In Case You Missed It...

Well, I've been gone for awhile, friends. Lost in a world of pages and pages of theological discourse and end of semester seminary busywork. So, here's some things that have been on my mind lately.

Good show, John McCain, for rejecting the endorsment of Hagee and that other pastor. Let's say one thing, these guys, who claim that the Koran (english spelling, not traditional) mandates that all Muslims (who Hagee calls Islamics) kill as many Christians and Jews as they possibly can, are just as crazy as Jeremiah Wright and much more dangerous. Hagee believes, in clear conflict with Jesus' words, that the end times are immenant and that Christians should be actively working towards starting a war between the Iranians, the Russians and the Israelites; that it is only after Israel regains its pre-Roman empire power, at the expense of countless innocent Palestinian lives, that Jesus will return. Of course, all true belivers will be raptured and miss out on the carnage and agony of the war of wars. Believing this is not crazy: calling on Christians and the American people to work towards, hope for, pray for, war is absolutely insane. Good work, John. I'm not going to vote for you, but good work.

While we're on politics, I want to say one thing to the democratic candidates: STOP IT!! When this whole thing started, getting a democrat in the White House seemed as easy as some funny reference that's really easy to do. Now, because of Hilary's never-ending scratch and bite for the nomination, the party is divided and THE ONLY THING that she's doing is taking votes away from Obama. What kind of presidential candidacy platform is, "I'm still in it"? You missed your chance to bow out gracefully; now you're just going to lose. There is another thing in which Hilary is succeeding: white people are racist. I know not everyone who votes for Clinton votes for the white chick. But, come on. Clearly, there are a lot of ignorant people out there who still, in frakin' 2008, won't vote for a black person. Sad. Just sad.

On to church politics. Another General Conference and not all that much has changed. Some little stuff about retirement, candidacy, who can serve communion where, and a list of other stuff that really means nothing to ministry at the local church level. Not that anyone's listening but here goes. The words, "all people are of sacred worth" and "incompatible with Christian teaching" can NOT go together. They don't cancel each other out; the latter cancels out the former. Isn't reason one of the quadralateral. Well, these two sentences don't make sense together.

Here's some AWESOME stuff:
1. Iron Man...awesome. Unbelievable.
2. Looking forward: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Incredible Hulk, Prince Narnia, The Love Guru, Sin City 2. Gonna be a good summer for movies.
3. Next week, Lindsey and I head to Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park. Can't wait. Haven't been in the mountains in a long time. The forecast is for cool weather, and might get a little wet, but Wednesday, the day we're planning on spending all of in the park hiking, is 68 degrees and partly cloudy. Perfect.
4. On the 13th of May, in Kansas City, MO, I saw Elvis Costello and the Police. It was amazing. Highlights: Elvis and Sting singing Alison togther, the multi-instrument percussion of Wrapped Around Your Finger and the encore performance of King of Pain. Amazing.

Looking forward to this summer. Gonna read some books, write some devotionals based on rock songs (maybe for a book someday), play guitar, working a camp, going to Musty-Must's wedding, getting together with the ENTIRE Bryan clan, preaching for that clan at Missouri UMC and just being and doing awesome.

I'll be back periodically. Peace.

BB