The 9/11 attacks were really just life imitating art. Apparently destroying New York is one of Hollywood’s favourite disaster cliches. Here’s a video montage…
Author: Nathan Campbell
Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.
Home Alone gets twitterfied
Home Alone is a classic movie. These days classic movies reach classic status when they are relived on Twitter. Apparently. So here’s a sample of the “Home Alone Project” that recently took place on Twitter. Check it out.
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Harry_Lyme
ARRRRGGHHH!!! Wooo woooooo wooo **sizzle** 1:50 PM Dec 25th from API
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KevinMcCal
LOL @Harry_Lyme just got a Blowtorch to the head… 1:49 PM Dec 25th from web
- Harry_Lyme
@KevinMcCal heh hehe You’re dead kid! 1:48 PM Dec 25th from API
- Harry_Lyme
@#¢€*&!! I’m gonna rip his head off…!!! 1:47 PM Dec 25th from web
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TallnCurly
**4″ nail + Foot** AARGGGGHHH!!! AAARGHH ARRRRGHHH ARRGGH!! 1:43 PM Dec 25th from web
- TallnCurly
Down to one red sock… WHO PUTS ROOFING TAR ON STEPS?!?!?!?? 1:42 PM Dec 25th from API
- Harry_Lyme
ouch. http://twitpic.com/v20o3 1:40 PM Dec 25th from API
- KevinMcCal
Yesssssss! Yes, yes, yes, yes! 1:39 PM Dec 25th from web
- Harry_Lyme
**sizzle** ARRRGGGGHHH!!!!! oow ow owww ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!!!!!! **sizzle** aaaahhhhhh 1:38 PM Dec 25th from web
- Harry_Lyme
@KevinMcCal Gggrrrr You little creep, where are you?? 1:37 PM Dec 25th from web
- Harry_Lyme
Oh, boy. That’s it, you little…**slip** You little son of a…**slip** No, not this time, you little brat!! 1:36 PM Dec 25th from web
- TallnCurly
Look what the kid just did to me!! http://twitpic.com/v1zhc 1:32 PM Dec 25th from web
- TallnCurly
**click** **RATTLE** … **SLAM** ..OWW!! ….**SIZZLE** 1:31 PM Dec 25th from web
- TallnCurly
**slam** 1:30 PM Dec 25th from API
- TallnCurly
**crow bar** … one tough door. **click** …oh. It’s open… 1:29 PM Dec 25th from web
5 things about being a Christmas baby
Unlike Jesus, I was actually born on the 25th of December. People often ask me what it’s like having a birthday on Christmas Day. I don’t really know any different – but this XKCD comic prompted a post of reflections of sharing my birthday celebrations with the king of the world.
- When I was still really excited by birthdays I felt pretty ripped off about not having a normal birthday. We used to celebrate my birthday a month early (but never celebrated Christmas early). As I grew older the date I celebrated my birthday moved closer and closer to the actual date. In the last couple of years I’ve managed to snag the morning or the afternoon of the 25th.
- The combo present never has the same ticket value as two individual presents for each occasion.
- Asking someone who celebrates a birthday on Christmas Day if they like their birthday is like asking them if the like their name – except that you can’t change your birthday by deed poll. Like I mentioned up there – I know no different.
- Christmas babies are spared the awkwardness of unreciprocated well wishing – when someone says “happy birthday” to me I can always respond “Merry Christmas”.
- By the age of five I had heard all the good jokes about sharing a birthday with Jesus. Unless you’ve got something truly original to contribute to the discussion when talking to a Christmas baby over the age of five it’s probably not worth it. Any laughs will be to spare your feelings.
Scratching the Christmas itch
Churches all over the world were jam packed over the last couple of days as people celebrated Christmas. Churches in Australia were no doubt packed like sardines in a tin – full to the gills with “believers” who only come to church at Christmas and Easter.
According to the two batches of stats I’ve posted recently about 50% of people in Australia identify as “Christian” and about 20% go to church semi-regularly.
The other 30% are those, who in the stats from the Neilsen poll I posted the other day, meet the following criteria:
They [Christians] are convinced (94 per cent) that Christ was a historical figure; fairly confident (91 per cent) that He was the Son of God; increasingly sceptical (72 per cent) about the Virgin Birth; and oddly – considering its key importance to the faith – uncertain that He rose from the dead (85 per cent). These beliefs are held very confidently. The Nielsen poll found almost nine out of 10 Australian Christians were absolutely or fairly certain of their beliefs.
If these numbers are accurate, and I have no reason to doubt them. Then why on earth do we spend Christmas literally preaching to the “converted” that Jesus is Lord. They know that. What they don’t know is that being a follower of Jesus can not be an apathetic and convenient association where you touch base with Jesus once or twice a year and expect it to all pan out in the end.
All Christmas sermons are the same – they proclaim Jesus as the promised Messiah, the one who would bring peace with God. Emmanuel. God with us. And yet – in all probability the people in the building already believe that.
This is the problem with branding Christianity with John 3:16 and the idea that “belief” as in “I believe in Japan” is what saves you. The mechanics of salvation can’t be explained with that single verse – or am I missing something.
Here’s a passage someone should preach on one Christmas. I dare you. Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
On a wing and a prayer
We all know Santa couldn’t possibly exist because of the sheer workload involved in delivering so many presents (here’s a study)…
But apparently Angels, as we understand them – based on representations in art, and on top of Christmas Trees – are anatomically unable to fly.
Prof Roger Wotton, from University College London, found that flight would be impossible for angels portrayed with arms and bird-like feathered wings.
Even a cursory examination of the evidence in representational arts shows that angels and cherubs cannot take off and cannot use powered flight,” said Prof Wotton. “And even if they used gliding flight, they would need to be exposed to very high wind velocities at take off – such high winds that they would be blown away and have no need for wings.
Literarily speaking
I was thinking tonight – while sitting in a Christmas Eve service in Dalby – that I don’t understand why the liberals or “progressives” are so keen to see the narratives of the birth of Jesus as “metaphors” or hyperbole. Not because that’s what the church in Dalby did – the Christmas story was presented in all its glory.
The story of an unlikely conception, occurring in such a way that the baby arrived in a city that did not have room to receive the incoming “king”, who was pursued ruthlessly by a rival king, and heralded by angels is a story laden with significant metaphors and literary devices – I just don’t know why the presence of metaphors makes the truth of the story any less likely.
It seems the liberal and progressive arm of Christianity isn’t prepared to cut God any slack to act in a creative way. Why shouldn’t we expect God to use metaphors, similes and miracles? Jesus spent a fair bit of time teaching in parables. I just don’t get the mindset that says that God firstly must act in a way consistent with our scientific observations and secondly limits him to acting and communicating in a mundane and boring manner. If Jesus was just an ordinary baby born in an ordinary way there’d be nothing to celebrate about his arrival.
And I still can’t get my head around what you have left if you toss out all the supernatural bits of God. If you don’t believe that God could cause a virgin to conceive or the dead to be raised then what’s the point?
Merry Christmas.
A curious confession
Remember Dr Paul? If not you can read my past correspondence with him here (and check out our phone calls on YouTube).
He sent me a curious email today – four months after our last exchange.
Here’s what he had to say for himself… Now I have to decide how to respond. I’m 99.999999% sure that he is going to try to scam me again. Lets see how it goes.
Dear.
How are you today. my dear i want to tell you some thing now. for now am child God now that name Dr paul acquah is not my name, my really name is Emmanuel onyekwere am from Nigheria i came down to ghana because of problem that is why am start anwser Dr paul acquah. so now am child God i have give my life to Jesus that is why am telling you the truth now. so my dear if you like to contact me back this is my email address
emmanuelonyekwere@hotmail.com, this is my mobile if you like to call me so i will tell you more. +233-24-1111-297, my dear one advice i want to give you any body that contact you from Africa told you that you have consignment please dont follow the person he want to scam you money at last you can not get any thing. so my dear if you can move head will me i will open you eye for you and tell you more things in inter net.my dear i will like you to been my good friend. Am looking forward to hear from you soon.Yours Friend
Mr.Emmnuel onyekwere
I wrote back…
Dear Emmanuel,
I’m glad we are now being honest with one another – and I am happy to hear that you have come to know Jesus.
Perhaps, as a token of good faith, you would now be prepared to send me a photograph of yourself – and so I know it is you – perhaps you would like to include a verse from the Bible on a sign that you are holding.
I look forward to hearing more from you.
Your friend,
Nathan
Shirt of the Day: Mario in the morning
Mario’s Closet design @ © SplitReason.com
This picture has the possibility of becoming an awesome shirt for those days when you’re not sure what you want to wear… it’s being voted on at that link above.
And Andrew from Daily Vowel Movements sent it my way.
If you’ve got anything you think would be good blog fodder for me – send it my way.
My email address is in the footer (down the bottom of the page). Sometime this week I’ll try to replace the two pictures of coffee cups that are down there with something a little less repetitive.
Atheist Bingo
I’m going to find some atheist friends and use as many of these lines as I can over the Christmas period. I know that’s kind of the unpoint, but I don’t care.
On a serious note – how many of these lines do you routinely trot out to your non-believing friends? Maybe it’s time for some new material. Any suggestions?
For the hoodielums
If you fancy a bit or reptilian martial arts this January but need a target to direct your renaissance inspired ire towards… then why not buy an unfriend this Shredder hoodie and then proceed to kung-fu the Christmas overindulgence out of them.
Copywrongs
You know what is worse than Christians flagrantly disregarding copyright and intellectual property laws* (you know the whole “Thou shall not steal” bit of the Bible)… Christians flagrantly disregarding copyright for the purpose of bad commercial parody.
Making money by stealing other people’s intellectual property is much worse than just stealing their intellectual property for yourself. Making money by stealing someone’s material for second rate parody “Jesus Junk” is somewhere down the bottom. Here’s a story that made my stomach churn.
Trademark attorney Michael G. Atkins of Seattle said legal parodies of commercial trademarks are protected under the First Amendment, but such religious products generally don’t fall into that category.
“You could take Microsoft and change their logo around to make fun of Microsoft, and that would be legal,” he said. “But I can’t use the Microsoft logo to promote my Christian theme because there’s no real connection there. That’s illegal.”
Here’s what one of the creators and purveyors of Jesus Junk had to say for himself (as reported in the USA Today story)… Kerusso is the company responsible for producing a bunch of terrible shirts.
Kinnett views the commercial spoofs — which only make up 15% or so of Kerusso’s merchandise — as modern-day parables.
“If Jesus were here today would he make parody T-shirts? I doubt it,” Kinnett said. “But in his day, he did use parables. He used things that were common and recognized in everyday life to make a point or say something with a deeper meaning.”
* I still think Christian copyright holders should not “hold” their “rights” for the sake of the kingdom – but if they don’t then the end users have to respect that decision (and the law).
When I survey
This week the Sydney Morning Herald published yet another survey on religiosity in Australia. The results continue to show that the majority of Australians call themselves Christians while the minority are actually actively involved in church… how should the church fix that disparity?
The more conventional Christians, those who believe in – and occasionally worship – a personal God make up a neat 50 per cent of the nation.
There are some interesting demographic breakdowns…
Women are more certain that God created the world (27 per cent to 18 per cent) and wrote the Bible (40 per cent to 28 per cent) but aren’t so sure every word of the Good Book has to be taken to be literally true (25 per cent to 30 per cent). The least Christian community in Australia is young men; the most Christian are women of a certain age.
It seems that the “progressives” are gaining some traction.
They [Christians] are convinced (94 per cent) that Christ was a historical figure; fairly confident (91 per cent) that He was the Son of God; increasingly sceptical (72 per cent) about the Virgin Birth; and oddly – considering its key importance to the faith – uncertain that He rose from the dead (85 per cent). These beliefs are held very confidently. The Nielsen poll found almost nine out of 10 Australian Christians were absolutely or fairly certain of their beliefs.
Across all faiths and no faith 34 per cent of the population thought these texts were the word of God. A clear majority (61 per cent) thought they were written by man. Christians showed far greater confidence in the Bible (58 per cent) than other religions showed in their texts (35 per cent).
Then the findings just got a little weird…
Astrology
Christians seem hardly more likely (44 per cent) than the rest of us to put their faith in the stars.
Psychics
The Christians in our midst are markedly more likely (52 per cent) to put their faith in telepathy, clairvoyance, psychic healing etc.
The beliefs regarding science and the origin of life were also pretty interesting…
Most Australians believe God played a part in the process. That He created all life at a stroke about 10,000 years ago is believed by 23 per cent of us. That He guided a long process over time is believed by another 32 per cent. The beliefs of Australian Christians are even more dramatic, with 38 per cent supporting Genesis and another 47 per cent favouring the God of Design.
In the year in which the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth was celebrated around the world, only 12 per cent of Australian Christians believe his theory of natural selection. For all the talk of Darwin’s preeminence in modern science, attitudes to evolution remain the litmus test of belief and disbelief in Australia. Christians offer the most meager support, while 89 per cent of those who deny God’s existence back Darwin.
What do the other 11% who deny God’s existence back?
Heaven, hell, angels, witches and the devil get a tick from about 10 per cent of those who doubt or disbelieve the existence of God. A quarter support miracles; 27 per cent put their faith in astrology and UFOs; and a mighty 34 per cent believe in ESP. So a third of the nation’s atheists, agnostics and doubters have turned their back on God, but not on magic.
But it seems Australia is trending towards atheism. Nearly half of young men aged under 25 identify as atheists. Atheism is de rigueur for the angry young man.
Men outnumber women by two to one in the ranks of the deniers. They are joined by nearly half (42 per cent) of Australians under 25. But only a quarter of those over 55 are as sure that no God awaits them as their end approaches.
Here are the results for a similar survey in the US.
- 82% of American adults believe in God
- 76% believe in miracles
- 75% believe in heaven
- 73% believe Jesus is God or the Son of God
- 72% believe in angels
- 71% believe in the survival of the soul after death
- 70% believe in the resurrection of Jesus
- 45% of adults believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution
- 40% believe in creationism.
- 61% of adults believe in hell
- 61% believe in the virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary)
- 60% believe in the devil
- 42% believe in ghosts
- 32% believe in UFOs
- 26% believe in astrology
- 23% believe in witches
YouTube Tuesday: Goal
FIFA’s goal of the year candidates are pretty special. You
Studying Pokemon leads to exam failure
I’m not a Pokemon fan at all. That’s one Japanese fad that passed me by. I do know that drawing Pokemon characters on your exam paper is not a shortcut to success. Especially if your teacher can out fox you (or out Pokemon you) as was the case for this mathlete…
