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School Prayer Will Solve Everything!

December 17, 2012 | Category: World Events

huckabee-gunsMike Huckabee blames the school massacre in Connecticut on removing prayer from public schools. Really, Mike? God brings judgment on a nation by killing 6 and 7 year-olds with an assault rifle? Interesting God you serve. Or maybe you’re just drawing a totally obvious cause-and-effect?

During my lifetime, I’ve heard all kinds of societal ills blamed on that 1963 Supreme Court decision banning school prayer. It’s the reason for the divorce rate, crime, drugs, the crisis du jour. But why stop there? Let’s also blame 1963 for Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the debt crisis, Justin Bieber, low voting rates, declining church attendance, MS Windows, teen pregnancy, AIDS, poor math scores, illegal immigration, and the Macarena. And if we go off the fiscal cliff, let’s blame that on the lack of school prayer, too.

That way, we can blame everything on something that happened in 1963, rather than on our own present-day irresponsibility.

The school massacre is all about school prayer. It has nothing to do with guns or mental illness.

 

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Movie Review: “Lincoln”

December 15, 2012 | Category: Movies

lincoln

Pam and I saw “Lincoln” today. That makes two Lincoln movies this year, though this, if I may make a wild guess, was probably more historically accurate than “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”

Some thoughts.

  • Daniel Day Lewis–great choice! Looked so much like Lincoln.
  • Interesting, taking just a sliver or his presidency to cover in the movie. Nothing grand or sweeping.
  • I’ve not read about this piece of history–the passage of the 13th amendment. I found the movie fascinating, but I can’t speak to its accuracy. I’m assuming Spielberg stayed true to the actual story. Haven’t heard critics saying otherwise.
  • Sally Field was superb. So was Tommy Lee Jones. And David Straithairn. In fact, there was not a bad performance.
  • The beginning battle scene was fascinating–nasty, chaotic, probably a lot like the real thing. I’d love to see Spielberg direct a Civil War battle movie.
  • I liked the lumbering gait Lewis gave to Lincoln. There was a scene toward the end, where he walks away from the camera, where this was especially pronounced.
  • Loved the stories Lincoln told. Especially the one about George Washington’s picture in the bathroom. And the “true north” story.
  • It was a very human–and believable–Lincoln. Sitting in a chair with his socked feet sticking up. Crawling around on the floor to stir up a fire. Sitting in a chair motionless, deep in thought. His unruly hair. The shouting match with Mary.
  • My goodness, Congressmen spoke nasty to each other back then!
  • The legal and pragmatic realities, entanglements, and dilemmas that Lincoln faced were daunting, and explained pretty well. Like the various issues surrounding the Emancipation Proclamation as a purely wartime measure, and what would happen to slaves once peace returned. Lincoln had some truly enormous issues to wrestle with.
  • I loved the opening scene with the two black soldiers, and how they worked in the Gettysburg Address. Nice touch.
  • I really liked the scene sitting with Grant before the surrender, and then the Appamatox Courthouse scene.
  • An interesting surprise with Thaddeus Stevens at the end.
  • I totally did not recognize James Spader in his role. Gloria Reuben, either.

This was a thinking person’s movie. Very little action. The plot basically involved political wranglings and arm-twisting, and discussions of highly important issues wrapped in dilemmas. I highly recommend the movie, and won’t be surprised if some actors, starting with Day-Lewis, win Oscars.

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The War Continues

December 12, 2012 | Category: World Events

Jon Stewart: “Yes, the long war on Christianity. I pray that one day we may live in an America where Christians can worship freely. In broad daylight! Openly wearing the symbols of their religion..perhaps around their necks? And maybe–dare I dream it?–maybe one day there can be an openly Christian President. Or, perhaps, 43 of them. Consecutively.”

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Beyond the Comfortable

December 11, 2012 | Category: Anchor Church

Andy Stanley, a prominent pastor in Georgia, wrote in his new book Deep and Wide, “I love everything we do and I love the way we do it. But that doesn’t make it right. That just makes it comfortable. Predictable. But perhaps ineffectual.”

Last week, Anchor’s worship team practiced with the worship team of a nearby black church. We’re doing a joint service together on Dec 23. I found it discombobulating, somewhat uncomfortable. They are just so different from us. But they have an extravagant passion for Jesus. And to the credit of our worship team, though we found the experience foreign and out of our comfort zone, we also found it to be exhilarating. I can’t wait to practice with them again on Thursday night.

I like how we do things at Anchor. I like our music, our style, our patterns. It’s all comfortable for me. But that doesn’t make it the right way to do things, nor the best way to do things.

It’s good to be stretched and thrown off balance.

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Our Obsessions with Christian Symbols

December 10, 2012 | Category: This or That

Richard Stearns, president of World Vision US, published an excellent article on the Huffington Post. He mentions how Christians are fighting the secularization of society by advocating for symbols, like the Ten Commandments posted in courtrooms and nativity scenes in public places. There are various other symbols which we Christians make much fuss over–prayer at public gatherings, “In God We Trust” on money, “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the annual hubbub over a “war on Christmas.”

Stearns argues that obsessing over these symbols is backfiring, alienating people from the true Gospel. He writes, “The kind of Christianity the world responds to is the authentic ‘love your neighbor’ kind. Its appeal can’t be legislated through court battles and neither can courts stop its spread.”

I’m totally on board with that.

I get very impatient with these side-issue symbols being the public face of Christianity. It must come across as very petty to a watching world.

Stearns says Christian America needs to “get back to the mission Jesus gave us to show the world a different way to live — a way that demonstrates the great character of God: his love, his justice, his compassion, his forgiveness and his reconciliation.”

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Great Christmas Music You May Not Know About

December 8, 2012 | Category: Music

Pam and I have been listening to gobs of Christmas music–last night as we put up our Christmas tree, and today as we’ve been cleaning the house and cooking in preparation for tonight’s worship team Christmas party. We have a 60-song playlist on an iPod Touch, and it’s been running continuously. Some favorites:

  • “A Tractors Christmas.” This is easily our favorite Christmas album. Really fun.
  • “Christmas,” by Rebecca St. James. I discovered this about 14 years ago, and never weary of it. James has the most creative takes on traditional songs (like “O Holy Night,” “What Child is This,” and “O Come Al Ye Faithful”).
  • “Run Run Rudolph.” This would be my favorite song. The playlist includes three versions–by The Tractors, Luke Bryan, and Sister Hazel (which I just discovered). You can really rock out with that song.

Other Christmas songs I highly recommend you download from iTunes:

  • “Christmas in America,” by Melissa Etheridge.
  • “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” by Josh Wilson with Mandisa. Also, the Little Big Town version.
  • “A New York Christmas,” by Rob Thomas.
  • “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” by the Smithereens.
  • “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” by Los Lonely Boys.
  • “Christmas Baby, Please Come Home,” by Bon Jovi.
  • “Little Drummer Boy,” by Aly & AJ.
  • The Mercy Me “Christmas Sessions” album.
  • “Away in a Manger,” by Billy Gilman (beautiful!).
  • “Silent Night,” by Taylor Swift.
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A Stretch on Amazon Prime

December 7, 2012 | Category: This or That

Pam and I love Amazon Prime. Pay $79 a year, and get unlimited two-day shipping on most items. We’ve ordered scores of items through Amazon Prime, from tiny flash drives to much larger items. But nothing as big as the Commander Series 54 gun safe.

I read that Cannon Safe sells a bunch of these six-foot-tall, 1500-pound safes through Amazon. Cannon charges $700 to ship the safe, but when people buy it through Amazon, shipping is free. You wonder what kind of a business model makes that profitable for Amazon.

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The Very Very White Republican Leadership

December 6, 2012 | Category: Politics

Can you spot the hidden minorities in this collage of the first 19 Republicans named as House committee chairpersons for the 113th Congress?

The Republicans have taken some shots recently for naming white men as chairmen of all of the House committees. Well, that’s not fair. After the criticism arose, they still had two slots to fill, and they found a white woman, Candice Miller of Michigan, to chair one of them–House Administration committee. John Boehner described this person’s responsibilities as “ensuring that the House runs efficiently and smoothly”–or, as Jon Stewart said, the “Housewife.”

Miller (right) had been a member of the larger and more prestigious Homeland Security committee, and a subcommittee chairperson, and she wanted to become its new chairman. Normally, you choose a chairperson from the persons who have been serving on that committee. But in picking a chairman for the House Administration committee, Boehner had to look outside the existing committee. But hey, at least they now have diversity in the committee chairpersons–19 white men, 1 white woman, and 1 more chairmanship to go.

Actually, the Republicans have more diversity in the current House (which serves until January). Currently, the House chairmanships include 1 woman and 1 hispanic. That would be Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (right), a Cuban-American from Florida who chairs the important Foreign Affairs committee. She’s the ranking Republican woman in the House, serving since 1989. She had to give up her chairmanship because she had served her maximum of 6 years on the committee. Interestingly, they waived the limit for Paul Ryan so he could keep his chairmanship of the Budget committee. Since he’s a white guy, do different rules apply?

In addition to being a hispanic woman, Ros-Lehtinen is a minority in several other ways: she’s a Scientologist, she’s one of three Republican members of the LGBT caucus, and she was the first House Republican to suport same-sex marriage. Not, I’m assuming, a Tea Party favorite.

To be fair, the Republicans don’t have a lot of choices. Out of 235 members of the House, the Republicans have just 17 women, 1 black, and six hispanics. The Democrats alone have 61 women. In the 2012 elections, the Republicans lost 6 women, 1 black, and 1 hispanic. So their minority representation isn’t headed in the right direction.

John Boehner hasn’t yet named a chairperson of the Ethics committee (which, like Budget, has no subcommittees). I imagine he’s searching real hard for a woman or minority.

Anyway, here are the current (through January 2013) House committees, each of which has 2-13 subcommittees, each with their own chairpersons. I pointed out, with each committee, how many subcommittee chairpersons are non-Caucasian male. The Democrat line indicates not the chairperson, of course, but the ranking Democrat on the subcommittees. If you want to factcheck this, go to Wikipedia.

Agriculture (7 sub-committees)
Republicans: 1 woman
Democrats: 3 hispanics, 1 black woman

Appropriations (13 sub-committees)
Republicans: 2 white women
Democrats: 2 women, 2 blacks, 1 hispanic, 1 asian

Armed Services (8 sub-committees)
Republicans: all white men
Democrats: 3 women, 2 hispanics

Education and Workforce (7 sub-committees)
Republicans: 1 white woman
Democrats: 1 hispanic, 1 woman

Energy and Commerce (7 sub-committees)
Republicans: 1 white woman
Democrats: 1 black, 2 women

Financial Services (7 sub-committees)
Republicans: 2 white women
Democrats: 3 women, 1 hispanic, 2 blacks

Foreign Affairs (8 sub-committees)
Republicans: 1 hispanic woman
Democrats: 2 woman, 2 blacks

Homeland Security (7 sub-committees)
Republicans: 1 white woman
Democrats: 4 blacks, 4 women, 1 hispanic

House Administration (2 sub-committees)
Republicans: All white men
Democrats: 1 white woman

Judiciary (6 sub-committees)
Republicans: All white men
Democrats: 3 black, 1 woman

Natural Resources (5 sub-committees)
Republicans: All white men
Democrats: 2 hispanics, 1 woman

Oversight and Government Reform (8 sub-committees)
Republicans: All white men
Democrats: 3 black men

Rules (2 sub-committees)
Republicans: All white men
Democrats:1 black man

Science, Space, and Technology (6 sub-committees)
Republicans: All white men
Democrats: 2 black women

Small Business (6 sub-committees)
Republicans: 1 white woman
Democrats: 2 women, 1 asian, 1 black, 1 hispanic

Transportation and Infrastructure (7 sub-committees)
Republicans: All white men
Democrats: 2 black women

Veterans’ Affairs (5 sub-committees)
Republicans: 1 white woman
Democrats: all white men

Ways and Mean (7 sub-committees)
Republicans: All white men
Democrats: 1 black, 1 hispanic

Intelligence (4 sub-committees)
Republicans: 1 woman
Democrats: 1 white woman

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Sometimes You Hear Something Fresh…NOT

December 6, 2012 | Category: Sports

While listening to ESPN on the way to work, I heard Mike & Mike interview a pro football player. He said something very profound, something I’ve never heard before. He said, “We just have to take it one week at a time.” Wow! Rarely have I heard something so original, so insightful…except from every other football player ever interviewed since the Dawn of Time.

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Gridlock USA

December 5, 2012 | Category: This or That

My guess is that the Dems and Reps will work out some kind of temporary fix to avoid the dreaded fiscal cliff, with a new fiscal deadline in 3-4 months. Then we’ll spend those months continually fussing over the same issues, and ultimately reach a VERY PROMISING deal which pushes a final decision down the road another 3-4 months…and after that, another temporary fix that puts another fiscal cliff at the end of 2013.

And by the end of 2013, after all kinds of pseudo-activity and countless meetings and innumerable press conferences and grand posturing, pretty much nothing will have been done.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of life in gridlocked USA.

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