Jeff and Joy Scott Family

Baptism is a Replay of Genesis

2010-04-24T08:24:00.011-04:00

Baptism is a replay of Genesis. As Jesus is lifted out of the water, God breathes life into him... The same Spirit of God, so lavishly articulated in words that create out of formlessness, void, and darkness everything that is, "heavens and earth," fish and birds, stars and trees, plants and animals, man and woman, now descends on Jesus who will now speak salvation into reality in our death-ravished and sin-decimated world.
The God-breathed-into-life of Jesus, the God-blessed person of Jesus, at this moment begins to work out the consummation of salvation over death.

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, by Eugene H. Peterson, pages 23 and 24.

(This blog post is about baptism. It's not about creation or evolution. I will mention evil, but it really isn't about evil. Nor is it about forgiveness of sins or the deity of Christ. It is simply about baptism. It is not meant to be comprehensive. Hey, it's just a blog.)

There are numerous opinions as to what exactly happens at the moment of one's baptism. Similarly, there are numerous opinions as to why Jesus was baptized. It is likely that each opinion carries with it the same amount of truth and error as any other. Arguments, ahem, excuse me, I meant to say discussions, have ensued for centuries, hopefully based on biblical principles, about which understanding of baptism is correct and which is not. I'm not really interested in discussing them here. Frankly, I'm not educated enough in any of the different views to even try. In this post I'd like to discuss one description of baptism that I've never heard before- or at least, I don't remember hearing it. In the book I'm reading now (after several starts and stops) Eugene Peterson describes the baptism experience as a "replay of Genesis," specifically the Creation story. I appreciate what he has to offer in these early pages of his book.

For some time I have not been all that concerned with the "how" of Creation. For every "discussion" about baptism, there are 100 "discussions" about creation versus evolution. Some time ago, this debate lost its importance for me as a Christian. I believe in God, I believe God created, and I believe God created with a purpose. I don't really care how God created. It doesn't change the fact that I am here. I do have opinions about each position- creation or evolution- but that's for a different post. A post that I probably won't ever write. I do however, think the Creation story is incredibly important for humanity when we consider it in terms of why we were created and what it was like when we were first created. I've come to believe that the story of the relationship that man has with God is the reason the Creation story is in the Bible. I don't really think it's supposed to be about how God created us, rather why we were created and what happened next. That how I look at it and it's made quite a difference in how I understand my relationship with God.

I don't think many people would argue that there isn't evil in the world. At some point something went wrong in our relationship to God. Things weren't like they were in the beginning, when things were first created. The creation story tells us that things were good. We had a good relationship with God. Then we decided to do things on our own. This is when we decided to do things differently than the good way. God's way no longer suited us. We decided to define good and evil for ourselves. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil wasn't just a fruit tree, it represented the authority that we submit to. When we are content to let God's understanding of good and evil guide us, the tree sits beautifully in the middle of the garden of our life and things are good. But when we decide that we want to make our own decisions about what is good for us and all of creation, when we eat the fruit of the tree, we find that our knowledge is lacking and self-serving. Evil ensues. We can no longer be trusted to have God's goodness at our center, as our motivation for life, thus cleaving our holy relationship with God. I'm not sure that God kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden was to punish them. I get the feeling that it was more to protect the goodness and purity of that which truly belonged to Him. I liken it to the only reason I would ever kick my son or daughter out of my home- because their very presence has become a threat to our life. That's a muddy comparison, I know, but it's the best I can do. So for me, the Creation story in Genesis is a short story about where we used to be in relationship to God and how it got messed up. The rest of the Bible is the story of God's plan to rescue us, to bring us back into a right relationship with Him. To bring us back to goodness. To bring his salvation to the world. Enter Jesus....

[...prophecy...yada, yada, yada...Christmas...yada, yada, yada...miracles...yada, yada, yada, death and resurrection...

This is the natural next step in the direction of this post. But it's not what the post is about. So I'm going to skip it for now, perhaps talking about it at another time and get back to what I started out to discuss- baptism.]

I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the very embodiment of life as God intended for it to be- the way it was in the beginning, when Adam and Eve also lived in the way (of goodness) the truth (of goodness) and the life (of goodness.) His life and teachings are the example and descriptions of what the way, the truth, and the life look like in the Kingdom of God, or what they would have looked like in the Garden of Eden. In the Gospel of Mark, the very first part of Jesus's story begins with Baptism. The beginning point where, just like in the Creation story God breathed life into everything, God now breaths life into Jesus. "The God-breathed-into-life of Jesus, the God-blessed person of Jesus, at this moment begins to work out the consummation of salvation over death" (Peterson, 24).

I know it may seem over simplified. It is. But this is a blog post; it isn't the more detailed version. We already have that version, it's called the Bible. It's there to be read. But I really appreciate Peterson describing baptism as a replay of Genesis. It has helped me understand my own faith journey a bit more.

So what does this mean for me? I've been baptized so it must mean something. As I said earlier, people have argued (shoot, I did it again), I mean discussed for centuries just what baptism means. For me it means that I am now re-born into the garden where I once again have a choice. It is a choice to follow God's way or not. Each and every moment of every day I have the choice to live God's good way, or my way. My way may be a lot of things, but it isn't good. (Just ask the people I've hurt.) It's as if the tree is once again in the garden for me. I can see it and relish its beauty and trust the creator of the tree that the knowledge of good and evil is not for me to mess with. I'm simply to live by the Creator's guidance. I'm to submit to the way, the truth, and the life. Baptism is the moment I become a God-blessed person in Jesus. The moment I begin to live life not for myself, but for the Kingdom of God. To cultivate life as in any garden.

Baptism is a replay of Genesis. As Jesus is lifted out of the water, God breathes life into him...

Or into me...

The same Spirit of God, so lavishly articulated in words that create out of formlessness, void, and darkness everything that is, "heavens and earth," fish and birds, stars and trees, plants and animals, man and woman...

This description could have described my soul- formless, void, dark, mostly void of purpose.

...now descends on Jesus who will now speak salvation into reality in our death-ravished and sin-decimated world. The God-breathed-into-life of Jesus, the God-blessed person of Jesus, at this moment begins to work out the consummation of salvation over death.

Now descends on me bringing reality to my death-wish ways and self-absorbed, pleasure-seeking motivations. The God-breathed-into-life of me, now God-blessed, at this moment begins to live according to the way, the truth, and the life, as defined by the Word, for the life-cultivating work to which God has called us from the beginning.

This is one of the many things I'm thinking about right now. Right now, and well, all of the time.

Jesus Loves Me

2010-01-25T02:31:00.002-05:00

I don't have a lot to say on this subject other than to say I wonder if some people have any clue what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. If not, here it is:

1) In a given situation, ask yourself, what would Jesus do if he were faced with this.
2) Read about Jesus, directly from the Bible, to learn about how Jesus acted in similar situations, or how he said we were to act in such situations.
3) Go and do likewise.

If you follow those three steps, I don't know how you could possibly arrive at a point where you would place Bible verses on gun sights as Trijicon has done. Watch the 6-minute video below for the story.

How appropriate does this sound?

Jesus loves me, this I know,

For your rifle tells me so.

Sure, I'll say that He's God's son,

I'm convinced 'cause of your gun.

Yes, Jesus loves me.

Your rifle tells me so.

I think I'll leave it at that.

A quick hello!

2009-07-13T17:20:00.004-04:00

I understand that there likely isn't anyone waiting for my next blog, or wondering why I've been so quiet lately. But I can't believe I haven't posted anything in over 2 months. Actually, it's been longer than that for a "real" post. Let's just say I don't have the same time that I once had to blog like I did. I miss it.

My brother started a 12-week series that I think some of you will appreciate. The series is entitled "American Idols". No, it's not about the show. It is about how we as Americans can lose sight of the Kingdom of God and need to re-evaluate what is important. You probably get the gist...

I thought I'd take a second to provide the link for you. Here it is:

http://northst.org/podcasts/20090712.mp3

You can also access it and subscribe via iTunes.

Till next time!...

Laughter at the Graveside.

2009-05-12T09:33:00.003-04:00

This will be a quick one. I'm hoping it'll bring you a laugh.

My grandma Nease died back in April and we all took a trip to Mt. Vernon, OH to bury her ashes with Grandpa and their son, David. (This is their first son David, who died in 1970. Their second son David is still alive and all too well. So don't worry if you thought I was talking about him.) The whole family had gathered around the gravestone and my family of 4 was just about the last to arrive. While we weren't all crying or anything, it was kind of a somber moment as you may imagine. Josh was walking a bit ahead of us and Joy and I were kind of watching to see how he reacted to everything. I was all ready to console him and explain carefully what was going to happen. I was concerned the he'd think it was weird.

Well Josh, ever the shy guy, walks right up to the 8-inch circular hole awaiting the ashes, peers down into the 3-foot chasm and exclaims, "That...hole...is...AWESOME!!!"

Somehow, I don't think grandma would have been all that upset.

Just had to post that story before I forgot it.

A Book Review: The Lost Letters of Pergamum

2009-05-07T09:31:00.005-04:00

I am currently reading two books- Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, by Eugene Peterson and The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller, and have just finished two others- Prodigal God, by Timothy Keller and The Lost Letters of Pergamum, by Bruce W. Longenecker. My reading habits had waned in the past few months but are picking up steam again. The purpose of this post is to sing the praises for The Lost Letters of Pergamum. It is likely that you have never read a book exactly like Pergamum. It is historical fiction, but written as a series of ancient correspondences between the Biblical figure Antipas (Revelation 2:13) and Luke, the inspiration for- or as this book suggests, the author of- Luke and Acts. I was fascinated by the book and likely would have read it straight through if the details of life didn’t force me to take two breaks.

I’ve come to understand that as a white, relatively tall, extremely good-looking, blonde American living in the 21^st century, that I have very little in common with the Jesus of ancient Israel. This was a troublesome discovery. I grew up to believe that Jesus knows me better than I know myself, so it seemed only natural that I’d know Jesus pretty well too. The epiphanal notion that Jesus wasn’t from Massachusetts but Galilee, wasn’t middle-class but poorer than I’ll ever know, wasn’t college educated but an artisan, and most importantly wasn’t Christian but Jewish was somewhat unsettling for me. I didn’t lose faith, but began to realize that to really appreciate my faith, I needed to understand the cultures and belief systems from which my faith traditions were born. The more I thought about it, the more I began to understand that the ancient middle east is nothing like the modern US. As I set out to learn more about the foundation my faith, church, and traditions, I became deeply interested in learning about who Jesus was and how the world he lived in operated. But it wasn’t just Jesus’s culture that I was curious about. It was all of the cultures that influenced Jesus that began to interest me- Jewish or otherwise. And not just so I could understand a certain portion of scripture better. I want to know what my culture has in common with the ancient cultures. Or more adequately, ancient issues I've never experience in my culture. What was that culture like on a day to day basis? What were the things a Jew had to deal with in that day? Anybody who reads the Bible will see a clear culture war between the Jews and…well, everyone else. What exactly was going on? As I search for answers to questions such as these, I look for personal connections to an ancient world wherever I can find them. I look for ways to make a personal God more personal, if you will. Occasionally I find them in the most unexpected, even fabricated ways.

You will likely remember a few years back when The DaVinci Code caused all sorts of controversy for suggesting that Jesus might have been married. It’s likely that people were outraged by other things in the book too, but those issues are beside my point. I read the book, really enjoyed it, and didn’t understand why so many people were so upset by a fiction book. I was bothered by the fact that so many people cared whether Jesus was married or not, or simply that he may have been, GASP, attracted to women! When it came down to it, I didn’t care whether or not Jesus was married. I didn’t believe and still don’t believe that he was, but the simple idea that he may have had a desire inter-personal intimacy, perhaps to the level of a marriage relationship, made him more like me. You know how you can be having a conversation with someone in which they explain a challenging situation they’ve experienced and you exclaim, “ME TOO!!!!” You can really identify with their situation because you know what it feels like. The DaVinci Code didn’t accuse Jesus of sleeping around, it simply suggested that he had the same desires of any other human and got married like any other Jewish male would be expected to in ancient Israel. Listen, it’s hard enough for me to identify with a modern, American Jew living across the street from me, let alone one that lived in a 2000-year-old culture half-way around the globe. So, The DaVinci Code actually helped me to identify with Christ in a way that I hadn’t before- even if the book was fiction. It simply helped me think, in a different way, about the emotions Jesus might have had on a day to day basis. Don’t worry; I don’t pull out a copy of the book for my daily devotions. However, I might pull out a copy of The Lost Letters of Pergamum if my Bible reading will include anything from the New Testament.

The Lost Letters of Pergamum really has nothing in common with The DaVinci Code other than bringing additional realism to my faith. DaVinci is a fiction book based loosely on a couple pieces of historical information that might be true. It was written to make the author money. Pergamum is a fiction book based on several historical facts. It was written to take the reader back to the decades after Jesus’s life on earth in an effort to illustrate how Christianity began to take root in the Roman Empire. At no point did I exclaim “me too,” rather, the book helped me to understand just how different my world is from the world in which the writers of the New Testament were living. Instead of “me too,” there was an overall sense of “Ahhhh, now I get it!” In the Author’s Preface Longenecker states, “My hope is that readers of this narrative will not only enjoy the story line for its own sake…but will also profit from a better appreciation of the historical context of the early Christian writings and, thereby, develop sharper instincts for understanding the writings of the New Testament in the contexts.” The author hit his mark. I suppose he made a little money too. But not as much as Dan Brown.

Longenecker showed great skill and imagination by writing an entire work about a person that was only mentioned once in the Bible- and a passing reference at that. In Revelation 2:13, John mentions a man named Antipas who was martyred in the ancient city of Pergamum. The next couple of verses mention some of the circumstances that might have surrounded Antipas in Pergamum, but nothing more of Antipas. Longenecker creates a persona for Antipas- that of an ancient Roman nobleman- and creates a very compelling narrative about the life in ancient Rome and the stark contrast between the new atheist “Christians” and the Roman society of the day.

The lost letters, which are found by a fictional archeologist during a fictional excavation of the historical Pergamum, begin with a few letters between Antipas and Calpurnius, the son of Theophilus, for whom Luke wrote his monograph, which we know as the gospel according to Luke. Calpurnius introduces Antipas and Luke to each other and the letters discuss the subject of Luke’s writing, Jesus, and the empire of God. Through Antipas’s letters we begin to see, and feel like we are experiencing just what it meant to be a Christian living in the 1^st century Roman world. The following is an excerpt from a letter from Calpurnius to Antipas which I believe is a good representation of how the letters paint a picture of life in the Roman Empire during the 1^st century.

Since you [Antipas] are new to the area[Pergamum], you might be interested to know about a close associate of my household, an esteemed doctor and scholar named Luke. He is currently in Toras, where he has been instructing Eutychus, a friend. Since the shipping lanes have closed for the winter, he will return to Ephesus by land, passing through Pergamum on his return journey. He intends to stay as a guest in the house of Antonius, a city magistrate and man of great repute. Luke shares with you a keen interest in history. Before his death, my father, Theophilus, commissioned Luke to write a historical account of an intriguing man from Galilee and his followers. Luke finished this historical monograph about ten years ago. Despite its length (it extends to two sizable volumes), it remains in great demand. No doubt you and he would have much to discuss with regard to recent events in and around Galilee. Perhaps Antonius could let you now when Luke arrives in Pergamum, since you both would profit from each other’s interests.

There are historical references, and obviously many theological references throughout the book, some of which the reader may find challenge their understanding of the Bible or how they understood the Bible to have been composed. However, these new ideas do not get in the way of the flow of the book and are not faith shattering.

I highly recommend The Lost Letters of Pergamum, both for the confessed Christian and for the casual fan of historical fiction. I actually enjoyed the book so much I googled the author, emailed him, and told him how much I enjoyed it. He replied, stating that the book pretty much wrote itself. That was kinda cool. So, grab some coffee, a munchie, and let The Lost Letters of Pergamum take you back to an unfamiliar time. You won’t regret that you did.

Tweeting Isn't All That New

2009-04-22T06:35:00.005-04:00

One of my favorite authors is Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz. I highly recommend it. One day when I was visiting his blog I noticed the invitation to send a text to a particular number so I could get a text each time he updated his blog. Seemed like a good idea to me, particularly since it promised that they wouldn't update me every time Miller is taking a shower. So I sent a text to the number and waited for the first update. Kinda wish I hadn't done that. I get about 8 texts a day from Miller. This is how I was introduced to Twittering. I was so annoyed at one point that I replied to one of the updates. The update read something like,

"Going to the movies tonight. Don't know what I'm going to see. Haven't been to the movies in months."

So I responded, "See 'Taken.' My wife and I loved it."

About 5 hours later I received a text that read, "Thanks for recommending 'Taken.' Neeson makes a great hero."

I thought that was kinda cool so I shared it with my brother, who also appreciates Miller's writing. Well, he decided to say that I have a bromance with Miller. My wife heard what he said and now every time my mobile phone chirps she says, "Who's that? Your bromance?" Usually it is. Now that I get his blog updates via RSS I can end the twittering relationship, but I don't know how. If you do, please leave me a comment below. Yes, I realize its probably easy, but techy stuff doesn't come easy to me. So shut it.

This twittering and social networking is neat. It took me a while to "sign on" so to speak, but I'm glad I did. I enjoy keeping in touch with people I wouldn't usually be calling or anything. But as much as I like it, I wonder if we have lost anything with the advance of such technologies. I was thinking about this as I was going through some old letters last night.

If you haven't heard, my grandmother on my mother's side passed away on April 7. She was 83 and had been in decline for several years. So while we were a little surprised when it happened, it's not like we were shocked. Grandpa passed away on April 6, 2006, so it kind of brought a joy to my heart to know that she wasn't living without him anymore.

In 1989 when my grandfather was voted into a new position within the Nazarene Church. As the Commissioner of Nazarene Higher Education he would be moving to Kansas City, MO to his new office at Nazarene Headquarters. We began to pack up grandma and grandpa's house. The basement and attic were full of what I thought was just old junk. TONS of old stuff. We didn't really go through it, but packed small boxes into larger boxes for the move. Well, with the passing of grandma, we're finally going through those old boxes. Actually, grandma and grandpa have moved at least three times since then, each time into a smaller residence so more of their stuff was packed away into boxes. My sister did a lot of sorting of their stuff when they moved into an assisted living community and tried to cut down on the amount of things. However, there was still a lot of really old stuff to go through when grandma died. So my mother, aunts, and uncles have begun to unpack those boxes, redistribute the various family items and get rid of the trash. It can be difficult at times. You know all those awards and plaques of appreciation people get though out their life? Apparently the saying is correct; you can't take them with you when you die. We have boxes full of awards and plaques my grandfather received. Some of them we're going to send to the archive departments at the institutions that gave them to him, but frankly, we're throwing some away if nobody in the family wants them. I was looking through them and thinking, "Awww...this is really great. Grandpa was so loved, but what the heck am I going to do with this 'Thanks for 15 years of service to Eastern Nazarene College' paperweight?" So we get rid of some "nice" things. There are so many things we're trying to figure out what to do with. Fortunately, our family is really good about sharing their trinkets and such. We're not really the type of family that argues about such things...yet, we'll see. But there are some things that are priceless.
I have sitting to the left of me an eight-inch stack of love-letters that were written between my great-grandfather Floyd Nease and his wife, my great-grandfather Madeline Nease. Most of the letters are double sided. It's really fascinating, because it's like I'm getting a look into the day-to-day lives of my ancestors. It's like they were twittering almost 90 years ago and I get to follow along. It seems different than today's communications. It makes me wonder how it'll be in 90 years when my great-grandson is going through my stuff. It probably won't take long.
I've decided to take it upon myself to type out all of these letters. I figure some other people in the family might like to read what they say. And besides, maybe at the end of the task I will have found the inspiration to write a novel that makes Nicolas Sparks look like an amature and makes The Notebook look like The Cat in the Hat. HA!
I'll be starting with a diary from great-grandma that begins before they're married and ends rather abruptly. I've had it for a few years, but I didn't know where the story went. Perhaps I'll find out now. This will be a daunting task for a few reasons.

It's a lot of letters even without the diary. Like I said, it's a stack about 8 inches high of two-sided, mostly hand-written (a couple are typed) letters spanning about a decade. (Great-grandpa died suddenly at the age of 35.)
They're not in order.
They're not all dated. And even if they're dated, I still need to figure out which letter was written first if there is more than one written on one date. For instance, on the morning of August 7, 1930 Madeline writes a letter so she can get it in the mail before the postman comes. Later that day, she writes another letter which begins,
"Honey: This is one time where I'd be inclined to say you did not use good sense." This opening comment had nothing to do with the last letter, leading me to believe that she received a letter in the mail from Floyd and is writing a response. I haven't seen Floyd's letter yet. When I do, I'll need to fit in into the right spot- assuming the letter still exists.
Great-Grampa Floyd had terrible handwriting. It's often very difficult to read.
Old-speak. There are terms that they use that I'm not familiar with. It's difficult to know sometimes if I'm writing the correct words or if I just can't read the writing.
Did I mention there is a lot of letters?

I'm terribly worried that I'll damage these letters while I'm reading them. The paper is super dry and brittle. I'm going to have to be careful with them.

At any rate, I think this is going to be very meaningful for me, and hopefully for the rest of the family. The bag in which these notes were stored within the box had a note on it. The note read:

You may not understand all these but it will help you to know your Daddy + Mother better and to know we always loved each other.

Faded old love letters

For Stephen [my grandfather] when he is 21 then for Helen [my great-aunt] when she is 21.

I'm not sure they ever read these letters. Auntie Helen is still alive and well. She actually got married again last summer! So perhaps she'll get to read them if she hasn't. Here's to seeing how the task goes.

Still Tweeting, after all these years.

Every Man's Fantasy

2009-04-02T06:35:00.006-04:00

Every year I swear I'm not going to play fantasy baseball. And then one of my friends invites me to join their league and I do. I never win. I don't even come close. Usually I end up really beating everybody for the first two weeks, gradually make my way down to the bottom three in the league and remain there for the rest of the year. I always feel like I have a pretty good team (as I do this year) but am always beat by people with players I've never heard of. Oh, and the winners are usually people who've never played sports in their life. Go figure. So anyways, here's my team from this year. I didn't do a whole lot of research about up and coming players. I went with OPS (On base plus slugging percentage) rankings from the 2008 seasons for hitters, and past performance of pitchers. I do modify my pitcher rankings a bit based on whether the team they pitch for will actually score runs, thereby increasing the chance of getting a win. I also try to avoid pitchers that jump from the National League to the American League. Eventually these "techniques" begin to fail as the good players are all picked. Then you end up picking players because, 1) They're on your favorite team (Tim Wakefield, Hideki Okajima), 2) They had a bad season last year (due to injury perhaps- J.D. Drew, Ken Griffey Jr.) and you're hoping they bounce back this year, 3) You like their name or know someone with their name (Luke Scott), 4) They're not Yankees, 5) You have to pick someone because your time is running out so you pick the first name on the list of available players that you still recognize (Jack Cust, Jose Guillen) or 6) You don't pick in time so the auto-pick function just picks the player for you based on their overall ranking (George Sherrill...who?!?!?! Apparently he pitches for the Baltimore ).

So here we go...again. I'm preparing my three weeks worth of smack talk now.

Infielders:
Catcher- Kelly Shopach
1B- Albert Pujols
2B- Dan Uggla
3B- Chipper Jones
SS- Stephen Drew
2B/SS- Miguel Tejada
1B/3B- Chone Figgins

Out Fielders:
Milton Bradley
Carlos Gomez
Pat Burrell
Ken Griffey Jr.
Luke Scott
J.D. Drew
Jack Cust
Jose Guillen

Pitchers:
Roy Halladay
Jon Lester
Josh Beckett
Derek Lowe
Brandon Lyon
John Smoltz
Hideki Okajima
George Sherrill
Tim Wakefield

A Musical Rant, A Running Freak, and Family Videos

2009-03-23T04:32:00.019-04:00

(Some of you who are following my blog in Google "Reader" will have a new post from me that I posted by accident because God forbid, I hit "return" at the wrong time. Just so you don't make the same mistake, I'd recommend NOT hitting "return" while you are typing in the "Title" field of your blog. That wasn't even a finished rough draft, yet alone a finished post. In certain posts, I really care about my writing (the blog that follows below isn't really one of those), so having an unfinished blog accidentally posted feels like I'm standing outside in the center of Boston in nothing but pink underwear in the middle of January. So if you can help it, don't read it. But I understand it would be hard not to look at me if I was standing in the middle of Boston in pink underwear. That particular blog was one that I've been putting some thought, time, and a little bit of research into and I'm really not comfortable with it being out there. I planned on having a few other people read it before I posted it. I didn't see myself posting it for several weeks, perhaps months. All that to say, it's not a finished product so withhold your comments until a later time. I've deleted the post, but I don't believe I can delete the update to reader. I'll finish the post and get it up at a later time. Truth be told, I have almost as many unfinished blogs as I have finished blogs posted. Arghhh...)

As I type this entry, I am currently listening to The Morgan Sisters. It's one of those albums (I'll Be With You Always) that I am not normally listening to, but every couple of months I'll listen to it for a few weeks, several times over one sitting. People who went to college with me, or grew up in New England as part of the Church of the Nazarene will remember the Morgan Sisters- Myrna and Gisella. They were twin sisters who's harmony sent chills down my spine. Literally. We asked Myrna and Gisella to sing at our wedding as guests were entering and taking their seats. I was crying long before I walked out onto the podium for the wedding ceremony.
I'm afraid I have to call the songs in the album "old school" now. The newest of the songs was released in 1990, "Another Time and Another Place," by Gary Driscoll. Most of the songs are from the 80's. I feel old. Here's the playlist:

Another Time and Another Place
Holy Ground
Daystar(Shine Down on Me)
People Need the Lord
Friend of a Wounded Heart
In Heaven's Eyes
God and God Alone
Fear Not My Child
Hiding Place
Broken and Spilled Out
When I knelt the Blood Fell
It is Finished and Jesus is Lord

You know, sometimes I just need to kick it old-school. Some of it's nostalgia; I don't think I'd listen to the same list of songs sung by the original recording artist. It's official- I'm old. Check it out here.

While I'm talking about music...my (our) friend Nick recently asked in his blog what music people were listening to. Given what I just told you above, I don't usually answer that question. For some reason I feel like people judge others "coolness" by the music they listen to. If you like one particular type of music, there is a cool group for you. Well, I don't like one particular type of music. I like lots of music of all different types. I'm a casual listener. I don't get all excited for the next album of such-and-such a group. It's just not me.

Now, I like music. I even believe I know musical talent when I hear it. When I was a child I spent 12 years taking piano lessons. I didn't really learn to read music well, so I played by ear. As a result, I have a pretty good ear for pitch and rhythm and can tell when someone is off key or off beat. (I'm often amazed that Randy and Paula of American Idol use the word "pitchy" so much because most of the time they're wrong- either the person wasn't really pitchy, or they're way off and all three judges love the performance.) I like music, but I don't have a favorite type, and I can't keep up with the latest albums and such. If I like music, I don't stop liking it because it's not new. It takes a long time for a new song to jive with me. And I pretty much can't stand most of the pop music now. I've heard enough of Pink singing about fighting with her ex-(husband or boyfriend) and bragging about being a bratty rock-star. Then there's that other song that's popular right now- I can't believe someone would actually sing the lyrics, "When you see my face, I hope it gives you hell! I hope it gives you hell!" It's no wonder people are shooting each other. My workout playlist is filled with 80's hair-bands with the occasional Beastie Boys track. I don't have much good reason for that other than nostalgia and that there are certain 80's songs that still get my blood pumping, and probably always will. Survivor's Eye of the Tiger for instance.

I also appreciate musical talent. I'm not sure many pop-culture artists really fit that bill for me. Some do. I'm very impressed that a kid like Taylor Swift can keep writing hit after hit song. She's a country artist, but her songs have "crossed over" to the pop charts too. She's very talented. And she's not even 20 yet. She's been dumped by Joe Jonas who, I don't believe, has as much talent overall as she has in her little finger. I believe there are some artists that have talent, but would never make it based on that talent alone. Jessica Simpson and Brittney Spears, for instance. They can sing and gyrate, but let's be honest, they have other assets (pun intended) that have helped their career too. I've been to two Elton John/Billy Joel concerts. That fact alone is probably making some of my readers laugh, (particularly if they host a country radio show!) but at the concert I went to back in October of 2005 Elton John did a 15-minute rendition of Rocket Man that I'll never forget. The man has talent! And for some reason, it's OK to sing Piano Man when you're drunk at the bar, but if you're a man under 40 you better not mention that you enjoy going to his concerts! Tonight on the way in to work I was listening to the soundtrack from a 1990 Spike Lee production called Do It A Capella! How popular was this production? It didn't even make imdb.com. But it's got some good a capella music on it. Rockapella is one of the groups. Remember them? They sang the theme song to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. And they did this Folgers commercial too.

I keep this album mainly for their performance of Zombie Jamboree as seen below. As someone who appreciates pitch, I am impressed by how well Rockapella sang.

So anyways, I clearly have musical self-esteem issues.

I also think I may have issues when it comes to over-analyzing the songs we sing in church. It comes with being a thinker. I am always considering the words we sing and if they're theologically appropriate. One of my favorite worship songs is I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me. It's one of the few songs that I feel I really sing well- harmonizing with a tenor part that actually works well with the song. I also appreciate the message of the song. It's about looking forward to heaven and being with Jesus. The irony here is that the video is of people holding pictures of their loved ones that have passed on, implying that they're looking forward to going to heaven to see them again. Neither of those things are in-and-of-themselves bad. But, as we were leading the congregation in this song this past Sunday, I was struck by the fact that the lyrics are, well, American Evangelical-lized. Before I continue let me just say that I understand the point of the song. We look forward to being in heaven with Jesus. I get that and look forward to it myself. There is nothing wrong with that. But the lyrics fall short of what we, as disciples of Christ, believe. Here are the video and lyrics to the song:

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side

I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

[Chorus]

I can only imagine [x2]

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever, forever worship you

I can only imagine

He's right; we can only imagine what it'll be like. Actually, we probably can't imagine what it'll be like, but we can try. Here's the part that I'm finding challenging though. The moment a person makes a committment to follow Christ the eternal worship begins. Actually, even that isn't really correct. Eternal worship has always existed and always will. That's why it's eternal. When a person makes a committment to Christ, they simply enter into the eternal worship and live a life of worship. For me, "forever worship[ing] You" happens every moment of every day. It's the very definition of holiness. Forever worshipping God is to seek and work to live a life that is pleasing to God. Plain and simple.

I'll still sing this song (there are some I won't), but I hope people understand that forever worshipping God begins long before "going to heaven." (About 25 minutes after having these thoughts as we were singing the song at church, our pastor made this very point from the pulpit. Way before I could blog about it! That's happened before. That's why I like my pastor!)

Some other stuff...

I have this cousin-like person in my life. He's the son of my mother's cousin. So I think that makes us cousins of some sort. At any rate, his name is David Swanson. David is a third year student (known as cows) at West Point Military Academy. I don't know anybody that likes to run as much as David. He's a running freak. He recently decided to run for 24 hours straight in an effort to raise money for the WWP (Wounded Warriors Project) which supports, yep, wounded soldiers. Here's a picture of David finishing the 24 Hour Brigade at 107 miles.

David fell a little short of his goal of completing 130 miles. Wimp. (I can drive that in well under 2 hours!) He did break is personal best of 100 miles though finishing at 107. He also had a goal of raising $10,000. He missed that mark too. The collective effort raised $26,000 and counting. Not so wimpy! So much for hitting a target though! If he overshoots an M-16 like that he'll never do well on the battle field! All kidding aside, it would be awesome if you'd support this important cause. The website is worth a visit even if you can't donate.

I don't post stuff about my family often enough. Certainly not enough about my daughter, Jordan. I got a message from a teacher where Joshua goes attends Kindergarten, Campus Kinderhaus. Jordan will start there in the fall. Here's what the message said,

"I [one of the teachers] was just in the after-school room...Josh gave me a hug, and I said, "I think Jordan should be in my class next year." He said, "yeah, but have you seen her? I'll give you two weeks." haha, I love him!"

That's Josh! Always saying very observant things to surprise people. He's right about Jordan though, she is a handful! Two of the three videos I'm posting here are of Jordan. They were taken in December. The first is of her singing Happy Birthday to her mother and then blowing out the candles. The second is of her reaction to a Christmas present. The third is posted for Merrit who requested a video of Joy opening her gift. There was a third video of Jordan, but Joy filmed it...sideways. This is at LEAST the third time Joy has filmed a video segment with the camera sideways because she wanted a taller frame for the picture. I've made fun of her each time. This time I'm going to tell everybody reading my blog about it and THEN make fun of her. I'll wait until she gets over her severe ear infection and bronchitis that she's fighting right now. I'm a good husband. Anyways.....enjoy!

As you probably noticed, Josh has a bit of difficulty sharing the spotlight!

Again, Joshua quickly needs to move on to HIS presents!

Did I mention Josh enjoy's the spotlight? This blanket is one of those fleece blankets with a big pocket for your feet. (Eat your heart out stupid Snuggie!) This particular blanket has Disney's Brother Bear embroidered on it. They stopped making them a while back. Our more-than-just-good-friend "Auntie" Merrit Andrews hooked us up with one. Brother Bear was the last Disney film Merritt worked on while employed as an animator at Disney. Apparently she still has people in high places! Awwww, geez, thanks Merritt!!!!!

Till' Death Do We Part

2009-02-12T06:25:00.008-05:00

My day starts at 4PM- literally. I work nights from midnight to 8 AM and am THRILLED if I'm in bed by 9. It's not one of those "crawl out of bed" experiences either. The alarm goes off and I'm up, dressed, and in the truck to pick up the kids. Typically I try to get Jordan first in an effort to alleviate the burden of 4 children for my sister-in-law who watches her for us. From there, I rush to pick up Joshua at Campus Kinderhaus by 5:30 to avoid the $1 a minute charge for being late. So far I think that's only happened twice. By the time we all get home, it's about 6PM and the kids are usually beginning to get really hungry. Joy doesn't get home until about 6:30 at the earliest. Most nights we sit down to eat at around 7:30 or 8PM. (Yes, we eat late at the Scott house. It drives my in-laws nuts when they visit.) Recently, I've been trying to tide the kids over by giving them a snack in the truck while I pick them up and bring them home.
A few days ago I thought I'd give them a little treat and I put Lucky Charms in Tupperware containers and brought them along with me for the snack. I usually try to be a bit healthier than that, but I was feeling charitable on that day knowing full well that they'd simply pick out the marshmallows and leave the grain bits. That would upset me except that it's exactly what I do! Anyways, I picked up both the kids and headed home, knowing that I was the best dad ever for such a snack.

About 5 minutes into the ride home, Joshua told me he had a question for me.

"Dad," he said?

"What's up buddy?"

"Do people get another life when they die?"

Hmmmm... It was one of THOSE questions. I immediately began looking for a good response, unpacking all of my theological baggage as I prepared to answer this question for a six year old.

"Well, no. We believe that when a person dies, they either go to heaven...or they don't."

I'm not a big proponent for the eternal punishment view of hell, and didn't really want to scare my son into choosing the way, the truth, and the life. I believe people should choose the way, the truth, and the life on it's own merit- not out of a fear of eternal burning. (This is a way different blog topic for a way different day.) BUT, I quickly amended my answer to be a bit more biblically centered and said, "We believe that when a person dies they either go to heaven or hell. It's what we call an afterlife, but it's not a life like we have on earth. We're someplace else, not here like we are now."

I braced for the follow up questions, preparing to butcher my answers. He didn't immediately say anything, and I began to wonder why he had asked. He's been playing many different games on his Nintendo DS ever since he got one for Christmas, and as best I can tell not one of the games has a limit to the number of "lives" each character gets. It just goes on and on. I was wondering if that's why he'd asked. After a couple more minutes of silence, I asked why he asked the question.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said.

"I'm just curious," I replied, "Is it because you play Lego Star Wars and everybody gets another life when the die?"

"No," was all he said.

"Then why did you ask?"

"I really don't want to talk about it."

At this point, he was pretty somber, and I began to wonder if he was getting car sick. Perhaps the sweet marshmallows of the Lucky Charms weren't such a wonderful idea after all.

"Do you feel OK," I asked?

"Yeah, but here, I'm done with these," he said as he handed me the bowl of cereal, mostly uneaten with marshmallows still mixed in. I wasn't convinced he was feeling OK and was pretty sure there was a good chance the kid was going to vomit all over the interior of my new-to-me truck. "Then what's wrong," I pressed?

"I really don't want to talk about it."

I let it go, still pretty sure he was simply sick. But when we got home, he hopped out of the truck like there was nothing physically wrong, although still a bit somber. He went inside and got ready for his gymnastics class and soon forgot about the conversation.

Later on that night Joy and I went on our date night. We decided that we were going to be rebellious and celebrate Valentines Day on February 10th. Take THAT Hallmark! (She did, however, inform me that since Valentines Day was on the 14th then the correct day to send flowers to her at work was Friday the 13th. Duly noted.) Over dinner I shared the story with her.

"I wonder if Nipun was talking about his family's beliefs," she mused.

Nipun is one of Josh's best friends at school. His family is Indian, and his mother told stories about some of the Hindu Gods during a visit to Kinderhaus one day. (I imagine that was awkward for the teachers at the Christian day-care, but it kind of just blew over!) Joy and I began to wonder if Nipun had been talking to Josh about reincarnation. At dinner last night, I decided to bring up the conversation again.

"Josh, do you remember when you asked me if a person gets another life after they die? Were you asking because Nipun had been talking about people getting another life after they die?"

"No."

"Was it because people on your video games get new lives," I asked again?

"No." He again became very somber and upset. He looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"Then why did you ask? I just want to be able to help you. You seem sad."

"I really don't want to talk about it," he said.

"Are you worried about Mom and Dad? " He shook his head, "no." "Jordan?" Again, he shook his head."

After listing a few more members of our extended family, Joshua burst into tears and said, sobbing, "I'm worried about you and mommy!"

There are moments in the lives of every parent that rise above all others. Just two days before I remember being proud of Josh as he began to stretch before his gymnastics class. I was proud of him when we met recently with his teacher. I love to watch the way he plays with, and takes care of his sister, Jordan. It touches my heart that he wants to play with me and bring me into his world of imagination- usually I'm playing the role of the bad guy in whatever story we're acting out! I don't imagine there are many things as precious as the love between a parent and child. I tell my kids how much I love them several times a day. I make sure to ask them if they know it. Not once have I ever said it out of habit. I mean it every time. And deep down in my heart, I want to know that they love me too. They tell me they do, and I believe them. But never in my short parenting life have I understood just how much Josh loves, needs, and relies on me until he burst into tears that evening admitting that he worries about what life will be like without his parents. It really touched my heart and I'll never forget that evening.

I asked Josh if he'd like to sit on my lap. The truth is, I didn't care if he wanted to sit on my lap or not, I needed him to sit on my lap while we discussed this. I stood up from my place at the table, walked over to where he was sitting, picked him up, and brought him back to my seat. It was kind of difficult to be honest. Everything within me wanted to tell him that I'd never leave him. That I would always be there for him and would only die when I was 90+ years old. I wanted to tell him his mother would always be there too. But I knew that might not be the truth. The truth was that we don't know when we're going to die, but that he was going to be OK if we did. Mommy and Daddy were careful drivers (well, at least I swore that I would be from that point on), we looked both ways when we crossed the street, and he always reminded us to wear our seatbelts, etc... We talked about how difficult it would be for a little while if we died, but he had a strong family that would take care of him. Eventually, I think I made it sound so good that he might have wished for a surprise death of his parents! Nah, but we managed to calm him down and even get him to laugh. After a few moments of lighthearted giggling and tickling, I took his face in my hands and directed his eyes towards mine.

"Joshua" I said, "you can always talk to us about anything. Anything!" I meant it too. There were about a thousand things that were going through my mind that I would want my son to be comfortable talking about with me. And as I was thinking about these things, my lovely wife added, "Yeah! Even sex!"

......what the...?

Now, if I hadn't just explained to my six year old son that mommy and daddy were going to do all we could not to die, I might have killed her! I couldn't believe that my wife had just brought up the word "sex" to our six year old boy! From the look on her face, neither could she. I didn't know what to do. I was sure he was going to ask "What's sex?" At which point I would have plopped him on his mother's lap and left to load the dishwasher. Fortunately, he just laughed hysterically. Unfortunatly, it was clear that he probably has had some exposure to the subject of sex because he wasn't curious at all, and he laughed about it. (Thank you Viagra and Cialis commercials!)

I'm always amazed at how fast my kids are growing. It's not always easy, but I try to remember to take time to stop, be the "bad guy" when it's not convenient, go to the playground when it's35 degrees out, and not get frustrated when my little girl says "daddy, daddy, daddy!!!" repeatedly in the back seat. We love our kids. And it really helps to know they love us too.

3 Smiles and a Million Hugs

2009-01-30T02:19:00.012-05:00

(I feel a little funny blogging about a homecoming I didn't attend, particularly when a significant number of people reading this know the family better than I do! But alas, I blog anyway. For those of you that don't know them, they are not related to my Scott family. Actually, I could probably find a relationship through some distant marraige, but I'm not going there.

As you read this, keep in mind that I've made up what I've written. It's simply what I thought I saw in the pictures. I've linked to the real story within the blog.)

Captain Christopher Scott has been in Iraq since 1952. OK, it hasn't been that long, but it must seem like it to his family. I must admit, I don't know Chris and his family as well as I would like to. It's a matter of miles. We live miles apart and don't get to spend as much time as I would like to getting to know each other. Then again, the last time I tried to spend quality time with Chris by waking him up for an early morning fishing trip, I accidentally woke up the family matriarch and spent some unplanned, awkward, NOT quality time with his grandmother. (A different story for a different day.) I've gotten to know his brother Randy pretty well since I started listening to his morning radio show on Froggy 99.9 FM. Since I'm in Boston I listen online. (You should too. His partner Mike and he make a great team.) His mother, Judy, follows my blog and has been gracious enough to not call me a liberal moonbat. His father, Steve is great too. He never got upset at me for breaking his bench grinder some years ago. Then again, I'm not sure I ever told him. (He'll never know.) Come to think of it, I imagine they may be happy to have me 435 miles to the north! I know Chris, Mindy, and their little ones- Luke and Will- least of all. So I was a bit taken aback by how emotional I got looking at the pictures of Chris's recent R+R homecoming from Iraq.

The pictures in the blog were taken by a photographer from the Salisbury Daily Times. I imagine it was difficult to choose which one to include in the paper. I feel like each and every picture tells a very emotional story. Granted, I wasn't at the homecoming, and I've already stated my shortcomings when it comes to how well I know the family, but I couldn't help but feel like I knew what was going through thier hearts and minds as those pictures were taken. I see three disctinct smiles from Mindy.
The above picture is obviously focused on Mindy and the boys as they get their first look at Daddy as he comes through the door, but I'm drawn to the expressions on his parents' faces (on the left of the picture). Have you ever seen a prouder dad? I don't think so. And Judy, look at her hands- all clenched in happy anticipation of the long hug that I'm sure occurred within minutes of these pictures. Moms can't smile any bigger than that. If I know Judy at all, she also cried before they left the airport. Mindy's got a lot going on here. I don't think that she's made eye contact with Randy yet, but more importantly, she's concerned with how the boys, primarily Luke react when they see their daddy. She so wants him to recognize Chris and be excited to see him. That's so obvious to me in the next picture.

Of all the pictures taken, this is probably the most poignant one for me, and it's all about the expression on Mindy's face. Smile number 1 is the "hopefully expectant" smile. It reminds me of Christmas morning when I'm watching my kids get their first glance at the presents Santa has left for them under the tree. We never wrap the biggest and best one. And I watch for that excited reaction that Santa imagined they'd have when Santa made the gift. (Similar to this.) That's the expectant look on Mindy's face...only times 1000. I get the idea she feels that of the whole visit home, this is the most important moment. She's clearly watching, waiting, and asking for recognition. I can almost hear her saying, "Hey, Luke! Look who it is!" And I think I can hear her thinking, "Will he remember him? Will he be happy? Will he be excited? Please be happy and excited! See how happy and excited mommy is? Please be this happy and excited! Daddy needs you to be happy and excited..." Chris seems to be a bit more nonchalant about the reaction. He's happier and more excited than any of them. Luke could walk up and kick Chris in the shins and he'd be happy! OK, maybe not, but then comes smile #2...

...the "sweet relief" smile! While the previous picture was the most poignant, this is the one that brings tears to my eyes...still. All those questions I imagined were going through Mindy's head were answered exactly like she had hoped. She can breath again. Luke looks a bit overwhelmed, but happy just the same. I can't see Will's face, so we can leave his face up to the imagination!

Clearly Will figured it out too. And I believe Chris was surprised to find Will walking. This is the third smile I've seen on Mindy's face- this time pure joy. It looks like it took everyone about .5 seconds to get comfortable again.

This final picture captures something unique in the lives of military families during times of war. Each and every moment they spend together increases the total amount of family time they've ever had at an exponential rate. By the time I got around to writing this blog entry, Chris is well into his R+R and I'm sure he's treasuring these days in his heart. Unfortunately Chris came down with a cold and Luke got a rather nasty stomach bug. (This info came from Mindy and Chris's blog. This is where you can find the real story about the homecoming from Mindy's perspective.) Perhaps it's just as well that Luke is feeling yucky, my kids snuggle a lot more when they're sick. I'm sure Chris wouldn't mind extra snuggling time!

(While I'm confident nobody in Chris's immediate family voted for President Obama, I'm sure they'd be happy if Chris was home sooner as a result of the election!)

2009-01-23T03:40:00.004-05:00

1) Joshua lost his second tooth on January 21, less than two weeks after losing his first. Apparently there was less drama this time as he told me, "I just yanked it out in school!" Some blood, no tears. So much for needing Mom and Dad's tender touch. I suppose this is a good thing...sniff.

2) I was right and the Dunkin Donuts guy was wrong!

(Read here if you need a reminder.) I happened to be in the Dunkin Donuts at the same time as the store manager the other day and asked him about the price of my beloved French Cruller. He said it was priced like any other donut and was a bit annoyed I had been told differently. Last night when I went in for a coffee, the person that I had the "difference of opinion" with apologized and gave me a free coffee. I kind of felt bad, but not really! #1 IS BACK, BABY!

Josh's first lost tooth!

2009-01-08T02:42:00.006-05:00

Well, Josh lost his first tooth on January 5th. We discovered it was loose a couple of nights before. I have to admit, Joy and I weren't quite ready for this! I think it's the first thing that has happened in Josh's development that I wasn't ready for! He's just so stinking cute! Oh, well. Joy and I had a bit of a hard time leaving the boy and his tooth alone. At one point he came downstairs crying because mommy had "accidentally" pushed on the tooth too hard. I comforted him, laughing and rolling my eyes on the inside. I didn't think there was anything accidental about it! Later on when I told her what Josh told me, she replied, "I never said it was accidental! That was his word!" Hey, at least she's honest.

The next night it was really loose. It had gotten to the point that you could see under the bottom of it. I told Josh to see if he could get his fingernail under it and pull it out. He really tried, but it hurt a little. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was bleeding a little! Through tears he said, "I want to wait until tomorrow!" About five minutes later he changed his mind and said, "This thing's coming out tonight!" We went into the bathroom and about five minutes later he pulled it out! I believe he was a bit surprised at how easily it came out. He ran downstairs and told Joy all about it and asked if it was OK if he saved it to show his friends at school. We said yes.

The next evening, Josh was really having a hard time deciding if he should keep his first lost tooth, or put it under the pillow for the Tooth Fairy. He wanted everyone's opinion on what to do! I had no idea what to say. I don't think there was a right answer there! Eventually, he had Joy write a letter to the Tooth Fairy. It read:

<----Here is my tooth. [Tooth taped to paper]

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I really want to keep my tooth + I really want a dollar. (1) So, I was going to ask you what would you do if you lobed your teeth so much + you really wanted a dollar- which would you choose? Please write on the back.
(Heart,)

Joshua

The next morning, Josh found a note from the Tooth Fairy:

Dear Joshua,

Since this is your first tooth, why don't you keep it? Here is a very special gold dollar! I will take all the rest of your teeth when they fall out. OK?

(Heart),

T.F.

Crisis averted!

The Iraqi Shoe Thrower

2008-12-19T01:49:00.007-05:00

(Authors warning: There is a picture of a deceased child at the bottom of this post- a casualty of the Iraq war. It is a very small picture. I included it because it just might elicit the emotional response that might make someone want to throw their shoes at the person they feel is responsible for the death of a child.)

The shoe incident was a weird one. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is. It might have been laughable if I didn't understand the symbolism of what was happening. I remember as the United States military moved through Iraq "liberating" the country one area at a time the Iraqi people were slapping paintings of Saddam with their shoes. The news outlets explained to us that this was the ultimate act of defiance and disgust. I'm not sure there is an equivalent in our culture. So was calling someone a "dog" as this journalist did to Bush. "This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog," he exclaimed. I don't think that guy should have thrown his shoes at Pres. Bush. But I think I understand why he did. The cartoon below pretty much sums it up for me.

The closest I've ever been to living in a country that was under attack was September 11th. I don't want that to happen again. We lost a lot of lives that day.

The whole Iraq mess it terrible. I don't pretend to have the right answer to this war. I do, however, believe that we were mis-led about the WMD's and Iraq's potential to really hurt us as a country. I don't know. However, I'm not sure this journalist was all that upset about why we went into Iraq, he was upset about what happened after we got there.

It's impossible to determine how many lives have been lost as a result of the war. At the writing of this entry, coalition deaths have totalled 4525. The attacks on 9/11, minus the terrorists, claimed 2,973 lives. This totals 7,498. While not all of these lives are American, for the purposes of this entry we'll consider them American losses. The estimated number of Iraqi deaths since the invasion in April of 2003 is staggering. The following is an excerpt from justforeignpolicy.org :

In a country such as Iraq, where sufficient reporting mechanisms do not exist, there is a scientifically accepted way to measure demographics including death rate: a cluster survey. Cluster surveys provide reliable demographic information the wake of natural disasters, wars and famines. Cluster surveys give us the data about deaths in Darfur, accepted for example by the U.S. government as one basis for its charge of genocide. They are used by U.N. agencies charged with disaster and famine relief.
In Iraq, there have been two scientifically rigorous cluster surveys conducted since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The first, published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet (available in pdf), estimated that 100,000 excess Iraqi deaths had resulted from the invasion as of September 2004. The second survey, also published in The Lancet (available in pdf), updated that estimate through July 2006. Due to an escalating mortality rate, the researchers estimated that over 650,000 Iraqis had died who would not have died had the death rate remained at pre-invasion levels. Roughly 601,000 of those excess deaths were due to violence.
As with all statistical methods, the Lancet surveys come with a margin of error, as do opinion polls, for example. In the second survey, the researchers were 95 percent certain that there were between 426,000 and 794,000 excess violent deaths from March 2003 to July 2006. 601,000 is the most likely number of excess violent deaths. It is this number that our Estimator updates.
As of September 2007, a poll from the British polling firm Opinion Research Business contributed to our understanding of the Iraqi death toll, confirming the likelihood that over a million have died with an estimate of 1.2 million deaths."

I honestly don't know how reliable these numbers are. I really don't. But the cost of war for Americans has been different than it has been for the Iraqis. Here is an article that speaks to how some of the actions of the American gov't are viewed by the locals. I think I believe things are improving in Iraq, and I am hopeful that the Iraqi people in the future will enjoy the same freedoms I enjoy. I'm just really uncomfortable with the price the Iraqi's have paid in civilian lives. I'm uncomfortable, the reporter was pissed, and I'm not sure I blame him.

I know there are people that will read this that have loved ones in the US military. So do I. I'm not calling them cold-blooded killers, I just don't think we in the west ever have any understanding of what the Iraqi people have gone through. I think if my friends, neighbors, and relatives were being killed on a regular basis, I'd probably want to throw something at the leader of the country responsible too. I wanted to on 9/11. And I didn't know any of those people.

I imagine that the journalist that threw his shoes has seen things I'll likely never see. I decided NOT to post some of the more disturbing images I found of civilian casualties from the Iraq war. The girl in the picture below was 6 and is being washed in preparation for her burial. You can find the article with the picture by clicking on it. There are more pictures there too. Be forewarned- it is not a feel-good article.

God help me understand how many Iraqi lives are worth the safety and security of one American life. It seems like fuzzy math to me.

I'll take a number one, coffee medium/regular, french cruller and Boston cream...

2008-12-12T01:55:00.011-05:00

Every New England-er has their "regular" order at Dunkin Donuts. They also have a back-up regular in case the regular doesn't work out for some reason. If you go to the same Dunks for a while, the person behind the counter even learns to recognize you and knows your order before you open your mouth to ask for it. It becomes pretty convenient. (I don't think this is possible at Stah-bucks. I found this one hilarious! And add it to the reasons to support this guy.)

For as long as I can remember, my regular has been #1. It's a coffee with 2 donuts. I used to get Hazelnut coffee back when they still brewed hazelnut flavored coffee beans. Now they use hazelnut flavored syrup which is not the same taste. The first tastes like Hazelnut coffee, the other tastes like coffee with Hazelnut syrup in it. Totally lame. So, now I simply order just a normal flavored coffee, medium/regular (which means with cream and sugar in New England but nowhere else), with my two favorite donuts- the Boston Creme and the French Cruller. Both are great donuts on their own (I actually think the French Cruller is my fav of the two) but for me, one is inadequate without the other. I am very particular about how I like my Boston Creme served to me. It's simple- place it in the bag carefully as to avoid the chocolate covering sticking to the inside of the bag and getting all over everything. (Ok, so they usually just throw it in the bag, but I fix it before any damage is done!) Eating the Boston Creme takes a bit of pre-planning too. The first bite should be over the hole where they put the creme filling in so the filling doesn't come squirting out said hole upon the first bite. That gets messy. The french cruller is simply a soft, flaky, sweet treat. And if you're lucky, you get it warm and it's a soft, flaky, warm, and gooey treat! Mmmmm...

There is a DD two blocks from my desk at work, and until recently I was going there daily for my #1. This particular DD is located inside an Exxon gas station on the corner of Park Drive and Boylston street in Boston. Many of you might recognize gas station as it uses it's land for a parking lot during Red Sox games. Things were going well until just before Halloween this year. I entered and asked for the usual.

"I'll take a number one, coffee medium/regular, with a Boston Creme and a French Cruller (pronounced cur'-ler)," I said.

"I'm sorry, we don't have French Crullers right now. We have replaced them with pumpkin donuts," replied Trevor from behind the counter. Poor Trevor. I really let him know how sad I was that of all the donuts they made chose replace my favorite. And I don't even like pumpkin flavored anything. This poor shmoe was just the messenger!

Fortunately for me, Trevor was a very customer service oriented kid and he spoke to his manager for me! Next time I was in there there was a small number of crullers specifically waiting for me! Woohoo!!! Unfortunately, I began to put on weight and had to cut down on my donut intake. I stopped going to DD's every morning. Instead, I began to walk up all of the stairs at work (44 flights a night) and only treat myself to DD on Fridays. I felt bad that Trevor had gotten me the crullers and then I stopped buying them all the time, but it was necessary to avoid gaining weight.

Well, this morning is Friday so I went down to DD's to get the regular. When I did, the kid (Isaiah) behind the counter told me the french crullers were considered "manager specials" and were not included in the #1 since they cost more. I looked at him, dumbfounded.

"No, their not," I replied.

"Yes, they are," he corrected me.

"Since when," I asked?

"They've always been. I didn't know it until recently when I got in trouble for selling them at the regular price."

"I think you need to re-check your facts," I insisted. "I've been ordering the same thing for over 20 years and the french cruller has never been anything other than a regular donut." I pointed at his co-worker, Zorah. "She sells them to me all the time! She knows!"

It was to no avail. I ended up getting a "Low fat" blueberry muffin instead. As it turns out, the muffin was far more fattening than my donut. 1 French Cruller has 150 calories. 1 "low fat" blueberry muffin has 400 calories, about 2.7 times the calories in the cruller. Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!
Someone at this DD has something against either me or the french cruller. I intend to do some serious investigating. Or do I?

This whole stupid situation has filled my night with a considerable amount of cognitive dissonan ce. On the one hand, I'm really upset by this little inconvenience. It's amazing how one little change in a 20 year old routine can mess with one's mind. On the other hand, I am very aware of how stupid my feelings are! This one little donut costs as much or more than millions of people in the world make in a day. It's shamful, really. I want to go in there and meet the manager and find out what this guy has against the cruller. He's probaby a communist! But I can't imagine how I could possible make a stink about something so dumb. I wonder what I'll do?

I'll keep you posted. I'm sure you'll be waiting with baited breath.

Wise-guy 5-year-old...

2008-12-09T04:51:00.005-05:00

(Author's note: If for some reason you are reading this and don't know me or my family, we're about as white as it gets! That'll help understand the context of this post.)

Our son Joshua never ceases to amaze us with what comes out of his mouth. We have friends of many different races and nationalities. The following was a conversation that took place between our son Josh and a Korean friend of ours...

Josh: "Are you Chinese?"

Friend: "No, I'm Korean."

Josh: "You look Chinese."

Friend: "Well, I'm not, I'm Korean. Sometimes people make that mistake though."

Josh: "I think you're Chinese because you look Chinese. You must be Chinese!"

Friend: "Well, just because I look Chinese doesn't mean I am Chinese!"

Josh: "Oh. Well, I'm Chinese."

Friend: "No you're not."

Josh: "Yes I am. My mommy's Chinese, my daddy's Chinese, my sister's Chinese, and I'm Chinese."

Friend: "You don't look very Chinese."

Josh: "Just because I don't look Chinese doesn't mean I'm not Chinese."

End of conversation!

Stuff I Don't Get...

2008-12-09T02:43:00.014-05:00

In my first entry titled Stuff I Don't Get... I explained that I had trouble understanding the logic behind Coors Light's advertising techniques. I'm detecting a pattern, because this post is also about advertising.

My first rant is in regards to the recent advertising campaign by Chrysler for the 2009 Dodge Ram. If you watch any sports at all, you've most likely seen commercials that show a sort of competition for people Driving Dodge Ram trucks. In order to see the content of the whole commercial, one must go to the website. This isn't the first time I've seen a commercial that tries to entice viewers to visit the website for a particular company. However, I don't think I've ever actually visited a site just to see the continuation of the commercial. This particular commercial effort however, seemed over-the-top so I decided to visit the site to see if the rest of it was just as stupid as I thought the teaser was. The teaser had these guys driving through an obstacle course that included trucks swinging like a pendulum and exploding buildings. (You can find these commercials at http://www.ramchallenge.com/.) I find these adds useless for many different reasons, but all of my pet-peeves for TV commercials boil down to this: I want you to show my why your product is of use to me. If it doesn't then you're not doing your job as an advertiser. Or you're simply clueless.

If you follow the above link, you'll note that the very first screen you come to is a large disclaimer which reads:

The following competition features actual contestants under the supervision of professional stunt drivers. Chrysler LLC, Dodge and its Agencies insist no one attempt to replicate the activity shown on this site.

I'm having a hard time understanding how that begins to make the case that I will find their trucks useful, but whatever. To summarize, there are these 8 guys broken up into teams of 2 according to their profession- 2 firefighters, 2 military men, 2 cowboys, and 2 contractors. Obviously, they are the manliest of men. The only manlier person is the host of the competition. I can't find any good way to describe him except that he looks like John Kruk's ugly brother- and even John Kruk would tell you that's not a compliment. He begins each stage of the 4-day competition by firing a sawed-off shotgun in the air. And he says "Never back down from a challenge" a lot. That's the catch-phrase for this ad campaign. The website is pretty impressive actually, and you need to watch a couple segments of video to see what I'm talking about. In short, it's a testosterone-laden 40 minutes of action movie/reality TV directed by Hollywood director/producer Tony Scott. During the race, the drivers take the trucks up and down steep inclines/declines, through a "wall of fire", avoid old cars and trucks swinging from cranes, over a bridge the drivers have to build themselves, and through an obstacle course while towing a good sized trailer among other things. In the grand finale, they drive their trucks through what appears to be an old ghost-town. As they drive by, or in some cases through these buildings they explode. I guess it's all in a days work. Or not.

Here's what I don't get...

1) Exactly who are they marketing these trucks to? Obviously they think cowboys, firefighters, military men, and contractors would find this stuff to be impressive. In fact, I think driving a truck through a course they had set up would be a lot of fun. But it's not likely to be something that will happen to me...or MOST OF THE WORLD. If they're trying to sell a lot of trucks, why don't they try to have a larger target audience?

2) How many millions of dollars did it take to produce this online commercial that most people won't ever see? I'm sure Tony Scott didn't do it for free. As far as quality goes, it's first-rate. It reminded me a lot of "24," right down to the letters that flashed across the screen. I'd like to see a Congressman ask the guys at Chrysler who gave the OK for this commercial if they really think it was the best use of their advertising budget.

Here's the weird thing- I just bought a new truck. I've taken some ribbing for it as it's kind of large and rather redneckish. (It even has a NASCAR sticker on the back window. I'll be removing that the first time I have a chance!) I'll be sure NOT to lend it to people who teased me when they need a truck. Especially those who returned my last truck with a large dent in it! I used the "truck" part of my old truck all the time. It wasn't just a vehicle to get me around. I used it for landscaping, picking up stuff at Home Depot for home projects, towing the occasional trailer, helping friends move, etc... If I didn't have a truck, I'd have to get used to it. I like owning a truck. I got a new truck because my family has outgrown my old truck and I'd like to be able to take them all with me. The new truck is a 1994 with 56,500 miles on it, reasonably priced, and in almost mint condition. It's the only truck I've ever seen with an automatic sliding rear window. I like this truck. But when looking for a new truck I never asked myself, "Can it go through a wall of fire? Will I be able to successfully navigate a gauntlet of swinging cars? Will I be able to jump through an old building just before it explodes? I hope so. I might need to some day." Because that happens to a lot of people, right?

I've rambled on this long enough... I just don't see why anyone would buy a truck due to this expensive add.

My second "I don't get it" isn't as big of a deal. It's about the Snuggie. This is just plain silly. Some will find a use for this, but please, I'm begging you, do NOT take it to any sporting event. You'll need to pause the video when the family is at the sporting event to see how silly they look. I can't imagine bringing one of these things to a curling event let alone a Patriots game.

Well, that's it for this rant. Sometimes I'm just a goof.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

2008-11-26T04:46:00.002-05:00

I recently posted this picture in one of my albums on Facebook. It is one of my all time favorites, and it is by far the best picture I've ever taken. A few people have commented on the picture and I figured that since there's a story with it too, I thought this might be a good time to tell it.

Joy and I have never really "decided" to get pregnant. We were thinking about it and decided to kind of let nature take its course. Nature found the course within two weeks of us deciding to give nature its freedom. I was pretty excited. Joy was a bit unsure, as she really likes to plan everything. All of the sudden, when she was pregnant, she began to realize not everything is plan-able. Like when her friend Melissa came over and found the positive pregnancy test in our next to the TV in our bedroom. Then again, maybe she didn't really "find" it- perhaps that was planned.

We had been pregnant before. In April of 1998 Joy began to wonder if she was pregnant because she had been feeling funny in a new way. She went to the doctor and found out that she was pregnant four and a half months into our marriage. I was naive and thrilled. Joy was neither. There were tears of fear. "How are we going to handle a baby," she asked me? I didn't know but I wasn't too concerned. A few days later we were in the emergency room experiencing a miscarriage. We didn't know how to feel. Joy had begun to warm up to the idea, and I had begun to look at things realistically. At any rate, we had been aware of the pregnancy for about 2 weeks when it ended. We've always wondered what that child would have been like, but felt that we weren't ready for a baby at that time, so that took a little of the pain out of the loss. This time around, we were both sure of our desire to have a child.

It was April of 2002 and we were excited. We began to wonder what sex the baby was, and Joy insisted that we find out as soon as we could so she could plan for the arrival. We found out it was a boy. It would be the first boy in our branch of the Scott family tree. There was just my brother and me to carry on the family name so this was a bit of a relief- to have the pressure off. Whew! That summer we went to my cousin Amber's wedding to Ryan in VA. For some reason, Joy and I ended up in different locations during that trip, (Joy was at her parents home in MD, and I was back in MA preparing for new student orientation,) and I remember the devastating phone call late at night.

"Jeff I think its happening again," she said through tears.

"What's happening again," I asked?

"I'm bleeding pretty bad."

"Oh. You are? How bad?"

"Pretty bad. It's pretty steady..."

Joy was at her parents home in Maryland and I remember that it was pretty early in the morning when she called. I didn't know what to say. I was hundreds of miles away and just wanted to be with her. How do you hold your wife from that far away? Joy went to see a doctor the next day. I was waiting with the phone by my side for an update. Based on how Joy was describing things, it wasn't good. I was already preparing for the worst. I was trying to decide how we would handle this. Would we have a burial? I mean, there would actually be remains. It was tough- painful just to consider.

The phone call came and it sounded like a miracle. They still heard a heartbeat which meant the baby was still alive! Eventually we found out that a blood vessel between the uterine wall and the placenta had ruptured and caused the bleed. There was no idea how much blood Joy lost or if it had affected the baby, but the doctors seemed very optimistic. Apparently a blood vessel had ruptured between the uterine wall and the placenta. The result was the bleeding and a golf-ball sized blood clot. While it didn't sound pretty, it wasn't something all that uncommon. But they also said that from that point on, Joy was considered a "high risk" pregnancy. She took it easy for the next few weeks and eventually, the bleeding subsided and stopped. A couple of months later she began to experience preterm labor. It was October, and as much as we wanted to meet our son, now named Joshua Charles, the doctor told us that it was too early to let him be born. Joy was placed on bed-rest and spent some time in the hospital. When we returned home she spent quite a bit of time in bed. Most of that time was working on the phone and on computer, but I guess technically, she was in bed.

On January 18, 2003, we went over to the home of some friends, Brent and Edie Richardson, for dinner. Joy was rather large by that time and was due in about two weeks. While we were eating we all joked about whether or not there was something in the roast beef that might make Joy go into labor. Apparently there was. As we got into the car Joy looked at me and said "Jeff, I think my water just broke. Yeah, I'm sure it did!" When we got home I called the Doctor and she told us to head in to the hospital to be sure. I'm told that it is normal for the husband to start freaking out at that point. However, this isn't what happened. Joy went into an absolute frenzy. Mrs. "I have it all planned out" began to yell orders and was a little bit freaked out. I just stood there and watched. It was classic. I wanted to take it all in. I think I was even laughing at her. Eventually she took a wrong step and kicked a fireplace grate that was waiting to go down to storage with her shin. That slowed her down. As I was consoling her I pointed out how she was acting and we both had a good laugh. Off to the hospital.

The nurses at Tufts New England Medical Center confirmed that A) her water had broken, and B) I was not beating her. With these two important facts in hand, they put us into a room. The only problem was, she wasn't in labor. They gave us the choice of starting labor with pitocin or going to bed and seeing if it started naturally. We chose to try to sleep. We had the TV turned on to Rocky III. At one point, a TV journalist in the movie asked Mr. T if he had any predictions for "the fight". "Pain" was his answer. (Thanks to the beauty of Youtube, I found the clip.) Joy and I both laughed because we thought that it might be an appropriate answer for us too. Off to sleep...or not.

With all of the anticipation we didn't really sleep all that well. Nor did Joy's labor begin. When we woke up, Joy started the meds to begin labor and we were off. I don't remember how long labor was, I only remember that it began slowly and Joy was of the mind to tough it out without any medication. She decided later that there was no way she was going to go through this without meds! The anesthesiologist came in, kicked me out, and gave Joy an epidural. I was not happy with him for kicking me out of the room. I had never heard of that before. But I left anyways.

The delivery was difficult for Joy for a few different reasons. First, she was really tired. She hadn't slept much the night before, then she had taken some nausea medicine to counteract the side-effects of the pitosin. The nausea meds made her sleepy. Second, Joy could no longer feel anything due to the epidural and couldn't tell where or when to push. Third, the sweet over-night nurse gave way to a not-as-sweet nurse with a strong personality and no nonsense demeanor. She was a bit more difficult to work with and kind of made Joy feel like it was her fault that the delivery was taking so long. However, it was evident that this nurse was on the ball and could tell when things were taking longer than they should have. Baby Joshua eventually crowned, but remained crowned for an extended period of time. This nurse then began to get visibly frustrated with the doctor (and resident, and medical student) and wondered when he was going to take the necessary steps to speed up the process. Eventually he did and Joshua was born! It was a very exciting moment for all in the room. My excitement was full of joy. The doctor's and everyone else's excitement was full of concern for the baby. I didn't even notice that Josh wasn't pink and screaming. He was whitish gray turning blue. (See the picture to the left.) The doctor hurried me through the cord-cutting process and rushed Joshua to the receiving table where about 6 members of the medical staff was waiting for him. They began to work feverishly to get him to breath. They did everything they could- rub-downs, little spankings, cleared his airway, and eventually a shot in the leg to get him to breath. Nothing worked well, as you can see the shot had little effect.

Joy got to hold him for about 20 seconds before they rushed him to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). When he was finally in the NICU, they placed him under an oxygen hood as seen above. He began to gain strength and was screaming by the time I got up to the NICU for a short visit. It certainly wasn't the birth experience we were hoping for. Joy was a mess, and I had no clue what was going on. As far as I knew it was normal. Well, I understood that rushing a baby out of the delivery room to the NICU is not normal. But I was sure it had happened before.

It wasn't long before Josh was acting like a healthy little baby boy. They told us that he would probably have to stay in the NICU for about 24 hours, but he was in Joy's room by that evening and we were on our way home in two days. All seemed well! I returned to work and Joy began to settle in with Josh. She took some announcement pictures to send out to our friends. These included some of the only pictures you'll ever see of Josh with a pacifier. He never really liked them.
It is likely that you can't tell from these pictures, but Josh was pretty jaundiced. We didn't really notice for a couple of reasons. One, we never had another baby to compare him to. Two, the lighting in our apartment wasn't the best and we couldn't really tell. However, when we took him in for his first check-up with his new pediatrician, we could tell in the brighter light. We knew even before the doctor told us that we were going back to the hospital. When we got there we were told Josh had a bilirubin level of 19. That's very high. The medical staff said that we were right on the border of blood transfusion levels. Fortunately, it never came to that.

They put this really ugly mask on Joshua and placed him under some really bright, warm lights for what they call phototherapy. We were really disappointed that we couldn't hold him that much, and we all wanted to be the one to hold him for feedings. For obvious reasons, Joy had the opportunity to do this more than the rest of us, but we all got our turn.

There was a lot of down-time in the hospital. After all, he was simply laying there under lights. It's not like we were playing with him. So I began to play with our camera instead. I don't have a lot of knowledge about lighting or anything like that, but the camera automatically adjusted to make up for the bright lights of the "jaundice machine." I was able to take some fantastic pictures including the one of Joy looking over her baby boy. I feel like that picture is the kind that tells a silent story. The kind of story that only the person looking at the picture knows. We could probably give that picture to a group of writers and they'd be able to come up with some great stories about what the circumstances may have been surrounding the picture. In fact, by simply telling the actual story, I may be detracting from the picture.

The fact is, even with his high levels of jaundice, Josh was probably the healthiest baby in the NICU. There were some very sick and very little babies in that wing of the hospital. There were parents in there that were hurting much more than us. There were babies whose 5-plus month-long stay in the NICU made our little 1 week sojourn look like some sort of weird vacation. Hey, Josh was laying around getting phototherapy for crying out loud! We actually had it pretty good and we knew it. We were fortunate, and not everybody there was as fortunate as we were. We knew that some of the little ones there were actually fighting for their lives, and the parents were helpless. We had the nerve to complain that we were missing the NFL playoffs. Yes, Joy too. After a week long stay we returned home for good.

Josh has grown in every way since that time almost 6 years ago. He was able to meet his great-grandpa Nease before he passed away. This picture is one of the last pictures of grandpa smiling. He looks a lot better in this picture than he actually was.

He also met his great-grandma Scott and Mama, his great-grandma Poole.

So, as you can see, Joshua has turned out just fine. He's tall for his age, very smart, has a GREAT imagination (thanks to Auntie Merritt and friends for this video), and he is a terrific big brother. His little sister, Jordan, adores him (thanks to Uncle Jeremy for this video). She is however, another story for another day.

Oh, Brother...

2008-10-30T05:36:00.010-04:00

In the spring of 2005, I left my position as a Resident Director at Eastern Nazarene College. The time had come. In fact, it was probably past time. I started the job search for another position in student affairs. There were no real hits for a while, and then I received an email from the Director of Student Activities at Emerson College about a new position they were hiring for there. I knew three things about Emerson. 1) It is a Communication Arts school. 2) My cousin attended there. 3) It was a very liberal college- even for Boston. And for some reason, I knew immediately that I was going to be offered the position. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't nonchalant about the interview process, but I believed that if God was in the business of placing His people in learning situations, this was the learning situation for me.

I remember about a month after taking the position walking along the street with the president of the Student Government Association. She was (and I assume still is) a hard-core Democrat. (TANGENT ALERT!!! I found a "type" of person I didn't know existed while I was at Emerson- gay conservatives. It took me a while to understand how that was possible.) I think we were talking about Bush's defeat of Kerry. She began to get a bit angry as she spoke about Bush. I remember telling her that one reason I had difficulty listening to Democrats was because they were always so angry. I tried to express to her that it would be easier for people like me to listen to people like her if they didn't get so angry all the time. After a while it sounded like whining.) I'm sure she's glad I shared my wisdom with her.

Indeed Emerson College was a learning experience for me. I'm glad that I spent a short year-and-a-half there. I consider myself a moderate now, but if I'm honest, I think I'd have to admit to leaning further to the left politically. I finally began to hear and understand why liberals got so angry, and you know what? I find myself getting angry a lot now. My latest issue- "Obama is the Antichrist." My brother played the role of a sounding board yesterday and convinced me NOT to blog about it. I'm glad he did. My last blog was about as negative as I want to be. In fact, it was probably too negative. I kinda wish I hadn't written it. But it's out there now. A couple of weeks ago I blogged about homosexuality. I wasn't angry for that one, but the topic was important to me. The blog was heartfelt. My brother said he was proud of me, a comment for which I was grateful. I felt that I had made myself pretty vulnerable. There was kind of a pride for me for "putting it all on the line" so to speak. Whatever...

Yesterday my brother shared with me that he preached a difficult sermon this past Sunday. He expressed that some of his parishioners may have struggled a bit with what he said. I realized something then. Preachers are in the habit of making themselves vulnerable on a weekly basis. Sometimes more. I know this because there is not a Sunday that goes by that I don't critique almost every word that comes out of my pastors mouth when he's preaching. It simply comes with the territory. I usually keep my critical thoughts between my wife and me. I'm not one to tell my pastor how or what to preach. That's up to God. Fortunately, I believe my pastor really understands the gospel and preaches it well. He doesn't know it, but it's even worse for my brother when I'm listening to him preach. I mean hey, he's my little brother, I've been judging his every move his whole life. I mean, it's my God-given right as the older brother to guide and teach him the correct way to do things! It's a hard habit to break. So when he's preaching, I'm not only critiquing his sermon, I'm critiquing his delivery, his hair, his motions, etc... Alright, I'm not that bad, but simply said, I critique my brother differently than other preachers.

He sent me the link to the podcast of his sermon. Everyone is doing that now. I'm not just bragging on my bro when I say that it's one of the best messages I've heard in a long time. My brother is not an orator, so I'm not talking about the delivery, nor do I really care about the delivery. My brother is an unashamed and humble disciple of Christ and that is all he wants to be. He believes God called him into the ministry, and that's the only reason he's done it. Apparently the people in his church believe God has called him too, because they voted him into the pulpit. As a preachers kid, I understand that most sermons are "run of the mill" with a message from God, but nothing earth shattering or too difficult to hear. But there are also sermons that God lays on a pastors heart which are more difficult to deliver and more difficult to hear. It seems that these are the Sundays where the pastor "just doesn't have it" or was too "judgmental". I imagine these Sundays are very difficult for pastors. But they have to preach those messages! They are God's mouthpiece to their congregation. To ignore the direction of the Holy Spirit would place the minister in a state of sin. You all remember the Jonah story. It's a different setting and message, but Jonah wanted to avoid delivering it.

Jeremy's message this past Sunday was about the Christian perspective on life. Politics was mentioned several times. It really hit home for me because I'm afraid I've been guilty of focusing on the negative in this race. Actually, it wasn't even that I was focusing on the negative aspects of the candidates, but I've been very negative towards my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Simply put, as a disciple of Christ, he simply commands my obedience. He does not command that I offer my opinion on everything. This sermon is worth listening to. I hope you do. It's about half an hour long with a very important message for followers of Christ. In fact, I'm begging you...

Newly Discovered Text!!!! The Gospel of Ben Stein, some other dude, and SNOPES.com

2008-10-23T00:46:00.015-04:00

I have most of my friends categorized into three email groups:

1) Friends who forward EVERYTHING. Emails from these friends are quickly deleted if the subject line includes "FWD" or indicates that the message within is likely nonsense that ends with something like "Send this to ten of your friends including yourself, and the Tamba Bay Rays will beat the Red Sox to move on to the World Series this year." I'm not superstitious and none of that stuff ever works. I trash it immediately.

2) Friends who only forward things to me that are either funny or true. For me this is generally family members or close friends. They all know me pretty well and only include me in the forward if they think I'll appreciate it. They're not trying to "inform" me or prove some point. They're just trying to make me smile or share information they know I care about. Most of the time they're right.

3) Friends who never forward anything. The only emails I receive from them are relevant to some aspect of my relationship with them. The first time I receive a forward from them it usually begins with "I don't usually forward things but..." I open it, knowing that as soon as I do this particular friend will no longer be in category 3. I will make a quick decision to place their name into category 1 or 2. This process usually works well. It was a bit more challenging for me over the past few days.

(Before I continue, it is very important that I make one thing very clear. I'm about to get very negative, sarcastic, and even condemning of an email I received from a friend. I am NOT upset with my friend. They were duped. I don't like to be duped, and I don't like it when it happens to my friends. So if you're one of the friends who sent this to me, or if you've sent it to others, don't feel bad. This isn't aimed at you, it's aimed at the "author" of the email.)

In the span of about 10 days or so I received the same forwarded email from two different people in my church community. These people were in category 3, people that I often receive emails from on various issues. They are both good friends. I have cut and pasted the email below. You may think you have received this email before (as I did). But you may find that it is a bit different. At any rate, please read the whole thing as the last portion of this post will be difficult to follow if you have not.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

As I mentioned earlier, I thought I had seen this email before but as I re-read it this time I was pretty sure it was different- longer in fact- than the last time. The portion I had received previously was Mr. Stein's commentary about Christmas. When I received the original "FWD" I checked snopes.com to see if it was actually legitimately Ben Stein's commentary. It was. I was appreciative of his candid remarks. (I always check snopes.com for things like these. Without exception! I hope you do too.) But this time around there were some issues for me.

When Ben Stein first issued these remarks, it was on TV. Specifically CBS Sunday Morning where he sometimes offers commentary. (This particular commentary begun with a short rant about how he didn't know who Nick and Jessica Simpson were and felt old.) The email even stated in the first line where the comments were from. Problem is, this most recent email ended with,

"My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully [typo NOT added],

Ben Stein"

I've never before heard someone on the TV offer commentary that ended with "My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully...". Not once. Nor have I ever heard someone try to guilt me into forwarding on their commentary with some magical Tivo as if my relationship with God depended on it. Ben Stein's original message had obviously been changed. I was miffed. I checked snopes again to see where the changes began. Snopes had updated their information, but the whole email was still listed as "true."

The addition to the email began mid-sentence where the new "author" deleted the names "Nick and Jessica" and relaced them with "these celebrities" in an effort to set up the rest of the email. The rest of the addition begins with the words, "In the light of the many jokes we send..." What follows is several quotes, many of which are defensive, about the state of affairs in the world and how they relate to the role of God in America. As far as I can tell the quotes were not made up, and snopes confirms the statements. What bothered me was the fact that somebody had the audacity to add stuff to Ben Stein's original comments which were good enough to stand on their own merrit! Further, Mr. Stein's point was not the same point as the author of the second half of the more recent email.

Stein's point was offered as an opinion and was, I thought, fair- I don't mind if people say to me, a Jew, "Merry Christmas!" People who find "Merry Christmas" to be offensive need to get over it." The second author's point was well intended, but uninformed- God is allowing bad things to happen to us because we have kicked him out of schools, etc... I immediately began to write a "reply to all" email to inform everyone that they had been duped. As usual, I began to get a bit long-winded and had to stop to go pick up my kids from their day care. I'm glad I did because I had some time to think more about this email.

While they don't clearly state that they are a Christian, I think it's pretty clear that whoever provided the "editing" professes faith in Christ. And as always, they've done a disservice to my savior. I get their point, but they had no right to change the commentary. Especially not in the name of God. Further, I'm not sure what kind of God they're serving.

One of my friends said that it was food for thought. Well, I thought about it, and here's what I think:

"Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?' "

I think Billy Graham is wonderful. I have a ton of respect for him as an evangelist and theologian. One of the reason I believe this is because I never heard him say things like this. I don't think what Anne is all that profound or insightful in this circumstance. Am I to assume that if every single United States citizen was a believer in God- Baptist even- then Katrina wouldn't have happened? No Anne, "we" haven't all demanded that God get out of our government. And even if we had, Jesus reminded us that God doesn't neglect people simply because they don't follow His will. Consider Mattew 5:45, "...He [God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

"In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK."

Again, "we" is a bit broad, don't you think? Besides, people who read the Bible and believe in God kill all of the time. Think Crusades, Inquisition, and abortion clinic bombings/shootings for starters. Clearly it didn't start with Madeleine O'Hare. Jesus believed in God and he was murdered. So did Stephen, Peter, Paul, Andrew, ...you get my point.

"Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK."

You're not honestly saying that Dr Spock is responsible for his son's suicide are you? I hope not because his son didn't commit suicide. His 22-year-old grandson who suffered from schizophrenia did in 1983. (Source: Wikipedia and snopes.com) But I've never heard that spanking gives children schizophrenia. In general, experts do know what they're talking about. I'm sure there are millions of children that were never spanked that will live long and prosper. Like me, for instance. As for Dr. Spock, I did a little research on him. I think he and Jesus would have gotten along well.

"Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'"

Gosh, you sound an aweful lot like Jeremiah Wright. If I remember the sound bite correctly, I think he said something like "The chickens have come home to roost!" Is that what you're trying to say?

"Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?"

No, I'm not laughing. Especially since you have added you're own bit of uninformed commentary to Mr. Stein's opinion. Apparently stretching the truth is not lying. You're lucky, because if it was I might have to spank you.

"Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in."

Funny how while I think I get your point, and might even agree with your intent I still wouldn't pass this on if my life depended on it. How dare you tell me that not forwarding a doctored email suggests I'm ashamed of my faith?

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

It really strikes me that 1) This is no longer Ben Stein, 2) "honest" isn't a word that comes to mind after reading this, and 3) I didn't exactly feel respected either. You forgot to capitalize the "r".

Which could stand for repulsive.

It was then that something did occured to me. This is how some of the Bible was written.

I used to think that all of the books of the Bible were placed in order by age. That is, Genesis was the oldest and Revelation was the newest. This is not the case. In fact, many scholars believe that Job is the oldest book in the Bible, not Genesis. Revelation is the most recent, authored around 95 BC. The early church of Christ did not have the New Testament. Instead they were told stories, an oral history, of Jesus. They were told over and over again, until they were eventually written down. Paul's ministry and letters pre-date our recorded gospels. Mark is generally accepted as the earlies gospel and it is widely accepted that much of the information in Matthew and Luke was taken from Mark. I was gonna try to explain all of this, but I won't because I don't know enough about it. If you care, find some books that talk about it. Or check that peer-reviewed source (choke, cough...) known as Wikipedia. That'll do. My point is, there wasn't a scribe watching Jesus and then writing down everything he did (as they did with Mohammed. Oh yeah, that's a different religion. I'm sorry.) There are a lot of differences in the Gospel accounts of Jesus's life, and sometimes things got lost (or added) in translation during the years where the Bible was copied by hand.

Obviously I'm in no way comoparing the Bible to an email. Brotha pleez. Far from it. I believe that the ancient scribes and such had better intentions and were much better informed than the email author (particularly in light of Holy Spirit inspiration and direction), but I just couldn't help but wonder about how much different our gospels today might be from the original author's words and intent. This is the stuff of dissertations. Maybe someday...

"H" The Modern Scarlet Letter

2008-10-21T01:07:00.011-04:00

Several of my friends have offered their opinions on homosexuality in their blogs. When my response to one of those blogs became longer than the blog itself, I decided to post it in my own blog. As is typical for me, this will be long. In fact, I can't imagine having another blog post be as long as this one. Perhaps someday I'll learn how to make short points, but for now, I'm unable. I hope you can excuse this. Four warnings:

I take forever to get to my point.
Even when (more like if) I get to my point, I do not come to a conclusion on this topic. So if you're looking for one, please don't be surprised.
A message to my gay friends that may be reading this: At this point in my walk through wisdom, not coming to a conclusion is the best that I can offer for you. I have a tremendous amount of love for you, and not just because the Bible tells me to love you. I also have a tremendous amount of respect for your courage. I've never had to fight a battle like you are fighting and I've never been rejected like you've been rejected. I do not consider myself any "gooder" than you. This issues has rocked my faith like no other.
I say things here that will probably upset every reader at some point- gays, Christians, gay Christians, fundamentalists- I try not to discriminate. But, I am not intending to upset you, I'm only sharing my journey with you. I have no malicious intent, and at no time to I claim that I'm correct and you are wrong. These are just my thoughts.

Homosexuality is the most difficult issue for me to discuss. I just don't get it. I've said before, one of my biggest obstacles to understanding this topic is that I'm not gay. I never have been and I never will be. It's very similar to having never been black. I'll never truly know what it's like to live as a black man in America since I've never been black in my life. I didn't always understand this. I used to think I could identify with homosexuals because I know what it is like to struggle with my own sexual temptations. The problem is, a homosexual is not simply struggling with the desire to have sex with someone of the same sex. They are not fighting for the right to get married because they want to have sex. People do not need to be married to have sex. People, both gay and straight, have extra-marital sex all the time. Sexual intimacy is probably last on the list of reasons homosexuals have for seeking marital rights. In fact, the fact that we focus so much on the sexual act probably says more about a Christian heterosexual's motivation for marraige than it does the homosexual's motivation for marriage. Sexual intimacy should be the last reason people get married. In healthy marriages, sexual intimacy is a blessed bonus.*

I guess the best way for me to understand how homosexuals feel is to consider that the circumstances were reversed. What if homosexuality was the norm and heterosexuality was illegal and considered sin and an abomination? What would that mean for me? Simply put, that would suck. Yet that's the reality for thousands of people. So what now?

Homosexuality has forced me to examine my values- where they come from and how they guide me. My values come from my upbringing and my faith. It is very possible that if I had been brought up in a different family, I would be of a different faith. However, I was brought up in a Christian, conservative home with Biblically based, Judeo-Christian values. Difficulty arises when many people use the Bible to support opposite sides of the same issue. Why do some people think the Bible says one thing, and other people think the Bible says other things? Apparently, the Bible isn't as clear as some people think it is. Frankly, sometimes the Bible is as clear as mud for me, but it's still sacred to me. Further, while the Bible can be as clear as mud, the Kingdom of God doesn't seem that difficult to understand.

I am reminded that according to the Bible, Jesus said more than once that he was sending a gift to help his followers in with faith. This gift was the Holy Spirit; it was not the Bible. The Bible is a blessed and sacred collections of Holy Spirit driven writings of various kinds (songs, poems, letters, etc...). It is a book about God's relationship with creation. It is a story about how God has interacted with man throughout history. I do not view it as a collection of do's and don'ts. I find more value in viewing the Bible for what it shows me, not what it tells me. For instance, you don't have to be a Christian to recognize the lyrics to the song Jesus Loves Me.

Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so...

I'm of the mind to change one little word so that it would be sung,

Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible SHOWS me so...

It's a small change, but it changes my perspective tremendously. It shows me how God has interacted with humanity in the past and informs me about how I might expect God to interact with me today.

Disagreements about what the scriptures mean is nothing new. The new testament is fraught with documented theological disagreements. (Think Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Herodians.) The Bible also shows several instances where two or more Christian leaders (think Peter and Paul) disagree vehemently about certain issues (think ministering to gentiles and Jews). The early church leaders were trying to figure out some very important issues without the benefit of the New Testament. They had their scriptures, but relied heavily on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They weren't just "we agree to disagree" issues either. They were just as significant as out discussions about homosexuality. If the early Christians couldn't see clearly on some of the issues of their day simply by using the scriptures, who am I to say that the Bible is "clear" on issues of my day? I won't. And I'll always err on the side of Grace.

Understanding this, I try to approach the issue of homosexuality (and violence, and abortion, and whatever) by referring to the Bible, but also relying heavily on the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help me understand how to approach certain situations. Fact is, I won't know for sure until I take my last earthly breath. In doing this, I have felt free to consider God's motivation for delineating certain sins. For instance, why did God give the Hebrews the ten commandments? If you killed somebody before Moses received the ten commandments was it not a sin? Was it OK with God because hey, He hadn't given humanity the Ten Commandments yet? No. "In the beginning was the Word..." God's law has always been God's law. Unfortunately, it seems that we as a race were so incapable of maintaining diligence in adhering to God's natural law, we were so far fallen from what God wanted us to be that it became necessary to spell out how we were to live. Then we fell into the trap of adhering to a list of "sins" or "not sins" even to the point of categorizing sins. Nothing beneficial comes from this categorizing, and it detracts from the meaning of life. We're either creating a holiness hierarchy or trying to determine what we can get away with to avoid God's wrath rather participating in creation as God meant for us to. We're either striving for holiness, or we're not. We're either living in the Spirit or we're not. So what's my point?

I don't believe that God sat down one day and tried to find a list of the ten best rules for us. (Actually, Mosaic law had a lot more than 10 laws.) They weren't just rules for the sake of having rules. They were logical and critical fundamentals for progressive participation in God's ongoing creation. It was as if God was saying "Hey Hebrews! If you want to participate successfully in life, you'll need to adhere to these 10 basic things..." The end result is a holy relationship with God and each other which sustains life. The end result is not an eternal party with wings and harps. God's law is the necessary glue with keeps the creative process in place.

So what does this have to do with homosexuality? Well, it kind of explains my worldview. It explains where I'm coming from when I consider whether something is wholesome in God's eyes.

Let me be clear about something. I believe that most gay people actually are gay. They're not faking it. They mean it. Most of them didn't want to be gay. Coming out was a difficult process for most of my gay friends. They risked everything for it. They knew they would hurt people when they came out. I believe that most of them were born gay. It is real, and it is seldom a choice. There is a list of people that I believe are gay, yet for some reason have not come out yet. I will not be surprised when it happens. I didn't always feel this way, but I do now. (And so does my church leadership. They have stated that they believe homosexuality is rarely a choice. This will surprise many members of the Church of the Nazarene.)

I guess I just need to know where homosexuality fits into the Holy Creative Blueprint. One of the issues in this debate is that of whether or not people are born gay. This quickly moves towards the question of whether or not God makes people gay. One of my gay friends once asked me "Do you think God put gay people on the earth to control the population?" He wasn't being cynical. He really wanted to know what I thought. At the time, I didn't know how to answer him. Fortunately, I don't have a problem admitting when I don't have an answer. But it bothered me that I didn't have an answer. Let's assume that homosexuality is a sinful state. (Remember, I consider homosexuality to be a state of being, not a simple sinful act.) If I believe that people are born gay- which I do- and if I believe that God creates people, then this means that God creates them in a sinful state. This is many people's reason for believing that people are not born gay. God wouldn't create sin. As I see it, this leaves me with two options:

Homosexuality is not sinful.
God does not create babies.

At this point, my homosexual friends have hope, and some of my conservative, fundamental friends are cringing, thinking of that "knit me together in the womb" verse (Psalm 139:13), and getting ready to surf away to somewhere else on the www. One choice will make my gay friends happy, but neither choice is likely to make some of my other friends happy. What to do?

I choose option 2. (Now before my gay friends get upset with me, please remember that I promised I wouldn't come to a conclusion and I haven't. I'll get back to dealing with #1 in a moment.) I don't just choose option 2 to avoid choosing option 1 because the Bible is clear enough about homosexuality. I choose option 2 because there are other reasons I have trouble accepting that God is a baby making factory. I have trouble accepting a God that over-populates impoverished nations. I have trouble accepting that God creates babies that suffer. I have trouble accepting that a grown man can rape his 11 year old daughter and God would create the baby as a result of incest. I don't believe God is that cruel. That seems a bit sadistic. I don't believe God is sadistic.

I do believe that God sometimes intervenes in pregnancies. I do not know when or why, but I believe that it is possible. I believe that God values all lives, even the lives of babies born with challenges. Further, I believe that God doesn't just value the lives, but God can use lives to bring unlimited joy into this world regardless of mental capacity or physical agility. (I'll leave the abortion debate for another blog.) But I don't believe God creates most of the babies that are born into this world. In fact, as far as I know, there was only 1 Immaculate Conception. I believe God created a wonderful and good process of creation in the beginning- whenever that was- and gave us the magnificent privilege of participating in that process in many ways including procreation. So in essence, while I believe that God is the designer of the process, mommies and daddies create. And sometimes, mommies and daddies create a baby that is gay.**

So let me get back to the void I left by not choosing option 1. Is homosexuality sinful? I'm afraid the best I can do is offer a hearty "I don't know." How's that for not pleasing anyone? I simply don't know. But I do believe that putting your sexuality- hetero or homo- in front of seeking God's desire for a holy relationship with you is wrong. Our desire for intimacy with God needs to trump our desire for intimacy with anyone else. Our life's motto should be "God First" (not "Country First" as some have recently claimed.) And we cannot be putting God first as long as we are denying fundamental rights to our neighbor. So would I define marriage as strictly between a man and a woman. Well, yes (I think) and no (I think).

From a faith perspective, I once again try to consider what part marriage plays in Holy Creation. (I'm not sure I should be capitalizing that, but it seemed appropriate.) In as much as the creative process necessitates procreation, it is rather important that mommies and daddies have the tools to get the job done. Sounds a bit simplistic, I know, but it also seems kind of elementary. I'm very hesitant to consider gay marriage in the church. Probably beyond hesitant. It doesn't seem to fit well into the creative process. BUT...

I believe that many of the statements regarding homosexuality are also culturally relevant for the time in which they were written. At the time that the Old Testament scriptures were written the Hebrews were concerned with their very survival as a people. Homosexual activity was a direct threat to the survival of the Hebrew nation in that it could not result in offspring. Clearly this is not an issue now, and this argument it illogical. But at one time it was logical and essential for the survival of a people.

A few quicker thoughts on the topic:

It is entirely hypocritical for the Church to vilify homosexual marriage when we can't even make heterosexual marriage work. Consider:

"...data showed that the highest divorce rates were found in the Bible Belt. "Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Oklahoma round out the Top Five in frequency of divorce...the divorce rates in these conservative states are roughly 50 percent above the national average" of 4.2/1000 people.

	11 southern states (AL, AR, AZ, FL, GA, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC and TX averaged 5.1/1000 people. (LA data is not available; TX data is for 1997).
	Nine states in the Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT) averaged only 3.5/1000 people."

(Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm)

According to the same source, the state with the lowest occurrence of divorce is Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to allow gay marriage. It is high time that we began to openly discuss sexuality in our faith communities. I think we'd do well to re-examine the spiritual term "sexual temptation" which can, I think, ignore the biological sex drive that we all have, and stigmatize those who have pre-marital sex.

The United States of America is not a theocracy and nor should it be. A state passing a law legalizing gay marriage does not mean that religious institutions must perform gay marriages. Some of the commercials that I've seen in favor of Prop. 8 in California have been filled with naive claims about the loss of religious freedoms at best, lies at worst.
Christians, both gay and straight, really need to understand what marriage is in the Kingdom of God, remembering that according to Jesus as recorded in Matthew 22, "...at the resurrection people will neither marry or be given in marriage," instead we'll be in service to God. I'm not sure how this totally fits into this conversation, only to say that we really need to be sure we know what we're defending. If you can't imagine giving up your spouse for anyone, even God, then perhaps the Kingdom of God isn't for you.
I really have a difficult time defending homosexuality when bi-sexuality is so pervasive as well. What am I supposed to make of that?
I don't see any good reason a gay person shouldn't be able to visit their significant other in the hospital, get good health care, etc...
I think we'd do well to re-examine the spiritual term "sexual temptation" which can, I think, ignore the biological sex drive that we all have, and stigmatize those who have pre-marital sex. It would serve us well to understand the ebb and flow of sex drives so that we can expect them and know how to deal with them when they flame! "Sexual temptation" is far too narrow of an understanding about what is really going on.
We've all heard the term "Love the sinner, hate the sin." Even if you believe homosexuality is a sin, this is a terrible way to approach the topic considering homosexuality is a state of being, not an act. So in essence, by hating the "sin", by definition, you're hating the "sinner." "H" the modern scarlet letter.

Like I said, I don't really come to a conclusion and am still "dealing" with this issue. I just don't know, and I'll err on the side of grace.

*In fact, people don't usually cheat on their spouse simply out of a desire to have sex with someone else. They are driven to a different person to fill an emotional void in their marriage relationship. This is a different topic for a different day.

**I know this leads us to the question, "Then is homosexuality genetic?" I don't know, but I do know gay people that don't have any gay relatives. At any rate, as far as morality goes I don't think it matters if it's genetic or not. Alcoholism is genetic and nobody seems to think that changes the moral issue any.

Stuff I don't get...

2008-10-20T02:53:00.005-04:00

I think there will probably be two blogs this morning. This one will be short, the second probably will not. This is the first of many blogs about things that I just don't get. I have no idea what the subject of the second installment of "stuff I don't get" will be, but the subject this time around is beer- specifically Coors Light.

I've got this weird issue about commercials. I hate dumb ones. Even worse than that, I hate commercials that don't make sense to me. Even worse than that, I hate commercials that try to sell me on something that is totally the reverse of what the same company has been trying to sell me for years.

For as long as I can remember Coors Light has had commercials that stated that it was brewed from water "In the Rocky Mountains" so the water was cold. Then it was brewed cold, then filtered cold, then packaged cold, then shipped cold, then sold cold. I'm pretty sure the message was "Our beer is going to taste better because has always been cold!!!" Now all of the sudden all of the commercials are about the new Coors Light bottles and cans that turn blue when the beer is cold. WTF? If it's brewed cold from cold water in the Rockies, filtered cold, packaged cold, shipped cold, and sold cold, then why do I need a bottle or can that turns blue when it's cold? Were you lying before? Or should I allow my beer to get warm, so I can test out the cool (no pun intended) white-to-blue label? Have you given up on selling the beer on it's taste and now you're going to sell the beer because of the label? Geez.

The funny thing is, I don't buy beer that often ("rarely" doesn't come close to how infrequent it is) so I don't know why I even care. I have too much time to think.

He's Gone Country

2008-10-16T04:37:00.009-04:00

I was never really a country music fan. I'm not sure why, really. To be honest, I think part of it was a snobbish Yankee attitude thing. Some of the twang bothered me a little. But my wife loved it, so I tolerated the country music in the car. Then one summer she dragged me along to a country music festival of sorts here in Boston. There were 4 performers at the show we saw. Keith Urban, Martina McBride, Alan Jackson, and one other that I can't remember. I have to admit, I was pretty blown away. I recognized a couple of Alan Jackson's songs and liked the music with simple messages that he performed. They're not all that deep, simply songs about life. And I found that it wasn't all that true about the "whoa is me" lyrics that are supposed to make everybody cry. He didn't just sing about losing his wife, dog, and truck. It was some stuff I could identify with. He's a man's man. Probably a bit too much testosterone for me, but it was OK. Keith Urban was relatively new at the time, but he could really rock. I still enjoy his concerts more than just about any others that I have been to. The musical talent impressed me as much as anything else at these concerts. I was expecting banjos, spoons, and mouth harps, with the occasional moonshine bottle thrown in for a bit o' bass. What I heard was some very talented musicians that actually sounded a lot more like rock than blue grass.

I particularly remember being blown away by Martina McBride's voice. I couldn't believe what she could do vocally. Her voice was so strong and never wavered. It seemed like she could belt out high, long notes, on pitch, endlessly. The pitch thing is important to me. Not a lot of people know this but I played piano for around 12 years. I never learned to read music too well, but I got pretty good at playing by ear. I knew if something was wrong if it didn't sound right. I don't play the piano any more, but I still have a really good ear for pitch. Some have told me I have perfect pitch. I don't, and I really admire those who do (like my sister and my friend Melody), but I am pretty good at hearing when someone is singing off key (including myself which happens a lot). American Idol can be hard to watch sometimes as I can hear when a contestant is a bit off. Paula and Randy like to refer to this as "pitchy." The thing is, Paula and Randy aren't really good at hearing when someone is pitchy and when they aren't. I've heard some contestants be really off and get high praise from the judges while others are right on and get lambasted by them for being pitchy. I roll my eyes a lot listening to those pretentious judges.

I also struggle with live bands some times. There will be a song that I hear and love on the radio and then I hear the artist do it live and I'm very disappointed because they really can't carry a tune that well. I'm often amazed that they did it well enough for the recording. I think this is one thing that I really like about country music. More often than not, the person performing is right on pitch, and they have a strong voice. Martina McBride is my favorite for this. She's just amazing when she sings.

I'm blogging about country music because last night I went with my wife to see Carrie Underwood. A band called "Little Big Town" opened for her. They sing a song called "Boondocks" which talks about having pride in being where you are from. "I feel no shame, I'm proud of where I came from, I was born and raised in the BOOOOndocks!" (This is one of my son Josh's favorite songs. Joy and I were really wishing he was there to see it.) The whole concert was wonderful. I really enjoyed myself and the company I was with. I think the Carrie Underwood story is great, and as annoying as American Idol can be sometimes, I love to see people who were "nobodies" attain a dream. Carrie Underwood is no fluke. She has an amazing talent. The vocal talent of Little Big Town was great too. I litterally get chills when I hear strong harmonies, and I felt them a couple of times while Little Big Town was on.

I remember another concert we went to a while back. It was a Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert. Faith is another female vocalist that some would say tops Martina. Not for me, but it's close. I remember watching her and Tim (who is also her husband) sing and noting how much I was enjoying it. I'm not the type to go to a concert because I have some fascination with the performer. I don't really want to be them, but I do want to enjoy what they offer. When I'm at the concerts I often look around at all the people there interacting with the music, and the performer interacting with the crowd. It's a dance of sorts, with one building momentum from the other. I really like to watch the interplay- the artist doing something that brings joy into the lives of others.

I remember being particularly appreciative of this interplay at the Hill/McGraw concert. I had one of those "everything is right with the world" moments. It was a little weird, but very meaningful for me. I was simply so glad that these two, particularly Faith Hill, were using the talent that God gave them. It would have been a shame if they didn't use it. I looked around the arena at all of the people singing, dancing, and screaming in delight and really couldn't help but think God was pleased with the fact that she was using her talent to provide joy for others. Now granted, she wasn't leading hymns in church, but I don't think that's all God wants us to do with our gifts. I don't believe that we're gifted just to please God. Well, maybe I do, but I think that when we're helping others to experience joy, even the joy of listening to music at a secular concert, God is pleased. And I don't think God is totally pleased if we're not doing all we can to help others experience joy. It's part of what makes life worth living. Sometimes I think God still looks at some of His creation and calls it "good" when it's going according to His plan. Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, Little Big Town, all using their talents in ways that bring joy into people's life must make God happy on some level in-as-much as their singing is according to plan.

So all in all, I'm very appreciative of my wife bringing country music into my life. I've seen quite a few country musicians now including: Faith Hill (wonderful voice), tim McGraw (great performer), Martina McBride (perfection in her voice), Alan Jackson (knows how to enjoy life), Tovy Keith (more testosterone here than at an NFL game. He's a bit too gung-ho for me, but he's got some great music.), Keith Urban (lots of energy), Kenny Chesney (somehow this little pipsqueak is all the rage with the women), Little Big Town (fun songs and good harmony), Carrie Underwood (talented girl with a wonderful voice, and not all that bad to look at!), and Charlie Daniels (a "Christian" that refers to people as panty waste. I'll let the Lord judge.) I'll continue to attend concerts where I can understand and appreciate the lyrics. Live music is great no matter what kind it is. I love that feeling that goes through your skin when the bass is so smooth and loud. My skin feels like it's rippling water with the vibrations running through it. I love it.

Jesus will not be President of the United States.

2008-10-15T07:57:00.007-04:00

I’ve tried several times to begin a blog about the Presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain. I’ve failed each time because I’m not really a political guy. I’m way to moderate. I see some good in each candidate, and I see some things I don’t like. So it’s hard for me to have any real commentary that I feel anybody will care about. I have NO clue how to fix the economy and hate the fact that money even exists. I have NO clue about how to fix the health care system and don’t understand why people need money to help other people stay healthy. I also believe that neither the democrat nor republican party have a monopoly on honesty. I don’t know who to believe anymore. I believe John McCain was probably very courageous in that POW prison. I don’t believe Obama is Muslim or a terrorist. I believe they both love the United States and want better for the country. It’s difficult for this moderate to articulate how I feel about the race because I feel that they are both lacking in many ways, but neither are the epitome of evil that so many make them out to be.

It seems that every 4 years each Presidential race polarizes the United States of America than the last. There doesn’t seem to be much united about the process at all. There is invariably only 2 real candidates, and if we want to vote in the election, we need to either choose one of the two candidates or vote third party; the latter being frowned upon as throwing away your vote. I don’t really see this as throwing away your vote and seriously considered doing it for this election. I guess it’s the only way I can send any sort of message to say that I’m displeased with my choices. I have to be honest, there isn’t really a third candidate that I have any knowledge about, so I couldn’t say that I was voting for the person I thought would make a good President. Then there is the option of not voting. A friend of mine named Dave said that’s what he was going to do. I pretty much agree with all of what he said, except for me, I believe that as an American citizen that is enjoying the freedom that comes with my citizenship, I have a responsibility to show up at the polling station. I have considered submitting a blank ballot to fulfill my duty but also express my disdain with my options.

I don’t feel that a blank ballot is necessary for me this year. I believe both of the candidates have some good things to offer, and they both have some positions with which I disagree strongly. But I do believe both candidates mean well and want to see this country do well- albeit in different ways. While in the past I have made my decision based on who I thought was the least of two evils, I have decided not to continue to label anyone as evil and look at who offered me more. I need someone to believe in.

On a church-related website, my brother recently posted a link to a youtube video of some minority youths expressing hope in their future with Barack Obama as President. Essentially the video was saying “Hey, if Barack Obama can attain the Presidency, then I can [you fill in the blank]. My brother and I are a lot alike in that he is not really all that political, but shares some values with Obama. There are also some things on which he really disagrees. In no way does he believe that Obama is the savior of the United States, let alone the world. He has never made such a statement (I don’t believe) nor will he. He understands that Obama is a man with political aspirations, that he is very fallible, and he will make mistakes even if he is elected to serve this country as President. He simply posted a video expressing his appreciation for the possibility that there will be a President that inspires children to set lofty goals for themselves and work to attain them. It was apparent from some of the comments that followed his posting that not all felt this way. One of the follow-up posts said that the video reminded them of the Hitler youth movement and that they couldn’t believe how the spirit of antichrist has infiltrated our country, church, and schools (specifically church-sponsored schools). Essentially, they accused my brother, and others like him, of acting in non-Christlike ways because they have appreciation for Barack Obama. Really?! “Antichrist?” How on earth did we come to this? Am I to believe that Obama is the antichrist and John McCain is somehow closer to resembling Christ than Barack? Am I really supposed to equate a vote for John McCain as the Christian thing to do?

I find it very troubling that anybody would make any attempt to equate Christlikeness with a politician- democrat, republican, or whatever. This idea that America is a Christian nation is hogwash, and frankly, the more I examine the Christ in the Gospels, the less faith I have in the American way. The American way is NOT the way, the truth, and the life. It is NOT the Kingdom of God. Again, I believe my friend Dave was right on in his defense of his decision to not vote. When it comes down to it, there isn’t a politician out there that can offer what Christ offered. How did we come to this?

I am conscious of the fact that this next paragraph may leave people wondering if I believe that the Bible has an equal in relaying the Word of God. Let me assure you (both of you), I don’t. However, in recent years I have come to have a whole new appreciation for the it. I once saw it as God’s Word. I was supposed to read it and obey what it said, simply because it said it. It was there to help me avoid sinning and to tell me how to deal with sin should I fall into it. I have come to believe that this may be a functional way of looking at the Bible for some but I’m leery of viewing the Bible this way myself. In Jesus’ day, there were many people who looked at the scriptures this way and Jesus told them that they didn’t understand the scriptures. The Bible is still sacred to me. I believe it contains God’s Word, but it is not all of God’s Word. It is a book about part of human history and our relationship to God’s Word. It shows us what can happen when we choose to ignore God’s Word and it shows us our potential when we revere and stick with God’s Word. God’s Word existed before the Bible, and it will continue to exist should every Bible be burned somehow. The Bible does not usurp God’s Word. God’s Word is Truth, and the Bible helps me understand Truth. It showed me how one man- Jesus- lived Truth. The stories in the Bible of God’s interaction with man are critical to understanding Truth. They explain how God feels about various things that we do and how He dealt with our actions. Eventually, God felt it was necessary to give us written law because we had grown too self-centered and blind to follow God’s Word without Him spelling it out for us. And it also sheds some light upon how God feels about our capacity to govern for ourselves.

In the story about the Israel as told in the Bible, there came a time when the judges- a group of people who received direct communication from God- no longer satisfied the governing desires of the Israelites. The Israelites asked Samuel, the last of the good judges, to appoint a King to rule them. This upset Samuel since the judges received their instruction straight from God. God was displeased as well.

God answered Samuel, "Go ahead and do what they're asking. They are not rejecting you. They've rejected me as their King. From the day I brought them out of Egypt until this very day they've been behaving like this, leaving me for other gods. And now they're doing it to you. So let them have their own way. But warn them of what they're in for. Tell them the way kings operate, just what they're likely to get from a king"(The Message, 1 Samuel 8:7-9).

Samuel did tell them what was in store for them under the rule of a king. The king would take what he needed from the people by force. Essentially the people would then serve the king and not God. The loyalties would be split at best. The story which follows is one of corruption and lack of obedience to God.

Several years later (like hundreds of years) Jesus enters the picture claiming to be the King of the Jews, the Messiah, who was here to set things right. The problem was, the Jews were still looking for a king of political power. One who would conquer nations and put Israel back on the Imperial map. But Jesus would have none of it. He had no interest in earthly rule. This was Jesus' whole message. God wanted to rule men’s hearts. It was a different kingdom altogether. It was not of this world. If it was, Jesus would have set out on military conquests and his followers would have risen militarily. But again, Jesus would have none of that. It wasn’t how the Kingdom of God worked (and still works). This was evident in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested by both his words and his actions:

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51With that, one of Jesus' companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

52"Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

God’s Kingdom wasn’t one of military conquest; it was not going to conquer people militarily. God wants people’s hearts, not their territories. Jesus understood this and shunned political leadership. I think this is one of the things Jesus was saying when he told people they didn't understand the scriptures; that they didn't understand the Word of God.

Why do I say all this? We fall into danger of not understanding scripture when we equate American Nationalism with working for the Kingdom of God. I say it because I am very disturbed by what I see happen to the church every 4 years around the Presidential election. I’m just tired of the demonizing that happens. It’s not even like people try to sell “their” candidate based on their qualifications. Instead they ridicule the “other side’s” candidate and talk about how terrible of a President they would be. And in the church, people have the nerve to throw around the label “antichrist” in regards to a particular candidate and those that might find some good qualities in them. I’m at a loss for words as to how to describe how dumb it is to pretend that the United States is even close to the Kingdom of God. It’s not. I won’t even pretend that it is. But I still plan to vote, and my Christian worldview will affect my vote.

If the two of you are still reading this entry, thank you. I can’t imagine why you’ve stuck with it this far. AND, I can’t imagine why you would care who I’m voting for or why. But for some reason, I just feel like sharing it. I’ve recently decided to vote for Barack Obama, and likely not for the strongest of reasons. But I’ll list a few here:

1 I do not really consider abortion to be a real issue any more. It only seems to be an issue at election time or when a judge is nominated to the Supreme Court. There has been a conservative republican in office for 20 of the past 28 years and nothing has changed in Roe v. Wade. Apparently, voting for a candidate based on this issue is not a great decision. Even if it did, I’m not really convinced that a written law will end abortion. It’ll make it illegal, but it won’t end the problem. I would like abortion to be legal and non-existant because it is unnecessary. I believe Obama feels the same way. I believe abortion is wrong, but I don’t want people not having abortions because it’s illegal, I want them not having abortions because they don’t believe they need to have one.

2 Gun control. “Guns don’t kill people; People kill people.” Yes, and it’s easier for people to kill people if they have a machine gun.

3 Global warming. Don’t know if it’s man-made or not, but I don’t see the harm in changing our habits to protect the earth.

4 Economy. Like I said, I don’t have a whole lot of knowledge about the economy. What I do know is that rich people don’t get rich by giving away their money, so I’m a bit skeptical of a “trickle-down” approach.

5 The war. First of all, I believe we were lied to about WMDs. I don’t think it was an accident. This war with Iraq was about a lot more than WMDs and how much of a threat Saddam was to the US. Also, I really don’t think that most of the American people want to be at war with the Iraqi people or the Iranian people. I think some very rich people, some of whom are in the American government, benefited from going to war in Iraq and would like to go to war with the Iran government for similar reasons. I don’t want my government killing innocents and calling it “collateral damage”. I don’t understand how the deaths on 9-11 made it ok to kill several thousand more Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s in the name of finding WMDs that didn’t exist. This wreaks of empire building and oil control. I won’t even argue about this. I just know how I feel about it. “Who would Jesus bomb?” isn’t just a smart-ass quip. Answer the question. Yes, I feel pretty strongly about this. And it’s NOT about the troops, it’s about those that created the war.

6 Finally, VISION. I describe my feelings about the two candidates this way: I’d like to have a cup of coffee with McCain and perhaps ask him for advice. That would be fun. I’d like to work for Obama. I believe he has the vision for not only a better America, but for a better world. He inspires me to do better and to be a better person. I believe he sees the potential for humanity. We, as a world, need to change and the US needs to lead the way. I struggle with McCain’s “Country First” slogan. My neighbors live beyond the borders of the USA and I care about them too. I think it is high time that our Presidents and citizens realize we're all in this world together so we should stop destroying each other.

I think I’ve rambled enough now, and this is beginning to sound a lot like gobble-de-gook. In summary, I’d only say this: Don’t compare these candidates to Jesus or this country to the Kingdom of God. It’s not even close.

The Luckiest Kid EVER!!!!

2008-09-26T07:09:00.005-04:00

Here's a quick picture of a friend or mine named Matt. As you can tell, he recently had a pretty good experience at the Red Sox game. He was lucky enough to have tickets to the game where the Red Sox officially clinched their playoff berth. Apparently after the game he made his way down to the field for the party and was fortunate enough to receive a gift from one Jonathan Pappelbon. The gift was the first base bag that was used in the game. As you can tell, he was pretty excited.

I was really happy to hear that this happened to Matt. He's had a long year fraught with serious health challenges. It's a long story, but at one point we were worried that he might be on his death bed...literally. So I'm glad to see he got to experience this. I also found this picture of Matt sitting outside Munro residence hall at school- a women's dormitory- and I can only assume he is using it to pick up girls. I imagine it's a pretty nice prop to have- although he doesn't need it as he's a terrific kid.

Congratulations Matt!

As far as I know, it won't be going on ebay!

Jesus of Montreal

2008-09-25T02:38:00.005-04:00

I don't usually write movie reviews that are longer than a couple of sentences. Usually it's something like, "I liked this movie. It was good. I recommend it." I'm not really good at writing reviews. But I recently was surprised by an old, French-Canadian movie called Jesus of Montreal. In recent years I've become really interested in the historical Jesus, not just the spiritual guru and savior and stuff. I find that the more I know about Jesus the Jewish man that lived in Israel 2000+ years ago, the more I grow to admire him. This is why I enjoyed this movie. I recently wrote a review of it for Naznet. And I figured I'd post it here too. Why not? Here it is:

Jesus of Montreal was filmed in 1989 and won multiple Genie awards- the Canadian version of the Oscar. It is French-Canadian, spoken in French with English subtitles. The movie was controversial at the time, and many would still consider it to be so. It is Rated “R”. I didn’t think the acting in the movie was all that great and the effects were very dated, but the plot was fascinating for me. As such this will be a rather lengthy review, probably longer than I’ll ever spend reviewing a movie again.

The story goes like this:

A Catholic Priest approaches an actor about bringing something “new” to his parish’s annual Passion play. The script has been the same for the past 30 years and it has lost its luster somewhat. The priest desires to have it changed so that it is not so dated. The young actor takes on the assignment and begins to study who Jesus was. We are not told of the status of the actors faith prior to the movie. He begins to look at some of the recent archeological discoveries and the evidence for the life of Jesus. Using the new information, he re-writes the Passion play in what he believes to be a more historically accurate light, not just relying on the Bible or church tradition. The public loves the new play, the church however, is not pleased. Thus ensues the conflict in the movie.

As I mentioned before, this movie is rated “R”. It should be, even by today’s standards for the following scenes. In one of the early scenes the main character goes to a studio where some people are serving as voices for a pornographic movie. There is a brief shot where we see the movie and it is obvious from the sound what kind of movie it is, but I don’t recall that we are able to see any, well, sex. The camera pans to three actors who are reading the script for the movie and we watch them all read their parts. I think this was supposed to be humorous, and I guess it kind of was, but it was totally unnecessary except for the symbolism which I will explain later. There is also partial male nudity because the main character, who plays Jesus in the Passion play, is nude when he is crucified. There is no frontal nudity, but there is a rather revealing shot of him being swung over the shoulder of the roman guard. Also, there is a quick topless shot of one of the actresses. It is not a sexual situation. In fact, it is anything but.

Lothaire Bluteau plays Daniel, the young actor responsible for re-creating the Passion play for the church. He has a shocking resemblance to the modern, stereotypical, non-historically accurate (as far as we know) appearance of Jesus with flowing shoulder length hair and a five o’clock shadow. It's got everything but the well-pressed robe and purple sash. As soon as he agrees to take on the project, things in his life begin to parallel the life of the Jesus in the gospels. For instance, he begins to look for people to help him with his project and finds three of his actors at a porn stage. Consider the reputation of those involved in the porn industry. They are not highly regarded either in the world of acting, or in the world in general. Compare this with where Jesus found his disciples. Fisherman and tax collectors…

What I didn’t really “like,” so to speak:

The “historical accuracy” of the new Passion play that is created in this film doesn’t seem all that accurate in some ways. I don’t just say that to defend the accuracy of the gospels in the Bible. I love looking at the historical Jesus and don’t mind when people challenge our traditional stories about what happened during Jesus’ life. However, I think some of the historical stuff presented in this movie was a bit off. For instance, they seem to want to make Pilate seem more compassionate than he actually was. Pilate didn’t care about Jesus at all. His only care was for Rome and his place in the gov’t. He used Jesus to further gain a foothold over the Jews. This movie missed that point. Some people will find the other historical commentary on Jesus in this movie to be offensive. I didn’t really find it offensive, I just didn’t find it convincing. But all of this was kind of secondary to what I believe was the point of the movie.

What I liked:

The symbolism throughout the movie was brilliant and hard to miss. There were many different things that happened in the life of the main character Daniel that paralleled the life of Jesus. The church establishment becomes upset with what he says about Jesus, just as the Jews of Jesus’ were upset with him for what he was preaching. Daniel calls out the Catholic Church in much the same way Jesus called out the Pharisees and Sadducees. Daniel comes to the aid of a young actress who is being used for her body, much like Jesus comes to the rescue of, well, all women. Daniel is temped to use his new found fame for wealth much like Jesus was tempted in the desert. Daniel gets upset and throws some tables around, much like, well, you know…Daniel’s message ends up in the subway, Christians are forced underground.

There is even a great parallel of how the gospel stories evolve. As the new play gains popularity, people begin to become enthralled with this young, formerly unknown actor and begin to tell Daniel’s story on the radio and on TV. As I recall, there are three different people explaining “who” Daniel is, where he came from, and his academic background, etc…Each one of them is telling a similar story with similar facts, although some of the facts totally contradict each other.

In the midst of all that is going on in the characters’ lives, Daniel really begins to take on the persona of Jesus. That is, he begins to live his life in what you might refer to as “the way, the Truth, and the life” that Jesus talks about. He becomes a very gentle spirit, truly caring for his friends and others around him. He also develops a strong conflict with the established church. He becomes very concerned for the future of the world, even to the point of depression.

This movie is too old to rate on a scale in reference to quality of film, acting, etc…It did win a lot of awards during its day. But all of that is secondary to the message that I took from it. Even with all the controversy surrounding who Jesus was historically speaking, the message that Jesus brought is still relevant and still largely ignored.

I saw this movie by using Netflix’s online viewing option. You may have a difficult time finding it elsewhere, but it is worth the search. I highly recommend it. I also recommend watching it with adults, as there are scenes that are inappropriate for children.

Good Weekends Rock!

2008-09-15T02:45:00.011-04:00

I must say, Joy and I have never been the best at having a routine. It seems like we're always running around somewhere for something. I'm not entirely sure how this came to be, but we've been spending time in the recent months to make some changes and adjustments in our life. In some ways it is hard to believe that 10, almost 11 years have gone by since we were married. A lot has changed in our lives and it seems that this was the appropriate time for a reality check. Where are we now? Where did we think we would be? Where are we going from here? Yada, yada, yada... Two of the areas that we wanted to improve were to set a routine as best we can, and and spend more time together alone as a couple.

We're still working on the routine. It seems like as soon as we get into a routine that is working really well, something comes up that kind of sets us off the routine for a while. They are not necessarily bad interruptions, just interruptions that take us off of the routine. A vacation would be one example of an interruption. It appears that it takes about 1.5 to 2 weeks or so to re-group. It's important for many reasons, among them are financial reasons. It seems that when we don't have a routine, we eat out a lot more and spend money we don't really need to spend. Then we get to bed late, and, well I'm sure I don't have to explain this too much. So we're working on it.

Part of setting the routine is setting aside time for date nights. I've got to say, we're doing a pretty good job of this and we're LOVING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We go out each (OK, well, most) Tuesday evenings. Every other Tuesday we visit what has become one of our favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot. It's a restaurant that specialized in fondue. Actually, everything is fondue. At first I was concerned that my manhood would suffer from eating at a fondue place. As it turns out, my manhood is just fine, and I might just sacrifice it to eat there anyways! It CAN be a bit pricey if you go for the whole meal. I would suggest that you don't do that. Go for a cheese appetizer (we recommend the cheddar) and a dessert. You'll have MORE than enough food to fill you up, and it will cost you around $30 or so, depending on what you drink. We only got the big meal once (I think it's called The Big Night Out), and didn't really like it. I think we've decided that God made fondue pots for cheese and chocolate, and that meat stuff doesn't work too well. We've actually developed a kind of relationship with the restaurant and they've told us to ask them for a special dish next time we're there...which is tomorrow! Woo-hoo!!!!!

Another way we're doing this is by swapping date-nights with my brother Jeremy and his wife Meghan. We baby-sit their kids every two weeks while they go on a date, and they baby-sit ours every two weeks while we go out. It's been working out really well so far. I will say that I was a bit intimidated watching 5 kids at once. Joy enjoyed just watching me look stressed out. It doesn't happen much. Meghan says Jeremy is the same way. Hey, contagious crying isn't fun.

This weekend was our date night weekend. Joy likes to get coupons from a site called restaurant.com. If you'd like to visit that site, think really hard about where you might find the site. I highly recommend it. They have some pretty good deals. Our coupon this week was "Buy two entrees, Get $25 off." Others are something like "Spend $35, get $25 off." So you could, technically eat for $10. They're good deals. Check it out. We went to the North End of Boston. It was a BEAUTIFUL night. We drove around the North End for a few minutes while we located the restaurant and were unable to find parking on the street. Not that we expected to be able to. So we parked in the State Street garage for $13 and walked over to the restaurant. It wasn't too far.

I couldn't believe how packed the North End was. I mean it's always busy, but it was really busy last night. I was amazed. It looked like everyone was just out having a good time, which is how I believe God meant for it to be- enjoying life with those you love. After we ate our meal at a restaurant called Da vide, Joy just had to visit Mike's Pastry shop. Not that I minded. I got some chocolate chip Gelato and Joy got her Canolli and two chocolate dipped strawberries. Mmmm. I saw something there that I hadn't seen before. There were these two guys walking around playing the accordion and violin. It was pretty cool and reminded me of our trip to France when we saw somebody doing the same thing there. I emptied all of the change out of my pocket, about $1.50, and gave it to them. Then, across the street I heard what I thought was an Opera CD. Nope, it was a guy singing opera music. I have to say, he was pretty good. I hadn't seen that before either! I've seen a lot of street performers in Boston, but these two were new to me.

We headed back to the car and had to cross the new Rose Kennedy Greenway. This is the new park where the old highway used to be. It's absolutely beautiful! We stopped to talk for a little while and I snapped a couple of pictures with my cell phone. Sorry about the quality. But the night was unbelievable. If and when we move away from Boston, we're going to miss the city. But we're still here right now!

Finally, we had a pretty busy Sunday too. We went to church as always and then headed back to Quincy for a birthday party for one of Josh's friends. We left there at about 3:30 and headed to New Hampshire to spend time at my parents house to spend time with my family while the Patriots, led by Matt Cassel, beat the J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS...again. Same story different year. While we were there, Jordan got to spend some real quality time with her Great-Grandpa Scott. It was precious and I think they both enjoyed it equally. We were home by 9PM. I grabbed about 2 hours of sleep and went off to work.

We had a great weekend, and our routine starts tomorrow! I'll be making tacos for dinner!!! Mmmm....!

Millions and Millions of Cats

2008-09-01T07:22:00.006-04:00

I remember a book from when I was a kid. I think the name of it was Millions and Millions of Cats. I don't remember much about the book except that I think it had a red, white, and black cover. (After a quick Amazon search, it turns out it's yellow, not whitem and it was only 'Millions'. So I embellished a bit.)The story was about, well, a ton of cats. I bring this up because this is what we might title the 2008 summer at the Scott house.

I had noticed, as had my wife, that we had a couple of cats in our yard this spring. No biggie; they didn't really bother us or any of our stuff. A couple of times I scared them out from under our back porch. They had also been in our garage, entering through one of the broken windows and through the base of the garage which had rotted away (another post for another day). I didn't really mind them all that much. I wasn't really sure if they were strays or if they belonged to one of my neighbors. At any rate, I let them stay because they weren't really bothering me.

Here's the thing though. I hate cats. I've always said that. I'm not sure why or where that opinion began. I think I'll blame it on my aunt Melissa. She hated cats passionately. Well, I really liked my aunt Melissa and as kid wanted to be like her in many ways if I could. So as far as I know, this was my first reason for hating cats. Thanks Melissa! Secondly, I'm very allergic to cats. Anyone with a cat allergy knows what I'm talking about. It's debilitating. With these things in mind, you would have thought that I'd have done anything I could to get rid of these cats. But I didn't. Oops.

This past June I opened the doors to my garage and found the cats there to greet me...with 6 kittens and one other adult cat. Yep, 9 cats sitting in my garage. Check that, living in my garage. Awe, ain't that cute. I actually thought it was cute! I mean seriously, even though I "hated" cats, I still found it difficult to ignore the cuteness of the lil' kitties. Josh was thrilled! Mom-mom and Pop-pop had taken in a stray in Maryland and that stray had kittens that loved him. So Josh thought that could happen here too. I'm a sucker for pretty much anything my son wants, and Joy had always kind of wanted a cat. So I figured, hey they're in the garage, what can it hurt? Stop laughing. We went out that weekend and got one of those big fluffy pillows, an auto-feeder and auto-water bowl, some food, a litter box, and some kitty litter. I figured they'd warm up to us when we were feeding them. Nope.

It was a bit frustrating. Apparently these cats had never heard the phrase, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." They never had the opportunity to bite my hand. They made it quite clear that if I put my hand anywhere near them, I'd regret it much like the poor little torn apart birds that were strewn around my garage floor. I quickly learned the difference between "stray" cats and "ferrel" cats. One may warm up to you, the other certainly won't. Google it. All nine of these cats, including the kittens, wanted nothing to do with any of us. Even though we were feeding them. Ungrateful little balls of stink. And they did stink.

Do you know what kind or work it takes to care for 9 cats? Well, they would all fill the litter box in one day. It stunk and I didn't empty it every day. When I didn't, they then pooped on the plush pillow we bought for them. I know when I'm appreciated. We stopped feeding them. I thought maybe they'd eat each other and we'd be back where we began. Well, sometime after we stopped feeding them they left. I'm not sure that it mattered if we were feeding them, I think they would have moved on anyways. Oh, well, I thought. It was just as well, I could hardly breath in the garage now. It took about 5 breaths for my throat to close up from an allergic reaction.

About a month or so went by until one day, I opened my garage doors to find 6 more kittens. This wasn't the same bunch. New kittens- 6 of them. They too, were entering under the rotted portion of the garage. They were living between the wall and my wood pile. "This is progress," I thought. I thought maybe they'd be friendly since there didn't seem to be any "adult" cat to teach them bad manners. I took two steps towards them and found out that they were under strict orders to rip my hand apart if it came anywhere near them. I had learned my lesson the first time. No food for them! And you know what? This seemed like the perfect time to fix the garage. It was leaning to the right and the sill plates were already rotted when we bought the house. During the process of fixing the garage, I threw the wood from the wood pile into the yard so I could get to the sill plates I needed to fix. I was feeling bad as they looked at me like "What are you doing to our home?" And then, as I reached down one last time to try and pet one of them, it hissed and made that face like the posessed cat in Pet Semitary. That was that.

This past Friday my wife woke me up saying "Jeff, the kittens are back and they're letting us pet them!" I didn't believe it. "Come look!" I drug myself out of bed to see more of the cats that I now had good reason to hate. Sure enough, I got downstairs and there was Josh playing with three of the cutest little kittens you've ever seen. (You can see where this is going can't you?) these were 3 more, new kittens, and they were considerably younger than any of the others. Too new to have been taught to eat me. In fact, I think these cats were abandoned by their "parents". I don't know if they were dropped intentionally at our door, but there they were squeeking and crawling around our feet. I'm not sure they had been weaned yet, so I tried to feed them with a dropper. Only one of them took to it. I got a box from the pile of stuff I had taken out of the now empty garage, placed some old towels in it with a small bowl of milk. Then I shut them in our back porch so no evil adult cats could get to them to ruin our precious little angels. BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!!

So now we have three kittens. I think one is already claimed from somebody else and I'm pretty sure I have an idea who might like another. So, now I, a cat hater, have a cat. Rush out and buy stock in Claritin-D! It's my allergy medicine of choice. We haven't named them yet. We need your help on that point. So if you have any suggestions, leave it in the comment section.

So, as Bob Barker would say, "Help control the pet population. Have your dog or cat spayed or neutered!"

Mission Accomplished

2008-08-28T02:43:00.007-04:00

Well, we did it. My brother Jeremy came over at 9am yesterday to help me unload our "new" swing set from my truck. I was a bit concerned that it was too big for the area that I had in mind. It was, sort of. It was about 5 inches too wide. I had placed it between two oak trees behind our garage and the two trees were just a little too close to each other to allow the swing set/playhouse stretch out like it needed to. The really annoying thing was that both of the trees were dead! I need to cut them down. I would have done this if Jeff Turner had brought his chainsaw over last Friday like I asked him to, but he's a slacker. (Actually no, he's a great friend and I should get my own chainsaw. He's been a bit preoccupied now that he's running his own company.) Once I decided where to place the set the re-assembly was actually easier than the disassembling process. Fortunately, father-in-law was there to help. So was Joshua. He served as the "motivation" to get the project done quickly. "Dad, can I use it now? Can I get on it now? How about now? How much longer until it's done?"

The area we set it on wasn't exactly level so we had to prop up and stabilize some of the base. It worked out ok, though the bottom of the slide is about a foot lower than it should be. The result is the steepest and fastest slide in Braintree. A couple of days later I went back to Craigslist looking at the swing sets that were for sale rather than "Free". I found one that was almost identical to the one we have that a family was trying to sell for $500. Granted it was newer and in a little better shape, but I felt pretty good about our hand-me-down! Josh has already declared that it is his "lab" that he and his cousins will use to solve "investigations" when they visit. I'm sure our first set of stitches will arrive soon!

So Soon???

2008-08-27T02:21:00.000-04:00

Somewhere out there in cyberspace there is a lonely blog belonging to...me. I never used it. Who knows if we'll use this one?!?! But as I linked to several friends' blogs from Facebook, I decided that it was probably a good idea for our family. So thanks to the Scalera's, who linked me to the Casler's, who linked me to Amanda Marble, who linked me back to th Casler's, where I clicked a link to the Fringers, where I found a link to the Wyborney's. It was the Wyborney's where I saw a picture of a toddler with a too-full diaper dragging almost to the floor. OK, so that's an exaggeration, but not much. I had, in fact, seen it before on my children. However, I'm not sure I would have thought to post pictures of it and describe it in such detail. That's why we need people like Kim Wyborney. To remind us of the funny things in child-rearing that we take for granted but actually are special. From the Wyborney's I linked to Betsy and Dave Scott's blog and read about their son and a little bit about their brief time living in community at Fuller. That settled it for me. It was time to start a family blog. We'll see how it goes. I think, with Josh as involved in the internet as his mom and dad will let him be, I'll have the proper motivation to post updates. He's been wanting his own Facebook account, mainly so he can play games. He saw me Playing bowling Buddies the other day and wanted to know what website it was. Simply telling him it was Facebook didn't suffice and he asked for a better description. I said, "It's kinda like WebKinz for adults." Oops. He then begged for me to let him create an account. I told him no, explaining that he needed to be able to read to use it. Then he said, "So Brayden could have one?" Brayden is my brother's three-year-old who learned to read pretty early on. I think it was the same day he learned to crawl. OK, that may be a stretch, but it was early. I think it was before he was weaned. Hey, he's 3 and he read me a bedtime story from the Charlie Brown encyclopedia the other night. He's the only three-year-old I've ever felt smarter after listening to. Good kid.

Joy and I have a couple of great kids too. Joshua is pretty smart too, only differently. That may change soon, because there is nothing he'd rather do than play video games. One Saturday not too long ago I heard my mother's voice coming out of my mouth as I exclaimed "NO! You may not play Nick Tunes Unite on your GameCube. It's a beautiful day! Go outside and play!" (Don't you hate it when you start saying things that you hated hearing your parents say? I do it a lot.) Today we made a move to entice Josh to go outside a bit more. We acquired a playhouse/swing set from someone on Craigslist. It was free, so the price was right, and I left to get it first thing when I woke up today. He's pretty excited about it because of the "playhouse" part. He's got a great imagination and I can't wait to see him play on it when/if I get it back together. As much as I think he'll like it, our daughter Jordan was the real stimulus for the "purchase."

Sunday on the way home from church we passed a yard sale on Quincy Shore Drive. Those of you that live in the area or attended ENC might remember a house on Wolly beach that always had stuff in front of it for sale. I think it was the same house. Pretend it was. Anyway, as we drove by Joy noticed there were some things there that she "might like". Go figure. I did the right thing and turned around to go back. Sure enough there were a couple things she liked. The item of most significance was one of those plastic kitchen areas for kids. Joy wanted to get it for Jordan so badly. While Jordan isn't exactly neglected, Josh still gets the lion's share of the gifts/toys. Jordan is content with the hand-me-downs. So when Joy saw this kitchen stuff she wanted it for Jordan. It was used but in good shape and it wouldn't take a big bite out of our gasoline budget. Unfortunately, we didn't have any cash and the guy wouldn't take a check. We took about ten minutes to go to the ATM only to return to find that someone else had purchased the set. Joy was pretty upset. I felt bad for her. I think she was more excited to get it for Jordan than Jordan would have been to receive it. It was a bit upsetting because the man holding the sale wouldn't set it aside for us. He wasn't to apologetic about it either. Joy decided not to purchase the other stuff just because... We got back in the car and continued on our way. As I expected, a few minutes later I heard a little sniff. She wanted it for Jordan pretty badly. I understood. I did what little I could to try to make her feel better about the situation. I suggested that we could look on Craigslist to see if anyone was giving one away. Well, what she ended up finding was this swing set/playhouse thing. We were the first to contact the seller and the rest is and will be history once I get it set up.