Fortuitous Bouncing
2008
October
18
It takes me a few weeks to figure out my favorite Amazing Race teams. This season I’m rooting for Mark/Bill and Nick/Starr. Mark and Bill are no longer, so Nick and Starr are my team. A strong brother sister combo. They remind me of me and my youngest sister out there. Best part of The Office was watching Dwight birth a watermelon with butter all over it. Wow! Rose loves Kath and Kim. Anyone else watch it? Very Office-esque….and it has Molly Shannon.
Blogs
- PLEASE TIP (thanks Amos, and happy birthday to you as well).
- I love what Richard Dahlstrom has to say about living without fear during these economic times.
- I also love what Eugene Cho has to say about faith, money, and treasure. Challenging but great.
- My boss Jay pulled the greatest prank EVER! Check it out HERE.
- Rhett Smith challenges us to set boundaries with social media. I’m still processing how to respond, but I know God is urging me to.
- Tony Campolo says the surge isn’t working as much as the media and McCain says it is.
- 10 tips on running a great band rehearsal.
- Obama seemed to over exaggerate McCain/Palin rallies during the debate.
News
- Some interesting truth about Joe the plumber. Doesn’t make him look so hot.
- Call and Response is a great new documentary film on human trafficking.
- Great Q/A with Rob Bell on his new book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians.
- You will not believe how much Simon Cowell makes a minute…unbelievable!
- The rumor mill is flying that Colin Powell is going to endorse Obama.
- Thanks for the video Brent…watching this was the best 30 seconds of my week.
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Tyler Braun.
Hey T,
Thanks for the link to TWC!
For the Kingdom,
Fred McKinnon
http://www.fredmckinnon.com
http://www.theworshipcommunity.com
loved the advice for a good reherasal- it was affirming to have we have grown as a team. I could think more about the “fun” and would love to see us improve on memorization…
well, i think the rob bell intv. was a good one. i like how he touched on the fact that ya know, christians don’t have it all together and that jesus went out to the people and had dinner w/ those most in need. this, “The most powerful thing we’ve seen is when people make a friend from outside their bubble—” was definitely the most important statement he made. I also agreed with his four or five points at the end that need to be constant reminders for christian people.
as far as social media and it’s influence- his first point about getting online to do one thing and then end up doing another isn’t always a bad thing and he needed to define what he meant. bc often, i know, like for me, usually what i end up doing leads me back to where i started and i accomplish alot. i think everything in moderation for sure, but moderation is different for every person. certainly i live online, but i don’t think it interferes with my values for spending time with people or investing in other things….in fact my time spent online is often the end result of what the rest of my day has been off line…i think his blog is terribly subjective and cannot always apply to everyone
Rob Bell really misses the mark in my opinion, and frankly.. and just my opinion here of course, does tremendous damage with his views. It’s guys like Bell who make understanding the world that much harder, and send the moral compass of otherwise well-meaning people spinning out of control. Let me provide an example. Rob says:
“The Church has missed the heart of God by speaking out against abortion while keeping silent about war. Both are forms of violence used to preserve prosperity. Abortion is prenatal war against the powerless child. War is postnatal abortion that destroys innocent life.”
By equating the killing of 30 million babies since Roe V. Wade with “war” is beyond the pale of ignorance. Notice he doesn’t speak about which war.. just “war”.. like the word lives in some kind of vacuum, and the context around the wars our country has fought is totally omitted. Is war a bad thing? It depends. If someone comes along and says, “I’m going to kill your neighbor”, is it more moral to abstain from violence because violence is bad, or is it more moral to rip the guys throat out, and save your innocent neighbor the agony of being killed, not to mention the grief of your neighbor’s kids? War is no different. I’ve often heard people say, “what good can ever come about with war?” Well, put into context, in a fallen world, war can be the most moral of all possible outcomes. Without “war”, Hitler may have killed another 6 million jews. Without war, Kuwait may have forever lived under the yoke of Saddam.
Fighting evil, free’ing those in bondage, making a more just world, is not bad, and I have no doubt Jesus would agree. Bell is unable to see the difference, and by pointing to Jesus, and where Jesus would stand with the authority of his position, and published work, serves to give evil more traction in a world where evil seems to be on the rise.
Just my 2 cents.
And this is why I say that Rob Bell is a bit of a polarizing guy…Ash and Kirk you have shown that quite well. Kirk you should go to “stuff to read” and go to the Rob bell link. Good discussion between Ash and myself about him.
I’ll take a look.
I really enjoy your blog Tyler! and this morning Colin Powell did endorse Obama. He had some interesting stuff to say about the war, Obama, and the republican party on Meet the Press!
Isnt the peace dove falling one of the signs of the Apocalypse? That and a young black guy becoming Prez? LOL just kidding of course!
Hey I have a copy of Rob’s book if ya wanna read it…
Kirk, I’m not going to jump into anything too intense here, but I do want to note, that the state of war we find ourselves in today is far from St. Augustine’s Just War Theory. Having studied it in length, I do find it appalling that American Christians are ready to hop on the bandwagon of modern day war and leave compassion behind. I am certainly not a pacifist and I don’t think that Bell is either- but something has to be said for the robbing of innocence by covering it with a mask called “war.” The part of that quote that I see differently is this- American Christians have come to believe in conquering. –We must conquer abortion by outlawing it and punishing those who participate– we must conquer nations that don’t adhere to our democratic ideals, which is a government chosen by God!–Neither one of these things shows the heart of the Father. Neither of these attitudes reaches the poor, the innocent, the hurting, the refugees, the lost, the confused mothers and daughters, the hopeless fathers and brothers. We cannot reach the lost through conquering, we must reach them through love, aid, help, guidance and forgiveness. War should be a last resort. Abortion abolition should not be our #1 political outcry. Just some thoughts…
“I do find it appalling that American Christians are ready to hop on the bandwagon of modern day war and leave compassion behind”
– I assume you’re referring to our engagement in Iraq. Compassion for whom? What about the compassion for the Iraqi people? Compassion is not a reason to go to war, per se’, but I don’t really follow your point of bringing it up.
“but something has to be said for the robbing of innocence by covering it with a mask called “war.””
– Sorry, but I don’t follow your point.
“The part of that quote that I see differently is this- American Christians have come to believe in conquering. –We must conquer abortion by outlawing it and punishing those who participate– we must conquer nations that don’t adhere to our democratic ideals”
– I don’t think most Americans view our involvement in Iraq, or any other foreign enagement in recent memory as “conquering” another nation, unless you’re a reader of some of the Left Wing blogs that view America in a very unfavorable light.
No one has forced Iraq to adhere to any particular brand of government, other than allowing for free elections. No one has demanded land, treasure, compensation, oil, or anything else to be given back. In fact, for a country as dominant as is the America of the 21st century, to be so.. passive .. is really the only word that comes to mind, to our foes is extraordinary. The compassion we show to our vanquished opponents can rightly be considered acting Godly. Nowhere in history do you find a nation or people who, after winning it’s wars and battles, spend it’s treasure to re-build and craddle that country like America does. For this we can be proud. To cast America as a “conquering nation” brings to mind past empires, and frankly, is not fair or accurate.
not fair or accurate? we’re the biggest super power in the world and we’re not any comparison to previous empires?! we think “greek” and we model “roman”….christians act like we’re supposed to “take back the country for God”- which is the attitude that the uk, and other euro countries carried for centuries…the countries who “knew God’s will” for the world. and our government has decided that our version of democracy (which you’d fail the citizen test if you put that answer) is the key to making iraq a good country, or how about policing bosnia? or running through afghanistan w/ guns and bombs and forgetting all about the innocent people (we have NOT spent time helping in very rebuilding there AT ALL)? you don’t follow my point whatsoever, b/c you’re one of those people. you’re someone who calls abortion a great evil but supports our country’s terrible foreign policy. you cannot change abortion in this country w/o reaching the heart of the women who go through it. i believe that. i believe it should be a states issue and the church needs to reach women (you can see my thoughts on this in tyler’s blog on abortion) and in war- it must support a just theory. it MUST also focus on defense, a national defense plan, rather than just covering w/ security tactics. sorry kirk, we cannot agree.
ps- conquering is not just taking over and stealing loot, conquering can also be an enforcement of ideals for personal gain
Indeed, we cannot.
The Greeks, Rome, and other “Empires” of the past subjegated their foes, spread their borders, wiped entire counties off of maps, raped, pillaged.. if you think that’s what we are, then we are very, very far apart in where we see the world. Take a look at where Iraq stands today. It’s markets are flourishing once again. It’s people can walk the streets. Its children can play in parks. The people are once again hopeful. I shudder to think about what Iraq would look like today if Bush had lost in ‘04. Regardless of the justification for this war, and whether is was a ‘just’ cause or not, the one thing you can’t take away from America is the sacrifices in blood and treasure it has made for those people. To turn around and accuse us of being “conquerers” is very sad, and par for the course of the Left wing discourse we see these days that has so damaged not only our reputation around the world, but the way we view ourselves. Very sad.
And one more thing…
I will never apologize for wanting to “conquer” the scourge of baby killing, otherwise known as Abortion.
Question for you.. when it came to slavery, would you have been just as “Appalled” towards people who wanting to “conquer” that scourge as well? Some things are worth figting against, even if that turns you into a sheep dog. You see, the sheep dog can kill just as effectively as the wolf. There is, however, a key difference between the sheep dog and the wolf, and I hope and pray enough people in this country will always be able to tell the difference just what that is.
.. and for those who have time, this link is to a very, very interesting read about just this concept:
http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html
So, ya, the dove video cracked me up