This Weinermobile cuts the mustard

Spotted during yesterday's snowstorm on our way back from central Illinois, on Interstate 94. We were able to ketchup and pass.

How do you baptize someone who's 6-foot-11?

See Dwight Howard's other dunking here.

I long to be, in a church by the sea ...

"For more than 15 years, I didn’t go to church (except for lots of visits in my professional capacity). When I was in my early 20s, the Episcopal church I attended regularly split. Factions formed, sides were taken, harsh words were spoken. A spiritual tug of war ensued and left the community in tatters. It was awful, traumatic — the worst that church has to offer."

That's not my story. The only part in common is that I didn't go to church much in my 20s because I worked until 2 a.m. Sundays (Saturday nights). At least, that was my excuse.
The above, rather, is the story of one of my former religion writer colleagues — and I'm stretching the truth to include myself among her ilk, as she was one of the best.

Her tale — here — is worth reading, regardless of what you believe about church.

Cubs turn their backs on Sandberg

It's another frustrating day in Cubville.

I seldom agree with what the Chicago Tribune writes about the Cubs, but this one is right on the mark. Ryno deserved better.

Tribune story

Chicago Tribune photo

Membership has its privileges

Groucho Marx reportedly said: “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.”

When the church is being the church (and not a club), it will have us as members. Isn’t that outrageous?

I'm learning

A few things I’ve learned (so far) as a pastor:

• Speeding into Cornell at 10 o’clock at night is one way to meet the local police. Probably not the best way, however. But we had a nice conversation, I left with a warning, and he departed with a blessing. God is good.


• The children of the community aren’t the “church of the future.” They are the children of today, in need of love, guidance and nurture in this present moment just because.


• Where else besides the church can you find young, old, liberals, conservatives, extroverts, introverts, rich and poor side by side? It’s as if we had made a promise to each other: to have and to hold, for better or worse. Wait, we did make that promise.

Blink and you'll miss it

The 2002 Honda CR-V hits a milestone, September 2010.

P.S. As you can tell from the speedometer, I was not driving when I took this picture.

In and out of jail

The past month has begun a great journey, as I have been introduced to three wonderful congregations whose stories and lives I will be sharing as their new pastor.

Today comes word of a former seminary colleague who really has been on a journey. In fact, she's still there: in Arizona, where she was among 30 people arrested two days ago for an act of civil disobedience against Immigration Measure SB 1070. She's now out of jail and writing about it here.

Peace.

The shell of the once-great WGN

One of the great joys of my life has been listening to WGN Radio in Chicago. It was a station unduplicated across American airwaves. It sounds corny, but it was like having family and friends within reach of the dial, whatever the time of day:

Wally Phillips, Bob Collins and Spike O'Dell in the morning; Roy Leonard's celebrity interviews; Orion and Max with biz and farm reports; Larry Schreiner chasing cops; Steve Cochran chasing laughs; news, weather, traffic and sports from the likes of Lyle Dean, Wes Bleed, Dave Stewart, Andrea Darlas, Dick Sutliffe, Tom Peterson, Judy Pielach, Trooper Linc Hampton, Steve Bertrand, Leslie Keiling, Jack Brickhouse, Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau, Pat Hughes, Chuck Swirsky, David Kaplan, Dave Eanet.

There were truly one-of-a-kind shows: Kathy and Judy, and Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg. And the quirky: Steve and Johnnie, the Al and/or Ed show, and "Chicago Ed" Schwartz. Paul Harvey was a hometown broadcaster at WGN. (I'm too young to remember Franklyn MacCormack's Meisterbrau Showcase.)

Not to mention broadcasts of Cubs baseball since 1948.

"The Voice of Chicago." "Live Coverage of Your Lifetime." "The radio home of millions throughout North America." "The sound that says Chicago."

This may sound like a paid ad. It isn't. It also may sound like an obituary. If WGN isn't already dead, it's on life support.

A new and grossly misdirected management has badly underestimated us listeners and rendered WGN just another blathering voice. John Williams is valiantly carrying on (while moonlighting at the Twin Cities' WCCO), and Uncle Milt is still illuminating the would-be intelligencia. But WGN once brought us warmth and wit; now it's just a conduit for politically opinionated outsiders who, at best, are vanilla and forgettable.

I suppose I shouldn't take a radio station's programming so personally. But WGN succeeded at capturing the ears and hearts of millions of us over the years.

Related:

• From Sunday's New York Times: "At some point, this will be a case study of how to dismantle a radio station"



• WGN Hell-Bent on Self-Destruction: several recent entries on this blog



• WGN Gold, the history of Chicago's WGN Radio 720

Just down the road ...

We toured the byways today near the churches I'll begin serving on July 1. These photos are about a half-mile down the road from one of the churches. John Wesley traveled from parish to parish on horseback. I think I should get a Chris-Craft. Or a kayak.