i am paradox

Daily Show Theology, Part 2

Jim Wallis was on the Daily Show last year, promoting his book God's politics. Jim, and his organization Sojourners are really picking up momentum. Their website finally has the video clip, which is pretty amazing. "Jim joins Jon in the tradition of Hebrew prophets who use humor and truth-telling to make their point."  You can also listen to and download 3 free samples from the audio book.

Jim Wallis and the Daily Show Clip

Post Katrina Trip, Part 2

The other thing that I forgot to mention were the businesses. Many fast food places and resaturants are not yet open, and if they are, they have limited hours. Some only have their drive throughs open. The city had over a million people in it, and now has appx. under 200,000. Nearly every chain store (wal mart, mcdonalds, home depot, blockbuster) is way short and trying to hire like crazy. The problem is that the majority of the people who left these poisitions can work at the same place wherever it is they now live. The fast food places are paying up to $11 an hour, with a monthly bonus of up to $500. Unbelievable.

Post Katrina Trip

Took a tour of New Orleans on Tuesday, including the devasting area called the 9th Ward district. These are all photos I took yesterday, I didn't get these from anywhere else.

I have listed the rest of the pictures in a new album on this site called Katrina.

Dad Defends Teen Drinking Party

"Consider a stunning statistic: Between 10 percent and 20 percent of all the alcohol consumed in this country is drunk by kids who are underage.

It’s an epidemic that leaves parents facing agonizing choices — parents like Bill and Pat Anderson in West Warwick, R.I. When their son Gregg asked to throw an after-prom party with alcohol at their home their first response was, "No way."

But then Gregg told them the party would be at a local beach instead — and that got them thinking. At the beach, there would be no supervision and everyone would have to drive home. At their house, they could lay down some rules.

Gregg Anderson was 18 years old at the time, the youngest of the Andersons' three sons. The Andersons say they’d seen too many kids in their town lost to drunk driving, so they decided that a party with rules was the safer way to go.

Bill Anderson says he sat at the front door: "I took a recliner, put it down at the front door, grabbed a good novel. I let them know as soon as they came in the door, the keys came over. So, if you needed to get anything out of your car, get it done before you came into the house — because once you come in the door, you don't leave."

He says he and his wife weren't going to let Gregg's friends drive, but they would let them drink as long as they got the alcohol themselves. That afternoon, Gregg and his friends carried a keg and a half out to their back deck.

Approximately 50 kids arrived that night around midnight. Bill Anderson was standing guard at the door at 3 a.m. when the police showed up on a noise complaint. The officers took names and addresses, and drove away with the kegs.

The Andersons thought that was the end of it until a week later when Bill Anderson was arrested. The story was big news on local TV and made the front page of the paper."

Read the rest of this fascinating story:

Dad Allows Teen Drinking Party

Terrorism and the War in Iraq

I am reading a great book right now that Chris turned me onto. It's called Terrorism and the War in Iraq: A Christian word from Latin America. I think the people that wrote this book really had to have boldness, to bring a timely and perhaps much needed rebuke to America. When it comes to the Church's response to war, there are 3 positions:

1.  pacifism
2.  just war
3.  holy war

The Early Church in the first few centuries were pacifists. It wasn't until the Church became associated with Constantine and the government until it changed it's view. Then we unfortunately went through a time of holy war, much of like what some Muslims are doing today. The majority of people would say that war is a necessary evil that should only happen when the conditions don't allow for anything else. Is that really what is going on in Iraq?  Let's look at the conditions for a just war, which I am using this book's notes for:

1.  just cause
2.  just intention
3.  last resort
4.  formal declaration
5.  limited objectives
6.  proportionate means
7.  noncombatant immunity

So what do you think?  I highly recommend this book.