Gazing Upon the Wonder of a -- What Th...?!

Have you heard of Orlando's Holy Land Experience? I gotta be honest, this thoroughly weirds me out. I can't quite put my finger on it. (Could it be that I just don't have enough fingers?!) There's just something strange about a bunch of modern white people acting the part of ancient jews. (Though, after all, we all know that Jesus was a lean, lanky white guy with long, luscious locks, right? It's utter heresy to imagine otherwise!) This is all about as pleasant as a mouth full of sugar. I'm trying to articulate my feelings, all the while feeling kinda stunned that I'd have to -- that there's actually a monstrosity in the world to cause to me to feel this way.

It seems like suddenly people have been listening to the clamour of the Christian right that have been chanting the same mantra same message for years: "We have money to spend! Give us Christianised entertainment!" The trouble is, I'm not so sure that that's actually a worthy goal. I have a rather large problem with the way the church continues to create walls between itself and the world. And things like Christianised theme parks merely add more bricks, making ourselves irrelevant to other faiths, cultures, even (dare I say) the truth of the gospel, all in the name of Christ. I know! Let's make artificial, surrogate experiences that hollow out the essence of our faith to a dry husk. Now we can have a profound religious pilgrimage, right from the comfort of the family gas-guzzler, while sucking on a fast food milkshake and watching who-knows-what on the onboard LCDs. Gee whiz, kids, now ain't this fun!

If this is either the church's status report or the forecast, I'm just a tad concerned! I can only imagine how much this has cost, and will continue to cost. And for what? Seriously, what? Oh yeah, but if you're going, can you take this little prayer I wrote to stuff into the replica wailing wall? They just gotta have one...

We're Gonna be Huge!

We've just started recording a new project at the Bridge. This is pretty exciting to all of us -- for one thing we've spent a lot of time gelling as a group, and this is probably going to be kind of a last hurrah as we again face a time of massive transition and upheaval. It always seems to happen at the end of a school year, but it's going to have a greater impact this year as we probably say good-bye to a number of key leaders and participants.

So this is kind of happy-sad occasion, but we're all grateful to have the opportunity to put this memory down in a physical form. Anyway, when I'm not only laying down some sax tracks, I'm taking pictures -- I thought I'd share this one. She's listening back to the djembe track she just recorded, and I like the moment of reflection.

Isn't it Ironic?

Some people have held on so strongly to Christian truth that they've killed each other over it. Which just proves that they never understood what they were holding on to...

You Can't Do That To Me; I'm A Canadian!

I was having a conversation with an American recently on the differences between Canadians and Americans. For the most part it was a well-considered conversation. I think the most important difference that I see between the two countries right now is the level of perceived entitlement. Don't get me wrong, Canadians have it. And it's getting to be more of a prevalent problem. But the title of this post could only be used as a joke, and somehow Americans carry that mentality all over the world with them.

When I said you'd never hear a Canadian say "You can't do that to me; I'm a Canadian," he actually started laughing. He said when you say that as a Canadian, "it just sounds different." Well, not to me. It's as ludicrous here as anywhere. Maybe my perspective comes from seeing the real trouble that attitude can get you into. Internally and externally!