Creation Scientists at Landover Baptist report that this year's most popular Christmas toy, Tickle Me Elmo TMX, should disturb even an unsaved family. "It should be rated XXX, not TMX," says Dr. Jonathan Edwards. "TMX is deliberately misleading." Dr. Edwards warns that Elmo doesn't belong in a Christian home. "It belongs in Hell," he says. "In fact, we've traced the origin of the species and we're fairly certain they were created by Satan. The Devil and his toy distributors are holding nothing back with this rude little creature.

isn't it about time for christian kids to lead the fight against secular pajamas?
armor of god p.j.'s (to fight off annette)

parade party postponed till next friday... assuming the parade is as well.

almost 3 days and i still have jet lag.

had a good time with a group of church planters (starters) in ontario, the meetings are over, they are back doing their thing in their local town. i'm in the hotel waiting to have lunch with pernell. apparently annette has been painting for 2 days at the club and so doesn't miss me at all.

came away with a pervading sense that the sunday morning 'get up and go to church' model of a thousand years or better is broken. it was painful to watch ministers who had just started a sunday morning thing come to the same conclusion. one of the talks centered around the canadian context and it was startling to find that the most conservative province in canada (alberta) is far more liberal leaning than the most liberal of american areas (new england area). sunday morning church is simply not even on the radar for most canadians. the conclusions the experts are coming to is that the 80% of the population simply will never go to church. further, churches tend to re-evangelize and shuffle only 2.5% of the population. and it is going to get worse. the time worn talking-head sunday morning operation seems to be headed for extinction. the issue statistically is not simply an opinion, it is a proven fact (if you don't believe me take a gander at the july 1 issue of macleans).

and yet for years to come we will continue to start projects with no hope of making a tangible difference in society. we will shuffle the deck chairs and invite people to fall in love with the boat, not the ocean.

there are solutions but they are generally considered too costly.
what was that definition of insanity again?

7:20 am local time.
the city is waking up and i can't sleep. welcome to toronto.
sunrise over lake ontario.
burlington is beautiful.

heros come in all shapes and sizes. most of us seek to emulate a movie star or historical figure. i love the heart of winston churchill, the guts of jamie douglas, the strategy of genghis. nietzsche is a a great writer. jordon cooper has a huge head. but it's ben deyo that rocks my world.

ben is 19. some time ago he felt god was telling him to move to main and hastings in vancouver. this area has been deemed a "third-world" zone and is arguably the roughest block in north america. i have spent time in the mean streets of downtown chicago and l.a. and they don't even come close. it's literally a freak show with hundreds of people shooting up, pan-handling, hooking and dealing. it's a cool place to drive by but literally a hell of a place to live. so a couple weeks ago ben went into town. he didn't know what he would do, where he would live, had divested himself of most of his possessions and given his parents a series of low-grade cardiac arrests. people had begged ben's parents to "talk some sense into him." i thought it was an amazing idea from the start... for someone else's kid. if it was nathan that would have decided to go i am sure i would be a mess.

so ben moved into the jungle.

within hours he walked into a floppish motel and connected with a group that runs a motel and bar for street people. they were people of faith who had almost given up on the religious community; until ben walked in looking to volunteer. so ben is a renovator by day, picking up needles and fixing rooms; and a bartender by night. a christian bartender. i love it.

i hope ben stays in the city for a while because he is learning lessons and experiencing life on a level that few of us can truly understand. he is not dropping in to shotgun some help. he is becoming one of them. as the song goes, "just a slob like one of them".

i'm honored to know you ben.

this weekend i'm speaking in toronto to a group of church planters about doing church. there are definitions that are flying around, questions that i will be asked about what is happening at club365. there are those who want to label what is happening here. it's easier that way. today someone asked me if the church i go to is missional, incarnational, postmodern or emerging. i just laughed.

i hate words like missional. it's not that there's anything wrong with the word, or those who propose it's use in their context. it is the new soon-worn cliche to describe what the vanguard is doing. there are definitions a plenty. most of which, if not all of which, could be used to define the goals of 99% of the emerging churches, or the gen-x churches, or the incarnational churches, or the culture churches or the.... you get the idea. in fact i would propose that most evangelical churches in general would subscribe to the "warning" list for missional churches. they would not actually employ the ten or twenty characteristics of missional churches, but then again neither would a vast majority of missional churches.

i hate trendy definitions and tangents. it's necessary to define and understand, it's just too damn cliche to jump on the latest bandwagon for the sake of fitting in or sounding like you actually know what you are doing. most of us don't know what we are doing anyway. most books on church planting are written by a guy who has only planted one church anyway and really has no idea if they could do it again.

so i think i'll just tell them i'm post-evangelical, incarnational, next-wave, disenfranchised, socially conscious, church 2.0, missional, emergent, resonating, neo-liberal, cultural, postmodern, narrative, quasi-sarcastic.

My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.
~ Montaigne

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
winston churchill

so i'm at safeway buying stuff for supper and there are two really old ladies in front of me buying diapers. without thinking i say, "wow you two are a little old to have to buy diapers". then i looked closer...
they were a little large for a baby...
kill me now.

A photo of a homeless guy shooting up in San Fransisco (possibly NSFW) "A young homeless man beavis shooting up in the tenderloin. he picks his scabs to find a good spot; and tries a few locations before he gets a vein" via

from grace's blog:
"Agreeing to disagree is unscriptural."

"A true apostle, like Paul, would never put up with people disagreeing with him."

"The apostle is like the brain in the body, and the rest of the body members should respond in instant obedience to the brain."

"Because I represent God's apostolic authority in your life, you should look past me as just a person and respond to the things that I say as if it were God speaking to you."

recently i have had someone, for what seems like the hundredth time, tell me they were a prophet. they matter-of-factly informed me that to disagree with them was tantamount to disobeying god. i am not a young christian anymore so i wasn't buying it but they had a hard time buying what i wasn't buying. you buying that?

i love what chuck swindoll says, "you want to be a prophet fine. then we need to apply the same biblical rules to you that were applied to the prophets of old. if you are wrong we get to stone you."

it is a huge arrogance to announce to people, especially publically, that you are a prophet. in the bible the role of a prophet was not something to be coveted, it was something to be feared. people didn't go around with a business card "prophet for hire". most modern day prophets also are theologically ignorant and don't even understand the difference between apocalyptic and prophetic.

i have, from time to time, attended 'charismatic' gatherings where said so-called prophets gather like flies. there are inevitably prophecies abounding at these events. i am not saying that god could not use prophesy, after all he used balaam's ass so he can probably use anyone. i am always suspicious though when:
1. the prophet loves to tell people they are a prophet
2. the prophet does not allow what they say to be critically examined
3. the prophet relies on feelings and is known to be unstable, depressed, love-lorn, unstable or unstable. also unstable.
4. the prophesies sound more like a horoscope than a word from god - "there's a hill and all the christians are walking up it and some are falling to the left or the right." "there's a city in the clouds and the christians are walking to it and some are falling to the left or the right." "there's a burrito and all the christians are walking to it.... well you get the point.

if you are convinced that you are a prophet you should probably slow down and ask yourself how much of your ego is tied up in the title. you may want to talk to someone, not in your peer group, who is more stable (ya, you thought i was going to say spiritual), and not given to whims and prozac.

then if you are still a prophet, don't email me and tell me what to do "in god's name". i love what matthew broderick said in the movie "lady hawk" when rudger hauer told him that god wanted matthew to help him kill the bishop. broderick thought for a moment then said,
"funny i talk to god all the time and he never mentioned your name."

catholic church asks again the age old question...
Pope Benedict, Vatican Aides Discuss Priest Celibacy
Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI began a meeting with Vatican officials to discuss the celibacy requirement for priests, and examine the situation of clergymen who have married and sought readmission into the Catholic Church.

The pontiff and the heads of the nine congregations and 11 pontifical councils that make up the administration of the Holy See will reflect on calls for ``dispensing with the obligation of celibacy'' and requests for ``readmission to the priesthood presented by married priests,'' a Vatican statement said.
more here.

might go a long way to relieving some 'stress' in the priesthood

from cnn:
Pakistan lawmakers passed amendments to the country's contentious rape laws, making it easier for victims to prosecute their attackers, and dropping the death penalty and flogging as punishments for extramarital sex.

the rest here

with the exception of maybe joe satriani, no one else even comes close.

rock music... on a different level. i give you - the yoshida brothers.

Over 400 female growers in northern Peru have started their own coffee brand. They call it Cafe Femenino, and it's a specialty coffee meant to raise global awareness about the harsh gender inequality that the coffee workers face. Two years ago, the growers sought the help of Isabel Uriarte Latorre, a Peruvian woman who, with her husband, has helped these agrarian communities for decades by forming co-ops, maximizing the income of the farmers and organizing community improvements, such as roads-she even heads a NGO, PROASSA, with the same purpose. Latorre, in turn, sought the help of Gay and Garth Smith, owners of the Vancouver, Washington-based Organic Product Trading Company (OPTCO), an organic coffee importing company that has a long-standing relationship with the growers in Peru. Gay Smith, because of her own personal experience with partner-abandonment (also a huge problem for these women, as many men move to the cities to look for jobs), was more than touched by the request that OPTCO help market the coffee. The Smiths also agreed to buy the coffee, import it to the US, and sell it to their roasters, such as Grab-A-Java. Hence was born a high quality Fair Trade and organic product for which sixty roasters in the U.S., Canada, and Australia willingly pay an extra 2 cents/lb to contribute to the women and to the Washington-based Cafe Femenino Foundation. Roasters, in exchange for this quality product, also agree to donate an additional 2% of gross sales to the project or to a women's crisis center near their homes.

Now, over a year later, Cafe Femenino is sweeping gender issues out from under the proverbial rug for the first time. In a country where, according to a recent study by the World Health Organization, domestic abuse rates run as high as 69% in rural areas, the gender gap is a bleeding wound: "Men are very authoritative, muchas maschismo," says Sara Sanchez, 23, from the Lonya Grande region. "A lot of women are really timid and don't know their rights, they're stuck in the system--when they do stand up to their husbands, they get hit." Women are traditionally seen as workers and mothers, not as decision-makers: "It is part of the culture that women are just for having children," Latorre explains, estimating that the average woman in the most impoverished Cafe Femenino communities has seven children. Cafe Femenino, on the other hand, requires a fundamental power shift. In order for a woman to join the co-op, she must show that her own name is now on the deed to the land she works. Since the coffee income is greater with the Cafe Femenino program (with Fair Trade and Organic income taken into account, the women make about 17 cents/lb, 30% more than the average coffee farmer), it benefits the whole family-a persuasive argument for the husbands to cede land to their wives, for the first time in history. Latorre also sees to it that the money generated by Cafe Femenino is given directly to the woman farmer.

more info here

fundamentalism and politics...
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — As Israeli bombs fell on Lebanon for a second week last July, the Rev. John Hagee of San Antonio arrived in Washington with 3,500 evangelicals for the first annual conference of his newly founded organization, Christians United For Israel.
the rest here


nytimes via jordon

Does what the Bible say about women really apply to us today in this culture (submission, can’t be a pastor, weaker vessel, more easily deceived, etc.)? Yes. God created us to submit, not because He hates us, rather because He loves us enough to protect us. Doesn’t it make us too vulnerable to ours husbands? As daughters of Eve we are more easily deceived, but like Ruth under the security of our husband and our God we are safe.

that's gold...

via

there's lots of other great stuff in rose's open letter including this gem:
What I mean is this: if we deny the Biblical tenets that we were made equal but distinct as male and female, with differing God-intended roles in the church and home, then homosexuality is the logical conclusion.

beautiful...

recently i came to a startling conclusion about my life when i was a pastor. i realized that so much of what motivated me, defined me, and drove me, was the incessant need to be cool.

it's hard for some people to understand that a minister would concern him or herself with something as childish as a need to be thought of as hip or cool. but i am finding that it defined the essence of most of what i did and, i fear, some of what many ministers still are.

there is an incredible pressure within pastoral circles to be cool. pastors are tempted to compete with other ministries, other churches on a level that would shock most lay people. denominations pressure pastors to drive after the latest methodologies, the latest tricks of the trade. large churches hold conferences to teach smaller, less "successful" churches how to attract the culture, use media stunts and cool music, in order to fit in to the mtv world and be relevant.

i have come to realize that so much of what i was as a minister was defined by cool. it was absolute paramount that i was considered on the vanguard of our denomination (which wasn't hard). i didn't mind being hated, as long as i was considered on the edge. i was keenly aware of how newer and younger churches were doing, not because i cared about them, but because they were a potential threat. i was quick to demean those who didn't look right, talk with the preferred jargon, or weren't part of my clique - it affected my dress, my speech, my personal habits and addictions, my sermons, my faith, my everything. at pastors conferences and retreats we demeaned the nerds, hung out only with those who liked to push the envelope, went out for beer though we knew it was forbidden, and basically flipped a bird at the establishment. we were cool.

i have had a great deal of time to look back on what i have accomplished in the religious world. i have been given an opportunity i never would have had, had i not quit my church. i wish i could have learned some of the lessons without such a drastic life-change. i realize i am not the superstar i once strove to be, people are not lining up to sit at my feet in order to learn how to speak, or plant churches, or be cool. it's all crap. what matters is not the personae or the accolades or the paycheck (ok maybe the paycheck). there is no more hype, no more posturing. i no longer write articles for christianity today or try to weasel my way into certain speaking gigs in order to feel good about myself.

none of it matters anymore.

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it's remembrance day in canada. something similar in the states. it's a day to remember.
i was born into a military family. i have a cousin somewhere around afganistan tonight. my father and my mother's father both served. my grandfather spent 4+ years driving a gasoline truck to the front lines during ww2. my father ran jets towards the persian gulf in the 80's. i come from a warring people, the scots, the irish. war is in my blood.

i am a passivist by nature. i quit hunting because i couldn't bear to watch the deer cry anymore. i have been known to release a fly unharmed out a window. i have 6 years of martial arts but cannot imagine really killing someone in a foreign trench. i love war history, war paraphernalia and war stories. my children were raised on stories of the warring scots - men like the douglas, the montrose, the bruce, the wallace and others.

i hate war. i used to think it was a game. i don't understand how fat rich politicians can so flippantly send children off to die of a belly wound in a frozen trench. i understand there is sometimes a need to defend your freedom. i salute those who paid the ultimate sacrifice; but i despise war.

i am against my cousin being in afghanistan. i am against the war in iraq. i think george bush and his cronies are bastards. i do not, however, want anyone to think i would disparage those who choose or are chosen to go.

i salute you today, those who must fight. you are brave and true. you do things most of us could never imagine, for pitiful pay.

lest we forget.

let the games begin...

If a father of one of your youth group members falsely accuses you of sexual molestation of his 15 year old daughter, and comes to your office while you are working at your desk, and sneaks up behind you and grabs you by the back of the neck and lifts you from your chair and says "I am going to kill you now"... don't punch him in the face. Because later, when his daughter admits that she lied, you can't take the punch back.
pernell talks about a few of the mistakes he has made as a minister. i liked that one.

This is what happens when programs become more important than people; when running a ministry becomes more important than actually ministering.

I don't know much about this Pastor Haggard; I never heard of him before the scandal broke. But I know he doesn't deserve this - he doesn't deserve to be abandoned in his moment of shame. The evangelical leadership in America is an absolute disaster. There's not one of those guys I'd trust with my morning coffee, let alone the stuff of my soul.

from life at the mission.

the ted haggard affair has brought to the forefront, for what seems like the hundredth time, the sick underbelly of religious life. people are shocked to find out that he has had a secret second life, one which seems so inconsistent with the outward message. they wonder how a guy like haggard could maintain a facade for so long, all the while committing the most grievous acts.

we all have.

sometime in our lives many of us, especially the men, have lived with a secret sick underbelly. almost all guys have secreted pornography, or battled lust, or had a hidden addiction, or a deep resentment that they pretended didn't exist. we have been guilty of saying one thing and doing another. i love what tony campolo said about another prominent minister who blew it - 'the only difference between him and us is that he got caught'. how true.

people are shocked and dismayed at haggard. they wonder if what he did negated all he believed and preached. they have called him a hypocrite. a deceiver. a pervert.

haggard was human. like all of us he battled the dragon deep within that threatened to destroy his best intentions. he probably wanted nothing more than to live a life of integrity, he just couldn't win the battle with the beast. if we took a minute to breathe and think, we too might find that we can relate more than we care to admit.

for years i battled drug addiction. i did not want to do cocaine. i hated myself for doing it. i wanted nothing more than to be able to be free. but i could not win. i remember the day it came to a head - i was preaching a sermon stoned. it was only 10 o'clock in the morning. i was talking about holiness. picture that.

the problem is that pastors and other leaders have no one to talk to. people say they will not judge but often that is not the case. they are a part of a sick system that elevates certain people, builds expectations, and demands unrealistic things. i had no one i could trust, except my drug dealer and a few of his stripper friends. chances are haggard had no one either.

it is easy to prescribe little fixes that would or would not have worked. it is not hard to admonish pastors and leaders not to travel alone or stay in a hotel alone or be accountable or marry a hot wife so you don't turn gay. it is another thing to master the beast within. it may take you farther than you want to go and ask for more than you can give.

look around. most of the pastors you know have a dirty little secret. chances are they have no one they can trust either. chances are you don't either.

we have so much and appreciate it so little.

i am shocked by how shallow i am.
how quick i complain.
how hard-done-by i can feel.
how easy it is to feel sorry for myself.

but by the grace of god...

a certain minister's comments with regard to the whole haggard fiasco have brought to light some very pointed feelings about christians, evangelicals, and fundamentalists just south of the border. while i do not consider myself a fundamentalist or even an evangelical, i do believe i am a christian and it is difficult to sit back and be painted with the same brush as some others.

i remember living in fort mcmurray, alberta and having my close friend, who happened to be gay, babysit my kids. i remember someone coming up to me and questioning whether that was a safe decision, after all he was gay and might make a play for my kids. i could not believe that someone could believe that because a person desired men that they could possibly be attracted to 5 year old boys. i was stunned and incredibly offended at the ignorance.

i remember working at social services in alberta and sitting in the morning meeting. there was an undercurrent of belief among the female social workers that men were all perverts and that all allegations about sexual abuse by men were of course true. i was stunned and incredibly offended by the ignorance.

after reading several blogs today written by non-christians and secular press i have begun to wonder if people really believe that all christians are nieve, conservative morons.

i am not talking about the branding of ministers as homosexual meth freaks. most non-christians are smart enough to distinguish this as a bit of an anomaly. today, however, because of comments by one notorious church planter who is fond of telling you his credentials; many christians are branded as fundamentalist, gay-bashing, stupid rednecks who somehow believe that a contributing factor to a minister's foray into homosexuality and drug addiction is somehow related, at least in part, to pastors wives eating too many doritos. while some of his advice is solid and pretty much standard advice given to ministers, it is hard not to shake your head.

it's not that he is not entitled to his opinion, he is. if he wants to believe the sky is green that's his deal. it is hard though, when those who are oft quoted and deemed successful decide to "take one for the team" and insinuate that they represent any but the most marginal. i am tired of being branded inbalanced every time a jim baker or a david koresh or a mark driscoll spouts off or does something ridiculous. i do way more than enough stupid things myself. i do not need help or extra credit.

just for the record, most of us can't afford air conditioned dog houses and we don't ask people to drink poisoned kool-aid. we don't hate gay people and some of us wouldn't vote republican if it was a one party system. most christians i have met are incredibly humble and giving, the best kind of people. they would take a bullet for a stranger and every day wake up and try to be a good citizen and a compassionate human being.

grace serves it up cold on driscoll's comments on the haggard fiasco.

cats who look like hitler... because i have too much time on my hands

the whole haggard situation has prompted a great deal of discussion in my circles with regard to the ministry thing. while the issue is complex, one facet of the issue has intrigued me.

it is a fact that we elevate ministers. other jobs do not have ordination services involving hundreds of people when a promotion takes place. ministers enjoy the perks of entitlement constantly. anyone who would disagree with that has not been one. ministers get free money, special spots in line. it is still considered a privilege to be tight with a minister.

i know ministers, and even a few who can barely barely claim that title, who glory in their position. they love to put a rev. behind every piece of correspondence. their blogs tend to be preachy. they enjoy dropping subtle hints as to their credentials. it's simply a reality. i was a ordained minister for 20 years and i did it as well. i also know how shallow the privilege really is. and how totally unbiblical it can become. there is so much vanity tied to ordained ministry. i should know, i still secretly pine on occasion for the title. i talk big but ofttimes miss the perks and the ego strokes.

haggard was undoubtedly trying to cover his ass and made some obvious blunders, blatant lies and stupid moves. his bad timing is nothing short of legendary. he is a part of a system that has chosen to make a big deal about status, and has become a victim of his own culture. for some reason he felt pressured by a system that cannot accept its own humanity and pretends that it's hired guns are above reproach. i feel bad for the guy, for his family, and his people. i know a little about what it means to feel unjustly or justly accused. i know the fear of going out in public because the very people who once told you they loved you have made it their personal mission to hold a crucifixion. i cannot imagine the pain of seeing your mug on cnn and looking forward to a life selling cars branded as a pervert.

we forget we are all one bad rumor from ruin. one bad day from humiliation.

John O'Keefe has written the best response I've read to Ted Haggard's situation:

they eat their own
"i know the drill, because it has been the same drill over and over again; every time an evangelical seems to "shake" the same things happen. first, they put on a "united front" (never lasting more then a few hours); then they run for the hills as soon as things heat up. soon there will be a power play in both the church and the nea - and they will toss ted aside like an old rag. they will offer little but "prayer" and bloated talk about how God can bring him back to "the right path." but never once will they make even the slightest effort to help him in his time of need. they will claim they have forgiven, but they will always look at ted with an eye that focuses on judgment. they will say they will help, but little will be done to truly help.

"over the past years i have seen this with others in the evangelical community. those who "fall" become the butt of evangelical jokes and sermon illustrations by pompous pastors and "christians" alike. evangelicals claim so much about being a "bible people" and yet i would venture to say forgiveness for ted is not forthcoming.

"i believe the possible outcome is less on ted, and more on us as a christian community of faith [even thought i am not evangelical] - do we forgive and help, or do we judge and feed on the carcass? do we offer of ourselves in honest, or do we offer him up for sacrifice? do we actually walk along side him, or do we walk away? are we willing to do anything to help as needed or are we simply going to offer lip service?

"as i see it [being a post-evangelical] this is the way it can go - this is not on what ted did, but on how the evangelical community reacts to ted's needs. because, if there is one thing i have seen over the past - they do eat their own."

Read the rest here.
via

Tony Campolo tells the story of a time he was preaching at a Pentecostal College. Before he was to speak eight men gathered in a back room, laid their hands on him and prayed. One of the eight men didn't even pray for Campolo. Instead he went on and on praying for somebody named Charlie Stoltzfus.

"Dear Lord," he shouted, "You know Charlie Stoltzfus. He lives in that silver trailer down the road about a mile. You know the trailer, Lord, just down the road on the right-hand side." Campolo said he felt like saying, "Knock it off, fella, what do you think God's doing? Saying, 'What was that address again?" Anyway he went on and on and on: "Lord, Charlie told me this morning that he's decided to leave his wife and three kids. He told me that he was walking out on his family. Lord, step in, do something, bring the people in that family back together again!" And he kept going on and on about Charlie Stoltzfus leaving his wife and kids, giving God constant reminders that he lived in a silver trailer a mile down the road on the right-hand side.

Finally the prayers were over and Campolo went in and preached. After he finished, he got in his car, drove to the Pennsylvania Turnpike and headed for home. As he drove onto the pike, he notice a hitch-hiker...and since preachers like captive audiences, he picked him up. They drove a few minutes and Campolo said, "Hi, my name's Tony Campolo. What's your name?" He said, "My name is Charlie Stoltzfus." Campolo said he couldn't believe it.....he got off the turnpike at the next exit and headed back. Charlie noticed and said, "Hey mister, where are you taking me?"

Campolo said, "I am taking you home..." Charlie was confused and said, "Why?" "Because you just left your wife and three kids right?" This blew Stolzfus away. With shock written all over his face, he plastered himself against the car door and never took his eyes off Campolo. Campolo drove right to his silver trailer....one mile down the road on the right hand side.

When they arrived Stolzfus said, with bulging eyes, "How did you know I lived here? How did you know I was leaving my family?" Campolo replied, "God told me!" And God did.

i had a startling conversation with two non-church attenders this morning. we were talking about money, about life, about pastors. i shared with them the christian popular philosophy that tells us that god will provide, that we should not store up for ourselves treasures on earth, that we need faith, that were not to be materialistic.

they thought i was insane.

why you may ask? because, they tried to remind me, money is incredibly important. as responsible human beings we need to care a great deal about money.

then i made the mistake of talking about the pastor's role. about how as a minister i tried not to concern myself with things like money, that i tried to worry about more important things and exercise faith in the financial area.

they called me a selfish mooch.

how dare i make other people work 60 hours a week to donate a percentage of their income so that i could sit in a coffee shop and talk to people about life.

there are many many excuses and explanations about what they said. they clearly did not understand the entire issue. but i decided to shut up and let it sink in...