Moved

I don’t know if you know, but if you don’t, I’m no longer blogging here at WordPress. Check out (and re-bookmark) me at http://dunhams.typepad.com/seconddrafts.

The Color of Heaven

We had quite an international experience Friday night. Our friends, the Venkatesans, are from India and invited a few families over for dinner to celebrate Arun’s birthday (he’s a doctor here in St. Louis). In addition to the Venkatesans and us, there was another American family, another family from India, and a family from Pakistan [...]

Not Even Jack Bauer Can Get Us Out of This One

Powerful episode of 24 Sunday night. “Redemption” caught us up with illegal expatriate Jack Bauer (played by Keifer Sutherland) coming to the aid of African children kidnapped to be made into child soldiers under a would-be dictator.
As always, the show’s story was straight out of news headlines, even including a presidential transfer of power in Washington, [...]

The Kids Are Growing Up

A thought crossed my mind this week that I’ll throw out to see if it sticks. For many of you, this may fall in the “I could care less” category, but since I spend a majority of my time with teenagers, I’m interested.
It seems to me there’s a major generational shift going on in the [...]

Is the Unexamined Friend Not Worth Friending?

About six months ago, I reached the point where the people whom Facebook thought I might know were ones I didn’t. This bothered me then, and still does now.
According to Facebook, I have 369 “friends.” Yes, yes, I know most of these people, but I only really know a handful of them. My overall list [...]

“Just” Words?

We’ve had quite a discussion on the topic of, well, discussion, specifically that of teenagers and their misuse of “like,” “kinda,” “sorta,” etc. To clarify, the point I feel needs reiterating is that we are not trying to nit-pick kids’ language to death at the expense of being able to speak into their lives; rather, we are [...]

Famous, Like, Speeches in Teenspeak History

A few of my fellow teachers and I are on a crusade against the misuse of the words “like,” “sorta,” and “kinda.” The goal of “The Movement,” as we are calling it, is to combat what historian David McCullough calls “verbal diarrhea” in one’s conversations. We think of ourselves as fiber for the teenage vernacular.
Last [...]

A Call for Links

In light of the results of last week’s poll (still going on), I’m wondering if any of you would kindly recommend the one non-news, non-political, non-anything-but-cultural/media link you cannot live without. I’d like to add a few to my bookmarks.

Bailing on the Bailout

I haven’t written too much about the current financial crisis/bailout/circus of late, partly because I’m still trying to figure it all out, and partly because I’ve written before about the problem of big government handling anything. While I love being right, I hate being redundant.
I was not in favor of a bailout, yet assumed it [...]

September’s Third Weekend

For as long as I can remember, my hometown of Griggsville, IL (population 1,300 and self-proclaimed “Purple Martin Capital of the Nation“), has always hosted its annual Apple Festival on the third weekend of September.
Put briefly for my more urban readers, the Apple Festival is a semi-epic celebration of small town life, complete with more [...]

Getting Out of Dodge

Yesterday I asked my friend and bookstore boss, Nick, how he was doing. His response: “Life’s winning.” Seeing as how I feel the same way, we’re heading to the farm this weekend for the Griggsville Apple Festival (and a break).
Megan jokes that the Apple Festival should be renamed the “Corn Dog Festival,” as there’s nary an apple [...]

“…to serve musicians, to serve artists, to renew the city…”

Our associate pastor, Greg Johnson, just forwarded a review of the art show going on at The Chapel, the “sanctuary for the arts” run by our church. We’re thrilled about the good press, especially coming from The Vital Voice. Here’s an excerpt:
“I must confess that when I got there my mood was as wrinkled as my slept-in [...]

Review: The Dark Knight

As it’s rare for me to see a movie in the theater within a week of its opening, I thought I’d celebrate the occasion by posting some actual thoughts here on The Dark Knight. For the sake of not spoiling things, I’ll try to refrain from plot details and instead focus on some of the [...]

Taking a Break from Boxes Linkage

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted some linkage, so in light of it being Friday, here you go:

We’re still in need of about $1,000 for our home closing (in four days), so if you’ve yet to take advantage of our $10 Gets You 15 Songs deal, now is the time.
In case you’re wondering, [...]

Sign of the Apocalypse?

It’s the end of the world as some know it (here’s the spin official press release from Starbucks).

Summer Seminar

Beginning Monday, I’m out of town for the next two weeks as one of seven staff taking 28 soon-to-be-seniors on Westminster’s Summer Seminar to South Dakota. Though I hate being away from Megan and the girls that long, I’m looking forward to the trip. Here’s the official write-up:
“The Summer Seminar in Liberal Arts is an [...]

The Brutality of Love

Getting back to our final installment of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Interpretation, what do we do with the perception in the minds of most modern people that “the Bible is a deeply ugly book”? With regard to passages like Leviticus 19:18b and Deuteronomy 13:7-11, what were Moses’ purposes and the needs of the nation (not the state) of Israel [...]

Women and Head Coverings

Before we try to apply a right hermeneutic to one of the passages in question, let’s apply its principles of authorial intent and audience need to the Bible as a whole. Allowing the literature to provide its answer of authorship, we understand the Scripture was written by God. Granted, there are huge questions that go [...]

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Interpretation

A few weeks ago, a post in which I wrote on gay marriage got quite a bit of traffic and discussion. In the midst of the interactions, some important questions came up pertaining to my use of the Bible as the basis for my thinking.
For instance, escapethedrain wrote in comment #2:
“If you are using the bible [...]

Here’s the Story…

The girls have been bingeing of late on DVD episodes of The Brady Bunch. I’ve decided I would be a better parent if all my decisions were accompanied by cheeseball music and a laugh track.
Curse you, Mike Brady…and a pox upon your architect’s desk.