Pastor John and Kirk: Serious or Satire?

If you’ve been reading the comments on this blog and others, you’ve probably become familiar with Pastor John. Until recently, I’d never heard of the guy. Apparently, though, he’s been around for a while.

When reading his blog, you’ll see some of the most paranoid, bigoted rants that you could imagine. But the question remains: is he serious, sick, or satire? I came across a post on the Daily Kos that posed this very question. Apparently, the guy is serious, but who can tell for sure? (Personally, I think that he’s a troll and should be treated as such, but then I'm only human and fallible as such.)

I also recently had a comment posted from a guy named “Kirk.” Upon inspection of his blog, it appears to be more of the same.

Either way, I’ve chosen to ignore them from here on out. But I’d like some feedback from my readers. What do you all think?

In Other News - 2/8/06

Two stories that I was excited to see this week:

US evangelicals seek green laws

House Republican Calls for FISA Changes

The Missing Moderate

I'm sorry that I'm not posting regularly right now. There are some issues at home that I need to deal with right now. Hopefully, I'll be back up and hopping mad at some politician within the week.

Church Fires

From the Birmingham News:

Fires damaged or destroyed six rural Alabama churches late Thursday or early this morning, and investigators suspect arson in five of them.

I was saddened to hear this news this morning. What made me feel better was an email that was forwarded to me just a little while earlier. The email was from Bishop William Willimon. While none of the churches that were damaged were Methodist churches, he asked for prayers and support for these churches from the North Alabama Conference. He also stated that we would be donating money toward these churches.

I've had a rough week. World events are never fun to read about, it seems. Sometimes, it can get you down. I've been in somewhat of a snippy mood since Monday. I've been busy, having more on my plate than usual. And it seems like every time I sit down to get it done, something else butts in to take away from my valuable and irreplaceable time.

But the email from Bishop Willimon was welcome. It was nice. It brought a smile to my face. The news isn't always great, but there are those out there who just display love and encouragement from their every word and action no matter what seems to be working against them. Those people, I believe, are the ones that hold us together while the world falls apart around us. While the bishop didn't offer anything particularly extraordinary or unusual for his position as a Christian leader, just the fact that he made the suggestion was enough to warm my heart. Thanks, Will. I needed that.

Here is the text of the email:

This morning there is news that at least six churches in Bibb and Chilton counties have been damaged or destroyed by fires in the last 24 hours. Although, none were United Methodist congregations, we join in the grief of our Christian brothers and sister at the damage to their church buildings. Today I have asked Conference Treasurer Scott Selman and his staff to send a donation from the North Alabama Conference to each of these affected congregations. I also ask each of you to lift up these congregations in prayer. During the last year North Alabama United Methodists have been extremely generous in their support to those who face disasters. We seek to continue this spirit of generosity as our prayers and donations go to these churches here in central Alabama.

Changes Are A Comin'

I've temporarily taken down my old blog posts, and I've removed my personal blog from my listing. The old blog will return in its entirety, but not at the old URL. (I'm moving it to a different service.) What won't return are the pictures and other sections of the site. There is a good reason for this, and I hope you can understand.

I'd like to start keeping my personal life somewhat separate from this blog. I will keep some things intact, so that I can better explain where I'm coming from when I'm doing an op-ed piece. But this blog has become more and more popular, as most of you may have noticed. I don't think that friends, family, and coworkers would appreciate it if I continued including them in my commentary any more than if I talked about them in an article for the Birmingham News.

So I hope you all understand. My personal blog is still up and running, but the link has been removed from this profile. Hopefully, there are no links to it from this page. My old "blog" will be back up soon on a different server with a new web address. It has been saved to my hard drive at home, but I do want to scan over it first to make sure that there are no names used, and I don't want to leave the pictures of my friends and family up.