Tech geek alert!

Here is my new phone:

Step Up or Step Aside

I was watching Christopher Titus' special on Comedy Central last night and he was talking about the church. I am always interested when a secular comedian starts talking about church things. He was talking mostly about the issues in the Catholic church with all the sexual abuse charges against priests. He said that the church needs to "Step up and do something about it or step aside and let the authorities get involved. Either way, it needs to stop. You rid the church of all these pedophiles and put sincere men of God up front, the churches will once again be filled to the rafters." WOW. Why does it take a secular, God-fearing comedian to take the church to task. Shouldn't we being taking ourselves to task and keep each other accountable? This really blew me away and is one of the deepest things I've heard in a while. Thank you Christopher Titus and I'm sorry your tv show on Fox was crap. You are funny.

Yes, I Read Books!

What my eyes are currently scanning besides textbooks:

Running Through My Headphones

Here's what has been rotating on my iPod lately:

Some People Need to Not Talk Ever Again

So let's talk about Ann Coulter, the "fountain of hate", as I like to call her. Last week, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), she referred to Democratic Senator John Edwards as a "faggot". What makes it more maddening is that she received loud applause after saying that about Edwards. She eventually "apologized" saying

"C'mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean."

That is no apology. It is just her normal backtracking every time someone confronts her about one of many hateful statements she has spewed. I was glad to see her fellow republicans slamming her and going against her for what she said. What infuriates me the most is that Coulter claims to be Christian and that her beliefs influence what she says. BULLCRAP. Christianity isn't about hate, bigotry, and racism, all behaviors that Coulter has shown throughout the years in her books, speeches, and interviews.

I frequent a few Christian forums online and I posted a thread about Coulter at one of them. There are many people at the site who are RepubliChristians (aka Republicans are God's party and anyone else is wrong and evil...pure ignorance and blind allegiance). Now, I am neither Republican nor Democrat though my views are moderate conservative. A small group of people at this forum are supporting Coulter saying that "homosexuals deserve no respect", "I support the use of the words 'faggot' and 'queer' because I don't recognize gays as a group. They are degenerates." Granted, I am not surprised at the comments of this one person because he is the same person who said all denominations are corrupt, christian churches don't really have anything good about them, and that all of our proven Scriptural quotes are "Politicaly Correct Christianese". The next time this gentleman uses the Bible in context will be the first. It's frustrating and disheartening all at the same time. I didn't know that "love the sinner, hate the sin" and "love your neighbor as yourself" were PC nonsense...

God, please open up the hearts and eyes of people like this and Ann Coulter who are so full of themselves and foolishly think they are displaying Christ-like attitudes and behaviors.

Christians and Communication

After reading Pastor Paul's blog regarding "The Power of A Story" and going back and forth with Paul via comments, he suggested I blog some thoughts. Seeing as my undergrad degree is in Communication, I figure I have enough background in the subject and how our Christian faith affects communication. Bill Strom (Trinity Western University, Langley B.C.) wrote a book entitled More Than Talk: Communication Studies and the Christian Faith which was used as a text in my undergrad studies. I want to focus on a section of the book labeled "Redemptive Interpersonal Communication."

Redemptive Interpersonal Communication
R.I.C. involves four major areas regarding how we: (1) perceive others, (2) speak with others, (3) deal with conflict, and (4) listen to each other.

1) Gracious Perceiving of Others
- Our first impressions of others go deep and die hard.
- Our first impressions guide future perceptions. (Boy, isn't that true and unfortunate?)
- We are prone to pay attention to the intense, novel, and beautiful.
- We allow negative information about others to outweigh the good (I am guilty as charged, Lord forgive me).
- We see ourselves as responding to our environmet, but see others as choosing to act as they do.
- We take credit for our good behavior and blame our environment for our bad behavior, but do just the opposite for people we dislike. (This is a major problem in the Christian community, the lack of accountability).

2. Gracious Language With Others
- Words can bring healing (Proverbs 12:18)
- Kind words bring life (Prov 15:4)
- The right words bring joy (Prov 15:23)
- Careful words keep one out of trouble (Prov 21:23)
- Apt words are beautiful (Prov 25:11)
- Words can bring help, encourage and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3)
- Helpful words build up and provide what is needed (Ephesians 4:29)
- Speaking the truth in a loving manner encourages Christ-likeness (Eph 4:15)

Meanwhile, there is a power in Ungracious Language as well
- Thoughtless words wound (Prov 12:18)
- Cruel words crush the spirit (Prov 15:4)
- Gossip separates close friends (Prov 16:28)
- Answering before one listens is unwise (Prov 18:13)
- Insulting and obscene talk are to be ridden of (Colossians 3:8)
- Lying is bad (1 Peter 3:10)
- Slander is to be avoided (James 4:11)

3) Gracious Fighting with Others
- Keep your cool
- Keep short accounts
- Act wisely, not foolishly
- Make understanding your aim

4. Gracious Listening with Each Other
- "Listening isn't passive receiving, it's also heart-and-mind responding with appropriate questions and nonverbal affirmations."
- Listening is fruitless unless we remember what the other person has said.
- 6 types of poor listeners: 1) The Pseudo Listener, 2) The Selective Listener, 3) The Monopolizer, 4) The Fixer, 5) The Ambusher, 6) The Defensive Listener.



So the question is this: How can I, as a follower of Christ, communicate more effectively and Christ-like? God redeems us so why should we not redeem others with our words? I feel we can apply these principles in every aspect of life, including in the church.

What happened to Sunday being restful?

Sunday is the longest day of my week. I get up for church and then go to work from 2:30-midnight. I barely make it through the entire shift without dozing off. I remember working days, Monday-Friday, and being able to rest and relax on Sundays after church. Oh how I miss those days. When you're in school, however, you do what you must to fit everything into a schedule.

Who turned off my alarm clock?

Wow, it has been a while since I updated. Shame on me. That's what happens when you are sick for two weeks and then are very busy with school and work. Anyways, I want to talk about Predictability. Pastor Paul spoke on this topic last week in church and it really hit home with me. Being a predictable Christian is boring. We don't take risks and our comfort zone is intact. However, Christianity is the antithesis of predictability. We never know what will happen in the future and we should not try to manipulate our paths. I don't want to be predictable; otherwise I will end up being like 99% of Christian radio and entertainment! Boo to that!!