Sports Fans …
Rick Reilly covers the best sports story of the year ... here.
(Non-sports fans ... I'll bet you find this worthwhile too.)
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Christmas prayer
"Help us, O God, to rightly remember the birth of Jesus that we may share in the songs of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the magi. Close the door of hate and open the door of love around the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desire with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing that Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be your children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven for Jesus' sake. Amen." (Robert Louis Stevenson)
(Thanks, Ward Gasque!)
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O Great Mystery
My favorite Christmas hymn ...
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Merry Christmas, everyone!
Translation below the jump ...
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melissa etheridge and rick warren are getting it right
Melissa Etheridge got it right when she decided to reach out to Rick Warren, and Rick Warren got it right when he expressed regret for how he has spoken about gay folks and prop 8:
I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick... He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.
When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.
Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now. We have the world's attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen. They don't hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world.
Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us.
I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.
For her whole response, go here .
When respectful conversation and "generative friendship" happen, as Etheridge suggests, all parties are changed. Etheridge makes clear that once she met Rick, she exchanged her previous stereotype of him for a more charitable view ... And hopefully Rick will continue changing too, the more he gets to know more gay folks through this controversy.
Interestingly, there are signs - maybe cosmetic and temporary, maybe deeper and lasting - that this positive change is happening in the Evangelical community at large. For example ...
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2008 in pictures
What a great year 2008 as been.
In the Spring, Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, Tracy Howe, Eric Haines, Jo Burgess, and others helped present the Everything Must Change tour around the country ...
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