Laci Peterson Watch
June 25, 2004
Sadly, Laci Peterson went missing on December 24, 2002; a quick update is in order! As of today, June 25, it has now been 549 days since that event, and for the 549th consecutive day, it is none of your business who killed her. Nor is it any of mine…
A quick poll of nobody…
June 24, 2004
I doubt many folks are reading this yet; this isn’t a serious poll, only a rhetorical get-this-off-my-chest rant.
Question 1: If you could walk into a “Christian bookstore”, wave a magic wand, and get rid of all of the nonsense there, what percentage of the items for sale do you think you’d eliminate?
Question 2: If you could wave that same magic wand and eliminate any percentage of “Christian TV”, what percentage would you eliminate?
Question 3: One more magic wand swing: if that wand could be waved and all of the churches that amount to a waste of time/energy/money could be eliminated (so that only churches that were doing God’s will God’s way, proclaiming the gospel in a manner that doesn’t waste too much money or man hours), what percentage would you eliminate?
One man’s answer:
1.) 60%
2.) 85%
3.) 50%
I’m probably low on all three categories…
A true confession…
June 16, 2004
After my anti-NBA rant of a few weeks back, I actually watched more of the finals this year than I have in many, many a year. That’s not to say I watched much, but I did watch, a little more than half of Game Five (well, I guess that that really isn’t much, is it?). And I watched the end of Game Two, and some of Game Four as well. I was just so startled that the Pistons were whipping the snot out of the Lakers (they’d have swept if they’d fouled Shaq in Game Two with ten seconds left and a three point lead when the Lakers inbounded the ball to him). It just intrigued me, I guess, that the mighty Lakers would lose. Is there any doubt that Larry Brown is a much better coach than Phil Jackson? It’d sure be interesting to see Phil Jackson leave the Lakers and coach, say, the Wizards (I almost wrote “Bullets”, but then I remembered that political correctness forced the inane name change a few years back). Go coach the Wizards, Phil, and then we’ll see if you’re actually a good coach, or just a front-runner with a great sense of timing to jump on board the right team at the right time.
I just feel like I needed to make this confession. Forgive me, blog readers, for I have sinned…
This blog will CHANGE YOUR LIFE…
June 16, 2004
Not really. In fact, short of the Holy Spirit, I’m not convinced that much of ANYTHING or ANYONE actually “changes your life”, at least not permanently or as totally as the claims that are made. What am I getting at? I’m just tired of the outrageous claims that are regularly made in our culture, not just by secular society but by the Christian community, that this conference or that book or this seminar or that sermon or this preacher or that psychologist will change your life!!!! Hogwash. I’m tired of them; I’m ready to automatically swear off attendance at any conference that uses such hyperbole that, let’s just call a spade a spade, amounts to lying. Case in point: last year’s PromiseKeepers Pastors’ Conference in Phoenix. I actually ruled out going (and told PK so) on the basis of their advance promotion. It stated (and I quote verbatim) that the conference would change forever what it means to be a pastor in America. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a piece of pottery laden with bovine by-product.
But PK certainly has no monopoly on outrageous hyperbole; it comes at us in the mail weekly from other conference-promoters and ministries. How ’bout a little honesty? How ’bout, “This conference may be helpful to you in ministry by helping you to see some things differently. You might gain a useful tool or three that could improve, at least marginally, the things you’re doing for the kingdom. A lot of the sessions may disappoint you, but chances are good that a couple will stimulate you to think, and you may well find that the time and money you invest in coming are worth it.” Unless, of course, it’s a John Maxwell conference, where the registration fee alone is $1,195 (I’m serious; where does he get off with that? And I have little doubt that some idiots actually paid the price and went.). But you know what? If someone actually advertised their conference honestly, most of us wouldn’t go…
So here’s my plea: swear off any books or conferences or seminars or ???? that make such outlandish promises. Refuse to go, and write the liars and tell them why.
I feel much better now that that is off my chest…I feel like, my life is changing!!!
A word or two on Ronnie…
June 15, 2004
The “Great Communicator”? Sure. The kind of guy who made even his political enemies feel like friends, who could put aside partisanship when the whistle blew and buy his political nemeses a cold one? So I’m told. Amiable, positive, optimistic? All qualities of his. But in the hoopla of last week that surrounded the passing of the greatest president of my lifetime, Ronald Wilson Reagan, not enough was said about what really endeared the man to Americans, and that is that he believed things. The Soviet Union was the “evil empire”, not just a “differently-abled government”. He said to Mickey Gorbey, to his face and in no uncertain terms, “tear down this wall, Mr. President”, not “paint it a nice lavender so the denizens will cheer up.” He understood that there are some things that are always right and some that are always wrong, and while all of us understand that compromise is sometimes necessary, he never compromised his deepest principles. He was a man of conviction, of courage, of personal magnetism, to be sure, but he was guided by a compass that always pointed due north. And I suspect on good evidence that he was a God-fearing man as well who acted as he did, despite harsh criticism, from the belly of his deeply-held faith. Well done, Gipper; may America live up to your esteemed legacy.
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
