music prodigies and dodgeball
It is great to be back at work after a fantastic weekened with friends. The highlight was my time with friends this past weekend. It was really great to spend Saturday night with Aaron, his lovely and very cool girlfriend, Lauren, and the rest of Robbins' company. We went out to a couple bars in Minneapolis and had a great time. I also enjoyed hanging out with one of my oldest friends from the mean streets of West Bloomington, Adam X, on Sunday. We played little billiards, enjoyed some food, and reminised of my days as a dodgeball legend at Jefferson High School. Surely you must be thinking that after a few days off of blogging, I must have some things on my mind. Well, right you are:
1. The most under-rated movie of the year is August Rush. I saw it on Friday night and I absolutely loved it! The acting is good, the story is magnificent, and it is one of those movies that eight year olds and 80 year olds will both enjoy.
2. Did anyone see Family Guy last night? The monologue where Stewie just complely rips Colin Farrell is one of the funniest 90 seconds in television history.
3. Did anyone else spend just a little too much time yesterday watching the Lord of the Rings triology on TNT. Okay, probably just me.
4. Minnesota vs. Chicago in Monday Night Football. I'm pumped.
5. While I was at church Sunday morning, right after our minister gave his sermon, I thought of how lucky I am to attend a church that values the actual teachings of Jesus. Our church preaches things like helping the sick, needy, and less fortunate. It approaches current events by seeing the joy in everyday, while also being a realist. WPC also refuses to engage in the hateful dialogue that so many baptist, evangelical shitty churches do where they judge other cultures and societies, organize hateful protests, and sit in the highest seat in their glass, ivory tower. I think one of the benefits of attending a good sized downtown church compared to a suburban church, is our church doesn't just write checks to charities and call it a day. Our ministers, church leaders, and members volunteer at AIDS walks, organize food shelves for the needy, support sister churches in Africa, Cuba, and Brazil, and still writes large checks to numerous charities around the world. They don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk. It is an honor to say I am a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church.
6. Earlier this year, I was at Iowa State talking college football with Anay and he asked me what my thoughts were on the season. I said that by far, the team I most enjoy watching play this season will be West Virginia. They run a highly aggressive, fun offense which is almost impossible to stop. Well, after the University of Michigan hired West Virginia's basketball coach, John Beilein, to be their next men's basketball coach, the Maize and Blue yesterday hired WVU's football coach, Rich Rodriguez to be their next football coach. I hate to admit it, but this was a fantastic hire. Their former coach, Lloyd Carr, ran an ultra-conservative traditional, drop back, I-formation offense which required massive offensive linemen, hard-nosed tough running backs, a classic pro-style quarterback that was accurate and could throw a long way. Their new offense will require smaller and quicker offensive linemen, darty, shifty running backs who can also catch in the backfield and a very mobile quarterback. It will take a couple of years for Rodriguez to get his guys but once he does, Michigan will regain their place atop the Big 10. My only criticism of the whole situation was how shady he was hired. Normally, if a coach is courted, the athletic director of the hiring college, asks the other school's athletic director for permission to speak with the coach about the hiring situation, if that request is granted, then the courting may began. In this case, Mary Sue Coleman, the president of Michigan met secretly with Rodriguez in Toledo and they ignored all decorum. But, what does Michigan care? They got their man and they will be heading back to the Rose Bowl in a couple of years.
posted by cyclonejohn @ 8:49 AM
4 Comments:
I've been looking forward to August rush for weeks now, but no one else wanted to go. A story about some kid who plays a song to find his parents? That sounds boring! I think it looks fantastic.
There are quite a few Baptist churches that are doing wonderful things, that refuse to engage in hateful dialogue, that are challenging the Christian Right to reevaluate its current voice in the national dialogue, and that are trying to bring about a reemphasis on social justice in fundamentalist churches.
Additionally, everyone I know who grew up in a suburban church did mission work like we did.
Hi Emilia,
I was more generalizing then stereotyping (or at least I was attempting to) with my posting about churches in the South and suburbs. Clearly there are wonderful churches doing wonderful things everywhere. I was more trying to put up WPC rather then put down anyone else's. Live and let live.
It came off sounding pretty negative and blaming, at least to me. As you say, there are churches all over doing wonderful work, and there are churches that do much more social justice work than Westminster given their size and means. Of course I really appreciate having grown up in Westminster and being able to tell ignorant people about my experiences growing up in a left-leaning, mainstream church where ideas about hell and damnation were never mentioned. But that's the thing, we (should, at least) know better than to paint conservative churches or suburban churches or any particular denomination with the same broad brush that secular America uses for all of Christianity.
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