Archive - November, 2009

The Church Gets "MapQuest-ed" Too

November 28, 2009 in Life, Religion with 4 Comments

Camouflage class

I started a new job recently.

On the first day I was supposed to get to work a little early to start some paperwork before the Monday morning meeting. Since I have time issues, I usually take some measures to ensure I’ll get there when I am supposed to (I don’t have a great internal mechanism for letting me know I’ve begun to be late). Part of my plan for this particular Monday was to drive out to the office at some point during the weekend, just to make sure I knew how long it took to get there (and therefore knew when to leave).

And then I never got around to it.

So there I was on Sunday night, relating this to a friend, and she asks me if I need to take off in order to take that drive. To which I reply, “Naw, I’ll just MapQuest it.”

And then I promptly got on the computer and used Google Maps to plot out my course.

As I thought about this later, this is what struck me. I say “MapQuest it,” even though I fully intend to use Google Maps, because “Google Maps it” just feels awkward coming out. It’s a testament to just how great the name MapQuest was when they branded their online map service in 1996. But the reality is, even though I probably say “MapQuest it” all the time, I haven’t used MapQuest since the day I found Google Maps. Yet here I am tossing their name around, and then doing something, which may look like it is associated with them, that isn’t connected with them at all.

So, this morning a Jehovah’s Witnesses came to my front door. During their (disappointingly short) presentation they called themselves Christians. And, you know, they do stuff that looks like it is associated with Christianity, but in reality isn’t connected with it at all.

The church gets “MapQuest-ed” too. Continue Reading…

They were literally being held captive by God.

November 9, 2009 in Religion with 0 Comments

I recently started rereading the book of I Samuel. It’s been fantastic. There are some stories in there I haven’t read for years; really fantastic stories.

In chapters 4, 5 and 6, there is this really interesting story about the Ark of the Covenant. In the beginning of chapter 4, the Philistines have just attacked the Israelites, and the Israelites lost. In response to this, they send for the Ark of Covenant, thinking that they can wield it give them victory. The Philistines hear about this, get themselves hyped up, and really lay into the Israelites. In fact, not only do they kill 30,000 Israelites, but they also capture the Ark of the Covenant.

Chapter 5 continues the story. The Philistines take the Ark back to one of their cities and place it in the temple of their god, Dagon. In the morning they come back, and the statue of Dagon is lying face down in front of the Ark. This happens again the next night, and the arms of the statue are even broken off. Then the people start getting developing tumors. This freaks them out, so they send the Ark to another town. Those people also start developing tumors. Continue Reading…