BlogRodent: Pentecostal Rumination & Review

Okay, it’s the season to make Chili. Red-hot, mouth-watering, addictive chili that will warm your belly in the cold night and keep you satisfied for hours. (Actually, even though my chili calls for a habañero, cayenne, and a poblano pepper, it’s not unbearable hot. A single habañero, diffused through an entire batch of chili, raises the heat level without making it searing. Use half a pepper, or skip it if you don’t like heat.)

A few years ago my apartment community had a Superbowl party/chili cook-off and I wanted to bring something to the party. I’d never made chili before in my life, but I thought, “How hard could it be?” In preparation I went online and looked at a few dozen chili recipes and took note of preparation styles and ingredients I thought would be tasty. Then, armed with a list of ingredients I went

The ever-brilliant (and most widely-read man I know) John Wilson over at Books & Culture, reflects on the pre-conversion writing of Anne Rice (especially Interview with the Vampire) and concludes with a comment on her conversion (see: “The Vampire and the Cross”). John’s take on Rice’s writing is succinct and spot-on:

“I finished the novel with the sense of moral contamination that some books leave us with.”

But he doesn’t end there. He concludes his analyses by recounting a review of the 1997 anthology, The Anne Rice Reader: Writers Explore the Universe of Anne Rice, edited by Katharine Ramsland. In his review (never published, unfortunately), Wilson writes, presciently:

In short, there was a profound contradiction at the heart of Rice's work. And so I

For years I've bemoaned the lack of serious, thoughtful, theologically rich lyrics in the praise songs and worship choruses I'm subjected to at church. Some of the recent praise and worship music remedies that, but I'm still occasionally struck silent by vacuous, empty lyrics using clichés to resonate with worshipers and the time-tested trick of singing a single chorus line over and over until we all fall into a trance-like worship state.

:: sigh ::

I miss scripture in my worship. I miss theology in my worship. I miss the hymns.

But what I don’t necessarily miss are the hymn’s melodies and forms. As my wife and I have discussed this, I’ve often wondered aloud why church worship directors don’t apply their musical talents to translate older hymns into contemporary sounds. Okay, maybe most church worship and music directors really aren’t that good at creating

Christianity Today finally got around to covering a story that caught my attention back in August (I wrote, “Separation of God and science?”). If you’re interested, read it here: “Admissions: Rejected: Christian school sues University of California over requirements.”

Here's an excerpt:

"The question the university must confront in reviewing these texts is not whether they have religious content," the university said, "but whether they provide a comprehensive view of the relevant subject matter, reflecting knowledge generally accepted in the scientific and educational communities and with which a student at the university level should be conversant."

For example, the university said it rejected the literature course for using an anthology as the only required text.

"It's not that we're not allowing a particular viewpoint," UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina said. "We're saying that we require certain disciplines that in these cases are not there."

Doesn’t seem

So, Google Books has been revived and released. Naturally, therefore, I egosurfed. Here is what I found:

• More Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion — Page 84
  by PreachingToday.com — Religion — 2003 — 385 pages
  ... behind-the-scenes documentary “Walking the Mile” (Warner Home Video, 1999); submitted by Rich Tatum; Wheaton, Illinois U ENDURANCE ENDURANCE PREPARES US ...
  Limited preview — Table of Contents — Index — About this book

Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion: For Every Topic and Occasion — Page 297
by Craig Brian Larson — Religion — 2002 — 384 pages
It's all about who they are and what they want.” Citation: Rich Tatum, Carol Stream, Illinois; source: Dave Tenenbaum, “When Kids Kill,” The Why Files, ...
Limited preview — Table of Contents — Index — About this book

Surviving

There's a rash of fishy news stories on Google lately about a minor skirmish between a 300-member Assembly of God church and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA—not to be confused with “People for the Eating of Tasty Animals”).

The score: PETA 1, People 0, Comet Goldfish -12.

Look, it’s common knowledge that youth pastors have crazy ideas and are compelled to pull stunts. Even when it’s accidental, it’s still a big hit (see my post about young Blake Bergstrom, the “tent pitching” youth pastor—that post more than doubled the traffic to this lonely blog!). The crazier the idea and the more outrageous the stunt, the more hopped-up the kids get. And it’s a fundamental truth that hopped-up chirren is exactly what Jesus needs more of.

So, young, unsuspecting, youth pastor, Anthony Martin, over at the First Assembly

According to WebUser.co.uk, PlusNet (a UK ISP) has released a study concluding what many have said for years:

Nearly a third of people say their relationships have suffered because their use of digital technology means they ‘talk less’.

Among other “ground-breaking” conclusions:

• 90% said email, text, and IMs make communication less personal;
• 41% said they’d rather get a phone call;
• 40% say email, text, and IM are less confrontational;
• 27% use email, text, and IM to flirt;
• 22% use email, text, and IM to apologize for missed birthdays;
• 19% use email, text, and IM to call in sick to work.

I mentioned some of my thoughts on this in my interview with Garrick the other day. The Internet “mediates” relationships, like postal mail does, or sending messages to your spouse via the kids. But the almost “real-time” immediacy of the Net conceals it’s mediating

Okay, I stopped by Border’s on the way home from a medical followup today, and I picked up Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. I’ll soon be diving into it. Already I’m concerned. A phrase from the back of the book jacket caught my eye: the young Jesus Christ is described as a “nature mystic.” Maybe I misread that.

I will follow up with a review as soon as I can make it through the book. Assuming it’s not so laborious that it worsens my illness, that is.

So far, the reviews on Amazon are lightweight and glowing.

See my previous post: “Anne Rice channels the Jesus you never knew…”

[tags]A-N-Roquelaure, Anne-Rampling, Anne-Rice, Howard-Allen-OBrien, Christ-the-Lord, Christopher-Rice, Evangelical, Howard-Allen-Frances-OBrien, jesus, christ, Jesus-Christ, Out-of-Egypt, Vampire-Lestat, literature, fiction, homosexuality, novel, Pentecostal, religious-fiction, review, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375412018[/tags]