Tony Jones: November 2008 Archives

Several commenters have questioned my inclusion of the "B" in GLBTQ, suggesting that bisexual persons don't fit under the monogamy that I endorse.  But PSUdain clarifies on my behalf:

There seems to be a running confusion here about the nature of bisexuality. I have seen it so far in two comments and it is likely in more. It generally seems to be along the lines of, "Bisexuals want multiple partners."

This is not the case! A bisexual person may fall in love with a person of either the same or the opposite gender. But this relationship is just as monogamous as one between two heterosexuals. However, when dating and pre-marriage, a bisexual person may end up dating both men and women over time before settling down with one person in the end, just like a homosexual/heterosexual person may date several people of the same/opposite gender over time before finding one with whom s/he wishes to continue in a closer relationship.

There is a word for a person who enters into a mutual relationship with more than two participants (who may be of any gender) total. This word is "polyamorous". We could discuss that separately, but we should take care not to confuse it with bisexuality. (Also, I do believe that we would be mostly in agreement on polyamory, so it would be a pretty uninteresting discussion.)

This is, alas, a common misconception, and I hope that I can help to clear it up.

While it may seem ridiculous or foolish to make and maintain these distinctions, they are vital to a good discussion. Because if we have different views as to what a word means, then we cannot properly communicate when we use that word. Also, to discuss something we must be able to either name or describe that 'something' during the discussion.

As those of us who are Western Christians begin Advent, I want to encourage you and your church to consider joining the Advent Conspiracy:



[UPDATE: Leadership Network has a nice history of the Advent Conspiracy. HT: Emergent Village.]

I have become a huge fan of Pandora, and, I must say, I believe it has changed my music-listening habits for good.  For those of you who don't know, Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project -- basically, it's a website (and Mac widget and iPhone app) into which you can type and artist or song and you will then be played a string of songs that share the musical genes with your entry.  The more songs I rate with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, the better Pandora gets to know me and my preferences.

The commercial brilliance of Pandora is that I'm is constantly introduced to songs I've not heard before, and with one click I can purchase any song on iTunes or Amazon.

The struggle for Pandora is music royalties.  Record labels doubled the royalty rates they were charging Internet radio stations in 2007, requiring Internet radio stations to pay double what satellite radio stations pay.  Pandora, and many other Internet music services and stations, almost collapsed.  Congress called a time-out to study the issue.

It will really be a shame if Congress and the major record labels cannot adapt to the changing way that consumers enjoy music.  Changes are, of course, inevitable.  The only question is how these changes take place and who ends up as king-of-the-hill.

I'm just filling out my Pandora profile, but it does give a glimpse into what I'm listening to.

I won't be blogging about same sex marriage this weekend, and I don't know if Rod will nor not.  But, in the meantime, I thought I'd point you to a couple other spots where I've found some good thoughts:

Eugene Cho has a great discussion going about Prop 8 and the billboard purchased by my friends at MissionGathering church in San Diego.

Bob Robinson disagrees with me about the issue but agrees that a robust and civil conversation is needed, especially among evangelicals, and especially among evangelicals who work with college students.

Scot McKnight writes encourages "blue parakeeting" the Bible, as opposed to the naive and dishonest phrase, "God says it. I believe it. That settles it."  This is something I'll come back to when Rod and I get into the Bible passages on the subject.

There's a good, respectful debate at the Gay Christian Network.
 
And Andrew Sullivan reflects on the Harvey Milk biopic, which I hope to see next week.

Having written yesterday's essay on my childhood Thanksgivings in Gaylord, my spirit was tugged to drive out to the little town on the plains before all of the holiday festivities got underway.  So I climbed in my vehicle and drove west.

It was a gorgeous day, and memories of years ago came flooding back.  I drove around the town for a while, and parked in front of the home my grandparents built.



Gaylord has changed very little.  It's a small town of 2,200 people, strikingly similar in every way to Lake Wobegon, Minnesota.

The Ford dealership which was originally Ralph Jones Motor Sales (when it was downtown), then East Side Ford, then Wolf Motors is no more.  It's a bit tragic that the Ford dealership and garage that my grandfather spent his entire adult life building and running is no more.  I thought of how much the world has changed around this small town in the last 60 years, since Ralph bought the dealership, about the globalized economy, and about the present troubles of the Big Three Detroit automakers.



Finally, I drove to the cemetery, south of town, and visited my grandparents' graves.  Ralph and Florence Jones were salt-of-the-earth people -- small town Minnesota people.  I miss them, and I miss what they stood for in my life.  The longer they're gone, the further away I feel from this beautiful, tragic small farm town.  The one stop light.  The siren that blows and noon and 6pm every weekday to signal time for dinner and supper.  This is a part of my life that my children will never know except through my stories and, even so, will never truly understand.

For years, it was always the same.  Around 8:45 in the morning, we'd pile in the station wagon and head over to church, greeted there by a couple high school students dressed as pilgrims and playing snare drums.  Inside, our...

Rev Dave writes,"Keep rocking the quadrilateral" Ha! +1 tripp! As a transplanted Methodist, I had a similar thought (and we were just this week teaching the quad to our Confirmation class).Though I wasn't brought up in that tradition, it seems...

There's a new hashtag in the Twitterverse that's attracting a lot of attention.  It's called "Twitter of Faith," the hashtag is #TOF, and the idea is that Tweeters would write out what they believe in 140 characters or less.If...

I'm adding another one today since I found what BudCath had to say interesting:Thanks for your comments. I would love for America to be guided by golden rule, but it is not and never has been. Indians, slavery, jim crow,...

Sean gets right to the point -- a point that Rod and I will explore much more in coming weeks.Nine biblical citations are customarily invoked as relating to homosexuality. Four (Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, I Kings 22:46 and II...

I'm going to start a new feature here at The New Christians.  Every day -- well, almost every day -- I'll post what I consider to be a thoughtful comment that truly adds to the conversation, or a witty comment,...

Rod, thanks for your last post; actually I agree with you: our government does legislate morality.  In fact, that's why I think that it's imperative that we seriously consider the moral implications of denying same sex couples the right to...

As we begin the week, here's a round-up of the blogalogue entries so far:Tony's Pre-Blogalogue Posts:Taking the Offline OnlineIt's Not about MeThe Limits of BloggingIs It Inevitable?EmotionsThe Blogalogue ProperTony: How I Went from There to HereRod: Tony and Rod...

I am sorry to report that Stephen Baldwin is staying in the United States.  Baldwin, a B-list celebrity and convert to conservative evangelicalism, had declared to Fox News that if Barack Obama won the presidency, he would move out of...

Hi there.  Welcome to my blog.  You may have found it because it's been posted on some conservative website, and you feel it's your duty to steer readers away from my false teaching.  Well, you're welcome to do so.But, before...

Rod, it was great to meet you and sit on your front porch drinking coffee.  Actually, it was even more wonderful to meet Julie and the kids, your chickens, and your incapacitated dog.  I appreciated reading your story, and I'll...

I met Rod yesterday, and we had a great time sitting on his porch, drinking coffee.  I can say, with all candor, that I thoroughly enjoyed his company and now consider him a friend.  I'm working on a post today...

Rod, as I mentioned to you in an email, I thought it might be interesting to start our same sex marriage blogalogue by telling a bit of our stories -- about how we came to our respective positions on...

Same sex marriage is an emotional issue to begin with, and the stakes have been significantly upped by the passage of Prop 8.  So I have no doubt that my blogalogue with Rod (which I intend to start tomorrow, on...

I imagine that I've got a smattering of new readers now that I've moved to Bnet, so let me reiterate my blogging rules, which I first iterated at theoblogy.blogspot.com and then at tonyj.net.1) I do not edit my posts, ex...

My soon-to-be-blogalogue partner, Rod Dreher, has today questioned Barack Obama's profession of Christian faith based on a snippet of a 2004 interview in which BO refers to Jesus as a "bridge between God and man."  Of course, BO is not...

If you don't know it, getting "dooced," means getting fired for blogging something that your employer finds odious.  It's a term coined by Heather Armstrong, who now blogs full time at dooce.com.  Today, Scot McKnight blogs an email from a...

One question I've been asked repeatedly is whether the issue of same sex marriage is inevitably shifting toward cultural acceptance.  Yes, it is.As Kevin Drum pointed out last May in Washington Monthly, the American populace is shifting on same sex...

I'm a real fan of the blogging medium, and I'm actually becoming more so.  But I think it's only one medium in a panoply of media that help us to engage an issue like same sex marriage.  Blogs are good,...

In advance of my blogalogue with Rod Dreher, I want to get something off my chest.  I will write about this once and only once.  That is, this conversation about same sex marriage is not about me.  I am heterosexual,...

Like a lot of Christians, I've been thinking about, praying about, and talking to others about my response to the passage of Proposition 8 in California.  Beginning next week, I'll be entering into a Beliefnet blogoalogue about same sex marriage...

There's been lots of talk in the last couple weeks in the punditocracy about the the above question.  The talking heads seem to have come to two consensi (with, of course, notable exceptions):The United States is a "center-right" countryPBO* will...

Last Saturday night, rain and general fatigue scuttled my plans to head into Manhattan, so my hosts and I went to see the film, Rachel Getting Married at the wonderfully quirky and historic Avon Theater in downtown Greenwich, Connecticut. Several little...

That's the best phrase I can come up with to describe Trinity Church, the folks with whom I spent the last three days.  Trinity is a funny place -- I should say, they are an unlikely church in a strange...

The other night in Greenwich, Pete Rollins and I were asked to introduce one another.  Pete said some gracious things about me, and I did my best to express my love for him:...

I'm in Greenwich, Connecticut for the next few days, speaking at various events at Trinity Church.  Trinity is an exceptional church -- emergent by any measure -- in an area not exactly known for innovative churches.  I've known a couple...

HT: Andrew Sullivan...

So said Chuck Todd this today on Morning Joe.  Consider my hometown Exhibit A.I live in Edina, Minnesota, a quintessential suburb.  Southdale, the first-ever enclosed shopping mall was built here in 1956.  During that same era, when my mom was...

I awoke early today, as I often do.  About 4:30am.  I had hoped to sleep longer since this is a tough stretch of travel for me.  I spoke at the National Youth Workers Convention this weekend -- after 10 years...

Yesterday and today, I'm at the Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club on an annual outing hosted by my uncle. My dad had knee surgery last week, so he's absent, as is my brother, Andrew. But my brother, Ted, is here,...