Another Shameless Plug

Have you checked out BBG yet? You should, becuase it's awkward when a grown man cries, even over the internet. *sniff*

Caption Contest

Since all my "serious" (overstatement?) posts are now reserved for BBG, this blog will feature many more posts of the illustrious Henry Calvin, who today is celebrating his first birthday.

To celebrate, please submit a caption for the photo below. The picture was taken moments before Henry went on his first bike ride (on a bike seat of course. He's not that advanced.) My submission is "Yeah baby! Bring on the bikes!" Yours?

New Blog! Must Read!

Funny thing about the English language, but you can end every sentence with an exclamation point! What fun! The purpose of this blog is to shamelessly promote a new joint venture of Brian and Danny, Boston Bible Geeks! I'll let the site speak for itself, so check it out and let me know what you think! Thanks!

One Thought

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I recently read An Evangelical Manifesto. I strongly suggest it for Christians and non-Christians alike. This isn't a wholesale endorsement of everything therein, but it is very well-written, and if nothing else, a catalyst for deeper thinking on Christianity's interaction with culture. I would also argue that it has historical importance as well; not on the level of the 95 Thesis, for sure, but worthy of a half-hour if religion and sociopolitical dynamics have any place on your list of interests.

That said, in the manifesto there is one idea of which I am particularly fond, and is the impetus for this post. I'll paraphrase here without comment: In the first instance, Christians ought to define themselves, and be defined, by what they are for, rather than what they are against.

Anybody else read the manifesto?

Tears in my Eyes

Henry already knows the fastest way to utterly own his father. The book is "Basics of Biblical Hebrew" by Van Pelt and Pratico (the latter being my Hebrew teacher at GCTS; far and away the best language teacher ever to walk the earth. Ever.) If he had drumsticks in his hands I would have completely broken down :)

A Mid-Summer Night's Random Things

Roman Numerals are appropriate for this list, I think. After all, Edna Krabappel warned that if we don't learn our Roman Numerals, we may never know the year certain films were copyrighted. As Paul would say, "Mh genoito!"

V. Time flies when you're waist deep in chubbs. HCM turned 10 months this weekend. Henry continues to be an extraordinary blessing in our lives, and a tremendous amount of fun, as evidenced by the picture below.



IV. I started reading Darrel Bock's "The Missing Gospels" a week ago. He is quite good at navigating the treacherously confusing waters of ancient gnosticism, and the book promises to be a good read. It addresses the "new school" on Jesus and the gospels that seem to surface into popular culture every now and then (e.g., there are several other written accounts of Jesus' life and ministry that call for a "new" understanding of who he is/was, etc. C.f., books by Elaine Pagels, The Da Vinci Code, etc. No more Latin abbreviations, I promise). There is much I'd like to say about this, but it is all worthy of it's own post. Year 5, perhaps? We'll see. My Harry fans await.

III. I'm also reading Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation" in part to satisfy a newly developed interest in WWII. It is a very interesting read for sure. More on this as well. (Year 6?)

II. The renovations to our dining room are done! As each weekend draws to a close, we come a little bit closer to reclaiming our house. Things were quite disastrous for a while (disastrous = not neat and clean, per my Seinfeldian bent). When you own a smaller home, every square foot is precious, and doubly-so when Lord Chubbington is on the move. It's nice to be back.

I. I'm losing my taste for swimming. More specifically: I'm losing my taste for tepid pool water at 5 in the morning. No matter my technique or best efforts, it seems I always get (and swallow) pool water in my mouth when I swim in the morning, and I'm growing tired of it. I also watched the Olympic swimming trials these past few weeks, and have to concede that I may not be ready for the team in 2012. Sigh. Michael Phelps, you're so dreamy.

O. << It just ocurred to me that there isn't a Roman Numeral for "0." Interesting. This calls for a little historical sleuthing! Did the Roman's not consider zero a number? Had they no need to ever record it? When did zero come on to the scene? Funny how we take for granted such mathematical advances. Anyway, my 0th random thing: My wife and I were discussing favorite meals last night, and I realized that I get most excited when I hear we're having something Mexican for dinner: nachos, tacos, enchiladas, burritos...you get the picture. I was surprised, since I consider myself quite egalitarian when it comes to food (viz. I'll eat anything, and lots of it), but I guess it's true. If only I could update my 8th grade yearbook picture caption with this information. Pizza be damned*, I say! Bring on the tostadas!

*not really...

Harry Potter and the Personal Confession

The song "Guerrilla Radio" by Rage Against the Machine ends with Zack de la Rocha's ever-angry whisper:
It has to start somewhere.
It has to start sometime.
What better place than here?
What better time than now?

He then proceeds to shout All Hell can't stop us now. six times before the song ends.

Whenever I hear this song, I always find myself fighting the urge to punch my fist into the air and/or kick something. It's an absolutely wonderful, angry, rebellious song, and it gets me every time. It has 5-stars in my iTunes library.

As for the content of the song, I know very little of Rage's intended meaning. My best guess is that the song is one of anger and rebellion towards some exploitative authority, with the last 30 seconds comprising the call to battle. Huh. Go figure. A band with the name "Rage Against the Machine" is angry with corrupt authority figures. How insightful of me. Thanks Captain Obvious.

Anyway, the song always brings up two interesting thoughts (to me, at least):
(1) Wouldn't the battle cry "All Hell can't stop us now" dovetail nicely into a Christian context? (C.f., Mt. 16:18, most of Revelation, etc.)
(2) Why do I have such an affinity for angry rock music?

As for (1), I don't know how I feel about this. We're back to the notion of borrowing artistic expression authored and intended for one purpose, and using it for another. And Rage Against the Machine? These guys drop enough F-bombs to make Quentin Tarantino blush. Is this a good source from which to borrow art? If not, why? Should the character or intent of the originator(s) matter? Has it mattered in the past to our Christian founders?

As for (2), I can say that I have a soft-spot for angry music. Maybe that's just because I'm a Gen-X-er. I'll leave it at that rather than psychologize myself on the web, revealing to everybody that I have unresolved anger issues because my dog ate my favorite teddy bear when I was three. That aside, I will say that my experience, from very early on, with popular music, especially rock, has been on the rebellious, angry, side of the scale. From a young age until roughly nine years ago, rock music, on average, was redolent of aggression, anger, rebelliousness, and irreverence. Now, had my exposure been different, perhaps it'd be much easier for me to swallow contemporary worship music.

I think that's one of the reasons why I'm always blogging about this stuff. Something just doesn't seem right to me. In my experience, rock/pop is a style of music that has close ties with themes that don't jive all that well with worshipping God. Had I been raised Christian, where my first exposure to a rock song was "King of Majesty" instead of "Cum on Feel the Noize," perhaps I'd be less critical of contemporary Christian music. Perhaps...but let's not get crazy.