: reality check ... i work eight minutes from this :

: rob bell's new book :

... just cracking Rob Bell's newest book, co-written with Don Golden, the guy who was lead pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church, which Bell helped start a few years back. Apparently Don left MHBC this summer to take up a key role with World Relief USA that lines up with his passion to help churches help the poor and oppressed. You can see his bio here, but you'll need to scroll down the page.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians : a manifesto for the church in exile :

Anywhooo ... sure looks interesting. And the timing, with the US presidential election in less than a week, is sure to jumpstart some serious conversations among(st) evangelicals. I'll report back in as soon as I can, but it may be worth picking up, for a mere $14 Cdn. By the looks of it they are articulating some questions many people have begun asking ... I'll paste in a little from the book cover below, see what you think? But here's a teaser ...

" ... forces are now occupying a Middle Eastern country until peace can be fully realized within its borders. This puts a Christian in an awkward place. Because Jesus was a Middle Eastern man who lived in an occupied country and was killed by the superpower of his day" ...

dlc

***

" ... there is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty.

This is a book about those two numbers ... it's a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity.

It's about empty empires and the truth that everybody's a priest, it's about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from.

It's about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.”

: short week update : october 20 - 27 :

... hey, just a quick update. A two day work week pour moi, today and tomorrow. Packing quite a bit in ... from prepping for SBF's AGM, to getting snow tires on rims to take to Fraser in Kelowna. Yes, the Okanagan. Colin, Karen and I head outta here first thing Wednesday for a"BC Interior" jaunt. When we wrapped things up @ LPC earlier this year a friend ( and, conveniently, board member of a pastoral retreat place north of Kelowna ) gave us a few days away up there. So we're taking advantage of that this week. Colin is joining us for the trip, but landing at his Uncle and Aunt's place in Kelowna, hanging with his bro Fraser, and his cousin Nate. Wonder if they'll hit Big White? Karen and I will head up near Vernon for Thu-Sat, then back down to spend some time with her bro Wayne, and his family. Then Monday am back down the Coquihalla ( no tolls! ) and for Langley for lunch with Megg. Should be good ... some readin' ... some relaxin' ... some evaluatin' ... not sure if there'll be much in the way of internet access there, so see you next week for sure.

dlc

: and the ( canadian ) elections results, please :

... okay, so we have a 'strengthened' minority government this morning. Lots of commentary about an unnecessary $300 million election, but I am wondering about the various subplots just underneath the surface of the more obvious results.

Here's a few that came to mind this morning after reading some papers and websites. Maybe trying to get 10 will be stretching it ... but I'll start and see where we get to ... in no particular order :

i) Dion's leadership ... everyone says he is toast. Is he? should he be? will he be?
ii) parliamentary workings ... or machinations. Can "sweater Steve" co-collaborate?
iii) re-distribution of seats ... what does CPC's showing in key urban centres mean?
iv) the Bloc ... there's gotta be a better raison d'etre than "we bloc'd his majority"
v) the economy ... sad, odd and weird even to see Dion admit "it's the economy" stupid
vi) the greens ... on several levels, I missed something. Coulda, shoulda, woulda?
vii) which national party ... can the Tories be that? have the Libs lost that? or what?
viii) the glass ceiling ... not Layton, Broadbent, whomever, can break through ??? %
ix) power ... why do people want this kind of power? Iggy? Bob Rae!?! they're sharks.
x) democracy ... why Canadians so cynical about it? what can we do ( about turnout )?

Well, now that I hit 10 without really having to wrack my brains, I could go on, but won't. Maybe the subplots this morning are like the back of the tapestry ... all knots and loose ends, but when you are able to look at the actual wall hanging, you see something? But on south Vancouver Island alone, two ridings bucked conventional wisdom, and I wonder what that says?

dlc

BA, Political Science 1982
University of Western Ontario

: one down, two to go ... but i'm tired of it all :

... today is the Canadian federal election, and I am glad it was 'time-limited' as opposed to the US election industry. I am glad we are now one down, only two to go ( for BC residents the municipal elections are sometime this fall, November 14 I think? ). I do wonder what it would look like if an above-board, non-mudslinging campaign was to happen?

After lurking around for years, and more recently putting some oomph behind the Obama-as-a-???? whisper campaign, this guy has either come out, or been outed, as the source of persistent rumours about Obama's past, present and future. Here's an interesting little tidbit of info ... the New York Times reports that Andy Martin's admission to the Illinois bar was blocked in the 1970s after a psychiatric finding of “moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.”

Yikes! So, politics ... if you ask me, even more troubling than making strange bedfellows, makes the ends trump the means? One case in point? is Sarah Palin's campaign style really what the right wants to project? period? never mind a woman with power, or a conservative christian, or a hockey mom. I guess if the lead dog has to hire an attack dog, then Palin and Biden have to 'play' those roles.

But I don't ( have to ) like it.

dlc

: betwixt 'n between on a holiday monday :

... okay, so kids came home for the long weekend, and are leaving again. Today is drizzly wet, and we already did the turkey thing. Tomorrow is the Canadian election, and I don't know who to vote for ( yet. Here, or nationally ). There's stuff I could/should do for SBF, but not motivated to.

... actually craving a strong coffee, which I never, ever do after 8 am.

What I'd like to do on Thanksgiving Monday I can't today ... cut the lawn, smell leaves burning, enjoy a crisp October day, going for a walk around Rithet's Bog, or Beacon Hill Park, or Elk Lake. Maybe my funk is that, given the weather, it is painfully clear that not only is summer gone, and fall fading, but winter is coming? Yuck.

So today is just one of those betwixt 'n between days. On a micro level, on the macro level, on an middle level. Tons I should do, but no motivation to do them. Good thing this doesn't afflict me often! But today? Bummer ...

dlc

: back to one graphic, one comment :

Found this graphic on MarkC's site. Struck me ...

am I prone to creating big 'truths' manufactured from little lies?

dlc

: in case you're wondering, post-debate that is :

: the irony of thanksgiving and homelessness :

... over at 'The Weary Pilgrim' our buddy Ron Cole has asked for a little help with a Mustard Seed booth down at the Bay Centre during Victoria Homelessness Action Week, which is October 12 -19, and an initiative of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness.

This evening my friend Gerry B invited me to attend the GVCtEH awareness event described on the poster, and I am going to go. Partly because I have been very impressed by the blue ribbon team put together, and partly because the work they've done so far is impressive, and partly because ... well? I am tired of feeling helpless and myopic and suburban.

But I have to say, isn't it a little ironic that we come off Thanksgiving and right into Homelessness Action Week 2008? Maybe the timing is intentional. Maybe not. Maybe we'll blow right through a short week and on into mid-October without missing a beat. I hope not. Ron's observations are accurate, something is changing, for the worse, not better, and somehow we need to do something, be part of doing something, a solution ... not a bandaid, or a fix. God help us.

dlc

ps. I can rarely not do the PS thing ... but ABSO has 1,000's of 'toons, including one earlier this week, which seemed utterly appropriate :

Ron C added a few thoughts to yesterday's observations. You can read them here.

: seeing as posts are reduced to single photos :

... not that it makes any sense at all, but earth care and emissions and fuel economy and all that aside, if I was going to indulge in a hobby car it would be a 1969 Chev Camaro like this one ... colour and all. My dad had a '68 RS ( rally sport ), and once upon a time I had a red '77 LT ... but the blue '69 still takes the cake if you ask me.

dlc

: maybe my desk will explain a few things :

: no real reason ... 'cept i like visuals :