On the Killing of an Abortion Provider

Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion provider, was shot to death this morning at his church, where he was serving as an usher.

I certainly hope the murderer who killed him doesn’t think he represented those of us who value the sanctity of life. This killing was a senseless tragedy, and it’s a sick, twisted way to emphasize commitment to pro-life ideals—again, assuming that’s what it was. If it’s wrong to destroy unborn babies, then it’s unbiblical to murder a full-grown human. And in a house of worship, no less.

If the killer declares that there’s an association between his actions and pro-life beliefs, I hope the pro-life community will resolutely condemn this action and see that he’s prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Another Student Writes...

Spliced Wires

Wife: Do you see yourself in me? Do you see you’ve woven yourself into me, broken off parts of me and slotted in parts of you?

Do you see me in you? The parts you’ve broke off of me traveled over to you. Don’t you see? You begin to resemble me. I begin to resemble you.

We’re spliced wires that pop and sizzle and threaten to burn, but together, popping and sizzling, we could start a fire that will burn and burn and never stop and keep us and everyone around us alive for a thousand million years.
Joshua D. Keller

Stop it!

So the president took his wife out on a date in New York City tonight. He was keeping a promise he made to her that if he won, he'd take her to Broadway.

Yet even before the presidential jet left Washington, the trip drew fire from the Republican National Committee. The RNC went so far as to issue a news release in which they chastised Obama for his extravagance.

Oh puh-lease. This sounds way too much like a petty party.

I am a registered Republican. But I'm not sure how much longer I will say that publicly. It's too embarrassing. A president who still dates his wife--doesn't that affirm family values? A promise-keeper president--isn't that good? Can't we admit that on this quality he beats the pants off (no pun intended) of a president who dates--say--a famous movie star or an office intern?

Note to Party: Major on the majors. Because when everything someone does draws criticism, even the important critiques sound a lot like a kid crying "wolf!"

By one of my students...

Hypotheses

I thought that for sure I’d be walking by now, marching forward like a seasoned soldier with confident strides in robotic, just-like-second-nature-fashion. But now I see that taking ten thousand baby steps successfully simply makes you a baby ten thousand steps further down the stretch of this long road. But still a babe. I thought that after all these years I would magically transform into some kind of master of something, maybe of this school of thinking or of these practices of speaking. Ala-ca-zam! You know? Yet, the only thing I seem to be a master of, consequently, is illusion. Self-illusion. The trick was on me. Poof! goes my hypothesis. But still, I was at least certain of this one thing. That after seven thousand times of relishing my mud, and seven thousand times of romping in raw sewage, and seven thousand times of returning to lick my own prodigal vomit, surely He would see me for who I am, and the Voice would leave, and the indwelling flame would be doused. And yet, He does see me, and He sees also Him. And the still small Voice still whispers. And the eternal flame still burns in my soul, and is not extinguished. And, thank God, I am wrong again. -- Rick Fields

Not for the Faint of Heart

A new documentary, “The Terri Schiavo Story,” summarizes the life and the legal battle that broke out between this 41-year-old disabled woman’s husband and her family, eventually leading to her death. Four years after she was denied food and water, the implications of the legal decisions surrounding her case still spur debate.

Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler, said, "Our hope is that people will learn the truth about what happened to Terri and realize the atrocity that it was, and that anyone who claims that her death was 'peaceful' and 'painless' is lying. It is because of the truly inhumane nature of death by dehydration that when people are killed this way it is always done behind closed doors in the strictest secrecy. I wholeheartedly believe that if the public had been allowed to witness Terri's suffering first hand, the outcry would have deafened Florida and the world."

Originally produced as an episode for the Joni & Friends television series, Franklin Springs Family Media felt the story was compelling enough to produce as a stand-alone project. The documentary has already won the Jubliee Award for Best Documentary at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. Additionally, the Dove Foundation, has given “The Terri Schiavo Story” its highest rating of five stars.

I recommend this for personal viewing as well as group showings followed by discussions, which promise to be lively.

DMA Day

Today my writing class went to the Dallas Museum of Art. The DMA let us in an hour before opening for our tour, which is a good thing because at ten AM, massive numbers of grade-school students marched like ants out of yellow buses.

I think the museum favorite for most of my students is The Iceberg. Truly magnificent. I love that the Museum peeps stuck a bench in front of it (it takes up a whole wall).

Still, my favorite is Mountain Landscape with Approaching Storm. I have a copy of it hanging in my office, in fact. I had never noticed until I peered at it up-close today that the artist painted a road going off the left up into the light. Don't you love it when you discover something new about something familiar and beloved?

What Do You Think?

Health magazine ran an interview with Brooke Shields in which they applauded her "mission to empower girls." Here's something she said that made me question Health's verb choice:

Q: What’s your biggest health regret?
A: Not learning to love the way I looked earlier. And I think I would have had sex a lot earlier! [Laughs.] I think I would have lost my virginity earlier than I did at 22. I had the public and all this pressure, and I wish I had just gotten it over with in the beginning when it was sort of OK. I think I would have been much more in touch with myself. I think I wouldn’t have had issues with weight—I carried this protective 20 pounds [in college]. It was all connected. And to me, that’s a health regret.

As the mother of a teen girl, I have questions about her mission.

What do you think?

Memorial Day

Thanks, Dad, for serving in uniform.

Middlemarch

Even though I'm teaching daily through the end of the week, I'm starting on my reading list for PhD examinations. Among the many volumes are a bunch of classic novels to plow through. Problem is, classics aren't generally conducive to plowing.

At the moment I'm reading Middlemarch. Not the fastest-moving plot in the library. Still, it does have a few little gems tucked in amidst the long sentences, long descriptions, long--well-- everything. Here are a few:

. He was gradually discovering the delight there is in frank kindness and companionship between a man and a woman who have no passion to hide or confess.

. There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room, and to have a discussion coolly waived when you feel that justice is all on your own side is even more exasperating in marriage than in philosophy.

. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.

More Bad News for the Mag Industry

Christianity Today announced today that it's canceling some of its magazines, including Today's Christian Woman. CT also laid off 30 employees. Read about it here.

At EPA, experts noted that while the national and international mag and newspaper industry is hurtin', the local-newspaper industry is doing okay. That is, your small neighborhood or town paper is probably faring well. After all, the Mesquite BBQ benefits more from running ads in the physically local community than it does running banners on the web.

Used book sales are also up--old is the new green; recycling is in. So now may be a good time to gather your unused books and head down to Half Price Books or Powell's. While many, many book stores are closing, Half Price is opening:

Ten Summers

For the third day in a row my class met outside. Birds trying to build a nest at the top of the gutter sent twigs flying down the chute, rattling as they went. Planes drowned out our words. And a lawnmower forced us to raise our voices. But ah-h-h--summer's in the air! So I got to thinking about ten memorable vacations I've had:

1. Cross-country trip, Virginia to Oregon and back, to attend my cousin's wedding when I was eleven or twelve. The feat: We carried her rocking-chair wedding present in our Chevy Carry-all along with the seven of us.

2. A year or two later I spent two weeks with my parents, siblings, and Grama camping in Grand Teton National Park. The group we traveled with got access to stay right on the Snake River at the Bar B C Ranch on private property inside the national park. The bump in the road: My mom had angina-like symptoms thanks to the elevation, landed in the hospital, and had to fly home. We, on the other hand, still had to drive. Also memorable: My brother led a kids'-only overnighter to Bear Paw Lake, and somebody's freeze-dried corn had a freeze-dried grasshopper in it.

3. Cross-country trip, Oregon to Virginia, with my fiance and future in-laws to go to college. What still amazes me: Gas cost 74 cents/gallon, and we thought that was a total rip-off.

4. Honeymoon trip to Florida. Most memorable fiasco: We locked the rental-car keys, our only set, in the trunk while taking photos on a bird refuge. After taking the back seat out of the car, we discovered the gas tank was between the car and the trunk. We hitched a ride with a photographer, who took us to a phone so we could call a locksmith.

5. Backpacking the Grand Canyon with my husband, father, uncle, and in-laws. Two chants drove me forward: "Hot shower" and "the things you do for love."

6. London/Paris/Strasbourg. Every other day some sort of major bummer happened. Like the train strike that left us stuck on a train that never made it to Wales. A better trip to England included a wonderful time touring little towns and making brass rubbings.

7. Cruise of Greece with a stop at Ephesus to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Santorini--a crescent-shaped island--remains of a volcanic sunken cauldron--is as picturesque as it gets with homes and pools chiseled in the side of sheer cliffs.

8. Mission trips to Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Made some dear friends for life and got my first dinner bill with seven zeros on the total. Rubles were so devalued that people used them for toilet paper. A tourist in Frankfurt told me I spoke very good English for a German!

9. Group trips to Culican and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. When we told our hosts that the Dallas Cowboys were the Number One Champions, they told us in Spanish that was close to saying our football team were the Number one Mushrooms.

10. Jordan last year. Remember Dippity Do? Floating in the Dead Sea is like being dipped in a vat of that stuff.

Writing

Since I'm teaching a three-week creative writing class, I'm getting a chance to use my right brain. Lovin' it.


Fifth-Day Creation

Weak demands rise from lint-and-straw homes.
"Give us this day..." the offspring insist.
They live on bread alone.
Yet when they fall, He knows.
Microglory.

Pinacle

Driven by stuff of earth.
Yet made for so much more.
"He will not suffer your foot..."
Macroglory.

Artemis, part i

It was my day to post over on the Tapestry blog. I just finished a six-credit-hour independent study looking at Artemis of the Ephesians. Today's post was part one of two of my conclusions.

Redemptive Art

Today Heather Goodman concludes part three of her interview with me about Christianity and art. Today we talk about objective and subjective standards for evaluating art.

You Making a Diff, Part II

What can one person do to fight worldwide hunger?

A lot. A whole lot.

. Pray. And give thanks that your needs are met.

. Every home or group can sponsor at least one child in the developing world. My friend Celestin was such a child, supported on $6/month by a poor widow. Today he is Dr. Musukera, called in to help governments such as Sudan in bringing reconciliation among warring peoples. Pretty good investment, I'd say. Compassion International. World Vision. Food for the Hungry. Sponsorship organizations abound. Find your favorite and commit. Write and love on your child regularly.

. Support projects like my hubby's. He's helping the hungry and displaced return home following civil unrest in Kenya. It costs $580 to build a single-family dwelling. He has reservations to return to Kenya in June, and so far he has enough funds raised to build ten homes. Maybe your Sunday School class, Little League group, Scout troop, or rooftop karaoke group would like to build someone a home?

Donate to your local food bank—that’s a help, too. Food banks are straining to meet the demand. My dad picks up day-old bread from the grocery store and takes it where it’s needed.

Another way, a major way, is to write a letter or call your representative. This is a biggie. As the Gates Foundation’s spokesperson once noted, most of us are willing to give our time and our money, but we don’t give our voices. And voice is key.

Think about it… Food banks get most of their donations not from you or me but from food-processing companies. And those companies donate because they get tax breaks. Tax breaks happen because somebody asks for them.

Farmers can eke out more produce per acre when scientists find ways to grow cheaper, drought-resistant food. Incentives for research to create such foods come from government incentives to improve the agricultural infrastructure.

Consider gathering your family or group to write an offering of letters. View a sample here.

Or call. The same link provides instructions on what to say. You don’t have to be up on legislation to use your voice. Just tell your representatives hunger matters to you. Wednesday is a key day this week.

You can make more of a difference than you might think. Seriously.

We Can Beat Hunger

When Dr. David Miner read a copy of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, it rocked his world. In fact it rocked it so hard that today he’s the board chairman of Bread for the World. Their mission is “to work with churches, leaders and families in overcoming all forms of human poverty by living in healthy relationship with God and His creation.”

I heard him speak in Indianapolis, and amazingly I walked away with hope. You and I can make a difference. Seriously.

Citing Jesus’ example of feeding the hungry, as well as emphasizing the unfairness of our obesity vs. international hunger, Dr. Miner sees a vital link between faith and advocacy. His biggest message: This problem is solvable in our time.

What? How can that be when we consider the bleak picture:

. 1.1 billion people live on less than $1/day.
. 853 million people are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty.
. Sixteen thousand kids died today from hunger and related causes.
. Sixteen thousand children in Indianapolis alone went without dinner the night I heard Dr. Miner talk. He said a lot of American kids go hungry all weekend until they can return to school, where they get free lunches.
. The worldwide economic crisis has doubled food prices. Pensioners in our own country now frequent food pantries. Small-business owners file bankruptcy, lose their homes and cars, and head for the closest Gospel Mission. (A woman I met in September coordinates such a mission in Pennsylvania, and she said the face of today’s homeless person is no longer a toothless, stubble-faced man. It’s a family of four.)
. And that’s just in America. In a Mongolian economic downturn, people lose their camels and tents.
. Famers who go out of business lose their balanced diets, and the resulting malnutrition places them at greater risk for disease.
. In recent history twenty countries have seen food riots. Crime, prostitution, and disease rates are up as a result.

Okay, that's the bad news. What's the good news?

. There’s still enough food to go around. People today go hungry because they have no money, not because supplies run out.
. Pretty much everybody agrees hunger is bad. Food and water are at the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy. So the issue unites people across religious and political lines.
. Though 2.5 billion people live on less than $2/day, at the $2 point, most calorie problems are solved. (In India 80% of the population are still below $2/day. If they continue to make progress, we’ll see a huge demand for more food. This is why demand is likely to double in the next few years.)
. At $2-10/day, people eat more fruit, dairy, and vegetables. (At $10/day you and I are paying more for packaging and convenience than for food itself.)
. We’ve made dramatic progress. Thirty years ago thirty-two thousand kids died daily.
. China in particular has made huge strides in reducing dramatically the number of people going hungry.

So what can one person do? A lot. Stay tuned.

Driving a Video Game

Seriously, driving a Prius for me is like driving a video game. I can watch how my driving (fast, slow, braking a little or a lot) affects my miles per gallon gas consumption, and it's like a game to get a super high score. My high score for our first 100 miles driven is 46.5 (MPG). Surely I can beat that. BTW, we filled the car with gas today and it cost less than $20 to fill it. Beauty from ashes. I hated it when our car died, but I'm having fun now.

I'm teaching a creative writing class at DTS daily for three hours every morning. For the next three weeks I have eleven students who are already writing stuff that makes us dab our eyes or laugh until we ache. I love the community that develops in these smaller classes.

This week I finished the edits on Frappe' with Philippians. Now I need to finish the Kona with Jonah manuscript before May 22. Then it's on to begin writing a proposal for Sumatra with the Seven Churches. I have reservations to go to Greece and Turkey for a couple weeks this summer to do on-site research for that. Gary and I also celebrate 30 years this June, so we've timed his return from Nairobi with my trip so he can meet me in Istanbul for a week. When he became a missionary, I told God I was sad we wouldn't get to travel any more...

Tonight I finished edits on the summer issue of Kindred Spirit, which takes an in-depth look at how the Bible reveals God's heart for the Arab world.

Over in my PhD program, I've completed all class work and all translation work. This spring I did a six-credit-hour study of the Ephesian Artemis, looking at inscription evidence for what it reveals about her. I plan to wrap that up with a visit to Ephesus while I'm in Turkey. Now I move on to examinations, which requires reading pretty much the entire Western canon of lit--for starters. I have Middlemarch on my nightstand. If you live in Dallas and see me anytime in the next nine months, please don't lend me a book. Or buy me a book. Or give me one as a gift. You will tempt me to read something other than one of the hundreds I need to read to become Dr. Glahn.

Bad News, Good News

The bad news? Our Nissan Quest died. Completely. About three years before we expected it to do so. A total surprise.

The good news? Today after tons of research and a great opportunity landing in our laps, we became the proud owners of a charcoal gray Toyota Prius. Forty-eight mpg is sounding pretty good!

Have You Given a Lanyard, Too?

A family member sent this to me. Don't you just love Billy Collins?




I don't think I ever made a lanyard, but I did weave some killer potholders and buy a fake corsage. Thanks, Mom!

How to Write an Op-Ed

Hop on over to Mary DeMuth's wannabepublished blog for my piece on how to write an op-ed.

The Short and Short of It

The president who delivered history's longest inauguration speech on a frigid January day also died of pnemonia soon thereafter. To my knowledge, no one has ever been shot for deciding to spare the audience a long delivery and opt for shorter.

Consider the wisdom of the ages:

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662) Lettres provinciales

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
--Henry David Thoreau

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.
--Marcus T. Cicero

You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length.
--Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.
--Nietzsche

The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.
–F. Fenelon

No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all-disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report.
--Woodrow Wilson

“If you want me to give you a two-hour presentation, I am ready today. If you want only a five-minute speech, it will take me two weeks to prepare.”
--Mark Twain

Wrapping It in Indy

Kindred Spirit won one more award today in EPA's Awards of Excellence. We took home the Award of Merit in the Organizational category. (Organizations include places like World Vision, Wheaton College, and Campus Crusade.) I work with a fantastic team!

Photographing Antiquities

If you follow the work of Dr. Daniel B. Wallace and the Center for New Testament Manuscripts, you'll enjoy the article in today's Wall Street Journal that quotes him and describes his work.

To read his further comments about the article, go here.

Celebrating in Indy

Today I'm giving thanks that Kindred Spirit won three Higher Goals Awards:

Third place: Cause of the Year; for our "caring for God's creation issue.

Second place: Editorial; for "The Call to Care" article in that same issue.

Fifth place: Two-page spread design; for "Stranded on Omnipotence." My hubby took the photo of a child in Kenya for that one.

You can read from the winning issue here.

Pray. Pray. Pray.

Today is the National Day of Prayer. Let's pray for ourselves, our families, our communities, our nations, our world.

Nuggets from EPA/ACP

Here are some random nuggets I picked up from the combined national meetings of the Evangelical Press Association and the Associated Church Press--either through speakers or perusal of the many publications here. (Can you imagine? I have picked up about fifty free mags!)

If you worry, you know you can spiritually meditate. Because worry is negative meditation. It's turning over in your mind the bad ideas, fears, and negative thoughts that should otherwise not have permission to stay.

Here's a link to an interesting article by a guy who grew up in Paris about the French finding Christ via art.

Quote from Francis Schaeffer: For a Christian, redeemed by the work of Christ and living within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the Lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts. A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God--not just as tracts, but as things of beauty to the praise of God. And art work can be a doxology in itself.

From a magazine editor with one of the Christianity Today publications: For a blog to get traffic, it needs either a personality (think celebrity) or a controversy. (Uh oh!)

Rick Warren's peeps have a fab online (and print/vid) mag called Purpose Driven Connection.

Pollster George Barna, who has written about 45 books, told us he has been introduced as someone who has the "gift of discouragement." He also told us that the U.S. has more attorneys than physicians.

Laugh of the Day

Since I spent yesterday considering how the world is moving from printed page to electronic, I laughed out loud when my friend Erin sent me this quick video about the iBible.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

I spent the day in board meetings, where we talked a lot about the future of the mag industry. On the one hand, everybody's facing cutbacks. On the other, print isn't going away. Parts of it might disappear, but, well, for example, I'll probably always prefer a copy of Lucky magazine to an iPhone-linked fashion site. For one thing, how do you advertise perfume on the web? Sure, you can do it. But the scented page in the mag sure smells better.

We were reminded that a lack of certainty differs from a lack of clarity. That is, during uncertain times we can still have clarity about our mission. We might not always know how we'll pull off our goals, but the reasons behind them still guide us.

Random: A board member mentioned in passing that she likes the webinars about magazine-writing/industry issues over at Folio magazine. You can check them out here.

Good times in hard times: The Evangelical Press Association board had a joint dinner with the Associated Church Press tonight. Because it's Cinco de Mayo, we went for Mexican at the Adobo Grill. As Rachel Ray says, "Yummo!" Talk about your spicy guacamole. And I ask you, when was the last time you danced to a mariachi band playing La Bamba?

Gripe in the Spirit

Today was my day to post over at Tapestry. My topic? How to Gripe in the Spirit.

I'm in Indy

Arrived here today safe and sound for board meetings and a national conference--the Evangelical Press Association along with the Associated Church Press. Repubs and Dems. Talking immigration and hunger and writing and editing and design and how to keep print publications alive in this economy. Should be interesting.

Research on Social Networking

Check out the latest research about using social networking from The Barna Group.

Can We Finally Lay Embie Research to Rest?