Owner: The Cubicle Reverend URL:http://thecubiclereverend.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 18:48:06 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Seeking God in literature, humour, work, and life. Site statistics:Click here
Church of the Uncool 2007-08-13 20:58:00 One thing I miss about visiting churches are the uncool things we did. While most people were going out and getting drunk we were having a square dance. We watched corny little church Christmas shows. Ate numerous pot luck dinners and played many many games of kick ball or pick up soft ball. We weren't so conscious of whether the world saw us as hip or not. I am fortunate that though we try to reach our neighborhoods we are a very un-hip place. I appreciate what this article has to say because I am starting to see that I am not alone in feeling this way. Read more:Church
Kerouac: The Original Scroll 2007-08-18 10:29:00 The picture to the right is the original scroll Jack Kerouac containing the first draft of "On The Road." Having just picked up a copy of The OriginalScroll
I am a glutton for punishment because there are no paragraph breaks. By the looks of things you can tell he wrote the book in three weeks by the books lay out. I have never read "On The Road" except for the first few pages a number of years ago so I am wondering if I am wasting my time starting here and not reading the original novel. We shall soon see. Silliman found a sight that posted dozens of the original book covers including one designed by Kerouac. Enjoy.
Why Study Industrial Arts 2007-08-22 21:32:00 I thought we could use something a little lighter considering all the heavy posts I have been writing lately. Here's Mystery Science Theater 3000's "Why StudyIndustrial
Arts?"
God of The Dollar 2007-08-21 20:08:00 Having come from the trenches of the prosperity movement I am always interested in any mention of them in the news media. Religion and Ethics Weekly did an expose on how strongly the prosperity movement has infiltrated the black churches. You read the article and watch the video here. Read more:Dollar
It Is Finished 2007-08-24 13:49:00 A few years ago I had gotten myself into such bad debt that in order to save my house I had to file Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. What this meant is that each month I had to send a bankruptcy trustee $500 a month which she'd use to pay off my outstanding debts. Needless to say it sucked big time having to give a huge portion of my pay out in order to get myself out of the trouble I had gotten myself into. After a few years of lean living and accepting the kindness of others I just found out that my bankruptcy is over three months early and I am completely debt free. Praise God for finally being done with this nonsense!
Book Lists 2007-08-30 21:22:00 Jim Wallis offers a list of good books. Any there you think worth reading?Hat tip to Ken. Read more:Lists
The Cheater Sues 2007-08-27 21:12:00 This is kind of old news, but much like my previous "joke":Did you hear the one about the man who has an affair and sends the woman flowers only to have a thank-you note sent to his house from the flower company resulting in his wife finding out about the affair so the husband sues for ruining their marriage? Read more:Cheater
Goodbye to God, Money Money Money, and Matt Makes A Review 2007-09-12 22:23:00 Since I seem to find so many good things to share with you guys I think instead of publishing them when I find them setting a time out every few weeks or so and do them at one shot. Hope you enjoy this Miscellany.Atheists become vocal and angry!The difference between the churches that have versus the ones that have not. Judge for yourselves, but am I the only person who thinks that the richer churches could use their money in better ways like, at the very least, buying that poor guy a new car!?Are we running ourselves too ragged these days? I have to admit recently I was doing so much that a good friend of mine said I had become so angry over the last few years. Big time Burnout! I am starting to learn to say no.And my buddy Matt has published a book review. Read more:Goodbye
, Money
Michael Palin - The Monty Python Years 2007-09-08 06:55:00 This past week Michael
Palin was reading at the Philadelphia Library from his book of diaries spanning the decade MontyPython
was on the air. I had pretty low expectations stemming from the fact that just because a person can write funny things doesn't mean he'll be funny in real life and also when I saw the crowd I knew we weren't going to be even in the same room as Palin, but stuck in some vestibule somewhere watching it on closed circuit TV. I was very quickly proved wrong. Palin is a very personable man with very jittery mannerisms and retains a lot of the twinkle in his eyes that makes you know he is still a bit of a trouble maker. Plus he is very ordinary. If you didn't know he was a famous comedian you'd think he was just some average bloke hanging out at a pub. Though apparently he spends most of his free time at home with his family reading newspapers and drinking tea. Since these diaries were about the Python years the night focussed on the creation and success Read more:Years
What I've Been Digging: August Edition 2007-09-01 11:27:00 Akira Yoshimura - On Parole: Sadly, this is only one of his twenty books that have been translated into english. Though he focuses on Japan and Japanese culture you can still find yourself understanding and knowing the characters in his books. They are so real and vivid I found myself thinking I knew the guy in real life. This was my second time reading the book and I still found myself going nuts over the end.Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars: The experience is better live, but their mix of reggae and African music styles is up beat and positive without being overly sentimental. Whenever they sing about heavier issues they do it without any sense of feeling sorry for themselves. Even though they did form in a war torn country.Sagami: I only go there once a year for my birthday, and it never disappoints. The sushi chef's are top quality unlike a lot of the junk you get in the supermarket. They know what they are doing and know how to make a great presentation. I recommend w Read more:Edition
, August
Big Week 2007-09-28 13:09:00 There is a lot going on over the next week. First off, it is banned book week. Being a huge fan I am always interested in who and why books are banned. Sometimes they are legitimately questioned while others they are just crap with stupid premises and bad writing that because they have a thing for homoerotic imagery or killing small children in satanic rituals. Seriously, they wouldn't be nearly as famous if it weren't for the fact they write about naughty subjects and some idiot decides to make a big stink over it instead of letting it just die a natural death like it should. Here is a list of past banned books.Second, this weekend is my churches presbytery which is the governing body of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. What makes this meeting especially important is that many churches are leaving the PC(USA) in order to join our branch of the denomination. This is a huge deal because it is causing our numbers to grow (the closest EPC church to us is in Maryland) while greatly
Spiritual Disciplines: Walking The Path 2007-09-22 15:23:00 All I asked for was a book that would help me grow as a Christian and develop my spiritual maturity. Usually people recommend books lacking any substantive or practical advice on trusting Jesus or whatever. In this case I got more than I asked for when someone told me about book on the active practice of various disciplines that are meant to strengthen our walk with God through fasting, Bible Study, meditation, etc. Making these practices a part of your life are challenging. I read the book twice and only made a handful of half-hearted attempts. How many times have any of us promised to fast only to gobble down an entire bag of chips? What I am hoping to do is to post whenever I actually attempt one of the disciplines to share my experiences both successes and failures. Though I do think these disciplines are important to our spiritual growth they aren’t meant to be taken lightly and if you have any doubts about them speak to your pastor or someone you trust. I have done th Read more:Walking
Zune Shuffle 2007-10-12 13:09:00 Since everyone does an Ipod shuffle, I thought I'd do a ZuneShuffle
:Shonen Knife – Vegas (Live)Mahalia Jackson – Even MeThe Weakerthans – Ships & TanglesBeck – Salt In The WoundJohn Hiatt – Take It DownOperation Ivy – Trouble BoundDjango Reinhardt – I’ve Found a New BabyWilco – Lonely 1 (The White Hen Version)Cesaria Evora – Mae VelliaSteve Erle – The Boy Who Never CriedViolent Femmes – Prove My LoveThe O.C. Supertones – Who Can Be Against Me?
Name That Church 2007-10-16 13:33:00 A book I read not too long ago described a church someone visited. It made me wonder if in the world of mega-churches and celebrity pastors would anyone be able to guess the churches name. I am going to give you a summary about their church experience and see if you can guess the church and in what book it was described minus anything which makes it too easy to figure it out. I'll post the answer in the near future.The church's philosophy is based on self-pleasure. All God wants is for us to be rich and happy. One of the main ways we do this is by giving as much as we can to the church. Another is doing whatever makes us happy. They have an impressively large congregation with several satellite churches. The main church grew out of their seeker style services which tend to involve motivational worship meant to pep up the cruce. This includes dancing, singing, and other forms of entertainment to keep the crowd going. Once at their peak the dynamic leader would come out offer Read more:Church
Religious Literacy 2007-10-26 13:52:00 I am reading a pretty interesting book by Stephen Prothero called Religious Literacy. Check out his sight to get an idea of what he thinks. It's very fair and balanced. Really, it is.
Is There Meaning? What Not To Bring. And Other Goodies 2007-10-30 13:25:00 Thanks to Millinerd for finding this neat little tid-bit. Who'd have thought that so many great minds would have such a wide range of ideas?Pomomusings looks at what's allowed and what's not allowed at Bob Jones University. Suprisingly one of the items includes Michael W. Smith CD's.Slacker digs Petrarch! Read more:Meaning
, Goodies
Why I Am Wary About Leading Anything! 2007-11-07 07:21:00 My church has been trying to get a group started for young adults for the past year. It has mainly been inconsistent and not too successful though people have expressed an interest in seeing a group get started. Primarily the job was left to our youth director, but with his time appropriately being spent more in the development of our youth program it has been pretty hit or miss. So he asked myself and another couple to take charge of the group. Great. I'd love to get my teeth into something and help it get started from the ground up. Until I found out the couple is now expecting their first child and may not be able to be as involved as they were in the past which now leaves it up to me. Great, wonderful, fantastic. So have picked a date for the end of november and I lined up a guest speaker and figured we were all set. Until I emailed Ken with the details. He responded with more questions than I had even considered. Last night I realized I have no idea how to lead anythin Read more:Leading
John Reilly Band 2007-11-19 13:11:00 This friday a friend of mine invited me to go see a local Christian group. I don't know if I have ever expressed my personal tastes in CCM, but I tend think the greater majority of it is crap. There are several exceptions to that rule like 3rd Day, Delirious, or The Supertones. Now having had the opportunity to witness the craptacular performances of many local artists while working in a cafe (I've seen some so bad they chased customers from the room) ever so often one does pop out to show real promise and a potential to go national. That is more than the case for the band Reilly
. All I can say is wow! Their music was upbeat and poppy with moments of really bold music writing delving deeper than the typical three chord mantra. For one they had a violin player occassionally joined by a second violin! Though they tended to be more on the arty side they weren't overhanded about it. Sorry, I tend to find the more art/rock to get kind of boring which is why I shy away from Sufjan Stevens
A Poet Of Exile 2007-11-27 13:54:00 Every so often I feel the need to pull one of Bei Dao's poems off my shelf to read. Though they can be difficult to grasp you can feel his isolation being an exile. How much of a fan am I? This is sad really. I already owned soft-cover copies of all his books when I ordered hardbound versions. I remember he was the first poet I ever saw at first Dodge Poetry Festival I attended. Here are a few poems written by Dao. Enjoy. It is ironic how I keep being drawn to Old Snow, a book focussing almost entirely on his exile. I want to write my own version being a person who's lived in the same area his whole life. I have to admit I am not sure what I shall write about. And would whoever decides these things finally give him The Noble Prize? Read more:Exile
The Dreaded Plantain Incident + Can You Name All The Cartoon Characters? 2007-12-06 13:37:00 All I know is I watch waaaay too many cartoons!!! I got all but maybe 2 or 3.The Dreaded PlantainIncident
:I'm just going to come out and say that this story is not the least bit flattering for either me or Millinerd. Though, according to him, it is one of those shared histories that seems to come up from time to time even though it happened many many years ago. Millinerd and I went to highschool together though we became friends in our churches youthgroup. One year he and I were on a youth trip to the Dominican Republic where we roomed with a wonderful pastor and his family. They were too generous, giving us a very substantial breakfast every morning consisting of hardboiled eggs, coffee, fruit, and mashed plantains. For any of you who don't know what a plantain is the best way I can describe it is it looks like a banana but tastes like a potatoe. For the record fried plantains with ketchup are awesome. Mashed plantains with butter tastes like dirt. We had to eat it, because we wer Read more:Cartoon
, Characters
Old Snow And Other Musings 2007-12-03 14:26:00 In reference to my previous post I was asked where I would start with Bei Dao's work. Definately with Old Snow. Besides being some of his strongest work it is his most cohesive book since it spans a greater portion of his exile and reflects his feelings during that time. Also, I'd like to thank Millinerd for coming down and speaking for my churches young adult group this past friday night. He spoke on film and using them to explain our christian worldview. It was a lively discussion and it was great to be able to spend time with him and his wife for an evening. Even if he did share the dreaded plantain incident. Read more:Musings
Happy Holidays 2007-12-18 07:28:00 I know this is a tad early, but I don't know when I'll get the chance to post this. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Even though this song is titled "Fairtytale of New York" I especially like how people mis-title it even better: Christmas In The Drunk Tank. Read more:Happy
, Holidays
, Happy Holidays
Name That Church 2007-12-12 07:26:00 About 2 months ago I asked if anyone could name the church mentioned in a book I had just read. Looking back on this book now I am still amazed at the description the author gave. Though I have to admit I cheated a little bit. First off, The Church
Of The New Revelation mentioned in the book doesn't exist. Second, the book I read was a sci-fi novel written about 40 years ago. I found it amazing how Robert Heinlein had the insight to describe, for the most part, pretty accurately what would become the modern mega-church movement. With the exception their church was very sexual and had drinking and gambling in the church premises. Though many do have bingo or casino nights. He did describe a huge orginization with tons of money, a powerful leader that few people had the opportunity to meet, and a seeker style service that was about as deep as a dinner plate. With sci-fi writers it makes you wonder if they had any idea what they were writing may someday become true. Why not? T
And To Keep Going With A Trend... 2008-03-04 07:14:00 It seems the idea of Christians and movies has been getting more and more press lately. Here are a few more takes on the subject.Religion and Ethics News Weekly has a report called God and Hollywood. Apparently in spite of the fact that Passion Of The Christ earned major bucks and Hollywood's promise to capitilize on the trend little has happened as a result. Most of the movies produced were either uninspired or straight to dvd crap.This is an older post from Looking Closer, but I had completely forgotten about it. Can you guys name 20 recent films that portray Christians in a positive light? A few on his list, as usual, suprised me. Though he seemed to have left off The Big Kahuna. At least now when we see a Christian on TV they aren't only as a psychotic wacko.Looking Closer als Read more:Going
Hollywood, Not A Christian Wasteland 2008-03-02 11:15:00 BeliefeNet has a great post on who are the most powerful Christian
s in Hollywood
. I have to admit that there are a few who suprised me.And also look at the top films that have positive Christian Characters.
Angry White Man 2008-02-29 06:59:00 Have you ever felt like there wasn't a candidate who spoke for people like you? Do you feel like your voice is lost in the crowd? Ever wish someone would say "Enough!"? More than likely you are an Angry White
Man. With a few exceptions I'd say that was me. With the election season coming upon us and a whole bunch of people promising change (seriously, I counted at least 30 or 40 times in one day the candidates used the term change) yet I still pay a butt load of property taxes. I can't seem to save enough money to go back to school. And it took me over three years to find regular work. I'm not going to lie. I am very ambivalent about all the choices.
Quizzo! 2008-02-28 13:26:00 I took a quiz recommended by my friend Ken. It says I am conservative. I want a recount!
What The...? 2008-02-26 13:02:00 It is very rare to find a few noteworthy pieces about Christianity on the NPR website. Not this time. Oh boy, I hit the mother load not with one story, but two stories. First up is a story about a group of faithful Christians who have taken a step beyond See You At The Flagpole. Believe it or not, I find this a bit encouraging. So many people talk a good talk about getting involved and doing something. These people actually are. And is there such a thing as a "Sin Free Sex Toy"? One Christian woman thinks so and she has a company to prove it. I am not so bold as to check out her sight. If any of you have the nerve to check it out please e-mail me and let me know what you find at cubicle.reverend@gmail.com.
Art Spiegelman & Returning To A Former World 2008-02-19 13:55:00 I have just returned to a world I have not been to in ages. I can't remember the last time I had been there or even peaked over the fence into the yard entering that world. The world I returned to is the literary world of readings and discussions. There was a time in my past where a week didn't go by where I attended an open mic poetry reading, or some local author event or other, sitting with other like minded individuals wanting to draw from the experience of the author hoping someday that would be us standing up there reading from our newest work. With the exception of going to see Michael Palin read, which was purely for entertainment, I can't tell you the last time I've gone to something like this. Man I missed it. At that time it became a bit of an idol for me. I loved being the guy Read more:Former
, World
Tony Campolo: Red Letter Christians 2008-02-18 13:06:00 As far as Tony Campolo's newest book is concerned:Think I read this book before......I'm really not sure, but it sounds so familiar......Why does this book remind me of something I've read before?Seriously, this is the fourth time I have read this book! He has written very similar books at least 4 times before, not including the other books he wrote that touch on similar topics. My feelings about the red letter christians are simple. Do we really need yet another Christian "movement" in this world? And to base one only off the red letters of Christ's words seems a bit shoddy to me. Sure it seemd to work for Tolstoy and Jefferson to take out the parts of the Bible that made them uncomfortable. Quite frankly, I'd rather be a Full Bible Christian. Or better yet, just Christian. And here is a Read more:Letter
, Christians
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