1959 Rambler Ambassador Custom Cross Country
Need a classy vehicle in which to take the little ones Trick-or-Treating tonight? Ditch that SUV and pile them into this sweet ’59 Ambassador Cross Country so they can fill it and themselves with candy and laughter.
It’s Halloween. Let’s Ramble!
First, this public service announcement for Daylight Savings Time (thanks, Clark Bunch!):
Second, because this is not only Reformation Day, but also Halloween, throughout today’s Ramblings we will feature the most frightening creatures on God’s earth:
Jim Bakker gets at least some of his messages from his underwear. Yeah, he said that. The televangelist/doomsday prepper recently “shared” that God speaks to him through his skivvies.
During a broadcast of his TV program, Bakker explained that God sent him a prophetic message by choosing the color of his underwear.
“I went to get dressed, and I pray about what I wear — I really do,” Bakker said. “I know I look stupid sometimes, but the last time God told me to wear a color was red, and what happened that day? The stock market crashed.”
“Today, God said, ‘I want you to wear all black,’” Bakker continued. “Even my shoes are black. My underwear is black. My socks are black.”
I’m sure there are days none of us wants to know about.
The biggest roar in politics heard this week involved the collective complaining of the GOP candidates who felt they were treated unfairly during this week’s debate.
The Huffington Post reports:
Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus sent a letter to NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack on Friday, informing him that the party was suspending its partnership with the network after candidates complained they were treated unfairly during this week’s CNBC debate.
“We are suspending the partnership with NBC News for the Republican primary debate at the University of Houston on February 26, 2016,” Priebus wrote in the letter. “The RNC’s sole role in the primary debate process is to ensure that our candidates are given a full and fair opportunity to lay out their vision for America’s future. We simply cannot continue with NBC without full consultation with our campaigns.”
. . . In his letter, Priebus said the network didn’t keep its promises to monitor the candidates’ speaking time and let them answer an opening question about the economy. He also accused the debate moderators of asking unfair questions.
Anyone watch? Care to comment?
A penny saved . . . Otha Anders, a 73-year-old from Ruston, Louisiana, has been collecting pennies for more than 45 years.
The other day, he decided to cash them in. After five hours of hacking open five gallon containers filled with Lincolns and the tedious counting, Mr. Anders left the bank with $5,136!
Good for him. Not a bad savings plan and a cool tortoise and hare kind of story.
Anders’ coin collecting habit started when he found a penny on the street decades ago. It escalated from there. “I would never spend a penny,” he told his local paper. “I would break a dollar before giving up a penny.”
Collecting pennies came to have a special meaning for him.“I became convinced that spotting a lost or dropped penny was an additional God-given incentive reminding me to always be thankful,” Anders said.
I couldn’t find any reports about whether or not he tithed on his pennies, or sowed a seed to make his harvest grow.
But I doubt it. After all, he came out of this with his own money in his hands.
Speaking of profits . . . Looking forward to the holiday shopping season, outdoor gear and sporting goods retailer REI has decided to stay closed on Black Friday, the most important shopping day of the year for many stores.
USA Today reports:
In an unprecedented move for the modern-day holiday shopping season, REI’s 143 stores will be closed the day after Thanksgiving. The co-op business plans to launch a campaign Tuesday encouraging people to forgo shopping to spend time outside instead. With the hashtag #OptOutside, REI will ask people to share what they’re doing on Black Friday on social media.
REI is taking direct aim at the frenzied consumerism that dominates the holidays with a message to do the exact opposite of what Black Friday demands.
“Any retailer that hears this will be startled by the idea,” says REI President and CEO Jerry Stritzke, who admits he was apprehensive about closing at first. “As a co-op … we define success a little differently. It’s much broader than just money. How effectively do we get people outside?”
Even though Black Friday is one their own top 10 sales days of the year, REI will have no Black Friday promotions and won’t process online orders until Saturday. A small handful of its approximately 12,000 employees will be on call, while the rest will get a paid day off.
The Denver Post doubts that many will follow their lead in years to come, and REI executives admit that even for them this might be a one-time experiment. Still, from where I sit, REI’s move is a breath of fresh air.
Now, if only more churches would open on Christmas Day . . .
One group has renamed Halloween. Now, it’s “JesusWeen.”
No, really. JesusWeen.
JesusWeen (Oct 31st) is expected to become the most effective Christian outreach day ever and that’s why we also call it “World Evangelism Day.”
It’s a day to give out Christian gifts, just as God gave us Jesus.
You know, I’m all for people sharing their faith. And this site seems so earnest and well-intentioned.
But, come on.
It’s okay to be human. It’s okay to share in your culture’s celebrations and doing so does not have to compromise your beliefs in any way, shape or form. It might even help you to get to know your neighbors and for them to know that you are somewhat normal and accessible as a fellow homo sapiens.
I know there are a lot of wacky, immoral, and even wicked things that take place under the name Halloween, but please, please . . .
Anyone who feels it necessary to name the day “JesusWeen” and make it a time to “come out from among them and be separate,” I hereby consign you to reading one of Michael Spencer’s Halloween posts each day until the silliness demons depart.
ELCA Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton and Denis J. Madden, auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Baltimore
Now, on a more serious (and hopeful) note, I am marking this Reformation Day with a commitment to read a new ecumenical text that draws on 50 years of Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. You’ll be hearing more about it in the days ahead.
The document is called “Declaration on the Way,” and it:
draws together a litany of 32 consensus statements, where Catholics and Lutherans already have said there are not church-dividing differences between them, and
identifies some “remaining differences” and suggests some ways forward toward more unity between the church traditions.
You can read the background of this document and download it in complete form and as an executive summary at the link.
Look forward to more discussion about this.
Finally, how about some scary good music for this Halloween?
On this week in 1971, the world lost one of rock, blues and soul’s great guitarists when 24 year-old Duane Allman died in a Macon, Georgia motorcycle accident.
Earlier in 1971, the band had recorded what many critics consider (and I agree) to be the greatest live rock album of all time: At Fillmore East. A double LP with seven unforgettable jams, it was the band’s breakthrough moment. But only a few months later, their gifted guitarist, after having also worked that year with Eric Clapton and contributed his talents to Layla and other sessions with Derek and the Dominoes, met his untimely fate.
Here is a live rendition of “Whipping Post” from the Fillmore East, recorded in 1970.