Month: March 2011

Because a book written by a little kid’s dad must be accurate

~ Jeremy ~ 4 Comments

I thought I talked about this a couple months ago. People keep sending me emails about it, and I finally figured I’d write about it.

You know the story, the one about the little boy (Colton Burpo) who got sick, died, went to heaven and declared that “Heaven is real”. Colton’s dad Todd wrote a book of the boy’s stories. Colton was 4 when his appendix burst and now he’s 11. Over the course of a few years, he remembered “new” things that happened while he was in heaven.

And now the world is raising their hands in honor of a little youngster whose story is told through his father’s mind.

It’s magical and mysterious. Isn’t it great how god can work through a four year old’s father’s pen?

Oh, and that father happens to be a pastor of a little church.

All I can think is: if the proof of heaven is coming from a four-year-old boy, that’s a H U G E stretch.

But if that little boy’s pastor father is writing for the boy, fuggettaboutit.

Next impossible story please.

Image from here. Read more.

 


It’s just another day for you and me in paradise

~ Jeremy ~ 2 Comments

Guess who’s back in cold Chicago? If you guessed yourself, stop being sarcastic funny.

Tina and I landed late(ish) last night after a full day of traveling. I’m about to go pickup Lou Dog from the boarders.

We had a blast down in sunny Mexico. I plan on writing a full review of the hotel where we stayed. I have nothing to compare my experience to in Mexico, but I have third-world experience. And in an asshole kind of way, I thought Mexico sucked.

Seriously, the country’s tourism industry needs a public relational rehaul. The hotel we stayed in is going to go the way of one of the thousands of abandoned Mexican buildings within a couple years if it doesn’t improve drastically.

But it’s Mexico as a whole that needs a spike in general world-minded etiquette.

I saw a guy beg for change in an airport bathroom just after pulling off a paper towel and handing it a guy with wet hands. He appeared out of nowhere and was not wearing an airport uniform. It was bizarre. I’ve seen a lot during my world travels, but that one made me tilt my head a little further.

Okay, off for Talulah.

I got this comic (below) from my dad this morning. I thought you might enjoy it.

“Hocus-pocus phantasm”

~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Next November, Thomas Jefferson‘s 86-page bible will go on display at The Smithsonian. Jefferson is a hotly debated “founding father” because of this shortened bible. In letters, he claimed he was a Christian, but his slice and dice of the holy book garnered him name callings as awesome as “howling atheist” and “a confirmed infidel” known for “vilifying the divine word, and preaching insurrection against God.”

From an article in WSJ:

To readers familiar with the New Testament, this Jefferson Bible, as it is popularly called, begins and ends abruptly. Rather than opening, as does the Gospel of John, in the beginning with the Word, Jefferson raises his curtain on a political and economic drama: Caesar’s decree that all the world should be taxed. His story concludes with this hybrid verse: “There laid they Jesus, and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.” Between these points, there are no angels, no wise men, and not a hint of the resurrection.

After completing this second micro-testament, Jefferson claimed in a letter to a friend that it demonstrated his bona fides as a Christian. “It is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.”

That, of course, has been hotly debated from the election of 1800 to today, and Jefferson has been called an infidel, a Deist and more. What is most clear is that he was not a traditional Christian. He unequivocally rejected the Nicene Creed, which has defined orthodoxy for most Christians since 381. And he was contemptuous of the doctrine of the Trinity, calling it “mere Abracadabra” and “hocus-pocus phantasm.”