Safe Haven

5 Random, Disconnected Thoughts For Today 5. I've never been this excited for a Tuesday ever, though voting for Governor Bush as president was close. 4. Even if Frank Dux is a fraud, I think Bloodsport is one of the coolest movies ever, and I'm glad to be a man, to appreciate it. 3. If you miss the eschatological thrust at the heart of the eucharistic celebration, you might as well go home. 2. I'll let you know when I figure out what a "solid evangelical church" is. 1. Go Twins!

5 Thoughts On Letterman's Confession/Legal Battle/Monologue Last Night: 5. Guess that "tower of Midwestern, Lutheran guilt" didn't kick in too fast. 4. The movie will get made. 3. Little blackmails occur every day which aren't crimes. 2. Even if Sarah Palin did cut McCain's meat/food during the campaign, there's no shame in that, and it's not funny. 1. You forgot to add "who were not my wife" onto, "I've had sex with people who work on this show." Geez, harsh-sounding, judgmental list today. What am I, the Church Lady?

The Sports Guy, Taylor Swift, and A New Song Some weeks ago, I was reading ESPN's "The Sports Guy," Bill Simmons, that hilariously insightful commentator on all things sports. He is especially good to read on New England/Boston sports (though I hate Boston) and his intimate fan's perspective is equal parts frank and loyal. Anyway, he took a break from sports to tell us about his 4oth birthday party trip to Las Vegas. In between funny takes on blackjack and casino etiquette, the fantasy football draft with his buddies punctuated by porn and drunkenness (two things I strongly discourage) he mentioned Kings of Leon's song, "Use Somebody." He said that they played it so many times that he'd physically injure the Kings for composing it. At that time, I hadn't heard it. For the sake of science, I just listened to it. My reaction is: I like it. Or, I should say, I like the balance of it--most of it--and the part I dislike is the pacing of the backg...

5 Natural Questions, Following the Admission That One's Night Was Ruined By Homer Bailey 5. What is this, 'Dirty Jobs'? 4. Are you Homer's date? 3. Is that Kanye's alias? 2. Is that a horse you bet on? 1. Why didn't you re-grout the bathtub yourself?

Oddball Side Project (and a rant about the thin veneer of morality in culture) I have written approvingly of Terry Lewis and his pal James Harris, III (AKA Jimmy Jam) as two of the architects of R&B and neo-soul's crossover to whites in the '80s and '90s, and that is well-deserved. They worked much of their magic with the princess of a pop dynasty, Janet Jackson. One of the best-known (and loved) songs from her 1986 release Control is a song titled, "Let's Wait Awhile," about two young people who delay their first sexual encounter. This song has one of the prettiest melodies in a pop song I've ever heard. Part of the reason that R&B gained in stature during this period (other than Michael Jackson) is that producers and songwriters saw that electronics could be used not only in the service of upbeat dance rhythms, but ballads also, in layering lush vocals with well-mixed keyboards to till the emotional and auditory ground before lyrics are even sun...

Christ Our King: 10 Years I wish I had words to express what this church, these people, mean to me. If I am walking in the light now, I walk because of them. If I have loved at all, it's because of them. If I know anything, they taught it to me. I told them that I will be walking down the street, and I'll hear our hymns in my head, and in my heart. I see their faces. There are some who are gone, but I see them, too. I wish Tim Durrett would read me some Scripture in that beautiful accent of his; I wish we were going to Marc and Debbie's after worship. I wish Martha was here to say something wise. I wish certain things were whole again. I keep hoping to see T-dog sitting in the back next to the piano. We got a letter from folks I had nearly forgotten about, until I remembered that in more certain days, I called the patriarch "Liberal Ed." I promise, not long ago, he was the only one. The Tamerius kids used to take turns holding the hymnal for me while I sang. That...

5 Thoughts From The 10th Anniversary Celebration/Vespers at Christ Our King Church 5. I think I owe Evan some money. 4. I think I owe Pastor Travis money. 3. I didn't know this cost money. 2. I wasted half a beer. 1. Be a man for once, and tell the story without crying.

The GOP Nominee in 2012 Ought To Be... Let me preface this with the note that I am considering geography and battlegrounds only; that is, not necessarily the record of the person in question. With that said, the only logical choice for the 2012 GOP nomination for president is...Tim Pawlenty. The GOP must do everything in its power to avoid classification as a regional, Southern, party. In addition, to defeat Obama, they need someone with no real ties to former President G. W. Bush. It'd be moronic for the president to blame 12 years on 'W,' but he'll try if you let him. They need to put the Midwest in play while holding the South. They need someone who doesn't have a history of angering the base. A person who is relatively young will take away perhaps Obama's biggest unacknowledged advantage from 2008, age. Pawlenty is the governor of Minnesota, and this executive experience will likely contrast favorably with Obama, who is already vulnerable on this point and ...

5 Ways To Tell You Are A Vainglorious Extrovert 5. You have a burning urge to be a Wikipedia editor. 4. Does the word 'karaoke' mean anything to you? 3. Trivial Pursuit. Full volume. No mercy. 2. You would totally pull a 'Commodores'--start a band and write songs to impress girls. 1. You own a blog.

5 Thoughts When Realizing One Has an E-mail From Dr. Bill Frist, MD 5. "Are you gonna watch the 'Grey's Anatomy' premiere tonight?" 4. "I'm not really prepared to go to Africa right now, sir." 3. "No 'nuclear option'? No votes for you, come back, 4 years!" 2. "How did you get this e-mail? What does the GOP know, and when did they know it?" 1. "Do you listen to 'Please Come To Boston' like a thousand times a day?"

5 Random, Perhaps Disconnected Thoughts for Today 5. There are a lot of good teams in the National League this year, most of whom (grammar error?) will be playing golf in about a week and a half. 4. The creators of "Grey's Anatomy" must have thought, "Hey, let's do a serious version of 'Scrubs'!" And it works. 3. So glad to find out that small, yet significant piece of information. Will I do anything about it? 2. I doubt catching the garter means anything, but if it does, I'm not complaining. 1. Someone should make a movie of John 13-17. It makes me cry like a baby.

A Political Rant I see far too many Christians over-simplifying the moral imperatives of the gospel of Jesus as they attempt to apply it to the political process. They are still operating as though the stereotypes presented by political actors (especially by opponents of those various actors) are valid. Frankly, to be specific, I see too many Christians defaulting to a kind of socialism, (or at least a statism) because A) some 'progressives' make a big fuss about caring for the poor (and their myriad opponents don't, for various reasons), B) they ignore, or fail to see that state-directed 'compassion' involves coercion which, by its very nature, denies individuals their God-given status as free moral agents, or C) they are just plain ignorant. Under (C), a certain sanctified stupidity prevails, whereby intent is the only measure of a policy's desirability. Most forms of Protestant soteriology actually encourage this. Because of "the finished work of Christ,...

R&B At A Crossroads One thing even a casual music fan could note about the times after what I might call the "LaFace Era"--so named after the co-founders of LaFace Records, Antonio "LA" Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds from about 1988-2000--is the seeming omnipresence of hip-hop/rap as the face (pardon the pun) of Black music. I recall anecdotally that rap, R&B, and even soul could be distinguished. If you wanted rap, you consumed radio that provided it. If you wanted soul, you got soul, and that alone. "R&B" (which used to stand for 'rhythm and blues') was and is an ambiguous term, because it denotes both the fast and the slow, percussive and vocal. It isn't that hip-hop and soul are inherently hostile and opposed, but it seemed until very recently that the forms respected the distinct but occasionally overlapping audiences. I think certainly what we see today is hip-hop entirely subsuming R&B and soul. The crossov...

Top 5 Rejected Presbyterian Slogans 5. "We're Predestined To Look Down on You." 4. "We're Like Politicians; It's All About Election." 3. "We Love Everyone--In A General, Non-Efficacious Sense." 2. "Form A Committee With Us Today!" 1. "Dry Theology--In A Good Martini Sort Of Way."

Decorum is Decorum The unfortunately named Rep. Joe Wilson, R-SC (you'll recall a famous liar by that name a few years back) yelled, "You lie!" at President Obama during his speech to the joint session last week. I say it was a most unpatriotic and disruptive action, worthy of a severe reprimand by the House of Representatives. I am unmoved by the recall of the abuse heaped on President Bush; when we are discussing the dignity of our institutions, and of the occasions of their use, we have no place for this kind of thing. The only ground we have to stand on in our moral outrage is simply, We wouldn't do that if the roles were reversed . It saddens me that this guy is some conservative hero now. Is the only thing left in our politics a hatred for the opposition? In my America, you don't put an unpatriotic cad's words on a T-shirt, celebrating like you "stuck it to The Man." I didn't watch the speech, and I don't support the president's he...

I was brushing my teeth. 10:15 Central Time. The bathroom closest to the front desk in my university residence hall. Some guy ran in. This is (approximately) what followed: "Dude, someone attacked the World Trade Center. They think 50,000 people might be dead." "C'mon, man, that's not funny." "No, I'm serious. I wouldn't joke about that." I finished brushing, and went to the desk. We had a whiteboard that had all the day's news, sports, and weather. Understandably on this day, it had only one item. In a big box underneath everything was a message: "In spite of everything that has happened, we are not going to judge anyone by his or her skin color, religion, or national origin." Or something like that. I have never been so glad to see such a statement ever before. I guess I'm supposed to hate such spasms of political correctness. But there is nothing more conservative than holding individuals (and them alone) responsible fo...

5 Curious Facts/Opinions About the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals 5. Their NL Central division lead hasn't decreased since July 30. 4. If the Cardinals lost every game for the rest of the season, they would finish with the same number of wins as their 2006 World Championship team. 3. The Cardinals thought that Kyle Lohse would be the team's third-best starting pitcher, (and paid him accordingly) but it has actually been Joel Pineiro. 2. Things are good when your team's fourth-best starter is future Hall of Fame member John Smoltz. 1. The NL Cy Young Award winner will not be a Cardinal, because Chris Carpenter (16-3, 2.16 ERA) will split the vote with his teammate Adam Wainwright (17-7, 2.68 ERA).

5 Things To Do On Labor Day, 2009 5. Count the hours to the Cards-Brewers matchup, lamenting the soul-crushing loss in Pittsburgh yesterday. 4. Wonder what whitewashed, commie-free version of Labor Day the History Channel will present. 3. Paranoidly wonder what collectivist inanity the government is planning. 2. Recall amusedly that the collectivist plots will likely be undone by Joe Biden's big mouth. 1. Trust in Jesus, whose labor gives my labor meaning on this, and every, day.

5 Ways To Tell You Are, Or Have Been, A Calvinist: 5. You have two dogs...you know the rest. 4. Your favorite word is "decree." 3. You refer to your backyard as "New Geneva." 2. During your last fight with a family member, you felt the most guilty for screaming, "You Arminian!" in the heat of it. 1. While not knowing exactly how your free will was involved, you KNOW you were predestined to read this post.

5 More Ways to Tell You Are Jason Kettinger 5. Your theology is one long, extended baseball metaphor. 4. You like Babyface's music more than Babyface does. 3. Your first celebrity crush was Barbara Hershey. 2. You mix your mother's birthday up with the Kennedy assassination. 1. You know "The Cutting Edge" is the greatest chick-flick of all time.