parables of a prodigal world

The inauguration theme for this week's round-up is a no-brainer. I'm assuming we'll see a lot of "best-inauguration-posts"-type fare over the weekend. But what struck me this week were the images . I don't think I've seen so many beautiful, hope-filled, mind-blowing images since the Hubble pictures started coming in during the mid-90's. Here were my favorites. Let me know if you ran across any I missed. Grace and Peace, Raffi

Church Relevance has released a list of the most widely read Christian blogs in the world [HT: TSK ]. I was bored, so I decided to make a Wordle Cloud of the Top 15. Turned out to be pretty interesting. Here's the list, and some thoughts that stood out (for me, anyway). #1: Tim Challies : No. 1 Christian site on the Internet, and I'd never heard of it. Sorry to say, but looking at the cloud doesn't make me want to find out more. #2: Between Two Worlds : God, glory, righteousness, church, president...my kinda cloud. #3: Stuff Christians Like : I kinda like SCL; its kinda all over the place...kinda like this cloud. #4: Out of Ur : Look hard. See if you kind find a wasted word. Good stuff. #5: Mark Driscoll : For all the flack Driscoll takes, this is the kind of cloud I'd like to generate. #6: Get Religion : Another one I'd never heard of. This cloud makes me wanna find out more, though. #7: Swerve : Looks a little "church-y," but solid. #8: Pyroma...

OK, so in honor of Tuesday's official launch of Post-Racial/Post-Ethnic America, here are seven words we use every day that actually started life as racial/ethnic slurs. If you're gonna be part of PR/PE America, you gotta know this stuff. #7. Hooligan How it's Used: "I was nearly killed on my drive home by a group of hooligans playing paintball on the interstate." What You're Actually Saying: "I was nearly killed on my drive home by a group of dirty Irish drunkards playing paintball on the interstate." Wait...What?: The earliest use of the word "hooligan" dates back to British newspaper and police reports in the summer of 1898. They seem to have adapted the word from the Houlihan family, a group of Irish immigrants living in London. The family became known for their hilarious drinking songs, jigs and the enthusiastic police brutality that tended to ensue. #6. Vandal How it's Used: "Some vandals tagged the wall behind the loca...

The "subversive" verses from Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land were sung by the American people Sunday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. One of our great national anthems has been restored. Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen restored the song to its former glory, not the sanitized version so many of us learned at public school and summer camp. I have the feeling Pete said, "Sure, I'll come sing This Land is Your Land , but only if you let us do the original version which was both patriotic and a call for economic justice." Here are the original verses added back into the song on Sunday: In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me? There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me; Sign was painted, it said private property; But on the back side it didn't say nothing; That side was made for you and me. Nobody li...

My 6-year-old daughter was recently mentioning to me that they had been learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. in her 1st grade social studies class. I was curious about how a teacher could communicate the greatness of someone like Dr. King to a group of 6-7 year olds, so I asked her, "So who was Martin Luther King?" She responded, simply, "He was a man who changed the rules." I was expecting to hear a response that I would need to add to, clarify, to get more in-depth upon, to explain to my unusually bright daughter the details. But when I heard her answer, I could only say "That's right, honey." He was a man who changed the rules. Kind of sums up Jesus, too, don't you think? When my daughter grows a bit older, I might get into the details of how and in what sense Dr. King "changed the rules." I might explain that he didn't literally change the rules, but lived by a model, one taught to him by his Lord, that has a natural tendenc...