pinakidion.*

The winning 10th anniversary Slashdot party had a lolcat cake. (lolcake?)

Somehow I feel vindicated. I also feel like I should have thrown a slashdot party.

What a great time at Southwest this past Sunday. For those that want to hear the sermon, it is here. It was about Heaven. Just to let you know, the first half is pretty theological. The second half is more of the life application part.

In many ways, I appreciated that a big deal was not made about our presence. I didn’t feel like there were repeated mentions of the Omaha Church of Christ in attendance. It didn’t seem like there was a “Look at them, can you believe they are actually here” feeling in the room. There was a bit of a cramped feeling, though. The place was filled to capacity.

Folks were friendly and asked if I was from Omaha (the CoC, not the city). I met quite a few folks. I especially enjoyed joking a bit with one of the elders. I miss being in a church with elders sometimes. This energetic older gentleman reminds me of other elders I respect all over the US and other parts of the world. By old church has elders now and I miss one of them terribly. He called me when my friend Neil passed away. He was a great comfort.

In any case, I was very curious about my wife’s impressions. She was raised in an atheist household. Her only experience with Christianity is the ICoC. This is the first non-ICoC service she has attended to my knowledge. I was encouraged to find that she completely enjoyed the communion message. (I was also glad because Brother Bear was so into his apricots that I hada hard time hearing the brother speaking.)

After service, we all ate together. At first, most of us tended to sit with people we knew from our own congregation. However, it wasn’t long before people were moving around. We sat with a Chinese couple. Indi and his family enjoyed Dancing Bear, who really took a shine to one man whose name I forget.

I saw some of our deacons talking to Southwest’s youth minister. They were talking about holding more events together. I saw our minister talking to lots of other folks, including one of the elders. Jim, their minister, milled about the room as well.

We soon discovered that three La Leche groups meet at Southwest. One of the leaders, whom my wife had not previously met, came over to our table. She noted that my wife was wearing Dancing Bear in a wrap and talked about some things that we belived in common about parenting, nursing, and the like. It felt good to talk to an older Christian about parenting that shared some of our beliefs. My wife and I can feel like a minority sometimes.

I met a young man aspiring to be a model. We talked about Roma, Italy. I met a Native American woman and her husband. I saw a very diverse group of folks generationally and ethnicly. I must confess that I thought they would be overwhelmingly white like the church I attend, but I was happy to be wrong.

Others had a good time. My wife and I were among the last to leave. The Southwest folks insisted that we not help with cleanup and all of us felt served and loved. As I was leaving a gentleman told me that he was glad we visited. He asked where we met and said that he looked forward to visiting us.

I can’t wait.

If anyone deserves a Mathethes award, it’s Alan. His “why I cannot sign” article apparently caused an issue with someone, but that now appears to be resolved. I may not agree with Alan that the UPC is a Romans 14 issue, but I think everyone involved can agree that Alan has real class.

I hope those receiving a certain email hear from the other party soon.

To be clear, I think that a church or group of churches deciding their common doctrine and practices is not always a bad thing. One good thing about a catechism is that it teaches a short form of the basics to young Christians pretty quickly. I think that the way the ICoC is using the UPC is a sin. I believe that allowing major and minor players to make comments about ‘non-signers’ unchecked is a sin of omission. At this point and time, calling Bruce, Doug Arthur, and others on their comments has been the only way to get an acknowledgement that something wrong was spoken. I believe that those implying that non-signers want to be isolated or want to be disunified are slandering their brothers. This attitude has still not really been addressed on any scale.

I do not think ill of those that signed. The church I attend signed and I love everyone here. I look forward to working with other ICoC and non-ICoC congregations on a variety of projects. Using the UPC as a spiritual litmus test is wrong, whether you agree with it or not.

But I digress. What I really wanted to do was honor a man with real class, Alan. There’s a reason that he is an elder. Thanks for being a great example.

Just about to leave for service. I’m excited.

I hope that the lunch after service will do quite a bit to help us build unity.

by Christopher Brennan (1870-1932)

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful wife:

If questioning would make us wise
No eyes would ever gaze in eyes;
If all our tale were told in speech
No mouths would wander each to each.

Were spirits free from mortal mesh
And love not bound in hearts of flesh
No aching breasts would yearn to meet
And find their ecstasy complete.

For who is there that lives and knows
The secret powers by which he grows?
Were knowledge all, what were our need
To thrill and faint and sweetly bleed?

Then seek not, sweet, the “If” and “Why”
I love you now until I die.
For I must love because I live
And life in me is what you give.

Still not feeling well. Bobber, my system only tolerates 500mg of vitamin C every six or so hours.

The whole house is sick and so am I. It’s the flu. Because of the various nose issues with Dancing Bear (our youngest) and Brother Bear (our oldest), we have to do this regimen with saline drops that upsets the whole family. So we’ve had hourly nose cleanings and general aches.

Not fun.

So, I appreciate that Gordon is back and writing about the UP. It didn’t fade into disuse as he originally thought, but I’m sure he said something interesting.

I skimmed it, but that’s about all I can do. Too much medication.

Besides, I will probably just let it go. I can only be so outraged at the complete lack of ability to do something different. Alan is doing a lot of good, I hope he is successful.

Turns out that the Daily Trojan caved. I’m glad it did not escalate as I thought it could. It definitely wasn’t ignored, so it ended without much incident. I was wrong about this one. I suppose that a note in the archives is not a retraction, but a part of the record.

Who’s next?

Father Ronald Stanley published an article about Campus Advance in Rutgers (near bottom of the page) Although reprinted in September 2007, this article describes events before 2001. Most likely, this was originally published in the 90s. I suppose the staff of Dominican College will be notified soon.

In some ways, these kinds of battles are appearance over substance. Seven years ago, a woman had a traumatic experience that required her to secretly moving out in order to escape. Yet, this is minimized as old news. Hundreds of similar stories played out in ICoC campus ministries all over the United States and this is treated as a local, one-time event. The fact that this happened so many times over points to systemic problems. These problems have never really been addressed.

Apologies are the beginning of change, not the means of change.

More could be said, but it’s not really worth it. Maybe this was a one time thing because the deans of Religious Life were on the ICoC’s side. Maybe instead of being Scientology-Lite in challenging every negative article, it is simply cherry-picking easy battles. Either way, I guess that someone(s) feel(s) vindicated. If I hear from Dr. Whitsett, I’ll let you know.

What is the Streisand Effect? It is a term used to describe a phenomenon on the Internet where an attempt to censor or remove a certain piece of information (for example, a photograph, file, or even a whole website) backfires and the information receives extensive publicity on the Internet in a short period of time.

ICoC Hot News is reporting on an article from the Daily Trojan that calls the LA ICoC a cult. (The USC article is here.) Responses in the HotNews article and the pro-ICoC comments to the story are almost the same. For those familiar with the ICoC, the responses follow the typical McKeanist pattern: attack the reporter, say mistakes were made, state that change has occurred, call for meeting with reporter and Chief Editors of newspaper. All of this reminds me of a certain committee chair that vowed to stamp out all church criticism within and without the ICoC. In many ways, this is similar to discussion on Wikipedia about Kip. Go figure.

More importantly, though, this kind of aggressive action could backfire. Because of the attention, traffic is being directed to anti-ICoC sites. Google searches on “Los Angeles Church of Christ” are only positive for the first two hits (at this moment in time, google searches are likely to change). If I was the LAICC, I wouldn’t be so quick to energize the anti-ICC folks. There are slightly more than three former members to every current member…

A small filler piece in a college newspaper is now becoming a big deal and it didn’t need to be. How is going through all the channels to publicly get the reporter to apologize and the editors to ‘change their ways’ going to help LA? Sure, I’d love to go to that church, they don’t let anyone talk bad about them!

For the record, here is the actual article written in the Catholic Newsletter in the Fall of 2000. If you want to talk fair and balanced, has anyone criticizing the reporter read this article (pages 6 and 7) she used as a source. Considering the actual article, the reporter was being really nice.

Also for the record, this is the letter that the Office for Religious Life wrote to the Daily Trojan.

I basically tried to stay ICoC free (except for going to church) for an entire week. I’m glad that I did. It’s been a good week.

I did manage to write one post on Sycarion, but that was more of a really big “more later”.

So, after a week off, what now? Glad that you asked. There’s a few things.

ILC - It’s been two weeks and no official reports. The cynic in me says that true to previous pattern, there are thousands of emails and phone calls to ‘manage’ the official report. LA posted a few messages, but since Doug Arthur’s remark and Sam Laing’s response has appeared on various websites, DA’s will likely be the last one published, if it is published at all.

DToday - Doug has been talking about this more lately. Pressure is mounting to make it a free site. Some question the proposed DToday subsidy. Considering that Mission Memo continually has better information, the Co-operation folks have their own website, and the emergence of ICoC Hot News, I wonder if it will continue.

UPC - At least under the old plan, the same people would eventually rotate out of the highest levels of leadership. Now that the Gang of Nine is no more, ten shiny new commitees function in their place. These ten committees are lead by, surprise, the same people that would have been rotated out in two years. New people aren’t getting into these high level meetings. As such, new ideas don’t show up. You wonder why nothing really changes? It’s the same people that lead us when the whole mess started. (and I don’t mean HKL, I mean the 80s.)

But that’s the ICoC stuff. I can only shrug so many time before my shoulders start screaming to change the subject.

Creeds - Bobber has mentioned to good that creeds accomplish a few times. I hope to write more about this later. I understand the distinction between an established creed like, the Westminster Confession as opposed to the UPC. The UPC is being used in ways that the Westminster is not be used today.

I do think a church should have a Statement of Beliefs. Saying, “It’s the Bible” is a cop out and a thought-stopper. Now using Latinate words to talk about various areas of belief isn’t required. Like George Orwell, I think that a lot of Latin-based words should just be avoided. Still, there is a way to say that you believe in certain things like immersion for salvation without hiding behind intellectual jargon. I hope to write more about that later.

Love Your Enemy - What do you do when you have the opportunity to help hundreds of people, but you have to become working partners with someone that you do not trust or even like?

You Ready for Some Football - So what if Charlotte had a team join the USFL in 1990? What if the Jacksonville Jaguars came into the NFL sharing a stadium? What it two professional leagues couldn’t keep a team in LA? The answer to these questions and more are coming in early November.

Speaking of - Local college team lost again. Friends and acquaintances are in mourning. My only cheer comes from knowing that my alma mater is ranked almost 30 places higher in total defense. (alma mater ranked 76th, local team, 105th). Even Duke is seven spaces higher. For the sake of curiosity, here are the teams below 105th.
106. Toledo
107. Washington
108. Marshall
109. Syracuse
110. San Diego St.
111. UAB
112. Tulsa
113. Southern Methodist
114. UTEP
115. La.-Lafayette
116. Central Mich.
117. North Texas
118. Rice
119. Minnesota

Dumbledore Is Gay - A few years ago, Rowling says no character was gay, now one of the main characters is. No big deal to me, but friends are reacting in all kinds of ways. Most regrettable to me are the so-called Christian friends that respond, “See, I told you there was nothing good in those books.” Ouch! My favorite reaction so far has been the one word, “so?”.

That’s about it from here. As always, more later…

The local paper is talking about this event with a press conference in moments. Thirty churches in what many consider the ‘bad part” of town are coming together to do something. These churches span the gamut on denominations - Baptist, Church of God in Christ, Independent Churches, and more.

I spoke to one of these leaders about two years ago and attended a banquet held to raise money for those fighting to reduce crime and violence. He is dedicated to young people knowing about God and young people being safe in their own homes.

This is the promise of unity to me. What will the community think about Christianity as a result of these men? I believe it will be very positive, especially when the sectarian strife ends in order to Do Some Good (TM) for the community.

We now have an ‘unofficial’ report from the chairman of what was once the ICoC Steering Committee. It’s no secret that I’m no fan of the UP for various reasons. However, this kind of change is good in some ways.

The biggest change is that we no longer have World Sector Leaders by a new name. The original Gang of Nine (which is a positive reference) looked and functioned just like the WSLs of old. Each member represented a set of regional groups and the group as a whole dealt with ‘worldwide’ church issues. (The delegates of the Regional Groups are analogous to the GSLs of old.) Under the new structure, there are standing committees built by function, and these committees operate independently of each other. Add in a Warren-style Ministry fair, and involvement can soar.

For example, let’s say that the Church Building Committee wanted to get help from Sam Laing. The committee doesn’t have to run it through the Steering Committee to do so, Mike, DA, and others can just contact him and begin to work together. Pretty cool.

Along the same lines, more people can be involved as stated in the report. Any structure that empowers participation is a good thing.

Other good thing coming from the new structure is that a small step is being taken to decentralize power. Breaking up into groups by function removes some of the power from a few select people and spreads it around. More can be done, but this is a great beginning. There is no ‘quarterback’ pro se of the ICoC anymore.

The HOPE tax is back, but it is voluntary and explained correctly ahead of time. As I have said before, having churches pay for administration to allow larger agencies to fund programs is a good model. What made it awful before was that some churches were told that their money went to programs when it really went to overhead. This made some ministers into liars when they begged for money ‘to go to Africa’ when it was really going to Pennsylvania.

This should also allow individual churches some expectation of disclosure. In many charities, those that fund overhead typically have some measure of trust between staff and donors. In other words, if the donors ask questions, the staff, bend over backwards to answer them.

If every US church (cooperating church and non-affiliated church) gave $1 per week per member, it would be around 1.75 million dollars. This would cover salaries (1.1 million per 2006 990 form) and much of the overall expenses. Considering that overhead plus fund raising expenses top 2.2 million, this much unrestricted cash would be a big help. More on this later.

Subscriptions to DisciplesToday are going to end. Research has shown that ‘walled gardens’ that restrict content do not fare well. Check out TechDirt for more in-depth analysis, but free content should be the part of any internet newspaper model. Even the NY Times has recently learned this lesson.

Delegates of ICoC(Unaffiliated) churches were present in some or all of these meetings. Not only does this begin to demonstrate trust, but it also sets the stage for bridging our split. That may sound strange, but we are already split into ICoC(Cooperating) and ICoC(Unaffiliated). Cooperating churches vote and have power. Cooperating churches can have delegates chair committees. Unaffiliated churches can really only observe. Any measure that empowers ICoC(Unaffiliated) congregations is a step in the right direction.

Now that this change has started, more progress can be made. That will come in a later post.

..yet

Alan, a frequent visitor here, has written an essay on the United Plan of Cooperation. Since I didn’t write it, it goes without saying that his article is well-reasoned and thoughtful.

It has been submitted to DisciplesToday for consideration. I hope that they publish it.

She is at the doctor this morning. He is examining her to see if one side of her nose has closed back up. Originally, this appointment was scheduled for October 17. Last night she was having trouble, so we made the appointment this morning.

I hope results are negative.

I’ll let you know as the situation develops.

UPDATE: She is fine. Turns out that the right side of her nose is better than it was a few weeks ago. It’s good news all the way around.

The art/science of games in dog latin. In Latin, adjectives must agree with the declension and gender of the noun it modifies. Don’t tell anyone, but that makes ars technica wrong. It should be ars technices. (But I like ars technica, so I won’t say anything if you don’t.)

More will show up on Sycarion, but because of the football stuff I’m doing, anything that appears as developers notes will have this title.

Just needed a place holder for the latin phrase…

I can send email out to the outside world, but I do not seem to be able to receive outside email at my work address. I can receive it at other addresses. So, if you send it to me, you’ll get it from a different address.

Bleh. I can’t wait until the upgrade of our infrastructure.

I’ve felt somehow conflicted lately. No surprise.

I feel 80 million times less stressed now that medical issues with our children have run their course. Yes, my son will be short. I am short. Yes, he will be moderately deaf. Yes, she had seven surgeries to her nose.

But it’s done and my wife and I have felt a great weight lifted.

Being in crisis mode for this long, though, has taken its toll.

I struggled mightily at the birth of my daughter. I didn’t struggle with church, or the UP, or work. I struggle with the big question, why. I found an answer that serves for now. But after finding that answer, there wasn’t much left to do anything else. In some ways, it’s like Elliot Ness. After Capone was gone, then what? He went on to do many things, but none as fulfilling as locking horns with Capone.

Not that I was going after God for tax evasion (though one of my senators tried to issue a cease-and-desist order against Him.), but more like a lack of direction. I could actually get serious about theological training. I could just read and pray as I try to always do. I could do a lot of things.

So that’s why I say more is coming, though I don’t know what it is. Should be interesting, no?

There’s 370 churches on the UPC, now.

It appears that recent efforts to get Athens, GA to sign and San Diego to sign were not successful. San Francisco, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, in the US, Toronto and others in Canada and most of Europe still do not appear.

No big deal. It seems that those that will sign have signed, those that haven’t will not. Of of the only two real reasons for the mention is that the “Cooperation Churches” now have their own website:

http://icocco-op.blogspot.com/

The other reason is due to the fact that those that have signed now have a collective name. I believe that the name has no intention of malice to those that haven’t signed. That said, there is now an easy reference to the 370 churches as a group. There are those that are a part of the Cooperation Churches and those that are not. In discussion, it can be said that the Los Angeles International Church of Christ is one of the Cooperation Churches.

Be careful steering committee. How are you going to collectively talk about those that haven’t signed?

Now that one side has a name, a banner, a steering committee, regional representatives, and the beginnings of larger churches acting as pillar churches…

All we need is a president of the steering committee. After all, every team has to have a quarterback, right?

I’m learning awk. I know, I know, perl can do all the text extraction stuff, it’s better, it’s the 800 pound gorilla of text processing languages.

But I understand awk better, I guess it’s just me.

Basically, along the lines of the football stuff I mentioned earlier, I have a program that generates entire seasons of football games. The player information and team information is pretty detailed. It takes some time to create a team, but only about 25 seconds to generate an entire season. Considering that I’m rewriting history from 1985, that’s 21 seasons in the fall league and the spring league, as well as some college stuff. Why? History, especially alternate history, has to be self-consistent. If I start talking about a USFL Hall of Fame in Trenton and the ongoing battle with the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, I need to have players and player stats to write a convincing story.

Anyway, the issue I had was taking the stats of a given game in my alternate reality seasons and putting them in a database.

The guy who wrote the computer game (GPL of course) tried to write a perl script, but it doesn’t work. I tried to fix it, but it was quite difficult as it takes me a while to translate English to perl search routines.

So, I figure, I can deal with a two step process of extracting data into comma separated files and loading a database from those files. So far, I can extract many of the statistics pretty well, but there’s more to do. It sounds like a lot of work, but really, all I’ve had to do is figure out how to create teams from statistics and now run data extraction scripts to place new stats into a database. The hardest part was giving up on perl, for now.

So, yes, I am using a program originally written when I was 6.

Here is an example output of a game: (It’s really long) Read more…