08.31.08
Tim Keller @ Google
An absolutely fascinating talk and discussion at Google by Tim Keller regarding his book The Reason for God. Interestingly, this was one of Google’s better attended sessions of their “authors @ Google” lecture series.
08.20.08
Saddleback Forum
If you missed the Saddleback Civil Forum this weekend, you should take the time to check it out. Trevin Wax has posted video links for the entire forum.
Amy usually can’t stand “political stuff” but even she enjoyed this format. It was compelling, informative, and civil. Here’s hoping that this format becomes more typical of political discourse in the USA.
06.27.08
Knowledge Increases Mystery
I have thought this for a long time.
Increased knowledge does not equal decreased mystery. It’s the other way around.
It’s nice to see John Piper and Jonathan Edwards explain it so well.
06.24.08
Great Schism
I was talking to a friend recently about my fledgling understanding of the Orthodox church. I took a Church History class earlier this year and took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about this branch of the Christian church. So for my friend, and for you also if you’re interested, here’s my paper. Let me know what you think if you take the time to read it. I’d love to hear your thoughts/experiences/interactions regarding the Orthodox church.
Secret Lego Vault
Every Lego set ever made, all in one place. Wow.
George Carlin
Though he often had a foul mouth, George Carlin was an incredibly creative comedian. I always loved his scathing social commentary, like in his stuff sketch. And of course he was eminently quotable:
We are the proud parents of a child whose self-esteem is sufficient that he doesn’t need us promoting his minor scholastic achievements on the back of our car.
Party on, Rufus.
06.18.08
Politics Test
Not really anything I didn’t know already, but this test does give an interesting graphical perspective. Although I think Fascism isn’t as economically permissive as this chart states. Facism is a leftist ideology, not a rightist one. This is largely due to the fact that economically permissive societies cannot exist without some level of social permissiveness. The Nazis were fascist and were only “economically permissive” toward individuals and corporations that agreed with their ideology. But they were decidedly against economic permissiveness when it came to dissenters and Jews.
So fascism is not truly economically permissive. It really belongs down where Totalitarian, Socialist and Democrat meet (there’s a reason it’s called national socialism).
You are a
Social Liberal (68% permissive)
and an…
Economic Conservative (78% permissive)
You are best described as a:
Libertarian
|
06.16.08
Who are the aggressive drivers?
Colorado State University has completed an interesting study of aggressive drivers. They have found that people who mark their cars with decals and stickers are more likely to act out on their “road-rage”. What’s particularly interesting is that it didn’t seem to matter what the messages were on the stickers. Whether the sentiment was “my kid beat up your honor student” or “practice random acts of kindness” the researchers found that the mere presence of bumper stickers was a solid indicator of driver aggression. And the more personal expressions adorning the car, the more aggressive the driver.
I’d like to know if this finding holds true for people with “Christian fish” on their cars.
06.11.08
Politics is Not About Facts
Thomas Sowell on politics:
“Politics is not about facts. It is about what politicians can get people to believe.”
06.10.08
Public Choice Theory
Food for thought in an election season.
Public Choice Theory: instead of imagining what a wise, omniscient, benevolent government might do, one should pay attention to how government operates in practice.
06.09.08
Derrie-air Airlines
Wow, an airline that charges you based on weight. Not just the weight of your luggage, mind you. Your weight.
Guess I should work on losing those extra couple of pounds before I fly again. Heh.
05.31.08
Manhood, Womanhood and Judges
I just finished writing my final paper for Old Testament 501. The paper presents a complementarian view of the story of Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-5, especially Judges 4:4-9). I was restricted to eight pages, so I had no hope of performing a full analysis of differing perspectives on this passage. Maybe later when I have time (as if I’ll ever have the time?).
And now I’ve got to finish a 50-60 page paper for another class. Whew!
05.20.08
A Story of Redemption
My father-in-law posted a great story of repentance, reconciliation and redemption on his blog today. Check it out.
05.15.08
Celebrity Church Planting
Wise words from a self-proclaimed church planting novice who is learning to be missional in Austin, TX.
Adopting a model that works is not planting a missional church.
Missional churches develop their missional practices and ecclesiastical models not by copy-cating but by understanding their own context so well that they become the expert on how to best be the church in their town, city, county.
05.13.08
Social Networking
Myspace and LinkedIn and Facebook, oh my!
I set up a myspace page probably 2 years ago. Then I got around to creating a linkedin page. And a few weeks ago, I finally drank the kool-aid and joined facebook.
Of course getting in touch with old friends and keeping it touch with new ones is nice. But what’s been really interesting is discovering the ways that my friends know each other. I’ve already had a handful of experiences now where I’ve been shocked to discover that “friend A who I met in college and friend B who I met at a summer camp met each other on the other side of the world, and now they are friends.” I can’t imagine how else I would have ever discovered these random connections.
The world is getting way too small.
05.12.08
Mark Driscoll Fan
While I may despise Facebook on principle, I was finally sucked in a couple of weeks ago. When I tried to become friends with Mark Driscoll, I was unable to do so because apparently Facebook has a limit on the number of friends you can have (5000 I believe). So I had to become a fan of his. Is Facebook just utterly lame?
Mark posted a nice sarcastic video on his “fan page” to express his despair at the fact that I cannot be his friend (well, not me personally, but the collective “we” that may want to be his friend).
02.20.08
Scientology Gets More Scary
As if the infamous Tom Cruise video wasn’t scary enough, now eBay is letting the “church” of Scientology have direct control over the removal listings from the online auction site.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/19/1943206
Yikes.
02.16.08
Missional & Mishmash, Part 4
The final episode from the 2007 Leading for Life Conference in Berlin, Germany
Missional & Mishmash - In Therapy
02.14.08
Missional & Mishmash, Part 3
Once again, from the 2007 Leading for Life Conference in Berlin, Germany
Missional & Mishmash - Do or Die
02.10.08
Missional & Mishmash, Part 1
From the 2007 Leading for Life Conference in Berlin, Germany
Missional & Mishmash - The Pie Chart
02.07.08
Do We Need a Moratorium on Church Music?
Greg Gilbert is coming out “Against Music’:
I wonder if the whole “excellence in praise and worship music” phenomenon we’ve seen over the past few years—for all the good it’s done—hasn’t also had some less-than-desirable effects on young Christians. I wonder if it hasn’t created a generation of functional mystics who gauge their relationship with God by emotional experience rather than the objective reality of redemption.
Good issues to ponder.
Read more: Church Matters: The 9Marks Blog
02.06.08
Radical Reformission
Back in ‘05 Tim Challies posted a summary of Mark Driscoll’s Radical Reformission.
Gospel + Culture - Church = Parachurch
Culture + Church - Gospel = Liberalism
Church + Gospel - Culture = Fundamentalism
I’m definitely picking up a copy of this book.
