The Pursuit

Censorship

Monday, August 25th, 2008 | Life in the Journey, fellowship, ministry, philosophy, service, teaching, testimony, tradition | 1 Comment

After moving to North Carolina I began working for a Christian institution, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Truth be told, I enjoyed this job a lot! Why? I wish I could say that there was a lack of politics (like you see in the nonChristian world), but that would not be true. I wish I could say because they paid us what we were “worth” in the real world, but that would not be true. What made me enjoy this job so much was because of the men who I directly (and indirectly) worked with. I sat in a room with men who not only challenged me but loved to discuss, debate, and learn about new and important things. At least, they were new and important to us :).

When I made the decision to not pursue my Masters of Divinity, I had to find alternate employment. As many of my readers know, I went secular (employment wise). I worked for IBM for about a year before moving to Dublin where I started working for a small Network Consulting company called Alterra Networks. When my wife and I decided to pursue our dream of her finishing her degree we had to look at schools in the area. I then landed a job at Athens, which I started working at in the beginning of August. So far I have really enjoyed this job, I have my own office, a nice desk, two big monitors, etc., etc. I also really like the people - they are all very nice and accommodating.

But there is a problem. In fact, there has been a problem ever since I started working in the secular world. The problem is: they all know that I am a Christian, one who went to a conservative school. What does this mean? I means that they often censor themselves and when their internal censoring fails they often apologize. I hate this. I know they are being nice, because they don’t want to offend me. But I don’t understand where this comes from. I haven’t asked them not to say “Fuck”, “Jesus”, “Hell” or any other words. I don’t expect them to change who they are because I have entered the room. I don’t think it is even appropriate for people to change because of me… they should only change because of Jesus.

So this is my plan, whenever someone “apologizes” or I sense they are censoring themselves, I will take them aside and tell them, “I don’t mind if you do whatever it is that you do in front of me. I don’t expect you to censor yourself just because I entered the room. In fact, I’d prefer it if you didn’t. I want to get to know you - not the censored version of you.”

As I think about this, I wonder, how often do we (Christians) censor ourselves in front of our brothers and sisters? Is it appropriate to do so? How does this affect the community of believers?

A Historical Church Building

Friday, August 22nd, 2008 | boycott, church, government, humor, philosophy, tradition | 3 Comments

I have become a big fan of NPR (National Public Radio). I get the benefits of talk radio (over crappy music), it is very enlightening, usually pretty balanced, and when it leans to the left I get a glimpse of their point-of-view.

Yesterday, as I was riding home from work I heard a piece on a historic church building in Washington, D.C. - that is, it is historic according to Historical Society standards. You see, this building was designed according to Brutalism. Brutalism was a very popular architectural style in the 1950s and ’60s. It’s ugly nature has left church desiring to tear it down and build a new, more functional building. However, there is a hitch. In 1991 a Historical Society applied to have The Third Church, Scientist designated as a historical landmark. So what does this mean? Simple, the church no longer has the right to tear down their building!

The piece was quite hilarious, I laughed out loud more than once. I think this was my favorite quote:

“Nothing expresses a church’s religious exercise more than its architecture. And this architecture does not express our theology and our exercise. Brutalism is not our religious expression,” he says.

I don’t know much about the “Christian Science” movement and it appears that this group is somehow aligned with the Church of Christ. But we all know what Christ said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, the architectural style of your buildings.” (John 13:35)

Anyways if you want to read the article you can find it here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93844919

Woody - Update

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 | prayer | 2 Comments

Well, Kati brought Woody to the Vet this morning. He did another x-ray and found that the object had moved and was almost passed. He was able to get it out and found that it was not a piece of metal at all. It was a small rock. So that’s kinda good news… but the bad news is that it looks like Woody has a neurological issue.

We’ll have to take him to a neurologist to see what they can do. Luckily for me I work for UGA which has one of the best Vetrinary facilities and their own Pet Hospital section with three Neurologists on staff. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this soon and get Woody some help.

Woody… the special one

Monday, August 18th, 2008 | prayer | 1 Comment

One of our Beagles, Woody, is a little special. I always thought he was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Ever since he was a wee one he just acted a little weirder than our other beagle, Gus. He’s always ran kinda weird… kinda like a horse galloping, but add a little “fairy” to it. Lately he’s even been having a hard time just standing up. It seems like he keeps losing his balance with his back legs. So, being the bad parents that we are, we waited until this past Friday to bring him to the vet. They said that there is nothing wrong with this legs or hips, which is good. However, they did an x-ray and found a piece of metal in his stomach. The doctor thought it might be a hunk of lead and that he might be suffering from lead poisoning. We brought him back on Saturday morning for another x-ray, to see if the metal object had moved - it hadn’t. So, tomorrow, Woody is going in for surgery to have the metal removed. We are also waiting for blood test results to see what his lead-levels are (if it is in fact lead poisoning). So they’ll do another x-ray tomorrow and if the metal hasn’t passed then they will proceed with surgery.

In a way, we are hoping that it is lead poisoning, if not, then it is a neurological issue. I’m not sure what we could/would do if it was neurological. He’s going to be 2 years old this December, so he’s still a pretty young dog and otherwise healthy.

Our pets mean alot to us, so if you’d pray, we’d appreciate it.

The Pursuit Strip - #24

Monday, August 18th, 2008 | The Pursuit Strip, comic, comic strip | 1 Comment

Almost… but not quite!

Thursday, August 14th, 2008 | church, fellowship, hell, humor, ministry, philosophy, teaching, testimony, tradition | 3 Comments

Gosh, I want to write about the crappy words we use every frickin’ day. But I’m not really sure if you darn people will appreciate the friggin point. I mean, gee whiz, there are so many Christians who are so loose with the words they use. Shucks, some of y’all even use words straight from h-e-double-hockey-sticks. Before I was saved I cursed like a dang sailor. But after being saved I felt like curse-words didn’t glorify God, so I stopped using them. Heck, it was an outright witnessing tool - all of my friends knew that I stopped swearing, and thus Jesus had obviously changed my heart.

Golly, I hope I don’t step on any of y’alls toes, but it’s just been on my blasted heart lately.