Another Movie About the Holocaust?

In the forward to the book, "Defiance: The Bielski Partisans", by Nehema Tec, Filmaker Edward Zwick said "Not another holocaust movie!". "What was to be accomplished," he wondered, "In telling yet another story of familiar and unspeakable horror...".

Perhaps you are inclined to feel this way to when you see the previews or hear about the movie Defiance.

But, the story told in Defiance is anything but a tired retelling of how hard is was to face those times. It is a compelling and moving story about some Jewish brothers that save around 1200 people from the certain death in the forests of Belarus, during which time they are constantly hunted by the Nazis, hounded by the local police, in a tenuous alliance of sorts with the Russian Partisans and trying to carve life and humanity in spite of enemies like the freezing cold and the ugly face of human depravity.

Diane has often lamented that some of the historically based movies that have come out in later years have been about fictional people. She has wondered why the movies, swimming around well known historical events, couldn't feature real people's real stories. Why couldn't Titanic, for instance, center around the struggles of some real participants in that page of history? Or why couldn't Pearl Harbor have picked any of a thousand love stories of real life soldiers, airmen or seamen?

Defiance, to me, is even more moving because it is the true story of the Bielski brothers, and other brave Jewish partisans facing one of the worst chapters in human history. At 2 hours and 20 minutes it might be a bit long for some, but I found it engaging throughout and was glad I saw it.

I am going to try to find a copy of the book next. It is supposed to be even better.

Good times!

The Church I was the Planting Pastor from 1999-2004 has a new website. Since I like this one much better than the last one they did, I thought I would share it with you, so check it out here. It is still under construction.

They are also moving into their new facilities.

It is interesting to look at the site and see how much of the stuff they do is the same....and how they have made changes there.

We are still praying and rooting for you Southport!

Oh, the controversy

Here are a couple of guys from our Unit in the local news and here is the overly long article in which they are highlighted.

More Publicity for the Little Guys

Earlier this week, our former Governess and the current Secretary of Homeland Security talked about the violence along the border (the southern border) that could be spilling over the border.

According to this article, she said “This issue requires immediate action. We are guided by two very clear objectives. First, we are going to do everything we can to prevent the violence in Mexico from spilling over across the border. And second, we will do all in our power to help President Calderón crack down on these drug cartels in Mexico.”


As a result of this, our little unit is garnering more media attention. The other day, reporters from the Arizona Daily Star and Globo Internacional, a Brazilian Television Station, came and rode with us. I played host to Rodrigo the Reporter and Sergio the Cameraman that didn't speak English. It was fun, but we didn't get into any shootouts or chases, which is what those guys were hoping for. They said they got the footage they needed, between some people being smuggled in a car, the piles of burlap (used to backpack bundles of marijuana and left to rot with clothes, water bottles and other miscellany marring the wilderness) and our guns and equipment.

Let me know if any of you happen to see me. If so, I am curious if they dubbed my voice into Portugese.

B.E.R.A.T.E.D.

I found the constitution for the religious organization that I was a part of many moons ago:
The Best Ever Religious Association To Ever Develop.

Actually, my friend Howard and I were both Pastors of two separate but equally small Churches at the time and he put this group together as a way to poke fun at the organizational/institutional mentality that some people in our respective Churches had developed. here are some salient points:

Article III - Purpose and Mission

The purpose and mission of this association shall be to gather information, generate ideas, and exchange great thoughts concerning why the organizations of the individual members of this associations are not fulfilling their purpose and mission.

Article IV

d. we believe in the Holy Spirit who convicts, comforts and empowers - although, as evidenced by our respective organizations, He tend mostly to comfort and rarely convicts or empowers.

Article VI - Government

This association, as the name suggests, is "berated" - usually by organizational government. there fore, there shall be no government for this association.

Article VIII - Association Property

This association shall claim for it's own any place at which the association might meet for any purpose, because wherever you go, there we are. Otherwise, we shall not own, purchase, or sell, any property of any kind without the prior written consent of the current Pope, to whom we are willing to submit for a decision on these matters.

And those are just some of my favorite parts.

To think, some people wonder what Pastors do the rest of the week, since they only work on Sundays.

Fitting In

I have talked with a number of you who are looking for a Church home or are considering visiting a Church. Here are some tips on how to fit in at Church. Good Luck!

Culpable Mental State

One of my coworkers was arrested a few years back. No, it wasn't some scandal involving him embezzling from the county coffers, or an incident of him stomping on an already-in-custody arrestee. He was cited and released for a loose dog.

Here's what happened. He went out in the backyard and noticed his dog had gotten out. He immediately began to scour the neighborhood for the absconding canine. About the same time he caught up with his dog, the animal control guy slipped up and wrote him a citation for having a dog not on a leash. This is actually considered a criminal offense in our county. With only a fine of Twenty-five dollars, he had a criminal record.

The reason he could be charged with this, even though he had no intention of letting the dog out, is because of the culpable mental state that is required to violate this law. Culpable mental state (cms) is the state of mind you are in with regards to the offense you are committing.

The cms for the leash law must be the one defined as negligent. This cms simply reflects that we were not as careful as we should have been in order to prevent the offense from occurring.

Another cms in Arizona law is reckless. This is when you should have known that your actions could or would lead to the offense or injury. For instance, you are playing with a samurai sword at the mall, just for fun, and you accidentally slice off the head of some emo kid that was listening to strange music on his ipod. You should have known that this could happen so, under a law that looks for reckless as the cms, you are guilty.

A final cms is knowingly. In other words, you deliberately committed the offense and knew what the result would be. An example would be if you deliberately snuck into Billy's house and took his Call of Duty game and sold it at Bookman's for $3.00 in trade credit. You did it knowingly.

Some crimes don't require a cms at all in our fine state. If you are littering, it doesn't matter if you did it knowingly, recklessly, negligently, accidentally or any-ingly. You are guilty if you did it at all.

Sometimes I wonder what our Culpable Mental State is in our approach to life. Do we take a deliberate run at it, knowingly defining our purpose and choosing what we do based on that? Do we not put the care into it that we should and negligently let it slip away from us? Do we recklessly do stuff that we should know will make a mess for us, but do that stuff anyway? Or, do we not give it any thought at all and wonder why it ends up the way it does?