A Cheap Pun for your Wednesday

Growing up in the church as I did, and appreciating wordplay and humor, I’m of course familiar with most of the Bible-related puns that float around such circles. For instance:

Q: Who was the shortest man in the Bible? A: Bildad the Shuhite (shoe-height!)

and

Q: What’s the only American state mentioned in the Bible?

A: Arkansas. You know, in Genesis “Noah looked out of the ark and saw…”

and the ever classic

Q: Did you know that Honda was mentioned in the Bible?

A: Yeah, in Acts it says they were “all together in one Accord”!

Yesterday I was listening to a recent episode of Nomad Podcast, though, and they in passing had a one that I hadn’t heard before and so as a service to my loyal readers I will pass along.

Q: Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?

A: Pharoah’s daughter. She went to the Bank of the Nile and collected a profit (prophet)!

You may groan now.

(I have a sister-in-law who calls these “Hubbs jokes”, and while I think the appreciation of cheap puns surely extends outside my family, I’m proud to carry on the tradition.)

My Podcast Listening circa January 2014

At the moment I’m subscribed to 14 podcasts. I do all my podcast listening on my phone - mostly in the car or (during the summer months) while running or doing lawn work. (This has a nasty side-effect where I get a really backed-up queue in the winter months, but oh well.)

For the purposes of organization I’ll group them into four rough categories: Tech, Entertainment, Theology, and Other. I’ll address them in that order.

Tech

Accidental Tech Podcast - OK, surely the guys like Dan and Geof who are actually reading this are familiar with ATP. A weekly podcast around Apple tech nerdery, it features Marco Arment, John Siracusa, and Casey Liss. Lately they’ve spent far too much time obsessing over the new Mac Pro - which I complained about on Twitter and Casey subsequently appreciated - but usually it’s an entertaining listen. Average Duration: 90 minutes.

Pragmatic - This is a new one on my list; in fact, I’ve only listened to the first half of the first (well, sixth) episode. It’s a weekly podcast which purports to address the “practical application” of technology. Average Duration: 60 minutes.

Entertainment

Filmspotting - A long-running public-radio-originated discussion of new films, punctuated with movie marathons highlighting overlooked titles from movie history. This is my first listen every week. Hosts Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen keep the discussion lively and provide many more good ideas for film watching than I will ever have time to keep up with. Average Duration: 75 minutes.

Disasterpiece Theatre - This one also has the virtue of being hosted by my friend-of-a-friend and sometimes acquaintance Stephen Granade. Imagine yourself in a Hollywood pitch room and pitching the most ridiculous movie ideas that (let’s all admit) could probably get made. Stephen and co-host Alex White are quick- witted and hilarious. Enjoyable stuff. Average Duration: 30 minutes.

The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith - This one is a little more of a niche, I guess. Goldsmith interviews movie screenwriters about their story, writing methods, and experiences in the entertainment industry. I find it fascinating to hear storytellers talk about the craft of writing a good story. Average Duration: 80 minutes.

WTF with Marc Maron - D-list comedian Marc Maron invites celebrities into his garage/studio and records hour-long interviews that range here, there, and everywhere. I almost gave up on this one until Don Chaffer reminded me that the 2-minute skip button could be put to good use. Skip the first 12 minutes of Maron plugging his comedy act and get straight to the interview. Maron asks really good questions, isn’t afraid to ask about God, religion, and philosophy on life. Average Duration: The interview portion is usually 60-70 minutes.

Theology

The Mortification of Spin - My buddy Mike set me on to this one a month ago. Comes out weekly or so, hosted by Carl Trueman. Besides winning the award for most cleverly-named podcast, this one does me good to remember that there are Calvinists on the internet who I can still agree with most of the time. (I said on the internet, friends. There are lots of Calvinists I agree with most of the time among my personal friends and acquaintances.)

Nomad - I think Randy linked this one a couple months back. Hosted by two British guys, this one is fairly emergent (is that still a thing?) or liberal evangelical. I don’t find myself agreeing with them too much, but I find it a valuable listen because it helps me identify the places where liberal evangelicalism starts to go off the rails and needs to be dialed back. And they’re right sometimes, too. (This may be the most backhanded podcast recommendation ever.) Average Duration: 65 minutes.

Then we come to two that have the distinction of featuring internet friends of mine:

The Pulpiteer - this one features the sermons of pastor Andy Croel of Carson City United Methodist Church in Michigan. I dig Andy’s sermons. He always points me to Jesus, has a good perspective on the text, and gives me something to chew on while keeping it under 30 minutes. Amazing. Average Duration: 30 minutes.

Trying Too Hard - This one also features Andy Croel in conversation with Arkansian UMC buddy Matthew Johnson. OK, I’ll be honest: they’ve only published two episodes so far and I haven’t listened to either of them yet, but they’re queued up on my phone and I’m looking forward to them. That’s worth something, right? Average Duration: 23 minutes.

Misc

Dads Being Dads - I’ve only listened to part of one of these so far; can’t remember who recommended them. But what I’ve heard so far has been good. It’s refreshing to hear dads talk about being dads. (As an aside: it’s curious to me that while you’d find this kind of parenting discussion going on in the Christian blogosphere on mom blogs, you have to go to the secular arena to hear the dad’s perspective. What’s up with that? But that’s a thought to be more fully formed in a separate blog post.) Average Duration: 60 minutes.

Fresh Air - OK, you’ve heard this show on NPR before, right? I don’t really need to say any more than that. I like that they split the show segments into separate feed items, so I can delete the bits I’m not interested in and keep the others. Average Duration: varies based on segment. 45 minutes max. Some as short as 6 minutes.

Song Exploder - I just subscribed to this one as well. It only has one episode so far. The goal is that they will interview a musician each time and have that musician play a track and then “explode” it - examining the different tracks, production, etc. This interests me as a musician, so I’m subscribing for now. Average Duration: 15 minutes.

The Thousand People I Tried To Be - This one has a feed but no episodes yet. I’m still waiting for my buddy Geof to edit and publish his first interview. I like the concept, and would enjoy it if he makes it a consistent thing. Average Duration: unknown.

On Selling Books

Yesterday I did something I’ve never done before: I took a stack of books and sold them at the local used book store. This was a major step for me. I’ve accumulated books for a long time - pretty sure I still have books on my shelves that I got in elementary school - and rarely let any of them go. My rationalization has been that someday maybe my kids will want to read them, or I’ll strategically want to loan them out or give them away to friends.

But when I was looking for a book a few weeks ago I did another assessment of my burgeoning bookshelves and came to a realization: those things aren’t likely to happen.

Sure, I’ll keep some of them. I fully anticipate my girls will want to read The Lord of the Rings at some point in the next decade. But The Hunt for Red October? Probably not so much.

And then there’s the piles of theology texts. Some floating around from college. Some freebies I got and reviewed on the blog. Some were gifts. Some I agree with a lot less today than I did when I bought them. Many I’d be hard pressed to recommend or want to gift.

So I sold them.

I didn’t get much - basically garage sale prices, but where you just carry in a bag and walk out 10 minutes later with money. Beats the heck out of having to hold a garage sale and hoping the right buyer shows up.

I managed to clean out one whole shelf. That’s enough room to move my recently-read pile from the top of my dresser down to the shelves. Then I can start attacking the to-read pile that sits next to my bed.

I think this is the year I’m going to fully embrace accumulating ebooks instead of hard copies. I like the ability to read, easily highlight and share text, and archive them someplace smaller than the dozens of feet of shelf space occupying my basement.

You know, I converted from CD buying to MP3 buying a couple years ago. I guess this is the next logical progression.

Books I read in 2013

Here’s my one year-end post: a little summary of what I read this year. I’m not gonna list ’em all - you can go check out the list on Goodreads if you’re really interested - but I’ll include some highlights.

I finished 57 books this year - about average for me over the past several years - and 27 of them were non-fiction, which is as close to fiction/non-fiction parity as I’ve ever gotten before. My non-fiction was mostly theology this year, which reminds me I need to pick up some more history, biographies, and the like in 2014.

Top Non-Fiction

I really need to write a full review post on Playing God. It was probably my favorite of the year, and the one that I then bought two copies of to give as Christmas gifts. I’m feeling a little bit better about my theological variety, too - it isn’t just all Anglicans on my list this year!

Top Fiction

It feels like a cheat to list Robinson’s book here, since she uses the fictional narrative to drive home a bunch of theological and philosophical points, but hey, it’s good stuff.

The worst I’ve gotten better at just putting books down if they seem like clunkers, so I have just a single one-star reviewed book on my list this year: The Panther by Nelson DeMille. Here’s what I wrote on Goodreads:

Plot is thinner than thin. Hundreds of pages and nothing happens except we get a tour of Yemen and page after page of insufferable narrative. It’s as if Mr DeMille had a quota of smart-ass internal dialog per page that he had to fill. If you cut out half of it, the book would shorten by 20% and still be just as boring.

I’m ashamed I wasted as much time on this one as I did. Avoid.

Plans for 2014 I’m likely to always be a theology, politics, and sci-fi geek, but I really would like to read some more history, some classic literature, and maybe even a little poetry. Hit me up if you have recommendations!

A little inspired art

We were looking for a family movie tonight and Netflix recommended The Secret of Kells. I had only a vague familiarity with the movie, but the reviews and info looked good, so we gave it a go. It turned out to be a beautiful little movie, in a unique 2-d animated style, relating a story around the Book of Kells, an illuminated copy of the four Gospels created by Celtic monks in the 7th century. Neat movie.

That took us to the Book of Kells iPad application, which I had gotten months ago when it was a freebie but had never really looked at. The girls were suddenly intent to look at the pictures, try to understand the text (whoops! it’s Latin!) and KP (age 4) even pulled out a Bible then to find the book of John after she found out it was part of the Book.

[caption width=“460” align=“aligncenter”] An Illustration from the Book of Kells, courtesy of Wikipedia[/caption]

But the fun doesn’t end there. Shortly thereafter, using their Christmas notebooks and glitter pens, they started on their own Kells-inspired artwork. (Click on each to see it full-size.)

From KP:

From AG, age 7:

From Laura, age 9:

Across the centuries, art inspires art. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

The last word on Mark Driscoll for a while

I can’t imagine anybody saying things much better than Jared Wilson did today over on The Gospel Coalition. Bits and pieces:

There are lots of people who want Mark Driscoll to fail and fall. I am not one of them. I love and respect Pastor Mark… I want to repeat: I do not want Pastor Mark to fail and fall. I just want him to walk in step with the truth of the gospel. … I would “confront” him to his face if I could. Even though this is not a Matthew 18 situation, and Pastor Mark has not sinned against me personally, last week I tried to contact him privately through the two avenues available to me, but I received no response. I did not demand or even expect one. … But I have an obligation to Pastor Mark… I feel as though I owe it to him to speak thusly to him. Or about him, as the case may be, since I do not want to presume he would read this. … And I feel I have an obligation to the young men coming up into ministry, exploring the gospel-centered paradigm, learning and studying and practicing missional ministry wherever God has called them. I don’t want them to think the way to lead is to insulate from critique, ignore challenges, and adapt to some echo chamber of mutual admiration. I don’t want young men looking up to men like Mark or listening to lesser voices like my own to think gospel-centered ministry means passivity and silence in the face of obvious needs or, worse, aggression in the area of reputation, dominance and swagger in leadership.

I really appreciate Jared’s point here. I know several men who have come up admiring and imitating Mark Driscoll, and while their gospel proclamation is great, they need to have other voices telling them that “aggression in the area of reputation, dominance and swagger” is not something desirable to imitate.

This is not merely about lazing writing… It’s about what this one latest incident in the accumulating evidence of Pastor Mark’s empire-building says to us, his brothers and his customers… This latest episode is just the latest example indicating an evident lack of accountability and personal responsibility. All along, I’ve trusted that Pastor Mark had the right people around him, speaking the hard truths to him. I assumed those voices were there and authorized by him to keep him honest. I no longer believe this.

Pastor Mark, if you’re reading this — you are losing us. Forget about the “haters.” We ain’t them. We are the ones who love you, who want to see you succeed and prevail. And we won’t stop, no matter what tribe you’re in or which conference stage you take. But we want you to take responsibility for your actions and your attitude. It does not commend grace. We want you to walk in repentance. We want you to seek the way of Christ in more humility, to drop the image and the posturing, and remind us of what drew us to you in the first place: the fame of Christ’s name, not the protection of your own. What would the truth of the gospel have you do? What would adorn the gospel? What would make Jesus look big? I believe it would a reversal of the trajectory of pride you have been on. I’m asking you to turn around and show us why we were so drawn to you in the beginning. I’m asking you to show us Jesus. He has become lost in your shadow.

Jared provides a great example and challenge to me and others who appreciate the gospel-centered history of Mark Driscoll’s preaching but who are concerned by his recent direction. It’s worth reading the whole thing.

Fitch on Driscoll: why doesn't he just repent?

Professor and pastor David Fitch has some powerful words on the Driscoll plagiarism topic today, and more broadly on celebrity leadership in evangelical churches.

And so the question really is NOT did Driscoll plagiarize or not (he did). It is, why doesn’t Mark Driscoll simply repent? Why doesn’t he just go before his congregation, lie prostate [sic] on the ‘stage’ and confess his sins of plagiarism, greed, trying to do too much publishing too fast, and what he will do to rectify and make the situation whole. It’s what us Christians do? Of course this too could be used ideologically. But at least this would be the actual practice of the Christian faith (Matt 18:15-20, James 5:16) one step removed from managing the ideological factors (his public image, his sales etc.).

Instead Driscoll’s silence in this regard reveals that there is ideology at work. His clear avoidance of one of the most basic practices of the Christian life and the continuing charades surrounding him, the publishers and the lawyers to avoid dealing with the lies, illustrate how far the Driscoll’s book and leadership has been removed above the actual practice of on-the-ground Christian life in the form of a celebrity pastor, and has become a product to be sold, an image to be upheld. This is not Christianity, this is ideology, and (for all the reasons mentioned above) I believe cannot lead our churches anywhere.

Ouch.

Then Fitch expands the discussion to the broader evangelical church.

My observation is simple. Once Christianity/church devolves into an ideology it ceases being an authentic embodiment of God’s Triune work in the world. It becomes a product. It works off antagonism (or lack) as opposed to being the overflowing of abundance of God’s work into the world…

Celebrity leadership is the death knell of the evangelical church in America. It’s killing us. And so I believe it’s of utmost importance that everyone under the age of 35 reject celebrity leadership. Realize that once beliefs, products, preaching, leadership is extracted from the local life of the local concretely engaged church, it tends to quickly devolve into ideology. And we then are just a short period away from the death of that church in a swirl of inevitable contradictions, hypocrisy and moral failures that inevitably attend celebrity leadership.

Fitch nails it in that last paragraph. Keep things local and engaged. As I said last week: we are called to be faithful, not famous.

Follow-up thoughts on Mark Driscoll, Plagiarism, and Power

I’ll start the blog post with a disclaimer, because heck, why not?

Disclaimer: I’m not for a second going to claim that I have anything new or profound to say about the little Mark Driscoll plagiarism brouhaha that’s been appearing (and disappearing) throughout the blogosphere over the past couple weeks. Much has been said, more clearly than I could, by many others. But recognizing that there are a handful of people who might read my post but won’t get to the other stories, and because I’m a little bit bored on a business trip and found a quote in a book I’m reading that I want to share, I’m writing anyway.

OK, so now that that’s over with…

If you’re unfamiliar with the Driscoll plagiarism fiasco and want to know more, I’d refer you to the excellent reporting by Jonathan Merritt for Religion News Service:

(There’s also been some good discussion on watchblogs like The Wartburg Watch and Spiritual Sounding Board.)

My short synopsis: I tried to write a short synopsis and it ended up being two paragraphs. I guess I can’t write a short synopsis, sorry. OK, I’ll try once more. Basically evangelical megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll was accused of plagiarism, including one case that seemed pretty obvious. After a week of eerie silence from Driscoll and his people, the radio host who had been pressing the case suddenly removed everything about it from her website and gave an on-air apology to Driscoll. Allegations were made by the radio host’s assistant producer that this was the result of an “evangelical celebrity machine”, but the radio host refuses to comment.

I ran across two things today that merit linking in to this story.

First is a blog post by the ornery pastor, author, and blogger Douglas Wilson. I’ll be honest: I thought it’d be a cold day in hell before I would agree wholeheartedly with a Wilson post. But today he published a ((quite) lengthy) bit on the topic that spoke clearly and fairly about all the key issues concerned: plagiarism, the use of ghost writers, the responsibility of having your name on the cover of the book, and the inevitable push to manufacture scandal whether one exists or not. Highly recommended reading.

As an aside: I don’t often embrace Wilson’s arguments or his style, but how can you not love a guy who starts a piece like this:

I don’t have much to say about the ruckus these last few weeks concerning the allegation of plagiarism by Mark Driscoll, an allegation that was made by Janet Mefferd, and then subsequently withdrawn by her. Not having much to say, I intend therefore to not say it.

and then goes on to write more than 4000 words?

The last thing I want to highlight in this post is a quote from Andy Crouch’s Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power. I started into it on a flight this afternoon, and while I’m only 30% in, I can already recommend it. (At least for that 30% - here’s hoping the last 70% is equally awesome and I can recommend the whole thing by the end of the week.) Toward the end of Chapter 5, Crouch examines the old story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, and draws out how it relates to those in power. (This isn’t anything new, but said really well…)

Power, even up to the absolute power of an emperor, is invested in ordinary human beings… who underneath even the most exquisite trappings, or for that matter armed with the most fearsome technology, are naked mortals. The maintenance of power, then, comes not from any extraordinary quality in the powerful themselves, but from the consent and continual reaffirmation of those around them.

Sound familiar?

Carols for Christmas (reprise)

Last year I recorded some piano arrangements of familiar Christmas songs. I called it, originally enough, Carols for Christmas.

As I explained it last year:

It’s just over 30 minutes worth of music, all piano versions of traditional Christmas carols. There’s not a lot in the way of production - I recorded them using my Casio midi controller keyboard in single takes in GarageBand and did a minimal amount of editing to remove the clunky notes. The perfectionist part of me wishes I had another 80 hours to really refine and polish the arrangements and recordings; the engineer in me has declared “good enough”. The engineer won the debate this time.

If you’re so inclined, please enjoy Carols for Christmas as my gift to you this season. This download link will let you listen and/or download MP3s from Dropbox.

Correlation and Causation

All the correlation / causation talk around Dave Ramsey this week brings this classic XKCD cartoon to mind. Happy Friday!