In honor of the newly-confirmed bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire....

...I offer the following from the deranged mind (consider yourself warned) of Joel Veitch, creator of Mark Llama, Gerbil Farmer.

I couldn't think of a reason to blog it before, but now it's oddly topical. There even appears to be a church in the background of the video (?).

"They'll Know We're Christians By Our Love" Dep't.

Central Michigan non-denom church has itself an old-fashioned book burnin'. For a refreshing change, the Jesus Non-denominational Church (Est. 5/03) burned Bibles, too.

Librarians and clergy at other churches expressed mixed emotions after learning that members of the Jesus Non-denominational Church burned "Harry Potter" books and copies of the Book of Mormon and non-King James Version Bibles.

Other books, magazines, posters, compact discs and movies that members believe do not promote God also went up in smoke Sunday, as more than 50 people gathered outside the church for the fiery display. Among the incinerated items were a Shania Twain album, "The Woman in Me," and a Dan Aykroyd movie, "Coneheads."

Actually, some of that I can endorse: Shania Twain induces indigestion, and Ackroyd owes me a refund for Coneheads (I know exactly the scene from the movie that drew their ire, too). Also, it's an extreme example of the almost-Islamic reverence KJV-only types have towards the Authorized Version. But at least it's nice to see Gail Riplinger found herself a new church.

Swing away, Merrill.

Michigan farmer discovers crop circles in his field. Noted "crop circle researcher" has an interesting non-tinfoil hat theory:

[Researcher Jeffrey] Wilson, 33, trekked to his first circle in Ohio. He borrowed a geiger counter from EMU, convinced a friend to go with him, and arrived at the scene only to find a sheriff had roped it off as though it were a crime scene. He talked his way past the yellow tape.

As he moved closer to the center, he noticed a pattern that he would find at every other circle: Radiation levels were higher in the middle.

Why?

"I don't know," he said.

But it got him theorizing. Soon, he was measuring the electric field and the electromagnetic field within the circles. He noticed the circles often appeared near transformers attached to power lines.

He also discovered a pattern among eyewitnesses of the crop circles who never report seeing any light or anything else unusual.

He tried to get academia to bite, but it hasn't -- yet.

He said science needs more approaches to study crop circles. It reminds him of airline pilots reporting strange patterns and colors of light shooting off the top of thunderheads in the 1980s.

Eventually, NASA sent planes up with high-speed cameras and discovered a new phenomenon -- sprites and jets, which are red and blue atmospheric flashes. There is no complete explanation, but it is no longer considered a farce.

Say what you will, but this line of inquiry beats the usual ovoid-headed, probe-wielding refugees from Communion by a mile.

"It's my blog! And if you don't like it..."

The above is your warning: "Geek topics ahoy!" Feel free to scroll past if you like. This one deals with the frightening world of fantasy football.

Last year was my first year, and frankly I got hooked. After the playoffs were done, I managed to place fourth in a nine team league.

My friend Jon, commissioner of our Yahoo! fantasy sports league, was forced to schedule our draft a tad early this year, and thanks to e-mail issues, I had all of about two days to put together draft preferences. The good news (sorta) is that this is a six team league, meaning you'd have to be a brain donor not to put together some kind of talented squad.

This is the team I was able to assemble on July 26:

QB Manning, Peyton (QB-Ind)
WR Moulds, Eric (WR-Buf)
WR Price, Peerless (WR-Atl)
WR Coles, Laveranues (WR-Was)
RB Portis, Clinton (RB-Den)
RB McAllister, Deuce (RB-NO)
TE Crumpler, Alge (TE-Atl)

Pennington, Chad (QB-NYJ) Bench
Barlow, Kevan (RB-SF) Bench
Taylor, Travis (WR-Bal) Bench
Streets, Tai (WR-SF) Bench
Miller, Billy (TE-Hou) Bench

K Feely, Jay (K-Atl)
K Vinatieri, Adam (K-NE) Bench

DEF Atlanta (DEF-Atl)

The only thing I'm really worried about is the defense (last year I had Tampa Bay--the only thing I worried about was the bye week), which I know next to nothing about, being a Lions fan. Dark horse defensive suggestions welcome.

Anybody else infected by FF, or just me?

Interesting new book about the origins of the Quran.

Written pseudonymously, of course. Does the name "Salman Rushdie" ring any bells? "Apostasy" (however broadly defined) is a very, very bad thing in Islam--even in the most "moderate" states. In America, apostasy from Christianity gets you a book deal. See Spong, Bishop John; Sprague, Bishop C. Joseph; Fox, Fr. Matthew.

This book could be regarded as inciting such--perhaps with reason. It makes fascinating arguments regarding the linguistic origins of the Quran, claiming (contrary to Islamic tradition) that it was translated from West Syriac/Aramaic into Arabic many years after being written. Luxenberg (the author) asserts that Syriac/Aramaic was the medium in which the text was composed:

In the Foreword, Luxenberg summarizes the cultural and linguistic importance of written Syriac for the Arabs and for the Qur’ân. At the time of Muhammad, Arabic was not a written language. Syro-Aramaic or Syriac was the language of written communication in the Near East from the second to the seventh centuries A.D. Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, was the language of Edessa, a city-state in upper Mesopotamia. While Edessa ceased to be a political entity, its language became the vehicle of Christianity and culture, spreading throughout Asia as far as Malabar and eastern China. Until the rise of the Qur’ân, Syriac was the medium of wider communication and cultural dissemination for Arameans, Arabs, and to a lesser extent Persians. It produced the richest literary expression in the Near East from the fourth century (Aphrahat and Ephraem) until it was replaced by Arabic in the seventh and eighth centuries. Of importance is that the Syriac – Aramaic literature and the cultural matrix in which that literature existed was almost exclusively Christian. Part of Luxenberg’s study shows that Syriac influence on those who created written Arabic was transmitted through a Christian medium, the influence of which was fundamental.

In fact, Arabic Christianity may have been the medium in which the Quran originated:

Luxenberg then gives an etymology of the word “Syriac,” and notes that the language is mentioned with importance in the earliest hadîth literature which reports that Muhammad instructed his followers to know Syriac (as well as Hebrew). This can only be the case because these were the literary forerunners of written Arabic. Luxenberg conceived his study to test the following hypothesis: since written Syriac was the written language of the Arabs, and since it informed the cultural matrix of the Near East, much the same way that Akkadian did before it and Arabic after it, then it is very likely that Syriac exerted some influence on those who developed written Arabic. Luxenberg further proposes, that these Arabs were Christianized, and were participants in the Syriac Christian liturgy.

The influence may have come down to the title of the book itself:

Luxenberg proceeds in section ten to the heart of the matter: an analysis of the word “Qur’ân.” He sets out the argument that qur’ân derives from the Syriac qeryânâ, a technical term from the Christian liturgy that means "lectionary," the fixed biblical readings used at the Divine Liturgy throughout the year.

Slow going in spots, but a fascinating review.

[Links via
Clayton Cramer.

Yet another unscholarly nimrod swept away by emotion weighs in on The Passion.

"It's a very graphic presentation of the passion of Christ in the Gospels," [he] said Saturday. "For people who think that the passion narratives are themselves anti-Semitic, well then, it's a presentation of those narratives.

For those of us who don't believe they're anti-Semitic, that Christ died for our sins, all of us, and so therefore we all caused his death, it's a way to portray, very graphically, the brutality of that execution in a Roman style."

* * *

"I've read the Passion narratives of the Lord and contemplated them and prayed over them many, many times, and I've never thought of the crucifixion with the images that I received while watching this," [he] said. "I'll never read the words the same way again."

* * *

[The reviewer] said he was impressed that the film gave a more complex and thus accurate depiction of Jesus, who is often thought of as "this nice-boy-next-door . . . who floats around and smiles and is untouched by the sufferings of the human race he came to save.

"That's as much a false representation of Jesus as anything else, and this is a kind of corrective to that," [he] said. "We hope it doesn't have other consequences, but that will have to be seen."

The reviewer? Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago.

Then again, what does he know? He's no Frank Rich.

Scathing!

In the midst of preparing for tonight's Bible study meeting, I found this quote, commenting on Matthew 8:28-34:

"All down the ages, the world has been refusing Jesus because it prefers its pigs."

It was by a gentleman named P.P. Levertoff. I don't have any more information about him. And I thought I was bad-tempered....

At least we have a good stadium.

Jim Caple of ESPN gives Comerica Park a big-thumb's up. There are a couple of ignorant comments--he's obviously never seen the interior of Ford Field, and the Willie Horton cheap shot was unnecessary--but overall it is a sharp review. He still prefers Tiger Stadium, but who doesn't?

That, and he needs to get a good coney dog next time--there's a reason they're an institution in these parts.

Well, at least they're equally intolerant of all the "intolerant."

Anglican Zach Frey offers up some additional examples of Episcopal "inclusiveness" toward their fellow brothers and sisters, especially when they are from the realm of darkness known as South Carolina:

I saw a woman I knew I had seen before in the seat in front of me, so I asked here if she was going to the Episcopal convention. Indeed she was, as were the two men in the seat with her. They turned around with smiles, and said, we’re from northern Michigan. Where are you from? I said (proudly), South Carolina! Silence. They all three turned around, and didn’t say another word the whole trip.

Remember: thou shalt not be intolerant.

"Progressive" religious tolerance in action.

Actually, this story made me feel better. There was a little papist-bashing at yesterday's session of the ECUSA Convention meeting. It was during the debate over the elevation of a non-celibate gay priest Eugene Robinson as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. In this case, the basher is a Minnesotan divine named Howard Anderson:

It is not the Episcopal Church that is abandoning the historic catholic and apostolic faith, argued the Rev. Howard Anderson of Minnesota. In keeping with its 20/20 mission, the Episcopal Church is at a place where it could spread its doors wide open to welcome all people into its ministry, he said, and the confirmation of Robinson would be one sign of that.

The Episcopal Church, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, is known for its unique charism of inclusivity, he said. “We ordain women. We know the primary sacrament is baptism, not ordination.” The committee needs to think hard about this charism, he said, “and decide whether we will be the last catholics — big ‘c’ or little ‘c’ — or whether we will be watered down Roman Catholics trying to defend some moral like the Pharisees, or dressed up Presbyterians.”

Catholics are Pharisees, eh? Making the Reverend Anderson and the rest of Team Gene the followers of Josh the Palestinian Tolerance Mascot. You know: the Jesus whose only Commandment is that Thou Shalt Not Be Intolerant. You know: the Jesus who can't be discerned from either scripture or two millenia of Christian tradition.

I wonder what Howie says about us when the mike isn't on.

As I said, it is perversely reassuring: For all of our current problems, Catholicism is still derided by the Inevitable March of Progress™ as something to be avoided. It made my day.

More Detroit architectural news.

This one, if true, is nothing short of miraculous: the long-abandoned Michigan Central Depot is the frontrunner to be the new Detroit Police HQ.

Here's more about the grand old station, along with multiple photos.

May it be so. The MCD is an amazing building, and truly terrifying at night. I got lost leaving Tiger Stadium with my wife and mother-in-law one evening, and passed by the massive, darkened structure. "Forbidding" doesn't begin to describe it, especially when your aging Oldsmobile's Quad 4 sounds like it's about to suffocate in its own phlegm.

We've heard an awful lot of pie in the sky redevelopment schemes involving Detroit landmarks ("Picture Tiger Stadium as an aquarium--with shops and condos...."). This one could be more like the Book Cadillac than the others, though. If Mayor Kilpatrick can pull this one off, he'll vault up several rungs in the ranking of Detroit mayors.

For more great Detroit architecture, check out the magnificent Ruins of Detroit (courtesy of Homey) and Forgotten Detroit (courtesy of Mark Sullivan) websites.