"I Come in Pea.."

Here's a night where Heather and I fooled around with the webcam on my iMac. It's strange how amusing a visual effect can be.

Personality Info

Here's some info about my personality. I usually hate these things. But this one's short. That makes all the difference. I wish others could do it for me.

Response to "'Red-Letter Christians': A Bad Idea with a Bad Name, Alas"

Here's John Stackhouse's ideas on "Red Letter Christians" here

Here's my response that I posted:

I think that we’ve misunderstood Tony’s heart on this. He is not purposing that we only read the red letters, that we read them more often, or even that we give them more weight. He is attempting to swing the previous overemphasis Evangelicals had with the Pauline sections of scripture back to Christ. Tony makes Jesus at the center of his reading/understanding/application of scripture instead of Paul.

A few other random points:
-The return to ancient ideas within contemporary evangelical faith is very “au courant.” Read some of Robert Webber’s work (he has a series called Ancient/Future Faith, Worship, etc). Thus, using the term “red letter” fits within the mindset of emerging (not a big fan of that term though) christians.
-If you read first hand the works where Tony brings up the idea of a Red-Letter Christian, you'll see he is not pushing for the use of the term as a new designation or sect. He is simply trying to communicate the need to focus on Jesus as the center to not only our lives but also our bibles.
-You are right to say that RLCs are more blue than red. I don’t think that Tony’s point of RLC is to put people on the knife’s edge of politics. The point is to remove the political colour as the master status and replace it with Christ. RLCs will always be in flux between the political poles as they search to vote for what they think is right.
-Lastly, I’m just a guy who works to pay my bills and seeks to follow my Lord the best I can. I’m not the final authority. I’m not the last word.

Islamic Fundamentalism

I heard this definition yesterday while listing to Tony Campolo's Podcast "Across the Pond." It's in reference to Islamic Fundamentalism but as Tony pointed out, and I agree, this could be applied to all types of fundamentalism; including Evangelical Fundamentalism.

Islamic Fundamentalism:

"A reactionary non-scientific movement, aimed at returning society to a centuries old set up, defying all material and historical factors. It is an attempt to roll back the wheels of history."

(Aside: The only thing I don't like about this definition is that it presupposes that if we go back in history, culture becomes more moral. But, if you could ask those from yesteryear, they'd look backward for a critique of their "modern" culture too.)

Fundamentalism seeks to provide simple answers to complex questions. It promises to take it's followers back to "the good-old-days" when black was black and white was white (all too often, not as much anymore though, this is/was, unfortunately, in a literal sense). At face value these simple answers appear to be intellectually lacking; however, they do bring comfort to the confused soul. At some point in our lives fundamentalism is the only societal system we understand. Try communicating complex, morally ambiguities, situations to a child and you'll soon resort back to a fundamentalist "that's right" or "that's wrong" (ex: how lying is OK when it's to save someone's feelings but not when it's to save someone from getting into trouble).

As I look back at my teenage fundamentalist years I see how they helped me navigate the temptations of life. I didn't need a discussion on "how far is too far," I needed a guide line to follow. And, if it was up to me, I'd preach one thing and practice another. But, as I got older, this approach did more harm than good. It caused me to define people as good or bad and not consider the complexities of human relationships and the human experience. I couldn't make decisions in grey life because I was always looking for a pole to agree with. And most of life doesn't occur at the poles, it's somewhere closer to the equator; where simple answers cannot fully satisfy complex questions.

"Who Killed the Electric Car?"

I watched this little documentary the other night. Though I'd never heard of it playing in big movie theaters, it's not small on impact.

The film tracks the birth, production, life, and death of the EV1, an pure electric car from GM. It's an interesting and strange story. It starts in California where smog levels are high. The Air Advisory Board implements a law that an increasing percent of cars produced and sold must be "no emissions." GM complies and produces the EV1 and markets the car. However, something is brewing. There becomes a huge waiting list for the cars and yet no cars seem to be available to fulfill the demand. Also, the marketing team will not accept any suggestions from the sales reps actually selling cars; in fact they do the opposite. Oil and car companies alike begin to petition this California Air Advisory Board to back down. Then they sue. Facing this pressure the board backs down and GM slowly gets back all it's EV1 cars. They were only sold on lease, and when the lease was up, no matter what they offered to pay, drivers were not allowed to keep their cars. The small amount of infrastructure that was put in place was taken out and the Electric Car was forgotten.

What seems crazy to me is not the fact that the oil and car companies but the kibosh on the electric car. It's that it even got out in the first place. Someone up there must have really lost it. Maybe the big decision makers went on an extended golf trip came back and had to do a lot of clean up.

This film is just another step in my growing disgust of the internal combustion engine. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on it. I would highly recommend checking out this film.

Links:
-Sony Pictures Film Site
-Wikipedia: Who Killed the Electric Car
-Wikipedia: EV1
-Just do a couple Google searches "EV1" - "Electric Car" - "oil addicted" - etc.

Don Rabbit

Here's the images from the little illustration of "Don Rabbit" in the book "Blue Like Jazz." I got it off the website so give credit where credit is due and check it out (here). It's a great funny little story and it's exemplary of the book so if you like it I suggest you look into reading the book.


Here it is: It's a pdf so you'll have to click on the link


HERE


Cheers,

A

Blue like Jazz Live

"Blue Like Jazz" is a book by "Donald Miller" (site). It's a good book. One I read a back in college for a class but really enjoyed personally. I'd suggest you read it. It's that good. But, along came a guy named Jason Hildebrand (site). Jason is an actor and decided to take the book, "Blue like Jazz," and do it live, "Blue like Jazz Live." It's a little long; there got the bad review out of the way. However, it's very reminiscent of the book and makes you feel you are inside Donald Miller's mind. To say the least I was impressed. My but was numb but my mind was stimulated. If you ever get a chance to go and see it, I would verily suggest you take that chance. Just bring a seat cushion.

Here's the trailer.

More Letters to a Young Evangelical Quotes

Here's a good one. It's from a chapter where Tony is talking about the responsibility of Christians to the environment. Especially the need for a focus on nuclear disarmament and support of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty from 1968 that 43 some odd nations signed but most of those actually posessing nuclear weapons failed to follow through on. It's a quote from General Omar Nelson Bradley's speech on Armistice Day in 1948.

"We live in a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants, in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We have solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know about living."
-Page 211 of Tony's Book "Letters to a Young Evangelical"

Java Script taking over my web life

I've been working with iWeb for some time now making websites for both our church (thefellowship.ca) and for myself (adamnoble.ca). However, I struggle to have enough time to update these sites regularly and it takes forever to create something new and then update. Not to mention my continuing love affair with Facebook, which at times tries to take over my need to publish old school. I might have found a nice middle ground.

I've downloaded a powerful little program called "iWeb Enhancer." Basically what it does is it allows you to add java script to your iWeb sites. I then search out a good "Google gadget" that will read a rss feed or some other type of script and enter it into the iWeb site. That's a lot of gibberish to say that I can now update my blog with Blogger and my pictures with Picasa (another Google product) they automatically update on my adamnoble.ca, old school, published, website. I've even figured out how to make it so that people can actually go on my facebook (after having registered and added me as a friend obviously) right inside my adamnoble.ca website. It's great. It allows me to update things via browser based publishing anywhere I am. I can even email in my blog posts from Blogger.

All this to say it's worth taking the time to research this stuff if you're in to blogging. It takes the whole thing to a new level. You can customize exactly the look and feel without compromising the ease of posting through blogger or any other blog program.

Anyway, that's all. Happy surfing.

falling prey to the google revolution

As much as I don't like to follow the trends - though you might be questioning that claim as per the "Facebook" badge next to this post - I am however very impressed with the new products that Google is coming out with. They seem to be shooting to make everything "web based" so that you can work on your documents, handle your email, update your calendar, etc. I've just figured out how to embed a search engine into a website so that you can use the power of the Google search but just for pages found on your site. However, I still have to figure out how to get the "google bots" to check and update my website content in their church engine. Still there's lots you can do for free with Google.

Letters to a Young Evangelical Quotes

I've been reading the book "Letters to a Young Evangelical" by Tony Campolo and in the last couple of chapters he's quoted other sources. I just wanted to share these quotes with you. I think they're cool.

"The Church is a whore, but she's my mother."
- St. Augustine (page 68 of "Letters to a Young Evangelical")

"Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish existentialist, once said there are those who tell lies in such a way that you think they are telling you the truth. He went on to suggest that far more dangerous are those who tell the truth in such a way that you think they are telling you a lie. When the Gospel is presented with little regard for the sensitivities of others, it may redily be rejected not because of its content but becuase of how it has been delivered."
- Tony Campolo referring to Soren Kierkegaard (page 56 of "Letters to a Young Evangelical")

If you want to learn more about Tony's book you can find all the info at TonyCampolo.org

Navigating the Grey Inport

I've imported a bunch of postings that I did on my previous blog, "Navigating the Grey." However, I didn't input the comments so if you want to read them you have to go to the original website: Navigating the Grey. Here's the new posts as they show up on this blog. They are posted with the original date so they don't show up at the top of the list.

Inspirational Keys

Why Can's I Own Canadians?

Repsponse: Jesus vs. The Church

Is Jesus' Salvation Just a Ticket to Heaven?

Why am I a Christian?

Act with Action

Alcohol-ism

The Power of the Dark Side

Absolutly Relative

Jessica gets engaged

Yesterday I was awaken to someone repeatedly calling my house at 12:45am. Annoyed I woke up on 6th time and answered the phone with an obviously condescending voice. After I say hello the voice on the other end says: "May I speak to Heather?"

I respond with the typical, "May I ask who's calling?" (Subtext: What is this man doing calling my wife at this time in the morning?)

"It's Kevin Reitema." (Heather's sister's boyfriend) Now I know. Jessica is engaged. Why else would he be calling at such a late hour. Although, they live in Saskatchewan and it wasn't 12:45am there.

Anyway, here's some pictures of the couple and of course... the ring.

The Good News

Awhile ago I did a sermon at my parent’s church called the “Good News.” The basic premiss is that the gospel (“the teachings of Jesus and his apostles - the Christian revelation,” as per dictionary.com) is only really the “good news” if it is two things: good, and news.

For the message of Christ, and thus the message of Christians, to be gospel it must first be good. “God hates fags,” would not fall under the title of good! Where as, “God loves you,” does. Jesus commanded us to love God and love others (Matt 22:34-40). He didn’t command us to love God and judge others. Although we tend to get love and judgement mixed up.

Not only must the gospel message be good, it must also be news. If it sounds stale and boring it is not news. Stanley Grenz says in the beginning of his book “Theology for the Community of God” that one major aspect of theology is that it is contextualized to the present time. The message of Christianity must be news. It must have urgency, be important, and be on the minds and mouths of everyone that knows it. It must break through into every conversation; not forced, but naturally included.

In our society and especially in our churches we need to make the gospel “Good News” again. We need to strip it of hatred and judgement and dress it in love. Clean it of cobwebs and dust-bunnies, and freshen it with urgency. Only when it’s “Good News” does it truly the gospel, the message of Jesus and his followers.

Apathy - Bastard Son of Safety and Security

As I think about the history of church people, or people in general for that matter, it's clear that when everything is going well, all the well seem to get going. That is, those who are dedicated to the ideology and community of the church begin to become a smaller and smaller percentage of the Christian population. When something is "easy" or "cool" it attracts all the wrong crowds.

Take for example the time in church history right after Constantine (Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire under emperor Theodosius (r. 379-395) not Constantine, though Constantine definitely contributed to it's popularity; as per Ask Me Now). Yes the popularity of Christianity provided many opportunities for theological reflection, but there was also a safety in being a Christian. In fact, there was more than safety; becoming a Christ follower was a good political move. The church became "cool" and popular, attracting those who were just in it for themselves. The cancer of apathy slowly took over and the commitment dwindled. Someone once said that the church grew more under persecution than it did under popularity.

We don't feel a need for God when we feel safe. We still need him; but we forget. It's our education that gets us the job, our job that pays for our house and food, and it's the house and food that fulfill our needs. We become apathetic because we can provide for ourselves, we aren't hiding in the catacombs struggling to stay alive. But the real need for spirituality remains, hidden under the satisfaction of physical safety and security. How, then, do we unveil this need and shake off our apathy? How do we learn to live and love with compassion and desire not blind to the truth?

Frozen H2O

The other day a friend and I had a disagreement about whether water expands or shrinks when it freezes. I said "expands" as per the how pop cans I left outside exploded. He said "shrinks" as per how the water he puts in the ice cube tray is more than the ice he gets out. We turned to the infamous Ask Me Now. And the first answer came back as follows:

"According to our reference site, Generally, water expands when it freezes because of its molecular structure, in tandem with the unusual elasticity of the hydrogen bond and the particular lowest energy hexagonal crystal conformation that it adopts under standard conditions."

Feeling this to be inadequate to finish the conversation I asked a more specific question and came up with this:

"According to our reference site: Water starts out behaving normally. As its temperature drops, water obediently shrinks together--until it reaches 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees F.). Then, amazingly, water reverses course, its volume slowly increasing as it chills. When water finally freezes, at 0 C (32 F.), it expands dramatically. Scientists say water's quirky behavior is caused by the shape of its molecule and by how its molecules bond to one another."

Now with a satisfying answer, I then turned to the issue of the shrinking water in the ice cube tray. Here Ask Me Now failed to understand my question and spat out this answer:

"Liquid water is most dense, essentially 1.00 g/cm³, at 4 °C and becomes less dense as the water molecules begin to form the hexagonal crystals of ice as the temperature drops to 0 °C. This is due to hydrogen bonds forming between the water molecules, which line up molecules less efficiently (in terms of volume) when water is frozen. The result of this is that ice floats on liquid water."

So as I thought about the mystery of the missing water I began to develop my own hypothesis. Maybe the water in the ice cube tray isn't shrinking at all? Maybe it's evaporating into the air in the freezer? Think about it; when is the air driest during the year? In the winter when it's the coldest, like in a freezer. Maybe the cold dry environment of the freezer caused the water in the ice cube tray to evaporate. This is my hypothesis. I'll leave you with that.

"Banking Can be This Comfortable"

I recently received my first mortgage statement from TD Canada Trust. Believe it or not, this is an actual quote from the statement in regards to future statements:

“At TD Canada Trust, we like to keep you informed about matters affecting your account. Starting in 2007, TD Canada Trust will no longer send you a semi-annual mortgage statement. Mortgage Statements will be provided once a year.”

So because TD wants to keep me informed they have decided to stop sending two statements a year and instead send one. Because somehow one statement provides me with more information? It’s just so blatantly, obviously, and oxy-moron. It’s like a Gas Bar saying they are committed to being available for their customers; and, thus, are no longer going to be open all night. It just doesn’t make sense. If you want to send me fewer mortgage statements, fine; but don’t preface it with how you want to keep me informed. Just don’t send as many.

A Good friend of mine, Tara (also a work colleague), advised me to invest in some Pink Floyd this last Christmas. She said that I should buy “Dark Side of the Moon” and that the first time I played it I had to listen the whole album straight through in one sitting. I did; and needless to say it was awesome. Though my favorite song is still “Money,” the rest just emphasized it. There are little snippets of “Money” through the whole album, along with pieces of “Us and Them” (I’m sure I’ll find more as I go on). I was also blown away by the song “The Great Gig in the Sky.” The woman’s vocals were haunting and emotionally inspiring. The more I listen to it the more it feels like she is singing what I am feeling at that time. Even though I feel something different every time I listen to it. I can’t wait to watch “The Wizard of Oz” to it.