“It’s the end of the world as we know it, again…”

Growing weary of the ’socialist criticisms’

Multiracial Family Blog

By birth. By adoption. By marriage. By choice. By circumstance.

Just found this – look appropriate to pass along!

What if Jesus meant all that stuff?

Shane Calibourne, author of Irresistible Revolution, worte an article in Esquire this week.  His letter is addressing those who don’t believe.  Here’s the intro:

To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.

Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/shane-claiborne-1209#ixzz0XUgiAQP4

From Sojo.net: Unseen Privilege: The Overlooked Gender Dimension of the Deadly Viper Conversation

Kathy Khang has offered insightful, hilarious, and important perspective on how women are spoken about and portrayed in literature marketed to men.  My favorite excerpt, first quoting the book, then offering some feedback:

“And then there’s little old us looking like school girls with plaid skirts on, because we are unskilled and undisciplined in the area of character. We’re weaklings with rail skinny arms and toothpick legs.” DV, page 11

“So we are asking you to make a choice and a decision right now. We are asking you to go balls out with us and become warriors, fighters, and black belts in the art of integrity. For some, this might be painful. For others, this will simply validate your leadership choices and good decisions. This is the grand master challenge to conquer yourself. We want to party with Master Po! We are warriors in the making.” p. 21

School girls with plaid skirts? Really? And how the *bleep* am I supposed “to go balls out”? Yeah, that’s going to be painful if not impossible. I don’t have balls, thank you very much. What is that even supposed to mean? I asked my husband, because he has balls, and he couldn’t believe his eyes. We both agreed. If any of our kids used that phrase they would know immediately that Mom and Dad were not validating their leadership choices and that using the phrase was not a good decision.
Read the rest of the article here.

Top Ten Posts & Searches of all time on The Link Between

37,000 hits and 2 1/2 years later, here’s what you’re most interested in:

Posts:

1.  Exploding whales on the streets of Taiwan

2.  Differences between Eastern and Western

3.  Clowns vs. the KKK

4.  Transracial Adoption: The Pros and Cons

5.  The Prayer of Oscar Romero

‘6.  Intercultural Marriage, Promises and Pitfalls

7.  Cross-Cultural Kids

8.  Thoughts on raising a mixed raced child

9.  Intercultural Marriage: a Model of Reconciliation

10.  50 Experiences of Racially Mixed People

Searches:

1.  the whale that exploded

2.  exploding whale

3.  intercultural marriage

4.  consumerism

5.  exploding whales

6.  kkk

7.  difference between eastern and western

8.  funny whale

9.  hate crimes

10.  mk2mk

Could someone please explain to me the fascination with exploding whales???

Zondervan issues apology and pulls Deadly Viper from the shelves

What a move!!!  Way to go Zondervan!  See the apology on Soong Chan Rah’s blog.  (If you don’t know about this controversy, read this.)

closing words for the day…

Advent Conspiracy 2009

One of my favorite things from last Christmas – the Advent Conspiracy – has a new promo video out.  Worth a look! 

Intriguing perspectives on women’s ministry

I have a hard time with many approaches to women’s ministries I’ve come across over the years.  It seems that they are often rooted in tea parties, knitting, and garden clubs.  Those things are fine and all, just not particularly my ‘cup of tea’ (no pun intended).  Here are a few perspectives on ways women can minister mercy to each other that I resonate deeply with:

Colour Sisterhood is in intriguing women’s ministry of Hillsong Church.  “The Sisterhood seeks to champion the cause of the orphan child and widow, to come alongside women (near and far) who are facing challenge, and it ultimately seeks to influence nations with the goodness and answers that are to be found in God.”

Discovering God’s Heart for Suffering Women:  A 40-day prayer pilgrimage. Prayer guide from Linwood House Ministries.

30 Days of prayer for the Voiceless:  Addressing global issues of gender-based injustice.  Prayer guide from YWAM.

Living a Purpose-full Life by Jan Johnson.  (Hate the title/cover, LOVE the book & the author)

Growing compassionate kids:  Helping kids see beyond their backyard by Jan Johnson.

I’d love to hear about more resources and organizations like these – please share what you know from around the world!

Bowing to the Japanese Emperor

The web is full of fun stuff tonight!!!  Josh has a very insightful reflection on humility and culture on his site, Black WASP about Obama bowing to the Japanese emperor.  Definitely worth a read!  Eugene Cho also weighed in with some good thoughts.  I also thought Tokyo Moe highlighted an interesting inconsistency:  “Never mind how W walked hand-in-hand with the Saudi Arabian royal petro dealers or cozied up perched on their arm rests.”

Ministering to Uprooted Peoples and Advent Adventures

Found this article today about ministering to refugees by S. Tilewa Johnson, the Anglican archbishop of Angola on a great advent reflection on Idelette.com.

In her reflection, Idelette quotes Johnson’s article:

Whilst still a small baby, Jesus became a refugee. Jesus, his mother, Mary, and Joseph had the experience of being dispossessed and marginalized as aliens in a foreign land. The immediacy of their departure is striking. The angel instructs Joseph to ‘get up . . . take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. So he got up . . . immediately.’ They no doubt collected a few belongings. However, was there time to say farewell to loved ones? That is very doubtful.

Like the Holy Family, the stories we hear from refugees reflect the “immediacy” of their departure. If, for example, they are working in the fields when an attack comes, there is often no time to return to their house, or even to find close relatives, such as one’s wife, husband or children. Very often families are fragmented when the violence of war enters their lives and they are forced to flee to save those lives.

Since I’m in the mood for some good quotes…

“All his life long, wherever Jesus looked, he saw the world not in terms simply of its brokenness, but in terms of the ultimate mystery of God’s presence buried in it like a treasure buried in a field.” – Frederick Buechner

Loneliness is the leprosy of the West

“In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty. There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives–the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. These poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.“

-Mother Teresa

Rilke poem

I cut this out of a Word Made Flesh magazine a few months back and keep it on the side of my fridge (along with a growing collection of other meaningful poems).  Thought it may speak to some of you…

 

You, sent out beyond your recall

Go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

 

Flare up like a flame

And make big shadows I can move in.

 

Let everything happen to you:  beauty and terror.

Just keep going.  No feeling is final. 

Don’t let yourself lose me.

 

Nearby is the country they call life

You will know it by its seriousness.

 

Give me your hand.

 

-Ranier Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours

 

Why does “Asian” = “East Asian” in America?

Something has baffled me for awhile now, and I’m wondering if anyone else can shed some light on this.  In following the Deadly Viper controversy that emerged last week, I was reminded once again, that when Americans refer to “Asian”, they really mean “East Asian” (i.e. China, Korea, Japan, etc.)  South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc.) is really left completely out of the discussion, as evidenced by this website - I browsed a bit and everything was rooted in East Asian cultures.  A simple Google Image search turns up almost all photos showing East Asians.

Whenever I teach, I generally try to refer to ‘East Asia’ or ‘South Asia’ because while the areas have some things in common, there’s a lot of culture that they don’t share.  I hear my family refer to themselves at times as “Asian”, but they don’t ever seem to be ‘counted’ in the Asian discussion – this is reserved for East Asians.  I’m not passing judgment on either side -  just questioning something I don’t understand very well.  Has anyone else ever wondered this?  Is there history to it?