Lake Neuron

The last few times I’ve seen Monty Python marathons on TV I have searched in vain for this skit. It’s been several years since then, and many more years since I’ve seen this skit.

Last week, all I did was link to ‘coma; this week, it seems all I’m doing is linking to Locusts & Honey. (John says this clip “reminds me of Annual Conference is so many ways.”)

The Wittenburg Door, which back in the ’80s did a swimsuit issue with pastor’s wives, has chosen its sexiest preacher alive.

We needed a local opinion column for today’s paper, and I updated and tweaked my blog post about televangelism for use as a column. I got a great e-mail this afternoon from a much more recent ORU grad who had found the column online. He agreed with it, and — sadly enough — offered his own confirmation of at least some minor aspects of the allegations against the Roberts family from things he’d seen or heard about as a student.

This was a reconnection of sorts — even though we were 20 years apart at ORU, he’d worked on the campus newspaper during his tenure, and during that time he had run across some of my old “Speed Bumps” humor columns, as well as the 1984 April Fool’s issue which I supervised. The campus paper sometimes does profiles of successful alumni, and he took it upon himself to interview me. I found out from his e-mail today that when he tried to reprint some of my old material to accompany the interview, standards had changed — a few jokes I had gotten away with in 1983 and 1984 were no longer allowed in 2003 and 2004.

Meanwhile, I also swapped e-mail this week with Bill Meenk, the old campus chaplain with whom I reconnected back in May. That led to Bill reading the column as well. He praised it, although he also offered his positive experience as the second surgery patient at the City of Faith, and his belief in the holistic, prayer-plus-medicine approach which it was supposed to have represented.

What do you mean? Of course there’s a LOLCat Bible Translation Project.

Hat tip: Mental_Floss magazine.

I just got through listening to Bob Darden’s interview on Talk Of The Nation, and you need to hear it too. As I posted the other day, I know Bob as editor of The Wittenburg Door, but with his full-time employer, Baylor University, he is helping to preserve the legacy of black gospel music.

Robert Darden, the editor of the Wittenburg Door, has been, to quote an e-mail he sent me, “very involved with an effort to save the fast-disappearing recorded legacy of black gospel music.” His day job is at Baylor University, and he’s established a project at Baylor for this purpose.

Well, to mark the 75th anniversary of the song “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” Bob will be on the NPR show “Talk of the Nation” Monday at about 2:40 p.m. Central time (3:40 Eastern). His segment will last until the top of the hour. Tune in, or listen online at your convenience, won’t you?

The Wittenburg Door interviewed Madeleine L’Engle twice, once in 1986 and again in 2000. Neither interview seems to be online at the moment; I will try to keep an eye on the site and if they post one of the interviews in recognition of her passing, I will link to it here.

I hadn’t written anything for the Door in quite a while, due in part to a big misunderstanding, but I’m back in the mix now and reading a book by a potential interview subject. I’ll let you know if something develops.

I am pleased to be able to report that Bishop Dick Wills of the Tennessee and Memphis conferences of the United Methodist Church is a truly helpful spiritual leader. A leader who is not afraid to call our attention to difficult truths. A leader who is willing to give even Gavin some timely advice, as you can see in this gripping, edge-of-your-seat re-creation:

Thanks to St. Phransus. (Go to his site to hear Gavin tell the story himself)