517It was on this day in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 debating theses to the door of the Wittenberg church. That was the start of the Protestant Reformation -- a movement which brought both a healthy theological correction to the church and at the same time a disastrous further fragmentation of the church in the West. Dan Clendenin has a good reflective piece on the day.
TOM SIGNS ON WITH THE SUN DEVILS!
Tom Gibbs, who is one of the super solid guys at Cornerstone, has been accepted at Arizona State University for next year. (And I didn't even have to write him an alumni recommendation.) The school has a great professional golf management program which fits Tom to the tee. Congratulations!
CHURCH WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Each Monday I'm featuring a link from my favorites list. These are church websites, most of which are off the beaten path, at least for Americans. This week is Iglesia Vida Nueva in La Coruna, Spain. A friend, Roberto Reed, is the pastor.
THE PAPAL ESCORT
A light blue 1975 Ford Escort GL once owned by Pope John Paul II was sold for $690,000 to a Baptist in Texas! The Houston multimillionaire, a lawyer, says he plans to put the car in a museum.
If he is interested, we've got a fine little 1994 Escort which is actually in pretty good shape -- and which I might part with for perhaps half the price of that '75 papal model (I'm willing to negotiate). It is truly a slice of history, too.
THE DOCKTERS IN MEXICO
Bruce and Katy Dockter, on sabbatical this year in Mexico, have some new posts and pictures on their always interesting blog.
LAW BY PROPOSITIONS
We have eight propositions on the special election ballot next week. I actually agree with some of them but won't be voting in favor of any of them. Generally speaking, making law through ballot propositions is clunky and harder to reverse when the unintended consequences of a particular law eventually emerge or the law becomes outdated. We still haven't recovered from the over-kill of Proposition 13 in 1978. We need to hold on to the proposition option as an extreme measure of last resort. It's become way too routine.
BUDGET LAPTOPS...
Look at what you can get for $500 -- and the prices are still dropping.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Yesterday's Chicago Tribune had a background article on the Intelligent Design debate -- a noble attempt at fairness.
PASTOR ELECTROCUTED
Kyle Lake, a 33-year-old pastor at University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, was electrocuted Sunday morning in a freak accident. He was standing in a baptismal when he grabbed a microphone and received the shock which killed him. Kyle, the author of two books, was well-known in the emerging church movement. This is a tragedy without good explanation.
1 comment:
Good input, Brian. Thanks!
The problem addressed by Prop 13 was legitimate. The solution was over-kill. There are other states which have handled the very same issue in ways that didn't wipe out school funding. e.g. in Texas we had senior citizen and homestead exemptions.
The problem with comparing private and public schools is that we're comparing apples and oranges. Private schools tend to skim the cream of the crop -- socio-economic advantage, higher parent education, extremely motivated families... Those students don't need as much funding to get high scores. For example, homeschooled kids require even less funding than private school kids -- and they're pulling in the good scores, too.
Not all children start out in the same spot. Those who have to travel further to get to where they need to be are going to cost more. Having said that, I don't want to make it sound like I beleive that the primary problem is funding. It is a factor -- but not the only one. You can throw buckets of money at the issue but if parents aren't on the bus -- fully engaged in the process -- there will be limited success.
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