Friday Notes

DECONSTRUCTING SMOG -- In the works from Europe, buildings which destroy smog -- UV rays hitting the titanium dioxide in the paint trigger "a catalytic reaction that destroys the molecules of pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, which are emitted in the burning of fossil fuels and create smog when combined with volatile organic compounds." Creative. Link

WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TWO BAPTISMS this Sunday. Never enough of them -- a teen and an adult.

SURPRISES -- Wal-Mart sells lap harps and hammered dulcimers (not the highest quality, but still -- in Wal-Mart of all places)... Safeway Select Diet Black Cherry Soda was worth buying again... I pulled peaches off one of our fruit cocktail trees yesterday -- the first of the season -- and the first ever off the tree. Yes, they're good.

GEORGE BARNA now has a film promoting endeavor. And he is offering tickets for a special screening of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on December 8th. It's a great opportunity -- although I'm still trying to figure out how the whole movie thing fits in with the mission of his organization, which has in the past focused on polling research.

MORE NARNIA -- On a related note, there is a Chronicles of Narnia blog.

BLOGGER STEVEN VINCENT has been murdered in Iraq. In articles on his blog and in the New York Times he accused the Basra police of being infiltrated by Shiite militiamen. He was found shot to death after reportedly being abducted by armed men driving a police car. Link

YOU CAN EXPECT FIREWORKS at the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America next week in Orlando. Florida. The big issue for them (once again) is homosexuality.

In the 5 million member ELCA there are three approaches to dealing with the issue of the acceptance of homosexual clergy. The first is championed by a conservative biblically orthodox group which says that participation in homosexual behavior is sin. Thus someone who embraces such behavior is disqualified from church leadership. (Here in Turlock, the only ELCA congregation in town, Light of Christ Lutheran Church -- until recently known as Nazareth Lutheran Church -- for the most part appears to be down at this end of the spectrum.)

On the other end of the spectrum are those in the denomination who want to open things up in the church. They argue that the loving thing to do is to fully embrace people as they are -- even those who engage in homosexual behavior -- and even as members of the clergy. They would look at the Bible and say that the overarching theme is love and that this is the most loving thing to do.

Then, right smack dab in the middle is the contingent which formed the official church report after extensively studying the issue. In a nutshell, their idea is that the church should officially declare that homosexuality is contrary to scripture and thus it is inappropriate for practitioners to be pastors. However, for the sake of "holding the church together" the rules shouldn't be enforced. That is, there would be rules without discipline (and I might add -- without integrity).

Of course, the place you're most likely to get run over, from traffic in both lanes, is if you're walking down the center of the road.