An old demo I found for a song I wrote about 10 years ago when I wasn’t too impressed with Joshua Harris’ book I kissed dating goodbye”.
I once took the RPM challenge (record an album in a month) and made a very lo-fi concept album based on old liturgical texts, employing very different musical genres and 5 languages….This is the first real song, a dutch folk-rock-indie anthem based on the Lorica or breastplate prayer of St-Patrick.
I once took the RPM challenge (record an album in a month) and made a very lo-fi concept album based on old liturgical texts, employing very different musical genres and 5 languages…. And this was how ‘sketches for a liturgy’ opened: ‘bienvenue’, which is just a welcome indeed, and not a real song yet…
Parwais Sangari is a 20 year old boy from Afghanistan who has been here in Belgium for years. He arrived here as a refugee after enduring terrible things in which his father was murdered, and got permission to stay here because of his age (16 year). He learned our language, went to school and got a job as a welder (a job for which good craftsmen are hard to find and of which we have a shortage right now), and found a new family with some friendly Flemish people who were trying to adopt him and a girlfriend. He became perfectly adapted!
When he was threatened to be sent back, people did petitions for him and more, but our secretary of state Maggie De Block ignored them completely, even though More than 8000 signatures were brought to her in a manifestation.
Even though it’s a fact that grave mistakes have been made in his file he has been sent back without any mercy. Yesterday morning, Parwais Sangari was send back to Afghanistan by the Belgian government. He has been put on a plane and sent back to Afghanistan without having anything there. So right now he’s back in Kabul, and he has no money, no family and no passport, nothing at all. He only has political enemies trying to kill him over there, and maybe the clothes he’s wearing. He’s not just sent back but turned into a homeless person who’s in danger of being killed! This is barbaric and outrageous!!! (read more…)
Under the rubric of ‘defending the truth’ some Christians have left a bad taste in the mouth of both believers and unbelievers who have assumed that all Christianity is represented by a vocal and angry minority. Most of us in the body of Christ have bumped into some of these folks, and we’ve been bruised in the process. ‘You should (or shouldn’t) baptize this way!’ or ‘You should (or shouldn’t) speak in tongues!’ Often it’s done with vehemence and an argumentative spirit. I’ve walked away from some of those exchanges shaking my head. Consequently, those outside the church do not see the strength of unity but rather the weakness of infighting and divisiveness.
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| — | John Wimber (via haereticum) |
From the delightful Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children comes the following exchange between Einstein and a bright, witty South African girl named Tyfanny, who reminded Einstein of his own granddaughter and with whom he exchanged several letters despite being at the height of his career and cultural prominence.
In a letter dated September 19, 1946, Tyfanny writes:
I forgot to tell you, in my last letter, that I was a girl. I mean I am a girl. I have always regretted this a great deal, but by now I have become more or less resigned to the fact. Anyway, I hate dresses and dances and all the kind of rot girls usually like. I much prefer horses and riding. Long ago, before I wanted to become a scientist, I wanted to b e a jockey and ride horses in races. But that was ages ago, now. I hope you will not think any the less of me for being a girl!
Sometime between September and October 1946 — a snappy response time by the day’s standards — Einstein replies:
I do not mind that you are a girl, but the main thing is that you yourself do not mind. There is no reason for it.
