Saturday, December 29, 2012

Unapologetic at Mars Hill

 I am not into "Turn it up to 11" apologetics.


ApologetiX, I can deal with.

How about an unaplogetic (un)apologetic?

HT to Beth Maynard, always an articulate preacher!
When Beth mentions "the most extraordinary book I've read in 2012," it's worth taking note. 

 Find out about it --"Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense" by Francis Spufford
in the  intro to Beth's  sermon audio below
(Keep listening for Mars Hill/ Areopagus
connection) No  christianesee  or cliches, but   "sparkingly apt profanity"?
How cool is that? 

20 Min audio interview with author here.

Some used copies available on Amazon, even though the book hasn't been released in US yet:

Rob Bell's band, _ ton bundle: complete mp3s

A helpful new book, "Rob Bell and a New American Christianity" by Jr. James K. Wellman, 

  

triggers some interwebs research into Bell's band from Wheaton College days:
Here's a random song; and here's  a particularlu avant-gardeish one.
The band's name:

_ ton bundle


That starts with an underscore.  Click the name to visit their Facebook page.

Whole album here.

Read all about it here. 

I hear Stephanie Kriegbaum Richter (my cool cousin who makes me only two degrees separated from Bell) has some original (autographed?) tapes..


Saturday, December 22, 2012

Martin Luther: clodhoppers and music

"A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs."
- Martin Luther, Foreword to Georg Rhau's Collection, "Symphoniae iucundae"

David Crowder (the"flippin' semiotician")'s "soooo Crowder" T-shirt with the F-word

T shirt called "Ancient Chinese Secret."  Don't leave the blog now, all offended. (:  Read the story of this T-shirt below

Any list of great books on the Psalms would include Eugene Peterson's amazing "Answering God" (see "Eugene Peterson on loud farts"), works by Bruegemann (of course) and....

 ...did you know David Crowder wrote a book on the Psalms? It's"Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi"
...and it's a ...well, Crowderesque...devotional on selected psalms. Here's a hilarious highlight, from the book's conclusion:







The Ancient Chinese Secret - by David Crowder


Se-mi-ot-ics n
1.  the study of signs and symbols of all kinds, what they mean and  how they relate to the things or ideas they refer to.

I bought a T-shirt in Washington,  D.C. It was red. It  said "Ancient Chinese Secret" on the front. Below this  statement, it had writing, which I assumed to be Chinese. Never  assume. My sushi friend Shelley was there when I picked it out. I held it up, and she said, "Oh, that is soooo Crowder." I  put it on that very day. I ate lunch in it sitting across from  the pastors of the church where we were playing music later that  evening. As I made my way across the stage, heading for our bus  that was parked outside, our lighting technician stopped me and  said, "Wow. You are brave."

 "Yes. Well, brave how? I mean, what do you mean  'brave'?"

 "The shirt. You know the secret right?"

 "Well, yeah."
I nervously responded in an uncertain  chuckle. It is embarrassing to wear a shirt and not know what it  means. "Wait, what? You mean you know Chinese? Wow. So, huh,  well what does it say? I don't know the secret. I don't know  Chinese. What's the secret?"

 "Oh, it's in English."

 "What? No! I studied this shirt at the store like a flipping semiotician. It is most certainly not in English. That I am sure  of."

 "It is in English. Turn the shirt sideways then read."

It was most definitely in English. Granted, it was intended to be cleverly hidden in ornate, faux Chinese brushstrokes, but once spotted it was unmistakable. I was wearing a shirt that said,  "Go F#$@ Yourself!" It was all I could see now. How had  I missed this? I am not a semiotician. I sat across from pastors  eating hamburgers, laughing and smiling, while the whole time  this was written on my chest!

 Stuff in life happens, and we try to make sense of it. So we look carefully. What could this moment, this tragedy, this weight,  this mountain, this tearing, this violence, this frenzy that is  life be teaching us? What is being said here? And then someone  points out, "Hey, it says, 'Go F#$@ Yourself!'" and  you've had it on the whole time.

Se-mi-ot-ics  n
2.  the study of identifying the ways that various symptoms indicate  the disease that underlies them. (Medical)

 The real message, the thing that is scribbled barely legible, the thing that's always there, underlying, is—we need rescue.  
Things aren't as they should be. When your eyes focus and this  becomes visible, you can't tear your eyes from it. And you start  to see that there are those all around us who wait in begging  wonder. "What is wrong? I am here. I am here, and I need you  to notice. At times I'm waving my arms above my head, screaming  it. At times I am too frightened to move, but always I am here,  and I want you to notice. And in the dark I am afraid. I lie with  my hand on my chest waiting for the tapping to come. Things  aren't as they should be. There are symptoms. You see it in my  eyes. I have seen it in your eyes, too.

Come  to Jesus
To follow Jesus doesn't remove us from the stuff of life. It is  not resolution. It is tension and journey. In 1 John 2:6 it says, "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."  Jesus was in the world, engaged, alive, involved, making a  difference. To follow Him, we must do the same. His prayer for us  in John 17 is "Not that you take them out of the world  ..." and "As you sent me into the world, I have sent  them into the world" (verses 15, 18).

This is what God has  done for us. He has come into our condition. He has come to bring  us back. He has come and embraced us. He has come and covered us  in Himself. Watch this Christ. Watch as He is accused of being a  drunkard, of associating with tax collectors. Watch as He brings  healing to the afflicted, love to prostitutes, forgiveness to  sinners. Watch as He climbs the hill bearing His destruction on  His back. Watch as blood and water flow. Watch as salvation comes  to us all. Watch as glory ascends to come again. Watch and fall  in love with a God who does not resolve, whose rescue is  never-ending. Whose prayer is that you would be that rescue. Who  sends you to be that rescue.
Be courageous. Even as you stand  there hiding in the bushes, shaking to the bottom of your toes,  frightened of what's to follow, what consequences will come of  it, know that evil will not prevail. That you are not alone. That  you bring the kingdom  of God, and  there is hope. There is hope always. And others will walk out of  dark places and see you standing there, arms outstretched, given completely to this hope.
Praise is response. Praise happens when there is revelation, and there is revelation waiting for us around every bend, in places  we would not suspect.
Our task is to live with eyes wide open to  God's greatness because when we see the imprint of the creator,  our insides will swell with devotion, our hearts will erupt with thankfulness. You will live, breathe and radiate praise. The  habit isn't in learning "how to praise"; it is in  reminding yourself "who to praise." It is a remembering  of who you are. It is a remembering of your identity. Praise is  redeemed and redefined with rescue.

When you have been found by  grace, your identity is swallowed in Christ. You are enveloped by  Him, clothed in His merciful sacrifice. To live in this  remembrance is to bring awareness of Christ into your every encounter. In this awareness you bring His embrace to the things you embrace.

You  Are Here

There is a sign in my favorite restaurant, 1424,  which happens to be located directly across the street from my  house, that hangs by the bar and states, in black letters on a  pale-yellow background, "You Are Here."
I call often  for takeout. I pretend that they are my residential kitchen staff  that just so happens to cook the most flavorful foods on the  planet. The chef's name is Bill, and he knows exactly how I like  my pork tenderloin. We have never discussed it; he just knows.  He's always known. And as I wait for my order to be packed in  white Styrofoam and placed in a plastic bag for transport, I sit  at the bar and read, "You Are Here," and it brings a  comfort and solidity to things. You often hear or encounter  inspirational art convincing you to live as if today is the last,  to engage each moment as if it were all we had, but usually this  is married to the idea that it is. That this is it.  
There is nothing more than now. All we get is what we suck out of  this moment. But I disagree. I read, "You Are Here,"  and I am equally inspired to be fully present in this moment, but  it is not because that is all I have, but because I am bringing  something more. I am bringing the very kingdom of God.  
I read, "You Are Here," and I, ignoring the dramatic  punctuation of finality, think, "The kingdom of God  is sitting at this bar, waiting to bring something better."

We are to be rescue. We are to be redemption. We are to carry the story of God to the ones waiting. To the ones with their hands on their chest, begging you to notice that things aren't right. And  this is praise. You are the note sounding in a thousand different  rooms. There are chords and reflective surfaces around you. There  is context.

Sometimes life comes at us with the delicacy of a sunset, and  other times it comes with the rawness of sushi and the bitter  bite of wasabi. Sometimes the tears will be because you cannot  stand empty-eyed in the presence of such beauty, and sometimes  they will be full of fire, but notice/know this: You are here. You Are Here! You are here, and you are not alone.

Look me in the eyes. Can you feel the fabric on your skin? It is woven from the threads of love. Pay attention to the way it folds around you, sense its softness, brush the hair of your arms as  you lift them toward the heavens in unencumbered declaration.

It is the coverings of rescue that you feel. It is a flood. It is  an ocean. It is a sea that has no bottom, for there is no end to it.  To be fully present in the rescue and recreation of Christ is to  embrace what God does for us, and this is the best thing we can  do for Him.-David Crowder, pp, 152-153 Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi

top albums of 2012: : lotsa lynx

 FIRST, Ryan's list, as unveiled on Twitter:


1. Hammock - Departure Songs: post-rock masterwork. Sprawling, densely layered double album, sounds like planets spiraling over fiscal cliff
2. The Walkmen - Heaven: indie music for grownups...family vacations, storytime, and bittersweet love (the only kind). And it sounds amazing
3. The Killers - Battle Born: Brandon Flowers is gifted. Ambitious, soaring, passion-pop songs that tell Our Story, circa '12. Not trendy.
4. Japandroids - Celebration Rock. If crafting fuzzy, stadium-sized, 3XL anthems is so easy, ask yourself this: Why am I not in the Spin 50?
5. Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal: many instruments, voices make a pleasant racket...should sound plastic but instead is sublime
6. From Indian Lakes - Able Bodies: Making Central Cal proud with mathpop time-shifts, sharp-edged guitars, AND singable, intelligent songs.
7. Kathleen Edwards - Voyaeur: Sounds like spring in the dead of winter. Folksy, modern, tragicomic songs delivered by veteran songstress.
8. Jealous Sound - A Gentle Reminder: gently reminding us how needed Blair's heartbroken lyricism is. Heard it before? Yes. Still vital? Yes
9. Craig Finn - Clear Heart Full Eyes: All my downtime makes me nervous, Finn says. Somehow I get that. Pure gutpunch stories via Nashville.
For those of you who aren't music junkies, let me apologize in advance...this will be annoying. 2012 Top Ten Albums in 140 characters each
10. Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror: surprised by how much I enjoyed outrageously abrasive production/infectious melodies. Over. The. Top.
--------------------

by Craig Detweiler: (note he included Sinead in the first link!):


by Jeff Keuss: 


Christianity Today:


    The 2012 CT Music Awards | Christianity Today




Rolling Stone:


Friday, December 21, 2012

Bradbury on "really knowing"

Ray Bradbury., in Something Wicked This Way Comes:

A stranger is shot in the street, you hardly move to help. But if, half and hour before, you spent just ten minutes with the fellow and knew a little about him and his family, you might just jump in front of his killer and try to stop it. Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know is bad, or amoral, at least. You can’t act if you don’t know.

everything is semiotics; semiotic=semi-erotic

In one current class, we've been enjoying the family tree of the word "sign" (see  this  and   this).
It's a reminder that everything is sign-ificant.
We can't not do signs/ semiotics.

It's a sign.

Read up on semiotic theology.

Enjoy the delightfully named Erotica: The Semey Side of Semiotics .
(Of course they'll be a connection between semiotics and sexuality...if everything is semiotic and "Our sexuality is all the ways we strive to reconnect with our world, with each other, and with God.
Don't forget, as Sweet says in the interview below, " In nature, you don’t get to mate or even sometimes move without being able to read signs."


Definitely read theo-semiotician  Leonard Sweet (study with him in the Semiotics and Future Studies Doctor of Ministry program):


Explorefaith: Len, you are often described as a futurist. Can you tell me what that means, exactly? Do you foretell the future?
Leonard Sweet:  Don’t we all wish we had that crystal ball? What I do is called “semiotics,” which makes me a “semiotician,” a word derived from one of Jesus’ favorite sayings: “Red sky in morning/sailors take warning/Red sky at night/sailors delight. You know how to read the signs of the sky; Learn to read the signs of the times.” [See Matthew 16:2-3] The Greek word for “signs” is semeion, and semiotics is the study of signs and the art of making connections, seeing the relationships between apparently random signs and reading the meaning of those relationships.
Our brains are designed to detect patterns. So I only do what everyone else can do if we do what we’re designed to do.
The world is ruled by signs and signals. For example, cars are driven to be seen and to be read, not just to get you somewhere. Cars are signs of who we are or want to be. Signals are heavy laden with social and moral connotations. They even alter the behavior of those receiving the signals. In nature, you don’t get to mate or even sometimes move without being able to read signs, many of them blazing signals in code: the crow of a rooster, the tail of a peacock, the antlers of a buck, the scent of an otter, the song of a kakapo. In economics, the whole system of money is based on signs, and you can’t balance a checkbook without the ability to read a sign language called “mathematics.” You are tested in your sign-reading ability before you are given a license to drive a car.
Explorefaith:  What does reading signs have to do with faith?
Leonard Sweet:  Disciples of Jesus must learn to read the sign-language of the Spirit. Sometimes God gives us a hint; sometimes God drops a hammer on us. But the handwriting is on the wall. God’s finger is still writing. Can we read the signs of what God is doing? The ultimate in spiritual illiteracy is the inability to read the handwriting on the wall, especially when the essence of evangelism is announcing the good sign, the Jesus Sighting. For me, semiotics is another way of talking about the signs of the Spirit’s activity in the world. For we are sent into the world to join Jesus in his continuing mission.
Also—there are some people in the church preoccupied with reading signs, but they’re looking only for one thing: not signs of our times, but end times signs, signs of the coming of Christ, signs of the “latter days” and the “end of days.” I’m trying, instead, to read the signs which give us Jesus sightings.   link

See especially the "Semiotics 101" section,   pp 41-50 here below (Nudge, By Leonard Sweet -Chapter One):

learn semiotics. It’s a direct order

Sweet and McLaren: Versus Verses and Verse-itis

First,Sweet and McLaren on "Versus Verses" from  "Ais for Abductive (a great book which, of course, is on the cut-out rack at the Christian bookstore):



Then, Sweet on Verse-itis and apples/oranges

changing the seating and church culture

"Form follows function. Changing the seating WILL NOT change your church culture. However, if you change the church culture to encourage connection, interaction and participation, at some point you will have to redesign the seating" -Church in a Circle, Tomorrow’s church – Part 3: Rethinking the seating arrangement

See:


Monday, December 17, 2012

Reading Rohr with Bono: half-naked elevation, necessary decadence and life-giving drink with the devil (without moving in with him)


This astonishing section  (and astonishingly nowhere online until I hit "publish") of Richard Rohr's book, "Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation
below deserves to be read slowly, prayerfully, carefully....

and soundtracked to U2;
and with the following for context and contexture:

1)Thoughtful U2 fans will recognize  resonances of 1990s U2 (especially "Elevation" and "Mysterious Ways" as well as famous/infamous Bono quotes  about Catholic Carnival,   flesh/spirit, "a drink with the devil," incarnation, joy, beauty, sex  etc etc)  all over this reading.  See "Elevation leads to Vertigo 2.0,"  and blogs by  Beth Maynard  Tim Neufeld  for more).

 Bono, as  the extraordinary theologian Miraslov Volf  himself has said, is an "extraordinary theologian (of grace)".

 One almost wonders if the man and his "elegant wife"  in the last paragraph are not actually/  literally Mr. and Mrs. Paul  "Bono" Hewson; it is all so Bono/esque.
At  least  wonder how many "amen"s  a reading of a random line of this text would solicit from Bono.

2)Please don't hear what Rohr is NOT saying.  Don't write him off as a heretic.  Read well.
 Example: the concept of flirting..sometimes literally... with the line (flirting with the line, itself) as a spiritual discipline/"necessary training."

3)The book is on the topic of "male initiation," so the male/man language is not intended to be sexist.
It should be considered/read on the flow of the whole book.  Buy it yesterday, and buy one for Bono and wife.

Enjoy:



Do you  think  St. Francis really stopped being the king of the parties?  Do you think David of the dance, the psalms, the harp and the many women ever stopped being erotic?  Could Rumi, Kabir, Tagor or Hafiz  have possibly written their sacred poetry if they were not sensuous and sensual men? Did St. Phillip Neri  really stop telling jokes and drinking wine?  Did Mozart ever stop having fun?  Did the cloistered contemplatives not know joy?  I don't think so.  They just moved joy and pleasure to the highest level, which is the highest definition of a mystic.  The contemplative, or saint, is the most refined and highest level of the lover archetype.

It is strange that the West has largely created cultures of conspicuous consumerism when it took as its ultimate hero and God figure a  poor and simple man.  You would think our God figure would be Dionysius or Pan.  Why do most Eastern or Native peoples of the world  consider the West to be greedy and materialistic?  Why do we produce such a high rate of physically addicted people?  Why is the search for affluence and pleasure our main concern?  Could it be because we have not blessed the good side of joy and pleasure?  Now it comes back and bites us from behind.  When I consciously seek a certain amou8nt of creature comfort in my life, I find that it satisfies me, and also will never satisfy me.  That is a very life-giving and creative tension to live in.

I  do not find the same kind of approach and avoidance attitudes toward pleasure in Hindu countries. among most Jews, and surely not among Native peoples.  The lower part of a man was not paid his dues or given legitimate permission in Western Christianity.  As many say, sexuality and sensuality is our ever-recurring and "unhealed wound,"  Like petulant schoolboys, we Christians sneak all the fun we can at the expense of underdeveloped countries, our neighbors, and the health of our own bodies and souls.  We feel duly guilty about it all, but we usually don't stop.  We priests deny ourselves sex, but then we insist on four-star hotels and restaurants.  Carnival in Catholic countries became a necessary decadence to justify receiving the ashes the next morning.  Something has not come to balance inside us, and we remain schizoid.   We go to the outer world for our daily pleasures, but we  seldom allow them to bring us to God, or even to ourselves.  We remain split.  Flesh is bad and Spirit is good in our terrible dualism.  Yet the Christian religion is supposed to be incarnation-a love affair between flesh and Spirit.  It  is really quite strange.

Ours is the only religion in the world that dares to believe that God became flesh.  The only religion that chews on the flesh of God has a very sensuous, sexual symbol for the transformation of the lover; we call it the Eucharist.  Christianity says that God is Love but does not appear to really enjoy the lover.  Despite all the Bach masses, Baroque churches, incense, vestments, and luxurious art, we still made our religion into a moralistic matter instead of a  mystical joy.  Our operative God image was much more a banker, a judge, a timekeeper, or an accountant, but seldom a real lover--in any sense that the normal man understands.  Like Michal, the daughter of Saul, we despise David for dancing half naked in church (1 Samuel 6:16); we look away from Shakers, Pentecostals, and holy rollers.  Religion should be a proper and dignified thing, we think.  The hot sins for the Baptists and Catholics
are always associated with the body.  This is no religion of incarnation.

Frankly, it is the Hindu sacred poets, Sufi mystics like Rabi'a and Rumi, the Christian saints like John XXIII, Hildegard of Bingen, Franc is of Assisi, Julian of Norwich and Therese of Lisieux, or Jewish masters, like the Baal Shem Tov, Abraham Heschel, and Martin Buber who seem to have met a lover God.  The mystics of all religions know this lover God, but they are never allowed to set the tone for the ordinary Christian, Jew, Hindu or Muslim on the street.  We are all lost in law, custom and holy wars, which largely nullified any chance of a love-based ethic for any of the three monotheistic religions.  As Paul said so strongly, reliance upon moralisms makes grace impossible (Galatians 3), and it even leads to the death of the soul (Romans 7).  Moralisms keep us making lists for God instead of making love to God.

In short, if religion does not integrate and validate the sensual, pleasure-loving, erotic part of a man, it takes devious and destructive directions.  If you do not bless it and bow to it, it turns on you and controls you, as we have seen in the recent pedophile scandal.  If you bless it, it shows its limited value and longs for something higher.  The most loving men I have met, the most generous to society and to life, are usually men who have a lusty sense of life, beauty, pleasure and sex--but they have very realistic expectations of them.  The smaller pleasures have become a stairway and an invitation to higher ones, almost by revealing simultaneously their wonderful and yet limited character.  They offer a first taste but then create a taste for something more and something higher.  This is the necessary training of the lower archetype.

The true lover wastes no time in guilt and no time in gluttony either.  As Dome Bedde Griffiths said,  "Sex is far too important to eliminate entirely, and it is far too important to do lightly.  The only alternative is to somehow 'consecrate' it."  I am personally convinced this is true.  The man who took me recently to a four-star restaurant with his elegant wife, while speaking excitedly about the food making love to him, is the same man who talks passionately about refugees, injustice and Third World issues, and he has passed these passionate concerns onto his children.  He is the lover I am talking about. -Richard Rohr, Adam's Return, pp.  128-131.

Westboro Baptist, part 1: "we are coming"

I know, I know.  We  don't want to give Westboro any attention.  So of course, I struggle with even posting any news about them.  But for reasons that will become clear in this series of posts, I hope to justify to myself and others any press...and hopefully prayer..I can give them.

How the church responds..or doesn't..will be key in the days ahead.

If you need backstory on Westboro, see this,  and my previous posts on them here.


First the  new news:
Connecticut school shooting: Westboro Baptist Church planning to picket

I doubt this will come off.  They have announced pickets before, and not followed through.

Then, a crazy follow-up item:

Connecticut school shooting: Westboro Baptist Church blames Carrie Underwood

Finally, for today, one organizations's response.


The ever-hateful Westboro Baptist Church has not failed to deliver in the wake of the Newtown school massacre. The Church, notorious for picketing the funerals of fallen troops with “God Hates Fags” placards, announced Saturday that they would picket Sandy Hook elementary school, where 20 children and six adults were shot dead Friday. Tweets from the Phelps family suggest they believe the horrors in Connecticut are a punishment from God for gay marriage.
Hacker collective Anonymous was swift to respond, releasing private information of  Westboro members including email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses. This video, decrying the church for spreading “seeds of hatred” was also released. It warns, “We will destroy you. We are coming.”  LINK

--

Previous posts:


Friday, December 14, 2012

Christian women bloggers


The Bonfire: 1,001 Christian women bloggers you should know

Frank Viola: The Top Christian Women Bloggers 

The Top 10 Christian Women Bloggers You Should Be Reading ...

Christian Female Bloggers That I Read | Cheesewearing Theology

first day of the semester


Amazing post by Jeff Keuss:


There is that moment at the beginning of the academic year when the professor comes into the classroom, sets down his or her stack of papers and books, moves to the podium and begins class.   It is a very mundane moment in many ways.  Students chatter away, texting friends, drinking expensive espresso drinks in shimmering travel mugs with café logos you don’t get the reference to and you move your papers around, look at the technology that surrounds you more and more each year and take a deep breath as you launch into your ‘welcome’ speech.

Yet as a faculty member those few seconds between setting down my briefcase and books and when I turn to face my new class and begin to speak is a sacred moment like no other.  Something  CONTINUED: In that first breath of a new class: a professor’s thoughts standing at the podium on day one

With or Without You: "sound beyond mere words" and Much's "The Scream"

For fans of Bono's "sounds beyond words," (see  "Oh, God!" and  Wordless Vocals"),
read Jeff Kuess:
 “With or Without You” – is a song of longing to be alive, yet the resolution to this longing is not to be found in the accumulation of material wealth, experiences or even just having more time.  Rather, the protagonist of the song comes to the realization that to be fully alive will require binding his life to the one he loves and in doing so, will end any sense of selfhood he had previously known or aspired to.  As the protagonist wails in both lament and exaltation the refrain “with or without you, I cannot live”, the song moves from mere lyrics to a release into something beyond categories.  At approximately three minutes into the song, lead singer Bono moves from words into a scream that is the sonic representation of Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting “The Scream.” With this release of the self into the sound beyond mere words, this simple pop song points toward much of what Lent is about.
After Bono’s scream of release quiets down and Edge slowly brings the song to a close with Adam’s steady bassline, I am left asking the question: Is what it means to be in the world either about gathering things to ourself – people, experiences, material possessions, knowledge – as an accumulating mode that ever increases and never relinquishes?  Or are we merely to absolve everything, put the responsibility on mentors, doctrines, traditions and take no responsibility for our lives?  Both paths in absolute will be our death. -Jeff Keuss,

(just about) everything I learned about Lent I learned from U2