Howie Luvzus

Sammy’s coming to visit for a few months. She my oldest son’s dog. He’ll be back for the summer. It’s going to be a big shock because recently we added this (Maddie) one to our dog collection:

Chloe is going to have her hands full!

Maybe she can hold her own…

Why doesn’t Faux News, MSNCB, CNN, etc. Play this?

“America was founded, in part, to see this false religion destroyed.”

“America has historically understood herself to be a bastion against Islam in the world.”

“We get off on warfare!”

My experience as a New Orleanian often parallels my experience as a follower of Jesus. At the best of times, they are both exhilarating, life-affirming, and bring great joy. At the worst of times, they are painful and frustrating and I feel like it’s not worth it hanging on to either of them.

Today is one of those days… I want to move away and get away from the craziness. Our mayor promised to have 200 surveillance cameras installed so we could combat crime.

From the T-P via Oyster:

Since the announcement, much of the Nagin administration’s crime camera program has been cloaked in secrecy. City Council members and citizens seeking basic information about the program, such as contracts, have been rebuffed.

As a City Council hearing about the matter began Tuesday morning, the city’s technology officer, who is in charge of camera deployment, was nowhere to be found. A note sent to the head of the Public Works committee stated that Anthony Jones — who had canceled several previously scheduled appearances — was traveling.

That left two attendees, a police officer and an associate tasked with monitoring the program, to give council members the bad news: Right now, the city has “about 85 cameras that work most of the time.”

The announcement incensed some council members.

“I have documented evidence that over 200 cameras would be installed,” Councilwoman Stacy Head said. “The press releases are wearing me out. I want to know the truth.”

More than 250 cameras have been installed, but only about 85 are operable. In fact, the number of crime cameras working in New Orleans today is about the same as it was pre-Katrina.

Spokespeople for the Nagin administration did not return requests for comment.

Meanwhile, violent crime is occurring under inoperable cameras.

I have relatives who HATE New Orleans. They want my family to leave. When stories like this get out, it’s hard to explain why I stay. Here’s one reason. When I complain about Christians who don’t get it, I’m sometimes criticized for being too negative or even judgmental. I don’t often get criticized for being critical of New Orleans though.

I have two good role models in my two struggles. Ashley Morris was a great New Orleanian who spoke out against the madness.

Will Campbell is a fellow Baptist that has spoken out against racism, violence, and bigotry of all types. Campbell says, “As a Baptist, I come from a long line of hell-raisers.”

Having models like Jesus, Campbell, and Ashley—I must keep up the fight. I must continue to speak up, but I must also keep enjoying those times when the Kingdom of God breaks through. God help us.

I once got an email from a Lutheran friend of mine that said, “Who was it that said Baptists know more about what the Bible says than anyone, but also less about what it means than anyone?”

My reply: Me.

Well, in the words of Jim Bakker…I Was Wrong.

A recent study shows that fundamentalists DO NOT know the Bible better than others.

Here’s what the study found:

• The United States has by far the highest level of its adult population that claims to have read at least one passage from the Bible in the last year (75%) and to have a Bible at home (93%), but it doesn’t score better than anyone else on tests of basic Biblical literacy. For example, large numbers of Americans, just like people in the other eight countries surveyed, mistakenly thought that Jesus had authored a book of the Bible, and couldn’t correctly distinguish between Paul and Moses in terms of which figure belongs to the Old Testament.
• Even within highly secularized nations such as France, the U.K. and Holland, broad majorities report a positive attitude towards the Bible, describing it as “interesting” and expressing a desire to know more about it.
• Broad majorities also describe the Bible as “difficult” and express a need for help in understanding it – suggesting, according to the authors of the study, a “teaching moment” for the churches.
• Fundamentalists, or those who take a literal view of Scripture, do not know more about the Bible than anyone else. In fact, researchers said, it’s readers whose attitudes they described as “critical,” meaning that they see the Bible as the word of God but in need of interpretation, who are over-represented at the highest levels of Biblical literacy. In other words, fundamentalists actually score lower on basic Biblical awareness.
• In virtually every country surveyed, those who take a “critical” view of the Bible represent a larger share of the population than either “fundamentalists” or “reductionists,” meaning those who see the Bible simply as literature or a collection of myths and legends. In the United States, “fundamentalists” are 27 percent of the population, “critics” 51 percent, and “reductionists” 20 percent. Interestingly, both Poland and Russia have a similar share of “fundamentalists,” despite lacking the strong Evangelical Protestant tradition familiar in the U.S.
• There is no apparent correlation between reading the Bible and any particular political orientation. In other words, it’s not the case that the more someone reads the Bible, the more likely they are to be a political conservative or liberal.
• Aside from the United States, there’s broad support in most nations for teaching the Bible in public schools, suggesting that large numbers of people attach cultural importance to the Bible even if it’s not part of their personal belief system. (The different result in the United States, according to researchers, flows from America’s unique tradition of church/state separation, in which families and churches rather than public schools have been the primary carriers of religious instruction).
• There no longer appear to be major differences in Biblical reading patterns and Biblical familiarity between countries with Catholic majorities and those with Protestant majorities, suggesting that, in the words of Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni, Italy, the president of the Catholic Biblical Federation, the Bible has become “the ecumenical book of all believers.”

I’ve been asked several times why I describe myself as a “recovering Baptist.” If you’re a recovering alcoholic that means that you’ve given up alcohol because it’s not been very helpful to you. In fact, it’s been very destructive. That description fits my experience as a Baptist. I could get all technical and say that I’m a small “b” Baptist via McClendon, but I’ll be less theological and more personal (though I’m not really sure those are separate enterprises.).

Many of you may know that when I was about five or six years old, my family was “churched” or kicked out of a Baptist Church in East Texas because my dad stopped working for a munitions company only to start working at a brewery. Since alcohol is sinful, the pastor and deacons took my family off the church roll. I was a cradle roll baby which meant that before I even attended a Baptist church, I was enrolled. Oh well…

Since we attended less conservative Baptist churches from then on, I was exposed to a less judgmental form of Baptist life. I did experience the oppressive pharisaical form of Baptist life when I was enrolled in a Baptist school in Memphis. It wasn’t too bad until High School, where the “Super Christians” were the popular kids and looked down on those of us who weren’t rich and good-looking and able to appear squeaky-clean.

This didn’t bother me too much because I learned early on that High School is meaningless and if that’s the high-point of your life you’re pretty pathetic. College was great! I attended a small private Catholic college and the brothers and other professors were really caring and interesting. I thrived there. It was wonderful to find persons who were committed Christians that weren’t complete jerks! Through the introduction of Catholic Social Teaching I learned that I was to make a difference in the world. As a Baptist, the only context for that understanding of life meant that I should become either a missionary or a pastor. That was so unfortunate. I spent a lot of wasted time feeling guilty.

After college I began to find my life as a business owner unfulfilled. I went to Seminary. I was so darn excited. I had sold my house, given away my dog, and moved my wife and kids 400 miles from the grandparents. What a wonderful time, living in a whole neighborhood surrounded by Baptist ministers!

Needless to say, I soon became a bit disappointed. However, I decided the best way to be a Baptist was to get a PhD, and teach Baptists how to follow Jesus without being jerks! During my PhD program I had the privilege of teaching at the seminary. I thought I had experienced narrow-minded fundamentalism in high school, but that wasn’t even close to the level of hatred I felt at the seminary. I met some of my best friends at the seminary and a few who still teach there are great friends, but the oppression there was stifling.

It seems that once again, I was on the outside looking in. I was labeled a “Liberal,” which is actually very funny, and the person I worked hard for for four years didn’t have the fortitude to go to bat for me. Once again I found myself at a Catholic institution. My colleagues not only respected me, but they embraced and valued my differences.

I still attend a Baptist church. But I do so knowing that if I really opened up and shared what I truly believe that I would be rejected there too. Sometimes I visit the seminary. I see friends there and former students that appreciate my ministry there. It sometimes makes me feel blessed. But other times, I feel like the lepers in the Old Testament. I feel like I should be yelling, “Unclean, unclean!” so that no one will be corrupted by my sinfulness.

That’s why I’m a recovering Baptist. I wanted so much to fit in and make a difference. I just can’t. I’m grateful for the blessings that I have. I only wish I could feel embraced by the tradition I grew up in.

LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, who had been suspended three times already, was kicked off LSU’s defending national championship team today after he failed a drug test.

Guess I’ll not buy my BCS tickets early this year.

Junior #14 Andrew Hatch’s stats:
1 for 2 for 9 flippin’ yards!

From the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center:

Dear friends and colleagues,

You’re not going to believe it! We’ve got the data you’ve been wanting most of all — block-by-block counts of households actively receiving mail, alongside counts of homeowners who have closed on their Road Home applications to stay and rebuild their homes. And we’re displaying this data in a new online mapping system that allows you to zoom in and see the specific neighborhoods you are most interested in.

I read this about MoveOn’s planned protest for yesterday’s event at Xavier:

MoveOn.org, that organization supporting the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama, plans a protest today outside the New Orleans “town hall” campaign appearance of Republican John McCain over McCain’s own support from the Rev. John Hagee.

Hagee is the one who contends that New Orleans drew the wrath of God in Hurricane Katrina for a gay-pride parade that the city was planning. “What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God,” Hagee told a radio talk show host again this week. “In time, if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become, it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it’s called a curse… It was a city that was planning a sinful conduct.”

MoveOn contends that it will protest outside the University Center at Xavier University for McCain’s 11 am appearance there, “Due to Sen. John McCain’s courting of Rev.John Hagee’s political support, and Hagee’s outrageous and offensive comments about the people of New Orleans.”

The picture above shows protesters. Wow! Great job MoveOn! Three people? They were really nice and handed out some information sheets.

Adrastos has been all over this. I really don’t see the big deal. If it was a big deal, surely MoveOn could have sent more than three people! Lighten up man! This kind of mud slinging that tries to invalidate the good work of a great candidate should be ignored. It’s unfair. (OOPS, Wrong link!) A candidate shouldn’t be held accountable for the words of his or her supporter as long as he or she condemns them. Unless his condemnation of them is LAME!

BTW–Insider info here. Jessie Jackson was on campus at the same time yesterday! He was at Xavier South speaking with students. Few people knew about it. He was kept away from the Straight Talk Express! That would have been so cool!

I watched a bit of McCain’s speech. Man, he’s boring. And he didn’t have a flag pin on either!

You can see the rest of my pictures here.

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