tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146952572009-07-03T08:20:01.185-07:00reflections on life as I see itBruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.comBlogger342125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-49664627777800867792009-07-01T21:25:00.000-07:002009-07-02T08:37:38.198-07:00

The Westboro Baptist Church choir has made a music video, "God Hates the World" (to the tune of the 1980s relief anthem "We Are the World").Here is a sample of the lyrics:God hates the worldAnd all her peopleYou every one face a fiery dayFor your proud sinningIt's too late to change His mindYou've lived out your vain livesStoring up God's wrathFor all eternityI'm still holding out a desperate

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-23507483436630358612009-06-28T22:56:00.000-07:002009-06-28T23:18:18.254-07:00

As optical illusions go, this one is pretty good.It certainly looks like alternating spirals of blue and green, on a background of alternating orange and magenta. If I told you there was no blue in the image at all, I'd forgive you if you questioned it. The reality is, the "blue" spirals are exactly the same shade of green as the green spirals. The magenta background fools the eyes into

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-88640783130166538982009-06-25T23:28:00.000-07:002009-06-27T07:57:56.037-07:00

Political scientists Bernd Beber and Alexandra Scacco have found some peculiarities in the Iran election results. While many people around the world are questioning the validity of the results, Beber and Scacco have gone a step further and looked at some statistical anomalies.Beber and Scacco looked at the final digit of the results from each province for the top four candidates, and found two

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-31882809113101917812009-06-17T21:47:00.000-07:002009-06-17T21:47:04.111-07:00

Dr. Ken Schenck of Indiana Wesleyan University offers some of his thoughts, from a Wesleyan perspective, on the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy.The Chicago Statement is something I've seen before, and I recall being uneasy with many of its statements. There were some I disagreed with, but even those where the words did not seem objectionable, something did. Dr. Schenck gives voice to what I

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-36579209352291222252009-06-12T21:46:00.000-07:002009-06-12T21:46:41.558-07:00

Some monasteries make cheese, others make jam, chocolate or wine.The monks here at the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank make their money from the sale of ink and toner cartridges, and little of the labor is their own.It's an unusual income source for a monastery. The idea came to the Rev. Bernard McCoy while the monks were working on an earlier income-generating plan:One day, the monks

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-69472419669579158492009-06-09T18:52:00.000-07:002009-06-09T18:53:08.786-07:00

Sam Harris:Scripture itself remains a perpetual engine of extremism: because, while He may be many things, the God of the Bible and the Qur'an is not a moderate. Read scripture more closely and you do not find reasons for religious moderation; you find reasons to live like a proper religious maniac—to fear the fires of hell, to despise nonbelievers, to persecute homosexuals, etc. Of course, one

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-8904135538264792352009-06-06T21:47:00.000-07:002009-06-06T21:47:19.151-07:00

From the Associated Baptist Press:A former Southern Baptist Convention officer who on June 2 called the death of abortion provider George Tiller an answer to prayer said later in the day he is also praying "imprecatory prayer" against President Obama.The pastor, Wiley Drake, made the remarks in an interview with Alan Colmes of Fox News Radio. Later in the interview, Colmes tried to clarify:Colmes

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-70773857568610607172009-06-05T11:52:00.000-07:002009-06-05T11:52:30.608-07:00

This week's Christian Carnival is up at Henry Neufeld's Participatory Bible Study Blog. My post on the meaning of "pro-life" is included, along with many thoughtful and thought-provoking posts. Check it out!

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-59102594840852000182009-06-02T23:05:00.000-07:002009-06-02T23:05:14.042-07:00

Pro-life leaders and the pro-life movement are not responsible for George Tiller's death. George Tiller was a mass-murder and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed.- Randall Terry, Operation RescueFirst of all, just let me say that I believe all life is sacred. Until the mid-1990s I even called myself pro-life. But in 1993 I moved to Wichita and saw how militant were some of the pro-life

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-19905529388121097102009-05-31T21:57:00.000-07:002009-06-05T23:12:48.115-07:00

I'm shocked and saddened by this morning's tragedy in Wichita. I'll have a longer post when I've collected my thoughts. For now, here are some links:The story from Associated PressThe George Tiller I Knew by "loree920"Whoever Killed Tiller Was Not a Christian by Dan "pastordan" Schultz of Street ProphetsJesus's Jihadis by Sara Robinsonand the disturbingly titled George Tiller — Killed! from

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-67323806105372541842009-05-30T23:29:00.000-07:002009-05-30T23:45:15.538-07:00

An anonymous commenter left this on my recent post hierarchy of english adjectives:Is either of these more correct.It seems to me.....To me it seems.....Short answer:"it seems to me..." is more correct, if you're talking about the name of this blog. Otherwise they are both OK.Long answer:I'm not an expert on the English language, any more than I am on anything else I post here. Don't take my word

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-37394243220966675052009-05-24T20:40:00.000-07:002009-05-24T21:58:29.796-07:00

Whenever I've heard the term "cafeteria Christianity", it's always been used in a negative sense — until now. James McGrath has peeled open the metaphor and served up a meaty defense of the idea.Now before you get all steamed and rush off to flame him for it, simmer down and feast your eyes on the way he dishes out a new understanding of the phrase:All who consider themselves Christians are in

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-29455199353750156182009-05-20T21:23:00.000-07:002009-05-20T21:23:14.027-07:00

We've been told we are currently in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Just how bad is it? CNN has the scoop.Sample comparisons:Bank failures: 9,096 between January 1930 and March 1933 57 between December 2007 and May 2009Unemployment rate: 25% during the Great Depression 8.5% during the "Great Recession"Times may be tough, but they could

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-53109864361321749262009-05-18T22:55:00.000-07:002009-05-18T22:56:44.413-07:00

Does foreign aid benefit Africans? Dambisa Moyo says no.Few will deny that there is a clear moral imperative for humanitarian and charity-based aid to step in when necessary, such as during the 2004 tsunami in Asia. Nevertheless, it's worth reminding ourselves what emergency and charity-based aid can and cannot do. Aid-supported scholarships have certainly helped send African girls to school (

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-37037939318596751942009-05-13T22:57:00.000-07:002009-05-16T15:26:38.877-07:00

Ted Koppel has a practical and succinct definition of torture:If we would define a given technique as torture when it is inflicted on a citizen of ours, then that is also torture when our interrogators employ the methods.Koppel is calling for the U.S. to outlaw torture, and to impose stiff penalties for violating that law. He further calls for us to act now, during a time of relative calm, so we

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-54459193736070372552009-05-11T00:01:00.000-07:002009-05-11T00:01:00.302-07:00

It's not really a music video. Habitat for Humanity was started by Millard Fuller in 1976 on one premise: Everybody deserves a simple, decent place to live. 300,000 houses later, Habitat continues to change the world, one family at a time.

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-60960950907798742482009-05-09T22:27:00.000-07:002009-05-09T23:03:39.860-07:00

In a comment on my recent post The Stumbling Block, philobyte said:the comment about God creating flagella of viruses that kill children, is really just a special case of why an Omnicient, Omnipotent God allows for evil in the world.Some apologists are quick to defend the idea of God's omnipotence. Here is what Answers in Genesis has to say:But the Bible says that God is omnipotent; He is

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-59990203218158560892009-05-04T00:01:00.000-07:002009-05-04T00:01:00.387-07:00

I was first introduced to the classical harmonica of Robert Bonfiglio back in the mid 1990s when he was a guest on the Jim Bohannon show. I'm still amazed that anyone can make a harmonica sound like this.

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-35457646081520710662009-04-29T20:42:00.000-07:002009-04-29T20:54:18.181-07:00

In an essay titled Rules no one teaches but everyone learns, Ruth Walker of the Christian Science Monitor says:Time, manner, place. Time, manner, place. That was my mnemonic when, as I high school student, I struggled to learn the rules for ordering German adverbs and adverbial phrases. "I love in summer with you down the Rhein to sail." The time phrase ("in summer") is followed by indicators of

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-35042790572029086052009-04-27T07:00:00.000-07:002009-04-27T07:00:00.301-07:00

John Meunier points to a UM Portal story about the former GracePoint United Methodist Church in Wichita. For those who haven't been following the story, GracePoint pastor Bryson Butts announced in March that he and the rest of the GracePoint staff would be withdrawing from the United Methodist Church and starting a non-denominational church, to be known as GracePoint Community Church.The UMC

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-49196975443918239332009-04-27T00:01:00.000-07:002009-04-27T00:01:00.510-07:00

This tune, from the 2004 album Funeral by the Quebecan indie rock band Arcade Fire, has been given new life.The song has been remixed for the trailer of the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are movie, coming in October.

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-89814828109451574932009-04-20T00:01:00.000-07:002009-04-20T00:01:00.643-07:00

Inspired by the story of Kitty Genovese, who was murdered outside her apartment while dozens of other residents watched, this social commentary by Phil Ochs looks at the apathy that infects American life. Over forty years later, this song is more relevant than ever.

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-81667871224303665272009-04-16T23:10:00.000-07:002009-04-17T06:14:50.004-07:00

I don't think the title was meant to be humorous.Marcia Segelstein has a guest column at OneNewsNow, titled Intelligent Design for dummies. (Ron Britton at Bay of Fundie replies, Why Yes! Yes It Is!)Segelstein claims not to be interested in the whole debate over ID:As far as I was concerned, all that mattered was my belief that God created the universe and everything in it. How He did it, when

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-69511942615602320752009-04-13T00:01:00.000-07:002009-04-13T00:01:00.865-07:00

On the lighter side...

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14695257.post-61255194742705203672009-04-08T00:01:00.000-07:002009-04-08T00:01:00.485-07:00

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.- Dietrich BonhoefferDietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 in Breslau, son of Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer. Karl was a prominent psychiatrist in Berlin, and Paula home schooled their eight children. Dietrich was a precocious child who excelled at academics. His parents expected him to follow his father into psychiatry, but Dietrich was more interested

BruceAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.com1