Looks like its time to take down the Reds theme and put up Titans Blue. The Reds are running away and hiding , as if they don't want to play baseball, getting thumped by the worst team in baseball for the second straight night, and not scoring or hitting either. What a pathetic display. Hardly a sign of the team that hung in there all the way through July and beyond.
Titans.......logo....color
"Gordon Cosby is a remarkable preacher-prophet whose life ministry has been re-visioning the church and what it asks of those who believe. By Grace Transformed (Crossroad, 1999) is an unusual, powerful collection of his sermons. The church, says Cosby, should be defined by commitment and the Spirit. His five decades of experimenting at D.C.'s Church of the Saviour have resulted in models of discipleship that are practical, real, and hope-filled. Convincing because Cosby and others have lived them out, they evoke the spirit and power of the early church. This is a book packed with vision."
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Yesterday I got a letter from Sharon, a friend I met in the "Servant Leadership group" I mentioned in today's earlier "Call to Commitment" posting. She wrote to me of the news of the passing of Debra Campbell July 31st. She included a copy of a reflection Debra wrote. In looking at Google searches on Debra Campbell (and adding "Servant Leadership" to the search, I found this page which had the reflection and a picture of Debra and her husband, David).
Debra was the reason there was a "Servant Leadership" group in Cincinnati. She worked for the West Ohio Conference (who host the page I link for the article by Debra). She was one who was touched in a life-changing way by the ministries of The Church of the Saviour. She writes in her reflection about working for a week in Christ House. She worked in Methodist circles to incorporate some of the insights from the COS model of discipleship into the structures of the Methodist Church. She hooked up with people in Cincinnati who found the Old St.George facility, which was very open and excited by the idea of hosting a group patterned in the "COS mode". MY friend Larry Bourgeois had visited COS while we were on the road at an Ecunet 95 conference in Baltimore, and were staying with the family of another friend, Bob Sabath (webmaster for Sojourners mag online) in D.C. Larry was (and still is) the director of Old St. George's, and we held the classes in the bookstore/coffeeshouse that was housed in Old St. George. Debra Campbell led a group of some 15 of us in a course patterned after COS' School of Christian Living and Servant Leadership School. |
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Last week I ordered a couple of books from Potter's House Book Service: A copy of "Call to Commitment" and By Grace Transformed. I decided to get a paper back copy of Call to Commitment to replace the hardback I lost track of a few years ago as it made the rounds around a small "Servant Leadership" group I was involved with before I moved to Nashville in 1997. By Grace Transformed is a collection of Gordon Cosby sermons from 50 years of his pastoring The Church of the Saviour. As I read this, I'm sure there will be food for much blogging in the days ahead. Finished the book, around or about Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2002 |
A mag that reminds me some of the old Wittenberg Door mag (when it was done by Youth Specialties.....it made my list of "Balcony People" when I first started my blog-like auto-biographical Web site New Media Communications back in 1994
Meta and Zines Cache of the Day. Ship-of-fools has joined our zines section. This offering was the first UK Christian zine on the web. Theres lot's to see. Rant of the Month, The Fruitcake Zone, Urban Myths, and my... [blogs4God - WWJB?]
Slactavist showed a link to The Koinonia Partners site, which has a 7 minute video on Clarence Jordan. I had written to show some mutuality concerning our veneration of Tony Campolo, who was/is also a favorite speaker/writer/person
I visited Koinonia in the summer of 1974 with a small group from my high school youth group (our Youth minister had told us a few of the stories, played a few of the tapes and records, and so had influenced some of us. I wandered around in the little shack where he went to study Florence was there and told us some other stories. Ladon Sheats was there. I was 18, and some of it was over my head, but I remember the stories Clarence told (on the audio tapes), and my Dad was also kind of taken with Clarence. My dad , now retired from BellSouth, is the director of the Williamson County chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
Clarence was a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a doctorate in New Testament Greek. I wrote a little piece about how he influenced me when I first started onto the web in 1994
stories added "Sunday Morning Blog" ....
"a place where my visions as a Web developer might somehow aid in enabling the church to express its personality and mission in the "place" called ......what is it called?....it's not "cyberspace" anymore, although that had a nice ring to it "a place called cyberspace". Now it's just "The Net" or "The Web".
and "Getting a Clue in the Church"Somehow, I feel that there is a whole lot of possibility for online communication to be a place of aggregating reousrces and conversaton around missions which are run by people who have been called to do something, and to do this in community which has the needed ftf elements, but is "extended" into online technologies that provide what seems to me to be an "extended presence"; that the immeidate and constant availability of others for dialogue and conversation and resource suggestions makes this mission community seem to jump out of time constaints and into a context where the door is always literally open, and people can talk at literally any hour of the night, even when most of the participants are asleep.
Weinberger said some things in his NPR address that he reposted today which get at the points about the differences in ftf and online....mainly here, the ongoing conversation vs "regular meetings" which are constrained by schedule, distance, and on and on........Churches need ot sit up and notice how many worthwhile conversations that typically die out due to the passage of time and the constraints mentioned...but are "kept alive through archive"; and yet not "archived" in a "past, no longer relevant or pressing" sense, but as key points that distill the something of the essence of one person's insight or comments, that speak to another in what could be a much later time, but with a personal relevancy that reaches forward in time to connect that piece of that person who wrote the original entry, to a relevant piece of another person, and join their journeys across the bounds of time.
Studies have suggested that the Internet is making us less social, because we're spending more time tanning by the light of our computer screens and less time with others. And yet, the Internet is a profoundly social medium, what with email and discussion groups and chat and instant messaging. So is the Net making us more social or less social? As with every great question, the precise answer is: It depends ... in this case on how you define "social." But we should be careful, because the Net is rewriting some of the basic rules about social forms as fundamental as groups.
.....So, is the Net making us more social? All I can say is that while I'm sitting alone, eyes on my monitor, for many many hours a day, I'm meeting and talking with a literal world of strangers in groups held together by nothing but raw interest. Social? Absolutely. More social? Better social? I'm not even sure it's a sensible question any more. Permalink
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With regard to the Church and the business of "Business Blogging for Knowledge Management, there seems to be another key theological concept here: that personal weblogging and business or Knowledge management blogging are "intertwined", since when we blog personally as Church people who are interested in how this whole phenomenon will help us draw on each other and collaborate, we are in the business of "knowledge management" for the Church (at least that potion of it that cares about the same things that we do....and believe me, there are MANY approaches and theologies. for more on this, see |
"what we're talking about is much closer to the biblical conception of church than a model that doesn't confront the culture, doesn't present an alternative consciousness, and doesn't oppose the system. If you've got a group that calls itself church, Christian church, and doesn't oppose and confront the culture, I don't think you have a New Testament church no matter how much you respect the people. "
Here is what I consider the "kicker" in the COS model; it is what seems to make all the difference to me in how I "evaluate" that "difference" factor in a Church. If it 's not there, it's like the key ingredient is missing; it's the key meaning behind the "be not conformed to the world" and the "light in the darkness". It's "darkness" becuase the world seems "blind" to it; cannot see it.
I remember the first time I met Gordon Cosby. I took a group of young people from Keokuk, Iowa to Washington for a few days and took a tour, hosted by Jubilee Housing and Barbara Moore was our "tour guide". After their "ecumenical" Sunday morning service, Gordon sat and talked with us about the Church. I remember him saying that he had always heard growing up in the Church how "the world was in darkness", but "noone ever said what the darkness was". I knew what he meant. It was part of the language that had become detached from the real social and spirtual realities in which people live. The Church has to get right to the heeart of it, and actually identify and confront "darkness" and work on ways to bring "Light" to it; to bring the Kingdom to bear on it.
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Mission: PossibleThe inward-outward journey of Mary and Gordon Cosby. An Interview. |
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Mission: PossibleThe inward-outward journey of Mary and Gordon Cosby. An Interview. |
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The inward-outward journey of Mary and Gordon Cosby. An Interview. |
Church of the Saviour MetaBlog section started here on Theoblogical Community
An article on the Journey Inward, Journey Outward concepts so central to COS and their missionRecently I sat down with Gordon to ask him some specific questions about the approach of The Church of the Saviour. Having gotten some lunch next door at the Potter’s House, we settled into a side room at the Festival Center, sipped coffee and, with the sounds of Washington, DC traffic rushing by, talked about God’s vision for the church.
from Church Planting and Other Heresies
Posted By: thethinker on Mon. July 8 , 2002 at 10:53:27 PM
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It’s the story of Gordon Cosby.
Gordon was a chaplain in WWII, in fact he landed on the beaches of Normandy.
During his tenure as a chaplain his unit saw 400% turnover of men. In other words the average life span for anyone Gordon talked to was very short.
It was this extreme environment that drove Gordon to some practical conclusions about ministry.
It was impossible for him to get around to see all the men – most of whom would die very, very soon.
But it was imperative that these men receive ministry.
To make a long story short, Gordon came to the conclusion that truly every believer is a priest and can and should minister to others.
The fact that these men couldn’t gather together on Sunday morning forced Gordon Cosby to see in a new way that truly – every believer is a priest. Every believer is called to minister.
So, as he made his rounds, he found Christian men and encouraged and appointed them to minister to the men around them.
“Where two or more are gathered – Christ is present”
Much to his surprise, Gordon Cosby made it through WWII alive.
When he came home to the US the experience he had had in Europe changed his view of ministry forever.
Gordon founded the Church of the Saviour in Washington DC over 50 years ago with 8 other people.
I had the privilege of meeting with him last summer.
I saw, first hand, what can happen after 50 years of believing that every Christian is called to ministry.
I saw what it looks like when new christians are challenged to find a mission to be a part of.
What it looks like when a woman receives a call from God to set up a hospital for the homeless has no funds to do it and miraculously several million dollars gets donated to the Church – coincidentally the exact amount this woman and her friends had prayed for.
There is now a hospital for the homeless in one of the poorest areas of Wash DC.
I saw a local expression of the Church that has never grown to more than 150 people, but has turned Washington DC upside down.
What does all this have to do with church planting?
Well, Church of the Savior calls "church plants" MISSIONS. Wow, what if every "church" you know of had maintained that identity! What if every Church in America spent 20% on self and 80% on the world! What if we weren't in the real estate business....imagine a church.
In a big old house on embassy row in Washington, D.C., you'll find the Church of the Saviour, a small Presbyterian church that has been written up in many magazines and several books.
They wouldn't claim to be perfect, but they sure do a lot of things right. So far, they've split off eight new congregations in order to remain small. And aspiring members must wait up to two years before acceptance--including 55 weeks of classes! Before Constantine, converts often had quite a wait before they could join a church, but in this era, Church of the Saviour stands out like a plaid pig.
Their secret of success is that nobody can join without also joining one of their mission groups (of about four to eight people). Even the minister, Gordon Cosby, belongs to one.
Each group has a double focus. First, it has a task. Groups form when someone feels led to undertake a mission (like starting a counseling hotline) or shoulder a responsibility (like maintaining the church facility). He or she issues a call for other members to join in the new task; if enough respond, the group begins. That's the outward focus.
Second, the group meets once a week to compare notes. Everyone keeps a spiritual journal. They share their personal progress and problems, and support each other. That's the inward focus.
Laminating the inward and outward is very, very smart. It enables them to avoid extremes: the hollowness of a works-oriented group and the self-centered introspection of a talk group.
Now, any healthy church will eventually help its members find a ministry and achieve inner growth. But Church of the Saviour, by requiring you to find a fellowship-ministry upon joining, has got it down to a fine art. If a layman is someone not in ministry, then it's fair to say they have no laymen.
(By the way, what does your church require of its members? Anything at all? Or is it content to have many who are just spectators? Think about it.)
Gordon Cosby, pastor of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., puts it this way: "The primary task of the professional minister is training nonprofessional ministers for their ministry."
A Ministry of The Church of the Saviour, Washington, D.C.
Ministry of Money is a loving, prophetic Christian ministry which encourages all persons to become free from their attachment to cultural values regarding money and to live out joyfully God's call for their lives and resources.
Faith atWork's Elizabeth O'Connor bookshelf
Tribute to Elizabeth O'Connor at Faith at Work (has links to FAW articles by Elizabeth)
So why can't the music industry get the clue. You got it backwards, people. More exposure = more sales.
SJ Merc interviews Janis Ian. "She credits Napster and its progeny with sparking renewed interest in her music, at a time when she can't be heard on contemporary-hit-obsessed radio stations. And she says her decision to offer free music downloads had done the opposite of what the industry predicts it would do: It caused a 300 percent spike in merchandise sales." [Scripting News]
On Sunday I outlined the Reds then "slim" hopes. Since then, they've dropped three in a row. Good morning, good afternoon, and Good night! At 7 and a half back and no wild card in sight, it would take a cataclysmic collapse of the Cardinals and a lot of mirrors and tricks and luck for the Reds. I'd like to finish second, though. I'd also like to see Adam Dunn regain his stroke too.
I wonder how many of these new pitchers The Reds will be able to keep for 2003?
One comment in the blog I list below makes this rather conceited and ignorant statement (ignorant not a slander but simply pointing out that this person obviously does not really know persoanally any liberals serious about their faith....which I'm sure, to them, is an oxymoron.
"Liberals come together because they don't care much about their theology, that unity trumps theology"
My gosh. What gall. You know what, that statement is the ultimate in oxymoron, because the second part, far from negating the first, actually illuminates it. Unity IS the highest theology. What we THINK, believe (what we say we think) is NOTHING; ZERO ; of no worth if we have no love. What we BELIEVE is worthless if it causes us to place a higher value on "orthodoxy" than obedience, and making such judgements based on written ideology just illustrates how divorced that view is from the true test: Here it is: that the community of whatever theological flavor, actually DOES the things that Jesus would do. Now excuse me while I go vomit.
I just posted a comment to the the blog in the above link:
Here's the post I commented upon:
Mormons: Christians?
As a Catholic, I also would not consider Mormons to be Christians in the sense that word has had since, well, the beginning. Why? Because they diverge from Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Evangelicals, Pentacostals, Episcopalians, Orthodox, etc. etc. on what the Catholic Church considers to be the two fundamental Christian doctrines: the Trinity and the Incarnation. The Mormon teaching departs so radically from what the rest of us hold on these two mattwers that I simply cannot consider them Christians. (use title link above to see this post in context)
My answer in their comments log:
Are you people kidding? (I'm afraid not, which is scary) It seems to me there is ONE and only ONE "criteria" for being a Christian, at least the "definitive" definition, which is ....uh.......Christ. If one follows Christ. Mormons do that. If you disagree with them (as I do on MANY points), as I do with most of YOU here as well, that makes neither of us "non-Christian". If the WAY we live our Christianity can be considered "non-Biblical" or "errant" by some, does that make us "non_christian"? If someone loves people (which may Mormons I know personally do, and feel loved by them as well), and they love family, and they love each other, and they'd do anything for me, what does that say about these PETTY "theological" quid-pro-quos that we are bandying about here? Get a clue people! They may be "off" theologically (in an intellectual sense) as far as some of us think (and I think them wrong on some points, but isn't the real test that they have the Love of God in them? or do you think this love is actully Satan because it doesn't come with a "pure" theology? Is your theology without holes or without "rationalization"? I think not.
Disagree with them. I do everyday, with my Mormon friend. But he does not need "saving" anymore than I do (well...........nah!just kidding) . I myself am in need of constant "renewing" and must remain open to what God is telling me about my "theology".
The comments link to this blog got messed up (out of sync with my blogs when I messed around with stuff.......they are under this blog
When I first titled this story/article, the "functions" I had in mind were the "limited set" or "usual set" of functions that are often associated with Church Website "basics": information about the Church and basic schedule, personell, mission statement, etc. (brochure information). Most Churches begin by transferring most of their brochure information onto a Webpage. Some add a calendar, which usually ends up displaying a long-past set of events, and long-past sermons if any ----- very few are posting sermons, which I think is oo bad becuase often it is one way to reflect something of the content of the sermons, which is one "yardstick" people use to evaluate what the Church may offer to them as a source of challenge and or inspiration on a week to week basis.
Beyond this basic starting place, the programs of the Church. organized in some basic outline kind of fashion (ie. Schedule, Staff, Mission, Ministries, Education, Membership etc. is a typical navigational structure. Many provide a basic description of each of these sections and any sub-sections which describe the various entries under those areas (like under Ministries, a description of an after-school tutoring program the Church provides).
I feel that I have arrived on the Church web scene too early (as it often seems with just about anything having to do with new technologies and the Church----- the Church community is often not among the early adopters of new technologies). I think this is particularly true in the case of online technologies, having to do so much with the idea of providing more ways to "communicate", and since communication is so key to community, there are debates and exploring of effects of new technology, and concerns about damaging the fabric of community by an uncritical acceptance of "new ways of meeting"; concerns which are worthy to be taken seriously.
From Donarthur blogspot:
The folks over at the conservative Media Research Center seem to spend a lot of time watching the West Wing and issuing urgent notices when they detect evidence of liberal bias. According to their web site "CyberAlert has documented the many liberal themes and anti-conservative plot lines showcased on the NBC program." Apparently Aaron Sorkin, the show’s creator and producer, is a left liberal and the show reflects his views.The way they go on you'd think that they'd discovered department store Santas molesting children. It's a TV show guys. NBC run it because it attracts viewers and sells advertising. You don't have to watch it.
True Don, and I'd add something further. The show is about a Democratic Whitehouse. I find it extremely funny, and also not near as terribly slanted as these guys obviously do. They apparently don't pay much attention to the postive light in which Ainsley Hayes is portrayed on the show (the staff "conservative Republican"--- I suppose she's just seen as a token collaborator by the show's detractors). I often describe it to people I know that haven't seen it (or seen much) as a White House meets ER, because of the rapid flow in and out of a constant barrage of issues and responses and Press Conference slants, political maneuverings, etc. I find it fascinating. And oh yeah, I'm not Republican. Don't know I'd call myself a Democrat either, although I usually end up voting that way out of fear of the alternative.
I just sent this link around in an email as follows:
Article I am sending out to people to whom I have shown blogging/weblogging, either my email, my blog, or in person. feel free to forward on and by all means, get back to me with any questions, comments, your own blogs, etc.
All of you have experiences, insights concerning Church and such, along with some familiarity with who I am as a "theoblog" (ie. One who blogs, writes about it as an application ripe for churches and such, and have been for years
Tony Campolo (in his audio speech: Christianity after Sept.11) suggests that the ones urging caution are the ones with war experience with Iraq, and the ones urging "pre-emptive strike" are the ones without.
"Split over Iraq grows more public By John Diamond, USA TODAY WASHINGTON â014 A rift over Iraq has emerged among senior advisers in the Bush administration who helped wage the first Persian Gulf War and now face the possibility of a second. On one side are hard-liners such as Pentagon adviser Richard Perle and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. They urge the ouster of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein now, with force if necessary. They say it's too dangerous to wait until he has weapons of mass destruction pointed at the United States and its allies. On the other side are those such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who advise caution and warn of the consequences of war."
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From xian. reminds me of some of the disconnect I've been sensing from people I know....maybe not for the same resaons, but there is some "not for me" kind of stance, that perhaps the level of discourse is seen as too trivial or too heated (again, based on little or no looking for the "right levels", sometimes because they don't know how, sometimes because they don't take the time to look, and depend instead on articles they read (in those print things they read that complainabout the level of discourse on the Net)
Fear of an Internet Planet. Suladog, a Livejournal friend of mine who's a film writer, told a little story about the mixed feelings some of her peers have about embracing the potential of community through the Internet:
... two very close friends...one is the creator of a couple of hit TV series .. the other is a journalist for national magazines ... we were talking about the internet and I mentioned all the journaling that's out there ... and how I have online friends ... and how people talk and debate and argue and laugh and share about all sorts of things online ... and I was getting blank stares.from [suladog] via [Christian Crumlish (xian): metablog]
Turns out these two never venture online, short of research or ebay. The idea of writing posts or letters and getting to know people online made their jaws drop. .............. These were two people obsessed with their age, and complaining about a culture that they felt they were being left out of, when in fact they'd locked the door on the inside. Read it all: Fear of an Internet Planet
Reds get excellent pitching vs Astros in the series (with the exception of the 9th inning Saturday night, where Hamilton and Graves gave up 6 hits and 5 runs between them --- Hamilton charged with 4 of them). Other than that, 27 innings, 5 runs, 3 earned (1.00 ERA). No ground gained on the Cardinals , who also won 2 of 3. Keeping pace with them while they play Philly and we play Houston is a good thing. As of now:
StL 68-53 -- 41(24h) left with: Pit 4(h), Phi 3(h),Cin 7(3h),Chi 7(3h),Mil 7(4h), Hou 7 (4h), Col 3, Arz 3 (h)
Hou 64-59 5 39(22h) left with: Cin 4(3h), Chi 3(h), SD 6(3h), LA 6(3h), Tex 1,Col 3(h), StL 7(4h), Mil 6(3h), SF 3
Cin 63-59 5.5 40(25h) left with: Hou 4 (1h), Arz 3, StL 7 (4h), Mil 6 (3h), Pit 7 (3h), Chi 7 (4h), Phl 3 (3h), Mon 3
Wild Card
LA 71-53 -- 38(22h) left with: Fla 3(h), Atl 3(h),Arz 6(3h),Hou 6(3h), SF 7(4h),Col 6(2h), SD 7(4h)
SF 66-56 4 39(22h) left with: Fla1, NY 3(h), Mon3(h), Col 6(2h), Arz7(4h), LA7(3h), Mil3, SD 6 (4h), Hou 3(h)
Hou 64-59 6.5
Cin 63-59 7
The Reds have their last 26 games of the season against the Brewers,Pirates, Cubs, Phils , and Expos (half at home), so their next 7 against Houston and Arizona, 6 of those on the road, are HUGE. After that , there's 4 at home against the Cardinals and 3 at St.Louis, then the final 26. Getting swept in Colorado, and then at home by the D-Backs were hugely damaging to the Reds' chances. With 2 of those 3 in Cincinnati were against neither Johnson or Schilling, the Reds realistically lost 4 games in the standings (should/could have won 4 of those 6), and been 1.5 back and 3 in the wild card instead of 5.5 and 7
The Reds have to lose no more ground by their series with the Cards, and preferrably, gain a couple during their upcoming week in Arizona and Houston while the Cardinals play in St.Louis vs Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (not likely). If they somehow can, wining 3 of 4 in Cinci will still laeave them 3.5 back with 3 left in St. Louis. Yikes! The only hope for some grace after that is that the Cardinals will have 7 against Houston, 3 IN Colorado, and 3 with Arizona among their final 27 games.
Another goofed up, out of sync, set of comments (first 3 comments here) really belong to the The West Wing Bias? post
I clicked on a link at blogger.com called NextBlog and my first time I got the following, (from the title link above), and here is what I saw at the top (scroll to the bottom of this entry to get my reactions and the why this is significant:
Here's some quotes by Gordon Cosby, founder of the Church of the Savior in D.C., on what makes a servant leader. I think some of you will enjoy these:
On vision...
"The most crucial gift of a leader is the capacity to see new possibilities, new combinations of energy and life coming together and to see now, in imagination, that which is not yet but which ought to be."
"My task is to get close enough to Jesus Christ for him to do through me what he wants to do, which is the call that he has placed on my life."
On hope...
"In War and Peace Prince Andre says of Austerlitz, 'Our loss was not much greater than that of the French, but we said to ourselves that we would lose it, and we did lose it.' In other words, we lost because we told ourselves we would lose. Militarily it was not quite that simple. But the point is clear. Fatalism saps the will and produces the situation it prophesies."
"Hope is a form of faith and tends to produce what it sees. Despair is a form of faith and tends to produce what it sees."
On "empathic universalism" (as opposed to empathic provincialism):
"The great leader sees and feels himself or herself as a part of the whole - identified with the totality."
"The great leader never feels it is us verses them. He or she is for everybody. To be for one interest group is never to be against another. To be for those without power is surely not to be against those with power."
On waiting:
"Are we willing, after we have done all that we know to hold the vision, and to carry it with hope, and to let it be a part of the totality, and to give it our best - are we willing then simply to wait when we have done it all? And simply to suffer, and to let our vicarious suffering be the means by which God ultimately brings the kingdom?"
From "By Grace Transformed", Chapter 2 - The Nature of Christian Leadershipposted by Mike Bishop | 12:15 PM
Today we visted a Presbyterian Church for the second time in four weeks (Janet had visited a couple of weeks ago when I went to our regular church). I was not "into it"; I have been feeling so "disconnected" from Church lately, not the least of the reason s being that I had felt so little appreciation or sense of having my explicitly expressed sense of call be challenged, brushed aside, and considered "dangerous" by key people at my Church. It's really been the case from the beginnings of my efforts.
My original inspiration for doing Church Webs arose from the experiences and inspirations I have had with my contact with the Church of the Saviour in Washington DC, the Church mentioned above in the random Weblog that I quote in full above). Today, as I begrudgingly drove the family to re-visit a Church, I was internally bemoaning the absence of a community and an atmosphere anything like that I sense in The Church of the Saviour, which seems to be bursting with energy and prescence and urgency and atmosphere and everything else that is good EVERY time I revisit or read of some new thing they are doing. This has been going on for me for 26 years since I first read "Call to Commitment" and all the books that followed which I immediately went and found and immersed myself in, one after the other, and back to the earlier ones again to revisit, and taking a youth group to visit COS in 1984, and with a friend in 1995 and with my family on vacation in 1996.
Church Webs arise from an urge to tell the story , so read "Church Web Site Visions" and "Web Site functions"
A book review of a 1999 release of a Pressler book on his crusade to purge the SBC of liberalism
With publication of this book, Pressler for the first time gives a public record of the conservative movement from his own perspective. The 362-page volume, titled "A Hill on Which to Die," is published by the SBC's publishing house, LifeWay Christian Resources.
"Since he and the conservative movement burst onto the SBC scene 20 years ago, Southern Baptists have developed starkly different perceptions of the appeals-court judge who devoted himself to ridding the denomination of liberalism. Some bless him as a hero who saved the SBC; others blame him for a witch-hunt that damaged the convention and destroyed lives. "
I choose "B", as do most who recount the movement. Most who know of him are of the negative opinion
The book was needed to set the record straight, Pressler writes, because so many "liberals" have unjustly attacked him and other leaders of the conservative movement. "History might not deal charitably with the conservative movement, because so many of those who write history are not sympathetic with our goals and purposes."
Neither did Bill Moyers in a PBS interview in a series called God and Politics in the early 80's
The title, he explains, comes from a frequent comment made by Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., and the first in a string of conservatives elected SBC president beginning in 1979.
From Jeff Jarvis' weblog, a "blog moment" written about the upcoming 1 year anniversary of Sept.11, one which grabbed me with it's poignance :
"It has been a year... : ... and my greatest blessing is my family. I have written before that starting on that day, my children would not let me leave their sight without saying, "I love you." They still do. And so do I."
It seems that many "Christian" sites are helping to perpetuate the kind of thinking demonstrated by Mr. Graham (I won't call him Reverend). I notice scores of "Muslim attacks Christians" articles, which seems a bit backwards from what is needed, unless of course, this is your aim: to cast Islam as the terrorist's religion. Once again, it's like calling Christianity the religion of the KKK. Christianity is but a political and social and emotional tool for the KKK, as Islam is to the terrorists. I also noticed a site recently that prided itslef on being non-judgmental and calling for unity amongst Christians, but whose content regarding Muslim-Christian relations seemed heavily weighted toward Islam as the enemy and citing Muslim on Christian violence (and omitting the scores of scenarios of the opposite variety since Sept.11).
"I'm certainly not preaching against Muslim people," Graham said Wednesday on WBT-AM radio. "I am concerned about our nation, and on Sept. 11 last year, we were attacked by followers of Islam, claiming to do this in the name of Islam." |see the artcle on ABC News
See below, my citing of the Timothy McVeigh case, and consider the invoking of Christian principles by the Klu Klux Klan. On the west Wing last fall, there was a special "post Sept. 11" episode done by the cast that featured a discussion with some students by Josh, and he made the comparison:
The terrorist are to Islam as WHO is to Christianity? Answer: KKK
Nobody asks the Church to apologize for the KKK, becuase everyone knows they are a radical racist group, and despite their claims to be followers of Christ, we easily see their TWISTING of the truth; their "hermeneutic of convenience" (meaning, they interpret the scriptures the way they see fit, as justification for their actions and goals).
No, it seems to be lost on Mr. Graham that you are falling prey to the trap of lumping a whole group into one for the actions of a few disturbed, disillusioned, self-deceived , self-proclaimed "saviors" of the Islamic world. And that's all they are, is self-proclaimed, among their fellow "deceived".......which are many, but still do not represent the faithful of Islam.
Graham states further:
"The silence of the clerics around the world is frightening to me," he said. "How come they haven't come to this country, how come they haven't apologized to the American people, how come they haven't reassured the American people that this is not true Islam and that these people are not acting in the name of Allah, they're not acting in the name of Islam?"
Uh, Mr. Graham, THEY (the Muslims) did NOT do it. Did American Christians apologize to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing because Timothy McVeigh was a "Christian"? No, because what he did had nothing to do with any association with any association of himself with the Christian Church or Christian beliefs (except maybe in his own head....which is precisely the case with the terrorists). Why is this so hard to understand? Intolerance, bigotry, and hatred: that's why it's hard. These things are hard to see past when they blind us to the truth.
And oh, by the way, Mr. Graham , please SHUT UP!
Earlier this week I got a report from the urologist that was MUCH better than what I had a year ago. Last year my PSA had been elevated, and so I was referred to a urologist, who , in the absence of any other obvious causes, did a biopsy last Sept. 7. That turned out to show no sign of any cancer of the prostate. 6 months later, my PSA was relatively unchanged, so we extended the watch another 6 months. Last week, I got a card from the doctor saying my PSA was a couple of points lower (maybe it was the Selenium I've been taking for about 3 months). Anyway, things are looking like they are moving in the right direction.
Last year, after the biopsy, I received the good news about 10 in the morning on Sept.11 --- it was very strange, the feeling I had then ---- very relieved and celebratory, but still in disbelief about what was happening in New York and Washington.
| The good folks at O'Reilly have put up a transcript of Larry Lessig's now-legendary speech at OSCon on July 24. |
| Leonard Lin has also created an amazing Flash Presentation of the same speech, combining .mp3 with .ppt, or something like that. Whatever he did, it was a labor of love and skill, and very well done. |
| O'Reilly also has a large list of multimedia files of OSCon presentations, keynotes and other talks, including my own. |
| By the way, I am also re-reading Larry's companion book to this speech, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World, and I am no less convinced than ever that this is the most important book of our time. |
| Buy it and read it. |
| After dinner we went out to Aqua Blue, a terrific restaurant for which there seems to be no reference on the Web. The kid was so wasted he ate about three bites of spaghetti and fell asleep on the floor. |
The previous entry obviously raises my ire, wouldn't you say? The things I wrote on Thursday about The Southern Baptist Convention are closely related. It has to do with people who call themselves Christians (and I believe that they are, but simply missing the mark when it comes to the way they either understand or treat people, or both......which is a pretty serious offense in my book in the matter of "being a Christian", becuase I also believe it has to do with the way you "live it".)
The audio file linked from the article earlier this week about Tony Campolo includes a segment where Camplolo mentions how many Christians who were wearing "WWJD" pins ("What Would Jesus Do?") took them off after September 11 and put American flags in their place. This to me is sacrilege.
More media coverage on an issue where I want to say to the clueless, bigoted, narrow-focused conservative Christian people: "Shut up, for Jesus' sake!" So I'll say it:
SHUT UP FOR JESUS' SAKE! before you embarass yourself!...... (too late)
Detractors say the 220-page book, which discusses 35 verses from Islam's holy text, could convert Americans to the religion of terrorists blamed for the deaths of about 3,000 people on Sept. 11.
It could "convert them"???? Get a clue, people! If the religion of Islam is so evil, as you say, then how in the world could the "study" of such be convincing enough to "convert them"?
"It's almost farcical that so many people would follow it (Islam) and call it a religion of peace," said Glover, whose conservative Christian group recruited three unidentified students for the lawsuit against UNC. "It means peace through submission to Allah, and for everyone else it means death."
The farce, Mr. Glover, is that you can be a Chrsitian and say you believe in a Scripture that teaches the same exact stuff regarding the "pagan enemy", where God is reported to have ordered the wholesale slaughter of all people in a city...and even the animals...... What do you do with that? There's a "special interpretation" called for there, one which you refuse to grant to the Islam relgion when it comes to their own "seemingly contradictory" texts and passages. I could say that it's "almost farcical that so many people would follow the Christian Right and call it a religion of Jesus when its own followers are so militant, quick to judgement, and quick to call for retaliation". (Of course, there I go again, lumping these examples into the entire "Christian right", but that's OK, though, right Mr. Glover? Isn't that the way it's done? Aren't all Muslims of the same ilk and of the same mind about how the Quran is interpreted as were the terrorists and their supporters? Isn't this the way to approach these matters? )
James Moeser, chancellor of UNC's Chapel Hill campus, said the intensity of discussion surrounding the issue demonstrates a need for information.
Mr. Moeser is a refreshing example of the "thinking and discerning" theologian, one who is clearly "thinking" and acting on the desire for education and rationality rather than blind prejudice and fear, perpretated by , once agin, clueless loudmouths of the religious right. (Not all adherents of the "Christian Right" are clueless and/or loudmouths, but these clowns are).
"We need to explore our own religious biases in this country, our own fear of examination, our own intolerance," Moeser said. "The faculty has succeeded in choosing a book that is provocative in the best sense of the word, provocative of inquiry, even controversy. Universities thrive on controversy."
I guess one could say that the religious right loves it too, it gives them a chance to air their venom in public, and once again embarass the people who strive to live as Jesus would, and look at the person.
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He found his answer in the simplest place of all: The mirror.
Click the title link to read story at MLB.com
