McLaren

I was reading a friend's blog yesterday and noticed an article about an article about Brian McLaren. Confusing, yes, but it's an even more confusing article. Confusing, and upsetting. In fact, I share his sentiments: "I really am a bit tired of this offensive pig-headed, lame brained nonsense."

I'm not much of aMcLaren fan, but the article pissed me off. When it comes down to it, McLaren's just another guy trying to find his way in the world, trying to figure out the truth of things, and while he can be a bit bull-headed about it (he tends to advocate swinging the pendulum too far in the opposite direction, despite his declared intentions of finding middle ground), he's not trying to destroy or worse, mislead God's church, as the article seems to imply. He's entitled to his opinion, to his "binding and loosing" of scripture (Rob Bell's terminology).

As are the authors of the article and its comments. But just because someone has an opinion, it doesn't make them right. I could be wrong as I write, and so could McLaren, and so could *gasp* the authors of the article.

No. Freakin. Way.

It's true. And funny enough, that's something McLaren points out in most of his books - he's not entirely sure WHAT is true, aside from Jesus. If Jesus is THE truth, THE way, and THE life, then that means that Brian or Chris or anyone else is NOT. Which means we could be wrong. Which means that we have to take a certain humility in approaching what we say is truth; we could be wrong.

I love what Scott Adams has to say on this: he often enough will put the acronym "BOCTAOE" at the end of a sentence, which stands for "But Of Course There Are Obvious Exceptions." Mostly because he's not entirely sure that what he's just said is pure truth; it's his perspective.

We'd all do well to keep that in mind.

Our Albino Friends

I sometimes find myself musing over the things I miss about home. Mostly I love it here in Melbourne; the people are fantastic, the food is diverse and wonderful ... with endless possibilities ... and naturally, the atmosphere of the city itself.

But still, home is home, and some things just can't be replaced. Bagels, for example, are something very dear to my heart, and while I'm told that they do exist here, I've yet to find any. My favorite are cinnamon raisen with plain cream cheese.

I also miss doughnuts. But I'm told Krispe Kreme will be moving here at some point in the very near future.

The most noticeable difference that I've noticed is a distinct lack of squirrels. I went to the University of Rochester, which sometimes felt like it was populated by more squirrels than students. Seriously, they were everywhere, on the atheltics fields, on the walkways, jumping out of trash cans ... everywhere.

People even wrote songs about Squirrels. I remember one of the "Comedy Nights" at our church in Canandaigua, Troy and Jon (the two Canadians on staff) got up front under the label "the singing loons" and sang a song called, "Squirrel Squirrel":

Squirrel squirrel, how could you have known

That this day would be your last,

You should've worn your bebe-proof vest

Squirrel squirrel, how could you have known,

That this day you'd be pushing up grass ...

The song was about squirrel hunting, which apparently is a sport or something in Canada. Not in New York, though. I remember watching them in the backyard at my parents' house in Victor, trying to steal the seeds from the birdfeeder in the winter, or running around the trees during the summer. Squirrels were a natural part of life, as integral into my field of vision as my own hands.

Until now. I haven't seen a single squirrel in over a month and a half. It's weird, in a way. The only animal I see a lot of are these little birds that make one hell of a "caw." At least, I think it's those birds that make that noise.

Local News

This is an article that appeared in the local paper that we get every Sunday (click on it to make it bigger and read). I just thought the collective You might be interested in reading it.