Dreams Unlocked

This is troubling: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/30/churchgoers-more-likely-to-back-torture-survey-finds/

Last night I went to my favorite dive bar in Vancouver - its called the pound. Its right across from BC PLace, and a block from our Yaletown apt. Despite the great location, the place is pretty dumpy inside. Its special to me, because it is also across the street from the school that i took my ESL teacher training, and every Friday, me and 2 other students would go there for a beer. It became "our" bar. Last night, I met up with one of those other students, who is now pursuing a career in journalism. I had witnessed to both of these guys when we were students with about average results, meaning they didn't hate me after, but neither did they become missionaries after. Anyways, my buddy contacted me because he wanted to talk to me more about my faith. So, over a couple of lagers we discussed the incarnation, the atonement, wether there was a logical consistency in the doctrine of the trinity and the nature of faith. You know, basic seeker questions..... right? Anyways, the...

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Part of the national conversation right now is a feud between Perez Hilton and Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean. The low-down is this - Perez asked Prejean a question as part of the competition. His question was: Vermont  recently  became the 4th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit. Why or why not? ” Part of Prejean's answer: I think it’s  great  that  Americans  are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage. I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you very much.” Now, notice - the question was do YOU think every state should follow suit. Hilton was soliciting her OWN PERSONAL OPINION, not what should be actual legislation. So Prejean  answered the question directly - she does not believe every state should legalize same-sex marriage.  Hil...

My new celebrity twitter friend. I had another 60 people start following me on twitter just today. When I looked at who they were - they almost all had some sort of on-line business they were promoting.  So I am not following them - I don't care if they follow me, don't know what they will get out of mundane posts of my life. One interesting celebrity twitter encounter. Mike Scott is the lead singer of the waterboys, one of my favorite bands - they are a sort of celtic rock band. I bought their album "Fisherman's Blues" - 21 years ago (on cassette!) when I was a student in Bible College. They've always had very interesting lyrics, with some pseudo- Christian imagery thrown in there. Anyways, I follow Mike Scott on Twitter - the lead singer of the band. He had a recent post that said his wife had never heard U2 - frankly I find that near impossible to believe - they live in Ireland and The Edge said that the waterboys was one of the 3 best concerts he had ever ...

This lake is 5 minutes from our house! Oprah joined twitter, instantly escalating it into middle American mainstream reality. Over the past couple of years I had joined, quit and then re-joined twitter. I could never really figure out want the point of it was. Now, I update probably 6-7 times a day and I enjoy seeing what other people are doing throughout the day. On Twitter, people can "follow" you, that is, start getting your updates, and conversly you can follow others, and get their updates. For the past few weeks, I would get 2 or 3 notifications that someone was following me - I would then start following them. In the past 2 days, I have had over 100 notices that people are following me. I feel obliged to follow them - it turns out the majority of these people are some kind of networking, marketting blogging types. So, I end up actually not following them. Weird Stuff. Another good Sunday. Preached on Sabbath - the lost practice of evangelicals - sure we go to church, b...

We had our service at the Inlet Theatre - which is appearing to be our church's next venue - hopefully starting this summer. The service - good worship, I also brought 3 "witnesses" on stage at different times. These witnesses gave testimonies of a variety of ministries in our church. We also watched a video of  a song ont he work of Christ - it was shot in black and white and went back and forth between a ballet dancer and an elderly priest serving communion - very powerful, simple piece. I preached on the cross, the empty tomb and the difference it makes. I essentially answered 3 questions: 1. Why did Jesus have to die? 2. Was the tomb really empty? 3. Who cares? What difference does this make for contemporary life? Got a good response from several people after. There were a number of new families there, who used to attend the church in the past, and are starting to drift back in. After the service we had a pot-luck brunch in the foyer of the building. It was a great wa...

Sophia slides down. I read this article in the New York Times. And, I am on a quest now to create the next killer ap for my iphone. The article reminded me of something my brother told me. A girl who was studying philosophy at NYU, when my brother was docing doctoral work there, she developed an app. that downloads crossword puzzles from some of the larger newspapers. She sold the app to apple and started making several thousand dollars a day for a couple of months. She quit studying Kant, and now works for Apple. The article lists some of the most popular apps today. I think the key is to think of something that would appeal across the board to a broad spectrum of people, like a gas station finder or something like that. Gotta keep my head down and think of something good. This week I am Mr. Mom - Felicia is "orienting" for her new job at a hospital that is 5 minutes from our house. It is a small hospital in Port Moody, that I have visited several times to visit sick congr...

I have been sick for 1 month - the longest and sickest I remember being in my adult life. I am feeling much better. Next week Felicia starts day long orienting at the local hospital in Port Moody. These 2 facts (getting well and Felicia's busy week) led me to decide on the spur of the moment that we would go on a date tonight. Within 10 minutes I had secured a babysitter and dinner reservations. We went to Fuel in Kitsilano. It's a great restaurant - winning all kinds of awards since opening a couple of years ago. I had pork belly rack! Basically - a big hunk of a pig's belly! From his belly to mine. There were only 3 other tables seated when we arrived at 8:00, which is unusual in Vancouver. In our experience "hot" restaurants like these are usually pretty hopping most nights. We ended up being the last people to leave. At the door, we started chatting with the manager Tom, who is also a co-owner with the chef. I asked him how the restaurant was doing. He said, ...

In case you haven't heard, shootings in Vancouver have become as common as Latte orders. There is some kind of gang turf war going on, and gangsters have been shooting each other up all across Metro Vancouver. 2 well known gangsters moved to Port Moody, which made all us gentle suburbanites a little extra nervous. Today, a woman who was being evicted from her care home shot a worker there with a rifle. A shooting in a care home - you can't make that kind of stuff up. Our church has been doing a series called "When God's People Pray". It is starting to wrap up, which means we will be going back to the book of Exodus again. It has taken us almost a full year to get through that book - I'm sure some people feel like we've been wandering in our own desert through the series. U2 tickets are going on sale for Vancouver soon. Felicia and I were debating about wether we should get floor tickets. I told her I think I'm too old to be on the floor - she said that...