I recently watched Joss Whedon’s (soon to be cult classic) Serenity.  I suggest you run out right now and rent this movie.  I suggest this for two reasons: First, it’s a fun, provocative movie (though disturbing at times – this is not a good flick for kids).  Second, I’m going to ruin vast parts of it for you if you read any further than this summary.  Aside from just being a rather interesting movie, it takes on the topic of sin and handles it in an interesting way.  So, watch the movie and then come back to read and interact with this post…

Now that my office is (mostly) done, I think I need another project. Johan Huibers of the Netherlands is building his own 1/5 size replica of Noah’s Ark. He intends to stock it with farmyard animals and sail it on the interior waters of the Netherlands.

As you know, “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown” is in the theaters.  What you may not know is that yours truly is an unrepentant fan of the bug-eyed saber-toothed squirrel, Scrat.  And so, I would like to write something of a Theology of Scrat.  It may appear as merely slapstick comedy to you; but for those of us initiated into the deep esoteric Gnostic wisdom of Scrat, there is quite a bit of heady philosophy – well, alright, that’s somewhat overstated.  But be that as it may, I’d like to become a Scratologian and write Scratology (not to be confused with scatology – a messier word that doesn’t seem to be nearly so alarming to my spellchecker!).  In addition, I would like to write Scratographically (not to be confused with what I have elsewhere referred to as scatography – or the writing technique of those ideational scatologians).  And so this is the maiden voyage of the good ship Scratology.  Let’s start Scrat-Light. . . . 

L.M. Montgomery is the creator of Anne of Green Gables, the bosom friend of millions of young women. Her two volume journal, somewhat more rare than her fiction, has been some of my wife’s reading material the past few months. Montgomery eventually married a minister, a decent man, after her own Gilbert was gone from her life. But the hollowness of their religion is revealed in their disregard for eternal truths. Montgomery’s 1919 theology held the belief that believing the guilty were condemned before God –and that this might apply to you—was a sign, the sign, of insanity.

At work, my office recently went to war with another office across campus.  It began when they stole Rish’s candy jar.  Stealthily, I went and retrieved it.  A few days later the rival camp came and absconded with the jar a second time.  This time they hid it much more effectively (I did discover it later, after this story ends, and we won…but that is incidental to my story).  When my efforts to find it were at first fruitless, I went on a quest for a bargaining chip.

I watched an interesting film last night entitled Jesus Camp (Thanks to my friend Ben for first telling me about it). The film is a documentary about a children’s camp that trains kids to be fundamentalist and charismatic cultural warriors. The film was not interesting not only because they are inhabiting a fairly different evangelical world than mine, but also because in some ways they are very similar to us and it felt strange to watch “us” from the outside.

My wife and I have watched three seasons of American Idol…this one, and the ones where Fantasia and Carrie Underwood won (Carrie shouldn’t have won…Bo was waaaaay better).  Anyway, until this week, we had never voted.  I actually poked fun at people who cared enough to vote, caricaturing them all as 12 year old girls with nothing better to do.  But this week, all of that changed.  We put down the popcorn and voted.  Why?  Read on.

My favorite style of music is alternative, which is hardly surprising since I am from the Seattle area and I am part of the MTV generation. I once thought that as I got older my musical tastes would mellow out to something more respectable, but so far it is hasn't happened, although I do keep on waiting for the time when the alternative station becomes the oldies station (I am hearing advertisements directed to parents on alternative stations now). I heard a Smashing Pumpkins song on the radio recently and it reminded what a great song it was: Bullet with Butterfly Wings. I love the music of the song as well as how the music matches the pathos of the lyrics. The angst of the song reflects the angst of not being able to get out of the pit and the slime. Mark Driscoll used this video one time in a high school assembly as a way to introduce them to sin and the gospel: see the story below.

There appears to be some malfunction in the reply to post function, so here are my thoughts on Sam's previous posting. 

UPDATE: Now that the commenting has been fixed, Eric's comment has been moved to Sam's previous posting “The Magi and the Gnats Part 1.”

 - Brian

I went to see the newest installment of the Chronicles of Narnia in the theater on Friday, Prince Caspian. I had heard good reviews of the movie and I was not disappointed. I highly recommend the movie, especially for those of you who enjoyed the book, but also for those who have not read the book (or forgotten what happened in the book!). The director changed more material in this movie than the previous installment, but I think that they are good changes and help the movie overall.

It dawned on me several years ago that each of the books in the series has a religious tinged theme. I've been meaning to write a series of posts on the theology of the series, but we lost our copy of the books and the kids are not old enough yet to enjoy them anyway, so the series will have to wait several years. But since I just saw the movie, I thought I would pass along what I think is the religious theme of Prince Caspian and how it translated from the book to the movie (although I will admit that I have not read the book in several years and my memory of it is a bit sketchy).