Random

~ Ben Witheringon's "Shouldering the Load -- a Parable"

~ Hardcore alum can now have their remains interred on the campus of their alma mater -- at least on six campuses. If this catches on, this is going to create real problems for those who do their degrees through the Internet campus.

I'm grateful for my education but college was not so much THE life defining experience that I'd want to be buried there. I'm happy to report that there is life beyond college.

~ Up to this point our condo home of five months has been gecko free. But I just spotted one on the living room wall, grabbed him, and ushered him outside. He was the smallest gecko I've seen -- less than half an inch. These cute lizards, when not selling insurance, patrol the outsides of the buildings and the windows looking for bugs, and making chirping sounds to attract friends. They're not really a problem if they get in the house -- except that they leave little gecko poop all over.

~ Quote from the NY Times article on the "new breed of evangelicals" --
The evangelical movement, however, is clearly evolving. Members of the baby boomer generation are taking over the reins, said D. G. Hart, a historian of religion. The boomers, he said, are markedly different in style and temperament from their predecessors and much more animated by social justice and humanitarianism. Most of them are pastors, as opposed to the heads of advocacy groups, making them more reluctant to plunge into politics to avoid alienating diverse congregations.

~ NPR has a series of stories on post-Falwell evangelicalism. But the thing is that Jerry Falwell was really more fundamentalist than evangelical. I suppose, though, that such a fine distinction is lost to most people. Evangelicalism IS a big tent but it is as much defined by ethos as theology.