Travis Johnson

Travis Johnson is the Most Hated Player in the NFL

This is just a heads up: 

Don't mess with me.  Like i did with Trent Green, if anyone puts a chop block on me at church, you'll pay.  As you laying writhing in pain in the aisle (or unconscious), I'll stand over you and pretend like I'm shooting you with an imaginary machine gun.

A Little Late to the 24 Party

I started the first season of 24 this week...can't stop watching the intensity!

Two sets of rules

Do you ever feel like there are two sets of rules?  I hate it when bad things happen to people.  So, don't misunderstand me.  The bottom line is that inequity sucks.  Read more about Paris' Shawshank Redemption (minus the sewer crawl).

Brave Men

I received a Naval ROTC scholarship to the University of Miami in 1992.  I had planned to go to Lee for one year and then transfer back to Miami.  I never did.  I was 15 or 16 during the first Gulf War.  Had I been 18, I would have probably enlisted.  While in Seminary, I flirted with the idea of Military Chaplaincy.  I have a lot of very close friends I went to school with serving in combat and in chaplaincy.  I guess God had another plan for me.  Today, I have nothing but huge respect for our military. 

Memorial Day and thinking about how my grandfather served...enlisting about 5 months before Pearl Harbor humbles me.  So many people have paved the way for us to be free.  I guess the war in Iraq isn't the most popular thing to support.  I think it is so hypocritical of some of our leaders to have supported it when it was beneficial for them to do so.  But, now that we are in the thick of it, they bail somehow explaining that they never supported it in the first place.  Politicians are pretty lame like that.

Anyway, I got this picture from one of my college roommates who is a Captain in the US Army today and I just had to say thanks to our troops publicly. The story behind this picture? This is a 1-504 PIR "Red Devil" paratrooper from Sean Lambert's battalion.  A car bomb had just gone off and this guy maintains his cool, rifle ready, and is able to provide cover for a kid hoping to escape the violence.

Sean is Charles Lambert's son.  Charles or Carlos as we call him is the missions Representative for south and Central America.  He's an all around decent guy.  Life Pointe built a couple churches in Nicaragua through him.  Sean was right behind me in College.  He married my bud, Erik Kemerling's sister Carrie.  They are a special couple, serving a great country.  I just wanted to pause a moment and say thanks to teh brave men I am privileged to know.

Freedom

I had a long conversation on Sunday with one of our guys about how I thought the most important right we have as Americans is Free Speech. That right manifests itself in so many other areas of the U.S. Consitution to the point that if it was taken away, all of our rights would crumble.

My heart hurts for people in the world who do not experience the same freedoms as we do in America and in other free societies. This weekend was another tough one on the people in Venezuala. Hugo Chavez is a charismatic socialist. With a smile, colorful words, and a heavy hand, he is rapidly pulling all of the national resources into government ownership. This week, it was the largest television station.

People are protesting. The government is cracking down on dissident voices. Their freedom and way of life is being taken away quickly. I pray for Venezuela. I also pray for individuals that have and are going through this sort of hellish takeover on a more personal level. In Christ there is freedom. He came to set at liberty those that are held captive. He does it right also...no partial freedom or liberty is granted. John 8:36 says, "if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free."

I would never do it BUT...

• I would never personally pick a fight with someone smaller than me but, I support the right of others to do so.
• I would never back into someone's car and drive off without leaving my contact information but, I support the right of others to do so.
• I would never hack into someone's financial account and withdraw money but, I support the right of others to do so.
• I would never intentionally run over a pedestrian with my car but, I support the rights of others to do so.
• I would never lock my children in the garage and treat them like animals but, I support the right of others to do so.
• I would never encourage a woman to abort an unborn child but, I support the right of others to do so?!?!

If you are going to be supportive of abortion, have the guts to say you see no problem with terminating the life of an unborn child.  Say that you believe that life begins at birth and not conception.  Say that the baby/fetus is not yet human.  But, you can't have it both ways and be personally against an atrocity yet stand by while others participate in it. Where is the intellectual and moral honesty in that?

Virginia Tech Tragedy

Apparently, the Virginia Tech shooter has been identified as Cho Seung Hui.  It is difficult to grasp how something like this could happen. 

My mind races back to the Ellis Hall fire on the Lee University campus in 1993.  I lived in that dorm in 1992 and moved out my sophomore year.  At 2 AM one fall morning, Keith Sherlin and Tracy Teague (non-students) doused the first floor with gasoline and lit the dorm on fire as my friends slept.  I'll never forget seeing some of my best friends in the world running down the ped mall, black from the smoke wearing only what they went to bed in.  It was a huge tragedy with many students severaly burned and injured.

I may live in Miami and bee an alumnus of another school but, today I'm a Hokie.  It feels so much like 9/11.  I was a New Yorker then.  My heart goes out and my prayers are going up for the VTech community.

technorati: cho seung hui - virginia tech - shooting - cho seung-hui

Freedom of Speech

I used to have a long list of religious and political intersections.  The list has become significantly shorter.  Some things on my list would put me at odds with people in my own church.  That's one reason I love our church.  We come from all over the map (in every way possible).  It doesn't matter because we focus on our common ground faith essentials and make allowances for one another in our non-essential fringe opinions.  I truly believe diversity is beautiful.  I am not going to isolate some incredible people or be isolated because we don't see eye-to-eye on every opinion.

Today, my list of religious and political intersections is very simple- freedom of speech.  Without free speech, you cannot oppose injustice, stand for the defenseless, or speak truth without fear of reprisal.  Slowly, I see free speech eroding.  I'm thinking about it today in the wake of the Don Imus' firing.  The guy is a bozo.  But, I defend his right to say stupid stuff.  I'll say the same thing for Rosie, Jerry Springer, Al Sharpton, Pat Robertson, an even me.  God knows I've intentionally and unintentionally said some things in my life I wish I could "unsay."

I see free speech already unfairly infringing on faith.  For instance, in Miami-Dade county an Elks Lodge, Weight Watchers, or boy scouts troop can build and own a facility in a small square of land.  But, a church cannot be built on any less than 10 acres.  This makes it almost impossible for many churches to build and own their own property.

Did you also know that Curves, dentist offices, and Subways can rent a storefront?  But, it is almost impossible for a church to do so.  I am not a big fan of doing church in a storefront.  But, for some, this is how they facilitate worship gatherings.  I find those restrictions to be an unfair double-standard...an infringement on free speech.

So, as I reset my expectations for my religious and political intersections, I will still have other heart cries for America: defense of the unborn and less government regulation.  But, none so important as free speech.  Without it, no other issue can be spoken of.  I am left to wonder how far down the road of limiting free speech will we be willing to go?

Karl Rove aka MC Rove

tagged - Karl Rove - GWB - George Bush - Rap

I've Overdosed on Anna Nicole

I am sad that Anna Nicole is dead.  But, the event is over.  Get over it already and move on to the next non-news item.  It is like the news story was a home run and now the batter just won't stop rounding the bases!