davidleong.info

[h/t to eliacin] i don’t normally plug the millions of mark driscoll-hater blog posts (seriously, there are way too many to track), but this one was just too interesting to pass up. titled who can mark driscoll worship?, it’s a harsh diatribe against driscoll’s oft-critiqued gender theology as it applies to jesus. what initially drew me in was the images (who draws these!?)- and the sad realities they point to about our distortions of jesus’ character as we remake him in our image (instead of the other way around), repainting him as a reflection of our own brokenness, or projecting our own insecurities onto his mysterious, seemingly contradictory duality of divinity and humanity. (more…)

amidst the incomprehensible suffering and loss going on right now in burma, there are some good ideas and some bad ideas. one particularly bad idea i’ve come across is a military invasion, as if that would actually help the situation. now i realize that time/cnn isn’t exactly at the top of the heap when it comes to journalistic quality, but really- time to invade burma? are you serious?

we americans do tend to shoot first and ask questions later, but i have to say that i don’t think it’s worked out very well for us on the global stage. our reputation for diplomatic integrity has been in the toilet for quite some time thanks to our spectacular work in iraq, so another botched invasion with staged “mission accomplished” banners ready to fly is the last thing we need right now. (more…)

a few people have asked about jonas’ name, and if there’s a story behind it or not… well, there’s not really a story per se, but we did have our reasons. when choosing a name, our first preference was to avoid any name of anyone we knew, including acquaintances, friends’ children, pets, etc. so that ruled out most names right off the bat. but we were also concerned that a “unique” name could easily become weird, and we didn’t want our son to get beat up on the playground because we gave him a strange name. (more…)

in addition to significant changes on the homefront thanks to the arrival of little jonas, another recent development in my life has been a pleasantly surprising opportunity at seattle pacific university to teach nearly full-time starting in the fall of this year.  as of sept 1, i’ll be taking on an 80% load (so as to hopefully have enough time to finish my PhD in 2009!) as an “instructor of missional theology,” with an emphasis on global and urban ministries.  the school of theology at SPU has an impressive faculty of scholars, and so i’m honored and humbled to join these colleagues as both a learner and a teacher. (more…)

it’s an odd intersection of thought (or perhaps not), but as i’ve been reflecting on parenthood over the last 10 days, the impression at the forefront of my mind is not some deep theological reflection (although some has briefly occurred to me) or substantive relational epiphany (that, too has crossed my mind)- instead, what has most struck me initially is how much stuff newborn babies “need” and how much waste they create. it’s astounding. diapers (a lot of them), baby wipes, bottle accessories, burp cloths, bibs, onesies, and the list goes on. as much of that stuff goes through its consumption cycle, enormous resources (mostly water at this point) are committed to continuing the cycle. it’s as if i can feel my ecological footprint expanding with each successive poopy diaper i discard. (more…)

…and so are his parents. here’s a brief video shot on the second day of his life at the hospital- sorry about it being sideways. sleep deprivation has apparently inhibited our ability to operate our camera properly.

in case you’re wondering, i set the video to weezer’s my name is jonas.  more to come later! we’re sleeping a little more every day, and in the meantime, jonas is certainly showing us how to yawn.

here i am, world! and man am i tired!

after a long and dramatic labor, chris heroically gave birth to jonas cornel leong- 8 lbs, 9 ounces- on april 15th, 2008 at 11:47 PM. mommy and baby are tired but well, daddy is exhausted, and right now i lack the finger dexterity to type more. pictures and details to follow- much thanks to the many who called, prayed, emailed, and so on. thanks be to god!