• Writing for love or money?

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) wrote, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”

According to the latest reports, the majority of us who write for a living, aren’t making a lot of money compared to other professionals with similar education.

The National Endowment for the Arts Study Artists in the Workforce: 1990–2005 reports there were 185,276 authors and writers in 2005, an increase of 39 percent from 1990 and 2005. Over half (51.9 percent) of authors work full-time writing in news and entertainment as well as in business. They are making a median income of $50,800. (That tracks with the U. S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report that, “Median annual earnings for salaried writers and authors were $48,640 in May 2006.”

However, the median income for all authors is $38,700 according to the NEA. Writer’s Market’s newest survey of freelance income shows a “substantial number of writers earn $30,000 to $40,000.”

To put those numbers is perspective, the U.S. Census Bureau records that college graduates average $45,400 while those with a master’s degree make an average income of $62,300.

Okay, so I’m a block head. I tend to write for love rather than money. And if you do too, visit my writers’ resource page.

• Olympic committee scores 0

The Olympic committe has scored a perfect 0 in the site selection event.

China a) has one of the worst human rights records in the world, b) is one of the worst in persecuting people of faith, c) is one of the worst countries for pirating software and media and d) has flooded markets with dangerous products (toothpaste tainted with anti-freeze, toys with lead paint and pet food with toxins).

The Olympic committe definitely has failed the drug testing!

I’m not in favor of punishing world athletes by totally boycotting the games, but a) refusing to participate in opening and closing ceremonies, b) sending Rush Limbaugh over as color commentator or c) hosting an alternative event: the Olympic Office Games (eg. the 1000-word dash).

• Controversial news and views

Whew! Controversial news and views this week.

1. The James Dobson v. Barak Obama controversy continues with a new Web site sponsored by a pastor and Obama supporter called James Dobson Doesn’t Speak for Me.

2. The Supreme Court ruled against capital punishment for child rapists sparking controversy yesterday. Today, the Court struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. (Click for my controversial thoughts on the death penalty and gun control.)

3. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continued its 30-year-old controversy over allowing practicing gay clergy to serve. The Committee on Church Orders and Ministry recommended to the General Assembly that ordination standards that require “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness” be dropped. (I earlier addressed the Anglican/Episcopal controversy over allowing gay priests.)

One controversy was resoved this week. Democratic presidential contenders Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton will campain together in Unity, New Hampshire. A much better choice than Slaughter, Louisiana!

I trust you’re having a peaceful week!

• Focus on the surgery

I try to avoid talking about personal affairs here.

I’d rather comment on things like Focus on the Family’s James Dobson accusing Democratic presidential candiate Barak Obama of “distorting” the Bible. The conservative talk show host told his listeners, ”I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology. He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.” Obama replied that Dobson was ” just making stuff up, maybe for his own purposes.”

So, some thoughts on biblical interpretation and the question of who’s side is God on?

But yesterday my wife, Lois, went in for what we thought was going to be the simple removal of a benign cyst. The fifteen-minute surgery turned into a three-hour hysterectomy. The doctor was able to perform it laparoscoptically, so recovery should be relatively easy. Thanks for your prayers and emails to her.

And my radiation treatments for prostate cancer are going well. While lying in the dark, a green laser projects a line across my lower torso while two red lasers create an X along the green line to guide the radiation. It looks like Yoda and Darth Maul having a light saber battle on Planet Prostate. Kinda cool!

Tomorrow, I’ll get back to ranting about broader issues but, for now, my thoughts are revolving around Watkins World.

• Jesus is the way: most Christians disagree

Jesus declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) and “Whoever believes in the Son [Jesus Christ] has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).

But the majority of Christians disagree.

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life surveyed 35,000 Americans about their beliefs. Eighty-three percent of mainline church members, 79 percent of Catholics, and even 57 percent of Evangelicals believe that “many religions can lead to eternal life.”

Perhaps the rejection of Jesus’ statements stems from the 37 percent of people of faith do not believe their “sacred texts are the word of God” and the 27 percent who believe those texts “should not be taken literally.”

So, some thoughts on Jesus answer to, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

What are your thoughts?

P.S. I post several of these commentaries over at ThinkChristian.net Albert comments, “This statement, ‘many religions can lead to eternal life’ is completely true! We all will lead an eternal life after this corporeal body goes away. That’s not the issue. The issue is where you spend that eternal life.” Good point!

P.P.S (July 5, 2008) An article at ChristianPost.com reports “New Study Finds Fewer Evangelical Universalists than Reported “

A re-wording of a question about religious beliefs coupled with a more precise definition of a Christian group found that far fewer evangelicals are universalists than what the Pew Forum reported in its landmark report last week.

LifeWay Research, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, found that only two out of 10 evangelicals – as defined by their belief system rather than what church they attend – agreed with the statement that eternal life can be obtained through religions other than Christianity.

“When we define evangelicals as not just those who sit in pews but who agree with certain evangelical beliefs, we find a different picture than was widely reported in the news about the recent Pew study,” said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources, in a statement.

• George Carlin: last laugh

While I didn’t appreciate his often vulgar delivery, comic George Carlin served as a witty social critic for my generation. He died Sunday at 71 from heart failure.

He not only took on complex and controversial issues, such as the Vietnam War, but made us laugh at simple things such as “jumbo shrimp” and locked restroom doors at service stations. “Are they afraid someone will break in and clean them?”

So, some thoughts on humor and dirty words.

• Ghosts Among Us: uncovering the truth about mediums

Multi-million-dollar medium, James Van Praagh, is out with a new book: Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side.

In it, he reveals that the set of TV’s Ghost Whisperer is haunted and that Britney Spears has two ghosts “attached” to her. (Hmmm? Could it be the ghosts of that head-shaving incident and her performance on the MTV Awards show?!)

Way back in March 1998, my newspaper column uncovered the secrets to his so-called Talking to Heaven. And I wrote extensively about ghosts in The Why Files. So, let me call up the ghosts of articles past:

Are there really ghosts?

Are mediums really Talking to Heaven?

How do psychics do that?

• Top ten great things about having cancer

I have in my right hand, direct from my home office, today’s category: Top ten great things about having cancer:

10. It’s a great excuse to get out of work. “Sorry, I can’t help with VBS. I’m having radiation for prostate cancer.” (One editor actually offered to delay a deadline if I didn’t feel up to writing.)

9. You find out just how many friends you have. I’ve been completely overwhelmed with the e-mails expressing love and promising that I am being prayed for daily. Thank you!

8. It puts life in perspective. My doctor keeps assuring me “This isn’t life-threatening,” but the awareness that 35,000 men do die of prostate cancer every year does tend to make you evaluate the priorities of your life.

7. Uh . . . well . . . ah . . . I guess there are only three. I haven’t gotten into the third and fourth weeks of radiation when the potential side-effects kick in: nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, . . . (well, that’s probably all you want to know).

I am grateful that a) it was found early, b) the high-tech Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy facility is just three minutes from our home and c) there’s a 92-98 percent chance of complete success. I’ll have 42 treatments which should wrap up by the middle of August.

So, right now, I feel great physically and emotionally. I’ll let you know how it goes in three or four weeks. And, thanks again for your emails and prayers!

P.S. Several have commented that I haven’t lost my sense of humor. I do hope it’s the last sense to go. We’ll see if, after week four, I’ll have a top ten list of the great things about diarrhea.

• Ubuntu: I am, because we are

Congrats to the Boston Celtics for winning the National Basketball Association title last night. (And condolences to my friends in LA.)

This season, the team has stressed, well, teamwork by adopting the South African word ubuntu (pronounced Ooh-BOON-too). In English, it roughly translates to “I am, because we are.” I love it!

“A person is a person through other people,” coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers explained. “Because as good as you are, you can only be great or get what you want through other people.”

The apostle Paul illustrates this truth by describing the church as the body of Christ:

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it (1 Corinthians 12:14-26).

Ubuntu,

• ‘The floods engulf me’

Iowa man canoes from his flooded home (CBC Photo)

Save me, O God,
   for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in the miry depths,
   where there is no foothold.
   I have come into the deep waters;
   the floods engulf me.
Answer me, O Lord, out of the goodness of your love;
   in your great mercy turn to me.
(Psalm 69)

Some thoughts on:

Why did this happen?

How can I cope?

Where is God in natural disasters?

My thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost homes, farms and loved ones in the worst flooding in the Midwest during the past 500 years.