"Paging Dr Schrute..."

So I have some weird virus that I picked up from Elle. The symptoms are really fun - achy muscles, 102+ fever, and headaches. Tricia insisted I go to the clinic and see whats up. We went as usual to the hospital but had to go to the clinic since its Saturday. The nurse did the typical tests. Then the doctor walked in an Tricia and I locked eyes. MY DOCTOR WAS DWIGHT SCHRUTE!!!! So, even though I was miserable and sweating, the trip was all worth it! Moral of the story: always go to the doctor because you never know when someone from "the office" will make you feel uncomfortable in a way that only doctors can.

TBN breaks my heart.

TBN generates $170 million in revenue annually, with two-thirds coming from viewer contributions and one-third coming from other televangelists' payments for running their programming. Its $120 million donation revenue is larger than any other television ministry. It has posted average annual surpluses since 1997 of about $60 million. It holds two week-long fundraising telethons per year, as well as numerous other solicitation drives. It maintains a direct mail database of 1.2 million names. As of 2002, it boasted $583 million in assets, including $238 million in government-backed securities and $31 million in cash. Also among its assets are a $7.2 million Canadair Turbojet and thirty houses in California, Texas and Ohio with values ranging up to $8 million. The elder Crouchs and their son Paul Jr. earn an estimated combined annual income of $850,000. In September 2004 the Los Angeles Times characterized their personal lifestyle as a "life of luxury." The network reports that during the first twenty years of the network's operation, Paul and Jan were paid roughly one-tenth their current income, with the amounts rising in the past ten years as they approached retirement.

The network has attracted criticism for its continuous fundraising activities, including a "prosperity gospel," an offshoot of the Word of faith doctrine that appears to promise donors, including impecunious ones, that God will make them rich as long as they have faith and give to TBN. Paul Crouch has made statements to his viewers such as, "Have you got something that you have been praying about ten, fifteen, twenty years? You have been praying for it and haven't gotten it...," and that people haven't recieved it because they haven't given their ten percent. During a 1997 program, he conversely said, "If you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not contributed...you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven." The network reports that seventy percent of its donations are in amounts under fifty dollars. Some viewers consider Crouch's prosperity as a positive demonstration of the success of their prosperity gospel message. A group of critical Christians has banded together to attempt to jam the TBN phones during its telethons as a protest against its fundraising, which the group's organizer, a retired pastor, likens to robbery.

The network cancelled its November 2004 "Praise-a-thon" fundraising telethon in favor of showing forty hours of reruns from past telethons. Network officials blamed the cancellation mostly on health concerns for both Paul and Jan Crouch, the latter of whom had gall badder surgery at the time. The Associated Press reported those officials also noted, however, that the cancellation would take pressure off other religious figures who would have appeared on the live telethon, in the wake of recent revelations that Paul Crouch paid $425,000 in 1998 to a male former employee to keep him quiet about claims of a homosexual tryst with Crouch, and the AP also cited the recent newspaper reports about the Crouchs' "lavish lifestyle" as well as ongoing rumors of marital strife between Paul Sr. and Jan. Paul Crouch Jr. voiced his belief that other ministries were concerned "they are going to be next on the hit list." R. Marie Griffith, a Princeton University scholar studying evangelical Christianity and the media, said that "to take the live broadcasting off...suggests...the chaos" at TBN.

Because of the network's focus on the Word of faith and other doctrine, some conservative Christian critics have labelled it "The Blasphemy Network."

from http://www.heartheissues.com/tvnetworks-tbn.html

L

This is a new love. I already knew the love of family. I discovered the love of film and music. I entered into love with my wife. But, this new love is...well...new. I can't define it. I can't understand it. I can't contain it. Its a protective love. Its a pure love. Its an unconditional love. And, this love is so frightening.

I greet this love every morning with a little kiss and a hug. She is sleeping in her little bed surrounded by stuffed animals and a 30-year-old blanket. Her belly is usually sticking out of her PJs, and her hair would put Don King to shame. There is such an innocence to her. She doesn't dream about death, and finances, and losing hope. She dreams about Finding Nemo, our dog Ollie, and playing with her little daycare friends. She doesn't have to be anywhere. She has no bills to pay. She won't face heartbreak today. She won't worry about gas prices. All she cares about is waking up and seeing Mommy and Daddy.

This love is different. I love my wife, and I care for her, but I don't have to feel protective because she is her own person and has her own life. My little creature, however, is all mine. She needs me. She relies on me. If I am not there, she won't be OK.

Sometimes while rocking her to sleep, I just have to stare at her. I am so grateful. I am humbled. I am reminded of how the Lord loves me because in my imperfect and flawed love, I would die for my little girl. But the Lord's love is everlasting and complete. So His love must be something special.

Ah summer...

I am one of those rare people who do NOT like summer. I hate heat. I hate bugs. I hate mowing the lawn. I hate the sun (because I am a pasty-white redhead and the sun is typically unfriendly to my skin). I hate getting into my hot car, sleeping my hot house, and just being out in the cursed hot sun (queue Eddie Vedder).

I curse you, summer!