courtesy of Zach, here’s Don Miller’s benedicition at the DNC.
Don Miller @ the DNC
August 27, 2008
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Current Affairs, Religion | Tagged: DNC, don miller, donald miller, democratic national convention, blue like jazz, don miller prayer, dnc prayer | 
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Posted by klnussbaum
Focus On The Family Is Losing What Little They Had
August 4, 2008
ht: Zach
Like Zach said, it doesn’t matter whether FotF is trying to rain out the DNC or the RNC. What matters is that they took the time to produce something so unbelievably petty and, IMHO, borderline blasphemous.
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Current Affairs, Religion | Tagged: barack obama, DNC, focus on the family | 
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Posted by klnussbaum
Christ The Lord: Road To Cana
July 28, 2008I was turned on to Anne Rice’s Christ The Lord series in part by my good friend John, who wrote about her debut work in the series a couple years ago. Her follow-up is equally good, if not better, because (as John says) she is now starting to weave the Biblical narrative into her intensive research into the first-century Middle East.
I finished it today (while sitting by the pool - ha!) and loved a dialog that took place near the end of the book, right after Jesus has performed his miracle of turning water into wine. It’s a thoughtful insight into the debate of loving versus fighting with your enemies, and some may not like where Jesus falls on that spectrum.
“James, don’t you understand what I want? Look into the faces of those around you who saw the wine come from the jar. I want an innovation that will ignite the world. That wine is no less than the blood inside my veins. I come to bring the Face of the Lord — to the whole wide world.”
They fell silent.
“The Face of the Lord,” I repeated it. I looked intently at James, and at Cleopas. I looked one by one at each of them. “The Face of the Lord I mean to bring to all.”
Silence. They stood still loosely gatherd and staring at me, rapt yet not daring to speak.
“Don’t you know all battles fought with swords are ultimately lost battles?” I asked. “Don’t you see yourselves that Scripture and history are filled with battles? What comes of battles? Don’t speak to me of Alexander or Pompehy or Augustus, of Germanicus or any Casaer. Don’t speak to me of ensigns whether they are raised on high in Jerusalem of lost in the Teutoburg Forest of the far north. Don’t speak to me of King David or of his son Solomon. Look at me as I stand here! I want a victory that far surpasses anything that’s been written, either in ink or in blood.”
(For good measure, here’s a great editorial by Anne Rice that ran on the Washington Post site. Thanks to Zach, via John.)
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Books, Religion | Tagged: anne rice, christ the lord, finding rhythym, some strange ideas, the road to cana | 
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Posted by klnussbaum
Shane Claiborne on CNN
June 30, 2008
it seems like CNN, along with the rest of mainstream Evangelicalism, doesn’t exactly know what to make of him (for the record, i *heart* SC).
The bus runs on vegetable oil and, yes, it’s a political statement. “It’ll be a long time before we fight a war over used veggie oil,” says Claiborne with a sly smile.
Claiborne is touring the country, packing churches and community centers, in support of the book he and Chris Haw co-authored, Jesus for President. “This whole project is about the political imagination of what it means to follow after Jesus,” Claiborne said. “The language of Jesus as Lord and savior is just as radical as it would be to say ‘Jesus as our commander in chief’ today.”
read the rest of the article here.
No Comments » | Current Affairs, Religion | Tagged: chris haw, cnn, jesus for president, Politics, shane claiborne | Permalink
Posted by klnussbaum
Obama vs. Dobson
June 27, 2008By now, i’m sure all of you have heard about Dobson’s criticisms of a 2006 Obama speech. instead of adding to the endless commentary, i’m going to go the way of my friends and refer you to Scot McKnight:
Here’s my take: Dobson and his companion commentator routinely distorted what Obama was saying by rephrasing and capturing what he said in their own context and for their own agendas. For instance, Obama hypothesized (Dobson didn’t get this) what would happen if we moved all nonChristians out of our society. Even then, he was suggesting, we’d have diversity. Then, Obama asked, if we lived out the Bible which parts would we choose? Would it be Leviticus or Deuteronomy — and he brings up shell fish and stoning one’s son — or would it be the Sermon on the Mount, which Obama stated would be difficult for the Defense Dept to apply. Dobson and his guest got into how the OT laws aren’t for today.
What they miss here is that Obama is talking about how to live in a pluralistic society.
Read the rest of the article here.
1 Comment | Current Affairs, Religion | Tagged: barack obama, dobson, focus on the family, obama | Permalink
Posted by klnussbaum
This Is Not Goodbye
May 10, 2008So, without going into too much detail (because you either know already or you don’t know the person), Pathways lost a long-time family member this week as someone in our community took his own life. Needless to say, there are many feelings swirling around the situation — loss, anger, bitterness, hurt. On my way home from hearing the news, i naturally started flipping through the music in my stereo. First, it was the new MGMT track, and then I landed on the new Radiohead for a while, enjoying the chaos.
Suddenly, i turned it off and instead started singing a song that a friend wrote back in college. The first verse expresses frustration that, due to personal guilt and struggle, the speaker feels that his prayers aren’t being heard. The bridge and the chorus are God’s response back to the speaker, in which there’s the line “When the road that you’ve traveled seems like it never will end, I’ll be your friend. And the time that you feel like this world is so far from your home, you’re not alone. I will never depart; just seek Me with all your heart.”
The first time i heard that song, it resonated so deeply with me. i instantly connected with the grace and overwhelming love of God that is expressed in it, and i’ve gone back to it many, many times in the past. What I was met with this week, however, is the reality that those words can come back empty to the hearer. I have to choose to believe them. They don’t become any less true if i don’t, but what they mean to me will be lost if i ignore them.
Worship on Sunday is going to mean a little more to me than normal, i think. Lyrics are always the most important part of a “worship” song to me, but even then, i can forget what I’m saying as I focus on the technical aspect of what I’m playing (it comes with the territory of being a novice bassist). I can only hope that I, and our community, can take a bit of comfort from what we say, and most importantly, personalize it.
No Comments » | Religion, Seattle Life, Uncategorized | Tagged: pathways church, worship | Permalink
Posted by klnussbaum
I Love My Wife, Reason #49872
November 13, 2007Brenda just called, in tears, to tell me of an elderly (80 or so) man that had just moved in at her property over the weekend. He had told her that his children would be coming to help him move in, but she found out that he had moved everything himself. She went on to say that he said that he was so sore from moving everything the day before that he was unable to move at all today.
Anyway, she asked him if it was ok if a few of her friends came by tomorrow night to help him finish. He very gratefully said yes, so we’re heading over tomorrow night after work.
Anybody want to come with us and be Jesus for him?
(by the way, Brenda now has a Facebook page. Be her friend.)
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Posted by klnussbaum
kiva.org
November 12, 2007
I heard about Kiva a few months ago - my friends Chris and Kelly support them. Just in case you haven’t heard of it, Kiva is basically a micro-loans clearinghouse. You sign up to give entrepreneurs in the developing world small loans - everyone from Bill Clinton to Oprah has been talking about and supporting them. I’ve been meaning to check it out for a while, and today I finally sat down and started reading. It’s a great organization, helping people from places like Samoa, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Peru. It’s pretty crazy, too, how successful it is. I signed up to help someone from Ecuador; I was the first one to help him, and in a couple of hours, he had raised the full amount ($550) that he needed. The cool thing is that you’ll eventually get your money repaid back into your Kiva account, so you can pull out your money if you want, or keep re-loaning it (which is better).
1 Comment | Africa/Poverty, People, Religion | Tagged: kiva | Permalink
Posted by klnussbaum
Nooma - Name
October 31, 2007
No Comments » | New Releases, Religion | Tagged: myspace, nooma, nooma name, rob bell | Permalink
Posted by klnussbaum
Red Letters
September 10, 2007
I’ve known Tom Davis for a while now (and mentioned him here, here, here, and here), so I jumped at the chance to get an early copy of his new book Red Letters. Like anyone who works in Africa (like Steven, for example), he has the desperate passion of someone who has literally changed the lives of hundreds but only sees the millions that remain.
(A word of warning; I’ve already passed this book along to a friend in North Carolina, so my apologies for being a bit vague here.)
The best (and by best, I mean “the most tear-inducing) parts of the book come through the stories of the children that Tom has met. There’s the girl that was so violently raped BY HER UNCLES that she is unable to control her bladder. Another girl who, after the death of her parents, has to provide and care for her younger siblings at the mature age of 10. These are stories that will make you cry, no matter who or where you are (it’s a bit embarassing on the bus, might I add).
Red Letters does a good job illustrating the ways that our (the Western world) help is needed. Tom walks the somewhat delicate line between conviction and guilt well, leaving the readers wanting to help in whichever way that they can. It’s not a high-art piece of literature; it’s a gritty, desperate plea for us to start to read the red letters of our Bibles and live accordingly.
May we all get the message.
No Comments » | Africa/Poverty, Books, Church, Religion | Permalink
Posted by klnussbaum
