Also I should mention that there is pretty big change in the WordPress theme design so it is definitely worth a look.

However, regular readers should go ahead and keep jmbx.wordpress.com bookmarked as I’ll be using this as my backup blog in the event of hacker attacks and the like (not a paranoid fear since it happened about a year ago to me).

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,600 times in 2010. That’s about 11 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 26 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 47 posts. There were 11 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was May 17th with 161 views. The most popular post that day was Discussion re: T-shirts sold by War Paint Clothing Co. of Oklahoma City.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were funtrivia.com, facebook.com, aroundaustin.com, en.wikipedia.org, and oklahomacitizen.org.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for james branum, warpaint clothing, native american stereotypes, def okc shirt, and jmbzine.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Discussion re: T-shirts sold by War Paint Clothing Co. of Oklahoma City May 2010
24 comments

More discussion re: the War Paint Clothing Co. shirt controversy May 2010
8 comments

About January 2009

Contact September 2009
1 comment

Sandy the Peace dog is dead, and is also still with us December 2010

(OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, 11/3/2010) — On Thursday, November 4, the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK) will hold a news conference with religious and civil rights leaders in the State Capitol Building to announce the filing of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of an anti-Islam ballot measure (State Question 755) passed in yesterday’s election. The measure amends the state constitution to forbid judges from considering Islamic law or international law when making a ruling.

WHAT: CAIR-OK News Conference to Announce Legal Challenge to Anti-Islam Ballot Measure

WHEN: Thursday November 4, 2010, 2 p.m.

WHERE: State Capitol Building, 2nd Floor in the Press Room

CONTACT: CAIR-Oklahoma Executive Director Muneer Awad, 405-248-5853, E-Mail: mawad@cair.com

Law Professor: Ban on Sharia Law ‘a Mess’ (CNN)

http://tinyurl.com/2d9w8d8

America’s Sharia Hysteria (Daily Beast)

http://tinyurl.com/2gycns3

What Is Shariah and Why Does It Matter? (Huffington Post)

http://tinyurl.com/2e9nmbt

Speakers at the news conference will include:

* Muneer Awad — Executive Director, CAIR-OK

* Chuck Thornton — Deputy Director, ACLU-Oklahoma

* Imad Enchassi — Imam, Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City (ISGOC)

* Nathaniel Batchelder — Director, Central Oklahoma Human Rights
Association (COHRA)

What a difference 4 months makes in one’s life! When I wrote part 1 of this series, things were going pretty hunky dory at my primary church home (an urban Mennonite church in OKC). Like every church we had our problems and tensions, but overall things were ok.

Today though, things are not ok. I have faced some pretty vicious attacks by those close to me at my church and my days there may be numbered. And strangely enough, the blog post Religion (Part1) is one of the things I have been attacked over.

While I don’t want to focus too much energy responding to negative spin, I do want to try to clarify things a bit.

My critics have made two criticisms of my post.

The first charge is that they say my post made it sound as if I “would be an atheist if I had the courage to be one” and that it is wrong for a minister of the church to say this.

In response to this charge, I’ve re-read my post. I can understand the confusion due to my imprecise language. However, in large part my intended continuation of the post was going to discuss in more detail WHY I DO BELIEVE. I’ll explain it more detail in part 3, but in short I believe, not because of logic reasoning, but rather because of intuitive knowledge. Certainly I think that it is possible to be intellectually consistent and faithful at the same time, but I also believe that logic by itself does not necessarily lead to faith. — Or to put it in other words, I don’t think the bulk of my atheist and agnostic friends lack faith due to their not thinking logically enough.

And I would go a step further. I think that many people (myself included) are turned off by the attempts to use logic as an apologetic tool. Too often the tool is used clumsily, inconsistently and even maliciously. I think it is much better to say that faith is a mystery, a grace given by God through the Holy Spirit.

Now as to me saying I admire atheists for their courage, well I do admire them, just as I admire anyone who is willing to state the truth as they understand it even if the catch flak for it. And I admire other things about my atheist friends. I admire their love (that isn’t tainted by fears of punishment for not loving) and their passion for the causes they believe in too.

The second charge that has been raised against me is that it was wrong for me to say that “God is too big to fit into only one religion.”

I stand by my statement. It is true. And I’ll go further. I don’t believe in a literal hell either. I think religions at their best moments all point to the Divine. They are all imperfect but they all have something to teach us. Christianity speaks the clearest to my heart so that is the tradition I identify with, but I have no problem with seeing Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, etc. as my brothers and sisters, as fellow seekers of the Divine.

When I wrote the prior blog post I was speaking for myself and only myself. If I were speaking on behalf of the church as a whole, I would have to frame things differently. Most members of my church know what I believe on these subjects and significant number agree with me. But I have not tried to cram these ideas down anyone’s throat or force others to adopt these views. I’ve accepted the fact that other members of the church believe in an exclusivistic kind of faith. I think those who believe this way are wrong on this issue, but they are still my sisters and brothers. I hope they feel the same about me. When I speak to the church through a sermon, I try to find messages that will encourage and uplift and challenge everyone, not just those I agree with.

Anyway there’s a lot more to say. I really want to go back to discussing the nature of faith and doubt in more detail (especially relating it back to the book A Prayer for Owen Meany, but I did want to write this post in an effort to bring some extra clarity.

To be continued . . .

I thought this was obvious but apparently it is not so I’m restating it here.

It touched me because I always enjoy hearing about the deepest aspects of personal lives, of those moments when folks started to become the people they were to become. I think the world we better if we all share more of those moments with each other, because those are the moments where we best connect with others (because so often those moments reminds us of our own big moments, that we so often don’t share). But I was especially glad to get this glimpse into what make’s my friend tick, as to what has taken her in her life journey from point A to point B.

But the blog post wasn’t just about appreciation of someone else’s journey but also about some questions. Let me start with this, it is interesting to me that Rena was the only one of her classmates who saw that the imagery of Christ of the Breadlines was the more accurate picture of what the Christ of the New Testament was all about, than most of the more traditional imagery. And it is even more interesting that this recognition of difference was something that led her in the end away from religion all together (at least as a believer).

And finally this little excerpt really interests me….

I finally realized that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And that’s when I “got” religion and stopped being a Christian. I realize that it’s possible that someone else, under the same circumstances, would make the opposite choice — in an alternate universe, maybe I’m the Pope. It took me many more years to come to realize I was or had at some point become an atheist, and to come to terms with that. But religion still fascinates me, like a lifelong research project, in the drastic/dramatic way it shapes people, and controls them, blinds them, and even sometimes enlightens and elevates them, and I still think if you read the New Testament, even the Cliff Notes version, and don’t come away seeing the Jesus depicted there (man, god, or literary character) as Christ of the Breadlines, there is something seriously wrong with your comprehension (it probably having been warped even more drastically by the many evils of dogma so that even religion isn’t “religious” anymore).

All of this is fascinating to me, because many of the same conclusions that Rena made (that the traditional imagery of Jesus obscures his more literal message, that religious dogma binds people up in oppression, etc.) are ones that I’ve made. Yet we went different ways in the end.

Rena is an atheist, admittedly one with a pretty evolved and tolerant view towards her religious comrades in social justice struggles.

I’m a Christian, but admittedly one who doesn’t take the Bible literally in most aspects, and who think that God is too big to fit into only one religion. (and on certain occasions even wonders if God really exists or not — but in the end makes the decision to believe despite the lack of evidence to prove the existence of God).

(I should add despite my own choice, I’m not convinced my choice is the best approach. I just feels right for me. Part of me even admires the atheist’s courage to take the world on its own terms without feeling the need for a higher power to give things meaning.)

One part of the puzzle of making sense of all of this I think is found in a book that I recently read (or rather listened to in audio format), which was recommended by Rena. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

To be continued… Religion (Part 2)

Here is the LTE I sent today to The Gazette…

Dear editor,

I am writing regarding the article “Street pedalers” in the May 26th issue of The Oklahoma Gazette.

The article quoted a local bicyclist who said that cyclists should ride in groups because it is dangerous to ride in groups, and also says that urban cyclists are hindered “by the fact that Oklahoma city prohibits bike riding on sidewalks, yet doesn’t provide bike lanes to protect them from cars. Murray that riders have to either ride on a shoulder – if there is one – or hug the curb and hope passing cars on the lookout.”

This is not the way to safely ride a bicycle in Oklahoma City. Contrary to what your article says, in most situations bicyclists are best off “taking the lane.” By riding assertively in the lane (rather than hugging the curb), motorists are more likely to see cyclists and are more likely to pass with enough clearance. Riding like this is not only safer, but it is also legal. Oklahoma law says that cyclists shall ride as far to the right as is safe, but does not mean that bicycles must hug the curb. Instead it requires cyclists to use common sense.

There are lot of good resources out there on how to safely ride a bicycle in an urban environment. OKbike.org has an excellent education section on its website. I also would recommend the book “Effective Cycling” by John Forester.

My birthday is coming up on June 5th. I know it is customary to give gifts, but I got plenty of stuff. So I’m asking my friends to instead consider making a donation to a project that is dear to my heart, the Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline project of OCC (Oklahoma Center for Conscience).

Why is the OK GI Rights hotline and OCC worth supporting?

1. The Oklahoma National Guard is facing a record deployment of over 3,400 troops to Afghanistan next year (the largest deployment of the 45th since the Korean war). Many of those soldiers will not want to deploy, and they will depend on the GI Rights Hotline for help.

2. OCC has a proven track record of doing good work on very little money. Our current budget is less than $10,000 per year, yet we are able to do some incredible work.

3. OCC is one of the only a few local groups who educate young people about the importance of conscience and the role of conscientious objectors in society. We also carry this mission into our GI Rights work, where we help soldiers who are struggling with issues of conscience, to find out for themselves what they truly believed about war.

4. Helping soldiers to be free of the military is a concrete way to work for peace.

5. OCC helps me to do my work. Without the housing stipend that OCC pays me, I would not be able to take many of the resister cases I currently am able to take.

I’m setting a goal of raising $250 between now and the end of June. Please consider making a generous donation now. All donations are tax-deductible (OCC’s fiscal sponsor is Joy Mennonite Church).

You can donate now at: http://centerforconscience.org/donations/. You can also donate by sending a check or money order to:

Oklahoma Center for Conscience
c/o Joy Mennonite Church
504 NE 16th St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Thanks!
James

P.S. Shoot me an email and let me know your made your donation so I can track it against the fundraising goal.

P.S.2 – I am having a BBQ for friends and family for my birthday. If you would like to come, shoot me an email and send you the details.

The problem I was awfully broke during law school and way too paranoid to do much illegal music downloading. So, instead I sometimes went to the downtown Oklahoma City Public library to listen to CD’s and check out the ones that spoke to me.

It was there that I discovered the sweet folk-American music of Dave Carter & Tracey Grammer.

The duo had a sweet, sweet sound but better yet had songs about Oklahoma. Songs like “Tillman County,” “The Power and Glory” and “Ordinary Town” just rung true to me, with the feeling of both understanding and love for this place. (these songs were all on their album Drum, Hat, Buddha (it was that quirky name that made me pick up the album in the first place)

So I looked them up online. I found out that Dave grew up in Oklahoma and Texas and was an alum of OU, and Tracey from California originally. But then I read a little more and discovered that Dave actually passed away from a sudden attack in 2002, but that Tracey Grammer had continued to sing his songs and to sing new songs.

I’ve since listened to their music many times over the succeeding years. It’s been some of my favorite music to turn to in times of both sorrow and joy.

I haven’t yet had a chance to check Tracey’s solo work, but I will soon. But in the meantime, let me share this video of the duo of the band singing one of my favorite of their songs, “Gentle Arms of Eden”: