Tomorrow we’re flying to England. We’ll be in Bamburgh, Northumberland for a week with my husband’s parents, then a week in Llanfairfechan, North Wales with my parents and my brothers and their families (that will be a group of 16). I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and being back in England. We haven’t been back for three years – we’ve seen our families more recently than that but in other places.
I didn’t make plans this time to have anyone post while I’m away, so CatE will be on vacation for a couple of weeks. If you want to be reminded when I get back, you can sign up for Weekly Email Updates here
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Those go out early Monday morning and list any posts from the previous week. You can also check my personal blog. If I run into some wi-fi I might post a vacation update on there.
Posted in General Conversation | 3 Comments »We went to see The Dark Knight (the latest Batman movie) on Saturday.
I’ll do my best not to discuss important details although judging by the returns for this weekend everyone’s already seen it :)
Overall I was impressed: I thought it mostly justified the high ratings. The Joker was the best bad guy I remember seeing in a movie. He was the most interesting character in the movie (imo) because a) he was creative, albeit it in a horribly nasty way and b) we never really found out why he did what he did. (Or if we did, I missed it)
It’s sad that The Joker actor, Heath Ledger, died after making this. Actually I forgot he was the actor while I was watching it so that didn’t affect my view of the movie.
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Eliza sent me this. Watch it and see what sound you hear. Then replay it with your eyes closed. Did you hear the same sound?
Here’s a longer video (also from Eliza) that explains this effect, known as the McGurk effect.
Posted in Videos | 5 Comments »We’ve been watching House on DVD.
I think it’s fascinating from a relational point of view. The main character has no interest in making an effort to be nice to people, which produces a variety of reactions from others. Most of the people who know him best plead with him to change his manner but evidently to no avail. Even though this annoys them they stick by him and come through for him if he’s in trouble. And his boss sticks up for him (most of the time) because he’s awesome at his job.
What fascinates me is the way peoples’ values cause friction between them because they’re different. I think the series does a good job of not taking sides on values. At least if it does, it’s been lost on me so far :). The characters each advocate for their own rather than the series pushing any particular one on me. I think that’s part of what makes it interesting.
Posted in General Conversation | 13 Comments »
We just announced the Born Again Church Tour aka Off The Map Live.
This year it’s going to be in three locations: Seattle, Denver and Los Angeles. I’ll be at the Denver one (I can’t go to the others because of schedule conflicts). I’m going to be helping the Green Apron people and also leading a workshop called Life After Church (listed on the Denver workshops page).
I will miss seeing Seattle Off The Map friends this year but I’m excited about getting to be with the Denver ones.
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I was delightfully surprised by Brian McLaren’s new book Finding Our Way Again: the return of the ancient practices.
I expected it to be a book mostly about some ancient (Christian) practices I wasn’t interested in. Because of that I wasn’t planning to read it at all until Jim (Henderson) said he thought I’d like it a couple of weeks ago.
I took a quick look on Amazon ‘search inside’ and liked what I saw enough to go out and buy the book the next day.
This book is not just about ancient practices. It’s a poetically described vision of Christianity. Christianity as a way of life, not just a system of beliefs. A way including spiritual practices which develop character and lead people into an intentional, perceptive, attentive way of living. Who then join God in helping the world and other people be all he intends it to be.
Reading these things excited me and gave me hope.
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The Church of England took a step closer to having women bishops this week. Their General Synod agreed to the idea of a national code of practice including their ordination. It will take several years to draw up this code of practice and bring it to a final vote but it does open the door to women bishops.
You can read about it here it in The Guardian or even watch a short video with the two most powerful Archbishops in England making short comments and then the announcement of the results of the voting.
The Guardian article focuses a lot on how the clergy who opposed this move were not accommodated. Which is interesting to me since women are 50% of the population (and probably more than 50% of the church based on the statistics I hear about churchgoers). Why is it more important to accommodate a few guys who believe God doesn’t like women leaders than it is to accommodate all the women in the church?
Hopefully it’s not because those guys are men.
Posted in General Conversation | 15 Comments »Benjamin asked this question in a recent comment:
Can I do the same thing with religion as with the Bible, and throw out the flat book approach–take what works, chuck the rest?
Which got me thinking.
To me it’s fascinating that this is even a question. By insisting “you cannot do this”, some conservative Christians have made it into an issue. If they hadn’t, would anyone even be asking whether they can use their own judgment about what applies to them out of a book that’s 2,000 years old?
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Benjamin (host of Off The Map’s Justice and Compassion blog) sent me an interesting article about Thomas Jefferson’s Bible.
From the article
Making good on a promise to a friend to summarize his views on Christianity, Thomas Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsistency he could find in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Then, relying on a cut-and-paste technique, he reassembled the excerpts into what he believed was a more coherent narrative and pasted them onto blank paper — alongside translations in French, Greek and Latin.
In a letter sent from Monticello to John Adams in 1813, Jefferson said his “wee little book” of 46 pages was based on a lifetime of inquiry and reflection and contained “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”
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