The Unlikely Disciple

2009 was a bit of a funky year reading wise for me. I'm sure I read some books, as I always do, but I don't have any serious recollection of them.

However, this year, I've already devoured 3 books and I'm looking forward to reading even more. The Pixar Touch fed into my tech geek and movie geek side (Excellent read). The View From the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood
fed my Star Trek nerd side (OK. The Star Trek parts were very interesting, but Nicholas Meyer's is a bitter, bitter man).

The most significant read I've done this year is Kevin Roose's The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University. And it might be one of the best I read this year. The upshot is that Roose is an Ivy League college student who decides he doesn't know enough conservative Christians. So he decides to take a semester studying "abroad" at Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University. But he decides to do it undercover as a conservative Christian. He rightly ascertains that Christians would put their "best face forward" if they knew he was writing a book about it or was not a Christian. So after a crash course from a Christian friend, he registers for classes and spends the spring semester of 2007 at Liberty University.

There are several excellent aspects of this book. Roose is an excellent writer. He has an engaging style and the fact that the book is written narratively makes it flow incredibly well. 2) Roose enters the world of a conservative Christian with as much of an open mind as it's possible for him to have, growing up outside of that world and having most of his opinions of Christians formed by the media. And it's because of this open mind that Roose himself is actually changed by his exposure to Christianity. Spoiler aalert: He doesn't become a Christian as a result of this, but what he does do is realize that Christian college students aren't much different than his friends at Brown. They're interested in pop culture and the world outside of Liberty. Roose also decides that he will abide by Liberty's rules (mostly) and do the things that a Christian would do. He dates but doesn't pursue sex (which he says frees up a man and woman to actually talk and find out about each other, rather than pursuing carnal pleasures), he prays (which he says forces him to focus on other people and their needs rather than his own [a lesson many of us Christians could stand to learn]), and he participates in a Spring Break mission trip (that one's best left for the book). Here's the other way I know this is a great book: Sheryl read it almost as quickly as I did and found it just as fascinating.

I've always been interested in alternate perspectives, especially ones of things that I believe or participate in. The Unlikely Disciple is a great example of this, and I think it's one that Christians should read to see what an outsider pretending to be an insider really thinks of us and one that nonChristians, especially nonbelievers in any religion, should read. Do we have flaws? Yes. Are these flaws sometimes so apparent that it's hard to see the good in us? Yes, maybe, but just as Roose looked at us with an open mind, not only would I hope that others look at us similarly, but that we should to those who don't share what we believe charitably as well.

Too Much Obama?

President Obama has been in office for 2 weeks now and is already fighting an uphill battle with Congress and the American people on the economic stimulus/spending package, not to mention having at least three of his Cabinet level nominees hit with tax problems, causing two of them to step down. And in the last two weeks, it seems like President Obama has given more interviews than President Bush did in his entire eight-year tenure. But I wonder if Obama is swinging to the other extreme than Bush, making himself TOO seen. I appreciate the interviews that he did last night, admitting basically what was his mistake about not vetting his candidates properly, which is also something we heard too little of from the previous administration. But I think he has to be careful in being seen too much.

As Shakespeare wrote in Act 3, Scene 2 of Henry IV, Part One concerning the previous king Richard II

God pardon thee! yet let me wonder, Harry,
At thy affections, which do hold a wing
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost.
Which by thy younger brother is supplied,
And art almost an alien to the hearts
Of all the court and princes of my blood:
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man
Prophetically doth forethink thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But like a comet I was wonder'd at;
That men would tell their children 'This is he;'
Others would say 'Where, which is Bolingbroke?'
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
And dress'd myself in such humility
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne'er seen but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast
And won by rareness such solemnity.
The skipping king, he ambled up and down
With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state,
Mingled his royalty with capering fools,
Had his great name profaned with their scorns
And gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push
Of every beardless vain comparative,
Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoff'd himself to popularity;
That, being daily swallow'd by men's eyes,
They surfeited with honey and began
To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
More than a little is by much too much.
So when he had occasion to be seen,
He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes
As, sick and blunted with community,
Afford no extraordinary gaze,
Such as is bent on sun-like majesty
When it shines seldom in admiring eyes;
But rather drowzed and hung their eyelids down,
Slept in his face and render'd such aspect
As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
Being with his presence glutted, gorged and full.
And in that very line, Harry, standest thou;
For thou has lost thy princely privilege
With vile participation: not an eye
But is a-weary of thy common sight,
Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more;
Which now doth that I would not have it do,
Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.

And I know that probably won't mean much to many of you, but Henry is basically telling his son, Hal/Prince Henry that if you're TOO common, people won't respect you or the position. That's what happened to Richard, and while I welcome the openness that President Obama brings to the role of President, I hope that we don't get so used to seeing him that hearing from the President becomes habit rather than an important event.

25 Random Things About Myself

There's a thing going around Facebook where you list 25 things about yourself. So I'm double posting it here.

1) I have lived my entire life in Nashville. I was born in the old Saint Thomas hospital and have lived my entire life in the southern and eastern part of Nashville. I love this city, the size, the general feel of the people here, just about everything about it. And as a result I've never really wanted to move. I think I could live in a big city and were I younger, I might give New York City a shot, but as it is, I love living here.

2) I have attended Otter Creek Church of Christ for 31 of my 37 years of life. Except for 6 years where I either didn't attend church or attended Belmont Church, I've gone to Otter Creek the entire time. One of the things that I really love about it is the sense of tradition that I have from going there. My great-grandfather was the first preacher in the Granny White building and my grandparents went there, as well as my parents for a time. I love how we honor tradition while still pushing the envelopes of what it means to be Church of Christ and a Christian.

3) I taught high school English for 6 years at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School for the Health Sciences and Engineering. I loved this job. I got to teach some of the best kids in one of the best schools in the city. We talked about literature, of course, but talking about that led us into discussions of race and life and politics and religion and all that other stuff you're not supposed to talk to your students about, but that's what they want to talk about. I had a great time doing it (except for grading papers) and miss it on occasion.

4) I'm married to my best friend. I know that sounds cliched but the honest truth is that Sheryl is the person that I want to spend most of my time with/person with whom I want to spend most of my time. When something good or bad happens, she's the first one I want to talk with about it. We were friends before we dated and that blossomed into the love we share today. I don't find myself missing the fluttery feelings of first love because as important as those are at the beginning of a relationship, they fade. And if that's what we lock into as love, then we're just fooling ourselves. So I love being married to my best friend.

5) I have a bad temper. When I was a teenager and adolescent, I used to lose my temper all the time. Got into fights, argued, all that stuff. As I got older, that fuse became longer and longer, but I find that it gotten shorter with my kids as I have pretty high expectations for them and their behavior. I'm working on controlling it as much as I can, but some days it's very, very hard.

6) My parents are divorced. When I was 11, my parents got divorced and 6 months later, my mom remarried. Now, my mom and dad's relationship had been over a long time before the divorce was finalized, but that was obviously a difficult time. As a result, my mom was also disfellowshipped from Otter Creek, because the divorce was not Scriptural (because of marital infidelity on my dad's part).

7) After leaving teaching, I was a technical writer. What that really means is that I helped write frequently asked questions for websites, as well as help files and such. It was a great way to get into the business world and honestly it was a place where my experience as a teacher gave me a great amount of credibility. It was also something I didn't like a lot, because it was very formalized in the writing and grammar, things that I really didn't like even when I was teaching.

8) My technical writing led to my work now as a usability engineer/user interface designer. One of the things you do as a technical writer is look for problems that people might have with software and anticipate the problems they'll have with it and write solutions around it. What I do now is design the software to not have those problems in the first place. It's a great job that feeds both my creative side and geeky side. Plus, I'm pretty good at it and enjoy it, both of which are nice bonuses.

9) I've been out of the US 3 times. Once to Canada on a brief business trip, and twice to Great Britain. The first time was in 2000 when Sheryl and I decided that we were going to do a trip like this before we had kids and just had a blast doing it. We spent 2 weeks going from London to Dover/Canterbury to Oxford to Edinburgh (Scotland) to Aberdeen (Scotland) to Inverness (Scotland) and back to London. It is literally in the top 5 memories of my entire life, behind our wedding and the births of our kids. The 2nd time to England was on a mission trip to Loughborough in 2004. We took Kinsey with us to go work with a church there, and Connor came along too, but he was in utero. This was also good, but very different in feel obviously. Through it, we came to know many people that are very close friends with us today and who are in our Life group/small group.

10) I love Jesus. Again, I know that's a cliche kind of thing to say, but I really do. Not just because of the salvation aspects in which I firmly believe, but also the example of his life. Too often it's easy for us to focus on the sacrificial atoning nature of his death and resurrection and the cute "golden fleece diapers" aspect of his birth, and forgetting that there was a life of 33 years in between those two where Jesus said some really important things. I love how Jesus tweaked the noses of the established authority while still loving people and still getting frustrated as all heck with them.

11) My favorite Old Testament verse is 1 Samuel 6:7 "But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." I had this one read at my baptism and it was a theme verse for me. I had horrible self-esteem as a child, and so it gave me comfort that God didn't look at my unattractive outside, but what was inside.

12) My favorite New Testament verses are Philippians 2:5-11: 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:

6 Who, being in very nature [a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature [b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

13) Sheryl and I have lived in the same house for the last 12 years. We moved in just before our first anniversary and rented from my parents for the first year, then bought. Several times, I've really wanted to move and get something with just a bit more space, particularly in the master bedroom and master bath area, but it's not too bad right now.

14) I can quote about 90% of the original Star Wars movie and probably 75% of the Princess Bride. My movie-going childhood was defined by Star Wars and the original trilogy. I also had an LP called the Story of Star Wars that had most of the dialogue, music, and sound effects and I listened to that over and over. My quotability of the Princess Bride comes just from loving that movie and loving the complete over the top cheesiness of it being done with complete seriousness. "Let me esplain.... No, there is too much, let me sum up."

15) My ability to hold vast amounts of useless knowledge in my brain makes me very annoying at trivia games. I don't have a photographic memory, but I can hold weird bits of knowledge in my head for a long time. Like, I can remember that John McTiernan was the director of Die Hard 1 & 3 and the directory of Predator, while Renny Harlin directed Die Hard 2, the Long Kiss Goodnight, and Cutthroat Island, the latter two starred his wife Geena Davis with Samuel Jackson and Matthew Modine (respectively). I don't know why I know that. But I do and when I play trivia games, it can be annoying, but my competitive drive makes me want to win every time. Hence, I don't play trivia games that often.

16) I'm a gadget/electronics nut. I love grown up toys. I love the cool iPhones and big screen TVs and the whiz bag things that we can do with gadgets now that would have seemed like science fiction 20 years ago. I like those things, but that can also get expensive so I try not to indulge that often, but on occasion I'm weak and give in.

17) I love snowboarding. For the last several years, I've gone out to Colorado with my parents and Kinsey to go skiing, but 2 years ago, I was introduced to snowboarding and I don't see myself returning to skiing anytime soon. For one the boots are much more comfortable. Secondly, it's an amazing amount of fun. I was never a skateboarder, but snowboarding is an incredible amount of fun. I never had to take formal lessons. My mom and dad showed me how to heel and toe turns, but beyond that, it's just been really natural for me. And I'm looking forward to going back soon.

18) I've always wanted to write fiction. Blogging and design work feeds a certain part of my creativity, but from a very early age I wanted to write fiction. The problem again goes back to my self-esteem about what I can do. A lot of the fiction that I've written has felt trite and pedestrian and so I haven't really devoted much time or effort to it. It's a confidence issue, as well as pushing past the crap that I would have to write before I get to something that might be decent.

19) I do tech/audio-visual work at Otter Creek and occasionally for the Zoe Group. About 6 and a half years ago, I started to doing tech work for Otter Creek as a part time job. It's something that I mostly enjoy, but I get a little tired of it sometimes. It can be a little more stressful than I would like it to be, but that's because I hold myself to such a high standard when it comes to mistakes. I coordinate and run both the sound board and the MediaShout (visual) work for Otter Creek. Honestly, while I'm good at both, I enjoy running MediaShout more than sound. Running sound can still occasionally feel like I'm in someone else's shoes, while I feel right at home running MediaShout, behind a computer doing visuals.

20) I've run sound at the Ryman Auditorium. A few years back, the Zoe Group partnered with the Temple Church praise team to do a Thanksgiving service at the Ryman Auditorium and because Brandon Scott Thomas felt comfortable with me, I ended up running the sound for the night. It was a very scary, but really cool experience.

21) My favorite literature writer is William Faulkner. I discovered Faulkner in 10th grade English when we read As I Lay Dying which I didn't understand at all. Stream of consciousness... point of view... perspective... My mother is a fish... None of it made sense. Then we read The Unvanquished in 11th grade and I got him quite a bit more. Then in 12th grade, I read Light in August, The Sound and the Fury, and Absalom, Absalom, as well as many of his short stories, and I discovered someone who finally didn't make me feel like an idiot for claiming to be a Southern. He was honest about the racism, and unflinching in his depiction, while also not condone it, but recognized it as a part of the Southern Heritage, never to be re-enacted. As a result, I had my students read him too.

22) I love video games, particularly shooters and driving games, and most especially, music games. When I got my Xbox, I made a pact that I wouldn't play while the kids were awake. I've gotten a little bit away from that and I'll play some driving games with them, and especially Rock Band where Kinsey and Sheryl will play drums and bass as well. It's incredibly fun. Plus we play it when our Life group comes over, after we get done with the Bible study and prayer time.

23) I do the laundry in our household. When Sheryl and I got married, we divided up the household chores. I took the outside of the house (excluding the garden) and she took the inside (excluding the laundry). Now you might think, "Why the laundry, Phil?" Because I can sit on my butt and watch TV while I fold clothes. It was a pretty easy decision. Now, that of course is not to say that I don't help out with cleaning the house, or Sheryl doesn't help with the laundry, but that's where the responsibilities tend to lay.

24) I would like to preach one sermon at Otter Creek. It sounds dumb, but I almost feel this "genetic" imperative to preach a sermon at Otter Creek, because of my great-grandfather preaching there. Now, I of course would like to be asked to speak on my own merits and not as a "pity" preacher, so it's not likely to happen, but I think it would be really neat to do that.

25) I don't know for certain what the afterlife will bring. I'm placing my faith that what Jesus said is true and that my desire to be as much like him as I can will put me in a place to be with him in eternity, saved by his grace. I don't know what that means for everyone else in the world, past, present, and future. But I feel like my calling is to show love to others and allow myself to be loved by them and by God. If I can somehow pull that off here on earth, perhaps God can show a little bit through me to them.

So that's 25 things. If you've lasted this long, I'd buy you a drink (non-alcoholic) but with the economy the way it is... well, you'll just have to be happy with a hearty congratulations.

Dry Bones

Once again, I find myself in the position of wanting to recommend a sermon at Otter Creek. This one was by Lee Camp on the Exekiel passage about dry bones. http://ottercreek.podomatic.com/entry/eg/2009-02-01T09_27_11-08_00 As with David Rubio's sermon last week and John York's the previous two weeks, this one was also excellent and thought-provoking.

You can also get the book Night by Elie Weisel that Lee mentioned here: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Oprahs-Book-Club-Wiesel/dp/0374500010/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233519989&sr=8-1 I really need to read this one at some point.

Lee has also written a great book called Mere Discipleship that you can get at http://www.amazon.com/Mere-Discipleship-Radical-Christianity-Rebellious/dp/1587432307/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233520118&sr=1-1 You really need to read this one if you haven't.

YouTube Thursday: A Minor Movie Based on a Small Series of Books

This is just a little movie clip I found the other day. I think it could be interesting and maybe you'll give it a shot. I'm not overly familiar with the book series it's based on, but who knows? Maybe the author will make something of herself one of these days.



But seriously, I saw on another forum that I frequent that this trailer could have been 15 seconds long. Bring up the music, bring up the title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, then put up the words, "Like you're not going to see it, probably opening weekend." And that's it. (At which point the people who STILL think Harry and Hermione were meant to be together forever and Rowling screwed up her own books would say that the lack of Ginny in the trailer shows the true pure love that Harry and Hermione share. And yes, those people are out there.)

De Smet, Continued

So I was on a limited time frame last night and only go the pictures up. Let me explain a little more about our experience. De Smet is a fairly typical small MidWest town. A lot of farming. Mostly farming, in fact. And as a result, along with the big-boxization of the US, it had dropped significantly in size and importance, except for one critical fact: 5 of Laura Ingalls Wilder's book are set in and around De Smet. Because of that they get 20 to 25,000 visitors each year. Honestly, I'm not convinced how viable the town would be without that.

The four of us stayed in a Bed and Breakfast called the Heritage House. It is on De Smet's main street and just across the street from the location where the Ingalls family stayed during the Long Winter. It was actually pretty cool to be there. On Wednesday morning, we left the B&B and went to headquarters of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial society. There they have the actual surveyor's house that the Ingalls family stayed in, before staking their claim, after Pa had worked for the railroad. It's been moved from its original location at Silver Lake (which, incidentally, was drained in the 1920's) to where it is now. We got to see all the places that we'd read about and that we really neat for me and Sheryl, and lesser so for Kinsey, and not at all for Connor.

On the same site, they have a replica of the school where Laura taught at the beginning of These Happy Golden Years, as well as the actual school house that Laura and Carrie attended, moved from its location as well. From there, we traveled to the house that Pa built after Laura and Almanzo got married, in the town itself. Our tour guide told us about all the things that happened to the Ingalls after the books ended. I didn't get to hear much of that, since Connor was getting restless. After that, we went to the De Smet Cemetery where the Ingalls are buried and then to the best part of the day.

Out at the site of the original Ingalls homestead there is a memorial stone, but further on, on the same grounds is an incredible, interactive experience, called simply, the Ingalls Homestead. On it is a tower to look over everything, then you can see much of what the Ingalls did. They have a Sod dugout, then a claim shanty. You can see a barn with actual animals (a cow and calf). They have an exact replica of what Pa built for Ma on the site as it was when it was finished. They have a larger barn that had a team of horses with a covered wagon that we drove to a school house on the site of the second school that Laura taught at and then you drive back to the barn.

It was really a great experience and I would really, really recommend fans of Laura's books to take the opportunity to go and do it. It really brought the experience of what they went through to life.

Tomorrow (or later tonight): Pictures of a place that nearly brought me to song, the Badlands

Death and Life After Life After Death

Sheryl and I had plans last night to go out to dinner with some friends and then go and hear one of my favorite theologians, NT Wright, speak here in Nashville. Our friend, Tiffany, had come over to watch the kids for us and as we were getting ready to walk out, the phone rang. I answered and my mom spoke with her voice breaking into sobs that my grandmother had died.

Clora Eileen Brooks was 84 years old and honestly, she'd been going downhill for a long, long time. Her body was failing and so was her mind, so her death wasn't a surprise, but it was unexpected. When someone hangs on as long as Grandma had, in some ways you keep expecting them to hang on. My mom and dad, both being nurses, had committed that they would keep her at their house to make her as comfortable as possible and not put her in a nursing or convalescence home. And I appreciate that. It allowed Kinsey and Connor to see her and to be honest, I know that seeing her three grandkids (my sister has a daughter as well) and being able to watch the Price is Right gave her great amounts of joy. I wouldn't say her whole face lit up, but she got this pleasant little half smile when Kinsey, Katie, and Connor would give her hugs.

Sheryl and I debated on going to dinner and the talk. It was something we both wanted to do, but this was an extraordinary circumstance. So we drove over to Mom and Dad's house where Grandma had died. We went down to the basement where Grandma had lived for the last couple of years. She was happy down there, able to turn the TV up to the level where she could hear it. Mom was on the phone, arranging for hospice and transfer of the body back up to Michigan where the funeral and burial will be. Sheryl and I went into Grandma's room, which looked as normal as the last time I'd seen it. Her hearing aid was on the chest along with all her prescriptions. There was a half-drunk cup of water with a bendy straw in it, and except for the pallor of her skin, she looked for all the world like she was just asleep. I gave her cool cheek a kiss, and stepped back out of the room.

We waited with Mom while the arrangements were made and when she asked us what our plans for the night had been, we told her of going to hear the Bishop and she urged us to go, and so we did. My dad was there with her and she was doing well, considering all.

Hearing Bishop Wright was very odd in light of Grandma's passing. He talked about his new book, Surprised by Hope, and his theology of the resurrection (both Jesus' and ours). He made statements that I've heard in his talks saved online about heaven being important, but it's not the end of the world, and that there is life after death, but what the Bible is really concerned with is Life After Life After Death. I was very glad to see such a full house at West End United Methodist. Wright has kind of become the theologian-in-chief for much of the Emergent/Post-Modern/Third Way Christian, that I didn't really know how many people would be there, but the sanctuary was definitely full. It was also great to see Thomas+ (my favorite Anglican), Gavin, Justin, a big crew from Otter Creek (we probably had 20 people there), some people from Lipscomb, and Joey Reed, a high school buddy of mine who is now a Methodist pastor in Memphis.

I got to ask Bishop Wright a question about how this theology of the resurrection relates to environmentalism and creation care, and he gave a great answer. Someone else asked him about his theology of the church superceding Israel in God's eyes, which was out of the scope of the talk, but Wright answered him anyway. After the talk, I do something I rarely do, but I paid full price for Surprised By Hope and Evil and the Justice of God and had Bishop Wright sign them. I wish I could say that I was able to talk to him for a few minutes, but it was literally, "It's to Phil. And thanks very much."

On our way out, Sheryl and I were holding hands and talking about what we heard, and I said, "I really hope all this is true." And I do. Am I always sure/100% positive? No, because you can't be. You can have faith that what we believe has support behind it, but you can't REALLY know. That's why it's called faith.

Back in the summer of 1983, my brother, sister, and I went up to Flint, Michigan, to spend June with my grandma and grandpa. I knew what the reason was. My mom and dad didn't want us around during the divorce proceedings, but we got to spend time with aunts and uncles and cousins, as well as the grandparents. In 1994, my grandfather died and we traveled up to be there for his service, and so this weekend, we'll travel up again to the dying industrial city of Flint, Michigan. There, where my grandfather traded in farming for manufacturing and brought his wife and 9 children to change from sharecroppers to factory workers, we'll bury Grandma. We'll be there as her legacy, as her memory. And we'll thank God for her life, and await the answers of time when we pray that we will see her and see the Lord.

Editing Little House

For the past 6 months or so, we've been reading Kinsey the Little House series as her bedtime story, one chapter a night, and it's been one of the most fun things we've done. We're on These Happy Golden Years right now and about 100 pages into it. Kinsey loves how the relationship between Laura and Almanzo has been developing, and has even had a little crush on Cap Garland since we first met him in The Long Winter. Sheryl and I have also become interested in Laura's story and how much the truth is reflected in the books and are planning on reading John Miller's Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder.

There have been two times though where we have decided to edit Laura a little. In one instance in Little House on the Prairie, Ma and a neighbor lady are having a conversation and one of them says that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," and Laura relates how Ma hated Indians. Sheryl and I discussed that a little bit and while we read the first, and edited the second to say that Ma disliked Indians, we also said that "Indians" wasn't the best way to describe the people who lived on the land before us.

The other time, we completely excised a section of a chapter of Little Town on the Prairie. There is a chapter describing a "literary," which was basically parties that De Smet had every week to get people together. They had spelling bees, living wax statues, singings, and things like that. But one of the literaries they had was a black-faced minstrel show where the men of the town including Pa Ingalls participated. I thought a lot about this and Sheryl and I talked and we decided to not read that section at all. I understand that Kinsey would probably not have and issue with it and Sheryl and I might have been exercising a little too much caution with it, but the truth is that we simply decided that we didn't want to expose her to that. She has such an innocent exposure to race and race relations right now that we want to preserve that for as long as possible.

Tag Response

So I got tagged by Scott Freeman and I don't always do these, but it interested me so here goes.

Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages

Find page 123

Find the first 5 sentences

Post the next 3 sentences

Tag 5 people

The nearest book was The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, which is awesome btw. There's only pictures on page 123, so here's page 122.

"When George saw the locations, the roads were much narrower than he would have wished," Barry adds. So we had to find the smallest vehicle there was and make it half as small again. There's a little thing called a 'Bomb Bug,' which is a trike; it has three wheels."

Extra nerd points if you can guess what vehicle they're talking about building.

My tags: Justin, Judy, Adam, Thomas+ and Malia and/or David.

Justice Served

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been reading John Grisham's nonfiction work, The Innocent Man. It's a legal thriller in the style of his other works, but since it's nonfiction, it has a lot more immediacy. It's a fascinating read about two men wrongly convicted in a brutal killing in 1982 who are eventually released. Grisham paints the District Attorney in the case as the 'bad guy," but the DA has started his own web site refuting much of Grisham's contentions about him. I haven't read through that site yet, but I plan to.

The reason I bring it up is because I was struck by the plight of ANOTHER innocent man apparently railroaded by police in Colorado. Tim Masters was convicted on the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence and no physical evidence. The thing that struck me about these two cases is that I wonder how much of the convictions of the men were based on a sense of closure for the communities. When something brutal or horrific happens, as a society we want some sense of closure, and law enforcement wants that closure as well.

What seems like happens in these cases is that the pursuit of closure gets into way of the pursuit of real justice. And what seems scary is that while it's not common, it also doesn't seem as rare as it should be.

YouTube Thursday: Prince Caspian

The first trailer for the next book in the Narnia series: Prince Caspian is out. And I'm officially excited.



So here's a fun question: What's your favorite Narnia book? And why?

Book Review: Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead

On our non-kids weekend last weekend, I was able to sit and read the book Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead. I've been a fan of Lawhead for about 16 or 17 years now, from his Song of Albion series.

Scarlet is the second book in a trilogy called the Raven King based on the Robin Hood legend. However, there are a couple of significant differences. 1) The historical setting has changed from the time of King Richard Coeur de Leon (The Lion-Hearted) to the time just after the Norman invasion of England, 1080-1100. This is not the first Robin Hood book that I've read that did this. Sherwood by Parke Godwin did this as well and pretty well too. 2) Lawhead also changes the setting from Nottingham to Wales. Lawhead is well known for his love of most things Celtic and so this fits well into his story.

Lawhead also employs one of his other literary trademarks, which is a limited first person perspective (not to go all English teacher on y'all). The first book, Hood, was told from Bran's perspective (Bran is Rhi Bran y Hud or the Raven King AKA Robin Hood), with occasionally jaunts into the Norman/French halls of power to see the political machinations behind the choices that kill his father and force him to live as a brigand woodsman. Scarlet does something similar, which serves to introduce the readers anew to Bran and his group, while also giving the perspective of how a member of his own group of woodsmen see him. I won't say much about the plot, but it's basically Bran and his groups involvement in their wood trade, but how that also intersects with the political and religious plots of the day, of which there were many.

I really really enjoyed it and if you're a fan of the Robin Hood legend, I'd recommend both this series, as well as Sherwood. What's interesting to me about all of this is that for close to 700 years Robin Hood has been such an archetype that he's constantly being re-visioned in books and movies and tv shows. I wonder if the struggle against unjust oppressors or the re-distribution of wealth or living in the woods off the land or any of those other pieces of the legend are what keeps it going for so many years.

They Like Jesus But Not the Church Part 1

I just recently finished reading a book by Dan Kimball called They Like Jesus But Not the Church.


When I picked it up at the Zoe Conference, my friend Adam told me that I wouldn't be able to put it down. I kind of internally scoffed at that, but in getting into it, I found that he was exactly right. While the book is written towards church leaders (of which I am not), I think it would be extremely valuable for all members of the Church to read. What Kimball did was become friends with people outside the church and in that, being a pastor, began to talk with them about the church and their perceptions and about Jesus and their perceptions of him. What he found was what became the title of the book, that people really like Jesus but not the Church.

Now at this point it's easy to say, "Well, sure. They like this pop culture view of lovey hippie Jesus who loves everyone and never gets mad, and might have gotten killed for some religious reason. And of course they don't like the Church. Christians are presented in the media and by some unfortunates like Dobson and Robertson and the late Fallwell as overzealous Bible beaters who hate everyone. Of course non Christians are going to think this way." Which I think is one of Kimball's points. People are basing perceptions on outside influences. One of the best ways to counteract that is by Christians not being locked into their own private ghettos of safe behavior and rather engaging the world.

At any rate, Kimball divided the book into three parts: an intro, the main meat, and a "what to do now."

In the main meat, Kimball divides the comments that people made about the church into 6 groups.

1. The church is an organized religion with a political agenda.
2. The church is judgmental and negative.
3. The church is dominated by males and oppresses females.
4. The church is homophobic.
5. The church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong.
6. The church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally.

I kind of agree with these things, although as a Christian I might substitute the phrase "can be" for "is." And when I realized that I agreed with a lot of these perceptions, that was a flash of realization... that there could be a lot of people who go to a church that really like Jesus, but not the Church, but continue to go out of tradition or whatever, but it's a dead experience. There's a lot of experience of church but not of Jesus. And that's a problem.

Next week, why church leaders will have a tendency to misuse this book.

A Very Special YouTube Monday: Drinking Responsibly

You might not be a Daily Show fan. I've been one for a while, about 7 years or so. Recently, Comedy Central launched a website, www.thedailyshow.com wherein you can find many fun things, but most especially old videos from the show. This one is from 2001 and stars Stephen Colbert and current Office star Steve Carell in a way you can only imagine.



Just as a note, that is not Steve Carell acting drunk. That is actually footage of Steve Carell getting drunk. Oh, and it should also show that Steve Carell's chest in the 40 year old Virgin was not a prosthetic.

Oh yeah, and Dumbledore is/was gay.

Junie B. Jones and the Bad Words

A few weeks ago, Sheryl and Kinsey went through Wendy's or Chik-Fil-A or some place and they were giving out audiobooks. The audiobook we received was Junie B. Jones Has a Monster Under Her Bed. Now, when I first listened the book, I thought it was kind of cute. On the 1,000th time though, not so much. Junie B. Jones is a girl in the class of afternoon kindergarten. Her teacher is named Mrs. She has another name, but Junie doesn't like to use it. Junie has a brother named Ollie that she thought was a monkey when he was first born, because of a misunderstanding with her Grandma Helen Miller.

Now, we are really trying to encourage Kinsey in her reading. We think she's a lot better reader than she's letting on, but we're continuing to do a lot of reading with her. She liked the Junie B. book so much that we decided to make a reward for good behavior a collection of Junie B. Jones books. The very first book was Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. Major problem there. "Stupid" is on our "do not use" list at home. A list which also includes "dumb," "hate," "ugly," and "shut up." The problem is that Junie B. uses these words all the time. Not only that, but Junie B. talks back to her parents quite often and is disrespectful to them on occasion.

Naturally, I don't have such rose-colored glasses on that I don't believe that Kinsey doesn't act like this. She does, but we really don't want to encourage that behavior in her. This is why I'm glad she watches Playhouse Disney and not some other channels where she might see that behavior demonstrated.

Sheryl and I had a choice when it came to reading the books with her each night. We could either read the words and actions that Junie B. did and use those as teaching moments or not. We actually chose the middle road. We didn't read the words. We either skipped them where we could or substituted. For instance, when Junie B. says that "I hate that big dumb Jim," I would read, "I really don't like that Jim." Where she would talk about a crybaby boy that she thinks she can beat up, I read that, but we talked about why that's not a proper way to act. I realized a bit later that Junie B. was written more for middle schoolers and her antics would be very funny to them. They were pretty funny to me and Sheryl too, but not while we have a little girl who could be influenced by them, and sometimes acts that way without their influence.

So we switched over to the Little House books set in the 1880s where children were never sarcastic or disobedient (joke). Of course, this has led to other questions like "Daddy, why do people hunt?" and "Do we eat meat?" Fun times.

Rowling Deathly Hallows Interviews

Deathly Hallows Spoilers below!

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I'm sure many of you have read or are reading the Deathly Hallows and you might be craving more information, like What did Harry, Ron, and Hermione do in their futures for work? What about Ginny? Did Luna and Neville end up together?

Well in a couple of interviews, JK Rowlings has been explaining herself and why she did the things that she did in the books.

This one is an interview that aired on NBC Sunday night, portions of which aired on Today earlier in the week. Some good info, but more about her and her writing process and feelings now that it's all over.

This one is a web chat transcript from Bloomsbury, her UK publisher, with questions asked by fans. This is where the really juicy stuff is. Lots of questions about why certain things happened, what happened in the future. Also, what about that person that Rowlings said would show magic later in life? What did Dudley seem when the dementor started to kiss him? What did Dumbledore see in the Mirror of Erised? Tons of great stuff, but a word of warning. In Word, it's 18 pages long.

And finally, did you not like the epilogue? Did you not like the epilogue because it was Ron and Hermione and not Harry and Hermione? Did you think Ginny had far too much happiness in her life? Then this fanfiction version of the epilogue should make you very happy! This is an example of one of those Harmonian types that just truly felt that Rowlings didn't know her characters well enough to put Harry and Hermione together.

Yes, I'm completely serious. Enjoy!

Craziness

So, I'm looking at my Statcounter yesterday and I see something weird happening. I'm getting a ton of hits. By the end of the day, my totals look like this...


Naturally, I'm wondering what's happening, and to my utter shock, if you Google Deathly Hallows Review, my blog is the third listing. No idea why or how, but I guess it's one of those interesting little algorithms that happens on the web.

My Deathly Hallows Review

OK. I know a lot of you haven't finished the final Harry Potter yet. I'm so sorry.

However, I have and I want to post some thoughts. I'll leave plenty of spoiler space for my lovely Google Reader readers...




I loved it. Loved it. I though JKR did an almost completely brilliant job with most of it. I loved that we got to see the Harry/Hermione/Ron trio for most of the book. I loved the action. I loved that people died. I didn't love that people died. I loved that actions had consequences and there was real evil out there.

What didn't I love? I didn't love the never-ending camping trip. That got pretty tiresome. I didn't love chasing clues all over the country seemingly only to get to the end of the year, as JKR likes to structure her books. I didn't like that breaking into the Ministry and into Gringotts felt very similar. I didn't like that we really never got an explanation about how the Sword of Gryffindor came out of the Sorting Hat. Again. I wonder what Griphook thought of that.

Ok, so specifics.

I loved how JKR basically deconstructed Dumbledore for the whole series. He started off as this almost perfect character, but by the end, we know that he was someone who had dabbled in the Dark Arts, and had desparately wanted to be famous. He also was arrogant to the point of putting others in life threatening danger. And yet, he was right and Harry loved him.

Snape. I loved how Snape was doing good things, but all for the wrong reasons. He was doing it out of guilt and if it hadn't been for Lilly, he would have unapologetically been a Death Eater. I loved that every time he looked at Harry, he saw the eyes of the woman he loved in the face of the man he hated. That part was simply, simply brilliant JKR's part. I did love how showing his memories cleared everything up and how that was written, particularly understanding that HE was the nasty boy Petunia had talked about in Order of the Phoenix.

I simply adored the Battle of Hogwarts and I really think it could be its own movie. All the people joining back up: Dumbledore's Army, the Order, the old Quidditch players. The whole final third of the book was just so tightly written and done so very well. I can't wait to read that part again.

Loved that Neville became just the ultimate Hogwarts Bad Ass. Killing Nagini and organizing the resistance. And his Gran taking out some Death Eaters. AND MOLLY WEASLEY! Kickin' it and taking names!

I loved how Kreacher really did come around because of being treated kindly, and even respecting Hermione.

Speaking of House Elves, I was really surprised that the death that actually brought tears to my eyes was Dobby's. Dobby! The Jar-Jar of Harry Potter! He had been so brave and so resourceful that I simply loved how he was brought into the story, and so shocked that he died in the way that he did.

I even loved the epilogue, 1) for its blatant cheesiness, and 2) that it threw back into the face of all the fans that were just begging for a Harry and Hermione hookup: the Harmonians (yes, that's what they call themselves).

I really really loved it and I think it's my favorite book right now. I need to read it again and a smidge closer this time. And then, next year probably, do a full seven book reread. That's going to be fun.

Finished

And just, simply, wow.... Can't wait to read it again.

Reading

On Wednesday nights at Otter Creek, there is a book reading group that has been started by Judy Thomas and Doris Colvett. For the month of June, we're going to be reading Anne Lamott's Grace (Eventually). For July, it's Lauren Winner's Mudhouse Sabbath; and for August, Eugene Peterson's Eat This Book. I have not read any of these books, although I'm familiar on some level with all of the authors.

I am really, really looking forward to this class. On one hand, it's been a while since I've actually been able to sit in a class with my wife and interact and dialogue with others. On another hand, I love reading and I love reading spiritual/theological books and especially discussing it with others. And from sitting in the class, it's going to be a great group to sit and discuss with. There are people of all ages, genders, and marital status, and people that knew my dad when he was Kinsey's age and me when I was born, and those that have only been at Otter Creek for a couple of years.

I really think that people are going to get exposed to some new ideas in these books and I know I'm going to get exposed to some new interpretations of some of my ideas. It's one of the greatest aspects of community that we can pool our ideas and thoughts and see how others are thinking. I thank God for a community like that and for women like Judy and Doris who are willing to step up and lead it.