Yesterday was so busy.  I’m quite sorry that I was never able to blog yesterday, but I had so much fun researching. (Yes, researching.  I’m quite the nerd!)

My local library has just recently opened a newer, larger genealogy center.  The Midwest Genealogy Center began many years ago in the basement of the North Independence branch of the library.  Many books were donated to the genealogy center, and acquisition of the census records of 1900-1930 led to exponential growth.  The library built another building near the North Independence branch which served them well for many years.  However, as they have continued to grow, they outgrew this building and have built an even larger, stand-alone building.  They have an unbelievable amount of genealogical information in this new building.

Yesterday, my pastor’s daughter (Abbie), my mother, and I went out to lunch together and spent the afternoon researching at the new MGC.  It was an amazing and productive afternoon.  We were not even able to access the entire collection, because the microfilm and microfiche information has not yet been organized, but we still learned a neat amount of new information.  I spent a great deal of the time researching marriage and death records for my father’s side of the family.

I am looking forward to more wonderful hours at this library.  The microfilm collection includes a myriad of census records, and getting into that will be lots of fun.  Hopefully I will also have a chance to share the things I have learned with you.  It’s really amazing, and tons of fun to research.

I just discovered that Barak Obama spoke at a nearby rally this morning.  Oops, missed that one.

I wish I could say I really cared about it.  But I’m becoming quite disillusioned about politics.  This whole election has been so crazy, so much back and forth, criticism, division… it really drives me nuts.

I have studied the civil war quite a bit lately, and sometimes I just have to totally focus on that.  If you look at our nation today, it is so divided.  You’re a red state or a blue state.  You’re republican or democrat.  You’re for the war or against the war.  There is no middle ground.

The civil war reminds me that our nation has survived these same divisions before.  The civil war reminds me that a popular government will survive.  It won’t be easy and many men may die.  But popular government can survive this.

This week, my mom and I are watching the “Civil War” documentary by Ken Burns. It’s long (11 hours) but it’s divided into 7 chapters, and it is absolutely fascinating. It’s incredible that our nation ever entered such a war, and even more incredible that we survived such a war. But it also proves the power of democracy - able to withstand such awfulness.

It’s also the first major war that gave us a photographic record. I’m sure we would be equally shocked if we had photographs from the Revolutionary war or the War of 1812. The photographs that we have from the Civil War are so incredible. At the time, cameras required a long exposure, too long to take any of the “action” shots such as any photographs DURING a battle. However, photographers were able to capture the carnage after a battle - the bodies littering the landscape and the stillness that covered the land. In a way, that’s appropriate - the Civil War was so filled with death that it seems appropriate that it is remembered by its death.

These are both Union and Confederate dead lying on the battlefield at Gettysburg, PA.

**Update: Sorry about the image sizing issues.  I think I have the problem fixed now.  If you continue to have problems, please comment and I can work on it some more.**

What a cool way to learn! At Bauder College in Georgia, several criminology students are re-examining the facts surrounding cold cases and hoping to solve those cases. Their first case is that of Chandra Levy, a 24-year-old Bureau of Prisons intern who disappeared in 2001. Her disappearance exposed a Congressman’s affair but did not lead to any arrests.

The university I attended (University of Central Missouri) has a fantastic criminology program. I didn’t specifically study criminology, though sometimes I wish I did. I took one sociology-criminology course during the summer between my junior and senior years that was absolutely fascinating. We looked at the psychology of serial killers and mass murderers. In some ways, that’s creepy, but it’s also fascinating - what makes a person choose to kill? Many of the cases we studied were cold cases, though we were not able to learn anything about the cases that had not already become public. It would be so cool, though, to try to solve those cases - criminal cases are the ultimate puzzle, and I’m a puzzle lover!

The best writer I’ve ever known once told me his secret: Less is more. An ordinary writer fills his story with meaningless words. An extraordinary writer can tell a story with a single word.

Without a doubt, God is the most extraordinary writer in existence. In just a word or two, he expresses a concept that our humanity needs chapters and chapters to explain.

With all my heart, I wish that the church today would listen to God’s words. They make Christianity so much more difficult when they clutter it with their words.

Actual titles found on Amazon.com’s “Christian Living” book shop:
God’s Master Plan for Your Life
God’s explanation:
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20

Title:
Become a Better you: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day
God’s 1 key to improving your life every day:
“Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3-4

Title:
You Can Heal Your Life
God’s plan for healing:
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” Romans 6:6-7

Title:
Love and Respect: The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs
God’s command:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galations 18:22-25

Title:
The Purpose Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For
God’s command:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn”
Isaiah 61:1-2

Title:
Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul
God’s secret revealed:
‘You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.”
Song of Solomon 4:9

Title:
Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul
God says:
“Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.”
Song of Solomon 8:6

Titles:
Boundaries in Dating/I Kissed Dating Goodbye/I Gave Dating a Chance
God says:
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” Galations 5:16-18

Title:
Battlefield of the Mind: How to Win the War in Your Mind
God says:
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Romans 8:18-21

Title:
Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups
God’s “old” but highly proven approach to small groups:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love… if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:7-8, 12b

It’s time for us to stop talking and start listening.

It’s nearly 2am. Can’t sleep tonight.

A quick preface: It’s 2am and I’m ranting. I consider myself to be guilty of everything I accuse. Just let me rant.

I can’t fully explain it, but I am filled with anger tonight. I am unbelievably angry with the organization known as the “church”.

I am a Christian. Sometimes I am ashamed to be a member of this organization known as the church. Sometimes I am ashamed to be associated with other members of this quasi-religious organization. I believe I can honestly say that my belief in Jesus and my faith in God exists in spite of the actions of this organization.

In my life, “the church” and members of this organization, calling themselves “Christians, have seemingly gone to great lengths to drive me away. They have pointed out my flaws. They have convinced me of my worthlessness. They have taken advantage of me - emotionally, financially, and spiritually. One of these “Christians” encouraged me to commit suicide. Two leaders of this organization, calling themselves “pastors”, told me that God had given up on me, and that I was not one of God’s “chosen ones” who could enter heaven.

I am not a Christian because of the “church”. I am a Christian because of God. I had a very private, intimate experience with God that changed my life. Based on that experience, I choose to believe in Jesus.

Not surprisingly, when I tried to tell some of these “Christians” about my experience, I was mocked and ridiculed.

These experiences were horrible. However, I am oddly thankful, because those experiences have toughened me and shaped me. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but I have grown because of those experiences. Today I am strong and confident in a way that I have never experienced.

I wish I could tell you that the church has changed. I wish I could tell you that today, experiences like mine have gone the way of the Spanish Inquisition, that the church has been reformed in the same way that the Protestant Reformation reformed the Catholic church.

I cannot.

In fact, today I fear that the church is taking actions far worse than those of the Spanish Inquisition. We judge, we abuse, we punish, all in the name of Jesus. We commit unspeakable atrocities, seek divine forgiveness, then resume our path of terror.

I have seen and heard so many injustices in the name of Jesus. It would be easy for me to name names, to give you photographs and to outline the sins of each person. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

I am so tired of looking at an organization filled with weak, fearful individuals, people who need to ridicule me in order to boost their own fragile egos. I am so tired of seeing people who forget that God created the very same science that they deny. I am so tired of seeing people who scream hate in the name of the God who created love. I am so tired of a religion that is muddied with personal opinions and propaganda. I am so tired of a religion that fears individuals with unique ideas.

I am so thankful that God reached out to me when the church would not. But oh, how I pray this will change. I am so thankful that God reached out to me; yet, no one will ever know what it would have meant if one of God’s “christians” had brought me to God. Meeting God personally was a precious and irreplaceable experience; yet, if only one of my fellow mortals had first introduced us - sometimes I cry because I never had that experience. I did not experience unconditional love from the “christians”, and I never knew that love until God came to me. Today, I can’t help but feel that I missed something wonderful, that I lost an incredible experience because the church was too selfish to touch me.

Thanks for listening. I needed that.

It’s been a quiet day.  I think Sundays were made for naps, which I certainly enjoy - seems like I never have time to sleep nowadays.

We’re watching a DVD of a History Channel documentary about Russia and the reign of the czars.  Fascinating stuff.

We have also been debating signing up for AT&T Uverse, and if so, which package.  It’s something we are definitely interested in, but we are not keen on paying an additional bill.  We’ve never had cable television, so that would be neat, but it also costs money.

140 years after General Lee surrendered to General Grant, a Virginia man was killed when a Civil-war era cannonball he was restoring exploded.

It’s tragic that this awful war that nearly divided the United States as we know it has claimed another life.

It’s tragic that 3,264,000 men fought and 618,000 men died to unite us, yet today we remain divided.

On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office and became the first US president under the new Constitution.  He was elected unanimously by the electoral college, and to this day remains the only president who has ever received 100% of the electoral votes.  John Adams was elected vice president; at that time, the vice president was the candidate who received the second-most number of votes.  The twelfth amendment changed this to the system we are familiar with today.

The first US Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 per year - a large sum in 1789!

Washington created the custom of referring to the president as “Mr. President”.  He rejected all titles that emulated European royals, such as “Your Majesty” or “Your Highness”.

Washington’s Presidential Cabinet consisted of four men: the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of War, and Attorney General.  Today, the Cabinet consists of fifteen individuals: the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense (previously the Secretary of War), Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and Secretary of Homeland Security.