Concerns and Issues (part three)

I recently decided to go back and dig through my past blogs, and include them here..putting them in order of a timeline that begins back in August of 2007 up to the present, so that it gives an idea of what personal and social issues have weighed on me enough to put them to paper(so-to-speak)…

Ode to the Fallen…

i remember the day you left standing proud and strong among so many soldiers ready to embark on a life and career full of adventure

if it ever crossed your mind you may never come home again you never let me know you never said goodbye

i remember the day you deployed walking tall and honorable among so many soldiers ready to face whatever challenges were ahead

if it ever kept you up at night thinking you might not return you never once let me hear it in your voice you never said goodbye

i remember each call and how everything froze you were always the one among so many soldiers whose return i awaited so impatiently

all the times i waited for your letter in my morning mail they made it easier to get through each day you never said goodbye

when i heard from your parents about what had happened you were one of the fallen among so many soldiers whose face and voice would forever be in my memory

i remember those days that seemed like they went on forever and when i think back from time to time, i realize you never said goodbye

Honouring my dad…(originally posted November 2007)

THIS IS A POST I DID A FEW WEEKS BACK:

hey my frenz, as some of you may know (whether you know me personally or you’ve read some of my blogs), i haven’t had a real or the best relationship with my dad for the majority of my life…up until the last few months, it’s always been kinda strained or non-existent…

my dad has had a stroke, and it doesn’t look good… he’s not saved, at all…and is under the popular belief that God (or whatever supreme being) won’t punish him, because he’s generally a “good person”…

this is breaking my heart…i don’t wanna lose him, i’ve never really had him… but, i know its all in the Lord’s hands and His will…

my dad is a proud man, to a fault… he’s recently had a stroke, and his pride could be his downfall.

his dad, not his biological one…but his dad nevertheless, was a pastor, he was a missionary to the native americans in the pacific northwest my entire life up until the point that he passed away 10 years ago… my grandpa was so well respected and loved by the spokane tribe that they honoured him by burying him among their elders, only the second white man in history with that honor…it was a moving weekend to see how much he meant to those incredible people i’d been raised around most of my life…

my dad grew up in and around the churches where my grandpa preached, and he recently told me that he was the last great Christian that he knew… the following is a response to an email i received from him not that long ago-

“So sad to hear all the drama surrounding your life right now:( I pray very seldom, but I will think of you constantly and wish for the very best for you. The last very Holy and Christian person that I’ve known in manner, morals, and in deed was my Father. I’ve been very disillusioned by people around me professing to be Christian, and yet seem to the least trustworthy of all my acquaintances. The best and most reliable people I know include my beer drinking, cursing Biker friends that are always there when one of their friends really needs solace, comfort, or financial help. There isn’t even one person in my circle of friends that I consider a ‘Friend’, that hasn’t earned that respect from me, nor would they want to be my friend if I hadn’t earned their respect from my actions toward them and others.. I do believe there is an entity greater than humankind, and that ‘Supreme Being’ will not send you to Hell if you spend your life not intentionally hurting others. All else, is human nature and forgiveable I try to pattern my life after my father, but fail in that attempt a lot. No rumors, no gossip. I don’t intentionally say or do anything to hurt or defame anyone. Everything said to me is kept in confidence, unless told otherwise. I don’t get involved in anything that would harm me or anyone else. I do not ‘Judge’. It’s not for me to live anyone elses life for them, or even think about telling them how to live. I don’t profess to be a ‘CHRISTIAN and Love Jesus’, I just try to be a good person:) end of email.

…and now he’s had a stroke, and i don’t know what’s going on inside of him, and i really have to leave it in the Lord’s hands…i keep praying the Lord sends someone his way that he’ll listen to…

please keep this son of a preacher man in yer prayers… and to those of you who have already responded, i can’t tell you how much yer prayers mean to me right now…thanks so much.

well, i wanted to take a few to get back to all of you that have been asking about my dad’s condition after his recent stroke last week… i just got off the phone (with his girlfriend), and he’s not doing great…he’s barely doing good. i have to know that this has all happened for reasons only God is aware of, whether it be to slow my dad down enough to open his heart and make him realize he’s not bulletproof, and there’s a need in my dad’s life for a relationship with the Lord before it’s too late…

when i say he’s lived a rock and roll lifestyle for years, it’s no stretch of the truth. he’s run with rock stars and movie stars, he’s been entertained by corporate ceos, his best friend was a major league pitcher for many years, he’s had his own company that sold designs to fao schwarz (artwork was in the movie “big”), helped construct amusement parks, worked for and retired from boeing’s special projects, piloted his own aircraft, and so on… all things that any man could be proud of, but that only lasts for so long… and God doesn’t like pride, and my dad has been very much that way his entire life…

his biological father committed suicide when he was younger, but his “dad”, who he’d had in his life from a very early age, was a pastor and missionary to the spokane tribe…so, my dad had a great Christian influence in his life for many years…and, still has continued to deny a need for Jesus in his life…

i love him, but for many years, i held a major grudge and had a chip on my shoulder in regards to him and the (lack of a) relationship that we had… that changed 10 years ago when i went through almost 2 years of probation and drug rehab, and realized there wasn’t any reason to continue being unforgiving towards him…and then, 3 months ago…i started praying for him everyday, as i still hadn’t honored him as a son should.

yeah, i love him.

i don’t know what the outcome of this will be, but as i said earlier…i know God has everything in His plan, that’s why i just need to trust in Him that my dad will come out of this alright.

so, his memory has been affected, there’s almost full paralysis on one side, he’s got no motivation to do anything, nor does he want anyone to really know what’s happened…sorry, dad;)

he is supposed to be starting physical therapy here soon, and that will help with the motor skills… he is still his stubborn self, so that’s a positive sign, i guess…cause that’s the man i remember, know, and love…

my prayer is for full recovery, and that he sees his need for salvation…

i don’t know how to feel, i’m really having kind of a rough time with this, cause i want to have the right things to say, i want to have the right answers for him when the time comes…

i just need to let God open the doors and remain faithful that things will happen in His time.

i hope this all makes sense…it’s hard to know how to deal with something like this when it comes to someone that you’ve only known to be “invincible” your entire life…

i want you all to know how much i’ve appreciated the many, many prayers that have been offered and sent up, and the well wishes and thoughts… it means so much to me, more than i’ll ever be able to let you know…

the friendships that i have with each one of you mean SO much… anyways, i just wanted to let ya know what was up have a great night and week and God bless you all so much…

yer bro in Christ, d

“The Golden Compass” (originally posted November 2007)

i want to make this absolutely clear that my posting of this is not taking a stance of supporting this movie, and heralding it as a good thing, but rather…the exact opposite.

what i have posted, which follows below, are articles from sites that are promoting this movie and the accompanying materials that are being distributed to our public schools.

please be aware that i am not for this, but reposting it so as to raise awareness as to how this movie and the trilogy it is taken from is being promoted.

i’ve already received some very negative feedback from some of you, that think i’m pushing this as a good thing…not getting defensive here, just letting you know that what follows is a repost…not my words (beyond my name)…

so, before you start tossing scriptures my direction, please realize that i’m doing this as a “concern for the kids”…i appreciate your comments, but please make sure you are aware of the fact that i’m not in support of this movie/book/author. thanks and have a great day…

God bless, d

Welcome Teachers! We hope you enjoy this language arts program featuring The Golden Compass, the soon-to-be-released film based on the multi-award-winning novel by Philip Pullman.

You’ll find turnkey, skill-building materials on symbolism and characterization that help students understand the relevance of literary themes in their lives. The lessons and activities, while connected to the book and film, can be taught independently to supplement any language arts curriculum. There’s also an amazing student sweepstakes: Grades 8-12 students can enter for a chance to win a Hometown Movie Screening or one of 500+ other prizes!

OBJECTIVE 1. By studying provided examples, as well as studying their own personal choices, students come to understand that a symbol is a representation of a bigger idea or “truth.” 2. Students study character traits and use critical-thinking skills to build their understanding of characterization.

On November 2, 2007, Philip Pullman appeared on the Today Show to talk about his book The Golden Compass and answer questions. He responds to the claim that his books are anti-Catholic, and asserts that he is not promoting atheism in The Golden Compass.

Read his responses. Literary debate and analysis of the meaning of Pullman’s books has gone on in schools and colleges worldwide since The Golden Compass was first published more than ten years ago. Take, for example, this comment from Father P.S. Naumann, S.J., a lifelong educator from upstate New York who wrote, “Teaching English for thirty odd years in a Jesuit high school, I kept looking for a contemporary novel that could, would, and should provoke questions and discussions.

Philip Pullman’s book is an eye-opener and window-opener that can bring kids, parents, and teachers together to talk. The windows in our own minds, and in our own Church, open onto a secular society and a multi-cultural world, as Pope John XXIII knew.

How to deal with that? Sooner or later students will open windows for themselves; it’s part of growing up. If they don’t ask any questions in the process, we may have lost our opportunity.

The Golden Compass will help in that direction, and if the book brings kids and parents together to discuss important ideas, think of the good it is doing.” The Golden Compass is the first book in Pullman’s critically acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials.

It describes the otherworldly adventures of Lyra and her companions. The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass complete the trilogy. Lyra Belacqua’s carefree life among the scholars at Oxford’s Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors.

First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems.

Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped friend, Roger. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called “Gobblers”—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person’s inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

The Golden Compass was originally published as Northern Lights in 1995 when it won the Carnegie Medal for childrenÂ?s fiction published in Britain that year. In 2007, it was named the “Carnegie of Carnegies,” voted by readers the best Carnegie winner of the last 70 years. Dubbed by many as the “next Lord of the Rings,” The Golden Compass will hit the big screen on December 7, 2007, and has already been heralded by Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly as one of the next big movie events.

The film is set in an alternative world where peopleÂ?s souls manifest themselves as animals, and where armoured polar bears fight over a throne and beautiful but deadly witches must choose sides in a coming war. Starring Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and newcomer Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra, it promises lots of action and special effects to bring the world of His Dark Materials stunningly to life.

An Emboldened ‘Compass’ By Tom Gilson 11/16/2007 Anti-God, Anti-Church at School Last week, a local school counselor loaned us material from the Scholastic publishing company, promoting curriculum resources based on the upcoming movie and the already-published book, The Golden Compass. The materials were impressive—a gorgeously designed 31-by-21-inch poster of the movie, including an invitation for students to take part in an “Amazing Student Sweepstakes,” and on the back of it, a set of curriculum resources based on the book—all at completely no charge to schools or teachers. (The poster and teaching materials are on Scholastic’s website.)

If it seems somewhat unusual for a curriculum company to be promoting a movie, that’s not the strangest thing about it. The Golden Compass is the first book in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.

And what are these “dark materials”? Readers can get a very quick overview of the series through the (quite accurate) plot summaries at SparkNotes online.

There, for example, we learn about “intercision,” a plot feature of the The Golden Compass. What is this “intercision?” The answer really can’t be quoted on this page. You may go to SparkNotes to find out, but be sure no young children are looking over your shoulder. (Note that SparkNotes draws its interpretation on that point from the second book as well as the first.)

Yet Scholastic wants schools to teach this material to our children. And they surely don’t want them to stop at the first book. The second book is entitled The Subtle Knife. That happens to be the name of the one weapon that can kill God.

The third book tells us that God is relieved to be killed. He’s a rather pathetic character, tired of all the responsibility, “half-crazed with age and infirmity,” in SparkNotes’ words. He had been rather mixed up about things all along, though. The Satan figure in the trilogy was the one who brought freedom to humans. God—and the dominating, violent, fearful church—fought against this freedom.

Pullman cheers for their downfall. He has said so not only in his fiction, but also in interviews. The books, he says, are “about killing God.” Pullman’s God is fictional, and we must hasten to note that the actual God is not concerned about death threats that might be made against Him.

The real concern is for students who will have this dark material forced on them in schools. Scholastic is by far the top source of reading materials for American schools. What they market, schools buy.

One might wonder what they stand to gain from giving these expensive materials away. Well, it’s not really all that hard to figure out. The poster says the materials are “generously sponsored by New Line Cinema.” Generous, indeed, that they would co-opt an educational company to advertise their film for them? But it’s not entirely a co-optation—for Scholastic co-produced the film.

It’s all bound to sell a lot of books, of course, and Scholastic will gladly handle that transaction for your child, too. Does this seem like a company that has students’ and schools’ best interests at heart?

There is word on the Web that the anti-God theme has been toned down for the movie; and that theme is expressed much more strongly in the second and third books than the first, anyway. So is there any reason to make a fuss over this first book, and the movie? Yes, because the first book in a trilogy, if it is at all interesting, is (among other things) the strongest possible advertisement for the second and third. It’s impossible to promote only the first.

Who could stop reading The Lord of the Rings just when the Fellowship separated, at the close of the first book? Moreover, the anti-Church, anti-Biblical elements of even the first book are plenty strong. The Church is presented as highly controlling and evil; and this is not some other-world, purely fantastical church with no connection to our own world.

In Chapter 16 we learn of its “Vatican Council.” In Chapter 19 a character speaks of being “baptized as a Christian” in Geneva. Chapter 2 tells us the last Pope in this world was John Calvin, which in another context would be knee-slapping hilarious, but here contributes to the strength of the connection this fictional world has to our real one.

One of the prominent themes of the book is “Dust,” a mysterious “charged particle” from the sky. In the closing chapters of the book, the protagonist, Lyra, finally learns that Dust is “the physical evidence for original sin”; and Dust is what powers her “alethiometer” (the golden-colored, compass-looking device for which the book is named).

From the Greek, alethiometer means “truth-measurer.” It is a device she consults, through a kind of clairvoyant process, to learn secrets and discover truths; it never lies or misleads. Dust and the alethiometer—central symbols in this book—together send the clear message that truth is measured by the power of original sin.

In the closing pages, Lyra decides that Dust is a good thing after all, and she determines to go on and defend this original sin against the Church. Thus we are ushered into the second book.

This is certainly not a message we want our children to take to heart. Still, we cannot lose sight of the fact that Pullman is working on our turf when he tells his tale. I’ll gladly stand up our story against his!

The story of Christ has drama, it has strong characters, it has relevance, it has a truly stupendous surprise ending—in short, all the elements of great story. Best of all, it’s not fiction. It happened!

So we need not respond defensively, or with anger, or by picketing the movie, or with any of the worldly methods Paul warned against in 2 Corinthians 10. This is the time—especially since the movie is coming out at Christmastime—for us to tell the true story of Jesus Christ, in love and with a positive tone.

Yet there is a limit, and Christian parents ought to stand guard on behalf of the next generation. The Golden Compass—book or movie—does not belong in our schools. Tom Gilson is director of strategic processes in the Operational Advisory Services team for Campus Crusade for Christ. He maintains a blog at www.thinkingchristian.net..

For Further Reading and Information Tom Gilson’s Discussion on The Golden Compass, Thinking Christian. Tom Gilson, “Coming Soon To Your Child’s School: Hostility Toward God and Church, Heavily Promoted,” Thinking Christian, 30 October 2007. “Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass,” Scholastic, 2 November 2007. Gina Dalfonzo, “The Impoverished Imagination,” BreakPoint WorldView, March 2004. Gina Dalfonzo, “Tone Matters,” The Point, 2 November 2007. Gina Dalfonzo, “’Pied Piper of Atheism’,” The Point, 15 November 2007.

This Thanksgiving…(originally posted November 2007)

i am so thankful for so many things this year…

God has blessed me so much, with so many things! and if ya knew my circumstances, you’d probably laugh and wonder why i’m thankful at all, as there is so very little i have, in the sense of material things… but, that’s not where the blessings have been…

i have to, first of all, thank Him for what He’s done for me…daily. thanksgiving day shouldn’t be the only day i/we are thankful for what we have…

i thank Him daily for each of the friendships i have been blessed with. alot of you know me in “real life”;), but most of you, so far, i’ve only had the opportunity to get to know through here…that’ll all change when we go home, i guarantee;) but, just with the conversations that i’ve had with alot of you, especially today with yer comments and replies;), i’ve grown to really appreciate and look forward to our banter back and forth…

i’m thankful to God for the blessings of good and real friendships, compared to what i thought i had lost this past summer…

I’m thankful to Him for deliverance of many things that had me in bondage in the past, up until just four months ago…

i’m thankful to Him for a clear head, an open heart, a body reserved for Him, and no desire to return to any of the things of the past…as He has saved me…

i’m just thankful that there’s another day still to share with others all He’s done and continues to do for me…and what He’s able and willing to do for all of us…and, i’m thankful you took a moment to read this, as i don’t have your phone number or else i would have called to wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving;)

God bless you all so much…

yer bro in Him, d