dougs digs

once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right

6.27.2005

Deconstructing Emergent

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/article.php?sid=6665

Yet another baseless critique, though disguised as neutrality, of the emerging church. Is there something that I am not understanding here ? Call me crazy, but I would find it absolutely essential to thoroughly research and perhaps experience the very thing I plan to publicly critique, and reading blogs doesn’t make one informed enough to do so. There seems to be more and more people taking jabs at something that technically isn’t really 'any-thing'. What a waste of precious time that could be used for, oh I don't know, how about embodying God's concern for the oppressed and being a voice of hope to our communities.
|| doug, 20:17 || link || (2) comments |

6.26.2005

And The Best Album Of The Past 20 Years Is . . .


I couldn't agree more.

Just think about the magnitude of such an honor. The past 20 years has unarguably brought more genres of music than any other span of history. Regardless of what can be argued (example), this honor is irrefutable.

Here is one of many articles about Spin's Top 100 Greatest Albums of the past 20 Years.
|| doug, 14:45 || link || (5) comments |

6.23.2005

Spray-On Mud

First, it's cool for the kids these days to dress like homeless people and truck drivers, now suburbia yuppies want their $40,000 toys to look they have an adventurous life outside of their cul-de-sac. The world is going to hell in a handbasket, I am now convinced of it.

Spray-On Mud Makes a Splash

Targeting self-conscious 4x4 owners whose rugged vehicles seldom see obstacles bigger than a speed bump, the enterprising British e-tailer behind Spray-On Mud sells the scent of the countryside in a squirt bottle.

For 8 pounds (about $14.50), buyers get 0.75 liters (.85 quarts) of genuine filthy water, bottled from hills near the company's premises on the rural England-Wales border. The aim, says the website, is "to give your neighbors the impression you've just come back from a day's shooting or fishing -- anything but driving around town all day or visiting the retail park."

|| doug, 11:46 || link || (1) comments |

6.21.2005

Thou shalt not make any graven image

This is a very compelling article exploring the notion that the American Flag has become a graven image of worship. This is something I have thought about from time to time, whether followers of Christ should be devoting our allegiance to a country/government and especially a flag. I am not 100% sure where I stand on this, I do know that it bothers me to see tempestuous and at times muderous fervor surrounding the American flag or any other national flag for that matter. Check out the article for yourself and let's see if we can get a constructive and beneficial conversation to develop.

The Blasphemy of Flag Worship

Devout Christians firmly believe that the Ten Commandments should be etched in stone in our courthouses and emblazoned on the walls of every classroom. The message of the Second Commandment is clear. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God..."

Can anyone deny that the American flag has achieved the status of a graven image?

The contention that flag worship is blasphemy was a key element before the Supreme Court in 1940. In that case it upheld the right of a Pennsylvania school district to expel two students who refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The two teenagers were members of the Jehovah's Witness denomination. Their church believed that pledging allegiance to the flag violated the Biblical admonition (Exodus 20) against worshipping or bowing down to any graven image of God. The court decided that the need for national security and national unity allowed Congress to force individuals to violate the Ten Commandments.

In 1943, the Supreme Court reversed its 1940 decision. That reversal probably had less to do with religion than with the Court's realization that, at the height of a war against totalitarian regimes, a central feature of which was a slavish devotion to national symbols, compelling us to worship the flag was inapt. (As a side note, that same year the Flag Code itself was changed. No longer were students required to salute the flag with one arm extended forward. The similarity to the Nazi salute was too embarrassing. From that time onwards, we were told to put our hands over our hearts.)
http://www.alternet.org/story/22268/
|| doug, 11:10 || link || (0) comments |

6.07.2005

No Greater Connection

There are some communities that tragically seem to miss something in their communing. A support group can be a place where a person can delve deeper into the behavior that isolates them. Websites are reportedly linking strangers together who are, in turn, simultaneously committing suicide. Moreover, the sheer number of online confessionals reveals the need for a community where one can be real about plaguing guilt, failures, and offenses. Members express a need for the fellow humanness of a flawed community, and at the same time a need to remain, in some ways, inhuman—unknown, nameless, faceless.

No Greater Connection

|| doug, 11:16 || link || (0) comments |

6.06.2005

lights, camera, action . . .

I was in a commercial last night with my boy Jason. It was shot in 4 different bars all in the same block ("Martini Corner") over a six-hour period. What a wild, wild, wild night it was. The owners poured thousands of dollars of top-shelf adult beverages down us, along with few dozen actor and model wannabe's. In return, the owners asked us to just "act" like we are having a good time. Needless to say, no acting was necessary.
|| doug, 23:07 || link || (1) comments |

6.05.2005

The 'Ultimate Blogger'

Blogs are giving in to one of the most loved and despised trends in mainstream culture . . . a reality TV-style competition. As ridiculous as this may be in my opinion, it was just a matter of time before our beloved medium fell into the evil abyss of reality-style "entertainment" and joined the company of such classics as 'Mr. Personality (the show where the guys wore the mexican-wrestler masks and were judged 'only' on their 'personality'), Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire ? (what a train wreck that was), and 'The Swan' (no comment needed).
The Ultimate Blogger is a reality TV-style competition that began in early May and concludes June 6. The game, on the surface, sounds familiar enough: 12 people compete to be the best blogger in order to win a $500 dollar prize package. Each week consists of two challenges and two eliminations.

The winner of the challenge is determined by the game hosts and guest judges, and the winner is granted immunity for that round, noted by the "Spiritual Beard and Third Eye of Immunity" or the "Not Depressing At All Immunity Orthodontic Headgear and Braces" photoshopped onto their headshots. Then players vote off one blogger, whose headshot is put through a shredder and is asked to "leave the Internet immediately."

Until just one Ultimate Blogger remains.
|| doug, 13:32 || link || (1) comments |

6.02.2005

The 'New' New Testament

The original version used salt and light, the new version uses a lethal combination of fuels and oxidizers.
|| doug, 12:16 || link || (1) comments |