Ellie 1, Bob 0

Score one for Elanor! In my guestbook I found the following comment:

I sure don't agree with your politics, but Wow! What a cute puppy!! He is really adorable.

Aside from a little gender confusion, Ellie's delighted with the compliment. Meanwhile I figure I'll go on ranting with my skewed take on politics. One of the delights of puppies is that they're very nonpartisan. =)

Observations on the Pledge of Allegiance

Many people are suprised to learn that I, a pastor, am opposed to requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and particularly the two words "under God." Aren't I patriotic? Aren't I Christian?

Yes and yes. I believe very strongly in the rights our Constitution gives us to worship any god we want, several different gods, or no god at all. In religious matters my rights as a faithful Lutheran are secured by the same amendment that protects my agnostic friend's rights not to be coerced into false worship. Although we are mainline now, Lutherans were once a persecuted religious minority, and as an heir of the Reformation I believe strongly in protecting religious liberty for all people.

The Pledge, with the two words "under God" (which were added as Cold War propaganda against "godless Communism" and intended by Congress to set America apart as a nation of believers) is an affront to that religious freedom. Yes, so also is the national motto "In God We Trust" (also changed during the Cold War to reflect Judeo-Christian faith over against the heathen Reds). In adopting these words, our lawmakers deliberately made religious claims about God to be the law of the land: namely, that God exists, that he is sovereign over all, and that we as a nation trust in him. This is an overt endorsement of religion by Congress, and must be found unconstitutional when held up to scrutiny.

"But it doesn't endorse any specific God," some will object. True, but that's irrelevant. It endorses "God" over "gods" or "no god at all," both of which are perfectly legitimate and protected beliefs for an American to hold.

Do I, as a Christian and pastor believe in God? OF COURSE I DO. Do I believe that God is sovereign over the United States? Anyone who has heard my feelings on the positioning of the American and Christian flags in places of worship knows how strongly I do. ;)

But I also believe that God exists whether the Pledge affirms him or not, and that God coerces no one to believe in him or to follow him. That's not his way, and it shouldn't be our way, either. God uses the methods of tireless love and gentle persuasion to pull us in. My God is not so insecure in his deity that he needs Congress to force testimony for him out of the mouths of schoolchildren.

Christians can and should recall that allegiance to the United States is always a distant second to allegiance to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Truth be told, Christians should pledge their allegiance to God only, and promise to live as good citizens of this land to as great a degree as Scripture and faith allow. If we must choose between God and country, our choice must always and ever be God. Prayer at home and in the church, personal use of whatever pledge or creed is desired, and faithful life as members of the Body of Christ and the body politic are all good and appropriate.

But Christians must protect the religious rights of all Americans, including "godless" ones and those whose gods do not have a capital "G". It honors God to use his methods of persuasion ("evangelism" means sharing the GOOD news!) and to encourage our neighbors to seek him rather than to anger them by forcing their children to confess his authority every morning at school.

For an excellent history of the Pledge of Allegiance and the notorious phrase's roots in anti-Communist propaganda, see the article The Pledge of Allegiance - Why we're not one nation "under God" by David Greenberg.

Blog repaired

All of the weird goofs I mentioned yesterday should be fixed. The only weirdness now is a little gap between the banner and the blue menu on the left. I don't know why that's happening. I spent a lot of time last night working hands-on with the code for this page, and I might even take the extraordinary (for me) step of attempting to code it once more, this time entirely by hand, just to get it to cooperate. But for now, this works well enough.

Gadzooks, it's late!

Didn't realize how late I'd been up working on tweaking my blog. That'll teach me. Time to get a few winks before heading to Lamoure tomorrow morning for a conference meeting.

Recommended waste of time

Shawn sent me this link:Pentrix - Pen Spinning Revolution. Don't know what that says about the status of his latest big project, except that there may be a blurb in the musical program somewhere about the proper spinning of pens (and procrastination based thereon)...

Updating the site...

I've added links to the "charitable clicking" sites on the blog pages, and will be adding them to the rest of the site ASAP. As you can see, something weird happened that caused the blog versions to reproduce spontaneously. ;) It wasn't my intention to wallpaper the blog with them. But I'll leave them up this way for now... better to have them there and all over the place than not there at all.

I've also changed the typesetting of the blog to match a new typeface I'm trying out in the rest of the site. Let me know if you have strong feelings about it one way or another.

The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Do you have a minute? No, really: Do you have a minute? Because that's all it will take for you to make a FREE charitable contribution at The Hunger Site and its four affiliates, The Breast Cancer Site, The Child Health Site, The Rainforest Site, and The Animal Rescue Site.

All you need to do is click on the link above to visit The Hunger Site. Midway down the page is a button that reads, "GIVE FREE FOOD - Click Here."

Click there.

That's it. That's all you need to do. When you do, you'll be told how much food your click has just provided ("Thank you! Your click helps feed the hungry with the value of 1.1 cups of staple food."). Then you can click on the links at The Hunger Site to each of the four affiliates, and donate in the same simple way. Five sites to visit, five buttons to click, and you can do it once per day.

How can clicking a web button provide a real-world donation? It's because sponsors (whose small ads you'll see on the "Thank you!" page) have agreed to donate a set amount per person who clicks, each day. The more clicks, the bigger their contribution. You, the clicker, aren't giving money, but you are affecting the amount of money the sponsors will provide, which is something you can feel good about.

I'll be posting links to these "charitable clicking" sites more prominently on my site in the near future. In the meantime, please add The Hunger Site to your bookmarks, start there each day, and spend one minute of your morning, noon or night clicking for charity.

On behalf of all the people, plants and pets you'll be aiding - THANKS.

Very cool!

I've been in the process of ripping high-quality MP3s from my CD collection. It's been a few years since I did this, and I used a lower quality level than I'd like to have now, so it was time to dig the discs back out again and feed them all to the laptop, one by one.

I'm almost done now, and am working on the discs that were "problem discs" for me. For example, dc Talk's "Supernatural." I've had this disc almost since it came out, but I don't think I've ever listened to it all the way through, despite really enjoying dc Talk's music. Why, you ask? Because almost right off the bat, I managed to put a nasty scratch in the middle of the disc, causing it to skip obnoxiously when you try to play it.

So I popped it into the CD drive, not expecting much. Turns out I was able to make perfect copies of all but one song in the middle (obviously, the one that bore the brunt of the scratch!). That was cool enough, but it's not the "very cool!" subject of this post.

That would be the fact that I was able to (legally) "fix" my CD for just $.99 online. Using MusicMatch's online download service, it was easy to locate just the damaged track ("Godsend"), click twice, and watch it start to download while my bank account forked over a buck. Now, a few minutes later, I've got all the songs, legally, and in perfect condition.

Now I'm burning all of them to a new CD, so that I can pop it in the case with the damaged one, and listen to it whenever I want.

And that's what's very cool in my life tonight. ;)

The state of the church?

Writing in the late 80s, evangelical Joseph Bayly commented upon his generation's contribution to those Christians who would come after them: "We inherited doctrinal, expository preaching with a heavy emphasis on prophecy. We bequeath relational preaching with a heavy emphasis on success here and now. We inherited leaders who spoke out against evil in society and in the church; we bequeath leaders who are specialists in public relations and fundraising."

From The Plain Truth

An excellent quote about GenX worship sensibilities, from an excellent article: "Seeker sensitive worship held in an auditorium devoid of religious symbols and led by polished professional performers who are removed from the tattered and tawdry world of daily experience holds little appeal for many GenXers. They know that life is not tidy or filled with predictable, happy endings. Their spiritual awareness is triggered by rituals both ancient and relevant. If the Christian church fails to rediscover its own rich heritage, created in pre-literate societies, it will find it increasingly difficult to hold a generation shaped by a post-literate culture."

Rumsfeld tries to cover his...

MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action has a clip from Meet the Press featuring Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, asserting that neither the president nor he ever stated that Iraq was an "immediate threat." He suggests it's "folklore," and says he'd like to see a citation for such claims. The panelists, surprise, surprise, have just such a citation, and then another, up their sleeves. Rumsfeld's own words about the immediacy of Iraq's threat to the US get juxtaposed with his denial that he ever said anything of the sort.

How long are Americans going to put up with this blatant and crass deception? News flash: Rummy is LYING in this clip when he says he never claimed Iraq was an immediate threat, and his own words prove him a liar. (Or very, scarily forgetful.)

UPDATED: Elanor's Photo Gallery

Elanor's Photo Gallery has been updated with new pics. She was groomed for the first time yesterday, so there is a "before" picture and an "after" one. The "after" doesn't show off her new look as well as I'd like, but it was the best of the pictures I took of her last night. I'll try to get one from an angle that shows the changes a little better online in the near future.

But not tonight! You should know better than to think I'd be doing any photography on a Wednesday in Lent. ;)

Puppies like carrots...

...who knew?

(See "Is it OK to feed a dog carrots?")

For those in need of a good laugh

And now, the secret world of Pong. (Warning: contains offensive language, but is funny as...)

Snow squalls

I'd never heard of "snow squalls" before today, but boy are they stunning.

We've got winds here around 30 mph today, with gusts hitting up to 50 mph. If you look at the radar, you'll see that there are isolated patches of snowclouds over the state. With the wind moving as fast as it is, we've gone from clear blue skies to near-blizzard conditions about three or four times in the last hour.

And when I say "near-blizzard" conditions, I mean "the snow is blowing parallel to the ground, and the church across the street is starting to vanish."

The amazing thing is how these squalls just descend upon us and then vanish in minutes. Sitting here in my house, I notice the room darkening as the cloud moves in. Then, in no time at all, it's a blizzard outside. A number of minutes later, it's a nice day out again (except for the wind, of course).

I don't expect we'll get much snow from this that will last, but it's just been fascinating to stay inside and watch from my dining room.

I wonder what attendance at services tonight will be like.

Which reminds me that I need to pull together a sermon yet. ;)

"I'm sure he'd make a fine theologian..."

Slate - "The president's new feel-good ads." By William Saletan and Jacob Weisberg: "'One of the things that must never change is the entrepreneurial spirit of America,' Bush says at the outset of the ad. 'This country needs a president who clearly sees that.' That's Bush in a nutshell: He sees our 'spirit' but not the lives, jobs, and health insurance we've lost. I'm sure he'd make a fine theologian."

Ummm... let's just say no to Dub the Theologian, OK? The thought of him becoming Theologian in Chief is just too scary to comprehend.

Otherwise, an excellent analysis of Bush's kick-off campaign ads.

Another review of "The Passion"

An excellent consideration of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" can be found at WORLD Magazine's web site:WORLD February 28, 2004: "No mere martyr"

Reviewer Andrew Coffin writes: "The best understanding of The Passion is that it is Mel Gibson's very personal expression of a deeply rooted faith, in the best way he knows how: on film. Christ's Passion is a narrative with which Mr. Gibson connected. He felt burdened to tell it, and to tell it in a way that resonated most closely with his own experience.

"However, what Mr. Gibson chooses to accentuate, what he leaves in, what he leaves out - all of these are choices that reflect his artistic sensibility and his personal experience, and are layers on top of the story. It is important to distinguish between this as Mr. Gibson's interpretation of the Gospels and God's Word itself."

MSNBC - Where we worship: New church isn't waiting to become multicultural

A church back in the Twin Cities doing some pretty interesting things. I think they're onto something... it's a good read, and thought-provoking.

MSNBC - Where we worship: New church isn't waiting to become multicultural

MSNBC - Where we worship: New church isn't waiting to become multicultural

A church back in the Twin Cities doing some pretty interesting things. I think they're onto something... it's a good read, and thought-provoking.

MSNBC - Where we worship: New church isn't waiting to become multicultural

MSNBC - Where we worship: New church isn't waiting to become multicultural

A church back in the Twin Cities doing some pretty interesting things. I think they're onto something... it's a good read, and thought-provoking.

MSNBC - Where we worship: New church isn't waiting to become multicultural

You've seen "The Passion," now watch "Judas"

In an interesting progamming choice, ABC is broadcasting"Judas," an original movie about the disciple who betrayed Jesus. I'm not recommending this movie, simply because I haven't seen it yet. ;) But I'm planning on watching it myself, and I think that it will be an interesting contrast to THE biblical movie that everyone's talking about.

"Judas" airs on ABC this Monday at 8:00 Central Time.

Seattle's space-age potties

MSNBC - At last, relief is in sight as plush public potties open downtown

The Seattle PI reports that these high-tech lavatories will cost around $600,000 per year to maintain, that they are "self cleaning" (it boggles the mind), and that the elevator-styled doors will swoosh open after 15 minutes in order to discourage illicit use of the facilities.

If I ever win the lottery, you know that downtown Litchville is getting one of these. ;)