Rotundus.com

Babies fed soy-based formula have 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen compounds in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. Infants exclusively fed soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent of at least five birth control pills per day.

- Excerpted from Children of the Soy

Plastic has been seen as one source of estrogen-like compounds making men less manly and causing girls to enter puberty at earlier ages. Seems like soy is another.

In a recent interview posted on NarniaWeb.com, Douglas Gresham, stepson to C.S. Lewis and the man who's supposed to be holding the line on what his stepfather would have wanted, said he was "ambivalent" on changes made in "Voyage." But, he was presented with a choice of either accepting those changes or not having a film.

And "Voyage" director Michael Apted, who has admitted to excising a lot of the religious connotations out of his 2007 film "Amazing Grace," sounds double-minded.

The Narnia films, he told Rhema FM, a New Zealand Christian radio station, "present a challenge, for me to put the material out there in an evenhanded and interesting way; and not to be, in a sense, narrow-minded about it, either narrow-minded in a faith way or narrow-minded in an agnostic way. I have to open my heart to what the stories are about."

"Narrow-minded in a faith way"? That's going to rev up Christians to see this movie.

Christian Web sites such as BullyPulpit.com have raised concerns about the filmmakers. For instance, executive producer Perry Moore is a gay activist and the author of "Hero," a 2007 book about the world's first gay teen superhero.

Now what if the executive producer of the gay-friendly film "Milk" had been a fundamentalist Christian? You'd hear plenty of questions about that.

- Excerpted from The Washington Times

Perhaps this quote from John LeCarre rings true: "Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes." (src)

A while back I read Ben Witherington's book Making a Meal of It: Rethinking the theology of the Lord's Supper. Here's one excerpt (from p. 131) that got me thinking:

Should we have the Lord's Supper in the context of a larger meal? Clearly this is how the earliest Christians did this, thus making it part of Christian hospitality in general. We have certainly lost a good deal of that welcoming feature of the meal. The Brethren do indeed celebrate the Lord's Supper in the context of the meal, but they do it in the fellowship hall, which means it tends to be separate from the main part of the worship. Perhaps the whole service could be held in the fellowship hall and the Lord's Supper be served in the context of a meal. This would take longer, but it would also add back the element of koinonia and fellowship and sharing all things in common that originally characterized the meal.

Mixing in food is basically how Alpha and some similar similar evangelistic approaches tackle things. Here's how the U.S. website for the program addresses the question of what goes on:

Each gathering begins with a meal or refreshments - a chance to get to know others. Then there is a short talk which looks at a different aspect of the Christian faith each week. This is followed by a time of discussion in small groups, where everyone is welcome to contribute their opinion and ask questions. People usually stay in the same small groups for the duration of the course so they can get to know each other, continue discussions and deepen friendships. The emphasis is upon exploration and discovery in a relaxed and informal environment.

Seems to me like food is sneaking into the church through the back door, and that doesn't seem to be a bad thing.

Watched this movie yesterday and it was better than I expected. Here's the trailer:

Unfortunately, it seems that the cityZenn project I mentioned before is no more. Switching business models seems more like fading to oblivion...