Friday, October 17, 2003

4:17 PM Josh has really gotten into digital photography this year. This week his “Sweet Home Chicago” photo taken at night from the Hancock Building won first place (out of 280 entries) in the Urban Landscapes competition on the DP Challenge website. To see the winning photo in a special poster version, click here. 10:52 AM Just got off the phone with Mark. He is leaving Chicago in a few minutes with five other Moody students to drive to Tupelo, Mississippi where they will stay until Tuesday with my brother Alan. Tomorrow they will go to the Ole Miss-Alabama football game in Oxford. Nick is coming over from Samford for the game as well. Mark sounded pretty pumped up about the trip. When I asked if they were going to eat at Connie’s Chicken Biscuits (a true Southern delicacy) in Tupelo, he replied, “No doubt.” He also wanted to check the directions with me: I-57 to I-55, cross the Mississippi River at Memphis, then I-240 to Highway 78 to the Natchez Trace to my brother’s house. About 10 hours if the traffic is light. 10:42 AM Notes from renovation project/stewardship campaign: More noise today outside my window—sounds like someone is banging on a metal bucket. Lots of progress in framing the office/classroom area. The tapers will start installing the sheetrock soon… . Yesterday someone came in and dropped off a substantial check for the Legacy Campaign Building Fund. I continue to be amazed and grateful at the generosity of our congregation. 8:29 AM Bill Bennett explains why “gay marriage” is a very bad idea. Here’s an excerpt:

What we now call a traditional family remains the safest place to raise children, the soundest investment in children’s economic and emotional futures and the strongest safety net in our modern world. The evidence is overwhelming that no household arrangement can compare with an intact family. Conversely, the absence of such support will prove a lifelong deficit. Marriage between one man and one woman is the ideal that we must continue to uphold in our law and our culture. What is broken should be restored, not redefined or destroyed.

8:28 AM David Limbaugh offers a sobering summary of “A Week in the Culture Wars.” 8:24 AM I’m doing an interview with Kevin McCullough on WMCA in New York City from 1:20 to 2 PM today. Since Kevin is in Chicago this week, we’ll do the interview from the WYLL studios in Elk Grove Village and it will be transmitted back to New York City for live broadcast there. 8:00 AM Two days until Billy Sunday returns to Forest Home Cemetery. By the way, the entire text of my presentation can be found in A Contemporary Handbook for Weddings and Funerals, edited by Aubrey Malphurs and Keith Willhite. It may seem odd to include the presentation in a book by that title, but it was Keith’s idea all the way. He made sure it was included it in the “miscellaneous” section of the book. I first met Keith and Denise when they attended the church I pastored in Garland, Texas during Keith’s student days at Dallas Seminary. For the last few years, Keith served on the seminary faculty. After a long struggle with cancer, he died just before Easter this year. He never saw the presentation in person, but he loved the idea so much that he included it in the book, which was published shortly after his death. It is an honor to dedicate this Sunday’s presentation to his memory. Heaven is a sweeter place for me because my friend Keith is there. 7:59 AM Barry Setterfield offers a brief earth history that he calls a “summary of creation and catastrophe geology.”