• Napoleon Skills

    I was on the official Napoleon Dynamite site this morning and signed up to be nominated (sp.) for the president of the fan club.  I had to answer these questions below.

    1. Skills
    drinking vinegar, and ramping off the curb on my bike

    2. what is your campaign slogan
    give the curly head a try

    3. imagine its your first day of duty as the the president of the napoleon dynamite fan club and someone says to you, “unless we do something now, evil robots will rule the earth in less than 10 years. What would you do?
    i would buy Breyers Ice Cream for everyone for a year, and then do extreme sports and stuff to have fun before we die.

    4. If you could have one mythical beast as a pet what would it be and why?
    Star-ama.  a starfish – Llama, because starfish can barely be killed (and they’re shaped like ninja stars) and llama have really long necks to see things plus they’re just freakin cool.

    5. if you have to watch just one scene, say you’d been imprisoned for eternity by an evil overlord, what one scene from Napoleon Dynamite could you watch endlessly until saved by your loyal subjects?

    -the part where he asks the girl to get her stuff out of his locker-room because he needs room for his numchucks.  either that or the last scene with the tether ball.

    6. Top Three Reasons to believe in Napoleon Dynamite.
    1. HIs apprehending glasses.
    2. He is tough
    3. chicks dig him

    7. if you could take any food prodent, other than potatoes, and creat a tot from it, what would you select and why?

    tofu, because my wife is a vegetarian.

    8. DO you know sign language? if yes, prove it.

    -no – because I am not deaf

    9. if you were going to the drive-in, perhaps to see a sweet film like enter the dragon or chapping mall, but could only fit four other people in your car, what people from history, fiction or the realm of magic kingdoms would you take as your guests? And if you could sneak one more person in the trunk, who would that be?

    I would take Hannibal smith from the A-team, Gandalf the white, Donatello the Ninja Turtle, and Inspector Cleuseau from the Peter Seller’s Pink Panther flicks. And for the trunk i would take Jamie Pitts my friend from school who could handle the rough ride of the trunk and then he would jump out of the trunk when we get there and announce that he will be my vice president of the N.D. club.

    10.  What is your favorite color (other than blue, red, green or mint)?

    -dark brown like my hair and my eyes.

    11. if you had one of the new tape players that can hold 5,000 songs, what 5,000 songs would you play on it?

    -The 5,000 songs that i already have on my 5,000 songs tape player, goosh ….idiot!

  • 109105925316991514


    this cd needs to be bought (to all you thieves out there – including myself) and listened too. it is incredible and so are the people that make this music. congradulations micheal, you deserve this. and if it makes anyone feel better i bought it. today at Best Buy how cool is that.  Posted by Hello

  • 109097588664739006


    there is beauty in those things we see as feeble and weak. are we willing to be weak in order to find beauty or will we continue to hide behind false pretenses, power, control and pretend as if we are greater than life itself?  Posted by Hello

  • Lovedrugs Save the World

    Lovedrug
    I am on my way to by the new lovedrug album.  you should all do the same. support music that still has some heart in it.
    Then i am going to drink coffee and read how to save the world.

    Technorati Tags:

  • Reading List From My First Year at Fuller

    I went through and typed out all those book this year that have been most influential in my schooling.
    It was good for me to do this because I actually had the opportunity to realize that I did learn something this year!

    Philosophy:
    Brown, Warren; Murphy, Nancy; Malony, H. Newton eds
    Whatever Happended to the Soul: Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human nature

    A collections of Essays put together by Fuller’s Main Philosopher Nancey Murphy of the possibility of human beings having no soul and its implications upon Christianity. She Who is an Anabaptist believer herself believes that there is no immaterial soul and seeks to verify her beliefs through Science and theology.
    Influence on my thinking*** (out of 5)

    Murphy, Nancy
    Reasoning and Rhetoric in Religion

    An easily accessible book covering the structure of arguments to Alasdair MacIntyre’s account of how to evaluate traditions using Philosophy and the Methods from the field of science.
    Influence ****

    Spirituality:
    O’connor, Elizabeth
    Journey Inward Journey Outward 3rd Ed

    A biography of the Church of the Savior in the late 60’s a wonderful community church that reaches out to the urban poor in downtown DC.
    Influence ****

    King, Martin Luther
    Strength to Love

    A Collection of Luther’s Sermons you could almost hear him speaking these powerful messages.

    Influence: **
    (I thought it was amazing, but I agreed pretty much with what he was saying, and much of it wasn’t that new)

    Quakerism:

    Woolman, John
    The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman

    A great read for any mystic and especially for those who are interested in how the Abolition got started. John Woolman’s Piety is challenging to anyone’s faith.

    Influence: ***
    Cooper, Wilmer
    A Living Faith, A Historical and Comparative Study of Quaker Belief

    A brief history and summary of Quaker Beliefs from the most liberal to the most conservative evangelicals. One of the best parts of this book is when Cooper talks about Christ as Prophet, Priest and King, and how Christ as prophet was one of the most important parts of early Quaker Christology, a part that is lost in much of evangelical Christianity today.

    Influence: ***

    Barclay, Robert
    Apology for True Christian Divinity

    The founding theology for Quakerism, written 30 years after the movement was started. It is as systematic a theology as the Quakers had and it is quite frankly an amazing work of theology. I found myself saying time and time again “why have I never heard any of this before???? Probably the single most important book to me this school year.

    Influence: *****

    Barbour, Hugh and Frost, J.
    The Quakers

    A great history of Quakerism in America, pretty critical and covers fairly the different parts of the movement.

    Ethics:
    Pitts, James
    How to Live Your Life
    Probably the best book ever written by the one true Christian human alive.

    Sieder, Ron
    Rich Christians in An Age of Hunger

    A very powerful, provocative and moving account of the America’s (and its church) neglect of the poor.

    Influence:****

    Douglas, Kelley
    The Black Christ

    A book about Christ and how he relates to African American Spirituality written from a Feminist African American Woman. A great a short read to get your feet wet in Black Theology.

    Influence: ****

    Marsden, George
    Fundamentalism and American Culture

    A critical and well put together history of the Fundamentalist movement and its negative effects on the American church. Probably the second most important book I read this school year. It helped me understand much of my church background and the ideologies that fueled it.

    Influence: ****

    McKnight, John
    The Careless Society and its Counterfeits

    How is it that there are so many service jobs now? With so few product producing jobs available in this country? J. McKnight asks this question and many others as he sets for the idea that much of America’s economy is fueled by service jobs that were created to fulfilled false needs in the society. He says that what people need is true community (and he offers great ideas as to what this is) and not more therapists, doctors, teachers, and rescue mission workers etc.

    Influence: ****

    Roberts, Samuel
    African American Ethics

    A great ethics book looking at many important issues for African Americans and how these issues are being handled by the larger society. It also has some great Black Theology in it.

    Influence: ****

Publications


Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance (2019)

Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance looks at Revelation from the perspective that Revelation is not about predicting the end times but is instead a handbook for early Christian resistance and survival against empire.

Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation on Bookshop.

A Convergent Model of Renewal: Remixing the Quaker Tradition in a Participatory Culture (2015)

A convergent Model of Renewal lays out a model for working with congregations and communities alike, interested in maintaining their tradition while also becoming more connected to their context and needs of their community.

A Convergent Model on Bookshop

Image of the cover of the book The Quaker World
The Quaker World Co-Edited With Rhiannon Grant – 2022

The Quaker World is a book with over 50 authors around the world covering sections such as global Quaker history, to spirituality, and embodiment and emphasizes global Quaker diversity and biographies of Quakers.

The Quaker World on Bookshop.


More books and publications by Wess