I finally got around to seeing Kingdom of Heaven last night with Dave Powers (to celebrate our birthdays…)

Weak.

I LOVE movies of this genre, the epic “knights doing battle against the forces of evil” gets me every time. The problem is, the core message of this movie is: “Religion is dumb, can’t we all just get along?”. It stopped short of having Orlando Bloom (Baliam) assemble a “diverse”, “multicultural”, army of Jews, Muslims, and Christians, to fight against the evil religious fanatics for freedom and justice.

Now, I agree that religion, in the sense it was portrayed here, is ridiculous. Insane men shouting “God wills it!” to justify whatever it was they wanted to do (in this case, get slaughtered by superior forces), is just… dumb. There was one money scene that made the whole movie worth it though.

In their last stand against the Saracen horde, the defenders of Jerusalem are preparing for the final assault on the city. The coward “bishop” astutely observes, “You have no knights. how can you win a battle without knights?”. Legolas Orlando Bloom agrees, and proceeds to knight any man in the city that can carry a weapon, uttering what should have been a rather inspiring speech. But since it was delivered by an elf instead of Mel Gibson or Maximus, it was just… weak. However, after knighting every man in the city, morale rose by like 1000%.

The coward-”bishop” sneers “Who are you? Do you think you can change the World? Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter? ” Orlando looks around at the ragtag band of new knights, who you can tell feel like a million bucks, and says “Yes.”

Indeed.

Make a man a knight and you make him a better fighter.

Beautiful.

Update: There were several other scenes that I thought were excellent upon reflection.

Bishop: Convert to Islam… repent later!
Balian: You’ve taught me a lot about religion, your Eminence.

Hospitaller: I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What god desires is here
[points to head]
and here
[points to heart]
and by what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man. Or not.

Balian: These men would die for what the Pope would have them do?
Hospitaller: Yes, but not Christ, I think…

Iowa State University head football coach Dan McCarney, and United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld both announce their resignation on the same day. Coincidence? I think not.

[tags]Donald Rumsfeld, Dan McCarney[/tags]

Today I discovered that there is a bike path that starts basically right in front of my house and goes (more or less) straight to Best Buy. This was a dangerous disocovery. Today it was 80 degrees out so I took my bike down this path and purchased the new Foo Fighters live album, Skin and Bones.

Flippin’ amazing, but I love the Foo Fighters. I would argue that they are among the best Rock and Roll bands out there today. If you are fan, pick this album up. It’s currently $8 at most reasonable places.

Track Listing:

1. Razor
2. Over and Out
3. Walking After You
4. Marigold
5. My Hero
6. Next Year
7. Another Round
8. Big Me
9. Cold Day In The Sun
10. Skin and Bones
11. February Stars
12. Times Like These
13. Friend of a Friend
14. Best Of You
15. Everlong

15 tracks for $8, beat that!

[tags]Foo Fighters, Skin and Bones[/tags]

As a worship leader (lead worshiper, music leader, whatever) for our church, the coming advent season is always an enigma to me. The following is an article I wrote over at RockWorship.com, reposted here for your benefit.

What in the world is a modern-rock / alternative service style church supposed to do around the Christmas season for music? If you’re not careful and don’t plan, you may find yourself breaking out the pianos and hymnals, reverting back to the Christmas music you played as a child, and totally confusing, if not alienating your congregation, who is used to loud, upbeat, modern “worship” music on Sunday morning.

[...]

Today I caught myself singing the “eeny-meeny-miny-moe” rhyme to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in a baby voice while changing Elena’s diaper.

I am the mashup king!

By way of providing way too much information, here is the original poem from which twinkle twinkle, the nursery rhyme is taken from: The Star by Ann Taylor and Jane Taylor.