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Easing in with thoughts on Rosie O’Donnell…

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My church was gracious enough to grant me six weeks paternity leave. With twins, I’m convinced now that, by the end of that leave, I’ll have needed every second of it. I’m grateful to be employed by such a generous Christian community, not just for this leave, but for all the support they’ve offered Ms. Kairos and me over these last five weeks. As I prepare to go back to work a week from Monday, some have already lined up to come in and help with laundry, meal prep, light cleaning, etc. Its just plain hard to watch two infants by yourself and do all those other things. And as Ms. Kairos prepares to go back to work herself six weeks after that, we’ll be trying to figure out how to do all this with daycare.

Ms. Kairos is a bit concerned with sharing pictures of our family on the net, so you’ll have to make due with one final shot of the girls (for now):

We asked the girls which picture was their favorite, and these are the pictures that each chose. I’m not sure what that says about their personalities yet. We’ll have to see.

Regarding blogging: I’m going to ease back into it over the next few weeks. I don’t know what my time will be like before going back to work. Maybe Toby is right and I’ll have plenty of time at 3am this week. Or maybe not.

What caught my eye today was James’ post today on Think Christian about Rosie O’Donnell. Here it is:

The American Family Association is all worked up by Rosie O’Donnell telling “The View” viewers, “Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have separation of church and state.”

Founder Donald Wildman wrote, in a mass email, “O’Donnell was saying there is no difference between the radical Muslims who kill in the name of Allah and Bible-believing Christians who follow the teachings of Jesus.” He urged Christians to email “ABC that O’Donnell’s comments
deserve an apology and a reprimand.”

I’m not sure that’s the right attitude. Didn’t Jesus say, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11).

So like Baalam’s curse of the Israelites turning into a blessing, isn’t O’Donnell blessing followers of Jesus and providing a great reward in heaven? The truly “radical Christian” thing to do, might just be to email O’Donnell a thank you note.

What do you think? There’s this attitude among so many Christians that any slight to Christenedom needs be countered by strength. James has a point here. And I think Rosie is wrong in her characterization of “radical Christianity,” which doesn’t equal fundamentalist or what I’d call “Christianist” Christianity. But I thought I’d pass James’ post along…

Why do we blog, and whither do we link…

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Some random thoughts for a random afternoon.

I’ve spent a few minutes looking around and adding yet more links to my blogrolls. I’ve asked myself if they are getting too long, but I’ve decided that, at least now, they aren’t. Those links, at least to those who aren’t hobo-bloggers (to steal Andrew’s Alan’s term for those who rarely update their blogs), all contain food for thought of some sort–theological, political, practical, humerous. They aren’t uniform in their points of view, though they are heavily weighted to subjects of interest to your truly (such as Presbyterian and Reformed Theology, for instance).

Russell Smith (found over in the emergent-esque blogroll) has an interesting post up about integrity in linking and blogging. One quote:

Simply put, our blogging should seek to edify and build up the saints, not engage in a tough-man free for all of words and attack. Sometimes that edification may be in the form of challenging cultural or institutional assumptions — but it must always be done with the aim of edifying rather than scoring points. The question still remains — is there a place for prophetic wrath?  I welcome your thoughts on that question.

I had lunch with Not Prince Hamlet a while ago and we talked a bit about why we blog. Is it to engage in serious conversation? Perhaps, but honest conversation on this medium (viz. blogging, but I also mean the internet more generally) is next to impossible. Conversation requires trust, and its hard to trust someone you can’t see, can’t hear vocal inflection in their speaking, and so on. And it is so easy to feel shielded by this monitor and thereby forget that this is a human enterprise, and the people reading this are, indeed, people, children of God, endowed thereby with worth and demanding of moral respect.

There’s also the notion of trying to contribute to the discussion of ideas. I like that, and that’s a major reason why I blog. Its an interesting question, for sure….

In his post, Russell points to several sites that edify, challenge, instruct. They’re interesting, particularly Dear Church. As Russell describes it: “this website…tells stories of 20 somethings who have left the church because they’ve been so badly burned. Some of their complaints are grossly unfair — however as you read on you may find yourself being deeply challenged. Worth a look-see.”

Take a look…