Why I Love The Interweb #95348721237943

Catholic Halloween

Excellent list, Taylor.

6. Don't be turned off by the ghoulish-ness of Halloween.
Every great Catholic cathedral has gargoyles carved into its stone work. Illuminated manuscripts are also full of ghouls in the margins. Catholics are into this kind of stuff. Why? Because Christ has conquered death and the devil. After Christ, death has lost its sting. Also, All Saints day is followed by All Souls day so it's okay to be a little macabre. (By the way the word "macabre" comes from Maccabees - those two books in the Catholic Bible that Protestants through out.) And if you live in an Hispanic area like I do, you've got the whole Dia de Muertos to play up.

5. Have fun, don't force converts.
Look, nobody likes to get a religious tract in their candy sack. Don't pass out religious literature. Give out big handfuls of candy and the extra large candy bars, if you can. In the long run, you will make more converts with your charity. After all, you'll be known as "the house that always gives out good candy".

Velvet Elvis (Movement 2)

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. There is a lot that is great but plenty to make me cringe.

Bell makes insightful critiques about those who claim to just be reading the Bible without any preconceived notions.

He also shows how Sola Scriptura "sounds nice" but is ultimately impossible, since we rely on decisions made by the Church to determine which books would even be in the Bible. This line of discussion is common between protestants and catholics and Bell pretty much makes the catholic case.

But the problem is, he describes the canonization process as just a "bunch of Christians getting together and voting" and believes that all have been given the power to bind and loose, including everbody at Mars Hill Church, est. 1998.

(I'm listening to the book on CD, so there will be no page citing. Any quoting is approximate and from my own brain.)

Velvet Elvis

In the intro to Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell makes a case for the need to always rethink, reform, and even repaint Christianity.

As an illustration he points to a velvet elvis painting in his basement. What if the painter of that painting had proclaimed that his work was the best, the most complete work of art ever produced, and that no work should follow it?

As an historical example, he describes Martin Luther, who brought Jesus to people in "a new way", removing layers of unnecessary and/or harmful tradition (e.g. "selling grace"). Some people mistakenly freeze the ideas of Luther and other reformers, and like the velvet elvis, want no new formulations of Christianity. But no. According to Bell we must always be refining and reforming. Luther and the other reformers should not be looked to for pristine Christian theology and practice which can never be altered, but as icons of renewal and rebirth that all Christians should emulate.

This seems to illustrate the two ways protestants have responded to the Reformation. There are those that see The Magisterial Reformation™ as the be-all-end-all of Christianity. If we could just "get back" to their writings, things would be a lot more solid. Others, like Bell and the non-denominational circles I grew up in, don't really care all that much what the reformers believed. They only care that they believed differently than The Establishment and that they "took a stand for the gospel". We should do the same. We should stand up to the Mainlines and the MegaChurches and (Catholics aren't even on the radar) and reinvent anything that seems right to us and the Holy Spirit.

(I'm listening to the book on CD, so there will be no page citing. Any quoting is approximate and from my own brain.)

Free Rice Vocab

http://www.freerice.com/

I'm at level 37 right now...

HT: CC

Dialogue

I enjoyed this well-written and funny dialogue between a Evangelical and an Agnostic Jew.

Choice quotes:

You do, after all, admit in your book that you've been a committed agnostic who "is Jewish the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant" and only says "Lord" when "of the Rings" follows it.

and

We all tend to operate by the same rule: Your faith's eccentrics are merely your outlying eccentrics, the other guy's eccentrics are indicative of a pervasive cancer rotting his church from within.

St. Therese Blogs

I started Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux the other day.

It's a newer translation (2006) and it keeps all the CAPS and elipses (. . .) that were in the originals. I quickly realized with these features how blog-like it was. A mix of life stories and theological insights, in a journal form. Yes, I know it's a little silly and anachronistic to compare the works of a Doctor of the Church to a blog.

I'm really enjoying it so far. For a nice intro to her subversive charms, check out Fr. Dwight's piece here: Spiritual Genius.

Are All Calvinists Going to Hell?

Semi-Satire from a Wesleyan minister...

I do believe that there exist many Calvinists who are indeed good Christians. My maid is a Calvinist and she seems nice, although I choose not to speak to her more than necessary. I have heard that there are Calvinists who participate in missions and who have Jesus Christ as their
personal savior. There are even Calvinists who are not annoying. If you are one of these Calvinists, then most likely these posts are not aimed at you.

If you are a Calvinist and take great offense at what is written then you of course have a very important question to ask of yourself. Why did God use me to annoy you so much? How is your being upset giving glory to God? It's not so that you can "convince" me of Calvinism. I'm afraid that I've been preordained to be an Arminian since before the beginning of time. It's my
cross to bear.

and

If you are a self-avowed practicing Calvinist and would like to leave that lifestyle I am considering beginning a ministry called "Genesis International." It could be the beginning of a new you. One of our slogans will be - remember God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and double predestination.

Read the rest:

Disclaimer

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Too Much Church

Alicia and I are going to each others' churches on Sunday mornings now. It's a lot of Church for one morning, but I think it's better that we're all together. We'll see how long each of us can stand the other's. heh.

On the walk into Mass from the parking lot, Brendan keeps saying "No" over and over. He knows an hour of attempted forced silence is coming. Good times.

Moving Day 2

(L to R: Ginny, Libby, Glendall (dad), Jeremy, Shelly)

More New House

Brenders, Titus and I on the front porch after a walk. You can see that the ugly awnings have been removed.

Moving Day 1

Thanks to tons of help from family and friends we moved in successfully a week and a half ago. Here you can see a part of my finished flooring. Stupidly, I didn't take any good pictures of empty, full rooms with the refinished floors. D'oh.

(L to R: Katie, Jeremy, Aaron, Chad)

MST3K on Gumby

Man, I watched this years ago...one of my favorite "shorts" of theirs.

Gaffigan on Christmas, Easter, and other Holidays.

Easter, the day Jesus rose from the dead...what should we do?

How 'bout eggs?

Well, what does that have to do with Jesus?

Alright, we'll hide 'em!

I don't follow your logic...

Don't worry. There's a bunny.

Gaffigan on Catholicism

Shiite Catholic...lol.

Q's for K's

Justin Taylor blogs about the recent Q&A featuring John Piper and John MacArthur.

Piper mentioned Questions for Kids that were helpful for him, originally written by Rick Gamache (senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Fellowship). I forwarded these to my 2-year-old son, Brendan.

Here are his answers:

* How are your devotions?

not bad. during prayers before bedtime, i'm usually a cranky mess cause i know forced sleep is coming. however, i like trying to belt out "heaven", "day-ey bread" and "tre-passis" at the appropriate times along with daddy. my sign of the cross is just me waving both hands around. needs work.

* What is God teaching you?

that jesus is god. And that jesus has a thing about crosses.

* In your own words, what is the gospel?

haven't learned that one yet. probably something about jesus.

* Is there a specific sin you’re aware of that you need my help defeating?

if "help" means "spankings", then no.

is this a trick question?

* Are you more aware of my encouragement or my criticism?

both.

* What’s daddy most passionate about?

computer

* Do I act the same at church as I do when I’m at home?

you're more insistent that I sit still.

* Are you aware of my love for you?

yeah. you give me more kisses than i want.

* Is there any way I’ve sinned against you that I’ve not repented of?

you poked my eye yesterday trying to get my carseat strap off me. though since you didn't do it on purpose, I guess you're not really culpable. and you said you were sorry and gave me a big hug, so no biggie.

* Do you have any observations for me?

share your ice cream with me more often. and bigger bites please. You're not fooling anyone with those pea-sized drips at the end of the spoon.

* How am I doing as a dad?

pretty good. thanks for the doggie.

* How have Sunday’s sermons impacted you?

don't really understand them. i like stained glass though. and the bells, which i thought were telephones.

* Does my relationship with mom make you excited to be married?

makes me jealous. i want to be married to mommy!