Truth Is Stranger than Fiction: There May Be Zombies in the Delivery Truck Too!

Charges: Man stole delivery truck because he was 'running from zombies'

Updated: November 30, 2013 - 12:01 AM
Erin Adler

After stealing a newspaper delivery truck from a gas station, an intoxicated Apple Valley man told police that he took it because he was “running from zombies,” according to criminal charges filed this week.

Garrett Howard Hurlbut, 23, was charged with stealing a motor vehicle on Sept. 29. Just after 1 a.m., according to court documents, Hurlbut stole the Star Tribune delivery truck while its driver was dropping off newspapers inside an Apple Valley Kwik Trip on W. 145th St.

Police found Hurlbut near the truck several blocks away, at 140th Street and Cedar Avenue. He told police that he had “jumped or fell from the truck” and was “running from zombies,” according to the criminal complaint.

According to the complaint, the defendant had “bloodshot, watery eyes and a strong odor of alcoholic beverages on his breath.” He was found to have a blood alcohol level of .198, more than twice the legal limit for driving.

He was taken to the hospital to treat cuts on his head. Police officers heard Hurlbut make several statements about stealing the truck because he was being chased by zombies.
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StarTribune

The New Testament, Empire, and the Echo Chamber

I was honored a while ago when Scot McKnight and Joe Modica asked me to contribute to a book that evaluated empire criticism in the New Testament. The final result was InterVarsity's book, Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not: Evaluating Empire in New Testament Studies.

At AAR/SBL in Baltimore there was a session devoted to the book, in which some of the contributors and the editors offered brief papers and two individuals presented critique. I was in attendance at the session and it was good to listen in on the discussion.

Scot McKnight has posted his response at that session on his blog, Jesus Creed. He speaks of the echo chamber of those who see empire everywhere in the New Testament. In particular, he focuses on Tom Wright:

There May Indeed Be Atheists in Foxholes, But Not at the Grand Canyon

from Time: Science and Space--
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Any fool can feel religious around the holidays. When the entire Judeo-Christian world is lit up-- literally-- with celebrations of faith, family and love, you've got to be awfully short of wonder not to experience at least a glimmer of spirituality. The rest of the year? It can be a little harder.

But as generations of campers, sailors, hikers and explorers could attest, there's nothing quite like nature-- with its ability to elicit feelings of jaw-dropping awe-- to make you contemplate the idea of a higher power. Now, a study published in Psychological Science applies the decidedly nonspiritual scientific method to that phenomenon and confirms that the awe-equals-religion equation is a very real and powerful experience-- even among people who fancy themselves immune to such things.

"The laws of nature do not seem to be what satisfies the sense of uncertainty that awe elicits," he [Valdesolo] says. "If I throw 10 people at the Grand Canyon and ask how many come away with a secular answer and how many come away spiritual, I'd tip the scales in favor of spiritual." Like it or not, awe trumps empiricism-- and like it or not too, we'd probably be a poorer species if it didn't.
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Jeffrey Kluger's entire article can be read here.

The Baby Boomer Bust

We are the generation that changed everything. Of all the eras and epochs of Americans, ours is the one that made the biggest impression—on ourselves. That's an important accomplishment, because we're the generation that created the self, made the firmament of the self, divided the light of the self from the darkness of the self, and said, "Let there be self." If you were born between 1946 and 1964, you may have noticed this yourself.

That's not to say we're a selfish generation. Selfish means "too concerned with the self," and we're not. Self isn't something we're just, you know, concerned with. We are self.

Trinity Tuesday: The Tree That Blooms from the Soil of Scripture

...the foundations of the doctrine of the Trinity are to be found in the pervasive pattern of divine activity to which the New Testament bears witness. The Father is revealed in Christ through the Spirit. There is the closest of connections between the Father, Son, and Spirit in the New Testament writings. Time after time, New Testament passages link together these three elements as part of a greater whole. The totality of God's saving presence and power can only, it would seem, be expressed by involving all three elements (for example, see 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 1:21-2; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 2:20-2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; Titus 3:4-6; 1 Peter 1:2).

The same Trinitarian structure can be seen in the Old Testament. Three major "personifications" of God can be discerned within its pages, which naturally lead on to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. These are:

Have You Caught the Advent Virus?

Robert McDowell lists the symptoms which include:

-A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears  based on past experiences.

-An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

-A loss of interest in judging other people.

-A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others

The complete list can be found here.

Scot McKnight on Salt and Light

If I've heard it once, I've heard it 100x: Christians are to be salt and light in this world. What that means is that we are to be marked by social justice or social activism or an influential presence in society. John R.W. Stott over and over used "salt and light" for the complement to evangelism, with "light" means evangelism and "salt" means social activism. This is at the least the "history of influence" of this set of images in Matthew 5:13-16, which I discuss in The Sermon on the Mount. And my friend Joel Willitts was the first to bring a different view to my attention, which I investigated and then fleshed out.

Furthermore, it seems "salt" has become the occasion for all sorts of learned speculation leading to all sorts of rather confident assumptions about what "salt" means: flavor, preservation, purification, the salt of a sacrifice, etc.. In my commentary I ponder such discussions but wonder if you have considered this:

Sometimes, It's Best to Get the Offering Before the Sermon...: A Lectionary Reflection on Matthew 3:1-12

Matthew 3:1-12

...At least that's the advice I'd give if one is going to preach like John the Baptist. We begin wedding services with the words, "Dearly beloved." John stands at the Jordan River and begins his sermon, "You nest of snakes!" I'm not sure Dale Carnegie would approve.

It certainly seems counter-intuitive to call people to repentance, to call them to the waters of baptism with insults. Sure, people are sinners; people aren't perfect. It's one thing to say that we all need to improve ourselves, but the serpent comparison seems a bit much.

Bonhoeffer for Advent: Where Thrones Shake

For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ. No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod. For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry, but the rich and satisfied he sends away empty. Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope; they are judged. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas).