marriages and sermons.

Carry on...

Which Translation Do You Prefer?

Which translation do you prefer? It actually probably doesn't matter because in either case you're dealing with livestock. Clearly farmers get just as frustrated with their goats as parents do with their kids such that a command was necessary.

- "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk." Translations: NASB, NIV, NCV, 

- "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk." Translations: NRSV, The Message, KJV, Jerusalem Bible

Anyone know of another translation to this passage?

Forget your modern technology...

via Reddit

Theology Ryan Gosling

And I quote, "Helping disenfranchised female theologians feel loved one line at a time."

Brilliant.

I read one, thought it was funny.

Literally, I thought in my mind, "that's funny," but in a deadpan sort of way. No emotion.

I read a few more and I found myself smiling.

After a few more I was laughing out loud.

I think it was the consistent, "Hey girl" that kept getting me. Imagine a cross between Andy Sandberg and the guy with the deep voice from Boyz II Men.




"Hey Girl."

Around the Horn

Here are a few things that caught my eye this week...

Great article by Laura Miller called Fresh Hell: What's Behind the Boom in Dystopian Fiction? Here are a couple of good quotes on The Hunger Games as a social commentary on the adolescent social experience, as she calls it:

•  "'The Hunger Games' is not an argument. It operates like a fable or a myth, a story in which outlandish and extravagant figures and events serve as conduits for universal experiences." 

• If, on the other hand, you consider the games as a fever-dream allegory of the adolescent social experience, they become perfectly intelligible. Adults dump teen-agers into the viper pit of high school, spouting a lot of sentimental drivel about what a wonderful stage of life it’s supposed to be. The rules are arbitrary, unfathomable, and subject to sudden change. A brutal social hierarchy prevails, with the rich, the good-looking, and the athletic lording their advantages over everyone else. To survive you have to be totally fake. Adults don’t seem to understand how high the stakes are; your whole life could be over, and they act like it’s just some “phase”! Everyone’s always watching you, scrutinizing your clothes or your friends and obsessing over whether you’re having sex or taking drugs or getting good enough grades, but no one cares who you really are or how you really feel about anything.

This American Life retracts one of their stories. Apparently Mike Daisey has confused fact with fiction. Here's an interesting article linking Daisey with Jason Russell - remember Kony 2012?

Robert Barron talks about Palm Sunday.

Doug Harrison notes here the five things you should never give up for Lent.

Don't miss Downton Arby's.

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Diggin' Robert Barron

I couldn't help but laugh of out loud a little at this quote by Robert Barron from The Strangest Way, the book I was talking about yesterday. As a Nazarene I have an ironic appreciation for his stand against all forms of Puritanism.

"We recall that another of the Lukan Jesus' puzzling beatitudes was 'blessed are you who weep,' that is to say, lucky are you who are not addicted to the false god of good feelings. Now as an ardent Chestertonian, I certainly subscribe to the dictum 'wherever the Catholic sun doth shine / there is music and laughter and good red wine' and stand, accordingly, against puritanism in all its forms."

That's where I laughed. I can imagine him cocking his head to side, looking down with conviction, although at nothing in particular, his hand rising and falling in a quick, abrasive, chopping motion: "and stand, ... accordingly (chop), ... against (chop) ... Puristanism (pause for effect and sip of wine) in all its forms." I need to read more Chesterton.

The rest of quote is awesome, but more serious.

"There is nothing life-denying or teetotaling or pleasure-eschewing about authentic Christianity; it embraces the joys of human existence with great enthusiasm. However, let me make at least a nod in the direction of the Puritans. Since pleasure - like all good created things - can become an attachment, it too must be disciplined if we are to stay rooted in the center. To stand with Christ is hardly to embrace a hedonistic campaign of marching from delight to delight; rather it is to do the will of the Father even when that costs dearly, even when it conduces to the cross. Therefore the centered person must be ready for pain as well as pleasure, for deep sadness as well as contentment, clinging neither to one nor the other."

Super Tuesday and the Conjoined Tortoise

The Republican difference? The Democratic difference? I think not. What would happen if a donkey and an elephant had a baby? Perhaps we have an answer:

They say, "Strictly speaking it isn't a tortoise with two heads, but rather two conjoined tortoises," Yuri Yuravliov, a zoologist, told AFP. "The female has two heads, two hearts, four front legs, but only two hind ones, and one intestine," he explained.

One intestine, eh? Different political parties, same 'ol ...

"Animals with this type of pathology are only rarely born and don't survive in natural condition." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Happy Super Tuesday, people  :)

Around the Horn

Looks like Jamie Smith received some critical responses to his open letter to praise bands. He's followed up here and here with a few more thoughts.

Saw this video on Tony Jones site. Very interesting local news story done on Mark Driscoll's Mar Hill churches.

If you're up for a good story, you gotta check out this one by Maria. You wish you had to guts to do this!

Need some new music? The John McKenna Band just released a new EP. Check out Tim's review here.

Franklin Graham apologizes for his huge flop last week when he fumbled over his answer to the question of whether or not Barak Obama is a Christian. Check out the whole video here.

Rowan Williams and Richard Dawkins faced off last week on the subject of the nature of human beings and the question of their ultimate origin. Check out the video here. I'll hopefully soon contribute my own response to this as I am finding the buzz over Dawkins's claim that there is .01% chance that God exists to be a bit over played and rather mundane compared to some of the things Williams said.

And lastly, another Garfield minus Garfield cartoon for your weekend pleasure:

That's one ambitious egg, I tell ya

Got this one from Gregg's site, again. The Tiny Book of Stories. This one's great! I'm going to have to check out more.

Pinterest

 

(via geekculture)