Quotes from The Little Thinkers (1 of 16): Jesus Christ

Greetings to all our blog-readers in Bhutan, Israel and Pakistan (we couldn't resist!)....but, perhaps there will be lots of people who read this in Serbia and Poland instead.

Today, there is actually a one-percent chance that the Rev. Jonathan Falwell from the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., started by his father Jerry Falwell, will glance at this liberal, secular blog, since we will be quoting Jesus Christ.

This entry marks the first in our Little Thinkers series, dedicated to some very creative novelty puppet-makers called the Unemployed Philosophers Guild.

As it turns out, Thomas Road Baptist  has moved into the high tech era and now offers streams of its sermons live online. In fact, they have a countdown clock to Sunday at 9:00 a.m. (EDT), which is 4:00 p.m. in Istanbul, Turkey, where one, maybe two people might tune in to the broadcast. A second sermon begins at 11:15 a.m.

Edgewood Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC, also known as The Edge, was an overt opponent to gay marriage in the Tar Heel State, and it is a very large church as well, but there was no mention of simulcasts on their web site. But, this month, they are focusing on the Ephesians.

Of course, there are liberal churches as well. In fact's there's even a Unitarian Church in Lynchburg, where there is also one least one synagogue and one mosque!

Here is our quote from Jesus Christ:

"If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give them to the poor, and you will have the treasure of heaven."

http://www.trbc.org/

http://www.theedgebc.com

http://www.philosophersguild.com/LittleThinkers

Things We Learned on Google Today_ Barcelona Kicks Butt

Since FC Barcelona has advanced to face Manchester United in the UEFA League finals, which is apparently watched with religious fervor in every country in the world except the United States and maybe Bhutan, we thought we'd tell everyone some facts that everyone in Spain assuredly already knows.

I asked Google: "How many UEFA League Championships has FC Barcelona won?" and the answer appears to be three (1992, 2006 and 2009). We also learned that FC Barcelona became the first team to win a domestic cup, a domestic league title and a UEFA Champions League title in the same year, 2009.

The current team features two Spanish socccer gods in David Villa and Pedro. The team has also featured international stars like Ronaldinho from Brazil and Lional Messi from Argentina.

The other image in this entry is Cobi, who was the mascot for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Speaking of which, we understand the American Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller who competed in several Olympics, including Barcelona, is battling cancer; she's only in her early 30s. I have not heard about her status, but we certainly wish her the best as well as a complete recovery.

We have no idea what Cobi's gender is (oh with a shirt and tie, he must be a man), or much about the mascot. We had to use Google to remind us who was mascot of the Barcelona Olympics actually!

And, lastly, an interesting thing about Bhutan, according to the NPR show "The World," one can not smoke there. In fact, they sent a Buddhist monk in Bhutan to prison for three years (?!) for smuggling smokes! Even though I haven't smoked since I was 20 years old in 1990, this seems a bit much, but I'm sure this means the air in the Himalayan nation is quite clean now!