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2005.11.20

Today's Numerous Celebrations...

First, following the gathering of the church this morning.. There were two baptisms, one of which was Matthew Miller. I will I could claim him as a young protege, but am happy to claim him as a close family friend. The important thing was that the temperature was ridiculously cold, so he reaaaaallly wanted to get baptized.

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We also hosted an engagement party tonight for three couples, two from our cell, the other from our church at large:

Here is Matt and Jordan:

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Here is Lauren and Andy:

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Here is Ryan and Joni:

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2005.11.17

Theology, Scripture and the Story of God

Here is the Keynote Slideshow from the class I taught last Saturday for the Christ Fellowship Training School. It is a pretty big file, but should give a pretty clear roadmap for where we went last week in the class. Download theology_scripture_and_the_story_of_god.pdf

2005.11.13

Thoughts from Mr. Berry No. 2

From

"Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community : Eight Essays" (Wendell Berry)

Concerning Politics:
"The Future, as everybody knows, is a subject of extreme importance to politicians, and we have several political packages that are almost irresistible-expensive, of course, but rare:
1) Tolerance and Multiculturalism. Quit talking bad about women, homosexuals, and preferred social minorities, and you can say anything you want about people who haven't been to college, manual workers, country people, peasants, religious people, unmodern people, old people, and so on. Tolerant and multicultural persons hyphenate their land of origin and their nationality. I, for example, am a Kentuckian-American.

2) Preservation of Human Resources. Despite word-record advances in automation, robotification, and other "labor-saving" technologies, it is assumed that almost every human being may, at least in the Future, turn out to be useful for something, just like the members of other endangered species. Sometimes, after all, the Economy still requires a "human component." At such times, human resources are called "human components" and are highly esteemed in that capacity as long as their usefulness lasts. Therefore, don't quit taking care of human resources yet. See that the schools are run as ideal orphanages or, as ideal jails. Provide preschool and pre-preschool. Also post-school. Keep the children in institutions and away from home as much as possible-remember that their parents wanted children only because other people have them, and are much too busy to raise them. Only the government cares. Move the children around a lot while they're young, for this provides many opportunities for socialization. Show them a lot of TV, for TV is educational. Teach them about computers, for computers still require a "human component." Teach them the three S's: Sex can be Scientific and Safe. When the children grow up, try to keep them busy. Try to see that they become addicted to only legal substances. That's about it.

3) Reducing the Government. The government should only be big enough to annihilate any country and (if necessary) every country, to spy on its citizens and on other governments, to keep big secrets, and to see to the health and happiness of large corporations. A government thus reduced will be almost too small to notice and will require almost no taxes and spend almost no money.

4) The Free Market. The free market sees to it that everything ends up in the right place--that is, it makes sure that only the worthy get rich. All millionaires and billionaires have worked hard for their money, and they deserve the rewards of their work. They need all the help they can get from the government and the universities. Having money stimulates the rich to further economic activity that ultimately benefits the rest of us. Needing money stimulates the rest of us to further economic activity that ultimately benefits the rich. The cardinal principle of the free market is unrestrained competition, which is a kind of tournament that will decide which is the world's champion corporation. Ultimately, thanks to this principle. There will be only one corporation, which will be wonderfully simplifying. After that, we will rest in peace.

5) Unlimited Economic Growth. This is the pet idea of the Party of Hardheaded Realists. That unlimited economic growth can be accomplished within limited space, with limited materials and limited intelligence, only shows the unlimited courage and self-confidence of these Great Minds. That unlimited economic growth implies unlimited consumption, which in turn implies unlimited pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth, only makes the prospect even more unlimited.

Or, finally, we might consider the package known as:

6) The Food System, which is one of my favorites. The Food System is firmly grounded on the following principles:

i. Food is important mainly as an article of international trade.

ii. It doesn't matter what happens to farmers.

iii. It doesn't matter what happens to the land.

iv. Agriculture has nothing to do with "the environment."

v. There will always be plenty of food, for if farmers don't grow it from the soil, then scientists will invent it.

vi. There is no connection between food and health. People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are healed by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.

vii. It follows that there is no connection between healing and health. Hospitals customarily feed their patients poor-quality, awful tasting, factory-made, expensive food and keep them awake all night with various expensive attentions. There is a connection between money and health.

I am listening to Sleeping In from the album "Give Up" by The Postal Service

Thought No. 1 from Wendell Berry

I have recently been introduced to Wendell Berry and have found him incredibly insightful, extremely funny, and piercingly critical of modern society. So I will be posting some excerpts for others' enjoyment, or irritation, or both.

From

"Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community : Eight Essays" (Wendell Berry)

Concerning Education:
"All you have to do in order to have or to provide such an education [the new commercial education] is to pay your money (in advance) and master a few simple truths:
1) Educated people are more valuable than other people because education is a value-adding industry.
2) Educated people are better than other people because education improves people and makes them good.
3) The purpose of education is to make people able to earn more and more money.
4) The place where education is to be used is called "your career."
5) Anything that cannot be weighed, measured, or counted does not exist.
6) The so-called humanities probably do not exist. But if they do, they are useless...
7) Literacy does not involve knowing the meanings of words, or learning grammar, or reading books.
8) The sign of exceptionally smart people is that they speak a language that is intelligible only to other people in their "field" or only to themselves. This is very impressive and is known as "professionalism."
9) The smartest and most educated people are the scientists, for they have already found solutions to all our problems and will soon find solutions to all the problems resulting from their solutions to all the problems we used to have.
10) The mark of a good teacher is that he or she spends most of his or her time doing research and writes many books and articles.
11) The mark of a good researcher is the same as that of a good teacher.
12) A great university has many computers, a lot of government and corporation research contracts, a winning team, and more administrators than teachers.
13) Computers make people even better and smarter than they were made by previous thingamabobs. Or if some people prove incorrigibly wicked or stupid or both, computers will at least speed them up.
14) The main thing is, don't let education get in the way of being nice to children. Children are our Future. Spend plenty of money on them but don't stay home with them and get in their way. Don't give them work to do; they are smart and can think up things to do on their own. Don't teach them any of that awful, stultifying, repressive, old-fashioned morality. Provide plenty of TV, microwave dinners, day care, computers, computer games, cars. For all this, they will love and respect us and be glad to grow up and pay our debts.
15) A good school is a big school.
16) Disarm the children before you let them in.

I am listening to One Tree Hill from the album "Joshua Tree" by U2

The Final Battle

So several months ago (last March to be exact) we began hearing scratching noises in the wall above the office in our home. We went into the attic we yelled at the walls, but we could never get the scratching to stop or expose itself. Eventually they stopped, only to begin again a few days ago. Jason set his face like stone to find and eliminate the scurrying and scratching that would vigorously assert itself through the walls. Whatever it was was larger than a mouse, but smaller than a lion.  Some research was done (we looked up Squirrel catching on the internet), experts were consulted (he called Mr. Dickson), and a plan was formulated and implemented (we went to home depot and bought small animal box trap. We placed nuts in it and waited a few days. Yesterday as Jason ascended the stairs to the attic we suddenly heard a very teenage-girl-like yelp followed by confirmation that a squirrel was scurrying about in the small cage. Yet, across the vast expanse of our attic Jason was being stared down by a similar Squirrel, studying the trap and studying Jason. Jason took the first squirrel and released it out in the woods a ways from the house, but we are preparing now for a battle of the wits. Jason and the second, obviously smarter squirrel. Updates will follow.

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I am listening to:
O God Where Are You Now (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?) from the album "A Collision Or (3+4=7)" by David Crowder Band

2005.11.12

the anabaptist excuse...

My friend Yancy reflecting on why the Anabaptist tradition has no well documented theological tradition:

"All their theologians were either burned alive or drowned before they had a chance to write anything down."

I am listening to:
Convict Pool from the album "Convict Pool" by Calexico

Oh how things change...

Molly:

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Hays:

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(after losing a battle with a chocolate teddy graham)

2005.11.10

Helpful Reminder

Good article:

"Worship as higher politics"

New Witherington Book

Check out the interview here:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/011/23.66.html

Buy the book here:


"The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, and Wesleyanism" (Ben Witherington III)

2005.11.07

In life and Death We Belong to God

"Their [the gospels] fundamental focus is not on Jesus' wondrous deeds nor on his wise words. Their shared focus is on the character of his life and death. They all reveal the same patterns of radical obedience to God and selfless love toward other people. All four gospels also agree that discipleship is to follow the same messianic pattern. They do not emphasize the performance of certain deeds or the learning of certain doctrines. They insist on living according to the same pattern of life and death shown by Jesus."
- Luke Timothy Johnson, quoted by Miroslav Volf in Exclusion and Embrace