PDL Always Reads Better with a Little "Ice"

Ashley Smith, who was held hostage in her apartment in March by the man now charged with murder in the Atlanta courthouse shootings, was hailed as a hero after she disclosed how she had persuaded her captor to surrender, partly by reading to him from the spiritual best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life."

But in a memoir released yesterday, Ms. Smith also recounts that she gave the kidnapper some of her supply of crystal methamphetamine during her captivity and that she did not tell the police for some time afterward.

Ah, c'mon, you can't exactly share that during testimony time, gotta wait for the book deal.

By the way, her book is published by Zondervan, yeah the ones who publish PDL.

Whole NYT article here.

Jesus Isn't Cool

OK, yes, I found another must read. The iMonk came across an article about youth ministry entitled Jesus Isn't Cool: Challenging Youth Ministry by Chanon Ross at The Christian Century. Read that one first, then see iMonk's blog about it here.

Here's a quote from Ross:

"Teens respond to the message that their faith offers an alternative to the world. But this realization requires a community of adults who embody this difference. Explaining that life in the Body of Christ is different is insufficient. Adults must show how to live this difference. Where are the adults and trained ministers capable of leading youth and their parents into the particular story of God's work in the world?"

As you can see from that quote, it's focused on youth ministry, but definitely has a broad stroke of application for the whole church.

Gonna be a long weekend

Our prayers are with you over there...

KATRINA BEAT CAMILLE....RITA TO BEAT CARLA

I liked this quote from Joe Bastardi over at AccuWeather today:

TUESDAY 4:00 P.M.: KATRINA BEAT CAMILLE....RITA TO BEAT CARLA

GLOBAL WARMING: Please don't. When Rita is all done, just as Katrina, please consider that in Katrina, a situation that should have happened long ago actually happened, and really, was not even the perfect setup. Should a category 4 follow a track like 1947 or 1926 into New Orleans, then it wouldn't have been just levies breaking, but simply the water pouring over the top, and perhaps the whole levy system collapsing. A city built under sea level relying on man to defeat nature is a city living on borrowed time. And the upper Texas Gulf Coast, not hit by a major hurricane since 1983, has been way, way, way, past due. When it's all said and done, even if it's as bad as I say, then over the long haul, it's simply nature evening things out and reminding us of who we are in the face of the infinite.

Louisiana Officials Indicted Before Katrina Hit

It's all starting to hit the fan. See this article from the LA Times:

Louisiana Officials Indicted Before Katrina Hit - Los Angeles Times

Was Katrina Intelligent Design?

Here's a quote from the middle of John Piper's response to an August 31st article from NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr, who had blasted GWB for taking a "non-position" on the debate between evolution and intelligent design:

Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Shall the pot say to the Potter, “This is an unintelligent way to show your justice and your power? Come, Maker of heaven and earth, sit at my feet—I have lived 89 years and have gotten much wisdom—and I will teach you—the eternal God—how to govern the universe”?

No. Rather let us put our hands on our mouths and weep both for the perishing and for ourselves who will soon follow. Whatever judgment has fallen, it is we who deserve it—all of us. And whatever mercy is mingled with judgment in New Orleans neither we nor they deserve.

God sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners. He did not suffer massive shame and pain because Americans are pretty good people. The magnitude of Christ’s suffering is owing to how deeply we deserve Katrina—all of us.

Our guilt in the face of Katrina is not that we can’t see the intelligence in God’s design, but that we can’t see arrogance in our own heart. God will always be guilty of high crimes for those who think they’ve never committed any.

You can read the whole article here.

Mobile got hit too

Kind of on a whim, I left home Sunday afternoon and headed over to Mobile, AL (my hometown) to help my aunt clean out her house and garage after being flooded during Hurricane Katrina. She lives on a small creek that's an offshoot of Dog River on Mobile Bay. Apparently the storm surge pushed the water up into the river and creeks. The water got up to 4 feet in her house and almost 6 ft in her detached garage. She rode out the storm floating in a boat in her neighbors' carport across the street. Not many people evacuated from that area. They never expected it to be that bad. So, I spent the time chopping up fallen trees and removing water-logged stuff from the house and garage. She's got a long road ahead and I wish I could've done more. I got home after midnight last night and am feeling pretty tired today, but I certainly, certainly can't complain. We get so insulated when our lives head at a constant pace for a long stretch of time. Then God reminds us of our need for Him and each other, sometimes in a devastating and powerful way.

Just a little creepy...

I understand that their is a major health crisis about to occur in New Orleans, but still it's just kind of creepy to see our own military with guns kicking people out of their own homes.

Hurricane Katrina holdouts speak with troops from the National Guard as they patrol the streets of New Orleans, September 7, 2005. Police threatened to force reluctant Hurricane Katrina survivors to leave a ruined and fetid New Orleans on Wednesday as a political storm grew over the botched response to the disaster that some say could cost $150 billion.

iMonk: What are we seeing in New Orleans?

Is it a trick of the cameras? Sensationalizing events in the day and age of trashy, tabloid news? Are we just hearing the garbage, and being left in the dark about the good news of human kindness?

No, I don't think so. I think every media outlet is telling a similar story. Something is happening in New Orleans that didn't happen at 9-11, that didn't happen in the aftermath of the Tsunami, and that hasn't happened in America since, perhaps, the nights following the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Continue reading here.