10.25.07
Who Saw the Fox News Debate?
If you saw the Fox News Republican Debate Sunday night, you saw just how crazy Sean Hannity can be. When Giulliani didn’t come in first in their text message poll following the debate, and especially since Ron Paul (AGAIN!) came in first, Hannity reasserted crazy conspiracy theories about how Ron Paul supporters are spammers or hackers or whatever would give them the ability to inflate the polling results. (Of course, he didn’t say that Huckabee’s supporters were spammers, even though he came in second place in the polling, with all of the “first-tier” candidates coming in a good bit behind those two.) Worse than the text message polling results was the “voter panel” that What’s-his-head (with the weird mannerisms) interviewed, who all (with only a couple of exceptions) touted Giulliani as the winner of the debate. What annoyed me most was that the “fair and balanced” interviewer kept making statments like, “Clearly, Giulliani came out the big winner tonight.” “Clearly”? To whom? I normally like Fox News in alot of things, but “clearly,” their political bias is toward Giulliani, who always gets first crack at the post-debate audience, and whom Hannity always drools over.
Well, for those of you who were frustrated with Hannity’s attitude toward Dr. Paul (the way my wife and i were), here’s a little parody of the debate you might enjoy.
10.23.07
Our Little LilliAna
Our daughter, LilliAna is now two (as of 10:30 PM, October 23), and she is as precocious as ever. She’s got a way about her that is hilarious, cute, and disobedient all in one.
At church on Sunday night, Angela was breastfeeding while i was teaching, and she was wanting to be her usual rambunctious self. Well, Angela told her that she needed to sit down and be quiet, or Daddy would spank her. Of course, LilliAna is a very intelligent child for two, and she looked at her Mama, shaking her head, and said, “No, Daddy reading Jesus.”
It was funny tonight, too. She was sitting in her high chair eating her evening snack before she gets ready for bed, and i started a little game we play with each other. I hand her something to eat, and say “Eat it!” and she gives it right back to me and says, “YOU eat it!” and we go back and forth doing that to each other. Well, after we did that a few times with her cheese and crackers, she picked up her Cinderella juice bottle she was drinking from (she has several juice bottles that originally came with apple juice in them with little plastic figures of the Disney princesses around the straw of each one), and as she poked the cracker in Cinderella’s little face, she said, “YOU eat it!” Of course, Cinderella didn’t respond—she’s plastic! So, LilliAna looked at Cinderella again, this time with a scowl, and said sternly, “You HEAR me???”
10.11.07
“RLCs” and the Role of Government
In my time in the Southern Baptist Convention, i remember folks who held to the view that the words of Jesus (in the older Bibles, these words are printed in red to set them off from the other words) were more important, represented a higher teaching, and were more fundamental to Christianity than the words elsewhere. They usually represented a more liberal strain of Christianity. In the fight over Scripture’s inspiration among Southern Baptists, those who stood against the folks who advocated verbal plenary inspiration always had a kind of interpretive grid. In fact, in the Baptist Faith and Message, the closest thing to a creed/confession that Southern Baptists officially have, in the 1963 version, there was one particular line in Article I, speaking of the Scriptures, which said: “The criterion by which the Bible is
to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.” Well, the self-proclaimed “moderates” (really, those who wanted to dismiss the whole idea of inerrancy and infallibility) always would take hold of that phrase (as anti-creedal as they always claimed to be) and would drive it home that we must interpret the Bible through Jesus and his words.
Well, apparently, Tony Campollo is one of those guys. I guess i shouldn’t be all that surprised at the fact. He’s not Southern Baptist (he’s American Baptist), but he still fits that same bill. These folks are called, not surprisingly, “Red Letter Christians,” and Campollo really puts this whole way of looking at the Bible forward in his book Letters to a Young Evangelical.
The way this came up was by reading a kind of “rebuttal” of sorts that Stan Guthrie wrote about the whole concept and the political ideas that come across from that kind of thinking (invariably left-leaning, politically), and he takes Campollo to task personally about it. It’s actually a very balanced and gentle critique that makes excellent points not only about that hermeneutic, but it’s own blindness to see that those ideas are politically ideological, and really politically motivated before they are religiously informed, even if they claim otherwise. Campollo gives an answer to Guthrie’s critique (and gives away the farm, if you ask me). It’s a really interesting read.
Really the point of contention between politically left-leaning Christians and politically right-leaning Christians is not whether you’re for protecting the environment, seeing equality and social justice, stopping the slaughter of infant children in the protection of the womb, or even wanting to feed and clothe the destitute. The real point is whether it is the job of the government to accomplish those things. This is where even a good healthy dose of political separation of Church and State is proper, and it is also the place where a healthy view of the truth of all Scripture equally would help people realize that Scripture itself has a bunch to say about the limitation of the powers of the government to enforcing the most basic moral principles to keep society in proper order. That’s their delegated task from God—not to control the Church, not to co-opt the Church, and not to leave off doing its own job by trying to tell the Church what to do and how. Apparently, though, politically liberal Christians seem to think that it is the job of the government to do that. And that means that, ironically enough, all the Christians who talk about the government enforcing equal rights, government feeding the poor and providing them with healthcare, government doing anything other than enforcing common morality and maintaining order in society, they are the ones who advocate a defacto combining of Church and State.
The real clincher for me in this discussion, especially where RLCs are concerned, is the marked lack of anything from the mouth of Jesus that tells us that it is the job of government to enforce his teaching or that the Christian purpose should be so to influence the government as to do the job of the Church. It’s just funny to me that people who put so much stock in the words of Jesus (to be clear, Jesus’ words are absolutely important, but just as important as all other words of Scripture) above all else would ignore the silence of Jesus in directing that the government be as closely involved in what they seek to see done. It simply strikes me as a kind of laziness: wanting something done, but wanting someone to do it for you—that’s really an indemic problem in the Church today, anyway.
10.09.07
FINALLY!!!
Sixty-seven hours and one minute after her water broke, Angela finally gave birth to our new baby boy, William Marshall Austin, IV. He weighed 8 lbs. and was 21 inches long.
We were really worried about Angela for a while there. Her labor was so hard through the night Sunday night when we went in, and we were just sure that she was making good progress, but Monday morning when the midwife examined her, she saw that she was only 4 cm. dilated. Angela was so disappointed and discouraged. Part of her problem was with her pelvis being twisted, where the ends that should come together to make a circle through which the baby would come weren’t lined up, and the ends were twisted to where they were partially blocking the opening. So, yesterday morning, she went to the chiropractor to get lined back up again. That seemed to help relieve part of her pain, but her labor throughout the rest of the day was very hard and still very unproductive. At around 17:00, the midwife checked her again, and she was only dilated to 6 cm. The only thing that helped was that the midwife pushed the baby back off of Angela’s pelvis and turned him a bit, and when she did that, the cervix popped open, and she was able really to push.
We were all so very relieved when the baby finally came. We were constantly monitoring his heartbeat, and he was strong and healthy all through, but we still were worried that Angela might have to go to the hospital and be chocked full of drugs and possibly have a c-section. Angela was hysterical at the thought of that possibility. So, we were very happy that Will came when he did. LilliAna has been flitting around getting into everything trying to be the center of attention, but she really loves her baby brother and is always wanting to hold him.
10.07.07
A Little Closer
Well, we had thought that, once the water broke, the labor would progress faster this time than last. Well, that just hasn’t happened. When LilliAna was born, Angela went 43 hours and 25 minutes from the time her water broke until LilliAna was born. Well, we’re at 42 hours now, and her contractions just started in some significance a little over an hour ago. They’re about 6-10 minutes apart, and lasting about 10-15 seconds now.
We’re so hoping that this child can be coaxed out into the real world before this day is done. Keep praying. We’re fairly close. I’ll be sure to post a pic when we have one of mama and baby.
10.06.07
Back…and Forth: Redivivus
Well, yesterday, having no labor in sight, i decided to go back to Coeburn. I left yesterday at around 14:30 to head back, and i got home at about 18:00. I went to get ready for Sunday, to make sure i had my sermon complete, the bulletin in order, and the communion service in place.
Well, i had called a few people in the church to let them know i was back, and i wanted to find out if there was anything we needed in terms of food for the fellowship meal we’re planning for Sunday. I continued work on the stuff i needed to get done for Sunday’s service.
Well, at around 23:00, my mother called and told me that Angela’s water had broken. Well, that just threw a wrench into everything about my plans. So, i just put everything back into the car that i had just taken out, and i drove all the way back down to SC.
Bad news is that, even though it has been 14 hours now, Angela’s contractions still haven’t started in any kind of strength. So, i had to go to the herbal store and get some blue cohosh and black cohosh, which is supposed to help encourage the contractions. She mixes 2 ml of each into a little water and swallows it down (i don’t mind saying that i am glad she’s the one that has to drink it and not i!). So, she’s been doing that for almost two hours now. If this doesn’t work, she’s probably going to have to go over to the mid-wife’s office and let the doctor give her something stronger (prescription) that will induce labor.
Pray that Angela’s labor progresses properly and that both mama and baby will be healthy.
10.04.07
Ever Have a Helicopter Land in Your Yard?
Well, i had fleetingly thought about going back to Coeburn tonight before supper. Of course, Angela didn’t want me to go, and so i stayed for her sake. And, because of what we had happen, i’m rather glad i did.
So, we were watching the new episode of CSI, where Gill and Sarah get in trouble for having their office romance, and just as we got to the climax of the whole episode, before we could find out what happened to the kid who lost his head and what would happen with Gill and Sarah, just then, we got a frantic and very unexpected knock at the front door. I followed my mother to the door (because you never know what kind of person you could find in such a situation), and there we saw a state trooper holding a flash light. He told us that they were planning on landing a med-evac helicopter in the yard here (my parents have about an acre and a half in their front yard) to med-flight a person from the street just over from us. As soon as we told him that was fine, we saw a helicopter descending into the yard and land on the area they had marked out with battery-powered flashing lights.
They put down the helicopter on the yard in the light drizzling rain, and in about eight minutes, they had the person loaded into the vehicle and it took off again. They never told us the person’s identity or the person’s problem, but it was neat to have that kind of opportunity to see the emerengy medical technicians doing their job. Not to mention having a helicopter to land in the yard! I took a picture (just to have proof for some of you skeptics), and i’ll see if i can get it posted sometime soon.
Update (October 9):
I got the picture uploaded, and you can see what i’m talking about, and that i’m telling the truth (as strange as the whole thing sounds). The bad news is that the lady who was med-flighted out last Thursday died yesterday. She had a brain aneurism burst. The very strange thing about the situation was that her mother who lived down the street my parents live on (back when this was my grandparents’ house) died of a brain aneurism 11 years ago, and even more strange, she also died on October 8.
Still No Baby
Well, i’ve been with Angela in Greer since Monday, and we still have no indication as to when the baby will come. Angela is now 37 weeks along, so according to the standard gestation, she is just under three weeks away; the due date is actually October 21. However, the baby is actually “full term” at 37 weeks and could come any day now, and especially since LilliAna was over a week early, we’re pretty sure the new baby will come much sooner than October 21. The only question is how much sooner.
If the baby hasn’t come by tomorrow, i’m going to head back to Coeburn until i get the call. We’re actually scheduled to have communion this Sunday, and for all my trying, i couldn’t find an ordained man available to fill in for me. I doubt that the Lord in his providence will deprive his people of the sacrament for the sake of my little baby. It’s better that i am there to administer the Eucharist this one time in the fall than to be waiting around here for this little one. If, however, she does go into labor, i’ll stay around and be with my dear wife.
If you think about it, pray that the Lord would bring the baby sooner than later, though. Angela is still in much pain. She’s basically limping around everywhere she goes. We went to Babies ‘R’ Us yesterday, and i had to wheel her around in one of the wheel chairs they provide there. She just needs the baby to be born. Yesterday wouldn’t have been too soon.
Other than that, not much is going on. I’ve started reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s Salmarillion. It’s pretty good. It’s not nearly as engaging and compelling as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it does provide rather a lot of the background legend and mythology behind the stories we’ve all come to know and love. I haven’t seen it yet, as little as i’ve gotten into it, but i’m sure that the connections i’ll see will help me to understand the whole story of Bilbo and Frodo much later, at the end of the Third Age of Middle Earth. Interestingly enough, according to Tolkien himself, not only is the whole story not some extended allegory (that was obvious, but he’s explicit), but the elves in Middle Earth, who i thought were always good and virtuous and even as we might call “holy,” are really rather of a rebellious lot, being in Middle Earth because they rebelled against the gods in Valinor who summoned them upon their awakening. In other words, their very existence in Middle Earth, while providing help and friendship to men, was a rebellion against the gods. This all happened in the First Age of Middle Earth (the Age of the Trees). I’m looking forward to becoming more well-versed in the whole Middle Earth mythos. It has always fascinated me. Feel free to give me any pointers you might have to helping to better understand the whole history there.
