Seeking Goliath

Things you Don't say to Your Wife

2008-12-22T13:26:00.001-08:00

Coporate America comes to Worship

2008-12-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

If you've spent any time around contemporary Christian worship, you'll find this video hilarious. I captured it from my friend Molly.

The Financial Crisis Explained

2008-10-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

Wondering how this financial crisis came about, really?

This American Life, a weekly NPR radio program has done two really great shows this summer explaining both the mortgage crisis and the financial bail out. Since the two are connected, it'd be good to listen to this show about the mortgage crisis first (it was taped three months ago) and then listen to this show taped two weeks ago explaining the reasons for the financial bail out.

These shows do a great job of explaining in layman's terms exactly what happened and why.

I happen to feel that the bailout was one of the biggest mistakes in American history, in case you're wondering.

The Billings Housing Market

2008-10-15T07:38:00.000-07:00

My friend Doug has spent several years studying the Billings housing market. He recently put together a well-researched, comprehensive video examining our local real estate market. It's a half an hour long but worth watching. Naturally, these are Doug's opinions and not mine, though I agree with nearly all of it. Well done, Doug!

Housing Boom in Billings, 2008 from Doug A on Vimeo.

It was a Funny Trick

2008-10-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

Last night I was giving Matthew, our youngest, a bath while his 3-year old brother waited for his turn. Elijah was disrobed and playing in his room when he came into the bathroom.

"Dad, my bear is wet."

"Really? How did he get wet?"

"I peed on him."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I peed on my bed. And I pooped on my bed. It was a funny trick. Let me show you!"

He wasn't kidding.

Wordsworth Effect

2008-09-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

I'm back from from Blog hiatus. I hadn't planned on being back on a certain day, but saw this and it fit so well that I couldn't not post it.

The Wordsworth Effect
by Joyce Sutphen

Is when you return to a place
and it's not nearly as amazing
as you once thought it was,

or when you remember how you felt
about something (or someone) but you know
you'll never feel that way again.

It's when you notice someone has turned
down the volume, and you realize
it was you; when you have the

suspicion that you've met the enemy
and you are it, or when you get
your best ideas from your sister's journal.

Is also-to be fair-the thing that enables
you to walk for miles and miles chanting to
yourself in iambic pentameter

and to travel through Europe with
only a clean shirt, a change of
underwear, a notebook and a pen.

And yes: is when you stretch out
on your couch and summon up ten thousand
daffodils, all dancing in the breeze.

Prosperity and Piper

2008-07-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

John Piper, using the strongest language that I've heard him use, on the Prosperity Gospel message:

The End of Christianity...Again.

2008-07-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

The N.Y. Times recently published an article about the discovery of an ancient tablet (actually found quite awhile ago) that speaks of a Messiah dying and being resurrected in three days, which dates prior to the birth of Jesus. Shane also noticed this article. The Times article claims that

"If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time."

This strikes me as another attempt by the Times to once and for all debunk the wildly popular myth of Christianity that victimizes so many feeble minds.

Scott Richart has a different perspective:

"It's over, folks. The gig is up. Christianity has had a pretty impressive 2,000 year run, but new evidence shows that everything we Christians ever thought about the irreducible uniqueness of Jesus Christ is just a tired old rehashing of Jewish messianic ideas that had emerged in the decades before Christ's birth...

The laughter comes from the fact that a professor of Bible studies could be so naive as to believe that he could "shake the world of Christology" by proving that--gasp!--at least some Jews at the time of Jesus had come to believe that a messiah would die and then rise again in three days.

Israel Knohl, the professor, is a man on a mission. Before he'd ever heard of the tablet, which has been dubbed "Gabriel's Revelation" he had already posited in a book published in 2000 the idea of a suffering messiah--a Jewish national savior--before Jesus, using a variety of rabbinic and early apocalyptic literature as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls." But the book "did not shake the world of Christology as he had hoped" (my emphasis).

The idea that 'a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus' is hardly surprising. Christ, we believe, was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Nor, for that matter, is it surprising that the "suffering servant" was often viewed in political terms. We have evidence from the Gospels that such a concept was widespread..."

This discovery could be significant. But, as with all things, people are going to interpret the tablet according to their own agendas (including Christians), and we must be careful not to assess these things too quickly.

Epitaph for a Legend

2008-07-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

Felt like a little Johnny Cash today.

The Exchange

2008-07-07T07:04:00.001-07:00

The Exchange
by Ron Rash

Between Wytheville, Virginia
and the North Carolina line,
he meets a wagon headed
where he's been, seated beside
her parents a dark-eyed girl
who grips the reins in her fist,
no more than sixteen, he'd guess
as they come closer and she
doesn't look away or blush
but allows his eyes to hold
hers that moment their lives pass.
He rides into Boone at dusk,
stops at an inn where he buys
his supper, a sleepless night
thinking of fallow fields still
miles away, the girl he might
not find the like of again.
When dawn breaks he mounts his roan,
then backtracks, searches three days
hamlets and farms, any smoke
rising above the tree line
before he heads south, toward home,
the French Broad's valley where spring
unclinches the dogwood buds
as he plants the bottomland,
come night by candlelight builds
a butter churn and cradle,
cherry headboard for the bed,
forges a dougle-eagle
into a wedding ring and then
back to Virginia and spends
five weeks riding and asking
from Elk Creek to Damascas
before he finds the wagon
tethered to the hitching post
of a crossroads store, inside
the girl who smiles as if she'd
known all along his gray eyes
would search until they found her.
She asks one question, his name,
as her eyes study the gold
smoldering there between them,
the offered palm she lightens,
slips the ring on herself so
he knows right then the woman
she will be, bold enough match
for a man rash as his name.

Bonhoeffer on American Protestantism

2008-07-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

“For the first generation of fugitives the journey to America was a decision of faith for their whole lives. For them the renunciation of confessional struggle was therefore a hard-fought Christian possibility. A danger arises here, however, for the subsequent generations, who are born into this battle-free situation without themselves having decided to spend their lives under these conditions. Sooner or later they must misunderstand their position.

What was for their fathers a right of their Christian faith won at the risk of their lives becomes for the sons a general Christian rule. The struggle over creed, because of which the fathers took flight, has become for the sons something which is in itself unchristian. Absence of struggle becomes for them the normal and ideal state of Christianity. The descendants of the fugitives grow up in a peace that is not won, but inherited.”

–“Protestantism Without Reformation”, in No Rusty Swords: Letters, Lectures, and Notes p. 103

Bizarro Does Weddings

2008-07-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Faith of a... Little Spider.

2008-07-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

At work yesterday I looked over on the wall next to me and there was this little spider. He was vigorously making his way up the wall- to what I could not tell.

Annoyed, I flicked him off of his precarious perch and continued working. Ten minutes later I happened to glance at the wall, and there he was again. So I flicked him again.

I go off to meeting. I get back, sit down at my desk and there he is again, making his way to some unseen sanctuary. I grabbed a tissue to put an end to his meaningless little existence. Then I hesitated for just a moment.

I had to admire his adamant pursuit of the unseen.

So I flicked him across the room and went home. When I got to work this morning, there he was, in the same path, continuing his journey upward.

Who am I to get in the way of a tireless, faithful pursuit? Go well, little friend.

Faith and Doubt and Aaron Espe

2008-07-01T12:13:00.001-07:00

Faith and Doubt - Aaron Espe

Next Date Night

2008-06-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

From Take Your Vitamin Z

Spruced Up

2008-06-30T10:35:00.001-07:00

So I cleaned up the design of the blog a bit. I also cleaned up the links on the side bar and added a few new links as well, so check those sites out if you haven't already.

Secession Canceled due to Common Sense

2008-06-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court ruled today that the D.C. gun ban was unconstitutional.

So D.C. citizens get to keep their hand guns, and Montana stays in the Union...for now.

Naming the Animals

2008-06-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

Naming the Animals
Anthony Hecht

Having commanded Adam to bestow
Names upon all the creatures, God withdrew
To empyrean palaces of blue
That warm and windless morning long ago,
And seemed to take no notice of the vexed
Look on the young man's face as he took thought
Of all the miracles the Lord had wrought
Now to be labeled, dubbed, yclept, indexed.

Before an addled mind and puddle brow,
The feathered nation and the finny prey
Passed by; there went biped and quadruped.
Adam looked forth with bottomless dismay
Into the tragic eyes of his first cow,
And shyly ventured, "Thou shalt be called 'Fred.'"

Quotes from Regular People

2008-06-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Some words have caught my ear and stayed there this week:

From a guru in my field over lunch yesterday:

"You can't get a baby in a month by getting nine women pregnant."

From a mentally ill man sitting in the front row whilst I preached at the Rescue Mission last Sunday:

Me: "Ask yourself if your satisfied with your circumstances..."

Homeless man to self (loudly): "Well, are you satisfied?"

Homeless man answers himself (loudly): "What the #&*% do you think dumby?!!"

From a friend who was talking to his doctor about nationalised health care:

Doc: "If you like government housing, you'll love government health care!"

A Reminder

2008-06-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

At my Tuesday morning Bible Study this morning someone quoted Peter Scazzero from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (p.129, 133):

"I like control. I like to know where God is going, exactly what he is doing, the exact route of how we are getting there and exactly when we will arrive. I also like to remind God of his need to behave in ways that fit in with my clear ideas of him…

The problem, then, is that God is beyond every grasp of every concept I have of him. He is utterly incomprehensible.

...Richard Rohr has written extensively about the five essential truths to which men must awaken if they are to grow up into their God-given spirituality:

Life is Hard.
You are not that important.
Your life is not about you.
You are not in control.
You are going to die. "

Swamped

2008-06-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

Pearls Before Swine:

Divine Conspiracy

2008-06-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

From Dallas Willard's Divine Conspiracy:

“The sensed irrelevance of what God is doing to what makes up our lives is the foundational flaw in the existence of multitudes of professing Christians today. They have been led to believe that God, for some unfathomable reason, just thinks it appropriate to transfer credit from Christ’s merit account to ours, and to wipe out our sin debt, upon inspecting our mind and finding what we believe to be a particular theory of the atonement to be true — even if we trust everything but God in all other manners that concern us.” (p. 49)

A Musical Plethora

2008-06-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here's what I've been listening to lately:

White Roses - Storyhill

Barroom Hero- Dropkick Murphys

Don't Let Me Fall - Hayes Carll

Mama I'm Comming Home - Ozzie Osbourne

He Lays in the Reins - Iron and Wine

Seeing the Good

2008-06-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

John Piper makes a good point about our democratic system:

"The Supreme Court rendered a decision last week concerning Guantanamo Bay. Unlawful combatants there now have constitutional habeas rights (protection from unlawful detention). The decision was considered a rebuke to the Bush administration and the way the armed services are doing their work under his leadership.

Here is what amazes me and awakens thankfulness in my heart to God. I heard the president from Rome speak these words: "We will abide by the Court's decision. That doesn't mean that I have to agree with it."

Don't let this go by without wonder and gratitude. Here is the most powerful leader in the world standing in public in the middle of Europe and saying for the whole world to hear that some of his decisions are nullified and his authority is curtailed and that he will submit to it.

Imagine such a thing in Myanmar or North Korea or China or Vietnam or in a half a dozen African regimes. Unthinkable.

What an incredible privilege we have to live in a land where human power is checked. I believe in the wisdom of this kind of democracy because I believe in the almost unbounded potential of the human heart for evil. Power corrupts. It is biblically wise that there are checks and balances in the American system."

It doesn't take a genius to know that power is still abused here, sometimes horribly. But Piper still speaks truth, and I'm thankful for this part of the system.

I'm Out

2008-06-10T14:32:00.001-07:00

I'm headed to Little Rock, Arkansas for more conciliation training, so posting may be light until Monday. Have a great week all!

Honestly Not Feeling It Most of the Time

2008-06-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

Here's an honest post from a guy who doesn't always feel spiritual. An excerpt:

"I know; I probably won't be writing old-school hymns: "And He walks with me, I think, and He talks with me, probably in some way, and He tells me I am His own, but generally not through an audible voice that I hear, at least in a non-metaphorical sense, and none other has ever known just how awkward it even is for me to talk about my faith, personally, and I know I should feel bad about that, too."

Community is the New Gold Standard

2008-06-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

Josephine Crossing is a new housing development here in town. It's in a pristine geographical location (right by the Yellowstone River)and doesn't look at all like the cookie cutter, homogeneous development sites that everyone likes to rail against. Here's a picture of one of the "commons" areas in the neighborhood. You can't see the houses very well, but they all have great front porches and they are all very close together:

It's a cool new neighborhood. Several of our community minded friends have considered trying to get a home there. Here is the builder's stated purpose, and I like it:

"Community is not something we can build with 2x4’s and nails. Our goal is to build a place for people who like people. Here’s what we’re thinking. Build front porches big enough for people to sit and visit with friends and family and close enough to the sidewalk to wave to a passerby. Make room for pocket parks where kids can play safely. Leave enough natural space and park land for the community to host events and neighborhood gatherings."

Here is the observation- Community, was once born out of necessity, is becoming a commodity to be purchased at a premium price. Like antique cars, what was once an integral part of culture has become an antiquity, a hobby if you will, to be enjoyed by those with the means to do so.

I think we see this in other facets of our culture. Take coffee shops, which have replaced the barber shops and hair salons of my parent's era, where people used to gather and socialize. We now pay a premium price (usually $3-4) to congregate. In another twist, our communities are now often formed around our material possessions- car clubs, motorcycle associations, country clubs.

Do you need these things for community? Nope. Are they all bad? Not necessarily. But it points to two things:

Even the prospecting capitalists among us have sensed that Americans want community back, and they are profiting from it.

Perhaps the necessity of community was a good thing. Maybe we should try it again sometime.

Working Well, Resting Well

2008-06-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

I was just perusing an article about a 73 year-old attorney who started a non-profit to encourage Americans to live a slower lifestyle. He a self-proclaimed activist fighting against what he calls the "time famine" in present day America.

This is not new to us. I can think of maybe two people that would actually say that they use time well. The culprits tend to be over working and busy personal lives. The answer is usually "get more rest."

Problem is that rest can be just as destructive as work.

Work fuels rest as much as rest fuels work. Too much rest breeds apathy; too much work causes you to work badly. If I work well- with diligence, integrity and at the right pace, then I tend to rest well, with activities that are renewing, engaging, and rich. If I'm not working well, than my rest tends to be filled up with useless activities that leave me feeling drained instead of refreshed.

Does this bear truth for you all, or is it just me?

My ideal week is one in which I work well at my job Monday through Friday, and then work well at home on Saturday. Saturdays are a great day to connect with your family and friends through work, a foreign concept these days that probably warrants its own post.

Then I take Sunday as my "day of rest." This, ideally, is very intentional rest, engaged in things that refresh and allow me to connect with God, family, and friends.

I am far from this schedule. I guess it's time to be more intentional about my time.

Cartoons and the ambiguity of evil

2008-06-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

Eli and I really enjoy Saturday mornings because we get a chance to watch cartoons together.

Cartoons have evolved quite a bit since my childhood. There used to be one format. Now kids can watch traditional animation, claymation, CGI format, Japanese anime, real life, or a mixture of different formats.

The characters in cartoons have evolved too. Characters in new cartoons are much more dynamic than they were in my day, especially the "bad guys." Antagonists these days are often portrayed as flawed individuals who display a variety of good and bad traits. Let me illustrate:

This is Swiper. He's the main bad guy in Dora the Explorer, Eli's first cartoon favorite. Swiper spends his days following Dora and her friends around in order to steal whatever cool trinket they have in a given episode- magic coins, talking flowers, whiskey flasks- you get the idea. Inevitably Dora and her minions -er- companions, are able to stop Swiper from his dastardly deeds.

But Swiper has some redemptive qualities as well. He almost always learns the error of his ways at the end of the episode and becomes a better fox. There are also numerous episodes where Swiper is actually the victim of another shady creature and Dora spends the episode trying to rescue him.

Now, meet Jetta:

She's the antagonist in another of Eli's favorite's, Clifford the Big Red Dog. Jetta is your typical spoiled rich kid, and she's got a huge sense of entitlement and pride. She's usually trying to hog the spotlight or twist things to get her own way, which creates the necessary conflict in the cartoon.

The funny things is that Jetta is one of Emily Elizabeth's (Clifford's owner) best friends, and they still spend time together and enjoy each other. Like Swiper, she always learns a lesson and displays some act of friendship at the end of the story.

Think back to cartoons from past generations: Mickey Mouse, Pop Eye, the Smurfs. They all share one thing in common: there's is no ambiguity between the heroes and the villains. Mickey vs. Pistol Pete, Popeye vs. Bluto, the Smurfs vs. Gargamel.

What I'm getting at is that in nearly every cartoon that Eli watches the antagonist has redemptive qualities. The lines between who is good and who is evil are blurred or non-existent. When I first realized this, my thought was "these cartoons are a good example of how people are a mixture of both good and bad, and it teaches kids to accept and appreciate good qualities in all people, even the bad guys."

Then Eli taught me something that has altered my thinking.

We also read a lot to Elijah, and usually we let him choose the book. The trouble with letting a 3 year-old pick the book is that we read the same book several times a day, often for weeks on end. He's got his preferences- Berenstein Bears, Diego, Winnie the Pooh. But his favorite books are from the Thomas the Train Engine series.

Thomas books have many of the same qualities I've mentioned above. The trains are for the most part friends, but all of them have been "cheeky" (as the British writer puts it), causing trouble and teasing the other engines until he/she learns his lesson in the end. But there's one character who is always bad and never redeems himself:

Meet Diesel 10. He's a mean diesel engine with a nasty personality. He spends his days trying to make life miserable for all of the steam engines. He pushes them around, instigates trouble, and calls them names like "Puffball" and "Trash Heap." He's a scary engine with a big claw, and more than a little maniacal.

Here's where I finally get to the point. Whenever Eli has a choice of books, Thomas or otherwise, he almost always picks a story that centers around Diesel 10. And he makes it obvious that he wants to hear specifically about Diesel 10: "Want to read Diesel 10, daddy, want to read Diesel 10!"

So my first inclinations are "My son has a weird preoccupation with evil," and "I wonder if Eli is going to start setting small animals on fire."

Then I thought about it, and I don't think I need to rename my son Damien.

I think that Eli unwittingly craves a clear line between good and evil. There's something inside of him that yearns for a clear cut division between good and bad, honorable and dishonorable.

Could it be that when Eli says "I want Diesel 10 daddy" he's really saying "I want heroes and villains, right from wrong, absolute good triumphing over absolute evil"?

Interesting Implications

2008-06-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Dumb Flies Live Longer Than Clever Ones:

"Scientists Tadeusz Kawecki and Joep Burger at the University of Lausanne said Wednesday they had discovered a "negative correlation between an improvement in a fly's mental capacity and its longevity".

A Reason That is Big Enough?

2008-06-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

Ross Douthat at The Atlantic quotes Archbishop Charles Chaput, who makes an observation about pro-lifers voting for a staunchly pro-choice candidate:

"But [Catholics who support pro-choice candidates] also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it. What is a “proportionate” reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It’s the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life—which we most certainly will. If we’re confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed."

I wholeheartedly agree. I also think that this argument could be made for a variety of other issues (torture, oppression, etc.), which complicates matters but doesn't negate the argument.

(HT:Rod Dreher)

The Thickburger and My Thick Head

2008-06-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

Joe Carter had a great post about one of America's (and my) most overlooked spiritual issue:

"Gluttony was once listed among the seven deadly sins. But now it's considered, when it's thought about at all, as a private health matter. We may realize that overeating has led to weight gain, a change in appearance, or diminished health. But we never recognize it as a spiritual problem.

Lest we start to feel superior to the obese neighbors, we should remember that not all gluttons are overweight...while my waistline may not completely expose my shame, I'm prone to overindulging in food. I eat several snacks between meals. I eat when I'm in my car. I eat when I'm bored. I eat when I'm restless, when I'm frustrated, when I'm watching TV, when I'm on the computer--I eat constantly for no other reason than that I can."

Not the most popular topic in the world, but worth the read.

Googlie Eyed

2008-06-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

I was chatting with a friend on Google Chat a few hours ago. I began talking about Google's impending global domination:

"...They have my entire e-mail correspondence through Gmail
They know my entire internet browsing history through Google's search engine
They have most of my documents stored on Google Docs and my pictures on Picasa (Google's photo storage system)
They know who my friends and acquaintenances are through Google Chat and more if you use Facebook (owned by Google)
They know my interests, religion, and political bent through IGoogle (a personalized homepage program)
They know the content and format of my blog and exactly who is reading it (Blogger is a Google appendage)
Heck, they even know where I live and where I'm going thanks to Google Earth and Google Maps

Then I said something like "I just signed up with Google Big Brother too. I'm not sure what it does, but it looked cool."

Well, my friend tried to respond, and mysteriously Google Chat began experiencing "technical difficulties." Coincidence? I think not. I think Spy Google sensed that were were on to it's maniacal plan for global domination and shut down the conversation.

I'm not sure what is more frightening- the fact that all of my personal information is privy to one mega company in one location, or the fact that I willfully know this and will continue to use all of the above functions.

If I don't show up to work tomorrow, you'll know what happened.

**Post Update**

I just thought of three more Google products I use:

Google Reader (a blog feeder to peruse lots of blogs at once)
Google Alerts (a program that sends Google minions all over the net to search for key words)
Google Analytics (A blog data analysis program)

**cue theme from Twilight Zone**

Rethinking Progress

2008-06-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

A word on progress from Ravi Zacharias:

"Progress has an array of definitions, and some of them are quite contrary to one another. But whether progress itself is about how, how long, or how well humanity lives, the language itself is interesting. 'If things can improve,' writes C.S. Lewis, 'this means that there must be some absolute standard of good above and outside the cosmic process to which that process can approximate.'(2) That is to say, progress itself is a testimony to the existence of good creator.

Ironically, humanity’s pursuit of progress is not usually steeped in such a thought. We speak in terms of becoming better; we speak as if humanity is the measure of all things, even as we are continually at work upping the measure. Yet at this, Lewis warns, '[T]here is no sense in talking of 'becoming better' if better means simply 'what we are becoming'--it is like congratulating yourself on reaching your destination and defining destination as 'the place you have reached.'(2) In our world of good and persistent advances, intoxicating invitations to improve oneself, and regular redefinitions of that goal, does “better” really have an end? Where is progress aiming to lead us? And who defines that goal--technology, science, marketing?"

Secession Cont.

2008-06-02T09:14:00.001-07:00

Since my post on secession got some attention, I felt a responsibility to offer a nominee for President of the Nation of Montana:

Anyone up for Secession?

2008-05-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

There's an interesting case before the Supreme Court right now.

In 1975 Washington D.C. created a district wide law stating that citizens were not allowed to 1)own handguns, or 2)keep any weapons loaded in their home.

In 2003, six D.C. residents filed a lawsuit challenging the law, saying that the D.C. statute violates their 2nd ammendment right own and bear arms. D.C. vs. Heller is before the Supreme Court, and a decision could be reached as early as Monday.

What makes this significant is that it could set a legal precedent for cities, counties, etc., to begin to restrict gun ownership within their jurisdiction.

Enter Montana. Turns out, when Montana signed on to become a state in 1889 it had as part of its compact with the U.S. an "out clause" that said that any federal infringement or alteration of the second ammendment would render the compact null and void, thus making Montana a sovereign nation.

Politicians in Helena have already signed a resolution, which is "on hold" until the Heller vs. D.C. decision is made, that would effectively render our compact with the U.S. broken. Here are some excerpts from the resolution:

WHEREAS, when the Court determines in Heller whether or not the Second Amendment secures an individual right, the Court will establish precedent that will affect the State of Montana and the political rights of the citizens of Montana;

WHEREAS, when Montana entered into statehood in 1889, that entrance was accomplished by a contract between Montana and the several states, a contract known as The Compact With The United States (Compact), found today as Article I of the Montana Constitution;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the undersigned members of the 60th Montana Legislature as follows:

1. That any form of "collective rights" holding by the Court in Heller will offend the Compact; and.........4. Montana reserves all usual rights and remedies under historic contract law if its Compact should be violated by any "collective rights" holding in Heller.

My understanding is that government lawyers are checking this thing out and that it is absolutely credible.

So Montana could be a sovereign nation.

Likely? No. Fun to think about? You bet.

Not only that, but we would be a self sufficient nation- we have all of the energy and food resources we'll ever need.

This leads right into my proposal to invade Idaho, Wyoming and North Dakota in order to create a buffer zone, a "no man's land" if you will, between us and the U.S.- but I'll save that for another time.

Boarding House

2008-05-28T12:26:00.000-07:00

Boarding House
by Ted Kooser

The blind man draws his curtains for the night
and goes to bed, leaving a burning light

above the bathroom mirror. Through the wall,
he hears the deaf man walking down the hall

in his squeaky shoes to see if there's a light
under the blind man's door, and all is right.

HT: Writer's Almanac

C.S. Lewis on Death

2008-05-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

"The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."

I've always wanted my own Holiday

2008-05-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, May 25th, is Geek Pride Day. Although originating in Spain, It's going to be celebrated this year by a parade in New York City (honestly), as well as a Star Trek Costume/Comic book trading/3D Chess party (this is happening somewhere, I'm sure).

If you go to the website, you can visit the Geek Hall of Fame, check out some of the most famous dates in Geekdom, and even join the National Federation of Geeks.

By the way, May 25th was selected as Geek Pride Day because it was on that day in 1977 that the first Star Wars movie came out. Seriously.

A Welsh Oasis

2008-05-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

Mike posted a bit this morning about a literary festival in Wales that takes place in a cozy little village called Haye-on Wye, which has 1900 people and 34 second hand book stores. Indeed the kingdom has come, and its capitol is a Welsh village.

Lessons from Elijah

2008-05-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend my son saw me grab my toolbox to help some friends around their house. He ran up, grabbed my pant leg, and beamed, "Can I help, Dad? Can I help?"

I said,"yup," and he proudly led the way to the front door.

Two ways that I want to be like Elijah:

1. Elijah is elated when he gets to be a part of something useful.

2. What great joy Elijah has in working alongside his father, regardless of what the job might be.

Is that all?

2008-05-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

The Pope spoke these words to some Catholic youth in Genoa recently:

"Be united but not closed off. Be humble, but not fearful. Be simple, but not naive. Be thoughtful, but not complicated. Enter into dialog with everyone, but remain yourselves."

(HT: Charlotte was Both)

Reason #626 that I'm a Dork

2008-05-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

...is that I think this is cool.

One of the coolest movies of all time, The Man From Snowy River, is based on a poem by a famous Australian poet, Banjo Paterson. Here's a great You Tube video featuring the actual poem combined with scenes from the movie.

My Bizarro Sense of Humor

2008-05-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

From Dan Peraro's Bizarro:

Tragedy Made Real

2008-05-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Listen to this. Be sure to listen to it- don't just read it. It's a first hand account of a family in China trying to discover what's happened to their two year-old son and his grandparents. It puts a stark face on what people are facing in the aftermath of the China earthquake. Listen to whole thing.

From Route 5:9

2008-05-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

Molly posted this at Route 5:9 yesterday. I thought it was worth reposting here:

"I read this from Eugene Peterson's 'A Long Obedience in the Same Direction' over lunch today:

'Every day I put love on the line. There is nothing I am less good at than love. I am far better in competition than in love. I am far better at responding to my instincts and ambitions to get ahead and make my mark than I am at figuring out how to love another. I am schooled and trained in acquisitive skills, in getting my own way. And yet I decide, every day, to set aside what I can do best and attempt what I do very clumsily - open myself to the frustrations and failures of loving, daring to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride.' (pages 76-77)

That's a big challenge to me, to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride. It is, in Peterson's words, hazardous. May God give me -- us -- the courage and faith to take the risk of loving the people he places in our path!

The Reasons for God

2008-05-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

Tim Keller, well-reputed author and pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, recently spoke at Google Headquarters about "The Reasons for God." He's also published a book with the same title. This is good food for thought and there is some especially interesting Q & A at the end.

HT: Tall Skinny Kiwi

Helpless

2008-05-13T13:08:00.001-07:00

It seems to be a battle of catastrophes in the press lately. First Myanmar, now China. At least the earthquake crisis in China is being met by a feebly proactive government and being reinforced by global aid.

You've probably already heard that in Myanmar (formerly Burma) there is little, if any aid being distributed to victims of a huge cyclone. There are now estimates that the death toll could exceed 100,000, and over 1 million are currently homeless.

Here's a personal account (HT: BTW):

"As they were sitting in the airport waiting to board their plane they saw the international aid arrive on big planes. Then they saw the army's helicopters arrive, fill up with loot and fly away. They promptly came back after 30 minutes to fill up again. Others confirmed that the aid went to a government warehouse.

On Myanmar TV and maybe on your own TV you have seen the military distributing aid. However, confirmed reports are that when the cameras go off, the military takes the food and medicine back and leaves.

Thus far no one is allowed to go to the delta region. Some sneak in hoping to bring some food, water, and medicine to their family. But most get caught and sent back to Yangon.

The army is just now starting to come and clear the streets of tree debris, electricity poles, and wires. However, they do not have the proper equipment like chainsaws, tractors, trucks, etc. needed for such a task. Instead they, like the people, are using machetes and small saws to hack away at the huge trees. Any help that the army/government gives is only for PR. They work for a while, maybe an hour or two and then sit in the shade for the rest of the day. If cameras come by for the local TV stations they work again until the cameras go off.

Several theories on why the gov't won't let foreign aid in:

1. They are afraid to loose face/be embarrassed in front of their people. If others come in then they have to admit that they cannot handle the problem.

2.They hate the UN, US and the EU so much they will not work with them.

3. Saturday, May 10 the people were supposed to vote to approve a new (and complete sham) constitution. No foreigners should see that the election was not free and fair. Reports are that the ballots were printed with the Yes box checked and the army was standing beside the boxes being intimidating.

4. Aid workers coming in feels too much like a foreign invasion. Perhaps these workers will have guns and help the people to revolt.

Most foreigners that can get in try to carry money and supplies. Rumor is that they are being stopped, searched, and “extra” money and supplies are confiscated."

Here are some links to stories describing the situation:

BBC News recap

A good story from the Asia Times

Latest from CNN

On Voting

2008-05-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

In 1952 a woman commented to Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, "All of the thinking voters will vote for you."

To which Adlai responded, "My dear, that is not enough. We need a majority."

Life's Little lessons

2008-05-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted in awhile. So here are a few of the distractions that have kept me busy lately:

So we found out something funny last week. The popular Christian pop band, The Newsboys, were in town for a concert. The Billings Gazette did a story on them. Turns out one of the band members, Paul Colman, lived in Billings 18 years ago. Also turns out that he lived in our neighborhood. Matter of fact, turns out he lived in our house back when it started out as as an intentional community. So the day of the concert Debbie is in our front yard playing with the boys, and guess who walks up to reminisce about his days in community (20 something ex-youth group girls can swoon here). Yep, my wife met a Newsboy. Something I learned from finding out that a Newsboy once lived under my roof:

The world is full of crazy "coincidences."
I think my wife secretly wishes I was a rock star.

I went caving last weekend in the Horsethief Cave system here in Montana. There is nothing quite so odd as squirming your way through pitch black a mile underground. It was something I’ll definitely do again. Two things I learned from caving:
An unknown journey is always easier when you’re with other people.
Sometimes you’ve got to spend time in the dark in order to really appreciate the light.

I went to California this week on business. I met about 250 successful business folks in Orange County. It reminded me that California is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t wanna live there. Two things I learned from my trip:

1 in 8 Americans lives in California.
I'm not attractive enough to live in California.

Last night Debbie and a couple of friends and I went to a- you old school Christian kids won’t believe it- MxPx concert. For the unaware, MxPx an old punk rock band that I was into in high school. They were cruising through Billings on their way to Brazil. Thanks for indulging me Debbie, J.R., and Molly. Two things I learned from taking a trip down Punk Rock Memory Lane:

There's still a bunch of passionate young kids out there looking for something to get excited about.
I think my wife secretly wishes I was a rock star.

When People Change

2008-04-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

A quote I heard today:

"People will change only when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing."

True?

By the way, a great resource on this is How People Change by Paul Tripp. I'm just starting it, so you'll probably see some quotes here soon.

25 Reasons People Believe Weird Things

2008-04-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

Fire and Knowledge posted 25 Reasons People believe weird things:

"We can believe weird things, from ghosts to alien abductions to ESP to young-earth creationism. Have you ever wondered how smart people can believe such things? These answers are adapted from Michael Shermer’s excellent Why People Believe Weird Things:"

Problems in Scientific Thinking

1. Theory Influences Observations — When you have a theory of something, you interpret the results inside your theory. So when Columbus arrived in the New World, he saw Asian spices and roots. His theory said he should be in Asia.

2. The Observer Changes the Observed — The act of studying an event can change it. This can happen with anthropologists studying tribes to physicists studying electrons. This is why psychologists use blind and double-blind controls. Science tries to minimize this, pseudoscience does not.

3. Equipment Constructs Results — The equipment used often determines the results. The size of the telescope shaped and reshaped the size of the universe. The kind of fish net determines what fish it can catch.

4. Anecdotes = Science — Stories that people pass on is not the same as controlled experiments. Pseudoscience points to anecdotes; science points to reputable studies.

Problems in Pseudoscientific Thinking

5. Scientific Language Doesn’t Make It Scientific — Dressing up a belief in scientific language doesn’t make it science. This is easily seen with “creation science” and New Age pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo.

6. Bold Statements Do Not Make Claims True — L. Ron Hubbard called Dianetics “a milestone for man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his invention of the wheel and the arch.” But it wasn’t. The more extraordinary the claim, the more extraordinary well-tested the evidence must be.

7. Heresy Does Not Equal Correctness — Copernicus and Galileo and the Wright Brothers were rebels. But just because someone is a rebel doesn’t make them right. Holocaust deniers are rebels, but they need historical evidence for their position. It’s heresy to say Bush planned the 9/11 attack, but that isn’t evidence of the government suppressing the truth.

8. Burden of Proof — The person making the extraordinary claim has the burden of proving their claim is true and better than the commonly accepted position. If a man claims he moved a mountain with his mind, the burden of proof is on him.

9. Rumors Do Not Equal Reality — Rumors begin with “I read somewhere that…” or “I heard from someone that….” Before long, the rumor becomes reality, as “I know that…” passes from person to person. These stories are often false. For instance, everyone knows George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and couldn’t lie about it. He also had wooden teeth. Both stories are false.

10. Unexplained Is Not Inexplicable — Just because you can’t explain something doesn’t mean it can’t be explained. Firewalking seems inexplicable, but once you know the explanation it seems obvious. The same goes for all magic tricks. And even if an expert can’t explain it doesn’t mean it can’t be explained someday. Think of how many things — from germs to atoms to evolution — couldn’t be explained two hundred years ago!

11. Failures Are Rationalized — Scientists acknowledge failures and reformulate theories. Pseudoscientists ignore or rationalize failures.

12. After-the-Fact Reasoning — Also known as, “post hoc, ergo propter hoc,” literally, “after this, therefore because of this.” It’s superstition. Because I carried a rabbit’s foot, I sold more products today. Because I have blonde hair, I’m ditzy. Because I used a dowsing stick, I struck water. All superstition. Correlation does not mean causation.

13. Coincidence — Most people have a very poor understanding of the law of probability. Say you are about to make a call and as your hand touches the phone they call you. How could that be a coincidence? It must be ESP. We forget about the other thousand times we call someone and they don’t call us first. You make 5 baskets in a row, and you’re “on fire.” But statistically your chances are the same as a coin-flip. The human mind looks for patterns and often finds them when there are none.

Logical Problems in Thinking

14. Representativeness — Something may seem unusual when it’s not. Baselines must be established. For instance, tapping and scratching sounds in your house may be ghosts, but it’s probably just pipes and rats. Many ships are lost at the Bermuda Triangle, but only because there are more shipping lanes there than in surrounding areas. When that is factored in, the accident rate is actually lower in the Bermuda Triangle.

15. Emotive Words and False Analogies — Loaded language can be used to provoke emotion and obscure rationality. Industry can be called “raping the environment” or abortion “murdering innocent children” or a political opponent a “communist.” Rarely does this further rational thought, but clouds the issue with emotion and rhetoric.

16. Appeal to Ignorance — This claims if you can’t disprove something, it must be true. So if you can’t disprove psychic power or ESP or ghosts, they must be real. The problem is you can’t disprove Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy, either. Belief should come from positive evidence in support of a claim, not a lack of evidence.

17. Attacking the man —Redirect the focus from thinking about the idea to thinking about the person holding the idea. Calling Darwin a racist or a politician a communist or past figure a slaveholder does not discredit their ideas.

18. Hasty Generalization — Also known as prejudice, or drawing conclusions before the facts warrant. A couple of bad teachers and it’s a bad school. A couple of bad cars and that brand of automobile is unreliable.

19. Overreliance on Authorities — We must be careful not to accept a wrong idea from someone we respect, nor write off a good idea because of a supporter we disrespect. Examining the evidence ourselves helps us avoid these errors.

20. Either-Or — This is the argument that when one position is wrong, another must be accepted. For instance, creationists spend much of their time attacking evolution because they think if evolution is wrong, then creationism must be right. But for a theory to be accepted, it must be superior to the old theory. A new theory needs evidence in favor of it, not just against the opposition.

21. Circular Reasoning — Also known as begging the question, this is when the conclusion or claim is merely a restatement of one of the premises. For instance in religion: Is there a God? Yes. How do you know? Because my holy book says so. How do you know your holy book is correct? Because it was inspired by God. Or in science: What is gravity? The tendency for objects to be attracted to one another. Why are objects attracted to one another? Gravity. While these definitions can at times be useful, we need to try and construct operational definitions that can be tested, falsified, and refuted.

22. Reductio ad Absurdum and the Slippery Slope — Reductio ad absurdum is the refutation of an argument by carrying the argument to its logical end and so reducing it to absurd conclusion. For instance: Eating ice cream will cause you to gain weight. Gaining weight makes you overweight. Overweight people die of heart disease. Thus eating ice cream leads to death. A creationist might argue: Evolution doesn’t need God. If you don’t need God, you reject him. Without God, there is no morality. Therefore, people who believe in evolution reject God and have no morals.

Psychological Problems in Thinking

23. Effort Inadequacies and the Need for Certainty, Control, and Simplicity — Most of us want certainty, want to control our environment, and want nice, neat simple explanations. But it doesn’t always work like that. Solutions are sometimes simple, but other times they are complex. We must be willing to make an effort to understand complex theories instead of rejecting them out of laziness.

24. Problem-Solving Inadequacies — When solving problems, we often form a hypothesis and then look only for examples to confirm it. When our hypothesis is wrong, we are slow to change our hypothesis. We also gravitate towards simple solutions even when they don’t explain everything.

25. Ideological Immunity — We all resist changing fundamental beliefs. We build up “immunity” against new ideas that do not fit within our paradigm. The higher the intelligence, the greater the potential for ideological immunity. This can be the greatest barrier to changing our weird beliefs.

For Parents

2008-04-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from Piper's yet unrealeased book:

"The most fundamental task of a mother and father is to show God to the children. Children know their parents before they know God. This is a huge responsibility and should cause every parent to be desperate for God-like transformation. The children will have years of exposure to what the universe is like before they know there is a universe. They will experience the kind of authority there is in the universe and the kind of justice there is in the universe and the kind of love there is in the universe before they meet the God of authority and justice and love who created and rules of the universe. Children are absorbing from dad his strength and leadership and protection and justice and love; and they are absorbing from mother her care and nurture and warmth and intimacy and justice and love—and, of course, all these overlap.

And all this is happening before the child knows anything about God, but it is profoundly all about God. Will the child be able to recognize God for who he really is in his authority and love and justice because mom and dad have together shown the child what God is like. The chief task of parenting is to know God for who he is in his many attributes, and then to live in such a way with our children that we help them see and know this multi-faceted God."

HB: Desiring God

More Life at the Bottom

2008-04-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

Here's another great excerpt from Dalrymple's Life at the Bottom. Because of the nature of his work and because he travels to third world countries himself, Dalrymple has contact with many third world doctors. He often invites them to his poor neighborhood in England to view its welfare state first hand. He spends an entire chapter on their reactions, but here is a sample:

"By the end of three months my doctors have, without exception, reversed their original opinion that the welfare state, as exemplified by England, represents the acme of civilization. On the contrary, they see it now as creating a miasma of subsidized apathy that blights the lives of its supposed beneficiaries. They come to realize that a system of welfare that makes no moral judgements in allocating economic rewards promotes anti-social egotism. The spiritual impoverishment of the population seems to them worse than anything they have ever known in their own countries. And what they see is all the worse, of course, because it should be so much better. the wealth that enables everyone effortlessly to have enough food should be liberating, not imprisoning. Instead it has created a large caste of people for whom life is, in effect, a limbo in which they have nothing to hope for and nothing to fear, nothing to gain and nothing to lose. It is a life emptied of meaning.

'On the whole', said one Filipino doctor to me, 'life is preferable in the slums of Manila.' He said it without any illusions as to the quality of life in Manila." (p.142)

The Latest 22

2008-04-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of good posts from 22 Words lately:

April 22nd:

(A guest post from my brother Barnabas Piper)

God created us to think in a certain way, but that does not necessarily mean he thinks the same way we do.

April 23rd:

22 short but important statements everyone should say more often.

1. I love you.
2. Let me get that for you.
3. I don’t know.
4. Thank you.
5. No problem.
6. I see.
7. Tell me more.
8. I agree.
9. Are you sure you want to do that?
10. See you soon.
11. Good job.
12. I’m sorry.
13. Hey, babe.
14. Good to see you.
15. Don’t jump.
16. I’ll take care of it.
17. Sure.
18. My fault.
19. Whatever you want.
20. I have an idea.
21. You’re right.
22. I wonder.

Abortion Part IV

2008-04-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is part IV of a discussion Shane and I are having regarding abortion and sex education. Click here for parts I, II, and III.

"What is not helpful in my mind is pushing for a complete overturn of [Roe V. Wade] right now. I think that it has become so entrenched that it is going to take a patient, tactical approach to get to that point."

I don't disagree that pro-life advocates need to take creative and tactical approaches in fighting this issue. That has been and will continue to be done in a variety of ways. In fact, I think the battle currently lies with state governments. The pro-life movement has also done a great job educating the public at a grassroots level over the past three years. But to the point at hand: I'd agree that fighting Roe v. Wade should not be the only method for defeating abortion.

Regarding sex and abortion education in schools:

"I don't think parents need to an encouragement to be less engaged than they are. Most are not engaged whether or not their kid has sex ed in school or not."

And where does the lack of engagement come from? What is it that is keeping parents from being involved?

The thinking that has evolved is, "Well, the school will teach Elijah all about sharing, and honesty, and oh good, they’re going to have the sex conversation with him too. Whew."

Our lives are ordered in such away that neglecting the important issues with our children is becoming easier and easier. This is most evident in the portion of the population where teen pregnancy is the highest- among the poor. Many folks in this demographic have formed a “the system will do it for you” mentality in regard to just about every aspect of their daily lives, including sex ed. So regarding my suggestion: any attempt to get the parents engaged in their OWN children’s education, sex or otherwise, can do nothing but help, despite the lame excuses that will be provided by the most apathetic minority in every demographic.

You're absolutely right. Parents aren't as engaged as they should be. And as our various bureaucratic systems take over parental responsibilities, those institutions become the moral authority. Specifically in the mind of a child, we are establishing the school as the moral authority in their life. I don't think we can simultaneously complain about disengaged parents and then promote schools as a "perfect place for moral discussions.'

“I also think that you can have a program that teaches all sides of an issue. Teachers could explain that some people do not believe in birth control or that sex is something only for married couples.”

This approach hasn’t worked when teaching evolution or history, for example. So with something like sex-ed, which is at least AS morally charged, we can expect, and have seen, the same results. You don't give a teenager who just wrecked the family Buick the keys to a Semi.

"I think that school is the perfect place for moral discussions as long as viewpoints are not being forced on anyone."

You can't change a culture through the structural constructs that have helped to create and perpetuate that culture in the first place. You're trusting a broken, dysfunctional education system with providing a clear, objective and accurate discussion on one of the most morally charged and personal issues of our day.

You've stated yourself that "I think that those who oppose abortion need to take a bottom-up approach. Talk to family members, friends, fellow church goers about abortion." Sex education became an issue in the first place because healthy sexual behavior disintegrated alongside the disintegration of families. The schools see the symptoms of that, and as a reaction now mandate sex education. But the education system is only attacking the symptoms of deeper issues that must be addressed at a family and spiritual level. As a result, the school system's efforts are proving more destructive than helpful.

In response to my comment about the pro-choice prevalence among school employees, there obviously isn't a survey out there defining educators' stance on abortion. The evidence I am left with is both experiential and anecdotal. My discussions with teachers and school counselors have brought me to this conclusion, as well as my experience with foster kids experiencing sex ed in the public school system.

In the news:

In 2004 the NEA sponsored the largest pro-choice rally ever in D.C. The main sponsors were the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, but the NEA promoted it among its members, opened their D.C. office for hospitality and participated in the march itself. To their credit, many pro-life teachers made their voice heard in protest to the NEA's actions. Also in 2004, the Attorney General for California issued a legal opinion that “California schools cannot inform parents if their children leave campus to receive certain confidential medical services that include abortion… The opinion was prompted by resistance from teachers unions and groups such as Planned Parenthood... [to a 'parent-friendly' confidentiality proposal]."

A similar confidentiality policy is currently in place in Montana.

And if you're interested in what the future holds, the UK teaches abortion in schools now, and as the preceding web site indicates, teachers are publicly organized to propagate the pro-choice stance within the public school system.

How do Christians Engage Politics?

2008-04-22T07:10:00.002-07:00

NPR's "Speaking of Faith" recently hosted a conversation between Chuck Colson, Shane Claiborne, and Greg Boyd about Christianity and politics. These men are from three different evangelical generations and bring their own approach to how Christians should engage the government and politics. For those that are unfamiliar:

-Colson was indicted under the Nixon Watergate scandal, became a Christian and founded Prison Fellowship, wrote God and Government and How Now Shall we Live?

-Claiborne is a leader in the New Monastic movement and has a huge following of young, missionally minded Christians, wrote Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President.

-Boyd is a former theology professor and a mega-church pastor in Minneapolis who is known for some unorthodox theological views, wrote Letters from a Skeptic and The Myth of a Christian Nation.

These guys are intelligent, articulate, and they don't agree on things. This is worth listening to.

Anti-Evolution Evolutionists

2008-04-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

Evolutionists are now skeptical about life on other planets. The reason: pure evolution is so unlikely, and the environmental requirements so specific, that evolution-created life is unlikely to occur anywhere...but here, of course.

Does anyone else see the irony in evolutionists arguing against evolution?

By the way- if you're looking for an intelligent, well thought out dialogue on Christianity and Evolution, start here.

Eminent Domain, or Eminent Destruction

2008-04-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

The Cristafaro family lost their first home in New London, CT in 1962. It was commandeered by the local government to build a sea wall. A tragedy for the immigrant family, but understandable in light of public safety.

They moved in to an old Victorian home nearby, which they fixed up and spent the next 30 years in. Three years ago they were kicked out of that home as well, again a casualty of "eminent domain." This time, however, it had nothing to do with public safety. There were being booted in the name of economic development, and their land was being turned over to a private corporation, the New London Development Corporation.

You may remember this story from 2005. The family, and others, chose to fight and took their plea to the Supreme Court, who upheld New London's "right" of eminent domain, which gives government permission to take land from a private owner for the sake of "public use."

The trick is that the ruling redefined "public use" to include economic development, even if that development was being done by another private entity. In essence, the government took this family's land and gave it to someone else because they liked what party B was going to do with it.

When I was perusing World Magazine this morning, there was an update about the case (April 20, p. 60-61). Apparently three years later, the land remains untouched, overgrown by weeds and refuse.

Eminent Domain continues to be a significant issue, as is evidenced by Horney V. Norwood, OH, in 2006, where the homeowners won the right to retain their homes in a similar situation.

Property rights, gun ownership rights, right to life. It seems that America's foundational tenets are coming under scrutiny. I think America will be defined - or redefined- in the next 20 years as these issues come to a head. And I don't think it bodes well.

Of course, I may just be blowing hot air.

The Biggest Reason not to Vote for Obama

2008-04-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

A while back I posted a very convincing campaign ad discouraging a vote for Hilary Clinton. Obama has just been endorsed by Bruce Springsteen and, well, all is fair, as they say:

Who needs enemies...

2008-04-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Mike at Shift and Puzzle tells a story of how he is corrupting my child.

Debbie's comment to the post: "Jeromy is no longer allowed to hang out with you."

Response to an Invitation

2008-04-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

After seeing my incredibly articulate, detailed argument as to why Obama and Hilary's comments on life at conception were inane, Shane invited me to dialogue on our two blogs about the whole abortion topic.

Well, Shane, I'm happy to dialogue - hence this post- but I think we agree on just about everything, so it may be a short discussion.

After reading your thoughts, I do have a few comments:

To point 1: "Pushing to overturn Roe vs. Wade is not helpful..." I don't think that pushing to overturn Rove v. Wade has resulted in the cultural language shift surrounding the debate, as you suggest. Rather, I think that this shift in the way the argument is framed is a result of the pro-choice movement gaining even more traction in the mainstream media. We should continue to fight the Roe v. Wade decision for two reasons:

1)Any effective pro-life legislation will eventually be tested through the courts and so a new precedent must be set.

2)When faced with something as blatantly dark as this decision, we've got to do everything within our power to see it overturned, even if it is a David vs. Goliath battle. This isn't to say that we continue along avenues to stop abortion in other ways (vis a vis William Wilberforce fighting slavery in England).

To point 2: I agree that we need to take these steps, along with fighting Roe v. Wade. The danger of course is that people think they have won the war by winning a few battles.

To point 3: Yes, yes, and yes. When I was going to college in Minnesota there was a piece of legislation before the state congress that stated that 1)women contemplating abortion needed to be informed of the possible health and psychological consequences of their "medical procedure" 2) parents of minor girls needed to be informed of their child's intentions (which is already required for nearly every medical procedure but abortion) and 3)required a 3-day waiting period.

It was easily shot down by the pro-choice lobbyists, despite a great deal of public out cry.

To point 4: This is an entirely different issue in my mind, but is somewhat related. The mere fact that our children are "educated" in school about such a deeply moral and personal issue is ludicrous. I know the immediate argument is "well, parents aren't doing it, so the school has to." I'm not sold on that argument for several reasons: school sex education has made little difference on teen pregnancy, the education system's attempts to take over on such integral issues only encourages parents to be less engaged on this issue, and it s one step closer to a homogeneous view on sex (the majority of educators appear to be pro choice, by the way).

That said- school sex education is here to stay, so should abstinence be taught? How about this for a curriculum change- each student is given a set of questions and discussion points to take home to their parents, or somebody they respect. The students' grade is dependent upon them turning in a report detailing the discussions they have with their parents about their family's values and stances on this issue. This facilitates an important conversation, fulfills the school's perceived obligation to educate kids about sex, and allows families to retain influence over their children's views on this issue.

Alright, that's a cursory response to your views, Shane. So I think we pretty much agree, with a few nuances.

Darth Vader- Dark Side Prankster

2008-04-17T15:13:00.001-07:00

I got this from J.R. You may have to be a Star Wars dork to find this funnny.

C.R. Chicks Has Some Really Good Chicken

2008-04-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

From Letters from Kamp Krusty:

My friend went to "C.R. Chicks" to eat some chicken. It's a little place where they have rotisserie chicken, and it's pretty good, I think. That's my opinion.

He ran into a person he used to go to church with. She asked, "Hey -- haven't seen you for awhile. What're you up to?" He'd actually stopped going there a year and a half ago. He told her he found some friends who really loved him, and he's really growing and stuff, and no, he doesn't go to that church anymore, but it's all cool.

She loudly began praying for the "spirit of rebellion" to come out of him. My friend says he didn't really feel anything happen after that, but he finished his chicken there at C.R. Chicks.

C.R. Chicks also has meat loaf sandwiches which are pretty good.

Hilariffic and Obaminator on Life at Conception

2008-04-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

OBAMA: "This is something that I have not come to a firm resolution on. I think it’s very hard to know what that means — when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? So I don’t presume to know the answer to that question. What I know, as I’ve said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we’re having these debates."

CLINTON: "Potential for life begins at conception. . . I am a Methodist, as you know. My church has struggled with this issue. In fact, you can look at the Methodist Book of Discipline and see the contradiction and the challenge of trying to sort that very profound question out. But for me, it is also not only about a potential life — it is about the other lives involved. And, therefore, I have concluded, after great concern and searching my own mind and heart over many years, that our task should be in this pluralistic, diverse life of ours in this nation that individuals must be entrusted to make this profound decision, because the alternative would be such an intrusion of government authority that it would be very difficult to sustain in our kind of open society."

HB: Denny Burk

The Power of Ideas

2008-04-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here in Billings there seems to be a great distance, intellectually speaking, between the college campuses on the north side of town and the poor folks on the south side. The idea that academia is disconnected with the realities of the working and underclass is not a new one.

But I think it's a false one. Theodore Dalrymple, in his book Life at the Bottom, makes the case that the philosophies and cultural thinking that take place in academia are primarily manifested in the lives of the poor and working classes. Dalrymple, a doctor in a slum hospital in England, has seen this play out in his own country.

Take multiculturalism, for example. It's an idea that began in the white tower intellectual world and has resided there for quite sometime. The foundation of multiculturalism is that every culture's value system has equal merit, and we must therefore respect and indeed praise those cultures. While many academics can see the disparity in this thinking in practical life, the values behind such thinking have drifted to the under class who then manifest them in their lives. Says Dalrymple:

"As a doctor working in a slum area with many immigrant residents, I see multiculturalism from the ground up rather than from the theory down. And it is clear from what I see almost every day that not all cultural values are compatible or can be reconciled by the annunciation of platitudes. The idea that we can all rub together, without the law having to discriminate in favor of one set of cultural values rather than another, is worse than merely false: it makes no sense whatsoever." (p.27

And yet the underclass largely live their lives based on the philosophical underpinnings of these destructive and unmanageable ideas.

"They are the young condemned to live in an eternal present, a present that merely exists, without connection to a past that might explain it or a future that might develop from it. Theirs is truly a life of one damned thing after another. Likewise, they are deprived of any reasonable standards of comparison by which to judge their woes." (p.70)

Pay attention to the academic thinking over the past 25 years. What philosophies have come out of the Ivory Towers? If you're looking for the consequences of those themes played out in real life, look no further than the south side of Billings.

The Pearly Gates of Oxford

2008-04-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

Rod Dreher reminisced this morning about pubs. Particularly, Oxford pubs. In fact, he's convinced that heaven will consist of Oxford pubs. I quote,

"[Pubs are] the home of cultured, witty and flippant conversation. And beer. I say unto you: if that's not paradise, what is?"

Having spent just a short time in a couple of Oxford pubs, I tend to concur. More:

A pub is a great leveler — not a workingman’s club, but an everyman’s club. The best are filled not only with the scent of yeast and hops, but also with banter and wit. ...Whether it’s how to warm plates swiftly or use the hyphen correctly, there’s no talk like pub talk. Some, like the Rose & Crown, are a kind of family. Its landlord, Andrew Hall, knows exactly how much to know of his regulars’ business. But every well-behaved person who is neither a dog nor a politician is welcome too.

The Rose & Crown is an ideal pub. Half a mile north of the city center, it’s only 140 years old, but the three small, wood-paneled rooms and the affable, eloquent host make it a home away from home. It also keeps the best pint of Old Hooky in town. Brewed about 20 miles away at Hook Norton, said to be the country’s last “steam brewery” (i.e., very old-fashioned), it’s a legend in the annals of real ale, a vessel of hazel clarity, redolent of harvest stubble lit by an evening sun, of woods drenched in rain, of dewy meadows at dawn, of cattle in dells, of Thomas Hardy and sandy-gray churches nestled in the nook of sheep-studded hills. If this isn’t the drinkable essence of England, nothing is.

The Intricate Workings of Small Things

2008-04-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

From age 7 to about age 17 I wanted to be an ecologist. I have always been enamored with the design and mystery of the created world around us. The hugeness, the smallness, and the incredibly intricate design of it all is more evidence to me of a creator than any intellectual argument I have ever heard.

Lately I've been learning about the superhighways that exist in your cells, and the molecular motors that travel along them.

Take three minutes to watch the video below. It is an tremendous animation (set to music) done by a group at Harvard that takes you through the inner life of a cell. Watching the way a single cells responds to so many things in so many detailed ways should leave you, well, speechless.

It truly is a world within itself.

If you'd like to watch the 8-minute narrated version that explains all of the processes that you've just seen, click here. Warning: It's a little complex.

I love this Life Guard.

2008-04-09T13:57:00.001-07:00

Remembering a Martyr

2008-04-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

Dietrich Bonhoeffer died on this day in 1945 at the hands of Nazi SS Guards. He had been imprisoned after being implicated in an assassination attempt on Hitler.

I admire Bonhoeffer for his faith and obedience amidst the oppression and violence of Nazi Germany. Bonhoeffer threw his beliefs squarely onto the altar of real life, doing battle on the testing ground of persecution.

“One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons”

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

February 4, 1906 - April 9, 1945

Recommended Reading:

Cost of Discipleship
Letters From Prison
Ethics
Life Together

Stuff Christians like

2008-04-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

I was turned on to a funny little blog a few days ago: Stuff Christians Like. If you've grown up at all in the Christian Youth Culture or if you like poking fun at Christianese you'll get a kick out this narrative. Below are a few examples of Stuff Christians Like (go to the site for the explanations):

#128 Throwing stuff away out of guilt. Buying it again later.

#124. The kid that makes out with girls from other youth groups.

#121. Thinking God's call will be long and detailed.

#119. Saying "In Christian Love" before you punch someone.

#116. Using "let me pray about it" as a synonym for "no."

#106. The side hug.

#26. Songs that sound Christian but aren't.

Look into the Ripples and See Your Reflection

2008-04-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today's Writer's Almanac featured the following poem:

The Waitresses
Matt Cook

The waitresses
At the restaurant
Have to keep reminding
The schizophrenic man
That if he keeps acting
Like a schizophrenic man
They'll have to ask him to leave the restaurant.
But he keeps forgetting that he's a schizophrenic man,
So they have to keep reminding him.

...describes us all, really.

God Plays an Acoustic Guitar

2008-04-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

If God were a musician- which he is- he would play an acoustic guitar, which I'm sure he does. For my theologically discerning friends, I'll provide scripture references to defend my theory at a later date...

A bunch of us went to see Storyhill at Yellowstone Brewery on Saturday night. I've followed these guys for quite a few years now. They're kind of "Simon & Garfunkel meets John Denver," only better.

With the exception of my not-so-folksy friend J.R., I think everyone dug the tunes. We've seen these guys in a variety of venues: concert halls, outdoors in the mountains, small breweries. They consistently take an audience that is unfamiliar with them and engage them with incredible music, and by the end of the night they have a building full of enthusiastic folk lovers (minus J.R.).

Reflections at Death's Door

2008-04-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

Molly, a friend who writes with me at Route 5:9, found this link last week and shared it on that blog.

The link will take you to an artist's exhibit of pictures of 11 individuals. One picture is taken of the person while living, the other after they've passed away.

If you don't read the captions to the right of each picture, they are nothing but a morbid display of how a face changes after death. But the captions tell a story of why that person is dying and their response to the inevitability of death.

As I read how people dealt with their impending passing, I was struck by a couple of things:

1. Death takes on a persona for many of these people. It became an entity that they interacted with, saying things like they "didn't want death to have the final say" or "couldn't death wait?"

2. People directed their anger about dying at something that they felt was perceptibly out of their control: the past, cancer, God. And they were bitter about not being in control now.

I have no idea how I'll handle death. I can, however, think of one example of someone who I'd like to emulate:

Doc (Bob) Hagstrom died well. Several years before he died I came to know Doc as a mentor and friend.

When the time came, Doc knew he was dying, felt death coming. As he got weaker his world got smaller: from city to neighborhood to home to bed. Yet it didn't seem that death really bothered Doc. His final days were spent in genuine peace, surrounded by a lifetime of companions, family, and fellow saints.

I think the secret was this- Doc died well because of the way he lived. Doc's attitude toward death was a response borne out of the wisdom, patience, and grace he had gained from a lifetime of seeking his Creator.

I can only hope to see death through the eyes of people like Doc, embracing it as a passage into a new intimacy with God himself.

Our response to death is foretold by our response to life.

Ron Paul and True Conservatism

2008-04-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

"What? Ron Paul? Wasn't he that "fringe" Republican candidate that seemed to annoy all the other primary nominees? He's old news, right?"

Doug Wead doesn't think so:

"And whatever anyone says about Ron Paul, his so called “fringe,” is the only political movement left with a systematic argument for the role of government. He talks about strategic issues, while all the rest quibble over tactics. There is no question that the Paulists now have the intellectual and moral power. They are ignored or ridiculed because no one can answer their arguments. And those arguments, left unanswered, will only cause their movement to grow...

[Paul's] army was left unchallenged on the battlefield. Now their ideas have taken root and they will grow. After the years of Obmamania are passed and Huckabee’s quixotic challenge four years later is exhausted, Ron Paul’s movement will still be maturing. Obama, Clinton, McCain and in four years, Huckabee, will own the headlines for now. But Ron Paul owns the future."

My friend Kyle turned me on to Ron Paul at the birth of the primaries, and after exhaustive research I became a Ron Paul supporter, knowing full well that he wouldn't get the nomination.

As Wead points out, Paul's legacy will not be as a United States President. But I think history will remember Ron Paul for carrying the banner of true conservatism and fiscal responsibility during an era when few others stood by those convictions.

Good reading lately

2008-04-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

I've recently finished two great fiction novels, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Road by Cormac McCarthy (The same guy who wrote No Country for Old Men).

The Kite runner is a fictional story based largely on the author's childhood in Afghanistan. It's a compelling story of a man's guilt and his longing for redemption. It's a vivid window into Afghan life from the perspective of an Afghan. Several people I know who have read it said that it's one of their favorite novels ever. It's not quite there for me, but definitely a great read. BTW- Kite running is a huge tradition in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and a few other countries, and is part of the larger sport of kite fighting. Read about it here.

The Road is a great piece of literature for different reasons, though not for the faint of heart. It's quite dark and by the end of the novel you will be emotionally exhausted. One friend who read it said that he had to put the book down every couple of chapters because it was so emotionally raw for him. It's essentially a story about a father and a son being forced to survive in a world that has been destroyed, though the reader doesn't really know what caused the destruction. If you have children, this story will especially strike home. To this story I say "This novel was incredible, a true piece of literature. ..and I don't want to read it again for a long time."

I've got two other books that I'm part way through - Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple -a non-fiction work about the poverty paradigm- and I'm rereading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Journalism's dark hour

2008-04-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Journalism was one of my focuses in college, and for a couple of years I was fairly certain that's where I'd end up.

I still like to keep tabs on journalistic trends, and this a dark season for journalism in general. Rod Dreher posted this today:

From the memo the new editor-in-chief of The Washington Times sent to his staff to advise them of upcoming layoffs. This is a masterpiece of Dilberty corporate-speak:

"Over the next few weeks, we will make a difficult journey. The effort will be expeditious and fair, even-handed and humane. It will require us to say goodbye to some colleagues we have known for many years and to celebrate their many accomplishments as they leave us. It will also allow us to welcome some new colleagues whose skills will improve our capabilities, particularly in the digital arena."

If you want to get an idea of the mood inside the journalism business these days, wait till midnight tonight, turn off all the lights in your house, shut yourself in your bedroom closet, put on your sunglasses, pull a paper sack over your head, and stare expectantly at the future.

Sleeping in the pews

2008-03-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

So I preached the sermon at my church yesterday. I've spoken in churches before, but being before your own fellowship is a little strange.

The pastor is currently doing a series on the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and asked me to speak on patience. So I did.

The observation I want to make is this: the best part about having to prepare and present something, whether it be a sermon, a seminar, or a wedding speech for your best friend, is that you have to spend time thinking about it. You make the transition from the passive listener to the active teacher, and that forces you to learn. And at the end of the day, thinking about something long enough to have to teach on it is a good thing.

That's all I have to say about that.

The Rodenator

2008-03-28T15:29:00.001-07:00

Here in Montana, gopher elimination is an olympic sport. I was recently telling some friends about the ultimate gopher repelling tool, The Rodenator, and I saw some looks of skepticism, so to prove that such a thing exists:

My favorite line: "The Rodenator is a safe, humane, and cost effective way to eliminate rodents."

That, coupled with this later quote: "I don't even care if I kill 'em, it just makes me feel good to do it."

Beware, it doesn't always go as planned.

A Recommendation

2008-03-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Let me take a little blog space to recommend Abraham Piper's new blog. In the few times that I've spoken with him, Abraham has presented himself as thoughtful and discerning. His blog, 22 Words, contains entries that only have twenty-two words. Quite an exercise in brevity. Here a few entries I've enjoyed thus far:

"There’s nothing 'big' about admitting when we’re wrong. All it shows is that we have at least a rudimentary connection with reality."

"We sat near some encouragingly awful singers at church yesterday—vociferous and atonal, contentedly disregarding everybody but the One they were serenading. "

"For me, the rare joy of exquisite songs arriving unexpectedly outweighs the more predictable pleasure of simply pressing play whenever I want."

The Menaissance

2008-03-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

I'm probably going to get in trouble here, but the Acton Institute had a great blog post today about men's changed role in society. This story brings clarity to an issue that many men resonate with.

Here are a few excerpts:

"Research shows the extent to which men have had to change within one or two generations, adapting to new rules and different expectations. Asked what it meant to be a man in the 21st century, more than half thought society was turning them into 'waxed and coiffed metrosexuals'... It’s not a 'feminization' thing really, and to push back here isn’t being chauvinistic. Most guys are cool with being softer around the edges especially when we connect it to loving our wives and daughters in ways that are meaningful to them."

"But our culture has fallen into the trap of thinking husbands are supposed to love the way they do. We’re supposed to be our wife’s best girlfriend, with a winkie and chest hair added as a bonus. After all, we rationalize, it’s our wives who understand what love is all about, and men who don’t climb on board their way of thinking are dufuses or oafs and are certainly not interested in the relationship…"

"I was also relieved to discover that my propensity to solve problems and lean into concerns about providing for my family were not failings I had to “get over” but God-given tools that I needed to learn how to use properly. Doesn’t relieve me of the responsibility to learn what makes her tick, but knowing what makes me tick helps a lot."

We’ve denied families the benefit of strong men who can embrace responsibility, leadership and the privilege of providing for their families. Viva la Menaissance!

Mr. Bean Goes to Church

2008-03-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Mr. Frost

2008-03-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

It's Robert Frost's (1874-1963) birthday today. Like a lot of poets, he led a incredibly tragic life, but was able to turn pain into beauty.

"A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching out toward expression, an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the word."

A Beautfiul Mess

2008-03-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Debbie and I decorated Easter Eggs with Elijah. While Eli and I were finishing up, Debbie read The Legend of the Easter Egg, a children’s story that ties the egg tradition back to the redemptive spirit of the weekend.

At one point the young boy in the story steps into his mother’s kitchen and is followed by muddy footprints, evidence of a fresh spring rain. The mother sighs and says something like “Spring… so beautiful, yet so messy.”

So beautiful. So messy. Such is the world we walk in. Such is the tension that we experience between a heart reconciled to the Creator and that very same heart yearning for selfish gain.

May the Beauty (God) consume the Mess (us) at the end of the day.

Yo ho Yo ho, a Hermit's Life for Me!

2008-03-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

I'm back from a week in Minnesota. Work there was productive, and I also got to see some friends and family.

In order to get cheaper airfare I ended up staying in Minnesota until Monday evening. So I spent Saturday evening through Monday afternoon at Pacem in Terris, a Catholic hermitage north of the Twin Cities.

Pacem is a personal retreat center on Lake Tamarack. When you arrive you're greeted by an inevitably friendly staff member, who then grabs a basket of fruit, bread and cheese for you and drives you out to your little one-room cabin (there are 15 of these on 60 acres or so):

The cabin consists of a rocking chair, a bed, a small altar, and a wash basin. It also has a 3-season porch for you to enjoy in warmer weather. It has no electricity, but does have a small gas heater and lantern, and a couple of candles.

The hermitage gives one the opportunity to give in to silence, to listen to the voice of the Creator. The hermitage forcibly removes distraction, worry, and to some extent our self-imposed defenses.

So the idea is that you take nothing but your Bible and just listen. Yep, listen.

I would not only recommend this type of retreat, I would say that it is a necessity for those seeking clarity in today's drive-thru world. I've been to this hermitage a half dozen times or so, and plan to go back as soon as circumstances allow.

As you know, one doesn't need a hermitage to retreat to. God can be found anywhere. The key, of course, is to be still.

Minnesota Bound

2008-03-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

I'm headed to Minneapolis on business this week, and won't be back until next Tuesday. Internet access will be limited. I'll post if I get a chance, but if it's a bit scarce around here you know why.

Have a good week, all.

Cognitive Dissonance

2008-03-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

I presented a workshop today at a state conference for Key Club, a high school service organization. They asked me to present something on "motivations" and how to discover where one's real motivations come from.

During the workshop I brought up the concept of cognitive dissonance, which, in simple terms, is when we state a belief and then act in a contradictory manner to that belief. For example, someone may profess to believe that lying is wrong and then turn around and lie.

Of course this concept plays into our own sin-prone lives. As a Christian I profess constantly to beliefs that I just as consistently contradict with my self-centered actions.

I've wrestled with this contradiction for more hours than I can count. At the end of the day, though, I think our only recourse is to rely on grace: God's grace to show mercy and God's grace to continue to mold us into a reflection of Him.

Just food for thought.

Education by Government, or No Education at All

2008-03-07T14:43:00.000-08:00

As someone who is considering homeschooling his children, this is a bit alarming:

California Courts are against Homeschooling. The state of California has ruled that homeschooling should not be allowed unless parents have proper "teaching credentials." This was the most alarming part of the article:

"'Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,' wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey in a Feb. 28 opinion signed by the two other members of the district court."

I won't insult your intelligence by citing all of the implications of this trend in education. It certainly should raise some eyebrows, however.

HB: Rod Dreher

The Bondage of Rights

2008-03-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

I'm rereading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline right now:

"Again, we must underscore to ourselves that self-denial means the freedom to give way to others....When we live outside of self-denial we demand that things go our way, if they don't we result to self-pity...[we must] look upon self-denial as the liberation it really is." (p. 100)

The Illusion: I am in a state of liberation when my rights are respected and upheld.

The Light: "He who loses his life for my sake will find it"

The Illusion: Fairness is a fundamental value that I have a right to defend.

The Light: "But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?"

The Illusion: I have a right to expect things from both men and God.

The Light: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Surrender to be free.

Give that you might have.

Discover the privilege in serving.

A Verse on Light

2008-03-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

Light, At Thirty-Two
By Michael Blumenthal

It is the first thing God speaks of
when we meet Him, in the good book
of Genesis. And now, I think
I see it all in terms of light:

How, the other day at dusk
on Ossabaw Island, the marsh grass
was the color of the most beautiful hair
I had ever seen, or how—years ago
in the early-dawn light of Montrose Park—
I saw the most ravishing woman
in the world, only to find, hours later
over drinks in a dark bar, that it
wasn't she who was ravishing,
but the light: how it filtered
through the leaves of the magnolia
onto her cheeks, how it turned
her cotton dress to silk, her walk
to a tour-jeté.

And I understood, finally,
what my friend John meant,
twenty years ago, when he said: Love
is keeping the lights on. And I understood
why Matisse and Bonnard and Gauguin
and Cézanne all followed the light:
Because they knew all lovers are equal
in the dark, that light defines beauty
the way longing defines desire, that
everything depends on how light falls
on a seashell, a mouth ... a broken bottle.

And now, I'd like to learn
to follow light wherever it leads me,
never again to say to a woman, YOU
are beautiful, but rather to whisper:
Darling, the way light fell on your hair
this morning when we woke—God,
it was beautiful. Because, if the light is right,
then the day and the body and the faint pleasures
waiting at the window ... they too are right.
All things lovely there. As that first poet wrote,
in his first book of poems: Let there be light.

Adoption is a Reflection of God's Grace

2008-03-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

Debbie and I have been planning on adopting some of our children since day one of our marriage. There are lots of reasons for this, but here are a few:

1. God has given us a deep desire to bring unwanted children into our family.

2. It is just one way that we can practically love the "least of these."

3. We are adamantly pro-life, and those who take a pro-life stance need to be willing to sacrificially be a part of the solution.

John Piper (who adopted a baby girl at age 50) recently reminded me that adoption is a also a great reflection of God's grace to us. Christ's work of redemption was in fact an act of adoption- our adoption into the Kingdom of God. He elaborates on this connection in the 5-minute video below:

Piper's exhortation at the end of this video would be my exhortation to you as well:

"I would suggest that you seriously consider not only supporting, but also doing adoption, both spiritually ... and also in terms of finding children who have no mom and dad who could be folded into a family—just like God planned from eternity to fold sinners like us, through Christ, into his everlasting family of joy."

Debbie and I have done a fair amount of research on adoption possibilities and potential pitfalls. Feel free to interrogate us if you'd like.

Beauty in Simplicity

2008-03-05T14:24:00.000-08:00

I spent last Saturday on the Bighorn River, fly fishing with two good friends of mine.

On Sunday night I cooked up a couple of the trout I caught and my wife and I enjoyed a great Montana meal. After dinner, I played with the boys in the living room, soaking in the heat from the nearby wood stove, which was fueled by wood we chopped from the edge of the Beartooths.

I remember waking up for an instant and thinking about how perfect the moment was.

There truly is beauty in the contentment of simple things.

"Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart." Ecclesiastes 5:18-20

Addendum to Berry

2008-03-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

As a follow up to the last post, Joe Carter at the Evangelical Outpost had a good story on our market economy. Here's an excerpt:

"As Christians, we can never embrace any system or institution without being wary of how we are likely to abuse it for our own depraved purposes and rationalize our reasons for doing so. This is the primary reason we cannot fully embrace either a conservative or libertarian view of market economics.

But we should also be leery of falling for the progressive tendency to believe that government is the proper defender against economic injustice. While we might agree that protections are often necessary, we should reject the notion that the state has the moral authority to carry out that task."

Berry on the Basics

2008-03-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

Found this today at Fire and Knowledge:

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the law of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy. It is impossible not to notice how little the proponents of the ideal of competition have to say about honesty, which is the fundamental economic virtue, and how very little they have to say about community, compassion, and mutual help."

—Wendell Berry, “Economy and Pleasure” in What Are People For? (1990), p. 135

...Any thoughts?

Another Blog adventure

2008-03-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

Most of you are aware that I work for Peacemaker Ministries, a Christian non-profit whose passion is "biblical reconciliation"- that's fancy talk for resolving conflict with integrity. We mediate and arbitrate all sorts of conflicts, and also train others to do the same.

All that to say that yours truly, along with three other people, have been asked to start a blog for Peacemaker, which we have dubbed Route 5:9, based on Matthew 5:9.

If you're so inclined, check it out. I promise there will be some relevant insights there from time to time. The other three bloggers are a lot smarter than me, by the way.

Strange Thread

2008-02-29T09:14:00.001-08:00

So this is a strange connection, but last night Debbie and I went to U23D, which is a very cool 3D presentation of U2's Vertigo Tour. If you're as a big a U2 fan as I am, it's a must see.

Although it wasn't shown in the movie, Bono quoted Psalm 116 as an intro to the famous song, "Where the Streets Have No Name" throughout the tour. In fact he quoted Eugene Peterson's version of the Psalm, found in the Message:

"What can I give back to God for the blessings he's poured out on me? I'll lift high the cup of salvation -- A toast to God! I'll pray in the name of God; I'll complete what I promised God I'd do, And I'll do it together with his people"

So this made me think of a great book on the Psalms by Eugene Peterson: Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer.

If you have any interest in the Psalms at all, I highly recommend it.

This is how my brain works. Sorry.

The Language of Autism

2008-02-29T08:49:00.000-08:00

Imagine speaking a language that no one on the planet can understand.

Amanda Baggs is autistic. She's non-verbal in the sense that she speaks only in a two-tone chant. She displays nearly all of the distinguishable characteristics of severe Autism: she rocks back and forth, flaps her hands, and seems obsessed with sensory input. In other words, she interacts with her environment in ways that appear very strange to us.

But Amanda can type 120 words per minute. And this is where the story gets interesting. 3 minutes into the above video you'll see the words "A Translation." Amanda then begins to type, and is able to speak through a word recognition program. Amanda describes her world to us in a way that will shift your thinking entirely.

Prior to my life in official "ministry," I worked for nearly 10 years with people who had developmental disabilities. I had the privelege of interacting with many people just like Amanda, trying to understand, serve, and respect them as best I could.

They taught me a great deal about actually "seeing" the world around me and appreciating the incredible diversity of perspectives, even through the struggle of something like Autism. I hope Amanda does the same for you.

Protestant growing pains

2008-02-28T12:38:00.000-08:00

The Acton Institute's blog had a thoughtful post today on some of the growing troubles of Protestantism.

Worth the read.

Why William Buckley gives me hope

2008-02-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Bill Buckley at his desk:

See Debbie, there's hope for me yet...

Context for wolf de-listing

2008-02-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

I've rarely talked about environmental issues here, in part because they tend to get convoluted so quickly. Some day (in all of my spare time) I'm going to start a non-profit, Conservatives for Environmental Stewardship, that advocates for the restoration of God's mandate to his followers to care for his creation. But on to the subject at hand.

Sunday Debbie and I went to a members' reception at Zoo Montana. The photographer for the documentary In the Valley of the Wolves was there, and he showed some b-roll of the wolves in Yellowstone Park, provided some comments, and then showed the documentary. After attending the reception, I was asked by a friend about what I thought about the delisting of the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List.

I thought I'd provide some facts surrounding the issue so that people could get a better understanding of what's taking place:

In 1995 the federal government established recovery goals as a gauge for success of the reintroduction of wolves into the Northern Rockies. The goal was 300 wolves and at least 30 breeding pairs. To date, there are over 1,500 wolves and at least 100 breeding pairs.

The delisting means that management of wolf populations will be deferred from the federal government to state governments. This means that different wolf populations will be managed differently depending on the state that they reside in.

Opponents of delisting have two major arguments: 1) the state management plans are not sufficient and ultimately destructive, and 2) the wolf population has grown but is not genetically sustainable; in other words, though there are large amounts of wolves, they are spread out and not numerous enough to insure genetic diversity, an essential component to the wolves' breeding success.

Proponents of the delisting are saying that 1) the wolf reintroduction project has met its goals and the wolves' success has surpassed expectation, and 2) delisting the wolves means that resources can be redistributed to other animals on the endangered species list.

Farmers and ranchers also largely favor delisting, as they feel it will allow them to better protect their livelihood (sheep & cattle).

Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are the 3 key wolf states. Idaho and Wyoming will both maintain small "wolf protection zones." Outside of the zones the states will allow the extermination of wolves if the wolves are a threat to property or person. Montana has a more stringent policy under which wolves can only be killed under special circumstances and, in many areas, not at all.

In Midwest states (Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) where the gray wolf population is still exceptionally low, the wolf will remain protected under the Endangered Species Act.

As for me, I am in favor of delisting, albeit cautiously. The wolves have demonstrated a considerable ability to thrive, and the interests of ranchers have in many cases been neglected during the process.

I believe we are close to finding a balance of interests here, but the debate is far from over. Environmental groups are already suing to keep the wolves on the list.