The Arrow's Path

"The town of Cary, North Carolina, canceled its Winter Wonderland festival because of the storm."

I have added a Donate button on the right sidebar for anyone interesting in donating to Missions. 100% of any money I receive will be donated directly to a charitable mission cause that I know about and approve of. Sadly, I am not tax deductible. This month: the Haitian relief fund of the Order of the Holy Innocents which supports an orphanage in Port-au-Prince Haiti. This small orphanage is run by an Anglican priest friend of mine. Luckily no one was seriously hurt in the earthquake, but the building itself was completely destroyed. The 20 or so children have been temporarily evacuated to a northern part of Haiti and are safe for the time being.

The following is a press release from the Diocese of South Dakota. -The Archer ------------------------------------------------------------------- Days of ice storms and sustained winds that at times reached 49 mph with gusts above 60 mph have left residents of parts of South Dakota without electricity, heat, or water for nearly a week and counting. In addition, the loss of power damaged the aging water system that serves the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and the communities around it. Over 15,000 people have been directly impacted by this disaster and current estimates are that some residents will not see the power return for nearly a month. The Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota has applied for an emergency grant from Episcopal Relief and Development to assist in the immediate relief effort. The Rt. Rev. John Tarrant, Bishop of South Dakota, invites anyone who wishes to help to send funds to the Diocese of South Dakota. The Diocese will use these funds to supplement the g...

A Red football field ...that's just bizarre. Hat tip: Nate.

I sometimes think of myself as a Sports Bear: I go into sports hibernation after the end of football season. The NFL post season has not really interested me all that much this year, but I did attempt to listen to some of the Vikings/Saints NFC championship game on the radio. I've studied or worked in radio for some time. Perhaps I listen to too much of the radio medium from the Golden Age of Radio, as I collect old time radio shows as a hobby. Call me old school, but I hate radio sports announcers that feel the need to yell, hoot, and holler on every single play. I'm not saying they should announce or commentate in a monotone the entire game, but listening to the Vikings/Saints game grew tiresome. Announcers just don't need to be acting like its the final do or die field goal attempt in overtime when its a 1 and 10 incomplete pass in the middle of the 1st quarter. I understand that TV (or perhaps TV-like Internet) and not Radio is the major communication medium nowadays. B...

Cool to watch, but can you spot the slip up? (Hint: One icon is not in fact Mary and Jesus.)

For Immediate Release DATE : 1/21/2010 Relief Efforts Continue in Haiti After Earthquake Over a week since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, the nation is still being affected by large aftershocks, including a 6.1-magnitude event yesterday morning. However, the continued geological events are only one challenge facing those trying to provide relief in Haiti. Despite the efforts of international aid organizations, food, water and other critical resources are still greatly needed by many residents of Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country. Congested runways and ports have made it difficult to get materials into Haiti, and while the situation is slowly improving, lack of available fuel continues to hinder the transport of available supplies to those in need. “We’ve been working closely with the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic to get shipments into Haiti on a daily basis,” said Kirsten Muth, Episcop...

Father Stephen has a great point here on the best way to refute "pop culture atheists:" "We are living in a time of history in which saints are required. We have long passed the time in which rational arguments will carry the day. Nothing less than lives which manifest the existence of God will do. The world has heard centuries of arguments – has been subjected to crass persecutions and atrocities in the name of God (even if these were largely not the result of Orthodox actions). We have survived a century of extremes (Bolshevism, Nazism, etc.). That the world is hungry is beyond doubt. But the world is not hungry for a new and winning argument. The world hungers for God (whether it knows this or not). The proper Christian answer to the hunger of the world is to be found only in the manifestation of God. Thus the challenge of a modern atheist should not be met with an anxious rejoinder from our panoply of arguments – but with the urgency of prayer that we might ourselv...

Read this article here . So, naturally I went into the priesthood. Nope, no stress there.

The shock of the horrible earthquake that happened earlier this week in Haiti, and the dreadful images we see now any time we turn on the TV or go onto the internet, on weeks like this, especially if we turn on the news, the question that some people always raise about natural disasters is, ""If God is indeed reaching down from the heavens (as it says in Psalm 36), where was He before that Earthquake?" This is not new, of course, or different from the questions faith always asks in the face of suffering. The Books of Job and Jeremiah, the laments in the Psalms, in fact the very passion narratives we hear on Holy Week all testify to the Bible’s honest scrutiny of human pain, whether due to natural causes or human agency. Psalm 88, for instance, is a bitter cry emanating from the depths of suffering and asks this very question in Verse 15: "Why have you hidden you face from me?" If you read this psalm in the original Hebrew, the last verse literally ends with, ...

"One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." -Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from the Birmingham Jail

Two brilliant musicians from two diverse musical backgrounds, and they make it work. Whoa, check this out . Clip from the Johnny Cash Show: October 28, 1970. Louis Armstrong died about a year later.

(You may have to click on the image to read the full comic.)

I have been conversing on Facebook and other places about where I am right now as a fan of sports. I mainly keep up with College Football and Baseball on all levels. After watching the completely (in my opinion) unethical poaching by USC of the University of Tennessee's entire coaching staff, I have been pondering in my mind exactly where Christians should be in relation to sports. As I told Father Tim on Facebook the other day, " Actually, where I'm at right now with college football, I think Verse 5 (of Psalm 12) is resonating with me the most. I'm real close to being done with watching big time college football altogether. It's devolved into power and money and winning at all costs, and who has the most all of the above. I don't know if, as a Christian, I can ethically be so involved in it anymore. I've thought for years that its morphed into a business, but now its morphed into something totally unholy. I am going to have to think about it in the off ...

I have heard that Father Bien-Aime, an Anglican priest acquaintance of mine, is OK, but the orphanage he runs in Port-au-Prince was completely destroyed; The children reportedly are OK, though, and are being moved to a safer place outside the city.

The Office of the Presiding Bishop just offered this statement on Haiti: The people of Haiti have suffered a devastating earthquake, and it is already clear that many have died and many more are injured. Even under “normal” circumstances, Haiti struggles to care for her 9 million people. The nation is the poorest in the western hemisphere, and this latest disaster will set back many recent efforts at development. I urge your prayers for those who have died, been injured, and are searching for loved ones – and I urge your concrete and immediate prayers in the form of contributions to Episcopal Relief & Development , who are already working with the Diocese of Haiti to send aid where it is most needed.

My previous blog post about the Lane Kiffin fiasco was followed this morning at Mass by what I discovered was the assigned Psalm from Evening Prayer today (I almost started laughing up at the altar): Psalm 12 1 Help, O Lord , for there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful have disappeared from humankind. 2 They utter lies to each other; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, 4 those who say, ‘With our tongues we will prevail; our lips are our own—who is our master?’ 5 ‘Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up,’ says the Lord ; ‘I will place them in the safety for which they long.’ 6 The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. 7 You, O Lord , will protect us; you will guard us from this generation for ever. 8 On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is e...

I made a pre-season prediction here about Lane Kiffin and Tennessee. In it, I remarked plainly that when I watched the press conference introducing Lane Kiffin, I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. He was mouthing all the jive and Raiders platitude lingo that Bill Callahan (also an ex-Raider) mouthed the years he was at Nebraska. Callahan couldn't coach his way out of a box, but at least had some professional dignity (smiling and doodling on a clipboard when down 35-0 at halftime notwithstanding.) Kiffin on the other hand was brash and, frankly, full of himself when his career highlight before taking the Tennessee job was being fired from the Raiders after a season and a half. As it stands now, he has 2 career highlights: being fired from the Raiders and a career 7-6 record. Luckily dear old dad is there to bail him out on defense because his offense couldn't do anything consistently. I was initially shocked when I heard Kiffin had left (like a coward who has no sens...

You have to read this . It's hilarious.

My mother e-mailed me this picture of 2 of their dogs cuddled up in a blanket with a heating pad. The dogs, for those curious, are a dapple colored Mini-Dachshund (foreground) and what they call a Chiweener (Half Chihuahua and Half Mini-Dachshund) which basically has the body of a wiener dog and the ears of a Chihuahua. It gets cold in...Tennessee. (Being in South Dakota where it is currently colder than the South or North Pole at the moment, I don't have a lot of sympathy.)

The NCAA (pseudo-)National Championship Game is tonight between No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas. Boise State at 14-0 has a gripe, but the system being what it is, either Alabama or Texas will be the national champion this time tomorrow. While a majority of fans want a real playoff of some kind, the simple fact remains that the NCAA and College Football make more money leaving the Bowl system as it is than to go to a playoff. In a simple case of follow of the money, don't hold your breath for a playoff this decade if that's what you want. I'm not particularly one of those in favor of a playoff, as I would prefer the old traditional Bowl matchups. If for no other reason than safety, I think teams play too many games as it is. Teams are beat up by the end of the season, and a series, however short, of high caliber Bowl-like competition would be disastrous to college age kids' health. Of course, I also think the unlimited overtime rule is dangerous too, and should go back t...

There was apparently a sale at the store, and my wife rolled the dice and bought a different type of popcorn. I believe it was one of those deals that could have gone either way. I do enjoy fresh popcorn with the sprinkle-on cheese flavoring (which is really just more salt but in cheese form.) After pondering microwavable popcorn with "1-step cheddar" all day, I was ready for some of that cheese salt type popcorn you get at the movie theater or 1st Bank and Trust on Fridays (Brookings residents know what I'm talking about). So, I started popping up this new goodie last night. Words cannot describe the vile smell that wafted forth from the microwave in less than 15 seconds. The Rite I Prayerbook liturgy talks about "bewailing our manifold sins and wickedness." If such manifold sins and wickedness had a smell, it would be none other that Pop Secret 1-step cheddar popcorn, as it smelled like burnt macaroni-and-cheese-lined jockey shorts. I couldn't even let it ...

I always like starting the year off right with the Feast of the Holy Name. Here is the first part of the litany to remind you of all the names of Jesus: Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus V. Lord, have mercy on us. R. Christ, have mercy on us. V. Lord, have mercy on us. Jesus, hear us. R. Jesus, graciously hear us. V. God the Father of Heaven R. Have mercy on us. V. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, R. Have mercy on us. V. God the Holy Spirit, R. Have mercy on us. V. Holy Trinity, one God, R. Have mercy on us. V. Jesus, Son of the living God, R. Have mercy on us. Jesus, splendor of the Father, [ etc. ] Jesus, brightness of eternal light. Jesus, King of glory. Jesus, sun of justice. Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary. Jesus, most amiable. Jesus, most admirable. Jesus, the mighty God. Jesus, Father of the world to come. Jesus, angel of great counsel. Jesus, most powerful. Jesus, most patient. Jesus, most obedient....