The eighth most read article was written about the effects of the controversy surrounding the movie End of the Spear. Are we fighting the right battles? This situation was a classic debate on that important question. The box office run of End of the Spear  has drawn to a close. The backlash from a number of Christian blogs, publications, and from many  pulpits accomplished its goal. Estimates are that the controversy cut the box office return by one-half to two-thirds. I wish congratulations were in order. But I am simply burdened and discouraged by our choice of battles in the evangelical community. I should never be allowed near a keyboard when I am frustrated. But I hope that all who advocated a boycott are happy with the results. Your efforts kept a lot of people away from a movie that has a powerful message. I have not talked to a single person who saw the movie (and that would be
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This is an amazing coincidence. The ninth most popular article in the Top 20 Countdown is a story I wrote about how amazing my wife has been through cancer treatments and how much I respect her. It is amazing because this happens to fall on the same day that I married this woman thirty-one years ago. There was a time back before she was mine when I thought I was tough.  I am not a crier. So it was a bit out of character when the tears started flowing yesterday as I drove through the canyon in downtown Dallas. I blame Lindsay for this event. Lindsay is my bride’s cousin who moved to Texas recently. She already loved country music so that saved us some time to indoctrinate her. We love having her in Big D but she is going to have to stop introducing me to songs that make driving dangerous. Lindsay told us about a song that we just had
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The countdown reaches the Top 10 with today’s article. Adopted alma-mater Baylor University was the subject of this piece. Number 10: Supporting Baylor’s “Cover-up”.  This past weekend I downed some coffee and perused the Dallas Morning News before heading to Waco for Homecoming football action at Baylor University. A headline in the Metro Section caught my eye. SMU, Baylor bare souls over ‘Playboy’     Dallas school won’t fight photo shoot; Bears clothes-minded The headline writers obviously had some fun with their jobs but the story was serious. Here is an excerpt from the piece written by DMN writer Michael E.Young. Separated by 100 miles of interstate, the Southern Baptists’ Baylor University and the United Methodists’ SMU seem even farther apart when it comes to students posing in states of undress in a men’s magazine. Southern Methodist University’s approach is decidedly hands-off. When Playboy magazine photographers set up temporary shop next week near SMU for a “Girls of Conference USA”
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The Top 20 Countdown today features one of my favorite articles. It was written to my beautiful bride as she lost her hair during cancer treatments.  At Number 11: Bald is Beautiful – Part 1.  One of my smart aleck remarks that I use periodically is that “I am not burdened by that whole maturity thing.” There are many times when I go about demonstrating that in real life. But the unwelcome intrusion of “life” into my happy little routine has caused me to evaluate a lot of things. God is teaching and revealing a lot of things to me during our cancer journey. 1. I am clearly a work in progress as a follower of Jesus.  2. He has done a lot of work over the years that I was not aware of until this cancer trial came along. Last night I had the weird privilege of helping clip off the rest of my bride’s hair that was falling
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The Top 20 Countdown reaches Number 12 with a tongue-in-cheek article about singer Chris Rice and the theological concerns with cartoon characters becoming Christians.  I think I am going to start posting a warning label so the Spiritual Hall Monitors will be alerted to the fact that my blog may contain humor or, according to some, attempted humor. With this warning they can avoid encountering humor, satire, and sarcasm that might trigger an allergic reaction for the sullen saints. Warning: The following post may contain humor. This blog was produced in a program where irony and satire are processed. May contain sarcasm fragments. I think that singer Chris Rice may understand my plan to post the humor/satire warning. Rice is a wonderful song writer. My IPod features many of his songs and his lyrics resonate with me. I could have written the song Clumsy (if I had any musical talent) You think I’d have it down by now  Been practicin’
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It is fascinating to see which articles resonate with readers. Today the Number 13 most read post is about Madonna and atheist author Sam Harris. When I was a kid we had, arguably, the most ridiculous public service film in the history of civilization. It was called Duck and Cover and the film featured a turtle named Bert. You can enjoy a couple of chuckles by watching this film here. The film spent nine terrifying minutes telling you a nuclear bomb could detonate at any moment. To be fair, the film primarily advocated finding appropriate shelter. But if such shelter was not readily available you should duck and cover when you saw the bright flash of detonation. While I guess such an action is better than nothing it seems ludicrous that this would be of much value in the event of nuclear attack. I remember the fear that this film generated for an elementary student. But even then my mind
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It has been eighteen months since Joni’s breast cancer diagnosis. I have written many articles about that journey and the Number 14 post is called “How to be a Good Cancer Buddy”.  It is not easy to know what to do when a brother or sister is going through adversity. So here are some early lessons we have learned from our cancer journey. A primer for being a good adversity buddy… 1) It is okay to say the “C” word. Joni and I know that she has cancer so it will not be a surprise to us. We believe that we have a “C” word in our lives that trumps the fear of cancer. That “C” word is Christ.     2) You don’t have to “say” anything profound, theologically brilliant, or comforting. Simple phrases like “I am praying” and “I am here if you need me” pack more punch than a theological dissertation on suffering. Some don’t know what
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