Scrotum Injury Ends Chinese Teenager's Season from ESPN – The most tragic injury I have ever heard of.
The Big Hurt = The Best Ever? from ESPN – Is Frank Thomas one of the best hitters ever? The answer will surprise you. It surprised me. Before, I wasn’t convinced that Thomas was a hall of famer, but upon further review I think he should be a unanimous first-ballot selection. The author provided several good reasons why he thought The Big Hurt has been overlooked, but as a child of the nineties, I think the biggest reason is that he was overshadowed by Ken Griffey, Jr. Little did I know, Thomas has far better numbers.
Baseball’s Oldest Old-Timer from The New York Times – This is a story of professional baseball’s oldest living former player. He’s 110.
A Real Game of Shadows from ESPN – Interesting article about a judge delivering a sentence of 18 months for the reporters who investigated Barry Bonds steroid use. This looks like a case where the laws designed to catch the bad people actually ended up throwing the good guys in jail.
While Nixon Campaigned, the F.B.I. Watched John Lennon from The New York Times – I’m sure the Israelite kings watched Hosea, I know the Pharisees watched Jesus, and if you try anything suspicious, they’ll probably watch you too.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
#59 The Braves Are Done
It is a sad season here in the A-town. The Braves’ 14 year reign over the National League East is finally over. And all we have to show for it is one World Series title. That sad fact is compounded by multiple low lights over the course of the last decade and a half. These include Kent Hrbek pulling Ron Gant’s leg off first base in the 1991 series, Lonnie Smith’s base running gaffe which cost the Braves the series in ’91, the Braves taking the first two games of the ’96 series on the road at Yankee Stadium and then dropping the next four in a row to miss out on back to back world series titles, and then getting swept in ’99 in a rematch. This is all compounded by the fact that the Marlins, a team that didn’t exist when our division title run began, has won more world series then we have.
But in spite of all these grim facts, I wouldn’t trade places with a Marlins or a Yankees fan for that matter any day. The winning baseball, entertainment and dynastic run they’ve brought to us over the past 14 years have been worth it all. Most of all I appreciate the memories.
Who can forget Francisco Cabrera’s fateful single into left field with two outs in the bottom of the 9th in game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. That was perhaps the best moment I can remember as a sports fan, let alone a Braves fan.
And then there was of course the ’95 championship team. We also got to see one of the best pitching rotations in the history of baseball in Smoltz, Glavine, and Maddux, and certainly we saw the best pitching coach in Mazzone.
We’ve had the opportunity to witness the career of the Jones boys. The guys at ESPN’s Baseball Tonight did a series this year on the best at each position and they had Andruw ranked as the best center fielder of all-time, above Jim Edmonds, above Ken Griffey Jr., and above Willie Mays. As for Chipper he has been to the lineup what Smoltz has been to the pitching staff, a consistent star. He is one of the best switch hitters to ever play the game as the Braves all-time leader in on-base percentage, a lifetime batting average of over .300, and 354 career homers.
Then of course there is Bobby Cox and John Schuerholz. Maybe the greatest manager/general manager due the game has ever seen. Not only do they churn-out the wins but they do it on an extremely limited budget. In fact, the budget has been less than half of what the Yankees have spent in the last few years. Together they built this organization from shambles to make it the most respected organization in the game, one which other clubs seek to emulate.
And those are just the big names. We didn’t even mention Bream, Pendleton, Belliard, Blauser, Galaraga, Justice, Avery, McGriff, Rocker, Furcal, Giles, Nixon, Sanders, Lopez, Lemke and the countless others who kept us watching. And who can forget the supporting cast of characters such as Ted and Jane, Skip and Pete, Joe and Don.
So while I’m really disappointed about that ’96 series and all the other near misses, I wouldn’t trade this club for anything. Here’s to the Atlanta Braves! Thanks for the memories.
But in spite of all these grim facts, I wouldn’t trade places with a Marlins or a Yankees fan for that matter any day. The winning baseball, entertainment and dynastic run they’ve brought to us over the past 14 years have been worth it all. Most of all I appreciate the memories.
Who can forget Francisco Cabrera’s fateful single into left field with two outs in the bottom of the 9th in game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. That was perhaps the best moment I can remember as a sports fan, let alone a Braves fan.
And then there was of course the ’95 championship team. We also got to see one of the best pitching rotations in the history of baseball in Smoltz, Glavine, and Maddux, and certainly we saw the best pitching coach in Mazzone.
We’ve had the opportunity to witness the career of the Jones boys. The guys at ESPN’s Baseball Tonight did a series this year on the best at each position and they had Andruw ranked as the best center fielder of all-time, above Jim Edmonds, above Ken Griffey Jr., and above Willie Mays. As for Chipper he has been to the lineup what Smoltz has been to the pitching staff, a consistent star. He is one of the best switch hitters to ever play the game as the Braves all-time leader in on-base percentage, a lifetime batting average of over .300, and 354 career homers.
Then of course there is Bobby Cox and John Schuerholz. Maybe the greatest manager/general manager due the game has ever seen. Not only do they churn-out the wins but they do it on an extremely limited budget. In fact, the budget has been less than half of what the Yankees have spent in the last few years. Together they built this organization from shambles to make it the most respected organization in the game, one which other clubs seek to emulate.
And those are just the big names. We didn’t even mention Bream, Pendleton, Belliard, Blauser, Galaraga, Justice, Avery, McGriff, Rocker, Furcal, Giles, Nixon, Sanders, Lopez, Lemke and the countless others who kept us watching. And who can forget the supporting cast of characters such as Ted and Jane, Skip and Pete, Joe and Don.
So while I’m really disappointed about that ’96 series and all the other near misses, I wouldn’t trade this club for anything. Here’s to the Atlanta Braves! Thanks for the memories.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
#58 Reformed and Emerged
Update (06/20/07): Since writing this I was reading through the introduction to Rob Bell's "Velvet Elvis" and noticed that he points out a similar idea that I'm pointing out here. Disclaimer: I do not endorse that book as I haven't read it and I know from several reviews of it that it has some significant shortcomings. Also, I highly recommend you read Alastair's post The Denominational Church after reading mine.
Ain’t it funny how times change? The following is an excerpt from an article posted on the PC(USA) website.
“But one of the serious charges church authorities hurled at the Reformers was that they were ‘innovating.’ John Calvin responded to this and other charges in his treatise The Necessity of Reforming the Church. As he put it, ‘We are accused of rash and impious innovation for having ventured to propose any change at all [in] the former state of the Church.’ He then goes on to counter that they were not ‘innovating,’ but restoring the church to its true nature, purified from the ‘innovations’ that riddled the church through centuries of inattention to Scripture and theological laxity.”
Now I want you to notice something kind of incredible in the above quote, replace the words ‘John Calvin’ with “The Emerging Church” and replace the words “The [Catholic] Church” with “The Reformed Church” and amazingly you have what looks like history repeating itself. Here’s an example.
Check it out:
“But one of the serious charges church authorities hurled at The Emerging Church was that they were ‘innovating.’ The Emerging Church responded to this and other charges in their treatise The Necessity of the Emerging Church. As they put it, ‘We are accused of rash and impious innovation for having ventured to propose any change at all [in] the former state of The Reformed Church.’ They then go on to counter that they were not ‘innovating,’ but restoring the church to its true nature, purified from the ‘innovations’ that riddled the church through centuries of inattention to Scripture and theological laxity.”
That’s kind of eerie isn’t it? It’s nearly a perfect fit as far as what the Emerging Church would say about itself and the charges that are being hurled against it by many in the Reformed Church.
You see the reformed of our day, and the 16th century Catholics make a common mistake. They both criticize that which is the very essence of the kind of church we should be. The motto of the reformers was not “always reformed” or “always innovated.” On the contrary it was “always reforming” and the idea was that it should be “always innovating”. The distinction is in the choice of suffix, i.e. -ing vs. –ed.
With that said, I think that the emerging conversation will lose its relevance the day it becomes the emerged conversation. Similarly the reformed church has lost its relevance as it has embraced the concept of being -ed as opposed to always -ing.
Here’s a quote I found on Tony Jones blog that says it in a more eloquent way:
"The defining moment of the Protestant Reformation was its protest against the absolutizing tendencies of the medieval church as exhibited in its ecclesiastical structure and its doctrine of the sacraments. As an intramundane historical institution, the church along with all other intramundane entities and organizations testifies to its finitude and frailties, and any claim for ultimacy on its part in matters of faith and morals is but another species of idolatry.
“This defining moment of Protestantism, its iconoclastic principle of protest, was however attenuated, if not straightway abandoned, in the course of the development of the various forms of Protestant orthodoxy. In this development, Protestantism found itself unable to use the Protestant principle against itself as it gravitated toward multiple forms of its own idolatry -- absolutizing church doctrines, creeds, scriptures, founders of sects, or ritual practices."
Calvin Schrag, God as Otherwise than Being: Toward a Semantics of the Gift, 92.
The self-described children of the Reformation whose forbears were hounded by Catholic thought police of the 16th century have now become themselves the arbiters of orthodoxy. Ain’t it funny how times change?
Ain’t it funny how times change? The following is an excerpt from an article posted on the PC(USA) website.
“But one of the serious charges church authorities hurled at the Reformers was that they were ‘innovating.’ John Calvin responded to this and other charges in his treatise The Necessity of Reforming the Church. As he put it, ‘We are accused of rash and impious innovation for having ventured to propose any change at all [in] the former state of the Church.’ He then goes on to counter that they were not ‘innovating,’ but restoring the church to its true nature, purified from the ‘innovations’ that riddled the church through centuries of inattention to Scripture and theological laxity.”
Now I want you to notice something kind of incredible in the above quote, replace the words ‘John Calvin’ with “The Emerging Church” and replace the words “The [Catholic] Church” with “The Reformed Church” and amazingly you have what looks like history repeating itself. Here’s an example.
Check it out:
“But one of the serious charges church authorities hurled at The Emerging Church was that they were ‘innovating.’ The Emerging Church responded to this and other charges in their treatise The Necessity of the Emerging Church. As they put it, ‘We are accused of rash and impious innovation for having ventured to propose any change at all [in] the former state of The Reformed Church.’ They then go on to counter that they were not ‘innovating,’ but restoring the church to its true nature, purified from the ‘innovations’ that riddled the church through centuries of inattention to Scripture and theological laxity.”
That’s kind of eerie isn’t it? It’s nearly a perfect fit as far as what the Emerging Church would say about itself and the charges that are being hurled against it by many in the Reformed Church.
You see the reformed of our day, and the 16th century Catholics make a common mistake. They both criticize that which is the very essence of the kind of church we should be. The motto of the reformers was not “always reformed” or “always innovated.” On the contrary it was “always reforming” and the idea was that it should be “always innovating”. The distinction is in the choice of suffix, i.e. -ing vs. –ed.
With that said, I think that the emerging conversation will lose its relevance the day it becomes the emerged conversation. Similarly the reformed church has lost its relevance as it has embraced the concept of being -ed as opposed to always -ing.
Here’s a quote I found on Tony Jones blog that says it in a more eloquent way:
"The defining moment of the Protestant Reformation was its protest against the absolutizing tendencies of the medieval church as exhibited in its ecclesiastical structure and its doctrine of the sacraments. As an intramundane historical institution, the church along with all other intramundane entities and organizations testifies to its finitude and frailties, and any claim for ultimacy on its part in matters of faith and morals is but another species of idolatry.
“This defining moment of Protestantism, its iconoclastic principle of protest, was however attenuated, if not straightway abandoned, in the course of the development of the various forms of Protestant orthodoxy. In this development, Protestantism found itself unable to use the Protestant principle against itself as it gravitated toward multiple forms of its own idolatry -- absolutizing church doctrines, creeds, scriptures, founders of sects, or ritual practices."
Calvin Schrag, God as Otherwise than Being: Toward a Semantics of the Gift, 92.
The self-described children of the Reformation whose forbears were hounded by Catholic thought police of the 16th century have now become themselves the arbiters of orthodoxy. Ain’t it funny how times change?
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
#57 Plantinga vs. Tucker
It’s Plantinga v. Tucker...
This is an incredible story that seems to be ongoing as of Sept. 13th. Ruth Tucker was dismissed from Calvin Theological Seminary in the past few weeks. Spread the word and apply the heat!
This is an incredible story that seems to be ongoing as of Sept. 13th. Ruth Tucker was dismissed from Calvin Theological Seminary in the past few weeks. Spread the word and apply the heat!
#56 Interesting Links III
Interesting Links...
A Popular Strategy For Church Growth Splits Congregants from The Wall Street Journal – Purpose Driven churches seem to be alienating their members in several mega-church wannabes.
Does God want you to be rich? from Time Magazine – And speaking of Rick Warren, here we find him denouncing prosperity gospel preachers such as Osteen, Meyer, Jakes, and Dollar. Before, I would have just thought to lump him in with the rest of this crowd, but now it seems I can’t just call this whole segment the mega-church types. What we’ve got is prosperity mega-church types and non-prosperity mega-church types.
These “health and wealth” preachers certainly lend credence to Nietzsche’s idea that religion is a crutch. What Nietzsche saw and what these people preached is a Christianity that brings physical well-being, personal comfort, and nice tidy life. For these preachers Jesus was an example in everything but death and discomfort. As for me, I couldn’t be more at the opposite end of the spectrum in my hypothesis of Jesus. Though in one sense he died so we wouldn’t have to, in another he died to show us that we must also.
Zoroastrians Keep the Faith, and Keep Dwindling from The New York Times – Another one bites the dust. I had no idea this religion has been continuously practice since ancient times. What will be the next religion to go down? Any bets?
Praise the Lord, Pass the Ammo from Christianity Today – And from the “You’ve got to be shitting me” section of our broadcast, a new video game uses violence and murder to spread the love of Christ. LeHaye and Jenkins are milking this cash cow for all it’s worth.
Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig Convert to Islam from YouTube – So how do we respond to this as Christians? Ignore it, overlook it, take it for what it is? What is it really? This is the type of moment many young zealous Christians imagine could happen to them someday but as they get older they realize there is no way this could happen to them living here in America. So it’s not a real practical issue. Here it is practical.
A Popular Strategy For Church Growth Splits Congregants from The Wall Street Journal – Purpose Driven churches seem to be alienating their members in several mega-church wannabes.
Does God want you to be rich? from Time Magazine – And speaking of Rick Warren, here we find him denouncing prosperity gospel preachers such as Osteen, Meyer, Jakes, and Dollar. Before, I would have just thought to lump him in with the rest of this crowd, but now it seems I can’t just call this whole segment the mega-church types. What we’ve got is prosperity mega-church types and non-prosperity mega-church types.
These “health and wealth” preachers certainly lend credence to Nietzsche’s idea that religion is a crutch. What Nietzsche saw and what these people preached is a Christianity that brings physical well-being, personal comfort, and nice tidy life. For these preachers Jesus was an example in everything but death and discomfort. As for me, I couldn’t be more at the opposite end of the spectrum in my hypothesis of Jesus. Though in one sense he died so we wouldn’t have to, in another he died to show us that we must also.
Zoroastrians Keep the Faith, and Keep Dwindling from The New York Times – Another one bites the dust. I had no idea this religion has been continuously practice since ancient times. What will be the next religion to go down? Any bets?
Praise the Lord, Pass the Ammo from Christianity Today – And from the “You’ve got to be shitting me” section of our broadcast, a new video game uses violence and murder to spread the love of Christ. LeHaye and Jenkins are milking this cash cow for all it’s worth.
Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig Convert to Islam from YouTube – So how do we respond to this as Christians? Ignore it, overlook it, take it for what it is? What is it really? This is the type of moment many young zealous Christians imagine could happen to them someday but as they get older they realize there is no way this could happen to them living here in America. So it’s not a real practical issue. Here it is practical.
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