I’m a 32-year-old wife, mom, neighbor and friend. I live in Birmingham, Alabama. I live in the city. I see why people prefer the suburbs, and that is fine for those who feel drawn to the suburbs, but I personally feel more comfortable in the city. I spend my days caring for my family, my home, and those in my community when the opportunity presents itself or slaps me in the face. I like to have a good amount of alone time. I think I need it in order to better care for others, so I spend some time trying to care for myself. Reading, yoga, art, music, wine, and food are all things that give me pleasure. I also value a really good beer—I don’t like typical domestic beer. I prefer something along the lines of Newcastle. I guess I’m a beer snob. I’m in a wine phase these days, though. I’m not much of a wine snob. I rarely meet a glass of wine that I won’t drink. More »« Less

You can listen to the entire Alison Krauss – Robert Planet album here (top left corner). I’m on track two, which is beautiful.

My guess is that when “bad things” happen to Phelps, he doesn’t interpret it as God’s judgment against him.

12 apps sent out so far. 12 of my disciples, sent out across the country to bring tidings of the gospel of Joel’s philosophy. About 75 to go. Weeee….

Sweet justice. Hope this means they’ll never be able to afford travel ever again.

Is it really that bad? How rotten is the current crop of American teenagers?

Some bloggers are offended by the reference to fundamentalist Christian lemmings. I don’t care for the pejorative, but if intellectual and academic life in the future depends on the Christians I know, then we are headed for a new dark age of some sort.

Truth is Stranger than…....Churches embrace Scientology.

Greetings, Charlotte, and welcome!

We’re gearing up for parties, trick-or-treating and lots of candy, so I may not get to do my bio and whatnot til later tonight or tomorrow… So my slight delay in doing all of this is not because I’m not absolutely thrilled about the whole thing, it’s that I need to be thrilled and expectant with my children for the next few hours. We need to do more “practice” trick-or-treating at the back door for my two and a half year old son who has no recollection of this fun craziness. We also need to eat some scrambled eggs and other high-protein food stuffs to off-set the impending sugar situation…

Welcome, Charlotte.

Woohoo, I’m not the newest drunk anymore.

I’d like to welcome the newest BHT fellow, Charlotte. She was initially impressed, which was a bad sign, so I put her on hold for a while and she still wants in. After sending me a nice bio and writing samples, I’m convinced she’ll do well.

Sadly, I’m removing Kent from the list. If you’re out there, Kent, give me an email and catch me up. If it was something I did, I apologize.

One IM commenter said it well. This is the day we can all feel good saying “I am of Paul” and “I am of Apollos” and, of course, “I am of Christ.”

• What the hell is Reformation Day?  I thought it was Halloween…


• I don’t celebrate Reformation day.  October 31 was originally a pagan holiday that Christians like Luther and Calvin co—opted.  I don’t want to celebrate a holiday with pagan roots.


• At least the holiday I’m celebrating has the word “holy” in it.

TSK on the Emerging view of the Reformation.

One IM commenter said it well. This is the day we can all feel good saying “I am of Paul” and “I am of Apollos” and, of course, “I am of Christ.”

participation in Christ’s death and resurrection.

MOD: You don’t know what “You died with Christ and you were raised with Christ means?” As in, “I don’t understand the Biblical concept?” ??

Auth: Good point.  I mean I don’t know what that means if abstracted from belief.

I thought Jesus said a lot about believing, especially in the Gospel of John.  It seems to me that one of John’s big themes was that “through me” means “believing in me.”  Getting caught up and participating in a way of life is great and all, but Jesus gives quite a bit of attention to faith as well.

All: The point that Buechner is making is that reducing Christianity down to either of ‘Christians believe …’ or ‘Christians do …’ misses the reality that what makes us Christians is the fact that we are in Christ; and (as all good Presbyterians, even us liberal literary PCUSA types know) we are in Christ because of Christ, and not as a result of anything we believe or do. Belief and action are responses that only come out of our participation in Christ’s death and resurrection.

You can accuse Buechner – and me, and Jack, and Capon (and probably Michael, although it’s not accurate) – of being universalist, but you can’t accuse him of not being a good Calvinist.

Michael: I’m becoming convinced that God reserves hell for people who think that other people should go there. What makes Hell hell is that those people, when they get there, will think they are in heaven simply because they will observe the absence of the people they consigned to “hell,” while at the same time they will entirely overlook the more pressing Absence they have in fact demanded.

Ben Myers asks “Can we prove the resurrection?”

Joe Carter calls to mind the golden age of the BHT, when Scott Ward did his Chick tract commentaries and all was right with the world.

I’m sure Buechner is going to hell with the rest of the literary types.

With about 10% Calvinist pastors in the SBC, Timmy Brister is still optimistic that younger SBC leaders are going to lead a Calvinistic reformation.. I love my Calvinist brothers, but they are all hived in at SBTS, listening to one another and really out of touch with 90% of the SBC. This will never be a Calvinistic denomination guys. Calvinists can play a part in reforming and do much good, but this denomination won’t be, can’t be and shouldn’t be Calvinistic.

You know, of course, that we are risking guilt by association for even mentioning Buechner here. I have read some Buechner. He makes me think. I don’t formulate my theology with him as a strong resource.

Count me among the delusional (Ron Paul) and among those who think Buechner’s off his rocker (whoever he is). Attempts like his always collapse within a paragraph or two. So, it’s not about “believing” or “doing” anything. Instead:

He said it was only by him – by living, participating in, being caught up in the way of life that he embodied, that was his way.

I don’t know who Buechner is but I’m pretty sure he’s incorrect on several points.

Some think of a Christian as one who necessarily believes certain things. That Jesus is the son of God, say. Or that Mary is a virgin. Or that the Pope is infallible. Or that all other religions are all wrong.

Others think of a Christian as one who necessarily does certain things. Such as going to church. Getting baptized. Giving up liquor and tobacco. Reading the Bible. Doing a good dead a day.

Some think of a Christian as just a nice guy.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). He didn’t say that any particular ethic, doctrine or religion was the way, the truth and the life. He said that he was. He didn’t say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you could “come to the Father.” He said it was only by him – by living, participating in, being caught up in the way of life that he embodied, that was his way.

Thus it is possible to be on Christ’s way and with his mark upon you without ever having heard of Christ, and for that reason, you may be on your way to God though maybe you don’t even believe in God.

A Christian is one who is on the way, although not necessarily very far along it, and who has at least some dim and half-baked idea of whom to thank.

A Christian isn’t necessarily nicer than everybody else, just beter informed.

Tom: delusional.

Jim, so what am I if I support Ron Paul?

Neuhaus doubts the New York Times’ announcement of “The Evangelical Crack-Up.”

Chuck Warnock on Theological Hair Splitting (including Piper on Masturbation and Reformed Theology.) Congrats to Chuck on being added to the Christian Century family.

I agree with Chuck that turning everything into a discussion of how much reformed theology you understand is ridiculous.

Heard these guys at the Celebrate Recovery meeting tonight. In the category of kickin’ band necessary for megachurch evangelical good times, they get a 10. Very good new band. Check them out.

Look familllllllliar?

“If you tell me Christian commitment is a kind of thing that has happened to you once and for all like some kind of spiritual plastic surgery, I say go to, go to, you’re either pulling the wool over your own eyes or trying to pull it over mine. Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself: “Can I believe it all again today?” No, better still, don’t ask it till after you’ve read The New York Times, till after you’ve studied that daily record of the world’s brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer’s always Yes, then you probably don’t know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because the No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The No is what proves you’re human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that’s choked with confession and tears and…great laughter.”

You have to suffer from a personality disorder to vote Democrat.

You have to be completely cynical to vote Republican.

You have to be delusional to support a third-party candidate.

I will probably vote Republican, but like other Republican-supporters, I won’t really mean it.

Because I don’t remember making a post about the Golden Compass or high school girl curriculum :-)

Jim: I used to think that as long as you had one computer per person, you wouldn’t need something like an AppleTV. However, it turns out that when the kids are on “Gumby,” my wife is on “Lappy,” and I’m on “Monster,” I sometimes want to watch something with roughly half my attention, and I need all my screen real estate. So yeah, an AppleTV is looking pretty good right now.

What’s really sad is when a couple of brothers come over to hang out, and each brings along his MacBook, too. A living room with four people tapping on laptops and four glowing Apple logos is a little strange. Nice, but strange. At least it only happens once the kids have gone to bed, so the iMac sits dormant in the other room.
While I’m geeking out Apple-style, I should mention that I only recently discovered just how wonderful those boomboxes with iPod jacks are. Sadly, I discovered them just after getting an iPhone, and so far all the ones I’ve encountered in the wild are not certified to work with the iPhone. Either the iPhone doesn’t fit snugly, or I get a warning prompting me to switch to “airplane mode” to avoid interference.

If anybody spots a device that will get decent sound out of my iPhone, I’d appreciate a tip. Thanks!

The Mighty Mouse of portable speakers.

This appeared at Monday Morning Insight. It cracks me up. I wonder if the Ken/Ingrid bot is aware it now has developed its own dialect?

First of all… today, I’d like to make an apology. Yesterday in the buzz, I wrongly said that Rev. Ken Silva wrote a piece over at his CRN website about the Robert Schuler “ReThink” conference. Turns out that it wasn’t indeed Ken that wrote the post; but rather “Editor”, who is someone other than Ken. My apologies, Ken. In return for my blunder, Ken managed to get some digs in on me as well. In typical fashion, Ken (or someone writing for Ken) called my workplace (Leadership Network), ‘a group of seeker sensitive new evangelicals who made sure the slumbering American Christian Church would have the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church.’ He also managed to call Schuler and Erwin McManus “sinner-sensitive semi-pelagians”, Rupert Murdoch a ‘christian pornographer’ and Rick Warren the “purpose driven pope”. Yeah, I remember when I was in third grade. Again, my apologies.

Don’t tell the Kenbot I’m going to a Celebrate Recovery Meeting tonight!!

More links, quotes and comment from Chataway on The Golden Compass.

Many thanks to the generous BHT lurkers who donated funds to purchase our High School Girl’s Bible Study curriculum. We’ve covered the cost and will designate the excess for the next curriculum need for those young ladies, probably after Christmas. I appreciate your partnership and confidence. Again, many thanks.

I have a ‘no private itunes library’ rule on the family computers. We keep a single itunes library for everyone on a shared external drive attached to a system that acts as a server.

I’ve created playlists for each of the 3 ipods we own, so that everyone gets their own stuff. I also have a playlist for videos that go on the iPhone.

I will be looking very seriously at Apple TV soon, mainly as a music/media server so I can play things from the itunes library while someone is using the computers.

Matthew: I used to have both a 10GB iPod and an iPod shuffle synced at once. They had different names, and when I plugged one in, it would remember which playlist I had told it to sync with. So that’s it—just give them different names, and tell them each to sync with a different playlist.

I now have four iPods in my house, but I’m currently only syncing one of them. I need to start distributing them to my children, or something. One’s still in the package, and the two mentioned above are very old.

Michael, let’s face it: you’ve been skirting the edges of being a Southern Baptist for years, and it’s time for you to make the jump and join them.

Does anyone have 2 ipods using one iTunes library? I just acquired an iPod nano in addition to my 3 year old 20GB iPod and want to use the nano for exercise. That means two or three playlists and some podcasts. Can someone tell me how to do this?

Michael, I was going to say something about some sympathy I had for the SBC, but now Ima skeered you’re gonna jump on me.

If I were counseling a Protestant turning to Rome, if it were someone I knew personally, I’d hit whatever dogmatic claims of Rome I knew would most bother him.  I would point out the dishonesty of post-Vatican II theologians in reinterpreting Trent and Vatican I to mean something quite different what they actually say in their historical context, and challenge him as to whether “infallibility” gets completely eviscerated by such revisionist readings, therefore undermining the consistency of Rome’s claims about itself.   I like to attack things from oblique angles, so I’d probably go after some alternative texts about sin, righteousness, and church authority rather than the standard ones.  Finally, I’d point out to him where the Fathers taught sola scriptura, because it seems like a huge number of Protestants who jump ship do so because they discover that there were in fact Christians in 375 AD, and they do not in fact teach what they hear at the local megachurch.  They then assume that the Reformers were absolutely unaware of the Fathers and that Rome is faithful to what they said, neither of which are actually true.

I guess that makes me a bad Lutheran, because I probably should talk more about justification.

I was reading Galatians this morning, and I started to get angry. How can we (the church) be so blind to the dangers of legalism? Is controlling people more important following Christ in freedom?

Since I have, in part, abetted a disparagement of public education, I offer this gem on the English Music in tribute to my public high school English teacher. He loved the music in the words and forced us ignorant barbarians to listen.

Michael Horton on “What to say to a person tempted to become Roman Catholic or Orthodox.”

I’d love to hear your comments.

BTW- I just bought stock in YUM Brands. So get out there and eat your fast food.

Michael:  Good on you for teaching the O’Connor stories.  “A Good Man is Hard to Find” used to be my fave (and, if you can get the students to dig deep enough, a really stunning look at the gospel), but I have to say after teaching “Good Country People” a few times that I think it may be the superior story.  Wry, funny, sad, a scathing critique of relativism and the intellectual machine.  Brilliant.

It’s so ridiculously predictable.

I write an IM post that hints at some sympathy for the church beyond the bounds of Protestantism. In this case, I revise my stereotypical notions of the Reformation a bit.

Within 25 comments, someone has descended on me and announced “I think you need to jump one way or the other. (RC or EO.)” After 1 post. One post that moves off the predictable, usual position of the average evangelical. And before the ink is dry…”You need to jump one way or the other.”

I do believe the internet- with the means to know if anyone, anywhere writes something that interests you- feeds this kind of person an endless number of opportunities to drop in and make their point that we all need to join their team.

If I’ve ever been like this….please forgive me.

Braves dealt Renteria to the Tigers for two prospects. Nice job by the new GM. Next item in the job jar: pitching. Loved this quote from the AP story:

“They are eager to bolster their starting rotation, which was basically John Smoltz, Tim Hudson and pray for rain this past season.”

Ouch.

MOD: I loved the Braves “pitching” this year. Worked great for us.

Thanks John, Phil and Sonia for sharing your insights on this. Sounds like I’ll need to make sure our church guides our young readers through the propaganda….

First things reviews the first of Pullmans three part work back in 2001.

I have also read the His Dark Materials series. Pullman always has been very open about his atheistic agenda. That the series is marketed toward children and teens is what I find most disturbing (“insidious” is the word that initially came to mind after completing the third book). I agree with Phillip – this series should only end up in the hands of a teen firmly rooted in their faith.

I am not one to jump on the boycotting bandwagon. Boycotting typically draws an undue amount of attention toward the product/book/movie/etc. that would normally have died on its own. This is one series, though, that I would strongly caution a parent to spend a significant amount of time in consideration before allowing their child to have exposure to the ideas contained within. Harry Potter was not about witchcraft. His Dark Materials is atheism wrapped in an incredibly engaging and well-written fantasy novel. I think this series does more for atheism than any of Dawkins’ books.

Auth edit: I can’t find the link to an interview with Philip Pullman I read back in 2000. However, I did find this one. Interesting quote:

Dave: There’s bound to be more attention on this book [The Amber Spyglass] after the whole Harry Potter craze.

Pullman: I’m kind of relying on Harry Potter to deflect all that, actually. I was quite happy for Harry Potter to get all the attention so I could creep in underneath all of it.

I’ve read the His Dark Materials series, and I have to say that—for once—the hysteria may not be overblown. No, I don’t think that God being carted out the back door as a dying old man is going to shake the faith of anyone here, but it is an idea I don’t think I want my eight-year-old to think about too much.

I’m pro-Potter, pro-just about anything, and anti-censorship. I think that The Last Temptation of Christ is a fascinating movie, Dogma was funny and fun, and I honestly can’t think of a single boycott by Christians with which I’ve agreed. However, my kids won’t be seeing any of these movies, at least not until I’ve had a chance to see all three to see how much of the original story arc remains.

The first book starts off with a pretty clear and direct attack on the Roman Catholic Church. As a protestant, I’m pretty much fine with that, especially as written. It isn’t until late in the second book that the scope of the broadside widens to heaven itself, and not until the third book that our heroes lead an all-out assault on heaven as we cheer them on. As a piece of atheistic propaganda, it’s fantastic! Better written than Harry Potter or Narnia, in my opinion, and with a juicy story that sucks you in before springing the “God should be dead, and will be if we succeed” trap.

I’m sure I’ll see the movies myself, though probably on DVD. But these really are, no joke, books that should be kept far away from children or even teens without a firm foundation. Of course, they’re marketed for teens and children, and there’s the alarming thing.

Should what happens in the Facebook, stay in the Facebook?

Kurt: here’s my take on His Dark Materials (specifically, the third volume) from one of my first-ever blog posts. The first two and a half books are superb: well-written, imaginative, gripping. Alas, by the end of the third volume, Pullman’s agenda has completely swamped the story.

I can’t believe anyone’s faith would be threatened by Pullman’s books, though I can well imagine people using his books as the occasion to take the final step on a journey already under way, whether consciously or not (see also: Richard Dawkins’ God Delusion). As I said in that post back in 2004, Pullman’s big idea seems to be that depicting a God who is weak and who dies will completely explode the Christian faith. Um…...

Actually, I’d been wondering when we’d get around to talking about The Golden Compass.

From what I understand, Pullman’s pretty open about the fact that atheism is his game, and that he’s woven these ideas into his books. It’s never been a big deal to me that a book or movie might have an anti-Christian theme, but this is the first series that I can recall that’s specifically aimed at children.

Not that we need a lot of Christians running through the streets and waving banners, but there should be general awareness for parents about some of the controversies behind the books/movies.

Has anybody here read any of the “His Dark Materials” books? They’re on my to-read list, but that’s a really, really long list. :)

Thanks for posting the Bill Kinnon link, Jason Michael (AUTH: you beat me to it by seconds…). The MS deal had already made me consider scaling back my Facebook presence, and Kinnon’s post sealed the deal. Mind you, my Facebook activity was so minimal that I don’t think I’ll be missed by Facebook’s true “users”.

Now, where did I put that tin-foil hat…? (jn)

Thank God for people like Craig Detweiler. I just wish his contribution hadn’t been at the very end of the article.

The people God appointed to speak and think for the rest of us are whining about “The Golden Compass.” [EEEEEEK!!! An UNBELIEVBER!!!!!]

Is Facebook evil? Yes and No. Better still, it can be if you let it.

Much of the fluff (pokes, super pokes, etc.) is meaningless, and even marketers probably can’t get much out of it other than some poor suckers will risk annoying some friends by poking them a bunch of times to get more poke options. (If you don’t know what any of that means, don’t worry about it. It really doesn’t matter.)

Wall posting may be of interest to marketers, but most of what I see is pretty tame, unless you’re selling joke books.

As for having to release all kinds of personal info, Facebook is guilty of not really telling you what you have to share. Like any other online venture, you have to know what you’re willing to be open about. If you aren’t aware of this, or if you’re paranoid, then Facebook isn’t for you. Neither is any Google service that requires an account.

All of this, of course, is assuming you aren’t willing to fabricate information about yourself. The other side of the coin that no one wants to talk about is that a sufficiently large group of people could game the system (any of them) by poisoning the data with a bunch of fake accounts and fake information. Believe me, there are enough bored souls on the Internet that this could happen. One way around that would be to ask you to pay for access, but even that has its limits. I pay for a Yahoo! Music subscription. That’s it. I would never pay for my Google account, my Facebook account, etc. (The internets is supposed to be free and all that…)

Bill Kinnon asks “Is Facebook Evil?”

Alan Creech bares his soul.

My syllabus is available for any parent to see. The principal must approve all novels and movies. Isn’t this what public schools do?

Here’s some of the stories we read first quarter and the topics:

The Most Dangerous Game: Violence
Child by Tiger: Explicit violence, racial violence.
The Destructors: Terrorism, juvenile delinquency
Hunters in the Snow: Sexuality, violence
Hills Like White Elephant: Abortion
The Drunkard: Alcohol abuse by a child
The Swimmer: Alcohol abuse, extramarital affair
Good Country People: Sex, humiliation of the handicapped, atheism
Greenleaf: Violent Death
A Good Man is Hard To Find: Murder of a family, including children.

Of course, all this pales next to what I have to talk about in teaching the Bible to kids.

Seeing “That does not mean that the teachers can do whatever they want, regardless of the children’s age or maturity; when a teacher does something whacky [sic], he/she should be confronted” responded to with “You’re simply incorrect in your assertion that enrolling one’s children in public school gives the teachers a legal carte blanche to do as they like regarding children’s education, if that indeed is what they’re doing” is why I usually regret posting that I agree with Josh on anything. In the end, I never do, and I should stop looking for those rare moments when Josh isn’t being an intellectually dishonest jackass.
Disgusting.

Josh S: I must be doing a poor job of communicating if I gave the impression that the Pulitzer automatically makes something morally upright or even good.  It, like any award, is a completely subjective thing tied up in politics and flavor-of-the-monthness.  My point was that it lends at least some indication of legitimacy to this author’s work.  It’s not like the teacher had his friend Billy Bob write some weird thing and taught that.  The Pulitzer proves nothing—but to me, it does offer at least a beginning of evidence that the teacher acted in good faith.

And as much as I hate the phrase “agree to diasgree,” I think maybe that’s what needs to happen in terms of just what a parent is agreeing to when he/she allows his/her child to attend a school run by others.  I think parents enter into a tacit agreement that the teacher will make choices in their stead.  This puts the burden on the person who complains; it’s not that they can’t complain (obviously), but they need to show very good reasons to potentially ruin a teacher’s career (and a misdemeanor, while not as bad as a felony in terms of legal punishment, could easily wreck a teacher’s career; especially when the record reads “distributing pornography to a minor,” or whatever horrid sounding thing they’ve cooked up).

That leads us to your statement that it would be simple to require teachers to inform parents when they are going to cover any material containing sex and violence.  I fear I will be accused of advocating some relativistic, po-mo kind of thinking here, but I don’t think this is simple at all.  Why?  Because “Graphic” is simply too subjective a word.  What exactly is graphic, and who defines it?  Like end of “A Rose for Emily” graphic, or Child of God graphic?  What happens if a teacher and parent, both acting in good faith, disagree about what graphic is?  Should the teacher then be punished?  Punished??  For making a good faith effort to educate someone?  I know there are cases where punishment would be appropriate; but I strongly feel that there should be a heavy burden involved in proving the level of recklessness that would result in punishment.  And if the action was grievous enough, the evidence should be pretty obvious.  I don’t think that’s the case here.  It seems you do, so I don’t know where we go from here.

BY way of illustration, I could list a whole lot of amazing pieces of writing here that deal with sex and violence (including the Bible), but why bother?  You’re smart enough to get the point: What is graphic to one person is not to another.  Believe me: I have taught students whose parents consider the mild swear words and mostly-implied violence in The Outsiders graphic and would rather I not teach it, just as I have dealt with parents who wouldn’t care if I showed my students Caligula.  So this is not some philosophical dance I’m doing to remove definition from the word graphic—it’s a legitimate, real-world problem.  Graphic is relative, especially when it comes to sex and violence.  And I fear that this case will establishe a precedent that may result in good-intentioned teachers being blindsided for teaching stuff that they thought was perfectly okay.  One day they are teaching The Hamlet, by William Faulkner, the next they are up on charges for distributing bestiality literature to students.  My father-in-law would call me paranoid for saying that (as he always does when I argue against censorship), but I think a little paranoia is called for here, to keep this kind of thing from getting out of control.

Of course, what I am saying kind of goes against the impotently pragmatic notion we have come to accept as American “education”: “I’m sending you my kid so you can open his brain and dump some stuff in it.  I won’t pay attention to anything until the outrage-of-the-month makes me open my kid’s book and fish for an offensive-sounding paragraph taken completely out of context and divorced from any sort of honest give-and-take discussion of morality and consequences.  And hey, just so we make sure I can be as little involved in his education as possible, go ahead and send me a note when you’re going to discuss something I might possibly find objectionable.  ‘What might that be?’ you ask. 

“Guess.”

Baptism and the Little Bastard. (ht: “John”. Again.)

Leif, the term “criminal charges” is being bandied about like this teacher could face life in prison or something. Let’s note two facts about this case.

1. The teacher has not actually been charged with anything.

2. The teacher was only being investigated as to whether charges were appropriate.

3. Violation of the law in question is a misdemeanor with a maximum $4K fine and 1 year in jail.

The only two questions that are relevant to me is whether or not it’s appropriate to have a law on the book prohibiting distribution of inappropriate material to minors (I do) and whether or not this teacher violated it (not certain, but leaning toward “yes,” since I don’t think necrophilia literature should be distributed to minors without parental consent). If the teacher actually violated the law, I think you must concede that it is indeed appropriate to charge him with violating the law, in this case a misdemeanor. Remember that: Misdemeanor, not felony. I think that in this case, since the teacher wasn’t distributing pure porn, the maximum penalty would be highly inappropriate; I’d probably be in favor of whatever the minimum penalty is. Jailtime is unnecessary in this case.

You’re simply incorrect in your assertion that enrolling one’s children in public school gives the teachers a legal carte blanche to do as they like regarding children’s education, if that indeed is what they’re doing. As I pointed out before, field trips are part of education, but teachers can’t take the kids on one without parental consent. I think this all falls under informed consent. Parents understand when they enroll kids in school that some degree of responsibility has been abdicated and given to the teacher. But do they understand this means the teacher can and will assign reading containing graphic depictions of necrophilia? I don’t think so. Since the parents likely don’t understand that enrolling kids in public school means that (or at least that you think it should mean that), I would put the burden on the teacher.

Michael: I’ve just lost 70 pounds on a low-carb diet, and documented the process. You can do it!

Leif: Ironically, the “classic” Romeo and Juliet film contains nudity, while Romeo + Juliet does not. Ha!

Jacoby Ellsbury was phenomenal in the series.  The kids starts 2007 on a AA minor league team, with an eye on AAA and winds up being a doubles machine in the MLB world series.  There wasn’t a lot of drama in this series but his catch at the wall in the ninth was one occasion.  A good move by Francona.

May’s piece is not badly written and he makes a few good points, but in the end he falls back on two faulty premises.

1.  The people we capture must be guilty or we wouldn’t have captured them.

2.  The ends justify the means.

Isn’t there any truth to the notion that torture makes the captive tell you what you want to hear?  Is there any doubt that telling this administration what it wants to hear is how (at least in part) we got in this situation to begin with?

I’m sure this violates all kinds of other rules, but isn’t there a drug we could give them to loosen their tongues?  Sounds easier and more reliable than water-boarding.

I would have been more involved in the discussion lately, but I have been preoccupied by the hospitalization of Henry Walters, the man Michael mentioned over the weekend.  he is a hero of mine, for sure, and it is maddeningly frustrating to watch a man who so loves speech and debate and vocal interchange not be able to speak.  I have visited him twice, and he seems to be getting better, but he needs your prayers. 

(By the way, Henry Walters educated me by challenging me, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.  It could be argued that he challenged me sometimes more than I was ready for.  Good for him—it made me what I am.)

Josh S (and others involved in this conversation):  We do not have a disagreement in terms of parents being primary custodians of their minor children’s education.  In fact, I am in favor of every parents’ rights to educate their own children at home.  I am even for the eradication of the Federal Department of Education.  I think the only requirement the federal gov. should establish regarding education is that states must make education available.  And I am certainly in favor of every parent holding teachers accountable for what goes on in the classroom.

But if a person chooses to have their kids in the public school system (or a private one, for that matter), they are agreeing to let the teachers make decisions regarding their children’s education.  That does not mean that the teachers can do whatever they want, regardless of the children’s age or maturity; when a teacher does something whacky, he/she should be confronted.  But I also think it is ridiculous for parents to agree to let others educate their children, and then micromanage teachers’ classroom choices.  If you don’t like what the teacher is teaching, by all means, withdraw your child; debate the teacher; ask the teacher to stop; complain to the administration; request that your child be excused from that assignment or offered an alternative assignment.

But criminal charges?  This situation would be laughably ridiculous if it weren’t so scary.

But I realize that is still in reference to this particular case, and the debate here has been framed in terms of education philosophy in general.  And so I reiterate: when we agree to send our children to school, we ARE abdicating our responsibility for their education, to a degree.  We still are (and should be) ultimately in charge.  But if we want to be completely in charge, we should take them out of the school.

When I taught freshmen at Michael’s school, I showed the Leonardo diCraprio version of Romeo and Juliet (oh, excuse me, Romeo + Juliet) (the movie kind of sucks, by the way, and my decision to show it is the subject of another discussion entirely).  One of my students’ mother came to me and objected to him watching it, since it was rated PG-13 (even thought the student was 15 years old).  I did not argue with her or become indignant and insist on him watching it, etc.  I let him go to the library while we watched it, and assigned him the classic movie to watch in its stead.  And to his mother’s credit, she did not try to have me fired or brought up on charges.

Admittedly, such action would bring the education system to a halt if it went on every time in each situation.  But I would rather deal with that logistical problem than set up some sort of a priori cadre of no-no’s for teachers to follow.  And here I refer to reasonable teachers in reasonable situations.  Obviously there are some materials and subjects which should be off limits for minors.  But again I say: This is a matter of case-by case.  And in this case, teaching a novel written by a Pulitzer Prize winning author that happens to be challenging for middle schoolers should not put a teacher’s career in danger, nor his freedom.  I don’t have a problem with that situation undergoing some scrutiny, and for the teacher to have to defend the book’s inclusion.  But let’s not get crazy here. 

Glad it went well. I’m sure we’ll see it soon. The gun and knife are going to be deleted around here before anything like this is done. I’m really saddened that some folks are more taken in by horror movies than they are the teaching methods of Jesus. Do we just not understand what scripture means when it says we don’t use manipulative methods? sigh

Joel: Clifford May writes in defense of torture. He must read the BHT :-)

Michael, please pray that the Red Sox will not end up with Alex Rodriguez. He does not understand the concept of “team”, and that seems to be essential to winning. If this abomination of a swap happens, I will blame you. And Joe Buck. I do not want him, and I hope that St. Theo agrees with me.

On a totally different subject, our youth group performed the little mime yesterday— the one you spoke about last week. It was very effective and well-received. It could easily be altered to replace the knife and gun, I think. Apparently this is the latest fad, eh?

Dan Edelen: In My Little Kingdom (and Yours).

21 Quibbles with Leopard.

Common excuses for not giving to the Lord’s work.

A-Rod opts out. I say he’ll wind up a Met or a Cub. Or possibly the Yanks and the Sox will simply trade third basemen, with Lowell going to the Yankees.

Red Sox Nation rejoices. Richard, we will speak no more of the curse. We will no longer expect something to go wrong. We will win graciously when we win, and when we lose, we will lose graciously. We need not hang our heads in shame.

I can’t wait to see the Yankee fan at work today. I know what he will expect, but I will heap coals of fire on his head with my kindness.

The Rockies made those last two games interesting. A sweep is a good thing; we can catch up on our sleep.

A scene of debauchery at the BHT… Heck, yeah!!!

How to divorce your laptop.

Pray for me. I’m going Lo-Carb. St. David Wayne, pray for me.

Anyone else listen to Jason Upton? Wow.

You people that don’t have to preach on Sunday night really annoy me.

And then preach again on Monday a.m. And Tuesday a.m.

I’m going to check out a Celebrate Recovery meeting at a church in London. May be a program we can utilize. Taking an AA veteran with me. I have so many issues, I’m not sure which small group I’ll go to. I may just sit in the middle.

While I agree that Britney has made some devastating life choices and needs the love and mercy of Christ, I bet that in a church the size of Southland, the members know at least one or two people a piece who have made equally devastating life choices. It’s east to send a note to a celebrity who will never contact you. It’s harder and far messier to involve yourself in the life of someone near you. I hope they’ve been encouraged to enter the mess and do something redemptive for someone who isn’t popular.

Altogether now: “Po-mo emergent heretic and contemplative prayer advocate Michael Spencer has revealed his true colours once again with a shocking photographic endorsement of Halloween on his alcohol-themed ‘discussion’ site, Boar’s Head Tavern. Will this man’s spiritual endangerment of his young acolytes on the BHT never end?”

(JN^infinity)

Lexington, KY, church’s new outreach—BRITNEY!!

Our 13 year old calico cat, Cricket, is a hunter. From time to time, she brings her trophies to the porch for us to see. This appeared, as you see it, yesterday, on the sidewalk outside the house. WARNING: It’s mildly gross if you are a small child or unusually sensitive. More »« Less

One church asked their community to define value and ended up painting a bridge in the park.

I’m torn. I find myself agreeing primarily with Josh’s kids are kids argument, though I understand the outrage over a teacher facing criminal charges for academic efforts inside a classroom. I never did read the original story, so I’m going entirely on big-picture stuff. I would say that if the kids in question are teenagers, my reaction is probably much different than if they’re, say, nine. (My oldest child is nine.) The criminal charges stuff also seems a bit overwrought for a “mere” reading assignment, but then again, I don’t know the book that was assigned. There are definitely teachers and school districts pushing books I consider inappropriate at children I consider much too young for them, though I don’t think it’s widespread.
The thing is, in my teens I read all sorts of books that would drive the average Christian home educator insane, and while one or two of them might have been unwise (like Fear of Flying when I was 14 or so), I’m generally in favor of making just about anything available to my kids in their teens as well. Of course, I’m their father, and I can decide that (assuming my wife buys in), while having a teacher—who is clearly not as heavily invested in my child’s life as I am, no matter how passionate the teacher—making that decision would be uncomfortable at least.

Maybe this is why we educated our children at home—so I can expose them to a diverse range of stuff without worrying about overly-anxious parents screwing things up! :-)

Speaking of homosexuality…my wife and I were watching TV and a commercial announcing the teams for the next Amazing Race aired. My wife heard “lesbian ministers” and I heard “Wesleyan ministers” (I was farther from the TV). She was right.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reports on Darrin Patrick’s talk at Covenant.