I was with some friends (Bobby, Julie, Eve, Jessica, Amy, Clark, Clay, Cassandra, Joy, Olga) last night and we were discussing the best romantic comedies of all time. I of course won by letting everyone know that the best romantic comedy of all time is, as we all know, “Say Anything.” It wins for more reasons that I can possibly detail here, but chief among them is this classic scene.
Though I am thinking this one might have done the job as well – what do you think?
The new trailer for the upcoming Batman movie is finally out. I thought Heath Ledger was a huge mistake for the Joker, I think I was wrong!
On Sunday I went with some friends to see The Kingdom at our local dollar theater. I thought so much of it, that I invited some other friends and went back to see it last night.
This was an awesome movie. Not only shot, directed, and acted well, but an incredibly eye-opening (though certainly not meant to be a non-fiction) film regarding the conflict in the Middle East. The 5-minute introduction alone, a brief history of the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia (The Kingdom) was worth the price of the movie.
As I walked out with my friends last night and we were talking about the movie, I lamented that so much of the fighting in this war has to do with 2 competing ideologies, both predicated on the notion that victory will come through the violent elimination of their enemies.
But, to quote a contemporary prophetic voice, “Peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication.” Violence ONLY EVER begets more violence. I have no definitive answers to some of the very real problems and dilemmas that we face in this war, but I have put all my hope and have put all my trust in the way of Jesus, the way of non-violent resistance, prophetic action and speaking, and sacrificial living unto death.
These are God’s means of peace in the world.
As soon as you can check out this movie. Here’s a trailer.

Yesterday marked the 200th anniversary of the end of the mid-Atlantic slave trade on the UK end of things. This was largely on account of the efforts of William Wimberforce. If you haven’t already, you really should see Amazing Grace, a movie about William Wilberforce and his efforts.
Sadly, despite the legal abolition of slavery throughout the world, there are still as estimated 27 million slaves in the world today, resulting in a 30 billion dollar a year industry. In order to raise awareness of this awful state of affairs, One Voice rallies were help all over the world today. Some friends and I attended one of these rallies at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, CA this afternoon.
We had the opportunity to view a documentary based on the book, Not for Sale, which was both infomative, in that it exposed viewers to the gravity and intracisies of the problem, and encouraging, in that it chronicled the efforts of various agencies around the world. We were also able to attend a seminar which dealt with local opportunities to get involved.
I could say a lot about the problem of human trafficing itself, but I wanted to mention something broader.
That our would is increasingly becoming a global village, where international issues, policies, and problems are locally accesible and relevant, has implications for the missional vocation of the church. We have an increasing responsibility not only to cultivate communities of global awareness, but an even more important responsibility to imagine and create opportunities for people to become globally involved. Issues like human trafficing are not only our concern becasue of their relationship to the idea of justice, but perhaps even more poignantly, because as American Christians, our standard of living, demands, and the exportation of our ideals all bear guilt for many of the ills in the world.
We desperately need church communities who operate out of a missio Dei sort of vision, which will compel us to be globally aware, conscientious, and involved.
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