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Young Adult Friends Conference 2010

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:49:21 -0400

Young Adult Friends Conference 2010:

We’re enjoying a few days of visiting from Micah Bales and Faith Kelley. They’re two of the organizers of this May’s YAF conference in Wichita. Hopefully I can get a video interview out of them before they leave!

Stained glass: The sun coming in at St Mary’s Malaga.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:54:22 -0500

Stained glass:

The sun coming in at St Mary’s Malaga.

Biking Directions on Google Maps This is so cool. This is what...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:06:59 -0500

Biking Directions on Google Maps

This is so cool. This is what the future is supposed to look like. I wonder how well it works…

Out of the closet but stuck in his voting pattern - CNN.com

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:59:46 -0500

Out of the closet but stuck in his voting pattern - CNN.com:

Politician known for stance against gay-marriage announces he’s gay after being arrested for drunk driving outside a gay bar. Trying to explain the seeming-inconsistency of the voting record is Wayne Besen of truthwinsout.org:

“It’s a perfect mask for someone who’s trying to stay in the closet,” said Besen in a telephone interview. “They hope that people will think that they’re heterosexual. It’s quite common; we’ve seen it over and over again. … They’re already living a lie and this takes it to a new level.”

He added, “They’re willing to harm themselves to protect an image of who they’re not. It shows how extreme and harmful that homophobia is. The closet will force people to make decisions that will harm their own lives.”

Quakerthink Kevin R gives some helpful advice for driving around big trucks

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:46:49 -0500

Quakerthink Kevin R gives some helpful advice for driving around big trucks:

What ever driver should know:

The job I currently hold down might fall into the last category: Big Truck Driver. I drive a Big Truck for a living now, and while lots of people might consider that a fairly mundane way to spend 70-hour work weeks, I can attest that there is a lot that goes on that most people are simply not aware of. I know this personally, because driving a Big Truck exposes me to people every day, in every part of the country, who not only are not aware of what is going on with a Big Truck nearby, but are also unaware of how close they come to death by making bad decisions in its vicinity. Driving 400-plus miles a day for weeks at a time, I see the bodies on the roadside under the sheets often enough to know that some of them came too close.

Andreessen’s Advice To Old Media: “Burn The Boats”

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:59:00 -0500

Andreessen’s Advice To Old Media: “Burn The Boats”:

Tech Crunch interviews Marc Andreessen, who more or less brought the web to the masses when he started Netscape, the first serious web browser (more recently he’s been some of the money and brains behind Ning):

[Andreesen] believes that all the talk once again from big media companies about erecting paywalls or somehow charging for news, articles and video online is shortsighted at best. He comes back to the simple fact that the open Web is where the users are. Talking about paywalls and paid apps is like saying, “We know where the market is and we are not going to go there.” Print newspapers and magazines will never get there, he argues, until they burn the boats and shut down their print operations. Yes, there are still a lot of people and money in those boats—billions of dollars in revenue in some cases. “At risk is 80% of revenues and headcount,” Andreessen acknowledges, “but shift happens.” You’d have to be crazy to burn the boats. Crazy like Cortes.

Obedient Linda: Getting over an abusive relationship with Christians to find Jesus with Friends

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:17:21 -0500

Obedient Linda: Getting over an abusive relationship with Christians to find Jesus with Friends:

In that process of seeking, I came to a Quaker meeting. There on a rainy Sunday, I heard others rise and speak what they were hearing when they became quiet, and their accountings were remarkably…

Why I Am Catholic blog guest article answers "Thanks to the Quakers"

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:54:24 -0500

Why I Am Catholic blog guest article answers "Thanks to the Quakers":

I carried that lesson back to my own life and parish. It’s all too easy for us Americans to switch jobs, switch neighborhoods, heck, even switch spouses when things aren’t going our way. I learned…

Registration Information, Young Adult Friends Gathering, 2010

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:54:24 -0500

Registration Information, Young Adult Friends Gathering, 2010:

Registration is now up for the 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering in Wichita, KS, US.

Passionate Ashley feels a call to ministry growing

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:54:24 -0500

Passionate Ashley feels a call to ministry growing:

I feel like this is my ministry, what I am called to do. In a spiritually impoverished world, God is calling me to turn others toward God, in whatever language. I don’t have any particular idea how…

Crowd-sourcing outrage

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:06:12 -0500

Crowd-sourcing outrage:

A bizarre internet phenomenon in China, via the NYTimes:

The Chinese term for human-flesh search engine has been around since 2001, when it was used to describe a search that was human-powered rather than computer-driven. The kitten-killer case and subsequent hunts changed all that… the Chinese public’s primary understanding of the term is no longer so benign. The popular meaning is now not just a search by humans but also a search for humans, initially performed online but intended to cause real-world consequences.

Emily Rose Neeson: Vocations of CEO and burger-flippers

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:16:29 -0500

Emily Rose Neeson: Vocations of CEO and burger-flippers:

I like the idea that a vocation is holistic, a ‘life’s work’ and not simply a way to pass 8 hours a day (or 12; see ‘legal profession’, above). Whether I am a CEO or a burger-flipper, I can embody…

Reading: The new landscape of the religion blogosphere

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:09:49 -0500

Reading: The new landscape of the religion blogosphere:

The purpose at hand is to foster a more self-reflective, collaborative, and mutually-aware religion blogosphere. Ideally, this report will spark discussion among religion bloggers that will take their work further, while also inviting new voices from outside existing networks to join in and take part.

Mission Credibility from Anglican, Plain

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:25:06 -0500

Mission Credibility from Anglican, Plain:

Great piece:

How come the rest of the church is taken up with missional or emerging church as if it were something new? We are only doing what the apostles did two thousand years ago, and what the regular old Christian in the street did – helped the neighbour, fed the poor, nursed the sick, visited the imprisoned, clothed the naked…

I’ve been reading John P. Bowen’s book Evangelism for “Normal” People, (Augsburg Fortress 2002). What is “normal” evangelism? Not approaching strangers with “Are you saved?” or handing out leaflets on street corners! It’s living peacefully, helping our neighbours, reaching out to those in need, and generally following Christian principles. It’s taking some risks when people question us about faith. It’s being bold in witness, but in witnessing with love.

Su Penn: Plain Bonnet and Shaved Heads

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:36:56 -0500

Su Penn: Plain Bonnet and Shaved Heads:

I guess God does not need me in plain dress. God prefers me as a frumpy middle-aged mom. Probably the world has some very specific need for a frumpy middle-aged mom, and I’m meeting that need in ways…

Theo’s new tooth: Theo’s two front bottom teeth...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:07:05 -0500

Theo’s new tooth:

Theo’s two front bottom teeth are all wiggly. And now, coming in behind them is one of his adult teeth.

Real Live Preacher on the lay ministry of Friends

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:10:33 -0500

Real Live Preacher on the lay ministry of Friends:

What impressed me most was the peaceful nature of it. There was a complete absence of anxiety in the room. In my own church experience—in the rare opportunities that laypeople have to speak in…

Emily Stewart on surprising commonalities at the Young Quaker Christian triennial in Kenya

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:20:31 -0500

Emily Stewart on surprising commonalities at the Young Quaker Christian triennial in Kenya:

It reminded me of what a lot of young Quakers in the U.S. are asking for: opportunities to have visceral experiences of God. Though many early Friends experienced this in meeting for worship, that…

Raye H: Jesus' approach to sin in 1 Corinthians

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:20:31 -0500

Raye H: Jesus' approach to sin in 1 Corinthians:

What [Jesus] did not do was engage them in an argument about scripture, about what God really meant, and so forth. Jesus made the point that the one who is to punish sins is the one without sin. He…

Danny Coleman reviews Brian McLaren's "A New Kind of Christianity"

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:20:31 -0500

Danny Coleman reviews Brian McLaren's "A New Kind of Christianity":

[McLaren] is quite familiar with the theology of Friends and spoke in glowing terms of Quakers. Perhaps George Fox & Co. were at the far bleeding edge of what has come to be called the Emergent…