1. I think President Obama has
achieved a feat I had never previously thought possible. With his statement
supporting gay marriage, he has evidently inspired millions of Catholics and
evangelicals to passionately support—a Mormon for president.
Some
folks have sent or forwarded several interesting items to me since the
President’s pronouncement. Here are a couple: http://danbouchelle.blogspot.com/2012/05/plea-to-christians-about-our-response.html
The different writers I have read do not necessarily agree on everything, but they have been thought
provoking in their words.
I’ve
got friends who plan on voting for the Democrats (most oppose gay marriage),
friends who plan to vote for the Republicans (need I say how they feel about
gay marriage?), and friends who plan to not vote (most oppose gay marriage); I
love them all, and this year should prove interesting to our nation.
At
the end of the day, I think I join President Lincoln’s sentiments… if I may
paraphrase: I am not so concerned about God being on my side; rather, my
concern is that I am on God’s side.
God
is at work. He has got a lot to do. I want to join Jesus in being about the Father's business.
2. I found out a there is a lot of debate out
there as to whether or not Abraham Lincoln said these words. About.com says the two earliest quotes
that come closest were quoted by Rev. Matthew Simpson at a funeral service for
Lincoln on May 4, 1865:
To a minister who said he hoped the Lord was on our side,
he replied that it gave him no concern whether the Lord was on our side or not
"For," he added, "I know the Lord is always on the
side of right;" and with deep feeling added, "But God is my
witness that it is my constant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this
nation should be on the Lord's side."
and
from Francis B. Carpenter's 1867 book, Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln, page
282: No nobler reply ever fell
from the lips of a ruler, than that uttered by President Lincoln in response to
the clergyman who ventured to say, in his presence, that he hoped "the
Lord was on our side."
3. Judy, Haleigh,
Abby, and I just completed watching the movie THE LIGHTKEEPERS. This was a
classic case of a movie that probably looked good on paper but was poorly transformed
to the screen. Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner starred in this film about
two men who hate women and keep a lighthouse going on Cape Cod in 1912.
Richard
Dreyfuss, in an interview, had a different take. To hear him talk about it, you
would have thought these two guys saved the world for democracy before Woodrow Wilson.
The
movie was clean, and I cannot remember a bad word. Moreover, the scenery was nice.
Sadly,
did you catch the phrase “just completed” in the first sentence of number 3?
That is because it took us several nights to watch the movie: we kept falling asleep.
In
other movie news, my daughter Abby recently read the novel THE NATURAL for
school. We then watched the movie together. I have never read the book, so I
found it interesting that she claims the novel is much darker and cynical than
the movie.
4. I’ve got another book to recommend from my
prep work for “Seven Life-Affirming Virtues" and the 7 deadly sins. This one is entitled GLITTERING
VICES by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung.
5. I heard an interesting quote last week from
ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser, “Football is over as
we know it.” On the heels of the tragic suicide of Junior Seau, Kornheiser was
addressing the immense problem the NFL is dealing with concerning concussions.
He
compared football to boxing, which at one time was America’s most popular
sport. Today, boxing is way down the list of well-liked sports.
The
popularity of football, Kornheiser says, may descend slowly. However, it has
peaked. It's arc will steadily decline.
*Thanks
to Peter King for the inspiration for this blog's title.
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