en-US Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:58:54 -0800 60 144 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo_144.jpg /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/255798-don-t-sub-for-santa-fire-him Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:58:54 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/255798-don-t-sub-for-santa-fire-him FOR YEARS, I PARTICIPATED IN SUB-FOR-SANTA. I was always happy to be a part of this tradition and looked forward to it each year. Until a few years ago.

My church group was given the name of a needy family and a list of suggested gift items. One evening in early December, my group met at Shopko. An hour later we had filled four carts with with food, candy, staples and toys. We returned to the church where we wrapped the items and had an enjoyable evening chatting with other groups doing the sa...

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 23 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/250647-i-m-not-anal-you-re-a-slob Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:36:27 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/250647-i-m-not-anal-you-re-a-slob IN THE WORLD WHERE I'M KING, all my subjects would be allowed to say anything they wished, but they'd have to say it properly. They'd have complete freedom of speech, so long as they used correct grammar and definitions.

So when I hear people call me "anal" when referring to my non-slovenly lifestyle, I want to shout, "Off with their heads!" and send them straight to the dirty, dank, dreary dungeon: their own filthy bedroom.

First of all, there's the matter of definition. "Anal" is short for "a...

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 22 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/242828-my-articles-of-faith-part-3 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:26:51 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/242828-my-articles-of-faith-part-3 IN THIS THIRD POST, I WILL WRAP UP exposition of my core beliefs. In previous posts, I've discussed my view of the nature of God and man and our purpose here on earth. I will now turn to the individual I believe God has chosen who is best fit to guide our sojourn here and help us accomplish the purpose of our mortal existence.

THE NATURE AND MISSION OF JESUS

I believe Jesus was mortal. He was a bodhitsatva, a soul who had mastered love over his lifetimes and was poised to transcend mortality, b...

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 23 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/236119-my-articles-of-faith-part-2 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:54:24 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/236119-my-articles-of-faith-part-2 IN MY LAST POST, I shared some of my core beliefs, which I call "articles of faith," in a tradition going back almost two thousand years. In that post, I discussed my views of the nature of God. I gave only minimal rationale for my beliefs for two reasons: 1) these are statements, not arguments, and 2) this is not an attempt to proselyte. My desire here is merely to encourage the reader to carefully consider what precepts might form the basis of their own belief system.

In this post, I will co...

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 24 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/228411-my-articles-of-faith-part-1 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:15:16 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/228411-my-articles-of-faith-part-1 FROM THE TIME OF THE APOSTLES' CREED, people have memorialized their beliefs in written form. In my religious tradition, thirteen "articles of faith" answered a newpaper editor's questions about a new church, and those assertions came to form the belief backbone of that religion. Benjamin Franklin wrote a little handbook entitled "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion" to formulate a method for attaining perfection in his personal life. Every week he focused on one of the thirteen virtues o...

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 25 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/226208-the-great-political-divide-let-s-do-lunch Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:45:43 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/226208-the-great-political-divide-let-s-do-lunch THE GREATEST MORAL AUTHORITY in history, as well as the greatest example of that authority, is undoubtedly Jesus of Nazareth. He was born into a world where "an eye for an eye" was the culturally-mandated response to any offense. His gift to mankind was to supersede that maxim with a far more difficult moral imperative: Love your neighbor as yourself.

For two thousand years Jesus' followers have struggled not only to follow his difficult invitation, but to discern exactly what "loving" your n...

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 24 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/219140-reading-the-spiritual-tea-leaves Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:03:34 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/219140-reading-the-spiritual-tea-leaves I'VE BEEN THINKING about how much things change, and yet how little they really do. In other words, things appear to change because the particulars differ, but the underlying principles at work remain the same.

Case in point: the election of the least-prepared president in the history of the country prompted millions to writhe in an ecstasy prompted by His presence and the promise of change they really, really believed in. We're now seeing that change: an unprecedented restructuring of America...

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 22 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/166876-the-power-of-the-love-of-music Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:34:23 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/166876-the-power-of-the-love-of-music LAST WEEKEND I VOLUNTEERED at the Park City Jazz Festival in Deer Valley, Utah. It has become a tradition with me: excellent music, the joy of helping out, the beautiful mountain scenery, not to mention the respite from the August heat of the Salt Lake valley.

In that milieu, I remembered again of the power of music and yet how easy it is to let it slip silently out of our lives. The music that moves me most is jazz, because of its heady improvisation, soaring instrumentality, and ability to enve

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 25 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/146729-democracy-inaction Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:56:05 -0700 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/146729-democracy-inaction AUGUST, NORMALLY A SLEEPY MONTH FOR POLITICS, is sizzling with political heat all across America. Elected representatives are holding town hall meetings and getting an earful from the normally somnambulant populace, which has apparently beginning to awake to Washington's perfidy. It's about time.

As a resident of the most conservative state, I have lamented the lack of political excitement in my own backyard, but then I went to the Board of Education meeting inaugurating a new school district whi

posted by Kenny Kemp on October, 31 ]]> /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/130509-democracy-in-inaction Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:15:13 -0800 /author/show/295863.Kenny_Kemp/blog/130509-democracy-in-inaction AUGUST, NORMALLY A SLEEPY MONTH FOR POLITICS, is sizzling with political heat all across America. Elected representatives are holding town hall meetings and getting an earful from the normally somnambulant populace, which has apparently beginning to awake to Washington's perfidy. It's about time.

As a resident of the most conservative state, I have lamented the lack of political excitement in my own backyard, but then I went to the Board of Education meeting inaugurating a new school district whi

posted by Kenny Kemp on December, 23 ]]>