truth is everywhere.

so was i reminded yesterday when i happened upon a tweet from @Buddha_Insights (via damien echols):

https://twitter.com/Buddha_Insights/statuses/295849109473091584

file this tweet in the category, “shots fired”. in this case, (whether it’s intentional or not) the shots flew in the direction of christianity. and, quite frankly, the shots are fair. (as well as this one, but that’s another post altogether.)

unless you’ve been hiding from the internet over the last 24 hours (or you don’t give a rat’s about this type of story), you’ve probably watched or seen reference to a new video of mark driscoll (and yes, that website is real life…) preaching at mars hill.

in a nutshell, our favorite protector of truth and all around swell guy, pastor mark, informs his congregation, his legions of devoted followers and the rest of the world (thanks to something we call the interwebs) that all this “god is love” talk is a bunch of hooey. yes, i (and, apparently he) realizes that 1 john 4:8 literally says that, but it obviously can’t be trusted because it sounds like that hippy, limp-wristed jesus that you keep hearing about.

trivia time.

what’s the most common phrase in the bible?

[insert annoying jeopardy music]

[sorry, there's no prize except the pride of winning…]

[well, we could probably arrange for an awkward side hug…]

[stringing this out way too long…]

people are often surprised to learn that “fear not” (or “do not fear” or some other iteration) is, in fact, the most common phrase in the bible. with nearly 400 uses, it appears far more than any other phrase throughout scripture.

the question, naturally, is why that is so common.

whether it’s a primary motivator or a smaller piece of the puzzle, most objective, analytical observers of the tea party can see that racial undertones are, well, more than just undertones. they’re relatively major players within this “movement”. nearly 90% of those involved are white and generally upper middle class. i’m not sure if you’ve heard or not, but the [...]

last month, the calvinist legions of bloggers hit the interwebs to lambast their chosen messiah, john piper, for what they viewed as a theological slap in the face. piper did the (apparently) unthinkable and invited rick warren to be one of the featured speakers at his desiring god 2010 national conference (in addition to speakers such as the SBC godfather [...]

i grew up here in arkansas. in the south. in one of the so-called confederate states of america. growing up, these things were quite self-evident. from confederate flags waving proudly on bubba’s chevy stepside truck to the idolization of the dukes of hazard’s general lee to—on the very serious end of things—seeing nooses hung at church camp one year when [...]

i love twitter. for a lot of different reasons. it’s fast, it’s streamlined, it’s connective, it’s educational, it allows regular exercise in brevity, it’s ADD-friendly, it’s bridge-building, it’s uniquely expressive. it’s all this and more. but. i do have a handful of gripes. there’s several things that consistently bug me on twitter. one of the beauties of twitter is that [...]