Baby Registry

We're registered at Kids R Us, Target, and Burlington (Coat Factory).
Just wanted to throw that out there.

Fun with Archbishop SillyHead

I remember reading about this guy, Archbishop Milingo, a while back, but the most recent situation has been most entertaining and useful for exposing some of the errors (of which there are many) of the Roman Catholic Church.
My favorite part of his story WAS that he had been, while a Roman archbishop, married in one of the notorious mass marriages performed by Sun Myung Moon, he of Moonie Unification Church and "where Jesus Christ failed in His mission, I will succeed" fame.
While considering recently the reasons for which Milingo has been excommunicated from Rome, a few things occurred to me. In particular, I was reflecting on how completely messed up Rome's priorities are and how LONG it took for Milingo to get excommunicated.
So he gets married under the direction of a well-known cult leader. Now, stop right there. At MY church, that would be more than enough to earn a visit from several church elders and members, call to repentance in hand. Upon refusal to repent (ie, from associating himself, as a leadership figure, which he is as an Archbishop, w/ Sun Myung Moon), he'd be disfellowshiped w/ sorrow. But disfellowshiped he would be.
But not w/ Rome. A married clergy is clearly COMPLETELY intolerable, so rather than looking into changing that groundless doctrine (how could they? It would entail such a radical admission of wrong teaching that their whole "We're The Church, believe us" structure would sustain a harsh blow), they call upon the guy TO GET DIVORCED!
Wait just a sec here...
Oh wait, that's just the Bible. Moving on...

We also read that he's known for "mass exorcisms" and "causing things to happen" such as blessing a glass of water over the phone to cure a woman so that she could start lactating. Um.....K. Once again, you teach that kind of stuff as an authority figure at my church and refuse to repent, you're gone w/in a couple of months. But not Rome.

And now, what is he FINALLY excommunicated for? For ordaining 4 married priests! And then he has the gall to go and quote the Apostle Paul to the Vatican, as if they would or should care.
I would add this to what he quoted as well.

So... let me get this straight. An Archbishop who conducts mass exorcisms and other "healings," who does the equivalent of sending "chi" over the telephone, who associates himself closely w/ a well-known and freaky cult leader, and who clearly does not do enough to distance himself and his teaching from pagan beliefs, gets excommunicated by Rome for ordaining priests according to the biblical model. When you think about Rome and her history, though, it's pretty much par for the course.

Here is my daughter! Hand on face, looking cute. It's a 4-D ultrasound, just one of the 30 or so pix that we have of her. Can't wait to hold her!
This is a picture.

Homecookin'

Just wanted to say this.
Oklahoma beat Oregon.
See here for proof.
Sheesh.

A rich reaction

My friend David Bryan linked to and posted this quote from Rich Mullins. I commented on it, and here's a generous chunk o' my latest...

[In the middle of leading a chapel service at Wheaton College]

"You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you just have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too...[And he paused in the awkward silence.] But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest."

-Rich Mullins

As for highlighters, Rich Mullins was right that we humans pull 'em out to suit our own desires, but the context in which he said it, ie that being born again is great but not all that we need to do to have eternal life, is heresy. If I'd known he'd said sthg like that before now, I'd never have bought any more of his music or attended his concerts or anythg (kinda like I intentionally avoid Phillips Craig and Dean, since they're Oneness and thus heretics). Were I in charge at Wheaton (and had I the courage), I would've at that very moment stepped onstage, said "thank you, Rich," proceeded to refute what he'd just said, never invited him back, and encouraged other seminaries/Christian schools to do the same.
At least you can't say I'm soft on perceived heresy...

It's coming!

Just wanted to link to the story about this Anglican "priest" and also mention this article in relation to Christian denominations that are slowly (or rapidly) liberalising their theology. I could name names but there are lots. I will say that such liberalising elements are not limited to Protestant denoms; such trends are clearly visible among Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. It's coming...

Our vehicles

At the behest of family mbrs, I am posting pics of each of our cars here. The gold one is an 1993 Infiniti G20 named Reginald. He's gold, a 5-spd manual transmission, and a pile of problems. I do have to say, however, that I like the way he drives and handles. I just got one of the problems fixed - the dashboard backlight was not illuminating and also the taillights wouldn't light up when I lit up the headlights. I didn't know that until Aubrey, Kana, and I were visiting Aub's family in Watonga and we were pulled over by a cop leaving town, who told me that my backlights were out. After 30 minutes spent unsuccessfully verifying the fuses in the car (they were all good) we drove back to Norman w/ the hazards blinking the whole way. Yes, I was careful-er than normal not to drive over the posted kilometer-per-hour limit.
Anyway, there are, as I said, other issues w/ Reginald, but they'll have to wait until I'm a bit thicker around the wallet area to deal w/. Hopefully they'll wait patiently.

I just got one of the problems fixed - the dashboard backlight was not illuminating and also the taillights wouldn't light up when I lit up the headlights. I didn't know that until Aubrey, Kana, and I were visiting Aub's family in Watonga and we were pulled over by a cop leaving town, who told me that my backlights were out. After 30 minutes spent unsuccessfully verifying the fuses in the car (they were all good) we drove back to Norman w/ the hazards blinking the whole way. Yes, I was careful-er than normal not to drive over the posted kilometer-per-hour limit.
Anyway, there are, as I said, other issues w/ Reginald, but they'll have to wait until I'm a bit thicker around the wallet area to deal w/. Hopefully they'll wait patiently.
This is Apollo, so named b/c sitting inside him is very much like sliding oneself into a space module to launch oneself into space. A Honda Del Sol, 2-seater. 5-speed. 35-40 mpg. And his A/C works! As does his cassette player, so I can use the cassette adaptor for my mp3 player when riding in it. That's very nice. And he was given to us as a gift (ie, I paid $1 for him) when a friend was given this car by his parents. He didn't need it but knew we did and so asked me if I wanted it. Um, yes, that would be just fine. Just another example of the Lord Jesus' provision for us since we returned to the US.