Happy New Years Eve, and a belated Christmas wishes!

Okay, okay.. I've been terrible for posting anything lately. This holiday season saw a lot of eggnog and family relatives - usually at the same time! With the countdown to New Years Eve just hours away, I thought I would take time to ask the Lord for blessings on your house, my house, and all those who seek it.

May this year be blessed with joy, and not much sorrow - if we must endure it, hopefully it is only enough for us to appreciate the joyful moments we have in our lives.

May this year be blessed with personal wealth, good fortune, and plenty of time! Time seems to be the one thing I am always in constant demand for, and personal wealth and good fortune are fringe benefits for a student.

May this year be blessed with more peace than fighting. This year saw more world conflict in a time in which we should be working more together, not apart.

May this year be blessed with good health, and a clear mind. God knows I certainly didn't have either this year past. LOL.

May this year be blessed with a year without another election - Please God. Okay, I know it's selfish, but I had to throw that one out there.. I just hate going to the polls every 365 to 375 days.

May your family be blessed with love, you be blessed with love, and the New Year be a heck of a year - better than the one past. Take care, and God bless!

Shawn
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Only Among Charismatic Evangelicals....

... could you not be fundamentally disturbed at hearing that the leader of an organization called "The Fire Center" sponsors an annual summer program entitled "Kids On Fire." Some readers may be familiar with this program, a summer camp which was recently the subject of a documentary called "Jesus Camp," the DVD release of which I am awaiting most eagerly. The camp was the brainchild of Pentecostal pastor Becky Fischer (of said "Fire Center") and was located, of all places, near Devils Lake, North Dakota. Before going further, I should note in fairness to Fischer and other "fiery" people involved that F.I.R.E. is actually an acronym for "Families Ignited for Revival and Evangelism," which in some ways sounds even more disturbing, since it's implying that the fathers and mothers of the children are going to be lit on fire as well. Nero would be pleased: after over a millennium and a half as the dominant religion of the West, now we're going to be doing his work for him. Or we're just going to be burning ourselves (and you can use whatever definition of "burn" that you like there). Or something. The Fire Center's webpage can be found here, and if you want their "spiritual vision" (which is Christianese for "business plan"; the two actually have very similar terminology), just click on the "About Us" tab.

This isn't a church so much as a children's ministry with some of the trappings of a family-friendly church, so we'll start with the youth, just the way church does. Indoctrination works better when you start at a younger age. Their "PowerClub" kids ministry (here) promises to explore "typical topics" like "hearing God's voice, giving prophetic words, being led by the Spirit of God, healing the sick, the blood of Jesus, intercessory prayer, radical worship, the gifts of the Spirit, missions, and so much more." The only ones on that list that don't disturb me are ones that don't sound entirely fit for teaching to six year olds, but I'm sure they know what they're doing. They add that "This is definitely not your "same old" children's ministry! Our mandate is simple--to raise up a generation that can openly display the raw power of God!" Once the kids have been Powered Up, video game style, they graduate to the "Club Ignite!" teens ministry, where "our teens are being filled with the Holy Spirit and stepping into beginning levels of the prophetic through seeing mini-visions and receiving simple words from God that have impacted and encouraged the group." Fantastic. Again, the goal is to display the "raw power of God!" I wonder how they're going to do that. Rain fire down on San Francisco? Among other things, it turns out that they wrap tiny fetus dolls in American flags and pray over them to end abortion in America (here). Isn't that nice. The last time there was a Children's Crusade, the kids were sold off into slavery. Hopefully that doesn't happen again.

Anywho, the Fire Center's leader headed up the Kids on Fire summer camp, which has some truly entertaining and disturbing video footage on the likes of YouTube. (Depending on your views of the copyright laws, I imagine you could also find some othe method of getting the film "Jesus Camp," though I don't necessarily recommend it.) Ninety minutes of chilling footage of children turned into religious zealots, twelve-year-old automatons for Christ. It's like Hamas for Jesus.

What really breaks my heart about the whole thing is that the next generation of activists is being raised "pledging allegiance to the Christian Flag" and being told that "there are two kinds of people in this world: people who love Jesus and people who don't," and believing that "we're being trained to be God's Army." It is time for an end to zealotry. If we must have movements going forth, it should be movements of people willing to think critically and challenge idiocy. Teaching your children that it is good that "Galileo gave up science for Christ" is not just asinine, it is horrifying and immoral.

Writer's postscript: I'd just about finished writing this when Shawn posted that he, too, used to be "on Fire for the Lord." I think it's time for a new organization: Christians Against Self-Immolation.
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Christianity to me, now and then..

Sometimes, I lay awake and wonder about how my faith has changed (I was going to use the term evolved, but I think some might have issue with the word being used in conjunction with the notion of faith. LOL) over the years. I've concluded I must either be a terrible Christian or I've been living in faith for so long it just feels natural.

When I was younger, and in my teens, I was a teenage 'Christian Radical'. I was 'on Fire' for the Lord, and enjoyed praying. I enjoyed service. I enjoyed the retreats and getaways.

Now, I'm so damn eager to leave the service so I can get the free cookies and coffee I almost knock over the little old ladies on the way. I mean, the service is good.. And prayer, well, okay.. not so much as I used to. Reading scripture.. well, that too has been rather.. sporatic. Sometimes, someone talks when the priest offers, and I can't help but wish they'd let the preist get back to his service.. I'm there to hear him, not them.. but none this seems very Christian, and I guess I see myself becoming more complaicent with my Christianity.. something I don't think is any good.

But compared to my youth? I remember being chained to Morgentaler's Clinic. I remember shouting at the steps of EveryWomen's Clinic. I remember being taken away in a paddy wagon from Scott's Clinic. I remember objecting to gay rights. I don't think I was very tolerant then. Very devout, I suppose. I don't know if what I was could be considered 'Christian'. Christ, after all, taught us to be compassionate towards others even when we disagreed with the way they lived their lives. I'm certianly more compassionate towards others now, with my views towards gays and abortion changing. Does this make me Christian? I don't know. Does being more devout make me more Christian? Again, I don't know. But I suppose the minute I stop asking these questions, then that in of itself answers the question, does it not?

Shawn
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Sure, this isn't religion, but...

Women do not like to read.

This according to the Wall Street Journal, which is implementing changes next year in order to make itself more attractive to women. The executive vice-president of Dow Jones (which publishes WSJ), L. Gordon Crovitz, says that the paper will be using more summary boxes, more colorful graphics, and an easier to read font. It will also have "more headlines with words like 'will and 'why' in the headlines," according to Crovitz (yes, he needed to repeat "headlines" for emphasis). Crovitz further explained that "women... seem especially enthusiastic about the format." CBS is covering this exciting development (here) and naturally couldn't resisit peppering their online article with inane and unnecessary metaphors about the WSJ geting a "facelift," etc, etc. CBS seems to think the changes are a good idea, since they found women readers of the WSJ to say the changes were good, and male readers of the WSJ willing to say that the changes were unwanted.

So there you have it. Women need more point-form summaries and graphics if we expect them to understand the complex topics that the male readers of the leading business press have been pondering for generations. Incidentally, there's also a Woman's Wall Street here, which has no relation to the WSJ but exists "to help women... manage their" investments, and whose CEO, fittingly, is a man. Because even if their husband isn't around, women do need a man's guidance to keep their affairs in order.

The WSJ's real concern is the amount of paper they're using - Dow Jones says they're going to save $18 million a year, which is a tidy sum in an industry that's taking heavy bombardment for the ubiquitous free news available over the Internet. So the appeal to women as the new financial investor seems a little crass. (CBS noted that the LA Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today are also cutting in similar fashion, but didn't say whether their corporate executives also blamed the need to downsize the paper on the idiosyncrasies of female readers.) However, this attempt at reaching out to women seems like a parody of equity to me. And it's not just the WSJ who's guilty.

Let's run through the list. The WSJ needs to be thinned down so that the fairer sex can read it comfortably. Women need special advice so that they will be able to manage their investments as well as men (incidentally, the last three press releases on the site are, in reverse chronological order, "Valentine's Day: What Women Really Want"; "Survey reveals Top Five New Year's Resolutions"; and "Women reveal their holiday spending 'cents'"). My home province, British Columbia, has a Minister Responsible for Women's Issues, because apparently health, employment, education, finance, and the environment are not, in fact, issues for women. What the intangible "women's issues" are remains as mysterious as why women can't read a real newspaper article.

The WSJ should call its cost-cutting measure exactly what it is, and people should stop paying lip service to equity by creating inane, patronizing figureheads.

Thus spake Reverend Dave.
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