If you went to church in the nineties then you’ve no doubt sung at least one Rich Mullins song. If you were really lucky you went to one of his concerts. I got to see him twice. Once with Greg and Rebeca Sparks along with an entire church youth group, Beaker and assorted musician friend’s of his and the second time with just Beaker. Both times were one of the best concert experiences of my life.

Tonight I found an entire show on YouTube. It comes close to capturing what it was like to be there, to see him live.  To make it even better the set list is really good.  Almost all my favorite songs are included.  If you decide to watch them all be warned, part nine is missing and a lot of the cuts take place in the middle of songs.  You can buy the DVD here.

Here’s part one.

While poking around the web this evening I came across a posting on beliefnet.com. I don’t normally visit this site as the experts culled from their staff for comments on NPR are normally morons. This post made me smile and even comment.

So I’m going to try and start posting again. I may someday go into all the reasons why I stopped but not tonight. (I actually just deleted an entire post I had written outlining a few reasons but…well…maybe some other time.) I do want to get you caught up though. I’ve decided to just give you the top fifteen words that more or less sum up the past few months. If any strike your fancy, let me know and I may elaborate.

1. Doubt
2. Rage
3. Release
4. Moves
5. God
6. Hopeless
7. Rejection
8. Family
9. Promotion
10. Stress
11. Rotation!
12. Placenta
13. Therapy
14. S-h
15. Kentucky

That sums it up kids.

Charlotte Allen, Catholic Editor of BeliefNet and author has an Op-Ed piece in the L.A. Times about the liberal movement in the Episcopal and Prebyterian churches and the effects its had on the number of adherents but in the coffers too. I guess if you pander to a bunch of unemployed hippies instead of the faithful you’re bound to loose out.

Though the article doesn’t address the more fundamentalist churches other than a brief nod to the Baptists, it does shine some light on what happens when you start to throw out the bits you don’t like.

That’s the thing about Christianity – though its all about a personal relationship its still a package deal. You can’t accept the New Testement and reject the Old, you can’t accept Jesus only and, though I’d think this would go without saying, you can’t reject Christ and still be a Christian.

When I first found this page I thought it was a joke.? I went a little deeper and discovered that they take themselves quite seriously.? Adherents.com offers statistics on what people believe.? For some reason they’ve taken the time to write some very in depth essays on the religious beliefs of comic book characters.

Though I’m not a huge comic fan I’ve been known to haunt the racks on comic book day, mostly with Grady and Garold back in the Cleveland days, so I’ve decided to include a few favorites.? Continue Reading »