A minor

Psychic?

I'm sure some of you have seen The Flash Mind Reader before, but I have nothing else to blog, so here it is. (Thanks to Ethan Atwood for sending it to me.) I'll link the explanation in a day or two. In the meantime, no cheating: Internet searches are not allowed, and keep it to yourself if you've seen it before. Honest guesses or solutions, however, are of course welcomed.

Redeeming Blogging

Josiah Quintus has a great idea for a thesis project: Community, "Place," and Cyberspace. Be sure to check it out.

On a distantly related note, I recently came across a couple pieces on spiritual disciplines:

Tim Bednar, "Why Consider Blogging a Spiritual Discipline?"
Interview with Dallas Willard, "Spiritual Disciplines in a Postmodern World"

The Scribe's Weblog Awards

So I've been nominated for Best Original Blog Title in The Scribe's Weblog Awards. (Thanks, Davey.) For an explanation of my blog title, I refer you to my first post. Now go vote for me!

Missional Communities & NT Wright

Today I received a comment to my previous post from Eric Keck, whose name I didn't recognize. So I went to his blog. Turns out, he's a fellow Christian in Idaho. From his page I followed links to two other intersting sites. First, I went to Allelon Missional Communities, a ministry out of Eagle, ID (near Boise). Then, I went to another interesting blog: that of Hanson Carter, "the reluctant church planter," in Augusta, GA, who interestingly mentions a discussion of NT Wright on the Allelon discussion forum (to bring things full circle) . I haven't looked at the Allelon board, but it sounds like it has its "PCANews moments," if you know what I mean. I like Carter's attitude: "It gets even better when it turns 'political', although I'm more interested in how all of this works out in my day to day life. Pugilism anyone?"

NT Wright in Boise

So I guess NT Wright is speaking at First Presbyterian Church in Boise. (I like this: "tickets can be purchased online at Select-a-Seat" - sounds like something you'd see in this town!) I wish I had known earlier; maybe I could have gone. Ah well...such is life.

Church Names

I recently had conversations with Toby and Rick about church names:

Toby said he wished that Protestant churches had retained the term "Catholic," e.g. in a construction like "Reformed Catholic." I knew I had heard of a continuing Anglican body with such a name, and I thought it was in Hawaii. Well, here it is: The Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church (via the AnglicansOnline.org page, "Not in the Communion").

Knowing of my interest in the citywide church, Rick pointed me to the sites of The Church in Pullman and The Church in Spokane. Perhaps it's a bit presumptuous of individual congregations to use such names, but I'm sure they mean well.

Brian Regan

I stayed home sick today, which means I had the rare opportunity to watch a little morning TV. Of course, there was nothing on but "The View" and "The Price is Right," which I'm sure were regularly interrupted by "Reality War." So I ended up watching "Comedy Central Presents Brian Regan" - a stand-up I hadn't seen before. For those of you who don't know, my favorite TV is probably stand-up comedy. Well, Brian Regan was hilarious. I looked up his website, brianregan.com, and saw that he has a live CD, which I promptly added to my Amazon wish list. (This disclaimer should go without saying, but I haven't heard his CD, so don't blame me if it's no good.)

Speaking of Telford Work...

Have any of you seen his "Reordering Salvation: Church as the Proper Context for an Evangelical Ordo Salutis"? I haven't given it the fine-tooth comb yet, but it looks outstanding.

For what it's worth, I first heard of Telford Work a few months ago when Joel Garver pointed me to his Veggie Tales article.

The Armed Forces and the Church

Theology professor, pastor, and blogger Telford Work has some insightful reflections here (via Daniel Stoddart).

Conference in Franklin, TN

I recently received a letter from Chalcedon Christian Church in Franklin, TN, about their upcomming conference on leadership. They sent the letter to attendees of the 2003 AAPC, and requested help passing the word.

Date: Saturday, May 10 (8am to 5pm)
Speakers: Steve Wilkins, Andrew Sandlin, George Grant, and Steve Morriss
Cost: $25 for individuals or families; scholarships available
Contact: Perry Coghlan, pastor - pc2@perrycoghlan.com

In Other News... From the Daniels

Be sure to check out Daniel Stoddart's collection of war-related links.

Also see Daniel Silliman's post, "Following the Invasion," for links to a few blogs in Iraq.

Speaking of Papal Opposition...

Daniel Silliman writes, "The Pope, the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs and Anglican Archbishop Williams have come out against the war on Iraq." [Read more]

Blog Digest: From the PhD Candidates

Christian Kim has another bit on the war against Iraq, specifically papal opposition to the war.
Matt Colvin has had several outstanding posts on sectarianism, sacraments, and ecumenism - from here (scroll down to Feb 23, PAEDOCOMMUNION) to here (scroll down to Mar 16, CUT OFF FELLOWSHIP WITH BAPTISTS?).
Scott Cunningham quotes from and interacts with a recent New York Times article on Mel Gibson's Catholicism, here and here.
Jon Barlow has two great (but unrelated?) pieces:
- Observations about The Royal Tenenbaums after about 12 or 13 Viewings
- Levels of Theological Discourse and the New Perspective (at PCANews.com)

For those who don't know, Christian is working on the Psalms of Solomon at Cambridge (in Hebrew, Jewish, and Early Christian Studies); Matt is working on pre-Socratic philosophy at Cornell (in Classics); Scott is in economics at the University of Georgia; and Jon is in historical theology at St Louis University, where, last I heard, he's working on Jonathan Edwards.

Memorable Times and Places

Monday afternoon, we were with the Jameses at the Rogue Ales Public House in Newport when President Bush delivered his address, setting the 48-hour deadline.

Yesterday evening, we were driving home from Oregon with the Sumpters, when we happened to catch the Moody Broadcasting Special Report with, among others, guest host George Grant (whose recent blog post, "Demonstating Against War," had been a topic of conversation on our trip). On MBN, we heard the presidential address, Christian commentary, live news updates, prayers, etc. Later on, we heard more commentary and news - including the live Saddam Hussein broadcast - on NPR.

As I write this morning, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is giving a live briefing from the Pentagon.

Oregon Trip

Tomorrow morning we're driving with the Sumpters to Oregon to spend a few days at Deacon's relatives' cabin near the coast (close to Waldport and Newport). Deacon & Amy will already be there; they left today. This will be Hollie and Ethan's first trip to Oregon, and we're all looking forward to it.

In a way this is a sort of "reunion trip: the married version" for Toby and Deacon and me. The three of us went to the cabin during spring break of 2000, only months before Toby and I got married (to our respective wives - despite the implications of Emeth's blog roll!). Since then, Deacon has gotten married, too. There are a few photos from our last trip in the "adventures" folder of my Yahoo photo album, linked at the left.

We should get back Tuesday night. I probably won't be blogging in the meantime.

A Gift of Books: Contemporary Hebrew Bible Translations

Today I received a surprise package from Amazon. I opened it to find two items from my wish list: Genesis (Norton, 1996) and The David Story (Norton, 1999), both of which are translations and commentaries by Robert Alter, UC-Berkeley professor of Hebrew and comparative literature. Thanks so much, Emeth!

Speaking of contemporary Hebrew Bible translations, I recently picked up The Great Poems of the Bible (Free Press, 1999) by James Kugel, Harvard professor of Hebrew literature. Interestingly, in his introduction, Kugel basically mocks the translation style and choices of Everett Fox, Clark University professor of Judaic and biblical studies, whose The Five Books of Moses (Schocken, 1995) and Give Us a King! (Schocken, 1999) have been touchstones to me. It seems to me that there's a place for both - on the one hand, Fox's odd, literal, aurally-oriented translations, and, on the other, Kugel's polished English renderings. In other words, I think Kugel may offer a false dilemma. Hopefully one day I will know enough to knowledgeably engage in such discussions; right now I'm just trying to take it all in.

Ligonier Perspective

from Christ Church email:

Doug and Nancy are flying to Orlando today for Doug to speak at the Ligonier Conference. Please pray for safe travel for them and that his talks would go well. He is one of the main speakers along with RC Sproul (Jr. and Sr.), John MacArthur, R. Albert Mohler, and Sinclair Ferguson.

This gives some perspective to the comments below. By the way, here's a link to the Ligonier Conference site.

Blog Game

Find the blogs that are new to my blog roll.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

I bought my first Wilco album today. Now I'll finally get to hear what Jon and Kristen and others have been talking about.

I guess the cat is out of the bag now. I thought things were being handled okay so far, but after seeing "that asinine poem" (to use Rick's phrase), all I can do is drop my face into my hands and sigh. God have mercy on us. My mind runs to the following lyrics (in the liner notes' format):

ocmcocmcocmk**no surprises.

k**no surprises.

a heart thats full up like a landfill. a job that slowly kills you.
bruises that wont heal.

you look so tired_nhappy. bring down the government. they dont.
theydontspeak for us.

ill take a quiet life. a handshake some carbon monoxide.+
no alarms and
no surprises. no alarms and no surprises. no alarms and no surprises
silent.
silent.

this is my final fit. my final bellyache. with
no alarms and no surprises. no alarms and no surprises.
no alarms and no surprises please.

sucha pretty house. such a pretty garden.
no alarms and no surprises. no alarms and
no surprises. no alarms and no surprises please.

Fight Night

Alas, I didn't get to go, but here are some pictures of Fight Night. (Thanks, Tim!) My youngest brother, Taylor, is in two photos; he was beat by "Shoeless" Louis Schuler, son of Duck. Langston, my next-to-youngest brother, is also in a photo; he won the trophy for best lightweight. (For those of you who don't know, I have five little brothers, ages 6-12, all of whom fought. I mentioned Taylor [6] and Langston [8]...but Hampton [10] won, Christian [11] tied, and Parker [12] beat a 16-year-old.)

For a synopsis of Fight Night, see Toby's blog. While you're at it, cruise over to Remy's blog and tell him what you think about boxing.