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December Words: Going to Hell?

I've been thinking a lot about the core of Christianity lately. Jesus is our savior, but does that mean that everyone else is going to hell? This passage from one of my favorite writers gives a simple answer: No. (His opinion, not necessarily mine.)

I took a class in my undergrad religious studies that defined religion as the basis for a belief in the afterlife. Honestly, isn't that what it all comes down to? Despite the religious laws that we try to follow, things are never that clear cut. The following passage is from Real Live Preacher. While not directly related to hell, this recent entry quoted below happens to be very relevant to the heart of the matter. Read RLP's A Preacher, A Rabbi, and A Professor Go Into a Computer Store to see the response to, Preacher, do you think I'm going to hell? Read those two entries and people's comments; I'd need a book to write down my own thoughts on the issue.

This is what I say. She is guilty, so stone her according to the law of Moses. Yes, stone her now and let God's justice be done!…

Jesus used the confusion of the crowd to maximum effect. He slowly raised the rock over his head and faced the woman. The crowd became silent. All eyes were on him. Then Jesus turned to the man in the fancy robe, the Pharisee.

You have heard my judgment. Now hear my terms. Let the first man to cast a stone be a man who is himself guilty of no sin! And let him come forward now, before us all, and claim his right to take this rock and carry out this justice.

Kyle Maynard Called Disabled

I decided to watch an Evolution vs. Creationism debate on Paula Zahn Now last night. While that was ho hum, Larry King Live followed up with a great interview of an amazing UGA wrestler named Kyle Maynard. Kyle was born with no joints in his limbs.

Thanksgiving Providence

Happy Thanksgiving! One lesson I always enjoyed about turkey day is God's providence. Below is a passage from Matthew 6 (from the Message Bible) and a few things I (with a little help from Noah) am grateful for.

Two Plant CDs

While it is more of an underground effort (not even on Amazon), I just discovered that a Robert Plant Tribute album was released on my birthday (Sept28) called Plant Waves which features 11 covers by North American artists. Yeah, I'm not a big Plant fan, but LZE is lacking in Led Zep news! Also, rumor has it that Plant has joined up with Strange Sensation again to release Another Tribe, 13 brand new tracks due out in March (via TBL/Web).

Travel & Weather

Is it normal to be mowing the yard on November 21st? The weather and season has made for beautiful travel, incidentally.

Americana: Tift, Mindy, and Kate

I'm posting this a week late, but I wanted to spread the word about this concert Megan and I went to last Saturday. Mindy Smith and Tift Merritt are wrapping up their tour together, but Smith is a local and she'll be at the Opry next Saturday; you have probably heard her version of "Jolene" on the radio. Merritt and York are not as well known yet.

Pee-wee and 10 Commandments

Okay, so the only thing these two subjects have in common is that they're being revived on film. E! Online reports that the shady Pee-wee has two more Herman movies planned. Alternatively, I heard on the radio this morning that FX, Clooney, and Soderbergh are creating a contemporary TV series about the Ten Commandments.

Blog It Forward for Juiced Thoughts

Here's to Bryan at Juiced Thoughts (a personal site highlighting his "pulp free" thoughts on anything from politics to web standards). Also thanks to Buzzstuff for promoting this ninth Blog It Forward Day (I know, I'm a day late). Yesterday, I discovered Buzzstuff's site through the nifty BlogExplosion blog promotion site.

Stop IE, Use Firefox

Update: Important extensions mentioned, Moox warning.

The official release of Firefox 1.0 came out this morning. For those unfamiliar with this Internet Explorer alternative, get a clue! Webgraphics (WG) mentions some optimized versions that are even faster than the official version. WG has also provided links to mirrors since the official site is very slow right now. I've downloaded MOOX M2 (Windows) [Update: after using Moox for a while, I would not recommend it]. You can download third party builds for other platforms on MozillaZine.

Review of November 2

There are a lot of good thoughts about the election out there: Kottke's How Bush Won, Bryan's riot photos, deVilla's roundup, and Michael Moore's 17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists. I'll update this post as I come up with more.

Eminem Got Skilz

I have to admit that Eminem is pretty creative. While I wouldn't place him as a role model, his songs and videos are definitely entertaining. He does some good 80s and 90s pop music farce in his new video, "Just Lose It". The brand new "Mosh" video is good, but the song by itself is weak.

November Words - Canon Doubt

Every once in a while, I'll read something or see a film that really challenges me. Rarely will the piece be satisfying in itself. It's usually a spark of annoyance that makes me want to explore the issue to no end. This website is actually a result of many of these explorations; Zepfanman.com is my global medium for documentation.

The latest challenge I've come across is a book called Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels. Pagels is basically unsatisfied with the way Christian texts have been canonized. She spends most of her book exploring the losers' perspectives; for example, what if five gospels were canonized (instead of four)? I write "losers" because Christianity was very diverse in its first 300 years. People like Irenaeus in the second century condemned any "heretical" sect that emphasized personal experience over orthodox belief. "Seek and you shall find" thought and writings were literally wiped out by Christian leaders who wanted to unify rather than diversify Christianity. While unity is not a bad thing, Beyond Belief does a good job exploring early "heretical" Christian thought, thanks mainly to research on the 1945 Nag Hammadi Library.