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Archive for April, 2009

And it appears he has upped the ante:

Pastor Andrew Werley has challenged married First Baptist Church members in Anna to have sex with their spouses 100 times a year, or at least twice a week.

But there’s something included in the video that’s not in the article . . . everytime the couple has sex, they should be a dollar aside in order to buy gifts for each other.

It’s just a matter of time before one of my pastoral friends end up on this blog because of a sex sermon.  Hopefully it won’t be my friend Tim who’s a university minister, and it better not be my friend Jonathan who is a children’s pastor.

And no, I’m not referring to Ellen.

From expanding the White House’s faith-based office to opening his rallies with prayer, Barack Obama has embraced faith in a more visible way than any other president in recent memory. At the same time, Obama’s actions on a variety of fronts, from abortion policy to accepting a speaking invitation at Notre Dame—a prestigious Roman Catholic university—have outraged religious conservatives. The confluence of these two phenomena have made for an explosion of “faith moments” in the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency. Here are the 10 most important.

U.S. News and World Report

• Twitterers who keep up with the news should get the above image.
• No one wanted to save grandma from the dog.
• Pillows for the graphic designer in your life.
• U.S. Airways found another way to charge their customers . . . $5 per bag to check luggage at the airport rather than online.  Link
• Crimes committed by Ferris Bueller during his Day off
• Governor Good Hair was in town to moderate a discussion between three conservative radio talk show hosts critiquing Obama’s first 100 days in office.  I found the most interesting part of the article came in the last paragraph, where a 50-year-old man thinks Obama should steer the country back toward a biblical, Christian foundation.  I just wonder if that man felt that the last president was able to steer the country back toward a biblical, Christian foundation.
• I hear a lot of debate on whether or not the U.S. was founded on Chrisitan principles, and that debate will often focus on the faith of our founding fathers, where some were Christian in nature and others were diests.  All of which are often misquoted.
• I’m not a lawyer or constitutional historian, but I know the First Amendment starts off by saying, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . .”  With that said, sometimes I don’t understand the whole Christian nation argument.
• But let us all remember the beautiful words of Saint Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gosphel at all times and when necessary use words.”
• I don’t think Miss Arizona answered the question.
• Sneaky Fox News – Remember, they report, you decide.  That darn liberal media.
• I have no problem with Fox not airing the presidential press conference.  It’s not like a viewer can’t find it on another channel, and since they don’t have an evening news like CBS, ABC, and NBC I never really considered them a ‘major’ network.
• I suspect one day that none of the major networks will air a presidential address unless it’s something critical, and we will all remember the day when Fox was the trendsetter.
• The local Fox news station has been driving me batty.  I think they are trying to be more personal and relate to the viewer, but they often throw in their on thoughts on a particular segment.
• I was annoyed by another segment where they had a reporter out with a Plano police officer handing out speeding tickets on a residential street.  The reporter kept approaching the speeders and asking them why they were speeding, as if he never sped himself.
• A graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary teaches a non-denominational Bible study every Tuesday at my place of employment during the lunch hour.  I attended for the first time yesterday and found they are going over the book of John.  There were lots of talk about John, Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  For some reason I thought Elijah appeared as Moses was looking over the promise land, but silly me, that never happened.  I must have confused that moment with the transfiguration.  I have no one else to blame but myself for that mistake; after all, it was me that scheduled that 8:00 AM Old Testament class back in college.
• One lady did ask why did John the Baptist eat locusts.
• I wish it was BibleScholarGeorge teaching that class.
• I found another website that helps breaks down the differences in denominations.  I can tell a lot of work went into the website with their research, and they provide links to the denomination’s website where they can, but I’m not real certain how valid all the information may be.
• Sometimes I wish the explanations on views regarding denominational differences were put in layman’s terms.
• I’m finding that understanding, better yet, researching denominational differences is much more complex than I thought.  As I said, I don’t think I’ll ever find a denomination that I agree with everything wholeheartedly.  But then again, I fear anyone that does.
• I spent a considerable amount of time on the United Methodist Church website, in particular, the areas regarding their beliefs.  They did a good job regarding the content, but I found the navigation a but cumbersome.  But then again, I get paid to critique this kind of stuff.
• Their top questions section was quite interesting, but a lot of times they linked to other related websites, such as Upper Room Ministries and their Ask Julian section.  I found this question about the Bible very helpful, in particular the second paragraph, which is probably where I break away from my Baptist roots the most.
• Jesus on Life
• Grace

• This video will make you smile.  If you don’t smile, then you have no heart.
• I know the video says it’s over five minutes long, but it goes by really fast because of the words on the screen and the fun music.

TALLAHASSEE — If you want Jesus on your license plate, the Florida Senate is looking out for you.

Because why worry about a budget impasse or property insurance when you can spend more than an hour talking about Jesus, the devil and license plates?

Religious specialty plates offered by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, made it onto a bill Friday even though many members had not seen images of those plates and none was produced for the debate.

Full Article

For me, the plate looks a bit tacky and I just don’t feel real comfortable commercializing Jesus, even though it’s been done for quite some time now.  I’m not saying Jesus dying on the cross is tacky, but something so sacred plastered on a license plate seems a bit inappropriate.

I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under Democrat President Jimmy Carter. And I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it is an interesting coincidence.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Doh!  The only problem is that that last swine flu outbreak  in the U.S. happened in 1976 – under Republican Gerald Ford.

Think Progress

These handy forks are ready for almost any celebration. Just pop a candle into the top of the handle! Stick them right into cakes or cupcakes so you have an instant party.

Link

A retired ice cream seller is celebrating today after living in the same flat for a century.

The 107-year-old moved from Italy to the flat above the ice cream parlour his father ran when he was seven and has remained there for 100 years.

Full Article

A new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that Americans change their religious affiliation early and often, and the reasons they give for changing – or leaving religion altogether – differ widely depending on the origin and destination of the convert.

Key findings include:

• Most people who change their religion leave their childhood faith before age 24, and many of those who change religion do so more than once.
• Many people who have left a religion to become unaffiliated, the group that has grown the most from religious switching, say they did so in part because they stopped believing in the teachings of their childhood faith. Many also cite disillusionment with religious people and institutions as reasons for becoming unaffiliated.
• Many people who have left the Catholic Church say they did so because they stopped believing in Catholic teachings. This is true for half of Catholics who have become Protestant as well as two-thirds of Catholics who have become unaffiliated. Many fewer say they left because of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
• In contrast with other groups, Americans who have switched from one Protestant denominational family (e.g., Baptist, Methodist) to another tend to do so because of changes in life circumstances, such as marriage or moving to a new community.

Read the full study here.

Wikipedia

His second trick is much more impressive.

When I was in college I remember one of my friends worked at an Arby’s, and he said that one day they actually ran out of roast beef. No joke.