keenspot

I'm aware. . .

2011-11-02T09:25:00.001-05:00

That my account was hacked. I've updated the password, and there is no need to e-mail, text, or Facebook me about it. My apologies for any spam e-mail you might have gotten.

try it out for yourself...

2011-11-02T08:59:00.001-05:00

Hey there.
for anyone who tries this income can be made
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talk to you later

Afghan Convert May Be Unfit for Trial - Yahoo! News

2006-03-22T07:54:00.000-06:00

Afghan Convert May Be Unfit for Trial - Yahoo! News

Amid the furor over the cartoons of Mohammed, is this little story that is an offense to anyone who is concerned for humann life, human rights, and plain human dignity. Because Abdul Rahman converted to Christianity, he is about to be condemned to die in his native Afghanistan. Afghanis, meanwhile, are apparently looking for a way out bu determining whether he's insane--which sounds remarkably similar to the way the old Soviet Union treated dissedents.

God have mercy.

TOP TEN SURPRISES IN THE NEW STAR WARS MOVIE

2005-05-20T08:14:00.000-05:00

TOP TEN SURPRISES IN THE NEW STAR WARS MOVIE
By Dave Tippett

10. Anikin Skywalker goes to the dark side after finding a finger tip in his chili

9. Jedi qualifications dumbed down to just being able to flatten pop can against forehead

8. Lord of the Rings guys make appearance, get all in Empire's face, sayin' smack like, "Are we doin' this? We doin' this, playa?"

7. Darth Sideous defeated in the end by fancy Doppler radar

6. Yoda tries a stint on talk radio, ruins entire industry

5. Obiwan Kenobi employs union busting goons to take on the Empire

4. The Force is sold on E-bay for, like, a buck ninety

3. Jar Jar Binks gets pulled over and tasered by overenthusiastic Jedi rookie

2. Count Dooku goes further into dark side, accepts the name "Chocula"

1. Newsweek reports that Death Star won't be much of a problem

Copyright 2005 Dave Tippett. Permission is granted to send this to
others, with attribution, but not for commercial purposes.

Why Teens are Lousy at Chores - Yahoo! News

2005-05-19T11:19:00.000-05:00

Why Teens are Lousy at Chores - Yahoo! News

And here's an article that perpetuates the reasoning that we can't hold kids accountable for our instructions. Their brains simply can't process "do this and then do that." Hogwash! When my parendts told me to do two things in sequence, I was able to carry it out. There were times when I wasn't willing.

Now, certainly I as a parent can give careful instructions to my kids. I can do a better job of helping them to learn prioritizing skills. But simly because the frontal cortex hasn't had allof its neurons connect yet doesn't absolve learning how. In fact, that's how neurons connect!

Firefighter Emerges From a Lost Decade - Yahoo! News

2005-05-03T12:54:00.000-05:00

Firefighter Emerges From a Lost Decade - Yahoo! News

This story really caught my interest, especially after the firestorm of the Terri Schaivo case. I'm not a medical expert, and I can't say whether the brain injuries were the same. It's just a point of interest that this man woke up after 10 years. Could there have been hope for Terri?

Like I said, I have no way of knowing. It's just fascinating. . .

What's the Cost of a Gallon of Gas?

2005-03-22T11:38:00.000-06:00

Books and Culture's Book of the Week: This Land Is Whose Land? - Books & Culture

Tracy Chapman called it "The Rape of the World." We plunder and pillage for the sake of the dollar. Nothing must stop our worship of the idol of ongoing economic expansion and "creation of wealth."

The cost of a Gallon of Gas is too much when we stamp out a people group for the sake of economics. Dear God! What is becoming of us? What is becoming of me? I'm just as greedy and driven by economics as the rest. Forgive me, Jesus.

Right to Die? Right to Kill? What's Right?

2005-03-20T19:44:00.000-06:00

Yahoo! News - Schiavo Kin Wants Feeding Tube Reinserted

"Terri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped briefly because of a chemical imbalance. She can breathe on her own, but she relies on the feeding tube to keep her alive."

He husband wants--and got--the feeding tube removed. Her family (and the Republican-controlled Congress) want it put back. Both sides claim the moral high ground. "She wouldn't have wanted to live this way," says her husband. "We want her to live" say her parents.

Is this euthanasia? Is it just withholding "treatment?" Is it killing? When you stop to consider that the removal of the feeding tube has caused this woman to be without food and water for the last three days, it seems to me that we're talking about killing a human being through starvation. We wouldn't withhold food and water from a dying dog, so why is it OK whe it comes to a human being. The chilling part of this whole thing is that there may be those who argue that Terri Schiavo may not be human. The say that a "persistent vegetative state" constitutes the righton the part of family and others to decide to hold food back.

Are "Bells and Smells" a sign of a declining church?

2005-03-10T09:05:00.000-06:00

A colleague at work recently sent me this statement about churches from a fancypants church consultant. This is a person who’s mission it is to help churches to become more vital. The statement goes:

Here is an odd speculation as I observe the religious scene today ... the less church leaders talk about Christ, the more they robe themselves in cassock albs and high liturgy ... the more churches baptize infants, the less they expect the Holy Spirit to transform adults ...

Tom Bandy

My reaction to this follows:

First off, it’s a shocking statement. I’m sure that was his intent.

The key to this for me is the part about “the less church leaders talk about Christ.” Without Jesus, the church is simply pretending. Without Jesus, the high liturgy means nothing. Without Jesus, infant baptism means nothing. By the same token: Without Jesus, pastors dressed in Polo shirts and khaki pants spouting off about the latest thing means nothing. Without Jesus, a praise band means nothing. Without Jesus, adult baptism means nothing. Without Jesus, life means nothing. Unless we (all those who claim to be Christians) live before the face of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit each day, our churches (any one of them) will simply be whitewashed tombs filled with dead men’s bones.

I Corinthians 13 tells us this very clearly.

"BTK" Captured: Wichita Eagle | 02/27/2005 |

2005-02-27T06:45:00.000-06:00

Wichita Eagle 02/27/2005 Park City man held in 17-year killing spree

I grew up in Wichita. I lived there from 1974 through 1992, which overlapped exactly with the reign of terror that was BTK. Sometimes, my sister and I would play a childish (and cruel) game with each other whenever we heard one of those strange, misty noises in the night. We'd take turns telling each other that it was BTK just outside our home. Some days, in the early 80's, we didn't have to suggest it very loudly before each of us believed it--right to our souls.

Police now have captured Dennis Rader, whom they say is responsible for the BTK murders, and I have to tell you, that he looks nothing like how I pictured him. He looks like. . .everyman, and that's just the problem. In his book Blue Like Jazz: Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality, Don Miller relates a tale of a friend reflecting on the genocide taking place in an African country, and his friend asking whether he (Don Miller) was capable of such a thing. The quick answer was "No!" but as his friend pressed him on the implications of his answer, Miller reflects:

"Tony had me on this one. If I answered his question by saying yes, I could commit those atrocities, that would make me evil, but if I answered no, it would suggest I believed I am better evolved than some of the men in the Congo. And then I would have some explaining to do."

That's the crux of the problem of sin (not just the problem of evil--that's too easy for us to get out from under: "Oh, I'm not evil."). Each and every one of us has it within us to be a thief, a liar, a murderer. That's the point of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:21-23

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement. Again, anyone who says to his brother 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

It's all within us. Any of us could be BTK. Don't believe me? ask those he worked with. Ask those at his church. Ask his pastor.

ABC News: 'The Simpsons' Dives Into Gay Controversy

2005-02-19T19:35:00.000-06:00

ABC News: 'The Simpsons' Dives Into Gay Controversy

So, what to make of this? The video feed from ABC states that there is a significant debate among conservative Christians about this episode, let alone The Simpsons itself. What's a proper Christian response to this episode?

I'll preface my comments by divulging that I'm a long-time Simpsons fan. I spent many a Sunday night in college with other students watching the first episodes. What do I like about it? It's funny! The depth of the satire on the show is profound, and there have been several astute critiques of all aspects of society: Management, labor, liberal, conservative, Christian, Jew, Muslim, and on and on. . . No one escapes the sharp wit of Matt Groening.

What do I make of Springfield's legalization of gay marriage? Let's list some principles

1. It's a television show, and a cartoon to boot. It's a cartoon for adults, not kids. I don't let my kids watch this show. Ever. The themes are just too much for them. As with all television, it reflects and shapes our culture.

2. With a strong record for satire, I think that it would be interesting to watch this episode to see how the producers want to show what they think is ridiculous about this issue.

3. After the episode airs, I'd like to have a chance to reflect on it

4. I don't pledge blind support or abject condemnation of this or any other television show. All of it must be taken in critically.

Because this issue is one that I have a strong belief about, that's going to bias my opinion of the show. I believe that marriage is for a man and a woman. It's a civil institution with religious significance, and it's not to be changed, since it's one of the basic building blocks of society. I'm concerned about the headlong rush to try to legalize it. I'm concered, too about the response to this demand for change. Both sides have taken polarized positions. I hope that this episode points that out.

Enhancements to this blog

2005-02-17T06:53:00.000-06:00

After much travail (at least 30 minutes’ worth) this site has the easy to use buttons at the top of the page which will enable you to connect to a RSS (Really Simple Syndication) data stream of the content of my blog. Feel free to link to my blog from your preferred home page!

Forms vs. Foundation

2005-02-12T17:21:00.000-06:00

So much of the tension and argument that I've seen in churches in my denomination (The Presbyterian Church in America)--and so many other denoinations--centers on the forms of "doing church."

Should this hymn's lyrics have been updated to fit modern culture?
Should we use a praise band or an organ and piano?
Should the songs we sing be the "old time" hymns, or should they be praise choruses?
Ought we to have a contemporary worship style?
Traditional?
Blended? (If we have three services, should we do one of each?)

I find lines of argument in these debates to mainly center on "What am I comfortable with?" (Answer: most often, the status quo, unexamined.) or "What do others, or seekers, or non-Christians want? (Answer: whatever works to pump up our numbers, we must do it, unexamined.)

There is a "third rail" that these two approaches avoid. It's the type of questions being asked in the emerging church movement: "What are the gospel-centered reasons for doing this or that?" "What is it about the gospel or about the history of the church or our love for our culture that causes us to express ourselves this way or that in worship?"

These, and questions like them, draw us to the foundation of who we are to be as the church. They cause us to struggle with our humanness both in its glory and in its broken state. They cause us to look to Jesus. They cause us to realize that the answers don't lie in a simple "traditional verus contemporary" way of doing church. They lie in an examined existence as a congregation, as a denomination, as a church, and as members of Jesus' Kingdom.

I don't pretend to know the answers to the "forms" questions, much less the "foundation" questions. But I do know this: The value of the emerging church and its new reformation (much as it was with the first reformation) is in the questions it raises, and in the struggle for answers it undertakes.

Thanksgiving at Fair Acres - Christianity Today Magazine

2004-11-22T07:26:00.000-06:00

This article simply made me want to cry from guilt and despair. Virginia Owens has really captured the spirit of the nursing home, and has spotlighted an all too common reaction from residents and visitors--a thinn veneer of Christian "goodness" underlying a deep apathy.

I'm not divorced from this either. I remember going with dread to visit my grandfather in the nursing home. His twisted and grotesque body strapped to his wheelchair, my grandmother smuggling in the contraband Three Musketeers bar, and me, trying to keep up my four year old enthusaism, and masking the feeling of horror and dread. It is, sadly, my only memory of my grandfather.

Oh, what will it take to break through, for us individually and as a society to lend simple human dignity to the aged? We have come far in our care for those dealing with the incessant ticking of life's clock.

But where are we going?

Thanksgiving at Fair Acres - Christianity Today Magazine

Joyous Cursing - Christianity Today Magazine

2004-10-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

Joyous Cursing - Christianity Today Magazine

An interesting article on the effect what we say (particularly cursing, in this case) has on us as individuals and as a society.

Making History

2004-10-18T20:32:00.000-05:00

OK, so there's not much history being made here. Not much that anyone will read in a history text, not much that will be picked up by the national news, not much at all. But there is history being made. Every moment, every day, I and billions of others make history. What each person does matters; it has an impact; it makes a difference.

A new blog? Will it make a difference? Will the fact that my thoughts and opinions are out there for anyone with a computer and a 28.8 modem to read and criticize make a big difference? I think that it has a huge impact.

Everything works together, and everyone is a thread--or maybe even a lone fiber in a thread--in a great, complex, and beautiful tapestry. What I do matters. I make history--not because I have such an earth-shattering impact, but simply because God is at work, weaving the tapestry together.