Iowa Supreme Court

As a lawyer, I have been watching the Iowa Supreme Court process with some interest. 

Basically, Iowa has a process whereby judges are put up for retention every few years.  Last November, the voters did not retain the three Supreme Court Justices, primarily, it is believed, due to their position on same-sex marriage. 

This week, the commission held interviews with the sixty candidates for the three positions.  In Iowa, anyone with a law license can apply (and in some cases this time, did).

Now the nine finalists are sitting on the governor's desk (literally and figuratively) waiting for the governor to select the three new justices. 

After that, they will be sworn in, and start hearing cases.

In the short term, everyone is trying to figure out who the governor will pick, the politics of each finalist, and what will happen once appointed.  Then, most people will forget what happened.  Meanwhile, the precedents the new judges will decide will be impacting life in Iowa.

And, the same sex marriage ruling is not even on the docket and will stand.

Why the Church is Losing the Debate on Homosexuality

From where I sit, the American church is losing the cultural debate over homosexuality.  With the current precedents being set by courts around the country, and the beliefs of the generations in their teens and twenties, I estimate gay marriage will cease to be an issue in less than 10 years.

Why has the tide turned?  I see several reasons why the church has lost ground on this issue.

Hypocrisy:  The American church let sin slip in by failing to address sexual purity - from heterosexuals.  Instead of railing against heterosexual promiscuity, the church has ignored it.  However, the church has tried to paint homosexual sex as the ultimate evil.  God views sin as sin.  One is not greater than another.  Any sin keeps us from God and requires Christ blood to purify it.

By failing to address sexual impurity, the church put self into a box.  God isn't against sex.  He's against sex outside of marriage, which is defined by one man and one woman.


Emotional Issues:  With the publicity surrounding shows like Ellen and Glee, homosexuals have put a human face on the issue.  Many people who in the past would have kept quiet about their sexuality are boldly proclaiming it.

As more church-goers know those who identify themselves as homosexual, there is a reluctance to address the issue.  It is never easy to talk to a friend about sins in our life or their life.   The cost of the confrontation is tension and a loss of relationship.


Failure to Follow Christ's Commands:    Jesus wants us to love others as ourselves.  We are not excused from failing to love sinners or those different from us.  But in the area of homosexuality, Christians have tried to shun gays.  Perhaps it is fear, but we have failed to reach out to the gay community with compassion and love.  Instead of leading the compassionate charge in addressing AIDS and other issues, the church is perceived as not caring.


Popular Opinion:  The "science" says that homosexuality is the way people are made.  And maybe it is.  But it is also a choice people can make, just like a person can choose to steal or not, or to lose their temper and strike someone.  We don't give those people a pass, but we will give people a pass on sexual practices.  The church has failed to point this double standard out.

I'm sure that there are other reasons why the church is losing ground on the homosexuality front.  But unless the church takes an honest look at itself, apologizes for its past mistakes, it will continue to lose the battle in the heart and mind of the public.

Christian History Magazine

Last year, I took two courses on Christian History.  One of the resources we used was Christian History magazine.  Ironically, the magazine published 99 issues and then stopped.


Now, the magazine is back, with issue #100 celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.  You can sign up for a free copy of the relaunched magazine here.

Hair coloring: The At-Home Process

I have colored my hair for a few years now.  I had it done at the salon, but when I moved, I decided to try doing it at home.  I figured it would save some money and it does.  So here is the process that I used.

I use two different colors.  I know they are similar, but I hope to add both highlights and lowlights.

First, I mix up the color, using both colors in one application.  I use a paintbrush to put the color on my hair.  I find it is easier than using the bottle included in the boxes.  It is much less precise, but for all-over color, who cares?  If I wanted precise application, I would likely use the application bottle or a smaller brush.

This is the "Before" picture.  I try not to wash it before I color - as the oil helps the process.  Or so I've been told and read.

Not a major change, but it did brighten things up a bit.

Indy's Bad Day

I took all three of my pets to the vet yesterday.  Indy, my older cat, had a rough time.  First, I caught him and tried to get him stuffed into the kennel.  He escaped, but not far enough.  So, after a brief chase, I cornered him and then stuffed him into the kennel.  He commenced meowing. And did not stop.

Meanwhile, I captured Hatteras, the kitten, and put him in another kennel.  He started meowing.  And did not stop.

Of course, Blaze, the dog, was following and watching all of these steps, barking.

When we got to the vet's, Indy had urinated in the kennel.  His white fur on his paws, tummy and tail was a nice light yellow color.  It stunk!  After his shots, I stuffed him back into the kennel (and I do mean stuff), as best that I could without getting the urine all over me or the floor.

Once we got home, I took the kennel with Indy inside to the bathroom, where I filled the tub two inches deep with water and put the whole thing in.  Then I let Indy out.  Needless to say, he was not happy and spent the rest of the day and night glaring at me. 

Well, glaring when he wasn't cowering in fear that I was going to pick him up again and do all sorts of bad things to him involving needles, water and/or kennels.

Of course, bad day is relative.  Hatteras had to stay at the vet overnight and be declawed and neutered. 

Quenching Thirst

She carried the heavy earthen pitcher out to the well.  If she wanted to wash up or cook tonight, she needed more water.   She dreaded going to the well.  There was so much that could go wrong.  She could run into one of her many ex-husbands or one of the women who she had wronged.  She didn't want to think about the past.  She didn't even want to think about the future.
She waited until she thought the morning crowd at the well would be gone.  It was noon, long past time that the other woman would be there. She didn't want to see them.  Didn't want to be the focus of their stares.  The focus of their gossip.


As she rounded the last corner, she noticed that a man was sitting on the well.  A Jew, judging by his dress.  No one she had seen before in town.  She continued on.  A Jewish man would not talk to a Samaritan woman.  There were rules against doing that, after all.
 
Not that she had followed rules. she thought wryly.  Her parents had raised her to worship, but after her first marriage ended, she had been so ashamed that she stopped attending church.  Things had gone downhill from there.  After the multiple relationship failures, she knew that her appearance anywhere would set the local gossips talking.  Women shielded their husbands from her, as though by a mere look she could enchant a man.  She probably deserved it, she thought.  She hadn't always been honorable and honest in her relationships. 

The women certainly weren't forgiving.  And how could God forgive her?  She was living contrary to His law right now: living with a man, not her husband.


At the well, she ignored the man, who was now looking at her.  Lowering her pitcher into the well, she drew it out filled.


His deep voice interrupted her, "Will you give me a drink?"


She nearly dropped the pitcher at his words.  "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?" Where was this going? she wondered.


He smiled, and looked at her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

Was he being deliberately smart with her? she thought.  Or was he trying to trick her into doing something?  “Sir,” she said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?  Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

As he answered her, she realized he was either a teacher or a magician.  “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

He smiled at her again, pleased with her answer.  He replied, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
 
Stunned, she looked fully at him.  How did he know all of that?  Either he had been listening to the women gossip, which was unlikely, or he had other ways of knowing such things.  

"Sir,” she said, “I can see that you are a prophet." 

It would be better to talk of other things, not her horrible life.  Why would a prophet want to discuss her life and sin?  "Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 

“Woman,” he replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 

Searching the back recesses of her mind for those early religious lessons, she said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then he stunned her again, by declaring, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

She gasped and stared at him.  Certainly, Messiah would know and could reveal her life.  Before she could ask him her questions, a group of men, apparently familiar to him arrived. They looked as startled to see her as she was to see them.

Leaving her water jar, she ran back to the town and said to the people,  “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 

Amazingly, the people listened to her and  came out of the town to see him.


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The story of the woman at the well has at times resonated with me and at other times repulsed me. 

Like the woman at the well, I don't like it when Jesus points out my personal sins.  I'd rather discuss  this idea or the problems someone else has.  But Jesus wants to reveal Himself to me - to be my Messiah.  My Savior.


But that requires me to be open to drinking His water.  Open to letting him wash out those dirty areas of my life.  Open to sharing Him with others.
 
Jesus promises to give us water so we will never thirst again.  What a wonderful promise!  Jesus is offering to fill that hole in each of us that is crying out to be filled and to satisfy our deepest desires forever.


Jesus is promising nothing short of His presence in our lives. 

But first, I have to meet him at the well and accept his offer.


For more on this topic, check out the Women of Faith blog hop.

New Life Experiences: Half-Marathon?

I have decided that one of the things I'm going to work on this year is exercise.  Last fall, I walked a 5K and felt great after doing it.  The sense of accomplishment was great.  Yesterday, I came across the bib from the race, and remembered how much fun I had accomplishing a 5K.

Several of my friends are marathoners.  In fact, a couple of them are regulars at various marathons. One of them has run the Army Marathon in DC for several years.  A few more friends do triathlons, including a couple children who are under the age of 13!

I Know at this point, I could not accomplish a marathon.  However, I could work on running and walking more to achieve a half marathon by the fall. 

So, in that spirit, I am hoping and planning on running/walking in the Bellingham Bay Half-Marathon in late September.  This way, I have all spring and summer to train.  The added bonus is that I will get to visit my brother's family while I am out there. 

If I fail to be ready for the half-marathon, I can always change to the 5K, which I could do right now!

How is that for a no-fail option?

Nascar Swings at 'wide Whacking; Kills Series Instead

Complaints about Bush-whacking or 'wide Whacking as it is now known (at least in my lexicon) have been legion for years.

According to the complaints, every year, Sprint Cup racers win the series championships in the Nationwide series.  Sprint Cup racers cherry pick the biggest purses in the Nationwide series and win them, starving the smaller teams.  Cup racers take driving jobs from other drivers in the lower series.

While some of the complaints are legitimate, Nascar has benefited greatly from the practice of Cup drivers racing in the Nationwide and truck series.  But Nascar has determined to change this starting immediately.  This year, drivers must select which series they accrue points in:  in other words, if a driver runs both Cup and Nationwide, point will only be awarded in one series.

{It remains to be seen how this affects the rookie rule - which says a driver cannot have more than 6 starts in the Cup series to remain eligible for rookie status the next year.  If you don't get points in Cup, it shouldn't matter if you run 20 Cup races, right?}

The new rule has problems, as far as I can tell.  First, while it doesn't remove the monetary incentive to Cup drivers, it does remove some of it.  Money collected from points fund payouts in lower series do subsidize driver's, owner's and team's coffers.  The extra money for wins still will apply, so that will lure a few Cup drivers in.

Second, the rule will have severe implications in sponsorship deals.  If Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, or Brad Keselowski do not have the option to win a championship, will they run?  If they don't run, will their sponsors leave the sport?  Sponsors select drivers and teams to get the most bang for their buck.  Kyle Busch can practically guarantee that he will get TV coverage - regardless whether he wins or finishes last.  Can Shelby Howard, Jennifer Cobb or Kelly Bires deliver that?  There are sponsors who are willing to sponsor Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin or Kevin Harvick who will not sponsors a driver named Trevor Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse, Danny O'Quinn or Brett Moffitt.

If Dale Earnhardt Jr, the most popular driver in Nascar, has sponsorship woes with his teams, what hope do the rest of the teams have??

Third, the tracks will suffer.  If the Cup drivers aren't at the track, will the fans show up?  While this may not matter at tracks where the race is paired with a Cup race, it will impact tracks like Iowa Speedway, Nashville, Montreal, Road America, Memphis, etc.  Will drivers make the cross-country trip to the Nationwide race from a Cup race?  Why bother if a championship isn't on the line?

More importantly, if the fans think Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano are not coming, will the fans bother going to the race?

I suspect the rule has a bit more sinister purpose: kill the tracks without a Cup race.  A look at those tracks reveals that those tracks are largely owned by Non-ISC corporations.  Remember that ISC is owned by the France family.  If the Non-ISC owned tracks have to close (a la Gateway or Memphis), then those races can go to other tracks, say ones ISC owns.

The simple math is: France family money from Nascar + France family money from ISC = $$$$$$

The problem is that this rule will affect more than tracks, as it will likely drive out sponsors, teams and fans in addition to the Cup drivers.

Winter Scenes

This was the view out of my back door a week or so ago.  I love how the sky is so blue, while the trees are so white.

I am struck by the fact that this winter beauty is also deadly.  The high temperatures the past few days have been in the single digits. There is a danger in assuming that sunshine equates warmth.  And, naturally, more snow is coming today, tomorrow and the next day.

I am looking forward to the quietness that happens when the snow is gently falling.  I am not looking forward to the shoveling that will happen after the snow arrives.

In time, all the snow will melt, spring will arrive.  Winter will be a memory, until the end of the year.  But in photos like this, the beauty will live on.

Completing a Project

I finished the novel I wrote for NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) back in November.  I did some quick editing and now have to decide what to do with it.

At the moment, I feel quite a sense of accomplishment, and I left a few loose ends to write a sequel, if I so desire at some point in the future.

The timing of this completion is great, as I am going to be starting another quarter of seminary next week.

NYC Stats: 39% of Pregnancies in 2009 End in Abortion

New York City released its statistics for 2009, and the facts are startling.

First, there were over 225,000 pregnancies within the City proper.  Of those pregnancies, over 87,000 ended in an "induced termination" or abortion.

It works out to nearly 39% or over one-third of pregnancies in NYC are terminated.  To put that number in perspective, I live in a city of nearly 30,000.  The abortions in NYC in 2009 wiped out the population of my town THREE times.

Of those terminations, 29% occurred in the 20 -24 year old age group.  Perhaps more startling is that nearly 6.5% of those abortions were in the 17 and under age groups.

Ethnically, 47% of the abortions were performed on African-American women.  The next largest ethnic group getting abortions were Hispanics, with 33%.

My question is: why were there 87,000+ unprotected sexual encounters?  Naturally, a baby was not conceived every time someone had unprotected sex, but in 87,000 times of unprotected sex in just New York City, one was.

This truly is a societal, religious, and personal issue.  One that women should care about!  Why are we letting our friends, children, and ourselves be involved in reckless sexual activity without a concern for the consequences?

Think about this:  The abortion debate would resolve itself if we stopped using it as a means of birth control.  If society worked to prevent conception, whether by self-control or birth control, there would be minimal need for abortion.

Why do we accept that invasive surgery is the best solution?  How many people would continue to do an activity that could result in surgery if taking medication, self-control or other options were available to prevent it?

Regardless of your stance on abortion, surgery is a big deal.  With any surgery, there are emotional, physical, and mental consequences.  Have your appendix removed, and you will have physical, emotional and mental consequences.  Remove your wisdom teeth.  Have plastic surgery.  The bottom line is that there will be consequences - and abortion is not immune to this, as the woman involved will have to work through the mental, emotional and physical consequences of it.

The statistics do not show the number of women who got a sexually transmitted disease, became infertile or contracted a fatal disease due to reckless sexual behavior, but those numbers likely greatly exceed the abortion numbers.

As Christians, we need to do a better job framing the issues.  While this is a debate about the death of 87,000 individuals, it is also a debate about the people creating and discarding those individuals.  We need to encourage self-control and wisdom in sexual decision making.

More importantly, we need walk the walk and show restraint: by not supporting the porn-ification of the culture and demonstrating modesty and faithfulness.  Most importantly, we need to show compassion to those who have fallen into this lifestyle who bear the scars of bad choices and the consequences of their actions.

Ten Things I Wish I Knew Sooner

I read a blog about 10 things the author wanted to pass on.  It started me thinking about what I would want to pass on to others.  Here is my quick list.  I expect my thoughts will change as I think about this more.

10.  Be Honest - with everyone, including yourself.
9.  Pray More rather than Less.
8.  There are two emotional traps: being too emotional and not being emotional enough.
7. Choose your friends wisely, for they will influence you greatly.
6.  Get a pet - it will teach you responsibility and be a fountain of life.
5.  Learn to apologize.  You are not perfect.
4.  Laugh.  Especially at yourself.
3.  Sex is a powerful drug. Using it outside marriage can lead to problems with your mental, emotional and physical health.
2.  Be creative.
1.  God loves you; Love Him back.

Illness and Health

I've been fighting a cold since Christmas Eve.  Most of the time, I feel fine, but my voice comes and goes.  I'm hopeful that I am feeling better, and that it will all be gone in a few days.

One thing being sick does is highlight how nice it is to be healthy.  In general, I am not overly sick.  I have an occasional cold or headache, but in general, I don't have to deal with the allergies or medical issues many do.  It is one thing I am very thankful for.

I am aware that as I age, my health will likely gradually fade.  With age comes aches and pains and other illnesses, and I understand I need to take care of what I have now.

To that end, I am hoping to get back to a regular routine of exercise and healthy eating.  I seem to be able to do one or the other well: I am exercising or eating well, but not both.  Maybe 2011 will be the year I achieve both consistently.