What I'm Reading

Thought I'd let you know of two books that I am reading right now for my class Jewish-Christian Relations in America.

The first book is A New Promised Land: A History of Jews in America

The Second is Irreconcilable Differences?: A Learning Resource for Jews and Christians

Check them out in your free time, that I know you have so much of. Both are easy reads and good introductions to the field of Jewish-Christian Relations. I will be traveling to Washington, D.C.; Charleston, SC; and Savannah, SC in a few weeks to explore and study JCR in America even more. Stay tuned for updates from that trip.

Worship On Your Face

I've just added a new blog to my blogroll: Worship On Your Face: The Prostrate Chronicles. 

A Friend of mine has started it as a resource to worship leaders to be a place to share ideas, resources, links, etc. So, if you, or anyone you know is a worship leader, check it out. If not, check it out anyway, because it may do you some good.

A Date with Don Cheadle

My friend Michael wrote the other day about anticipating a date night with his wife Lauren. I somehow missed that it was Friday night so me and my wife, wolfpack whitley, invited them to go to the drive-in with us. Alas, they decided to keep their ever-important plans of dinner and a movie. We, however, pressed on; thus, having a date night of our own...without all the foreplanning and anticipation. I dare say, it was just as good though. 

The two movies we saw were The Longshots and Traitor. Both good movies. The Longshots was a great story of unexpected success and redemption. Traitor, while also being a good movie, had a bit of a different message. Without giving all of the story away, I will talk about one part that I particularly liked. 

Don Cheadle was the star and played Samir Horn. Cheadle is one of my favorite actors, but gets much less press than he deserves. Moving on, though to the scene I want to reference. One  detective is particularly turned off by Muslim extremists and his partner responds (as my  memory serves me anyway): "Where I grew up, the KKK burned crosses in black people's yards and my dad would go over and put them out. Seems that all religions have some evil

 in them." While that may not have been his exact words (I have searched for the full script, but been unable to find it. If anyone can find it please point me in the right direction) the sentiment is clear, nonetheless. Often times Christians, myself being one, label Islam as a whole a terrorist religion and conveniently forget our own past: the Crusades, the Salem Witch Trials, The Ku Klux Klan, Christians bombing abortion clinics. 

Have we forgotten what some guy said a long time ago that we should remove the log from our own eye before we point out the speck in someone else's? All religions do have elements of evil in them. Is that to say that evil is inherent in religion? Not necessarily, but all religions do contain humans and humans have potential for great evil. Thus, we recognize that Islam has extremists, but so does Christianity. We can no longer point our blame fingers at others; we must also point them at ourselves.

"Change" Video

Some while back I posted the lyrics to "Change" by Tracy Chapman here. I decided to post the video as well so that you can put the music with the lyrics. While the lyrics are stand out on their own, songs are meant to be heard.

I love Tracy Chapman's lyrics, but think I love her voice even more. See for yourself.

Lance is Back!

The rumors are true: Lance Armstrong is returning to professional cycling. 

Lance Armstrong celebrates his 7th Tour de France win.

True, I am a few days late with "breaking" this news, but I still felt I needed to mention it. The reasons for his return are twofold. The obvious reason is to win the Tour de France again, which would be a record 8th time (He already holds the record for winning it 7 times). Also, in doing so he wants to prove that he wasn't doping and isn't doping and that he can win without drugs. With how laden professional cycling has been with doping charges, this is very welcomed. Rumors are that he will post his drug tests online so that everyone can view them. This is a very positive step in professional cycling, especially when considering what Team Slipstream (now Team Garmin/Chipotle) has been doing this year already.

Well, enough of my talking about it. To find out more about it from Lance himself, check out his Livestrong blog.

Beer Baby

You've gotta check this out. My wife posted pictures of our neice this week at the beach. Quite enjoyable.

Check out her post here.

wolfpack whitley

My wife has started a new blog since we've been on vacation. Check it out and enjoy her reads and pictures.

Check it out here.

Grace Nichole Couturier

Weighing in at 8lbs and 5oz and measuring 20.75" longs we have the newest member of our family, Grace Nichole. She was born at 11:38pm on 3 September 2008.