chris and becka warner

Our culture, according to Google. Interesting to click on some of the other countries and observe the variations.

“Setting aside whether it’s socially acceptable to talk on the phone in the john, dropping one there is usually considered “negligent” by the insurance companies, according to Bennett.”

The difference between politics here and Europe: “Maybe I became too sensitive to that or too cautious about it, but I just came to the conclusion that if I started talking about God it was going to be difficult.”

This made national headlines: Praying for the auto industry.

“How do we regulate something where we have different moral ideas from the public?”

This article is interesting, sad, and disturbing: “The U.S. military knows that desecration of the Qur’an leads to hunger strikes and suicide attempts, that playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” over the call to prayer is demoralizing. But they seem not to have considered the long-term effects of such tactics.”

SSM: The debate rages on, and lines are being drawn.

Chuck Colson weighs in on Hot Rod’s downfall: ” Tragically, America is continuing to rear its young to become not only self-obsessed, but obsessed with personal power.”

Greg Boyd on open theism and unfulfilled prophicies in the Bible.

Funny.

Attractional or Missional? As one of the commenters points out, does it have to be either/or?

“There is,” Layard tells us, “a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western societies have got richer, their people have become no happier.”

Slow Blogging.

Disturbing.

Anglican split in N. America.

Boredom (on airplanes) is the mother of barf bags and iphones.

Missional: Watch this.

How did I miss this? Given all the beer and snags consumed down under, this is only a minor surprise. But still a surprise.

“Our community thinks we are pirates getting illegal money. But we consider ourselves heroes running away from poverty.”

The Smithsonian has an interesting site on Africa.

I like this quote, on career and vocation.

The Age of Mass Intelligence: “Surely both things are happening at once: part of the population is dumbing down, part is wising up. But something has changed.”

Review: The Best of All Possible Worlds.

Facebook Connect.

This looks bad-tough times ahead for a lot of people.

The house church revolution. I read Pagan Christianity? a while back (thanks graham) and thought it was a strong critique of “church as a building”. Simple churches/house church models are exploding in growth in Europe because the trend is undeniable: people are leaving traditional churches in droves. It will be interesting to see how far it goes in the U.S.

Now this is a clever observation. I had a bad experience while sitting on one of these chairs in Burundi. It ended with a loud cracking noise and me sprawled out on the floor. Thankfully it was in my room and not in front of a crowd! The aftermath:

After this, I have never been able to fully relax in one of these chairs.

Speaking of Burundi, reading this and this makes me sad.

The googlization of our brains.

This quote caught my eye: “the average seminarian comes out of school with at least $30,000 in debt.”

This interview, in which Obama answers some direct questions about his faith, has been getting a lot of attention (mostly from those don’t believe he is a Christian).

Yet another interesting article about Google. My favorite quote: “Google knows which sites we trust with our links and clicks. We don’t trust banks anymore; hell, they don’t trust each other. In Google we trust.”

Listening and Learning in the Middle East.

I mentioned earlier that this was my main interest in the elections.

Here’s a study by Barna that has a lot of stats-I thought it was interesting. A few surprises.

And here’s some more research that asked some slightly different questions. Again, very interesting.

Here’s a BBC article on the future of the religious right. One of many that I’ve come across.

A short one this week.

“Our culture’s addiction to ease is unsustainable.”

Warren Buffet is buying American.

Churches in Minneapolis and St. Paul: I wonder if Greg Boyd and John Piper ever meet in the grocery store.

The Alpha course from an agnostic’s perspective. This is really interesting.

The atheist bus campaign. The irony in all of this is that a bus ride in India or Africa will likely compel you to believe that God “probably” does exist. Even if you don’t know what you are praying to, you will be praying!