We just listened to Big Ben chime in the New Year (on BBC Radio 4 over the Internet).
Maybe I should be making New Year’s resolutions but mostly I’m hoping for better (physical) health in 2009.
Happy New Year – I hope 2009 turns out to be a great year for you.
Posted in General Conversation | 2 Comments »Eliza posted these Christmas thoughts yesterday (in a comment here).
Merry Christmas! (Or, insert whatever greeting each of you uses this time of year.)
Boy, the “tag cloud” at Todd’s site is interesting – and distracting, and a bit vertigo-inducing!
I’ve been thinking more about what Christmas would look like (be like) without the trappings which don’t seem to have any relation to the actual Christmas story. (Maybe those could all be saved up for another day, close by.)
Seems like there wouldn’t be:
1) So many gifts, & all that shopping and sense of obligation.
2) Santa Claus, sled, reindeer, elves, North Pole. Stockings.
3) Candy canes, decorated cookies, fruitcakes. Big dinner featuring ham or turkey or roast beef.
4) Decorated trees. Wreaths. Poinsettas. Misteltoe. Yule logs.
5) Snow motifs – snowmen, snowflakes, dreaming of a white Christmas.
6) Many traditional Christmas carols. Bells. Muzak in stores.
7) Christmas cards, especially those which extoll the family’s accomplishments that year.
8) A federal holiday.
What would a celebration of the birth of Jesus & “the Christmas story” feature?
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I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas/holiday.
By the way Todd (pastor of my ex-church) posted a few of the Christmas survey responses received here. One of them looks familiar (no, it’s not mine!)
If you get bored you can ask Satan questions here (or maybe this is a grumpy impostor and not Satan – who knows…)
Posted in General Conversation | 3 Comments »Very British and in support of a worthwhile initiative…
Posted in Videos | 5 Comments »Eliza emailed me a link to the CBN announcement that Obama has chosen Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration.
Apparently Obama defended that choice today in a press conference today.
What do you think? Is having Rick Warren give the invocation a positive step of reaching across the aisle? Or should Obama have chosen someone more ‘progressive’?
Posted in General Conversation | 16 Comments »Richard Cizik, national spokesperson and chief lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, resigned last week because of some comments he made in an interview on Fresh Air, December 2.
The most heinous things he said seem to be that he supports civil same sex unions and he voted for Obama in the primaries.
There’s a history to this: last year James Dobson and some other evangelical leaders already called for Cizik’s resignation. They felt he was putting too much emphasis on climate change as an evangelical issue.
I listened to the Fresh Air interview. I liked what Cizik had to say. He showed a sensitivity I appreciated to the realities of Christian engagement in today’s culture.
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Eliza sent me this video.
Posted in Videos | 7 Comments »Last week I posted about the Christmas survey my ex-church has set up. They’re asking, “What does Christmas mean to you?” My answer, which I sent to the local newspaper, is below.
“What does Christmas mean to you?” A large banner across the front of Calvary Memorial Church asked me that question as I drove along Lake Street recently. (The banner also invited me to answer it at www.christmassurvey.com)
I loved Christmas as a child. At that time it meant presents, decorations, special food and time with extended family. All of these were exciting (especially the presents).
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Doreen mentioned that a Christian wants to post Christian bus ads to counter the humanist bus ads in Washington DC. In the next comment, Eliza picked up on this quote from the article Doreen linked to:
That reason [for the Christian rebuttal ad] is to fight the sadness and discouragement she said Christians feel this time of year, as the nonreligious beat up on their beliefs.
Eliza then asked: Any comments from readers here? Do Christians tend to feel sad & discouraged at this time of year, for reasons other than the ones that bring on those feelings in non-Christians?
I noticed the same quote and I’m thinking it seems rather exaggerated.
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by Peter Walker
I think my election buzz has finally run its course, and I’m starting to feel the effects of impending hangover.
Surveying the collateral damage caused by a long and vicious campaign season, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all of the rhetoric still hanging in the air – some of it largely unchallenged. All is fair between politicians, but once the races finish, the American people are expected to forget the harshest allegations and campaign propaganda.
“I didn’t really mean he was a friend of terrorists…”
President-elect Obama called it “do anything, say anything politics.”
But I haven’t forgotten, and neither should you. As Christians, we have some claims to confront, and even more to answer for.
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