I am a meteorologist and a former youth leader at church…I have a lot to say on both subjects…and then some
Those who know me know that I like science fiction. That’s why I am reminded of this episode of Babylon 5. It’s called “Deathwalker.” The main idea is that a wanted war criminal walks onto the station and has the secret to immortality. Besides being wanted for war crimes by several species, it is found out that to make one vial of serum, and you have to kill another being. Some want to get their hands on it, but as the character and her vial of serum is transported, a very ancient race steps in and destroys it all saying, that we aren’t ready for immortality. I look at the embryonic stem cells research in the same vein, what right do we have to pull apart any sentient being for us to gain immortality.
I don’t do a word for word literal interpretation of the Bible.
I do believe in Jesus dying for my sins and rising on the third day to give me a new life.
I do believe, that life begins at conception, not because its in the bible (because it’s not), but because as a scientist that is the conclusion I have come to.
I believe that a Christian should be generous and that our hope is not found in the government.
I’m not sure that I agree with the redistribution of wealth that Obama proposes. I think that like the Hebrews began to enslave Hebrew during Jeremiah’s time that American corporations are enslaving Americans through debt.
I don’t agree with McCain in the campaign finance, doesn’t that limit the freedom of speech?
I’m beginning to see that I am more libertarian and I am conservative or liberal. Although, I’m not 100% sold on the libertarian ideas either.
I get tired of the name calling, the half truths and things taken out of context. Like Obama being a Muslim and Palin being as right wing as they say.
I get tired of the conspiracy theories, on the left and the right. But I can see how some things appear to be like they do.
I guess this last month of the election has tired me out that I don’t want to approve either side. I want my voice heard.
I’m tired of the making fun of the other side. It is leading to anger in this country. An anger that we cannot afford to have.
I love all. I try to help all. I try…
Now that the Republican party has hijacked what being a Christian is, and with stories like this, I predict that despite the Christians in the Democratic party, that there will be larger backlashes that what we have seen for people of faith.
I admit it. I’m a news junkie. I sometimes drive Mary crazy with the news things that I listen to. I have never lost the thought on how, I would sit with Dad and watch the news. In a way, it is part of who I am because some of my early conversations with my dad was sitting down to watch the news. However, as my life as changed over the years, my news consumption hasn’t, but it has changed forms.
My main news was through the TV when I was younger, but as podcasting and blogs caught on (i.e. RSS). I began to gravitate to news sources that had good feeds of information. Well, I realize now that with the advent of Twitter, another piece of the puzzle has filled in. So here is my daily news consumption:
I get up and load my iPod Nano with the podcasts that have come in overnight. Two of the podcasts are the ABC News webcast and the NBC Nightly news. I listen to these on my way into work as well as the first part of my day in the office. Then there are various niche news and media critic podcasts that I listent to as well. Next, I go back over my Twitter timeline to scan for the news and people that I follow back to about when I last saw them day before (I have a few news sources, MLive.com, CNN breaking, NPR top stories, NBC news, and Breaking News On).Then comes the RSS feeds, with local news papers and various blogs and an alt news website (Pajamas Media).
I filter through all of these sites and more through the day. Being an analyst, it is then fun to poke through and distill this information into usable things. Most of which goes into my youth ministry.
I don’t read everything, but I read what I think I can. Otherwise, I would get overloaded. Eventually some these stories bubbles up into a though that ends up on my blog. You are reading some of the end results of this process.
I saw this on my C. S. Lewis Quote Google gadget the other day:
“In the midst of a world of light and love, of song and feast and dance, [Lucifer] could find nothing to think of more interesting than his own prestige.”
–A Preface to Paradise Lost
I think about that with our youth group kids as they struggle with things. A lot of them just want to be popular, when there is so much more to experience. In my experience, you will become popular if you learn, listen, and experience the things that God has for you. Experience life, don’t be interested in your own prestige!
I forgot to validate the loudtwitter feed to put my tweets into the posts. So the testing continues. I now have to wait until late tonight before the tweets show up.
I have seen some the people with Word Press can bundle their Twitter Tweats together and send them out as a post. Well, I found a site that will do that for Blogger as well. Why don’t I change? I’m lazy. I don’t like change. Okay, I’m not that bad, but it is a pain. I like blogger’s functionality and I’m comfortable with how to use it. I might change in the future, to Word Press especially with my wife starting a Virtual Assistant business, where she is pretty much installing blogs and getting domain names for people.
I feel like a nearly drove Mary over the edge this year. A lot had to do with the fact that by the end of November, I was feeling a deep sense of conviction with the whole Christmas thing. It started around Thanksgiving when we were buying the food for the feast. We were in the Wal-Mart parking lot and somebody was beeping their horn for some unknown reason and I began making up some song about consumerism to the tune of “Silver Bells.” Mary started to call me Scrooge. I then started having flashbacks to a time in my childhood, when Dad would make remarks and Mom would get on his case by calling him Scrooge.
I tried to explain that Scrooge in “A Christmas Carole” didn’t believe in Christmas. I believe in Christmas and Christ for that matter, but I feel that we are getting so far away from the meaning of what this time of the year is supposed to mean. As Rick McKinley, pastor at Imago Dei church in Portland, OR, said in one of his sermons, imagine you are at your birthday party and everyone is giving gifts to everyone else. As I listened to various sermons, from our local church to Mars Hill and Imago, the more I felt convicted.
It’s not that giving is wrong, but with all of the money that we have here in the US, I think we still do a poor job at helping others in need, whether they be here or overseas. The commercialism and the consumer mentality of the season has been making me realize that our focus is on ourselves and not on who Christ said that we are to help: the poor, oppressed, widowed and orphaned. It is there in the Bible from the Old Testament to the New.
My biggest problem was that I felt that it would be nearly impossible to bring the family on board and I grew increasingly frustrated. Well, I came to terms with the conviction after talking with Mary several times. We are going to try and do something different for next year.
To see some ideas for next year check out the Advent Conspiracy page.
The last couple of days, I have either read or heard some interesting things about Christian teens and their sexuality. The first was this article about sex and evangelical teen. It makes this quote:
And the Bible does offer a direct solution for people who are burning in lust: marriage (1 Corinthians 7:9). Adolescence—that time when a person is physically an adult but socially a child—is a modern invention. In the past, people married much younger, as soon as they were sexually ready. Today’s culture postpones marriage while stretching celibacy to the breaking point.
I have read this in the past and makes sense if you follow the history relationships and marriage. Recently, I listened to the YS podcast for August with Ginny Olsen. She recently wrote a book called Teenage Girls, and in the podcast shared her research for the book that shows girls are getting more aggressive and despite their constant social networking are getting emotionally lonely. I have noticed, anecdotally, this same thing as I have had conversations with some of the girls in the youth group.
So the magazine article makes an interesting proposal, that is so counter-cultural, that I think that the church would never go with it.
A counter-cultural church may do well to encourage younger marriages. The young couple may still need the financial support of their parents and the social support of their fellow Christians. But this would be better than the current hypocrisy and guilt. And it would fulfill God’s positive purpose for sexuality.
An interesting thought. If you look at the communal living of the past, young marriage is what was done, however, the marriages were also arranged. Considering that we are so me-based instead of relationally based with others, this would be a tall order. You would have to be so involved with your kids lives without controlling them, that they would trust you to help pick out the right spouse and the help you take care of household chores and such so that you could help them financially and get them through high school. Again, this seems tall order considering the selfishness of the society and what has infiltrated the church.
MTV currently has a show on called Engaged & Underage where they follow a couple who is still in high school as they plan their wedding. So it’s not like some of this doesn’t happen, but it is unlikely that there is any spiritual support through any of this and that usually what is needed for any marriage to work.
I was reading Instapundit and ran across this post which sums up why I voted for Bush and why I grew to dislike Clinton (most people don’t know this, but I voted for Clinton both times!).
