John Poole/NPR

NPR posted the first long interview with Roxana Saberi today since her return home from Iran. It sounds like the “buying alcohol” and espionage charges were all untrue. She made a false confession to being  a U.S. spy and talks about then recanting and why she recanted:

“so I made a false confession and I said, “Yes, I’m a U.S. spy.” But because my conscience got the better of me and the God that I believe in — the God that I thought had abandoned me when I was first in prison — I realized [he] was always with me. And I realized that he was not pleased with what I had done by making this false confession. I recanted my confession, knowing full well that I would jeopardize my freedom.”

It’s fascinating because by recanting she knew the prosecutor would be mad and sure enough they were and she went to the one hour trial that initially ended with an eight year prison sentence:

“And indeed, that’s what happened: The prosecutor got upset with me for recanting my confession and sent my case to trial instead of freeing me, and that’s when I was sentenced to eight years in prison. I knew this was going to happen when I recanted my confession, but I told myself, I would rather tell the truth and stay in prison instead of telling lies to be free. And I didn’t want to set an example for people to come after me, that they have to give confessions in order to be free. Because even if you become free after telling lies, I felt, my conscience would always remain behind bars.”

“Because even if you become free after telling lies, I felt, my conscience would always remain behind bars.” Impressive woman.

A friend, Teresa, posted this on her Facebook and it caught my attention. Very compelling message from “Ain’t No Reason” by Brett Dennen – here’s one verse and the chorus:

Prison walls still standing tall,
Some things never change at all.
Keep on buildin’ prisons, gonna fill them all,
Keep on buildin’ bombs, gonna drop them all.
Working your fingers bear to the bone,
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul.
Like a lung that’s filled with coal, suffocatin’ slow.
The wind blows wild and I may move,
The politicians lie and I am not fooled.
You don’t need no reason or a three piece suit to argue the truth.
The air on my skin and the world under my toes,
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes,
Chaos and commotion wherever I go, love I try to follow.

Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.

The best radio show you’ve likely never heard of happens here in Seattle from 7 to 10 pm in 97.3 FM: Too Beautiful to Live with Luke Burbank. Beyond the radio world’s heated debate over whether it should or shouldn’t endure it is simply darn good radio by a darn funny guy who once let me ride his powder-blue scooter around the block during college. Luke and my buddy Ben were fast friend-os and I enjoyed any time I had with Luke. I’ve been told I have a good sense of humor. Luke has a sense of humor you can make a living off. Along with Jen Andrews and Sean DeTore they offer wit and an endless supply of pop culture commentary that’s fresh radio air in Seattle. So today’s study break features a “fiendishly brilliant” bus ad they blogged about:

The Most Effective Advertisement Ever Made. Ever. Ever.

This is a bus stop ad for a Dutch gym. When you sit on the bench, it displays your weight. I’m torn between feeling awe at how brilliant this is and horror at how fiendishly brilliant it is.

Anyone else out there seen something this good? Hey, at least for the woman on the bench, I don’t understand the metric system! She’s light as a feather to my eyes! Anyhoo, when you’re in need of a break, check out their site and podcast TBTL. It’s worth it!

Working in ministry means you get invited into some of the most intimate times in people’s lives – both the joyous and tragic, and sometimes they overlap. I had the honor of doing the funeral earlier this year for Walt David, an older man I admired greatly from my home town. It truly was a bitter-sweet time of honoring the man and seeking to encourage his family and friends. Yesterday, Eugene Cho posted a poignant entry on his blog about the recent death of his congregant and friend, Craig Wong. When Kristi and I were attending Eugene’s church, Quest, after leaving the Seattle Vineyard, I would hear reports of Craig’s battle with brain cancer, though I did not know Craig or his family.  Throughout his treatment, writes Eugene, Craig began sharing “life lessons”:

Over the past 15 months, rather than wallowing in self pity, Craig had been preaching, teaching, speaking, calling, writing, emailing, and blogging to as many of his friends and family and anyone else who were willing to listen.  He wrote on his blog and called them “Craig’s Life Lessons.”  I believe that the Holy Spirit was impressing such things upon his heart and so in a desire to honor Craig’s life and faith, I want to share Craig’s 7 LIFE LESSONS with you:

Life Lesson #1:
None of you should fear death either. What you should fear is “not living” Make sure that you truly live during your life. Don’t just coast through life. Don’t just go through the motions. If you do, you will miss out on the gifts that God has provided for us. Make an effort to spend quality time with your kids everyday; Spend regular quality time with your family and friends. Don’t miss out on what life has to offer.

Life Lesson #2:
Don’t put things off. If you’ve been wanting to take a trip with the family or If you’ve always wanted to do something – do it now. Don’t put it off – there might not be a tomorrow.

Life Lesson #3:
Don’t take anything for granted. Live a good life. Be thankful to God for everything that you have. Be thankful for your family. Cherish the time you have with them. Be thankful for your health. Be thankful for being able to be carefree. Be thankful for every moment that you have on this Earth.

I’ve posted the first three here but you should head over to Eugene’s blog to read the others. It’s a wonderful list and a great testimony to Craig’s life.

I’ve always loved David Letterman’s shows and as a kid used to sneak out of bed at my grandparent’s house, sit in my grandpa’s big recliner and put his pipe laced with velvet tobacco and nicotine flavoring in my mouth and watch Late Night with Dave. In recent years, I’ve noticed what a good interviewer David Letterman can be. Seriously. When he has a political leader or more intellectual guest on, he can really hold his own. I think this has even surprised some unwitting guests. The most recent example of this was Sen. John McCain during the campaign last year. Many will remember

McCain snubbing Dave and fibbing just a bit about why he had to bail. That of course set Dave off on a campaign of his own to criticize the Republican nominee – sometimes humorously and sometimes quite seriously (see: satire). Eventually McCain had to take his medicine and return to face the music–whichever cliche you choose, it was awkward for McCain. You can watch it here. And frankly, I appreciated

Photo: NY Times

Dave for this interview because once he dispensed chastising McCain for dissing him, he moved on to challenging some of the McCain campaign’s questionable tactics and the senator’s own relationship with G. Gordon Liddy. I was a pretty faithful (addict) follower of the campaign, and I can’t remember anyone being as tough on McCain as Letterman was. Frankly, it was refreshing.

Then Letterman did a fearless job challenging Milorad “Rod” R. Blagojevich – the now impeached governor of Illinois. Dave let loose the second Blagojevich sat down asking, “Why exactly are you here, honest to God?” The then-governor answered, “I’ve been wanting to be on your show in the worst way for the longest time.” To which Letterman quipped, “Well, you’re on in the worst way, believe me.” Once again, I sat thinking, “Wow – why don’t journalists get after these guys this way?” Then, on a somewhat lighter note, there was the quite silly visit by M.C. Joaquin Phoenix. Regardless of whether Phoenix was just ‘in character’ or whether this was the too-legit-to-quit new Joaquin, it was Letterman at his best – “What can you tell me about your days with the unibomber?” Classic.

That leads to today’s example of relational similarity:  Bob Woodward was to Carl Bernstein what John Stewart is to David Letterman. Huh?! Last night on The Daily Show with J.S., Jim Cramer “stepped into the (proverbial) octagon” with Stewart. And how’d it go? John Stewart hit him like a populist Mack truck going 80 mph. Cramer didn’t seem like a total schmutz – in fact overall he seems like one of the good guys (at least going forward and now that he’s not managing a hedge fund). However, Stewart put his feet to the fire – and all of CNBC – over how they reported on the financial crisis. In specific how they appeared to be almost in cahoots with dishonest CEOs and large corporations, or at least negligent in “missing” the depths of the collapse.  It was a populist beat-down – particularly when Stewart played grainy video clips of Cramer himself endorsing and admitting dubious behavior as a hedge fund manager.

more about “Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1 |…“, posted with vodpod

You can watch the rest of the interview on Stewart’s site here.

In closing, I say, as long as our government leaders are still sneaking in the pork, why not slide in a mandate that folks who need a little “feet to the fire” treatment trek before Letterman or Stewart? Because frankly, with the passing of Tim Russert, I’m beginning to think they’re the only ones willing to ask the hard questions right to their faces.

TIME magazine released it’s list of “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now” and number 3 on the list was “The New Calvinism”. This is a powerful movement led, says TIME, by “the pioneering new-Calvinist John Piper of Minneapolis, Seattle’s pugnacious Mark Driscoll and Albert Mohler, head of the Southern Seminary of the huge Southern Baptist Convention.” Mark, on his Resurgence blog, posted 4 reasons”New Calvinism” is powerful (besides the fact that they love MMA figting) – essentially how it is different than old Calvinism:

1. Old Calvinism was fundamental or liberal and separated from or syncretized with culture. New Calvinism is missional and seeks to create and redeem culture.
2. Old Calvinism fled from the cities. New Calvinism is flooding into cities.
3. Old Calvinism was cessationistic and fearful of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. New Calvinism is continuationist and joyful in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
4. Old Calvinism was fearful and suspicious of other Christians and burned bridges. New Calvinism loves all Christians and builds bridges between them.

Now, I consider myself heavily influence by reformed theology and I am a Protestant by theological tradition, not Catholic (though I have a close Catholic friend who likes to remind me he’s saving a seat for me whenever I’m ready to stop wandering and come home – I just might!). However, I would not consider myself among the “new Calvinists” though I’m sure we agree on much more than we disagree. I simply have not experienced much of Mark’s 4 “Mark-ers” of new Calvinism. I came across the article and Mark’s blog entry a couple of places, one of which was Eugene Cho’s excellent blog. Here’s the comment I made there:

beattieblog Says:
Thursday, March 12, 2009 at

Honestly, my first (cynical) reaction to the 4 ideals listed on Mark’s blog was to think, “Terrific! Now, where is that happening among the new Calvinists?” I want to believe that those values are driving the movement but other than #2, I need to see more evidence. As you’ve stated several times, Mark is an unbelievably gifted communicator and cultural exegete (#2). But there’s also a well-documented pattern of tone and approach that I think contradicts particularly #4. Now, if setting out those four markers represents a true shift towards those ideals, that’s exciting news. And perhaps my exposure to neo-Calvinism has been too limited. I’m sorry, Eugene, to be a tad cynical, but particularly regarding #4 and somewhat regarding #3, that has not been my experience. Here’s to hoping for more evidence to the contrary! It is very interesting that it was so high on the TIME list.

Well, it appears to be U2 week for me as I wade through the final days of classes for Winter quarter. I wish my classes were as straight forward as “three chords and the truth”. Alas, for Hebrew students those three chords would probably have about 12 different vowel combinations, they’d have to be read backwards and nobody around you would understand what you were saying! But I digress…back to what brought me here. So today’s study break is nothing new and comes via Willow Creek’s videography department. It’s a video of Bono’s song about Africa which is really about heaven (I think) along with accompanying scriptures. Many of you know Bono began quoting/praying from the end of Psalm 116 (from The Message) during this tour as the intro to ‘Streets’ – in fact, a similar performance was the live half time act of that year’s NBA finals – prayer and all. Perhaps the best version of this ever is this one here from their ‘home field’. The version nuanced by Willow Creek (below) includes a snippet from Bono’s 2006 National Prayer Breakfast talk and is suitable for church, youth groups and pubs.

Here’s what I’m struck by this time: Bono practices an open table and invites everyone, everyone. Within the world of Christian communion/Eucharist there’s a debate about whether or not those who would not self-identify as Christians should participate in the sacrament of bread and wine/grape juice. Watching this video, I can guess where Bono falls on this one – open. He practices an open table stadium and once seated, invites everyone there to stand, shout, jump and sing along with him as he praises God, laments about women and love lost, the cost of war and injustice, etc. Sort of like a romp through the Old Testament with a great rhythm section.

BONUS: Bono talking about and singing Woody Guthrie’s Jesus Christ:

I spout a lot of fan-atic words about Bono and his band U2. But my appreciation of him goes beyond his status as front man for the greatest rock band in the world. I also realize he does more to debunk his neo-messiah and straight-laced Christian status than anyone ever could – he is not perfect. But he has had his mind altered by a love for Africa and a passion for the plight of many Africans. And he gets the biblical concept of justice – its power and its demand to not be ignored – better than most 52-week-a-year-church-attending Christians. As Bono puts it about 1/2 way through the talk below:  “It’s a pain in the arse, this equality business.” So this study break is a little headier but just as melodic in it’s own way with a message as powerful as “Pride (In the Name of Love).” It’s Bono’s 2005 acceptance speech for the TED award.

So as I sat down to study today I did my usual perusal of the headlines online and saw this one:

Meghan McCain calls Ann Coulter ‘offensive’ and ’insulting’

Meghan McCain, PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

Meghan McCain bashing Ann Coulter? Well, who doesn’t want to bash (verbally and metaphorically of course) Ann “will say anything for a buck” Coulter?  But John McCain’s daughter? Anyways, it was worth a read. That then led me to her current series on “The Daily Beast” political blog and her own blog(ette), “McCainBlogette.com“. I was an outspoken supporter of Obama during the campaign and despite my disagreements with him on some issues, am still very happy he’s president. I also have always had a measure of respect for John McCain that wasn’t completely eroded by the campaign. Reading Meghan’s posts are a refreshing peek into the experience of being a major politician’s family member, and what it’s like being a young, hip, Republican (yes, I suppose that is possible). Anyhoo, they’re a fun, interesting read from a fun, interesting voice. I laughed especially hard at the last line of her tale of recent dating woes – “Looking for Mr. Far Right”. I better start saving for my campaign “war chest” – my daughter’s already 2…

PS: a completely off-topic funny side-note. The spell-checker in my blog gives me a wavy red line for the word “blog”. Hmmm.

Well, Bono continued to turn the world into his own living room one performance at a time – or in this case, five at a time. David Letterman got in on the “No Line on the Horizon” media blitz by hosting the greatest band in the world as the musical act all five nights last week. So here’s the latest in my “study break” category: