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'Heavy topics with a light touch'





August 16, 2007: Blog, e-zine or whatever it is I do here
'heavy topics with a light touch'

• Breaking News: Taliban renews threat to kill Christian hostages [off site]
TALIBAN, KIDNAPPED SOUTH KOREAN CHRISTIANS
• Top topic: Make a splash with my Pool Party campaign for President
WATKINS FOR PRESIDENT
• $168,000 doesn’t go as far as it used to
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY LEAVING POSITION BECAUSE OF 'FINANCIAL PRESSURES'
• Billy Graham: good and faithful servant
BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELIST
• Dealing with deadly week . . .
WATKINS FOR PRESIDENT
• 'Evangelical churches to accept gay clergy within ten years'
GAY CLERGY
• Hurricanes: driven by God, Allah, Satan or Mother Nature?
HURRICANE DEAN, NATURAL DISASTERS
• It's good to be the adult

• Left laughing at 'left behind' video
WATKINS FOR PRESIDENT
• Mother Teresa's 'dark night of the soul'
Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light
• National Baptist Convention 'denounces' prosperity gospel
NBC DENOUNCES PROSPERITY GOSPEL, BISHOP EDDIE LONG PAID 3 MILLION BY CHURCH
• Top ten lamest names for hurricanes
LAMEST HURRICANE NAMES
Weekly World News to cease . . .
BAT BOY IS REAL!



WATKINS FOR PRESIDENT 2008

Pool Party candidate James Watkins
With a kabillion sites you could visit, thanks for stopping by here! I hope you'll come back regularly for constantly updated humor; commentary on sex, society, the supernatural; and, of course, my plot to overthrow society as we know it. (Please save it as a "favorite," then tell a friend.)





Thursday, August 23, 2007
national baptist convention 'denounces' prosperity gospel

The 7.5 million-member National Baptist Convention "denounced" the so-called "prosperity gospel" increasingly being preached in black pulpits.

Dr. Robert M. Franklin, author of Crisis in the Village has dubbed it as "the single greatest threat to the historical legacy and core values of the contemporary black church tradition." Meanwhile, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that a proponent, Bishop Eddie Long, lives “in affluence and preaches a gospel that mixes the prosperity of American capitalism with a conservative theology that says God blesses people financially as well as spiritually.” The paper noted that Long received more than $3 million in salary and benefits from his church between 1997 and 2000.)

• Last issue's commentary on prosperity preachers
• Christian Post's coverage of National Baptist Convention debate



Thursday, August 23, 2007
mother teresa’s ‘dark night of the soul’

A new book of Mother Teresa’s correspondence to her spiritual superiors reveals a deeper look into the heart of Nobel Prize winner and minister to India’s poorest of the poor.

Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday) is a collection of deeply personal letters that she had asked be destroyed at her death. In them she confides:


Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love—and now become as the most hated one— the one—You have thrown away as unwanted—unloved. I call, I cling, I want—and there is no One to answer— no One on Whom I can cling—no, No One.—Alone ... Where is my Faith—even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness—My God—how painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith—I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart—& make me suffer untold agony (Undated)

Jesus, my own Jesus—I am only Thine—I am so stupid—I do not know what to say but do with me whatever You wish—as You wish—as long as you wish (1947).

Mother Teresa is not the first Christian to struggle with what sixteenth century’s Saint John of the Cross called "The Dark Night of the Soul." The Spanish priest believed that all Christians must come to the point of loving Christ more than anything: His love, forgiveness, blessings, comfort, etc. Loving anything other than Christ Himself was "idolatry." Mother Teresa later writes of embracing that darkness:


I can't express in words—the gratitude I owe you for your kindness to me—for the first time in ... years—I have come to love the darkness—for I believe now that it is part of a very, very small part of Jesus' darkness & pain on earth. You have taught me to accept it [as] a 'spiritual side of your work' as you wrote—Today really I felt a deep joy—that Jesus can't go anymore through the agony—but that He wants to go through it in me (1961).

The painfully honest questions should be an encouragement for believers going through times of doubt. And an important antidote for today's unhealthy emphasis "health and wealth" and "prosperity gospel." And a more recent entry warns that the dark "night" can go on for years.


Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me—The silence and the emptiness is so great—that I look and do not see,—Listen and do not hear—the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me—that I let Him have [a] free hand” (1979).

I suspect that Mother Teresa and the apostle Paul will have much to discuss. He wrote:


Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort (1 Corinthians 1:3-7).

• Bringing good out of suffering



Later Friday
is it ethical to print letters mother teresa wanted destroyed?

The post above is inspiring some spirited response at ThinkChristian.net.

According to Doubleday the letters, published in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, are owned by Mother Teresa’s convent and thus the convent has the legal the right to publish them. It does, however, seem ethically wrong to publish them when she specifically asked that they be destroyed.

We live in a world of “paper trails” that can easily become public such as email and Internet postings. So, unfortunately, we must assume that anything we write, has a potential worldwide audience. Fortunately, God can use even questionable ethics and motives for His glory and the Kingdom (Romans 8:28). I pray that's the case with these letters.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going out back to burn my journals.
• Read and comment on the controversy



Thursday, August 23, 2007
weekly world news to cease publication, bat boy reveals

Say it ain't so, Bat Boy! The tabloid most famous for it's pictures of alien babies, half-alien humans, and presidents with aliens, will cease publication with it's current issue. The super market checkout will indeed be an alien place without "The World's Only Reliable Newspaper." It regularly featured Bat Boy—half human, half bat—who, after 9/11, was enlisted by the U.S. government to track down bin Laden with his radar-like skills.

Parent company, American Media, Inc., blamed a $160 million net loss for 2006 with $1 billion of debt. It's circulation has dropped from 153,000 in 2004 to 83,000 in 2006. (AMI also owns The National Enquirer, which has


BAT BOY
seen a drop in circulation from 1,200,00 to 802,000 in the same period.)

Most of the News' so-called "news," was hysterical, but some was heretical. Hell is nine miles below the surface of earth according to Soviet engineers who smelled smoke and heard "cries of the damned" coming from an oil well hole. (So that's what spawned that urban legend?!) And heaven is accessible through the Bermuda Triangle—a location figuring into hundreds of News stories—sixteen times a year.

Then again with the world's only reliable newspaper's record of truth-telling, this story could be its greatest deception yet! At least that's what Elvis, who is hovering over the Bermuda Triangle in a UFO, claims.
• If your mother says she loves you, check it out
• Top ten signs a reporter is lying
• Dispelling urban legends
• RIP: Elvis sightings



Wednesday, August 22, 2007
it's good to be the adult

As a child, I was always being scolded for picking the French's onion rings off the green bean casserole. Well, yesterday, I ate a whole can for French's onion rings. And no one could stop me! Sometimes, it's good to be the adult!
• Some thoughts on maturity



Tuesday, August 21, 2007
top ten lamest names for hurricanes

I have in my right hand, direct from my home office, today's top ten lamest names for hurricanes . . .


10. Alfie
9. Barney
8. Candy
7. Dudley
6. Ernestine
5. Fabio
4. Gertrude
3. Homer
2. Izzy
1. Jim

Seriously, my thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost loved ones and property in the path of hurricane Dean as well as in Midwest flooding. (More lives have been lost in the Midwest than in the Caribbean.)
• Dealing with death and loss
• More of my top ten lists



Later Tuesday
'evangelical churches to accept gay clergy within ten years'

As mentioned
last issue, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America was again debating homosexual clergy and same-sex blessings. At last week’s national assembly, the ELCA approved by a vote of 538-431 that “clergy in same-sex committed relationships can serve without threat of discipline from bishops."

Matt Barber, policy director of cultural issues with Concerned Women for America, warned, “The mindset is, 'If God's Word doesn't comport with my view on the world, then God's wrong and I'm right, and God needs to change.'”

Meanwhile, Steve Gallagher, the founder and president of Pure Life Ministries predicts that within ten years, conservative evangelical churches will be ordaining homosexuals. In 1994, author and religion professor Keith Drury wrote a tongue-in-cheek essay: “How to Get Your Denomination to Ordain Homosexuals.” The 15-poiint plan seems to be working very well.

• Perspectives: Evangelical churches to ordain gays? Steve Gallagher [off site]
• How to get your denomination to ordain homosexuals Keith Drury [off site]
• Why is God bent out of shape by homosexuality?
• What does the Bible really say?



Monday, August 20, 2007
billy graham: good and faithful servant

The Reverend—and revered—Billy Graham was hospitalized over the weekend with internal bleeding. According to a spokesperson, the 88-year-old evangelist "has been resting comfortably throughout the day. He is fully conscious, alert, and visiting with members of his family." His doctor reported that the bleeding has stopped.

Graham's health, in general, continues to decline with multiple ailments, so perhaps this is good time, as someone has said, to "give flowers when people can still smell them."
• My tribute to a "good and faithful servant"
• Official statement on Graham's health



Saturday, August 18, 2007
hurricanes: driven by God, satan or mother nature?

As Hurricane Dean bears down on Jamaica and the Tex-Mex border, questions swirl. Do supernatural forces drive hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and other forces of nature? During the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, I ran a column exploring those questions:
• Is God to blame?



Later Saturday
willis writes, markets, speaks, edits, makes me laugh

It was great fun to design a site for Kathy Carlton Willis: author, speaker, editor, marketing maven and most of all, friend. She's a fellow member of the Christian Humor Writers' support group. Check out her brand new Web site. Kathy has a lot to offer authors, speakers and organizations.
• KathyCarltonWillis.com [off site]
• Christian Humor writers site [off site]


KATHY CARLTON WILLIS SITE



Even later Saturday
$168,000 doesn’t go as far as it used to

The Associated Press reported yesterday that White House press secretary Tony Snow will be leaving that position because of—and I quote—"financial pressures." The father of three children earns $168,000 per year as an assistant to the president! I guess $168,000 just doesn't go as far as it used to. (Incidentally, the median household income in the U.S.—half are above that income, half below—is around $48,000.)
• Some thoughts on salaries
• Pool Party's deck plank on government salaries



Friday, August 17, 2007
left laughing at 'left behind' video

Randy Bonifield, minister of music at Christ Community Church in Leawood, Kansas, has a very funny song on YouTube about the "left behind" hysteria, plus here are some "last days" links for your consideration:
• Left Behind (The Rapture Song) [YouTube]
• Are you "historicist," "idealist," "preterist," "futurist" or simply "confused" concerning the "last days"?
• Sigmund Brouwer and Hank Hanegraaff challenge Left Behind's theology



Later Friday
dealing with deadly week . . .

The week of August 12 has proven especially deadly. Tuesday, four suicide bombers simultaneously attacked the Iraqi town of Ninevah killing 400; Wednesday, an earthquake killed over 500 in Peru; Thursday, three rescue workers were killed attempting to reach six Utah miners trapped 1,500 feet underground for nearly two weeks; and today, five people were killed by flooding in Texas as more hurricanes and tropical storms assemble in the Atlantic. Of course, these are only the "newsworthy" deaths and do not include the thousands of deaths on a normal day in our world. Here are some resources that may be helpful:
• Dealing with death and grief
• Dealing with terrorism
• Dealing with the questions of why



Thursday, August 16, 2007
make a splash with pool party's '08 campaign

I hope I'm not going off the deep end, but I'm throwing my beach hat into the presidential race with my "Making a Splash" Pool Party campaign. (I ran as a write-in candidate in 2000 with the
Tupperware Party: Fresh ideas for preserving traditional values. I was encouraged that I won as many electoral votes as Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader combined.)

Here's my diving platform: The previous election proved just how stagnant the political pool has become without the proper pH (political health). My candidacy is based on skimming the best ideas from the opposite ends of the political pool and then doing a great big canon ball right in the middle.
• Click here for Pool Party diving platform



Later Thursday
communicate calmness and confidence on tv interviews

Thanks for your kind comments on Tuesday's Communicate to Change Lives interview with The Harvest Show. I used the principles in the book to appear calm and confident: assume a relaxed position; don't look at the cameras, but talk directly to the hosts; and—whatever you do—avoid thinking, I'm talking to a worldwide audience. And thanks for praying that I didn't violate any FCC laws with a faux pas!
Communicate to Change Lives



Thursday, August 16, 2007
last issue's 'heavy topics with a light touch'

A busy couple of weeks: Evangelical Lutherans debated gay clergy and same-sex blessings; Muslims prayed for safe return of Christian hostages in Afghanistan (keep praying!); an Indiana pastor was charged with abuse in exorcism; and, after 30 years, Elvis was still dead.

On a lighter note: some thoughts on America's Got Talent . . . and taste; first pics of two grandchildren; and our annual "Back to School" page.

• Click here to go back in time



Wednesday, August 1, 2007
july's top ten sites

July's ranking (June's ranking)

  1. Home page / blog (1)

  2. "Jim Shorts" on spirituality (2)

  3. Last "Jim Shorts" column (—)

  4. Top ten reasons I'm not divorcing my wife (6)

  5. Table of contents: articles, books, comedy/drama, humor . . . (9)

  6. Quips and quotes of encouragement (3)

  7. Women in ministry issues (7)

  8. "Jim Shorts" on sex (5)

  9. "One nation under generic supreme being" (4)

  10. Is it a life or a choice? (8)




But wait, there's more . . .
code, copyrights, comments . . .

We subscribe to proposed 'blogger's code of conduct' I'm glad to see the online community developing a set of guidelines to bring civility and credibility to the blogsphere. I've adapted the proposed policy (printed in red) to create my own code of conduct.


1. Responsibility for our own words First, I believe that, as a follower of Christ, I am responsible to "speak the truth in love" and to "let all [my] conversation be full of grace." Jesus never backed away from controversial subjects, but He was "full of truth and grace." Second, I believe plagiarism is stealing and thus a violation of the eighth commandment. All material on my site is original with me unless credited to someone else. And third, as a journalist, I must be objective, accurate (I will verify all facts with at least two reliable sources) and fair (I will quote people in context and strive to present their position accurately).

2. Nothing we wouldn't say in person We must be as responsible and civil we are in the real world. I believe that personal attacks, name-calling, profane or vulgar language, and racist, sexist and ethnic humor have no place in the real or virtual worlds.

3. Encouragement of responses (That's currently not in the code, but it should be!) I include guest's comments at the end of articles and columns as well as encouraging comments on my host's online discussion board.

4. No anonymous comments Commenters must supply a valid email address before they can post, though I allow commenters to identify themselves with an alias, rather than their real name for sensitive issues.

5. Discretion to delete comments I refuse to post comments that do not conform to my own code in point 2.

6. Vigorous enforcement of blog hosts' terms of service

7. Nothing harmful We will not engage in any activity that would cause physical, mental, social or spiritual harm or encourage anyone to do the same.

I'll probably be tweaking this as I go along, but for now, those are the promises I'm making to you as a guest on my site.

Blogger's Code of Conduct [off site]
Legal Guide for Bloggers (also very good!) [off site]
Some thoughts on blogging and responsibility



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