Love Your Unborn Neighbor

I don't know if it is because of the recent "dignity of human life" Sunday, or because of the recent installation of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court, and the fear that this has stirred up among those sympathetic to the "right to choose" movement - but for whatever reason, I have found myself in several discussions regarding Abortion lately.

The discussions have not really centered on whether or not abortion is morally right or wrong persay, but more on whether the consequences of making abortion illegal will be acceptable to those who are against abortion, and whether those consequences will be viewed the same way as conservatives view the abortion issue itself.

Some of the consequences that are often brought up are:

• Hundreds of women who cannot get legal abortions will find ways to get them anyway, endangering their own lives in the process and often dying trying to have illegal abortions.
• The unwanted children that are born into the world will be forced into a system that is already overburdened and cannot help those in it now. A system that produces far more failures than successes, and often causes far more trauma than it helps.
• The ultimate rise in crime, poverty and homelessness that will be the result of inadequately raised children and overburdened families. (note the drastic drop in crime rate in our country beginning 18 years after RvW was instituted)

All of these issues are legitimate concerns, especially those dealing with the health of women, especially those who are pregnant due to rape and incest.

However, this sermon by John Piper helps to illustrate that this is not a one or the other issue.

There is not a single person, at least I hope, who feels that abortion should be stopped and as a result we should allow women to die in back alley clinics. I think the main issue for those who believe in the Sanctity of Life is that they believe ALL life is sacred, and that the unborn child should receive as much concern as the women whose health is at risk, and certainly as much concern as those women who use abortion as birth control.

As Piper's sermon points out from the parable of the good Samaritan, we are to treat all these people with compassion, godly compassion, and that all parties deserve it equally. The mother and the child, both before and after birth. The ideal would be that everyone would be cared for; the child with adequate foster care; the mothers with adequate counseling, etc. etc..

But, of course, these things get messy because we live in a sinful world where nothing works out how it should and all the best laid plans usually end up hurting someone somewhere along the line. Doing the right thing in one area can often produce wrong things elsewhere, especially in a broken world. But that messiness is not a free pass or an excuse to disobey God and take the easy or convenient way out. Ending abortion may have many negative side effects in our society, but that is not justification to continue to turn a blind eye to blatant sin.

Just as ending slavery caused a huge influx to the north which caused economic backlash, homelessness, poverty and the death of many freed slaves, it would seem foolish looking back to say that those side effects were bad enough to continue the moral aberration that slavery was. And as bad as slavery is, I don't think it can be compared to the world wide genocide that takes place through abortions. As Piper points out, there have been over 46 million abortions in our country since Roe Vs Wade was upheld - but that same number of abortions occurs every year on a global scale. 46 million a year world-wide.

So, no. Ending legalized abortion would not be clean. Ending legalized abortion does not change the hearts and minds of fathers who sexually abuse their daughters, or men and women and teens who make bad sexual decisions, or rapists, or rape victims. Ending abortion probably won't change the way people think or act, the way they behave sexually, or the choices they make in the heat of the moment. But it will do one thing. It will end the murder of millions of real live human beings, and it will be pleasing to God.

But it doesn't end there. Because the aftermath WILL be messy. And the WILL be lots of negative side effects in our society - but the Gospel that says these babies should live is the very same gospel that says that they should be cared for, that their mothers, willing or otherwise, should also be cared for in all the ways appropriate to their situations. And my friends, this is not the job of the government - it is the job of the church.

"Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

I obviously have not said everything there is to say on the issue, but I encourage you to read Piper's sermon for some reasoning on why abortion is wrong and how we should approaching it. Of course, that is not exhaustive either.

The Evans Have Joined the Collective

My friends Luke and Mirianne Evans have joined the blogosphere. Help welcome them by visiting their place.

A Good Blog

Go check out Christian's blog.

He's been pretty prolific, and it has all been pretty high quality and thoughtful stuff.
More than I can say for "The Tongue" these days...

His series of posts on Community have been great, and don't pass up the stylized writings of this guy - whom I first found on Christians blog.

Mets rotation breakdown

This was a post I made on the Mets message board in a response to a thread title: "What should be done about Benson?" The main point of the thread was what the future of the Mets rotation was going to look like past '06 and whether or not Kris Benson should be held onto in light of the coming changes. My response looks at all the potential starters except Jay Seo, whom I know nothing about... If you don't care about the Mets or about baseball, please proceed to the next post, or the previous one for that matter.

Benson is OK as a #3 or #4 starter. But he is inconsistent and his arm gets tired after 3/4's of the season. He had a really nice first half last year, but he was terrible down the stretch. He should stay, but never higher than a #3 - and look for call ups to take his starts late in the year to save his arm. Don't think for a moment that his wife's Tomfoolery has not been the source of the teams attempt to move him. He may not be Omar's favorite, but more important than Benson's arm is the mood in the clubhouse. If the front office thinks things will quiet down, the talks surrounding Benson's departure probably will too.

Glavine is going to the HOF. He will pitch successfully in this league for at least 5 more years if he wants to. He has shown that he is a savvy guy, and is still LEARNING to pitch better and better, as he showed last season. He is not a power guy, so his arm falling apart is not as big an issue. If he does not stay as a Met past '06, look for him to try to finish out his career in Atlanta at a reduced rate - that is the only place you can expect him to take less money to play. Besides - if he plays this year like he did after his slow start last season, he can basically name his price on the FA market. If Roger Clemens can still pitch with power at 43, expect Glavine to be in the league at least to that age if not longer.

Pedro will probably have his last season as a #1 guy this year, if he can get his toe healthy at all. And especially if Omar brings in the likes of a Barry Zito or another top of the rotation guy. Expect Pedro and the Mets to work him till the wheels fall off - but before his contract is over, he will likely be a 3 or 4 spot pitcher, he just won't be able to take the innings.

Trachsel will probably be gone after this season. He has been old reliable for the Mets these last few years, but after examining how he responds after his back surgery, it's not a stretch to think he might get dealt before the deadline to a team of his choice (he's a 10-5 player), if it will help bolster the Mets. If not, expect him to have a decent out year and get a two year contract elsewhere as a free agent.

Zambrano could go either way. Maybe this is the year he gets his arm under control and breaks out with the potential we all know is there. But if that does not happen, expect him to find another place to call home before the season is out.

Heilman has basically called the front office out, and I expect for them to respond. That response will dictate what they think he is worth. If he gets the spot in the rotation he and many of us think he is worthy of, expect him to have an above average season as the #4 or #5 starter, but don't go thinking he'll be a 18-20 game winner, because he is not there, at least not yet. If he does not start and is still a Met, he will quietly and professionally hold down his spot in the pen as the 7th or 8th inning guy, depending on who else is here by opening day, but don't expect him to be happy about it. He is up for arbitration after this season, and a full year in the pen will sorely lower his value.

This is Greg Gentry reporting from Philadelphia, now back to Carl and Harold in the studio.

Weighing in on Narnia

It was my original intent to write a review of this film, but time has passed and I'm not sure I would sy anything that has not already been said by people who can say it far better than I. So instead of reviewing the film, which I enjoyed, I want to share some mental meanderings that are closely connected to it. These have been born out of conversations I have had regarding the film.

I guess my biggest question is that I wonder how people who did not read the books reacted to the film, but more importantly, I think my question should be, how do those who do not know the Gospel, respond to the Narnia stories and the film.

You see, when I saw the film, I reacted to particular points emotionally, just as I did when I read the books. As I was watching the movie, I could sense two different sources for that kind of reaction.

The first source was connecting what I was watching to the story I had read and loved not all that long ago (I did not read the books until my first year at Seminary at 26 years old), I remember specifically making the connections to the points in the story that I liked so well, and I was reacting with gladness or slight disappointment at how the movie stayed or strayed with the story written by C.S. Lewis.

But there was a deeper connection going on as well. Just as when I read the book for the first time, the story that Lewis tells is deeply connected to another story that lives within my very self, the accounts of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. This movie connects me to a much deeper and much broader narrative, and it is that narrative that gives me the love I have for these books and this movie.

And so, that being said, I have to wonder how others who do not have that other narrative inside them respond to these books and this film. The interactions I have had so far with those who did not like the books was precisely because they did not 'get it'. In fact, one woman said she could not follow the story at all and really hated it. She felt it did not make any sense at all. When the parallels to the Gospel were pointed out to her, she did a complete 180 on the spot, seeing the connections and having made them, said she needed to go back and read the books again.

I know I should expect that those who do not know about redemption should not be expected to 'see it' in these books and films - but I just can't get past thinking "How can they not see it?"
Interesting and wonderful to think how the work of the Holy Spirit extends past understanding of Scripture and Salvation and touches every part of our lives and how we view the world around us.

A Great Deception

A fellow blogger pointed out this.

I'm going to quote part of his post:

Ok guys, she looks pretty good, doesn't she? And how many of you woman wished you were built like this? Pretty impressive for a 14 year old. Too bad she's fake...

go to the site, then click the image and it will launch a flash viewer that walks you through the step by step process of how they digitally enhanced this young girl to make her look spectacular. Look at what they are changing, and ask yourself why.

What's the point here? This is what guys are demanding, what girls are aspiring to - and its a fiction. It's also a recipe for disaster. It destroys relationships, it belittles the image of God in all of us.

Shocking? It should be. The group who created this example is called GirlPower, and they're trying to illustrate where things are going in out culture. Yet where's the church in all this? It seems to me this is precisely the type of thing the gospel should be challenging in our culture, and I wonder if we could learn something from how GirlPower folks have gone about it...

Comments?

Thanks to Christian

The Birth and Death of Christmas

Before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago, the entire world was immersed in deep darkness. Only in Israel did the light dispel the darkness, but even there the light was dimmed by the traditions of men. With the rising of the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2.), the Light of the World (John 1:9; 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46.) dawned not only on those sitting in the darkness of Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-7.) but on the whole pagan world. (Colossians 1:6.)

The Old Testament looked forward to the hallowing presence of God extending throughout the whole world. There would come a new covenant, (Jeremiah 31:31ff.; Ezekiel 36:24ff.) and all of life would become sacred. Instead of the Levitical principle of the unclean defiling the clean, (Leviticus 7:19-21; Haggai 2:12-14.) a fountain for cleansing would be opened. (Zechariah 13:1.) From under the threshold of the temple, the river of God's presence would flow, deeper and wider as it went, transforming all before it. (Ezekiel 47:1-12.) What had been inscribed on the miter of the high priest (Exodus 28:36-38.) would now be inscribed on the bells of horses, and the work of mothers, toiling over meals, would now become as sacred as the work of the priests in the Temple. (Zechariah 14:20, 21.)

As the Apostles took the message of the Messiah to the Jews of the Diaspora, they had a point of contact in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Upon arrival in a pagan city, Paul sought out the gatherings of the Jews on their Sabbath. (Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:2.) Then he would open the Scriptures and proclaim the good news of Jesus the Messiah (Acts 13:42; 18:4.). Many non-Jews, hungry for more than their pagan religions offered, assembled with the Jews and were won to the Messiah of Israel. (Acts 13:44.)

On those occasions when there was no Jewish point of contact, Paul sought out things within the pagan world that hinted that there was more to life than what the ancient gods offered them. Even though God had given the nations over to the demonic principalities and powers (Deuteronomy 4:19, 20;1 Corinthians 10:20; Galatians 4:8.), he had done so with his treasure, Israel, in view (Deuteronomy 32:8.) that in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4.) all nations might be blessed in the Seed of Abraham. (Galatians 3:13-16.) He did not leave himself without witness, doing good to the pagans, giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:16, 17.). He made all nations from one and had determined their epochs and borders in order that they should seek him. (Acts 17:26.)

While an all-encompassing depravity marked the whole family of man, the gnarled and broken remnant of the divine image remained as part of the very essence of human existence. All of humankind not only retained a basic sense of right and wrong, their consciences bearing witness to the work of God's moral law on their hearts, (Romans 2:14-15.) but they also held a repressed knowledge of the true God. (Romans 1:18-25.) Because God's temporal kindness extends to the whole world, pagans spoke truth, such as that articulated by the poets Aratus, Epimenides, Cleanthes and Menander. (Acts 17:28; 1Corinthians 15:33; Titus 1:12.) It was an imperfect thing, this pagan truth, and almost always distorted away from God and his Word, but it formed a backdrop against which the Apostles displayed the victory of Jesus over the dark powers.

The Apostles had the Old Testament as a model. The old Prophets had used pagan myth to proclaim the power and majesty of the one true God. What are the "gods" of chaos, the dragons of the deep, such as Tiamat (Leviathan, Rahab.), compared to Yahweh? (Job 9:13; 26:12; 38:8-11; Psalm 74:12ff.;87:4; 89:10; Isaiah 30:7; 51:9; Ezekiel 29:3.)

It was in such a tradition that Saint Paul stood one day on Mars Hill and preached the good news of the dying and rising God to the Athenians. He took as his starting point a pagan altar: "Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." (Acts 17:23.) He began with the nugget of truth that was implicitly preserved within their pagan worship and used that to preach the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As centuries came and went, the ancient torch bearers of the truth told the old, old story, ever adapting the timeless message to the pagan cultures around them. They pointed to the longings of sinful people -- longings that could only be satisfied at the foot of a cross, in the shadow of an empty tomb. Sometimes they took objects of nature, as Saint Patrick is said to have done with the shamrock to present the nature of the one true God. Sometimes they expropriated the pagans' own nature celebrations to present the great truths about Jesus: his virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death and triumphant resurrection. Schaff commented about the ancient Roman, late December festivals that were held "in honor of the sun, who in the winter solstice is, as it were, born anew and begins his conquering march. This phenomenon in nature was regarded as an appropriate symbol of the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness dispelling the long night of sin and error." Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church,Volume I, (Scribner's Sons, 1916.)

It is out of that milieu where the gospel of Christ first dispelled the demonic darkness of the ancient, pagan world that so many things that we do as Christians have come. For over a millennium and a half, the pagan festivals have been superseded by those of Christ. The ancient winter festival came to point to the incarnation of our Lord Jesus. Even though the eleventh century division of the Church into East and West separated the day for Christmas, the pageant itself was never dislodged, not even by the Protestant Reformation. As he did with so much of the rest of the traditional clutter that buried the gospel, Luther sought to refine Christmas into a truly Christian holy day. Calvin, too, generally the more thoroughgoing of the two great Reformers, still kept Christmas in Geneva, much to the consternation of the Scots, who seeing that it had no explicit biblical warrant, banned it altogether.

Two thousand years have come and gone since the birth of our Lord. Ever since the ancient Brumaliae were baptized into Christmas, the believer has been confronted with the conflict: instead of the triumphant Sun of Righteousness, the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, pagan humankind turns to the beatific, ever-Virgin mother, the Queen of Heaven. (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17ff.) But ours is a still darker time. Satan appears to have been released from the pit, once again to deceive the nations and turn them back to their ancient roots. (Revelation 20:1-3, 7-9.) The overthrow of Christian civilization is proceeding apace, and we are reverting to our pagan roots, roots that were soiled through with demonic things. Christ is being sanitized from Christmas altogether, and the old pagan roots quickly rise to displace the biblical Christ with one made according to human imagination. The nations that once comprised Christendom will no longer tolerate the public mention of Jesus' name, but a supernatural figure, a fat elf, clad in red, who winks at sin and gives gifts to those who are good, Santa Claus, is worshipped throughout the world on Christmas.

Christmas is our blessing and our curse. To the extent that we use Christmas truly to present the Lord Jesus, we follow in the footsteps of those who first brought the gospel to many of our ancestors. But it is a thing that, unbridled by Scripture, takes on a power of its own and leaves in its wake a mountain of debt, depression and debauchery.

-BV


thanks again to Bob Vincent

Don't be a Scrooge

I thought this piece on the Ligonier site was an interesting point of view. I'm undecided as to whether or not I am in complete agreement - so maybe I am a Scrooge too... but only about some things.


Marley's Message to Scrooge

"Bah! Humbug!" These two words are instantly associated with Charles Dickens' immortal fictional anti-hero, Ebenezer Scrooge. We all recognize that Ebenezer Scrooge was a mean person - stingy, insensitive, selfish, andunkind. What we often miss in our understanding of his character is that he was preeminently profane. "Bah! Humbug!" was his Victorian use of profanity. It was profane in that Scrooge demeaned what was holy. He trampled on the sanctity of Christmas. He despised the sacred. He was cynical toward the sublime.

Christmas is indeed the world's most joyous holiday. It is called a"holiday" because the day is holy. It is a day when businesses close, when families gather, when churches are filled, and when soldiers put down their guns for a 24-hour truce. It is a day that differs from every other day.

Every generation has its abundance of Scrooges. The church is full of them. We hear endless complaints of commercialism. We are constantly told to put Christ back into Christmas. We hear that the tradition of Santa Claus is a sacrilege. We listen to those acquainted with history murmur that Christmas isn't biblical, that the Church invented Christmas to compete with the ancient Roman festival honoring the bull-god Mithras. All this carping is but a modern dose of Scroogeism, our own sanctimonious profanation of the holy.

Sure, Christmas is a time of commerce. The high degree of commerce at Christmas is driven by one thing: the buying of gifts for others. To present our friends and families with gifts is not an ugly, ignoble vice. It incarnates the amorphous "spirit of Christmas." The tradition rests ultimately on the supreme gift God has given the world. God so loved the world, the Bible says, that He gave His only begotten Son. The giving of gifts is a marvelous response to the receiving of such a gift. For one day a year at least, we taste the sweetness inherent in the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Christ is still in Christmas, and for one brief season the secular world broadcasts the message of Christ over every radio station and television channel in the land. Not only music but the visual arts are present in abundance, bearing testimony to the historic significance of the birth of Jesus.
Kris Kringle is a mythical hero, not a villain. He is pure fiction - but afiction used to illustrate a glorious truth. And the early Christians had the wisdom to flee from Mithras and direct their zeal to the celebration of the birth of Christ. Who associates Christmas today with Mithras?

We celebrate Christmas because we cannot eradicate from our consciousness our profound awareness of the difference between the sacred and the profane. Man, in the generic sense, has an incurable propensity for marking sacred space and sacred time.

When God touches earth, the place is holy. When God appears in history, the time is holy. There was never a more holy place than the city of Bethlehem, where the Word became flesh. There was never a more holy time than Christmas morning when Emmanuel was born. Christmas is a holiday. It is the holiest of holy days. We must heed the warning of Jacob Marley: "Don't be a Scrooge" at Christmas.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Poo

There are seasons of time in life that appear to fly by. We often look back on the last semester, or year, or even several years of our life and are surprised by how fast the time has gone. We spend so much effort doing things to capture particular moments in our minds, we take pictures and record family movies, forever pinning them to our digital refrigerator so we can revisit them and attempt to slow them down, relive them. We do certain things for entertainment with the particular purpose of stepping outside of the blazing speed of life to watch from the outside, to observe someone else's life in pseudo slow motion. Going to the theater, or to the movies is often one of the things that enable us to do that, but if you happened to find yourself at the movies this weekend you were in for a bit of a surprise.

I have enjoyed the Harry Potter movie franchise. Prior to this past summer I did not have the time or the interest in reading the books, and so was fully satisfied getting the abridged version of the story on screen. Something changed after the summer, perhaps it was the release of the trailer for Goblet of Fire, but a desire to read the books was firmly implanted in my mind. Though the interest was there, the time was not, so instead of reading the books I got my hands on the unabridged audio books, and utilized my commute to and from school, as well as my less frequent but longer commute to north Jersey where I fill the pulpit occasionally, to listen to all of the 6 current titles.

My very first impression as I listened to the first three books was how marvelous a job had been done by the film makers in staying with the story in the book and bringing it to life visually on the big screen. I was taken aback at how the characters were all so fully developed, and all the relationships firmly set, with little or nothing of importance cut away in the films. I intentionally went back and re-watched all three films to be sure I was remembering correctly, and I was.

With that backdrop you can imagine the expectation for Goblet of Fire. Even though it is longer by far than the previous 3 books, and preparing myself to be patient and understanding, knowing that they could not fit it all into one 2.5, even 4 hour film, I went excitedly to the movie theater with my wife with leveled expectation, but high hopes.

I'm not sure I have ever been so disappointed by a movie in my entire life, and I have seen a lot. This even trumped the huge let down of "The Matrix Reloaded" and its counterpart "Revolutions". Part of the problem is the fantastic job done by Peter Jackson with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which will likely be the standard for the Book to Movie Genre for generations to come. But the makers of the Harry Potter films could learn quite a bit from both of those projects. But before I get into that, let me give my full review.

The bottom line with this film is, I just didn't care. With every film in this franchise so far, (as well as in the books) care is taken to reacquaint the audience with the characters. We have been enabled to engage and relate to Harry in every book and each of the first three films. However, this time around there is simply no time given to such apparent "trivialities". This is the major problem with the film.

Many of you are saying, "yeah, but you only feel that way because you read the books, and if you didn't have that background knowledge then you wouldn't be so critical." Well, while this is often the case in such situations, I assure you that it is not so in this one. I have spoken with others who do not have any "special revelation" pertaining to the Harry Potter Universe and have only seen the movies, with the specific purpose of guarding against such judgment, and across the board the criticisms are the same. They said that, like me, they felt completely disconnected from the action of the film, that things just went too fast and they were not able to engage at all.

What they do not know; what only those who have read the books will see, is that the character development that was left on the cutting floor will come back to bite the producers of all the remaining films. I don't want to be a spoiler for those who do not know what happens next, but there are certain relationships, particularly those between Harry and his god-father Sirius, and Harry and Dumbledore, which are highly important to the rest of the story which were simply put to the side in favor of dragon's breath and seaweed.

On a positive note, the "dragon breath" and the "seaweed" mentioned above were absolutely excellent scenes, and near perfectly adapted from the book, as was the wonderful scene in the tub between Harry and Moaning Myrtle, but apart from those three scenes, without exaggeration, they failed miserably at bringing in the "feel" of the fourth book in the series.

The feel that I am speaking of, is impatience, an almost unnatural one that pervades the entire book. All of the books and the films are supposed to take place over an entire school year at Hogwarts, and while no movie can really get you to this place, the first 3 did a dramatically better job than Goblet. There are supposed to be months between each task, with days of preparation by each student, and in the film, they are seemingly rushed from one task to the next with only perhaps a day between. Harry is supposed to begin his journey in earnest to become a great and powerful wizard, but we never see him learn any spells, especially those that would help him in these tasks (which in the book are practiced with Ron and Hermione daily, for months). There is supposed to be a sense of foreboding, and impending doom, but in this film you can barely breathe without fear of missing something - we are not afforded the opportunity to wait and worry with Harry, to be frightened with him, or to care about him at all. Dumbledore, the usually caring and thoughtfully pensive old wizard is made to seem like a frantic meth addict, running about barely breathing between, often silly, out of character reactions. There is no time given to the formulation of thoughts and reactions. They are simply rushing from one 'cool' thing to the next with no real attempt to tell the story or develop any relationships which are so integral to the larger narrative.

What I don't understand is why they didn't do something about this during production. They must have watched the final product. Did they just throw up their hands? Did the studio set certain limits that left large amounts of film on the cutting room floor? I know this is likely at least partially the case, but you can't "speed up" acting - the scenes were intentionally fast paced, the dialogue was reminiscent of a David Mamet play, constantly being tossed back a forth without ever really being caught by anyone. Why didn't they do something?

This is where the comparisons to the other trilogy projects come in. In case anyone was wondering, J.K. Rowling is a genius. She has produced an amazing world in her stories that will likely, in 25 years, be as much of a literary staple as "The Lord of the Rings" was 25 years after its completion, if it is not already. One of the things that the Harry Potter people must learn from the "LotR" folks is this: Take as long as you need, but you must get it right. It is not as though this movie needed to be 4 hours long, it easily could have been, but it did not need to be. Even an extra 30 minutes would have added sufficient time to just slow down the overall pace a little, even if they did not work on some of the relationships I mentioned above.

If they wanted to really do it right, they could have made a KILLING by splitting up the movie into two parts and releasing the films within a few months of each other. I think this is the real winner here. I know I would have paid to see a 2 or even 3 part film that does more justice to the story it is telling. "LotR" and "Matrix" opened up the possibility for this kind of thing, as the endings to some of those films are somewhat anti-climactic, and leave you waiting for the continuation. I believe that, had the studio made a longer film and broke it up, the fans would be exponentially happier, the studio would have made exponentially more money, and the "slumping box office" I keep hearing about would have been exponentially boosted. Imagine a two or three part Potter film being released every two or three months in the theaters, and then think about that over the course of the next 3 books, all of which are likely to have similar problems. We are talking about at least six films, all with the potential of world-wide billion dollar box office returns. Why wouldn't they do it that way? I'm sure there is a reason, but no one has explained it to me yet.

One other thing, which is somewhat minor, but addressable nonetheless; they must get rolling on these other films. Get them shot and done before Harry looks 40 in his seventh year at Hogwarts. All of the characters are aging rather badly, none worse than Harry himself, who could easily get served in a US bar as he is, and we are supposed to suspend disbelief and consider him 14 years old. To use the Brits' own term: Rubbish. Of course, we are, and will be waiting awhile for the seventh book to come, but in the meantime - stop being such bloody gits and get to it!

To close, I am a huge fan of bringing books to the big screen. In fact, I have a few favorites in my own mind that I would love to see brought to the movies. But I would not dare do to any of them what has been done to this film. But I am hopeful that in the future, the studios will correct the mistakes made here and follow in the footsteps of other successful projects in making the full story come alive. All the cool effects in the world cannot tell a story, without the story.

Off-Season Wish List

Baseball season is over. It might have been the best world series ever, or it might have been the worst... we'll never know because no one was watching. I did watch a few innings here and there, but was disappointed by close games with the wrong team on the losing end. I have to say though that it was probably the best played, least watched world series of all time.

The boys of summer will be missed, but as the crack of the bat gives way to the crunch of clashing helmets, there is one part of baseball that never goes away: Offseason rumors and the Hot-Stove.

As an aside; I never really understood where the phrase hot-Stove came from. Perhaps it refers to the deals that different teams have "cooking" during midseason before the deadline, and during the winter months. Or perhaps there is some other anecdote about GM's gathering around the fire to discuss deals that I've never heard about. In any case...

As any loyal baseball fan does, I have a dream list of the players available by free-agency or trade that I would like to see come to Shea for next season. It's not likely, but that's why we call it a wish list:

Prospective lineup:
SS Jose Reyes
CF Carlos Beltran
3B David Wright
RF Manny Ramirez
2B Alfonso Soriano
LF Cliff Floyd
1B Aubrey Huff
C Benji Molina

Other possible inserts that would be good, but cause some lineup shuffling would include Rafael Furcal at 2B, or Konerko at 1B.

Rotation:
Pedro Martinez
Barry Zito
Tom Glavine
A.J. Burnett
Steve Trachsel (or Kris Benson)

7th - Aaron Heilman
8th - Danny Baez
9th - Billy Wagner

Wow, what a dream team.

But in all honesty, I really don't want Soriano or Manny Ramirez.. I don't think I like Huff either, or Konerko for that matter. I would be totally content with Furcal at 2B and a platoon of Mike Jacobs and Xavier Nady at 1B, with Nady and Victor Diaz in RF. A lot of the players above don't appeal to me individually, but if they were all on the same roster it could be exciting.

That rotation is defintiely a dream, as it is highly unlikely that Zito or Burnett will come to NY, so insert Benson and Zambrano back to their respective spots.

The bullpen however is very doable, and would probably be the best late inning group out there. The Mets have a pretty decent prospect field to deal from, so they could make it happen.

While this lineup and rotation are a dream, the reality is that if the Mets can get Wagner and a big bat in the lineup like Manny, they could easily be in the playoffs and World Series contenders next year.

But it's only a dream for now.

Perfection

I recognize the extreme lameness (lameity?) of this, but as I often do, I found myself filling my time on the porceline throne by playing one of the games on my cell phone. Usually it is Ms. Pacman, but this time I went digital bowling and was rewarded by bowling a perfect game!

Since this will never come close to happening in real life, I figured I better try to take a picture and share my success.


Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to see the series of X's across the board, but you can make out the scrore of 300, and the "Perfect" across the bottom.

The sad part is that this is likely the only time that perfection of any sort will ever be associated with Greg Gentry - at least on this side of the eschaton.

Someday, I may actually post something of substance on this blog again.

Pumpkin Sellouts

Halloween is such an iffy time for Christians. Many refuse to acknowledge the holiday for fear they will encourage the pagan basis on which the holiday was founded, and others have no quams with gettings as bloody and demonic as the next guy.

Me, I like Halloween. I always enjoyed carving pumpkins and getting dressed up for trick or treating. On the other hand, I am sensitive to the pagan side, and the glorification of the demonic that our society embraces (wow, that sounds dramatic), so I try to keep my own celebrations down to the minimalist variety. I like to decorate, but more along the lines of a harvest celebration than that of the gore and guts, ghouls and witches that seems to have enraptured young and old alike.

This year is the first that my wife and I are actually celebrating holidays at our own place. Last year we lived in an apartment on the 24th story, so decorating was mostly pointless. But this year we are living much closer to the ground, and in a neighborhood with quite a few kids, so we had an opportunity to dress up our place a bit, looking forward to the kids coming out in their costumes. So to get things started, we put up a harvest wreath on the door, and got some autumn leaves to decorate the railings, and we wanted to do something that neither of us had done in ages. We wanted to carve pumpkins.

I remember when we used to do it as kids, making a face that was funny or scary and trying hard to make our vision come to life on the pumpkins. But now, there are intricate patterns that take a steady hand and good eye to transfer onto your pumpkin. Part of me thinks that this is a kind of sellout, as if somehow the art of pumpkin carving, if ever there was such a thing, has now been taken over like so many other pure things from my childhood. On the other hand, these patterns they sell are not exactly for kids, as I don't know many who could actually follow them with much success. This is a way for us older kids to stay in the game, which is exactly what my wife and I did.


Here I am with one of the patterns I described, not the most difficult in the package, but nonetheless a challenge for my less than delicate fingers. You can see the progress I am making on the wolf's face.


Here is my wife's finished product before the lights go out. Her design was much more difficult than mine, and she did a great job on her haunted house.


Oooh, Ahhh, the lights go out and the candles are lit and the pumpkins come to life.

Unfortunately the fun lasts only a few nights. Before Halloween even came a squirrel had eaten one of the wolf's eyes, and eaten chunks of the haunted house, not to mention the ant infestation. But Halloween came and went, and fun was had by all. I was happy to see the little super heroes in my neighborhood far outnumbering the ghosts and ghouls. In fact, if memory serves, we had one kid who was the masked monster from the movie "Scream", and one little boy dressed as Satan himself, complete with pointed tail and pitchfork. Other than those two, it was mostly princesses, Batman, Superman and Spiderman. The older kids surprised me with their lack of enthusiasm, or lack of ingenuity... whichever the case may be. But most of them only donned black hooded cloaks with very little else to their costumes. Holidays like this must be a tough sell for teenagers - I suppose it was for me too.

Anyway, now that Halloween is over, our country can go full steam, right over thanksgiving, and begin the madness of the Christmas season. It's already happened in most department stores, even though it's still 65 degrees outside.

Happy Holidays.