SteelerDirtFreak :: 21st Century Missional Redneck Geek   A reformational renaissance redneck who likes football, dirt car racing, and photography tries to figure out what it means to follow after the path of Jesus in this post-Christian world we find ourselves in.

If you’re my regular reader, you know that lately I’ve been referencing some of the hilarious posts from the Tominthebox News Network. And in the past I’ve likewise pointed you to stories from the Holy Observer (sadly, no longer active) and Lark News.

But back in the day, before all of this newfangled internet stuff, there was the original - The Wittenburg Door. Religious satire, at it’s best, in a magazine. Well guess what? The Wittenburg Door now has a blog - The Wittenburg Blog!

From their email that they sent out:

The Wittenburg Blog… It’s the web’s premier blog source for religious humor and satire. A destination of distinction for humor connoisseurs in search of a five-star, exclusive, deluxe stimulation of the funny bone with guaranteed upscale standards, while maintaining a relaxed and casual lifestyle environment. At least, that’s the theory …

What to Look For…
* We’ll have some regular weekly features, like the Ugly Christian Band of the Week, where we’ll review the most important aspect of any Gospel/Christian music group—its style.
* We also plan to have a Weekly Beastie, in which we’ll apply numerology to current news to find out the latest candidate for the AntiChrist.
* And as soon as our tech guru can put it together, we’ll have a weekly Mime Audio Podcast. That’s the feature where celebrity mimes act out significant religious news of the day, like Ted Haggard getting a massage.
* There’ll be a lot of other surprises, too. Parody songs, loopy religious news. Plus comments from readers to sift through.
* Plus, it’s dirt cheap.

Seems like obvious advice; and certainly advice that followers of Jesus should already be practicing. But unfortunately, it’s the kind of common sense advice that, despite ‘knowing it’, is all too easy to ignore.

I was reminded of it the other day when reading this article - Watch What You Say and How You Act - on John Harrington’s blog Photo Business News & Forum. And interestingly enough, we had a men’s group meeting that night at church and we were talking about aspects of being a leader.

We were talking about how Attitude + Integrity + Reputation = Character
And if you’re not careful - watching what you say and how you act all the time (attitude) - your integrity and reputation can be damaged greatly, revealing a flawed character.

This article and then the meeting that night just brought home to me in a very real way that, as a man of God who has committed to follow Jesus, I’m never ‘off duty.’

By now you have heard about the big scam/fantasy show that is going to air on the Discovery Channel this Sunday night. There’s been tons written about and Denny Burk has collected scores of those articles and listed them in one post for easy access. As Burk correctly summarizes:

I think this story has just about run its course. It became clear by mid-week that no reputable scholar (Christian or non-Christian) wants to attribute any credibility to the ideas put forth in James Cameron’s forthcoming documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” Except for the initially credulous coverage by the mainstream media, the rejection has been virtually unanimous.

I wonder, does anyone plan to actually watch this rubbish? When even non-Christian scholars have so universally debunked this schlock, one wonders why Discovery Channel would continue to embarrass themselves by airing this. I would think that the complete and total exposure of this as a phony proposition eliminates any potential water-cooler conversations.

I hadn’t heard about this before today,but one of my favorite authors, Philip Yancey, was recently in a very bad wreck in his SUV. He broke a vertebrae in his neck and, but for the protection and grace of God, it certainly could have been a lot worse than it was.

He wrote an ‘official report’ of his ordeal today for Christianity Today. I know he can use all of our prayers, as he still has much recovering to do.