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Las Vegas, Virtual Reality, and Plain Old Reality I just returned from the Godblog Conference in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a great place to discuss the world of virtual reality, since the Strip is a three dimensional attempt at a virtual world. Of course, what happens there does not stay there... Continued

Ok, so the reality is that at best, only 10% of Christians have the “gift” of evangelism. So where does that leave the rest of us ordinary types? Pretty much on the sidelines watching and cheering (and writing checks). This seems unacceptable to us.

DoableEvangelism. Our home blog is called Doable Evangelism because connecting with people in the ways of Jesus is central to Off The Map's mission. Ordinary Attempts. Stories of connecting with the people Jesus misses most. ChurchRater. Seeing your church through their eyes. Now everyone gets to survey churches! Conversation at the Edge. CatE continues and expands the conversation that spontaneously emerged between Christians and atheists on the eBay atheist blog. eBay Atheist. We'll continue to bring you news related to our eBay atheist project on this blog. Justice and Compassion. A conversation about how to create a more just, compassionate and peaceful world.

Ian Campbell on the irony of Jesus' statement of being, "The Way, The Truth and The Life":This man says that he is the way; yet the paradox is that for him to be the way means going the way of the cross, and the way of betrayal and dereliction and pain. He says that he is the truth, and yet for him to be the truth means that the lie is in the ascendancy, as false witnesses rise to condemn him and the hour is given to the power of darkness. This man is the life, yet the irony is that for him to be the life for his people, the grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die. He can’t be the way for us unless he goes the way the Father has ordained for him. He can’t be the truth for us unless he meets the father of lies face to face and does business with God against the prince of darkness. He can’t be the life for us unless his body lies dead behind the closed door of a rich man’s grave.Read the whole thing.

Tonight [11.1.07], at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sufjan Stevens will debut The BQE, a 30-minute symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York City’s infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. A controversial roadway since its inception in the 1930s, the BQE tears through 11.7 miles of Brooklyn and Queens, severing neighborhoods, pillaging industrial yards, and contouring waterways with the brute force of modern urban planning. (Read the rest)

At first blush, this classic formulation . . . of the purposes and powers of government seems to accord public authority vast and sweeping powers. Yet, in truth, the general welfare (or common good) requires that government be limited. Although government's responsibility is primary in respect of defending the nation from attack and subversions, protecting people from physical assaults and various other forms of depredation, and maintaining public order, its role is otherwise subsidiary: to support the work of the families, religious communities, and other institutions of civil society that shoulder the primary burden of forming upright and decent citizens, caring for those in need, encouraging people to meet their responsibilities to one another, and discouraging them from harming themselves or others.

By Iain D CampbellThese biblical marriages are not merely homely touches in the narrative; they are, in my view, designed to bring us to the essence of the covenant, and to illustrate that at its heart is union with the promised son and redeemer.

A question that has long fascinated me is how John Ryland, Jr. (1753-1825) came to be corresponding with Dr John Erskine of Greyfriars, Edinburgh, in the 1780s? Erskine was an Edwards aficionado and sent packets of Edwardsean literature to all with whom he corresponded. So it was that he sent Edwards’ Humble Attempt to Ryland in 1784 and the result was the beginning of a prayer movement among the Northamptonshire Association Baptists, to which Ryland belonged, that led to revival.