I remember seeing trailers a few years ago for a horror movie called “What Lies Beneath”. I am not a fan of that genre of films so I did not see the movie. But for some reason that title popped into my mind as I heard the developing saga of Mel Gibson. I wonder if Mel Gibson fully understood the ugly sin that was lurking beneath until alcohol unleashed the horror of his bigotry and exposed it to the light of scrutiny? I wonder what lies beneath the surface of my tidy little Christian exterior? Is there something hiding deep in my soul that is just as ugly and ungodly? Writer Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News wrote an insightful and soul provoking piece this past weekend entitled “Mel isn’t the only sinner“.  I have excerpted some highlights. My observations are italicized. I’m deeply concerned about the rise of global anti-Semitism, and found my fellow Christian’s drunken remarks appalling. And as someone
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My grandparents said that the younger generation was going to hell in a handbasket. My parents said the same thing about my generation, the self-absorbed Baby Boomers. Now I observe the youth culture and my first impulse is exactly the same as my grandparents and parents. But I am not taking the bait. I am blessed to know too many awesome young men and women to believe this generation is worse than any other. But I do concede that this group of young adults face cultural challenges that even my Woodstock generation did not. I began thinking about how things have changed as I shuffled through the iPod yesterday. A Beatles song began playing and I had to chuckle. If you are young you likely have no idea how controversial the Beatles were in the early 60’s. Grumpy old men predicted the downfall of civilization because of the haircuts the British group sported. The Beatles were scandalous to my parents generation. But to
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Yesterday’s topic was about parents who try to protect their kids from every difficulty in life. Today I came across a research study from researchers at Wake Forest University who say that there may be a direct link between watching professional wrestling on television and increased amounts of “date fighting” and other derogatory behavior among teens.The findings, which were compiled in 1999, and shared with other researchers in 2001,  have been published in the journal Pediatrics  recently. Here are some highlights from ABC News story. Dr. Robert Durant, one of the study’s authors, said the intensity of such behavior corresponded with the amount of exposure to wrestling. The behavior Durant and his team were looking for was increased amount of drinking, drug use and fighting, both verbally and physically, with their dates. “Is it causing these behaviors or is it that those adolescents were more prone to engage in health risk behaviors and in other violent behaviors more likely to watch wrestling,”
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There is a fascinating article in Psychology Today this month. The piece is written by Hara Estroff Marano and it is entitled A Nation of Wimps. Marano notes that “parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, parental hyperconcern has the net effect of making kids more fragile; that may be why they’re breaking down in record numbers”. Here is an excerpt from her article.     Behold the wholly sanitized childhood, without skinned knees or the occasional C in history. “Kids need to feel badly sometimes,” says child psychologist David Elkind, professor at Tufts University. “We learn through experience and we learn through bad experiences. Through failure we learn how to cope.” Messing up, however, even in the playground, is wildly out of style. Although error and experimentation are the true mothers of success, parents are taking pains to remove failure from the equation. “Life is planned out for us,” says
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Part of the joy of blogging is the feedback. I get lots of encouragement, thoughtful input, and (for the most part) graceful challenges. My rule is that disagreements presented in a civil tone deserve a thoughtful response. Angry, name calling challenges deserve a purposeful punch of the delete button. That relates to my other rule. I am paying the fees for my little piece of cyber real estate so when you come into my cyber home those are the rules. There are lots of blogs where you can SHOUT and be a jerk. That is not how we play blog here. Those are the ground rules as we set up another edition of the wildly popular “Ask a Bad Christian”  feature. This is the third installment of the blog that answers questions and challenges sent my way by faithful musers. The first question for Bad Christian comes from dear friend Randy in Oklahoma. He was challenging me about my views that politics should stay out of the
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I love people watching. Regular readers know that I openly acknowledge that my brain was not wired to factory specs. So I am letting down the curtain a bit to allow you to see a few minutes in my world. Here are my RMWPW (random musings while people watching) from a day at an outdoor food court yesterday. I do not understand women and shoes. Can someone (preferably female) explain to me why you, as a species, are willing to cram your feet into shoes so pointed you could give injections by kicking somebody in the posterior? I look at my foot and I look at those shoes. It does not compute. The human foot does not narrow to a needlepoint. The second question I have is why do women wear shoes they cannot walk in? I realize I am lacking advanced degrees but it seems to me that a shoe that does not allow you to walk is not a
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As I write this I am flying over Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. After spending three days in Minneapolis I have been reminded that the people of Minnesota are polite, reserved, and kind. So I was a bit surprised to pick up a New York Times story and read that a divisive controversy has been raging at the Woodland Hills Church in Maplewood, Minnesota. The controversy has caused the church to lose 20% of it’s membership. Since Woodland Hills is a body of 5,000 members that is a stunning loss of 1,000 folks. Must be pretty serious stuff, huh? Must be heresy or moral sin that is involved, right? But the controversy in Minnesota is about how the church should embrace patriotism and politics into the sanctuary. Dr.Gregory Boyd founded the Woodland Hills Church in 1992.  He wrote a book that I loved called “Letters to a Skeptic” so I knew his name before this story came to my attention. Before the last presidential election he preached a series called “The Cross
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