The Death of a Great American Newspaper

The Rocky Mountain News closed its doors yesterday. Two months short of its 150th Anniversary the presses have gone dark. The story can be found here.

Detroit's two dailies have gone to three-day-a-week publishing schedules. Kansas City lost its morning paper in the 1980's. Papers all over America have been buying out staff left and right. I have become aware of this by watching ESPN which has several shows that feature newspaper writers, or now former newspaper writers.

What is there to say? The Rocky website chronicles the closing day adventure, but alas, no Rocky no more. What does it say about other metro dailies when the vaunted New York Times is having trouble making it? What does it say when columnists and writers get a severence and go on to TV? What does it say when a paper covers half the news because it can only afford to publish half the time?

I don't know, it may just be a case of "survival of the fittest," but I don't think it's the good news.

Praying for Pastors

Last week at the Presbytery of Arkansas meeting, before the debates and votes on the overtures from the General Assembly, we celebrated a time of worship and prayer. During this time, there was no homily, straight praise, prayer, and song.

During the prayer, the worship leader (The Rev. Sallie Watson, Arkansas Presbytery Interim General Presbyter) asked us to pray for pastors. This was a responsive prayer time, so we were asked to name pastors. I named two, the Reverends Bill Clarke and Greg McDonnell.

Bill was the pastor of the church in Lamar where I began to hear the call to ministry. It was through his proclamation of God's word that I learned how to hear and read scripture. Bill is an explainer, he showed me how to think about scripture.

Greg is the pastor of Central Presbyterian Austin where I did my practicuum. I know nobody loves the people of God like Greg.

If Bill showed me how to think, Greg showed me how to love. I would not be the minister, the man of God I am without them as role models. Thanks. You have showed me different wonderful facets of the life and light of God.

Blogolicious

I discovered this blog this morning while going over my morning coffee. It's the sort of thing that is designed to appeal to the sports/pop-culture people in their late 20's to mid 30's. It's on ESPN.com and is written by Paul Shirley. The archive is found here.

Shirley's claim to fame is that since 2002 when he graduated (?) from college, he has played with 13 different teams! He has been on 3 NBA teams and 10 others. He has played on at least three continents and in more jerseys than you can find at Dick's Sporting Goods.

His stuff is funny. It may be a little too young for me. Most of the musicians in the bands he talks about in his latest music post are younger than my driver's license, but I can still appreciate the writing.

Enjoy.

What, Me Worry?

Watching the President's address tonight, I was struck by one thing about the Governor of Louisiana who provided the Republican response. The press photo NBC used to promote his response made the governor look like Alfred E. Newman.

I don't know which is worse, the GOP releasing the picture or NBC using it.

I will say this, in a 50 minute speech there seemed to be only limited Republican bashing. There was some in the beginning, and there seemed to be some at the end, but considering the last 28 years of rhetoric, that's not so much.

The Republican response seemed a bit more dense on the bashing, but then again, what took Obama the better part of an hour Jindal had 15 minutes to accomplish.

One thing did bother me about the Republican response, the most common note in the response was "Government--Bad." When did government stop being of, by, and for the people? The way Republicans describe government it is as if there is a "royal family" somewhere taxing the serfs so the aristocracy can live like kings on the fat of the common people.

Funny, from where I sit with too many medical bills, earning Presbytery minimum wage, driving a 10 year old car without heat, AC, or a working blower fan; I refuse to get in a bunch about what Obama has done in 37 days.

Let's get back to "are you doing better than you were eight years ago?" Check your 401(k), check your IRA, check your home's equity value and get back to me.

Best Oscar Speech

Andy Kaufmann was one of the funniest people ever. His brand of work was always working to catch the viewer off guard to get a response. He didn't alwsys care if you laughed, but he always cared about getting a reaction.

One of the best examples of this was his "Foreign Man" bit. This is the character that was the model for Latka Graves on "TAXI." He would completely slaughter jokes in the foreign man persona, and then segue into an "impersonation." He would do Elvis, and Andy's Elvis was spot on. The transformation from "Foreign Man" to Elvis was huge and always got the reaction. He would close the bit as the "Foreign Man" saying "Thank you very much."

The best speech of the night came from Kunio Kato who won Best Animated Short for his film La Maison en Petits Cubes. He came to the stage and thanked the academy in broken English finishing with "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto." As the crowd went nuts, he broke into a plain vanilla American English accent and said "Thank you very much."

It was beautiful! Thanks Kunio Kato, "Best Oscar Speech."

The Return of Sportsmanship

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a Texas High School girl's basketball game that ended with a score of 100-0. I took the coach to task and said that he should not be fired because after all, if we fire him how will he ever learn? The teacher of this lesson just came out of a game in the upper Midwest.

A couple of weeks ago, Milwaukee Madison High School played DeKalb High School (Illinois) in Milwaukee. Be sure to follow the link below and read the whole article, but here are the salient points.

• The mother of one of the Madison prep stars, Johntell Franklin, was seriously ill. The Madison coach asked Johntell if he wanted the coach the cancel the game, Johntell said no, let them play.
• The coach set up to play. He did not put Johntell's name in the scorebook. This is important for those of you who do not know basketball rules.
• The game was played, but it started a couple of hours late.
• Johntell came to the game during the second quarter. But he didn't feel like he could be a spectator, he suited up because he wanted to play.
• Coach put Johntell into the game.

This is where the rules take effect. If a player enters the game who is not in the scorebook, it is a technical foul and the other team gets two free throws. When Johntell entered the game, the foul was called.

Well, DeKalb didn't want it. They all knew what was going on and nobody on the DeKalb team wanted to accept the foul--not the players and not the coaches. When DeKalb tried to reject the foul, the referees said they could not do that. Rules are rules.

The Madison coach was dejected, knowing two easy points were going to hit the board. He had his team huddled around, so he almost missed it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the DeKalb shooter roll the ball off of the ends of his fingertips rolling gently past the end line. The second time he watched it happen.

The DeKalb coach came to terms with the fact that his team would get the two shots. He did not come to terms with benefitting from another's grief. The DeKalb coach asked his players who was going to take the shot and then told him, "You know you're going to miss it, right?"

If you win 100-0, you'll win a basketball game. Missing these two shots has made the sports world take notice that sportsmanship is not dead. There are more important things.
For the number of times I have heard and read this story, there is one thing I have not heard reported. Who won.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article can be found at this link.

The 110th Meeting of the Arkansas Presbytery

The Presbytery of Arkansas met yesterday in Clarksville. This was the meeting where our Presbytery voted on the overtures from the 218th General Assembly. The hot button topic was Amendment B. Many say this is the amendment about allowing the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians. It is more accurate to say this amendment allows for the nomination to ordained office for gays and lesbians.

Some would say this is just parsing the amendment, but I believe the distinction is important. Even if selected by a nominating committee, it is always up to the congregation to elect--led by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit--who will lead them as Decons, Elders, and Ministers of the Word and Sacrament.

This is what I said on the floor of Presbytery yesterday aout this motion:

Madam Moderator, Paul Andresen, Minister of Word and Sacrament, First, Berryville, speaking in favor of the amendment.

From the Pulpit of the Riverside Church, William Sloane Coffin said "we still have the intellectual problem of how to incorporate the latest thinking into the old faith." Quoting Harry Emerson Fosdik he continued, "how to believe in abiding stars and changing astronomies." He also said "The purity of dogma is second to the integrity of love. Creeds are the sign posts, but love is the hitching post."

I believe the Lord our God is sovereign. God never acts out of character; the character that so loves the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:16, NRSV)

The same love on which hand all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40)

By the love of God, I cannot vote to deny a class of Christians the opportunity to be nominated to serve in ordained ministry.

If we believe God will call whom God will call to the good ends of the kingdom-including ordained ministry-then this exclusion is contrary to God's loving sovereignty.

Given one minute for remarks, this is where I ran out of time. Though I did have more to say.

As it has long been, it is up to our congregations, Sessions, nominating committees, committees on Preparation for Ministry, and Pastor Nominating committees to discern God's will for those called to ordained ministry.

This should be based solely on the call of God on the life of the candidate and the calling body.

Paul's letter to Timothy tells us that Elders should be judged by how well they manage their households--for if we cnnot manage our households, how can we manage the church? (1Timothy 3:5)

This is true regardless of the household.

Madam Moderator, thank you.

This motion was supported by the Youth Advisory Delegates 19-8 and by the Presbytery 116-64. There was no show of joy or rage with the passage of the amendment. People who were overjoyed kept it to themselves, those who outraged did too.

As for me, I was shocked that it passed, and even more shocked by the margin. My amazment has nothing to do with the conservative vs. liberal tendencies of the Presbytery. It has to do with prior votes on this same issue over the past fifteen years. The Arkansas Presbytery has consistently voted against such amendments, so passing at a 9 to 5 margin was a shock.

The most important thing that was said was from the Reverend Jeff Parker, First Rogers, who quoted the Book of Ruth telling the assembly, "Regardless of the outcome 'Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.'"

The problem with any "adverserial" form of polity is that there are winners and there are losers. This is the sorrow if not the shame of the system. Still, we are all people of the Lord, the Triune God.

As of yesterday, the amendment must be affirmed by 72 more Presbyteries to pass. Regardless of the outcome, where the church goes I will go because the Presbyterian Church (USA) is a part of the body of Christ. This is what matters.

Movies and Aging

American Movie Classics is showing "Blazing Saddles" right now. Help me, I love this movie. I find it completely outside of all social mores and I love it.

In fact, when I was Coordinator of Residence Life at Lamar Community College, I used to keep Slim Picken's response to Dom DeLuise being the director on the back of my door.

How outside of good social standing is this movie? The N-word is used 17 times (thanks Wikipedia for counting) and is the first movie ever to feature audible flatulence.

I wondered if this movie could be made today, evidently it almost didn't get released when it was made for all of the same reasons it is offensive today.

Still, what it's a satire. It lampoons stereotypes and bigotry and punctures greedy politicians and their lackeys. This is still the kind of thing that needs to be lampooned.

Sure, it's a tacky little movie that made the AFI Top 100 comedies list at #6. It needs to be seen in its full context as satire and not picked for its language, fart jokes or Alex Karras punching a horse.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of language, I have noticed that television standards folks have begun to edit the word "asshole" by clipping out the second syllable. What is it in the word "hole" that makes that this so much more offensive? If we're going to edit for the sake of the children, shouldn't we keep the hole and edit the ass?

So Good to Be Back

Dear Friends and Readers,
It's good to be back online again. When the ice storm hit, we had a power surge which fried a line or two in the computer's operating system. That took a week to fix after the week it took for the ice to melt and the power to return. Then just to put an egg on the corned beef hash of fried computer-the modem went down too.

It's time to face the facts, I need a better surge protector.

Well, thanks to the First National Bank in Berryville's computer repair service and my ISP sending a new modem I am finally back online. I hope to resume my old blogging schedule and hope to hear from you all again soon.

Peace be with you all, Paul

ice, ice, baby

From last Tuesday until Saturday morning, the power in our house was out. It came up just long enough for me to discover that out PC was fried like your brain on drugs. I'm blogging at the bank right now because the work computer runs on dial-up at 45.2 kbps. (SCREAMING!)

So, sorry for the delay, I'll update as possible.