It’s noteworthy that today is the 12th anniversary of the Tonya Harding attack on fellow ice-skater Nancy Kerrigan down at the Joe Louis Arena. (Appropriately named after a boxer) Perhaps it was the only time that the general public actually cared enough about ice skating to actually make fun of the drama.

So, after 12 years… I’m still giggling about the ice drama.

Church Employee Suspect In Woman’s Death

Article

Put that on the list of things I never hope happen to me.

1. I never want to be in jail.
2. I never want to be homeless
3. I never want to be charged with murder

Pretty simple list, eh?

FoxNews has a thing for aliens apparently. Shortly after midnight some whacky hypnotist was trying to convince drunk people that they could see aliens.

Now this, FoxNews is reporting an alien sighting in Chicago. That’s your leader in news. Way to go guys… you are all over the big stories out there.

I was listening to a radio program this morning asking people to call in if they were virgins when they got married. Interestingly, they were surprised how many people called in to tell them that they really had been virgins when they got married. The hosts were shocked into saying, "Wow, that’s really admirable."

There is a lot being said and written about the late 1990’s and early 2000’s push towards abstinence education. For the most part, these studies are saying that there isn’t much difference between the sexual behavior of students who make the pledges and those who don’t. I’ve heard all kinds of stories both positive and negative, particularly in Christian circles. (After all, imagine the damage that results when a student confuses their acceptance with God and their sexual purity? They assume that if they fail sexually that God doesn’t accept them anymore. That is flat out false! That would be a devastating "unspoken" lesson taught by church’s doing abstinence training.)

Why doesn’t Light Force do a virginity pledge? The simplest reason is that they don’t work. (Controversial statement #1) Why doesn’t Light Force ask parents to talk to their kids about making an abstinence pledge? This doesn’t work either. (Controversial statement #2)

My opinions are less controversial than they may seem at first blush. The reality is that an external pledge isn’t likely to change anything if there isn’t an internal pledge taken with the student. A student has to decide this for themselves. It has to become a value of theirs and not an emotional thing to respond at an event or a promise they make to their parents to please them. Both of those are easily shed in the heat of a moment. As I remind students often, "Sex is stronger and more powerful than you are."

An internal pledge (maybe symbolized by an external pledge, promise, piece of jewelry) is infinitely more valuable than an external promise. I think the primary difference I’ve seen with students who have waited and those who haven’t is something that happens inside of them. They decide and internalize that they are not going to have sex before marriage.

Interestingly, studies show that the difference between pre-marital sexual activity and no pre-marital sexual activity has little to do with a walk with Jesus. Christian teens are roughly "as likely" to engage in pre-marital sex as non-Christians.

Teen Pledges Barely Cut STD Rates
Study Finds that teen virginity pledges are rarely kept
"Virginity Pledges" by Adolescents May Bias Their Reports of Premarital Sex
Follow-up study done for Youth Fest

Since Andrea mentioned it in a comment, I have to keep up the appearances that I favor Andrea of all other LF alumni, so here are a couple of links to what she was talking about.

Law Firm Rampage Has Officials Puzzled
Um, "law firm" and "gun rampage" aren’t two phrases you see next to one another very often. Should I be more concerned about working with Pastor Bob? Should we frisk people when they come in?

Rockford Bomb Plot Foiled, FBI Says
This one is just plain odd. Not trying to demean Rockford… but Rockford, Illinois is some kind of terror hotspot? Who knew? I mean, I can’t even find a picture of the mall on the web? That’s just a weird story.

I’m not the most pessimistic person in the world. In fact, I am perhaps the only American left that believes in our president and thinks that the war in Iraq is good for Iraq.

It obviously not a popular thing to say. Even today, when Donald Rumsfeld was conducting his last town hall meeting at the Pentagon, he was cut off by all the networks. After nearly 50 years of public service, the politically minded schmucks running the networks haven’t changed.

All the networks managed to show a tearful outgoing Secretary of Defense. The news hounds struggled to keep the cameras rolling as the first question came about "What have you read while in office?"

In a moment clearly planned, the next question was from a proud father and soldier who stood up and said, "I would like to thank you for…" Then CNN cut him off. They instantly went back to the negative news on the war in Iraq. A quick flip to MSNBC and FoxNews showed the same thing. Fox actually cut from Rumsfeld to the scary music and "another bombing in Baghdad." Puke. I’m just sick of it.

At the same time, it almost 22 months until the next Presidential election… and the news agencies have already anointed Barack Obama and Hilllary Rodham Clinton as the democrats best chances at taking the White House.

Excuse me? Do the American people need to be dared once again? I know that they think that electing Bush twice, despite the presses best attempts to prevent it was a fluke. I actually think that the liberal media is the worst enemy of the Democratic party. I’m no politician, but I think that the most electable person in the country may be a celebrity such as Jon Stewart. 

I must be the only American that didn’t care that Danny DiVito appeared on The View a little tipsy the other day. I mean, it’s not like he was appearing on something important like Letterman. Heck, if I had to go on the set… I don’t even drink and I’d want to think about it!

In other news, I agree with 50 Cent on something. Oprah is an old white woman. It’s always been my joke that Oprah and Martha Stewart are the anti-Christ. I don’t wish either of them ill-will, but I just don’t care for them much.

Like a lot of Christians, I’ve been watching the news unfold on Ted Haggard of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Read the press release Read the story of CNN

As a pastor, I have several thoughts on this. Some may be surprising but here are some of my reactions now that things have gone from "accusations" to "admissions of guilt."

1. I’m glad that the truth is coming out. I think that Mr. Jones
actually did the right thing. Just like we should expose darkness in
other people’s lives… we need to live authentic lives. Clearly, as is
in the press release, Haggard has done something terrible and needs to
address it before moving forward. (I think the blatant lies to the
media and the purchase of meth were themselves enough cause for removal, now that he has confirmed the sexual side of it… it’s just clear that he needs time away from ministry to heal.) I don’t claim to be perfect, but one of the reasons I am so transparent about who I am is exactly this… look at me for who I am. I’m not perfect at all but I don’t try to hide it either.

2. As New Life moves forward, I hurt for Ross Parsley and the rest of the staff. They
have a lot of work to do to repair a sense of trust with people who
feel like they’ve been deceived by someone they trust. I think the
swift action of the governing body is actually the first step to
repairing that. I also can see how replacing him is going to be tricky.

3. I hurt for his family. I can’t imagine the horror of realizing your dad has been living a double life for so long. It’s one thing to go through a life of "living publicly" like all pastor’s kids must do… but to then see all of that crash down in front of the world, pure and total horror.

4. I’m excited to see that they are looking at a restoration plan. This is honorable and loving even in the midst of Mr. Haggard blatantly sinning before the whole world. (The initial denials that we know so far… confirmed by Haggard.)

5. I still hope that the constitutional ban on gay marriage passes in Colorado. After all, that was Mr. Jones’ agenda. I hope voters still show up at the polls and do what they need to do.

Let this be a call to all men/women in ministry, get yourselves in a real accountability relationship. Not one that glosses over the simple stuff… but that cuts to the heart of the matters and drills down to what’s really going on.