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Maël from " The Adventures of Maël & Cindy" blog recently wrote a piece titled " Waffle House Systems". Here’s a portion of it: My friend and advisor is know for describing what some systematic theologians do with a Waffle House analogy. If you have ever been to a Waffle House restaurant and have ever observed the waffle making process, you might have noticed that while the waffle is cooking some dough tends to spill out and down the sides of the waffle iron. This renegade dough cooks just like the rest and I am sure that it is as tasty as the rest, but just before the waffle is removed from the iron the expert waffle maker takes a knife and cuts this unsightly waffle dough so as to produce a perfectly round waffle. Often, theologians, as they try to produce a perfect system, also take their knife and cut the renegade information that does not quite fit their system. This information is ignored, downplayed, or re-interpreted. ...

“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” - Alfred Hitchcock. I believe Mr Hitchcock was right. I also think that we can say something similar in regards to sermons in church: “The length of a sermon should be directly related to the endurance of the human butt.” -Wes Widner Sadly, judging from my butt’s endurance I would be forced to conclude that sermons should not be longer than 5 minutes. ...

I was recently asked via Google Buzz: @ Wes Widner unfortunately I think that some people when hidden behind their computers do not fill obliged to follow accepted social norms, however I think that compromising such rules here is completely inappropriate, why should people be allowed to say more or behave differently here than in real life? (emphasis mine) This is a very good question. One that comes up fairly often, actually. At first I decided not to reply, figuring the question was largely rhetorical. But then I ran across this quote from Marshall McLuhan, the czar of communication. ...

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. -John 3:16 World is not merely nations in this text. Such a distinction, while required in order to prop up the doctrine of limited atonement, is simply not found in the text. What the text does say, however, is that God loves the whole world (without distinction so that we understand God to love all men, as is his revealed character throughout Scripture) in such a way as to give his only begotten son for the same (that is, all men without distinction, elect and non-elect, chosen and non-chosen) and that whosoever will may believe in Jesus and be saved (indicating how one may go from being one of the not-saved to one of the saved or non-elect to elect “in Christ”). ...

What do we believe? How do we operate? What sort of structure do we abide by? There are some of the questions I had after deciding that the way I had always " Done church" just wasn’t cutting it. But what was a viable Biblical alternative? Over the past couple of years, I’ve compiled a few helpful resources for studying and learning about the home or organic church movement. Some of these authors and works contain contradictory views, especially when it comes to issues such as the role of women in the meeting, how elders are to be chosen and function, and how new fellowships are to be formed. In spite of this, however, I have found a fairly unified core of teachings, centered on the accounts and practices of the early church recorded in Scripture. ...

Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian author who lived between 1911-1980, is widely credited at the first “media critic” whose work in dissecting the epistemological effects of the TV on society is still in use today in many classrooms (particularly the advertisement or marketing classrooms). In The Medium is the Message McLuhan defines a medium as anything that has the capacity to produce social change. Thus a medium could extend beyond things designed to or even capable of conveying information like newspapers and TVs to seemingly innocuous items such as light bulbs. For example a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness, thus having an impact on everything from our social habits to our sleep patterns. ...

A friend of mine recently commented on Facebook: Capitalism looks at developing countries in the same way that Britian looked at colonized countries. They were places to steal resources from. The bible tells us “not to show favoritism” and to consider the least as equal with the greatest. Here in America we waste so much we have to take other’s portion. Since conservatives believe in not spending more than we have capital for, I wonder if they will submit that same ideology to natural resources? Only use what you can produce. ...

Google recently decided to increase the pay of their homosexual employees to cover a tax on health benefits given to domestic partners. What is this tax? According to the NY Times: Under federal law, employer-provided health benefits for domestic partners are counted as taxable income, if the partner is not considered a dependent. The tax owed is based on the value of the partner’s coverage paid by the employer. In other words, paying for a domestic partner’s healthcare is not treated the same as paying for your own healthcare. It is the same as paying for a random stranger’s healthcare. In other words this is not a tax. ...

Reading through Aldous Huxley’s follow-up to his popular (and insightful) work, A Brave New World, titled A Brave New World Revisited I came across a section where Huxley discusses the role and use of propaganda. Specifically how propaganda is the central means by which totalitarian regimes control their populace. To do this he uses a well-known master of propaganda during his time, Adolf Hitler, to explore the role modern communication plays in the spread of propaganda. But first, Huxley’s definition of propaganda: ...

I ran across this post shortly after father’s day wherein the poster asks: Where In the Bible…? God’s “Design” for men and women. Where in the Bible can that word or even the concept be found? Can someone produce a scripture that specifically uses the words “God’s Design” in reference to men and women? And God blessed them and said unto them…have dominion. On Father’s Day, the pastor preached about “roles” for men and women. Where in the Bible can the word “roles” be found? Can someone produce a single scripture containing that word? ...