When Open Pit Mining Becomes Redemptive

What do you do when you lose your house to a mining company? Save the church. Check this out:

200 Lashes for Saudi Arabian Rulers!

This is sick.

A young woman who was raped has been sentenced to 200 lashes, and 6 months in jail - for unlawfully mingling! Somebody tell me this isn't the way most Muslim men think! It certainly has be a anomaly of absolute power gone awry. There must be lots of angry people out there! Check out the BBC story here, and the New York Times article alledging that even the Saudi's are shocked - I sure hope so, adn I hope it changes the laws soon.

The girl's lawyer is one heroic fellow.

Political Ad You Just Gotta Love

Okay, I may lean right, but even if I leaned left, this ad rocks. Finally someone with a sense of humor. It may be cornball, but it's time that someone did an ad with fun as one goal. So here's to Mike Huckabee - thanks for the laugh. Chuck Norris fans will be voting for you.

Beowulf - potential Razzie?

If you watch closely on the trailer below you will find what I think ought to be considered as for a Razzie award. I should have seen it coming. Most ridiculous moment in cinematic history - Grendel's Mother in Stilettos. Okay, so that answers the question of how I felt about the movie. A year ago when I first heard that Angelina Jolie was Grendel's Mother, it made me rethink wanting to see the film. You know what they say about first impressions.

The movie is CGI throughout, and if you are someone who loves the story of Beowulf you will be wishing you had a controller to kick and stab, or restart the game at certain places in the movie. It started off somewhat faithful to the story, although far more sexually edgy and contemporarily Heathen. Angelina Jolie goes full frontal with CGI which makes her a moving mannikin. R rating CGI'd down to PG-13 definitely.

I've got two thumbs - both go down.


The interpretations of Beowulf which allow for such a silly rendering as Zemekis presents come from this kind of thinking. Perhaps we have Freud to blame for this movie.

Beowulf - a gotta see film for me

So, I really think that Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother is weird, but I still need to see Beowulf. I don't often need to see a film, but this is way too epic a story to miss. What about you?

When the Edginess Leads to Excitement - Wanna Take Over the World?

So my last post documented feeling displaced by typical Christian church styles, even though they were good examples of doing church typically today - really it was a great example, but I felt out of place and strange in the experience. Now that I am home and back in the church office after Off the Map Live I actually have some sense of seeing, or at least looking ahead toward the future. After being beat up for a couple years, then going on a two month sabbatical (thanks to many of you), and then coming back in September to have to blitz toward our wild and crazy October outreaches here in Salem, then flying out on November 1st the morning after the busiest day of my year to go to Off the Map, I am now back in the saddle, and feel like I can project toward the future better than I have been able to do in a long, long time.

I wonder if all that Off the Map stuff was part of the envigorating energy? Combined with Taize, and Druid festivals in the UK, and visiting The Fringe, and spending time in Wales, and hanging out with Mike and Jules, and being free from the church stresses for a couple months, maybe the combination of things has brought some excitement back to my heart. Woo-hoo - who wants to take on the world with me today?

Going Through Withdrawls from Edginess

After being on sabbatical for two months (on the mission field in the UK, and visiting Taize), followed by returning to the church in time to do our outreach in the month of October, then hopping on a plance to go to the Off the Map conference and spend time with the likes of Brian McLaren, Spencer Burke, Karen Sloan and PresbYmergent gang, Richard Twiss, John Smulo, Jim Henderson, Meg and Benjamin Ady, Sherman and Sidell Bradley, and scores of other cool people I find myself coming off the busyness of the season feeling like "church as usual" is just too weird for me.

Does this mean I have adapted to things that are outside my own box of religious experience - the edgy as if it was a new center for myself?

Closet Ben Stein Fan

Okay, I'm, coming out to say it. I really like Ben Stein, and he has me quite interested in the upcoming release of his movie.

I Only Want to Say...

Today was a good day.

Agent B called me.
I talked to JJ the Smu, and Jim Henderson.
I prepared a little for the coming month.
Matt from the underworld wrote this killer post on Circle and Cross Talk about Hell. I may have to post it on one of my blogs.

I did not fix the plumbing problem in the upstairs shower, but who cares right now.

Great and Terrible Day

So today had a wonderful moment in the morning. I visited a church of another fellow ex-unnamed-denomination pastor. His story is probably more sick than my own - certainly as sick as, but his church is doing well. It is healthy, and growing, and full of happy people glad to be there, despite being abused by their former denomination - a group not unlike our own at The Gathering. I shared our work over the Halloween season with them, and then to my utter surprise they took a missions offering for our work.

Oh Lord send blessings to New Hope Church in Norwell, MA, and great blessings to Pastor Dave Wilson, and his wife Julie.

On the really terrible side of things: I have been planning for an event for the last three months, and I have been really excited about being a part of it. It turns out I had it in my schedule for next Sunday, and the event occurred today. I was to be a workshop presenter at the event, and I was a no-show. Now this really stinks, and I was completely embarrassed to discover the error at 7pm in the evening. The event ran from 10am to 6pm, and I discovered I missed the event at 7pm.

So, that makes for a great day - terrible day scenario. Why do I feel like this is a perfect illustration of my life over the last couple years?

Oh curses that James Taylor rings in my ears! "I've seen fire and I've seen rain...."

Our Friends from Taize

While at Taize we met with a small group for discussion time in the afternoon. We were to have considered some questions presented during the morning teaching, and bring those thoughts with us during the 3:30pm small group discussion. The above photo is our group. Roland is the interfaith minister, he and I were the only guys in our small group. People apparently are afraid of his hat, and those who are not call him Roland the Hat. I guess when he was young they called him Roland the Rat. I didn't understand that reference, and so I had to look it up.

Andrea and Sophie were particularly friendly, and we spent quite a bit of time with them. They are both school teachers. Andrea teaches in the black forest of Germany - cool huh? Sophie teaches in France. Andrea was interested in end times theology, and asked me a lot of questions about it. Sophie has a pastor who was once a famous yogi, now he teaches on the deception of the New Age Movement, and she is going to send us some info about him. So here's Sophie (on the right) and Andrea.

Taize and Finding God

Now I am not Roman Catholic, nor am I inclined to become Catholic. I do not identify with veneration of the saints, and even less so with that of Mary as it is practiced in Roman Catholicism. I do not agree with the Mass as a partaking of the literal body and blood of Christ, nor do I find any substance or benefit in the claim of apostolic succession held by Catholic and Orthodox communions, but I did find myself greatly encouraged with my visit to Taize, France and the Communuate.

Brother Roger, a Swiss Lutheran minister, who was killed in August 2005 during a prayer service in Burgundy had developed the Taize community under the goals of serving the poor and abused, and creating a "pilgrimage of trust on earth." This pilgrimage continues to this day under the leadership of Brother Alois, who is a Catholic priest. The community developed as an ecumenical outreach in a very Catholic part of the world, and to this day looks Catholic in its liturgy.

People travel from all over the world to be part of a week of prayer, chanting, and teachings by the brothers of the community. It is primarily geared toward youth, with as many as 10,000 people there during the high weeks of summer. We visited at the last days of August, and there were a mere 2,500 people. This is an amazing number of visitors considering the village of Taize had a population of 161 in the 1999 census.

We were there for three days. Morning, noon and night we participated in the prayer gatherings. Chants sung in up to five languages, prayers in up to seven languages, and a time of silence from 5 to 10 minutes marked the simple service. The basic church building had no chairs - except for a few for the older brothers of Taize who sat in a center aisle. The youth (from 17-25), and the hundred or so adults, sat on the floor, on the steps, or on some benches against the wall.

Once during the day, a teaching time was held with translations in 7 languages going on, and later in the afternoon a discussion was gathered in groups of people speaking the same language. We gathered with a small group which included two school teachers (one from France and one from Germany), a woman from England, and an Englishman who was studying to be an Interfaith Minister. The Interfaith Minister did not call himself a Christian, and shared his misgivings about the Christian faith, which included the absolutist nature of our belief system, and the exclusivity of the message that Jesus is the only way. The rest of the group found thier religious identity in Christ alone, and this created an interesting dialogue with our interfaith friend about subjects such as the nature of evil, and the work of Christ on the cross, although the real focus of our discussions were based upon living in forgiveness toward others.

Bev and I were highly impressed by the simple devotional elements of the Taize Community, the beauty of the chants, and the fact that people from many faith backgrounds (mostly Christian denominations, but even non-Christians as well) gathered together under the banner of seeking God on a pilgrimage of trust.

It is our desire to develop a community which makes itself accessible and desireable to those who are still on the search for truth, and for God. We have come quite a ways in developing that kind of fellowship in Salem, but we have had few models to follow. Taize is one place we can see a similar goal for reaching across denominations, and even touching those outside the Christian faith gently, and although what we are doing is more "charismatic," and "evangelical" by nature, Taize does give us some ideas, and some hope.

Stupid Thinkers and Silly Adventurers

Thinkers are stupid people. They sit around looking worthless, and coming up with ideas other people think are useless, or silly.

Adventurers are stupid people also. They go places other people know are dangerous, and do things other people know are silly.

Thinkers come up with philosophies no one uses, and adventurers visit places no one else will ever think of vacationing, let alone taking up residence.

Somehow both thinkers, and adventurers have become heros for millions of the world's people. Thinkers and adventurers have designed democratic governments, discovered cures for devastating diseases, written world changing tomes, enlarged nations, and discovered new lands.

Today I read about a writer who described his writing as a process of turning sentences day in and day out. In a basement in Colorado he sits in front of a computer screen and plays with words. He is a thinker, and he does silly word games all day long. People think highly of this man, but there are thousands just like him whose words will never mean much to the general populace. They will be thought of as stupid people, doing silly word games all day long.

I tend to be an adventurer who gets into things other people avoid, and then I spend time thinking, and philosophizing about the things I get into. I'm not sure this holds out much hope for me.

Well that is my thoughts from Southern France at least. Maybe I'll feel differently from Taize in a couple days.

The Why Man headed to the UK

I will be in the UK, and then in France for the next month. I will have my computer, so I will try to do some blogging updates on our mission, and then our experiences in France at Taize and at the coast, but I can't promise anything at this point. So, I hope to be blogging again with regularity come September.

Gwyn dy fyd, and off to Wales I go.

Two Years on the Tobin

So there I was on the freeway, a mile before the Tobin Bridge crosses the river into Boston. I still had almost three hours to go a distance which was really a decent hour away if there was no traffic, but I was in a parking lot disguised as a freeway, and the wedding was going to occur in three hours.

Five miles and two and a half hours later I exited from the tunnel, which goes under Boston. I had to call Fran (my latest hero on the list of Hillmen: those guys who would die on the hill with me if needed, and I with them), he was able to fill in for the wedding, and he lived just a few miles from the wedding location.

In the hours in which I was on the bridge, and then under the tunnels in the Big Dig, I was mad, I was furious, I was tense, I was yelling at God, I was filed with rage. I experienced the emotions of two years of trouble rush upon my soul on the Tobin Bridge, but in the end Fran was there to fill in until I could arrive for the reception duties. Mike (another Hillman) and Stef were there to get me through this as well.

I am still embarrassed to have missed a wedding due to a traffic issue, but I suppose I have seen how much frustration over former betrayals, and a series of tragedies in this last couple years still lies beneath the surface like a gently rumbling active volcano. Perhaps someday it will go dormant, but those frustrations are apparently hot and active for now.

I hope I never again have to spend two years on the Tobin.

Just a Few Shots of Summeryard

I like how our yard is turning out. I enjoy the radical changes of the seasons which occur here in Salem, Massachusetts. As a California boy, the seasons I knew were earthquake, fire, flood and riot. Now I actually experience Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, and I love them. So here are a few summer shots from our yard:

Sabbatical Coming

A couple weeks ago the church council discussed sending me on sabbatical. I thought to myself, 'Good idea, boy could I use it.' Then I said (contrary to my thinking), "That is an expensive proposition. We don't have the money for it, and neither does the church."

Of course the council knew this bit of information. Ever since our ouster from our former denomination - or perhaps I should start calling it our liberation from our former oppressors ;-) - the church has been running tight, and we are just making it by from month to month.

But, then Jeff was already in gear with a fund-raising plan, and was not going to take no for an answer.

So that brings me to our current state. I will be going to Wales with a missions team on August 3rd. When they return from the mission on August 16th, I will stay in the U.K. Some point shortly after that Bev will join me in the U.K., and we will travel to Taize, France to join the prayer, chanting, and spiritual retreat which has been going on there for the last 35 years or more.

It was decided that since I was already going to be in the U.K., that Bev joining me there was just a cheap as doing something here in states. With the friends we have on the other side of the pond this is probably true. So, off to Taize we go. Bev is hoping I will spend some days at a Welsh Language intensive in North Wales, which I would love to do, but then again methinks money, and waits and sees on that issue.

A Fun Blog for Moments of Creative Silliness

The lady who calls herself Word Imp hosts a game blog called Word Imperfect. It works like this: She chooses an obscure dictionary word, and you devise your own meaning. She picks her favorite three from which you can then vote for the winner. It's like playing Balderdash, and is a great way to be stupid for a few moments each day. So check it out.

You can take the Boy out of California, but...

If this gives you the same feeling it gives me, then you understand perhaps just a touch of what it means to be a from the coast of California. Let me know if you feel it. If it was Wales, I'd call it hiraeth, but it's a warmer beach (Australia actually), and I guess as a Californian I can only say, "duuuuuude."

Blogging - Because I Feel Like it

This is a sign of blog addiction, or perhaps the need to have someone listen to me, or maybe it is a subconscious flight from the introspection of lying in bed and staring at the darkened ceiling. Maybe I am writing out of a passion for writing, or simply because I'm bored, but I really don't get bored too often.

The need to have someone listen to me might have some merit. Feeling like the last couple years have been so rough, I sometimes find myself sharing our story, or at least a little bit of it with people I am acquainted with. I wonder if I sound like a broken record, or if I have that "suck the life out you" power going on? I sure hope not.

Maybe I am writing right now because I checked out the blogger choice awards, and wondered how the leading religious blog got almost 1.2 million hits since April 2005. Heck it's just some guy from San Diego, and I came from the San Diego area. Then there was the lady who lives in Utah who says she supports her family off her blog, and I wonder if she's just kidding, but maybe not because she got voted #2 all time best blog.

Maybe I'm writing because I ran into an old friend with whom I had an extremely difficult church discipline situation with a few years ago, and I really like this guy, and wish I had not had to be the person in the middle of life's mess at the time, but, dang, sometimes life doesn't give us that option. And this idea has merit too, because seeing him was a really good thing, but with the singed edges of narrow escape still visible.

Anyway I am rambling, and not saying much, and maybe that's because this is all blogging really is anyway. Who knows.