11-0

Two years into his tenure, Coach Chizik has the Tigers on the verge of a SEC Championship and a possible shot at a National Championship game.
As the coach says, "This ain't like just playing ball, this place was special before you got here. Let's continue to make it special."

Fourth of July Weekend

Indianola-B.B. King Festival and Barbecue Contest.
The King is going to be there for a concert. Maybe Morgan Freeman will show. Its not far back to Clarksdale.

Traveling, yeah, but distressful

As my wife and family moved around the South, the schism of the Baptist faith became obvious to us. Different approaches to membership, ministry to youth and ministry to single adults (with or without children) stand out as major stumbling blocks to acceptance of traditional outcasts.

I grew up in a somewhat conservative Southern Baptist church in North Alabama. Progressive socially, conservative spiritually. During my formative years, an instance probably similar to other moderate Baptists, truly stands out in my mind as a turning point in my faith. Missionaries from Africa were scheduled to speak at our church. One missionary, to Kenya, was a native of Uganda, yes black. It was always exciting to experience Christians from other cultures. I was sitting with my mom in the back of our church. As this man of God stepped to the pulpit, a female member of our congregation stood up and shouted that she would not worship with a ________ (fill in the blank). I was shocked, astounded and dismayed that a fellow Christian would become so upset about a person different than themselves would be allowed to speak. The individual that objected had taught Vacation Bible School, urging the children to sing, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world" but, did not truly believe what she had us sing. I became skeptical and approached my faith differently. If it was not Biblical, I did not accept it as fact.

Some of my current fellow Christians still adhere to the attitude of this woman. This is still troubling. When the new President came into office, our prayer list at church omitted him from our prayers, yet the previous administration was prominently mentioned. If Christians have such little faith in the new president, should he not be at the head of the list.

Moving all over the South with my career, allowed my family to serve in many different churches. Each of these churches had a distinct personality. Some very conservative, some slightly conservative, some moderate and one was very liberal. We encountered a range of approaches to the Gospel. One telling aspect of the most Biblical churches whether conservative or liberal had to do with location more than anything else. The most conservative of our churches was located near a college. It was open in its acceptance of others. The most liberal was also very open in its acceptance of others, it was a very large church. The attitudes of separation are more prevalent in smaller, suburban or rural church settings.

Baptist tradition is ingrained in my family. My grandfather was a circuit riding minister in Texas. My mother was a firm believer in "the Priesthood of the Believer". She would be alarmed with the current nature of the denomination. Politics and Religion have no place in the same room, much less the same bed. Christians need to realize that politicians only want their vote. Republican or Democrat, it matters not. Currently republicans have played upon the faith's rejection of gays and abortion, while also courting those segments also.

I am appalled by the number of Christian Brothers and Sisters that regularly listen to the hate and lies of Limbaugh and Beck, while lambasting Oberman and Kennedy. Most liberal ideas fit more in line with Scripture, taking care of the poor, assisting the needy, rebuilding communities and reaching the lost. The only exceptions for liberals being gays and abortion. Current intolerance and death wishes by prominent churchmen have disgraced not only the denomination, but Christians as a whole. Wishing death on your enemies rather than praying for them first is not Biblical. 

While we must continue to strive to win the lost, we need to stop whining about losing an election to a black Christian. To insure that the lost are reached we must walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." , 2 Peter 3:1

Wow! It snowed this week.

Monday, we awoke to somewhere between 6-8" of the white stuff. The mid-South was covered by a very chilly white blanket. The roads were not impassable, but some brave souls made their way out of the neighborhood. Normally some of our neighbors make their way out of the neighborhood by 6 AM. But these brave souls did not leave until after 8 AM. Not really such "brave souls". We stayed in.
Channel 3 in Memphis portrayed the event as another dangerous day in the mid-South. I ventured out to clean the snow off of the car. After going back inside to warm up, I glanced back out to notice that the windshield was already recovered by another 2" of snow. We are just not used to this kind of thing in our area.
By evening we worried that the roads would be even worse. In some places they were right. But for the most part, it started to warm up slightly, just enough to clear most of the roads. I went to work on Tuesday. One of the only ones.
Memphis was still shut down for a couple of more days. It is great to live nearby but not be required to drive into the city.
Fortunately for all of us, this snow didn't come last week. 'Cause it was really cold, around 15-20 degrees all over the area. Thank God for small favors.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I have friends, well let us say fellow travelers. My companions and myself totally disagree with each other on all things political. I evidently have what has been called a view of Christianity as a social gospel (taking care of each other, helping the poor, providing for the general welfare), that kind of Gospel.

It is not only a right, but a duty as believers to attend to these needs.

I am not one of those evangelicals that pretend that money is good, prejudiced view are tolerated and that there are only two things a Christian should be against. I'm not talking about war and salvation. I refer to pro-life and the supposed gay agenda.
Since when are Christians so concerned with death, hundreds of thousands of Christians, Muslims and Jews died in the prior struggles for the land of Canaan.

Pro-choice supporters are actually in favor of preserving life, they just believe that a woman has the right to choose. As a Christian, I choose life. As an American, I choose choice.

Religious Conservatives fawn all over every patriotic thing. Flags on the lapel, military songs in church, pledging to the flag and degrading those that are not so enthusiastic.
True nationalism is really what they want us to. This is more akin to the national socialist movement in Germany in the 1930's. Country, right or wrong. Even when the actions of the country are contrary to God's laws.
We have an obligation to our descendants to preserve both religious and personal freedom. Freedom cannot be attained by climbing under a rock, it must be shown through our actions not our rhetoric.

Christian founding of our nation has included slavery (justified by the Word), burning innocent women, (justified by the Word), outlawing Christmas (justified by the Word) and racism (justified by the Word). None of these would our Savior be proud.

Would Jesus listen to Rush, Bill and Sean? For that matter anyone at Fox News. Don't even get me started on Sister Sarah, proclaiming Christ, then speaking at a convention of alcohol manufacturers. Please! And the world wonders why even we consider us to be hypocrites.

We need more skeptics.

Open minds will survive longer than
closed ones. Problem is closed minds
are more comfortable with others
thinking for them. Case in point or should I say pointy, the misconception of occupants of red states hating health care. The underlying reason is in reality there latent ____________ attitudes.

Media Bias, pshaw!

I saw an article last month about the lack of right leaning voices, but this list had all of the blowhards listed together. The list took more than one page to show them all. Bias is not with the media, but with the companies and organizations that produce it. When I think of how a moral, sane individual could listen to some of these blowhards, my head begins to spin. I know, this statement would encourage the "wrong" leaning individuals. But it bears saying, any way. Progress is the opposite of regress. One must move forward to grow.
gif courtesy of http://www.instantattitudes.com

"by the hair of our chiny, chin, chin............"

Wow! What a scare! We just could not put Northwestern away. I never caught which conference the officials came from, but they were as bad as some of our SEC crews.
At least Ziemba did not have a motion penalty. That is a first.

Great recruits, good coaching, superb facilities. Toomer's Corner, after. Could not be much better.
And you know, we should have beaten Alabama. Our guys had them for 55 minutes, but just could not hold for another five.

Can't wait till spring, summer, then its football time again!!!!!!!!!!!