In 1930 all of the major guilds of the motion picture industry ratified the Motion Picture Production Code. This code was the beginnings of the rating system that we still have now. Part of the new rules established by the production code determined that passionate kissing was only allowed once in an entire movie, and there were to be no sexually explicit scenes whatsoever. Movies had been getting raunchier and this was meant to be a course correction. But it... Read more

I confess that I just spent a long weekend with my wife in New York City – my favorite city in the world – and so all I was not a diligent blogger over the weekend. We got in at midnight last night & I’m still feeling the city running through my veins. So, I confess that during my confessions today I will attempt to adopt an air of superiority, like all good New Yorkers, and that I might accidentally... Read more

Vacation time is essential to a healthy work life. But, accordingto LA Times business writer David Lazarus, half of all US workers donot take all of their allotted time off. The reason, he says, is that employersapply subtle pressure to make people feel as though they can’t take all oftheir vacation time. We need to learn how to take rest as seriously as we takeour work. Do you feel guilty or vulnerable if you take your allotted vacationtime from work?... Read more

*Update: Huffington Post is saying that Colbert’s Mother is sick, you can read about it here. I hope things are okay w/Stephen Colbert. They cancelled his show last night at the last minute last night saying, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the show will air repeat episodes on Wednesday, February 15 and Thursday, February 16.” This has never happened before with Colbert’s show and the only similar instance w/The Daily show was a death in the show family… I hope it’s... Read more

Checks and balances is an essential part of the genius of the American system, but they have also slowed the government down to a grinding halt. Mired in the gridlock, it seems our representatives have found a way to kill time: insider trading. When we need our representatives to help speed economic recovery, they’ve been getting filthy rich off of their privilege and status instead. John Stewart said, “It’s called checks and balances… they deposit the checks… it increases their... Read more

There is a nice book review of An Evangelical Social Gospel? up at libertarianchristians.com I think it’s a really fair review of what I tried to do in the book. It’s interesting to hear someone kind of push on my view of personhood. The atomism critique was new to me & I’ll have to investigate it further. It was good to read someone who has a different view of what it means to be an individual interact with what I’ve... Read more

Front page at The Independent today contains an interesting article by Peter Popham about secularism in the UK. The British still have an official state church, and 71% ticked the “Christian” box in the last census. If you don’t want to read the whole article (it rambles), it’s worth it just to scroll to the bottom and read all of the quotes… pretty telling stuff. Popham says “secularism is the bastard child of monotheistic religion.” He quotes John Gray’s book Straw... Read more

If you are a reader of fiction and have not yet read My Nameis Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev… stop what you are doing, logon to Amazon.com, buy An Evangelical Social Gospel, then both of these books by author, painter, rabbi & my new hero – Chaim Potok. Just kidding, forget the first one and just by the two Asher Lev books. Seriously, my wife read this book a long time ago and told me I would... Read more

I confess that I’m genuinely sad that Whitney Houston has died. I continued to wish all the way up until the end that she would find sobriety again. I confess to feelings of profound gratitude and pride for all of those people in my life who live sober despite their addictions… you know who you are… I confess that I have not been able to enjoy the Grammy’s since I began to understand how the music industry works. I confess... Read more

That was supposed to be the headline for my recent article at the Huffington Post. Instead it reads, “Christians For Colbert: Why We Should Unite for This Election.” Either way – here’s an excerpt. As always, I appreciate people clicking “like” or sharing via facebook & twitter from the actual article on the HuffPo:This election year is going to be the most miserable in American history. The Citizens United Supreme Court decision has cleared the way for the invention of the super-PAC... Read more