TheGeoffRe(y)port

I’m sure you’re probably sick of hearing about it, but I’ve launched Amateur Theology over the weekend, and it’s now got the first theology post over there. So from now on, I’d expect that pretty much all of my theology posts will go over there, and this blog will remain for personal/sporting/political stuff. And again I’d encourage anyone who has something they’d like published up on Amateur Theology to email me the submission at submissions@amateurtheology.org. I’m really hoping that it will be more than just a second blog for my crazy ideas and that we can actually build up a whole bunch of thoughts there.

The RSS Feed for Amateur Theology is at http://amateurtheology.org/feed/ if you wanted to subscribe: should hopefully be worthwhile.

…comes from Paul at “One for the road“:

It is clear from some comments left on the internet that some Christians feels that you can clearly not reconcile the claim that Jesus is the only way to God with the fundamental tenant of Islam that there is no God but Allah – therefore it is impossible to be both. …

If you can be Jewish and a Christian can you not also be Muslim and a Christian? Indeed the attraction of say the 5 pillars of Islam, the disciplined life of prayer etc is something that can be intrinsically attractive as a way of practicing faith – and can be related to the rules of faith by Christian religious communities/orders (e.g. rule of St Benedict).

A question closer to home for me to ask myself would be can I both be a follower of Jesus and a worshipper of consumerist individualism? (Full post here - “Can I be a Christian and a Muslim”)

Well, I feel busted.

Sorry if you have happened to try and send a submission for Amateur Theology to submissions@amateurtheology.com - that’s not the domain that I own. Fortunately Paul was quick on the spotters duty and let me know. So - the email address is (just in case you hadn’t picked up):

submissions@amateurtheology.org

So send all your email submissions to that. Naturally I’m sure that chances are no-one has tried sending things in at any rate, but that’s OK.

After a little bit of encouragement, and a little bit of over-excitement on my part, I’ve gone ahead and registered amateurtheology.org as a domain, and set up a wordpress blog. At the moment it displays a lovely “Amateur Theology is going to launch soon” page, and at this stage I’m hoping to launch with a few posts ready to go on September 2nd. Ideally they won’t just be posts that I’ve put together myself, so if you have anything you’d like to contribute, then PLEASE send an email to submissions@amateurtheology.org and we’ll look at it and almost definitely post it up on or just after launch.

I really don’t know whether or not this will fly, but if it does it’ll be good fun, and if it doesn’t it’ll be a good laugh at any rate. From the (not yet visible) site: “Guidelines for Submissions”

1. Don’t go on too long. That will be a part of the editing process. Ideally you shouldn’t need more than a few paragraphs. Sometimes a complex issue will take more than that to convey your meaning, but it’s not recommended. I really will edit.
2. Be willing to propose ideas you’re not certain about. Stimulating discussion usually means not waiting until you have the final answer for people, but instead offering the incomplete idea and allowing others to further refine thoughts.
3. Reference others. If your idea about something was triggered from another blog, link to them. If you’re not so sure about how to do that: let us know where you want to link to and we’ll handle the rest. But it’s nice to credit people when you steal their ideas.
4. Play nice. Sure, the ideas are serious, but that doesn’t allow you to be anything other than loving towards people. Respect other people’s rights to be more right than you (or perhaps even wrong). Submissions which are in any way discriminatory or defamatory will be deleted without hesitation.

I’d love to receive any submissions at all. Plus you’ll get a link to your blog on the front page: that’s got to be worth something .

..it’s been bugging me all day. What I’d really love to do, is to be able to have a blog with lots and lots of contributors, from all across the Australian and (if anyone overseas cares enough) international church spectrum where we can discuss the sort of theological issues that have generated lots of discussion here. (eg. - the homosexuality and politics post, the “sources of theology” post on theology in worship music, the submission to leadership post, etc.) At first I contemplated doing it here: but it’s a little too presumptuous to think that someone (other than Rebecca) is going to want to be a guest poster on a blog with my name in the title.

Part of the thinking is that I love the discussion that happens when those moments of inspiration come and I manage to squeeze out some passionate opinions, but as you would have noticed: it doesn’t really happen that often. So if we had a communal blog, with  a few semi-regular contributors: it would be possible to broaden the depth and width of issues covered. The other part is that at some stage in the future I’m going to be restructuring where I write (wow - how official sounding) so this is likely a part of that.

What do you think? Would you read it? (or do you mostly just come here for the updates on what’s happening in my life?) Perhaps even contemplate becoming a once-in-a-while contributor? And while you ponder these things, there are a few domains that look to be available if I was going to do this:

• amateurtheology.org
• godmusings.com
• thinkinggod.com

Well, after a few people did these; and having someone comment on how another personality test gave them a great insight into how I’d been reacting in a specific situation, I thought I’d better post my results up. INFP (as distinct from the INFJ I’ve got previously on Meyers Briggs) is classified as “The Dreamer”. Anyway, just in case you care. See Bec’s at her blog here.

Just thought (particularly if you’re an RSS Subscriber who tends not to visit the actual site) that it might be worth drawing attention to the very valuable, insightful (and at times quite personal) comments on the “Theology of Contraception” post. It’s been impressive to see the quality of responses there: I didn’t realise this would hit quite on such a rich vein of opinion. So if you haven’t read them (or read them back when there was only a few comments there instead of 21) I advise a perusal. You can also check out Bec’s contribution over on her blog.

And it’s worth highlighting that Kate (wife of Rohan, all round nice person) has written a paper on the subject which they’ve kindly posted up on their blog. Set some time aside and read through properly, because she’s got some pretty solid thought there and it’s worth reading through.

There has been more than one instance when I’ve been asked a curious question: “Do you know the people who comment on your blog?” The most recent person to ask was Rohan (occasional reader, even more occasional commenter from the famous “Rohan and Kate” partnership), and I thought that the question deserved a proper online reply. Because there has built up a bit of a crew who comment on here, and it might be nice to have a go at introducing one another. So there’s pretty much two groups: the people I know from real life, and the people I’ve (pseudo-)met through the blog.

Real Life Aquaintances

• Bec - Always put your fiancé first: I might not know many rules to this thing, but I do know that one. We’ve known each other fractionally longer than we’ve known that each other blogged, but if you’re ever in danger of dying of boredom, it’s quite amusing to have a look at the early flirtations (circa March - July 2006 here and at allsaidanddone.com) happening online.
• Scott and Christina - When I got a preaching gig at Ranges a couple of Sunday’s ago (which I’ll post the MP3 link to when Scotty puts it online), we pointed out that Scott actually taught me when I was in Sunday school. Scott and Christina were both a part of YVV for quite a while, and in the past year or so, it’s been great to get to know the better and to interact with the great things that they both write (although there has been a slow-down in the frequency of postings due to a certain little girl called Jemima)
• Gerry and Melinda - Gerry sometimes posts as Deri, but Gerry and Melinda are my future parents-in-law.
  They are genuinely lovely people, and as a bible translator for Solomon Islands Pijin, Gerry brings a unique perspective to just about anything he talks about.
• Virtually Paul - Although he might have started out as Bec’s friend, little Paulie is now a good mate - to the point that if the planets align correctly, we should be housemates for a little while before long.
• Tim - When it’s without an “O” or “Ogilvy” after it - it’s usually one of my groomsmen Tim. He links off to “halfdecentcoffee.com” despite the fact that there hasn’t been anything there for as long as I’ve known Tim well enough to want to check it out. But we have breakfast together every fortnight - so he’s a good bloke!
• Tim O(gilvy), aka Timmeh - This is a different Tim: far more likely to say something inflammatory in the interest of either starting something interesting or just for the sake of saying something controversial.
• Laura, Hannah, Emily - More likely to see Laura (Bec’s twin) on here commenting, but Hannah and Em-face have at times put up their heads. They are Bec’s (lovely) sisters.
• Rohan - Rohan is a funny one: he’d read my blog before I’d met him, but he was in the course I’ve been doing at Tabor. Lovely guy, always got something interesting to say. And he’s married to Kate who is equally as interesting and fun.
• Burkie - Can’t believe I missed the penguin on my first attempt, but James Burke (wedding photographer extraordinnaire) along with his lovely fiancé Beth are also semi-regular commenters here. I know Burkie because Bec knows Burkie. But now I like Burkie as well.

People I’ve Only Met Through Blogging

• Asta - It’s been a while since I received a comment from my favourite Lithuanian reader - but I’m pretty sure that Asta is still catching up on TheGeoffRe(y)port. I was amazed to see a regular reader from Lithuania not that long into blogging, and it still makes me chuckle. I love it
• Rick - Rick started reading and I started realising that I was actually out on the internet. He writes (much more often than I) at rianniello.blogpsot.com, and has some great stuff to say - especially for a religious-right calvinist (who’s also got a bit of Vineyard in him). Very fun and very funny. And he lived in Germany for a while!
• Mark Edwards - You’d be hard pressed to find a man more blindly in love with a team that plays in purple than Mark Edwards. I initially connected a little bit with Mark after discovering that Ra’ah - the Australian pastors blog was linking through to me, and we’ve traded comments on each others blogs since.
• Wayne Field - Same story as Mark only with less Fremantle ravings. These guys sort me out if I start getting too emerging
• Rodney Olsen - Perth radio host, prolific blogger and all round nice guy - Rodney is always keen to connect with everyone and anyone in the blogosphere. He’s always got good things to say, and he was nice enough to surprise Bec and I immensely when he posted a congratulations up after our engagement.

Now I’m sure there are people here that I’ve missed - if you let me know I might even edit you in here. But that might give you an idea of where people fit.

Thought I should share this pearler from Makeesha (whose blog I got onto through my beautiful fiancé).

Many things I read in “pop media” are more like brain beer for me - tasty, relaxing, refreshing, makes me go ahhhh….but also sort of lulls my brain into a groggy, tired stupor that makes me slur incoherently, and I have to read much more of it than is healthy in order to get revved up.

- “Brain Coffee - Swinging from the Vine“

TheGeoffRe(y)port - keeping you updated with good stuff from the blogosphere.

Actually that should be 8 “me”s but I’m lazy. To break from the contentious pieces I’ve been posting (haphazardly) of late, I thought I’d respond to Monsieur Smulo’s tag. So here are 8 things about me. They’re not that exciting, but they are all true:

1. The last three pairs of shoes I’ve bought are all size 11. One fits beautifully, one feels a teeny bit too big, and the third a teeny bit too small.
2. I play tennis (almost) every Thursday night socially. And even though I’ve been playing for about 2 years, I still don’t have a service action that I’m settled with.
3. I’m pretty close to postponing the rest of my college studies. This semester has stretched me beyond what I can realistically put out, and I can’t see the next semester with an upcoming wedding being easier. So I’m looking at deferring, or possibly taking the credit and using it for some other course later. But it’s killing me because I love the course and I really want to do the next module.
4.  I am far too likely to say yes when I’m asked if I can do something. Unless I’m at home in which case I have the opposite problem.
5. I saw a ripper of a movie last night: “Driving Lessons“. Everything a British movie ought to be: funny, quirky, confronting and brilliantly acted.
6. I’ve got a preaching gig at Ranges CC on Sunday. I’m really quite excited about it, but not at all sure what to expect.
7. I have a wonderful fiance who I love very, very much, and who I am so proud to even be associated with. And she even likes me back!
8. I don’t even really like memes that much, but when I get tagged (especially by someone as eloquent and well respected as John) I feel like I should definitely participate.

This is the part where I’m supposed to tag people, but I tend not to on principle. If through some freak accident in the equilibrium of your own private universe, you were inspired to take part: feel free to link back here to let me know. Trust me - I’ll find out