In line with this post from Dave H. in C-Town, I present to you “Embarrassment in Caleefornya” courtesy of the SacBee:

Today at Capitol Alert: Ralph Drollinger, the controversial Capitol chaplain who created a stir this week with remarks that some legislators are “disgusting to our Lord,” is firing back at his critics with a second Web posting, where he says tolerance of nonbelievers is “to neuter the message of Christ.”

It’s not just that he makes us all look like chodes, it makes him look like one too. I think in order to believe in ‘the message of Christ,’ you kind of have to admit that you are ‘disgusting to our Lord.’ Otherwise you haven’t really understood the message. This sucks.

Seriously. The whole study done about the decline of religion in America is ubiquitious. It’s in my e-mail, on the radio, in at least 10 different blogs I read, on the news, etc. One group does a study, and it points out what we all new anyway. It’s not news. I kept debating whether or not to post about it, but I have decided to leave you with this: Read this article from Time magazine. It’s way better than that stupid study. Somebody, please, stop talking about that stupid study.

you heard of this guy? i read this article in newsweek that tony morgan posted on his blog. interesting. i wish i would have known about this guy when we were in the city last november. the article makes him sound interesting, a little self involved, but that might just be the spin that newsweek puts in it. i’ll check out a couple podcasts and post my feelings later this week.

i wrote rhonda a song. plus these two are favorites of ours. love.

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I just started Uprising by Erwin McManus. Right off the bat he starts talking about some stuff that really hits home with me, but the biggest thing is the difference between opportunity and freedom. He tells a story about a pianist that calls someone up out of the audience at a performance and tells them they are free to play whatever they want. The problem is that the person doesn’t know how to play. The thing is that opportunity is empty without discipline. Freedom only comes when discipline has given us the skills to play. It’s a beautiful picture of the importance of ground work in everything we aspire to, but especially in our relationship with God. The discipling isn’t to be a better person, or level up, or get more HP, brownie points, etc.; it is so we can be free. It’s like there is this opportunity, but we don’t know what to do with it. Instead of sitting down and listening to the teacher, practicing scales and chord formations, we try to play. We figure out chopsticks and play it for the rest of our lives. We think chopsticks is all there is, and the worst part is that we think we’re really good at playing chopsticks. We mess up sometimes, but when we get it right, it’s awesome. It just sucks that it’s still chopsticks. Endless opportunity doesn’t equal freedom. I have never thought about it like this before.