Things I Find Amusing Today

The weather here in Lugano is quite gorgeous today. Sunny, warm, and I'm wearing a brown tank top. It's the day before the last of our 2 3-day weekends we get here at Franklin College, so my classes have all been missing at least 5 people today. Granted, it's not like I'll be any better, as I'm skipping the Tuesday after our free Monday in order to fly back to Lugano from Barcelona, where I will be visiting my friend Irene from UCSD. I leave tomorrow morning. Should be fun.

So, for funny things. I begin to read God's Politics this morning, my favorite progressive Christian blog, and realized the Beliefnet put some really funny ads on their page today. What made them so funny, you might ask? Well, the first one was advertising the latest installment in the Left Behind series of novels, those often-lampooned apocalypse tales that have spawned a strange fascination with the Rapture theory, which many Christians of various traditions don't believe anyway, and the first Christian first person shooter video game. Fortunately for all of us, as the advertisment graciously told me, this is the last novel in the series. Thank you, Dear Lord.

And then, a little further down the page, as I was reading Diana Butler Bass's reflection on the Resurrection, I see Joel Osteen, of Texan megachurch fame, posing with a blonde woman I'm assuming is his wife, baring his signature, goofy, too white to be real smile. The ad is inviting me to spend "An Evening with Joel Osteen- Coming to a city near you!". Goody. Yay me. I have the opportunity to hear the face of the prosperity gospel tell me all about how to live "my best life now" and probably allow some second-rate worship band play a few songs while his loyal followers raise their hands and sway and possibly break into tears. Oh evangelical megachurches and the culture they have spawned. And then there is the wife, the stereotypical fake-blonde televangelist wife whose purpose seems to be to look pretty and possibly sing some mushy worship song and rave about how wonderful her husband is. And maybe appeal to other evangelical wives trying to fulfill that term that is oh-so-trendy right now: "helpmeet" to their husbands. Can you tell I'm not a huge fan of complementarianism?

In other news, I'm in the Franklin computer lab, and the computer next to me isn't letting anyone log on. It claims that it doesn't recognize your account information. I say it's just throwing a tantrum today. I'm also in the process of writing a more provocative entry with a particularly provocative title. I'll get to finishing that when I'm done eating lunch, going to my Italian conversation class, and frolicking in today's sun.