Friday, September 19, 2008
Quick Thoughts on the Financial Crisis
Litttle known fact...the Roving Theologian has a MBA and experience in the financial markets before he ever became a theologian. Needless to say as the events of the past week unraveled I could not but help but put back on my finance hat again. And my verdict?
Thursday, September 11, 2008
9.11 - Seven Years Later and Explaining it to Your 2nd Grader - Personal Reflections on today
I wish I had more time to write this, but I have to get back to the real work that is before me. But…today is the seventh anniversary of 9.11. It snuck up on me this year. Two years ago, the 5th anniversary, I had intended to be immersed in 9.11 reflections, but instead had major surgery that day and simply missed out on my and others reflections. Last year I was traveling and awoke in a hotel, grabbed my USA Today from outside my door and realized that it was 9.11. This year, now with two children in elementary school and one in nursery school I knew it was coming, but awoke today with a full schedule, a clogged head, and then was struck. Today is 9.11, the 7th anniversary of one of the most traumatic days of my life.
Monday, September 08, 2008
GenerationME - Post 2 - Living Anyway You Want
Sorry for the delay in picking up this stream again. Confession: got roped into the convention coverage. Back to GenerationMe…
Jean M. Twenge on page 19 gives us this great little paragraph with a statistic that you know to be true, but when you think about should you give pause:
The strict rules of previous decades went far beyond appearance...Overall, duty and responsibility were held more important than individual needs and wants. There were certain things you did, certain things you said, and certain things you didn’t talk about. End of story. Today, few of these rules apply. We are driven instead by our individual needs and desires. We are told to follow our dreams, to pursue happiness above all else. It’s OK to be different, and you should do what’s right for you. Compared to Boomer in 1973, GenMe is twice as likely to agree with the statement “There is no single right way to live.” Yong people say that the most important quality a child can learn is “to think for himself or herself,” and only half as many young people as old say that obedience is a good lesson for children.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
So What to Think of Sarah Palin and Her Baby Problem
Okay, if you have read this site for any amount of time, you are aware that while we (wife and I) are not down the line conservatives (actually we have a consistent philosophy, its called the Kingdom of God, which we do not live out perfectly, and so we are passionate about AIDS in Africa, against the death penalty (at least in almost all cases), and the like), that we tend towards Republicans.
Monday, September 01, 2008
GenerationME - Understanding Younger Generations and Challenges for the Gospel - Post 1
I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to start a whole series of entries covering the important data provided in the great book, GenerationME: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entiteld-- and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M. Twenge, PhD. I have been spending much of the past several years trying better to understand my own generation and those younger than me. So far, I have Dr. Twenge’s book to be the best out there. So, here comes the series on the book, and today’s first post is about the dangers of so much of what we have been told about those born 1970 and later. Oh and of course, commentary from yours truly.
Here is the the first highlight from GenerationME (pages 5-6)
All of this, and we don’t have a name. People born in the late 1960s to the 1970s are often labeled “GenerationX,” but they have not been reexamined since being named in the early 1990s, long before their primary identity veered from slackers to Internet millionaires. It’s just not clear that the GenX label fits now that flannel shirts are out. One advertising executive called the early 1990s description of this generation as bored cynics “the most expensive marketing mistake in history.” Some descriptions (and broth years) of GenX overlap with what I call GenerationMe but its’ clear that the GenX description is incomplete and often misguided. And the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s—today’s children, teenagers, and people in their early twenties—has no name at all. Some marketers have used “GenY,” which simply parrots the GenX label and thus probably won’t last long: who wants to be named after the people older than you? Some have called young people the “Net Generation,” as this is the first generation to grow up with the internet, but this label has not caught on (and being the first to experience something doesn’t mean much; Boomers were the first “TV Generation,” but later generations have clearly trumped them in their attachment to the boob tube).
Posted by Christopher on 09/01 at 10:09 AM
Theological Musings on Important Topics • GenerationME Series • PermalinkWednesday, August 27, 2008
New Posting Series - Generation ME and Its Findings
Every now and then you come across a book that is saying things you suspected, but you lacked the data to prove it. Generation Me, a 2006 book from a professor of Psychology at San Diego State University, one Jean M. Twenge. So much of what is said about “Generation X” or “Generation Y” or the “Millenials” is based on anecdotes, not based on actual data. While Dr. Twenge uses anecdotes, she uses them to illustrate what the data shows. And what the data shows is that we are looking at a very arrogant generation (which she puts as statring in 1970...which means me and younger), a very confident generation, but one that is about to face some very tough realities. So over the next few weeks, watch for important points she makes to be placed here and then my commentary to go with it.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Two Great Articles Today on Georgia, Russia and China
If you have read my prior post, you may be interested in the great piece into today’s NY Sun from Ralph Peters on the “set-up” the Russians provided for this invasion of Georgia. Beyond our fecklessness as a government, let me say, I understand Russia’s desire to re-assert itself. It is in a strong a position as it will be for some time to come, so of course they are flexing their muscle. But as former Colonel Peters says, this was far too well planned by Russia to be a response to Georgia’s own actions. Read it here:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08122008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/russia_goes_rogue_124032.htm?page=0
The other article comes from China. I did not watch the opening ceremonies on Friday (we did a family thing instead), but I heard a lot of good things about it. Including was the oh so cute girl singing. Well, turns out she was not singing, but a girl off stage was singing. Details here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2545387/Beijing-Olympics-Faking-scandal-over-girl-who-sang-in-opening-ceremony.html
The Chinese don’t seem to realise that you cannot fool the entire world the way you can fool your internal audience. What is more, the idea of a politburo member pulling the actual singer off stage because she had bad teeth and they wanted to present a “perfect image” is quite disturbing. That is so Communist, everything bright and shiny but ultimately faked. What is more, if they had thought for a second, they would have wowed far more people with the little girl with the “bad teeth” precsiely because she is very cute and slightly flawed, something that the West seems to adore and it would have proven that China allows for the “less than perfect” as long as it is solidly Chinese. Oh well, I feel bad for the little girl, and ashamed of their politburo. If you made the change to “save face,” guess what guys, you lost it.
Monday, August 11, 2008
On Georgia, Russia and the Cause of Freedom
As a theologian one of the toughtest questions that one is asked to answer is, “Are wars always moral evils?” I have written in the past that I am a “near passificist,” which means that I prefer peace to militarism, but also understand that there are indeed worse things than war. There is repression, there is ethnic cleansing, there are pogroms, this is evil taking advantage of the tools of peace.
Which brings us to the horrible news coming out of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
Map is of the old Soviet Republic of Georgia so you can see the former boundaries more clearly.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Obama as Postmodernist - Jonah Goldberg Hits On a Key Point
Look, whether you are an Obamaniac or some one who thinks that Obama is a lightweight, you need to look at what he says (come on...he hasn’t really done anything, so we are left with his words, in much the same way that Lincoln, who of course had done somethings, but it was his words that we was judged by).
What does it mean to have a postmodernist presidential candidate in a day and age when we are engaged with cultures that range from the postmodern to the pre-modern and everything else in between.
First...read Jonah’s brilliant piece at USA Today: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/08/obama-the-postm.html#more
Monday, August 04, 2008
The China Olympics - To Cheer or Not?
Well, August 8 is almost here and we will soon be treated to what might be the most controversial Olympics since the 1936 games in Berlin. No, we wont have Hitler and the Nazi flag waving, but...what about the persecution of Tibet, the low level aggression toward Taiwan, the violence towards Fulan Gong and of course the harassment of Christianity.
So what is someone dedicated to justice, mercy, truth and righteousness to do?
Saturday, June 21, 2008
On Tiger Woods, the Pele Speech and Divine Encounters - What is Right and Wrong with America
I have been meaning to sit down and right about the 2008 U.S. Open since the playoff ended on Monday, but as happens to so many of us, work and the real world keep us from having the time for our hobbies and from reflecting on the mediating experiences of our life. But, I cannot fail to comment on what I think of last weekends events.
Friday, June 13, 2008
10 Most Male Insulting Commericals - Thank you to Askmen.com
One of the greatest challenges facing our culture today is the destruction of the positive male role model. Dennis Prager on his weekly radio program this week mentioned that when he was growing up he had male figures aside from his dad all day long. His teachers included many men, his principal, his rabbi, etc.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Ken Griffey Jr. - A True Legend in our Time
As a theologian, I have come to appreciate artistry. This past weekend I was at a conference where the theme was art, beauty, and the Gospel. But you know when we think of art and beauty, I think we tend to forget how important sports is at providing us with the canvas of beauty. And in my lifetime few athletes have provided a greater body of “art” than Ken Griffey Jr.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Bush Hatred is NOT Helpful
So Scott McClellan has published his book on What Happened to make me angry. The book has been welcomed by many who suffer from Bush hatred. But what does this book add to history or to the whole coming together that McClellen says he believes in and which he feels most betrayed by. But is it helpful!
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Physical Cost of Disease - Personal and Global
After two months of being too ill to post, I am back. After pneumonia, bronchitis, and massive amounts of kidney stones (which as a friend said recently, any more than zero is massive amounts) I am back blogging and wondering, what is the impact of illness…
