http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65F5CC20100616

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have started a campaign - the Giving Pledge - calling the world’s richest to commit to giving away at least half of their fortunes to philanthropy.

It reminds me of J.C. Penney - http://www.nndb.com/people/656/000160176/

Children ‘more likely to own a mobile phone than a book’.

A recent study in the U.K. surveyed over 17,000 children ages 7-16 and finds that 85.5 per cent of pupils had their own mobile phone, compared with 72.6 per cent who had their own books.

I know that I can’t trust everything that comes across FailBlog.  But this one struck me as particularly unbelievable.  In the IRS code:

Stolen property.
If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.

So, I went on a quick hunt… and sure enough this thing is real.  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf (p. 98)  I still don’t know what to think?!!

So, I suppose I should clarify a few things from my post on vampire fiction (thanks for the feedback - scroll to the bottom if you want to get straight to the vampires). But I want to be careful because this will inevitably open up more points that I’ll want to address, and that leads to more… well, I get in trouble when I blog too much!

First, would you agree that reformation is all about getting our priorities straight = worship? We are all worshipers: we all put our time, resources, energies, and thoughts somewhere. So where are they going? When we worship the Triune God of all creation (when we sacrifice our time, resources, energies, and thoughts to Him by living for His glory) we find that His promise is true - we become like Him and share in His eternal life. When we worship our own devices (spending our time, resources, energies, and thoughts on them) we find that His Word is true - we become as worthless and dead as those idols. Can we trust His ways?

Now because of depravity we have some messed up, muddled ways - our ways that are hard to break. In fact, they are impossible to break without the Savior Jesus Christ and His Spirit of renewal. So we have these muddled ways and God is calling us out of them, right? It’s a lot like eating right. If you’re accustomed to eating junk food all the time, you really don’t have an appetite for good, healthy food. But to give in to your appetites and cravings… it will be the death of you.

So my premise, and I think you’ll agree, is that we have some messed up appetites in the psyche of our current culture. But there’s hope because the good news of a Savior, Jesus Christ offers us a pathway out. But we have to trust Him and not our own understanding to deliver us. As I work with people, especially young people I see, “there is something deeply attractive, at least to quite a lot of people, about squalor, misery, and vice. They are regarded as more authentic, and certainly more exciting, than cleanliness, happiness and virtue” (Dalrymple, Romancing Opiates, p. 88).

Regarding vampire fiction - especially “Twilight” - I conceded that I find quite a bit of morality in the story. So, what could be wrong with vampire fiction?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The question should be answered by Christians who know the history of 1) European literature, not to mention 2) sexual diseases. The whole thing is a metaphor for immorality and syphilis. Brahm Stoker, who wrote the first Dracula story, died of syphilis. For 300 years or more syphilis was the prominent health problem in Europe. It wasn’t like a 10-year scare of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980’s of America. It was a 300-year problem that deeply shaped the psyche of Europe.

And the whole problem was: what do you do with pure, chaste, faithful wives who are infected by unfaithful husbands? …unfaithful husbands who are seeing prostitutes who are going home and infecting their wives. You have the scenario, the basic setup, for vampire fiction. Horror fiction, in general, plays upon guilt.

So what could be problematic with sweet, Christian girls being taught to be drawn to and attracted to a dangerous lover - someone who might be the death of you - he’s dangerous. What could be wrong with teaching girls to look up to that or be attracted to that? To ask this question is to answer it… it’s not a trick question!!

I am grateful to be surrounded by so many strong women who see right through that problem! They aren’t attracted to something “dressed exceptionally well,” having “remarkable good looks,” excelling with “that degree of beauty”, “musical voice”, a “dazzling face”, “flawless lips”, “so beautiful”, and a “bizarre, beautiful boy” who just so happens to be a vampire underneath it all!

Lol, I have gone too far.

Two hour sanctuary

…had a great breakfast time with a dear friend this morning.

I taught him growing up; now he teaches me. We’ve both made mistakes - grace.

Computer repair, fail. Pancakes, win. Dialogue, out of this world.

I don’t spend nearly enough time with him. What would be enough time? Eternity.

I’m a reformer; he’s a revolutionary - two different ways, both focused on the same outcome: a coming glory.

We both love art, music, beauty.
- moreso we both love justice and mercy.
- moreso we both love freedom and life.
- even moreso, and under girding it all, we both love each other.
…and that is why, my friends, he and I are going to change this world!

For your consideration:

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

- Wendell Berry, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973