{"id":1173,"date":"2002-04-10T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-04-10T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/10\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T15:48:20","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T20:48:20","slug":"bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluebonnets, bullets, bombs & balloons — Year 14"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In their visions, key supporters of the U.S. Prayer Center kept seeing fields of bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.<\/p>\n\n

But that was not all they reporting seeing.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIn the past three weeks, six intercessors, who do not know each other, have reported to us written descriptions of dreams that they have had in which President George W. Bush appeared to have been assassinated,\u201d said an email from the Houston-based ministry (www.usprayercenter.org<\/a>) about this time last year.<\/p>\n\n

There were more visions in the weeks that followed, said Carol Pauwels, the center\u2019s prayer coordinator. These \u201cprayer warriors\u201d kept seeing planes in the air and images of warfare and terror. The calls and emails came from around the world and the ministry went on \u201cred alert\u201d prayer status.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe pulled all of these dreams and visions apart and looked at the common themes,\u201d she said. \u201cWe finally decided that the threat was real and filed a report with the Secret Service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That sound you hear is many readers \u2014 secular and devout \u2014 laughing out loud. But if you listen carefully, you will also hear sincere murmurs of concern and affirmation. That\u2019s the way things have been going for the past 12 months or so.<\/p>\n\n

It has been a time of tears. Yet, as always, the religion beat has a way of making people shake their heads for a wide variety of reasons. I bring this up, because this is the time of year when I mark this column\u2019s anniversary \u2014 this is No. 14 \u2014 by weaving together a few of the mysterious, bizarre, amusing and even poignant items that show up in my mail. Proceed with caution.<\/p>\n\n

* I am pleased to report that www.clonejesus.com appears to have gone out of business.<\/p>\n\n

* A former student passed along an item from Chapel Hill, N.C., about the opening of a nightclub called \u201cNV.\u201d A manager said the name stands for \u201cenvy,\u201d one of the \u201cseven deadly sins\u201d in the hit movie \u201cSeven.\u201d Actually, Hollywood didn\u2019t create that list.<\/p>\n\n

* A nondenominational radio station in London has set up an online confession site \u2014 www.theconfessor.co.uk<\/a>. Believe it or not, someone beat the Church of England to this innovation.<\/p>\n\n

* This could be a bad setback for user-friendly, Baby Boomer Buddhism<\/a>. The Dalai Lama has decreed that masturbation, oral and gay sex are wrong and against the Buddhist<\/a> way of life. Has anyone told Richard Gere?<\/p>\n\n

* Hold the mascara! Tammy Faye Bakker Messner of PTL infamy is reported to have cut a duet with shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. The song? \u201cSilent Night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

* All kinds of religious folk visit the pluralistic domain called Beliefnet.com<\/a> \u2014 from angels to Zoroastrians. A friend noticed this striking lament by one writer: \u201cI am a werewolf \u2026 and also Catholic. \u2026 But too progressive for some Catholics.\u201d Wait! Did he say \u201csome\u201d Catholics?<\/p>\n\n

* I was not surprised when psychic John Edward announced that he would try to communicate with Sept. 11 victims during several episodes of his show \u201cCrossing Over.\u201d But I was surprised when producers scrapped these plans, rather than offend viewers. Does this retreat imply that there is some concept of right and wrong in cable television?<\/p>\n\n

* This confession appeared in the ombudsman\u2019s column in the Washington Post: \u201cReligion doesn\u2019t seem to play much of a role in a large newsroom, although it plays a big part in the lives of many readers. This is one of the larger disconnects between journalists and their audience.\u201d What does this say about efforts to promote diversity in the news business?<\/p>\n\n

* How nervous is Palm Beach County, Fla., these days? Waves of citizens called police when skywriter Jerry Stevens celebrated the arrival of 2002 by writing \u201cGod is Great\u201d in the sky. They feared it was an act of terrorism.<\/p>\n\n

* Can news reports from the Middle East get any worse? However, I did receive this touching report from loved ones who live in Nablus. They were eating breakfast a few days ago as the sound of gunfire and cannons echoed off the surrounding hills. The parents realized that their 3-year-old son, Malachi, was gazing off into space. The father asked what he was doing.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m listening to all the balloons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their visions, key supporters of the U.S. Prayer Center kept seeing fields of bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas. But that was not all they reporting seeing. \u201cIn the past three weeks, six intercessors, who do not know each other, have reported to us written descriptions of dreams that they have had in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,487,538,720],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anniversary","tag-journalism","tag-mattingly","tag-religion-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBluebonnets, bullets, bombs & balloons -- Year 14<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In their visions, key supporters of the U.S. Prayer Center kept seeing fields of bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.But that was not all they\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bluebonnets, bullets, bombs & balloons -- Year 14\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In their visions, key supporters of the U.S. Prayer Center kept seeing fields of bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.But that was not all they\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2002-04-10T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T20:48:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/\",\"name\":\"Bluebonnets, bullets, bombs & balloons -- Year 14\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2002-04-10T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T20:48:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"In their visions, key supporters of the U.S. Prayer Center kept seeing fields of bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.But that was not all they\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/04\/bluebonnets-bullets-bombs-balloons-year-14\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bluebonnets, bullets, bombs & balloons — Year 14\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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