Jesus For President: A Review

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
If you have read Shane's first book you are getting much of the same. The positive of the book is it did make me ask about how I am using my time and finances. How do I look at the war? Treat the poor? etc. It has convicted me in a good sense and I am glad about that. Hopefully it'll reform my heart closer to God's will.



Now for the negative. A lot of his ideas to solve problems for helping the poor, to me, don't sound like they are really helping the poor. In creating a very temporary fix that in the long run does them no good. Feeding the poor is good. In my mind getting them off the streets for good whether through drug councelling, job placement, etc. is even better. They hand free pizza out to the homeless so they can continue to live on the street. That just seems wrong to me. Sure they got to feed them, but at the end of the day they are still homeless without prospects. Hey, I might be wrong. Plus there seems to be a lot of patting themselves on the back, but not nearly as much on their own backs. The desing of the book is great, but all the added little tidbits were a tad destracting. All in all it was a decent book. I'd have given it three stars, but the negative outweighed the positive. It still did teach me a few things.


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R.I.P. Funny Man

The hillarious Harvey Korman has passed. If you want to see him at some of his best you have to check out that spoof Hitchcock "High Anxiety" and "Blazing Saddles".

Harvey at the Dentist. Watch how hard he tries to keep a straight face, but ultimately loses it.

In Blazing Saddles.

Harvey meets a frog.

A Tribute.

The French Revolution.

Youtube: Gives voice to the voiceless

I don't know if this is for real or not. I don't know if this girl did something she now regrets and cries rape to get out of it. Either way, it is sad that people have to resort to using youtube to get their problems out. What do you guys think?

So Funny and So Wrong! 2

I knew it!

Hat tip to Jas for this one.

Meditationi: A Response

I appreciate Jeff and Jefe's response to my post on meditation (see below). I like the idea of meditation being a mumbling type of working things out. That's exactly what my experience was like, trying to figure out the nature of God. Fat chance of that this side of heaven, but it's a nice thought. I kept going over and over in my mind the many names and ideas of God crammed into my head over my life. Then the questioning began. What do I know about God? How has my past experiences in the faith impacted positively or negatively my idea about who God is? Perhaps I wasn't even mediating in the strictest sense of the word. I was trying to figure things out. I also think Jeff's concerns about the role of meditation (or lack thereof) in a Christian's life. Especially coming from his background as a Buddhist. That is why whenever I try a new spiritual discipline or go back to one I haven't done in a while I try to not take it lightly. Let's face it, I could be very wrong about this and the last thing I want to do is cause my brother or sister to stray. If you feel that this is something that shouldn't be done, don't do it. If you think that as a brother I am in error then by all means give me council to help put me on the right path. Which is what I thought both Jefe and Jeff tried to do.

Spiritual Discipline: Meditation

I need to do a better job blogging about the subject of Spiritual Discipline. It is extremely important to our spiritual growth, but for some reason I fail to actually write down my impressions about it. Or, in this case, my struggles with it. Meditation is kind of a thorny issue for people in and out of the church. I can't say I blame them. When I bring up the idea of meditation people start to think of Zen Meditation, Yoga, or the like. We lose ourselves to enter the great loss of self into the greater cloud of souls. Or something. We lose ourselves. While with the Christian version we are to try to enter the presence of God. At least, that's what I think we are supposed to do. Perhaps we can also spend it focussing on scripture. In this case I didn't start with anything in particular in mind. I tried to quite myself to hear the voice of God. Which lasted for all about five seconds as I started to wonder what I'll have for dinner. So I switched gears and tried to think about God, which moved onto the names of God, and then the greatness of God. I made a trail of thought from a vague idea as to who God is to the more specific God is the Lion of Judah! Does it help me gain a better understanding of God? Does it help me to know Him more? I do not know. This is such a foreign territory for me that I can't say whether it is being beneficial or not. On top of that I am not sure what benefit it will have for me and my spiritual growth. What I do know is I am inconsistent with practicing these disciplines and perhaps I'll gain a better understanding as I do them.

So Wrong! But So Funny!

For all you Calvin and Hobbes fans out there.

A Year Of Biblical Living

After reading this article I find myself wanting to read his book more.

The Gospel

A few nights ago I had a meeting with the other leaders of the Young Adult group at my church. This is kind of a rant, but not. It's more saying the things I wanted to the other night, but never had the chance. Anyway... So far things have been going pretty positively, but we have lacked a certain level of direction to the group which has resulted in us mostly just floating along. We were spending just as much time figuring out what worked vs. what doesn't. Who have been worth wile speakers and those who weren't. One thing that one of the leaders kept bringing up was getting the speakers to give a gospel message. Since I picked the speakers I never exactly pushed the point for a few reasons. For one, when I hear someone ask for a gospel message immediately what comes to mind are the alter calls of almost ever charismatic service I have ever attended. And have you ever noticed that the people who usually go up for the alter calls are the people who usually need it the least? Thankfully, this isn't what he meant. Second, what does that mean? What is a gospel message? I think whether he wants to or not the idea of having a gospel message will mean it turning into, "If you want to know Christ as your saviour....". Is that a gospel message? Let me tell you why I am struggling with this whole identity of Gospel. Simply put, I have heard many people give me just as many different ideas as to what the gospel means. The gospel is helping the poor. The gospel is leading others to Christ so they may get to heaven. The gospel is seeking social justice (whatever that means). Voting the right party. Going to the right church. Being reformed vs. dispensationalist. Being word of faith. Being charismatic. Being emergent. It goes on and on. They want the group to be evangelistic. Great, so do I as long as the people we have coming are growing in Christ and can adequately answer the big question I just laid out. I also believe that the group will become evangelistic naturally if we keep teaching them to go in this route and to properly seek Christ, etc. And can't just about any message that has the ethic of Christ, whether he's mentioned or not be a gospel message? At our last meeting I had someone come who works with a ministry that helps support schools in Ghana. Can't that be just as much a gospel message as any? And even if not, isn't that our job as members of the group to share to people who may not be too sure? Lastly, it is my hope that the group becomes unnecessary. I want to see young adults become such a force in the church again and to have a true multi-generational service that we are a part of each others lives. We won't need a group to make it happen, because we'll do it naturally. Sigh. Perhaps I am wrong.

Why Amy? Why?

Just stop it! Please, just stop. You are ruining your talent.

New Blog

I have always wanted to write about all the cheesey things that I enjoy in life so I have started a blog about it. If anyone wants to join up with it let me know and I'll figure out how to invite you to it.

Dr. Who Can Save The Church

As a big time Dr. Who fan I have to admit I think this is pretty cool. I don't think I'd want a whole sermon series on it though. This could almost be a bad joke.