Amen.

It’s sad that it’s necessary to point this out these days.

The horrible tragedy of yesterday’s plane crash has really been weighing on me, especially the newlyweds who were killed.

No doubt there are 50 or so other terrible stories of life cut short among the travelers who died yesterday, but the story of Jon Hooker and Scarlett Parsley has really hit close to home for me. How painful must it be for family and friends who less than a day earlier were joyfully celebrating their marriage? As I told my wife last night when I hugged her, that could just have easily been us on May 21st this year, when we departed for our honeymoon following our wedding.

It is excruciating irony to see two people come together in love, after months of preparations and with support from those that love them, only to lose their lives the very next day. I hope that God is watching over them and comforting their loved ones today.

U.S. Representative Katherine Harris, of 2000 election quagmire fame, has made what I consider to be some pretty arrogant and disgusting remarks recently while running for reelection in Florida.

Among her remarks was her opinion that religion and politics should not be kept separate because “God is the one who chooses our rulers.” I don’t really want to debate the question of how much direct influence God chooses to exercise over our existence, because I flat-out just do not know. I do want to say that this sounds a whole lot like something Osama bin Laden would say, in my opinion. So does this comment that Harris also made: “If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.” Granted, bin Laden would have replaced “Christians” with “Muslims,” but you get the idea.

Why is it that so many Christians, especially fundamentalists, think that they have a monopoly on virtue and ethics? Doesn’t the Bible make the point that right and wrong are plainly obvious to everyone? C.S. Lewis points out in Mere Christianity that essentially all cultures have similar concepts of right and wrong and that everyone, including Christians, fail to live up to God’s standard of righteousness.

Why is it, too, that everyone who thinks they have God all figured out and who needs to explain what God intended assumes that God is on their side and not someone else’s? Why is it that what God wants is almost always in line with what they want? This seems just a bit too convenient for me.

I wholeheartedly believe that God loves every single one of us, no exceptions, including Katherine Harris. I’m just really tired of hearing people insist that they have God in their pocket ready to speak up on their behalf.

This New York Times editorial, which ran in today’s Tennessean as well, really made me think this morning. (The NYT won’t let you read the column online without subscribing to their paid service, so I’ve linked to a full-text posting of it elsewhere. So there.)

I’m just going to confess now that I completely do not understand hip-hop culture. Why does it glorify violence, drug use, prostitution and even a much lesser “offense” like dressing like a complete idiot? Why would anyone want to be perceived as a criminal?

Is it that our larger, dominant white culture has taught many African-Americans that they will not be allowed to achieve our culture’s measures for “success?” Have some African-Americans, especially young men, said, “screw your culture,” and decided to celebrate being outcasts? Since they are on the outside looking in when it comes to our culture, have they decided that they will instead establish another culture, one that they can succeed in?

Have African-Americans who embrace hip-hop culture effectively said, “If you won’t let us be a part of things, we’ll be a part of something else?” If you feel like you already live in a society that isolates, ostracizes and demoralizes you, is the best response to celebrate individuals who excel at achieving that disenfranchisement on your own and revel in it? I’ve lived in middle-income white America for 100 percent of my life and had all kinds of advantages that most minorities do not have, so I’ll admit that I just don’t know.

Is part of this about having the power of self-determination? Are young men who embrace the violent and destructive elements of hip-hop culture effectively choosing to become the vilest criminals they can before society tries to put that label on them?

If I’m in the right ballpark, how do you ultimately change that? As Bob Herbert wrote, how do you return to a culture that focuses on noble agents for change, such as Martin Luther King, instead of 50 Cent? And how and why in the world did that shift happen in the first place?

Former state senator (and current indictee) John Ford continues to make news, and, as usual, it isn’t good. According to this Commercial Appeal story, Ford “applied for tags for a new, $80,000 Mercedes on the very day he filed court papers seeking a reduction in his court-ordered child support.” That takes some serious nerve.

More recently, Ford bought a $40,000 BMW, even though he has claimed to be unable to pay child support because of his limited income. As of 2005, according to the CA, he was earning $356,000 per year. (He draws down $2,500 per month from his state pension, at the very least, these days.) He might also be hiding money in a “legal defense fund” for which he refuses to document expenses. According to his lawyer, Ford’s dog ate his homework: “My client is not a great record keeper. He’s done the best he can with what he has.”

It sounds like the main thing Ford has done his best at is car shopping, at the expense of his organizational skills.

I’ll be honest: This sickens me, as have many reports about Ford that I can recall since around 1990 or so, but it’s not a partisan issue for me. I think there are plenty of crooks on both sides of the aisles, and hopefully still a few relatively honorable people holding public office.

All of us, in my opinion, have an ugly side, and we do things we shouldn’t when we think other people aren’t looking, but most of us don’t make a spectator sport out of it.

I know, I know … stop picking on the Baptists. I realize that the folks at Calvary Baptist Church are most likely kind-hearted, good-natured folks, but this sign did make me laugh. The wording needs just a bit of tweaking, I think.

Today’s Tennessean has a great story about three Harpeth Hall students who raised $250 last weekend by hosting a lemonade stand on 21st Avenue in Hillsboro Village.

I sure wish my childhood kool aid stands had been that profitable. I also wish I had had the compassion at that age to make the effort for a good cause, like these students did. All of their proceeds went to Second Harvest’s Squeeze Out Hunger initiative, which encourages kids to donate lemonade stand funds to feed the hungry. Way to go, y’all!

I was very excited to learn tonight that The Message, a really great and thought-provoking translation of the Bible, is now readable and searchable online.

If the version of the Bible you grew up with brings back unpleasant memories, pisses you off, contains a lot of thees and thous or all of the above, you might enjoy reading The Message.

What do you do with the Bible if you don’t believe in Biblical inerrancy? I don’t know what my answer is yet, but I can safely say that I’ve been pondering that question for several years now. Maybe I’ll always ponder it.

This excellent piece on interpreting the Bible (warning: not brief) sums up a lot of where I’ve been “living” intellectually the past few years.

If there’s room for outdated cultural assumptions and expectations in the Bible and everyone brings their own baggage with them in interpreting it, what’s left? Is it merely a response to God, as some suggest? Is it a message from God garbled by human fallibility?

I know what I don’t want it to be: a weapon. I don’t think there’s anything in God that would have us use any knowledge to manipulate or belittle other people. The notion that God is full of compassion and mercy rings very true for me, and I think that is ultimately the desire of God for how we relate to each other, too.

More, probably lots more, to come on this topic. Over, say, the next 50 to 60 years, God willing.

Ahem, thank God: conservative Christians are beginning to realize that the GOP might not always represent their best interests.

Unfortunately, they’re concerned that the Republican party is less conservative, not more, than they are. It’s a small list of organizations that fall into the category “more conservative than Republicans.” Don’t worry, though: I’m sure with the election right around the bend, the GOP will return to pandering to evangelicals post haste.

I think it’s interesting, too, that half of those polled in the survey think that conservative Christians have “gone too far in trying to impose their religious values on the country.” I do agree with some of the evangelical platform, but I still believe that honey attracts more flies than vinegar. Trying to stuff religion down someone’s throat rarely works.

President Bush might note that 79 percent of those polled believed there was “solid evidence” for global warming. Or, more likely, he might not.

To paraphrase the Hulk, you won’t like us when we’re angry. Well, according to this story, Nashville is angry, really angry. We ranked as the #5 angriest city in the nation. Memphis followed close behind at #8. The story based its list on incidences of high blood pressure in men, road rage and workplace violence.

Are we a passive aggressive city, then? I ask because we also regularly rank #1 as America’s friendliest city. Maybe we are holding our anger in when we speak to people we don’t know very well and waiting until we can take it out on the highway or on our coworkers. (In my own personal experience, this is a promising theory.) Note that the survey identified that visitors found us slightly more friendly than residents reported. In other words, we know the truth.

I also think it’s interesting that we residents think there is less to do in town than our visitors do. Visitors also think we’re more attractive, although just slightly, than we do.
I get the feeling that we’re being a little hard on ourselves. It’s probably more of that anger surfacing. Group hug, anyone?

Let this one about the new Survivor season smack you right between the eyes before you get all upset about what CBS is doing.

I think this post is dead-on. Ouch, but thanks for pointing all of this out, Sam. You’re right.