In this part of Illinois there is not much interesting wildlife. We have the usual suburban critters (deer, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, opossums, coyotes), but it is rare to see anything more interesting.

Last Thursday I looked out my kitchen window in the morning and saw what I first thought was a turkey vulture because of its size (big!) and dark coloration. However, after observing it for a while, and noting its behavior and seeing its plumage from the back side, I realized it was a wild turkey. Evidently one of its legs was hurt, and it was limping and hopping around on the other leg. I just watched it for a while, and when I went outside to get in my car it hopped off into the woods.

This was taken from indoors through the kitchen window:



It was the first time I'd seen a wild turkey at my home since moving here. Later my roommate said he saw a flock of turkeys in our yard. I'm hoping they will hang around for a while.

PS: In case you're wondering where the title of this blog post hails from, let me point you to the timeless American classic, "Turkey in the Straw."

During the week of January 7–13, some friends from Sweden came to visit, namely Claus and Theresa, Olga, Andree, Christine, and Dan. Claus was here representing LifeStyleTV, which on the 13th celebrated its one-year anniversary of broadcasting in Scandinavia. (LifeStyleTV features 3ABN programming as well as original programming produced in Sweden by Claus and his team.) Others came to do some musical recording at the 3ABN Sound Center.

We had a good time hanging out together. However, the week was very busy, and the most time we spent together was on their way to St. Louis at the end of that week, where they would catch a flight the next day. On the way we stopped at a Pizza Hut. Claus and Theresa had brought some vegan rice cheese, which we gave to the cooks, and the cooks made us two very tasty vegan vegetable pizzas. We had vegan ice cream for dessert, as well as another dessert that I cannot really describe.

Olga, Claus, Theresa, Andree, Dan:



In St. Louis the trees and signs were covered with ice from freezing rain that was falling. But the roads were good. I left them at the hotel where they would spend the night, and I drove the van home alone. There was no more ice after leaving St. Louis, but it was still a long drive. I arrived home at around 12:45 in the morning.

I recently finished reading the book, Christianizing the Roman Empire (AD 100–400), by Ramsay MacMullen (Yale University Press). In it, the author traces the means by which Christianity—a minor, persecuted sect—rose to power, and eventually to domination, within the Roman Empire. I found his account sometimes challenging to my preconceptions, but also fairly even handed and well documented. In some instances MacMullen comes across as sympathetic to the Christian cause, while at other times he takes a more critical view. It is obvious, not only from this book but also from other historical works, that much of the criticism leveled at Christian political power playing in those early centuries is well deserved. I could not help but feel some sympathy for the pagans at each advancing step towards their defeat.

Of course, it deserves stating that, as the author concludes and as all Seventh-day Adventists know, paganism was not truly eradicated. Instead it was slowly absorbed into the Christian Church. I had long wondered how this came about. While there were undoubtedly many factors at play, one prominent factor was that, in the pagans' eyes, joining the church was a matter of cultural, political, economic, and sometimes even physical survival. From the viewpoint of the leading Christian leaders, it did not matter whether "in pretense or in truth" a person joined the church; it was enough that they were in.

There are many interesting points brought out in this book, including what we know from historical sources of how Christians evangelized in those days. In some respects they followed the model Jesus had given: helping the poor, ministering to the sick, spreading out from population centers to more remote regions. Yet, if the author is correct, in other respects they veered far from the true path. It appears there was a strong reliance on miracles (healings and exorcisms mostly), and that an acknowledgment of the power of the true God and Jesus Christ was counted as genuine conversion, irrespective of a knowledge of the "present truth" or of Scripture per se. In fact, it appears that the great majority of conversions involved no discipleship or Biblical instruction until after the fact, if at all.

Another fascinating point is how Christians were viewed as "atheists" because they rejected the pantheon of gods from the pagan world. From the pagan standpoint, a religion that observed only the one supreme, transcendent God was essentially atheistic, because the pagans did not believe such a God was personally involved in our world. That is, to reject all the pagan gods was, essentially, to reject personal gods. This eventually played into the Christians' favor, when it became apparent that all the pagan gods combined were not sufficient to withstand the Christians' religious attack. Thus, in some degree, the Christians became the champions of a superstition-free religion, apparently the only true religion. (Of course, the influx of pagans managed to bring some superstition into the Christian church.)

For some reason my last several posts did not seem to trigger email updates for everyone. This message is partially intended to let you know there are several new items online, including notes from my holiday vacation and GYC.

Additionally, I have added a new category to my blog, "Books and Music." This category simply summarizes the book and music reviews I occasionally post. Of course they are also included in the main blog; this is just a more convenient way to access them. Formerly they were part of the "Cool Stuff" category. At the moment there are only a few reviews, but I intend to add more.

Also in the news: Community websites seem to be the new big thing online (MySpace, etc.). I've joined a number of them, and formerly had links to all of the ones I've joined in my Links section (see Links button in the upper right). However, Xanga and MySpace have become my personal favorites, mainly because those are the ones most of my friends are on. In the interest of simplicity, I've decided to remove the links to the other community sites, although I am still part of them. For the record, I am also on Window Live, Multiply, Friendster, and Ringo. However, of those four, only Multiply shows much promise, and at this time only a very small group of my friends have accounts with any of them. If you are looking to join a community website, I highly recommend Xanga (lots of cool people, lots of neat SDA groups), and then MySpace (many more people, more features ... but uglier in more ways than one).

Greetings to all my family and friends! May you have a happy, prosperous, productive, and God-blessed new year! If you have not written to me recently, please drop me a line and tell me how things are going. I'd love to hear from you.

The photo above is one I took of myself recently, just a couple days ago. It was a challenge with no tripod, but after a lot of trial and error I got some pictures I liked. It was mainly intended as a profile picture, but I thought some relatives and friends might appreciate a recent photo of me.