Saturday, February 24, 2007

Out of commission!

That is the best way to describe my last few weeks. A few things have kept me from posting:

1) Basketball season wrapped up for me on Feb. 12 and the last two weeks were just a whirlwind. It is still going on but my team is done. 16-0, my first undefeated team ever.

2) Lisa's work schedule. Her boss and manager had a child at the end of January and Lisa has been picking up her hours to keep the store running. She has been working full and even overtime the past few weeks, and most shifts are 2-10pm, so we got days without seeing each other. It's taken it's toll on both of us, only four more weeks left!

3) The flu. I got the real deal starting last Saturday, influenza, and it took me right out of commission for the past week. I went to work for half a day on Monday, had to take Tuesday and Wednesday off, and then slugged through the day on Thursday and Friday. Today is the first day I feel half-way decent. WOW!

Look forward to getting back into things soon!

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

What do you think of this from TMQ?

The Athlete's Prayer: Every year between the college bowls and the Super Bowl, there's at least one major game that begins with some unctuous minister leading a prayer for victory. As a churchgoing Christian, I wince whenever I hear clergy appeal to the divine for success in sports. God doesn't care who wins games, while many sports prayers boil down to, "Lord, help me crush my opponent." For that matter public prayer contradicts Jesus, who taught, "Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Amen I tell you, they have received their reward. When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." (Jesus often said of religious hypocrites or the rich that they "have received their reward," meaning they will not ascend to heaven – everything they are ever going to get, they already have.) At sports events, dedications and at the openings of legislatures, Christians routinely violate Christ's teaching regarding public prayer. Considering the rabbi Jesus even opposed prayer in synagogues, it can be argued that Christians contract Christ when they pray together in churches. Each time I read of Christian fundamentalists or evangelicals demanding prayer in public schools, I wince anew, since it suggests they know little about the actual ministry of their Redeemer. But don't get me started on ways in which Christians ignore the teachings of Jesus.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

I fought and I fought and I fought myself not to have to get into this again, but Wallis makes me so angry I have to post this stuff to get it off my chest. First, he is at it again with taking Scripture out of context on the topic of minimum wage:

What does the Bible have to say about the minimum wage?

The prophet Isaiah said: "my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain ... " (65:22-23).

James, who was the sibling of Jesus, and probably knew what his brother thought about things pretty well, said "Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord."


I'm pretty sure the Bible doesn't have anything to say about minimum wage except what we put into it.

Second, in simple terms, I've always felt that the term theology meant the study of God. Wallis feels different:

What is at risk here is a genuine opportunity society. It's a "fraud," I would say, when the average CEO of a Standard & Poor's 500 company made $13.5 million in total compensation in 2005, while a minimum wage worker made $10,700. Thirty years ago CEOs made 30 times what their average workers made. Japan and Germany are still at about that ratio. Now in America its 400 to 1 – which means the average worker has to work a whole year to make what their boss makes in one day. This is wrong; it's an injustice; it's a theological issue.

Hmmm. I theological issue, never thought of it like that.
I've got to disagree here with the ESPN article posted earlier today (they've since taken the article off and I can't get the link or the author's name, it was Ian something).

Johnson is 6-3, 315 pounds, and he is afraid. Not of Peyton Manning. Not of Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. Not of Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes.

Tank is afraid of you. He is afraid that you believe he has no business playing against the Colts in Super Bowl XLI.

That means he's afraid of me, too, and millions of right-minded Americans who are sick and tired of the rich and famous, the athletes and movie stars, living by a set of rules never available to the ordinary Joe.

I could be wrong and a few of my few readers may have better insights or backgrounds on this kind of thing (Hint, Adam), but I'm pretty sure that if I were in Tank's position, charged and out on bond and my work forced me to travel to a different state where I was not a risk of flight or to the harm of others, I would be allowed to go. And where does this guy get off calling himself "right-minded"? Kind of arrogant in my mind. Thoughts?