I've been writing more lately and blogging less. I'm off to the Harold Washington library to further research Jesus Inc. and the social angle of commercial transactions. Writing is hard work! Its discipline to force my mind to think narrow when so many things are interesting. Patience.

on play

Well I finally actually bought an album on ITunes and it was relatively
painless. I took far too much time to do it. I'm so double-minded and
there's far too much good music for me to decide on so I just bit the
bullet and got Iris Dement's "Lifeline" album. I love her voice. Its so
salty and just on the edge of dissonance. I'm thinkin' back to when I
ran Southern Gospel music on KTCN in Eureka Springs Arkansas. I'd do all
I could not to hear the music I was playing. It just made my skin crawl.
Now here I am actually purchasing something that most people would say
is no different. If you've ever heard Dement's album "The Way I Should"
you might be a little amazed that she did a whole straight gospel album.
Especially with songs like "Wasteland of the Free" and "Letter to Mom"
or even "Quality Time". Find those lyrics online and you'll know what
I'm talking about. Mmm---salty!

"First Do No Harm"

Let's talk about reality. In California Anestheosiologists refused to take part in Michael Morales' execution. We need more medical professionals with conscience. Is execution by the State because it disuades future crime and murder and demonstrates the State's power to govern ever warranted? Doctors are refusing participation on ethical grounds that it forces them to reneg on their oath. Why is it only the medical profession that refuses to do harm? Why not civil servants? Does execution really have to be somebody's job?

June and Johnny

On play: "Darling Companion" June Carter and Johnny Cash, At San Quentin
(The Complete Recording)
Johnny and June are too Country for America. That's one of my only
objections to Joaquine Pheonix and Reese Witherspoon as Johnny and June
in the movie "Walk the Line." Johnny and June both looked more like used
up hillbillies in the photos of the Folsom Prison concerts. Even if
Reese has been cast southern before, she can't help but typify the kind
of twenty-first century beauty that appeals to this generation. Simple,
sweet, but Hollywood.

i love birthdays

i love birthdays! They tend to go against every fiber of my being. All
the attention is focused on me and that bothers me. Why? Because I
accept curses easier than praises. Really I'm a very self absorbed
person. Its all about me 24/7 and part of my ego trip is the thought
that really nobody thinks about me. Go figure that one out. So when its
my Birthday I get all this love and attention from my family such as: My
older daughter giving me five Valentines since Sunday! The first word on
my younger daughter's lips this morning being "daddy" even before she's
really awake. My son rising at 6:30am to make me the most wonderful
birthday sign out of paper towels and masking tape. My wife planting a
wonderful warm wet kiss on me just as I'm praying that the Lord show me
love. (I learned later she'd just taken a sip of tea.)
So in spite of my selfish resistance my birthday reminds me that I'm
noticed and that being here is more important than me. That my person is
shared by all those around me. When I am loved on my birthday I'm
humbled. Suddenly I've got some explaining to do for the selfish
aggrandizement I do year round.

thanks. . .

Thanks for the last few comments guys. I'm glad you found your way here to my blog somehow. Tell me more about yourselves and such. No I'm not "the" Chris Rice who wrote "Deep Enough to Dream." Doing Google searches will reveal a number of more well-known Chris Rices. (Not that I'm bitter or anything.) Maybe I should feel guilty that I got to this web domain before they did. I better not bad mouth them or anything---wouldn't want them suing google over it like Jews for Jesus did. (I like Jews for Jesus.)

This morning I'm trying to pick up where I left off writing my memoir. Its rough going as I'm dealing with my relationship with my dad at a time in our lives when we were both trying to find our way. He was learning to father a son and I was learning, well, how to face life! We've come a long way since then but I hate focusing on this period. Dad had a big anger/rage issue that continued on into my adulthood. Years later everything has changed---he's now a very good friend.

Anyway, I wrote a few songs about it years back and I came over fully expecting to rerecord them from memory. I started out by listening to what I recorded a couple weeks ago. Those cuts were so bad I don't feel like recording anything now! I'm trying to encourage myself that it is hard work and that self-recording is never perfectly done especially by erstwhile dilettante musicians who rarely record and are very unsure of themselves.

But I trudge along. . . .

This morning I heard on the radio that every fifteen seconds a child dies from water born disease. So as part of our morning reading prayer time before school I very gingerly broke the news to my kids about it. I didn't give them that statistic right out (they're 3, 6, and 9 nears old) but we prayed in general for kids who get sick and even die from not having good water. Then I read from Isaiah 58:6-7 and educated them on the terms "injustice" and "oppression."
If there's anything I'm proud of its that I knew about poverty, oppression and injustice since I can remember! Thanks dad.

I'm reading Fear and Trembling right now. Anybody out there been impacted by this book? If so give me your thoughts

Finished Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison by Michael Streissguth on Saturday. It really put me there and created the whole setting in space and time. It gives a brief history of the prison itself and then introduces a black inmate who attended the concerts, gives his slice of life at the time and then revisits him in the present. I thought the best thing about the book was the details on Glen Shirley, author of "Greystone Chapel." Shirley got out of prison, married a woman with two sons and began touring with Cash. He was the poster boy of prisoner reformation. Marshall Grant shared a story about Glen threatening to kill him. So Cash took him off the tour. Glen couldn't make it on the outside and spiraled out of control, leaving his family and living homeless. He finally came home and shot himself. Streissguth surmises that after the 1970s and Glen Shirley's suicide Johnny Cash gave up hope for the possibilities of prison reform. To balance things out Cash began funding police family programs.

The US Capitol police have this to say to Cindy Sheehan:
Gee. . . .we're sorry. Yeah, we made a big mistake. We forgot that when President Bush gives his State of the Union address its really OK for you to wear a dissenting T-shirt.

And I say if you believe that one you'll believe President Bush has had a Damascus Road experience and is going to become an advocate for a new American infrastructure that's not based on Petroleum.

As Rush Limbaugh used to say under Bill Clinton, "The White House is under seige!"
But hey, Cheer up! Only two more years of fascism to go!
That is. . . assuming someone better is waiting to take over.

Let's remember that CPT are part of the 268 foreigners kidnapped since May 2003.
The Brookings Institute is keeping a tally. In an article titled "What's driving the kidnappings in Iraq?" two authors offer the big picture of what's happening in Iraq. Pray for the release of these captives, but pray for the end of the Iraqi Occupation. Pray for an end to the madness overall. Remember that these Peacemakers knew the odds going in and chose their work carefully.

The CPT hostages kidnapped in Iraq 67 days ago are still alive! The BBC posted video footage
of them on Saturday. Let's all keep praying! Would to God we could see them safely returned to their families! Rose Marie Berger wrote an update yesterday.

1/31/06
"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. . . . By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."
--George W. Bush, State of the Union Address

I seem to remember the Bible saying:

"He who sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off the feet [of satisfactory delivery] and drinks the damage. Like the legs of a lame man which hang loose, so is a parable in the mouth of a fool. Like he who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a [self-confident] fool. Like a thorn that goes [without being felt] into the hand of a drunken man, so is a proverb in the mouth of a [self-confident] fool."
Proverbs 26:6-9 (Amplified Bible)

Move over Robertson and Lahaye

I know that bad press is better than no press at all, so I shouldn't be saying anything at all. Nevertheless, Tim Lahaye and Pat Robertson have had their due. John Hagee makes these guys look like playschool children. When it comes to spreading hate and lies Hagee takes rhetoric to the next level. If Robertson makes the press squirm why isn't Hagee even on the radar? In his new book Jerusalem Countdown he predicts an attack on Jerusalem by Iran and the Pentagon's plan for use of nukes against seven countries. As long as we're on the right side (Israel) we've got nothing to fear. The elephant in the room however is the question "Whose side is Israel on?" John Hagee's? I am baffled at how TBN could ditch Hal Lindsey for hateful rhetoric and think that somehow John Hagee is so much nicer. He writes:
"This is a religious war that Islam cannot--and must not--win. It was God Himself who have the land of Israel to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants forever. Israel belongs to God and to His chosen people, the Jews. And God holds the future of Israel in His hands, and it will be a glorious future."
Our prayers should be for the kids who get raised here in America hearing this kind of hateful crap day in and day out. Quite honestly I see little difference between this and the white supremist language our society so abhors. Its true the Jews and Blacks used to be the brunt of Christian hate rhetoric. John Hagee is one insuring that in this century it will be the Arabs. Hey Washington, one of your biggest friends in the War on Terror may just be a volatile reverse-jihadist.
Let me make it clear, Hagee is a war monger plain and simple. Thankfully he doesn't speak for Jesus or the Christian position.

laugh 'til you ache and cry

http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/newsletter/Insider034.html

sometimes Wikipedia

Sometimes I really score with Wikipedia, as in the case of my little study of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. Binding of Isaac is an awesome entry.

Martha and I got away and saw Syriana the other night. Go see this movie. The screenplay is now free online. They also have a discussion going at participate.net about oil dependence.

The book is finally going well like never before. Its a spiritual memoir that takes the reader through my life growing up in a radical Christian community with an eye toward these points:

1. the faith of my youth
2. Jesus Inc.
3. the physical, emotional, and spiritual promises of American religion
4. religious power wed with political power in America
5. the silent acceptance and muted allegiance to policy makers
6. addiction and powerlessness. Jesus and the twelfth tradition: anonymity
7. developing a manner of living that demands rigorous honesty

As a friend put it recently, these points are severely rhetorical and my execution through personal narrative is everything. Can I pull it off? That remains to be seen. These themes may change but at this time I feel pretty attached to all of them.

Ok, that's better. Well I've got to go back and read all those little pamphlets on the Ekklesia Project website to try and get a clue. I've posted a few times about the book but it must be the off season cuz none of the ole timers are responding. I meant to work on my book today but its lunch time now. Well maybe later.

I just finished Resident Aliens by Hauerwas and Willimon. I wish this book had been recommended to me long ago. As it turns out there are a few people who still take the church seriously in America and are optimistic that both pastor and congregation can shed America's designated position for the church for thE IT"S RIGHTFUL ROLE AS A GOSPEL BEARING JESUS FOLLOWING COLONY OF RESIDENT ALIENS> IM NOT TRYING TO SHOUT MY KEYBOARD IS ACTING WEIRD>

Pick and choose

"OK Jesus, I'll be part of your church but I want to pick and choose my
friends based on whether or not they agree with me or whether we have
things in common. I've got a checklist here involving politics, liturgy,
art, philosophy and theology. As soon as the preacher really has
something to say that I haven't heard before or that I can resonate with
based on my list, than I'll let his words sink in. As soon as our
worship team sounds as good as my CDs than I'll really "enter in." As
soon as the whole congregation gets a clue on the current geo-political
situation than I'll start really hanging out here. As soon as you people
give me some reason not to pull away from the parking lot at noon I'll
do that. Sheesh, who needs the church?!!"
What sort of place does that kind of thinking have in building up the
Kingdom? Uh. . . . I'll get back to you on that one.