RecoveringBaptist

I've moved!

2006-08-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

Not only do I have a new house, but I have a new address. Please feel free to check it out at recoveringbaptist.com.

And I know everyone at atlbloggers.net is waiting with baited breath to know if I'll still be around. The answer is yes; I'm working on getting all the feeds updated. I'm also hoping to figure out how to set things up so that only the interesting posts end up there, but that would imply that I have something interesting to say in the first place, wouldn't it?

Thank you

2006-08-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

As I've chronicled here, the past few weeks have been pretty grueling for my family. What I've been remiss in relaying here is the support of our family and friends, and I need to correct that now.

We closed on the new house last Monday afternoon and began painting the new one on Tuesday evening. Our goal was to paint 7 rooms, 2 halls, and the trim in another room before the floors were installed on Saturday. That's a lot of painting in a little time, but not only did we get it done, we even managed to paint a ceiling, too! (OK, technically we finished the second coat in one room on Monday, but we took the weekend completely off and the floors weren't installed in that room yet.) Considering that during all of this we were also dealing with the difficulties which come with the contract falling through on the house we're selling, I'm very happy with what all we accomplished.

I've been a little surprised at how many of our friends are keeping up with what's going on through this blog (don't ask me why that's a surprise, I know that's what a blog is for), so this seems to be one of the many right places to say thanks.

First, to the hired hands. I lucked out and managed to hire the three best teenagers in Atlanta. Thanks to Corey and Dave for several long days of painting and to Becca for giving up her one free night. You're good painters, but the Anne Murray music's got to go!

Then to all of our friends who helped out. Veleda brought us an incredible lunch and then loaned Mike out for a long evening to paint. Doug watched the girls at home while Vanessa got high on paint fumes at our place. Keith also gave up a night to help out, which means Liz was at home with the boys. Finally, there's Jimmy who's stayed with us so many times over the years that he may as well be family. Jimmy painted more than I did (hey, someone's got to earn some money in this family) despite his cold. Nothing goes with paint fumes better than Robitussin!

Doug, Vanessa, and the girls made sure we took Saturday night off by inviting us to the pool. Little did they know we were going to bring the lightening show of the year to their house and kill the electricity. We all had a great time anyway, even if we didn't get to see Doug light up like a Christmas tree while cooking burgers.

We also need to say thanks to Reid and Kim for caring enough to invite us over for a nice, stress-free lunch after church. We needed that even more than we thought, and meant a lot to us.

I would also say thanks to my parents and in-laws, but they don't spend enough time on the internets to know what blogs are, which is the way it should be.

Friends like all of you make weeks like last week bearable. And we're looking forward to years of welcoming you to our new house.

Don't Panic in Large Friendly Letters

2006-08-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

My grandfather manually set the insurance rates in Augusta many years ago, and my father and uncle are still in the insurance business, so I'm probably more interested in risk than most people. So I can't believe that I'm nearly two years late in finding this five page article from an OSU professor concerning the risk of terrorism. (Thanks to boingboing for the link, btw.)

Just the other night I saw an intro for a new program asking the question of whether we're more safe now than we were just after 9/11. I'm sick and tired of stories like that which play to our fears. The fact you're more likely to be struck by lightening or killed by a deer than to be directly impacted by terrorism should give us some comfort, but it doesn't seem to. Of course, fears are irrational, and few people really know how to assess risk. It's a very common fallicy to overestimate the probability of those things which we consider to be terrible and to underestimate the probability of those things which we do not consider as bad. For example, if I were to advertise that I have a rifle in a place where my kids could possibly get to it, I would be called a terrible parent. However, no one blinks twice when I take my children to the local pool, regardless of the fact that the chances of a child dying from drowning are much, much greater than of him dying from a bullet.

As many analysts have pointed out, the point of terrorism is not to kill people but to inspire fear in them. The more we change our way of life as a result of their despictable acts, the more they have won. I've known this for a while, but it's good to have someone more qualified than me actually do the math to prove it.

Poor loser

2006-08-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

Cynthia McKinney was soundly defeated today. Some other Congressman must now step up and serve as the laughingstock of the House, at least for the next two years.

I am very excited that Hank Johnson has won. We don't agree on political policy, but I'm glad that he seems to be, as one friend put it, "a genuinely nice and classy man."

Cynthia knows how to run a campaign, and she knows how to work the media. It was clear early in the night that she would lose, but unlike all the other losers tonight, she was not about to give her concession speech on live TV. She waited to arrive at her headquarters until 11:35, right as all of the late-night news shows were signing off. Channel 2 claimed they would try to carry it live, but as of 11:52 pm they haven't broken in to show her speech. I guess she just can't handle speaking the truth that she's lost her power.

Update - Since it seems like my other blogging friends have called it a night from Hank Johnson's campaign HQ, I figure I'll take notes
Update 12:14 am - just when I was about to turn off the TV she graces us with her presence. She has some sort of "special presentation." She's got some sort of musical presentation, but the sound guys can't get it to work. You can tell she's lost, she's completely speechless during the 4 minute plus downtime. I'm just sure we'll all be headed to youtube to check out her video.

Update 12:20 am - Cynthia's "special presentation" sounds like some sort of pathetic white singer-song writer chick. Not the kind of thing you'd expect at a McKinney gathering. According to the crack news group at WSB TV it's "Dear Mr. President" by Pink. Apparently she's going to play the whole song, and I don't think she's actually conceded yet. Kudos to Channel 2 for keeping the entire staff around to carry this wonderful moment live. WXIA did break in, too, but I think they were a little later than WSB.

Update 12:26 am - Cynthia claims that the media wanted us to focus on her hair. And now she's talking about someone "in the press in this room tonight" who caused someone on her staff to need stitches. Interesting that's the second thing a cop-beater talks about on the night she loses.

Update 12:28 am - I'm really bewildered. If she was going to make a speech like this, I don't know why she didn't do it during prime-time. She's attacking Bush while quoting Bobby Kennedy and MLK. Now she's praising every left-wing activist after "standing" with all the Iraqi dead and the homeless American and green-card soldiers. Of course, now she's taking advantage of this opportunity to denegrate the memory of so many dead soldiers and joining the likes of Cindy Sheehan.

Update 12:34 am - now it's getting interesting. "Electronic voting machines are a threat to our democracy." This is followed by a statement that they won't tolerate any more stolen elections. And she "wants her party back" too. I'm surprised she didn't spend more time on this.

Update 12:36 am - not really a concession, but she wishes "the new representative of the Fourth District well." And that's the end. Even Monica Kaufman points out that this wasn't a concession speech and didn't mention Hank Johnson by name. Leave it to Monica to say that Cynthia "took a whoopin" from Mr. Johnson.

As they ended the live coverage they returned to a rebroadcast of the nightbeat right as John Evans, Cynthia McKinney's campaign manager, was being interviewed. He was essentially saying that they got their asses whipped in areas where they "typically controlled." And, of course, Hank Johnson got all the white votes in Rockdale and Gwinnett counties. Here's a tip to Mr. Evans, if she had ever paid any attention to us white people in the northern part of DeKalb County, she probably wouldn't be looking for a job right now. One last note, it's interesting that right as Hank Johnson was claiming victory the McKinney team was claiming that Cynthia was in the campaign HQ building. Just one more lie from their team, since WAGA caught her arriving at that building at 11:35 pm.

Goodbye Cynthia, and good riddance. Mr. Johnson showed more class tonight than you've ever had.

Please vote today

2006-08-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

I've tried to minimize my political comments on this blog. There are enough politically oriented blogs already. But today I'm asking my neighbors in Georgia's fourth district to please take the time to vote in today's run off election.

For 12 out of the last 14 years our district has not been represented in Washington. Cynthia McKinney has been nothing but an embarassment, and we have an opportunity to replace her with a much more honorable man in Hank Johnson. If you did not vote in the Republican primary, then please vote in the Democratic run-off today.

I've had it

2006-08-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm setting myself up to become some sort of terrible viral advertising for do-it-yourself real estate services, but I'm completely had it. As I best understand it, we're completely screwed in this whole transaction. Since the buyer's broker is holding the earnest money, it's up to her who gets it. Of course, both the buyer (or former buyer, as it rests now) says he should get it back, but we've got a claim on it, too. The buyer is the broker's client, and the broker wants him to do business with her again, she doesn't give a rat's ass about us.

So it will probably turn out that our only option, if we want to pursue it, will be to take this guy to DeKalb Superior Court. According to my lawyer friend, that's the most backed-up court in the state, and we'd probably still be working on this a year from now. In other words, we'd all waste a lot more money than is at stake here.

As I've said before, I don't understand the value of an agent. I've dealt with three or four of them now, and I have yet to feel like I got my money's worth. We found both of our houses without an agent, but in both cases the agent got her full 3% commission. And we can't unload this one after two agents, both of whom talked about what a wonderful house it was and claimed it should sell in no time.

Do I sound frustrated yet? I need a beer, but all I get tonight are paint fumes.

I hate it when I'm right

2006-08-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

As we were painting in the new house last night, my wife pointed out that I nailed the personality of the guy who put a contract on the house we're selling. From the very start I said that I didn't trust him and that there was a good chance he'd flake out and break the contract. I really didn't want to go under contract with him from the start, but I figured we really didn't have much choice.

The inspection process, including getting an engineer out to the house, only confirmed my suspicions. I didn't mind getting an engineer on site, but that was the first time I met the buyer, and I didn't like him. My wife says I'm pessimistic about people. Maybe that's true; maybe once I determine I don't trust or like someone it become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Either way, when I don't trust someone, my hunches often turn out to be right.

It turns out I was right about this guy. He's decided to break the contract. We should be receiving a termination letter today. The reason? Ultimately it came down to the way we proposed to "solve" a "problem" with two (yes, 2) outlets in the kitchen. Of course, once we offered to make his requested upgrade to take care of that issue he decided that he still wanted out.

I think I like the Aussie system much better. Your house sits on the market for four weeks. If no one buys it during that time, then it goes up for auction. After dealing with this mess for eight months, that's sounding awfully tempting right about now.

The New House

2006-08-01T05:31:00.000-07:00

OK, so to my friends on atlbloggers.net, sorry that I've reposted this like a dozen times. In case you care and want to see the house in its full glory, blue carpet and all, and don't see it here, please go to my blog.

We went to the lawyer's office yesterday around 2:00 to close on our new house. It's amazing just how many forms there are to sign. It was also somewhat sad to sit across from the sellers. Rather than being a happy occasion, they asked to get paid in two separate checks - they're getting divorced. That's sad enough, but the couple is way too old for that - the husband is 73. It's a sad fact that in real estate you get your best deal when the seller is in a bad situation.

Since Kick keeps asking for pictures of the new house, I'll post a few here. I'm fighting some stupid technical issues with Flickr, otherwise I'd have a stream up and ready.

Everytime we drive up we have the same thought - it looks like a grown up house, and we don't feel that grown up yet! And it's still hard for me to believe that I now own a bedroom with five, count then 5 bedrooms! It also has a living room, den, dining room, and an extra room we'll use for the home theater. It's just frickin huge!!!

In case there's any question, here's why we want to paint and install some hard wod floors. House about a picture of our son's new room?
There's nothing quite like dark green carpet and lime green walls, is there? And then there's the living room with its real estate walls and blue carpet.
We start painting tonight at 6:00pm. We've got 60 hours to get 6 rooms (plus trim in two others and some halls) painted before the floor guy arrives on Friday. The wife's headed to Costco today to pick up enough Coke and Oreos to feed our small army. When it's all said and done, I'm looking forward to sitting on the 1200 sqeare foot deck and enjoying a beer.

The Shaft

2006-07-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

There are some times when my experience at GA Tech come in very helpful. The Institute prides itself on preparing its alumni for the real world, and those five-plus years did help me understand how to prepare for and deal with the shaft. And I haven't faced a bigger shaft in a while than the one I'm facing right now - selling my house.

The realtors who I love so much like to talk about their ethics, and they paint such a pretty picture when it comes to how the negotiations are going to go. In the end, though, sometimes you're just going to get screwed, and you may as well get used to the idea.

Besides real estate agents, if there's one group of people I don't understand, it's those who dislike do-it-your-selfers. Until about a year ago I didn't realize that there were people who actually disliked people like me just because I'm industrious, competent, skilled, and actually enjoy working on my own house. I first ran into some of these people on another house we thought about buying. During the inspection the sellers made it clear that they would never DIY. The tone of voice the wife used was so full of disdain that I was taken aback. It never occurred to me that someone like THAT would end up with a contract on OUR house. Unfortunately, our buyer not only doesn't trust DIY people, but neither does his inspector, and the report was clear about that. My theory is that the inspector is bitter because he used to be a contractor, but his work dried up when Home Depot started convincing people that "You can do it, we can help" is true. So now we're facing a series of silly little repairs, but the buyer absolutely insists that receipts be shown for the repairs.

How silly could this be you might ask. Well, we've got three outlets which need covers, and he insists that a licensed electrician install the outlet covers and provide a warranty for the work. Of course there are some more important items on the list, but this illustrates his mindset pretty well.

We don't trust this guy. To be honest, I suspect we'll make all $2,000 worth of repairs only to have him walk away and find a way to keep his earnest money. But our only choice for now is to give him everything he wants and hope something falls our way. I feel like I'm walking into a calculus final, but I'm just a bit more drunk...

Drink down

2006-07-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

Every so often my wife and I go through an eat-down. Before we buy any more groceries (except for eggs and milk), we eat whatever's in the pantry. It's a great way to save some money while emptying out some much needed space.

In preparation for our big move which begins next week, I've decided to enter into a drink down. Any bottle of alcohol which doesn't have much in it isn't worth moving, so it may as well be drunk. I've already emptied one tonight, and I'm on my second. Half a bottle of Conecuh Ridge really isn't worth moving, is it???

The Inspection

2006-07-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

I've got to say that I'm pretty proud of most of the things my wife and I have done to our house over the past six years. We've done everything from remodeling the kitchen to building a deck, but besides the infamous bathroom, the most challenging test of my abilities was when I replaced all of the pipes in our house. My ass isn't big enough for me to be a licensed plumber, so I was on pins and needles when the inspector arrived on Monday.

Keeping your house clean and hoping someone else will love it enough to go in debt for 30 years is rough enough, but things aren't over once you sign the contract. The most worrysome part is when a professional house critic looks for all those repairs you've put off over the past few years. It's his job to find problems, and if he doesn't scare the buyer just a little bit, then he hasn't earned his money. The report arrived via email yesterday just as we were heading to Pacific Kitchen to celebrate Restaurant Week (best week of the year, and the food was great, btw).

My wife read the report while I fought traffic. She went through each section and we weren't too surprised by what she saw. Then she got to the big test - the plumbing section. I've been dreading this day for months, because somewhere along the way I was convinced that I had seriously violated code and was going to have to replumb the entire house. As she went through each line she read phrases like "consistent for its age" and "acceptable quality" which is the inspector's way of accepting our work. The only comment he had was that there's a slight decrease in water pressure when running all three showers at once - in other words, we passed with flying colors!

Needless to say, that was the most relaxed dinner we've had in months. Now it's on to packing up and getting ready for the new place. It's looking like an all-night painting extravaganza next Tuesday night.

Big sigh of relief

2006-07-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

Whew!

We signed the contract last night. Our house is now officially under contract! We had to settle for less than we think our house is worth, and we've still got to get through the inspection, but we can finally relax and focus on getting ready to move. The best part is that we close on the sale about two weeks after we purchase the new house, which means we'll have enough time to move without actually paying two house notes.

It's nice not worrying that someone might want to see your house at any minute. For lazy slobs like us, that was just way too much pressure. Where's that champaigne?

Did I just hear this right???

2006-07-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

I'm listening to Boortz. When you work at home, you get desperate for anything resembling conversation.

A woman just called in from Northern Fulton County where yet another part of unincorporated Fulton County is trying to form a city like Sandy Springs successfully did. Fulton County has been busy creating new ways to play dirty pool with the split from Sandy Springs, but that's another story. Anyway, this woman is complaining because no one from Fulton County has even bothered to show up at Ocee Elementary School to turn on the voting machines. I guess the geniuses in FulCo figure that if the machines aren't on then the city of John's Creek won't be created.

I don't really have room to laugh, though. I'm a libertarian who lives in DeKalb county. It's not like I'm represented in DC.

The All American Beer and Cheese Experience

2006-07-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's taken me way too long to post about last weekend's party. I've been a little preoccupied this week. Like our last tasting, we enjoyed 7 fine beers paired with cheese. Fortunately, our friends hosted all 22 of us, so we didn't have to clean up afterwards. We've been cleaning too much for the past seven months, so it was a nice break.

I still haven't tallied the surveys, but here's a list of the beers and the cheeses we paired them with. You can find a detailed description of each on our handy little handout.

Thomas Hooker Munich Style Golden Lager with Edam
Hennepin with Cheddar (white and yellow, not Tillamook as shown on the handout)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale with Parmesan
Dead Guy Ale with Romano
Sweet Georgia Brown with Colby
Samuel Adams Double Bock with Gruyere
Gonzo Imperial Porter with Chocolate and Ricotta

Beer lovers will probably recognize the American theme to this list. And there's no shame in the fact that we served a French/Belgian and three German styled beers. The US is the great melting pot, after all. What is a bit surprising, though, is that we managed to find very acceptable American versions of each of the cheeses. To my undistinquished palate, I didn't notice a significant difference between the American cheeses and their European counterparts with the exception of Gruyere which, oddly enough, is stinkier when produced in the US.

Thanks again to everyone who came (even those of you who really didn't like anything you tried - you were good sports). Parties like this give us a legitimate reason to spend nights and weekends drinking as many different beers as we can get our hands on!

Lowball

2006-07-13T08:01:00.000-07:00

Lowballs can be good - I like mine filled with an old-fashioned and garnished with an orange.

Lowballs can also be bad. Like when someone finally makes an offer on your house after it's been on the market for seven months. It's a little painful when you've invested so much in your home and dealt with so many scummy realtors to finally receive an offer which is 10% below the advertised price of 4 days ago. Granted, we have dropped our price quite a bit this week, but geesh.

Of course, the good news is that we have an offer. This gives us something from which to negotiate, and the proposed closing date is just about perfect. If we can make this offer work, then we'll be able to get the new floors in the new house just before we close on this one. We might not even end up carrying two houses for a full month, that's great.

So it's back to negotiating price, and then comes the fun part of the inspection. Who wants a professional critic looking at their house???

Drunken Ribs

2006-07-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

This year's Independence Day celebration was pretty simple. Some friends brought their kids over and we enjoyed a couple of drinks and my favorite recipe - drunken ribs. I don't get to make them often, but they're always a hit. And this year I tried something new, and it's worth the extra effort. So for that one avid RB reader out there, here's the basic process of making drunken ribs. You get to experiment with the quantities.

Season the ribs with Lawry's and pepper

In a pan large enough to hold your rack(s) mix the following:
2 or 3 cans cheap beer (Coor's Light is a favorite)
Vinegar
This morning's left over coffee (it's a great tenderizer)
Several glugs of whiskey (smooth and cheap is fine, but stronger flavor will definately be tasted)
Place the ribs in the pan and pour enough beer (water works in a pinch) to just cover them and let sit for a few hours.

Heat the grill to medium heat (or indirect if using charcoal). Baste the ribs with the marinade. (Here comes the new part) Using a turkey injector, inject the very meaty parts of the ribs with the marinade. Repeat the basting and injecting for as long as the ribs cook. Cover in BBQ sauce towards the end of the cooking. It's best if you increase the heat so that the sauce burns just a little bit.

And now for the sauce. What good are ribs if the sauce isn't any good? Again, you get to figure out the quantities, because I don't believe in measuring.

Dice 2 onions
Brown onions in pot with some olive oil until tender and golden
Reduce heat and add several glugs of Jack Daniels. Cover and simmer for several minutes
Add:
1 can tomato paste (or ketchup)
yellow mustard (until the mixture turns somewhat orange)
dry mustard
cayanne pepper
worcester sauce
brown sugar
vinegar
Cover and allow to simmer for as long as possible.

When made properly, this sauce lands right in the middle of all of the Southern styles - tomato based, mustard based, vinegar based, and sweet. It's zingy and sweet with just a little kick. The Jack (only substitute other strong-flaovred whiskeys such as Jim Beam, Southern Comfort, etc. but not something smoother like Wild Turkey) adds some sweetness and a unique flavor.

I'd love for someone else to try this. If you ever do, please let me know if you like it as much as I do and my friends claim they do.

World Cup Experiment Continued

2006-06-30T13:30:00.000-07:00

Continuing my previous experiment, I'm still watching the World Cup. The sport still doesn't do much for me; it's far less interesting to me than baseball, football, hockey, or college basketball.

I'm learning quite a bit by listening to the US announcers, but a subdued "Goal, Italy" just doesn't compare to a full minute of "¡GOL!" Perhaps if our commentators got a little more excited about the game they're announcing, I might get a little more caught up in it. Of course, if I were as drunk as all those English fans, then it might be little more interesting, too.

Bonafide

2006-06-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

7,065,181

No, you don't undertand it. If you did, you'd have invented it before I did.

Classical this morning

2006-06-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

Back when I sat in a cube surrounded by many other people who did the same, my coworkers could always tell my mood based on what I was listening to. If I was listening to talk radio, then everything was allright. Yes, that makes me very strange, but I never claimed to be normal. However, if I was listening to Classical music, then that meant my nerves were shot. It served as a warning to everyone else - handle with care!

This morning I'm listening to sky.fm's Mostly Classical streaming station. I'm now so officially freaked out about the probability of owning two houses that my insomnia has returned. So today I'm a very stressed out and tired man. For everyone's sake, today it's a good thing that I pretty much work alone. Anyone want to buy a house in Brookhaven???

Jesus saves - Orbit doesn't

2006-06-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

The best legal disclaimer I've seen in a long time.

Storm damage

2006-06-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

While the rain this weekend was an inconvenience for the Pride festival, it caused some real problems in the rest of the state. I didn't realize just how strong Friday's storm was until I got a call from my parents who were headed to the family farm in Bostwick. I think this picture says it all. I've also posted a few more pictures on flickr. We're going to have to hire someone to repair the barn, but we spent a very hard three hours running the chain saw and clearing the wood.

Good Customer Service

2006-06-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

It's not that hard to find bad customer service stories on the internets. And if that's not enough, there's even an entire radio show dedicated to it! Since I had three this week.

First, how about a decent ebay experience? I wanted some accessories for my camera, and the best source was a camera store in New York City. Suffice it to say that NYC camera stores don't have a good reputation, yet panwebi auctions treated me right. Not only did they answer the 1-800 number when I asked a question a couple of weeks ago, but when I did finally place my order it was shipped almost immediately via two-day UPS when I paid for slower shipping!

Next, Motorola showed its true colors. Last year I purchased one of those Star-Trekkie HS810 bluetooth headsets from my favorite cellphone store. I don't know why, but it died a few weeks ago. When I called Motorola, they asked when I bought it and then told me to send it in. I had to pay for shipping there, but I just received my new, free HS850 headset this morning. Yep, they sent me the latest model as a replacement. It did take a couple of extra calls, but who am I to complain?

Finally, I'm fallen in love with woot. One day they offered 250GB hard drives for really cheap. One was so cheap that it didn't work. All I had to do was send a single email to the right address (which was easy to find on their website) and a replacement drive arrived two days later with prepaid postage for returning the dead one.

Are any of these things really spectacular? No, not really. But they've still made me smile on this Friday morning. As if I really need any more reason to smile just before the weekend.

Football experiment results

2006-06-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

So I watched the US lose to Ghana yesterday. I was as drawn to it as I might be to, say, a NASCAR race. That is to say, it's not a sport that I'll go out of my way to watch, but if it's on then it provides ready entertainment. It would probably be a lot more fun to watch with other people while drinking something other than the official beer.

I didn't hate it as much as I could have, and I was impressed by the sportsmanship of the game. I'd be open to being more educated about the world's most popular sport, but if my friends are going to play something other than baseball, I'm hoping for little league ultimate!

On Being a Recovering Baptist

2006-06-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

Chris and Dan's IM exchange is absolutely hillarious. And I'm glad it came at my expense. But it's odd that even after working together for something like 5 years that Dan has no clue about my faith. I don't see how he missed Chris and I saying that the other is going to hell when he sat right next to us!

So, as Dan asked, what exactly is a recovering baptist? It turns out that a few APWBWGTTDers are recovering baptists and even more are recovering fundamentalists.

I'd say that a recovering baptist is someone who grew up in a typical Bible Belt church. Most of us grew up understanding that being a Christian means there is a long list of things you don't do (drink, dance, gamble). To be fair, what's taught from the pulpit may say that a Christian is merely someone who believes Jesus is God's son and died for your sins, but many Baptists have a way of also making a point of running away from anything or anyone that hinted at sin.

Many people are so hurt by this kind of religion that they turn away from Christianity completely. I don't know why, but I never did. As I read the Bible, I became more convinced that it is indeed true (yes I pretty much fit the definition of evangelical from Chris' IM), but that the Baptists have it wrong. Jesus didn't run away from sinful people or things which coud lead to sin, just the contrary, he embraced them. It was the religious people that he derided because they used religious rules to look down on everyone else while making themselves look better. And this is what many people in my old church did. If acting like a drunken idiot was clearly (in their minds) sinful, then I should not drink. Sure, you may not get sloshed when drinking, but somehow I'm better than you since I only drink sugar and caffeine-laden iced tea.

Denominations may be one of the worst things about Christianity, but in case anyone cares, my spiritual journey has led me to the Presbyterian Church in America. I'd say that on the Fundamentalist - Unitarian scale I moved from about a 9.5 to about a 6. That is, I still believe the Bible to be true (including that I don't believe in evolution, but that's because I don't buy the math of it), but I live my life very differently now. Obviously I figured out that Jesus drank alcohol, so now I follow his example. But more important than that, I've learned that in terms of who's better than who, Jesus is in first place and the rest of us are last. It's not my responsibility to try to change how someone else acts, and it's incorrect for me to think that I'm better than anybody else because of what either of us have done. And it's my responsibility to love and include everyone, regardless of what they do or believe. And that may be the biggest difference between my former life and my current one.

Enough theology, I need a beer. Hopefully I can make the next APWBWGTTD meetup!

Football experiment

2006-06-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

With all due apologies to my friend Dignan and everyone at his blog, I hate soccer. And I say this as someone who played it for several years, up through my freshman year of high school. Why do I hate this game so much? Well, it's one thing to say that it's boring to watch a game, but I can honestly say I found it boring to play. That could be because I was always stuck at midfield, which meant I had to run more than anyone else on the field, but I never got a chance to score or even get an assist. Maybe I just sucked, but I didn't like playing the game.

However, since this is the world's most popular sport, I figure I ought to give it at least one more try. So I've decided to try watching the US - Ghana match today. I don't think I've tried to watch a soccer game in over a decade, so we'll see what I think. Yes, I know these things are better watched at a bar, but my boss doesn't look kindly to me drinking before noon!