ethos

http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/2010/12/dont-dilute-the-flava-god-made-ya/

thoughts from class

Studies show that the people who score highest on self-esteem tests... are prisoners. What does that say about coddling for self-esteem?

Spanglish: "Lately, your low self-esteem is just good common sense."

³For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Romans 12:3 NIV

"Reinventing MWS"

This is hilarious: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/09/29/world-premiere-exclusive-michael-w-smiths-save/?test=faces

"Hilarious," as in, it's a joke. But not a funny joke. :)

Come on! It's a travesty! This is going to sound so harsh, but I honestly cannot believe that that video was made public. He's reinventing himself and yet remaining true to who he is? He remained true to who he is right down to the 80's [dyed] hair, high school youth group video production, and The Edge lookalike wannabe bass player.

And so MWS continues to give Christian music the cheesy embarrassing rep it had in the beginning...

here's another "reinvention" if you can stand it:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4356020/michael-w-smith-sings-leave/

Is there a place I can look up how many people named their child "Suzie" in the last 5-6 years?

Manute Bol's Radical Christianity

This is too good to pass up:
By JON A. SHIELDS

As any churchgoer who tuned in to watch the recent NBA finals contest between the Lakers and Celtics already knows, the term redemption is probably now heard more often in NBA sports broadcasts than in homilies. A Google search under "redemption" and "NBA" generates approximately 2 million hits—more hits than "redemption" and "Christianity." The term can also be found in more than 2,600 stories on ESPN.com.

Associated Press

Manute Bol

What does redemption mean in the world of professional basketball and sports more broadly? It involves making up for—or, yes, "atoning"—for a poor performance. When the Lakers beat Boston, for instance, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times called the victory "redemption for the Celtics' 2008 Finals beating."

More often, though, sports journalists use the term to praise the individual performances of NBA superstars. Thus, the Associated Press reported that Kobe Bryant "found redemption" after he won a title in 2009 without the aid of his nemesis and former teammate Shaquille O'Neal.

Manute Bol, who died last week at the age of 47, is one player who never achieved redemption in the eyes of sports journalists. His life embodied an older, Christian conception of redemption that has been badly obscured by its current usage.

Bol, a Christian Sudanese immigrant, believed his life was a gift from God to be used in the service of others. As he put it to Sports Illustrated in 2004: "God guided me to America and gave me a good job. But he also gave me a heart so I would look back."

He was not blessed, however, with great athletic gifts. As a center for the Washington Bullets, Bol was more spectacle than superstar. At 7 feet, 7 inches tall and 225 pounds, he was both the tallest and thinnest player in the league. He averaged a mere 2.6 points per game over the course of his career, though he was a successful shot blocker given that he towered over most NBA players.

Bol reportedly gave most of his fortune, estimated at $6 million, to aid Sudanese refugees. As one twitter feed aptly put it: "Most NBA cats go broke on cars, jewelry & groupies. Manute Bol went broke building hospitals."

When his fortune dried up, Bol raised more money for charity by doing what most athletes would find humiliating: He turned himself into a humorous spectacle. Bol was hired, for example, as a horse jockey, hockey player and celebrity boxer. Some Americans simply found amusement in the absurdity of him on a horse or skates. And who could deny the comic potential of Bol boxing William "the Refrigerator" Perry, the 335-pound former defensive linemen of the Chicago Bears?

Bol agreed to be a clown. But he was not willing to be mocked for his own personal gain as so many reality-television stars are. Bol let himself be ridiculed on behalf of suffering strangers in the Sudan; he was a fool for Christ.

During his final years, Bol suffered more than mere mockery in the service of others. While he was doing relief work in the Sudan, he contracted a painful skin disease that ultimately contributed to his death.

Bol's life and death throws into sharp relief the trivialized manner in which sports journalists employ the concept of redemption. In the world of sports media players are redeemed when they overcome some prior "humiliation" by playing well. Redemption then is deeply connected to personal gain and celebrity. It leads to fatter contracts, shoe endorsements, and adoring women.

Yet as Bol reminds us, the Christian understanding of redemption has always involved lowering and humbling oneself. It leads to suffering and even death.

It is of little surprise, then, that the sort of radical Christianity exemplified by Bol is rarely understood by sports journalists. For all its interest in the intimate details of players' lives, the media has long been tone deaf to the way devout Christianity profoundly shapes some of them.

Obituary titles for Bol, for example, described him as a humanitarian rather than a Christian. The remarkable charity and personal character of other NBA players, including David Robinson, A. C. Green and Dwight Howard, are almost never explicitly connected to their own intense Christian faith. They are simply good guys.

Christian basketball players hope that their "little lights" shine in a league marked by rapacious consumption and marital infidelity. They could shine even brighter if sports journalists acknowledged that such players seek atonement and redemption in a far more profound way than mere athletic success.

Jon A. Shields is assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

Condoms for first graders

I'm not one that likes to make fun of people, or call people names (in public or to their face) - but this is absolutely absurd. I have to wonder if this speaks more to the degradation of our society's kids or "our" current parent generation of those kids:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/24/condoms-kids-provincetown-protest-bad-day/

ridiculous.

I REALLY wish I didn't have papers and finals distracting me from completely reacting to this:

Posted on Joel's blog, from Tyler's:
John Piper's comments on self-pity.

If I have the synopsis correct, yes, STOP FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF.

However,
"I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much...The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy...But the need arises from a wounded ego and the desire of the self-pitying is not really for others to see them as helpless, but heroes."

not all the wounded are asking to be heroes
self-pity does not = sacrifice
we are all wounded egos

Ahem. So self-pity is needy, or it appears needy... Hmm...somewhere I heard it said "And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Are we not to pursue holiness...I didn't know Johnny got there before the rest of us, not lacking in ego strength (because if you're not needy...Mr. Piper, then you sound kind of...shall we say, prideful?). Hopefully Tyler simply did not include the part where Mr. Piper mentions that we are complete in Christ, yet our wounded egos are in need of progressive sanctification...

And #2, you can cite yourself if you're John Piper, or you - because YOU CAN and you're legally supposed to. :)

Looking forward to discussing this further Friday Joel. :)

A wise mystic sage introduced me to this today:

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

– Jelaluddin Rumi,translation by Coleman Barks