I mean that in a good way. As some of you know, I really like horror films, horror novels, and horror stories. In fact, I’m writing some of my own. (It might also be a thriller, rather than horror, but I’m still a little fuzzy on the difference.)

That’s why I’m always interested in strange things like the new animated Dante’s Inferno I found this through Greg Wolfe on Facebook. (He’s editor of Image Journal–great magazine.)

Here’s a link to the preview if you’re interested. This one’s definitely, definitely not for kids, though. Startling, disturbing images. You’ve been warned. I was going to embed the youtube, but my wife didn’t think that was a good idea.

So here’s the question. Is there something wrong with me that I enjoy this stuff? I love horror. I really do. The stark justice of it is really interesting and, oddly, inspiring. Am I just crazy?

Randy Ingermanson just posted a hilarious article called Three Reasons to Ban All Non-Amish Novels that does a great job of listing some of the quirks of the Christian publishing world–in particular the cussing problem. Randy says, CBA limits authors to “tofu cuss-words that make them sound like that gosh-darned Miss Marple.”

Heh heh heh.

One question, though, Randy. If I were Lassie and Timmy told me to save him because he’d fallen down in “gzbr wll” again, I’d have a problem. I’d have absolutely no clue what “gzbr” meant. Geezburr?  Jeezbeer?

And I’d be a dog. Reading a text message.

Sam Van Eman and Tina Howard got me wondering about the high calling of advertising and media with some recent posts of theirs. I elaborated more on this over at HighCallingBlogs.com.

Specifically, I asked readers this:

Have you seen any ads that glorified God lately? I’m not talking about ads for church or black billboards with God asking if you can come over before the game. I mean, have you seen any business ads, doing what ads do normally, and still glorifying God at the same time?

(As way of example, consider this ad for Honda that concludes, “Isn’t it nice when things work?” It is nice. And it’s by the grace of God and a tremendous amount of good design and diligence when things work. That’s an edifying thought, isn’t it?)

I’m turning the comments off here, so as not to divide the discussion between that post and this one. But I do want to know what you think. So go comment.

Was blind but now it sees. Or something.

You may have noticed that I’ve been somewhat absent here of late. Even more absent than usual, I mean. That’s because I got BLOCKED out of my blog. Turns out I was hacked. It was pretty awful.

BUT Chris Cree saved me. Er, he saved my blog. He’s a friend of mine, which I’m telling you in the interest of full disclosure. Because I really want to recommend his new blog tune-up, which helped me find my blog. More on that later.

Thanks, Chris.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

One more item of note. This weekend, I hung out with Real Live Preacher, Paul Soupiset, Keith Snyder and Larry Picard, Cynthia the poet, and others at this Franciscan Retreat. There were some things God and I had to work out, and Gordon helped give me the space to do that. More about that later maybe.

Thanks Gordon and all of Covenant Baptist for the ministry you’re doing.

Thanks to everyone else for the good and sometimes challenging conversations. God bless you all.

A bestiary is an encyclopedia of beasts. This morning in my Schott’s Almanac calendar (one of my favorite desktop calendars in the past few years), I read the “bestiary of a good host.” That and a little browsing around the British Library’s Illuminated Manuscript collection inspired me to some fun Tuesday weirdness.

The Bestiary of a Good Blogger

The good blogger must have
the forehead of a BILLY GOAT
the ears of a JACK RABBIT
the hard shell of an ARMADILLO
the belly of a BLACK BEAR
the subtlety of a SNAKE
buzz around omnipresent like a FLY
and fawn and lie like a DOG.

What beast would you add?

This Stephen Colbert interview with N. T. Wright is worth a watch.

I once took N. T. Wright and his wife to the airport. During our two hour drive we talked about tons of stuff from whether Jesus was a carpenter to whether anything will ever be as cool as Harry Potter. (Hat tip to Bob Carlton for sending out the link via twitter.)

Took a quick break from the underworld to twitter my despair and found Michael Hyatt’s tweet. Hyatt is the CEO of Thomas Nelson, and he was bemoaning an author’s woes over a new book they’re publishing on the faith of Obama. (That sounds a little sarcastic, but I don’t mean it to be.)

On his blog, Stephen Mansfield writes about the internet mugging that left him feeling victimized,

Everyone is drawing conclusions from a single article on a single political blog. Yet my secretary has been fielding dozens of emails assuring that I am going to roast for all eternity. I’m deceived, serving Satan, in the employ of Obama, in the employ of McCain, in the employ of Oprah, and I’m apparently not going to be alive on Election Day.

I’ve also had conservative politicians calling in anger and liberal politicians calling in welcome.

So, I’m going to hell. Or, more likely, this is hell and I don’t know it yet. Whatever the case, my point here isn’t that I’m getting smacked. That goes with the job. My point is one that draws attention to a tragic potential of our times: the power to project a lie in the guise of truth at lightning speed.

Mansfield doesn’t link to the Politico.com article for obvious reasons, but here’s the link. Just don’t send Stephen hate mail about the time he’s going to spend in hell burning for writing about Obama.

All of this reminds me of two questions I asked Tony Jones on the phone yesterday. Instead of asking him about the Church Basement Roadshow or another explanation of what he means by emergent, I asked about politics. Why not? I’m bored with the language of who’s emerging and who’s not and whether we should be emergent now or emergent no or whatever. Besides, if Tony’s answers about politics stank, I could always chop them on the editing board.

So I asked.

Tony, what does it look like when politicians worship God through their work?

He answered, and it was a decent answer. Then I asked my real question.

Tony, what does it look like when voters worship God through their engagement of politics?

I haven’t transcribed that answer yet, but it was good, too. By good, I mean thought provoking and insightful.

Here’s the gist: Too much of our political rhetoric comes from our ideologies rather than our theology. It is easier to cling to planks of a party platform than to pray to the creator of the universe for insight into his nature that will bring us wisdom for all of life–whether we are in the voting booth at our local precinct or the dunking book at our local carnival.

OK, I admit that’s a lot of me interpreting what I hope I heard Tony Jones say yesterday.

Let me be even more blunt because this really bothers me. Politics really bother me. The polarization of American politics in particular really bothers me. Why can’t we be passionate about our duty to vote without sending each other to hell? Why can’t I tell you who I like without worrying that I’ll just be encouraging you to prejudge me as a leftist hippie or a warhawk or a socialist or an imperialist?

How would we as voters have a conversation about abortion without condemning the opposing view point as immoral?

How would we as voters have a conversation about war, and not just war but this war in Iraq, without propping up our own shallow opinions with the weight of morality?

How would we talk about economics? education? leadership? integrity? electoral college rules? campaign finance? gay marriage? regular marriage? gerbil marriage?

Are all of these topics too hot to handle? Is the only wisdom to stay out of the places where angels fear to tread?

I want to believe that all work is a high calling. Is there no high calling for voters or politicians? I want to believe that there is.

What would you do if you were president? Does it matter? Because you won’t be.

What would you do if you were a voter? Does it matter?

Just got back from a little mini-vacation to visit my wife’s grandparents in notoriously flat Lubbock, Texas. It was an odd trip, but not a horrible way to spend two vacation days with my family. Also, I learned some good travelling tips for enjoying the monotony of the Texas panhandle–or any other less than scenic drive that lasts more than seven hours.

1. Portable DVD players are your friend. If you don’t own one (we don’t), you can probably borrow one from a friend or relative (we did).
2. Stop often. A fifteen minute delay to stretch your legs and help the boy pee (again) will do much to ease the driving tension. And what would you do if you arrived at a hotel an hour earlier anyway?
3. Play games like the Alphabet Game, or if that’s too hard (it was), you can’t go wrong with I Spy. It lasted us from near Midland to near San Angelo.
4. Rest stops are really fun places to stop. And, um, rest.
5. The price of gas is easier to swallow if you treat yourself with a chocolate milk shake after every fillup. (And you’ll notice, “Awesome! Milkshakes are cheaper than gas!”)
6. Texas wind power is an amazing thing.
7. Teach the kids to love scifi by playing at YA story from Escape Pod.
8. While the kids watch Enchanted (again), listen to another podcast with your spouse on the earbuds and hear the sound of rat laughter.
9. Take the smallest car you can. When the children kill each other, the trip becomes instantly more peaceful.
10. Remember at many various moments how glad you’ll be when you get home.

My dog ran out
to chase a motorcycle
speeding through
the neighborhood.
Never expected
to catch it
with her puppy head
and a short yelp
that left her
breathing slow
looking scared.
On the back porch
we wrapped her
in black plastic
we had bought
for grass clippings,
but I didn’t cry
until I carried the bag
to the curb for the dead
animal pickup
and felt her inside
the three ply trash sack
furry and cold and stiff.
I had touched death before
on my waxy grandma
but death took a puppy
to touch me.

Normally, I offer comments and analysis on the poetry I put here. Not today.

This poem is part of the What I Learned from Animals group writing project hosted by Robert Hruzek and HighCallingBlogs.com. Go to those sites to read some happier stuff.

I’ve been wanting to create a table of contents of sorts for all my poems. So here’s that page in progress if you’re in the mood to read some poetry today.