Passover Animated: If Moses Had Internet

My home-church often has a seder to commemorate Jesus' final Passover and Christianity's Jewish roots. This year Passover will begin at sunset on April 18th, so here's something to get you in the spirit over the course of this next week...

Or just to geek out over an animated retelling of Exodus. Either one.

The Con Man: Hell Is All There Is

Check out this great piece from Six Sentences, a blog of creative submissions, each only six sentences long.

This one by David Blanton is an interesting follow-up to my recent "Overheard" post about one view of hell.

"Conning came natural to me. When I was 13, I met the man who would change my life, a con artist who called me Adam even though that's not my name..." Read more.

Shane Claiborne and The Simple Way

This is a chapel service at Drew (February 2011) in which the community welcomed activist and author Shane Claiborne to speak about his prophetic ministry, "The Simple Way."

I should have shared these videos in the first place, so please pretend that I'm not just posting them because I'm currently working on an assignment about Claiborne (and because I'm not signing into facebook during Lent, getting the codes to post these videos on AmenAbility was the best vaguely-facebookless way for me to review them!).

No, this service is worth sharing. I have mixed thoughts on Claiborne and his ministerial work, and I'm still struggling through this very short yet somehow agonizing assignment, but Claiborne has managed to work his way into several interesting conversations with colleagues and with others outside of Drew.

So see for yourself. What do you think?

And now excuse me while I go and write my pretend-letter homework.

Why Don't You Want to Pray?

Wisdom from the film Then She Found Me (2007)


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This is not an extraordinarily memorable film, but I do appreciate the following scene in particular. Beautiful exploration of one's relationship to - and distance from - God, especially in times of fear, anger, and frustration.

At the hospital, April (Helen Hunt) is preparing for in vitro fertilization. Her mother Bernice (Bette Midler) accompanies her. It has been established that April is a practicing Jew and Bernice is essentially agnostic.

Bernice [to April]: "Do you want to pray?" [to the medical staff, smiling] "She does that. She prays." [to April] "Want to say a little prayer or something?"

April [curtly]: "No."

Bernice [to the staff]: "I'm so sorry to interrupt..."

April: "What is the matter with you?"

Bernice [to the staff]: "Could you, uh, give us a minute?"

April: "Bernice! Listen to me. Right now."

Bernice: "I know, I'm sorry. Just a minute."

Doctor: "Just find us when you're ready. We'll be around." [Staff exit.]

April [to Bernice, annoyed]: "What?"

Bernice: "Why don't you want to pray?"

April: "What do you care?"

Bernice: "I don't. I don't give a s---. But you do. You told me that. You pray before you eat a bowl of spaghetti! And now, right before you do the most important thing you'll do in your life, suddenly you're not interested?"

April: "This is none of your business." [She walks across the room, but Bernice blocks her.] "Get out of my way."

Bernice: "Say a prayer with me and I will."

April: "I don't want to pray."

Bernice [gently]: "One stupid little prayer."

April: "No." [Bernice blocks her again.] "Move!"

Bernice: "Maybe you just don't want it enough."

April: "You have no idea how badly I want this."

Bernice: "Then why won't you pray? Why?"

April: "Because I'm not going to hand this wish over to some..." [pause] "...whatever it is - who's supposed to be loving. Who..." [silence, then whispers weakly] "I had faith in. I thought... God was... good."

Bernice [gently]: "Maybe God is..."

April: "What?"

Bernice: "Difficult. Awful. Complicated."

April: "Like me?" [pauses in full realization of a past error] "I took the one man on earth who's right for me and I dropped him on his head."

Bernice: "Right. You did."

Just before the procedure, April sings the Shema, a beautiful prayer in Hebrew, thus beginning a journey of reconciliation - with God, with others, and with herself.

Overheard in Madison: Hell Is...

Bits of a conversation I overheard in town today.

Note that all use of the word "you" was implied not to mean the listener, but a generic, indiscriminate person.

Teen to Adult: "But the thing with me is, I don't believe in God. I don't believe you're going to heaven or hell. I believe your belief is a choice. And if you believe in God, I respect that. . . . I believe there's a heaven, a hell and a purgatory. And hell is where you live in your nightmares, and purgatory is neutral."


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The teen never did give an idea of what heaven might be. I think this is a theology in progress.