Monthly archives: March 2008

Let Me Tell You About TOMS Shoes

By | Published 03/30/2008

TOMS ShoesMy friend Daniel rolled up his pant leg one day to reveal his sweet new kicks. “Check out these babies.” They were TOMS. TOMS Shoes. Shoes for Tomorrow. It’s a shoe company based out of Santa Monica, California, with factories in China, Argentina, and soon Brazil and Ethiopia. “Oh, so it’s that kind of company.” Nope, this is what’s special about TOMS. Blake Mycoskie, creator and designer, gives a pair of shoes to a child in need every time you buy a pair of shoes. This is how he puts it on their web site under “Our Cause”:

“I created TOMS with a singular mission: to make life more comfortable. TOMS accomplishes this through its unique shoe and commitment to match every pair purchased with a donated pair to a child in need…no complicated formula. It’s simple…you buy a pair of TOMS and I give a pair to a child on your behalf.”

TOMS Shoes BurlapSo, you can buy a sweet pair of new kicks. Or, you can buy a sweet pair of new kicks and be giving a sweet pair of little poonum kicks to a child that needs them, too. Here are pictures of them passing out shoes in South Africa last November. They gave out 10,000 pairs in Argentina in 2006.

You might be thinking that the shoes must be exceptionally expensive to pay for the service they provide. I just bought a pair, the burlap action going on in the picture on the right (very comfortable and make me feel like I should be on safari). They were $48. Not ridiculously expensive, eh? Not even really that expensive at all, but ’round about the price you’d be paying normally; and remember you most likely wouldn’t be giving a pair to a barefoot baby boy.

So, in the market for new shoes? Peruse TOMS’ site and buy a pair for you and a child at the same time. At the check out enter this special discount code that TOMS gave me to pass out to get $5.00 off:

1PAIR4FEET

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Left Eye

By | Published 03/30/2008

Why do I close my left eye after I’ve been reading or looking at my computer screen for a while? That’s kind of awkward.

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Firefox 3 Beta 4

By | Published 03/21/2008

What I like most about it is that it randomly closes the window; but, boy, is it a whole lot quicker than previous conflagrated vulpine canines. Aye it is.

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Brothers Karamazov-Kite Runner Parallels

By | Published 03/20/2008

Having just finished The Kite Runner, parallels between it and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, which I just finished listening to a BBC radio dramatization of, come to mind.

In The Kite Runner (2003) the reader along with the protagonist, Amir, eventually finds out that the household servant boy, Hassan, is not merely a servant of a lower class, but actually a half-brother. It turns out that his father (Baba) has led a somewhat seedy sexual life, climaxing with the impregnation of a disreputable woman, the offspring of which relationship is taken in not by the father himself (for that would be shameful and everyone would know the father had been promiscuous), but taken in by the older, male household servant (Ali) who likewise has a tainted reputation as the village idiot. The father is then able keep his illegitimate son in close proximity while keeping the scorn of having such a child at a distant. Ultimately in the novel who finds his death within the pages is the bastard and the father.

The Brother Karamazov (1880) shows similiar details. The reader finds out that it was indeed a Karamazov who killed their father, Fyodor Pavlovich, though none of the known brothers, but the half-brother who was born of licentiousness relationship between the father and a mute street woman. Smerdyakov of offspring of which relationship, like Hassan, though being a son did not enjoy the benefits thereof because of the disrepute of his birth to an ignoble woman. He was taken in rather as a servant in the household by an older, male household servant. Ultimately in the story who finds his death within the pages is the bastard (suicide) and the father (murdered).

The BBC radio dramatization has been a nice introduction to The Brothers Karamazov, but judging by what I read elsewhere on the Internet of the plot and story they cut quite a bit out. I guess I’ll have to read the book next. Amazing story. Why haven’t they done a modern cinematic version?

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WordPress 2.5RC-1

By | Published 03/19/2008

After seeing all the flummery about the new WordPress 2.5 and the screen shots of the the admin section, I decided to dive in. Actually it wasn’t that straight forward. Upgrading always makes me nervous. So, I upgraded via svn a test blog I keep tucked away online. It worked like a breeze. Praise the Lord for svn. “Svn up” and you’re done. I then decided to svn up this blog, but the oddest thing happened, or didn’t happen: “svn up” doesn’t work on this blog. On my test blog it automatically grabs the latest beta/nightly release and upgrades, but the “svn up” doesn’t work on this one. I’m bewildered. I read something about checking the file and directory permissions for a solution, but that didn’t help though several files and directories needed their permissions changed. Svn didn’t fail me totally with this blog though. Instead of svn up I used “svn sw http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/trunk/” and bingo. Why “switch” works and not “update” is beyond me; nonetheless, WordPress 2.5 release candidate 1 is up and going with a beautiful, slick back end. All my plugins are still working as far as I can tell. Well done, WordPress.

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De Penal Substitution’s Death Only Gospel

By | Published 03/18/2008

At the Duke Socratic Club‘s Two Views dialogue on the atonement entitled “How Does Jesus Save Us?” (Feb. 26, 2008) the question was asked of the proponent of penal substitution where the life of Jesus fit in on his view, for it seemed that in this view all that mattered was the death of Jesus, not his life nor his resurrection. I can’t remember exactly the response given, but I remember being slightly dissatisfied with it. I can easily see how someone would (mis)understand penal substitution to be concerned only with the death of Jesus because it is true that this view does place a great amount of stress on the death of Jesus. “Jesus died for our sins.” “Jesus died for you.” “He took your place.” These are the slogans I’m sure all are familiar with. But, as needs pointed out, there is certainly more to penal substitution than just the death of Jesus.

Jesus’ life and resurrection are very much integral to this view of the atonement though often omitted or misunderstood to be unimportant. It will be recalled that it is because Jesus lived a sinless life that he could take our place on the cross. He was the perfect sacrifice as demonstrated by his sinless life. Christ is our passover says Paul to the Corinthians. It was then in his resurrection that he was declared to be the Son of God. This is his vindication. He said he would die and be raised again. The Spirit’s raising him backed up his claims to deity and Messiah. He was therein proved to be what he said he was. Not only this, but his resurrection is a foreshadow of the Christian’s path: suffering, death, but then resurrection. He is the firstborn from the dead. What then happens in the Christian’s union to Christ by faith is an exchange. We get his righteousness, his completely righteous keeping of the law and he gets our sins. He becomes sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. Now, this might seem like it is going beyond penal substitution, but it is inherent or presupposed in it. Jesus’ life qualifies the kind of substitute he would be for us, and that we are justified by God because of him and for his sake says something of his being before, during and after his crucifixion not just during the crucifixion.

This is one thing you have to appreciate about the oft-Protestant-forgotten holidays that take place leading up to Easter (Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday): they don’t (or shouldn’t) allow Easter to sneak up on you, but little by little the mind is pointed towards Christ’s life leading up to his death and ultimately his resurrection.

In conclusion, if proponents of penal substitution seemingly deemphasize Jesus’ life, it should not be seen as an inherent weakness in the view, but an inherent weakness in not being able to say everything at the same time. Penal substitution relies on the active obedience of Christ, his life; yay, it presupposes his life and is realized and expanded in his resurrection.

(The Socratic Club’s recording of the dialogue is available through their website, but annoyingly inaudible and low quality. I attempted to touch it up and make it listen-to-able. Download the 20mb touch-up. *Link fixed.)

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Phone Book Litter

By | Published 03/18/2008

Today we received our ninth phone book. (I just counted how many we have stowed in the cupboard.) One month sees a new phone book and accompanying directory from Company X. Company Y then sees the competition and steps it up a notch offering their new phone book and accompanying not-so-desideratum. Every time there’s a new clunky, 1,000 paged tome waiting by our door I shake my inner head, sigh and ask myself, “Who still uses these?” Why would I flip through hundreds of pages in a fluorescent book to not find in minutes what I can find in seconds via Google without requiring the death and binding of trees? That thing is the last place I would go for any info whatsoever. However, those things are the first place I go for kindling for our outdoor fire pit. So, I end with a plea to the phone companies who are passing out massive, useless books, wasting paper and generally peeving the public by perpetuating their “competitive” practice: stop! Pass out copies of Grudem’s Systematic Theology instead. Please.

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Zealous but Not According to Knowledge

By | Published 03/10/2008

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2).

Good idea, bad execution. Had I more knowledge about the execution it would have been both a good idea and good execution.

I have acted in a zeal for God but not according to knowledge just like those “ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own” (Rom. 10:3a). What they needed to do was “submit to God’s righteousness” (Rom. 10:3b). God’s righteousness: the deliberations of the omniscient Sovereign of all that is which correspond to and find root in his nature.

In a conversation this past week over the home school rulings of California, a friend likened that’s court’s decision to the third Reich, calling it “hitler-esque.” Out of zeal for the protection of sacred American rights, but not according to knowledge (i.e., in not understanding that all home schooling in California was absolutely banned), this friend allowed their understanding of the situation to sway emotions tremendously.

Zealous for rights, but not according to knowledge.

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Him that Pisseth against the Wall

By | Published 03/07/2008

Are you a real man?

HT: Codex: Biblical Studies

Check out this sermon on the phrase “him that pisseth against the wall” from the KJV of 1 Kings 14:10. The phrase also occurs in 1Sam 25:22, 25:34; 1Kings 16:11, 21:21, and 2Kings 9:8. The rendering by the KJV, while perhaps vulgar to modern ears, is a word for word translation of the Hebrew.

While I — along with this preacher — lament modern translations that simply render the Hebrew idiom with the English term “male” I do so for very different reasons. In absolute contrast with the meaning of the passage, the ludicrous message the preacher takes from the phrase is that “real men” pee standing up (and I would add, should never lift the toilet seat!). If this preacher would have cracked the cover of even the most useless Bible Commentary, he would have discovered that the expression is contemptuously comparing males to dogs who “piss against the wall.” Thus, I don’t think modern translations bring out the connotative meaning of the original Hebrew by the non-vulgar translation as “male.” See my post Dogs, Urine, and Bible Translations (On the Importance of Translating Connotative Meaning).

“We got pastors who pee sitting down. We got the president of the United States who probably pees sitting down. We got a bunch of preachers, we got a bunch of leaders who don’t stand up and piss against the wall like a man…That’s what’s wrong with America.”

“A man needs to be a man not a male…It’s because the editors of the NIV pee sitting down.”

Posted in Christianity, Language | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Effeminate Is As Effeminate Does

By | Published 03/05/2008

“Did you become effeminate when you got married?” That was the question posed last night by a single seminary twenty-something. The immediate response in my mind was, “wait, what?” Some questions you just never expect, but I’ve got some thoughts on the question that didn’t make their way in edgewise last night.

The first response is actually another question: what do you mean by effeminate? If you mean acting in ways or doing things that are characteristically feminine which a male typically doesn’t do prior to getting married or having a girlfriend, the answer is yes. For example, before marrying or dating, I wasn’t in the habit of holding hands (or cuddling) with anyone, but now that I’m married I do. But, is that effeminate or affectionate? Or, now that I’m married my wife gives me a nightly reminder to wash my face (“exfoliate”) before going to bed. Is that effeminate or just good hygiene? Or, now that I’m married my wife advises me on what to wear, even to the point, dare I say it, of creating “outfits.” Is that effeminate or just good fashion sense and avoiding a fashion faux pas? Or, my wife and I may watch My Fair Lady instead of say Apocalypto. Is that effeminate or culturally enriching? (You daren’t call Henry Higgins effeminate.)

Holding hands, cuddling, being kind, gentle and caring, hygienic, serving others, watching musicals and being romantic should not be seen as being effeminate.

Effeminate, rather, is prancing around in my wife’s bra and knickers. (Your wife may wear panties, but mine most assuredly wears knickers. God save the Queen. [We have a children's book called The Queen's Knickers.]) This I do not do.

Secondly, you may be concerned that some of the fruit of the Spirit sound effeminate: “kindness” or “gentleness” or even “self-control.” You may even think Jesus effeminate for calling children to himself (Ignatius of Antioch?) or using the analogy of a hen gathering its chicks under its wings. If so, your Jesus just might have more in common with the Vintage21 Jesus.

We, men, should submit ourselves to the Spirit and Scripture to be conformed into the image of Christ instead of esteeming higher the mold of masculinity demanded by culture. Does that mean acting effeminate? No, but it just might mean that you serve your wife and exhibit all the fruit of the Spirit and learn to serve others. You might just stop and smell a flower, enjoying all of God’s creation. You might just end up actually caring for your wife instead of treating her like one of your buddies. (Don’t punch any woman on the shoulder, ever.)

What happened to holding a complementary view of the sexes? Your wife will complement you in more ways than you imagine. God might not give you a woman that fits with you perfectly but a woman that you need most in order to be transformed day by day. You can’t stand to wait for anyone. She makes you wait. You need to learn patience. Consider yourself complemented.

We might just find that in becoming slightly more “effeminate” we are more masculine.

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