Via the Easterblog I found this section on Beliefnet about The Passion. I haven’t had a chance to finish the Theological Smackdown, but I’ve picked up a couple of interesting bits….

If Jesus had not suffered all the indignities he went through before the crucifixion, but still died for our sins, our sins would still have been atoned for. It is, in short, the death of Christ?and not the degree or length of his suffering?that atones for sin.

Good point. Of course, Christ’s suffering was a part of God’s plan, but….remember that the Gospels are lacking the sort of detail that Gibson provides in the film. So, God hasn’t provided us with the details of how Christ suffered, therefore knowing those details is obviously not central to our faith.

Posted on 12 March 2004

After a long six week vacation, the World Rally Championship visits North America for the first time for the Rally Mexico. The drivers completed the initial recce yesterday, and the word from the top teams is that this will be a fast, technical rally, mixing the best of Finland and Cyprus. The rally will be a bit of crapshoot, as only Harri Rovanpera has any experience with the event (Sebastien Loeb took part in the recce for last year’s event, but he reckons it won’t count for much). The teams also have deal with the new tyre restrictions — factory teams had to choose two tread patterns before even leaving their home bases. The teams will also have to deal with a limited number of tyre changes.

Since this is a new rally, and not a specialized one at that, nearly every top driver has a shot at winning this thing. But let’s handicap the field….

Current world champion Petter Solberg has a good chance of getting his championship campaign back on track this weekend. The rally suits his style, and the Impreza is generally strong on this sort of event. The only thing that could hamper Solberg’s chances is the introduction of the 2004 Impreza at this rally. They’ve had plenty of time to test since Sweden, but there are no doubt a few bugs under the hood. If the car performs as promised, however, Solberg should find himself on the podium.

Citroen could be poised to sweep the top spots. Carlos Sainz, drawing on his decades of experience, always does well on new events (he won the inagural Rally Turkey last year, and the first run of Cyprus in 2000). He’s a disappointing season thus far, so he should be motivated. Seb Loeb has proven he’s just quick, regardless of the surface. The Xsara has been an ideal car, reliable and quick.

This rally could be the first real test for the new Peugeot 307. It has performed well thus far on the relatively docile season-opening rallies, so the rougher roads in Mexico should be a good test of the car’s reliability. Marcus Gronholm isn’t a fan of rougher rallies, but he should be motivated to perform well. Harri Rovanpera could drive himself right into a factory car for the rest of season with a win in Mexico (which Peugeot no doubt expects since he’s won here before). I don’t think the 307 will fair well, however, and neither driver will see a podium spot.

My Top 8
1. Petter Solberg
2. Carlos Sainz
3. Markko Martin
4. Sebastien Loeb
5. Marcus Gronholm
6. Gilles Panizzi
7. Francois Duval
8. Harri Rovanpera

Posted on 11 March 2004

I came across yet another review of Mel Gibson’s movie, this time from AKM Adam, a clergyman with some nice credentials.

I haven’t had a chance to really dig into this article, but one bit really struck me:

Judaism serves only as a (negative) backdrop for Jesus? suffering ? and when Gibson exaggerates the extraordinary events at Jesus? death by ruining the Temple (instead of simply tearing the veil), it takes no great stretch of the imagination to read the event as the destruction of Judaism.

I wasn’t struck so much by his conclusion about the destruction of Judaism, but I was struck by Gibson’s artistic license in the “destruction” of the Temple. The gospels are pretty clear about what happened when Christ finally died — the temple curtain (sectioning off the Holy of Holies) was torn in two.

Posted on 8 March 2004

Coffee is ‘health drink’ says Italian.

Finally, justification for a new espresso machine!

Posted on 8 March 2004

Yet another insightful post on the Mel Gibson by Gregg Easterbrook. It’s hard to imagine how the Protestant evangelicals who are falling over each to praise this film didn’t think of this stuff.

Some other thoughts….

Another mindboggling facet of the overwhelming Christian support for this film is how, suddenly, theology doesn’t matter much to the evangelicals. The typical evangelical minister wants nothing to do mainstream Catholics, yet here they are, embracing the vision of a Catholic whose theology would make many mainstream Catholics squirm. If you don’t know much about theology, think of it this way — this is like every Democrat in Congress, plus Bill Clinton and Al Gore, agreeing with Bush’s belief that Iraq still has WMDs. But, I suspect that most evangelicals aren’t concerned much about theology. Instead, they’ve found a cultural battle to be waged, and they’ll fit to the death, even if it means suggesting that families bring their children to see Gibson’s bloody, violent story.

Several people who I’ve talked to about the movie have asked me if I thought Gibson was wrong to make it. No, he’s not. He has every right to do this. I don’t question his faith, though I may disagree with his vision. I’m simply frustrated by the lack of vision among some Christians who quickly jumped on the bandwagon because it looked like they were entering a battle for their faith.

Posted on 3 March 2004

Two things this morning.

First, this article on Salon about the new cultural battlefield points out the hypocrisy of the Federal Marriage Amendment:

Kindly notice what this proposed amendment leaves out. While purporting to be aimed at the defense of marriage, it entirely overlooks every single problem associated with heterosexual marriage. The amendment does nothing to stop no-fault divorce, or indeed prohibit divorce altogether, nor does it recriminalize adultery. Its aim is not to protect straight families, but only to attack gay ones.

Good point. The FMA is a “defense” of heterosexuality, not a moral stand for the “sanctity” of marriage.

2. Johan Golberg, an unabashed conservative, does a good job in this essay explaining why laisse-faire economics isn’t very Christian:

Today, the loudest voices in the Democratic party want to regulate the economy based upon what’s nice, not on what works. Yes, it would be nice if economic realities didn’t make it necessary for some jobs to be sent overseas, and, sure, it’d be sweetness and light if life-saving drugs could cost a penny.

So, it’s not up to economic conservatives to be nice and try to help people. It’s their job to simply be sure the system works, and if it steamrolls a few people, well, them’s the breaks.

Posted on 2 March 2004

News and notes from the weekend….

Seb has finally gotten around to be interested in crawling. He’s not getting up on his knees and travelling great distances, but he’s scooting around on his belly when the spirit moves him. The spirit, by the way, is typically some object he can’t have, such as the DVD remote, the telephone, or a set of technical specs for a work project. Oh, and the wood burning stove (which wasn’t burning). This sudden interest in motion comes at a cost though — we can’t leave him in the middle of the living room and expect him to stay put.

More Seb news. He’s finding his voice. Or should I say, scream. He enjoys yelling, especially in public places. He’s also developed this new set of “talking” noises reserved for when he’s thinking hard about something. They’re something of a cross between what sounds like Japanese and Cro-Magnon, spoken in a whisper.

Other news….

Fraud alerts are a wonderful thing if you’ve ever had a credit card stolen. Basically, it means that no one can easily open instant credit in your name. Including yourself. I wanted to purchase a new laptop this weekend, as I’ve been busy at work, and would be nice to work an hour or so at home a few nights a week to keep the workload manageable. So, seeing that Best Buy had interest free financing on laptops, I threw Seb on my back and headed there. I found a couple of nice laptops, then, knowing that I had a fraud alert out, I went to the customer service desk to apply for the credit before I started the sale.

I explained to the lady at the counter that I had said fraud alert, and that she would ultimately need to call Equifax about it. A few minutes later, she was on the phone with Equifax, and she then handed the phone to me. Now, I did get a credit card once before under the fraud alert, and basically Equifax asked if I knew why there was a fraud alert. When I explained the cicrumstances, they said okay and thanks, and BAM! I had credit.

This time, however, the person on the other end of the phone asked if he could contact me at one of two numbers listed on the alert. Ummm….no, since the alert went out nearly five years ago, and that was three residences and too many jobs to count ago. Sorry, he said, but he’s send me information to update that information. Gee, great. I bet that’ll go to the Walnut Street address, so I’ll never actually see it. Just like that, I couldn’t get a Best Buy credit card. That’s right — credit denied. I just got approved for a mortgage, but I couldn’t get a credit card for a purchase that was one-tenth of the mortgage.

By the way, there’s nothing quite like walking out of a retail store having been denied credit…..

Posted on 1 March 2004

Just looking at this makes my knees hurt….

Posted on 27 February 2004

Gregg Easterbrook, as usual, provides an interesting take on the new Mel Gibson flick.

Posted on 27 February 2004

Lots of little, diverse items this morning….

First, we got word at the office from our employers that our group will not be moving from downtown. Woo hoo. In fact, since we have some extra offce space, Ciber may move a few folks into our space.

Other work news — I was just given a fairly involved web services project to work on. I’ve got plenty of time to do it, and it should be pretty interesting (it will have two component — the web service itself and a client application to use the service to transfer and manipulate data.

Subaru has unveiled the 2004 Impreza WRC, which will make its competitve debut next month in Mexico. The team made quite a few changes in the overall package, and the directors feel the car will allow them to compete with Ford and Citroen.

A few thoughts on Bush’s support for a constitutional amendment defining marriage. First, if you are not a Christian and you support this (I’m not saying Bush isn’t, but there are plenty of people who aren’t), what is your justification. The “sanctity” of marriage is a religious concept. If you were married in front of a justice of the peace, what is the foundation for believing that marriage is exclusively reserved for man and woman? And for the Christians that are fighting so hard for this amendment — why put the cart before the horse again? You’re trying to allow Christianity to creep into politics by only supporting a “popular” movement.

Mel Gibson’s The Passion opens today, and I must admit, I’m not interested. I think Gibson is quite earnest in his intentions in making this film, but otherwise I don’t really care. People will think what they will. I will say this much — I think the Christian right is being a bit hypocritical since they aren’t decrying the level of violence in this film. And we can’t be too quick to focus so much on Christ’s death, as it’s what happened three days later that truly defines what Christianity is.

Posted on 25 February 2004