I'm Know That I'm Not in Orlando Anymore

Because in Orlando (population 1.05 million), you don't get chased by cows. My wife excitedly informed me that there were cows in the parsonage backyard. There were indeed -- three of them. I decided to let the farmer know that they were here before they ran out in the street and get hit by a car.

I moved carefully through the backyard, trying not to spook the cows. There was no one at home at the farmer's trailer. On my way back, the boss cow charged me, and the other two cows followed suit. I jumped over my neighbor's fence. We stared at each other across the no-man's land of the parsonage backyard. "Well, punk" she seemed to be saying "do you feel lucky? Well, punk, doya?"

I did feel lucky. I carefully jumped the fence again and moved back toward the house, staying close to the fence just in case she came at me again -- and mindful of that she might try to jump the fence as well.

We eyed each other; two warriors locked in a standoff. It was like Kennedy vs. Khrushchev. There was only one question: who would blink first?

The cows blinked, and ran back to their meadow.

That's brinksmanship.

MySpace and Youth Ministry

I started a Myspace page a few months back, and updated it about once a month. My only Friends were my pastor and a couple of seminarians. But when I got my student appointment, I found three youth affiliated with the church who wanted to know if I had one. We Friended each other, and they seem delighted to relate with me in this medium. So now I'm going to start listing my Myspace URL with the rest of my contact information on the back of the Sunday bulletin and start using it as a regular point of contact with the handful of youth who are affiliated with my church.

What have been your experiences using MySpace in youth ministry?

Further thoughts from Gavin Richardson.

The Zombie Food Pyramid

Apparently, zombie dietetics changes as often as it does for humans.

Hat tip: Neatorama

In the Beginning....

[click on the image for a larger view]

Hat tip: Kurt Boemler

Caption Contest

Picture via Jeff the Baptist

Previous contest winner

WINNER: Nathan Maddox:

Now you're really glad Vader doesn't do any backflips off the stairs in the Emperor's chamber when he is fighting Luke.

A Star Wars/Simpsons Crossover Opening

Click here.

Messianic Characters in Science Fiction

Adam Caldwell has been reading a lot lately and asks:

There are several things I've learned about SciFi:

1. A truly good science fiction novel tells us something about our current social structure.

2. Nanotechnology will some day destroy the human race, unless we are very...very careful

3. If there isn't a Messiah character, then it's just not good.

Question: If so many good science fiction writers can't survive without the aid of a Messiah (i.e., telling and retelling our story/God's story), why do we think we can get by without the aid of a Messiah?

Another Question:Does reality for these writers drive the ideas behind these stories, or are they simply making them up?These are the things I think about.

I think that so many sci-fi (and fantasy) writers use messianic characters because we all desire to escape the powerlessness of our human lives. Our earthly lives are, at best, a house of cards that can be destroyed with a gentle breeze. Messiahs change the world around them. Like Paul Mua'Dib in Dune: once a boy hunted in the desert, fleeing from place to place. After he understood and accepted his messianic role, he became a colossus bestriding the Empire, bending the great powers to his will.

It's not that so many people think that they can get by without a messiah, it's that we each want to be our own messiah ourselves.

UM seminary and Bible for preaching

John posted earlier this month about what translation of the Bible people use for preaching. While I have my own preferences, I really try not to look down on the practices of others in this regard (although I admit to being uncomfortable if I hear someone uses The Message exclusively . . .).

In the UMC we have a free and open pulpit - pastors preach as they see fit, including whether or not to follow the lectionary and what translation of the Bible to use (within limits - certainly would not want a UM pastor preaching from the New World translation used by Jehovah's Witnesses, for example). I have known United Methodist pastors to use all of the following and be faithful to their UM doctrinal positions: the KJV family, including NKJV, RSV, NRSV, and ESV. Of course, the NIV is highly popular, and my home pastor used the NASB. Then on the scale of more dynamic equivalent versions I have heard UM pastors use the NLT, the Living Bible paraphrase, the Good News Bible, and I am sure there are more.

So it bothered me when a student I know who is enrolled at the local UM seminary shared this story with me. He was attending his preaching class one day and the only Bible he happened to have with him on this day was a New Living Translation. When he read a passage from the NLT aloud in class, his professor asked what translation he was using. When he said that he using the NLT, he was told by his preaching professor to never bring it with him again into her classroom. Now, I can understand a professor wanting to have all her students using the same translation - that's her perogative (although it makes more sense for an English exegesis class than a preaching class in my opinion). However, she didn't have to do something to embarrass a student in the middle of class, or she could have given a reason why she favored one translation over the NLT. Stories like this make me cringe - why try to force students into a particular translations that may or may not suit them well in their context for ministry?

Art Blogging: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was a French Neoclassical and Orientalist Academic painter. He was the son of an unsuccessful artist and studied at an academy in Toulouse before joining the atelier of Jacques-Louis David. Awarded the Prix de Rome, he journeyed there and remained for twenty years, long after his stipend was expended. There, Ingres was heavily influenced by the Italian masters, particularly Raphael. He returned to Paris without critical acclaim, but was given the post of director of the French Academy in Rome. Ingres' reputation steady rose to the first rank of artists, and his portrait work was highly sought-after throughout Western Europe.
Jupiter and Thetis (oil on canvas, 1811, Musee Granet). In Roman mythology, Jupiter pursued the maiden Thetis, only to learn that it was prophesied that the son that she bore would become greater than his father. He then forsook her and arranged her marriage to a mortal. Thetis then gave birth to the great hero Achilles.
Napoloen I on His Imperial Throne (oil on canvas, 1806, Musee de L'Armee). Notice that Napoleon's pose resembles that of Jupiter in the previous painting. But more importantly, Ingres broke with tradition in his composition of the Emperor. In an effort to normalize his seizure of power, most (favorable) depictions of Napoleon referred to Baroque portraits of contemporary European royalty. Ingres, however, poses Napoleon as an emperor and surrounds him with symbols of the 9th Century Charlemagne.

Portait of Princesse Albert de Broglie, nee Josephine-Eleonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Bearn (oil on canvas, 1853, at the Met). Ingres' portrait work was renowned for its detail in every part, such as the precise folds in the Princess' chair back. His paintings are revered by historians of fashion for being attentive to the precise depiction of fashion design.

Ingres' most famous work today is La Grand Odalisque (oil on canvas, 1814, private collection), which initiated the Orientalist movement -- a time of European fascination with Islamic culture. This painting is most popularly known for the distorted back of its model, suggesting that she has several extra vertebrae. It is true that although Ingres was a product of Academic training and a late disciple of Raphael, his lines often rebelled against Academic figure methods.

Caption Contest

Previous contest winner

WINNER: Allan R. Bevere:

Sometimes an idea seems like a good one until it is implemented.

Amazing Sand Castle Art

More examples here.

Hat tip: Kansas Bob

Theresa Coleman: A Christian Sense of Aesthetics

Theresa writes:

At the point that Art (in the larger sense) ceases to describe our experiences of God, I wonder what it describes?

I wonder if there is something inherent in the "being of a human" that always is searching for that spark of what we call divine -- that the search for beauty is the search for God, but disguised. Maybe it is in the searching for beauty and in the finding that we can re-discover the divine even in secular Art.

Previous related post here.

lolMethobloggers

First there was lolcats -- pictures of cats written with humorous first-person captions in a pigdin English. Then were were lolbunnies, loldogs, and lolpresidents. Now catch the new wave of lol macros with lolMethobloggers!

Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup #126

...is up.

WordPress Help

Brian Russell is having trouble with his WP comments. See if ya'll can help him out. Leave a note in this comment form.

Changes in Sacramental Authority in the UMC

We had quite a lively discussion about the role of UMC local pastors in providing the sacraments.

Although I am a local pastor now, I have no serious objection to the Order of Elders restricting the administration of the sacraments to itself alone. It would certainly be in keeping with Methodist tradition and history.

Nonetheless, Elders should not look forward to the day when and if such legislation is passed in General Conference. From that day on, it will be the responsibility of the Order of Elders to provide the sacraments as they are needed. That means, in my little church, for example, an elder must appear at least one Sunday every month to offer the Eucharist and baptism.

Kurt Boemler was, at one time, a Lay Missioner. He functioned as a lay pastor without sacramental authority. Here, he shares horror stories of his attempts to get communion elements properly blessed by an elder, such as having to drive three hours routinely to find an elder willing to bless the elements.

That's unacceptable. If the Order of Elders is going to have the sole sacramental authority in the United Methodist Church, then it is the sole responsibility of that Order to ensure that the sacraments are available to all who seek them when they seek them. Our tradition may hold that only the ordained administer the sacraments, but it also insists that Holy Communion be taken constantly. Instead of laypeople going to great lengths to beg an elder to bless the elements, let it be the responsibility of the elder to make the three-hour drives to the congregation that needs the sacraments.

If the General Conference considers legislation that restricts sacramental authority to Elders, I have no objection so as long as that same legislation also places the responsibility of providing the sacraments entirely on the Order of Elders.

Absent such explicit responsibility on Elders, we shall see more degradation of Holy Communion as Kurt relates. His experiences include having the elements blessed retroactively, having them blessed over the telephone, and having them blessed after being left on an elder's doorstep. How, I ask, is this somehow more reverent treatment of Holy Communion than Dan Trabue's experience of laypeople leading the Eucharist? How is God honored by a blessing of this sort?

I further ask the Elders who think that only they should serve the sacraments: are you willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that everyone who wants them has access? Because if not, then we should not move forward with this proposal.

I will not insist upon sacramental authority for myself as a licensed local pastor. But I do insist upon my flock being administered the sacraments.

Caption Contest

Picture via Smart Pastor

Previous contest winner

WINNER: Tom Jackson:

"Behold, I point at the door and click..."

Sacramental Authority and UMC Licensed Local Pastors

*BUMPED TO THE TOP*

In our recent discussion about pastoral overwork, Keith Taylor wrote:

I’ll tell you what, in my opinion, is at odds with a spiritually healthy life. A part time pastor who works a secular job, and then works as a local licensed pastor, and then is told by the UMC hierarchy that he or she is not qualified to serve holy communion, or baptize an unsaved heathen, or perform a marriage for one of his or her own members in a church other than their own, because they are only a part time local pastor, not a full time elder. It is simply, UnChristian, IMHO. We don’t have second class Christian Pastors. Not if you do the job right. I do not understand why the UMC assigns great men and women who want to serve the Lord as a part time local pastor and then ties their hands like this. It makes no sense to me at all and I find no Biblical basis for it.

The practice of the sacraments by licensed local pastors in the UMC seems to vary widely. I think that the Discipline pretty clearly states that local pastors have sacramental authority. ¶ 316.1 reads:

Probationary members approved annually by the board of ordained ministry and local pastors approved annually by the district committee on ordained ministry may be licensed by the bishop to perform all the duties of a pastor (¶ 340), including the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion as well as the service of marriage (where state laws allow),⁴ burial, confirmation, and membership reception, while appointed to a particular charge. For the purposes of these paragraphs the charge will be defined as "people within or related to the community being served." Those licensed for pastoral ministry may be appointed to extension ministry settings when approved by the bishop and the board of ordained ministry.

So it seems pretty clear to me that licensed local pastors have sacramental authority within their own parishes. I can't take a road trip across America and start handing out the Eucharist, but I can offer it to whoever attends my church and I can take it to homebound members. But I've heard people around the Conference tell me variously that only full-time local pastors can offer the sacraments because they have been interviewed by the Board or that no local pastor (full or part-time) can offer the sacraments without an elder being physically present.

There seems to be a wide variety of interpretations of the sacramental authority of licensed local pastors. As for me, my District Superintendent told me to offer the sacraments within my parish, and I do whatever my DS tells me to.


What do you think? Do licensed local pastors have sacramental authority? Should they?

[cross-posted]

The Family Guy Star Wars Parody

Recording quality is poor, since it is a video camera pointed at a projection screen. But it's good enough to be very funny, which is pretty surprising from Family Guy.

Hat tip: Bullwinkle via Ace

Shag: On the Shoulders of Giants

One of my favorite collections of Shag's work is a lengthy series of compositions playfully imitating great works of art from previous centuries. Here are some examples along with their counterparts:

The Potato Eaters (oil on canvas, 1885, Vincent Van Gogh Museum) by Vincent Van Gogh.

Sleeping Gypsy (oil on canvas, 1857, MoMA) by Henri Rousseau.


Old Guitarist (oil on panel, 1903, Art Institute of Chicago) by Pablo Picasso.


Absinthe Drinker (oil on canvas, 1876, Musee D'Orsay) by Edgar Degas.

Caption Contest

Previous contest winner
WINNER: Willie Deuel:

vet sez kitteh haz iron deficiency.

Healthy and Bivocational Ministers

Brian Russell writes at length about how Christian leaders must rest if they are to remain faithful to Biblical teaching. This brings to mind a curious UMC institution: the bi-vocational minister. These part time Local Pastors work a secular career in addition to following their pastoral calling.

It strikes me that bi-vocational ministry is inherently at odds with a spiritually, physically, and emotionally healthy life. Assuming that pastoral duties constitute 20 hours a week at a small church, adding a regular 40-hour work week is sustainable only in the short-term.

This summer, I pulled off that kind of lifestyle with CPE and student pastoring for 12 weeks. But I know that if I tried to live this way permanently, I'd be divorced by 40 and dead by 50.

What do you think?

Art Blogging: Thomas Couture

Thomas Couture (1815-1879) was a French historical and portrait painter. He studied under Antoine-Jean Gros and Paul Delaroche. Despite his early recognition as a prodigy, he never won the Prix de Rome. Sensing rejection by the internal politics of the Parisian art world, he became a staunch critic of Academic training, particularly that of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Couture nevertheless remained a part of the Academic movement and eventually won the Salon prize in 1847. His reputation has declined since his death and he is often seen by art historians as a near-parody of Academic pomposity. Couture nevertheless impacted future generations as a teacher and counted Eduard Manet, Eastman Johnson and John LaFarge among his pupils.
The Romans of the Decadance (oil on canvas, 1847, Musee D'Orsay). Couture was and is most famous for this one painting. In a sense, Couture can be classed as a 'one-hit wonder'. This massive 15 by 25-foot painting dominated the 1847 Salon competition and won him the grand prize. Beyond its astonishingly rich detail, what was unique about this painting is that it did not hold up the Classical world as a paragon of civilization, but of corruption and moral decay. In this, Couture can be said to be an artistic equivalent to King Louis-Phillippe's call for a more austere, unpretentious, and moral lifestyle by the wealthy.

Pierrot the Politician (oil on canvas, 1857, in the Wallace Collection). Pierrot was a stock character in European theatre for centuries. He was usually depicted as a playful, idealistic fool always cheated and swindled by others. He was a favorite subject matter for Couture.
The Kiss of Judas (oil on canvas, private collection). This is one of Couture's handful of religiously-themed works. The lighting and draping in this work are excellent. Christ stares off into the distance, mentally separated from the events around him. He crosses his hands in preparation to be bound, and waits his ordeal to begin.

Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup # 125

...is up.

An Arkansas Joke

You know why there's no "CSI-Little Rock"?

The DNA is all the same and there are no dental records.

Via Ace

A Star Wars Last Supper

Via Neatorama

Okay, so I don't have a lot of content today. But I finished CPE in Jacksonville on Friday, pastored on Saturday, Sunday, and this morning, and am now back in Orlando for the first time in ten weeks. My wife and I have a date. Some things are more important than blogging. Just not many.

Anxiety About Being Left Behind

If when you're Raptured your clothes and such remain on earth, does that mean that when you first meet Jesus face to face, you're buck naked? And surrounded by naked holy people as well? Wouldn't that be kind of embarrasing? Randy Bonifield explores these and other practical anxieties about the Second Coming in this song:


Hat tip to Smart Pastor.

The Origin of the Ten Commandments

Hat tip: Neatorama

Here's an alternate version:

Caption Contest

Picture via Dark Roasted Blend

Previous contest winners

WINNER:

Tom Jackson: WARRANTY -- 2 years or 2000 gallons, whichever comes first

Calvin, Wesley and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

In the Buffyverse, when a human is turned into a vampire, he instantly loses his soul, which is replaced with a demonic spirit. As a consequence, vampires are completely without any conscience; any sense of right and wrong. They are pure evil and not only will not do good -- they are actually incapable of doing good. Such was the clear case of Angel, who mercilessly hunted, tortured, and fed upon humans for 150 years. His bloody rampages continued until 1898, when, after he killed the daughter of a Gypsy mage, was cursed with a soul. Suddenly, Angel was flooded with the moral awareness of what he had done for a century and a half, and was crushed by guilt.

Such is the (semi-) Calvinistic anthropology in the Buffyverse. Vampires are Totally Depraved. They are not able to do good; not able to have the slightest spark of moral awareness. It is only the elect who are given the grace to know good from evil and be saved. Angel represents those who are delivered from the abyss by Limited Atonement, for only a handful of vampires have souls.

A different case is Spike. My wife describes him as "totally hot", but that's a discussion for another day. Spike was a failed English poet who was sired as a vampire in 1880. Spike was powerful and ruthless, and left a flood of innocent dead in his wake. But unlike other recently-turned vampires, he did not immediately slaughter his own family. Instead, he sired his mother in order to prevent her death from tuberculosis. And although he was a hated foe of Buffy and her gang in seasons 2-6, in the seventh season, he fell in love with Buffy. She rebuffed his advances, and in response, Spike tried to rape her. Horrified at his own actions and aware of his inability to love Buffy properly, Spike underwent a grueling ordeal in order to win his soul back.

This is a more Wesleyan anthropology. Spike, though a vampire and thus Totally Depraved, has some moral awareness, although he repeatedly rebels against it. This is the prevenient grace of God which is extended to all people, calling them back to their originally ensouled selves.

Of course, Whedonistic theology is discerned only with limited evidence, and it would also be possible to read Spike's re-soulment as a semi-Pelagian process.

Correcting My Greek

I previously wrote about why I chose the NRSV instead of my usual NASB for homiletical exegesis a couple of weeks ago. In short, I couldn't figure out how the NASB writers came to their conclusion on the translation of a particular phrase.

Kenny Pearce explains how the NASB rendering is far more reasonable than that of the NRSV. I don't have BibleWorks in front of me, but he seems to make a very good case. The NASB rendering makes a lot more sense now.

Descendants of Cannibals Apologize for Eating Methodist Missionaries

They decided to eat some humble pie.

Caption Contest

previous contest winners

Picture via Dark Roasted Blend

WINNER: RERC: Hulk must go!

A Methoblogger Cookbook

Here's an idea that I'm floating around: as a community, the Methoblogosphere should assemble a cookbook and publish it on lulu.com -- just like churches all over the country do. What do you say?

Further discussion here.

Brilliant Invention

...a motorized pool lounger.

Go To Sleep

Maybe this will help your kids get to sleep.

Presumably this song will have a bigger impact on me once I have kids of my own.

Hat tip: Justin Taylor

Toward a Christian Sense of Aesthetics

Here's an interesting article which explores the intersection of faith and the arts. In it, author James Bryant critiques modern styles:

Sometime during the Ages of Enlightenment and Reason, the acceptance of an objective criterion for beauty and the creation of artistic works was discarded. In its place the idea arose that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. An artistic object -- be it a building, painting, sculpture, or musical composition -- no longer was held to have any inherent truth, value, or beauty, but only that which was accorded to it by the subjective and relative view of the observer. This plays into the reality of the fallen nature of man. The consequences are that if indeed beauty is a characteristic of God, the further one is away from God, the further one is removed from beauty, the ability to comprehend beauty, or the ability to create beauty. In a world that has rejected God, modern art looks into the depths into which humanity is falling, rather than toward the higher state of unity with God and all of creation to which humanity is called.

What Bryant neglects to mention is that the Academic tradition that he so highly esteems (and I do, too) arose not from a Christian sense of honoring the image of God, but out of Renaissance humanism which de-emphasized the fallenness of humanity.

Even creators of great devotional works, like Bouguereau, Tissot, de Morgan, Hunt, Kramskoy and even Warner Sallman were products not of a historic Christianity, but the Academic tradition which was founded in the Renaissance and nurtured to full maturity in the Enlightenment. And the Enlightenment was hardly friendly to Christianity.

I'd like to say that Academicist beauty is rooted in the imago dei, but history won't bear it out. This won't, of course, stop us from seeing the image of God reflected in great works of Academic art; we should just be aware of the syncretist origins of this thought.

Hat tip: Dale Tedder

The Collapse of Civilization

We are a resilient people, but it will never be the same again. It was said that after a nuclear war, the living would envy the dead. So it shall be. Hit CTRL+ALT+Delete, baby.

Hat tip: Gavin Richardson

Bush vs. Zombies

At least President Bush takes the zombie menace seriously.

Hat tip: Joe Carter

Book Review: The Grand Weaver by Ravi Zacharias

I was interested in reading this book, as I had heard only good things about Christian apologist Ravi Zarcharias, but had not yet read him. The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives is about:

...seeing the designing hand of God and his intervention in our lives in such a way that we know he has a specific purpose for each of us and that he will carry us through until we meet him face-to-face and know ourselves completely (11).

Thus Zacharias sets out a bold thesis for his readers and promptly drops it. He addresses his thoughts on a variety of subjects, such as dealing with disappointments and pain, God's calling on our lives, personal morality, and spiritual practice, among other concerns, but essentially does not tie them into his thesis.

Individual passages are quite interesting. The chapter on worship and how the Book of Acts outlines the basic forms of Christian worship is fascinating and helpful. For example, Zacharias believes that music has so dominated modern Christian worship that it has come to eclipse teaching and the Eucharist in worship. He relates one story of a botched Communion in a praise service:

But first the table for Communion had to be positioned -- and with such little room on the platform, it was difficult for anything to feel liturgically comfortable. After the reading of a portion of Scripture, the bishop took the bread to break ti. Finding no good spot on which to place his Bible, he placed it on the floor. while the ushers were distributing bread, somebody's cell phone rang -- no one knew whose it was until it went off again. It belonged to one of the Communion stewards. Pausing from her distribution of the bread, she scurried to the front of the auditorium to turn off her phone. By the time the worship concluded that evening, this experience had supplied a potent symbol of what has happened to the church.

Somewhere, somehow, we have been led to believe that music is the centerpiece of worship. It isn't. It is included in "praise," one of the five expressions of worship. The clearing of the platform in order to accommodate the musicians and the displacement of everything else in order to facilitate the music set would lead us to believe that because w have sung, we have worshiped. We haven't -- not necessarily anyway (145).

Zacharias wisely critiques some of the failings of modern Western Christian worship. But I got the sense that this essay was written independently of the rest of the book and simply tacked on. It has no relationship to the central thesis of The Grand Weaver. Zacharias writes that he has had an itinerant ministry (156), wandering all over the world teaching and preaching. His book reflects this itinerancy, as it wanders from subject to subject without any clear objective.

Grade: C-

Disclosure note: This book was given to me for free from the publisher in exchange for a book review.

Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup #124

...is up.

Caption Contest

Previous contest winners

WINNERS:

Cub: "You came here in that? You're braver than I thought."

Gavin Richardson: "if you build it, the girls will run" -the voice

The Universality of Pastoral Care

In the spring of 1998, I was deeply grounded in my atheist non-belief, but on one dark day in that time, my thoughts were not on belief in the divine or a lack thereof.

I had had my first romantic relationship, and it had come to an end. I was thoroughly in love with this girl, and she had ended our passionate love affair. I was beyond devastated, and wandered the streets of Delaware, Ohio in a numb, agonized haze.

At one point, I found myself at the office door of the University chaplain. I was not a Christian at all, but there I was. He looked at me and said "John, what's wrong?" I told him, and collapsed on his shoulder weeping. This man didn't try to convert me. He just listened to me and mourned my loss with me.

I wasn't a Christian, but I needed a pastor, and somehow, I knew it. Some embedded knowledge had seen through the pain and guided me to the chaplain. Looking back (now that I am in CPE), I don't know how I knew that this man would listen for me and care for me. But I did, and went.

At some point in our lives, we will all need a pastor. The cannot shield ourselves, outwardly or inwardly, from all of the slings and arrows that will come our way. In our broken world, pastors aren't just useful -- they're critical.

United Methodist Reporter Is Now Blogging

Yeehaw!

Hat tip: Thumb-haver

Evangelical Promiscuity

David Wayne on statistics that indicate that evangelical teenagers, despite a pronounced ethic against premarital sex, are just as likely to engage in it:

In fact, there is evidence that evangelical teenagers on the whole may be more immoral than non-Christians. Statistically, evangelical teens tend to have sex first at a younger age, 16.3, compared to liberal Protestants, who tend to lose their virginity at 16.7. And young evangelicals are far more likely to have had three or more sexual partners (13.7 percent) than non-evangelicals.

As previously noted, we have to be careful of statistics casually thrown about. But Wayne brings up a critical point that helps explain why evangelical Christians are engaging in premarital sex:

And the bible does offer a direct solution for people who are burning in lust (I Corintihans 7:9). Adolescence - that time when a person is physically an adult but socially a child - is a modern invention. In the past, people married much younger, as soon as they were sexually ready. Today's culture postpones marriage while stretching celibacy to the breaking point.
A counter-cultural church may do well to encourage younger marriages. . . .

Possibly, although the age of first marriage (in America, at least) has not risen that much over time.

UMC Judicial Council to Reconsider Case of Transgendered Pastor

No time to comment. Story here.

Are You a Feminist?

You Are 93% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man). You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.

Are You a Feminist?

Hat tip to Dr. Helen via Glenn Reynolds

Caption Contest

Previous contest winners

WINNER: John Fletcher:

Little Susie thought it'd be good to show Mickey how modern cartoon characters should interact

Question of the Day

What is your understanding of apostolic succession?

Red Shirt Casualty Statistics

In classic Star Trek, red-shirted crewmen had a proverbial knack for getting killed. Now some enterprising Trekkie has done statistical research to determine how often crewmen of different shirt colors died, and where they died. Very revealing.

Hat tip: Music City Bloggers

Emerging Church Motivational Posters

Here, here, and here.

Hat tip: Dale Tedder

UPDATE: John Carney is a better researcher than I and has the definitive list of Emerging Church Motivational Posters. Thanks, John.