For a topical post today, I present you with a glorious trio of YouTube videos of a “preacher” from Los Angeles public television in the late 90’s. Warning, he comes in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you’re interested, Know Your Meme has more on this guy, including this nugget of wisdom:
A segment called The Spirit of Truth featured self-proclaimed deity and foul mouthed evangelical preacher Don Vincent (credited as Vincent Stewart). The show was eventually canceled when Vincent dropped trou on air and requested that viewers “look for sin.”
Beware, the videos are very vulgar. They will make you laugh and cry at the same time. Hopefully, if and when I try to impart words of wisdom, they don’t come out quite like this. Enjoy!
My first week of theological school/seminary/whatever you want to call it is on the downslope! And, I’m still alive! So far, so good, indeed.
Cue the Monty Python and the Holy Grail “Intermission” Music… NOTE: Just looking at my visitor stats, it seems like I get quite a readership bump when I link my posts on Facebook. So, I’m going to make a habit of that. …and now, back to your irregularly scheduled blog post!
It’s a Wednesday afternoon, which means for the first time in my week I have time to breathe. My course load is heavily weighted toward the beginning of the week, with seven hours of class (beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 9:00 p.m.) on Mondays, three on Tuesdays, and the final three spread out over the final three weekday mornings.
Classes this semester are Greek I (ἀπόστολος!!!), Theological Ethics, Old Testament Literature and History I, and History of the Christian Church. Each class will present its own unique challenges…
Greek: I took three years of Spanish in high school, which produced in my brain just a mix of Spanglish and silly phrases… ¡Tengo un gato en mis pantalones!
Theological Ethics: This class is on the 7000 level, and I am the only first-year in the class. I get the sense that I’m not supposed to be there, but I actually like it a lot so far.
Old Testament: So… many… maps…
History of the Christian Church: I thought this class would cover fairly broadly the development of the church from the many individual (and later, identified as heretical) sects of Jewish Jesus-followers to now, but judging by the syllabus and the required texts, we’re mostly covering 1800-present (Pentecostal movement, black churches, religious right, etc.). Not that that’s bad, but it’s unexpected. I hope I’m not getting shortchanged!
My mascot is the Raven. I get the Biblical connection, but we'd be much more cool and unique if we were the Talking Donkeys...
In addition to the classes, I now all of the sudden have access to a great resource – a fully-functional gym and wellness center. So I’m forcing myself to workout every weekday. As the blog post is titled, so far, so good (besides the soreness)… but I suppose we will see how long that lasts.
I do have a nifty little Twitter application on the right side of my blog, so you’ll be able to see what I’m tweeting about even if I don’t have the 25 minutes or so to crunch out a new blog post. This morning, my friend (and member of Rob Bell’s church!) Mike Lamson tweeted an opinion piece regarding the Glenn Beck pseudo-rally in Washington, D.C., that I found particularly edifying. I tweeted the concluding sentence from that post, but here it is in its entirety (note, I have not heard of the author before):
Posted because I love this song, as with the rest of the soundtrack to Godspell. Stephen Schwartz later changed the lyrics to this, but I prefer the original version myself. Enjoy!
When I started blogging a few days ago, I didn’t have the necessary sections about me completed. But now, after some straining and effective time management (ha!), I have polished off both a Bio page and one containing some of my views on Theology. Please note, both are going to be considered under constant construction!
These pages can also be conveniently found underneath the text in my header photo. Thanks for visiting and reading, everyone!
Tonight’s post will be a quick one, as I had an exciting but fulfilling day!
It was the first day of orientation for my Master’s program at Anderson University. See above for some student ID card hilarity, but at least it’s better than my strung-out-high looking Eminem wannabe ID card that I carried around at Miami!
Anyhow, I met several of the wise professors and dedicated staff members in the School of Theology today, along with many of my fellow new students. The whole time, I felt encouraged that this is the place I should be. The next two years or so will be an important and formative time in my theological life, and I am excited to be with such a seemingly genuine group of people.
Tomorrow is the second of three days of orientation. Looking forward to it!
Robert D. Heaton, Ph.D. 