Category: faith

re: My Life Canon

Last week I shared my Life Canon…
I’d like to add the following (which I recently added to the sidebar of my blog)…

I’m not sure what you’d call this, but I adapted it from something Brian McLaren wrote in Everything Must Change. It started as a challenge for our community group and its become more of a personal challenge to me each day – especially with it posted on my cubicle wall.

imagine if suddenly:
rather than seeking revenge, you sought reconciliation
rather than repaying violence with violence, you sought creative transforming nonviolent alternatives
rather than focusing on external conformity to moral codes, you were internally transformed by love
rather than loving insiders and hating outsiders, you welcomed outsiders into a new “us” and “we”
rather than anxiety about money or security or pleasure, you trusted ourselves to the care of God
rather than living for wealth, you lived for God who loves all people, including our enemies
rather than hating our enemies and competitors, you loved them and did unto them not as they have done unto you – or before they do unto you – but as you wish they would do for you

So what is your Life Canon? I tag: Thomas, Laurie, Brandi, Dollye, Eric, Brian, Smiley and Kevin.
(here are the rules)

McDonaldization, Wal-Martization and Fundamentalism

I think I was able to read two paragraphs this morning while listening to the encounter band practice before church this morning.
Two paragraphs but both quite powerful.
I really enjoy how some of the recent writers I’ve been reading from take “modern day terms” we’re familiar with and put them into context with the Gospel. For instance, rather than an Insurgency in Iraq (meaning a sudden increase in the number of soldiers) these writers would suggest an Insurgency of Love. They challenge me to think of the “third way” that I believe Jesus often told us to live by.

So here’s what grabbed me this morning, in between the band playing Praise you In This Storm and Now My Lifesong Sings…

The fact is, all religions of the world are under threat– from fundamentalist Islam, but more, from the McDonaldization and Wal-Martization of the world, from global consumerism, from forces that emanate not from Arabia or Afghanistan, but from New York and Hollywood– forces that make all religions equally superflous, trivial compared to the lust for a new car or a new pair of jeans.

Granted, as I told Laurie, I Twittered about this paragraph on my brand new Blackberry.

How hard it is…

Switch off that television

This video is making it’s rounds around the Interweb. I’ve seen it on 3 or 4 sites now but saw it first on Thomas’ blog a day or two ago. Everyone’s had some great opinions on it. I personally like Thomas’ best – maybe cause we’re looking at things in a similar way.

I’ll try not to steal his thunder. Watch the video and then read his post for sure. But here are just a couple highlights:

From the video:

Media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for.

Thomas writes:

The way Clay expresses it is basically… the new media (blogging/wikipedia/youtube etc) = consuming + producing + sharing > this is a shift from the old media that only expects you to consume.

People are watching less television and are doing something… making something happen… like just now as I create this post. It reminds me of the old Why don’t you? motto :: Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead? :: kind of ironic, I know… but its real… and its now!

I have some great friends who chose not to purchase a TV for the first couple years of their marriage. They only had a small Commodore monitor hooked up to a VCR for watching movies. They finally gave in though when Tim needed his Texas Rangers fix and probably didn’t help that their girls were getting older – but I wonder how different our lives would be if we all stopped simply consuming television on a daily basis….

79 religious groups oppose nuclear bomb plant

“How do you dismantle an atomic bomb? With love”

Found info on this via Brian McLaren’s blog today…

…in the new issue of Sojourners, you can learn how Henry Kissinger and other Reagan administration leaders have joined together to promote not just a limitation in the development of nuclear weapons, but more … the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free world. You may find this hard to believe, but it’s true.
And you can read the moving story of an anti-nuclear activist who has experienced a fusion of activism and Christian faith here.
More good news: over 100,000 people have sent an email to the Department of Energy urging them not to develop new and more powerful nuclear warheads, and urging them instead to work for a nuclear-weapons-free world.
Even more good news – our emails have challenged the Department of Energy to extend the comment period until tomorrow, Wednesday.

Continue reading 79 religious groups oppose nuclear bomb plant

Quote of the day

“I’ve really just begun to see that everything that I do with my life is sort of a theological statement. So many times I thought theology was just this black and white doctrine in a dusty book somewhere. But I’ve begun to realize that what I do with my money, what I do with my lifestyle, what I do with my politics, all of these things are theological statements. I’m not just living in a vacuum somewhere… Where I shop is not just a practical decision anymore or or financial decision or because they have the best products or the best tasting things. Where I shop at and where I go to eat at and what types of things I buy with money… I’m trying to invest in these things with some theological meaning because they are theological statements. Where I shop shows the world what I think about God or how I view God.”

– Josh from the Nick and Josh Podcast 4.0

Found out about The Nick & Josh Podcast from Chad and Tripp on The Homebrewed Christianity Podcast. Apparently Nick & Josh have decided to pick a “podcast war” with the Homebrewed guys. Should make for some fun. I’ve advised Chad to break out an F.O.C. gun as the true WMD.