Bag of Randomness

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  • Thank God no one died in that school shooting yesterday.  What a sad way to start off the school year, and for those starting kindergarten, what a sad way to start off your educational experience.
  • My Blue Bell and Blue Bunny ice cream post may have not made any sense to those of you outside of Texas.  All you need to know is that people in Texas take their Blue Bell very seriously.
  • I was watching season seven of ‘Monk’ and Robert Loggia was a guest star, which made me think of this old commercial.
  • Time Warner is my Internet provider and I’ve been having problems for the last two weeks, and when you work from home and can only do so online, that’s a big deal.  Basically, the modem will reset itself or the signal becomes randomly intermittent.  I’ve been going back and forth with them three or four times and dealing with off-shore phone representatives which makes it even more frustrating, especially when I tell them the basic stuff I’ve done, like power cycling and only connecting the modem to the computer, and then then have me do it all over again.  I have a technician who is coming out on Friday but I got a call from an off-shore rep telling me that they discovered they problem and that it was a coding issue and a redeployment was performed which has remedied the situation.  The terminology struck me as odd because that’s common language in my line of work but not for a typical customer.
  • Our neighbors from Mexico were blasting Tejano music while cooking out last night.  I had no idea Tejano radio stations played English speaking commercials.  They also have some visitors who own a roughed-up RV that’s been parked in the back for about a week.  The vents are sealed with what looks like Great Stuff foam.  I can’t help but think of ‘Breaking Bad’.  To add to it, I believe they run their own car lot and supply it by shipping cars in from Mexico.
  • Another neighbor of ours is a married couple, the woman is from Canada and the man is from Mexico.  We call them our NAFTA neighbors.
  • We were eating at Jason’s Deli last night and I informed the person who brought our food to our table that I was missing the salsa that was part of our order.  He said, “Sorry señor, no speak English.”  This was bit surprising because I thought “salsa” was Spanish, or at least botched Spanish.  I then performed what I thought was the universal sign for salsa by picking up my tortilla chip and doing the dipping motion.  He smile and left and brought back some white fruit dip.  As friendly as I could I told him that not what I wanted, what I wanted was “rojo” and then he brought back Chalula hot sauce.  I felt bad for the guy as he was a nice as could be and trying his darndest, and I said not to worry and went up to the counter to get my hot sauce but when he saw what I actually wanted, he had a look on his face as if he never seen salsa before.
  • On last night’s ‘King of the Hill’ Bobby showed his grandfather a picture of his girlfriend and kinda innocently told him that she just started her period.  His grandfather replied, “Ah, give it 50 years and it’ll go away.”
  • The 17 Most Canadian Things About Ted Cruz
  • Wireless Plan Comparison Calculator Shows Just How Screwed Up Phone Prices Are
  • Exclusive Photos: Inside The ‘Breaking Bad’ Writers’ Room And A Glimpse At Storylines Not Pursued
  • Pastor Says NO to Women Wearing WEAVES in Church
  • Robbers pose as Mormon missionaries
  • A café in Taiwan will put your face on a latte
  • Free Shade Trees for North Texas Oncor Customers
Posted in Personal | 5 Comments

SBC – The Bible Belt is collapsing

‘The Bible Belt is collapsing,” says Russell Moore. Oddly, the incoming president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission doesn’t seem upset. In a recent visit to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Moore explains that he thinks the Bible Belt’s decline may be “bad for America, but it’s good for the church.”

Why? Because “we are no longer the moral majority. We are a prophetic minority.”

The phrase is arresting coming from such a prominent religious leader—akin to a general who says the Army has shrunk to the point it can no longer fight two wars. A youthful 41, Mr. Moore is among the leaders of a new generation who think that evangelicals need to recognize that their values no longer define mainstream American culture the way they did 50 or even 20 years ago.

On gay marriage, abortion, even on basic religious affiliation, the culture has moved away. So evangelicals need a new way of thinking—a new strategy, if you will—to attract and keep believers, as well as to influence American politics.

The easy days of mobilizing a ready-made majority are gone. By “prophetic minority,” he means that Christians must return to the days when they were a moral example and vanguard—defenders of belief in a larger unbelieving culture. He views this less as a defeat than as an opportunity.

He is definitely pushing a new tone for this generation of evangelicals. “This is the end of ‘slouching toward Gomorrah,’ ” he says. Not only is the doomsaying not winning Christians any popularity contests, but he doesn’t think it’s religiously appropriate either. “We were never promised that the culture would embrace us.”

He also questions the political approach of what was once called “the religious right.” Though his boyish looks bring to mind the former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, Mr. Moore is decidedly not a fan of the “values voter checklists” the group employs. “There is no Christian position on the line-item veto,” Mr. Moore says. “There is no Christian position on the balanced-budget amendment.”

Full Wall Street Journal Article

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