DAVEMIERS.COM
Hands up for some creative musical pastichery*? Then check out www.inbflat.net, a collaborative music/spoken word project. Basically there are 20 youtube vids of different peeps playing something in B-flat. I’ll stop trying to explain it, just go and check it out!!
(h/t soph)
* i think i just invented the word ‘pastichery’, not bad!
Free Music Friday is back! (I didn’t finish the last competition, so leave a comment to win a free copy of Jonnday’s EP). This week 2 free Worship EP’s from 2 American Churches: Mars Hill Church Seattle and Reality LA. Both really good quality, lyrically and musically.
10 FREE TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD:
See below to listen to my favourite of the tracks, Psalm 51 from Mars Hill.
Continue reading “Free Music Friday 09 // Reality LA + Mars Hill Seattle”
I said that my Bonhoeffer essay was my favourite essay of the year. Now that I’ve written it, I retract that statement! While I thoroughly enjoyed all the reading, I think I stuffed up the actual essay. Here’s a quick book review of one of the books I read.
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is a new biography written by Eric Metaxas (he’s the guy who wrote the recent bio of William Wilberforce). It’s brilliant! I couldn’t put it down. Bonhoeffer’s story is incredible and Metaxas’ writing is is simple, yet compelling. It’s comprehensive (600 pages) and also includes extended extracts from Bonhoeffer’s writings. Understanding his life is useful for understanding more fully the context in which he wrote. Gripping stuff.
It’s very good. Read it. Pick it up on Amazon: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
The NSW Education Department have recently trialled Ethics classes as an alternative for students who are not currently part of SRE (Special Religious Education) classes. Lots of Christians and other providers of SRE have been lobbying for this to be reconsidered, seeing it as a potential threat to the ongoing provision of SRE in the school timetable.
While I agree with much of the lobbying that has been undertaken, my primary concern with the proposed classes is to do with the already existing school curriculum.
I have a double degree in Bachelor Arts/Bachelor of Teaching (Primary Education). For my major research project at University, I focused on ‘Morals, Values and Ethics in the HSIE (Human Society in its Environment) Syllabus’.
Providing the HSIE Syllabus has not changed since my studies and time as a School Teacher, at its core HSIE is already supposed to be teaching students morals, values and ethics. So to propose Ethics classes as an alternative to SRE is a failure of teachers and/or the system to adequately follow through on the ethical framework already integral to the HSIE program.
Those who are currently down with the HSIE documents, is this a fair call?
Ok. This blog hasn’t become a political blog, but you must watch this video. It’s from Taiwan in the lead up to the Australian Federal Election from this past weekend. If you still don’t get the Australian political scene, this video pretty much sums it all up. Brilliant!
(h/t Peter Pilt and Guy Mason via facebook)
“Men must have the political courage to work to end all forms of violence against women, especially the commercial sexual exploitation that is fueling sex trafficking. Male leaders have an enormous task, because their work will be done in a cultural context that has constructed their manhood around the pornification of human sexuality. Click on the link at YouTube [below] to watch an example of this leadership: Jonathan Walton reading his poem, “I’m Sorry Anna Nicole”, at a recent CATW event in New York on December 2, 2009.”
Find out more about the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)
(h/t ben via twitter)
It’s time to get you vote on, tomorrow! I’ve posted a bunch of politics related posts in the last few weeks. You can read them here. I know lots of Christians who aren’t quite sure how to think through who to vote for. I think this is particularly for younger Christians who are voting for the first time and working out if they will vote for their parents party or a different one. It’s not too late to take an hour or two before you vote to think things through. My 3 tips for first time (or undecided) voters are the 3 recommended reading lists below.
1. Centre for Public Christianity | Federal Election 2010 – CPX regularly do a killer job at showing how Christianity intersects with all areas of life and society. I’ve only had a look at a few of the articles and videos, but their election 2010 coverage is comprehensive and very useful. They include the following areas of discussion: Christians and Politics; Economics; Education; Environment; Family and Community; Justice; Refugees; and Politicians. Read/view more here.
2. The Box Pop | On Voting and Jesus – Steve Boxwell is one of my peeps from College. He single handedly coached our whole year through Philosophy 1, Philosophy 2 and Philosophy 3. He’s also the “politics guy”. Because lots of people regularly ask him questions about politics etc, he thought it would be good to punch out some blog posts this week with some thinking on “voting and Jesus”. Steve puts his cards on the table and says how he will be voting. Regardless of whether you come to the same conclusions or not, this series will help you think through lots of the issues. It kinda feels like that year 6 trip to Canberra! Read them all here.
3. FERVR.NET | Series on Voting – let me be honest, I only read the first post in this series, so the whole series could be a lemon for all I know! But I’m guessing it’s useful. FERVR.NET is a youth website I help write for, so these 5 articles might be the simplest and first stop for younger punks.
Happy voting.
