The Intersection of Gay Marriage and Tennis

I had never heard of Margaret Court until I read this story out of Australia.  Apparently the Australian Open is played at the Margaret Court Arena.  She is a professional tennis champion, holding 62 Grand Slam titles.  Court is also a pastor with an uncompromising view on gay marriage.  Because of her celebrity status in the world of tennis, her views on marriage and family have attracted what she feels is unwarranted criticism.  There could be protests at the Australian Open next week, and some are calling for the arena to be renamed.

Read the full story here, via Utterance.  Thank you Peter Hallett for the coverage.

The real shame would be if Court is denied the recognition she deserves from the professional world of tennis because of her convictions in her role as church pastor.  Her views on marriage are based on scriptural precepts and have not changed.  Only recently, however, have they become a thing of public scrutiny.  The same protesters waving rainbow flags and claiming people should be accepted the way they are seem to be refusing to accept Margaret Court for the way she is.  If her name is removed from the arena because of her views on marriage, which differs from some people, that almost smacks of prejudice.

Coffee with Jesus: Mission Trip

If you can’t read the cartoon, click on it to view full size.

Radio Free Babylon

Will the real RM-2493 Please Stand Up?

Have you ever seen (or signed) one of those petitions supporting public broadcast of religious programs?  I remember hearing as early as 1993 that Madalyn O’Hair, infamous for getting prayer removed from public schools, was engaged in petitioning the FCC to ban all religious programming from radio and television.  Resolution Number 2493 has generated heated dispute for over 35 years.

Today you might get an email or see a Facebook message claiming Dr. James Dobson (or some other Christian leader) is pleading with American Christians to sign a petition or write the FCC.  Dobson denies any involvement with such requests.  Other preachers or ministries are sometimes listed as being in danger, and some versions are geared toward Christmas.  2493 would supposedly ban all Christmas programs and carols from public schools.  Please don’t sign the petition, don’t forward it to anyone, and certainly DO NOT write a letter to the FCC.  They have been inundated with thousands of pieces of mail for over 35 years for no good reason whatsoever.

The real RM-2493 was presented to the FCC in 1974 and denied in 1975.  The real document was not sponsored nor endorsed by O’Hair in any way.  It requested the FCC not give religious organizations licences to broadcast on channels reserved for education.  Again, the resolution was denied by the FCC in 1975, but even at that time they responded to the thousands of letter received from misinformed citizens.  The FCC clearly understood their role as an agency of the federal government was to neither promote nor inhibit religion.

RM-2493 did not call for a ban on religious programming on the airwaves.  The resolution was denied in 1975.  The FCC does not have the authority to ban religious programming even if it wanted to.  Further, Madalyn O’Hair has been dead since 1995.  Yet the rumor lives on.  The FCC has received over 10 million letters, email and phone calls.

More at snopes.com

Can We Be Christlike?

We are commanded to be like Christ.  We must imitate him and be conformed to his image; we must “put on” Christ.  These are New Testament directives.  But we will never really become exactly like him.  So what is the goal?

I use artificial sweetener in my tea.  It’s not the same as sugar, but I have tried and failed to drink unsweetened tea.  Diet pop, Mrs. Dash and Smart Balance butter-flavored whatever that is are all examples of products made to imitate the real thing.  While we endeavor to become like Christ, we will never do so perfectly.  But it’s a progression; we’re on  a journey.  The real goal is to keep getting closer.  Paul said has not achieved it yet but he continued to press on toward the mark and the prize.

John Wayne, Robert Schuller, and Why I Read Snopes.com

If you think that title is a little far out, just be glad I didn’t settle on “Will I Meet John Wayne in Heaven?”

Snopes.com is an incredible resource for fact checking urban legends and internet scams.  Remember the whole Veggie Monster debacle?  There are still plenty of people that think Cookie Monster has been removed from Sesame Street and replaced with a health conscious, veggie munching counterpart designed to combat childhood obesity.  There was an email writing campaign to get him back on the show.  Thing is, he never went anywhere.  He admits that “Cookies are a sometimes food” but there is not now nor has there ever been a Veggie Monster.  Sesame Street has denied rumors and even issued press releases, but the rumor is larger than life.  People repeat it without any confirmation whatsoever, making it the perfect example of what happens when we copy and paste total fabrications.  If people would spend 60 seconds on Snopes, such stories would die a quick death.

Sexperiment

Chaplain Mike at Internetmonk was listing reasons the other day that he would not be reading Mark Driscoll’s new book on Christian sexuality.  Real Marriage is co-authored by Mark and Grace Driscoll, and promises an intimate look into their intimate relationship.  Here’s Mike’s post, noting that this book epitamizes all that’s wrong in the evangelical circus.  (Here’s an actual review, if you want one.)  Mark Driscoll has developed a reputation for speaking with a certain style.  It’s all about being frank and in your face.  Real Marriage will seem tame in comparison to what Ed and Lisa Young are about to come out with.  Chaplain Mike, you ain’t seen noting yet.

Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy with your Spouse is due out on Tuesday.  To promote the book Ed and Lisa will spend 24 hours in bed on the roof of their Texas church.  

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread is a daily devotional magazine and the signature product of RBC Ministries.  A few years ago I was a daily reader.  I will skip all the details, but it’s suffice to say that it’s been a while.  I’ve thought about subscribing again a couple of times.  Just a few minutes ago I searched Google for Our Daily Bread and was pleasantly surprised.

At odb.org you can read the text of each devotion, or click the player to hear the mp3.  Our Daily Bread is still available in print format, or you can subscribe to email or RSS feeds.  They are also on iTunes and I just liked their Facebook page.  As a fan of social media and a blogger, I don’t know why it never occurred to me that Our Daily Bread would have made the update to the Information Age.

This daily devotion can be read in under five minutes, but I found it a great way to put myself in the right frame of mind to face the day.  I’ve also packed it in my lunch and took just a few minutes in the middle of the day to recenter.  These are not the hard sayings of Jesus and there will not be any emotionally charged reviews of Mark Driscoll’s new book on sex.  It’s a few minutes in God’s word and a little bit of encouragement each day.  And I’m looking forward to it.

2011 in Review

I don’t obsess over stats (or at least I try not to) but the WordPress.com stat helper monkeys created the following presentation.  The least I could do is share it.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 110,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 5 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Answer is Jesus

“If God is the question, Jesus is the answer.”

That’s why I love Michael Spencer.  I still read Christian blogs, including Internet Monk.  I author a Christian blog, but haven’t found anything that gets my gears turning the way Spencer did.  Read this classic iMonk post to see what I’m talking about.

Michael Spencer was blogging before I knew what a blog was. He started internetmonk.com 12 years ago, really getting in on the ground floor of the Christian blogosphere. Chaplain Mike and others keep the dream alive at iMonk after Michael passed away in April of 2010.  I was a disciple of  Michael in real life for seven years, and he had a profound impact on the way I think about ministry.  The post linked above cuts right to the heart Christianity.

Here Comes 2012

I haven’t posted anything in a few days, and there needs to something on the front page besides that Coffee with Jesus comic strip that’s been up since Monday.  That’s what this is really about.

Okay, we have one calendar year before the Mayan calendar ends in December 2012.  My first question is always this: if the Mayans couldn’t see the Spanish coming, why take their word for the end of the world?  It turns out their calendar had about 400 years they didn’t even need.  Their civilization had already collapsed and they were living in small farming villages when the first Spanish Conquistadors arrived.  If they could not hold their civilization together, nor predict the collapse of every South American civilization to European conquerors, why do we suppose they could predict the apocalypse?  They did some wicked math, but it’s leap in logic to assume they’re experts on the cosmos.