I’ve been building a new blog this week. Not sure if I’ll keep it or not, but it allows me a bit more freedom with code and other gadgets. Check it out (as it is so far): chadfarrand.typepad.com
Let me know what you think.
I’ve been building a new blog this week. Not sure if I’ll keep it or not, but it allows me a bit more freedom with code and other gadgets. Check it out (as it is so far): chadfarrand.typepad.com
Let me know what you think.
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Found this on Cnn:
(CNN) — A top U.S. evangelical leader is accusing Sen. Barack Obama of deliberately distorting the Bible and taking a “fruitcake interpretation” of the U.S. Constitution.
James Dobson says Barack Obama is distorting bibical teachings to fit “his own confused theology.”
In comments to be aired on his radio show Tuesday, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson criticizes the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for comments he made in a June 2006 speech to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal.
In the speech, Obama suggested that it would be impractical to govern based solely on the word of the Bible, noting that some passages suggest slavery is permissible and eating shellfish is disgraceful.
“Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?” Obama asked in the speech. “Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount?
“So before we get carried away, let’s read our Bible now,” Obama said, to cheers. “Folks haven’t been reading their Bible.”
He also called Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount “a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our Defense Department would survive its application.”
In the comments to be aired Tuesday, Dobson said Obama should not be referencing antiquated dietary codes and passages from the Old Testament that are no longer relevant to the teachings of the New Testament.
Listen to Dobson blast Obama’s biblical interpretations »
Sources: CNN, Focus on the Family
“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology,” Dobson said, adding that Obama is “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”
Responding to the comments, Joshua DuBois, Obama’s national director of religious affairs, said the Illinois senator is “committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for American families.”
“A full reading of his 2006 Call to Renewal speech shows just that,” DuBois said. “Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together.”
The comments come shortly after DuBois called Focus on the Family to suggest a meeting with the group ahead of the Democratic Party’s convention in late August, according to Tom Minnery, the organization’s senior vice president for government and public policy.
Minnery wouldn’t say whether any such meeting is planned but said the group is open to it.
Dobson also takes aim at Obama for suggesting in the speech that those motivated by religion should attempt to appeal to broader segments of the population by not just framing their arguments around religious precepts.
“Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal rather than religion-specific values,” Obama said. “It requires their proposals be subject to argument and amenable to reason.”
Dobson said the suggestion is an attempt to lead by the “lowest common denominator of morality.”
“Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?” he asked. “What he’s trying to say here is, unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe.
“What the senator is saying there, in essence, is that ‘I can’t seek to pass legislation, for example, that bans partial-birth abortion, because there are people in the culture who don’t see that as a moral issue,’ ” Dobson said. “And if I can’t get everyone to agree with me, than it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture. Now, that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”
According to Minnery, Dobson was particularly offended by a portion of the speech in which Obama mentioned evangelical leader and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
In the speech, Obama said, “Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?”
In response, Minnery said, “Many people have called [Sharpton] a black racist, and [Obama] is somehow equating [Dobson] with that and racial bigotry.”
Dobson’s comments follow the Obama campaign’s recent efforts to increase its appeal among evangelicals, many of whom have expressed reservations about supporting Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Dobson himself has said he will not vote for the Arizona senator.
Minnery said he doesn’t expect Obama to make inroads into the reliably Republican voting bloc.
“Evangelicals are people who take Bible interpretation very seriously, and the sort of speech he gave shows that he is worlds away in the views of evangelicals,” he said.
Minnery also said Dobson will probably continue his criticism of Obama.
“Given our fact that religion seems to be such a relevant topic in this election again, we will defend the evangelical view vigorously,” he said
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Part of the reason I’ve been so quiet this week is because I’ve been lost in “Viva La Vida or Death and all His Friends” by Coldplay. It came out on Tuesday and I haven’t stopped listening to it yet.It’s an amazing album (remarkable for an era which seems album-less). They worked with famed U2 producer Brian Eno who really stretched them. You won’t find a typical Coldplay on this album. It’s totally unlike anything they’ve done before. So far, my fav. tracks are the title track (which is out) and “42″ as well as “Lovers in Japan” “Stawberry Swing” and “Cemetaries of London.” Incredible.
I’ve also been working hard to get caught up at school, which is kind of burying me right now.
Yesterday, we celebrated Kailey’s birthday (she got sick last week on her birthday). So, we picked up her friend page and cousin Rachel and drove to “Libby Lu’s” which is in Yonkers. The girls all got little make overs, dressed up like pop stars and got t-shirts, a backpack full of girly stuff, Hannah Montana wigs and pink boas. Yes, I was in hell. But, the kids loved it which is all that matters.
Today, Mel and I drive back up north to lead our second weekend w/ Head Start. This weekend is just for the dad’s. My mom is coming over this afternoon to spend the weekend with the kids (and spike). Should be a good and tiring weekend. I feel like I’m just recovering from last weekend!
Anyway, congratulations to Andy on the arrival of his G5 (yes, I got the message. no, I haven’t been able to call back…but I am thrilled for you bro).
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Today, my baby girl Kailey turns 10 years old! I can’t believe she’s already 10. So, we are taking her and a friend out to Libby Lu’s in Grandville, and probably out for dinner. Happy Birthday baby girl!!
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I just read this article on Wood TV 8 about two freshman girls in Wayland who beat up another freshman girl (on film) on the last day of school. Why? Because she believes in gay rights, and they didn’t like it. What’s worse, they don’t see anything wrong with what they did.
As sad as this event is, it just shows the the ugly underbelly that still exists in this country. Gay bashing is still pretty well accepted, in the media and through course jokes between people. I was just watching MASH last night, and on it there was several gay jokes in one episode. It was clear that making a reference to being gay was a joke.
You know, even if you aren’t a supporter of the whole GLBQT community, it is still damaging, cruel and wrong to make another person feel humiliated about their life, and should be against the law to fight someone because of it.
Freshmen girls fight may bring charges
Posted: var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate(“Jun 11, 2008 1:01 PM EST”); document.write(wn_last_ed_date);June 11, 2008 01:01 PM
Updated: var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate(“Jun 11, 2008 4:32 PM EST”); document.write(wn_last_ed_date);June 11, 2008 04:32 PM
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By Emily Zangaro
WAYLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — As Wayland Union High School students cleaned out their lockers on the last day of school, a fight between three freshmen girls erupted, leaving one girl with facial injuries.
Wayland Police told 24 Hour News 8 the fight happened after fourth period Tuesday, and they’ve interviewed two suspects plus the victim, who was a new student this year at Wayland Union High.
The fight was clearly premeditated. In surveillance video, police told 24 Hour News 8 the suspects are seen pulling back their hair and getting ready. It’s also clear they say other people knew about the attack because of the number of people who were congregated around watching the fight.
Marina Niemchick said her daughter witnessed the fight. “Disturbing is a really good word for it,” she told 24 Hour News 8.
Her daughter “said one of the girls had come in and changed her clothes and was putting her hair up in a pony tail and taking all of her jewelry off. She heard rumors going around that she was getting ready to start a fight.”
“It was a pretty vicious attack on the one gal. She didn’t know it was coming,” Wayland Police Chief Dan Miller said. “She obviously went down to the floor very quick and tried to fend off her attackers.”
The suspects told police the girl was a gay-rights advocate and that she was trying to impose her views on them. They didn’t like it, and they told police they didn’t see anything wrong with what they did.
The fact they don’t see anything wrong with it upsets parents like Niemchick. “To find out that you have a bunch of 15-year-old children now that are taking that kind of violent action against somebody for believing that people have a right to be the way they are is really scary.”
The victim did not know the fight was coming. An ambulance came to the school and treated her for her injuries.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Wayland school district said they take “this action very seriously and will take appropriate action. Based upon the District’s investigation, those involved could be brought before the Board of Education with a possible recommendation for expulsion. An incident, such as this, is not acceptable behavior on the part of our students and is not representative of our student body.”
The police investigation continues, and aggravated assault charges and hate crime charges are possible.
24 Hour News 8 will have more information as soon as possible.
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So we here in Michigan (and much of the mid-west) has been getting pounded by tornadoes, flooding, storms, (we found out our old house in Evart burned down), and now I see this headline which is like hearing the fourth horseman of the apocalypse is coming:
(From the AP)
“Police say a German truck hauling beer to thirsty fans at the soccer European Championship 2008 in neighboring Austria overturned, spilling 350 cases of its precious cargo across the autobahn.
Police say the truck took an exit ramp too quickly on its way from Munich to Vienna when the accident occurred late last night.
Thousands of bottles were strewn across the road and shattered on impact. It created a sudsy mess that took about 40 firefighters with a bulldozer three hours to clean up.
Police say the 51-year-old driver of the truck was unharmed.
Austria and Switzerland are co-hosting the Euro 2008 tournament, which opened Saturday.”
350 cases of German beer spilled on the road? What’s next God?
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guess who has two thumbs and is building a whole new blog-site?
this guy
don’t tell anyone
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Lately, Melody and I have been really conserving our travelling. If I have meetings in the greater GR area, I try my best to get them all on one day. Fortunately, we have a Chevy car that takes Ethanol which is currently 50 cents cheaper a gallon to drive. We loose a couple miles per gallon, but it still comes out way cheaper than basic unleaded.
This week, we aren’t planning on driving anywhere that we don’t get reimbursed for. Wed, we’ll be in Mason all day for a last minute training for the “Proud Parents” workshops that we are teaching through head start. Our first weekend event is this next weekend up north. The nice thing is that Head Start pays us back to travel, and the event is only 10 miles north of Evart. So, we’re stopping in to say hi to some friends while we are up. We’re also doing 7 weekends this summer at the same place, so we’ll be seeing Evart a lot more this summer (BC pizza here we come).
Gas prices suck. There’s no way else to say it. It’s eating away our budget. Each week, we have to readjust our budget because it costs more and more to buy groceries and to drive. We’ve lowered our cell rate, dropped most of our cable, limited our energy consumption, and still our bank accounts get drained from gas and food. It’s got to stop! We can’t afford to keep paying more. I know we aren’t alone in this. We’re just running out of ideas.
We sent out an email to Tapestry wondering if people want to do a combined worship event this summer due to the gas prices. Also, we’re trying to meet the leaders more and more via Skype to save cash. This is crazy. We’re going to turn into hot, hungry hermits that can’t venture out past Ionia soon.
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There’s a thunderstorm ripping through my town right now. To get my mind off the pain it’s causing, I put “Semi Pro” on. The very last thing you hear in the movie is “It’s like the Titanic, only filled with bears.”
Yesterday, I went over to Fair Haven and met w/ Doug Mclintic and some other good friends. We had a conversation about creating a sustainable church multiplication movement. Honestly, I felt it was the most important and necessary conversation we’ve ever had as a group. There’s a lot of tension out there about what the next few years will mean to paid clergy and churches in general. I felt a little awkward in that our group, Tapestry, isn’t really set up in the same way the others are. In that, our missional life isn’t directly tied to money in any real way. Our “budget” is really just that we apply 10% of whatever comes in to a few items and that’s it. 90% goes back to local communities. So, people really aren’t giving to “us” as much as they give to their own communities.
That makes me think of the image of the Titanic. I mean, in some real ways the American Christian Church has been building bigger and bigger ships that seem to be indestructible. Yet, even though they glide across the water with ease, they too are vulnerable to the changing seas and the hidden ice bergs in the water. For some, their ice berg comes in the form of scandal (see Ted Haggerd), for others their ice berg is the failing economy, still others will crumble around consumption and consumers themselves unhappy with their christian product. How long do we continue to build these massive beasts? When will wake up to the new technology for spirit travel? We no longer live in a trans-atlantic age, we now live in an ever connected web planet that is filled with everything from jets to mopeds. Smaller is the new Mega.
In order to grow, Churches must re-think “growth” itself. It’s time to learn how to step back and let the Spirit raise up and ignite a swell of Church that doesn’t look anything like anything we have dared to imagine. God’s vision is always bigger than what we can imagine. His plans are more expensive than we can afford on our own…and here’s a hint, He wins.
What if we started celebrating the one or two people who are becoming dazzeled with Jesus rather than the thousand of people who can barely remember what it is to be dazzeled with him? What if we spent more time with real people rather than pleasing the “insiders” who worry more about music styles than souls?
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