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SOS makes ballot decision

Secretary of State Roger Williams today notified independent candidates, Richard “Kinky” Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, on his final determination of how their names will appear on the November ballot. Secretary Williams ruled that both candidates’ names will appear in accordance with the election code as it pertains to the form of name on the ballot.
Strayhorn will appear as Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Friedman will appear as Richard “Kinky” Friedman.
I think some of the ladies in my office were hoping Perry would appear as Gov. “McDreamy” Perry.

And it was good

I finished Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis the other day. Wow.
I told a friend, this puts my faith (or what I want it to be) into words.
I think I underlined the entire last chapter of the book.
I loved the comparison between Adam in the garden and Jesus after his resurection.

“Thinking he was the gardner, she said…”
“John wants us to see a connection between the garden of Eden and Jesus rising from the dead in the garden. There is a new Adam on the scene and his is reversing the curse of death by conquering it.”

When we think about creation, remember that God calls it “good.”
The word is used throughout the Creation narrative to say that God perceives his creation as “good.”

“The God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The next verse is significant: The land produced vegetation. Notice it doesn’t say, ‘God produced vegetation.'”

God empowered creation to do something.
We are empowered with loads of potential. All of creation is.
And this is for all you “tree-huggin-haters” 🙂 (who I admit, I used to be one of you):
“God then makes people whom he puts right in the middle of all this loaded creation, commanding them to care for creation, to manage it, to lovingly use it, to creatively order it… They are in intimate relationship with their enviroment. They are enviromentalists. Being deeply connected with their enviroment is who they are. For them to be anything else or to deny their divine responsibility to care for all that God has made would be to deny something that is at the core of their existence.
That is why litter and polution are spiritual issues.
And until that last sentence makes perfect sense, we haven’t fully grasped what it means to be human and live in God’s world.” DOH!

Bell also talks about the Roman way of life during the early church.
Caesar Agustus believed that he was the son of a god. He inagurated a 12 day celebration called Advent to celebrate his birth. Wait a minute? That sounds familiar.
He used slogans like, “There is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved that that of Caesar.”

“It was at this time, in the world, that the Jesus movement exploded among an ethnic minority in a remote corner of the empire. These people claimed their leader was a rabbi who had announced the arrival of the kingdom of God, had been crucified and had risen from the dead and appeared to his followers. One of their favorite slogans was, ‘Jesus is Lord.'”
“They took political propaganda from the empire and changed the words around to make it about their Lord.”

Another interesting aspect was that the church didn’t try to argue or prove Jesus’ resurrection. For one, most people had seen him resurrected or knew of someone who claimed to have seen him. Another reason, many other people had claimed to rise from the dead at that time. “Julius Caesar himself was reported to have ascended to the right hand of the gods after his death.” Also, the church realized that arguments rarely persuade people, but experiences do. “Living, breathing, flesh and blood experiences of the resurection community. To the outside world, it was less about proving and more about inviting people to experience this community of Jesus’ followers for themselves.” People were changed not by arguments, but by the lives they saw Christians living.
Oh how I wish others would see that in me.

“And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them that there were no needy persons among them. What was the result of the resurrection according to Luke? ‘No needy persons among them.'”
“To be a part of the church was to join a countercultural society that was partnering with God to create a new kind of culture, right undr the nose of the caesers.”

And for the church to continue today, we have to learn to give ourselves away.

“The church is at its best when it gives itself away.”
“The church doesn’t exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; its about all the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart.”
One more great point and then I’ll wrap up (I sound like a teacher or preacher – ha).
“Another truth about the church we’re embracing is that the gospel is good news, especially for those who don’t believe.”

Woah. Where are we going with that.
Bell uses this illustration. Lets say Person X becomes a Christian. She’s surrounded by neighbors of other faiths and backgrounds. Person X should be becoming a better person now that they are a Christian. She is becoming more generous, more compassionate, more forgiving, more loving. Her neighbors should all be thrilled with her new faith.

“The good news of Jesus is good news for Person X. It’s good news for Person X’s neighbors. It’s good news for the whole street. It’s good news for people who don’t believe in Jesus. We have to be clear about this. The good news for Person X is good news for the whole street.
If the gospel isn’t good news for everybody, then it isn’t good news for anybody.”
“And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display.”

I’m going to stop there. I’m anxious to read your comments. Chew on it. I’ve been chewing for a couple days.

First Impressionism


First Impressionism
Originally uploaded by OldOnliner.

On July 1st, the community of Beloit, Wisconsin came together on the banks of the Rock River to recreate George Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte” — “Saturday in the Park with Friends”. The event was covered by the Beloit Daily News: Art is alive along the River.
What a great idea!

Random facts about the Tomb of the Unknowns

This came via e-mail. Snopes has a some clarrifications (see below).

1. How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the Tomb of the Unknowns and why?
21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.

2. How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why?
21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1

3. Why are his gloves wet?
His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.

4. Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and if not, why not? He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb.
After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.

5. How often are the guards changed?
Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

6. What are the physical traits of the guard limited to? For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5′ 10″ and 6′ 2″ tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30.” Other requirements of the Guard: They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in any way. After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their
lives or give up the wreath pin.
The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt.
There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.
The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, {the most decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame.
Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.
In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, our US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. They respectfully declined the offer, “No way, Sir!” Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a serviceperson. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.

Corrections from Snopes:

From 1926 through 1937, the Tomb was guarded only during daylight hours. Ever since 1937, the Tomb has been continuously guarded 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Tomb guards are changed every thirty minutes between 8 AM and 7 PM during the period from early Spring to early Autumn (April 1 through September 30), and every hour between 8 AM to 5 PM the rest of the year. At all other times (i.e., while the cemetery is closed), the guard is changed every two hours.
Even the Old Guard doesn’t regulate the off-duty lives of its members so stringently!
Sentinels at the Tomb do not have to commit to serving there for any fixed period of time, and the average tour of duty is only about half the two year period claimed here. Like most servicemen, Tomb guards may live either on-base (at nearby Fort Myer) or off-base in housing of their choosing. There are no restrictions on guards’ off-duty drinking.
The Tomb Guard Identification Badge, first awarded in 1957, is a honor for which a guard qualifies by “flawlessly performing his duty for several months” and passing a test, not something simply handed out to everyone who serves for a given period of time.
The 500th Tomb Guard Identification Badge was awarded in early 2002, and the total number of recipients is now about 525. The award is, as its name states, a badge worn on the pocket of a uniform jacket, not a pin worn in the lapel.
Although the claim that guards “cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives” is fallacious, there is some truth to the notion that the Tomb Guard Identification Badge can be taken away, even after the recipient has left the service.
A Tomb guard’s behavior is not so stringently regulated that he is prohibited from speaking to anyone for a full six months (someone seems to have confused the Old Guard with a monastery!), and guards may do whatever they want (including watching TV) during their off-duty hours. But since any soldier wishing to become a sentinel must undergo rigorous training, including several hours a day of marching, rifle drill and uniform preparation, and every tomb sentinel is expected to be completely versed in the history of both the tomb and of Arlington National Cemetery (including knowing how to find the graves of all the prominent person buried in the cemetery), they don’t necessarily have a lot of free time to devote to recreational activities.
We close here with a bit of trivia suggested by the above item:
Although serving as President of the United States qualifies one to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, only two former Presidents are interred there — William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy.