I promised I’d keep you all in the loop when there was news on the upcoming Josh Garrels release, and I am a man of my word.
He is now taking preorders for his brand new full length album titled Jacaranda on his website. And for your listening pleasure, I’ve uploaded one of the new tracks, titled “Zion & Babylon” to my Muxtape.
The album is expected to be released in August, with a slew of fall tour dates to follow. So be on the lookout for another update in the not too distant future!
As part of a promotional effort for their recent youth camp, the Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City planned to give away an AR-15 assault rifle to one lucky camper.
Yes, you read that right. And it’s not the first time they’ve given guns away as prizes at the camp.
In watching KOCO’s coverage of this story I couldn’t help but think to myself how the typical reaction might be a wee bit different if they were doing a report on a different religious group.
What if that “praise music” playing on the computer was a Qawwali? What if the girls wore head coverings while they drew up the posters? What if the young boys being taught to fire automatic weapons and practicing combat maneuvers were wearing turbans? What if the screaming red-faced teacher was saying the exact same words - but in Arabic? What if the spiritual leader defending his right to arm children and extolling the virtues of the camp was called “Sheikh Ali” instead of “Pastor Bob?”
Wouldn’t middle America be in hysterics? Wouldn’t the feds have raided their compound by now?
It would appear as though Shane Claiborne’s Jesus for President tour has finally caught the attention of the mainstream media. CNN covered a recent stop in the politics section of their website today. Here are some quotes:
“This whole project is about the political imagination of what it means to follow after Jesus,” Claiborne said. “The language of Jesus as Lord and savior is just as radical as it would be to say ‘Jesus as our commander in chief’ today.”
“With the respectability and the power of the church comes the temptation to prostitute our identity for every political agenda.”
“We’ve profaned the blood at the foot of the cross and turned it into Kool-Aid and marketed it all over the world. We’ll make an art and a business out of taking the Lord’s name in vain.
“This is not about going left or right, this is about going deeper and trying to understand together. Rather than endorse candidates, we ask them to endorse what is at the heart of Jesus and that is the poor or the peacemakers and when we see that then we’ll get behind them.”
I haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet, butThe Irresistible Revolution has been very influential to me since first reading it a couple years ago. Have any of you read it, or have you attended one of the tour stops?
I’ve you’ve been watching Last Comic Standing this season (Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) you’ve no doubt seen the “Christian acoustic duo” known as God’s Pottery. Freaking hilarious.
Last night they performed their tribute to abstinence titled “The Pants Come Off When the Ring Goes On.” I wish there was video up of that tune, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. In the meantime here’s their Rosh Hashanah tune “A Brand New Start with Christ.”
Christianity used to have the market cornered when it came to proselytizing the masses by way of cornball slogans on t-shirts. But these days everyone is getting in on the act!
In case you missed it, earlier this week Dr. James Dobson used the “Focus on the Family” broadcast to criticize Barack Obama’s understanding of the Christian faith and accuse him of “deliberately distorting the Bible,” “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter,” “willfully trying to confuse people,” and having a “fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”
Deliberately? Willfully? Fruitcake??? Those are more than strongly worded criticisms. I do believe thems fightin’ words!
My initial reaction was to leave it all well enough alone. In my opinion it was a bit of a non-story and I figured it wouldn’t get much attention from most folks. Boy was I wrong! I can’t believe the amount of chatter I’m seeing around the blogsphere about the good doctor’s remarks.
Rather than rehash all that here, I figured I’d offer up a few resources (available as comments) and let you folks make up your own minds about it all.
Team Bertou is fully geeked on seeing Pixar’s latest film WALL•E when it hits theaters this weekend. Pixar never disappoints us with their ridiculously creative stories and jaw-dropping animation, and WALL•E already looks like a solid candidate for the “1,000 Views Club” in our household (see also: Finding Nemo, Cars and The Incredibles).
I came across this interview today with Pixar’s Andrew Stanton. In it he discusses how his Christian faith informs his creativity, stories and the development of his characters. Here’s a taste:
The last thing I want to do is go to a movie and feel like I’m being preached to or being told how to be, and I think it’s more honest—and you’re going to have more effect—to be truthful with the values of your characters, working off of your own values. That was the case with WALL•E. The greatest commandment is to love one another, and to me, that’s the ultimate purpose of living. So that was the perfect goal for the loneliest robot on earth, to learn the greatest commandment, to learn to love.
So let’s use this as an opportunity for discussion topic shall we?
Have you/would you ever consider adopting a child from another country? Would you adopt a special needs child? A child of another race? What about the adoption needs in our own country, in your own community? Have you ever considered opening up your home to help meet those needs?
I’ve reaped the multitude of benefits from having a dad in my house who busted his back to make sure we had the best he could provide. Thanks dad. I’m eternally grateful for your sacrifice.
Now, I’ve got two boys dependent on me, and I hope I can be half the man to them that you were to me.
How do we tell the whole story of the coming reign of God, a new way of being human and relating to God and God’s creation? We put our hands to it. We proclaim a day coming when there will be no more thirst by giving water to the thirsty. We proclaim a day coming where there will be no more disease and death by caring for the lives of those whose bodies are broken. We proclaim a day coming where there will be no more war by preemptively sowing the seeds of peace.
It’s true: The Bible does say that there is a time to build up and a time to tear down, a time to rejoice and a time to weep, a time for peace and a time for war. But we live in anticipation of the day coming when there will be no more time to tear down. There will be no more time for weeping. There will simply be no more time for war. Soon we’re going to run out of time for these things. This is the day we work for. This is the day we pray into today.
In an interview with Christianity Today, Laura Blank - an emergency communications officer for World Vision - spoke about what their agency has been able to do to help bring relief aid to the people of Myanmar since day one of the disaster.
As soon as the storm ended, we were able to begin distributing rice, clean water, fuel, rebuilding supplies, and blankets—the basic things that we wanted to get to people as soon as we could. Because we’d been there for so long, we were able to purchase goods locally and in bulk, and try to start some of the relief efforts on a very small scale.
While it has been reported that Myanmar government officials have been uncooperative with international relief efforts, and are just now allowing aid to come in, World Vision has been on the ground from day one bringing supplies to the people of that country - and with the blessing of the Myanmar government.
Please consider making a donation today. The money you give will help bring food, water, blankets and temporary shelter to those who are suffering.
Jeana Master is the sister of “Jess” - one of the regulars around here. She and her husband have been ministering in Indonesia and Malaysia for about six months and hope to make it a long-term commitment in the future.
It’s such a pretty song and video that I figured it deserved a few more views.
The Shack, a novel by William P. Young, is one of the best selling books on Amazon. It’s a guy-meets-God story that has been praised by the likes of Michael W. Smith and Eugene Peterson for combining “the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian.”
In a recent sermon titled Trinity: God Is pastor Mark Driscoll, of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, used his critique of the book to illustrate examples of wrong thinking about the Trinity, and the need for proper understanding of one of Christianity’s core doctrines.
So, did anyone watch Idol Gives Back last night? Did you happen to notice that they chose to close out the show with a (modified) version of “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech?
Frankly, it’s been quite a while since the idea of attending (yet another) Bible study has really captured my imagination.
But I am excited about the potential of a new one I’ll be checking out tomorrow afternoon.
Same Words, Different Meanings is a monthly “interfaith textual study” hosted by the Jewish Community Federation in Rochester. During each session, both Christian and Jewish leaders teach from the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament. It’s billed as a “unique opportunity to understand texts from the Tanach (Hebrew bible) and their different interpretations in Christian scriptures… clarifying points of similarity and differences between the two traditions.”
Unfortunately, I’m a little late in joining the party. Tomorrow’s study is the last one for the season. But since the topic is Christians as the New People of God, I’m sure it won’t dissapoint!
Official ShaneBertou.com fave Josh Garrels is currently working on a new album. He performed a track from that upcoming release during a recent interview with The Indianapolis Star. Enjoy!
Still a little sketchy on the details. I’m not sure what this release actually is. It looks like a DVD release, but Amazon lists it as “Hardcover” but then calls it a “DVD edition” in the product details. Either way, I’m looking forward to it.
In case you missed it, earlier this week 
How do we tell the whole story of the coming reign of God, a new way of being human and relating to God and God’s creation? We put our hands to it. We proclaim a day coming when there will be no more thirst by giving water to the thirsty. We proclaim a day coming where there will be no more disease and death by caring for the lives of those whose bodies are broken. We proclaim a day coming where there will be no more war by preemptively sowing the seeds of peace.
