Recently I preached a two-week series on justice. During that brief series I showed a clip from “The Invisible Children,” a film documentary about children in Northern Uganda who are suffering. I talked about the difference a few college students and a camcorder are making in the lives of these kids. Some of you have asked how you can get your own copy of the DVD, so here is the website.
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God’s mercy on all of you school teachers out there in blogland. Tie a knot in the rope. Hang onto it. (Don’t even THINK about putting it around any little annoying necks. They’ll be someone else’s students next year. Keep your streak of “consecutive-years-without-executing-a-child” alive.)
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I was a paperboy. For three years, I went down to the square in Neosho after school every day and delivered the Neosho Daily News. I can still pretty much remember my route. (What I can’t remember, my younger brother, who took over for me, probably can.) Then on Sunday morning, I jumped on my bike at 5:30 and rode downtown to deliver my papers.
Chris is now the age I was when I delivered papers. I can’t really imagine him taking off at 5:30 alone in the dark to deliver papers. But it’s a different world. Not being nostalgic. It just is. Better in some ways; perhaps more dangerous in other ways.
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Why can I remember my paper route from my middle school years and all the lyrics to “The Beverly Hillbillies,” but can’t remember where I put my keys?
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Thanks for the comments yesterday. I stirred the pot a bit, and found myself playing Devil’s Advocate some in the comments.
Some thoughts:
First, I can always count on my former coworker, Deana, for comic relief. But really, my friend, don’t order the t-shirts. 
Second, the best response I can imagine would be my friend SG sweetly telling a couple teenage boys that little ears are listening. That’s really a profound example of peer pressure in the best sense–as one teen tells the other teen that they shouldn’t talk that way around little kids.
Third, I like that so many wrote in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 5: Be hard on the church (hard in the since of expecting behavior in the Way of Christ), but be gentle on the world.
Mike, I think it is important to stir the pot on issues dealing directly with living in the world as Christians and our responsibility as disciples. How can we grow and be true disciples without open discussion on these daily influences. Just as iron sharpens iron…
On the topic of speech, freedom and responsibility, my current blog post is a discussion of an offensive word issue and discipleship decision making. It is not an obscenity or vulgarity issue, but it is an emotional topic deeply intertwined with Southern Christianity. For anyone interested visit:
Discipleship, Confederate, and $50,000
Thanks for being bold,
Tony
For some interesting ideas about national law, local law and community mores, I recommend reading Wendell Berry.
Berry is a Christian and a philosopher. I think he would say that curtailment of free speech should only be happen within the context of a community.
Although federal censorship might make it easier to whitewash the world, it’s a Really Bad Thing. You don’t want the guys with the guns dictating what you can and can’t say. And those who think censorship is American (whatever that means) should re-read the First Amendment.
Mike-
Good words yesterday. Now, if you could only do something about Boone and Quile.
I hope you guys have a great summer in Abilene. Abilene is a great place to be during the summer. Eat some Cajun Cones for me. Hope to see you soon.
Don’t worry, Mike. We’ve settled on “Fold Your Own @#$% Laundry!”
Coming soon to a bakery near you…
Wow! You leave Mike Cope’s Blog for just a couple of hours & it goes from 20 entries to 52!!!
Mike, as you know from my previous posts, I tend to be a little bit fired up on occasion. Yes, we should do what we can here with our youth - it’s NOT an either/or issue. I just get really upset when I hear Christians making a big deal out of insignificant (in my opinion) things like instumental music, women serving Communion, profane T-shirts, etc. when there is SO much more that we should be talking about & much, much more that we could be doing. In my own way I am just as frustrated with myself for not being able to save the world. Thankfully, I don’t have to, but I do feel a strong urge to do MORE!
Thanks for an awesome post yesterday! I learned a LOT from reading all the responses & I know that I, personally, need to be more sensitive to other people’s moral yardstick!!!
Mike, you just keep on stirring that pot. Good comments yesterday on a topic that has always bothered me.
And please don’t stop praying for us teachers. We really do have a “No Deaths, No Injuries” policy at this time of year. Here’s hoping my perfect 18-year record remains unblemished.
Great post yesterday, thoughtful comments from many.
The brain cells that are supposed to store the location of items like car keys — they are busy keeping track of Dr. Pepper jingles.
Michael
The invisiblechildren.com site is pretty stirring. How long does the DVD run Mike? thanks.
Kent - It’s about an hour, I believe. I just showed a short clip from it at Highland.
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