NEWS: Abortion is "most compelling moral issue of our time"

From the Chicago Tribune:

Abortion is "most compelling moral issue of our time"

The Rev.  Bob Barron, priest and theology professor, University of St.  Mary of the Lake in Mundelein As Chicago's Cardinal Francis George joins other abortion rights opponents in Washington for the M...

The full story can be viewed at:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2011/01/abortion-is-most-compelling-moral-issue-of-our-time.html

Get the Chicago Tribune Android app from the Android Marketpalce.

What Confessional-Lutheran-Urban-Parochial Education Can Learn from Home Schooling: Beginning the Conversation

 

I am now approaching the second anniversary of my first visit to St. Philip Lutheran Church and School in Chicago, Illinois. In late June 2009 the people of St. Philip extended me a call to be their pastor; I accepted and moved my family to Chicago in August 2009.

Prior to our move we schooled our four children at home. Upon the move to St. Philip the children were placed in the parochial school. This move has been blessed with difficulty. That may seem a curious turn of phrase, but it reflects the belief that the Lord of the Church called us to St. Philip and will use our mutual experience to bless both my family and the people I have been called to serve and that are now our neighbors.

There are great benefits to a parochial school education, especially in an urban setting like ours. I will speak and write more about this in the future, and there are many ways in which I believe parochial education can be improved.

The related video clip below is from one of my favorite authors, Sir Ken Robinson. Sir Ken speaks with authority and passion about human creativity and how the discovery and cultivation of said creativity can and should lead to changes in the way think about ourselves and educate our children. In this particular video Sir Ken is responding to a question he received about what public education may learn from home schooling. His response, though brief, is a reply with which I resonate…

What Teachers Make Final Moviebk2 0001

A friend posted this on Facebook. I like it.

NYTimes: Last Christians Ponder Leaving a Hometown in Iraq

Very sad...


From The New York Times:

Last Christians Ponder Leaving a Hometown in Iraq

By JOHN LELAND and DURAID ADNAN

A town known for its religious harmony had about 70 Christian families before the 2003 invasion by the United States. Now it is down to just one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/world/middleeast/20christian.html

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Reflections on “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand

A book must be pretty engaging to keep me up at night. Normally, when I hit the pillow I’m out in minutes. Well, it’s half-past-two in the morning, I’m on vacation, and I fired up my computer because I am compelled to record some thoughts after finishing Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Random House, 2010), is a story that centers on the indefatigable Louie Zamperini, a youthful rogue turned Olympic runner turned WWII bombardier turned P.O.W. turned redeemer of youthful rogues. I write that Unbroken “centers” on Zamperini because, as the author alludes in her epilogue, Mr. Zamperini’s story is equally about the myriad GIs who braved incomprehensible conditions and treatment.

Zamperini’s story grabs our attention because he is the Olympic runner who, before war intervened, was about to break the four-minute-mile, but Hillenbrand’s recounting respectfully and engagingly draws us in to the lives of family, friends, colleagues, and enemies.

Unbroken is a truly wonder-full read.

Readers will laugh at the stories of Louie’s petulant childhood and at the heroic humor of he and his fellow POWs. The will marvel at the survival story. They will burn with anger at their ravenous treatment. They will read at rapt attention as Hillenbrand leads them to the threshold of the family reunion that only they believed they would ever have. Readers will cry when they see the picture of Louie embracing his mother. They may sigh the deep and soul-full sigh of brotherhood, as I did, when the author traces the post-war path that made for the book’s paradoxical title.

I hope this story is not made into a movie, at least not of the one-and-a-half hour variety. I did not see Seabiscuit, the movie based upon Hillenbrand’s previous book, but I can only imagine Unbroken’s vast and profound story being cheapened by a feature-length film. A sequence of films or a Band of Brothers type of docu-drama might reasonably render the story. It is a project that I would love to see documentary filmmaker Ken Burns tackle, not as a documentary, but as a movie-series. Now, that’s an interesting idea…

I suspect that I will reflect more on this book in the future. Perhaps I will post those reflections here. Certainly, Unbroken is very thought-provoking, one of the most worthwhile books I have purchased in some time.

NYTimes: A Tough Season for Believers

An interesting read with a conclusion that aptly summarizes the situation and challenges for American Christians...

From The New York Times:

A Tough Season for Believers

By ROSS DOUTHAT

Christmas is hard for everyone. But it's particularly hard for people who actually believe in it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/opinion/20douthat.html

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Christmas Sermon Mini-Series at St. Philip

Getting your company through a recession - Recessions - Accounting Solutions Ltd

The essay link below is from the front page of a business web site. The business is owned by a member of my congregation, but I call it to the public's attention because it is a very unusual piece of business advice. It's about the things that are most important, the things that are the foundation of any business or enterprise.

I'm particularly struck by this:

Everyone loses something in a depression. Make sure that it is something you can afford to lose. Your marriage, your health, your honor, your relationships with your family and friends... how can you replace these? Yet the inexperienced seem to sacrifice these first.

That quote has inspired a Christmas sermon mini-series at my congregation. Give this essay a shot. It's well worth your time.

Getting your company through a recession - Recessions - Accounting Solutions Ltd

Encouragement for Pastor and People in Advent and Christmas

 

I really appreciate the encouragement that the new President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod offers—to laypeople and clergy alike—in his Advent message.

Advent Blessing from President Harrison from VimeoLCMS on Vimeo.

NYTimes: The Changing Culture War

What does this mean for the church in general and Lutherans in particular?

From The New York Times:

The Changing Culture War

By ROSS DOUTHAT

Middle America retreats from marriage, and religion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/opinion/06douthat.html

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Reasoning for Three-Year-Olds and Influencing Behavior

I am a very imperfect parent, and I am trying to do better than just “Do this because I said so,” though that is a perfectly acceptable reason now and then. On this note, I had an amusing interchange with my three-year-old this morning that illustrates both my lack of creativity and his delightful reasoning…

Dad (to 3-yr-old who is holding himself): Son, you need to go potty.

3YO: I don't want to go potty.

Dad: Son, you need to go potty.

3YO: No. I don't want to go potty.

Dad: Son, you need to go potty.

3YO (resolutely): No.

Dad (a little steamed): Did you just tell me “no”?

3YO: I don’t want to go potty.

Dad: I know you don’t want to go potty, but you need to.

3YO: No.

Dad (heating up): Ok. Well you can go to the potty, or you go to your room and be all by yourself. [Pregnant pause from Dad while he searches for a more graceful option than just either-or.] Or, you can have a spanking. Which do you want?

3YO (with certainty): I want to go potty.

I’m thinking about the book Nudge that I started but never finished: Sometimes influencing behavior is just about asking the right questions.

Quinn says election provided "mandate" to raise income tax for schools - chicagotribune.com

Really?

I'm almost speechless.

Quinn says election provided "mandate" to raise income tax for schools - chicagotribune.com

Love Listening to Erin Bode Sing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcIKnQxhCW0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

I used to hate the idea of a college football playoff. I have changed my mind.

I enjoy Division 1 college football and I know that the NCAA crowns football champions in its other divisions by means of playoffs. I enjoy rewarding teams that have had success a trip to a warm-weather bowl game. I enjoy the drama of the NCAA D-1 men’s basketball tournament and think a playoff in football would offer not only drama but also provide the athletes a much better opportunity to prove, on the field, who is the national champion. I also know that, as the NCAA advertisement says, most of these kids will “go pro” in something other than football. They’re students, and they need to turn back to academics after the New Year.

After reading several proposals over the past couple years, including the 16 team proposal by Dan Wetzel that I read today and the earlier eight team proposal by Sports Illustrated (Sorry, I cannot find the link.), here is a modest D-1 football playoff proposal.

NCAA D-1 Football Playoff Proposal

 

Last Sat in Nov:	Conference Championships
1st Sat in Dec:	No games
2nd Sat in Dec:	Round of 16*
3rd Sat in Dec:	Round of 8*
4th Sat in Dec:	Bowls
Dec 31st:	Great Bowls
Jan 1st:	Great Bowls + Final 4
Following Sat:	National Championship

The Bids

I think I like Weztel’s idea to give automatic bids to the conference champions. I’m not sure about the NCAA basketball-style selection committee for the five at-large bids. I might like borrowing from the old SI proposal and just use the BCS formula to award the remaining available bids.

The Schedule

Quite frankly, I would rather require these athletes and staffs to go home on Thanksgiving weekend or catch up on school work, but a lot of these conferences will have championship games and it looks like that is the weekend for them. After the conference championship Saturday, it makes sense to give the playoff teams an extra week to rest and prepare for the round of 16. The high seeds get the reward of playing at home for rounds one and two, but I offer this caveat: give the home team 70-80% of the tickets and let the home team decide where the game is played.

I make this last suggestion because many of these schools are “northern” and would be playing in December. For example, though Michigan’s “Big House” is a phenomenal location, it can be pretty nasty weather-wise in Ann Arbor in mid-December. If beautiful Ford Field in Detroit were available and you gave the team 80% of the tickets at a venue like that, they might say that’s the way to go.

The proposed schedule provides another break around the Christmas holiday. This gives some time for the playoff teams and their families to get together, but also provides opportunities for the existing bowl games that operate. In that week following Christmas the bowls operate up through the the late afternoon of January 1st.

It might make sense with the Dec 31 and Jan 1 bowls to call them (for lack of a better name at this time) the “Great Bowls.” These bowls may have some formula, perhaps allowing those defeated in the rounds of 16 and 8 an opportunity to compete against other teams.

My proposal suggests that January first have the football version of the Final Four at night, with the first game at around 6pm and then have the national championship game on the following Saturday.

All of this get us a reasonably undisputed national champion, keeps the regular season very meaningful, grants independents and BCS-busters like Boise State a real shot, keeps bowls and the warm weather travel opportunity, and gets it all done before everyone has to show up for the second semester.

This surely doesn’t consider everything, but that is not my interest. My interest is summarized in the paragraph above. What do you think?

Seated with Jesus

Matthew 9:9-13 (ESV)
⁹ As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. ¹⁰ And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I am thankful to be seated with Jesus.

Man convicted of murder in DUI crash that killed Nick Adenhart - MLB - SI.com

Just months after my father died in a car crash in 1992 (He had a heart attack at the wheel and crashed into a tree.), my younger brother's best friend was killed by a drunk driver going up the wrong side of the highway. The story below and about the deaths of A's pitcher Nick Adenhart and his friends illustrates just how dangerous it is to drink and drive, and raises the "curious" cases of Braylon Edwards of the New York Jets and other professional athletes who suffer little penalty for drunk driving. True, Edwards didn't kill anyone (Thank God.), but in driving at twice the legal limit he all-but fired a weapon in a public place. Gilbert Arenas of the NBA's Washington Wizards goes to jail and loses a full year of play and salary after carrying a weapon into his locker room, but Mr. Edwards and others in the NFL get to play and make game-winning catches, for example, just days after arrests for "driving while intoxicated."

It's time to take drunk driving more seriously. If you want your players to be role models, NFL, MLB, NBA, etc., then it's time for more than a slap on the wrist, even if the offense doesn't injure someone.

Man convicted of murder in DUI crash that killed Nick Adenhart - MLB - SI.com

Allowances

My wife and I have talked on-and-off for years about whether to institute an “allowance” policy for our children. At present, we still do not have them…

With this in mind I downloaded a few of National Public Radio (NPR) “Planet Money” podcasts, including “Allowance Economics: Candy, Taxes, and Potty Training” from September 3, 2010. The interview features Australian economist, Joshua Gans, who as a father of three young children has been toying for years with his own system of incentives in his household.

I listened intently while on the treadmill this morning. I am curious to hear from other parents about their allowance policies.

Christian Leadership with Depth and Authenticity

The new President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Rev. Matthew Harrison, has a degree of theological depth and a personal authenticity that I admire greatly. I have just listened—again—to his first media interview on the day of his election.

The interview occurs on a formerly sanctioned but now “independent” Lutheran radio program called “Issues, etc” (The story of how this happened is found in this Wall Street Journal column.).  I am not as regular a listener as I would like, but—now and then—I turn to www.Issuesetc.org for important reflection on key issues that affect us.

For those who want to hear an excellent example of depth and humility in Christian servant-leadership, click here.

Reporting on the “End” of Combat in Iraq

It’s hard to believe that after seven years of direct U.S. military involvement in Iraq, the loss of millions of lives, the spending of billions of dollars, that it is barely news. I would have thought that it would be right under the masthead in the nation’s premier media outlets, but pictured below are today’s front pages of the on-line versions of the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and Time magazine. The end of combat is not mentioned.

These images were taken between 0600 and 0615 Central time in Chicago.

I remember September 11, 2001, the visit of George Tenet to the Oval Office, the buildup to this war, the speech of Colin Powel before the United Nations, the countless images of the dead and maimed and displaced. I still think that if my CIA director walked into my oval office and said something like (as I understand what Mr. Tenet said) “Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction in Iraq” that I would not have made a different decision than President Bush. I hope history shows that some good comes from this decision, for all involved, but as far as I can see right now it has been mostly tragic.

I honestly don’t know what to make of this reporting, but something is missing this morning…

Great Teams Change Lives

A Facebook post by my high school team mate, Jim Shields, got me thinking about what a difference being part of a good team can be for someone’s life…

I graduated from Frankenmuth High School (Frankenmuth, Michigan) in 1988 and had the honor of playing on two of the finest boys teams in Frankenmuth High School history. Both the football and basketball teams went to the state semifinals after outstanding seasons. For now, I focus on the football team.

Jim Shields (mentioned above) was our all-state punter and kicker. While we were crushed by eventual state champion Grand Rapids Catholic Central in the state semis at Alma College, I will never forgot the busloads of CC kids getting out, coming in to the stands, and gasping as Jim Shields rocked pre-game practice punts into the stratosphere.

Jim was just one of several outstanding athletes on that team. Scott Jacobs was an all-state wide receiver. We had a fine quarterback in Myron Mauer, a great compliment of linemen (One of whom, Troy Reinert, still (I believe) holds as sack record at FHS and another, Steve Heinlein, who went on the Air Force Academy.), and all-conference caliber players all over the field.

One of our running backs, Paul Sica, gave one of great out-of-body athletic performances I have ever seen in that state semifinal. I’m confident he didn’t show the coaches before the game, but Paul opened his mouth in a pre-game huddle and showed us tonsils the size of golf balls. I don’t know how the guy could breath! He was totally miserable and played his guts out. Many of us remember Michael Jordan’s famous “flu game” against Utah (1996?). Respectfully, I’ll put Paul’s effort that day up there with Jordan’s or anyone else’s for that matter. There was no money on the line, no scholarship, just the commitment to us—the team—and to excellence that competition provided us.

If you click here you’ll see a web page with a single game playoff interception record at FHS. It has my name on it. Elsewhere my name appears for a single season total of six. Some historian of FHS football years from now might look at these records and come to a silly conclusion. The fact is that I had little business being on that field.

My “backup” was a superior athlete named Scott Jackson, who went on to start the following year as a senior and set all kinds of records. Scott could dunk at basketball when he was 5’6”. He was a great athlete, and he played sparingly because I was a senior, the student body president, and because I worked hard in practice. (Our head coach, Ralph Munger, tried to reward guys like me with playing time because he believed it was best for the team in the long-run. He’s now become a Michigan high school legend at Rockford High School.)

I got six interceptions that season, in part because nobody wanted to throw anywhere near all-stater Scott Jacobs, who played defensive back next to me, and because we had a tremendous defensive line and linebacker corps who made life miserable for the opposing offenses. At least two of those six interceptions almost literally fell into my lap. One was a tipped ball that was stupidly thrown by the quarterback at the end of the game. I got a touchdown for that one. (Thanks for the block, Jim Frank.) Another was a “Hail Mary” at the end of the first playoff game against Cheboygan that the quarterback just heaved into the air and I ended up being the one in the pile who came up with the ball.

There are many lessons from all this, but the high school football experience, especially, was life-changing for me, giving me confidence and a sense of accomplishment as I ventured off, away from my family, for my tumultuous college years. I had some success in high school football because I was a decent athlete on a team of great athletes that had coaches that expected us to maximize our potential and gave us every opportunity to do so.

Our coaches, knowing the talent we had from the time we were in elementary school, spent years encouraging, cajoling, and developing both the talent and the commitment to one another that would allow us to achieve personal and corporate successes that most of us could not have imagined when we were on the playground as little children. That team did not just “appear.” It was molded and shaped over many years, and it changes all of our lives for the better. 

May God give us who are now in leadership the vision and commitment to personal and corporate excellence, to develop and use our God-given gifts for the good of our neighbor, that we might mold and shape great teams in our families and workplaces, for great teams change lives.