Announcement #2
So a few weeks ago we find out that we were pregnant again. And after having such a great kid like Eden, we couldn’t be happier with the news. This is a video of our trip to the doctor yesterday. We had a blast doing this, Eden’s not quite sure what’s going on just yet, but she was pretty excited about whatever it was (as you will see). It was good getting to see that our new baby was healthy, and everything was fine, and we wanted to share with you what we were Thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving! Love, the Storments. p.s. please don’t comment about what gender the baby is. Let it be a surprise to everyone else.

Emmaus and Social Justice
So one of my good friends wrote a blog recently about how to be a Jesus follower in a world that is deeply broken. It’s a great post, written by someone who has crossed socio-economic lines, and has the ability to communicate to both worlds. One of the observations he makes is that privileged Christians should make it a spiritual discipline to notice the brokenness around them. He does a good job not demonizing wealthy Christians, but challenging us to look past our own self-inflicted boundaries. And he does it with this question: “Study and try to find a way that the system is broken without having to exper

The Morality of Acceptance
For most of this week I’ve been wrestling with the book of James. It’s one of the best sections in the entire New Testament...you’ve got the actual brother of Jesus talking about how to live out this thing that his brother started. And one of the main ways James says to do that is to be a part of a community that doesn’t show favoritism. Most of the run in with celebrities that I have had, have been disastrous. I met Houston Nutt one time, and I think he almost called security on me. But the worst (and I’m really tipping you off to how nerdy I can be) was when I met the theologian, Walter Bruegemmann. We were both at a conference, and I went up to him, shook his hand

Manufactured Beauty
Last week I heard a story on NPR about an interesting development in India. Since their county has about 1/6 of the world’s population and their economy is beginning to rise, they are becoming targets for major marketing campaigns. But one of those campaigns is surprising. It’s directed toward Indian men. For Cosmetics. The marketing firms have discovered that creams that lightens someone’s skin have really sold well to Indian women. So they’ve also begun to peddle it to the men. They’ve realized that this is a huge market and so they’re trying to persuade Indian men that they need a new look. They’re telling them that “white is hot,” but the im

Church at N.A.A.C.P. Awards
I’ve got a lot of grad school this weekend, but I wanted to leave a real quick post of this video that I found earlier this week. This is Bono giving a speech at the N.A.A.C.P. awards. Bono does a good job of eliminating the divide that we have made in our culture between the Sacred and the Secular. U2 consistently lives in the world of art and justice sometimes making the two interchangable. What I love about this clip is how church breaks out toward the end. At the N.A.A.C.P awards Bono test