Hokie News (Update)

According to this story, now ebay.com kills people. In the story they describe what the Va. Tech gunman bought and sold on Ebay. This isn't news... this is a soap opera.

Hokie News?

The media disgusts me... even more now than ever. Why on earth are we giving airtime to this psycho? (Story) I think the tragedy is only magnified by the media giving the killer everything he wanted. Not only did he get to act out his horrendous killing spree but now his message is being broadcast on almost every Internet and media outlet available. Public awareness is fine but why are we giving his "manifesto" free publicity? He mailed his package to NBC... of course he wanted it to be broadcast everywhere, now the media has granted his dying wish...sick, just sick. Like one of my friends said to me:

Unfortunately this is yet another example of the media approaching a situation not with dignity and respect, but rather with a morbid curiosity that diverts attention from the victims and places the killer on a pedestal for everyone to examine. This individual needs no further public examination...his act alone was enough to convince any rational person that he was a deranged psychopath. Why give him the spotlight? Why spread his message of hate and violence? We have a responsibility to the families in this tragedy to HELP them heal, not to create some kind of sick soap opera. The media's coverage is resulting in angst instead of healing, indifference instead of aid, and fear instead of hope.

Now to those who share this guy's psychosis, he's a martyr and just like Columbine the media is describing to all potential domestic terrorists how to take revenge on your local school or office. Now they all have assurance that their message will be heard by the world

A Real Sinner

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test


I took this test on a whim but I guess its a good idea for those of us "hypothetical sinners". Of course, my first reaction was to say "wow at least I'm not gluttonous, prodigal, avaricious or a heretic" (whatever the heck all of that means). I guess when I think I'm doing pretty good at this "Christian living" thing, I need to remember that I still have a long way to go.

Little Chocolate Crosses

Everyone probably asked the question at one point or another we all reach that moment in their young lives where we question what colored eggs and confused rabbits have to do with the resurrection of Jesus. Even the name "Easter" probably derives its origins from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility, Eostre.

During the consumer driven Christmas season you probably also questioned the relevance of a fat man in a red suit delivering presents around a dead evergreen tree littered with lights. Yes, the secret is out, most of the holiday traditions we hold near and dear to our hearts have pagan (or simply, non-Christian) origins.

But what does that mean?

So far it seems skeptics have decided to use theses holiday add-ons as a basis for their contempt for Christianity as a whole. Since we paint eggs and pass out chocolate bunnies, Christ was not raised from the dead, right? Or since we decorate dead trees with lights and top them with a "pagan" pentagram, God did wasn't born of a virgin as Jesus here to save us from our sins.

I digress...

This leads me on a journey of perspective... Hundreds of years from now, I wonder what the modern skeptics will say about the state of the church in 2007. Maybe they will see the addition of the "devil's music" to popular Christian worship services the same way we now see the Easter Bunny and Santa. After all, it wasn't too long ago that the official position of the church was to discourage individuals from reading the Bible.

Luckily, Christianity has been trying to find ways to stay relevant to the culture of the time. All of these elements were added to make the transition to following Christ easier for believers of different (mostly pagan) religions. To me, its only natural to draw the conclusion to Christian rock. Using rock/pop/rap (whatever) to appeal to the current culture is just our generations way of adapting the secular culture to the church.

Note: I said "adapt" not "change"...

The basic precepts of Christianity do not change, but the way we present Christ to people needs to continue to evolve and adapt to new generations of people. Sure, Easter peeps and the Christmas season's slow assimilation of all other winter and late fall holidays may be taking it too far but I never said all "Contemporary Christian Music" was good either...

Colbert Satire

I love my Church, and I'm a Catholic who was raised by intellectuals, who were very devout. I was raised to believe that you could question the Church and still be a Catholic. What is worthy of satire is the misuse of religion for destructive or political gains. That's totally different from the Word, the blood, the body and the Christ. His kingdom is not of this earth.

-Steven Colbert

Wow, that is an amazing quote. This is one of those cases where you realize that this guy gets it. Sure his show (the Colbert Report) is packed full of satire and often times makes fun of religous pundits and activity but as you can see, Colbert gets it... the items worthy of satire derive from man not Christ.