Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

Long ago I remember lying the floor of my grandparents living room floor. I remember lying beside my Pappaw (grandfather) watching the television show Quincy, M.E. I still try to watch it when I can. It was a powerful show. And it sparked an interest in becoming a forensic pathologist (coroner). At 7 years old, I wanted to be like Quincy. That show, as well as my love for all things C.S.I ., has laid a foundation for something that really has hacked me off. I finished reading John Grisham's newest book, The Innocent Man . The book is a non-fiction narrative of the events surrounding Ron Williamson, a man convicted of a murder he did not commit. The main story takes place in Ada, Oklahoma. This is the area I grew up. I went to college there. Lisa lived there a big chunk of her life. And I remember some of the names and events that are retold in this book. This is an emotionally draining read. The events surrounding the death of Debbie Carter are horrible. But Grisham's focus is...

The majority of Americans see good/evil on a spectrum. At the far end of good you have God and Jesus being the embodiment of good. Then spread down toward the middle you have Mother Teresa, Mister Rogers, etc. until you get to the division point. At the opposite far end you have Satan as the embodiment of evil. Then Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, etc. until you reach the middle again. The points in between God and Satan represent increasing level of good or evil in someone's life. Most of us see ourselves somewhere toward middle. We aren't perfectly good. We aren't totally evil. But scripture doesn't present good and evil on a sliding scale. Good is good. Evil is evil. There are some who take the sides of good and evil and flip flop them. Good can be evil or evil good depending on the perspective you have. Classical example: Robin Hood. Is it good to steal and break the law? Modern example: 9/11. Those who seized the planes and crashed them were doing evil in the eyes of...

James 3:5-11 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue ; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. NASU James offered practical teaching to the followers of Christ who received his letter all those long years ago. But it is amazing how powerful and timeless these words are. I am thinking of three semi-current event...

I hope everyone is excited about the prospects of what the new year holds in store for you. I have really been thinking about what to do with this little corner of the world wide web. I know that some of you have found it to be a little slow in updates. I apologize. Part of the reason is the overwhelming responsibility to come up with something. Another part of the reason is it just isn't a high priority in the busy and not so busy times of life. But I want to try something. I know that there are folks who read and don't respond to the blog. That is fine. But I want to offer you something. So I would like to know what you would like to find at this site. Do you want devotional thoughts? Do you want challenging perspectives? Do you want cultural commentary? Do you want witty insights and general light hearted brain candy? Do you want pictures/video/audio? Do you want me to leave you alone? Please let me know how I can use this corner of cyberspace a little better and maybe bring...

I have been named Time's Person of the Year. You haven't heard. Yep. Little ol' me received it. I just found out today. Now, it's not a popularity contest. And it isn't supposed to be a recognition of something. Time just chooses a person to grace a special issue at the end of the year who has made an impact on the world. And I was chosen. Oh. You don't believe me. Well, I should mention that you have been chosen also. Time's Person of the Year is YOU. When I heard about this, I thought it was really just a gimmick. But then I read this statement. "If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people," said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time's managing editor earlier this year. "But if you choose millions of people, you don't have to justify it to anyone." As I read this, two thoughts come to mind. 1.) This sounds like laziness to me. And I know lazy. If you have to choose one person to ...

My family always wants to know what I want for Christmas. So now that I have a semi-permanent place to keep accessible information, I am posting my Christmas list. There is something on this list for every price range. So don't freak out. This is for my families' use. But if any of you feel inspired, it will be gratefully received. Dremel Pro Tool with flex shaft attachment Movie - Whale Rider - available at Target for 5.50 Book - Faiths of Our Founding Fathers - Canon PowerShot S3 IS A chanter - it's a musical instrument to learn the bagpipes Bagpipes - my next big musical advancement A room to play the bagpipes in - so my wife won't divorce me Book - Conversation Book - Kingdom Keepers Jeans - size 38 - 30 DVD - MacGyver season 2 DVD - Due South - season 3/4 DVD - Greatest American Hero - season 3 Comic books - I especially like Spiderman and Batman Chik-Fil-A coupons Cokesbury gift certificates Off Kilter Merchandise - Off Kilter is a Celtic Rock band. I curre...

The other day I was flipping across the radio channels, listening to anything worthwhile (which means passing over all sports stations). I landed on Christian talk radio. I do not listen to Christian talk radio very often. But I listen in from time to time. Today I happened across the program, "Truths that Transform". This is Dr. D. James Kennedy's program. He was promoted his new book dealing with "What if America were a Christian Nation?" What sparked my interest in this program is that they were mentioning the historical faith heritage of the U.S. My degree is in history. I have a personal love of history. I believe that history is critical to understanding and living the present as well as planning for the future. Dr. Kennedy made a comment that really made me stop and think. Since I was driving, I couldn't actually stop. And I couldn't really think too hard. But there was a "fact" thrown out that really gave me reason to ponder. Dr. Kenned...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As we roll into the full swing of the holiday season, planning for Christmas has begun. I am always a little burdened at the thought of the worship services that point to and flow out of Christmas. Our Waffles and Wassailage is our first "special" service. This is our multi-generational, family oriented hanging of the greens service. Then we have the Christmas Eve service. This year we will hold two services: a 6:00 and 8:00. This year we will also have a Christmas morning service. That's right. A Monday worship service to celebrate Christmas. Every time I have mentioned this to church folks, I get a, "You have finally flipped your rocker" look. But I have some very solid reasons for this decision. 1.) Christmas is a high, holy day of the Christian year. It is the commemoration of the birth of Jesus. This is the day we remember the Incarnation. That is, God coming and walking among us. That is the importance of Christmas. Not present...

I'm back good folks! Some of you didn't know I had left. It's okay if you didn't miss me. I was at Walt Disney World. Again? Yes, again. This time I went by myself. Partly for fun and partly for a conference. As I was doing some research for a project I am working on, I found this item of news: Controversial new Bible cuts out difficult gospel passages -18/10/06 A new Bible translation is causing controversy after it cut out difficult parts surrounding economic justice, possessions and money. The new bible version, released by the Western Bible Foundation in the Netherlands, has created a storm by trying to make the Christian gospel more palatable. According to Chairman Mr. De Rijke the foundation has reacted to a growing wish of many churches to be market-oriented and more attractive. "Jesus was very inspiring for our inner health, but we don't need to take his naïve remarks about money seriously. He didn't study economics, obviously." According...

1971. The first time I was ever on Disney property. No. I don’t remember it. I don’t even have any pictures of being there. But that was the first time. I was less than a year old. We went to Disneyland. I have no clue if that imprinted on me the deep love that I have for Disney parks. But every trip in my memory (1984, 2003, 2006) has been one of powerful memories. Things that I wouldn’t trade anything for, even if I could. I’m not an overly emotional kind of person when it comes to warm, fuzzies. I’m a logic person. Emotions get in the way of logic. But when it comes to Disney trips, all that logic stuff takes a flying leap. I don’t feel like the same person when I’m there. I will do things and act in ways that aren’t normal for me. I become something more than the day to day Todd. Maybe even something better. I said earlier that there wasn’t much magical that happened on our trip. I meant that in a tangible way. There weren’t a lot of the little plusse...

While Lisa and the boys slept in the next morning, I wanted to get a few pictures of the Lodge. So I walked around with my coffeeish and got some nice shots. Then I headed back to see if everyone was up. We packed up the last items. We got our travel bags supplied. Checked the room. Threw away extra stuff. And then left our beautiful poolside Lodge room. We got down to the Canyon restaurant and had to wait a bit. The boys were really out of sorts this morning. We were all exhausted. They didn’t eat much of anything. We didn’t even have seconds on the skillets that Lisa and I ordered. We were just ready to leave. Lisa wanted to check on a few last minute items at the mercantile and pin cart. I wanted to see if it was possible to work some magic with our left over meal credits. The Disney Dining Plan was free, remember? Well, we took advantage of it. But not enough. Between the four of us and the meals we ate, we ended up with 0 snacks left (uncrustables we...

As soon as we got into the MK, we were fairly close to the time for the new Let’s Have a Ball show. This is a crowd interaction moment with a meet and greet with Aurora and Prince Philip. Now, for the longest time I have wondered why Disney didn’t do more with Aurora. And as I analyzed it, I realized that Disney has missed some prime capitalization property. Here’s why. Sleeping Beauty is the perfect Disney princess movie. First you have the beautiful princess to catch the girl market. Second, you have a classic fairy tale that gets the literary crowd. Third, the movie is very beautifully drawn and filmed which should win the artistic vote. Fourth is the villain. Maleficent is the quintessential villain. She is the embodiment of evil. So you have your villain lover’s covered. You have some great fight scenes between Philip and the minions of Maleficent as well as with the dragon. Boys love this part of the movie (we know this first hand). You have Flora, ...