"It's unbelievable. Unbelievable," said Palin on Wednesday evening while appearing on Sean Hannity's Fox News program. "No administration in America's history would, I think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out President Obama is supporting today. It's kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.'"


You could easily think she was referring to Jesus. Just take out the reference to playground and say, "Jesus in the garden." And this being so close to good friday and easter.

I wish I could say it's shocking. Instead it's normal for Palin and people of her ilk.

She hates the very actions of Jesus while claiming to love Jesus. It's the empty hypocrisy of a syncretistic republican christian. And it makes me sick.

This was a refreshing change of pace in american politics.

Things Are Changing

Here's a take on what's changing and what's not from Out of Ur

In light of this, I propose a few changes for our congregation.

1. We will implement the multi-site model. e.g. We will all sit at home and just video chat each week. No need to drive to see each other. This will save time, money, and I won't have to put on clothes.

2. We need to start giving online. Or better yet, why not kill two birds with one stone. We can encourage online giving at our new really cool website. But we'll load the site up with tons of pop up ads and other forms of pay per click avenues. Therefore we'll be able to make money from people as they attempt to give money. It's a win, win for everyone. Yes, dealing with large amounts of spyware is a form of suffering for Jesus.

3. Solve the building issue along with the funeral issue. We just open a funeral home! During the day we sell caskets at discount prices in the name of Jesus and good capitalism. Then on Sundays we could rent it out to those churches that haven't figured out the whole internet campus-multi-site approach. Again... banking for Jesus. Plus, having church in a funeral home is like a really big metaphor to dying to sin. And it's pretty handy in the event God smites you a la Ananias and Saphira.

4. We make national news for being the greenest church in America. Again, I'm just connecting the dots here, but we should use the ashes of people who were cremated as fertilizer in community gardens around town. Talk about giving back! We actually invest our community in the community... literally. That's a headline grabber.

5. We'll start a teaching school for missionaries that are coming to America from other countries. We will teach the foreigners the way of American Christianity so they can fit in better and therefore reach more folks. We'll start with teaching them how to raise money. Then teach them what political groups help further our agenda. And finally we'll take them to the mall and make sure they have the cool kid clothes so that everyone will want to be like them. I'm thinking it could be like a 3 week course on acclimating to Jesus in the states.

I'm sure if we're able to successfully pull this off... we'll be blinging for Jesus in no time.

Mainline Churches are going to die. Here's one author's take.

That’s Tom Ehrich’s question:

“I think it’s time for leaders to lead, and for clergy to be aggressive about doing everything they can to grow their churches,” I told her. “Lay leaders shouldn't be allowed to stifle growth. It’s God’s church, not theirs.”

I wasn’t done.

“Other than budget expenses for something like a new Web site,” I said, strategies for moving forward aren’t about money or hiring. They are about mission, ministry, education, pastoral care, membership development and other factors that “shouldn’t require formal approval, unless your governing board has gotten into the habit of giving permission on everything that happens. If that is the case, correcting that dysfunctional sort of leadership is your starting point.”

Still, after 50 years of fighting about change, many mainline congregations seem braced for one last battle: whose hand gets to turn out the lights.

Time is running out. We need to break this deadlock. I think it’s time for change-minded leaders to lead, and for denominational officials to support them in the ensuing firestorm. Instead of fighting over who owns the building, we should be discerning who owns the mission. A congregation can’t be allowed to die just because entrenched leaders won’t allow life.

via Change or Die: When Lay Leaders Stifle Church Growth and Future.

Robert Ebert responds to Limbaugh's insinuation that Obama would exploit Haiti

"This isn't going to be good."

Have you seen the Ford commercial where they're talking about how the new truck has towing capabilities so it will prevent your boat trailer from coming off and passing you on the road? I think I need that truck.

The other day, my buddy and I hooked up the trailer to my ride. I was a bit distracted when my girlfriend came over and so I got sidetracked. We jumped into my ride and I jumped the curb and pulled the trailer out from around the house. A few minutes later my buddy and I were headed to pick up a refrigerator.

It wasn't long before I began asking, "What's that noise?" It was a ferocious grinding noise. I figured the chain had come off and was dragging behind me. I was right. The chain was off. I realized this as I looked to my left and saw my trailer screeching down the street next to me. Sparks flying as the tongue surfs across the asphalt.

At this point, several things happen besides screaming cuss words. First, you think to yourself, "This can't be my trailer. I hooked my trailer up. Someone must have sabotaged me. I wonder if this is like a practical joke or something. Oh wait, my trailer is going faster than I am now..." Then begins the analytical stage, "I wonder how this is going to end? Should I run my car into the trailer? Should I try to pull in front of it and then slow down? Do I pull over and watch the carnage?"

Well by the time I finished this inner monologue while screaming my verbal monologue, the trailer had cruised down the hill of a full city block. Thankfully there weren't any cars coming... except for that one parked ahead. It's at this point that resignation set in and I knew I had to just follow the trailer till it stopped and see what carnage took place.

The distance was closing quick as the trailer sped towards the parked car. A guy was actually sitting in his car watching as the trailer was coming towards him. The trailer then clipped the curb, jumped the curb, literally plowed through a person's yard, uprooting a water meter lid and then smashing into a tree.

I stopped the car in the middle of the road and jumped out relieved. I quickly realized I had an audience. It had crashed in front of the fire station and about 8 firefighters had heard the trailer grinding down the road. They were lined up at the bay doors with their mouths gaping. I assured everyone that it was all part of the act and will be featured on youtube the next week.

I then pulled the trailer out of the yard and hooked up my trailer. This time securing it and locking it down. No girlfriend to distract me and an audience to make sure I did it right.

Source of Morality

If there's such thing as "right and wrong," then there is inherently an intent to all of creation. There's a way things are supposed to be. For something to be right, then there's some perfect standard to which to hold to. It's something that's right whether we agree or not. Apart from some invisible ideal, it's all mere preference. It's our inclinations and desires.

Postmodernism has issued in an age where we hold humbly to what we may perceive to be this absolute. We may hold more skepticism when looking to those who claim "the truth." We may not even agree on what the ideal or perfect way is. But if we say there's right and wrong, we are compelled to point to something outside of ourselves as universal, lest we become god. We know that the common good is not what creation seems to grown for. It's something more than the evolution of the species. Something exists and didn't ask me whether I was interested in agreeing.