Marc Johns

Found out about an illustrator named Marc Johns through Jason Boyett's Blog. This guys is hilarious, just check out some of his stuff:


I think I am going to go get his book, Serious Drawings, ASAP. I need to read more art anyway. I am definitely going to subscribe to his blog, huzzah!

Are there any artist who you are a particular fan of?

Filthy Roman Sponge

Have you ever been confused or unsure about that passage where Jesus is on the cross and is given something to drink from a sponge? [Matthew 27:45-50]



My stomach turned when I heard that, just the putridity of it. And how often do I still stick that sponge in Jesus' mouth?

[via The Resurgence]

Bill Clinton The Devoted Dad

I was pretty much floored when I saw this article. "No way," I was thinking, "Some idiot liberal journalist is trying to find a way to redeem the long lost image of William J. Clinton." (Maybe I didn't use his full name, but you get the gist of it). And to a certain degree, I was correct. But not as much as I thought.

I must admit that the examples the author provides are very compelling. He postponed a politically necessary trip to Japan to patch up international relations (an act that had Al Gore angry) so that he could support Chelsea during her school mid-terms. Dang, boss.

The most interesting part of the article I found was where it points out that "Any father can be proud of his daughter, but Branch's account suggests something more: that Bill looks up to Chelsea and finds the self he never managed to become." While they don't say anything directly regarding his morality, but it does point to the fact that "He [Bill] was one to gather laurels; she [Chelsea] preferred to share them."

That would be an interesting concept: that Bill saw in his daughter some redeeming qualities he could not see in himself. It definitely lends itself to a more compassionate view of the sinner Bill Clinton by the sinner T.J. Schley.

Was Bill Clinton a good father-President? Does deserve less hate and more (albeit just a little more) admiration?

[article found via Joshua Harris]

Of The New Calvinism

Apparently, according to Time Magazine, the New Calvinism is among the 10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now. (#5 was Amortality, an interesting article, I recommend reading all 10)

They say, to introduce it,

"In the early 1900s you might have heard "The Old Rugged Cross," a celebration of the atonement. By the 1980s you could have shared the Jesus-is-my-buddy intimacy of "Shine, Jesus, Shine." And today, more and more top songs feature a God who is very big, while we are...well, hark the David Crowder Band: "I am full of earth/ You are heaven's worth/ I am stained with dirt/ Prone to depravity."

Now, I will admit, I am coming from the "New Calvinist" point of view, but the summary they provide for New Calvinism, "Our satisfaction — and our purpose — is fulfilled simply by "glorifying" him," seems like nothing but good Biblical exposition.

The article cites the success of the ministries of John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and Albert Mohler, along with "The Calvinist-flavored ESV Study Bible" selling out its first printing. I would also address Joshua Harris and C.J. Mahaney, and the growth in reading, especially among the younger generation, of such classic authors as John Owen, Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon.

The Religious Newswriter's Organization did a small conference about it, and here's Piper's conversation there, I thought it was a pretty good summary:


[If you're using a reader, you'll need to click through to see the video]

So what do you think? Would you consider yourself a New Calvinist, or do you sympathize with some of New Calvinism's doctrine? Do you think doctrine should even be emphasized? Or do you think New Calvinism's influence is even worthy of talking about?

From the Sketchbook of T. Schley

Something my grammar professor (Dr. Gloria Jones) said the other day in class. I think there are definite poetic repercussions to this.

Do you agree? If not, what words are more descriptive?

Things That Would Be Better Left Undone

As I looked down at her lovely, innocent-yearning face, I was overwhelmed with a flood of adoration for the innocence brokenly beheld there. Quiet, sleeping, content with my caress. There is a great sympathy, a pity if you will, that can overcome and coincide with a hardness of heart with such a subtly strong force, it will make you crumble.

Switchfoot -- "Mess of Me"

Here's the single from Switchfoot's new CD Hello Hurricane. I like it:



I've often toyed with the idea of me being my own worse enemy. I've got a line that I plan on developing into a full poem: "I am often the antagonist in my own story."

I have enjoyed Switchfoot for some time, I really appreciate Jon Foreman's poetic lyrics (Nothing Is Sound is one of my favorites CDs of all time). In this song, I particularly liked "I've made a mess of me/I wanna get back to less of me/I've made a mess of me/I wanna spend the rest of my life alive." Good stuff.

Do you like?

Jesus Christ > Rocky Balboa

And I think this proves it:


I really don't know how I feel about this. It's along the lines of the old school Jesus is My Coach statues, only...terrifying. Plus there are two others in this series.

Is it a good idea to represent Jesus in this fashion? Is there something wrong with it?

via Jesus Needs New PR

Of Marvel + Disney

One of the better things I've seen on the subject:



If you care, what do you think will happen?

Of Christian Excellence In Frisbee

Say what you will, Jon Acuff knows how to blog. He linked back to this post about how Christians are notoriously good at disc-based sports:

"I can't prove this, but I think Christians might be better at frisbee than non-Christians. I know that doesn't sound very scientific, but it feels right. Roughly 94% of the Christians I know can really throw the Frisbee well. They're good at ultimate frisbee, can play disc golf, and can even throw a pretty accurate flick or sidearm if you will. The Christians that can't throw the frisbee? Probably backsliding."

I can agree. There are very few Christians I know who actually dislike tossing a frisbee around, and while not all of them are Carleton College's UPA team or Nate Doss, they often know their way around a frisbee.

Are Christians, as a group, good at frisbee?

Of God's Identity

Here is a delightfully well done music video to The Michael Gungor Band's song "White Man"



It always make me very happy when good work is done by people with good theology. There is no better combination than good art and good theology.

What do you think? Do you agree with the whole song, part of it, or none of it? Why?

via Matthew Paul Turner on Jesus Needs New PR

Of Perceptive Reality

I think I want to keep a record of all of my stupid, selfish little thoughts not so that I can go back later and see how stupid and selfish I was, but to realize that at that time, my stupidity and selfishness were my reality.

I struggle a lot. Actually, struggle isn't the right word, surrender would be a bit more accurate. But when I do, I always claim that I "don't know" what to do, that I "have tried, but can't" break free from my "spiritual depression." On the one hand, I could have used (and continue to need) people to tell me to quit whining and turn to Jesus, on the other, at those times where I hit the pits of Sheol-esque emotion, those are very real statements.

At those times, my perception is my reality because it is controlling my action. That being said, I can break free from those depths and am learning how to do that each and every day.

I just feel like it would be interesting to see what my perceptive reality is at those times.

Of Turning From Evil

Joshua Harris on the susceptibility we have to falling into evil when we are not dedicated to turning from it. Not only insightful, but the illustration he uses is pretty well performed and quite hilarious.

"Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones."
--Proverbs 3:7-8 (ESV)

Of Happy Rebellion

Just got introduced, via Dinosaur Comics, to the webcomic Rock, Paper, Cynic. While some of his strips are less appropriate, there are some that are quite funny:


I can't tell you how many times I've thought this, that just being content is close to the most revolutionary thing you can do, because everyone, everyone, everyone is going crazy in some small way or another. So if you could just be happy with a balloon on a cool fall day, you might just be more insurgent than Marilyn Manson, Thomas Jefferson and Ché all rolled together. Which would be a fearsome sight in and of itself.

Of Blogging Technique

I've found that I hate trying to read a blog post that is long, not even excessively so, unless I am super excited about the topic it is discussing. For that reason, I try to keep my posts short, and even if they aren't, I try to break up the paragraphs so it is easier to read.

Still, I think that keeps some people from commenting because it seems like it's only "T.J.'s short thoughts" and does not require response. Or maybe I just don't talk about things that are interesting enough.

One technique I've notice Jon Acuff uses at Stuff Christians Like is to ask a question at the end of most of his posts.

So, what do you think? Are shorter blogs better? Are shorter paragraphs easier to read?

Of Resonating Literature

Sometimes literature just resonates with you. It takes your meager circumstances and elevates them or mirrors them in the higher plane of that which you are reading.

"When once he was within the cabin there was nothing to do but kiss. He avoided her mouth—the mouth reveals so much, but she wouldn't be content until she had pulled his face round a left the seal of her return on his lips. 'Oh my dear, here I am.'

'Here you are,' he said

...

Did my lies really start, he wondered, when I wrote that letter? Can I really love her more than Louise? Do I, in my heart of hearts, love either of them, or is it only that this automatic pity goes out to any human need—and makes it worse? Any victim demands allegiance.

...

'Missing Mass on Sunday's a mortal sin, just as much as adultery.'

'Adultery's more fun,' he said with attempted lightness.

...

...he felt his whole personality crumble with the disintegration of lies.

...

'Why do we go on like this—being unhappy?'

'It's a mistake to mix up the ideas of happiness and love,' Scobie said with desperate pedantry, as though, if he could turn the whole situation into a textbook case, as they had turned Pemberton, peace might return to both of them, a kind of resignation.

...

One ought not to lie to two people if it could be avoided—that way lay complete chaos, but he was tempted terribly to lie as he watched her face on the pillow. She seemed to him like one of those plants in nature films which you watch age under your eye.

...

'But I simply don't understand. If you believe in hell, why are you with me now?'

How often he though, lack of faith helps one to see more clearly than faith. He said, 'You are right, of course: it ought to prevent all this. But the villages on the slopes of Vesuvius go on...And then, against all the teaching of the Church, one has the conviction that love—any kind of love—does deserve a bit of mercy. One will pay, of course, pay terribly, but I don't believe on will pay for ever.

...

'I can regret the lies, the mess, the unhappiness, but if I were dying now I wouldn't know how to repent the love.'

...

'It's not much good confessing if I don't intend to try. . . .'

'Well then,' she said triumphantly, 'be hung for a sheep. You are in—what do you call it—mortal sin? now. What difference does it make?'

He thought: pious people, I suppose, would call this the devil speaking, but he knew that evil never spoke in these crude answerable terms: this was innocence."

From Book III, Part I, Chapter I of Graham Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter. Read. Buy.

Of Talking Animals

British Accents/Animals: Always funny, so funny:

Of Dr. Horrible

If you have not already seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, you should. I say this for your benefit. It is a very vital piece of you entertainment, I assure you.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was an alternative musical written, directed and produced by Joss Whedon during the writer's strike. It contains a plentiful amount of witty lines such as "It's not about making money, it's about taking money! Destroying the status quo, because the status is NOT quo."

In addition to the hilarity of a musical about an aspiring evil scientist who want to join the Evil League of Evil and get up the courage to talk to the girls of his dreams/co-laundromat user, the three-act musical speaks sincerely and pointedly to a number of profound topics. Many of the songs consist of intense and direct dialogue about everything from the real nature of evil to social change to a time-stopping freeze-ray.

Honestly, you should go watch it. Now.


Neil Patrick Harris is making that face at you. Because you have not seen it yet.

There. I gave you two different ways to watch it. Now go.

Of White Ninja

I while ago, I stumbled upon a number of interesting and hilarious web comics. The first being Dinosaur Comics, which consists of the same images for every comic, with different text, an interesting and dynamic and often hilarious concept. The second, and more favored, is White Ninja Comics:


The humor is dry and random and genius.

Of Bowler Hats

I have decided that I want a bowler hat. Some of them aren't cheap though. Or just this whole daggum outfit:


I think maybe I was born just over a hundred years to late for my tastes. Maybe. I can just really dig the whole mid to late 19th-century look. The Victorian period in clothing was bangin'. That is all.

Of God's Creating Practice

Quick question: do you think that there is anything that God did not create?

Of Mouths and Magazines

Showbread used to be my favorite band of all time. I love this music video. I love the song "Stabbing Art To Death" even better, mostly because of the bangin' lyrics.

Anyways, this is one of my favorite music videos of all time.

Of A Collaborative Exodus

Not that I am trying to force or drive anyone to quit Facebook, as I have done, but I found this interesting article about the recent Facebook exodus. It says that "while people are still joining Facebook and compulsively visiting the site, a small but noticeable group are fleeing — some of them ostentatiously."

I guess you could define my leaving as ostentatious; I created this blog a few months before I did it to maintain some sort of "online voice," although the need for that is somewhat questionable. I wrote a note, made event, the whole shebang. It is a little vindicating to see that some people are of a like mind and are considering or acting in the same manner that I have.

I have even been considering returning recently, so you made consider this post to be mildly irrelevant and hypocritical. But that is your prerogative.

Oh, and I dislike coffee.