"We in the church stand with the unborn and the undocumented, the hungry and the homeless in defense of human rights and human life. It is a witness which is neither politically correct nor bound by partisan ideologies, but unfailingly constant."
Oh Heavenly Father,
You have made Yourself known to us as a nation by Your mighty works throughout our history. From the beginning, You have been with us through many wars and conflicts; Your right arm has saved us. We have been amazingly and graciously blessed.
Today, we confess our sin of not responding to Your right to rule in our lives and our nation. Too often we have despised and rejected Your will while imposing our own, and we are now facing the consequences of our disobedience. Draw us back to Yourself that we may return to Your ways once again. Without You we can do nothing.
You have promised that if we honor You, You will once again honor this great nation. That is our fervent prayer. For Your honor and glory we pray, Amen.
"The original release of SUSE Linux OSS 10.1 did not contain drivers for Atheros-based wireless network cards."And the Linux and Open Source Blog quotes the Release Notes:
For technical reasons, it was necessary to drop support for Ralink WLAN cards. The old driver no longer works with kernel version 2.6.16 and the new version is not yet stable enough. We intend to release an update as soon as the new version is stable enough.and then adds:
I was very upset as I really needed the card to function, which is installed on desktop, to have access to internet from notebook and other wireless devices, as my desktop also functions as router.
Even so, if it is to be won, the fight against terrorism cannot be limited solely to repressive and punitive operations. It is essential that the use of force, even when necessary, be accompanied by a courageous and lucid analysis of the reasons behind terrorist attacks. The fight against terrorism must be conducted also on the political and educational levels: on the one hand, by eliminating the underlying causes of situations of injustice which frequently drive people to more desperate and violent acts; and on the other hand, by insisting on an education inspired by respect for human life in every situation: the unity of the human race is a more powerful reality than any contingent divisions separating individuals and people.
In the necessary fight against terrorism, international law is now called to develop legal instruments provided with effective means for the prevention, monitoring and suppression of crime. In any event, democratic governments know well that the use of force against terrorists cannot justify a renunciation of the principles of the rule of law. Political decisions would be unacceptable were they to seek success without consideration for fundamental human rights, since the end never justifies the means.
Amnesty International said in a report released today that the relentless pursuit of security by the world's powerful nations had undermined human rights, draining energy and attention from crises afflicting the poor and underprivileged.
Technorati tags: ELCA, lutheran, homiletics, luke
Furthermore, I am one of a few thousand blender users who pre-ordered the film, sight unseen, in order to help fund the project. I originally thought it a fundraiser for the blender foundation, but the foundation itself apparently kicked in some funding as well. Nonetheless, I am proud in principle to support the blender foundation, starving artists, freeware & open source software, and anyone releasing artwork under creative commons licensing. But as a financial supporter of this project, perhaps I have a right and duty to speak out on what they put together.
The movie is despicable rubbish. Big bronx cheers to the producers for letting it get so dark. It's not something I'd share with a five year old: worms crawl over walls and the major narrative development is that one of two human characters has to hit the other one on the head with a hard object. If you're going to make the ultimate showcase for what your software can do, why do you have to use a genre & style that only appeals to the quarter most creepy of teenage boys? I guess given my own artistic style, I was expecting The Incredibles, I got Nightmare Before Christmas, only more creepy & violent.
I've noticed the same thing happen in comic books. I've acquired stacks of comic books ranging from the 1960's to the present. The old stuff occasionally dealt with some serious adult themes but kept a fun, bright style. The new stuff too often goes over the deep end with blood splattering, etc., without getting deep, it just gets dark. Let me say that again, there's stuff that's just twisted, and doesn't go into complex sociological analysis of a problem. For example, a kid decides to shoot Batman and does so for fun-- that's the story. Ape-men fight over women at a watering hole and after gratiutously showing us procreative encounters akin to rape, the males end up killing her-- that's the story. I've even decided against subscribing to one extremely well-written comic just because I thought the ads were bloody evil.
Ultimately, I speculate that this pandering to goth and gore is believed by some to be a response to the demands of the market, and that makes me more angry. I would purchase for my elementary school age children a subscription to the Fantastic Four of the 1960's if it were still being published. I am instead throwing away 1990's comics I'd received as a gift-- my own little book burning if you will-- for fear my son will see them before he's a teenager. They've made an anti-customer out of me, and that cannot be good for business.
Of course, I see this as a calling and opportunity for the church, to find ways to give voice to the hurts and fears of a new generation, so that they don't have to lash out in such spiritually destructive ways. While I wouldn't rule out buying another movie from blender, this one makes me want to find ways to support Christian themes in animation.
"Do you believe that the Bible is unconditionally and completely inerrant, infallible, without defect and perfectly authoritative for every matter of faith and living out your life? If not, you're in trouble."I find this to be horribly bad preaching. Rather than encouraging folks to take comfort in the work of Christ on the cross, the preacher raises up fears about exactly how much one believes in the scriptures. Can we ever believe enough? Maybe not! Perfect justice from God would require absolute belief-- all would fall short of the glory of God.
Actually, it isn't "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" - the name of the novel is "Notre Dame of Paris." At the time Hugo writes the book, Notre Dame was falling into disrepair. Hugo was a Romanticist, and here was this beautiful landmark that was crumbling - so he wrote a story with Notre Dame as the setting to generate interest in Notre Dame - that way funds could be more easily raised to restore it.
