Twitter Communion cancelled

The Rev. Tim Ross has canceled Twitter Communion.

Planned as a live worldwide event to evoke Christian unity, it eventually fell victim to unintended controversy. Ross, a retired Methodist minister in Worthing, England, had hoped Christians from various traditions around the globe would gather at their computer terminals on Aug. 14 and take bread and wine (or grape juice) if their beliefs allowed. But Methodist authorities asked Ross to call off the event because it comes at a time that the denomination is still trying to figure out the proper use of the Internet by the church.

Ross stressed that he wasn't outright forbidden to hold communion by Twitter, the microblogging website that limits "tweets" to 140 characters, but he was strongly requested to cancel for now.

"It was never my intention to be controversial much less confrontational. The whole point of Twitter Communion was to offer the Christians around the world the opportunity to step beyond their differences, to meet in fellowship and love and to celebrate the common-union we all share through Christ’s body and blood," Ross writes on the Twitter Communion website.

The series of short tweets that will constitute a prayer for Christian unity will take place at the same time Twitter Communion had been scheduled for, Aug. 14 at 5 p.m. EDT in the United States.

Theology: Where doctorates and the unschooled are equal?

If my car is acting up and I don't know what's wrong, I first check with my dad or my brother; they both know a lot more than I do about the subject. But if neither of them can help me fix the problem, I call my mechanic -- after all, he's an expert.

But theology seems to be one of the few subjects that no one seems willing to defer to an expert on. (Politics is another.)

Why this is so is beyond me; having the proper theology might have eternal consequences, depending on who is correct, so you'd think people would see this as a major decision. Nope. They're quite happy to just do whatever feels right to them.

But they treat their cars far more seriously even though the worst thing that is likely to happen if you guess wrong is that it will break down eventually. (Of course, if it's your breaks that are going bad, it still would be good that you've decided upon the correct theology.)

This problem stems from the fact that in a free society we may have any opinion on any subject without penalty of the state. That's a great freedom to have, but freedom of thought without consultation of experts is as dangerous as is the freedom to rebuild your own car engine without any training.

Yes, theologians and atheist and agnostic philosophers have deep divisions among themselves as to what the "truth" is, but that shouldn't stop those of us untrained in theology from seeking their advice before deciding upon an opinion of the afterlife.

Even if I want to try to fix my own toilet, I ask somebody or check the Internet first. Yet millions of thinking humans are content to concoct their own theology and assume they're right.

It's a common cry that members of organized religion blindly follow whatever they are fed. This can, indeed, be a danger, but just making up something in one's own head is no less intelligent. At least those who recite the Apostle's Creed are following a belief system that has been tested and tried by millions over several centuries. Why is that more stupid than just following one's own path?

I'm not arguing to pick a theologian or philosopher to just blindly follow; I'm just saying that no one who knows nothing about automobile engines would give his own opinion of what's making that funny noise under the hood the same weight as he would the opinion of a professional mechanic. Why do that with what might well be the eternal destiny of his soul?

For a view from someone more learned than I am (I did drop out of Bible College, after all) check out All Saints Writers Block.

You should follow me on Twitter here and Facebook here.

Minister plans communion by Twitter

UPDATE: Twitter Communion has been canceled, and will be replaced with an alternative prayer. The time is the same.

He's already led a modern Lord's Prayer by Twitter. Now, the Rev. Tim Ross, a Methodist minister in England, is ready to try a worldwide communion on the social networking site.

"It’s a way for Christians to show that we really do belong to one Church, that we can lay our differences aside and proclaim that we are united in one thing - our love for Jesus," Ross writes on the website Twitter Communion.

Twitter Communion will take place Saturday, August 14, at 22.00 British Summer Time. That's 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 2 p.m. Pacific in the United States. And if you're on the other side of the International Date Line, you'll have to get up early Sunday to join in.

To participate, you must first follow Ross on Twitter (@TimRossMinister), then, at the appropriate time be at your computer following his tweets with bread and wine or juice at hand.

More info, including the prayer Ross will be tweeting, can be found at www.twittercommunion.co.uk

Cell phones and social media in the church pew

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evelynishere/ / CC BY 2.0

Greg Garrison of The Birmingham News reports on how cell phones, Twitter, Facebook and more have church members using Bible apps in the pew and searching for new houses of worship using social media sites. A few pastors, though, have found it a bit too much.

Read the story: Cell phones, Twitter, Facebook overtake old-time religion

Genesis 1

On a recent prayer/photography retreat I attended, participants were challenged to tell the creation story in photographs. There was a state park and a university campus nearby. Here's my attempt:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the third day.

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Interview with author of "Brilliant Disguises," Christian writer William Thornton

William Thornton's debut novel, "Brilliant Disguises," focuses on a man who pretends to be a Christian to get a coveted job with a famous philanthropist. A natural mimic, Cameron Leon, through his work and personal experiences, comes to see the evangelical Christian world from an outsider's perspective. I talked with Thornton, a co-worker and friend, about the book:

What inspired you to write this book?

Two things. I actually got some inspiration from a book I only saw the title to: "The Double," by Dostoyevsky. I've always been fascinated with the concept of identity -- how we assemble our own, how we change it, consciously and unconsciously. It's something that is a constant in literature. Think "The Great Gatsby." I saw the title and immediately, I had a rough concept for the main character.

And also, this novel grew out of a short story I had written about five years earlier about a man who is a mimic, and is asked by the widow of his late brother to imitate that brother's voice, just to get her through her grief. That is another part of the novel -- the idea that even when we imitate someone, a little of us shows through and seasons the mix.

Your main character, Cameron Leon, pretends to become a born-again Christian just to get a job, and fools everyone but himself -- and, of course, God. What was your thinking behind this device?

Part of the Christian experience, as Thomas à Kempis observed, is that we are supposed to be the imitation of Christ. I was interested in the idea of someone who was pretending to be a Christian. But I needed a motivation for the character, and holding down a job seemed like a good one. Occasionally, you'll read about people who are fired from jobs for failing to live by a morals clause in their contract. I thought I would take that a step further.

And, I liked the idea that Cameron is giving an insider's perspective of the evangelical world, per se, but he's doing it as an outsider. So things that churched people take for granted are new and alien to him. By seeing them through his eyes, it gives the reader a different perspective, or a new one, if they're coming from a secular background.

Which character in the book do you most identify yourself with and why?

There's no one character I identify most with, besides Cameron. I think everyone, on some level, feels they're "about to be found out." H.L. Mencken once defined self-respect as "the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious." And I took some inspiration from my life -- because like Cameron, I have an older brother who's much better at mimicry and imitations than I am. He's still alive though, thankfully. There's some minor characters I also identify with.

You sprinkle quotes from philosophers and other famous people throughout the book. Who are some of your favorite philosphers and how have they influenced you?

This was a device I chose to show that Cameron is so much of a mimic that even his ideas are somebody else's. I tinkered with this part of the manuscript for a long time because I didn't want somebody to read it and think, "Oh, this is Bill showing off his library." But I did want to give the impression that these ideas we carry around impulsively inside us actually come from somewhere and have been articulated before. Modern pop culture tends to leave us with the impression that "no one's ever gone through what I'm going through, and they've never had thoughts as profound as I have."

As for philosophers who have influenced me, in college I took several philosophy courses and studied under Dr. Richard Cohen, who was a student of Emmanuel Levinas. I managed to work Levinas into the novel, as well as Franz Rosenzweig. But strangely enough, the parts of the course that appealed to me the most were the Old Testament prophets. The book we studied, besides the original Scriptures, was "The Prophets" by Abraham Heschel. Great book.

The prophets don't dwell in concepts of time, space, the Other. They deal in the everyday, which is where philosophers and street people both live their lives. If you can't feed somebody, then it really doesn't matter whether our perception of time and reality is flawed.

Writing fiction is a bit like putting yourself in God's shoes -- creating your own world and populating it with whichever characters you choose. Did writing this book give you any insight into God's perspective on humanity?
Any writing does, just like being a parent does. I think we tend to see our lives as one narrative, with foreshadowing, key scenes, and an ending that we seem to race toward that's already foretold. Our minds help us do this. But life is much more complex and messy, and I think God sees our lives not necessarily as that one strand, but all the other possibilities that fall with each passing second.

It's like when you play chess with a computer -- the computer not only plots its moves, but plots ahead to every conceiveable move that you or it could make, based on the last move. I think that is how He sees it, and it gives us another window into just how ... the old English word would be terrible ... He is. That's a being of unimaginable, awe-inspiring power and complexity. And yet, He cares. With that kind of window, He not only observes but cares, interacts, shapes, steps aside, and blesses.

An author can see possibilities, but they're focused on that narrative, and on the demands of the story. It has to satisfy on some emotional level, which means that it can be manipulated, The key is being, like God, almost invisible. I think it was Raymond Chandler who said, "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun." Sometimes, you have to step in.

What do you hope readers take away from "Brilliant Disguises"?
I hope they find it a satisfying read. I also hope they see it as something different. I think a lot of -- the market term is Christian fiction -- tends to try to satisfy some of the secular cravings we as readers have. The spy story. The romance. There's a lot of allegory and fantasy with some spirituality or Scripture leavened in for the market. And all that is fine. A good story is a good story.

But we run the risk sometimes, I think, of reinforcing what the secular world suspects -- that we live in a fantasy world, that we escape through our faith. And I don't see Christians as escapists at all. It takes a great deal of clarity to look at the world the way it is and look past all the grime and glitter, tune out the noise, and focus on finding the Almighty in the other person. Part of what Cameron does is make that journey, as we all must.

"Brilliant Disguises" by William Thornton is available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, BooksAMillion and on the website www.brilliantdisguises.com. Thornton also has a blog, brilliantdisguises.blogspot.com, which deals with Christian themes in literature and contemporary culture.

Wooly Willy nabbed in Florida killings

Thanksgiving murder suspect caught with help of "America's Most Wanted" and child's obsession with arranging metal shavings into facial hair.