Thursday, June 30th, 2005 :: 6:45 PM

” ‘When I first met you, and I made you that tape, you were really enthused. You said–and I quote–“It was so good that it made you ashamed of your record collection” ‘
‘Shameless, wasn’t I?’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Well, I fancied you. You were a DJ, and I thought you were groovy, and I didn’t have a boyfriend, and I wanted one.’
‘So you weren’t interested in the music at all?’
‘Well, yes. A bit. And more so then than I am now. That’s life, though, isn’t it?’
‘But you see… That’s all there is of me. There isn’t anything else. If you’ve lost interest in that, you’ve lost interest in everything. What’s the point of us?’
‘You really believe that?’
‘Yes. Look at me. Look at the flat. What else has it got, apart from records and CDs and tapes?’
‘And do you like it that way?’
I shrug. ‘Not really.’
That’s the point of us. You have potential. I’m here to bring it out.’ ”

(>>)

Thursday, June 30th, 2005 :: 6:23 PM

“You hear that? She’s not very good at slushy stuff? That, to me, is a problem, as it would be to any male who heard Dusty Springfield singing ‘The Look of Love’ at an impressionable age. That was what I thought it was all going to be like when I was married (I called it married then–I call it ‘settled’ or ‘sorted’ now). I thought there was going to be this sexy woman with a sexy voice and lots of sexy eye makeup whose devotion to me shone from every pore. And there is such a thing as the look of love–Dusty didn’t lead us up the garden path entirely–it’s just that the look of love isn’t what I expected it to be. It’s not huge eyes almost bursting with longing situated somewhere in the middle of a double bed with the covers turned down invitingly; it’s just as likely to be the look of benevolent indulgence that a mother gives a toddler, or a look of amused exasperation, even a look of pained concern. But the Dusty Springfield look of love? Forget it. As mythical as the exotic underwear.

“Women get it wrong when they complain about the media images of women. Men understand that not everyone has Bardot’s breasts, or Jamie Lee Curtis’s neck, or Cindy Crawford’s bottom, and we don’t mind at all. Obviously we’d take Kim Basinger over Phyllis Diller, just as women would take Keanu Reeves over Sergeant Bilko, but it’s not the body that’s important, it’s the level of abasement. We worked out very quickly that Bond girls were out of our league, but the realization that women don’t ever look at us the way Ursula Andress looked at Sean Connery, or even in the way that Doris Day looked at Rock Hudson, was much slower to arrive, for most of us. In my case, I’m not at all sure that it ever did.

“I’m begining to get used to the idea that Laura might be the person I spend my life with, I think (or at least, I’m begining to get used to the idea that I’m so miserable without her that it’s not worth thinking about alternatives). But it’s much harder to get used to the idea that my little-boy notions of romance, of negliges and candlelit dinners at home and long, smoldering glances, had no basis in reality at all. That’s what women ought to get all steamed up about; that’s why we can’t function properly in a relationship. It’s not the cellulite or the crow’s feet. It’s the… the… the disrespect.”

(>>)

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005 :: 8:02 PM

” ‘It’s no wonder we’re all in such a mess, is it? We’re like Tom Hanks in Big. Little boys and girls trapped in adult bodies and forced to get on with it. And it’s much worse in real life, because it’s not just snogging and bunk beds…’ ” (>>)

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005 :: 7:21 PM

“I don’t want to cope with the sort of unhappiness Laura’s feeling, not ever. If people have to die, I don’t want them dying near me. My mum and dad won’t die near me, I’ve made bloody sure of that. When they go, I’ll hardly feel a thing.” (>>)

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005 :: 12:01 AM
Better Days

“Every fool’s got a reason to feelin’ sorry for himself
And turnin’ his heart to stone
Tonight this fool’s halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell
And I feel like I’m comin’ home” (>>)

Tuesday, June 28th, 2005 :: 7:31 PM
broken

i loved her

but i hurt her

and now i just want to collapse at her feet and bawl

Tuesday, June 28th, 2005 :: 6:42 PM

“She loves Eeyore. How cool is that?” (>>)

Friday, June 24th, 2005 :: 1:42 PM

” ‘You have to take the piss out of someone like that, don’t you? That Leo Sayer haircut and those dungarees and the stupid laugh and the wanky right-on politics and the…’

Liz Laughs. ‘Laura wasn’t exaggerating, then. You’re not keen, are you?’

‘I can’t f—— stand the guy.’

‘No, neither can I. For exactly the same reasons.’

‘So what’s she on about, then?’

‘She said that your little […] outbursts showed her how… sour was the word she used… how sour you’ve become. She said that she loved you for your enthusiasm and your warmth, and it was all draining away. You stopped making her laugh and you started depressing the hell out of her.’ “

(>>)

Friday, June 24th, 2005 :: 9:39 AM

“When you were looking at Maria in that bed were you thinking about yourself?” (>>)

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 :: 6:04 PM

“…next time you hear someone talk about the biblical model for courtship, blow a rasberry and then stand up, point, and say with determination and volume (volume is important here), ‘Liar!’ You can expand upon this single word however your demeanor and the circumstance mandate, but the most important thing here is that you make it known to everyone within earshot that whoever is speaking about any model for discovering and securing a spouse as being the biblical model is speaking naught but lies. Lies. You know. Fabrication. Fiction. Fantasy. Creative truth. That’s right. Lies.” (>>)

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 :: 6:02 PM

“I’m tired of games. I’m weary of girls who play at being coy. I’m tired of girls who imagine they need to be hard-won. In fact. The girl who plays at being hard-to-get diminishes herself in my eyes. Stop reading books on the ‘Proper’ way to relate to a man – on the ‘right’ way to spark his pursuit. Stop reading Elizabeth Elliot, Joshua Harris, and the Dougs. Simply love God, focus your heart on Christ, and treat your Christian brothers as you would wish to be treated: as a normal human being. Find yourself in friendship with a man. If you like him, let him know. If you don’t like him, let him know. It’s not difficult. It’s not life-changing. But it is a start to a good relationship. ” (>>)

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 :: 1:04 PM

“So, to reach this generation is not going to be tweaking the church service, it’s gonna be starting communities that live the Christian life 24/7.” (>>) [RM]

Saturday, June 18th, 2005 :: 3:13 PM

“Jesus spent the majority of His time here with the most overtly sinful people in culture loving, living, and weeping with them. And ultimately redeeming them. Yet He reserved his most harsh and judgmental language for the arrogant church leadership. The devastating contrast is that we do almost the opposite, and we do it representing Jesus, very much in His name. For that reason, I’m not all that surprised that Christians have such a bad reputation in this culture.” (>>)

Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 :: 8:24 PM

“Relativism and postmodernism are not identical. Liberalism and postmodernism are not the same thing. Nihilism and skepticism are not identical to postmodernism. I believe most of the Christian critics talking about postmodernism miss this entirely.” (>>)

Monday, June 13th, 2005 :: 9:25 PM

“Author Barbara Kingsolver writes that rather than buying into the ‘love it or leave it’ approach to the groups with which we affiliate, a more honorable slogan is ‘love it and get it right, love it and never shut up.’ This, I believe, is the function of evangelical expatriates. These expats have renounced their citizenship in evangelical subculture, but not their faith. They have ventured out into the wider world, but they remain interested, and often emotionally invested, in their culture of origin. They have become skeptical of how the church manifests its witness, but also dedicated to calling it back to its truest expressions.” (>>)

Friday, June 10th, 2005 :: 2:46 AM

“I think that secretly, our minds walk hand in hand down a side street… smiling at the warm May weather on our way to get hand-made ice cream downtown, even when our bodies are entwined in the throes of an unspent worldly passion.” (>>)

Friday, June 10th, 2005 :: 2:39 AM

“Increasingly, U.S. evangelicals have allied themselves with conservative politics. Many rallied around Ronald Reagan, the nation’s first divorced President, who rarely attended church and gave little to charity, while viewing with suspicion Jimmy Carter–a devoutly religious President who taught a Baptist Sunday school class throughout his term in office.” (>>)

Friday, June 10th, 2005 :: 2:10 AM

” ‘Christ’s death saves even Christians from sin.’ ” (>>)

Thursday, June 9th, 2005 :: 2:41 PM

“Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘ “My house will be called a house of prayer,” but you are making it a “den of robbers.” ‘ ” (>>)

Thursday, June 9th, 2005 :: 10:20 AM

“What do you prefer? Freedom from terrorists or freedom from the government?” (>>)

Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 :: 11:36 AM

“One of the things he said was that, ‘In moments like this God is useless.’ And I thought at first, ‘What an appalling thing to say.’ And then I thought, ‘What a brave thing to say.’ And then I thought, ‘What a true thing to say.’ ” (>>)

Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 :: 11:05 AM

“The darkness has faded just enough so that for the first time he can dimly see his opponent‘s face. And what he sees is something more terrible than the face of death – the face of love. It is vast and strong, half ruined with suffering and fierce with joy, the face a man flees down all the darkness of his days until at last he cries out, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me!’ Not a blessing that he can have now by the strength of his cunning or the force of his will, but a blessing that he can only have as a gift.” (>>)

Monday, June 6th, 2005 :: 2:42 PM

“What we must recognize is that Christians should not adopt either modern or postmodern epistemology. Both epistemologies make some important and true claims; and each also makes claims that Christians will want to deny. Some Christians, intuitively sensing the dangers of postmodern epistemology, pan it entirely, reverting to the more familiar modern epistemology. They conveniently forget that epistemological modernism has not always been the Christians friend. Others cherish postmodernism, not least because of its freshness and iconoclasm. They view askance anything that has ties to oldfashioned modernism. So what is required is some evenhanded reflection on both the strengths and the weaknesses of postmodern epistemology.”

“Postmodernism articulates what we should have known but what modernism made difficult to see, namely, that there is more to human knowing than rationality, proofs, evidences, and linear thought. No matter how much we retain the view that evidence and logic are fundamental to human reflection and discourse, we are now much more aware of the way that aesthetic, social, intuitive, linguistic, and other factors influence our thinking.”

“Postmoderns correctly perceive that there can never be, among finite knowers, an uninterpreted truth. But from this they incorrectly infer that there cannot be any knowledge of objective truth at all.”

(>>)

Saturday, June 4th, 2005 :: 11:17 AM

“I started The Snowsuit Effort because I was struck with the desire to investigate the people behind the neighborhoods of metropolitan Detroit — to learn the stories of those who not only live in metro Detroit, but rely on metro Detroit: shopkeepers, the working poor, homeless, panhandlers, etc. On a personal level, I wanted to force myself out of my comfort zone — to push myself in creative directions that I had purposely avoided. The whole ‘effort’ of The Snowsuit Effort is to challenge myself, to fight the nervousness, trepidation and fear generally associated with photographing strangers.” (>>)

Saturday, June 4th, 2005 :: 11:05 AM

“It is the duty of a man to render himself beneficial to those around him; to a great number if possible; but if this is denied him, to a few; to his intimate connections; or, at least, to himself.” (>>)

Saturday, June 4th, 2005 :: 10:06 AM

“God is good in some marvelous non-understood way.”

Friday, June 3rd, 2005 :: 3:59 PM

“We would only ask, if you accept our critics’ evaluation of our work, that in fairness you abstain from adding your critique to theirs unless you have actually read our books, heard us speak, and engaged with us in dialogue for yourself. Second-hand critique can easily become a kind of gossip that drifts from the truth and causes needless division.” (>>)

Friday, June 3rd, 2005 :: 12:35 AM

Over the Rhine was one of the primary influences on many of us being able to leave the CCM culture mindset without needing to toss out our faith as well. They (along with Vigilantes of Love) were a great example of what real faith could look like in the real world, in real terms, without all the evangelical baggage and superfluous trappings, in a way that was honest and genuine and expressed in a way that a believer could live with and not feel uncomfortable (for lack of a better word) about – not forced or embarracing or pressured to ‘be a good commercial for Jesus.’ ” (>>)

Detweiler/Bergquist 2008: Lyrical Leaders with Long Names

Friday, June 3rd, 2005 :: 12:01 AM

” ‘Theology is a community affair. Consequently theological truth takes the form of a dialogue, and does so essentially, not just for the purposes of entertainment. There are theological systems which are designed not only to be non-contradictory in themselves, but aim to remain undisputed from outside too. They are like fortresses which cannot be taken, but which no one can break out of either, and which are therefore starved out. I have no desire to build any such fortress for myself. My image is the Exodus of the people, and I await theological Red Sea miracles. For me theology is not church dogmatics, and not a doctrine of faith. It is imagination for the kingdom of God in the world, and for the world in God’s kingdom.’ ” (>>)

Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 :: 2:40 PM

New MxPx songs. Ian unashamedly jumps up and down drooling like a sixteen year old scene kid.

Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 :: 12:43 PM

juxtaposition

Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 :: 12:15 PM

“Clearly, what conservative Christians have been reading about the Emerging Church has not been accurate.” (>>)

Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 :: 12:47 AM

“Within Christian thought two large theological traditions exist:
kataphatic and apophatic theologies.” (>>)

Wednesday, June 1st, 2005 :: 9:18 PM

“Heres the deal. We might be heretics. ” (>>)

Wednesday, June 1st, 2005 :: 9:03 PM

“Since the parable was designed to hold forth the prepared and the unprepared to meet Christ at His coming, and how the unprepared might, up to the very last, be confounded with the prepared–the structure of the parable behooved to accommodate itself to this, by making the lamps of the foolish to burn, as well as those of the wise, up to a certain point of time, and only then to discover their inability to burn on for want of a fresh supply of oil. But this is evidently just a structural device; and the real difference between the two classes who profess to love the Lord’s appearing is a radical one–the possession by the one class of an enduring principle of spiritual life, and the want of it by the other.” (>>)

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