Back Talk Lake Highlands

No strangers at the Rec Center

Grab your pens and head to the Lake Highlands Rec Center on Saturday June 28th anytime between 3 and 6 pm. Some of our neighbors will be hosting a book signing party for...one of our neighbors.

Roger Hohnstein and Mary Kay Thomas will welcome Chris Kelley and Filiberto Pereira, authors of ‘I Was A Stranger’. Mr. Kelley is a long time LH resident and was a DMN guy for 27 years, Mr. Pereira not so much. He’s a guy who, in 1969, at 105 pounds, fled Cuba and landed in Texas by virtue of a ‘Freedom Flight’ to become a minister and establish an asylum in Los Fresnos for refugees fleeing Cuba.

And you can read all about his amazing journey by picking up a copy of ‘I Was A Stranger’. Or check it out in advance by clicking here. There will also be cold refreshments, snacks and Cuban music at the festivities so head on over, pick up a book about a cool story, visit, and pat these good neighbors on the back for finally, after 11 years, getting the book done!

The Lake Highlands Rec Center is located at 9940 White Rock Trail, phone 214 457-5266.

A minister at Obama's former church crosses a line again, but is it a line that matters to anyone?

At the risk of wandering blindly into two highly charged areas, I have to ask this question: Why is a Barack Obama's now-former congregation laughing and cheering about Hillary Clinton being a cry-baby during a Sunday worship service?

In this lull day as Obama takes the Democratic nomination but before the full-scale war of words begins for the fall campaign, it's as good a time as any to think about the involvement of church in state. You're probably heard the latest flap concerning Trinity United Church of Christ, which caused Obama to resign his membership: A visiting Catholic priest went off on Hillary during his Sunday sermon, adding a couple of racist-tinged comments and then wiping fake tears from his eyes in a reference to Hillary's occasionally weepy campaign actions. You can see some of what was said on YouTube and read about what happened here in the Chicago Sun-Times, the home paper to Obama's church.

Big garage sale going on today, weekend

There's a big Garage Sale (or should I say Parking Lot Sale) underway at the Redeemer Bible Church on Easton near R.T. Hill. There is A LOT of stuff out there but quite a crowd when I drove by at about 8 this morning.

Lake Highlands UMC kids had a fun Easter

And we have the pics to prove it. Marcia Sears from Lake Highlands United Methodist Church sent us some photos of the church's recent Easter Egg hunt. Unfortunately I got them too late to consider for the May print magazine, but the pictures are so cute they must be shared — see what I mean!

Lake Highlands High School wants your peanut butter

Hundreds of 18 oz jars of Peter Pan, Jif, Reese's Pieces and any and all other brands of peanut butter are stacking up in the high school's library display case.

Students are donating the jars as part of Oprah's Big Give, a reality TV show with talk show diva Oprah Winfrey in which people compete not to get but to give as much as they possibly can. As part of the show, Winfrey also gave $10,000 to 100 local markets around the country with the charge of doing good in their communities. WFAA Channel 8 was one of these, and the TV station decided to make the North Texas Food Bank its recipient. The food bank, in turn, asked 10 local organizations to be its partners in the Big Give, matching the $10,000 donation and helping to collect 10,000 jars of peanut butter.

Why Christmas and not Easter?

Every year when we get to Holy Week, I have to sit back and wonder why Christians don't make a ruckus about the commercialization of Easter the way many of them do about Christmas.

Of the two religious holidays, Easter is the more important. I realize Jesus had to be born in order for Christians to even be celebrating Easter, but if there had been no resurrection, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't celebrate Christmas. (At least that's what my more theologically intelligent friends tell me.)

Yes, there are bunnies and rabbits and eggs and LOTS of chocolate candy around Easter. How this is any different than Santa Claus and reindeer and Frosty and eggnog, I don't know. But even pagan origins and fertility symbols aside, if you ask someone about their plans for Easter, you'll most likely get an answer that has something to do with brunch.

Every year when we get to Holy Week, I have to sit back and wonder why Christians don't make a ruckus about the commercialization of Easter the way many of them do about Christmas.

Of the two religious holidays, Easter is the more important. I realize Jesus had to be born in order for Christians to even be celebrating Easter, but if there had been no resurrection, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't celebrate Christmas. (At least that's what my more theologically intelligent friends tell me.)

Yes, there are bunnies and rabbits and eggs and LOTS of chocolate candy around Easter. How this is any different than Santa Claus and reindeer and Frosty and eggnog, I don't know. But even pagan origins and fertility symbols aside, if you ask someone about their plans for Easter, you'll most likely get an answer that has something to do with brunch.

Watermark, you know, that big 'ol Lake Highlands Church...does a whole bunch of cool stuff.

Tonight's cool thing:  When Worlds Collide.  4th and 5th graders only, come dressed in your best 50's attire, mom and dads drive up and drop off, kids have an evening of some old school fun.  UNBELIEVABLY COOL.

Love Potion #9.  Sorry.  Got the 50's satellite radio station on 'cause after having dressed the girls in some bonafide attire (didn't have to go to far back in my closet for it, drat), I'm in the mood.

How cool is this idea, man?  Lot's of hep happenings for some cool cat kids tonight.

No ordinary concert for Bethesda Young Life

It's not often an audience sings along with a song they've never heard before.

It's not often a choir of physically and mentally handicapped teens take the stage.

That's what happened Saturday night, Feb. 9, at Fellowship Bible Church. It was a benefit concert for Bethesda Young Life, a Lake Highlands group that ministers to teens with special needs. The cause was special and so was the music.

There were four singer/songwriters there on what is billed as the Capernaum Tour. All four were on the stage together throughout the evening, with no set song list, taking turns pulling an original tune out of the hat. The energy was high and so were the spirits in the hall.

The performers were:

Sara Groves from Minnesota. She was the headliner, a perennial favorite of critics. She moved the house with her penetrating, beautifully written lyrics and pierce your heart vocals.

Charlie Peacock. This was a rare public appearance by him. Normally, he stays in his Nashville studio where he's one of the busiest producers in Music City. His passion for music and the keyboard were barely containable.

Christopher Williams of Nashville. An indie artist who sang with gusto, played his African drum with abandon and instantly connected with the audience. He was infectious.

Patrick Ryan Clark of Lake Highlands. Yes, he's a local. Sharing the same stage with proven performers. Yet this guy who normally leads Young Life at Lake Highlands High School more than held his own.

Keep an eye on Fellowship Bible Church for music events. They seem to be "connected" and continue to bring in excellent talent, both for concerts and for worship.

Neighborhood pastor in the spotlight

Some say politics and religion don't mix, but I decided to break that rule tonight and blog about the Baptists while some of you may still be watching the Super Tuesday results trickle in.

Speaking of religion and politics, anyone who read the DMN on Saturday may have seen our religion columnist, the Rev. George Mason, quoted in a story about last week's Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta, Ga. The celebration brought together racially, geographically and theologically diverse Baptists, and made headlines because of some of its own headliners — Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and Bill Clinton. This resulted in an essential boycott of the event from the more conservative Southern Baptist Convention, which was not included in the planning and whose leaders criticized the event as left-wing and partisan.

Mason was a speaker at the celebration, and when I asked him whether he had received any feedback from the story, he told me most of it had been concerning his comment: "I wish all Baptists had been there."

Dallas man asks: Do you believe every word?

In the most recent CNN/YouTube debate among GOP candidates, 24-year-old Joseph Dearing of Dallas asked the candidates:

"Do you believe every word of the Bible?"

And then, according to yesterday's DMN article, Mr. Dearing was disappointed in all the candidates' answers, which he felt skirted what he was driving at (though I'm still not sure what answer he was looking for — the DMN reporter, frustratingly, either didn't ask Mr. Dearing what answer he was looking for and what his motivation for asking the question, or asked and didn't print his response.) I gather, however, that he was looking for a simple "yes."

Anyway, it was an interesting if overly simplistic question that has spurred plenty of comments and debate on CNN's political ticker blog. Click on the link and you'll also get a glimpse of Dearing.