Ted Haggard Goes to Mexico

I don't want this to be a Ted Haggard blog, but I go where my readers take me. So I'm happy to say that Ted Haggard has followed through in his efforts to mend rift between Evangelicals and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez over Pat Robertson's remarks.

According to this report from the Rocky Mountain News, Haggard flew today to Mexico City to meet with a friend of Chavez and to attempt to set up a meeting with President Chavez.

Several interesting angles on this. The AP report focuses on apologizing and the potential threat to missionaries. The BBC points to the possible embarrassment a meeting with Chavez would create for the Bush Administration. Haggard's home town Colorado Springs Gazette, in an article that is very sympathetic to Robertson, reports that Haggard hopes the conversation will go beyond an apology to the concerns of Venezuela's Evangelical community.

There is still no reference to the Robertson/Chavez affair on the National Association of Evangelicals website, but this report from a local television station quotes a Haggard spokesperson saying, "The purpose of the meeting in Mexico City is to talk about Evangelicals in the United States and Venezuela....as well as recent economic and political positions of the Chavez administration". (Here's a video link to the broadcast report, but the ellipsis is also in visual part of the report but not in the reporter's reading).

I couldn't find any other reference to this last statement from Haggard's spokesperson, and I would really like to see the full context. The final half of that quote leaves me very concerned.

Nevertheless, I am glad that Mr. Haggard is doing this much.

More on Ted Haggard

All of my commenters, which are still only one person, have continued to discuss my posts on the response of the NAE's Ted Haggard to Pat Robertson's call for Hugo Chavez to be assassinated. Here's Andrew's latest response to my last post:

That's the problem with looking at an interview second-hand. You miss so much. Jesse Jackson brought up Janet and Justin. Not Ted. Ted was saying exactly what you're saying: "Why are you bringing this up in the Robertson context?" It really didn't make any sense.

When Lou Dobbs asked him point-blank if he condemned the assassination call, Haggard said, "Absolutely." It was only when Lou was asking questions trying to understand why Robertson would say such a thing that Ted offered the explanations you posted. Any time he got the chance, he emphatically stated that Pat's position is not representative of evangelicals.

Here's a nifty one-liner from Knight Ridder (It's listed on the page you link to citing your incomplete transcript from CNN...You seem to have missed it...):

"Pat doesn't speak for evangelicals any more than Dr. Phil speaks for mental health professionals." - Ted Haggard

The reason Ted is minimizing the statement is that he is not out for Pat's head on a platter. Shooting a guy when he's down is no more Christian than the foolish remark Pat made. Ted's trying to strongly condemn the sin while loving the sinner--isn't that what we all try to do as Christians?

By the way, Pastor Ted is meeting with Hugo Chavez' people tomorrow in Mexico to help smooth things over and clarify Evangelicals' position. I really think he's doing as much as he can to do the right thing here...

And, for the record, I do work at New Life Church. I happen to like Pastor Ted (shock!) and when I notice a site like yours which writes only part of the story, I like to help the whole picture be seen. Sorry if I have bothered you by it...

A couple of things:

• I really appreciate the tone of Andrew's response. Even though I'm trying to say something serious, I have said it in a somewhat flippant manner, and Andrew has remained courteous and irenic. His response is a good example of how to conduct an online discussion, and I thank him for it.
• I'm glad for the context and clarification of the references to Janice Jackson. Context matters, which is why, btw, I didn't include Haggard's one-liner about Robertson - I didn't know the context.
• I'm glad that Mr. Haggard will be or has been by now personally meeting with representatives of President Chavez.

But, a couple of other things remain, and these points are not necessisarily aimed at Andrew, but he's welcome (as are others) to continue if he likes:

• Just what is "Evangelicals' position" on Venezuela? As far as I am aware, Mr. Haggard has been supportive of the Bush administration's approach to international issues, and the Administration, as I noted in another post, seems to have been actively involved in trying to overthrow Chavez, and certainly continues to see him as an enemy.
• So is the "Evangelical position" that we support our government's attempts to undermine Mr. Chavez' regime? Or is our position the more easily biblically defensible position that we pray for God's blessing on him and his country and that we humbly urge him to work for greater freedom and justice for his people?
• I'll accept that "The reason Ted is minimizing the statement is that he is not out for Pat's head on a platter. Shooting a guy when he's down is no more Christian than the foolish remark Pat made." I don't question Mr. Haggard's intent, but there is a point where minimizing or contextualizing turns into excusing, and the Lou Dobbs interview comes at best very close to that point. When someone really blows it, you can't say, "Yes, xyz was really bad, but..." You have to stop before the "but", and it seems to me that Mr. Haggard didn't do that.

That's It

This morning, I have officially and emotionally given up on the Dodgers.

Following their 5-4 loss to Rockies, I now concede that they have no chance to win their division. I say this knowing full well that if they should somehow win the division and make the playoffs that I have forfeited my fan rights and I will be prohibited from climbing onto the band wagon.

The guys just aren't good enough. As bad as the NL West is - it may take only 80 wins to take the title - I don't think the Dodgers have a chance of reaching even that. If they had more to offer and had been playing below their level, I could still hold out hope. But playing .450 ball is their level.

Last night's loss, their 70th - one more than they lost all last year, seems like a sign, and so, that's it. I give up. My heart and I are waiting 'til next year.

Weekly Diary

A day early this week...

Finally! This week got going with a bang! The Galaxy, finally, finally, FINALLY won an away match, 3-2 on Saturday over DC United. Prior to this, the Galaxy had not beaten any as the visitors (excepting Chivas, but they don't count) since June, 2004. And then on Wednesday, the Galaxy did it again by defeating San Jose 2-1 in the Quarter-finals of the US Open Cup. HOORAY.

Party Like It's 1999! I am something of a Luddite, and we don't have a bunch of money laying around, so we don't always have the latest technology. (My I-Pod birthday present is still sitting in the box). But this week we upgraded to two new cell phones for our family. Whoopee! Now we can be like everyone else and have conversations while we're driving or standing in public places. Then we won't have to talk to each other at home, freeing up more time for watching TV and wasting time on the Internet.

Reeling in the Years Chris went to the High School this week to pick up his books and his class schedule. I can't believe how old the other parents of high schoolers look.

And We're Outta Here The family is off to our annual camping event at McGrath State Beach in Ventura with a bunch of people from our church. This has always been a wonderful time. The family Thursday and I go today, delayed by our youth soccer league's seemingly annual postponement of the coaches' meeting from last week to this.

Somos Galacticos Got our team assignments and rosters for our youth soccer teams. Katie will be able to play - there was some doubt of getting enough coaches for her division. I hope to be able to be an assistant on her team. I will be coaching Chris's team, and we will be Real Madrid. I am stoked. But...

Our league is a classic example of American Exceptionalism when it comes to soccer. We mess with the Laws of the game in silly ways, and only the teams in the top boys division are named for soccer teams - some of the lower divisions even use professional names from other sports! But even in our division we don't get things right. The schedule listed Ajax, which they pronounce like the cleaner, as being Danish (they're Dutch), and Celtic, which they usually say in the plural, as Irish when they're Scottish. And none of the colors are right. Real Madrid, which is perhaps even more well known for wearing all-white than the Yankees are for pin stripes, will be wearing... maroon shirts and socks with yellow shorts. Sigh. But the ball is still round, and the game is 70 minutes, so on we go.

Linkage III

A.J. Schwanz, who is the friend of a friend, and who is also a Friend, as is my friend, as am I, has an interesting take on church Youth Groups, and why so few of those kids remain an active part of their church, or any church, once they get out of High School. She uses the phrase "false communities" and I think she's onto something.

When I leave the soul sucking suburb in which I live, it is usually to get something to eat, and on these journies Jonathan Gold is my Virgil. His book Counter Intelligence approaches scriptural status at our house. This week in the LA Weekly he covers Pann's, an amazing old skool coffee shop near LAX which has been restored to its former glory. (Via Kevin Roderick at the wonderful L.A. Observed)

Marc Cooper uses poker tells to figure out when Donald Rumsfeld is lying. So when does he lie? Pretty much all the time. (Via Kevin Drum)

In this summer of the Wedding Crashers, Tyler Cowan of Marginal Revolution points to this article about a company in India which hires out wedding guests, thereby helping families avoid the embarrassment of having a poorly attended event. Cowan comments, "Funny thing is, I would pay people to stay away from my wedding..."

I'm not sure how I found this, but take a look at Wordcount. This nifty website lists words in English by their frequency, creating interesting (at least to me!) juxtapositions. For instance, a search of some of my more recent preoccupations reveals that "assassination" is the 10330th most frequently used word in English, preceded fittingly by "predator" and followed by "moist". More happily, "soccer" is the 5839th most frequent word, preceded by "striker" ("Figures!" grumble mid-fielders and defenders) and followed by "Vienna". Hmm.

And Now to Haggard

I turned on my computer tonight to find a very nice comment on my post calling out Ted Haggard from Andrew, who writes:

Maybe you missed it, but Haggard was on CNN, ABC, and radio several times yesterday doing exactly what you asked for. He said plainly that Robertson doesn't speak for evangelicals and that, though Robertson has a right to free speech, his suggestion of assassination is illegal and ill-advised.

I agree completely.

Since I have so few readers, (this is still an unannounced blog, all of my readers except for my wife and one friend, who is on vacation this week and so not reading, stumble here), I always check to see who is looking at the blog and especially who the commenters are. I found it interesting that Andrew was posting from a ISP address registered to New Life Church, perhaps not coincidentally the place where Ted Haggard is the pastor. Nice to see you have your pastor's (boss's?) back, Andrew.

Wanting to honor Andrew's comment, I took a look at what Haggard had to say. In the LA Times article quoted in the earlier post he said:

"if this dictator starts to think of evangelicals as people who are gunning for him, that could be difficult for missionaries there."

This is not exactly what Andrew said he said, and somewhat, uh, beside the point, so I looked further and came across a great article from Ted Olsen at Christianity Today, in which he covers the responses (and press coverage) of many Evangelical leaders. Olsen quotes from Ted Haggard's appearance on CNN at length, and I'll give it to you here:

I think you have to understand the context of it. You know his program has one section of it that's a Christian exhortation, and then another section where he's a political pundit. And I think what he was saying was, we have a looming problem down south, and there are several bad options there. And he's saying maybe the least of the bad options is to do something about the dictator. Â… The First Amendment is wonderful. People have free speech privileges. He wasn't writing a memo to the White House recommending a public policy decision. He was not recommending something to the State Department. He was not exposing himself sexually on the platform the way Janet Jackson did. Instead, he was having a political discussion, where they were randomly working with some ideas. For Jesse Jackson [who called for the FCC to investigate the remarks] to exaggerate it this way is just as appalling as what Pat Robertson said, I think. Â… We're addressing it, we're not taking it lightly. Nobody is taking it seriously as a policy issue. So the system is working. Everything is fine. Nobody's going to assassinate this man. But we do realize he is a major problem. Â… Pat Robertson was wrong in recommending this. He was wrong in saying it. But he was not wrong in being able to just openly discuss it the way political pundits do all the time. Now, if you take his words as from a religious Christian leader, as a recommendation, then we have a problem. But I don't think that's what he did And so you have to sort through that just a little bit, but I think what he was saying was, if our choice is a major war or the some way to deal with this military dictator, then we need to deal with the military dictator rather than have another Islam on our hands. Â… What [Robertson] said was not illegal. What he recommended was illegal.

Oh Ted, this is not good. I have trouble with a number of things you said:

• You can't have it both ways, saying at this moment Pat's a commentator and this moment he's a minister. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise, and I'm not sure even Robertson makes this distinction.
• Why bring up Jesse Jackson and Janet Jackson in this? Do you really think Janet's momentary exposure is worse than this? Really?
• Chavez is not a "military dictator". He would have liked to have been, but his coup failed, and after several years in jail, he went on to be elected President. Elected is the key word here. Yes, he's a clown, and maybe a threat to the US, but he was elected, twice. He is not a dictator.
• Why do you feel you have to minimize what Robertson said? Isn't minimizing just a slightly nicer form of excusing?
• Which political pundits, especially political pundits who have run for President themselves and who have access to the current President, "openly discuss" politiacal ssassinationtion "all the time"? I know that people like Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly call for the death of political opponents from time to time, is that what you mean?

So Andrew, thanks for commenting, but after reading this, I'm sorry to say that Ted Haggard didn't do what I was hoping he would. I wish he'd just said what Al Mohler, dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said (also in Olsen's article):

"He has brought embarrassment upon us all. With so much at stake, Pat Robertson bears responsibility to retract, rethink, repent, and restate his position on this issue. Otherwise, what could have been a temporary lapse of judgment can become an enduring obstacle to the Gospel."

See Ted, it's not that hard.

Robertson Repudiations (and not)

I've found the government's response to be rather tepid, but that is no surprise.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the level of response from many Evangelicals, but sadly, not all. I got off to a nice start this morning with this quote from APU's (holla!) own Kevin Mannoia in the LA Times:

"We complain about the Islamic fanatics making statements like that."...He (then) called Robertson's statement "an extreme, fanatical reaction that is not representative of the Christian faith in general and the evangelical movement in particular. It's out of line and inappropriate and should not be made by a serious person in a serious forum."

The New York Times noted:

The Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals said he and "most evangelical leaders" would disassociate themselves from such "unfortunate and particularly irresponsible" comments.

"It complicates circumstances for foreign missionaries and Christian aid workers overseas who are already perceived, wrongly, especially by leftists and other leaders, as collaborators with U.S. intelligence agencies," Mr. Cizik added.

But sadly, the Times went on to observe:

But other conservative Christian organizations remained silent, with leaders at the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition saying they were too busy to comment.

That's more like it fellas! Way to confirm my suspicions!

Robertson Bobs and Weaves

Given the surprising level of response to his comment's on Monday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be assassinated, Pat Robertson made two attempts today to repair the damage.

First, he initially denied saying Chavez should be assassinated by saying:

Wait a minute, I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should, quote, "take him out," and "take him out" can be a number of things including kidnapping. There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time.

Except he wasn't "misinterpreted". Here's what Robertson originally said:

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. ...We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

Seems pretty clear to me.

Then, when that didn't work because, you know, people have VCR's and computers with internet access and check things like that, according to Media Matters:

On the afternoon of August 24, Robertson issued a press release in which he claimed that his assassination comments were "adlibbed" out of frustration, suggesting they were not representative of his true thinking.

Read the whole Press Release here, in which Robertson amazingly tries to wrap himself in the mantle of German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer!

Put a fork in him, he's done. But then again, maybe not. If you follow the link to Robertson's site, you'll find links to "Pat's Age-Defying Antioxidants", "Pat Robertson's Age-Defying Shake", and "Pat's Age-Defying Protein Pancakes". And I swear, or rather, I affirm, since I'm a Quaker, that I am not making this up!

Denounce Robertson, Now

Pat Robertson is a kook.

I don't have a fast enough connection to track the links, but all you have to do is run a search with the words "Robertson" and "hurricane", "dictator", "gold", or "judges" and you'll get plenty of examples.

But yesterday he reached a new level, calling for the assassination of the (elected) President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. He has not been quoted out of context. In fact viewing the quote in context makes it even worse by making it clear this was not merely a throw away line.

I don't expect any response from our government, since the Bush Administration apparently supported a coup attempt against Chavez in 2002. (And this failed coup was a partial source of Robertson's tirade). They are not going to denounce Robertson for asking them to do something they wish they could do.

But I should be able to expect a response from the "leaders" of the Evangelical community. And I'm looking at you, Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals. Haggard has spoken on a broad number of issues, but only to turn the NAE into a reliable voice in support of this Administration, so I can't imagine anything will be forthcoming, but it should.

Christian leaders should denounce Robertson, clearly, without any qualification. But they won't. This will cause hardly a ripple. And the fact that there are many Christians who would want to argue that assassinating democratically elected leaders of neighboring countries might be OK just shows how captive we have become to our culture.

But at least I can say it. "I denounce Pat Robertson for calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. He does not speak for me and vigorously reject any assertion that he may be speaking for the Church and for the Gospel of Jesus".

Well, at least I feel better.

Linkage II

After the elections, San Francisco free-lance journalist Rose Aguilar decided "...to leave my liberal bubble and travel to the so-called "Red States" to find out why people vote the way they do and what they think about politics." She hit the road in April, and has been blogging her encounters at Stories in America. She has a nice way with her conversation and is only occasionally (and probably unintentionally) condescending. It's fascinating stuff. (Via Digby's Hullabaloo)

The year's decision by the Kansas Board of Education to give "equal consideration" to Intelligent Design alongside evolution spawned the creation of another religion demanding equal consideration: Pastafarianism, a religion dedicated to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. One of their more novel beliefs or insights is to link the rise in global temperature to the worldwide decline in the number of pirates. Take a look at this droll article in the Guardian, too. (Via Michael Froomkin at Discourse.Net)

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who wonders about things like this. At the economics focused website Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowan tries to figure out why there are so many framing shops, and why frames are so expensive.

I attend LA Galaxy matches with the LA Riot Squad, a supporter group which sometimes uses "strong language". Within the group, I've been an advocate of having at least some limits. But as a group, we've received static for violating the "family atmosphere" of the stadium, "ruining" the experience for all those AYSO teams who come once and miss most of the match running up and down the aisles and standing in concession stands. I've often wondered where we got the idea that a professional sporting event is meant to be just another place to take the kids once they've outgrown Chuck E. Cheese. In this article, Washington based writer Ian Penderleith makes my point better than I could.

A little bit of unintended irony: seems a "female dancer" (stripper?) was involved in a Miami Dolphins rookie hazing event. Seems somebody told the press, and that somebody mentioned that the dancer took special interest in Dolphin coach Lou Sabin. Sabin responded that things like this were "family matters" and that he will cut whomever told the press. Interesting definition of "family matter".

Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chris is too old for me to have an excuse anymore to stand in line to get the books at midnight, so we've relied on Amazon for the last two. But last year, while we were waiting for the FedEx truck to bring our book, my Dad called...

Dad: "Do you have the Harry Potter book yet?"
Me: "No, we're waiting for FedEx. We got it from Amazon so we could have it today and not stand in line at the book stores". (I'm feeling pretty slick at this point)

Dad: "Well, they've got them at Albertsons".
Me: "Albertsons! How can that be?

And so, I walk over to Albertsons, and there they were. But this leaves me with somewhat mixed feelings. One of the secret joys of being a reader (at least for me) is pretentiousness. You know that when you're reading you're doing something superior to watching reality TV or eating at Applebee's. But it's hard to maintain this pretense when you are buying your book along with a bag of giant Cheeto's.

This year, I dispensed with Amazon, and planned on Albertsons, but their delivery was late, so we had to wait to the evening. Chris raced through and finished on Monday, while I didn't get to start until Monday and so took until Tuesday, my latest finishing point for the last three books.

And so, to the review.

The broad hints about the story were true. The story does become "darker" and a significant character dies. Compared to previous books, not a lot of new ground is covered. Obviously, the story advances, but each of the previous books has expanded our knowledge of the wizarding world, and the kids have grown rapidly. This time, as happens in real life at this point of adolescence (they're sixteen turning seventeen), the kids maturation has slowed, and the plot mainly fills in the broad canvas created by the first five books.

One of the things I’ve really liked about the more recent books is the way Rowling gives complex and even contradictory motivations to her characters. In books aimed at kids (and works aimed at that level, like TV shows and most popular cinema) the characters are very flat. Rowling has trusted her readers enough to make her characters more and more rounded as the story progresses, while at the same time keeping them believable as kids. (Although I do think she stumbles a bit with the “relationship stuff”). Her portrayal of the adults is just as sharp. I really appreciated her somewhat unsympathetic portrayal of Harry's godfather Sirius Black in book V. In this book, the adults become even more complicated, and in a very satisfying way, she shows the kids moving into more of a peer relationship with their parents and teachers.

Rowling also has a keen eye for the "ways of the world". I thought her portrayal of the wizarding government's response to the return of Voldemort at the end of book IV and throughout book V was very smart. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic and their head of government, senses deep down that he is not equipped to handle the likes of Voldemort, and so he refuses to admit that it is possible for him to have returned. While I have seen this response to trouble many times in real life and note that it is a very frequent cause of grief, we rarely see this portrayed as a motivation in film, and so I thank Rowling for it. At the beginning of this book, Voldemort goes on a rampage, leading to the sacking of Fudge and his predictable replacement by a "man of action". Rowling also gets in a few wry comments on "the war on terrah" in connection with this.

And yes, the themes of the book are "darker". Perhaps a better way to put it is that the moral boundaries of the characters become wider and blurrier. Rowling had pointed us in this direction at the end of book IV, when, upon his return, Voldemort kills one of Harry's classmates like a bug. Now, this casual disregard for life, or perhaps better, avid regard for gaining and keeping power, is full-blown. This left Chris kind of troubled.

Rowling also seems to be aware of some of her own literary patterns from the previous books. There is a hard to see but essential difference between having a style and self-plagiarism, Rowling understands this, and plays off of it brilliantly. Through most of the book, it appeared to me that Rowling had fallen into a rut with one of the subplots Harry faces, and I was thinking, “Doesn’t she realize she always has Harry focused on this?”. But as it turns out, Rowling was fully aware, and uses and breaks this pattern to great effect at the end of the book.

But I do have a few small quibbles. First, despite Rowling's frequent references to the power of love being greater than all other powers, this time she seems to suggest that Harry's fundamental motivation towards Voldemort is, and should be, revenge. She does little to reconcile the incompatibility of these two powers, and I suspect it is because she doesn't realize that they are incompatible. Second, Rowling seems to think that some people are "killers" and some are not. She does a great job of portraying how killing can rob one of his or her soul, but just the stories of Rwanda, Bosnia, and Dafur from recent years show that given the right circumstances and motivations, we can all be killers.

That aside, these books are brilliant. If you have kids, read them along with them. These stories provide you with a common set of experiences and stories which can be invaluable in talking to your kids about life. (And despite a great deal of ink and venom over the "danger" of these stories for Christian kids, fuggeddaboutit. The themes and worldview of these books fit well with Christian thinking and priorities, much more so even than, say, the Left Behind books. Trust me on this, I'm a professional). And even if you don't have kids, read these books. At best, you'll learn something about life, and at worst, we all can at least develop a set of common cultural referents beyond the Simpsons and South Park.

Other Stuff: the Internets are populated with people who are even more obsessive and with greater motivation to waste time than I. Here are two really amazing reflections by garlandgraves and Brad Plumer on the events at the end of the book where the story may be going in the next and final book. I felt a lot better after reading them.

Linkage

The blogosphere has been buzzing over Roger Ebert's amazing smack down of Rob Schneider. Seems Schneider took issue with comments from the LA Times' Patrick Goldstien (whom I like a lot) about his latest film: Deuce Bigalo - European Gigalo and took out ads in the trade papers to say so. Goldstien has ignored him, but Ebert has risen to Goldstein's defense. Go read it now, along with able comments from Patrick Nielson Hayden at Making Light.

Nielson Hayden also links to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune which suggest that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, may not be growing as quickly as commonly believed, or as asserted by LDS officials. Hmm.

Fascinating post from Mark Kleiman. He offers a contrafactual historical proposal - "What would the religious map of Europe look like today if the English Civil War had taken place a decade earlier, putting well-disciplined English troops into the field on the Protestant side of the Thirty Years' War?" This post has a number of fascinating responses.

Eszter at Crooked Timber gives a shout out to blogger (and sociologist!) Jeremy Freese (and sociologist!) who is was having trouble getting his sofa into a new apartment, and then goes on to sharing and soliciting bad moving stories.

I'm not sure how I found her (could be Susan Kitchens) but I love mimi smartypants. (The penguins are not new. In fact, given the tone of the site, I suspect she may be thinking about losing the penguins now that that movie is so popular). This a typical entry:

Here is another thing that was much, much funnier in my brain than it was in real life:

Coworker: What does it mean when your cat starts pooping a lot?
Me: What does it mean?
Coworker: Yeah.
Me: Are you thinking symptom or omen?

And then I got the big snorting giggles while she stood there waiting for me to stop and engage in friendly workplace pet-discussion. Maybe I have just been damaged from my Classics major, but I love picturing some haruspex of excrement shouting, "Sire! The cat poop bodes ill today!"

Babbling in Public

So we're walking back to our car after a lovely al fresco lunch at CostCo, when a woman passes us, gesturing and talking to herself. My first thought was, "Wow, that woman has lost it. I hope she's gonna be OK. What should I do for her?"

Except she wasn't mentally ill - she was talking on her "hands free" cell phone. How long it will take for me to change my frame of reference so that the first thing I'll think of in this kind of situation will be "She must be on the phone"?

Review: Reservoir Dogs

Many of the young men (and some of the young women) I teach admire Quentin Tarantino's films. I think Pulp Fiction is brilliant, but I could only watch a few minutes of Kill Bill before giving up, and until recently, I hadn't seen Reservoir Dogs nor Jackie Brown.

So in order to better understand the narrative world and sensibilities of my students (I say this partially tongue in cheek), I rented Reservoir Dogs the other day.

It was a terrible experience. I was OK with and kinda liked the opening breakfast table scene. The dialog lacked the snap that Tarantino shows in Pulp Fiction, but you could see how the first leads to the second. But it was all down hill after that. I was ready to give up after about forty minutes, but I kept on, thinking that the film maker would redeem all that he was putting me through, but he didn't. I don't think I've ever regretted seeing a movie more. (Except for maybe all three of the new Star Wars films, but that's for another time).

I understand what Tarantino was trying to do - he pushes boundaries in multiple directions. But I don't understand why so many people feel so passionate about this film. What is the point of the movie? What's it about, other than transgressing boundaries?

But it also occurs to me that this film belongs, broadly, to the same transgressive category as The Bad News Bears which I affirm in another post. So, am I saying that this kind of thing is OK in it's milder forms but not at full strength? Hmm.

Review: The Bad News Bears

I remember reading a review sometime last winter which brilliantly dismissed a trite sentimental movie as "...the kind of movie that was meant for people for whom the highest praise they can give to a film is to say, 'That was a nice movie'".

I was thinking about this while watching The Bad News Bears the other day. This remake of the 1976 classic has Billy Bob Thornton in the Walter Matthau role, and one could probably write an entire dissertation about what the differences between their personae say about how our culture has shifted over the last generation. I don't remember the first film very well, but this one is clearly not a "nice movie", at least in the conventional sense.

But interestingly, the basic structure of the film is classic "nice movie" - a drunken, down on his luck former ball player takes on a team of misfits. The kids learn how to play, have success and grow in self-confidence, and the coach becomes a better man in the process. But the surface of the movie is decidedly and profoundly "not nice". There is lots of profanity and harsh, harsh dialog, and the coach behaves like one would expect a drunken, down on his luck former ball player to behave. This juxtiposition left me a little unsettled.

Aside from that essential question, the movie has a number of nice touches. The strong team in the kids' league wears lots of Under Armour gear, a trend I've noticed among the "I value my kids by spending gratuitously silly amounts of money on my kids' sports" parents in our community. The kids that are supposed to be good ball players are. The boy who plays Kelly Leak, the bad boy athlete who joins the Bears late in the season, has a really nice swing. And I really liked it that when the boys were describing Kelly's legendary feats and characteristics to the coach, one kid said, "He's in sixth grade but he's dating an eighth grader!" while one of the Spanish speaking kids described him as "...un vero Chupacabra".

But I'm still not sure about the movie. I wasn't bothered by the language. Kids talk like this, and I don't see much value in projecting an innocence onto children that they don't possess. On the other hand, I did find the shift of the team's sponsor to a strip club to be another regrettable example of the "mainstreaming" of the "adult" entertainment industry. But then again, the movie is set in the San Fernando Valley. (Giggle)

Most of the laughs in the film are in the "Oh ho ho - that's baaaaad" variety. And that's not very nice. I spend a lot time telling my students that "nice" and "good" are not the same thing, but this film has me wondering about the value of that distinction. In the end, I liked it, but I'm not entirely comfortable that I liked it, you know?

Adventures in Parenting

Last week, Chris returned from his summer church camp at Quaker Meadow. We picked him up from the bus and, of course, made the ritual post-camp visits to In-n-Out and Donut Man (the one Glendora landmark!) on the way home.

Sitting together over burgers and fries, we had a brilliant discussion ranging from evolution, to the nature of truth, to how thoughtfulness is often an unwelcome trait among Christians to what it means to "act like a Christian". I was amazed and honored to have this kind of discussion with my son.

And I was thankful to the the two guys who served as Chris's counselors. They both did a great job of guiding Chris and framing the camp experience for them. I especially appreciated their approach of telling the boys to "make sure you do and say all of the obvious Christian things so we'll look good as counselors". If you've been around Christian groups much, or any group for that matter, you know every group has characteristic ways of talking and acting that serve as kind of a short hand for who's in and who's out. These things are not bad, but they often count for way too much.

Chris is already the kind of kid who sees through this kind of thing, and so his counselors' ironically angled request affirmed his sensibilities. But it also had the affect of getting him to focus on what a Christian is really supposed to be like, and he has returned home a kinder and better focused person.

Near the end of the conversation, I told Chris that I thought he would especially like getting to know his counselor Robert, along with Aaron whom he already knew well and thinks is great. Chris gets along well with me and I told him, "Robert and I have similar sensibilities, but he's not as grouchy as I am".

Chris responded enthusiastically: "Yeah, Robert is like a happier, younger and cooler version of you".

I don't know how this would make Robert feel, but it made me feel, well, I don't know how it made me feel. But I'm glad to have him back and glad for what Aaron and Robert were able to give him.

Iraq: Much Worse Than You Think

Supporters of the war in Iraq frequently argue that the "successes" of Iraq are underreported, and hint darkly at a media conspiracy. Their arguments rarely include any evidence of those "good things", but they continue to believe that they're there.

But today, via the indispensable Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings, I read this - Iraq: What the Media Won't Tell Us. As they say on the Internets, read the whole thing, but the short version of this horrifying story is this: in Baghdad alone, a city ostensibly controlled and liberated by the US, nearly 1000 people are being killed every month, some by torture, most execution style, and this is simply not being reported.

If "freedom is on the march" in Iraq, as the President likes to tell us, if "progress" is being made, I'd hate to see what "problems" would be.

I wonder how the "media conspiracy" types will account for this?

Oh, What the Heck

I'm going to start up again, but I still won't officially tell anybody. If you stumble here, this is still a work in progress.

My wife is going through a tough patch (at least we hope it's just a "patch" and not a permanent change) and so, strangely enough, she doesn't have much energy to hear me rant about these things. But with the way my mind works, I've gotta have some outlet, otherwise these things bounce around my brain at greater and greater speed until... well, I don't want to find out.

So, there you have it.

Weekly Diary

Katie's Big Week - A nice week for our daughter Katie. She received an academic award at school, and was cast as a Gossiper in the musical, Once on this Island, she'll be part of in June. It has been really fun to watch her find that she likes musical theater, and watch her step up into her roles. She loves acting and singing, but not in a self-centered kind of way. I'm very happy for her.

The New Pope - ...has turned out to be Catholic after all. I mention this because some folks seem surprised that the Cardinals would select someone who is dedicated to upholding core Catholic doctrine, even though this group of Cardinals is much less intellectually and theologically diverse than then group which selected the previous Pope. I can understand the frustration of many American Catholics, and I share many of their concerns, but then again, that's not why I'm a Catholic. And don't be fooled when Ratzinger/Benedict talks about "unity" - he uses the phrase the same way President Bush uses "bi-partisan" - we can be together as long as you agree with and submit to me. (I wonder if this will ever begin to bother American Evangelicals).

Science? Interesting article from Scientist/Blogger Chad Orzel in his blog Uncertain Principles. Seems he got stuck waiting in a doctor's office (and not in Canada or France, but right here in the US - I thought this only happened where they have socialized medicine) and started leafing through the pages of Children's Ministry magazine. (I have used this magazine in the past and found it occasionally helpful). For Orzel, the magazine was a trip to a strange land, but it was the issues article on using science experiments for ministry purposes that got his attention. But wasn't the article's attempt to fuse faith and science which got him - he's broadly sympathetic to that idea - it was that the experiments didn't have any science in them! I think this is very bad, and even though Orzel and I have very different faith commitments, I share his perspective.

Chivas Tonight! - I'm not having birria, but I'd like to. No, tonight the LA Galaxy will be taking on their new inter-city rivals, CD Chivas USA. (Is it "inter" or "intra"? I can never keep those things straight.) This will be very intense. I'm taking my brother to his first soccer match - I figure if he doesn't like this, he won't ever like soccer.

Worst Book Ever - Fred Clark over at Slacktivist is doing all of us a favor by offering his reading of Left Behind, an amazingly best-selling book which some (in fact, a rather appallingly low number in proportion to the book's sales) recognize as being amazingly bad. Fred points out just how bad it can be in this week's installment, in which he comments on the books "we're not conspiracy theorists but here's our conspiracy" point of view and the rather startling tendency the author's have of naming their male characters like porn starts. Go take a look.

Fifth Grade...

...is when my children surpass me. I love to travel, but haven't done much of it. In fifth grad, my son Chris was able to take a trip to Philadelphia and the surrounding area - a trip I would love to make and still haven't had a chance to. I was never even on an airplane until I was twenty-nine.

Katie's fifth grade year began with her surpassing me by being elected Student Council President at her school. I made two failed attempts at a similar office, losing in eighth grade, and winning (I think) as a senior in high school, only to be forced to forfeit the election after stupidly failing a comp class the previous semester.

This week she surpassed me again by getting interviewed by the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, in her capacity of school president, for feature the paper is doing on her school. As any good political leader, her quotes were rather bland and on message. I've always wanted to be quoted in the paper, but the closest I've come was about a dozen years ago, when a reporter called me to ask about what our church would be doing for Halloween. (At that time, churches were getting really wound up over whether we should mark "the Devil's Holiday") We talked for close to an hour, and I gave her context for the discussion, helped her understand some of the quotes she had received, basically helped her rewrite the entire article. None of my quotes appeared in the final article, unless you count many sentences and several paragraphs which were essential or actual (but unattributed) quotes from our conversation.

Good for them.

Wow! Gangsta, Clueless, or Venal?

We seem to have reached a point in our political discourse in which words mean absolutely nothing.

Witness this quote from embattled (at least I pray he is embattled) Rep. Tom Delay:

"It is unfortunate in our electoral system, exacerbated by our adversarial media culture, that political discourse has to get so overheated that it's not just arguments, but motives are questioned."

Amazingly, and ironically, Delay made this comment to the National Rifle Association, which has never been known to, uh, undersell their viewpoints.

Where to start? I cannot think of anyone who is more responsible for the venomous atmosphere in Washington than Tom Delay, and it makes me absolutely sick to see Evangelicals rising to his defense. But since many folks likely to be reading this don't share my perspective on Delay and Evangelicalism's Republican captivity, you'll probably be saying - "That's just your opinion". Uh no, it's not. Due to the miracle of the internets, a list of only some of Delay's most poisonous statements is only a mouse click away. (thanks to Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings).

Weekly Diary

A great start to the week. Last Saturday night, Chris and I took in the LA Galaxy's 3-1 victory over Real Salt Lake along with our friends from the LA Riot Squad. We love soccer, but also love being with the guys. (Watch this short video to get an idea of just how fun it can be. That's my arm patting one of the video's combatants on the back). You can also see a picture of us at half time here.

We were deeply saddened, however, to learn that the Galaxy (or the corporation which owns the Galaxy and the stadium, AEG) have decided to ban the bacon wrapped hot dog vendors from the facility. These dogs, served with grilled onions, peppers, mustard, ketchup, and Mexican-style mayo (con todo), have become part of the sporting landscape in SoCal. You can see the carts outside Staples center, the Rose Bowl, and the Coliseum. A guy at church had one after the Billy Graham Crusade at the Rose Bowl. We always have them after the matches, and so after last week's victory, we walked out of the stadium ready to follow our noses and the cries of "'oddogh, oddogh, oddogh" to the carts, but they were gone. In memory, I offer this pictorial tribute:




I did my taxes yesterday afternoon, and did them early. I got to the Glendora Post Office by 4:25 pm! Last year, for the first time, I got to be one of those people you see on TV who drive to the big Post Office to get them in by midnight. I drove to Altadena around 10:00 pm. It was kind of fun. This year, we will get $3 back. We owed $115 to the state and will get a $118 refund from the Feds. I'm sure that extra $3 dollars will expand the economy - or at least the well being of the Snyder family.

And that's about it. Wendy was on vacation along with the kids this week, and so I tried to stay happy and stay away from the internet. It was a good week.

Review: The Commitments!

So last night, I'm channel surfing between innings of the Dodger game, and I see a vaguely familiar looking guy crossing a dreary urban street. I think, "Is that the X-Files guy, you know, the guy who just made that movie?" (this is how my mind works sometimes), and then I think "No, that's not him, you're always mixing him up with the Twin Peaks guy, the guy that was in that famously bad Vegas/stripper/dancer movie. It's the Twin Peaks guy". Then I think, "Nah, it's not him - he's too skinny". Then I hear someone shout in a lyrical Dublin brouge, "Hey, Jimmy Rabbitte!" and I know where I am - this is The Commitments!!

I love this movie, and hadn't seen it in five or six years. It is the story of the rise and fall of a Dublin soul bad. The movie is smart and witty about music and dreams and hope. But what I love the most is the almost musical dialog of the characters. Much of this is due to the Irish accents which place an edge or embellishment on every phrase, but the words and sentences themselves are, as the characters would say, "...f***ing brilliant". (You do need to have a certain tolerance for the f-word to enjoy this film. It doesn't go into Scarface territory, but hey, if it's good enough for Dick Cheney...)

I don't know if Dubliners really talk like this outside of Roddy Doyle novels. But I hope so.

Update: More on the Bankruptcy Bill

The House will take up the Bankruptcy bill today, which has already passed the Senate. In connection with this, Christianity Today published a short update, typical of the magazine's POV, titled "Debt Buster: Christians Divided Over Federal Bankruptcy Bill".

Speaking against the bill is rising evangelical financial superstar Dave Ramsey (no relation) who calls the bill: "...one of the worst pieces of legislation to come out of Washington in years. The legislation is based on the lie that most people who file bankruptcy are deadbeats or con artists."

Willing to repeat the lie is Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a publicly identified Christian, who claims (perhaps while crossing his fingers): "...the bill seeks to hold accountable those who have spent recklessly while preserving the principle of a fresh start for those who are in debt by no fault of their own."

Simply within the frame of the article, the "Christian division" is accounted for by the dueling quotes from Grassley and Ramsey, along with an apparently added on quote from a group of 75 Christian bankruptcy attorneys (which I've posted on before) who have previously opposed the bill as "unbiblical". But the unspoken subtext of the short note is the remarkable fact that any self-identified Evangelical such as Ramsey is willing to break lockstep with what the Republicans want. And a more obvious subtext is that "Christian" means "Evangelical" because most liberal Christian groups and Catholics have been vocally opposed to the measure, and they get no mention.

There is a further irony here in the use of Grassley as a spokesperson for the divide among Christians, in that the Senator has said that biblical principles cannot be applied here. In response to an open from the Christian attorneys cited above, Grassley said: "I can't listen to Christian lawyers because I would be imposing the Bible on a diverse population..."

As they say here in the blog world - "Heh".

Weekly Diary

Soccer. Last Saturday was opening day for MLS, and my team the LA Galaxy went down to an ignominious 3-0 defeat at the hands (or I should say, feet and heads) of the Columbus Crew. While the match was played in difficult weather conditions, it was primarily a reminder of just how ugly the beautiful game can become when a team cannot play with any cohesion. I hoping for much more as Chris and I join our friends with the LA Riot Squad as the Galaxy host Real Salt Lake in their home opener.

Unbelievable. This week, Senator John Cornyn of Texas rose in almost empty Senate chamber to discuss "judicial activism" and while he was at it, suggested that frustration over this activism was responsible for the recent killings of judges. I know that Cornyn is a conservative Republican representing a state from the former Confederacy, which seems to entitle one to a great deal of rhetorical latitude, but this is entirely over the line. His argument is exactly the same thing as saying, "Yes I deplore that the young woman was gang raped, but when these girls wear those short skirts, tensions are going to build up." This is absolutely shameful, but even more shameful has been then way that at least up to today, Cornyn has gotten away with it.

Sub-Sixty. My son Chris ran in his fourth track meet Thursday, and ran 59.6 for 400 meters, which is not bad for an 8th grader running his fourth race. We had been kind of hoping that he could run that fast by the end of the year, and so now he has had to expand his goals. His time lowered his previous best by four seconds. The best moment for me was not when he crossed the finish line first, but the look of joyous surprise on his face when they told him his time.

Good Thinking. Over at Obsidian Wings, Sebastian Holsclaw has a very thoughtful post about who best serves to reform a practice or an institution - its opponents or those who support it. He uses another post about gay marriage as a jumping off point to discuss union reform, and even gets in a little G.K. Chesterton. While I don't support his conclusion (I am unwilling to trust that the Administration has anything but narrowly partisan interests in "reforming" unions), I think it is a very worthy discussion, or more importantly, an excellent example of a good discussion.

JP II - Morti. So, the Pope died this week. I have been amazed at the way that the media and Protestants have all suddenly become Catholics. While the immediate aftermath of one's death should lead all of us to act with restraint, the press has been entirely uncritical in their analysis of John Paul II's life and legacy. I've also noticed the way in which Protestants have adopted internal titles for the Pope. I understand why Catholics would use exalted titles for the Pope, but I'm a little surprised the Vice-President of my university called him "His Holiness" while ordering flags flown at half mast, and the President (of my country) has called him the "Holy Father". Americans and Protestants used to have a thing about titles like this. I guess we don't anymore.

More on Wotija. The response to the Pope's death from the evangelical community has been one could say, selective. James Dobson and other Evangelical leaders), predictably, praised the pope for supporting his positions, while ignoring the many ways in which the Pope's explicit teaching and policies ran counter to those of the United States and to the preoccupations of American Evangelicals. (The Pope thought abortion and gay sex were bad, but he also thought unbridled capitalism, invading countries on false pretexts, and torturing people were bad, too) But while we may be giving the Pope's legacy a free ride, read this thoughtful call for the Popes to become heirs of Christ rather than successors to Caesar.

Update. My previously reported pretzel injury no longer hurts and looks as if it will heal without a scar. You may now relax.

This Week's Reading

This week, I read....

Nothing.

Well, not quite nothing. I did read half of a book review by Adam Gopnik (whom I really like) in the New Yorker on some French chef who killed himself, but that was all. I didn't' not want to finish the review, but I didn't want to either. I also have a new and untouched Atlantic Monthly staring back at me.

I plead: a writing project in process, student papers to read, family drama, and three Champions' League soccer matches on TV this week, of which the Milan derby is still waiting to be watched.

When Pretzels Attack!

This is the kind of thing, that when I read it on other people's blogs makes me a little crazy. But since this is about me, it's, uh, different.

Yesterday, I was eating a pretzel (a small pretzel-shaped pretzel for those interested) and bit off half of it. I held the other half in my lips and teeth, awaiting swallowing (something I can do very well, unlike some other people we know) and the second bite.

This meant a kind of hook shape from the pretzel half was resting on the outside of my upper lip, and when I bit down again, the edge of the pretzel cut my upper lip!!

So tonight, I have a small, visible wound on my upper lip.

That is all.

Weekly Diary

The week got off to a rough start with the US national soccer team being defeated by Mexico 2-1 on Easter Sunday. The US has never defeated Mexico in Mexico, and looks like we'll have to wait another four years for the chance. The sad part is that it seemed the US didn't even try to take the chance. Bruce Arena sent the Americans out in a defensive 4-5-1 formation and with a passive style, ignoring the pressing direct style with which the US has had so much success and which led to the historic 2-0 defeat of Mexico in the '02 World Cup. I think Arena was saving his team for Wednesday's match against Guatemala, which the US won soundly 2-0.

The Terri Schiavo died this week. As I mentioned before, I think the issue of withholding hydration and nutrition is difficult, but in its most basic sense, a feeding tube is just as "artificial" as, say, a ventilator. But the difficulty of the question was rarely reflected in the public discussion, much of which turned on the denial of the basic facts about this poor woman's brain - that is, that it was largely gone. I found it deeply frustrating to find pro-life people turning to the medical equivalents of Holocaust deniers, but found mild relief in this slapdown of one egregiously bad TV talking head.

On a "lighter" note, but really not, it seems that VR battles are drifting over into the "real" world, as in this case where one Chinese gamer killed another for stealing a "virtual sword".
(Via Crooked Timber).

My daughter Katie is very excited this week. Her new love is musical theater and she be performing this summer in Once on This Island and Alice in Wonderland. She just received the CD and score for Island, so now the singing will begin. I'm excited, not because I have any particular love for musical theater, but because I have a profound love for my daughter, and seeing her happy always makes me happy.

Cyberspace has been hopping over an op/ed in the New York Times by John Danforth, a former Republican Senator from Missouri and Ambassador to the UN, , decrying the takeover of the Republican party by Christian conservatives. (This from a man who is an ordained minister!). Key Quote:

"But in recent times, we Republicans have allowed this shared agenda to become secondary to the agenda of Christian conservatives. As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around."

He thinks the Republicans have sold their souls to the Christians. I'm more worried about the reverse, given further evidence this week that many Christian leaders have sold their souls to the Republicans. The Bible is clear that we are to lay down our lives for Jesus and His Church. But are we required to lay down for Tom DeLay?

"Culture of Life" My... uh, Eye

Commenting earlier today on the death of Terri Schiavo, President Bush said:

"The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in the favor of life".

This is absolutely unbelievable. Does the man really believe we are that stupid? His economic policies are designed around the idea that the weak are best helped by empowering the strong, but I guess one could try to argue that this really is the best way to help the poor. It's nonsense, but one could make the argument. But a "presumption in favor of life" when there are "doubts and questions"?

When our President was governor of Texas he was profoundly uninterested in the very real "doubts and questions" about many of the people his state executed. He even actively opposed an attempt to make Texas' clemency and review process more transparent and effective.

Mr. President, there was really no doubt that the upper part of Terri Schiavo's brain is gone, while there were profound doubts about the guilt of some of the men whose execution you authorized. Mr. President, does your cynicism know no bounds?

Weekly Diary

We euthanized our elderly and ill rabbit, Murray, this week. It was a hard choice. Actually, like most important things in life, it wasn't hard, at least in the way a calculus problem or climbing Mt. Whitney are hard. It was just hard to do, and sadly, we waited too long, prolonging his suffering to spare our feelings.

My former neighbor and award winning blogger Susan Kitchens gives us "Yet Another Reason to Hate SUV's", (not that I needed any help with this) at her blog 2020 Hindsight.

I'm on a week long fast from Mexican food to prepare myself for the US v. Mexico soccer match tomorrow. I am very wound up about this match. One of the best moments of my life was when the US defeated Mexico 2-0 during the World Cup in 2002. If we win tomorrow, this will be the first time the US have ever defeated Mexico in Mexico. May it be the first of many.

We attended a very creative Good Friday Service last night at Glendora Friends Church. The service combined ambient music, projected images, and Scripture reading. While I think the idea for the service was stronger than its execution, I was moved by the Bible reading - the Bible is always a good bet. It's a mystery to me that Christian worship does not make greater use of the brilliant, moving, and you know, divinely inspired words of the Bible, at least in comparison to the often pedestrian words of preachers and (especially) worship songs.

I am troubled almost beyond words about the Terri Schiavo situation, but as is increasingly the case, I am more troubled by the response of my fellow Christians and my national leaders. I'm not sure about the ethics of withdrawing hydration and nutrition, but I am certain that commitment to a cause does not give one the privilege of making up facts to support one's perspective. There are a gazillion links to this on the web, but this one from UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, and this one from Slate's Will Saletan have me most outraged.

Weekly Diary

Wonderful start. Just after church on Sunday, Wendy and I drove to Santa Barbara for the day. Like any trip to SB should, we began with lunch at La Super Rica, perhaps the greatest restaurant in the world. I don't know if it actually is the greatest but we think so, and so it works that way for us, something like that copper bracelet I wore when my wrist was hurting. Afterwards, we went to an outlet store and Wendy was able to find an amazing leather jacket for only $80! A little context is in order here. My wife rarely wants things - in fact, it's hard to get her to buy things when she shops. She is the opposite of what they call "high maintenance". Nevertheless, she has wanted a leather jacket for quite some time, but the $300/$400 price for a nice one always seemed too much. But here was a $400 jacket on sale for $80 and it was in perfect condition and just the right cut and style! I am so pleased for her.

Bloggies - This week was the fifth annual Weblog Awards. Now that I am a blogger, I felt compelled professionally (or to be more accurate, amateurishly) to see what else is out there. My favorite find - go read this now - is Overheard in New York. This blog is just what the title says it is: a listing of conversations and comments overheard by people in New York City. For instance:

Girl #1: It was me, her, and Kim Fines.
Girl #2: I thought Kim Fines was dead?
Girl #1: Yeah, she is.
Girl #2: She must be like 47 by now!

--Lincoln Center parking garage

Feeling Stressed? It seems we all are, or at least talk about ourselves this way. According to one study, 26% of Americans feel so stressed that it hampers their creativity. This is more than twice the rate of stress reported in Belgium, which sort of makes sense, but we also lead Columbia and Lebanon, where, you know, they have real reasons for stress.

Big Day - On Thursday, my son Chris competed in his first track meet, and loved it! Now if he would just grow his hair long and start a garage band, all my immediate wishes for him would be fulfilled!

Talk About "Powerful" Best Sellers - Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life has been a phenomenon. They sell them by the case at Costco, churches give 'em away, it's been on the NY Times Bestseller list for years. Any critiques of the book are brushed aside - read here (especially Gregg Koskela's excellent review) for one example. But by now I'm sure your aware that the book has the power (when served with pancakes) to make criminals repent and turn themselves in. Now that's a "powerful" book.

Mark of the Beast? - The government announced this week that the US annual trade deficit reached 666 billion dollars for 2004. Six-Sixty-Six! I don't know what to make of this. I know that Christians were supposed to believe that trade (and budget) deficits were bad when the Democrats controlled the Congress and White House, but they seem to be OK now, so I guess I can relax. But Six-Sixty-Six! How can that be a mere coincidence? What is God telling us?

Curious - The spellchecker for Blogger does not recognize "blog" and "blogger" as correctly spelled words. Hmm.

Just Getting Started

If you somehow stumbled onto this site from a trackback, or from me telling you about it, or from the Blogger system, hang on. There is more to come. My plan is to go public with this later this week, when I'll include a number of other posts.

Please check then and keep coming back.

Weekly Diary

My son Chris got off to a good start in his Pony League baseball season on Sunday, going 1-3 (including a beautiful bunt single) while reaching base in 4 of 5 plate appearances with no strike outs...

You think you know things, and then you discover again that what you don't know is a lot. Witness Laura Rozen's account on her blog War and Piece of a trip to the central Chinese city of Wuhan. She begins, "Until recently, I had never heard of this city, (me neither, ed) the capital of Hubei Province on the Yangtze River. But it has 7.9 million people, dwarfing even Manhattan in population."...

The Los Angeles Galaxy have finally been given an attractive shirt by Nike. Of course, it is the second shirt, which they will hardly ever wear, but you take what you can get...

James Wolcott has a hilarious take, "Gubernator Turns a Paler Shade of Chicken", on the reception Gov. Schwarzenegger has received on his fundraising trip from those flaming radicals... nurses. He called them out recently, and they have answered...

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings. Connected to the date is the news (via Obsidian Wings) that an Islamic organization in Spain has issued a fatwa against Osama bin Landin, declaring him an apostate. I think this is a hopeful sign...

The whole family attended the United States' 3-0 victory over Columbia in a friendly match at Cal State Fullerton. It was a beautiful night for the beautiful game, marred only by poor preparation by the stadium staff before the match and a lack of bacon wrapped hotdogs after...

Orange County pastor and keeper of the blog Tabletalk, Craig Williams, has a very thoughtful post on prayer, "justing" and "candle snuffing". Take a look...

And even though I mentioned it below, make sure you take a look at both posts (here and here - with a third coming) of Fred Clark's series on the sin of usury at Slacktivist. This is the kind of thoughtful Christian engagement on policy issues which we need much, much more of...

God Doesn't Care About Your Money, Just Your...

Spend much time here, and you'll see me rant about the way many Christians willfully ignore biblical teaching on money and poverty, especially as it applies to government policy. The revisions to bankruptcy regulations currently under review in Congress are a case in point. The bills for revision, which is very bad for debtors and very good for credit card companies (and wealthy debtors), are being carried by a number of Senators who are publicly identified as Christians, including the legislation's primary sponsor, Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Grassley has been challenged by a group of believers who wrote in a recent open letter...

"As Christian attorneys, we strongly believe that it was never God's intention to create a society where indebtedness was a crime or a badge of dishonor..."

The Senator doesn't dispute these attorneys'' biblical analysis. Instead, he says the Bible doesn't apply here:

"I can't listen to Christian lawyers because I would be imposing the Bible on a diverse population..."

So we can't "impose the Bible" on our country's "diverse population"? When did this start? I'm sure that Grassley will remember this the next time abortion comes up, or when legislation to regulate "public decency" on the airwaves is introduced, or when the teaching of evolution in the schools is discussed. Yeah right. To show you where his heart really is, Grassley has even supported legislation which would allow churches to maintain tax exempt status while openly campaigning for candidates and issues!

Narrowly, I agree with Senator Grassley. Christians shouldn't try to "impose" the Bible on our fellow citizens. I believe we should use persuasion and self-evident arguments to influence national policy, not coercion and threats. But I also believe we should stop selectively reading the Bible.

The biblical worldview is not a buffet cart from which one may chose as one likes. If you want to use the Bible's model for sexual behavior, then you're stuck with what the Bible has to say about money and poverty. If you want to follow the Bible and reject Darwinian biology, then you should also reject social Darwinism. If think the Bible calls us to be pro-life, make sure your concern extends beyond abortion, because the Bible's sure does.

So what's it going to be Senator? Bible or no? Are you in or are you out?

Update: Fred Clark at The Slacktivist has an excellent discussion of usury. The upshot? It's a sin. Go read it.

(Hat Tip to The Revealer)

Richard's Mouw's "Modest Proposal"

Richard Mouw, the President of Fuller Theological Seminary (Hey! I went there), recently weighed in on the issue of posting the Ten Commnadments in public places. Writing at Beliefnet, Mouw echoed novelist Kurt Vonnegut's idea that what we really ought to be doing is posting the Beatitudes - not the Ten Commandments, around the country. That's right, the Beatitudes - Jesus' series of "blessings" recorded in Matthew 5.

I like Dr. Mouw's take on this:

On a more positive note, it might be better for Christians—especially those of us who talk a lot about "moral values"—to let our fellow citizens know that we do care a lot about the "blessed" traits that Jesus sets forth in the Beatitudes: meekness, peaceableness, empathy with the poor and the grieving, a spirit of mercy—things of that sort. To be sure, we will be criticized for this, too, by the folks who don’t want us to inject any of our religious views into the public square. But if we are going to be scolded by those who resist religious teachings, let’s at least be scolded for promoting something that comes straight from Jesus.

As a Christian Old Testament/Hebrew teacher and scholar, I've wondered at conservative Christians' passion for the Ten Commandments, given their frequent disdain for the Old Testament. (Yeah, I know. The "Ten Commandments" have become a symbol in the culture wars - it's really not about the content). But I like the way that Mouw and Vonnegut take this impulse seriously. If we're going to insist that some sort of biblical text be posted in public places, let's get something from Jesus.

(Hat tip to Rob Asghar at Dime Store Guru).

This Week's Reading

I started this week with a simultaneously grouchy and buoyant interview with Eugene Peterson in the March issue of Christianity Today. I've admired Peterson's work since college, first through his A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, a book of reflections on the Psalms of Ascent which I plan to reread soon. It was rather refreshing to hear Peterson not even bother to give an once of credit to today’s consumer driven churches. He’s known as a writer on "spirituality", but he hates the term, saying:

"That it's a kind of specialized form of being a Christian, that you have to have some kind of in. It's elitist. Many people are attracted to it for the wrong reasons. Others are put off by it: 'I'm not spiritual. I like to go to football games or parties or pursue my career'. In fact, I try to avoid the word."

My favorite line came in response to a question about establishing “intimacy” with God. The use of this phrase bothered him too, since, you know, it’s not the one the Bible used, and so he got off this scorcher:

"All these words get so screwed up in our society. If intimacy means being open and honest and authentic, so I don't have veils, or I don't have to be defensive or in denial of who I am, that's wonderful. But in our culture, intimacy usually has sexual connotations, with some kind of completion. So I want intimacy because I want more out of life. Very seldom does it have the sense of sacrifice or giving or being vulnerable. Those are two different ways of being intimate. And in our American vocabulary intimacy usually has to do with getting something from the other. That just screws the whole thing up.

It's very dangerous to use the language of the culture to interpret the gospel. Our vocabulary has to be chastened and tested by revelation, by the Scriptures. We've got a pretty good vocabulary and syntax, and we'd better start paying attention to it because the way we grab words here and there to appeal to unbelievers is not very good."

As much as I appreciate this perspective, I do find it a bit ironic coming from the author/translator of the The Message, a wildly popular translation of the Bible which avoids using the, um, usual "vocabulary and syntax" we find in the Bible. Hmm.

Further on in the same issue of CT is a very hopeful and sometimes funny feature on the rise of evangelical Christianity in France by Agnieska Tennant. It is a truly amazing story – with the number of evangelical churches in France growing sevenfold since 1960. As in many other parts of the world, most of this growth has come through new charismatic churches. Interestingly, the Catholic churches, with their adoption of the evangelistic Alpha program, have moved forward, at least a little, while the traditional Reformed and Lutheran congregations stay stuck in reverse.

These new evangelical churches are often located in poor and lower-middle class neighborhoods, and often combine France’s multiple ethnicities in way rarely seen in French society outside of the national soccer team. The article points out that without intending to, these churches are providing an alternative and antidote to the Islamic fundamentalists who often control the poor ethnic neighborhoods of the big cities.

One barrier these churches currently face is the French people’s feelings toward our President. His public identification with his faith and his blurring of boundaries of matter of state and church horrify the traditionally secularist French. (Then again, I'm not secularist, and I'm horrified by some of the same things.) But even with their feelings about W aside, the French ideal of laicite makes for some humorous responses to conversion among younger people by their militantly secular parents. Tennant quotes the story of one father when he learned his daughter had gone on a church-sponsored weekend retreat: “Here I thought that she was just going off for a weekend with a new boyfriend! Then I find out it was to read the Bible!”

And amazingly, CT's book review section puts a bitch slap on Bruce Wilkinson's Beyond Jabez, a sequel to his last big hit. (Are we allowed to say that? No, not "bitch slap". Are we allowed to say that a popular Christian author has written a bad book? We'll see).

On Tuesday while eating nachos for lunch, I began wading through the 28 February New Yorker. (No links) The one big article I attempted was “"Nature’s Bioterrorist"” by Michael Spector. It's about the threat of new flu viruses from East Asia. This is scary stuff. The close proximity of ducks, geese, chickens, pigs and people in this part of the world is the perfect incubator for the next great pandemic of influenza. One of my earliest memories is going to see my father in an LA hospital when he almost died from the Hong Kong flu, the last pandemic in 1969. The new one could make that event, and even the great epidemic of 1918 look minor in comparison.

The piece moves between the two main groups of players in the situation: scientists and health workers and farmers. The scientists are very nervous, and the farmers are very sad. Most of these farmers have done their level best for both their animals and for health concerns, but now many have lost their entire flocks and with them, they have probably lost a way of life.

And in the lead Talk of the Town piece, Hendrick Hertzberg takes his shot at the “Jeff Gannon” scandal. “Gannon” (not his real name) is a Republican hack who was given frequent access to the White House Press room, and became notorious for asking softball questions to the President and his Press Secretary. Herztberg remembers the objectively more minor issues which became full-blown scandals during the Clinton administration, and counsels that we ought not to look for the same thing here. Without the opposition party holding at least one house of Congress, there is little chance of any Administration scandal getting traction. That is unless the Republicans, who like to brand themselves as the party of “integrity” decide to get some – but I’'m not holding my breath.