chris on June 30th, 2010

Today it didn’t take long for my head to explode. The newspaper did it, below the fold, front page, Oregonian, 6/29/10 a headline reads “High Court extends right to own guns”. The explosion was not caused by the content of the decision. The explosion was caused by the framing of the headline.
There’s an old ‘trick’ [...]

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chris on June 14th, 2010

Looks like it’s time for a new (to us, i.e. ‘used’) car. The van’s on its last laps. My philosophy is buy a good used car that can be expected to run well for 5-8 years. Then, when it wears out, buy a good used car … So it’s time. In this case I have [...]

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chris on February 9th, 2010

Well Friday, February 5th, 2010 will always be a milestone in my life. Got out of bed 1am (local time) in Jerusalem and went to bed 11pm (local time) in Portland. That’s quite a day.
I’m glad to be back. It was good to go and good to come home. I traveled well, jet lag, digestion [...]

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chris on February 2nd, 2010

I thought I’d get two birds with one stone. Jess and I have stayed in touch via email. Here’s my email to her (minus personal comments) on Tuesday, 2/2.
Big day. We started in the rabbinical tunnel along the western wall of temple mount. Because successive layers of civilizations have been here the first century ‘ground [...]

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chris on January 31st, 2010

We journeyed south through the Jordan valley. This is modern Israel’s border with Jordan. Yes, they have a border fence. We couldn’t go into Samaria/the hill country of Ephraim for political reasons. The Israeli guide thinks the bus would be stoned. There’s lot’s of history there but …… not this time.
We arrived at Jericho (which [...]

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chris on January 26th, 2010

It’s great to be in Israel, the journey went well, great considering one can board a plane and 48 hours (3 take offs and landings, and two countries later) end up on the other side of the world.
Here are some observations in no particular order.
I knew it was small but I’m continually adjusting [...]

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chris on January 14th, 2010

I’ll be leaving for Israel soon (1/18, returning 2/5). Here’s what I’m thinking about the trip:
What am I hoping for? First let me tell you what I’m not ‘hoping for’. I’m not hoping the experience will make the Bible ‘more real’ to me. That may sound odd, here’s what I mean. The Word of God [...]

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chris on December 16th, 2009

I thought I’d share some lessor known Christmas movies that are among my favorites. Most people are familiar with ‘the classics’— various versions of “A Christmas Carol”, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “Miracle on 34th Street”. As great as these are, here are some treasures you may not know.
3 Godfathers, 1948

That’s “3 Godfathers” not “Godfather 3″ [...]

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chris on November 19th, 2009

Part 3: What’s the point?

I heard a story about a 19th century Bible conference, about prophecy I think. Anyway there were raucous debates and disagreements about various points as each faction argued their view. A newspaper correspondent was covering the conference and remarked to one of the organizers. “You Christians have such disagreements among yourselves, [...]

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chris on October 13th, 2009

Part 2: Undermining Memorization
This is the second in a series of posts on the problems arising from the widespread use of multiple English translations of the Bible. In the first post -The paradox of choice- I addressed the psychological cost of having to choose, and keep choosing between multiple translations. Now we turn to the [...]

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