Comments(11) ASBO Jesus does it again.
Why do you go to church? What do you say when asked? Frankly, our collective failure to be able to answer this question in a compelling way is the reason why the Episcopal Church as an institution is circling the drain. What would be a good answer?
Comments(1) Remember Afghanistan? That’s the place where we started a war in order to catch the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks of September 11. That’s not the place where we decided to invade a country to get their oil. By starting a completely illegitimate war in Iraq, we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan, and now it’s getting to be more and more of a mess over there. I don’t know what the answer is, but we’d better start paying attention. To help us appreciate the beauty of the country and the horror of the war, the Big Picture blog has some stunning and haunting photos. Go have a look.
You know the old saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” As this video shows, American health care is just fine the way it is. Why change what’s working?
(Irony alert!) Tip of the surgical cap to Ann Fontaine, via Facebook.
Comments(3) In addition to my vocation as a priest, I’m a bit of a musician. In fact, I studied church music as an undergrad. I love this video for several reasons. Thomas Murray is a terrific organist and a kind person, so it’s nice to hear his take on things. But I really found his description of the “call” of organists to be true. By the way, if you are near New Haven, it’s worth a trip to hear the organ in Woolsey Hall.
Spin of the double helix at Bryan Owen over at the Creedal Christian.
Two girls (aged 10 and 12) in Australia got trapped in a storm drain. They both had working mobile phones. Great, they called 000 — the Australian equivalent of 911 — and were rescued, right? Not exactly.
Faced with crisis, these two girls did what millions of kids do every day. They updated their Facebook statuses. I’m not making that up. There’s no reason to believe something prevented them from calling an emergency operator — which would have gotten a quicker response. Imagine if, say, 37 people had clicked “Like” below their clever status instead of calling the rescue squad. Or what if someone had thought it was a joke? Or what if Facebook was having one of its outages? Sometimes it’s best to do things the traditional way.
Look, I’m as wired as the next person. I’ve been known to text and Facebook and tweet during meetings and while standing in line and…in places I probably shouldn’t fess up to here. (To be clear: I do not carry my iPhone when I am vested for divine worship!) But I know the wisdom of the ancients. To everything there is a season. A time to tweet, and time to email. A time to update your status, and a time to CALL THE EMERGENCY SERVICES.
Comments(4) 
Fear-mongers would have had you believe that today’s address by President Obama was intended to foment a Marxist overthrow of everything good and decent in America. The horror! School children listening to a president! Here’s what two children thought about the speech. They are the daughters of Mary Elizabeth Williams, a writer for Salon.com.
The five-year-old had this reaction:
The president’s much ballyhooed address has been the subject of right-wing hand wringing since it was announced weeks ago. Several schools refused to air it. In my home, the most stinging criticism of the speech came from my younger child, who lasted 10 minutes before pronouncing it “boring,” grabbing her Hannah Montana wig and leaving the room in a huff.
And the nine-year-old got the message:
As we shut off the TV, I asked my soon-to-be fourth-grader what she got from Obama’s words. “It made sense,” she said. “I’m going to try to work extra hard now because the president said it’s good to do that and I trust him.” And then, brimming with her childish curiosity, she asked the question that had been burning in her mind the whole time. “Can we have lunch now?”
Not quite what the talking heads on Fox News would have had us believe. Neither child wanted to storm the Washington Monument and hang a hammer & sickle on the side. Neither child was ready to sign up for a modern incarnation of the Hitler youth.
Comments(4) 
Matthew Gunter, a Facebook friend, shared a link to a fine blog post by Lavonne Neff today. It’s partly a review of a book by T. R. Reid, The Healing of America. Neff says the main point of the book is that health care is a moral issue. If we have the will to ensure that all people have adequate health care, we have the means. Neff writes:
1. “The primary issue for any health care system is a moral one.” If we believe no one should die for want of access to health care, we can find a way to provide care for all. If we believe health care is a commodity like TVs and automobiles, we can continue to exclude those who can’t pay. “All the developed countries I looked at provide health coverage for every resident, old or young, rich or poor. This is the underlying moral principle of the health care system in every rich country—every one, that is, except the United States.”
Neff goes on to share the insight from Reid’s book that “socialized medicine” is a term popularized by opponents of reform in the Truman era. So even the terms of debate are framed by partisans. Economically, Neff says, health care can be improved whilst saving money. Go read the post to find out why and how. I don’t want to give away all the goods.
As @SkyPilot10 said on Twitter, this might make you want to weep. I have strongly opposed the war in Iraq, and while I don’t much like the war in Afghanistan, it’s quite possible that it was necessary to start that one. But regardless of my feelings about war, I think that those of us at home — regardless of our political views or our support for particular wars — should not just carry on with life, business as usual. The cost of war should be borne by all. It is immoral for us to blithely continue shopping and pushing for tax cuts, while we run up our national debt to fund wars — and then simultaneously claim we can’t afford the proper armor for our soldiers, we can’t provide better medical care, and we can’t compensate families more after losses or injuries. If we’re going to send people around the world to fight for our country, we should make sure they are properly equipped, well paid, and well cared for. When they are injured, they should receive the best medical care available. Period.
And we should count the costs. It was shameful that the Bush administration blocked media coverage of return soldiers’ bodies. It is shameful the Obama administration doesn’t speak more often about what we’re doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is shameful that mainstream media keeps silence about this story. I keep a running counter on the right side of 7WD partly to note the exorbitant cost of a needless war, but also to remind us always that as most of us sit in comfort in the US, there are thousands of people risking their lives in very unpleasant conditions.
When Al Franken said he was running for the US Senate, I was skeptical. Even though he’s a known liberal with whom I was likely to agree, I thought “Oh, great, another celebrity-turned-politician.” Just another part to play. And yet Senator Franken is surprising lots of people with his knowledge of the issues and his ability to relate to all kinds of voters. Here’s a case in point.
Watch this video, in which Al Franken talks to ordinary voters at the state fair.
Comments(2) Here’s a quick survey of the history of visual effects in cinema. This has nothing to do with anything, other than the fact that I enjoyed watching this. Maybe you will too.
I kind of wish there was more from the pre-CGI age, but this is still pretty nifty.
Comments(9) 
A few weeks ago, the Ship of Fools invited its readers to submit their nominations for the “worst” verses in the Bible. And what did they mean by that?
…Ship of Fools is launching a poll to find the worst verse in the whole Bible. We want you to tell us: which sacred text makes you reach for the red pen? Which hallowed verse makes you laugh for all the wrong reasons? Which blessed passage leaves you groaning with embarrassment? Which piece of holy writ troubles you at night, but at least keeps you awake in sermons?
Readers responded with many suggestions, and there’s a vigorous discussion going on now. Today The Telegraph picked this up and ran a Top 10 Worst Passages in the Bible story. I in turn saw this and posted it on my Facebook wall. And this in turn was shared by The Episcopal Church on Facebook. It also ran at the Episcopal Cafe. This has all stirred up considerable angst.
Original content here written by Scott A. Gunn.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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