of protest and privilege: tim wise talks tea party and racial divide
Tue, Apr 27 2010 12:59 PM
| rant, church, news, jesus, quotes, christian subculture, popular culture, politics, current events
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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 dude they hate and rally against is a black guy named barack obama. you know, "that one".
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rampant religion roundup: lifeway christian stores, jennifer knapp and johnny piper
Fri, Apr 23 2010 02:38 PM
| rant, christen, church, news, emergent, jesus, eikon, theology, music, favorites, popular culture, current events
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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 al mohler and the treading-on-thin-ice-because-now-you're-making-films-with-that-rob-bell-company francis chan).
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when heritage is hate: virginia governor declares "confederate history month"
Wed, Apr 7 2010 02:42 PM
| rant, personal, arkansas, little rock, jesus, christian subculture, popular culture, politics, current events
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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 a black student attended. yes, indeed, i grew up in arkansas.
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twitter me this: 5 twitter gripes
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 it's not too strictly-defined, so you can use it for whatever purposes you might have. so my list of gripes is highly personal. it isn't like these things are violations of some kind of twitter equivalent to the code of hammurabi or the 10 commandments. and while i do think my list is probably shared by a large number of twitterers, it's still necessary to say that it's just sorta "one of those things" kind of deals for me and maybe not for anyone else.
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pulaski academy, marching bands |||amp; the new racism
Fri, Nov 13 2009 08:11 AM
| rant, general life, personal, little rock, theology, family, popular culture
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when i saw, on the arkansas blog, the teaser, "A local blogger has written—unhappily—that Pulaski Academy won't send its band to a football playoff game in Helena-West Helena", i thought this was going to be a flashback to 1993 when the conway high school football team lost to pine bluff in the state championship game. after a searing defeat, some conway fans looked for a direction in which their finger could point. of all places, they found the band, saying that their minimal playing caused the team to lose. yes, you read that correctly: the band's lack of horns and drums and cymbals. so when i saw this headline, i thought i was in for the same disbelief from nearly 16 years ago.
that, though, is not what i discovered.
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an open letter to those who have been burned by church
Tue, Sep 1 2009 08:56 PM
| rant, personal, church, emergent, eikon, confessions, christian subculture, theology, popular culture
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thanks to a tweet from @emergentvillage, i came across a great blog post from curtis honeycutt (@curtishoneycutt) today speaking to—as the title suggests—those who have been burned by church. it's a beautiful, vulnerable, honest conversation with an ever-growing group of people. so, if you've ever felt put off, not by jesus, but by the church, take a minute to read this. curtis, no doubt, shares
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move over pat robertson: john piper talks gay tornadoes
Thu, Aug 20 2009 11:09 PM
| rant, personal, church, emergent, christian subculture, theology
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the internet was sucked into a swirling vortex of crazy today: john piper blogged. oh, john piper didn't just blog about any ol' thing. he blogged about tornadoes. wait, not just any tornado. piper blogged about the gay tornado. you know, the one god sent to wipe out the 2009 assembly of the evangelical lutheran church yesterday in minneapolis. duh.ok, a quick background might be helpful. over the
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rant two: bill maher talks healthcare (insert ominous music here)
Sun, Aug 9 2009 08:36 PM
| rant, personal, popular culture, politics
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as i've discussed before (where you can read rant 1), i'm a HUGE proponent for massive healthcare reform. truth be told, as opposed to my generally centrist political viewpoints, i'm actually on the far left side of things in that i'm an avid supporter of full-on universal healthcare. for various reasons, i wish more than even the current bill is trying to do was being done to overhaul the system.i'm
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my feeble attempt to avoid a rant: healthcare reform.
here's your mission: spend 5 minutes talking to me about politics or general social justice issues and see if i can make it without a passionate/frustrated rant about the status of our healthcare system.unfortunately for you, this is sort of like a casino: the house is designed to always win. maybe you hit the jackpot once in a million tries, but the odds are stacked against you.i just can't talk about
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world map according to americans
you know that guy who when someone tells a joke, he just kills it because he over-analyzes it or wants to dissect it into unnecessarily serious parts? you know that guy?ok, this post is going to be me being that guy...so, a few days ago, i received—in an email—the image that you see here.alright, let's get this out of the way. on a surface level, yes, i think this is funny. i laughed when i looked
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sucking face wilco style
i subscribe to only 2 magazines: relevant & paste. i love them both and i would recommend you check them out. one of the aspects i love in each is the great writing—writing that strikes a balance between a casual tone, humor, sincerity and just good writing.in the march/april issue of paste, matt price—a writer out of l.a.—wrote a hilarious piece about standing behind a couple who made out
memo to the "i'm cool" cussers: you're not.
ok, would you all mind if i just rant for a minute? (not that i've ever asked permission before...)thesis (and rant instigator): cussing has become the new smoking...which, of course, is the standard for coolness. you know, like, "hey, i'm really cool...i smoke." cussing has taken its place. ok, on to the analysis.let me just start by saying that cussing doesn't particularly bother me. both from a
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