The Rob Bell Kerfluffle

I'm finding the debate about Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins, to be very interesting and perhaps revealing of a fundamental struggle that is going on in the evangelical church (at least in North America, where the evangelical church is struggling for survival, IMHO. It's thriving and growing in other parts of the world.)

Some interesting things about this debate are that it began to get ferocious before the book was even released and many of the same things are being said by lots of people who I don't believe have read the book. I haven't read the book, either, but I'm writing about the debate about the book, so I thought it would be good to get down my pre-reading impressions first. (I did buy it. It's on my rather large "To Read in Future" pile.)

The National Post gives an interesting overview of the debate. The whole argument of the book is summed up by Bell's account of seeing a note taped to a Gandi quote that was part of a display at his church: "Reality check: he's in hell." Bell's honest questions are where the debate begins:

Within the national post interview, an evangelical writer (who I've never heard of - Jimmy Spencer - I can't help but wonder from what he says how long he will be considered "evangelical") says this about Bell:

Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther said Christians had the right to read the Bible for themselves and define it for themselves. What you’re seeing in Rob is the use of the same motif. I don’t know if Rob Bell is a new Martin Luther, but at the time of the Reformation Martin Luther wasn’t Martin Luther.

There is an erosion that has taken place within evangelical communities today and Rob Bell strikes at the heart of that divide between whether you think God is inclusive or exclusive.

The worst thing you can be accused of in many evangelical settings today is to be called a "universalist." I've heard it a few times in the recent past as a "you don't want to go there" aside in conversations with other Christians. However, I must say that I would rather be accused of being a universalist, than be accused of being the most contemptible of religious types: "fundamentalist."

Another thing I noticed from the article was an incredibly ignorant statement by someone at Christianity Today, which makes me realize why I no longer subscribe to this magazine:

For Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today, what concerns him about Love Wins is what he calls Rob Bell’s failure to behave like a real pastor.

He leaves readers with more questions because he hasn’t really done his job as a teacher, which is what a minister is supposed to be. Instead, he has become a provocateur.

You walk away thinking this is what Rob Bell teaches, not what the Bible teaches.

This is incredibly naive for two different reasons: Jesus did not answer all questions - he told stories. He didn't even explain what most of his parables meant and left his disciples confused more often than not. Also, a quality of a good teacher is someone who always leaves his students with more questions than answers. A very exasperated grade 3 student once blurted out to me: "Can't you ever give us a straight answer?" Well, no, I can't because I'm a teacher and I'm trying to be a good one.

Do you know what Mark Galli is describing as a good teacher? A fundamentalist. I hate that word and that way of thinking.

If anything does lead to hell, the fundamentalist way of thinking (no matter what religion) does.
Update: Here's an interesting article about the history behind the rejection of hell and universalism. Long story short: Bell's not the first to say these things and be rejected by the church.

Comic Sans is evil, apparently

I've been enjoying April Fools day as much as I ever do. It's great having the day off from teaching (it's the last day of Spring Break.)  Teaching on April Fools day is sometimes an awful thing.  Once I had kids dump water all over my chair (it's not plastic, but cushioned) and say "April Fools!".  I wasn't thrilled at the idea of not having a proper desk chair for the few days it took to completely air dry out.  Then there was the time that they replaced all the water in my water bottle with white vinegar.  Fun times. (Note the use of a period.)

Now our dear friends at Google have this April Fools joke where you begin to type the word "Helvetica" into the search bar and it automatically switches to the much hated font Comic Sans.  Now, it was only recently that I discovered how much Comic Sans is hated by the wider world. Being in an elementary school, I tend to run into Comic Sans quite a bit.  I wasn't sure why until I ran into this article from The New Republic, which says that actual research went into this.  It turns out that Comic Sans is "the most popular of the four fonts the researchers tested on children."
There is actually a website: bancomicsans.com which is, well, pretty self-explanatory. And here's another article on it from the UK: "Why does everyone hate Comic Sans so much?" Comic Sans was invented by Microsoft (Shake fists at them!) to help the no longer used "Microsoft Bob" be more kid friendly as it would explain to the kids how to use Microsoft. Those were the 90s, when kids still didn't know much about word processing, I guess. Interesting quote from that article by a graphic designer:

Comic Sans just isn't designed well. It was never made to be printed and yet it is everywhere I look. Hardly a day goes by when I don't see it in an inappropriate setting. I would just appeal to people to be more thoughtful. When I get an invitation to the funeral of a friend and it is written in Comic Sans, I just find that thoughtless. It is an epidemic.

I used to use Comic Sans, but I did end up switching to other fonts for my everyday fonts because I just got tired of it very quickly.  I usually use Tahoma as the default font.  I know others in my school who prefer Arial, which I like also.

So for my last day of Spring Break, I've used my time searching out all the Comic Sans hatred and tried to get Rachel Maddow to trend on Twitter (#maddow) - It's her birthday and...oh, nevermind...
I don't really have such a visceral hatred of Comic Sans, though. I just find it mildly irritating due to its overuse.  Now when it comes to Times New Roman - I can get a little violent.  So, watch it.

My Favorite iPhone Apps

Just for anyone who might be interested -

1) Twitter - I like the basic Twitter app - it does everything I feel it needs to do. Although I would love it if it had a "retweet old school" option like I do with the Chrome browser. (UPDATE: I just noticed that it does allow you to quote tweets with an newer update I got automatically. The annoying thing now is, it puts quote marks around the whole thing and you can't delete the quote marks to make a nice, clean RT.)

2) Merriam-Webster's Dictionary - I only discovered this one recently. You can do a voice search and it has an audio clip for each word. Ever wonder how a word you've only seen written actually should sound? This app solves that issue. It also has a "word of the day" button which is cool, too.

3) Youversion's Bible app is brilliant. You have online access to most Bible versions in many different languages. You can also download many of those to your phone to use when outbid wireless range, like when I'm at church. I can quickly view the same reference in NIV, NLT, The Message, KJV, etc. (UPDATE: The latest update has so improved the function of this app. I'm wondering if it will always be free, now. It's worth paying for, though.)

4) Google - voice search on Google. I use this at school a lot.

5) Weather Eye - This is the Weather Network's app - I find it more useful than the iPhone's default weather app.  Canadians are really "into" the weather, so the Canadian Weather Network's app being way cool should not be a surpise.

6) Google Translate - Speak into the phone.  It instantly translates what you say into most any language you can think of.  Most language have an audio button.  Press it and you hear it spoken in that language! My only beef: Yiddish doesn't have an audio button.  I really want to hear that one!

7) Canpages - The Canadian Yellow pages with audio recognition.  Speak whatever business you want and it gives you all the contact information you need.  Press the phone number and you're calling them.  It also has white pages, but you have to type the person's name in.

8) Flixster - Great for local movie showtimes.  Now I always know what's playing close by and when.  This is put out by Rotten Tomatoes, so you get all the reviews linked to the movie you're wondering about, too.

9) IMBD - Another movie app (I love movies).  This has all the info you can get from the IMBD website, including the top 250, info on actors, directors, etc.

10) Cowbell! - I put this here because I actually do use this in the classroom to get the kids' attention sometimes and I just couldn't leave the list at 9.

I'll leave the list at that so far.  There's a bunch of others that I use, but the above are ones that I've downloaded and use quite frequently.

All of the above apps, by the way, have one thing in common: They're free apps!  I'm really amazed by the high quality of even free apps, although that whole "I swear I'll only stick to free apps" resolution when I first got the phone really didn't work out.  It's just soooo hard when the Apple people put apps for their store right on the phone!

President Obama is a Christian (Get Over It!)

I'm amazed how many people have a hard time believing that Obama is a Christian.  First of all, I counter: How do we know ANYONE is a "real Christian"?  I mean, if you do understand the Bible at all, then you know that only God really knows who is real.  Jesus said, "Why do you call me good? Only God is truly good." (Mark 10:18)  Or how about Jesus' rebuke that not everyone who calls him "Lord" will be acknowledged by him as a follower. (Matthew 7:22)

Secondly: Please consider that the word "Christian" has almost as many as different definitions as there are people who claim to be "Christian." I reject the notion that Christian must imply "Conservative Evangelical American," which is the hidden message that hides behind many of the diatribes against President Obama.

Thirdly: Listen to the President's recounting of his own past at the recent National Prayer Breakfast (below).  No, he did not grow up in a "Christian" home, but he became a Christian through conversion later in life.  So, he actually chose Christianity deliberately, not as some default position inherited via his family background.  Isn't this, then, an indication of someone who is actually the kind of Christian that the "born again" Christians are bragging about on Sundays?  I find it hard to believe that Evangelicals would have an issue with this testimony if were uttered by anyone else in their church on any given Sunday.

Lastly: Keep in mind something that I heard a musician say on the Drew Marshall Show : "When the word "Christian" is applied to anything other than a person, it's just a marketing strategy."  (I completely forgot who the person was - apologies to whomever.  I also am not sure of the exact quote.)  The question that I want to leave readers with, then is:  When you hear the word "Christian" being used, ask yourself "What are they selling?"  Now I'm not trying to imply, like the New Atheists, that all that is being "sold" is evil, but I will say it's important to keep in mind that ancient warning: "Buyer beware."

Shake up at MSNBC? *YAWN*

I got into msnbc for a while and watched the line up: Hardball, The Ed Show, Countdown and Rachel Maddow show. After a while (yeah, I'm slow), I realized that the first three shows were just repeating the same talking points based on the current news cycle. Nothing new that couldn't be figured out reading the headlines in the NY Times in 5 minutes. The only exception to this is Rachel Maddow.

Rachel Maddow does not follow whatever the current talking point playbook is. She actually investigates something and attempts to discover the truth at the core of it. Sort of like 60 Minutes can do on its best nights. Except, Ms. Maddow does it 5 nights a week with humor and with something that is almost completely absent from most newscasts: a sense of cautious optimism. She actually is not going to go down the path of "Something I disagree with happened and I'm going to milk it as some kind of megadisaster for the USA."

Now Keith Olbermann, unsuprisingly, has been fired or let go or whatever So? He was just another part of the angry line up. Nothing really unique in his show, except for the Oddball sequence. Kind of a calmer Ed Schultz, although a bit more rational than that. Now they're going to give the angry Young Turk, Cenk Uygur, his own show. He's part of the screamers from the left who are more anti- than pro-Obama. If Obama smiles at a conservative, it's considered a major loss to some of these screamers. Also, MSNBC is a TV business and the ratings are more important than politics or reality or whatever.

Some of the lefties I follow on Twitter are up in arms about this whole Olbermann thing. I don't see the problem. Shows get cancelled all the time and hosts replaced. It's about ratings and making money in the Fox dominated world of cable news. It's just another TV show. In fact, if he gets a gig eventually almost ANYWHERE else, he'll get more exposure and higher ratings. The thing I'm more annoyed about is how so many don't give Rachel Maddow a chance BECAUSE she's on msnbc and people assume she's just as angry and repetitive as an Ed Schultz or Olbermann.

Here's hoping Rachel Maddow gets "let go" and ends up somewhere else with a larger audience.