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March 01, 2008
Life : Greetings from Canberra
I ommitted a few details on my post last Friday about my business trip this past week:
- The business meetings were in Sydney Australia
- Anne (my wife) traveled with me
- We are spending an additional week in Australia to play tourist and...
- We are visiting at least one long-time friend while we are here :)
Posted by Steven at 02:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
March 03, 2008
Books : Books 2008/03/03
Current count of books pending to be read: 124
Read two, purchased none.
Books finished this week:
Softwareby Rudy Rucker
by Rudy Rucker
I am reading Rucker’s ‘ware trilogy this week (not quite finished with Freeware). Interesting. All three books are about what it means to be “human”. If you reproduce a human consciousness in a computer program, is it still a human being? If you create a human body and program the brain with an artificial intelligence, is it still human? In the end, does it matter?
The ideas in the book are excellent; the quality of the writing however was variable. I’m glad I read them; but I’m not sure I am as excited about the series as other folks seem to be.
Computer Games Played: none
DVDs Watched: none
Next Book: Freeware
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 04, 2008
Life : Tetsuya’s
For last week’s business trip, I was part of the entourage of my company’s head of marketing, head of sales, and head of engineering; who were meeting with similarly high pay grade folks from 5 of our biggest customers. Definitely up there in the rarefied air, and it was my first experience with world-class “wining and dining”. I ate more excellent food and drank more wine last week than I had all last year.
The climax of this experience was that we ate at Tetsuya’s, which (according to the New York Times) is the fourth best restaurant in the world – an honor I can not dispute based on my experiences last week. We were served a 14 course meal (accompanied by 7 different wines chosen to compliment each dish). It was an amazing culinary experience.
For those who have seen the TV show “Iron Chef” (either the Japanese or American versions), the fourth act is always the judges getting to taste each of the ten or twelve creative, well presented dishes that the two competing chefs managed to cook. Eating at Tetsyua’s is kind like that.
Every dish is innovative both in terms of ingredients, preparation and presentation. Things like “cold corn soup with saffron and a dollop of vanilla ice cream” (trust me – it worked); or “grilled wagyu beef with lime and wasabi.” Most courses are only a two or three of bites; but the flavors are wonderful and varied. There were a couple of dishes (and wines) that didn’t work for me; but most I would love to have again (and again).
This was my first experience with food at this level. Not sure when (if ever) I’ll have the opportunity to do something like this again (at $300 per person, I doubt I’d end up paying for it myself). I do note that the number one restaurant on the ‘Times list is actually not far from where we live.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
March 05, 2008
TV : Desert Island Media (TV)
This is the continuation of my response to a suggestion for posts from Melissa. Essentially if I had to go a long period of time with access to only a small set of movies, books, TV, games, which would I choose? Previous posts in this series can be found here:
My short list of TV shows to have and re-watch is also pretty easy to generate. What’s more, unlike books, this is pretty close to my list of best or recommended shows as well.
This should come as absolutely no surprise to regular readers of this blog as I have waxed effusive about the series on several occasions. While most TV series become less interesting after the third or fourth viewing, my appreciation of Buffy continues to grow each time I watch it. I spot new connections, new nuances, new moral or philosophical conundrums. I am in the midst of (slowly) re-watching it and Angel all over again (on my Monday posts, look under DVDs Watched for “BtVS” and “AtS”). In fact I would go so far as to say that if Buffy was the only TV series I was allowed to watch for several years, I would be content.
2. Babylon 5
Again, this should not be a surprise. I re-watched the whole series again last year and still enjoyed it. It is a far less subtle series than Buffy (which likely accounts for the lack of academic interests in the show) – JMS said what he wanted to say so clearly that there is little to discuss afterwards. Still, I could stand to watch it again and again.
3. Battlestar Galactica (the 2005 version)
This is the one of only two current series on my list (and the only one in the top three); but it is also clearly a masterpiece (although I am doubtful it could have been made unless Babylon 5 and Buffy had broken the ground for it). It even has potential to move up to the number two slot on my list when the series is done; but right now it is still an open question as to whether they can bring it to a satisfactory conclusion.
If I could take a few more, I would grab:
4. Angel
Back to Joss Whedon’s work and the other half of the Buffyverse. While the first two seasons of Angel struggled to find its distinct voice, seasons four and five more than make up for the shaky start.
5. Firefly
Finishing out the Joss Whedon trifecta. While less than a season’s worth of TV, I’d still want it.
6. Dead Like Me
A fascinating series about the meaning of life as told from the perspective a slacker girl who dies and becomes one of the grim reapers (harvesting the souls of the dead). While it sounds morbid, it is actually both funny and poignant.
The other current series in my list, and its down at number 7. I was afraid that this series might go the way of “Desperate Housewives” (great first seasons and downhill from there); but they have managed to keep the writing, acting, and directing at a consistently high level. There are some individual episodes of Grey’s that I might put forward as among the top ten episodes of a TV show ever.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
March 06, 2008
Observations : Things Everyone Should Understand
This started out as an attempt to answer one of Melissa’s questions; but it morphed as I struggled to find an answer and eventually ended up as this – a list of things I think it is important that everyone needs to understand about Life, The Universe, and Everything.
1. Real Christianity is not what is practiced in most Christian churches. What is practiced in most churches is a set of rituals and rules meant to appease God. Real Christianity is about having a relationship with God where He helps transform you into His image. To understand this better – read the Bible for yourself.
2. The world is a complex place and therefore most actions have unintended consequences. Too often in the world, people see problem A and propose an obvious solution B. The problem is, that while B may in fact solve A, it almost always also produce some other effect C, which can be even worse than A - or sometimes it is better (unintended consequences can cut both ways). I have seen this in the software industry – you want engineers to be more productive so you pay them bonuses based on the number of lines of code they write. Productivity appears to jump; but you eventually discover that you are stuck with fat, slow code that has been “padded” to increase line counts. By far the best book on this is Levitt’s “Freakonomics” which among other things deals with the near perfect correlation between abortion rates in various states in the US and drops in the adult crime rate in those states 18 years later. Levitt doesn’t judge if this is a good thing or not, only that it is an unintended consequence of abortion policy.
3. People need to understand that everyone is biased, even themselves. I use to teach a class on church history, and always started each session with the observation “All history is biased, even this one”. It’s not that I intentionally spun my presentation in some specific direction; but church history is a big subject and even the process of picking what facts to share and which to ignore is influenced by my assumptions about what is important. In the same way, it is important to keep in mind when listening to anyone – a news reporter, a blogger, an author, a pastor, anyone – that what the person says will always be influenced by characteristics of the speaker that will not always be obvious. A question I often ask myself when hearing some idea for the first time is: “What would someone who disagrees say?” Getting views from other perspectives is always useful, even if you are fairly sure whose opinion is correct. This is especially true with regard to your own ideas. Having a circle of friend you can bounce ideas off of is one of the most valuable things in the world.
4. It’s not all about you. People so often get caught up in how the world is conspiring against them. The unfortunate reality is that most of the world doesn’t even know they exist. This is a harsh lesson; but one that is best learned early. The store clerk who gave you the dirty look probably didn’t even know you were there – the look was a reflection of something else they happened to be thinking about at the time. As I have said before “Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by mere incompetence”. While we are each the stars of our own stories that play out in our minds, with the exception of a few people who are close to us, we are just bit players in almost everyone else’s dramas.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
March 07, 2008
Games : Desert Island Media (Computer Games)
This is the continuation of my response to a suggestion for posts from Melissa. Essentially if I had to go a long period of time with access to only a small set of movies, books, TV, games, which would I choose? Previous posts in this series can be found here:
Here is my short list of Computer Games I’d like to have with me
Given the number of hours I have already wiled away playing the various versions of SimCity, there is no doubt that I could play it for many more without any loss of enjoyment
2. Minesweeper
OK, a free game that comes with Windows might seem like an odd choice; but for me playing Minesweeper is a philosophical exercise. Consider: playing this game is all about constantly asking three questions: What can I prove to be absolutely true (where do I know a mine is)? What can I prove to be absolutely false (where do I know a mine is not)? And when you have exhausted all possible answers to those questions: What has the best probability of being true (what space is least likely to contain a mine)? Put that way, minesweeper is the ultimate skeptics game. The logic needed to play it well is useful in many aspects of life.
While Anne (an avid knitter) gets to cry “let me finish the row”, I get to call “just one more turn” when I am playing any of the Civ games. They always keep you in the mode of thinking “If I could just get this done…”.
I am by the way assuming here that online games are excluded (they have a distinct advantage of providing human interaction and regular content updates – new stuff). If online games are allowed, the Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online would be my second and third choices – SimCity would remain at number one.
If I could take a few more, I would grab:
This is more in the SimCity mold – the focus is not on playing golf but creating the perfect golf course.
This is a very complex simulation of European history which I have never become proficient in. Perhaps if I had lots of time…
6. "Neverwinter Nights, Diamond Compilation
Not only was this a great game in its own right; but it is also a game editor, so when I grew tired of playing their content I could create my own. It was a tough call whether to go with the original NWN or NWN2. The editor in 2 is clearly superior; but content in the box with the original was superior.
On top of all that, “Spore” is due out later this yet, and if it lives up to the demonstrations I have seen of it, Spore may well reach my top three.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Life : Thanks Melissa
Just wanted to drop a quick note to thank Melissa for the “Desert Island Media” idea. It was just the inspiration I needed in this busy period to come up with some posts while I was otherwise distracted. I do very much plan to address some of your other suggestions as well – perhaps after this crunch.
I am also thinking of doing a fifth post in the series for Board Games I’d bring; but not now.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
March 08, 2008
Life : Back Home
Jet lagged with a lot of catching up to do (TV, web, etc.); but home again. I have a blog post or two to write about our Australia trip; but I’m not sure when I’ll have a clear enough head to write it.
Posted by Steven at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 10, 2008
Books : Books 2008/03/10
Current count of books pending to be read: 126
Read one, purchased three. Urban vacations can be hard on this list. I tend to be too busy to read much but have access to a lot of new book stores. Road trips aren’t as bad since you tend to have long evenings in hotel rooms to read.
Books finished this week:
Freewareby Rudy Rucker
What a disappointment. While I enjoyed Software and Wetware, this sequel was a real mess. There were a lot of half baked ideas thrown together but almost nothing was carried through to any kind of payoff. The “freeware” of the title doesn’t even show up until nearly the end of the book. I get the sense that Rucker might be setting up some further sequels; but you have to provide a good story with your set-up and this wasn’t one.
Computer Games Played: none
DVDs Watched: none
Next Book: Perdido Street Station (already half way through; but the book is 600 pages).
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Faith : Dan on Church and Clergy
As is often the case, Dan of Cerulean Sanctum says things far better than I do (follow the link).
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 11, 2008
Life : Sydney Travelogue
I’m doing at least two posts about my Sydney trip. This, the first, will be a fairly conventional travelogue while the second will be more subjective observations.
Monday through Thursday of the first week I was busy with work. Anne got to see the city, shop, and make some friends while I got to see the inside of our hotel, our company’s offices, our customer’s offices, and some nice restaurants.
Friday I had some short meetings in the morning and then Anne and I spent the afternoon wandering through the downtown shopping area of Sydney. There are several buildings there that have been converted into malls – the most interesting of which is the Queen Victoria Building, originally built in 1898, which is now a four story shopping mall that retains much of the historic Victorian architecture. It should also be noted that most of these malls are interconnected underground so you can go from building to building without really being aware of it. In terms of shopping, I was able to find a good board game store; but discovered (confirmed) that books are a generally twice as expensive as they are here in the ‘States.
Saturday and Sunday we went to Canberra by bus. This was mostly to see Melissa (having not seen her in over ten years and finding ourselves within a couple hundred miles of her, this was an opportunity we didn’t want to miss). Melissa did a wonderful job of showing us around town. We sent up the Telstra tower to get a wonderful panoramic view of the whole city. We toured Parliament House (Australia’s modern capitol building). We saw the War Memorial and walked down a small part of ANZAC Parade (a wide boulevard with various military monuments and memorials on either side). We want to church with Melissa. Canberra is an absolutely beautiful place. It is a modern, planned city – created in the early 1900’s explicitly to serve as Australia’s capitol - with lots of parkland, wide tree-lined avenues, and modern buildings.
Monday we toured the Botanical Gardens (an enormous open park with diverse plants) walked around the Opera House, and took a short ferry ride over to Manly – a beach/resort suburb of Sydney. Manly kind of reminded me of Santa Cruz California, although without the boardwalk carnival. The local equivalent of the Santa Cruz boardwalk is actually Luna Park just down the hill from the hotel we stayed in. This is also a good point to mention the diversity of modes of transportation in common use in Sydney. There are the standard taxis, busses, and subways/trains; but being built around a harbor, ferries are also an integral part of the public transportation system, and we used them almost every day. In addition there is a small monorail system that runs around the downtown and Darling Harbor sections of town. As we explored the city I found myself wanting to create a new SimCity scenario to see if I could integrate so many transportation systems so well.
Tuesday, we went to the Toronga Zoo (another short ferry ride) and got to see various marsupials (Kangaroos, Koalas, Wombats, etc.) up close. It was a nice zoo, although I think the Miami-Dade Matro-Zoo has really spoiled us.
Wednesday we took the two tourist “explorer” bus rides (numerous stops, with on-off privileges) to get to see some of the other parts of the city we hadn’t been too yet. One took us around Sydney proper (including over to Darling Harbor and “The Rocks” which we hadn’t seen yet) and the other did a larger loop that took us down along the southern beaches of Sydney, including Bondi Beach (the famous surfing beach). The one thing I want to note is how small the beaches are in Sydney. I am used to the beaches in Florida and California which go on for miles. The Australian cost is much more irregular and beaches tend to form in small coves. Manly and Bondi beaches are only about a mile across and many of the others are even smaller.
Thursday we saw the Powerhouse Museum, which is kind of like the Australian equivalent of America’s Smithsonian or London’s Victoria and Albert (although not as large). A rather eclectic collection of crafts and technology. We also went over to Darling Harbor to eat (at a steakhouse called “I’m Angus”) and looked around. Darling Harbor is one of the big nightspots with lots of restaurants, clubs, and the like.
By Friday we were getting pretty tired and just stopped back at a couple of locations we had missed taking of pictures of previously and then rested the afternoon.
So that’s what we did. In the process I took 551 photographs which will eventually end up on the web.
+
Next (or at least soon) I’ll write about what I thought about it all.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
March 12, 2008
Life : Sydney Observation
So what did I think of Sydney? First, this is more than a purely abstract question for Anne and me. There is no doubt that if I were to express interest to my employer in living in Sydney, they would be quite happy to relocate us there for whatever period of time we want. So a subtext of our short vacation was to determine if we did in fact have any interest in that regard.
Second, I want to recognize up front that the following are poorly informed opinions based on working for a week and having a week's vacation there. Still, in that time I did get to spend time in two office environments, visited a couple different suburbs, and spent the evening at a co-worker's house (we so got some sense of how "real people" live).
Overall, Sydney reminds me a lot of San Francisco: steep hills rising out of the water, good (but not great) public transportation, tall office buildings next to colorful Victorian structures, active LGBT community, moderate weather thanks to the surrounding water, large parks, endless suburbs. Particularly when walking around the city proper, it was easy to convince myself I was "back home" (or at least 40 miles north of home).
What I liked:
- Australians seems to be sincerely environmentally conscious. Their history has engrained in their culture how easy it is to adversely affect the environment and they are sensitive to those issues.
- Because of strict quarantines (another lesson learned), there is a limit to the amount of foodstuffs which are imported; but that has the side effect that most of ingredients that actually are available are relatively local and fresh. Even the food in the smaller restaurants tasted great because the ingredients were better, and when we ate at someone's home the food was excellent (although, to be fair, our host was a fairly serious foodie). Fish in particular was better than we get even in San Francisco or I remember from Florida.
- Sydney is a picturesque city, and I'd love to have much more time to do photography there. I know that there is even more to see and photograph elsewhere in Australia; but even limiting myself to Sydney I could spend a lot of time behind a camera.
- Public Transportation was good. At no point did I wish I had rented a car while we were in the city. Even getting out to the suburbs was not much of a problem.
- The Christian book store actually had a more diverse selection of books than the one we have near us.
What I didn't like:
- Books are expensive (and it is well established how important books are to me). They generally cost twice as much as they do in the 'States. I have been assured that if I am willing to order in bulk (many books at once) there are ways to get books at reasonable prices; but it is a factor. In general, anything not produced in Australia (which is most things) tends to be 1.5X to 2X the price in the USA.
- While they are environmentally conscious, they are less concerned about issues like fair trade. Almost everything not produced in Australia was produced in China. Anne and I have been trying to be more socially conscious in our own purchases, and that would seem to be difficult in Sydney.
- The overall culture seems to be significantly more "masculine" than in SF or Boston today. There's more of a focus on sports. Men tend to talk more coarsely. Women tend to dress to impress (seduce?) more. There were times that I felt like I was in a time warp back to America in the early 70's.
Right now, my impression is that Sydney is a city I would like to spend more time visiting; but I'm not prepared to move there for a long period of time. I am also quite interested in seeing more of the rest of Australia. Perhaps when my current project goes into deployment I can wrangle a month or two there.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
March 13, 2008
TV : New Amsterdam
There's a new TV show, "New Amsterdam", that I am giving a tentative "thumbs up" to.
The premise is that in 1642 a Dutch soldier serving at Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island saves the life of a Native American girl and is nearly killed in the process. Her tribe rewards him with the blessing/curse that he will not age or die until he finds his soul mate. The man then lives through a series of identities until the present day where he is known as "John Amsterdam" a New York City homicide detective with a reputation of being reckless (he doesn't have to worry about being killed). So far we know he has also been a furniture maker (whose creations are now expensive antiques), a Civil War surgeon, a lawyer in the 1930's, and a soldier in WWII. He's been in the Army three times as well as the Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy (but not Air Force – he has a fear of heights).
The only person who knows his real identity is an old bartender who happens to be John's son. It is also established that in the 1930's and early 40's, the person who knew his full story was his secretary who also was his daughter, so there may be a pattern here.
The episodes so far have basically been standard police procedurals where John's 350+ years of experience and knowledge help him solve the case. Each episode also has a flashback thread that relates emotionally to the case (much the same way Lost integrates flashbacks).
One of the reasons I am enjoying the show so far is that John is presented as an interesting and complex character, who has dealt with real issues in his long life. He's an alcoholic who attends AA meetings. He had an interracial relationship in the 1930's. While the TV show "Highlander" covered some of the same ground, I never found the McCloud characters all that interesting in their own right. John Amsterdam however seems to have some real potential.
The show also does a lot of the "little stuff" well. His current dog is named "Thirty Six" (the one back in the 1930's was "Twenty Nine"). I guess after a while he got tired of coming up with new names.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
March 14, 2008
Observations : E. Gary Gygax, RIP
Last Tuesday, Ernest Gary Gygax, co-inventor (together with Dave Arneson.) of the game "Dungeons and Dragons" passed away. I met him once at a gaming convention and found him to be a quite pleasant fellow despite his being yet another inventor who lost control of his invention and the profits thereof.
While Gygax and Arneson's original rules for D&D (which I am old enough to have actually played) were pretty bad – being a hack (D&D) on top of a hack (Chainmail) on top of a set of war-game miniature rules – their real contribution was the whole concept of role playing game rules. The idea of each player controlling the actions and evolution of a single character in a game based on a set of rules has transcended the details of the specific example Gygax and Arneson came up with at first and has spawned a whole industry that has reached well beyond the tabletop and oddly shaped dice.
These days my only contact with D&D is playing computer games whose rules are derived (sometimes distantly) from the system; but I still respect what Gygax and Arneson created and the influence it has had on gaming.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Observations : Joseph Weizenbaum, RIP
And while I am at it, Joseph Weizenbaum, creator of the computer program "Eliza" died yesterday. I always respected him as one of the few professors at MIT who refused to take defense department grants for his work. Those who know him and his contributions to computer science will appreciate this tribute.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 17, 2008
Books : Books 2008/03/17
Current count of books pending to be read: 125
Read four, received three that I had ordered a while back.
Books finished this week:
Perdido Street Stationby China Mieville
Just to prove I take my own advice; Meiville’s last three books have all been nominated for Hugo awards, so I thought I should check him out. I’m very glad I did.
The story itself is a kind of strange mix of Fantasy, steam-punk SciFi and Horror, set in a world where there are steam powered robots, and different fields of magic are treated as scientific disciplines (a bio-thaumaturge can manipulate living flesh, etc.). The forces of elemental chaos occasionally sweep through the world creating new species, often chimerical combinations of previous creatures – sentient, mobile, man-shaped cacti; a race of women whose heads are beetles; human-frog hybrids; and the like.
The author starts slowly to provide a chance to understand the world (although the travelogue is never boring); but once the action starts it keeps moving quickly and I had trouble putting the book down. The main plot is about several parties trying to put a stop to a set of creatures that eat dreams/minds (and excrete nightmares) who are inadvertently released into a populated area.
The main character however is the city in which the action takes place – New Crobuzon, which is kind of like a Victorian London with magic and advanced steam technology. The city is ruthlessly ruled by the mayor through his secret police. Crimes are punished by the criminals being “remade” – transformed by magic into a new form. Perhaps they are given the body of a dog, or have steam-power claws magically grafted on to replace their hands.
I enjoyed the book a lot, and as soon as my reading list gets reduced a bit more, I want to read his two sequels in the same world – Scar and Iron Council.
Going to Church in the First Centuryby Robert Banks
A short narrative of what it might have been like to “go to church” in the first century, as told from the point of view of a Roman who was invited to join the group. The book is well researched, although there clearly is some level of speculation. It is well written by a Simple/Home church advocate. I certainly recommend the book and expect to share it with people I know. I certainly would be quite happy to attend a meeting like the one described.
This Little Church Stayed Homeby Gary E. Gilley
I recommend that people always seek out opposing points of view to help clarify their own opinions, and it is in that spirit that I purchased and read this book. It is a sequel to “This Little Church Went to Market” in which the author provides criticism to the seeker-friendly and mega-church movements, accusing them of trading in the gospel for entertainment and slick marketing.
In this book he examines the impact of postmodernism on the Christian church and provides specific criticism to Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” movement (or at least Warren’s poor use of scripture), Christian Mysticism (particularly Foster’s “A Celebration of Disciple”), the Emerging/Emergent church movement (particularly McLaren and Sweet) and a short epilog on Barna and the Simple/Church movement (although this was clearly added late in the development of the book and not a thorough treatment of the subject).
While the book did not change my mind on any specific points (I already disagreed with McLaren and was suspicious of modern Christian Mysticism), it did provide me some things to look out for - channel markers to use to know if I am sliding outside the main flow of Christianity. There are several points on which I disagree with Gilley (for example, he seems to take the position that anything said by a Catholic is automatically wrong); but I still found hearing his point of view useful.
Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Lifeby Aimee Weber, Kimberly Rufer-Bach, and Richard Platel
I have been meaning to try out Second Life for a couple years now, and at one point I even bought a couple of books on the subject. This is the more programming-oriented one (I already read the more user-oriented one). Having still not tried the service, I can’t speak to how complete it is; but it certainly seemed useful. Perhaps when I get finished with this book-reading project I’ll allocate some time to try out Second life.
Computer Games Played: none
DVDs Watched: none
Next Book: The Mind of the Market
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 18, 2008
Faith : Who is Lonnie Frisbee?
Lonnie was the archetypical “Hippie Preacher” back in the 60’s and was a man anointed by God in a powerful way. I never met him or was present when he ministered (just slightly before my time); but I have several close friends who did know Lonnie personally and who have talked to me about their experiences when he preached. Amazing stuff.
What’s more, Lonnie was a key player in the formation of two successful movements within Christianity. First, his connections with the counter-culture helped Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa grow from 30 members to over 5000 in the early 70’s. That growth then provided the springboard from which the Calvary Chapel movement has now grown to over a thousand churches with more than 25 million members. Lonnie then went to work with John Wimber and the demonstrations of God’s power as Lonnie ministered was a key factor in the birth of the Vineyard Movement that now has more than 1500 churches and 15 million members.
Yet if you ask most Christians, even ones who are part of Calvary Chapel or Vineyard, “Who is Lonnie Frisbee?” they would be unable to answer.
Why? Because of one rather inconvenient truth – Lonnie was a sinner.
He freely admitted that there was an issue in his life that he struggled with; and it was known within the leadership of the churches that this was a struggle that he often lost. There were times he would be out Saturday night engaged in behavior that “good Christians” just didn’t do; but he would show up on Sunday morning and minister in great power and people’s lives would be changed. This was a paradox that the church leadership didn’t know how to deal with, so he was ostracized and practically written out of history.
Now I’m not sure what the right way to deal with someone like Lonnie is. It was clear by all accounts that God didn’t have any problem using Lonnie, despite what he did the night before. On the other hand, would he have been able to deal with his issues better if he wasn’t so busy with ministry? Was there a way to give him time and support to work though things without driving him away? I don’t know; but from what others have told me, it seems like the church failed Lonnie.
What really bothers me in all this is how selective the church tends to be in how it deals with people’s sins. Too often we tolerate people who are guilty of the sin of pride, the sin of greed - in many cases we even promote them as great leaders. Yet there are other sins which simply aren’t tolerated. If we are all sinners, does it really matter what sins we are struggling with? If we take someone like Lonnie out of ministry because of his issues, shouldn’t we do likewise with those whose sins are more “acceptable”? Either that or we need to find a way to use people regardless of what issues they are dealing with in their lives, as long as their heart is towards God.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
March 19, 2008
Life : Twentieth Wedding Anniversary
As of today, Anne and I have been married for 20 years.
We've had good times and bad. We've had times of plenty and times of lack. We've had times of illness and times of health. We've had times of joy and times of sorrow. We've had times of understanding and times of confusion.
But through it all our love for each other has grown, as has our ability to trust each other when things get rough.
A successful marriage requires a lot of work. It requires investments from both parties: patience, forgiveness, time, flexibility; but having made those investments, the benefits far outweighs the costs: having someone you can be yourself with, having someone you rely on, having someone with whom you share memories.
I can honestly say that our marriage today is better and stronger than it has ever been – pretty good for 20 years on.
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March 20, 2008
Faith : It’s all about trust
We have a problem today when talking about faith – the word has lost almost all of its original meaning. It has become a “religious” word, and has therefore become colored by centuries of tradition as various groups have pushed and pulled to define the word to confirm to their doctrines. In the modern world, it has become almost synonymous with “belief” – a mental acknowledgement of the truth of something.
The word faith however used to mean something closer to “entrust”. In Hebrew, the word is closely related to how a parent gives their child into the care of a nurse, or how builders rely on pillars to support a ceiling. The bottom line is that mere belief does not rise to the level of “faith” unless you start to take actions that depend on the thing you believe in being true. Because of this I have started to just read all of the instances of the word “faith” in the Bible as trust/entrust.
Hebrews 1:1 Now trusting God means we can be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 1:6 Without trusting God it is impossible to please Him, because anyone who comes to Him must act out of a trust that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Gal 2:16 Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by trust in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our trust in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by our trust and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified
Rom 14:22-23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from a position of trusting God; and everything that does not come from a trust in God is sin.
I’ve written about the last passage before – that the essence of sin is not about do’s and don’ts (the Bible has another terms for lists of do’s and don’ts – The Law – and Paul has much to say in Romans about how ineffective The Law is). The essence of sin is not trusting God. We can “do good”; but if that good comes from a place of not trusting God, it is sin. But if we really trusted God, why would we not do what He tells us to do?
The central truth of being a Christian must be our trust in God – not mere belief; but trust that risks nothing isn’t really trust. Entrusting ourselves to God will compel action. That’s what James is getting at when he says “Belief without works is dead”. The problem for James is that there is only one word in Greek for both “belief” and “faith”, so he has to spend a whole letter explaining the difference between having faith and merely believing.
Note also in Hebrews 11 (the “Faith Hall of Fame” chapter) how often faith/trust is linked to action:
- By his trust in God Abel . . . offered . . .
- By his trust in God Enoch . . . pleased . . .
- By his trust in God Noah . . . built . . .
- By his trust in God Abraham . . . obeyed and went . . .
- By his trust in God he . . . made his home . . .
- By his trust in God Abraham . . . offered Isaac . . .
- By his trust in God Isaac . . . blessed . . .
- By his trust in God Jacob . . . blessed . . .
- By his trust in God Joseph . . . spoke . . .
- By his trust in God Moses' parents . . . hid . . .
- By his trust in God Moses . . . refused
- By his trust in God he . . . left . . .
- By his trust in God he . . . kept the Passover . . .
- By their trust in God the people . . . passed through the Red Sea . . .
- By her trust in God the prostitute Rahab . . . welcomed . . .
And so on.
Unfortunately, too much of what passes for Christianity these days is too safe – nothing is risked. People believe in Jesus; but they do not really trust Him. Remember what James says in James 2:19: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shudder.” We need more Christians who don’t just believe in God; but actually trusting him enough to act on their faith.
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March 21, 2008
Life : Yes, I read comic books
As can be seen from the list of books I read over the Christmas holidays, I do read “graphic novels” a.k.a. “comic books”, despite being 48 years old. Actually I don’t read a lot of them. I pick up 2-3 issues in a month and perhaps one collection a quarter (the list I read over the vacation had been accumulated over time); but I do read them.
Now as I kid, I used to read comics a lot. I was a fan of the various Marvel titles (as opposed to D. C. – even then I was more interested in character vs. action). I even read some in college where copies were always laying around the Alpha Phi Omega office. But after college I lost interest in the rather repetitive stories of costumed superheroes that dominates the comics industry in the United States.
The seed of my return to comics was planted in 1995 when I read Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics”, an excellent analysis of the art and medium of “sequential art” (as he calls comics). This book (which I strongly recommend to everyone) helped me to appreciate that people can and were doing things with the format that went well beyond the comics of my youth. It made me open to the possibility of looking at graphic novels (as high-end comics are often called); but didn’t provide enough motivation to actually get me to try.
The motivation finally came in 2001 when I heard that J. Michael Straczynski was taking over writing Marvel comic's flagship “Amazing Spiderman” comic series. I knew and respected JMS’s work as a television writer and producer (Babylon 5, Jeremiah, etc.), and the thought that someone of his caliber would write comics was enough to get me to give it a try. The results were interesting – far more literary than the comics I recalled reading in my youth, and certainly enjoyable, although the limits of the Spiderman franchise eventually constrained how far JMS could go. I did however find out that prior to taking over Spiderman, he had written some graphic novels based on his own original ideas, including “Midnight Nation”. Without the limits of working within a predefined franchise, JMS was allowed to take full advantage of the medium.
Two things finally sold me on putting some effort in reading the “best” of the graphic novels out there. First, there was the “Amazing Spiderman” volume 2, issue 36. This is the “black issue” written by JMS to respond to 9/11. Rather than a typical “comic” story, it is a tone poem about those events with various characters from the marvel universe in the background. It remains, in my opinion, the most eloquent and complete response to that tragedy from any source, including pundits and politicians. Second, there is the final page of issue 4 of JMS’s “Midnight Nation” series that expresses with sad irony how fear hobbles us. Rod Serling quality stuff (as is all of Midnight Nation, in my opinion).
Having been hooked, I now track what is going on in the industry, and particularly what specific writers are doing. I’ll read pretty much anything by Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, and JMS (although my willingness to read costumed superhero stories is limited). I am also making an effort to get caught up on classics – those books that people recognize as the best of the genre. Things like Moore’s “Watchmen” and Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns”. “Watchmen” in particular is a must-read which I have blogged on before.
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March 24, 2008
Books : Books 2008/03/24
Current count of books pending to be read: 124
Read one, purchased none.
Books finished this week:
The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economicsby Michael Shermer
An interesting book; but it was ultimately unsatisfying. The book was promoted as a presentation of evolutionary psychology and how it affects human behavior with respect to markets and economics; but what came across was a collection of facts and studies without much to tie it all together. The individual observations were in fact interesting; but they seem to be rather isolated from each other; but I kept looking for some clear “because of A then B” type theses and was disappointed that the individual observation never seemed to get assembled into any conclusion.
The author was very clear about his belief that a free market economy (with democracy) was the best possible system (a sentiment I happen to share). Furthermore, he comments several times how evolution left mankind ill suited for such a system (which I found a very interesting claim); but from what I saw he never seemed to close the loop to prove that point. I think he presented the raw data which he intended to support that point; but never followed through with the proof.
Computer Games Played: LotRO
DVDs Watched: Enchanted (extras), Battlestar Galactica Season 3 (extras and select episodes)
Next Book: Permission Granted
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March 25, 2008
Faith : Predestined for Free Will
A few years back I taught a 90 minute class for church on predestination (Calvinist theology) vs. Free Will (Arminian theology). At the end, I asked the class which view they all thought I held, and I was pleased that the class was divided 50-50 between those who thought I was a Calvinist vs. those who thought I was an Arminian (it means I gave a fair presentation).
It wasn’t however very hard to do.
There are numerous scriptures in the Bible which if taken individually or as a group seem to indicate that God has chosen in advance who will become His followers and who will not. Likewise there are numerous scriptures in the Bible which if taken individually or as a group seem to indicate that each of us is free to choose on our own if we will follow God or not. Any Christian who gives a fair hearing to both sides has to acknowledge that each side of this debate can make a fairly good case and that each side also has certain verses that they have trouble explaining (although those indoctrinated on either side see the explanations of those verses as “obvious”).
All of which is why I began to wonder – does it matter? If God left the question so unclear, do we really need to understand it?
If we accept that salvation comes from by God’s generous favor as we trust Him and Him alone (forsaking trust in any other form of salvation, particularly our own works). If we accept that all who truly trust God will do what He says (since any other behavior would imply that God’s wisdom is not trustworthy). If we accept that at the end of the day, some people will have followed Jesus and some will not. If we accept these things, then what difference does it make if those who trusted, obeyed and followed did so because they were pre-selected by God or because they chose to do so? As individuals, should we all not strive to trust, strive to obey, strive to follow? If some of us fail, does it matter if we failed because God designed us to do so or because we chose to put our trust elsewhere?
Arminians who I have talked to have generally accepted this proposition, although Calvinists often object on one basis: the sovereignty of God. This is in fact the central tenant of Calvinism – the point on which all of the rest of the theology rests – that God’s Sovereignty is absolute and therefore any theology is heretical that says that there is some decision in the universe that God does not make (such the Arminian idea that a believer chooses to follow God).
While I appreciate (and am persuaded by) many of the scriptural arguments made by Calvinists for election (God’s pre-selection of those who will believe), this one (which is so cherished by them) does nothing for me. I accept that God is absolutely sovereign – that he could choose to see the universe play out in any way He desires; but all I see the Arminians saying is that God has chosen to not use his sovereign authority in some cases. The ability, right, and authority to do something do not imply that one has to use that ability, right, or authority.
A king might be an absolute monarch, but still might ask the queen what music she would like played at a banquet. That the king asked this does not diminish his own authority by the question – he could in theory still ignore the queen’s suggestion – but even if he supports the queen’s choice it does not change the fact that it was the kings choice to ask the queen, so all authority continues to originate with the king.
My understanding of the Arminian position is that they believe that God has stepped back and allowed mankind to make certain decisions for themselves. These are decisions that God certainly had the sovereign authority have made for us; but it was his sovereign choice to not use that authority and allow us to choose. I do not see this as diminishing God’s authority in any way since we are only free to make those decisions that God has granted us the freedom to make by His authority. So for me, neither Calvinism nor Arminianism violate the sovereignty of God.
Now there are those who play games with these ideas – suggesting that they do not believe because God has predestined them to not believe. This is a disingenuous position since one must in fact believe in the sovereign authority of God to actually believe that He has selected you for disbelief. Or there are those who do not share their faith with others because those who God has elected for salvation will find their way to Him regardless. To me, these are both excuses people use to cover up some deeper issue between them and God.
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March 26, 2008
Faith : Reasons to Believe
A couple weeks ago someone refered me to an interesting site "Reasons to Believe", which describes itself as an "International and Interdenominational Science-Faith Think Tank" dedicated to providing reasons from science to believe in Jesus.
Now there are a lot of these sites, and frankly most of them engage in fairly shoddy science. They tend to be too blinded by their own faith that they accept almost anything as "proof" without much in the way of skepticism. This happens often enough that I have a short list of things I look for whenever I and directed to one of these sites. If they do things like use the laws of thermodynamics to disprove evolution or if they quote the urban legend about NASA "discovering" Joshua's missing day, I don't waste my time with anything else they talk about as their methodology is immediately suspect.
So far "Reasons to Believe" has passed my tests. I haven't looked at all of the articles (there is a lot of content on the site); but at least they don't trip over any of the obvious claims that so many other sites seems to swollow. They even have an article amount the "missing day" which explains how it is an urban legend - bonus points in my book.
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March 27, 2008
Faith , Web : An Interactive Bible Study Blog
I had an idea the other day which I was sure someone must have already done by now; but after some time looking with Google, I sure couldn’t find it.
The idea is to essentially duplicate on the web the experience of the Bible Study I have been moderating on Tuesday nights. My thought is – each day post a short passage of the Bible (2-3 verses), and then allow people to comment on what they think it means and how they think it can and should be applied to everyday life. The post itself would only be the verses (perhaps reproduced from several translations), and all commentary (including the author’s) would be in the comments.
I was able to find several blogs where people posted their own studies of the Bible – essentially composing their own online commentary; but none of them seems to be built around comments by the community (and in fact many allowed no comments at all).
Now having seen how poorly some “Christians” have behaved posting comments to other Christian blogs (there are times I am grateful that my site is not more popular), I can understand why this may not have been done. Moderating such a group to allow for alternative views while not getting into flame wars would be very tricky and it would be impossible to please everyone; but it seems that there would be value in doing this.
I’m even thinking of taking the plunge myself, although not in the near future.
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March 28, 2008
Life : Three Years of Blogging
As of today, I have been blogging for three years. I have written 394 posts, and there have been 561 comments in reply to those posts. I’m fairly satisfied with that.
I’ve been keeping to my 5 posts a week schedule so far this year (4 real essays but one book review post); but it is getting harder and harder. The truth is that I have tended to only generate two or three new essays each week. I’ve been able to get by since I was quite prolific over last Christmas vacation and started the year with a couple dozen extra essays; but I have been working though that buffer at a fairly steady pace.
It is also the case that (in my opinion at least), the quality of the recent essays have been somewhat lacking. When I look back and read things I wrote in the first year, I believe I was more eloquent in my observations than I have been of late. This is not necessarily a bad thing (I’m not writing these essays to get published); but it is disappointing.
The net result is that at some point I may have to switch to a 3 post a week schedule (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Just a warning in case you see me start missing Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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March 31, 2008
Books : Books 2008/03/31
Current count of books pending to be read: 123
Read one, purchased none.
Books finished this week:
Permission Granted to Do Church Differently in the 21st CenturyGraham Cooke and Gary Goodell
A good book (I’m recommending it to my pastor). The authors are among those who have felt called to “do church differently” in the organic/simple church model, the book does not really focus on that; but rather on the process of becoming a different kind of church regardless of the vision God has given you - how to seek God, what kinds of problem you are likely to encounter, etc.. While many other books talked about “this is what church should be like”, this is the first I have seen that talks about “and this is how to get there.” I’m not sure there was anything in the book I didn’t already know; but seeing a clear and considered presentation of it was quite useful.
Computer Games Played: LotRO
DVDs Watched: none
Next Book: Sex, Lies, and SD-6
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