Looking for God -- Not Religion

The Pew Research Center has an interesting article about the increasing secularity of Americans. The study takes into account surveys from the past half-century or so, and notes a generational decline in religious affiliation:

Among respondents born before the baby boom (that is, prior to 1946), only about 5% are secular or unaffiliated compared with more than double that number among Baby Boomers (11%). The most secular Americans are those 30 and younger -- sometimes called "Generation Y" -- 19% of whom do not identify with a religious tradition.

Jennie and I are a part of this Generation Y, and can feel this somewhat in our church small group and in talking with people we know. It's not so much that we know a lot of atheists or agnostics, but there seems to be a general attitude among people our age that institutionalized religion may not have all the facts straight, or at least the priorities are out of whack.

While faith in God is indeed very important to many people our age, it seems faith in religion itself is declining. From what I can tell, my generation is longing for something deeply spiritual -- a connection with God on a personal basis. What they don't care for is the traditional (or even "modern"), pre-packaged church experience.

Is this a chance for churches and Christians to wake up and get back to basics? Are we preaching church and religion, or are we preaching Christ?

What do you think?

Another Video for You Smokers

Do You Smoke? U Got To Watch This... - For more of the funniest videos, click here

Dukes of Hazzard

I came across this video today. I loved this show and the theme song!

Family Vacation in Dallas

Jennie and Mac and I are now back to our normal schedules following a week of vacation. We packed up in Richard and Cherrie's Nissan Armada SUV and headed toward the Lone Star State for some much-needed time away.

As many of you know, we had originally planned on driving to Princeton, New Jersey; when those plans fell apart, the much shorter, much less daunting trip to Dallas was invented. I had worried about Mac's ability to sit in a child car seat for long periods of time, so a 4 hour or so trip sounded more doable than a 20-hour one. As it turns out, my worries were unfounded — Mac did great. We had to make a few stops in our traveling to stretch the little legs, but that was expected. I am very proud of her.

We stayed in Denton, just north of Dallas and Fort Worth. In Denton, we stopped into a Circuit City and did something really great for the health of our marriage — we bought a Garmin StreetPilot c550 GPS. This thing suctions to your windshield and tells you turn-by-turn how to get to your destination. It made the rest of our driving time mostly enjoyable!

In Dallas, we visited Dealey Plaza, where president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, nearly 2 decades before Jennie and I were born. On the sixth floor of the nearby Texas School Book Depository building, where assassin Lee Harvey Oswald perched and shot JFK, there is a museum that walks you through the entire set of events and even explains the different conspiracy theories. Jennie and I learned a lot about this very sad day in our nation's history.

Of course, we did some shopping in Dallas and Denton. Jennie had to make her stop at the Container Store. We also ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Yes, we're aware there is now one in Tulsa, but it seems every time we happen by that place, the line is stacked right on out to 71st street; the one in Dallas wasn't nearly that busy for whatever reason.

On our way back home, we stopped in Oklahoma City to visit the Bombing Memorial there. It was very heartwarming and sad at the same time to see the things people have placed on the chain link fence in memory of loved ones.

We took a few photos (though not as many as I should have), like this one:



We also created a little video (mostly of driving) so we could remember Mac's first out of state trip:


Dallas Trip 2007 from Tim Morgan on Vimeo.

All in all, this was one of the best vacations ever — probably because our little family is 50% larger now. Though Mac won't remember any of the trip, the bonding that took place during that week of us together on the road is irreplaceable.

Micro Machines Guy

Remember this guy?

Talk is Cheap

I came across this scripture, and then I realized that the phrase "talk is cheap" came from the bible:

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." Proverbs 14:23

I Did It

On Saturday, October 13, Mac learned how to crawl down a step feet first. Then she lifted her hands and said "I did it!" It was so cute.

She has also said "I love Dada." I can't wait for Tim to hear her speak.

Presidential Candidates Matching

Take this quiz if you wanted to see which candidate matches up with your thoughts.

Ryan's Photos

elvis signed and me
Originally uploaded by r_smarte_pants

Our friend Ryan takes some pretty awesome photos. He is a professional afterall. It's worth your time to head over and see his work. Very cool stuff.

Rubber Duckie

This is one of Mac's favorite songs. I sing it for her every bath time!

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has been around for about 40 years or so, and every modern generation has some memory of watching it as a child, unless you lived under a rock. Thanks to this list of 10 Sesame Street Scenes I Miss the Most, we get to take a little trip down memory lane. I believe these clips must have all been from the 80s or maybe early 90s, because I remember most of them. Here's my favorite:

Did You Mean...

Thank you, Google, for giving me a good laugh today:

Tulsa County Says 'No' to More Taxes

We were glad to see that Tulsa County voters indeed have their priorities straight, even if all our leaders don't. It's clear to many of us that this proposed River Tax wasn't the best way to make Tulsa a better place to live and work. Many people asked, what about our streets? Others asked, what about our parks and pools? These are things that have been neglected for a long time, and Mayor Kathy Taylor has reneged on promises she has made to improve them. Finally, we were asked to ignore all these problems and write a blank check to so-called river development. Not happening.

Jennie and I visit the Jenks Riverwalk occasionally, and very much enjoy the food and entertainment and atmosphere. Now, why exactly was Jenks able to do something with their part of the river without a single tax increase, yet now we're told that we must spend millions of dollars to make it happen in Broken Arrow and Tulsa and elsewhere? I don't buy it.

Thank you, Tulsa County for seeing through the propaganda machine and understanding the real issues here. The longer I live in this city, the more I love it.

Hillary's Universal 401K Plan

Sweet! Rather than letting the free economy work out 401K plans and businesses choosing to offer matching funds, let's get the government to do it! Except, of course, that little problem of the government running our lives.

Under the plan, everyone would have access to a 401K and would be able to get matching funds from the government. It is part of Clinton's effort to increase retirement security by promoting savings and investment.

Does this really sound like a good idea to anyone?

And Now... Something Gross

This is for all my friends and family who continue to light up...


Quit Smoking - Watch the best video clips here

Vote Tomorrow

For those of you who live in Tulsa County, don't forget to vote tomorrow. And, if you've been listening to the people who say there's nothing fun to do in Tulsa and feel it necessary to allocate other people's money to go toward river development, take a look at City Councilor Roscoe Turner's list of 35 things to do in the Tulsa area.

There are many hard-working people who live paycheck to paycheck; many elderly who worked their whole lives to retire on a very limited income, these people cannot afford to pay more taxes for your entertainment - especially those who live in areas of Tulsa where the city has made promises and reneged on them time and time again.

So, get out and spend some of your young professional money and generate some tax revenue, and before long we will have the money to fix the streets, open swimming pools and recreation centers at our community parks, mow the grass in all areas of the city, fix broken water lines and provide public safety by hiring more police. Then maybe, just maybe, we can take a look at doing something with YOUR RIVER.

Now, if that isn't persuasion enough to vote NO tomorrow, than I don't know what is.

For Mac

Call this a prayer, or maybe a pledge; here are the things I want to do and the person I want to be for my daughter:

1. Loving. Always loving.
2. I never want to raise my voice to be heard or understood.
3. I want to be 100% interested in what you're doing or saying right now.
   
4. I am your biggest fan.
5. I will admit mistakes.
6. I will protect you from bad people.
7. I will pray for you and the choices you make.
8. I will love your mom until I die.
9. I will ask you to do things you don't want to do in the interest of our family and/or your own future.
10. I will blog and photo-document your life until I drive you completely crazy.
    

Best Wedding Video

Our friends, the Bests, got married back in April, and this is some video of that. We were only filming because we had a camera handy -- little did we know that all of the Best's professional wedding photos would be lost in a hard drive crash. When I ran across the DVD of video footage the other day, I knew I just had to make some sort of montage. So here it is. I hope Dale and Lindsay like it.

No River Tax Signs on Fire (Literally)

Apparently, River Tax supporters are going around lighting No River Tax yard signs on fire. Some lady's lawn was burning, and her husband had to run out and douse the flames.

Nice.

Thousands Killed in Burma

Officials in Burma now say the protests are under control and the situation is back to normal, but scattered reports are coming out of this country that thousands of people were massacred and pitched into the jungle. From the article:

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

And...

The reports follow claims from a former intelligence officer in Burma's ruling junta that thousands of protesters have been killed and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle.

It's heart breaking.

Lying to Broken Arrow

From BatesLine:

Notice the drawing in the photo, labeled "Broken Arrow Riverfront." That's a conceptual sketch from the Arkansas River Corridor Master Plan (ARCMP), the long-term wish list for riverfront development that was developed from 2003 to 2005.

NOT ONE CENT of the money in this plan will build what you see depicted in that drawing...