Category Archives: Culture, Society, and Politics

What did Jesus look like?

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In this post, Joe Carter respectfully disagrees with one of John Piper’s sermons, entitled “What Color Should Jesus Be?” (Friends who visit Carter’s post will recognize several of the paintings from my recent teaching series on world religions. I guess there are only so many public domain pictures of Jesus out there.)

Piper, in considering how Jesus should be portrayed, says (note that this is Carter’s transcription of the sermon),

But I think they should probably be black portrayals of Jesus, and white portrayals of Jesus, and Chinese portrayals of Jesus. And everybody knows that they’re not accurate. There isn’t one that’s accurate. That’s why it’s legitimate to do lots of inaccurate works. Because you just say we all know that we don’t know what he looked like so what we want to say with our inaccurate Jesus is something true about Jesus. Namely, he’s there for everybody. Continue reading →

That's What Friends Are For

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So, last night, our good friends Bryan and Kelley Brandeberry invited us to Pizza Hut, but we couldn’t go because we already had some steaks defrosting and were low on cash in our eating out envelope. We, in turn, invited them to the Erlanger library’s Family Fun Night (clowns + water balloons + popsicles = fun!). We took a long time walking to the library, never saw them, and just assumed we missed them or they decided not to come.

We returned home to find the following message on our answering machine:

Hi guys. We could not make it to the library because of a long and very funny story that happened to us at Pizza Hut. We will tell you all about it later. But as a result, we received a free ham and sausage pizza. Which is now in your fridge. Enjoy!

I opened the refrigerator door. Lo and behold, a free ham and sausage pizza had magically appeared on the middle shelf.

That’s what friends are for: free pizza. God bless America.
http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Wow – I love Netflix! (They paid me $15 to say that.)

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It’s so rare when a company seems to do everything right.  I mean, it’s totally shocking – that a large, national corporation appears to operate in a logical, friendly, dare-I-say wise manner.  Yet every interaction I’ve had with Netflix has gone swimmingly.  Including today.

For 4th of July, we went down to my parents’ house.  Elizabeth’s mom was gracious enough to let us borrow a portable DVD player so that the kiddos would not get overly bored on the 6-hour car ride.   Among the movies we brought were one of Agatha’s favorites, The Wizard of Oz, and an movie borrowed from Netflix, Alice in Wonderland.  During the trip, I put the Wizard DVD into the Alice Netflix envelope, just as a way of keeping it safe temporarily.  When we returned home, Elizabeth took the Alice envelope, logically thinking it contained Alice, and mailed it back to Netflix.  Imagine her surprise when she opened the DVD player and found…Alice.  Doh!  We had mailed Netflix our own DVD.

Today, I called customer service.   For complete transparency, I was on hold for over 10 minutes, but I was at my desk, so I just put the phone on speaker and did some work.  After I explained the situation, here’s how the conversation went.

ME: “…and so we sent back our personal copy of Wizard of Oz by mistake.”

NETFLIX GUY: “Classic movie!”

ME: “Yeah.”

NG: “Did you get an email from us?”

ME: “No.”

NG: “Oooh – that’s a problem.  See, they take out every DVD from its sleeve, and if they had caught the mistake, you would have gotten an email.   But if it’s a movie we stock, then they would have assumed it was one of ours and just put it back into circulation.  I’m afraid you’re not getting in back.  I’m sorry.”

ME: “Sure, I understand.”

NG: “Well, seeing as how it wasn’t Netflix’ responsibility…”

ME: “Yeah?”

NG: “…I’m afraid that the best that we can do is…”

ME: “Yeah?” [expectng him to say some corporate version of “losers weepers”]

NG: “…offer you either a $15 refund on your credit card or give you a $15 credit on your next billing cycle.”

ME: “What?”

NG: “Actually, I take that back.  It would be a $14.99 credit.  So your next bill will only be $3.  You can use the $15 to buy a new copy of Wizard of Oz.  Try Amazon.  I bet you can get one for only seven or eight bucks on there.”

ME: “Really?”

NG: “Yeah, they’re really reliable.  They have everything.”

ME: “No, about the credit.”

NG: “Oh – sure.  It will show on your next bill.  Can I do anything else for you today, Mr. Hickerson?”

ME: “What do I do with Alice in Wonderland?”

NG: “Just wrap it up in a paper towel, put a Post-it note on it with your email address, and mail it back in one of your other envelopes.  We’ll take it from there.”

ME: “Thank you!”

Then, less than 15 minutes later, I got an email asking me if I was satisfied with my customer service experience.  I am mightily, mightily impressed.  (And, of course, I discovered that Netflix is a BBB member to boot.)

For another, less direct thing that Netflix is doing well, check out the coverage of the Netflix Prize.

The Hubris of (Some) Scientists

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If you happened to read this article in Tuesday’s NY Times, you would have found some pretty shocking statements.

The idea that human minds are the product of evolution is “unassailable fact,” the journal Nature said this month in an editorial on new findings on the physical basis of moral thought. A headline on the editorial drove the point home: “With all deference to the sensibilities of religious people, the idea that man was created in the image of God can surely be put aside.”

With all deference, the NY Times quotes Nature as stating, Jews and Christians are ignorant bumpkins.  Why should that trouble my sensibilities?

The article goes on:

Or as V. S. Ramachandran, a brain scientist at the University of California, San Diego, put it in an interview, there may be soul in the sense of “the universal spirit of the cosmos,” but the soul as it is usually spoken of, “an immaterial spirit that occupies individual brains and that only evolved in humans — all that is complete nonsense.” Belief in that kind of soul “is basically superstition,” he said.

Let’s be exactly clear with what V. S. Ramachandran, who is Indian, is saying here. I don’t know what Dr. Ramachandran’s personal religious beliefs are, but he here argues that the Hindu-Buddhist religious concept of “the universal spirit of the cosmos” is scientifically acceptable.  Meanwhile, the Jewish-Christian concept of personal souls is “superstition.”  (Though I’m not aware of any theologians who would consider the soul “occupying” the brain or having evolved.)

If Dr. Ramachandran wishes to believe that, then that’s between him and God (or the universal spirit of the cosmos, as the case may be).  But how, exactly, is this science?  Further, how would Dr. Ramachandran counsel a Christian working as graduate assistant under him?  “Superstition” is a strong word, especially from a professional scientist.

We have heard from scientists, such as Stephen Jay Gould, that science and religion can peacefully coexist.  Science, we have been told, discusses the “what” and “how” of the world, while religion examines the “why.” Here is at least one group of scientists who expose that as a false paradigm.  For them, science – understood materialistically, with no room for anything that can’t be measured – determines the whole of truth.

Camping is Not Optional

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What a great name for a website and organization.

 I have to say, I like their purpose, too. 

We also believe that human beings were designed to be interdependent with the natural world as well, which is why we’ve chosen an outdoor setting for these events.  While the average modern life doesn’t readily incorporate a daily relationship with the air, trees, soil, land forms and creatures that surround us, spending a period of time in more direct relationship can serve to remind us of the ways in which we might make conscious choices every day to be good stewards of the earth.  In addition, the quiet of a farm or forest or beach provides an important retreat from the noise, an opportunity to breathe deeply, listen closely and love extravagantly.

Elizabeth, the kids, and I are hoping to get in some good camping pretty soon.  If our schedule’s don’t lighten up, though, we might have to make do with our (hardly at all) rustic backyard.   We do have some poison ivy back there, so at least that part will be authentic.