I recently asked someone I respect when does allegiance to a flag becomes idolatry. I feel a bit closer to an answer with this Christianity Today editorial.
(Thanks, John, for calling it to your readers' attention.)
Worship as Higher Politics - Political priorities for citizens of the kingdom.
A Christianity Today editorial posted 06/23/2005 09:00 a.m.
"George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. Nor is the U.S. Constitution, nor the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights. "Original intent" of America's founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. "God Bless America" is not the Doxology.
Sometimes one needs to state the obvious—especially at times when it's less and less obvious."
Read the rest here.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
On Baby Birds and Strong Wings
Outside my office window is our front yard, with grass, a small rose garden and to the right, a gathering of trees.....olive, white birch and liquid amber. To the left is our two-car garage.
And birds. Lots of birds, mostly heard but not seen.
A wren-like bird built her nest this year in our garage eaves. Her eggs hatched a bit ago, and now the fully-feathered baby birds explore our front yard. They're tiny and adorable as they alight on flower beds, sprinklers, rocks and the neighbor's low-wall. I just watched one a few minutes ago.
I noticed that the mother bird is always in the yard when the babies are out and about. One day soon, her babies will fly away....fully nurtured and fed, wings strong, ready for the world. Her responsibilities for them will be done. Roots planted, wings grown. A maternal job well done.
I suppose it's the same for us with our babies.
And birds. Lots of birds, mostly heard but not seen.
A wren-like bird built her nest this year in our garage eaves. Her eggs hatched a bit ago, and now the fully-feathered baby birds explore our front yard. They're tiny and adorable as they alight on flower beds, sprinklers, rocks and the neighbor's low-wall. I just watched one a few minutes ago.
I noticed that the mother bird is always in the yard when the babies are out and about. One day soon, her babies will fly away....fully nurtured and fed, wings strong, ready for the world. Her responsibilities for them will be done. Roots planted, wings grown. A maternal job well done.
I suppose it's the same for us with our babies.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Quiz: What's Your Theological Worldview?
Interesting quiz....What is your theological worldview?
At tip of my hat to Hootsbuddy to this link.
My scores make me realize that as many churches drift more and more toward militant Christian fundamentalism in response to militant Islamic fundamentalism in a modern-redo of the Crusades, I must focus my energies and passions on theologies that match my heart and soul...a "good fit." (I assuredly am no fundamentalist.)
What did you score? Here are my scores.....
You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.
At tip of my hat to Hootsbuddy to this link.
My scores make me realize that as many churches drift more and more toward militant Christian fundamentalism in response to militant Islamic fundamentalism in a modern-redo of the Crusades, I must focus my energies and passions on theologies that match my heart and soul...a "good fit." (I assuredly am no fundamentalist.)
What did you score? Here are my scores.....
You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 79%
Emergent/Postmodern 79%
Classical Liberal 50%
Reformed Evangelical 50%
Modern Liberal 50%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 50%
Neo orthodox 46%
Roman Catholic 43%
Fundamentalist 18%
Saturday, June 11, 2005
deep, very dark post secrets
Have you been to post secret yet?
I feel like such a voyeur there. It makes me uncomfortable to read those deep, very dark secrets. It's so appealingly, imperfectly awful.
Here's my secret.....I pray for them.
I feel like such a voyeur there. It makes me uncomfortable to read those deep, very dark secrets. It's so appealingly, imperfectly awful.
Here's my secret.....I pray for them.
Saturday Thoughts on Innocence, Farmers' Markets, Baseball Dates & Sideways
We're enjoying one of those rare Saturdays...lazy and delightfully homebound. Ron is tending his tomato plants, washing the dog and starting a new puzzle. I'm reading and writing (here, not political), and dreaming of a new dish to concoct for dinner. Andrea is napping, reading, listening to music, and hopefully cleaning the bird cage.
We have a baseball date...Angels at 4 PM on TV, followed by Cal State Fullerton in the college world series. We have the requisite big bag of peanuts, and dinner will be served casual-style in front of the games.
Now if only our two-week-old granddaughter could come hang out with us this afternoon....
-------------------------
If kids these days have an age of innocence, Andrea's is over this week. She graduates from middle school next Thursday, and a few days later, starts a summer school class at high school.
The 400 8th graders of Tuffree Middle School had their graduation party last night....a three-hour extravangaza in the school multi-purpose room of dancing and lots of game booths manned by parents.
There were prizes galore.....movie tickets, gift cards, even dollar bills at one hotly-contested game booth. And food combinations only teenagers could savor...taquitos, nachos, brownies and big cookies, Chinese food ("not very good"), flavored shaved ice and Starbucks caramel mocchiatos.
The room was decorated by the parents, with fathers doing the heavy lifting and mothers commandeering the final touches. The entire event was planned and paid for by the 8th grade parents. And the kids actually dressed up in school-friendly yet fashion-cool attire. They looked scrubbed, expectant and adorably trendy.
It harkened to visions of the idealized 1950s, before student protests, drugs, the rise in teen suicides and other hard, historical realities. And before the simultaneous "dumbing down" of American education and increased pressure on the most academically talented kids to produce school-district-pleasing test scores. And before the rise of myopic organizations with selfish, even cultic, designs on our children.
Tuffree Middle School has been a wonderful, albeit sheltered, environment where the 8th class of 2005 still experienced a modicum of innocence these past two years.
Yes, they do know reality. Four kids were expelled from school a month ago for drug possession, and 14 more were suspended. A local high school freshman committed suicide, and her 7th grade brother found her body. Another girl ran away when she learned her parents are getting a divorce. And, of course, the whole sex thing. Kids making out. Kids doing more than making out.
But hard reality has been muted until now. Until June 21, her first high school class.
I wish she could stay forever in a happy, contented 8th grade bubble. I wish I could shield her from reality.
-------------------------
Last Sunday morning, I had the vast sensory privilege of exploring Seattle's Pike Place Market, the nation' s oldest farmers' market, founded in 1907. I'd been there about 15 years ago, but frankly, had forgotten its rich pleasures.
It's a blocks-long ocean-front patchwork of fishmarkets, plump produce, used book stores, candy and pastry shops, fresh flower vendors, weathered eateries and local artists selling their wares. The fragrance, the colors, the pure vibrancy, the charming ambiance is unforgettable.
Pike Place Market is home to the original Starbucks coffee bar/store. To their corporate credit, they've not changed it a whit from the original wooden-floored, white-walled shop that blends in with surrounding retail shanties. The only differences between Starbucks #1 and our neighborhood coffee sanctuaries are that it looks a bit older, and everyone takes pictures there. It's a landmark, a place to say you've been.
The fishmarkets prominently displayed delectable whole, wildly fresh Copper River wild salmon, a Pacific Northwest delicacy that incites culinary orgasms in foodies and fish lovers. This salmon is only available for four weeks each year, and Seattle makes quite a fuss over it.
The farm-fresh vegetables and fruits were simply gorgeous....strawberries, eggplants, onions, tomatoes, carrots, apricots, newly-cut herbs, summer squashes, sweet corn, bell peppers, blackberries, artichokes, varieties of greens and so much more. I longed to buy an armful and head off to my kitchen to cook a meal for family and friends.
Pike Place Market has an intriguing email newsletter, complete with creative recipes, organic food news and tips for buying fish and produce. Be sure to sign up for it.
And at all costs, make browsing at Pike Place Market a centerpiece of your visit to Seattle.
-------------------------
Ron and I used to own a gourmet food "dot.com." It was a non-human victim of 9/11, which took the wind out of its fledgling sails. We worked for two years to develop, launch and grow it. We mourned its demise.
I miss writing about cooking and food on the internet.
Last week, I told the Managing Editor of About.com that when he's tired of me ranting about liberal politics, I want to be the guide to one of About.com's food/cooking sites. Not now, he said. I'll remember that. But not now. It would be impossible to adequately juggle two sites.
My fave About.com site is French Food. I met the guide, Debra, last week, at our Seattle meeting and we had great fun chatting and rating the meals we ate there. She's as delightful as her food writing.
In her responsibilities as guide to French food, she travels to France once or twice a year on culinary tours (and deducts it!). She interviews top cookbook authors, and receives advance copies of the newst French cookbooks. And she tests recipes.
Maybe after the 2008 elections.....
-------------------------
I wish I had written Sideways. I know...I know...it has some wrong attitudes and R-rated scenes. And Ron reminds me that there's strong language, too.
But it's so clever and multi-layered and character-revealing. It's so authentic. It's so Californian, and after all, I'm a native. Miles, the Paul Giamatti character, is a masterpiece in being lost and then found. Miles is the perfect name for him, as he has miles and miles to go.
I'm just saying I wish I could say I wrote something that finely, uniquely good.
We have a baseball date...Angels at 4 PM on TV, followed by Cal State Fullerton in the college world series. We have the requisite big bag of peanuts, and dinner will be served casual-style in front of the games.
Now if only our two-week-old granddaughter could come hang out with us this afternoon....
-------------------------
If kids these days have an age of innocence, Andrea's is over this week. She graduates from middle school next Thursday, and a few days later, starts a summer school class at high school.
The 400 8th graders of Tuffree Middle School had their graduation party last night....a three-hour extravangaza in the school multi-purpose room of dancing and lots of game booths manned by parents.
There were prizes galore.....movie tickets, gift cards, even dollar bills at one hotly-contested game booth. And food combinations only teenagers could savor...taquitos, nachos, brownies and big cookies, Chinese food ("not very good"), flavored shaved ice and Starbucks caramel mocchiatos.
The room was decorated by the parents, with fathers doing the heavy lifting and mothers commandeering the final touches. The entire event was planned and paid for by the 8th grade parents. And the kids actually dressed up in school-friendly yet fashion-cool attire. They looked scrubbed, expectant and adorably trendy.
It harkened to visions of the idealized 1950s, before student protests, drugs, the rise in teen suicides and other hard, historical realities. And before the simultaneous "dumbing down" of American education and increased pressure on the most academically talented kids to produce school-district-pleasing test scores. And before the rise of myopic organizations with selfish, even cultic, designs on our children.
Tuffree Middle School has been a wonderful, albeit sheltered, environment where the 8th class of 2005 still experienced a modicum of innocence these past two years.
Yes, they do know reality. Four kids were expelled from school a month ago for drug possession, and 14 more were suspended. A local high school freshman committed suicide, and her 7th grade brother found her body. Another girl ran away when she learned her parents are getting a divorce. And, of course, the whole sex thing. Kids making out. Kids doing more than making out.
But hard reality has been muted until now. Until June 21, her first high school class.
I wish she could stay forever in a happy, contented 8th grade bubble. I wish I could shield her from reality.
-------------------------
Last Sunday morning, I had the vast sensory privilege of exploring Seattle's Pike Place Market, the nation' s oldest farmers' market, founded in 1907. I'd been there about 15 years ago, but frankly, had forgotten its rich pleasures.
It's a blocks-long ocean-front patchwork of fishmarkets, plump produce, used book stores, candy and pastry shops, fresh flower vendors, weathered eateries and local artists selling their wares. The fragrance, the colors, the pure vibrancy, the charming ambiance is unforgettable.
Pike Place Market is home to the original Starbucks coffee bar/store. To their corporate credit, they've not changed it a whit from the original wooden-floored, white-walled shop that blends in with surrounding retail shanties. The only differences between Starbucks #1 and our neighborhood coffee sanctuaries are that it looks a bit older, and everyone takes pictures there. It's a landmark, a place to say you've been.
The fishmarkets prominently displayed delectable whole, wildly fresh Copper River wild salmon, a Pacific Northwest delicacy that incites culinary orgasms in foodies and fish lovers. This salmon is only available for four weeks each year, and Seattle makes quite a fuss over it.
The farm-fresh vegetables and fruits were simply gorgeous....strawberries, eggplants, onions, tomatoes, carrots, apricots, newly-cut herbs, summer squashes, sweet corn, bell peppers, blackberries, artichokes, varieties of greens and so much more. I longed to buy an armful and head off to my kitchen to cook a meal for family and friends.
Pike Place Market has an intriguing email newsletter, complete with creative recipes, organic food news and tips for buying fish and produce. Be sure to sign up for it.
And at all costs, make browsing at Pike Place Market a centerpiece of your visit to Seattle.
-------------------------
Ron and I used to own a gourmet food "dot.com." It was a non-human victim of 9/11, which took the wind out of its fledgling sails. We worked for two years to develop, launch and grow it. We mourned its demise.
I miss writing about cooking and food on the internet.
Last week, I told the Managing Editor of About.com that when he's tired of me ranting about liberal politics, I want to be the guide to one of About.com's food/cooking sites. Not now, he said. I'll remember that. But not now. It would be impossible to adequately juggle two sites.
My fave About.com site is French Food. I met the guide, Debra, last week, at our Seattle meeting and we had great fun chatting and rating the meals we ate there. She's as delightful as her food writing.
In her responsibilities as guide to French food, she travels to France once or twice a year on culinary tours (and deducts it!). She interviews top cookbook authors, and receives advance copies of the newst French cookbooks. And she tests recipes.
Maybe after the 2008 elections.....
-------------------------
I wish I had written Sideways. I know...I know...it has some wrong attitudes and R-rated scenes. And Ron reminds me that there's strong language, too.
But it's so clever and multi-layered and character-revealing. It's so authentic. It's so Californian, and after all, I'm a native. Miles, the Paul Giamatti character, is a masterpiece in being lost and then found. Miles is the perfect name for him, as he has miles and miles to go.
I'm just saying I wish I could say I wrote something that finely, uniquely good.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
God Was Apparently Watching the City Council Meeting
This news morsel makes one wonder if God had strong feelings about goings-on at Onaka, North Dakota city government.....:)
From Yahoo news a few minutes ago:
Powerful thunderstorms rolling across the Upper Midwest destroyed a small-town city hall in South Dakota and flooded people out of their homes early Wednesday in North Dakota....
Wind gusted to 92 mph during the night in north-central South Dakota, destroying the one-story city hall in Onaka, flattening a farm cooperative building in Faulkton and damaging other buildings, said Faulk County Emergency Manager Wayne Vetter. No injuries were reported.
From Yahoo news a few minutes ago:
Powerful thunderstorms rolling across the Upper Midwest destroyed a small-town city hall in South Dakota and flooded people out of their homes early Wednesday in North Dakota....
Wind gusted to 92 mph during the night in north-central South Dakota, destroying the one-story city hall in Onaka, flattening a farm cooperative building in Faulkton and damaging other buildings, said Faulk County Emergency Manager Wayne Vetter. No injuries were reported.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
The Louvre to Unveil 1500 Works on New Website
Now here's something to mark your cyber-calendar for.....I can hardly wait.
The Louvre, once the palace of France's kings and today the largest museum in the world, will unveil a revamped, state-of-the-art website next week, the museum announced.
The existing site, a model of innovation at its inception in 1995, will be replaced "to offer the public a new tool for the dispersion of culture and news," a press release said.
Initially in French and English, the new site (www.louvre.fr) will add other languages over time, beginning with Japanese.
Evolving technologies and expanding broadband access to the Internet have made it possible to enrich both the content and the presentation on the new site, which will feature an interactive 3-D map of the museum, detailed information of 1500 major works and a multimedia history of the museum itself.
Besides "permanent exhibits," the site will also contain special presentations on particular periods and exhibits "adapted to different publics," the statement said, including children, professionals, journalists, teachers and the disabled.
Additional features will come online before the end of the month: more profiles of selected works, personalized online services, a special site just for children, online ticketing, and even information on guided tours using mobile phones.
The price tag for the retooled website was seven million euros (8.56 million dollars), contributed by French bank Credit Lyonnais (4 million euros), technology firm Accenture (1.6 million euros), and Blue Martini Sofware (1.3 million euros).
The Louvre houses more than 34,000 art works over 60,000 square meters and attracts some six million visitors annually.
The Louvre, once the palace of France's kings and today the largest museum in the world, will unveil a revamped, state-of-the-art website next week, the museum announced.
The existing site, a model of innovation at its inception in 1995, will be replaced "to offer the public a new tool for the dispersion of culture and news," a press release said.
Initially in French and English, the new site (www.louvre.fr) will add other languages over time, beginning with Japanese.
Evolving technologies and expanding broadband access to the Internet have made it possible to enrich both the content and the presentation on the new site, which will feature an interactive 3-D map of the museum, detailed information of 1500 major works and a multimedia history of the museum itself.
Besides "permanent exhibits," the site will also contain special presentations on particular periods and exhibits "adapted to different publics," the statement said, including children, professionals, journalists, teachers and the disabled.
Additional features will come online before the end of the month: more profiles of selected works, personalized online services, a special site just for children, online ticketing, and even information on guided tours using mobile phones.
The price tag for the retooled website was seven million euros (8.56 million dollars), contributed by French bank Credit Lyonnais (4 million euros), technology firm Accenture (1.6 million euros), and Blue Martini Sofware (1.3 million euros).
The Louvre houses more than 34,000 art works over 60,000 square meters and attracts some six million visitors annually.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)