Gettin' Political

I loves me some politicin'. So let me objective breakdown last night's Iowa Caucus. What did we learn? Pretty much nothing.

Pundits like to spin the results into something more than they are but the Caucus rules are confusing, especially on the Democratic side; so the result isn't an accurate measurement of how things will go. Nor can you look towards New Hampshire primary as a litmus test. Sure, NH has picked its share of Presidents, but in the last twelve years they also picked Paul Tsongas, Pat Buchanan and John McCain. Bill Clinton was dead in the water after New Hampshire in 1992 and still was a two termer. If you really want to see where the rubber meets the road, wait till South Carolina.

I will say that things looked the best last night for Huckabee. One pundit noted that the reason Huckabee was heads and shoulders above the rest is that he knew how to tell a joke; all other Republican candidates seem to come across as rather robotic. Huckabee has a Reagan-esque style not found in either of the Bush presidents. He's becoming a bigger character as things move forward. And you can attribute it all to a few classic remarks in a debate. Well, that and those Chuck Norris commercials.

Things looked the worst for Giuliani, who finished dead last. Remember when he was the sure-fire Republican nomination? Now he's MIA. Giuliani barely campaigned in Iowa but coming in behind Ron Paul, finishing dead last, certainly didn't help his street cred. McCain will win in New Hampshire, but I think Huckabee takes the south and wins the Republican nomination.

The Democratic side is still too close to call. Hillary took it on the chin yesterday but she will win in New Hampshire. The margin of victory will be critical. If Obama keeps it close, then he has a real chance to get the nomination. The same goes with Edwards. He'll take South Carolina for sure, so it'll probably come down to the Super Tuesday showdown between the three of them. It's critical for Hillary, however, to win in NH, and if possible, to win big. If she loses there next week, she's a goner.

I'm still holding firm that the Democrats win the White House with anyone but Hillary. She's still too polarizing. As likable as Huckabee is, I'm not sure he can take Obama. Maybe Edwards.

When you don't really care who wins, this can be really fun. You should try it sometime.

Don't Drown Your Food

The past few weeks I've been thinking about this PSA from the 1980's telling kids not to abuse condiments [I guess it was epidemic then]. Everyone I asked couldn't remember it. Do you remember this? And if so, what was the point? Later I remembered . . . why I've been thinking about this PSA. Kaelyn has been watching Kelly and I eat and now needs to dip here food whenever the opportunity presents itself. Tonight she dipped her carrot in salsa. So I guess we're teaching her to drown her food. Tragic.

Webiwork

Multitasked while watching football the last couple of days to get some work done on the interwebs. First I gave Kelly's blog a face-lift. She likes it, and I think it works well too. Took me longer than it should have, but I got it done just after watching the ball drop last night [some New Year's, huh?].

And today I finally shut down my House of Carr website. I hadn't updated it in six months, so hardly anyone was checking it out anyway. I started it as our family website while I was still using Blogger and wanted the option of multiple pages. Since I switched my blog over to Wordpress, I get everything I need out of it, so maintaining two websites is meaningless. Now on the toolbar above I have a page for Kelly and Kaelyn, added links to my media, and will continue to add things as time permits. The houseofcarr.com URL now points to my blog. I'm going to hold onto the address and evaluate whether or not I want to renew it later.

So look around if you like.

Best of Beit [2007 Year In Review]

I was looking through the posts I made on the blog this past year. I averaged about one post per day in 2007. While there were many one liners and links, sometimes I wrote a little substance. Here's some stuff that either sparked opinion, was a major event of the year or was, in my humble opinion, just good stuff. Among other things I . . . Reviewed Ohio State's loss to Florida in the National Championship [football, not basketball].

Predicted the Catch Phrase of 2007.

Unpacked The Secret [Parts 1, 2, 3].

Went Back To School without Rodney Dangerfield.

Spanked Kaelyn.

Affirmed the awesomeness of soccer.

Went to the Amish Creation Museum.

Noted my desire for the iPod Touch months before it was released [and was finally gifted one last week].

Predicted Narron's firing.

Didn't get pregnant.

Resisted vehicular manslaughter.

Did not view p0rn.

Endured a horrible Bengals' season.

Did not deflate my wife's lung.

As Sinatra would say, it was a very good year. Enjoy your New Year, kiddies!

Understanding Old Testament Wrath

What do I teach on Sunday nights? Well, basically the Bible. But I thought I'd let you know what I taught earlier this evening. Currently I'm teaching through the Old Testament books of 1&2 Samuel. 1 Samuel 15 details the God-ordered genocide of the Amalekite people. Not a very seeker-sensitive, "God is love" message to teach about. There are usually a few different ways Christians handle a text like this: you can ignore it, you can explain it away is irrelevant to modern life or you can accept it and then ignore it.

My approach is to take it and rub it in people's faces.

You see, I'm of the opinion that if I'm going to embrace Christianity, I should take it for all it is, not just what I prefer it would be. Ironically, King Saul, who disobeys God's command in 1 Samuel 15, took the "what I prefer" route. He decided to accept God's commands as far as it was convenient to him which led him towards self-idolization and, eventually, contributes to his downfall.

So back to the Amalekite genocide, it's tough for people to synchronize these kind of texts with Christianity. In researching the topic this week I read one person dismiss this story stating, “The writers of the Old Testament often use their medium as polemic to justify ungodly things.” In short, they think Old Testament writers made up the narratives to make themselves look holy while committing this slaughter. Such people arrive at this conclusion because they believe it conflicts with the message of Jesus. Therefore, they assert, the Old Testament texts are contrived because they object with what Jesus said.

That's all well and good except that Jesus himself believed the Old Testament to be true [for examples of this, reference Matthew 5:18, Matthew 15:6, and John 10:35]. If you truly follow Jesus' teachings, you are forced to wrestle with what to do with these texts. It is not easily explained as Old Testament = God of Wrath, New Testament = God of Love.

So was God just ticked off and felt like opening a can off whoop *** on people? Well, it's more complicated than this. Understanding the history of the Amalekites, who tried to annihilate the Israelites, is a good starting point. Understanding that war in the Ancient Near East was primarily waged in order to gain plunder and God commanded that they take none also helps to understand this. And even understanding the strict, unparalleled guidelines found in the Torah that dictated how war was to be waged is critical. But the most important principle to observe here is this: God’s character is consistent thoughout history but the manner by which he unleashes both His holiness and His wrath varies.

While some assume that the wrath of God declined from Old Testament days until now, this is not the case. The ultimate refutation of this is hell. Hell would be the unequalled unleashing of the wrath of God which would be realized at the end of the world. So the greatest example of his wrath has yet to occur.

So you can't pull out 1 Samuel 15 and let it stand alone in order to critique Christianity because it fits within the scope of the Biblical narrative. There are numerous instances throughout the Bible where God unleashes his wrath on his own people. And therein lies the heart of the Christian message: all of us humans actually deserve the wrath of God, but by his grace we are enabled to avoid it.

This is why I love teaching through the Bible chapter-by-chapter: it forces me to deal with topics I would normally skip over. If I choose to avoid certain texts because they're difficult or unpleasant I'm cheating myself out of the opportunity to really grapple with my faith.

The podcast of this teaching will be up in the next week or so. I go much more in depth than I did here, so if you want to see where I went with this.

"My Daddy"

They say its my birthday. It's your birthday too if you're Tiger Woods, Lebron James, or Matt Lauer. Closer to home, there's my brother-in-law Scott, Lexi Eddy, Ashley Keene, and Shane Hively. The one thing about the era of Myspace and Facebook is that you can't really hide your birthday. I received more emails today about it than I ever had. I'm not sure I can remember a Sunday birthday since I've been in the ministry; I'm sure it's happened, but I have no memory of it. The thing about being a minister is that Sunday is a work day. I'm not complaining, but it's tough to absorb things when you're moving constantly. I've never been a big birthday person anyway. I was telling my mom today that she should really get the attention since she was the one who did all the work so I can celebrate today.

But my day was great. We had lunch with my parents and my grandmother. My sister's kids in Indianapolis serenaded my voicemail. I had a great time teaching tonight at church, with everyone back from Christmas. Kaelyn was wonderful all day [well, at least around me]. She's taken to referring to me as "my daddy." It sounds funny, but I love it. Everything she did today made me smile. Kelly was awesome as usual, making me wonder how I ended up with her in the first place.

Speaking of first place . . . I arrived home the FANTASY FOOTBALL CHAMPION! When I left for church this afternoon I was down fifty points, but came home with the lead. Props to Chad Johnson and Clinton Portis who had huge days making it happen.

So overall I'm feeling good. Not quite sure I feel 32. But after reading Entertainment Weekly this afternoon, I discovered that Fergie [of Kids Incorporated, Black Eyed Peas and "London Bridge" fame] is also 32. I've decided that I look better than her. Disagree if you must.

I was born. Horray for me.

The Final Day

Wrapping up the Fantasy Football year, hoping I can make a miracle comeback and win the championship. I am 29 points down to Chris Elrod going into the final weekend. This isn't an impossible deficit to overcome, but with so many meaningless games, and few important ones, you have to be selective about who you hitch your wagon to. So when you're stat watching tomorrow afternoon, hope for big numbers from these guys. QB: Drew Brees, New Orleans

RB: Clinton Portis, Washington

RB: LenDale White, Tennessee

WR/RB: Santana Moss, Washington

WR: Chad Johnson, Cincinnati

WR: Donald Driver,

TE: Antonio Gates, San Diego

K: Shayne Graham, Cincinnati

D/ST: San Diego Chargers

Messed Up

Regular blogging will return soon, but this story is so ridiculous that I felt obligated to link to it now. In an effort to win some Hannah Montana tickets in a contest, a mother helped her six-year old daughter write an essay that began, "My daddy died this year in Iraq." Problem: her dad did not die in Iraq this year. 

The mother responded with the classic, "We did the essay and that's what we did to win . . . we did whatever we could do to win."

Well, then, I guess it's OK.

With mommy displaying such fine morals, I'm sure the daughter will turn out just fine.

Merry (Day After) Christmas!

I'm tired. Jesus is born. Good night.

Merry Christmas

I'm not sure Cops has filmed in Lewiston, Idaho, but there's probably not much to see there, especially when crimes are solved by reading the paper. Recently a wallet-snatcher might have avoided getting arrested, if he wasn't featured on the front page of the local newspaper. Michael Millhouse was painting a "Merry Christmas" sign and was lucky enough to get his picture taken for the paper. But Millhouse had also stolen a wallet and was caught on a surveillance camera. The pictures appeared right next to each other on the front page of the paper. Click here for a PDF version of the paper. 

If convicted, the guy could get five years in prison. Brilliant.

A Friend of Ours

In today's Enquirer you can find a story on Christ's Community Church in Price Hill. It's a unique organization of house churches that meets on the westside. We at Echo have quite a few connections with them: worked/went to Israel with Ken and they helped us with our Adopt-A-Family last year. They're a great group of people. For those readers who aren't familiar with the un-institutionalized church, this is an informative read.

Honestly, I Thought This Was A Joke:

Lynne Spears' [Brittney and Jaime Lynn's mother] book about parenting has been delayed indefinitely.

From the Paper

Today's Enquirer had an article about the local group on NBC's Clash of the Choirs. Here's the best paragraph:

"If the local choir wins, $250,000 will be given to Children's Hospital Medical Center's newborn intensive care unit. [Nick] Lachey chose the hospital because his stepbrother Isaac was born premature 16 years."

Sometimes I think I was born 16 years too early too.

Holy Schnikeys!

One thing I didn't note yesterday was the ten year anniversary of Chris Farley's death. I still find it a bit sad even today. He just could not overcome his self-destructive nature and the result was the loss of a comic genius. So give yourself a good laugh and watch the quintessential Farley performance.

Ciudad Loco

I love our fair city, but dumb things happen here. I don't like to pile on, pointing things out, but I'm a realist. I still think Cincinnati is the best city in the world in which to live, but utopia, it ain't. Why we're crazy:

Example 1: Apparently our local officials think it wise to install traffic light cameras in order to fill the coffers protect the general public. Just another reason for scared suburbanites to avoid visiting downtown.

Example 2: The same town that arrested Larry Flynt and shut down a p0rn0 art exhibit decided to name a sex toy company as one of their businesses of the year.

At least there's never a dull moment in the 'Nati . . .

Rockin' Christmas

Kelly wrote about our time at Crossroads tonight. It was indeed very impressive. I think you might still be able to nab some [free] tickets. If you're local and have some free time, definitely catch it. Tye and Andrea were awesome.

Mudville

No joy here, especially when it comes to college basketball. UC is bad, and since ratings can't compete with American Idol the local Fox affiliate is dropping the telecasts. I'm already looking forward to the season after next.

UK is probably not as bad as Cincinnati, but compared to their expectations, it's a lot worse. They'll lose to their second consecutive Conference USA team tonight. Coach Billie Clyde is probably wishing the season was over.

A little over 100 days until Opening Day . . .

The Best At Beit [Tunes]

Finished my paper tonight so I'm feeling good. So in a mini-celebration, I played my favorite song of 2007. What is that, you ask? I'll let you know. But why stop at one? Here at the home office, we don't do elevator music. We do not discriminate between musical genres. If a song is good, we'll support it. So here is the Beit Carr top 16 list [just because] of songs from 2007.

16. Regina Spektor- Fidelity 

Kaelyn likes it. Kelly likes it. She's Russian. It makes the list

15. Girlfriend- Avril Lavigne

She's crazy, but I like her music. Total bubble-gum, but who doesn't like gum? 

14. Hey There Delilah- Plain White T's 

We were into this before it over-saturated the world. Apparently the guy wrote the song for a girl who didn't even like, who already had a boyfriend. Wonder what it's like to hear a song on the radio about you . . .  

13. Umbrella- Rihanna

Kaelyn's song of the year. The best part is listening to her sing "'ela, ela, A! A! A!" 

12. 1,2,3,4- Feist

Blame it on the iPod commercial.  

11. This Is Why I Rock- Mims featuring Purple Popcorn

The rock version of this redundant rap song is actually rather good. 

10. Stolen- Dashboard Confessional

Emo, but likeable. 

9. The End of History- Fionn Regan 

More emo, but a great accoustic guitar. All his stuff is awesome. 

8. How Far We've Come- Matchbox Twenty

Late to the party, but a Matchbox song worth the download. 

7. Grace Kelly- Mika

Freddie Mecury back from the dead? Sounds like it. 

6. Lip Gloss- Little Mama

"Whatchu know 'bout me?" High school rap is awesome.

5. Boston- Augustana

The piano: Coldplay invented it, Augustana carries the torch. 

4. Cupid's Chokehold- Gym Class Heroes

I'm just sayin', this song does not get old. 

3. Stronger- Kanye West

Kanye is good for one hit song an album. This is it.

2. Icky Thump- The White Stripes

Jack White is masterful. This song is proof. 

1. The Pretender- Foo Fighters 

Mr T might want to go fight some foo's, but it's this song the bears all the competition. The Foo Fighters know how to make albums and this one does not disappoint. Get . . . This . . . Song.

This Is How You Do It

I know he probably killed a lot of fantasy football folk by doing this, but Brian Westbrook was the man yesterday. Heeding the advice of an offensive lineman, he stopped at the one yard line, gave up a touchdown and helped the Eagles run out the clock to win the game. Think about how professional athletes get paid: they get a contract based upon their stats. So theoretically, Westbrook helping the team win could've cost him money.

And that's why he's the man. Team players go far.

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before . . .

. . . but I love our church. God has definitely blessed us with some wonderful people to partner with at Echo. Tonight I had a great time teaching from Samuel, trying a different approach to get things going, and everyone stuck with me. Throughout the message people were really into the text we were breaking down. Additionally, the stage was full of gifts for our adopted family. We asked for more than twice as much this year and the church responded generously.

Plus, we have some incredibly faithful people who do all of our tear down so that I can have some pastoral time. I never have to worry about everything getting put away.

I've had a great couple of days really appreciating what God has done with Echo so far. And I'm feeling really great about 2008. This was almost like a getaway weekend, as many in our church are transient and won't be back until after Christmas and . . . honestly, I'm going to miss people.

[insert smile emoticon here]