Does It Ever Stop?!?

DNA Discoverer: Blacks Less Intelligent Than Whites
Paul Wagenseil, FoxNews Thursday, October 18, 2007

James D. Watson, 79, co-discoverer of the DNA helix and winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine, He recognized that the prevailing belief was that all human groups are equal, but that "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."

Acknowledging that the issue was a "hot potato," the lifelong Democrat and avowed secular humanist nonetheless said his beliefs were not an excuse to discriminate against blacks.

"There are many people of color who are very talented," said Watson, "but don't promote them when they haven't succeeded at the lower level."

He told the interviewer, a former student of his, that he had recently inaugurated a DNA learning center near Harlem, and would like to have more black researchers at his lab, "but there's no one to recruit."

Uh... maybe it's just me but I think the next article seems to make complete sense in terms of sequence...

Controversial DNA scientist retires
MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer Thu Oct 25, 11:45 AM ET

James Watson, famous for DNA research but widely condemned for recent comments about intelligence levels among blacks, retired Thursday from his post at a prestigious research institution.

Watson shared a Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins in 1962 for co-discovering the structure of the DNA molecule. He is one of America's most prominent scientists.

In his statement Thursday, Watson said that because of his age, his retirement was "more than overdue. The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired."

…. A profile quoted him as saying that he's "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really."

Excuse me... but I must admit that I for one, am not disappointed that such a "brilliant" man as Dr. Watson is obviously shown to be not so "brilliant" after all.

Is this what happens when you begin to drink your own intellectual "Kool-Aid"?

This is the sort of thing that never ceases to catch me off-guard... perhaps I should be more cynical but I am not... so when a "scientist" jumps out of his lab with "ground-breaking" news like this I don't know about anybody else but it's more than hurtful, it makes me angry.

Nothing like having your kids hear about how they are "intellectually inferior" or how they can't/won't succeed at a "lower level" (whatever that means).

Anyway, any thoughts are welcome... you can post them right to my blog for everyone to read, that would be awesome!

Simple is in...

After a very long and arduous month of ministry activity our church staff had the opportunity to get together for a staff retreat and before I write anything else let me be clear... there is no other group of people I'd rather serve with than the church ministry staff that I serve with right now! I love you guys very much... despite the fact that a couple of you (and you know who you are) continue to deny me my rightful 1st place prizes year after year at our staff retreats... but I'm not bitter...

At any rate we went to a great spot that was graciously made available to all 12 of us for a couple of days (thanks Mr. & Mrs. D...)! While were there, we as a staff had the opportunity to tackle the issue of "complexity" in our current ministry. It was absolutely refreshing!

The challenge laid out for us was to think about how we might simplify our ministries. We were not looking just for the sake of doing less but in fact accomplishing more! I know, it doesn't seem to make sense but using several principles advanced in Rainer & Geiger's, "Simple Church" we began the process of considering the issue of whether or not we've begun to over program ourselves and are on our way to becoming just another "cluttered" church!

"To know Christ fully and make Him known..." along with what is referred to as our "simple six" is to be our focus. The next several weeks as we continue to work on simplifying should be a blast! I'll keep you posted on our progress!

The Most Segregated Hour of The Week.... Sunday Mornings@ 10AM

The last few weeks have absolutely flown by as we have launched back into a very busy season of the year here in Chicagoland!

Probably the most one of the most exciting things that has happened in the last two weeks was a recent weekend seminar called "CLD: Tier 2" led by sociologist and author Dr. George Yancey! As a part of our continuing look at what it means to be a "Kingdom Citizen" here at Westbrook, Dr. Yancey spent time with us discussing "The Multi-Racial Church & Kingdom Citizenship".

Using his newest book Beyond Racial Gridlock as a starting point of sorts we spent Friday evening taking a look at:
1) How We Got to Where We Are (in terms of racism) &
Secular Approaches to Racism

On Saturday morning we examined:
1) A Biblical Response to Racism

It was an eye opening experience and a great challenge to us all! One of the most intriguing things that Dr. Yancey shared with us is the powerful catalytic, pace setting example that the church in the United States could set for the rest of our society if Christ-followers would truly commit to creating multi-racial and multi-ethnic churches all around our nation!

We hope to have him back in our area soon perhaps as part of a regional Mosaix conference within the next several months!

If you are interested in finding out more about our recent event here at Westbrook, drop me a line and I'd be glad to share more with you about this fantastic Tier 2 event!