The Institute (協会)

The Coming Mexican/African-American War: Mexican Stamps Call Revisit Old Black Stereotypes? What is this the 1940s and 50s?

This is a new Mexican stamp.

Wow, even Mexicans are making fun of black people! Oh, it's on now!! Some would say Mexicans are fueling blackploitation/Amos-and-Andy sentiment with a new series of stamps (see below). Friends, this could get ugly but I'm predicting some tough tensions coming between black folks and Mexicans (in particular) in the coming years. Blacks and Carribean Latinos seem to get along better--not so much with Mexicans some would say.

But, hey, if I have it my way, I'm more than willing to do my part to promote cultural harmony between blacks and Hispanics/Latinos by marrying a Puerto Rican (boriqua)--or a Cuban o una latina de las otras Americas! I just need to find one in her mid-to-late 20s.

So what does it mean when Mexicans look down on blacks? Or is that the case here?

This comes just weeks after Mexican President Vicente Fox lauded that Mexicans do jobs in the states "that not even blacks want to do."

Any Recent College Grads Need A Job? Work for IHS!!

I got this e-mail today:

Dear Anthony,

IHS is currently seeking a full-time program assistant to help with various aspects of our organization. Responsibilities include liaising with writers and helping to identify appropriate articles for www.abetterearth.org and www.aworldconnected.org, assisting with essay contests, editing and maintaining website content, and providing administrative/logistical support for various programs and summer seminars.

This is a great opportunity for a bright, motivated, recent college graduate.

If you or someone you know is interested, please visit http://www.theihs.org/article.php/1124.html/ for more information.

Racial Reconciliation Needed Between Blacks and Mexicans, forget the white stuff

This is a new Mexican stamp! Forget the racial reconciliation between whites and blacks. It's not 1980 anymore.

The coming tensions will be among blacks and Mexicans. I don't see any white people coming up with stamps like this. Are there any forward thinking churches dealing with the growing tension between blacks and Mexican immigrants? Nope.

Bobby Brown's Reality Show: Are You Serious?

It's too bad that reality is more bizzare than fiction. Please give us more fiction Hollywood. I understand, though, you just can't compete with people's real (stupid) lives--why try? If I'm reduced to peaking in on Bobby Brown's jacked-up life then mine most definitely sucks. Do you think they'll show the domestic violence and drug use the couple is known for?
"Being Bobby Brown," which features Brown and his wife, pop songstress Whitney Houston, premieres on Bravo Thursday (10 p.m. ET). Here's what Bobby has to say about the show featuring him and Whitney Houston:

In an interview on "Dateline NBC," Brown said he decided to allow cameras to follow him for six months because "it's easy for people to just have the freedom to be able to say things about me, and me not say anything. That's the easy part.

"But the hard part is to show them me, because I'm scared of being myself, sometimes."

So will I ever watch it? Sadly, I probably will. . . But they've been on the news so much over the years I'm not sure what the difference will be.

Breaking News: The Local Church Is Another Para-church Organization

It just hit me that my college friend probably sees any local congregation as if it were a para-church organization of the universal church. First Baptist, First Presbyterian, Covenant Commmunity Church are NO different than FCA, Young Life, Campus Crusade for Christ, InterVarsity, and so on. Since the local church is nothing more than a para-church group then why commit to just one. Sad. Has the para-church destroyed the value of the local church?

The Journey--St. Louis: Another Church Serving Young Emerging Generations Taking Membership Seriously

The Journey is pastored by Darrin Patrick. This St. Louis church in two years has gone from a house church to around 800 people. The average age there is probably 25 (but that's a guess, I've only been to the building once).

From their website: "Here at The Journey we take church membership very seriously. We do not view membership as simply being on some list in the church office. Membership is about joining a family that is united in belief and purpose in order to experience Christ and share Him with the world. Members at The Journey are united theologically. We share common views about God and his Word. We are also united in our mission and philosophy, which stem from our theology, and justify our existence as a local church. Finally, our values lead us to be united in our mission to St. Louis and to the world. Members fight for unity so that we can faithfully live out the gospel together for the sake of the world. Membership is our pathway to unity.

Membership is also the pathway for people to be equipped. It is a way of creating more room to include, empower, and release people. It provides a platform for people to grow in their love for God and in their service to others. Membership pushes us to be authentic to our mission and become a diverse community, learning to embrace and love those who are not like us. It provides accountability for the leadership, and for the people they serve. It also destroys the American idol of the autonomous self, which, left to itself, will practice an individualized private faith, which we see as the opposite of the New Testament church.

Being a member at The Journey does have tangible benefits. It frees you up to fully participate in our mission by entering into leadership. Membership is a prerequisite to leadership at The Journey. Members receive a password that enables them to have “insider” information. Probably the best benefit is that members enjoy the focused care of the elders and the deacons.

To become a member at The Journey you must attend the Gospel Class, which is offered on Wednesday nights at 7:00 p.m. After completing the 8 week class you must sign a members’ covenant. The Journey Membership Covenant is a stated commitment that we are living in community together and seeking to embody unity through the beliefs, philosophy and mission of The Journey through active expressions of love and service."

Cell Phone Cheating

The Houston Independent School District said that a rash of students using cell phones to cheat has prompted the school board to increase penalties for students caught using cell phones while taking tests. With the rise in parents allowing their kids to carry phones with digital cameras, school officials say it is easy for students to snap an image of a test and sending it to friend, who responds with a text message. "We've had some teachers who told us that they suspect there may be some of this going on. We haven't seen much of it yet, but the technology certainly exists," said Terry Abbott a spokesperson for the school district. This raises the question of whether or not cell phones should be allowed during school hours at all.

I could totally see this happening at the Christian school I used to teach at in Philly. Technological improvements require a more mature personal ethic.

Local Church Commitment Is Stupid: The Church Is Really More Like A Mall Anyway. It's Mall Ecclesiology--The Mall Gone Wild

On Sunday, I had an incredibly surprising and depressing conversation with a college student about significance of committing to ONE local church. Driving home I realized this: our consumption-based and "me"-oriented, individualistic Christianity, coupled with the strong reactionism against denominations and authority structures (thanks boomers!!), has birthed an emerging generation who have no value, at all, for the biblical paradigm of committing to a local church. It's sad.

American Christians, it seems, are complete pragmatic utilitarians. As long as it works for me, who cares?

I've also had this discussion with a college kid in St. Louis who rotates around 3-4 churches. This is what seems to be their understanding of the church: the only true church is the church universal (the mall), who cares if you're committed to a local church (individual stores in the mall) because no church has it all (the Gap and Pac Sun have different stuff) and there are important needs to engage in other churches (I need to explore all of my options in the mall before committing to buy anything).

Since the only church is the mall church why committ to an individual store?

Here's the sick twist: the "mallenized" church is often promoted as good in the name of "service" and "fellowship"--as if doing that the best way possible is a free-for-all. "I 'mallify' my church life to serve more people." Service in the church can become perverted like anything else. The "mallenized" method is just as bad as non-church goer because the idolatrous, "mallenized" orientation is, in the end, individualistic and even can produce a false, high-sense of spirituality. "I consume church, like being at the mall, to better serve the church later."

I'm worried. So something as good as "service" has hijacked God's design for community. It's a form of psychological and ethical egoism. Self-centerned, individualistic "mallenized" church shoppers miss the point: is the mallenized church goer the best that God has designed (even if I don't like it)?

Don't use "fellowship and service" as an excuse for heavy petting the flesh of post-modernism, consumerism, and an individualistic worldview.

I doubt you'll find a college student anywhere in America who could argue, biblically, why the church is not like a mall with individual stores(local churches) that you can just flippantly go in and out of to meet your needs. Can any college student explain the problems at attempting to be committed to multiple churches: both biblically and practically? Ask a college student anywhere in America and you will likely hear silence. (I hope I'm wrong, actually I know that I am. Try Seattle).

Being committed to one local congregation is viewed as "the hoarding of members." It's viewed as resricting a Christian's freedom to move. It's pastors trying to control. The irony: the generation that craves community the most is the LEAST likely to actually commit to one.

Modern generations must keep all options open at all times, regardless of the cost of quality and intimacy. No commitments, just freedom to do whatever one feels is best for oneself. Church membership is all about "me" not provding the best possible community for the edificaiton of others consistent with God's design. It's depressing.

Let's call this ME: Mall Ecclesiology. In this view the local church is irrelevant and has no purpose. The only true church is the church universal (people united all over the world--at the mall).

The guys at 9 Marks, explores why the mall version of the church is not biblical (but who cares if it's biblical, if it feels right then I'll do it!)

On the website they explain the following: what being in a local church demonstrates, why committing to ONE community is important, and more.

This conversation was sparked when last Sunday Rob Bell, teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church, rightly rebuked, a mostly younger crowd's habit, of double dipping: going to Mars Hill and then their "other" church. Going in and out of churches like the move about in the mall.

Mars Hill On Church Membership: Younger Churches Reaching Emerging Generations Believe In Church Membership

Before you go on a silly rant about the me-oriented "mallenized" view of church being an "emergent" weakeness and only represents those churches with mostly young people, this not the case at all. Baby-boomers taught us this. Membership at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, a congregation of about 4,000 with the average age of attenders being under 28-yrs-old, is taken seriously--(only there maybe could a college student explain why being committed to ONE church is best). The following is taken from the Mars Hill church web-site.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12: 3-8)

To transition from a regular attender to an official member of Mars Hill Fellowship, we ask that you attend our foundational class, The Gospel, where we look at an overview of Christian essentials with time for questions and discussion. Regular membership meetings occur quarterly at the end of the 10-week class. We ask that you pray about this decision and soberly consider becoming part of the church body.

Legalize Prostitution?

Why is prostitution illegal? One can make that case that it's morally wrong, on several grounds, but should it be illegal. What's the case for it being illegal?

My raising the question does not mean that I support prostitution nor am I currently a client of any prostitute. I also do not want anyone to be a prostitute. Prostitution is morally condemned and I support its eradication. I felt I needed to say that for the record. I'm simply asking a question. All sin is bad and Christians shouldn't sin, ever! Ok.

Men Who Fear Their Girlfriends and Wives: The Problem Of Reducing The Masculine Identity To Encounters With The Feminine

Sam Keen points out that men expect too much from women. Many men, young and old, too easily retreat to the feminine as a place to validate what it means to be a man. IF any male teen, college-age, or any other aged man, expects a woman to validate his identity, as a man made is God's image, she is destined to dissappoint him. It's not fair to women. What it means to be a man must have a transcendent orientation--transcending work, relationships, sports, good grades, success, who you hooked-up with, etc.

For many men, says Keen, women are supposed to be "paradise regained, the place we can finally lay our burdens down and receive our just rewards for a lifetime of struggle and toil. She is the savior who is supposed to make us whole and reconnect us to our severed feelings."

Here's the problem with going to women to validate the masculine says Keen: "if she is the promise of paradise, she is also the place of judgement and the entrance to hell. Since our entrance to the earthly paradise depends on her good graces, we give her the power to judge and reward or punish us. Without acknowledging that we have given her the keys to the kingdom, we nevertheless set out to fulfill the conditions she requires to win her favors. We try to please her. And ever so imperceptibly we come to judge ourselves by the relfection we see ourselves in her eyes".

If we judge ourselves by any other standard than what it means to be made in God's image, fleshly demonstrated by the work and person of the man Jesus, we are all off course as men. All of us.

Men should set out not to do what women require of us but what is required to truly bear the image of the masculine Creator of all. This is actually better for us as men and for women.

Many men fear their girlfriends and wives because in our emascualted, gender neutral, Western context men have been reduced to interpreting their sense of being a man to the eyes of women, success, sports, etc. instead of the eyes of God.

If we want better men, fathers, uncles, sons, families, marriages, communties, and so on, oneself true sense of what it means to be a man must be derived from the image of one who is the author and perfector that which is truly masculine. Winning the immediate favor of your wife may not always be the right or best thing to do because her perspective of the good is stained by her own brokeness and sin. Women with jacked-up pasts with their own fathers or other men can have a profoundly damaging and destrucive interpretation of your sense of what a man is supposed to be. Defining what a man is must transcend personal and emotional perspectives.

This requires men to embrace what the creator of men desires over and above the interpretations of our culture.

Have a great weekend.

CT Scan Results: All Clear!!

The doctors looked at my CT scan and determined that the lumps in my neck are nothing to be concerned about. I have to check back in 6 months. This was a huge relief. Thanks for you prayers.

Piston Lock-In Game Seven

The Detroit Pistons "behind the scoring of guards Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton and several clutch plays from foul-plagued Rasheed Wallace down the stretch, displayed the resiliency they've become known for and defeated San Antonio 95-86 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals," says the AP. Since it's rigged I'm not surprised to hear we're going to game seven. A lot more money can be made from a 7-game series (haha).

What's Left of Men, Manhood, And The Battlefield: Why Young(er) Men May Be So Sexually Obessesd At Younger Ages

Traditionally, the [gender] tests of manhood were not genital. A "real" man proved himself by impregnating a woman, protecting her against enemies, and providing for his family. Currently, easily available birth control and the desire for small families or childless marriages have removed the fertility test; unpopular wars and nuclear arms have eroded the conviction that we are being protected by the military; and two-career families have taken away the male role fo being the provider. As a consequence, men seem enormously invested in pleasing and performing for women. For many men the erogenous zones seem to have replaced the battlefield as the arena for the testing of manhood.(Taken from Fire In The Belly: On Being A Man, Sam Keen, 1991)

The assault on men has taken the very form of the American Dream: 2.5 kids, outsourcing courage, and feminism. The only place left for men to have a distinct right of passage into manhood is the bedroom, hence the usurping for sex as holy. Sex serves a utilitarian function in a feminized, contraceptive society. Sexuality is now the only place for men to validate their masculinty and that's where most boys and men go to get a sense that they were created distinctively male. What's left?

Sexual obsession and aggression by men is feminism's unintended consequence--hence the epidemic of middle school girls performing oral sex on middle school boys as these guys transition into figuring out what it means to be a man. Western culture has taken everything else away--"gender equity in all things." So guess what's left? Girls are joining the wrestling team and playing football and young men are left to resort to the only definitive demonstration of their uniqueness promoted in our culture: the use of their penises. At least girls don't have those.

Sex is the only "right of passage" Western culture offers men.

My guess is that churches that lack strong male leadership would have more sexually active boys (especially churches with women pastors). I can't prove that, it's just a hunch.

You can see this play out in the music of guys like "Sunday's Best" pictured above.

Rudy Carrasco: A Hispanic/Latino Voice For A New Generation

Rudy and I keep running into each other and have some overlapping circles of friends and colleagues. We think A LOT alike and I'm excited that this brutha is seeking to reach Hispanics/Latinos in fresh emerging ways!! He is now linked of the left side of this blog. Check out his blog.

Rudy Carrasco is the executive director of the Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena, California. For 14 years, since graduating from Stanford University with a BA in English, Rudy has focused on indigenous leadership development at Harambee and beyond. A writer by training, his articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Christianity Today, Religion News Service, the Pasadena Star News and other publications. In 2002 Rudy was inducted into the Hispanic Scholarship Fund's Alumni Hall of Fame.

In May, 2001 he joined a group of nine Hispanic religious leaders from around the country who advised President George W. Bush on the faith-based initiative. In 1996 Rudy was selected as One of 50 Leaders Under The Age Of 40 To Watch by Christianity Today. He serves on the board of directors of World Vision, the Christian Community Development Association, and TechMission. His wife, Kafi, is the principal of Harambee Preparatory School. They have a four-year-old son, Samuel, and a newborn daughter, Micah.

Real Sex--Part 2

Tim Keller made this comment which I thought was brilliant: "In a materialistic culture like ours, people keep their money and spread their bodies around. . .Christians keep their bodies [holy] and are promiscuous with their money."

What's fundamentally missing in the evangelical church is the sense that sex is first of all a holy and sacred union between a man and a woman. At its essence, it is a physical manifestation of a spiritual union of the masculine and feminine attributes of God, Christ and his church, the unity of the Trinity, the communal union of man and woman. This is why it fits most appropriately within the context of marriage.

As a sacred and holy act, sex is a reflection of the most transcendental form of human union. Sex is one of the most sacred actions humans can do together. It is the joining of two bodies in oneness. It physically represents the intentional joining of two persons to become one--NOT to become two ever again. Just as God unites people to his son that they would always remain one--distinct roles yet united in eternal love.

Within the context of physical union God is there joining the man and woman in ways that language cannot capture. It's the mystery of God's presence during sex that renders adultery so painful.

Hooking up and sleeping around are both animalistic and materialistic activities with no sense of the sacred manifestations of physical act of becoming two united in oneness with the intent to remain united together in spiritual intimacy. The oneness in the sacred act has been lost. Sex is a spiritual act at it's core expression of joining the essense of both the masculine and the feminine. Sex is about God. I've never heard an evangelical say that. Sex being about God has further implications as it relates to love, marriage, family which I'll talk about later.

The power inherent in sex intercourse finds its explanation in God intent for two persons discovering a life of oneness.

If I were to ask the average high school kid in a Christian school what sex was all about you'd here more about humanistic affection than about the sacred and holy union of man and woman by God.

It's a mysterious and definitive discovery of the meaning of the human body created by God directed toward reciprocal beauty. Sex is a sign and images unity and harmony in the most dramatic form possible and is the most sacred physical union possible among humans.

Instead of having sex set to jazz or ballads it would be, perhaps, even more appropriate to have sex with a few of Bach's cantatas playing in the background with a full orchestra and chorus. Sex set to sacred choral music makes a lot of sense.

A Tribute To "The Nature Boy," Ric Flair

This son of a doctor has always been one of my favorite wrestlers: WHOOOOA!!

"To be the man, you've got to beat the man!"--Ric Flair

Answer.com says this about "The Nature Boy":

His birth name, depending on the particular documents examined, was Fred Phillips, Fred Demaree, or Fred Stewart. He was one of several thousand children adopted through the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an agency that was revealed in 1950 to have fraudulently induced numerous mothers to give up their children for adoption. His adoptive parents, who received him when he was less than a month old, were a physician (father) and a theater writer (mother) who named him Richard Morgan Fliehr. At the time of his adoption, his father was finishing his residency in gynecology in Detroit; soon afterwards, his parents settled with the young Richard in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, Minnesota.

Flair played football at the University of Minnesota while in a pre-medical academic program, but he dropped out before receiving a degree. He then worked as a bouncer before meeting Ken Patera, a former Olympic weightlifter who had established himself in professional wrestling. Patera encouraged Flair to pursue a wrestling career, and Flair soon joined the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), working his first match for that promotion on December 10, 1972.

"Shit" As A "Cuss" Word

Why is this word "shit" in the profanity category? Is there a non-profane use of the word "shit?"

What exactly makes a profane word profane? Is "bitch" a bad word? Is it the context and tone in which the word is used?

Is it possible to make just about any word into a "cuss" word? How about bugger? You know, that brown/yellow/green half-slimy, half-crusty, sometimes with a hair attached thing that dangles, from your nose. Shouldn't bugger be a cuss word?

"Yeah, Bill, I know him he's such a stupid bugger." Did I just cuss?

Sex

What is sex? What's its purpose? I'm not sure evangelicals can actually explain it: hence the confusion about how to talk about it. A few generations of us have grown up learning about sex from the media and we've adopted the worldview, only to baptize it.

Crash, the film: A Must See!!

I left this movie depressed. Crash masterfully weaves together a whole string of characters who throughout a chaotic 36 hour period in Los Angeles get involved in one race related incident or dilemma after another which all stems from and then culminates in the automobile collision of the movie is titled.

It's an absolutely brilliant and raw commentary on race in the unique microcosm of culture clashes in LA that, in my opinion, are but only a precursor to how the rest of American will become in the coming decades. The movie expresses the good and bad views that all of think but would never say. My most favorite depiction is the FACT that racial minorities hold racist views against whites and other groups.

CRASH, Go See This Film

I left this movie depressed. Crash masterfully weaves together a whole string of characters who throughout a chaotic 36 hour period in Los Angeles get involved several race-related incidents.

102-71: Can You Explain This?

From the AP:

Lindsey Hunter hit the jumper, drew the foul and backpedaled in slow motion, soaking up every decibel of the crowd's adulation. Yes, Lindsey Hunter, the Pistons' defensive specialist, the affable veteran guard whose shots usually inspire audible cringing at the Palace, not standing ovations. But by that point in the third quarter Thursday night, nobody could be surprised by anything Detroit did in its 102-71 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

Wassup, Spurs?

McDonald's French Fries

Yummy. In heaven will these kill us? And, yes, I've seen "Super-Size Me" but, other than bacon, these are the tastiest things on the market!!

Agassi Pulls Out of Wimbledon

In the words of Darth Vader, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO." Folks, this may be it for Andre. From the AP:

Andre Agassi withdrew from Wimbledon because of an injury for the second straight year Tuesday, leaving fans [Anthony] to wonder whether they'll ever see him play again at the All England Club. "It was getting worse by the minute," the 35-year-old Agassi said after that loss in Paris. "I knew it wasn't going to be pretty after that. But I didn't want to walk off. I just didn't want to do it. And there's nothing the trainer could do."

If he retires, well. . . I can't talk about this, it's too much. . .

How To Have A Special Wedding Night: Stop Sharing An Apartment/House With Your Fiance One Month Prior To The Wedding

I was watching Judge Mathis during lunch yesterday and there was couple suing each other after an engagement was broken off. The girl said that she moved out of their apartment one month before their wedding to not sleep with her fiance because she wanted to have the wedding night be "special."

Judge Mathis and I laughed because the couple had been having sex for 5 YEARS, and were living together for 3 years and she moved out one month before the wedding to have the wedding night be special? Judge Mathis was like, "are you serious?" I was like, "yeah, this girl's brilliant"!

NOT GUILTY????!!!!!!!!!

Wow, must be nice to be famous 'cause you don't go to jail for jack. However, is true that there may not have been enough evidence to convict him on the details of the charges. And we all know who I'm talking about.

The PCA General Assembly Blog

He friends, if you're interested, there's live blogging at this year's PCA General Assembly. Go here.

Senate Apologizes For Lynchings: And the church?

The Senate issued an apology Monday night to the victims of America's lynching-- 4,743 people killed between 1882 and 1968, three out of four of them black--for not acting against the violence. James Cameron, a 91-year-old lynching survivor lived to retell his story and was present for the announcemnt. In 1930, he and two others were taken from an Indiana jail accused of rape and murder. The mob hanged the two young men but spared Cameron when someone in the crowd demanded that the 16-year-old was not involved. "I was saved by a miracle," said Cameron, now 91. People were "hollering for my blood," he recalled, "when a voice said, 'Take this boy back."'

Where was the church? That's too bad that there weren't any Christians living in any of those places where lynchings occurred during those years to protest and fight against this stuff.

Adult ADHD???

Appearently ADHD is a problem for adults now.

According the AP:

researchers say the conditions can persist into adulthood. Preliminary figures from a survey by Dr. Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School indicate adult ADHD affects about 4 percent of the population.

Hallmarks of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can include a lack of focus and impulsiveness. It's also known as attention deficit disorder (ADD), a term many adults use because they are not hyperactive. Adults with attention disorders describe having great stores of energy and creativity, but trouble focusing it.

I don't buy it. Try this: slow down, take a sabbath, exercise, eat as healthy as possible, get some sleep, stop smoking crack, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the drug companies were pushing for this.

Michael Jackson, Not What??

Not guilty! Wow, being famous and black is really cool. Of course, he may, in fact, be not guilty of what he was specifically charged with. It is very possible that there was reasonable doubt enough to acquit. If is doesn't fit you must aquit.

Jackson may have been charged with questionable charges, weak in definitive evidence. He may have been on trial for the wrong reasons with the wrong plantiffs. Man, I sould have gone to law school.

The Mom Test (s)

In light recent relationship discussions with a friends I thought it'd be helpful to just put the truth out there. The "mom test" has problems.

(1) If her mom is fat, dump her. Many guys, especially Christian guys, hold strictly to the what we call "the mom test": "if the Mom is fat, then your girlfriend will be too someday, so dump her immediately." I know SEVERAL guys, yeah even Christian guys, who broke up with their girlfriends because of the girl's mother's weight. I heard of another one yesterday.

(let me say this for the record because some assume that if I don't explicity say that something is bad that I endorse it. So here we go: guys, dumping your girlfriend because her mom is fat is bad. Very bad. I don't think you should do that. It's bad, bad, bad. It's not good. As a matter of fact, don't do bad things ever. Everything evil is bad. Don't do evil or bad things. Don't sin ever or make a poor decisions. I think that covers it).

(2) You'll learn a lot about a guy based on how he treats his mother. You may also learn a lot about why you're getting dumped (for acting like her). This is a pretty silly assessment tool unless you know exactly how the the guy's mom treated him growing up. Context is our friend here. You don't know what happened. If the guy had a Mom like "Mommie Dearest" what are you expecting? Some guys had(have) evil Moms. If he's treating her badly there may be a reason. That's probably a better place to start--asking why, instead of assuming something bad about the guy's treatment of women.

"No MORE wire hangers!!" Yes, Mommie dearest!

Hispanics: The Fastest Growing Minority Group

The Hispanic growth rate for the 12 months starting July 2003 was 3.6 percent compared with the overall population growth of 1 percent, accounting for half the 2.9 million U.S. population growth from 2003 to 2004. The growth rate was 3.4 percent for Asians, 1.3 percent for blacks, and 0.8 percent for whites. The census bureau estimates that there are 41.3 million Hispanics in the U.S. The increase is largely due to higher birth rates and immigration. Without these elements "we would be moving into a situation like Japan and Europe ... where the populations are graying in a way that is very alarming and endangering their productivity and endangering even their social security systems," remarked Lewis W. Goodman, of American University.

At least Hispanics are open to having children (for now at least). One hopes that the American dream does not take over their community's view of children: 2.5.

Today In History

June 9, 1549 Book of Common Prayer was adopted by the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, issued the “Book of Common Prayer.” Other prayer books were forbidden by the Act of Uniformity. The book was mandated by the government under Edward VI, son of Henry VIII, so that services could be spoken in the language of the people. Christianity in Europe is a sad story. The English, for the most part, have just about entirely returned to their unbelieving roots. Sad.

June 9, 1822 Charles Graham patented false teeth. Charles, you rock!

June 9, 1934 Donald Duck made his 1st screen appearance ("The Wise Little Hen"). His distinctive quack was voiced originally by Clarence Nash. He looks good for a duck his age.

June 9, 1948 Israel became a state and was immediately attacked by her Arab neighbors. About 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel after the founding. Most others fled or were forced out. Hmm. . .

Study: Boring Jobs May Lead To Heart Disease

A new study led by Dr. Harry Hemingway, of University College London Medical School, finds that men with "low-grade jobs," jobs where they have little control over daily tasks, and men in low social positions have faster and less-variable heart rates. "This finding helps explain why men with low-paying jobs and less education have a higher risk for heart disease, a trend that has been evident for the last 30 years," says Hemingway. "The heart doesn't, or shouldn't, beat like a metronome." A healthy heart rate varies, he said.

I think this makes a little sense. Any man who does not feel in control of his own ability to cultivate, rule, and subdue may feel the anxiety of dehumanization. If your life feels like it has no meaning you will be anxious. God designed us for meaning and purpose. If we don't believe we have either one of those, internally, it can lead to much angst.

Be careful what you major in.

This Is Not A Church

Aberdeen, Scotland. May 2005. This used to be a church. NOW it's one of Aberdeen's hippest spots. It's a pub called "Soul" formerly known as Langstane Kirk (Church of Scotland). You find this all over Scotland. Former churches turned into clubs, bars, coffee house, etc.

How did this happen? How did the former home of such Christian vibrancy become a grave yard? How did a country so revolutionary in preaching and teachings the doctrines of grace become a spiritual wasteland?

Will this happen in America? Yes, it already has in many cities. I'm not surprised.

The 2005 Clemson Tiger Football Schedule

2005 Clemson Football Schedule

Friends, mark your calendars for the most important football schedule in the fall.

Sept. 3 TEXAS A&M Military Appreciation Day
Sept. 10 at Maryland
Sept. 17 MIAMI (FL) Hall of Fame/IPTAY Day
Sept. 24 BOSTON COLLEGE Family Weekend/One Clemson
Oct. 1 at Wake Forest
Oct. 13 #at NC State
Oct. 22 TEMPLE Youth Day
Oct. 29 at Georgia Tech
Nov. 5 DUKE Homecoming
Nov. 12 FLORIDA STATE
Nov. 19 at South Carolina
All times TBA
#Note that October 13 is a Thursday

Why I Almost Converted To Fred Price: Courageous, Authentic Pastors Needed

Sunday morning in my hotel room in Seattle I'm flipping channels before venturing out on the breakfast hunt and I stumbled across Dr. Fred Price, pastor of the Crenshaw Christian Center. He was talking about sex with his wife and his coming across pornographic pictures in his e-mail inbox.

This 73-year-old man, preaching a sermon discussing some of the tactics the Enemy uses to take Christians out, confessed that he has, in the past, had to fight the predatory pornographic pop-up e-mails that invade his inbox. He admitted that when the pictures pop-up, they lure his eyes, he looks at them and must fight to close the e-mail and get them off of his computer screen. He encouraged the men in his church to fight because he, himself, must fight (the good fight).

He even said it's an issue because, even though he's 73, "I'm not dead yet," (said with a low-toned giggle). And then he turned to his wife in the audience and thanked God because "and Mama [his wife] ain't dead yet either." He then described how his own active sexual life keeps the intimacy alive in his marriage. Betty, his wife, smiled enthusiastically and nodded.

His parishoner's laughed, the men sighed in relief (it was a "me too" sigh), and it was recieved with laughter and celebration. His wife had an "Amen" look in her face. It was so cool. And Dr. Price even did a "high five" with another man in the audience on this issue.

I thought to myself, "WOW, now this brother is real, authentic." It was the most authentic thing I've heard a pastor his age ever say. It was beautiful.

Earlier he described how he can't look at certain women too long because it can turn into lust. Wait, you mean a 73-year-old Christian, a pastor, is a sinner like me and has to fight? Wow!!

It was awesome because it communicated a few things: (1) that he was still fully man struggling to live holy, (2) pornographic pictures sneak into his in box and that he has had to learn how to not look at them because he has in the past and been slow to delete them. Now he only opens e-mail from people that he recognizes. (3) Sex is a good and wonderful thing to talk about from the pulpit. He openly celebrated the sexual intimacy that he and his wife continue to have after being married for over 50 years. And his wife, nodded, smiling when he thanked God her sex drive is still alive. It was beautiful.

If I was charismatic I would have become a Fred Price convert today. Any pastor willing to be that real about his life is my kind'a guy. What he openly spoke about was sooooo good for the everyone to hear (especially the kids).

It provides a context for OPEN disclosure of what's really going on in one's life. If the pastor talks about it in his own life then I can too with other people. Price granted authenitic permission yesterday for honesty about struggles and honesty about the beauty of an active sex life within the context of marriage.

This is type of honesty would likely never happen in most churches that I run in (except the one I'm attending now) and that's why men aren't free to disclose real issues and needed, biblical topics never get discussed because the pastor is a coward and hides behind "I don't think that's appropriate to say from the pulpit." If somethings is in the Bible then it is appropriate to preach about. Would somebody please tell evangelicals that's it's ok too speak openly about the stuff the Bible openly addresses. And to do it in a personal way.

So the cowardly pastors have churches that have an ethos of faking their way through life, hiding their realities. People are not free to openly seek God's counsel within community about real issues and struggles.

If someone were to ask me what I look for in a church I would answer: One important item is that I desire to be at a church where the pastor is not a coward and people are free to be real. If the pastor is a cowardly, soft, type of "nice guy" I won't be able take it. People's lives are crazy and we need pastors courageous enough to talk about it all in the first and third person at times--like the Bible does.

Wow, 73-years-old, and brave enough to be real. This is rare. Actually, in the black church this kind of specific authenticity is normal.

The Enemy's Strategy To Destroy The Church And Culture

Wanna destroy the world? Attack the hears of men. The enemy has launched the most sublte, an all-out, full-blown offensive to destroy the lives and hearts of men in his continued attempt to lead the world astray. Too bad that most men don't seem to have a clue that they're under attack (1 Peter 5:8). Not a clue.

Dead men=jacked-up marriages, famlies, communitities, etc. Dead men is the petri dish for the proliferation of evil. In a war, if you want to take over another country go after the men. Today our churches are filled with boys and men who walk around clueless, wondering why they are not what they truly desire to be: a God-made man.

Anthony In Seattle June 3-5

Yep, just got back from the UK and I'm off again to Seattle to hang with some friends at Mars Hill Church. Have a great weekend.

28 "Little People" Killed in Lion Fight Dead-Cage-Match

This is not a joke, kind'a. Twenty-eight midgets were killed when 42 of them were put in a wring to fight a lion in Cambodia. People cheered as they watched. From the BBC:

Tickets had been sold-out three weeks before the much anticipated fight, which took place in the city of Kâmpóng Chhnãng. The fight was slated when an angry fan contested Yang Sihamoni, President of the CMFL, claiming that one lion could defeat his entire league of 42 fighters. The fight was called in only 12 minutes, after which 28 fighters were declared dead, while the other 14 suffered severe injuries including broken bones and lost limbs, rendering them unable to fight back.

(Thanks for sending this, brutha Ben D.)

This Is The Life!!

The best way to live is to live a life fashioned by devoting oneself to always doing the good and by a readiness to do act toward the good(Titus 3:1, 14).

Sadly, for many Christians, they are told that the best way to live is to focus on avoidance of bad things (DON'T!!. . . or STOP!!. . .). It's too bad that many youth and college ministries do not focus on living like Jesus in this way. Parents of teens of college students seem to care more about if their child is avoiding bad things rather than if their child is devoted to the good. Very sad. I'm sorry if your church's main emphasis is keeping you from doing bad things. Following the Way is so much more than that.

Devoting oneself to doing the good is not just about doing good acts. It's a way of think, living, being. It's a lifestyle preference.

(anybody recognize which ACC school is pictured above?)

Anyone See The Eagles Last Night on NBC?

No, not the Philadelphia Eagles, THE EAGLES, the band. It was a pleasant surprise. It was their Farewell Tour No. 1.

What's your favorite Eagles song? Mine is "I Can't Tell You Why"

Is Artificial Birth Control Ok? Is it right?

Evangelicals seem to have adopted the culture's birth control methods without thinking it through.

Here's my question: what is the biblical rationale for the use of artificial birth-control? How do pastors explain the use of artificial means in pre-marital counseling. I don't know the answer. Just curious.

It does seem odd to artificially remove the option of "multiplying" from God's creation of sex within the context of family. Any ideas? Is there a book that explains how afticial birth-control fits within the God's creational context of sex, marriage, and family?

Is it a liberty issue? What other creational liberties exist?

Scotland Is Awesome

This is just one of the many castles I visited during my trip.

Come Once France, what's up with EU?

French citizens want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the benefits of government control without contributing to THE key activity that provides government the ability to dehumanize by subjugating personal responsibility: that is, WORK.

The French live in a modern socialist state and won't ratify the EU constitution because it might move them into participating in the global market economy. What?

France's unemployment rate is 10%. It's a soft-socialist state where government takes care of nearly everything. The problem: the government is running out of money. France also has a declining birth-rate. And until recently, it was ILLEGAL to work more than 35 hours a week.

If you don't work, you don't eat. Hey France, your socialist government has to get its money from somewhere. One who think that the French would actually WANT more revenue for the government so that it can control even more of their lives--that's how they seem to like it.

The French Revolution, the slow death of France.

Back From Scotland

I'll have more pictures later. I had an extremely productive time. The Scots have cool cars, shoes, and pubs are everywhere. These people drink in the morning.