Urban Onramps

4,000 Mennonite youth. Or is that 4,000 Mennonites? I forget. But what I haven’t forgotten is that I’ll be a plenary speaker at San Jose 2007 in San Jose, a Mennonite national conference. I hope they let me wear a lapel mic so I can roam around the plenary hall as I speak.

I like Mennonites.

I’m going to be in Denver on Thursday, December 14. Just, you know, in Denver. Denver, Colorado. Gonna have some lunch with some folks, too. Should be good.

I’m glad Warren invited Obama to speak at the 2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church.

I’m still surprised at this morning’s Times editorial. Whoever wrote that closing sentence must have had fun doing it. I wish I would have written that line.

The Los Angeles Times op-ed page, the editors, in an unsigned editorial, say:

AMEN TO FIGHTING AIDS (print version)
CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES VS. AIDS (online version)
Bush and the evangelical movement have done more than they get credit for in efforts to stem the disease

man. flying. pig. moment.

I just didn’t expect the L.A. Times editorial page to print anything like this as in unsigned editorial. I’ve been trying to hard to not give in to knee-jerk responses to the “MSM,” especially after hanging out with some great mainstream media types a few weeks back in Miami. MSM is not a “they,” it’s real people doing very good professional work in most cases, and working hard to either be fair or to be transparent about their biases. The MSM still leans left, unfairly left in many cases, though I’m sure that many out there think the MSM is a tool of corporations and full of reactionary right-wingers (I kid you not; just read the koskids some day).

I want to go on the record as applauding and giving credit to the folks at the Times for publishing paragraphs like this:

Yet these troublesome policy issues are also relatively minor. Bush and his Christian supporters seldom get the credit they deserve for their role in the global fight against AIDS. U.S. spending on the disease overseas has risen more than tenfold under Bush, while Christian groups have given unselfishly to the cause. Churches, in fact, run health clinics in much of rural Africa; without them, stemming AIDS would be all but impossible. So praise the Lord and pass the antiretrovirals.

Samurai Theologian went to the concert two nights ago. Here’s his report: Ichi, ni, san, shi

I hope my son doesn’t read my blog. Wait, he’s just learning to read. I’ve got a little time before I have to worry about that…

So the big news around the Carrasco house is that we are going to get a dog. I’ve got to do stuff to the backyard. We gotta pick the type of dog, too. But I’m going to announce to the family and we’ll get moving down that road. I asked El Mol, Mr. Duck Hunter himself, for tips, and he said (more or less): “three words” …

The Dog Whisperer

Over at CT Online: “Kramer’s Sins–and Ours“:

…by trashing the man along with his behavior, we’re missing an opportunity to redeem a terrible moment and foster an environment where this kind of thing is less likely to happen….

Most of us are just a bad day away from “going off” in a fashion to rival both Richards and Gibson. In today’s cultural climate (which has no tolerance for intolerance), the rule is to castigate these kinds of offenders and mark them as unforgivable. A rebuke is certainly in order, but why not also leave the door open for redemption?

You know, people are tired of talking about racism, and yet racism persists. It ain’t over. It’s not from a time “back then.” America’s racial dialogue is an example of The Law of Diminishing Returns, and it’s no wonder people don’t feel like engaging discussions of race. But there remains a great need.

I appreciate Ed for covering ground that many are gun-shy to approach. He hasn’t just written this article - dude has a book coming out on the subject:

“Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity” - I look forward to checking this out. Special alert to CCDA Veterans: lookitthis: “Gilbreath’s recovery of Tom Skinner’s work is worth the price of the book.” Tom Skinner, awesome.

At noon someone called Harambee and said they could no longer find my bio at the Harambee web site, and could we send it to them. But that’s what the web is for! People accessing your stuff so you don’t have to stop and send it. I moved the harambee.org site to another server over the weekend, and I’m still catching up. Tonight I added a bunch of data from the previous site, so it’s pretty well nigh functional. I was up doing that, plus monitoring the progress of baby Hodge (Dan and Emily). Emily, Harambee’s operations director, is in labor as I write. Kafi and I went and saw her at 5 p.m. at Huntington Hospital, right before they induced her. It’s baby week around here, as little Myles Foreman made his entrance into the world a few days back.

In the morning I preach at a chapel for junior high students. Man. Gotta. get. some. sleepyyyyzzzz….

Little Green Footballs is one of these love-it or hate-it sites. The guy keeps up with all manner of Islamo-fascism. He’s hated by people around the world. His stuff is strong, and relentless. Even if you don’t agree with his approach or worldview, it’s helpful to check his site regularly to see what he sees. Among his current headlines are:

British Sharia watch
Lebanon on the brink of civil war
French police cannot protect themselves
Getting the news from the enemy

The next Emergent Theological Conversation will take place next April 16-18 in Philadelphia. The theme is, “What would Jesus de-construct? A conversation about justice.” The conversants will be John Caputo and Richard Kearny. Info here. The event will be held on the campus of Eastern University.

I subscribe to Tu Ciudad: Your Guide to Latino L.A. The December-January 2007 issue just arrived in the mail. On the cover is Erwin McManus, pastor of Mosaic Church here in LA. I haven’t read the article yet but it looks pretty interesting.

“does denzel washington do speaking engagements”

If he’s not available, I am.

Ok, I’m not sure what exactly I was doing, but I found a whole bunch of interesting (to me, at least) pictures.

This is me and my friend Derek. We were at Ground Zero in New York City on December 11, 2001, exactly three months after 9-11. That’s wreckage from one of the towers between us, two blocks away.

Here’s the photo that’s on my passport. My passport expires within one year - gotta get it renewed.

We all start somewhere - this is my at age 8.

This is me and my brother, Andy, at San Francisco’s PacBell Park. This was a great, great day. We flew up to SF and spent the night and went to the game, and we traveled specifically for those purposes. I wouldn’t mind visiting more stadiums with my brother.

This one is for Fauss.

So’s this one.

Let me just say that all of the kids in this picture are much bigger now. The boy in the upper left, with his head above everyone else, is now 15. The girl immediately behind my ear just graduated from Harambee Prep School in June

It’s me and Craig Detwiler!

Me and Jeremy scaring my son, Sam. Actually, trying to scare him. But he watches Power Rangers and knows a move or two.

I just like this picture. We were in Seattle. Julio and his lovely wife drove down from Vancouver to visit me.

Kafi and I were with Sam at City of Hope. It was the year of heavy chemo. So we had to wear masks to make sure we didn’t infect him. It seems like a long time ago.

This photo was shot in 1997 or so to accompany an article that appeared in Marriage Partnership called, “The Color of Love.” It was about my and Kafi’s marriage.

There’s me with baby Micah! I like it when my hair is that short. But I like it when it’s Led Zeppelin-long, as it is right now.

Me and my mother, Felisa. She passed away when I was six.

When Sam was a newborn, Kafi and I took the Amtrak cross-country. It was rough for me, but a joy for Kafi. We rode from LA Union Station to New York Penn. It took 72 hours. A few weeks after that we reversed and came back. I’m not planning to do that anytime soon.

It’s me and Andrew Sears from TechMission on a video chat. Sorry, Andrew, for washing the color out of your face.

Me and two of my sisters-in-law.

In 1998 I visited Soweto, South Africa.

There’s TallSkinnyKiwi (the tall skinny one in the middle). We were in Malaysia for the Great Commission Roundtable in May 2001.

In Mexico City, summer 1998, atop the Pyramid of the Moon, Tenochtitlan.

Throwing out that first pitch at the Dodgers game, a year or two back.

I like this shot. It’s from Malaysia.

Me at the Vietnam Memorial, DC, a few years back (2002?)

I wish more people used their blogs for stuff like this: Brian McLaren: Family Letter from Latin America. It’s McLaren’s detailed, yet short, account of his five week trip throughout Latin America during August and September. He names names, places, events, numbers - details, people! The more, the better. It’s a great letter. I feel encouraged to hear about Latin Americans embracing the thinking behind Emergent and McLaren’s books. And McLaren says that his next book is titled, “Jesus and The Suicide Machine.” That sounds interesting.

(Yes, bro, I’m calling you out…)

Eliacin has an article in the current issue of PRISM entitled, “Good News from the South.” I’m calling him out because… it’s not online anywhere, so how we are going to talk about it, Jefe? PRISM is getting its web site together. Meanwhile, I don’t think the PRISM team will have any problem with you posting the full text of your article at your blog/web site, just as long as you link back to The PRISM site and encourage people to sign up for the e-Pistle and/or subscribe to the magazine.

For starters (in regard to your article), I’m much less inclined to view anything por este H.Chavez de Venezuela in a favorable light - but you already knew that. Yet and still, I’m listening. Also, I’d like to hear more about Bachelet, the current President of Chile. And not to detract from Tom Sine’s PRISM gig, but I think it would be great to have a regular column from you on topics related to Latin America and beyond.