a thought for lent in america

"the great sin of white north-american middle-class protestantism is shallow hopelessness, 'cheap hope.' we cannot be said to have a gospel because we refuse to know enough of the bad news to prepare our collective soul for the good. our insistence upon being and remaining positive and optomistic is what prevents us from exploring deeply the meaning of hope, biblically understood. we want to have easter sunday without good friday- or better, we desire a friday so 'good' that it is no longer for us a sybolic mode of identification with the suffering world."
- douglas j. hall, confessing the faith- 1998.
image copyright: phil nellis, 2004.

a commercial plugg

ok, if you are in grad-school, you need this program. what does it do for you? everything. you choose the format (chicago, apa, etc...), you build your library... you click, you drop notes in text or footnote, you plop the info in your bibliography. one click... basically it knocks about 4 hrs off each paper... this program has changed the way i really feel about papers. ok, i'm done. here for student price.

take up your pen... and write

this weekend i have been impacted once again by the power of what it is to write one's own story. it is one thing to think about your life, one thing to talk about it and even receive therapeutic help in understanding it- but it is an entirely different process to sit down and put words to what your experience of life and relationship has been.
where do you come from? how has your family marked and named you? what words have been spoken to your body? what are your tragedies? what do you do with shame and glory? how do you carry yourself in relationship because of those things?
the last question also brings you to the answers of: how do you understand sin and salvation?- essentially, how do you live out the gospel in relationship as a result of your story?
more.

girlie talk

I've been reading bits and pieces of feminist theologian Letty Russell's Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretation of the Church. In it she uses the beautiful symbolism of the table, with its emphasis of hospitality and sharing, to give suggestions for church structure and values. A good table is one that is hospitable to all and provides a place for people to connect relationally. “If the table is spread by God and hosted by Christ, it must be a table with many connections.”
She also makes the profound observation that “salvation has been sexualized, privatized, futurized, and restricted to a chosen few.”
wow... put that in 'yer pipe and smoke it.

la escopetarra

cesar lopez is a colombian musician turned activist. it began with the innitiative to play music on the fresh sites of violence or killings in his home town. one day he was playing and the police were standing by and it hit him- "i don't look much different with my guitar than him with his gun." his creative grass-roots campaign against violence in south america had begun. he transformed the escopeta (shotgun) into a guitarra, calling it the escopetarra. soon the colombian government began to donate confiscated guns. the bad news? fender is working on their model to mass produce 'em- read more here.

disengagement 101

but god isn't listening...

david bazan continues to inspire and blow me away with his master storytelling and dreadful themes. the last song he recorded as pedro the lion is called "the devil is beating his wife." it's a tale of the father and husband who is resisting his role as a family-man. so he begins to fantasize about all the fun and adventure he could have if he were only "free" from the shackles of marriage.
with "high hopes" he sets out on a road trip of drunkenness and debauchery. the listener is provided with flashbacks to the family- the toddler is developing and dad is missing each beautiful moment... of course, things only spiral downward on the road as he is met with disappointment and disaster, only to then confront God with fierce accusations. meanwhile the haunting refrain echoes throughout the song- "it wasn't as sweet as it had been in his dreams."
listen to the song. read the lyrics.
image copyright: phil nellis, 2006.