The First Annual FCC Joke Show

This past weekend at FCC, I spoke on the topic of joy and laughter. This was the 9-minute intro, in which we did nothing but tell jokes. The goal was to get people to laugh, so ideally, it will make you laugh, too.

Thus far, I've been incredibly pleased because nine people have emailed me - 7 telling me how glad they were that I made jokes in church and two to tell me how mortally offended they were. Dave Tieche - pissing off overly religious people since 1975.

The file is pretty large (90MB) so YouTube has been having a hard time processing it. I also posted it here so you might have to wait a few minutes for it to load. But I think you'll find it's worth it.

Patriotism: Two Opposing Views

I read this article over the 4th of July when I was in London, on my way back from Africa. It articulated - in a way I had never thought about - the difference between the brands/types of patriotism. These are seen often, played out in party politics.

Pride of the Past
The conservative answer is implicit in the title of John McCain's 1999 book, Faith of My Fathers. Why should we love America? In part, at least, because our forefathers did. Think about the lyrics to America ("My Country, 'Tis of Thee"): "Land where my fathers died,/ Land of the Pilgrims' pride." Most liberals don't consider those the best lines of the song. What about the Americans whose fathers died somewhere else? What about all the nasty stuff the Pilgrims did? But conservatives generally want to conserve, and that requires a reverence for the past. What McCain's title implies is that patriotism isn't a choice; it's an inheritance. Being born into a nation is like being born into a religion or a family. You may be called on to reaffirm the commitment as you reach adulthood--as McCain did by joining the military--but it is impressed upon you early on, by those who have come before.

And then there's the liberal definition of patriotism.

Hope for the Future
If conservatives tend to see patriotism as an inheritance from a glorious past, liberals often see it as the promise of a future that redeems the past. Consider Obama's original answer about the flag pin: "I won't wear that pin on my chest," he said last fall. "Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism." Will make this country great? It wasn't great in the past? It's not great as it is? The liberal answer is, Not great enough. For liberals, America is less a common culture than a set of ideals about democracy, equality and the rule of law. American history is a chronicle of the distance between those ideals and reality. And American patriotism is the struggle to narrow the gap. Thus, patriotism isn't about honoring and replicating the past; it's about surpassing it.

The author's point is that this dichotomy is a false choice. Of course, I agree. I also tend to lean toward the second definition. Anyone who has taken even a cursory look at history can clearly see that the sunny, patriotic tone of most school textbooks is simply...crap.

Interestingly enough, this shed some light onto why some colleagues of mine at FCC get incredibly nervous when I point out the massive historical failures of the church to live up to the dictates of Christ. They see it as a lack of love. Just as some conservatives viewed MLK's criticism of America as a lack of patriotism. It wasn't. It isn't. Maybe this article will help the sides be more aware of each other.

You can read the whole article here.

One Year Old

It's been one year since the anniversary of me becoming a father to a daughter. To honor my baby girl, I thought I'd reference this post from a year ago that recounts the story of her birth.

You can read it here.

At Least He Said "Please"

Drivers in Orlando have been treated a rare treat: a billboard that suggests that voting for Barack Obama will result in more terrorist attacks on the U.S.

The man behind this billboard is Mike Meehan, a St. Cloud businessman and musician. Politicians from both sides of the aisles have condemned the ad, but I think everyone is missing the point, which is that manners are not dead.

Hey, just because you finance an inflammatory billboard likening the policies of the rival political party to being a likely to cause terrorist attacks to increase doesn't mean you have to be mean about it.

Derek Redmond and His Dad

I just saw a Visa Commercial during a rerun of Scrubs. I started crying uncontrollably.

You can watch the whole clip here.

Watch as Derek's father shoves off security guards to get to his boy. As he reaches his son, all he said was simply, "I'm here son."

My son is sleeping in the other room, and I can't stop sobbing.

4th of July: Family Problems

This skit was featured during week 2 of FCC's sermon series "Toxic" which dealt with how to handle toxic family members.

The skit was written in a brainstorming session with the drama team. Ben Van Meter and Allison Praisewater started arguing about their fourth of July plans. Ben insisted that parades were lame, while Allison vehemently argued that they weren't. As they bantered, I just started typing.

Sometimes, the best material falls right in your lap. The result was this skit, which is funny, but made funnier by the casting of Heidi Morrison opposite of sweet Allison. Kudos to Cindra, who directed a difficult skit with more moving parts than either of us expected.

Warning: Heidi's line: "You need to back off with your Clue hating. It's an intense game of logic and deduction" is delivered to perfectly that you might blow a gasket laughing. At least I did.

You can download and watch a larger file here, or just click on the YouTube file below.

Being a Pharisee

Two weekends ago, FCC's started a sermon series called "Toxic." The first week dealt with identifying and then distancing yourself from toxic religious people. The problem is, sometimes the toxic religious people are...you and me.

My buddy Ben opened the service with this monologue (which we wrote together). I thought Ben's performance was particularly fresh and honest

You can click here to download a higher quality version, or just watch it on YouTube.