today belongs to indiana jones


Seriously, I have been waiting for this day for 18 years. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull opens today. I shall be there. It shall be glorious.

To celebrate an already fantastic legacy and to get myself all pumped up for tonight, here are my Top 10 favorite Indiana Jones quotes to date…


10.
Indy: “Sallah, I said NO camels! That’s FIVE camels; can’t you count?”

9.
Professor Jones: “Look what you did! I can’t believe what you did!”

8.
Indy: “There’s a big snake in the plane Jock!”
Jock: “Oh that’s just my pet Reggie!”
Indy: “I HATE snakes Jock, I hate em’!”

7.
Professor Jones: “Well I’m sorry about your head though, but I though you were one of them.”
Indy: “Dad, they come in through the doors.”
Professor Jones: “Ha, good point.”

6.
Indy: “Since I’ve met you I’ve nearly been incinerated, drown, shot at and chopped into fish bait. We’re caught in the middle of something sinister here. My guess is that dad found out more than he was looking for and until I’m sure, we’re going to continue to do things the way I think they should be done!”

5.

Indy: “I’m going after that truck.”
Sallah: “How?”
Indiana: “I dunno I’m making this up as I go.”

4.
Professor Jones: “They’re trying to kill us!”
Indy: “I KNOW DAD!”
Professor Jones: “Well, it’s a new experience for me.”
Indy: “Happens to me all the time.”

3.

Indy: “I like Indiana…”
Professor Jones: “We named the dog Indiana.”
Sallah: “The dog? You are named after the dog?”

2.
Elsa: “What’s this?”
Indy: “The Ark Of The Covenant.”
Elsa: “Are you sure?”
Indy: “Pretty sure.”

1.
Indy: “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?”

culture shock

I had a disturbing conversation with Steph this morning that I felt the need to share. It started as an offhand discussion we had this weekend regarding race and marriage and whether or not it was acceptable for people of different races to marry each other.

Both Steph and I are from Minnesota, so I think our views of this are in general a little more accepting than maybe other parts of the country. Neither of us think that interracial marriage is inherently wrong. If two people love one another and they want to get married, then they should, regardless of what color their skin is.

Steph works outside of the city (Nashville) – that is to say, she works with a handful of true red-blooded Southerners. She decided to do a little investigation Monday and get their take on the whole interracial marriage bit. What she discovered really shocked me. I was naively living under the assumption that we’ve made great strides in overcoming racism over the past few decades in America. I was wrong. Here’s a smattering of responses:

  • “My dad would kill me if I brought a black man home for dinner.”
  • “My pastor taught us growing up that it was wrong to marry black people.”
  • “If you spend too much time with black people you start to act and talk like them.”
  • “The Bible says not to associate with people from different cultures.”
  • “I don’t want to hang around black people because I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.
  • “There’s a difference between black people and niggers. There are some good black people, but then niggers are like the black version of white-trash, and it’s just not right to associate with those people.”
  • “It’s a sin for people of different races to marry.”

Allow me to be very clear here: If you agree with any of these statements you are wrong and you disgust me.

I cannot believe that in 2008 we are still using the Bible to justify our cowardly selfish racist mindsets. That is absolutely utterly shocking to me. I’m sorry I was so naive to think that we had progressed beyond this sick and disgusting state. I also can’t believe that I have to spend a blog post outlining why the above statements are the most ridiculous and stupid things I have ever heard.

Specifically my comments are aimed at white Christian Americans who find themselves agreeing with some semblance of the above statements:

God Does Not Operate On A Class System:
At the core of all these statements is this sentiment that one race is better than another – that somehow God has selected white American’s as the preferred culture of people, and all other races are lesser and degraded forms of the above. Sounds like a Nazi propaganda if you ask me… while we’re at it, should we weed out the blond haired, blue eyed folks and just do off with the rest of us?

When it comes to a “chosen” race in the eyes of God, I assure you it’s not white Protestant Americans… it’s the Jewish people of ancient Israel. This is a culture through which God first spoke and demonstrated his love – and wrath. What color do you think their skin was? The great thing for all races though is that he made His love accessible to all of us through the death and resurrection of Jesus… this is the reason we all get to share in the blessings of God. The Apostle Paul effectively tore down the barriers of race throughout his life and persistent ministry to those outside the Jewish culture. All are welcome at God’s table.

It Is Not A Sin To Associate With Other Races:
I’m having trouble figuring this one out – where did this idea come from that white people aren’t to associate with black people, or anyone else of another race? Since when are Christians isolationists? Weren’t Christ’s last words on earth “Go into all the world and preach the good news”? This doesn’t sound like separation to me… rather, this sounds like a command to start making some diverse groups of friends. And no, I don’t simply mean a four day mission trip to Columbia – the gospel of Christ is a genuine message of relationship that speaks to true lasting friendships and acceptance of people from all walks of life.

It Is Not A Sin To Marry Outside Your Race:
I understand that precedent and tradition have led to a general societal taboo of interracial marriages, and that is what it is. But it doesn’t make these marriages wrong. For Christian’s to take a verse like Genesis 28:1, “So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: ‘Do not marry a Canaanite woman,'” and then improperly conclude that God has commanded Christians not to marry individuals of other races are incorrect in their interpretation.

This command, and ones like it, speak to spiritual matters – not racial matters. The Canaanite culture of the time was known for their blatant disregard of God, and as such, it would not be right for a Jewish person to be married to someone who did not share their worldview and belief set. Likewise, it would be unwise for a Christian to pledge their life to an individual who does not share their beliefs, but again I emphasize, this has nothing to do with race.


It really saddens and frustrates me that thoughts like the ones I listed above are prevalent in our culture – it really irritates me that I’m hearing these thoughts from a group of self-professed Christians. I’m certainly not trying to say that Christians are “morally better” than the rest of society, however, Christians have been given an example in the Bible as to how we should treat and interact with the people around us. We need to strive towards this and as a faith-group set a positive example of how to treat those around us with respect and without prejudice.

You tell me if you think I’m out of line here, but I think you’ll be hard pressed to find an argument that holds water.

steph bought me a goat for my birthday

My birthday was Monday. I meant to write this Tuesday, but I was busy, as was Wednesday and Thursday. Here we are on Friday, so now here is my update four days late.

Birthday was good. Friends took me to lunch at a favorite lunch stop – the Chile Burrito… authentic TexMex on a budget. Gotta love that.

Then later that evening Steph took me to the Genghis Grill, which is always a thrill. Get to pile a bunch of stuff into a little bowl and then watch the guys cook it on a big circular stone grill. Awesome.

Then Steph gave me my birthday present, which was really exciting. We’ve been wrestling with this for a few years… now that we’re married, going out and getting a birthday present, using dollars that we both worked for seems silly sometimes so we’re trying something new out. Instead of splurging on some gift that we don’t necessarily need, we’re going to help some other people out with our money.

So Steph got me a goat through World Vision. They offer a cool program where you can purchase actual tangible items – like a cow, or a well, or malaria vaccines – and they go directly to help people in need. So that’s what I get to do this weekend – go buy a goat for a family so they can provide themselves with fresh milk and cheese. Cool huh?

gedney: the minnesota pickle

We went home to Minnesota this weekend for the wedding of our good friend James. Great wedding, great to see old friends.

I imagine everyone has those things that make home, home. And hence the ridonkulously large jar of dill pickles. We grew up eating Gedney Pickles. They’re Minnesota grown and jarred in Chaska, MN, and their slogan is “the Minnesota pickle”, so we’re loyal to them. They taste great too!

Steph has an obsession with dill pickles – no she’s not pregnant – so my family was nice enough to take us to Sam’s Club and buy us this goofishly big bottle. I don’t know if you can tell or not from the picture, but that’s a full gallon there – a nearly 12 inch tall bottle! I’m sure it seems odd, but having a bottle of dill pickles grown in your home state on hand is one of those nice things that gives a sense of home when you live miles away.

Of course, now that I’m looking at the bottle, I see it says “Refrigerate After Opening”. We may need to buy an additional mini-fridge to accommodate.

A Graphing Of Tim’s Bloggings

Over the last few months, a strange pattern has developed on the blog of my friend Uncle Tim. It’s sad, really, to see how a once prolific writer has simply disappeared from the blogging world.

Unfortunately, Tim is in denial of all this. He feels that the blogging world has up and left him – that no one out there is writing anymore, when in fact, he’s the one who has forgotten how to turn his computer on. Posts have been pretty minimal from Uncle Tim the last few months, and I miss his gluttonous musings on food and his incessant whining about cats.

I took it upon myself to demonstrate graphically how Tim’s bloggings have changed over time, and the visual impact is startling:

So Tim… if you’re out there, somewhere, reading this… come back.Post about how you’ve been binging on chocolate and beer over the the last two weeks since the Biggest Loser finale aired, and how you’re just not going to be able to control yourself until next season. Post about how you’ve somehow conned society into buying plastic Frisbees from you in order to make a living. Post about how you kidnapped your neighbor kid’s cat last week and taunted it with a pen light until 3:00 in the morning by making it run off the edge of your balcony.

Sincerely,
A Concerned Subscriber

azariah southworth comes out

The always punctual cultural trail-mix that is Perez Hilton reported today that “Azariah Southworth, host of the popular Christian youth show The Remix has come out of the closet and announced he is gay.”

First let me say I have never watched the show before, so I know nothing about the program or Azariah. That aside, the show has a significant impact with weekly viewership of 200,000 and a reach of 128 million homes. Here’s what he had to say in a statement to the press:

“This has been a long time coming. I’m in a place where I’m at peace with my faith, friends, family and more importantly myself. I know this will end my career in Christian television, but I must now live my life openly and honestly with everyone… I know I will be cut off from many within the Christian community, and if so, then they didn’t get the point of the life of Christ. I believe by me living my life honestly and authentically now, I am able to be a better person and a better Christian.”

The response on Perez Hilton has been interesting. The comments fall into basically one of three categories:

  1. Overwhelming support and votes of great courage for coming out
  2. Statements that Christians are all homophobic hypocritical bigots
  3. That the photo on the website makes Azariah look like he has a huge head

All of this leaves me really frustrated and quite conflicted. As a Christian I find it incredibly unfortunate that the general perception of Christianity in America is that we are hypocrites and homophobes and unloving of people… basically everything that our faith claims we are not. I hate that Azariah’s initial assumption has to be that he will be cut off from the Christian community. And undoubtedly he will.

I’m not going to disagree with the perception. It’s an unfortunate reality, not unfounded and largely the fault of a segmented and disoriented Christian church.

Christians have a huge problem with hypocrisy. We are viewed as a body of people who teach one thing, yet say and do another. We talk about sin, we condemn sin… and then we go out and do sinful things. Our credibility is minuscule and waning, and it leaves the world at large utterly confusd.

So now what?

There is a profound sense of hate towards Christianity, and it’s evidenced by people who commented on the post at Perez Hilton. People that have been segmented, written off, ostracized, and condemned by the Church and as a result have given up on it. I’m not sure how to respond to this hate. Also I think there are people out there who genuinely want to extend this discussion – about life and faith and belief – who have questions and are seeking answers, but their curiosity is overpowered by the voices of anger that seem to take control on topics like this.

So I’ll end this with a vague and open-ended question, and see where we go from there… What do you think?

the bible: now in color



So what are you looking at?

I will tell you. And once I do, you will be absolutely fascinated by what you see.

What we’ve got above is a graphical representation of the Bible that was constructed by a Lutheran pastor and Chris Harrison, a doctoral student studying Human Computer Interactions. Together they took a list of over 63,000 cross-references in the Bible and displayed them graphically.

Across the bottom of the chart you see a bunch of vertical gray lines – each of these individual lines represents a chapter of the Bible from Genesis 1 on the left to Revelation 22 on the right. Each arc in the graph represents a unique cross reference. For instance, a passage about ‘God’ in Genesis 1:1 is linked with an orange arc to a passage about ‘God’ in Revelation 22:21. Likewise, a passage about a ‘Dove’ in Mark 1:10 is linked with a blue arc to a passage about a ‘Dove’ in John 2:16. The color of the arc is directly dependent on the “distance” of the cross reference, with short references being blue or violet, and longer references being green or orange – this creates the rainbow effect you see.

To truly appreciate this you need to take a look at this high resolution version.

Now What?
The first time I saw this it just really struck me. There’s something incredibly complex, yet strangely simple about this graph.

Look at the symmetry. I think it’s amazing how a document that spans some 2000 years maintains the same ideas and themes throughout. There’s consistency and everything is interrelated.

But also look at how you can pick out sections of the Bible you’re familiar with just by glancing at the graph. I can see three sections pop out based on the groupings of arcs – the Gospels & Letters on the right third of the graph, the History books on the left third, and the wisdom literature throughout the middle.

The books of the Prophets are going to fall slightly right of center – the purple arcs that you see branching off to the right from these books are literally the prophecies about the Messiah being fulfilled in the Gospels.

The letter to the Hebrews is traditionally thought to be written towards a Jewish Christian audience because of it’s strong emphasis on ancient traditions and themes. Now you’ll have to look at the hi-res version for this… notice how slightly in from the far right side of the graph an array of green and yellow arcs drop down, seemingly out of nowhere. This is the author of Hebrews explaining the gospel story in a language a Jew would understand – by referencing the ancient texts and speaking directly to those who believe in the God of Moses, Isaac, and Jacob.

And So…
There you go… I don’t know what you’ll pull from this, but this chart continues to amaze me each time I look at it. At the very least hopefully it will be a greater appreciation for the most influential and powerful text of all time.

My thanks to Jon for first sharing this chart with me a few months back. And if this sort of thing piques your curiosity you need to go check out some of the other visualizations Chris Harrison has posted on his website. Fascinating stuff.

embrace: this new day


I would say save the best until last, but after all, these are some of my favorite albums that I’ve been featuring this week, so it would be unfair to make that distinction.

That said, I’m extremely happy to share with you This New Day by Embrace. Why this album hasn’t been released in the States is beyond me. I was first turned on to Embrace about four years ago with their international debut Out Of Nothing, featuring among other things a co-write with Coldplay front man Chris Martin. The follow-up success of This New Day actually earned the band the honor of performing “World At Your Feet”, England’s Official 2006 World Cup Song. This New Day is everything I love about Brit rock: big, epic, glorious, worthy of a soccer stadium.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the music this week – glad I could share with you some of my favorite artists and albums!

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glen hansard & marketa irglova: the swell season


It’s a sad and rainy day in Nashville, and this is the right music for it.

A couple notes on this album: This is a side project for Glen Hansard who is the lead singer for an Ireland-based band called The Frames. He’s been getting a ton of publicity recently because of his work as lead actor and musician on the independent film Once – a brilliant modern day musical about a chance encounter between a guy and a girl.

Here’s what I need you to do:

  • Listen to Track 3 below, “Falling Slowly”
  • If you like the song, go rent Once and watch it this weekend without exception
  • If you like the movie, come back here and listen to the album The Cost by The Frames

Finally, want to give a quick shout-out to friends who lost their jobs yesterday. I’m sorry… it sucks… I hate it very much, and we all miss you.

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the arcade fire: neon bible


Continuing the series this week of “Five favorite albums that aren’t on Napster, but are available on Imeem”, this is Neon Bible from The Arcade Fire. I’m afraid this is as close to America as we’re going to come this week… and we’ll have to settle with Canadia.

This band is huge, literally. Seven permanent members and an additional six that travel with the band on the road. I came across them on NPT one night performing on Austin City Limits… what an incredible live show. These guys are true musicians, and they know their stuff well. High points of the album… well, of course “Keep The Car Running” and then “No Cars Go”. Basically they need to continue writing songs about cars. Oh, and yes, that’s a real pipe organ on “Intervention”.

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