"Preacher tellin the truth and it hurts"

Shocking, embarrassing, and heartbreaking statistics about The Church.

Ignorance Award

There should be an award given out to people who display great amounts of ignorance. If such an award existed it would go to the bright students at UNC-Chapel Hill who protested a speech given by former republican presidential candidate and former Colorado congressman, Tom Tancredo. If you are asking who Tom Tancredo is, that's one of my points. He isn't that big of a deal so don't throw such a fit when he comes to your school.

Anyway, Tancredo has been criticized for his anti-immigration views. From what I know about his views, I do not agree with him. However, whether you agree with someone or not, they deserve the chance to express their ideas. That didn't happen. Apparently freedom of speech doesn't apply to everyone. Tancredo was invited by a student organization to talk about his opposition to granting in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants. While he was speaking, two protesters jumped up and unraveled a large banner in front of Tancredo. Later, a rock was thrown through the window and many other protesters got involved. The event was shut down and police had to use pepper spray and threaten the use of tasers to get things under control. An investigation is currently underway.

I'm sure these protesters would consider themselves tolerant people. However, with their immature display on Tuesday, they showed they are quite intolerant. I guarantee their protest and rude actions did nothing to change Tancredo's mind about immigration. Instead, they showed that they are ignorant and intolerant people who are only open to ideas from people who agree with them. That is not tolerance or open mindedness.

Congratulations kids, you have just won the first ever Ignorance Award. Do UNC a favor and don't hang it next to your diploma.

Sex

So this week in my Appalnet account there were three advertisements regarding sex. One was Condom Bingo. I guess instead of the little see through plastic things, they use condoms to mark their boards. The prize for winning? More condoms and sex stuff. There was also another sex event but I forgot the name. But just to show you that I'm not making this stuff up here is the last headline I saw: Sex Talk And Blow Pops - 02/12. Here is the description of the event: "Come find out all your sexual health questions! FREE PIZZA AND BLOW POPS! Submit anonymous questions by boxes in health services & SRC or find us on face book."

Are you serious? I wonder why people have so many sexual health questions? Maybe its because we are handing out condoms like tic tacs and people are being bribed in with pizza and blow pops. I know this is a wild idea but maybe if people kept it in their pants STDs would not be so rampant. I guess it's rocket science when it comes to figuring out how not to get STDs.

A lot of people give Mark Driscoll a hard time because he talks about sex a lot. The Baptist Press stupidly and legalistically ripped him this week with an article saying that he is too vulgar. But with events like this on college campuses, I say keep talking about it! For so long the church has been silent about sex. The only words that are ever said about sex are: "Save it for marriage." That's it. If you can't talk about sex and learn about it the right way at church then we are going to learn about it from society.

I don't know if I agree with Driscoll, in saying that sex is another type of religion. I do believe, however, that it is a type of worship to the god of self. Sex is held in such high esteem to the world, like some denominations hold the gift of tongues. I've heard some people say that they don't feel like a true Christian because they have yet to speak in tongues. Which is not true. But in the worship of self, sex is like tongues. The world says you have not truly worshipped yourself and brought the most pleasure to yourself unless you have sex. That is the "gospel" the world is preaching at us and they are using condoms as "gospel tracts."

So my request to the Church is this: "Let's talk about sex, baby."

Give me a break.

Today, President Elect Obama announced that Pastor Rick Warren would deliver the Invocation at his Inauguration on January 20th, 2009. This decision has sparked outrage from the gay and lesbian community because of Warren's views on gay rights and marriage and his support of Proposition 8. The Obama party made it clear when the choice of Warren was announced that Warren and Obama disagreed on the issue of homosexuality. Yet people are pissed. What's the big deal? People need to grow up.

First of all, President Obama, himself, said that he defined marriage as one man and one woman but I don't hear people complaining about that. Also, Obama has chosen a pastor who supports homosexuality and gay marriage to deliver the Benediction. There will even be a gay and lesbian band participating in the events but I don't see conservatives coming on CNN and whining about it.

Is there a double standard being set? I think so. Obama has said that he wants to unite the country and in order to do so he needs to include, both, people he agrees with and people he disagrees with. But now that he has chosen someone he disagrees with about homosexuality, its a bad choice. I don't see people throwing such a big hissy fit over the fact that Obama has picked REPUBLICANS for his cabinet. Come on people. If we want a united country, we have to accept the fact that we are going to disagree with people. But does that mean that we shouldn't associate with those people? NO.

I am almost certain that the people who are arguing/whining about the selection of Warren would consider themselves open minded and accepting people. But I think by their opposition to Warren, they are showing that they are open minded and accepting ONLY to the people who agree with them. That's hypocrisy.

I don't agree with President Obama on some things but I do agree with him on some. I personally think this is a great move towards unity, Obama extending his hand to a conservative evangelical pastor. It is a great thing that he is classy enough to associate and work with people whom he disagrees. That's called diversity and I thought that's one of the main things the gay and lesbian community wanted. Warren is not being sworn in that day, so give me a break.

P.S.- Don't take this as a complete blast on liberals. There are things I can blast conservatives for and probably will. As far as politics go, I'm neither republican or democrat. So please do not take this rant as a endorsement of one party over the other.

Stupidity in the Highest

If you are a Sports Center junkie like me or if you don't live under a rock, then you have probably heard about New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress and his recent display of stupidity. Plax was being escorted to the VIP section of a club this past weekend and on the way, he some how fumbled his gun and shot himself in the leg. Reminds me of a certain scene in that movie with Eminem, "8 Mile." However, his stupidity does not end with shooting himself. If I heard correctly, he used to have the correct permits to carry a concealed weapon but they expired and he did not renew them. So because he did not renew his concealed weapon licence, he now faces felony gun charges which, if convicted, will put him in prison for a minimum of three and a half years. Move over Michael Vick, here comes a cell mate. Good job Plaxico, maybe Santa will bring you a brain this year for Christmas.

And for your viewing pleasure, here is another example of what NOT to do with a gun.

State of the Union, part 2

Economy. Unless you live under a rock, I guarantee you have heard or read that world a million times over the last several weeks. So many questions have been thrown out there: Who's to blame? How long will this last? How much will it cost me? What about my money? And the list goes on and on. Let me first say this, all of this finger pointing reminds me of the Garden of Eden, when God asked Adam and Eve about their sin. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. We, as the American people need to stop pointing the finger at the government and the corporation. Sure they had something to do with it. But guess what? The government and these big corporations are run by people, just like you and me. In a democratic and capitalist society the government is run by the citizens and people start businesses and run them to earn a living. So its OUR fault for getting to greedy. We can't depend on the government for EVERYTHING unless we want a communist government. We as the American people need to stop caring so much about ourselves. All I hear these days are ME, ME, ME. Put other people first. Live within your means. All of these economic problems we face come down to one main cause, greed. That's why Jesus said no one can love God and money at the same time and why in 1 Timothy it says the LOVE of MONEY is the root of all kinds of evil. And by taking a look around, its very true. Stop pointing the finger and look at yourselves and ask when is the last time I cared about someone else other than myself.

I know our country is going through a hard time, financially speaking but its a hard time compared to what we are USED to. Look at other countries. They are so much worse off than we are. But again it goes back to our greed. Put it in perspective. It could be so much worse. Read Jenn's blog to get some stats and put things in a better perspective and realize....things aren't so bad after all.

State of the Union

The election is officially like 20 something days away, even though I get to vote on campus starting on the 20th, and I am already sick of it. I am sick of politicians lying to us. I am sick of them pretending to be so much better than each other when they aren't. They are all shady. I'm tired of them, all of them. Obama, Biden, McCain, and Palin. The only thing that is getting me through this is SNL and their impressions of Sarah Palin. I am also planning on having some fun myself by being John McCain for Halloween, IF I can find a McCain mask while I'm home for Fall Break. If I can find it, Erin is going to be the lovely Sarah Palin. Look for us on ESPN2 on Halloween Night. If not, I'll settle for my Mexican costume, complete with a sombrero and poncho. Anyways, back to politics. I think the dumbest/funniest thing is listening to people talk about the debates and debating over who won. Of course, you are going to say that your candidate won because you agree with them. Plus, how does a candidate when a debate when they lie? I remember the day after the VP debate, I read a couple of articles where they checked the facts from the two candidates and BOTH of them lied. This irritates the crap out of me. We are trusting these people to run the country and presumably do a better job than whats going on now but all we get are lies. We deserve better. The number one thing I hate though is that this whole voting process deserves a little bit of faith in who you are voting for. You are putting faith in this person that they will do what they have promised. I, personally, have a problem putting my faith in these people. I don't know if I can trust them and I don't see how any one else in their right mind can say that they fully trust McCain or Obama. Some may say, well if that's how you feel, don't vote but I am thankful that I have the right to vote and the right to speak my mind. We are very fortunate to have that right and there are millions of people all over the world who have no say whatsoever in their country. So, I will vote and who ever wins I will respect and call my President.

P.S.- I know this is a fairly "Debbie Downer" post but I am not down in the dumps because no matter how this election goes, the most important thing to me will not be affected, my faith in Christ. And to those who say America is going to hell in a hand basket because of who wins the election, let me leave you with these wise words from Hillsong United, "Politics will not decide if we should rise and be YOUR hands and feet."