Third Street Freedom Rally

Being that I’m working part time at night and desperately trying to sub (somewhat unsuccessfully), I’ve been using the time to record songs I’ve written over the years. You can listen to them at last.fm here.   I wrote this a while ago, you can take it for what you will…

The Third Street Freedom Rally Parade happens today
Marching with rifles and pistols
Down along the way
Carrying the second amendment
With them to their graves
American flags wave like
beauty pageant stars

Oh, but down the way another rally meets
Yelling explevities and down with the state
Singing old Lennon songs,
just give peace a chance
Their so young and in love
With the sunset and the shades of the moon

Then the rallies met with cold words exchanged
Partisan politics always was the game
Stop yelling just listen to the river
Stop talking listen to the sound of it all

But me, I’m somewhere in the middle
But me, I just can’t understand
I’m just a poet with a heavy heart
I’m just a man, what can I do?
What can I do?

When everyone stopped yelling all around
I told in my dreams to, oh,
Just sit down
Maybe if you were just to listen
you’d be calm
Stop yelling, and looking for a way
to be right.

See that tear streaming down your cheek
Just keep crying
It’s probably what you need
Better look for roses on the
other side of spring
Scattered six feet above where you are.

But me, I’m can’t just the words
To say exactly how it hurts
The pain, another life that’s lost
The shame, but I still don’t know for
what it’s for
I don’t know what it’s for, for, for

The third street freedom rally
parade happens today
Marching with rifles and pistols
down along the way
Carrying the second amendment
like hawks to their graves
American flags burn
Like the setting of the sun
tonight.

….links for your linking pleasure 4……

1.  For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis, I am taking a bit of a haitus on new content after listening to Mark Driscoll’s latest sermon on ‘the dance of Mahanaim.’  I will try to put some other new content up here and there, but I am really going to be spending a few weeks looking at what some of the major evangelical leaders today are saying about sexuality.  I think there may be a major post coming in a few weeks on this subject.

2. As I try to get put a variety of Christian opinions about abortion on here, I am also now trying to put a variety of opinions about prop 8 on here for your linking pleasure.  Over at Bicycle Muse, I want you to read his full post on prop 8, but I want you to here this quote that particularly resonated with me:

Public policy is the act of constantly navigating between two extremes; nothing goes or anything goes. We constantly see this tension when we talk about the hot political topics of today be it abortion, immigration, economics, military action or, in this case, marriage. In other words, public policy often comes down to the tension between security and freedom; highly controlled or loosely allowed. From a secular as well as a religious standpoint, limitations and boundaries are essential for social order. The question that remains is who sets the boundaries? Are they self-imposed and do we practice self-control (anarchy)? Is control imposed upon us by others (dictatorship)? Do we gather together and agree on a common standard of control and create communal boundaries (democracy)?

3.  Over at blip there is a good discussion beginning about iconoclasts and their opponents.  I would suggest joining in if you feel strongly about it.

4.  On Beauty’s Road and Common Root are both asking how Christian communities are responding to the financial Crisis.

5.  According to these pictures, we have no financial crisis (thanks to Pat for linking me to this).

6.  Torture and America – Read all about it.

7.  What do you think of emergent homeschooling?

8.  Rumors have been circulating about Hillary being secretary of state that are more than just internet whispers. The former rival recently met with Obama in Chicago, and one person is guessing why.

18 Points from Mark Driscoll about Australia

Mark Driscoll was recently in Australia, and when I listened to what he had to say about the Austrialian church, I was quite alarmed.  He prefaced his talk saying that he was going to give 18 points about what was wrong with the church in Australia, but what it turned into as I listened was an American guy beating Australia saying that America knows better than Australia how to do church.  I had to stop listening after the fifth point because the points were bcoming redundant and making me increasingly frustrated.  Here are the first five points with my commentary on them below.

1. The Bible guys are not the missional guys which leads to irrelevence.  In other words, he said that there is a difference between being faithful and being fruitful.  He mentioned that there is a difference between knowing “our theological systems are straight” and “to be fruitful.”  In the talk, the only way I could understand what being fruitful meant was that you get a lot of people inside a church.  The funny thing is that Jesus rarely preached inside of a synagogue, and when he did, it was usually a critique.  Second, Jesus pushed more people away overall than he gained as followers.  Is Jesus not being faithful to God on earth?

2. The second thing he mentioned is that “socialism is bad” as is the “influence of Great Britain.”  His answer?  Be more entrepreneruial.  Basically he suggesting “cutting” all the weakest pastors.  How does he define weakness? Again, I can only gather that it came from above: numbers in the church.

3. The third thing was rewarding “good pastors.”  He called it a merit based system.  I can’t even begin to tell you what is wrong with this.  First, this makes church into nothing more than a business with some guys at the top looking at numbers rather than people and evaluating evangelism based on how many people come into the church.  Is anyone else upset by this?

4. Australian young men are immature.  How does he define immature?  Well, they live with their parents until they are 25.  It seems as though I am immature because I still live my parents and I am 22.  I am getting my fifth year credential and then I might live here even longer if need be.  Driscoll seems to be defining maturity and masculinity with individuality.  I would suggest that Driscoll search the scriptures a bit more on this subject and check his cultural and sociological baggage at the door.  He is basicallly calling all of Asia immature because their cultural values are different than ours.  This is a big problem with Americans going to other countries and “diagonosing” problems there.

5. Church planting is not wide-spread or welcome. He suggested they need more “pioneers.”  While this may be true, the way he described again is such an American way of understanding church planting.  Certain countries look to their denominations for understanding and this is not bad or wrong, it is just different.  Again, he seems to think that “new” is better than established denominational traditions.

All in all, Driscoll needs to be careful how quickly he is condemning things because they are different than America.  He needs to seperate his theology from his country.