Category Archives: Humor

Looking Ahead: What Are The Options?

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To close out the year, and look ahead to the next, here is a great look at the options available in our controversies…

Dave Walker, in a way that only he can with pen and paper, has graphically and concisely set out the options in our controversies.  You can find his current post on the Church Times blog which has a link to the full cartoon from last May.  The current post and the look back are occasioned by a new report on how to resolve that particular controversy.

One of the things I find when writing this blog is that our Presbyterian controversies are variations on a theme.  In many cases the arguments and logic follow very similar lines, you just fill in a different point of contention depending on the Presbyterian branch you are referring to.  While Dave is addressing a controversy in the Church of England that is not particularly Presbyterian, women bishops, the three options he illustrates still fit our debates.  And while Dave doesn’t present any specifically new options, it is fascinating to me how universal the basic framework of our possible solutions are.

So enjoy Dave’s work.  Dave, thanks for your contributions.

And to all, a Happy New Year.

Some fun stuff from Yesterday

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Several fun things from yesterday, some of which is actually on-topic…

We spent the afternoon at a NASA viewing event for the Phoenix Mars Lander.  Having worked on the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander Mission, the older sibling of Phoenix, it was great to see this lander come alive upon landing.  Congratulations to the Phoenix team, especially my friends from MPL who now have a success.  The Phoenix did rise from the ashes of the MPL.

Family fun:  Going through the usual ritual on the way home from church…
Dad to middle: What did you learn about in class today.
Middle: [The youth director] talked about Calvinism.  TULIP and all that.
Youngest:  Why would you talk about eating other people?
After the laughter calmed down we explained the differences between cannibalism and Calvinism.

From the Media:  Fellow bloggers, if you don’t see the comic strip Bizarro in your news paper or news feed, check out Saturday’s cartoon on-line from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  And if you like a nice turn of a religious phrase, Sunday’s is pretty good to.

And not only do I worry about the details in Presbyterian polity, but I try to cover the details elsewhere as well.  For this one day of the year I own a flag for my house which is not fixed on a pole but attached to a line so that I can observe today’s flag etiquette of “half-staff until noon.”  So, on this Memorial Day, we are keeping Scott’s and Cory’s families in our prayers along with the families of all the other’s who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country.  God Bless!

Cartooning at Lambeth

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In the midst of my present chaos, taking care of all my regular stuff and still trying to write and research three “in works” blog posts, I came across this on The Lead.  It turns out that at the major Anglican “A-list” Bishop’s conference this summer at Lambeth Palace, there will be a cartoonist to “capture” the event.  Have a look at featured cartoonist Dave Walker’s web site/blog cartoonchurch.com.

While his subject may originally be the Anglican church, there is so much universal humor at church-related topics in these cartoons that even the “frozen chosen” can find a lot in there to laugh at about themselves.  These are not so much side-splitting ROTFL cartoons as they are a humorous look at the way the church runs.  For example, in his cartoon of the “Parochial Church Council” I can put names of some of the members of my church’s session on those people, including finding my wife in the bunch.  The group does lack a “polity wonk” or “polity fundamentalist” like me, unless that is the “inspirer of tangents and pointless discussions.”  There are a bunch of other great ones on the site, but check out the one on “What the clergy do all week.”

This blog has now been added to my reader.

I can’t remember a General Assembly being cartooned as a regular practice.  Sure, some political cartoons have come out of it, but not as a regular daily, focused, product like this is.  But we did have that great whimsical commentary by Houston Hodges during GA, including “Some Assembly Required.”

What’s in a name?

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I don’t know how many of you struggle with the labels that we use to describe each other, particularly in a setting like this where we need to concisely describe different sides in a discussion, debate, or controversy.  While I try to minimize it, there are times that I just can’t avoid the “liberal,” “conservative,” “progressive,” “evangelical,” etc. labels.

So I was amused by the November 23 and 24 Prickly City comic strip that has a bit of fun with that.  Hope the link works.  Enjoy!

“Essentials”

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Good one from a friend and long time Presbyterian and fellow GA Junkie today at
church.  She figured out that there is an obvious way around the
PC(USA) “property trust clause.”  All that a church or presbytery
has to do is declare that they believe it is not an “essential” and it
can be safely ignored.  Great observation Rose!

Aircraft carry-on restrictions

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Greetings,

   I’ve got a bunch of stuff to post today but to start off, here is something off topic but interesting:

My wife was flying yesterday with the new carry-on requirements barring liquids and gels.  This applies to food so she was prohibited from carrying on her sealed yogert container so she ate it and then went through security.  On the plane she found out that the woman in the seat next to her had her peanut butter sandwich confiscated.  I guess you just can not be too safe.

Now, on to other varities of legal matters…