If all's fair in politics...

The Conservative Party of Canada is going to air a few attack ads on Stephane Dion, the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, during the Super Bowl. I am not a fan of realpolitik, so I am not condoning or encouraging the messages. I am simply here to offer my take.

Both Warren Kinsella and Jordon Cooper think the ads are suckerpunches.
Kinsella thinks that the ads are at a strange time and reflect the CPC having too much money. The ads show the CPC to be in trouble.
Jordon Cooper thinks the ads reflect strange timing and are concerned with the environment (the Libs leading the CPC by 4 points on the environment currently). The ads are no knock-out blow, either.

Both are right that the ads are suckerpunches, if by suckerpunch you mean a punch out of turn. They are not in an election and so are out of turn. They reflect true criticisms, though.

The point of the ads, in my opinion, is to preemptively strike Liberal ads. If the Libs respond, then they are dragged into a game they didn't start and the Cons think they aren't prepared for. If the Libs don't respond, they had better hope the Canadian public sympathize with them, because the messages are clear and easy to remember. If the Cons are as smart as Stephen Harper, then these ads aren't their only ammunition or strategy for negative ads. Contrary to Cooper, you don't knock someone out with a sucker punch unless you can't beat them in a toe to toe scrap. I'm thinking the Cons are prepped for a toe-to-toe but I'm betting the Libs are too smart to retaliate.

Good sermon on God's love

Sunday I watched this sermon from Wayne Jacobsen, former editor of Christianity Today. It was quite good. I would take issue with a good chunk of the preacher's Old Testament theology (the rigidness of covenant that he sets up from Deuteronomy; overly emphasized suzerain-vassal treaty relationship between God and humanity), and his quick dismissal of creeds and confessions at one point, but it is a great word.

http://www.lifestream.org/fatheraffection.html

And let me go on the record as saying how much I love my cousin Kirk and how proud I am that he will win the football pool this year!

Reflections on Yesterday's Football or Tom Brady the Loser

First, Chicago and New Orleans played sloppy games. Chicago was fortunate to win the game because of NO's sloppiness but they still were pretty bad. Of course, the Steelers played a terrible game in last year's Super Bowl and won, so you just gotta win.

Second, Peyton Manning showed himself to be a confident player, a winner. He won a game that could easily have been lost.

Third, Tom Brady showed himself to be a bad loser. I both hated and loved seeing him just run off the field without doing anything. (At least I didn't see him shake hands or anything. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.) This isn't a snub against anyone but himself. If Ladainian Tomlinson was told by some New England guys, "You're better than this" as he tried getting off the field, then Tom Brady...well, is worse.

Fourth, Teddy Bruschi: Class act. Great way to give Manning and hug and congratulate him. That's what I was expecting from Brady.

C.S. Lewis on sex: Showing Sin as Ridiculous

C.S. Lewis has a great little piece on sex. He is comparing the biological need for sex and for food. After comparing how one may eat enough for two, but not for ten, he points out how if sex is considered only for pleasure it becomes preposterous and in "excess of its function." He then says this:

"You can get a large audience together for a striptease act--that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you came to a country where you could fill a theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let everyone see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop or a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something bad had gone wrong with the appetite for food? And would not anyone who had grown up in a different world think there was something equally queer about the state of the sex instinct among us?"

Here Lewis reminds me of a political cartoonist drawing a picture in such a way that by his exaggerations and caricatures he shows me what is true, rather than the false picture that my senses in all their proper proportions, and my intellect and its reasonableness present me with.

Why did you trade Jay Buhner?

I loved the line from Seinfeld mentioned in the title. George Steinbrenner is telling George Costanza's parents that their son, George, is dead. George's Dad responds with, "Why did you trade Jay Buhner?" It was a great line because it was random. I'm not sure why, but random has become funny. Maybe it always has been. The Office, Arrested Development, and Seinfeld have all made great use of random. I am not sure anyone has done it better than Family Guy, but Family Guy is just disgusting and (what's worse) not funny too much of the time.

What about randomness makes it funny? (Loud noises!)

Kudos to The Office

Last night's episode of The Office was excellent for a number of reasons.

1. The writers' ability to capture the essence of Jim, Dwight, Andy, Michael, Kellie, Stanley, Ryan, Angela, Kevin, and Phyllis all in one episode. Wow.

2. The writers' ability to make you hate--not in a fun way--Andy Bernard and love Dwight in just a matter of seconds. Wow.

3. Very funny.

4. Sets up at least three new storylines:
A. How does Dwight get back?
B. What does Karen feel about Pam?
C. How will Angela kill Andy?

Once again, I'm left asking, "Howdey do that?"

Hire this man!

An Aha! Moment about Atheism and Photos of my Car

It hit me yesterday that and why atheism is a purely Modern notion. Hume destroys all confidence in epistemology--we can't know anything. Kant comes into the wreckage and salvages a little bit of knowledge--we have categories of knowledge that can be filled with our perceptions of the phenomenal world. Beyond this world--what we can experience, sense, etc.--is the noumenal. This is the world of the spiritual. We cannot know the spiritual...we can just know that it's there. Kant is famous for the moral argument for God's existence because morality is the best sense that we know something exists beyond the world of the phenomenal. Now since the phenomenal can be tested, sensed, experimented with, etc. we have science becomes the standard for knowledge. There is no such thing as revelation and certainly no such thing as knowledge of God.

This is the breeding ground for atheism: I cannot know God (and anyway the god I do know I don't like). If I cannot know God he does not exist--at least in any meaningful sense. Atheism needs Modernity to give it space to make sense.

And now, for those who have endured, are two photos of my car.

The irony of C.S. Lewis

I have been thinking of late as to the irony that the good Prof. Lewis would be a significant hero for so many evangelicals considering the following:

1. Wrote books with magic in them: While most who use magic do so wrongly, the attitude of Lewis, I think, is more to consider how one uses magic. Uncle Andrew uses the magic rings incorrectly, but Digory refuses to return to earth from the newly created Narnia without Polly. The use of magic wasn't wrong; the way one used it could be.

2. Drank alcohol.

3. Smoked.

4. Was friends with a Roman Catholic.

5. Believed in a form of evolution.

6. Was inclusivist in his soteriology.

7. Believed parts of the Old Testament to be (more) myth(ical) (i.e., Jonah).

Anything else that Lewis did that increases his irony as evangelical hero?

I knew I liked Stepher Harper!

Love this.

Daring to notice the Abyss

Nietzsche once said, "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

I am reading Frank Lake's "Clinical Theology." It deals with listening. One of the dangers of listening is that to do so very deeply and intentionally means that you face the abyss of another: the deepest desires, rages, lusts, fears that they have. Staring into such an abyss can remind us of our own abysses. The abyss begins to stare back at us. For this reason, we do not listen overly intently. We do not care to see our deepest selves, so we keep others at arm's length. But life must go on; we must still live and (if religious) worship with others. In the place--not necessarily a church, but the individual's interpretation of the church they attend--where there is no listening, then, to borrow a line from Lake, "Church-going...can be little more than a tribal ritual for sealing over the cracks that lead down into the abyss." The abyss, if not confronted, will stare out, looking for whom it may devour. Ignoring the abyss only disguises the path we walk through everyday life.

Existential growth

I used to wonder why people would thank God for protecting them in some kind of accident when he didn't protect them as much as he could have. For example, why should I thank God for protecting me in the accident I just had whenever he could have got my car back under control. Or, why thank God for healing me when he just could have kept me from getting sick in the first place? Here's why: Life is a lot better being the person thankful for what they have than being the person who wants more. I'd rather be the person who thanks God for protecting me than the one who wants God to have prevented it all in the first place.

Books I have found in my church's library

Every once in a while I find books in my church's library that fascinate me. I usually claim these books as my own (with permission, of course), because I am quite sure no one else will read them.

Here is the list to date:

1. Does God Exist? Hans Kung
2. Theology of the New Testament. Rudolph Bultmann
3. Messengers of God. Elie Wiesel.
4. A Breviary of Sin. Cornelius Plantinga.

Watch The Office tonight. It looks like it will be hilarious.

Some Combo of Hopes and Fears as Predictions

The following is a mixture of hopes and fears masked as predictions. I am not that great a teller of the future, except for my advice two years ago January as to how the Conservatives would win an election. So, I'm sure the following is a combination of hopes and fears hidden somewhere in my head.

In 2007....

1. The Buffalo Sabers will not win the Stanley Cup.

2. The Indianapolis Colts will win the Super Bowl.

3. Stephen Harper will call an election and win a minority government, though stronger than the current one.

4. More people will read Matthew Rose's blog. More people will be added to Matt Rose's blog. Matt Rose will continue to be the best blogger in The Wesleyan Church.

5. Warren Kinsella will continue to have a blog that has potential and some insight but mainly just gets on my nerves. I will continue to dislike his band.

6. The Toronto Maple Leafs will make the playoffs and win a round.

7. The New York Islanders will fire Garth Snow. They will then hire Alex Auld.

If these are my hopes and fears then my life is quite mundane. And I know it.

Christmas is Over

Christmas is over. I had a great Christmas, except for a car accident. But God protected my girlfriend Heather and me. As my Uncle Bill said, "Cars can be replaced. Neither of you can." Of course, I am not sure any one would want to replace me. ;) (Many people would want Heather back.)

I had some very thoughtful gifts this Christmas. Those are always the best. Some of my favourites are:

1. A leather journal from Heather with photos and write-ups that tells the story of our relationship thus far;

2. Harry Potter Scene It from the Morgans (although Paul ruined the game by winning every stinking round!! Don't play HP Scene It with him, unless you want to lose!);

3. Three books: Blue Like Jazz from Heather's sister; and Harry Potter & Philosophy and Narnia & Philosophy, both from Tim and Rachel. I am well into two of them.

4. Two beautiful pictures from my Mom. One has a photo of my Dad and his two brothers when they were kids.

5. Elton John DVD from Paul. (Actually, a DVD of the latest musical Paul was in. I hear Paul touches a woman's butt in this production. This is a precious, precious gift.)

I celebrated New Year's at First Night in Binghamton. It was quite a bit of fun, except I had to be up early to preach and work on a sermon on Sunday morning, so I was quite tired by the time midnight rolled around. But my New Year started quite, quite well.

Happy New Year to the ones (literally....I don't think I can stretch into the tens yet) who read this!