Not exactly to plan

Way I planned to spend Friday evening: reading a book and watching TV.

Way I actually spent Friday evening: feverish trip to Home Depot (20 minutes before close!) to rent the 100’ sewer snake.

But it’s not yet 10 pm, and the sewer is once again running freely, and at half the cost of calling a professional.

Still doing the post-mortem on the remains, but my first guess is that a small stuffed toy got sent to its’ watery grave by a resident toddler.

What Would Jesus Want Us To Think about Healthcare Reform? a Quick Response

What would Jesus want us to think about health care reform?

That’s the question that Justin Taylor proffers at his blog, courtesy of Brad Green, theology professor at Union University.  Professor Green’s response to the “what would Jesus do” question has four main points:

  • Conservatives don’t think that big new legislation will fix the problems with the system
  • Conservatives are opposed to the expansion of federal powers as an infringement on liberty
  • The Constitution doesn’t explicitly enumerate power in this area to the Federal government, so Health Care reform would be unconstitutional
  • Christians have a “strong view of human sin and thus are often not inclined to want to grant large amounts of power to any governmental body”

While I will concur with the final point, in the first three points Professor Green misses the boat in two critical ways.

First, he fails to acknowledge the reality that, regardless of how strictly he’d like to interpret the Tenth Amendment, the United States Supreme Court has a long history of allowing the Federal government expanded powers via the Interstate Commerce clause of the Constitution.  Just because he, personally, disagrees with that interpretation doesn’t mean that health care reform legislation will be unconstitutional.

Second, and far more greviously, Professor Green, by virtue of his first two points, has somehow assumed that Jesus’ political views were American Evangelical Conservative.  How else can he leap from “What Would Jesus Do?” to “Conservatives are opposed to this”?  If he wants to make the argument that Jesus would’ve held those views, he can try to make that argument, but he is foolhardy to think it can just be assumed.

If the evangelical political Right in America wants to oppose increased federal involvement in the health care system, there are reasonable arguments that can be made.  Shoddy reasoning, though, as demonstrated in this article, only makes them look silly.

Joining up... or not

That little announcement made its quarterly reappearance in the church bulletin last Sunday: “Times are available for those wishing to become members to meet with the elders.  Call the church office to schedule.”  It sits there on the page in eight point font and taunts me.  Church membership.  Am I really ready to join?

Ten years ago when we moved to Iowa we decided on a church relatively quickly, and once there, proceed with similar pace through the membership process.  After eight years there we left to help plant another church.  There was no official “membership” in the early stages of that church plant, but we were on the core team and I was an elder, so we were quite obviously committed. 

When it was clear the Lord was leading us away from the church plant, we finally settled on our current church home, where we’ve been attending for a year now.  Not just attending - involved, too.  I’m playing on the worship team once a month, Becky is volunteering in the nursery.  We attended the “welcome to the family” class several months ago.  It was a helpful introduction to the church’s history, doctrine, and philosophy of ministry.  At the time, we weren’t ready yet to join.  And now, as the announcement comes around again every three months, I wonder again, is it time?

My hesitancy isn’t a fear of responsibility or accountability - in fact, I’d much prefer being under the authority of a local church body to being some sort of Lone Ranger.  Three months in, I wasn’t ready to join mostly because joining felt like dating someone on the rebound - it was just too soon.  We’d been with our previous church family for nearly ten years, I wasn’t just gonna dive back in.   But now it’s been a year.  I don’t have any big doctrinal issues that would keep me from joining.  I guess it’s just mostly cold feet.  What if this ends up not being the place for us long-term?  On the other hand, how long do we stay in this holding pattern before we should just give up and admit that our current church has become our de facto home church and we should just go ahead and join?

Much to ponder.  Your thoughts are always appreciated.

Catalyst Compassion "Moment": Amazing or Exploitive?

My internet friend Bryan Allain posted a video on his blog this morning of a moment that happened at the recent Catalyst conference in Atlanta. 

I’ll summarize for those of you who don’t have 10 minutes to watch the video: it’s an amazingly touching story.  A young man from Africa is there live, on stage in front of 12,000 people, telling about his childhood growing up in severe poverty, of a sister who died as an infant from malnutrition, and how then in early childhood he was given a place as part of a Compassion International school and was sponsored for over a decade by a man from Canada. The young man is now a student at Moody Bible Institute and sponsoring his own Compassion child.  An amazing story that makes me want to go out and sponsor a Compassion kid right now. 

But then, in an Oprah-esque moment, the conference emcee asked “have you ever met your sponsor?". 

“No”, the young man replied. 

“Would you like to?”

And then they brought out the Canadian man who had sponsored him for all these years.  And in an incredibly moving scene, the young African man just completely (and understandably) broke down.  After a long embrace this young man could do nothing but sit on the floor and sob, completely overcome with emotion and gratitude for this man who had caused such a change in his life.

I was very torn, watching the video at that moment, between on one hand appreciating the emotions of the situation and on the other hand being disgusted by the planned exploitation of this young man’s emotions for the sake of a “moment” at a conference.  The emcee, himself choking up a minute later, said “we script this for me breaking down…” which, of course, means that they did script it expecting that the other two would break down.

So what do you think?  Am I being hard-hearted here?  Or were the producers of the Catalyst conference so sucked into the current reality TV culture that they crossed the line of intentionally manipulating people’s emotions just to create a “moment”?

Phrases that stick with you

Most of what I remember from Rocky & Bullwinkle is cheesy puns (which are AWESOME, by the way), but there is one phrase that has stuck in my vocabulary: “antihistamine money”.  An example of usage:

“Wow, $100?  That’s antihistamine money.”

“Antihistamine money?”

“Not to be sneezed at.”

I remain easily amused.

The Patient Notebook

I keep a notebook at work for scribbling to-dos and other things I need to remember.  I don’t go through notebooks very quickly - my short-term memory is pretty good and I use sticky notes and scrap paper when I’m at my desk, but a notebook is handy for carrying around to meetings. 

Back in February my notebook (a Mead brand 80-sheet 4/5-per-inch “quadrille”) was starting to fill up (read: it was maybe 2/3 full) so when I noticed a spiffy new National brand Computation Notebook was available in the supply cabinet, I grabbed it. 

About that same time I was applying for a new position here at work - a position in line with my long-term career goals, one that I’d been hoping to get for a long time.  I knew the manager of that new group wanted to hire me (I was offered the job!), and I was just hoping the process would work out and I could transfer.  So I set the notebook aside and decided that I would symbolically keep it in reserve until I got the transfer to the new position.

To make a long story short, senior management decided I was too critical in my present role to be allowed to transfer.  Both my boss and the manager trying to hire me assured me that they’d try to make it work out later on, but in March someone else took that position and I stayed where I was.  I was initially neither very patient or very happy about the situation, but what else was there to do?  So I waited.

Patience is one of those things you probably don’t really want to pray for.  The process of learning it isn’t fun. But it’s a valuable lesson to learn. My old Mead notebook got thinner and thinner through the summer, but I stubbornly left the new notebook on the shelf.  Finally at the end of August I had a moment of weakness and carried the new notebook to a meeting, but didn’t need to take any notes.  After the meeting I gathered my resolve and put it back on the shelf.

September 1st rolled around and I got a phone call.  Another job req was opening in that department.  I was welcome to apply again.  I applied.  I re-interviewed.  I waited.  It took nearly the entire month of September to get through the process and see if I would be allowed to transfer this time.  The notebook waited patiently.  Me, not so patiently.  Finally, last Friday, I got the official word: the transfer would be allowed.  And today I got the official phone call confirming that I would take the position, with the transfer effective in two weeks’ time.

When my transfer is complete and I start the new position, the old Mead notebook will find its way to a recycle bin, and the patient National notebook will finally take up the role it’s been waiting for since last spring.  It will be a happy day for both of us.

Bullet points for a Monday Morning #4

  • Blog posting has been a bit slow lately since I typically post during breaks at work and my blog has mysteriously become inaccessible from work.  IT was no help in fixing it.  I’m using Posterous as a sort of go-between - a solution that works but that I’m not fond of.
  • Had a good, full weekend. 
  • Marriage conference Friday night and Saturday morning at church.  Very good.
  • Watched a fun Hawkeye game Saturday night.  They whooped Penn State good.
  • Played on the worship team Sunday morning, lots of fun.
  • Finally got the fascia and soffet on the garage painted.  That’s been on my to-do list since last fall.  It looks a lot better.
  • Found out Friday afternoon that the job transfer I’ve been trying to get for the past 6 months will be approved.  Will post something more officially on it once I go through all the official steps.
  • The upcoming two weeks before the transfer will happen have the potential to drag a good bit.
  • I have two book reviews that I need to get posted here before the publishers demand their books back.  Problem is, I’ve only gotten one of them read so far.  Posting one would be a start, I guess.

The "Left Behind" influence on the Religious Right

It’s been a common observation over the past several years that one of the practical results of a “Left Behind”, dispensational view of the end times is a lack of care for the environment in general - heck, if it’s all gonna burn anyway, why should I care?  But the other day it struck me that there is another connection that I haven’t heard commented on - a connection between the rise of dispensational end times views and the rise of Republicanism within the evangelical church. 

Now, let’s be fair to Tim LaHaye - just because his “Left Behind” books became so popular this past decade doesn’t mean that he dreamed the whole “left behind” scenario up.  Think back to Hal Lindsey’s Late, Great Planet Earth, published in 1970, which became the non-fiction bestseller of the 70’s.  While we were politically tired out and frustrated by Vietnam, Watergate, and Carter’s “malaise”, Lindsey also got us thinking about premillenial, dispensational end times.  And a primary component of that movement, even though it’s not often stated that way: fear.

Fear was, and still is, a huge motivator in that paradigm.  Fear of the coming one-world government.  Fear of The Antichrist.  Fear of “the mark”.  Fear that somehow we won’t make God’s “cut” and that we’ll be left behind. Fear of the beheadings. Come on, folks, remember A Thief In The Night?  What other bad 1970’s zombie film would ever get shown in high school church youth groups?

Then came 1980 and Ronald Reagan proclaimed that government was the problem, not the solution.  And the Late, Great adherents heard that and figured that any political movement that took us further away from that scary impending one-world government was a good thing.  And now for the past 30 years the Republican party, and, indeed, the entire Republican platform, has been considered the default “right” position for evangelical Christians in America.

Now, this is no sort of comprehensive analysis, but it’s an interesting topic to think through. 

Finally, a set of disclaimers so that I don’t get kicked out of every group I’ve ever belonged to:

  • I like and admire a whole lot of what I know about and experienced of President Reagan.
  • I’m not sure where I stand on the whole end-times thing.  I used to buy into the whole “Left Behind” scenario - let’s face it, that’s what I grew up in.  Today I’m not so sure. Left Behind doesn’t seem plausible, but I’m not entirely convinced by the amillenial position, either. 
  • Obviously not everyone that holds to the premillenial view hates the environment and/or is primarily motivated by fear
  • Obviously the Republican party holds some views that are good.  The Democrat party does, too.
  • I have some non-dispensational libertarian friends who are gonna tell me I’m completely off base on this one.

I suppose there was a time I thought staying up all night was cool...

…but right now isn’t it. After getting, by Becky’s measurement, 11 inches of rain in the past 48 hours, our basement once again began taking on water. Looks like I should’ve bumped that sump pump higher up the priority list. Once again I am thankful for neighbors on both sides who are willing to loan out their Shop Vacs. I am happy this year to have one shop vac that has a garden hose attachment so I don’t have to carry it out to dump it.

It’s currently 1:45 on Friday morning or so, and the Shop Vacs have been running continuously since around 4:20 Thursday afternoon. The water is slowing down some now, I’m only having to go down and do some sopping up of puddles about every thirty minutes. The rest of the time I can just sit here and listen to the shop vacs run. You are never so ready for silence as you are after listening to three shop vacs run continuously for nine hours. Except for maybe after ten or eleven hours. :-)

So far I’ve listened to a couple of podcasts, watched two episodes of Arrested Development on Hulu, started a book, and annoyed anyone who was on Twitter to listen to my posts. If the water gets down to where I only need to check on it every hour, I’m going to try to take some naps. Until then I guess I’ll just hang out and drink another Diet Pepsi. I had already planned to take Friday off of work; I didn’t plan to spend it this way, though. There’ll be plenty of cleanup to do tomorrow.

Getting rid of the Dish: the Philosophical Post

So a couple of weeks ago I talked about the nerd side of getting rid of the dish. I’m still playing around with the configuration some, but I think I’m getting close to having a good usable solution. Becky keeps telling me “just teach me how to use it once it’s all working”, so I guess I should try to get to that point sooner rather than later.

But the other side of this is the why - why get rid of the Dish? Was it really just the $60/month we were spending? (We bought enough new hardware it’ll take us several months to break even.) Or is there more to it?

I’ll admit I didn’t come to it in quite this direction; my push to switch things up was driven a lot by the desire to have an HD DVR option. But as I sat with my Dish remote in hand and flipped through the channels, I came to the realization that out of the 150 channels available for our viewing, we’d never watched most of them. Most of them had programming that we couldn’t care about in the least. For the most part we spent our tv-watching time tuned to one of our local network stations. The exceptions: ESPN for sports, Nick and Disney for some kids programming. Oh, and a backlog of Food Channel shows on the DVR that never really went away. So we talked about it, and we agreed there were other ways we could access the sorts of programming we really wanted to watch, and that we’d be OK with missing the rest of it. So we cut the cord.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit there are things I’m gonna miss. Monday Night Football on ESPN, for example. And the Cubs games on WGN. (OK, maybe it’s good for my mental health to miss those…) But on the whole it’s been a positive thing. What we’ve eliminated is the mindless noise at night. We had a bad habit of just turning the TV on as we headed towards bed, watching the Cubs if they were on, but often just pulling up Sportscenter on ESPN and ignoring it while we read books and such before going to sleep. Without ESPN available, we’ve either had to decide to watch something we specifically wanted to enjoy (we’re catching up on 30 Rock) - or we just leave it off. And that’s been a very good thing.

Back before we first got a Tivo, I wondered (a lot) whether the Tivo would be a good thing, or whether it would just cause us to watch more TV. It ended up being the former; the Tivo allowed us to watch the shows we wanted, when we wanted, without having to schedule our lives around the start times. (Oh, and we got 20% of our TV-watching lives back in skipped commercials.)

Before we got rid of the Dish, I wondered if we’d just hate it and miss the programming. But I’m pretty much believing now that we will make do just fine, and it will be an improvement overall in how we spend our time and allow ourselves to be entertained distracted.

Now, believe me, there are a couple of internet-based options that I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on. If MLB.tv can ever get rid of their silly blackout restrictions (there are six teams that Iowans can’t watch. most blacked-out state in the country!), I’d subscribe in a heartbeat, and that’d let me watch Cubs games again. And I’d really love to get ESPN360.com, but that’d require me to switch internet service providers… and I’m not real keen on that idea, either. Ah well. I should just take the sage advice given by Bob the Tomato after he catches Larry the Cucumber overly engrossed in a TV show: “maybe you should read a book.” Yeah.