:: St. Stephen's Musings ::

:: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 ::

Humor Cornucopia: Random Wednesday Musings

* How to win an argument. His bit about using Latin phrases really got a chuckle out of me but the whole thing is quite amusing.

* Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast. I know a few of you have already seen this (Jan Bear and Josh Claybourn for starters), but it is too good not to pass on. Those email scams are something else...

* The ever classic, "Leave me alone! What I do in private doesn't affect you at all!" way of justifying sin.

* "Then MC Yammer gets up to 'wrap it up.' ... We were given these little sheets of paper with fill-in-the-blank statements...One of them, for example, was 'Change [in the sense of changing to follow God's will] is most often prevented by our desire to be ________.' Vayammer Ice fills it in for us with 'comfortable.' Ever the rebel, I put 'evil.'"

Speaking of young adult groups...Josh's experience reminded me of when I was part of a large Protestant "college and career" group in the mid-90's. There are times when I can hardly believe I was part of that world...

* Katie has some good reminders about our tendency to use bitter sarcasm as a weapon. But I also like what G.K. Chesterton said about the proper role of humor in the Christian life.

"So far from it being irreverent to use silly metaphors on serious questions, it is one's duty to use silly metaphors on serious questions. It is the test of one's seriousness. It is the test of a responsible religion or theory whether it can take examples from pots and pans and boots and butter-tubs. It is the test of a good philosophy whether you can defend it grotesquely. It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it."

* Does anyone remember that old spoof about a modern marketing firm sending an Orthodox parish a "changes you'll need to make to grow your church" letter? I seem to have a vague recollection that Terry Mattingly may have printed it at one point. If someone can find the text, please email it to me or send me a link.

Update: Terry Mattingly did indeed write the article in question. Thanks Clifton!

:: Karl :: 7:53:00 AM [Link] ::