The answer to bad religion is not no religion, it is better religion.

I came accross this picture at the blog http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/btb/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/3343598218_f7509066b7_b.jpg via The Daily Dish, it is a flyer at a counter protest to Westboro Baptist Church. If you don't know about Westboro they are a church that is headed by Fred Phelps and basically consists of his extended family and they travel around the country and set up disgusting protests a military funerals, plane crash funerals and others and make a scene claiming that the death was cause by God as retribution for Americas tolerance for homosexuality. I won't even begin to go into what I think about them but it does speak to how some areas of the Church have gotten so far off the meaning of the Gospels and in turn have turned already skeptical people even further away.

Too often believers look at these groups as funny, and in some way they are but in other ways they are very dangerous and should be taken seriously. Apparently, on this day another group came out to protest Westboro and printed up flyers which used scripture in a twisted way to show God hates figs which plays on Westboro's "God Hates Fags" website address and signs. This is what we need more of. The true Church the church centered on and grounded in Love to use scripture and stand up to these hate/fear-mongers. Showing the true love of Christ up against these groups not only will shed God's light on these misguaided people but is a powerful witness for the true God we believe in.

Sign of Hilarity

This image came from www.ihasahotdog.com there is another site for cat pictures called www.icanhascheezburger.com it is a great site to go to if you need a pick-me-up.

Goals For 2009

This list is by no means exhaustive but here are a few things I would like to do in the new year.

- Be a great father to Arden
- Be a better husband to Sabrina
- Be a better Son, Brother, overall strengthen my relationship will my family
- Be a better friend
- Love God more, love people more
- Be a more diligent reader
- See a Packers game at Lambeau Field
- Accomplish the Run for Mercy marathon (my biggest regret from last year)
- Start the CFA program

More to Come

Get Down With The Funk!

The man to the right is Cornel West, he is a professor of African American studies and Religion at Princeton. He is my favorite author and generally one of the people I admire most in the world. I have had the chance to meet him a few years back which was an amazing experience. His writing can be challenging both in complexity and content. It is written as commentary on society as a black man, as a Christian and as he calls it a small "d" democrat (one who believes in the full potential of democracy). The following passage from his most recent book Hope On A Tightrope struck me very deeply and I wanted to share it with you.

Behold, that first century Palestinian Jew was born in a funky manger. He had some funky working-class parents sometimes dealing with unemployment and underemployment. He walked on some funky and dusty roads, didn't he? He brought together 12 funky folk. He didn't go 100 miles to the vanilla surburbs, did he? He picked them right from around where he came from. It's so easy to forget the funk in Jesus's life because our churches can become so deodorized.

The funky Gospel of funky Jesus can become so Americanized that it is reduced to marketplace spirituality, prosperity gospel, and Chamber of Commerce religion. No! We want to keep focused on the funk of Jesus, especially that funky blood at that funky cross.

If you don't find joy in serving others, if you you don't understand the joy in loving people, then come back to the cross. Get down in that funky blood and understand what it means to be at that funky tomb that was when empty when that prostitute Mary Magdalene showed up and had a message for the world.

You can't be be committed to that kind of funky gospel if you're not willing to pay a price. You need to be willing to bear a burden. You need to cut against the grain.

True Christian Love.

This story is showing the best of Christianity.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1

Never miss a chance to tell them you love them.

Yesterday morning our outside cat Ms Kitty was mauled and carried off by a stray dog. I can't believe this happened and am deeply troubled by it. It was a staple of my day to have to slow down for her when pulling in the driveway because she ran in front of the car just to remind you to feed her. Ms Kitty came with the house we bought and we adopted her, feeding her and treating her for fleas because she was allergic to them and her hair would fall out because of it. She got along great with our dogs when they were outside and was just a gentle creature. We could not bring her inside because there would be a fight with our other 2 cats. But she would stare into our house longing to be a part of the inside family. I regret not bringing her in especially as she peered through the front window watching us decorate our Christmas tree the other night. My biggest regret, however, is that the other night after I had just finished reading Marley and Me I went around to all my 4 leg kids and picked them up and told them I was thankful for them and that I love them, I did the same with Sabrina, I left out Ms Kitty. The point of all of this is to take a moment, or several, out of each day to tell those you love that you love them and you are thankful for them, I know that this was a cat was lost, but if you know me you know that I consider my animals to be part of my family as if I fathered them myself. Freak things do happen and anyone of us could be gone at anytime, make sure you don't have regrets.

Merry Christmas

We finaly got our tree decorated tonight. Duke and Dutchess are proud of thier work. It finally feels like Christmas now. I realized that the good that can come out of these troubling times is that you appreciate those things that money can't buy family and friends. Maybe since people may struggle buying gifts this year they will appreciate the true meaning of Christmas. From the Guenther's- Sabrina, Mark, Arden, Dutchess, Duke, Ms Kitty, Callie, and Mollie, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.