Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

I may have given some of you the impression that I don't care for the media attention/cultural attention that some celebrities receive. I may have posted in such a way to cause some to believe that the media focuses too much on people who do not have the outstanding qualities we should all be striving to achieve in our own lives. If you got this impression from my blogging, then, you got the point. Next contestant on the chronically stupid media parade: Michael Vick. I make no secret that I do not like sports. I don't follow sports nor do I take an active or passive interest in them. I am seldom up to speed on the who's who of athletics. And prior to the current news media blitz regarding the Atlanta Falcon's Michael Vick, I wouldn't know diddly about him. But because of the media attention he is receiving lately, I have found out something about him. A.) He plays (past tense: played) professional football. B.) He was involved in dog fighting to some degree. C.) H...

Don't Lose This Dime This article really got me to thinking about a passage of scripture. 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 (New American Standard Bible) 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation [NASB at Lockman] [The Lockman Foundation] [NASB at Zondervan] [Zondervan] What are you carrying around with you right now? I normally carry a wallet (with no cash), ...

Seems Ms. Spears has had another slight "ooopsie". Britney's parking lot fender bender Seems she bumped a car in a parking lot, in front of the constant presence of paparazzi, and then drove off. Is this another case of superstar thinking she's above the law? I don't think so. It may be something a little more personal than that. And more pervasive in her life (as well as others). But let me share a little account from vacation. There will be more about this story in the trip report (beginning Monday), but I had a small accident while on vacation. I backed into a car in a parking garage. When I got out to look, I had put quite a sizable dent in the bumper. So I did what I thought I was supposed to do - I found a cop. There was a police officer close by working security and being off-duty, he had to call the security office to do an incident report. He and I were waking back to the car and chatting. He turned to face me and stuck his hand out. I thought he wanted t...

Our family has just returned from a long vacation. We took a 12 day vacation touring parts of the Southeastern U.S. I will provide a little more detail as well as pictures in the coming days. Right now I just wanted to let readers know that we have returned and life has resumed to normal.

The family went and watched Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix yesterday. Now before I get scathing reprimands for a.)taking my children to see that very grown up movie and b.)exposing my children to witchcraft, understand that I never said I was trying to qualify for parent of the year. My boys have watched every Harry Potter film so far. They get the basic story of good (Harry and friends) vs. evil (Voldemort and cronies). They can handle the heavy story lines and serious plot even if they don't understand every angle. As to the second point, the magic of Harry Potter offers great teachable moments. Christians would do well to study magic as a sociological feature a little more. It would help clear up some very poor theology that's out on the landscape. Magic is manipulating a power greater than yourself to accomplish your own ends. It is not about wands and spells. It is about selfish desire and the means we go to make desire reality. And I believe that there are some Chr...

Before I was an Okie I lived in Wichita, Kansas. We moved when I was about 10. We had lived in Wichita for about 7 years. I still remember some things, but most of it is a blank. Lisa and I took a romantic reconnecting weekend away to, of all places, Wichita. A lot of it had to do with connecting with an internet friend as well as nostalgia. Let me first say that we stayed at a fantastic bed and breakfast. The College Hill Bed and Breakfast is nestled away in central Wichita. You can get anywhere relatively quickly from there. The house itself has been beautifully remodeled and offers three rooms as of now. We stayed in the Tropical Room. It is a warm and cozy room with a separate bath and huge closet. It is decorated in African stylized animal prints with greens and browns. The bathroom has a tropical feel with palm fronds and a rain shower shower head. The breakfasts that were prepared for us were fresh and very tasty. Even through I'm not a fruit nut, there was enough to fill us...

If there is one thing about summer that I really enjoy it is the summer movies. At no other time in the year do you have such a choice of over the top action movies. And this year is filled with movies. So far the family has been to the movies more since the first of May than we have been all year long. Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Ratatouille, Meet the Robinsons, and I know I missed something else. But the last one requires some relfection. When the trailers were being shown, I knew I would have to go see Transformers. I was a huge Transformers fan back in the '80's. I had the comic books and toys. I watched the cartoon on t.v. I still think it was an awesome show. So when the movie came out, I knew I would have to see it. I got Nick totally into seeing it. He had the opening date on his calender. So it was going to be a fun thing to share. We got to the theater at about 3:00 to see the 3:10 show. Sold out. And the line for the 3:45 show was already out the front door of the theate...

Last week I was at camp. Not just any camp. JEM is a camp designed for Junior High School (rising 6th through 8th graders) who are or can be leaders in their home church. It is by recommendation only. It is designed around intentional leadership training at age appropriate levels. The name stands for Junior-high Effective Ministry camp. I am on the design team and have been involved with it for 7 of its 8 years. This year was our largest camp. We commissioned 77 students to send them back into their home churches and communities to put into practice what they have learned. One of the most powerful things that the youth learned was personality type. We have used the same personality profile system for many years. It is one the design team is very familiar with. It is from the True Colors Program. It separates personality into 4 categories that are grouped in Colors (Blue, Orange, Green, Gold). Try this personality quiz to see what your color is: Color Personality Quiz I am predominant...

Everyone knows that politics are not just for government. There are politics involved in everything. Even little league baseball. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that the church is just as political. If it does surprise you, let me invite you to click on one of your other favorite websites now. I realize that Conference politics is more complicated than the simplified, hardcore Liberal/Conservative division. I know pastors who fall into the nebulous Moderate category. Then you have apolitical types who move along the spectrum depending on the issue or current life circumstance. So it is not as easy as this side or this group against that group. What I have come to realize is that church politics, maybe more than any other manifestation of politics, relies on the perspective of the one observing others. We use words like liberal, conservative, progressive, and traditional. The shortcoming of these qualities is that they are adjectives and not nouns. They cannot stand by themselves u...

Resolution 4 wanted the Conference to endorse the creation of a bipartisan task force by the Oklahoma State Legislature to explore and create a plan to provide health insurance for every person in Oklahoma. Opinion We live in a time when people cannot get basic medical care due to the costs. Insurance is available but not to all people. And some insurance doesn't really provide for the care that people truly need. There is a critical need for some type of plan so that people can get the health care then need. But the State Legislature is probably not where that should come from. This resolution was wanting a "citizen" task force. Can we honestly believe that our party-based, political machine can produce a group of people whose sole agenda is creating a health care plan devoid of any political muckery. Or can there be a program that is amenable to private health care systems without being a government funded social medical system. Social medicine is not going to provide t...

I've been a little tardy about this last update. Two reasons: I was busy and I didn't know how I felt about Thursday. The entire family went down Thursday. Which means we were late getting to Conference. Thursday was the "big day" so to speak. Most of the resolutions that were hot topic were scheduled for the day as well as finishing up the voting process. I'll deal with the resolutions first. The first resolution sparked a little bit of discussion. It was a resolution calling on the UM's in Oklahoma to, in essence, boycott any sporting event that use Native American names or mascots. There was no distinction given to professional or local school teams. This was asking for a general boycott of any team that used Native American names or mascots. Opinion I am not against changing team names to remove reference to Native American heritage. I believe that some enduring images of the injustice done to Native Americans are still too fresh to simply say that it is h...

Today was much slower. We had a number of delegate ballots and some more technical difficulty. In the process of getting everyone to input the right numbers and getting the machines calibrated to their users, the clergy managed to elect the 10 General Conference delegates that we are allowed plus 4 or 5 Jurisdictional Conference delegates. The laity lacked one when we concluded business today. Tomorrow the clergy will elect the rest of the Jurisdictional delegates as well as 5 alternates. The laity may be there until Saturday. By the way, for those of you who don't know, Jurisdictional Conference is the intermediate level of structure between the Annual Conference and the General Conference. It is made up of a number of Annual Conferences. Oklahoma is in the South Central Jurisdiction. The most critical function of Jurisdictional Conference (not to say that their work isn't important) is the election and appointment of bishops. Each Annual Conference is led by a bishop. Togethe...