More Video Hope

Another video pick: Tent City,by Odyssey Networks
Jesus born here, not to "take over" but to incarnate hope.

Peace on Earth will come, because God intends it.  Jesus lived and died it.  Blessings and Peace to everyone reading this.

Christ in Public Spaces

I am so proud of her. A student at H-BWoodlawn School in Arlington was asked by a teacher to remove Bible verses displayed on the outside of her locker.  You have to understand something about this high school, which is peculiarly set up to promote freedom of expression and inquiry in the education setting. [defacto school motto is  Verbum Sap Sat (VSS) "A word to the wise is sufficient" in their translation, although the correct latin phrase would be verbus sat sapientia (est).]  The student and her friend had been taking turns putting bible verses on one another's lockers as a way to encourage each other.  Lockers, walls, doors and any other upright surface in the school seem to be fair game for promoting a wide variety of thoughts, ideas, but for some reason a teacher called the bible verse-displaying students into her room and asked that they be taken down. They students were both very upset by the teacher's request and took their objections to the school-wide Town Meeting , held every Thursday.  After hearing about this yesterday, I attended to support them today.
Wonderful!  I was quite impressed at the level of discussion and the respectful way the issue was handled.  Both students and faculty teased apart and put back together again a wide range of interlocking issues: freedom of expression, who gets to say what's offensive and must an open and tolerant atmosphere of expression guarantee that no one be offended?; freedom of religion and the constitutional questions, the use and abuse of power in authority, fair treatment, etc.  In the end, the requesting teacher's view was not supported by a great majority of people who spoke.  Both students and faculty members supported the brave bible verse posting students.
I think Jesus is pleased, and not just because I support Bible reading, but because the values of open and honest communication, tolerance and respect flow from my Christian conviction.  Go H-B!

Love these artists...

My "Good News" video of the month/week/day...Are you a trader?

Killing Organization

I love this guy at [D] mergent:  "Young people don’t have the same emotional investment in the programs and initiatives that proved so successful and rewarding to the generations that came before. Rightly or wrongly, what young people hear when churches appeal for help is: “We need more bodies to do stuff we thought up when we were your age, but no longer have the energy to do ourselves.” Instead of reassessing why there is no energy behind beloved programs, dropping them, and looking for those places where there is energy, churches often note the lack of energy, and then try to generate it by appealing to tradition, faithfulness, involvement, etc. Again, rightly or wrongly, young people apparently aren’t interested in propping up programs they had no hand in forming. They have neither the time nor the inclination to do work somebody else is passionate about, just because there are folks who feel strongly that it ought to be done, but are no longer able to do it themselves." See the whole article here 
Folks here know my 'druthers: If no one wants to do it...drop it!  AMEN.  'nuff said.