By the Power of Grayskull

• If anybody is looking for some great He-Man and She-Ra stuff, including desktop themes, wallpapers, sound clips, and videos, check out www.CastleGrayskull.org. It's a great site for all of us former He-Man fans. I love staring my computer and hearing He-Man say, "By the Power of Grayskull...I Have the Power!!!"
• I'm feeling a bit troubled about some stuff related to one of my classes this semester. Last night, we were asked to share faith statements that reflected our understanding of Christian leadership. There were a variety of understandings and thoughts, and I love that. Unfortunately, my roommate Davis got attacked, which sucked. I felt like he was naming a tendency that all of us share to some degree of turning our deepfelt convictions and causes into God. He tried to be vulnerable, and people attacked it. Not cool dude...not cool. I was also bothered by comments made in response to class on an e-mail forum. People voiced being highly uncomfortable with sharing their statements of faith. As I've thought about that through the day, it bothers me more and more. I mean, what is it that we're doing as ministers of word and sacrament? I mean, isn't that what we do when we step into the pulpit to preach or pray? How are we supposed to become a community of faith if we're afraid to share our faith? Yes, there will be times when we don't feel safe, but in the end, are we called to safety? Won't the faith community be strengthened by people who are willing to share their faith honestly and openly? It seems that we need to create spaces where faith can be expressed, heard, and maybe even challenged. Isn't one of our tasks in ministry to help people articulate the faith of I and the faith of we and then share that faith with others? Don't we need to feel comfortable sharing our faith with everyone we meet in terms that show some sort of passion and maybe even vulnerability? All in all, it troubles me that so many future ministers conceive of faith as such a private thing. What is it about the culture/society we live in that we're afraid to boldly claim our faith, even at the risk of being rejected, judged, or even cast out?
• Finally, as I was working out today, I was plugged into the mp3 player (not an ipod because I'm a poor seminarian), and a fellow student came in and turned on the Maury Povich show. Every guest was a woman who was giving a man a paternity test for one of her children. About half of them ended up being the father. There was one girl who had been on the show 9 times for a previous child and was back for a new child. Whereas I'm totally against censorship, I wonder if the producers of that show might be more consicentious about what they "glorify," and how they reward people for making bad choices. It makes me sad that there are so many women out there who really have no idea who fathered their child. What has our society said to them that allows them devalue themselves in that way?