blogs4God

In 2004, I wrote this piece about discovering the power of beauty in one of the most wonderful of Christmas songs. “Lo! How a Rose…: Experiencing the Power of Beauty.”

I was a kid from a home without music or books, and it was public schools that gave me these experiences in the late 1960’s. That’s why we don’t trash public schools here at IM. They made me what I am, and I get my check from a private Christian school.

This is an advent post, and a post about the presence of grace and beauty in the world. We do a good thing when we teach someone to appreciate it.

Who and what gave you a window into the the world of beauty?

READ: Lo! How a Rose: Experiencing the Power of Beauty

Just a sneak preview of part of a cartoon from a project I finished a week or two ago. I’ve done a set of youthwork-themed cartoons to go on a set of seven postcards which are part of a campaign to encourage churches to think about the way they employ youthworkers.

The ‘We love our youthworker’ campaign isn’t launched until next year, but I think the postcards were available at the recent Youthwork conference in Blackpool and Eastbourne, so some youthworkers will have seen them. This info has been posted on the Schoolswork site, which is why I’m posting about it.

Early in 2009, Youthwork the Partnership and Amaze will be launching a brand new project called ‘we love our youthworker’. simply brilliant! It’s a campaign to encourage churches to think about the way they employ a full-time worker. It’s based on a set of seven promises that churches commit to follow:

1. we will pray and support
2. we will give space for retreat and reflection
3. we will provide ongoing training and development
4. we will give a full day of rest each week
5. we will share responsibility
6. we will strive to be an excellent employer
7. we will celebrate and appreciate

Each of the promises has a little card with a purpose drawn cartoon from Dave Walker of Cartoon Church. Very funny. The reason for the project comes from the belief that keeping full time workers positive, productive and living balanced lives makes for great youthwork. And that’s an important step towards building God’s kingdom among young people. more details will follow shortly…for now, do get in touch if you’d like more info or a set of the postcards.

No doubt the full set of cartoons will appear online somewhere at some point.

Youthwork cartoons

David Nilsen of the A-Team blog, a blog that is always interesting and well worth adding to your regular reads, has introduced us to the “Green Bible.” If your Jesus Junk alarm just went off, it is for good reason. The Word is complex, it is rich, and it is deep. As David reminds us in his post, oversimplifying the scriptures to give us one perspective can be dangerous:

Scripture purposefully makes use of many different genres (and different themes!) to convey the Gospel message in the most comprehensive way possible. A Bible that goes out of its way to draw attention to only a single theme can have the unfortunate side effect of obscuring the Gospel message itself.

Gimmicky is a great adjective to describe most themed Bibles. However, the problem of the Green Bible is not that it is gimmicky, rather the problem is that it could lead to heresy. The Green Bible perverts Scriptures to promote the Gospel of Green:

“[From the Green Bible Quiz] 4) Where did Jesus go to commune with nature?”

(It’s been said before, but it bears repeating here: Jesus was not a hippy). The answer to this question is apparently found in Matthew 4:23 [sic], “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.” Seriously, are the people responsible for the green “bible” actually reading it? Jesus didn’t go up the mountain to commune with nature! He went up to pray (literally, to commune with God!). Stretching the meaning of a verse to make a point is one thing. Butchering a verse and literally replacing God with nature…that’s a whole new ballgame.

David’s critique of the Green Bible is precise and insightful. I recommend you read the rest of his post here.

Comments (2)

Comments on this Entry:

(Boonton on
Dec 8, 2008 6:56 PM)

Wake me up when something interesting happens.

(Godbot on
Dec 9, 2008 2:39 AM)

Yawn. Still. And again.

My fellow Methodist good ole boy, Jeff Foxworthy, has made a living off of redneck jokes, and there seems to be an infinity of material to draw from. I once had to share the platform with Jeff in Georgia, who is the proverbial impossible act to follow (he did a routine entitled “You might be a United Methodist redneck if…” My favorite was “You might be a United Methodist redneck if, those cross and flame boxer shorts are high on your Christmas list”). As a tribute to Jeff, I offer you the following 2008 Redneck Awards. BW3

————

REDNECK YACHT

REDNECK WEDDING RECEPTION

REDNECK WEDDING CAKE

REDNECK MOWER

RED NECK WEATHER FORECASTER

REDNECK PET CARRIER

REDNECK QUOTE

REDNECK GRILL

REDNECK DOORBELL

REDNECK POWERBALL WINNER

REDNECK PALM PILOT

I’ve been busy moderating comments - in fact today was the first time I’ve moderated the comments on the site since I moved it onto its own domain at dullestblog.com, so there were about 1800 to do. [Uninteresting aside: 1800 is too many comments for Wordpress to display all at once, so I had to use cunning means involving searches for spam words to weed out a lot of the spams several hundred at a time. All terribly tricky, I can tell you.]

Anyway, the dullest blog should now accept comments. It is odd that it is getting all of this attention nearly six years on. I am, by the way, thinking about putting a webpage together that will link to all of the various websites that I run in some way or other, as there does seem to be quite a lot of them now and there isn’t a page that links to all of them. I’ve even got a few yet-to-be launched websites milling around in the background in various states of non-completion. I did have a ‘portfolio’ website but it is out of date and doesn’t work, two reasons not to look at it.

Dullest blog on MSN

It seems to me to be quite unmanly if I whine and complain about how we men are treated, so I’ll just point to a couple of wise women who are noticing that men are getting a bum deal.

The first is Dr. Helen Smith, whose husband is Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit.  He may be more well known but she is well worth reading - I’ve got her in my rss reader and enjoy her posts regularly.  She could be called a “men’s advocate” she often writes on the ways the media and society gives short shrift.  She has some intersting comments on this video:

I find the video hilarious and true to life in the way that all caricatures are true to life in an exaggerated fashion.  She comments “I agree with one of the Youtube commenters who states: “If this is meant to scare young men like me out of ever getting married, it’s working!”"  She also notes: “Another reader sends the same link to the video and adds: “I’m thinking
if the genders were reversed in this ad, they’d be burning J.C.
Penney’s to the ground in every mall in America.” No, there never would
have been an ad like this one up to begin with.”

And here’s Kim Moreland from The Point:

Here, University of Dallas student Ashley Crouch speaks out about the results of her chivalry poll. One paragraph stands out:

How
do guys define chivalry? Three out of four responded that it had to do
with respect, honor, and courtesy towards women. One man spoke openly:
“Chivalry is the notion that a man has the duty to respect and serve
women.”

But sadly, “too often . . . these same men lamented that their efforts to be chivalrous were met with scorn.”

Us poor guys, we just can’t catch a break now can we?  It’s best for us guys just to keep a sense of humor about stuff like this.  As far as I am concerned, just because our wives and girlfriends want to put us in the doghouse doesn’t mean we have to go there.  Yep, we’re all a bunch of clods and idiots and often do stupid stuff like the guys in the video.  But it seems to me that an honest recognition that we blew it and a sincere apology ought to be be sufficient.  If the wife or girlfriend wants to send you to the doghouse after that, then she’s the one with the problem.  Similarly, if a woman doesn’t like your chivalry, let her go and let her be, there’s plenty out there who recognize it for what it is - courtesy and respect - nothing more nothing less.

Us Guys Just Can’t Win

Frankie Hipwell-Larkin, has even been on the Today programme to talk about it. Well done him. Any chance of a whole Bible version? The 3 runners up (all 30s audio clips) are also on the CAN site for your enjoyment. I have to say their campaign this year is top notch.

30 second nativity

Louisiana is an ethnic wonder, but it’s normally known for the mingling of black, Cajun and conventional American culture. However, they now have the first Indian-American governor in Bobby Jindal and the first Vietnamese-American congressman in Joe Cao. Cao came here as an eight-year-old after the Vietnam war.

Cao beat the ethically-challenged black Democrat William Jefferson today, who gave “cold, hard cash” new meaning when he stashed some alleged bribe money in his freezer.

Here’s an interesting passage from the AP piece-

The first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress doesn’t have a long
list of policy beliefs. Aside from one major issue, Republican moderate
Joe Cao says he’s open on everything else.

“The only thing I am certain of is that I am anti-abortion,” Cao said Sunday morning after defeating Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson in a race that marked a major shift in New Orleans politics by ending a 30-year stand for Jefferson, dogged by corruption allegations.

Very interesting. He’s a “Republican moderate” yet he’s anti-abortion. Isn’t that supposed to make him an arch conservative in modern media-speak?

Coa-abunga

Frog lovers the world over will be jumping for joy when they see this depiction of the birth of the King of Kings.

Kitschmas: Frog Nativity