McKissic Stirs it Up at Southwestern Seminary

Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist in Arlington, Texas, is a Southwestern Alum and Southwestern Trustee. Tuesday he spoke in chapel. Not since the John Avant chapel in the mid-90s has so much buzz followed a SWBTS chapel service.

McKissic spoke on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Most of his message was straight down-the-middle Southern Baptist theology. However, McKissic ruffled some feathers, dropped some jaws, and raised the temperature in Truett Auditorium when he confessed to receiving the gift of tongues in the Fort Worth dormitory as a student in 1981. He went on to express great concern with any effort of Southern Baptists to make the tongues issue a litmus test for serving in Southern Baptist life.

Here are his exact words:

But I think it’s tragic in Baptist life when we take a valid, vital gift that the Bible talks about and come up with a policy that says people who pray in tongues in their private prayer lives cannot work in certain positions. That to me is contrary to what many of our foremost Baptist thinkers and leaders think. (for the whole transcript of the message, go here)

His words did not settle well with the administration at the Seminary. The decision was made by President Patterson to not post the message in the website archives. One must purchase the message through Roberts Library. A statement concerning this decision was posted on the seminary website.

PastorMcKissicc responded to this censorship with an open letter to Dr. Patterson. In the attached notes to the letter, McKissic quotes Dr. Patterson's own words: "It would be a mistake for evangelicals to forbid others to speak in tongues".

The event set the internet abuzz with discussion and quickly drew the attention of local and national news.

My Fantasy Teams

Finished the draft last night for my second football fantasy team (Team B, "Blue Rondos"). This second team is what I call my "high risk" team. Just look at the line-up. Aside from struggling a little bit with the slow wireless hookup, the draft went pretty good. In both drafts I was in the bottom half of the draft order, next to last for Team A ("He Hate We"). So, I don't expect to do real well, but we'll have some fum with it.

Team A "He Hate We"
QBs - Eli Manning, Byron Leftwich
RBs - Ronnie Brown, Julius Jones, Kevin Jones, DeAngelo Williams
WRs - Steve Smith, Andre Johnson, Derrick Mason, Donte Stallworth, Brandon Lloyd
TEs - Heath Miller, Vernon Davis
K - Nate Kaeding
D - Jacksonville

He Hate We has some potential and some possible sleepers. DeAngelo Williams has drawn some comparisons to Barry Sanders, but his body has taken more punishment through his college days.

Team B "Blue Rondos"
QBs - Tom Brady, Doug Johnson, Chris Simms
RBs - Clinton Portis, Brian Westbrook, Fred Taylor, Lee Suggs
WRs - Terrell Owens, Keyshawn Johnson, T. J. Houshmandzadeh,
TEs - Jason Witten, Ben Troupe
K - John Kasay
D - Chicago, Philadelphia

The Blue Rondos have the biggest mouths to line up wide to the right or the left in the NFL today. This team also has a lot of injury-prone but explosive power. This is why I call it my high risk team.

Let's reName the Trinity!

Mark Driscoll is profoundly gifted at making stupid human behavior look as ridiculous as it really is. His latest blog posthighlights the stupidity of the Presbyterian Church USA in their efforts to make the names of the Trinity more politically correct.

In addition to his suggestions for the committee, I recommend the gender neutral names of Pat, Chris, and Kerry. Or how about Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla? Or Marx, Freud, and Friedan? No, that's 2/3rds male! Let me try again. Darwin, Sanger, and Hanoi Jane.

What would you suggest to the committee?

Lewis on the Immortality of People

From his address, "The Weight of Glory":

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

One Expensive Bible!

If you have an extra $115,000 laying around, you can get one of these.

On the Other Hand...

...may God have mercy on this congregation.

HT: Tim Ellsworth

Enough Slamming God's People!

I have had enough. And even then some.

I am now committing myself to sticking up for the church. I know...God is our defense and my top priority is to defend God's honor, but there is a sense in which I think God's honor is at stake.

What am I talking about?

Within the past few months and years, I have heard a steady stream of "Christians" attack Christians who have strong convictions or hold to traditional approaches to Christianity. Sadly, many of these statements tend to come from younger beleivers, some of whom perfer to identy with the emerging church.

Here are some statements I have heard or read lately that illustrate this:

"I'd rather hang out with lost people than Christians."

"The folks down at the bar do a better job taking care of one another than the church does."

"Walking down the street one day I saw someone walking toward me earing a t-shirt with “Jesus” in big, red letters on the front. As I got closer, I saw in smaller letters: “protect us from your followers.” In my experience, most of the bad done to me in business or personal relationships has been done by those claiming to be Christian and inerrantists. Those that were most helpful played golf on Sunday mornings."

"Jesus always attacked religious people but loved hanging out with prostitutes and drunks and 'sinners.'"

"I'm sick of church people. I want to be around people who are real."

Since when did it become so cool to despise God's people? Call me uncool, but I love the church, I love God's people, and I'd rather be with a brother in Christ than a rebel against God. That doesn't mean I don't have compassion for that lost person, or desire to spend time with them to influence them toward Christ, but I have the deepest and greatest common bond with fellow believers.

Jesus loved the church and died for her. Stop slamming her and pray for her and love her. If you don't, you can't be Christ-like. Have you ever stopped to think that when you slam the church you're slamming who Christ died for, is praying for, and is working to purify? So, in a sense, when you slam the children of God, you're dishonoring their Father. Think about that before you drag God's people through the mud again.

Booted!

Prague, Czech Republic - It's official. As of today, Pluto has been disowned by the scientific establishment and is no longer a member of our planetary family, at least not as a full-fledged sibling to the big eight: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Well, Pluto, it was fun while it lasted.

My Recently Developed Acrophobia

Growing up, I was never afraid of heights. But in the last few years I've developed a fear of heights and I have no idea why. What's peculiar to my fear of heights is that I'm OK if I'm enclosed safely in a elevator, office building, jet, etc. In fact, at the end of this month, I'll board a jet and fly at 35,000 feet with a problem at all. Two years ago I thoroughly enjoyed spending an hour atop the Sears Tower with some friends. What bothers me is when I'm in an open air high place.

Earlier this month, when we were in Southern Illinios visiting my parents, my wife and I drove to Giant City State Park, where we enjoyed a lovely hike. Prior to the hike, we parked near the Lodge and I said, "Let's check out the view from that observation deck." I was referring to the observation deck on the water tower pictured above. Halfway up the spiral staircase, I found myself almost hugging the center leg of the tower. My heart was racing and I was beginning to feel queezy. I stopped and said, "I'm sorry, honey, I can't go any higher. I don't understand, but I got to go back down. I'm sorry." I was a whopping 20-55 feet above the ground.

Today at lunch I picked up the Sunday paper someone gave me and flipped through it while I finished off the last half of yesterday's chicken wrap. Section C, front page: a picture of a crane operator walking along the arm of his crane 400 feet above the ground (his "floor" is see-through metal grating). Thought #1: You could not pay me enough money to do his job. Thought #2: I'd hate to be that photographer. Thought #3: How on earth did I get this way?

Previously my only fear, and a right healthy one I might add, was of snakes. I hate snakes...no, hate is to gentle of a word, try abhor...loathe...despise...and any stronger synonym you can find. You won't find me watching Samuel battling snakes at 35,000 feet!

So why now this fear of heights? After lunch I googled acrophobia and then clicked on the Wikipedia entry and found this:

Some neurologists question the prevailing wisdom and argue that acrophobia is caused by dysfunction in maintaining balance and that the anxiety is both well founded and secondary. According to the dysfunction model, a normal person uses both vestibular and visual cues appropriately in maintaining balance. An acrophobic overrelies on visual signals whether because of inadequate vestibular function or incorrect strategy. Locomotion at a high elevation requires more than normal visual processing. The visual cortex becomes overloaded and the person becomes confused.

Obviously written by a med student well on his or her way to also becoming an illegible prescription signer. But I'll attempt to decipher. I think I have developed this phobia because my brain isn't processing the experience properly and is therefore sending alarm signals to my body that I am in danger. Thus the fast heartbeat, queaziness, etc. One thing I have noticed is that my balance does seem a little off when making such a climb. Why it is always in association with open air I am not quite sure.

Do you know anyone whose developed acrophobia also? Have you ever been afraid of heights?

World Series Matchups?

Tigers-Mets Series Anyone?

How about Yankees-Dodgers?

But you can pretty much be assured that the AL representative won't come from out west, and you CAN BANK on the fact that NL representative won't come out of the heartland (NL Central).

Great Quote on American Values

This quote was lifted from a comment on a blog. The author of the quote is Anne of Spokane. The context was a discussion on the war on terror:

Even in our post-Christian western world, this war is profoundly religious because we value human life enough to reject the indiscriminate, hateful taking of it. Although non-Christians don’t know why they should value human life, they are living off the theological interest of Christians who know that every human bears, however minimally, the image of God, and that unknown multitudes have and are destined to become living temples of God. Muslim temples, mosques, are made of stone while ours are made of flesh.

Fantasy Draft Gone Wild

Last night was the most bizarre fantasy draft I've ever been a part of. I'm in two fantasy football leagues this year. The first draft was scheduled for 10:00 last night. So at 9:45 I get on the computer (an Apple) to log on at the league home page and to launch the draft room. As that window opens I see that some of the guys are already chatting it up. As I type a brief hello my spinning disc starts spinning on the Mac and then a message comes up that basically tells me that my computer doesn't like the software that the chat room requires.

Minor setback. I'll just pull out my trusty Dell notebook pc and use it. Problem is it won't log onto to my wireless. So I go into the other room and try to hardwire it into the modem. Won't work that way either. Now I'm starting to panic. 9:53. Seven minutes until the draft starts.

What to do? Aha! My neighbor's wireless is unprotected so I can piggy-back on his wireless for a couple of hours to get this draft knocked out.

Great, I'm in. Whew! Close call. 9:57. Time to greet everyone. I type in my greeting. Hit enter. Wait...wait...wait...no greeting pops us in the chat room with the guys....WHAT ON EARTH? My neighbor's signal has gone weak! Oh, no! Now I'm toast! No back up! 9:59.

I spring back into the living room to the Mac. I can still see the chat room, I just can't chat or make my picks. Because we chose to live in a half Mac / half pc world, I'm destined to just watch the draft without being able to participate. The draft has started.

Larry Johnson goes first. Figures. Next goes Shawn Alexander. Then LT...followed by Tiki Barber, Stephen Jackson, (man these guys aren't wasting any clock, I've never seen everyone pick so fast!)... Peyton Manning...my pick is up next...good thing I pre-ranked them...Clinton Portis. Portis, don't remember having him that high, but it's not like I had the third pick...Whoaa, I'm up again...R. Droughns...this draft is flying...these guys mean business. What am I doing in this league? These guys are pros! Look how fast they are picking!

Wait a minute...What is this? Suddenly the chat room is coming alive with, "I didn't mean to pick him!" and "What's going on here?!!" and "This thing's messed up!"

LOL. The picks keep flying..."Vlad the Impaler: Reggie Bush (RB-NO)"..."G Force: S. Moss (WR-WAS)....Mayhem! It's the totally automated draft by MSN! LOL! Everyone's in the same boat as me...all they can do is watch the draft go by...make that, fly by! Curses are flying also, but quickly get translated into accceptable curse words in the chat room, like "Darn" and "Rats" and "stinks" ...I'm laughing so loud I'm afraid I'm going to wake my whole family. Laughing because it's funny to watch it unfold in a chat room, and my screwed up computer situation is now moot.

Fortunately, anger quickly is overtaken by humor. Someone says that they just drafted Dan Marino. Tony's Tigers offers Tiger Woods for a QB.

What to do now? Restart it? Is that possible? Switch to a Yahoo league?

Thus begins the inaugural season of the Tim Ellsworth Fantasy Football League.

Bye Bye Fox...hello Yahoo!

And in bed by 11:00. Sweet.

One More Hot Streak, Please

The Cardinals desparately need a hot streak. They need to put the rest of the division behind them, take the air out of the Reds, and totally burst the Astros' and Brewers' balloons. A nice 8 game winning streak would do wonders about now.

Fantasy Football Needs One More Statistical Category

I'm not sure I know of a league that does this, but I came to the conclusion last year that when counting points an additional category should be added. If the player's team wins the game, additional points should be added...say 1 or 2 points. The way most leagues are set up you could load up with high stat players on bad teams and win your fantasy league. I guess that's fine, but the object of the game of football is to win. Shouldn't a player be considered better if he helps contribute to a winning effort? Some guys might have more impressive stats than others, but their padded stats might have helped contribute to their team's loss. If we are to have any room to value the guy who sacrifices a few stats for the betterment of the team, there must be a way to reward that statistically. The only way I know how is to award points to the players whose team wins that day. What do you think?

Cardinals Ownership Blew It

The Cardinals ownership blew the season when the failed to add a solid pitcher to the St. Louis rotation. Since the All-Star break the Cardinals' pitching has stunk. Unless they somehow miraculously turn it around, the Reds will run away with the division. Oh well, at least they sold out the tickets for this season! Now that's quite an accomplishment! Just about any city can do that with a brand new stadium. Don't expect them to sell out next season if they continue to sit on their wallets instead of shelling out the bucks to put together a winning rotation.

Summer Vacation: St. Louis Daytrip, pt. 2

If you have the time and can find it, no daytrip to St. Louie is complete without a stop by Ted Drewes on historic Route 66. Ted Drewes is world famous for its frozen custard. We also happened to pick one of the best days to visit as my Odyssey registered the same temperature that was being reported on local radio.



After washing down the frozen custard with some icy water it was time to head back downtown for the game.

We arrived in time to get in right when the gates opened (5:10 P.M.). Because tickets were so hard to come by, we ended up purchasing the only ones available for the six of us to sit together, in the Bank of America club section, along the 3rd base line. For $90 a ticket, you get a decent food buffet and all the drinks you desire, in the comfort of an air conditioned facility. But don't lose that white cup because, it's the only one they'll give you. Lose it, and you are out at the regular concession stands paying for something to drink.



By gametime, we left the comfort of the air conditioning and settled into our seats, which were a little higher than I had expected they would be. This was our view:



About the 3rd inning, I called the most beautiful girl in the world to check and see how she and the greatest kids were doing, but it was so loud I could hardly hear her. So I left my seat and walked along the back corridor behind the seating until I was in deep left field near the "Big Mac" home run porch. After I hung up the phone I looked up and who did I see? My old friend Tim Ellsworth. I did a double take. He lives in Tennessee. I live in Florida. What are we both doing in St. Louis at a Cardinals game? Oh yeah, we are both devout Cardinal fans! Were did I expect to run into him? A Mighty Ducks hockey game in Anaheim? Still, I considered it quite a coincidence, or properly speaking, providence. Tim was able to sit with me for the remainder of the game, which was such a pleasant surprise to the evening and capped off a great day in the city. Here's the whole crew:


Only one negative in this whole day trip: the Cards continued their slide as the hot-hitting Chase Utley (33 game hit streak after the first inning)and hometown boy Ryan Howard (towering two-run homer) led the Phillies to a 5-3 win over the Cards.

Finally, people have asked me what I thought about the new stadium. Here is my best description: functional and frugal. Nice views of downtown. Nothing to get overly excited about. In a weird sort of way, by being the replacement of a cookie cutter, it is almost a cookie cutter itself in the sense that it reminds me of the other new "retro" parks without anything that radically sets it apart. I hesitate to call it great. It's attractive. It's got good sightlines. It's definitely not outstanding. For now, with only one visit, I'll declare it very good. But I could have said the same of Busch II since they had customized it for baseball.

Summer Vacation: St. Louis Daytrip, pt. 1

Since I grew up 90 minutes from St. Louis, it was the city we went to when we needed to go to the city. If you grew up in a city you may have no idea what I'm talking about, but if you grew up in small town America you know exactly what I mean. Anyway, my Dad organized a day trip for us to go to St. Louis with his/our cousins. Ray, Ben, and Robert are Dad's first cousins, which makes them my second cousins. Dave is Ray's son, which, I suppose makes him Dad's second cousin, and therefore, my third cousin. Our trip was built around a two-fold agenda: (1) find the old homes where they used to live in back in the 40s and (2) go see the Cardinals in the new Busch Stadium. So, this past Tuesday, all six of us loaded up in the van and headed to the city.

REMINISCING
On the drive to St. Louis we pulled together the facts of our family heritage. My Great-Grandfather, Cesare, came over from Northern Italy with his German wife around 1902, coming through Ellis Island like so many other Americans in that time. After a few years mining in Colorado, he relocated his family to Southern Illinois, another productive coal mining area. He died soonafter of pneumonia at age 33. His young bride, Martha, was left to raise and support six kids: Mary, Victor, Dolly, Pete, Silvio and Ceasar. The six cousins in the van this past Tuesday were from Pete and Ceasar.

During the Depression, coal mining was on hard times, so the young families of Dolly, Pete, and Ceasar all moved to the city for better job opportunities. They lived in St. Louis near each other over much of the 30s and 40s. Our goal on this trip was to seek out the homes where they had lived during this time. The older cousins, Ray and Ben, especially remembered life in St. Louis.


After a good lunch at Chevy's in Fairview Heights, we sought out our first destination: Aunt Dolly's house. Aunt Dolly was my Grandpa's sister. She was married at 12 years old and as one of the older kids, also had Martha living with her. Her home was the popular hangout for all the cousins (pictured below).



To say that the neighborhood has changed is a massive understatement. We are talking about a ghetto. What you don't see in the picture below is all the neighbors sitting on the front porch in the middle of the day, drinking and staring at us white folk like we are Elvis sighting. Just three minutes after we parked the van in front of this house, an older Cadillac with heavily tinted windows pulled right up behind my van and just sat there idling, the hard to see guy inside just staring at us. It was kind of scary to say the least.

Next we looked up the place where Dad's three first cousins lived, which was just a few blocks away. It is no longer habitable as you can tell from the picture below.



I assume that when there is graffiti that says, "No Loitering, Drinking, or Drugs," that there is quite of bit of loitering, drinking, or drugs going on in this building where my cousins used to live 60 years ago.

Below is one of the places my Dad lived (upstairs, right side), which is less than fifty yards from the house above.



Streetcars were still heavily in use back then and all four boys who spent these early years in the city made the short trip to the old Sportsman's Park, where the Cardinals and Browns (now Baltimore Orioles) called home for decades. We drove over to the old site on Grand Ave. which is now home the Boys and Girls Club. 10 World Series' were played at this site. Babe Ruth hit a few dingers on this parcel of land.

Vacationing

For me, the words vacation and family have always gone together. Since we live pretty far away from both of our parents, whenever we take vacation time we travel to see them. This vacation is par for the course as we are spending a few days in Illinois followed by a few in Tennessee before returning home to Florida.