A Mournful Christmas

Word from south-east Asia tonight that tsunamis caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquate have killed more than 10,000 people, and predictions are for the toll to go up.

Its hard to know what to say. How horrible.

A Buck O'Neil Christmas

My father-in-law surprised me this Christmas with a KC Monarchs baseball cap and bobblehead doll signed by legendary coach and first baseman Buck O'Neil. (More on him here) My FIL has done some work on education and outreach development for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and asked Buck to sign these for me. I'm honored to have them.

A White Christmas...

Reggie White, the incredible defensive force in the NFL for Green Bay and Philadelphia, died today of a heart attack. He said some rather hateful things about gays and lesbians once, but I hope that he rests in peace and that he is remembered more for the best ideals he expoused than for his glaring faults as a pastor.

Transitional Transitions...

Well, I just ended my three-month run as a Chaplain Intern at the Department of Religion, Health, and Human Values of Rush University Medical Center. I'm going to miss the work. Chaplains are a unique sort, and do very hard work for not enough compensation or recognition.

Since I still haven't found a call yet, I'm going to pick up a part-time fill-in roll at my local church. They're going to be searching for an associate pastor and I'll cover until he/she gets here. I'm still looking for a call, but if I don't get one by September maybe I'll go back to Chaplaincy.

BTW, the other associate preached a wonderful sermon the other day, making full use of the UCC's ad hype. Bravo.

Not being bigoted is too controversial for NBC, CBS

Unbelievable:

The CBS and NBC television networks are refusing to run a 30-second television ad from the United Church of Christ because its all-inclusive welcome has been deemed "too controversial."

The ad, part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.

See the ad for yourself here: http://www.stillspeaking.com/default.htm

Because they ain't Americans...

Nice exhibition of American values (please note sarcasm here):

Attorneys for the prisoners argued that some were held solely on evidence gained by torture, which they said violated fundamental fairness and U.S. due process standards. But Boyle argued in a similar hearing Wednesday that the detainees “have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court.”

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon asked if a detention would be illegal if it were based solely on evidence gathered by torture, because “torture is illegal. We all know that.”

Boyle replied that if the military’s combatant status review tribunals (or CSRTs) “determine that evidence of questionable provenance were reliable, nothing in the due process clause (of the Constitution) prohibits them from relying on it.”

Leon asked if there were any restrictions on using evidence produced by torture.

Boyle replied the United States would never adopt a policy that would have barred it from acting on evidence that could have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks even if the data came from questionable practices like torture by a foreign power.