10 Things I Hate About Commandments

I don't wanna spoil this for you. Trust me. Watch this. But don't drink milk at the same time or it may come flying out of your nose . . .

Blogging the Bible

I first became aware of this blog through Christianity Today's weblog and I really enjoy this guy's perspective. It's a blog of written by a Jewish guy named David Plotz. The subtitle on the site is "What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book?" He ain't likely to get his MDiv any time soon but a lot of what he says probably reflects what the average seeker is thinking - just a bit funnier. For example:

Gen 9:9-17. God announces His first covenant with man, that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood. He doesn't rule out other catastrophes. (God, apparently, is the opposite of an insurance company. He offers flood protection, but no other coverage.)

[Gen 18]: Jews had the three wise men before Jesus! Three strangers visit Abraham, and he welcomes them hospitably. One of the strangers—who are messengers of God—announces, "I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son." The Christ story is a clear rip-off. In the Christmas tale, it's impossible for Mary to have a child because she's a virgin, but she does, and three supernatural visitors herald the child's birth. Here it's impossible for Sarah to have a child because she's post-menopausal (as we are told very directly: "Sarah had stopped having the periods of women")—but she does, and three supernatural visitors herald it. The big difference: We Jews do not have any good songs about this incident.

[Gen. 23] Real estate, again! It is the strangely dominant theme of Abraham's life. Practically every chapter about him is crammed with details about land—who owns it, who can buy it, whether God is giving it, whether it's a temporary deal or a permanent one. There's more about real estate than there is about the Lord.

If you're interested in reading more, here's the link!

DaVinci Doesn't Mess You Up!

George Barna, an evangelical pollster, says: Da Vinci Code Confirms Rather Than Changes People’s Religious Views . . .

DaVinci Code: Just As Harmful As Left Behind!

I love Brian McLaren. He says makes a GREAT point about Dan Brown's bestseller The DaVinci Code in this interview with Sojourners:

The book is fiction and it's filled with a lot of fiction about a lot of things that a lot of people have already debunked. But frankly, I don't think it has more harmful ideas in it than the Left Behind novels. And in a certain way, what the Left Behind novels do, the way they twist scripture toward a certain theological and political end, I think Brown is twisting scripture, just to other political ends. But at the end of the day, the difference is I don't think Brown really cares that much about theology. He just wanted to write a page-turner and he was very successful at that.

Check out the rest of the interview here . . .

Seventh (and final) Heaven

Everyone in my family seems to love Seventh Heaven. Okay, maybe not as much as Degrassi, the Next Generation, but it's one of their favs, at any rate. While it's never been one of my favorites, there are worse TV shows out there. Beliefnet.com interviews Catherine Hicks who talks about the '7th Heaven' finale and Darfur relief - among other things.