our blog

(ht: The Page)

As of 7am this morning, no official announcement that McCain will appear at the Oxford Debate today.  The only thing he would say last night was that he was “hopeful” that enough progress would be made on the economic bailout plan that he would be able to attend.

Speaking of “hopeful”, there are still many signs pointing towards this thing actually happening:

• McCain’s website is still pushing people to watch the debate (link via Clarion Ledger blogs).
• The University and Debate officials are still claiming that everything is a “go”.  
• Hundreds of people gathered on the Oxford Square last night, excited about the historic event.
• TIME Magazine’s “The Page” Blog was reporting last night that McCain’s plane was set to leave Washington today, inferring that he would be headed to O-Town.  I have no idea how they found that out and that message has been taken down, but there is other important information there. 
• McCain’s people on the ground in Oxford are setting up like everything is going down as planned.

A highly-placed source inside the McCain campaign told me early this morning that Sen. John McCain is expected to partcipate in the federal bailout negotions for most of the day, then fly to Mississippi at the last minute in time to participate in the debate with Sen. Barack Obama.

In the colorful history of our small town, both the 1st and 2nd most historic events have several things in common.  First, the 2008 Presidential Debate and the Integration Riots of 1962 are both centered on matters of national and immediate importance.  Second, they both have an African American at the center of the chaos, hoping to break through his own glass ceiling.  And thirdly, they both happen on nearly the same piece of real estate, as the Ford Center can be seen from the base of the Confederate statue around which so many rioters regrouped.

Yesterday, as I watched the news of John McCain suspending his campaign and calling for a postponement of the debates until the financial crisis on Wall Street can be sorted out in Washington, I realized another connection:

We’re stuck in the middle again.

In 1962, Oxford and Ole Miss were caught in a tense standoff between Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett and President John Kennedy and his brother Robert, the U.S. Attorney General at the time.  An issue of integration quickly escalated into one about State’s sovereignty vs. Federal oversight.  Oxford was caught in the middle as Ross Barnett forged ahead with his plan to stop Ole Miss from being integrated.  For several days, the town was flooded with angry rioters, protesters and Klansmen from all over the region.  Property was burned, citizens were attacked, and two people lost their lives.  The Kennedys were finally forced to call in National Guard troops to fortify the U.S. Marshalls protecting James Meredith at the center of the fury.

46 years later, in a situation much less dramatic, but no less historic, Oxford has once again become a pawn in an exhausting political game.  McCain will halt his campaign after a speaking engagement Thursday night, less than a day before a highly anticipated debate.  His goal is to fly to Washington and help congress hash out details for a proposed $700,000,000,000(!) bailout of the mortgage industry.  Obama has said that he understands the importance of a financial solution and has also pledged to take any step necessary to help out the country as well.  He has also called for the debate to go on as planned, stating that this is the time when people need to hear the plans of their future leaders the most.  McCain’s response is that he’s holding out for a solution before he heads this way.

And so here we sit, 36 hours to go, like all those Cobra security guards perched in front of the Ford Center for the last month.  Waiting. Watching.  Millions of dollars of fencing, shrubbery, infrastructure, man-hours, concerts, advertising, and a town excited about it’s moment in the spotlight, it’s contribution to our country.  We’re all waiting.

And by the way, we wont be the only ones upset about being stood up.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E

The whole town seemed to be on edge this afternoon as word spread about the potential for the debate to be cancelled.  Looks like the University and Obama want it to go on as planned.  Now it will be up to the Debate Commission and the McCain camp to see what will happen.  

This will really be a sad thing for our town/campus if it gets moved.  Not only will millions and millions of dollars have been spent for nothing, but all of the energy and excitement will be deflated.  

Oxford is a strange town where strange things happen often.  Let’s all hope this works itself out.

BTW, the crisis this afternoon was a great time for those of us who use twitter.  (Check out my previous blog post about it and join us).  We also looked at the “obama” and “mccain” findings on twitscoop, which is also very cool.

The photo is from Bruce Newman at the Oxford Eagle.

We were a part of a story in the local paper about Churches who were talking about faith and politics in the run-up to the Presidential Debate.

http://tinyurl.com/4rmzv3

You’ll be hearing about this as the debate gets closer:

On October 1, 1962, federal forces occupied Oxford for the second time since it was chartered in 1837. The first time was during the Civil War when Union troops nearly destroyed the town by fire. A hundred years later “nearly 30,000 American combat troops raced toward Oxford, Miss., in a colossal armada of helicopters, transport planes, Jeeps and Army trucks,” according to William Doyle, author of An American Insurrection:  The Battle of Oxford, MS, 1962. All because a man named James Meredith wanted to go to school here, and he was black.

Read the rest of the article in this week’s Local Voice, here on page 5.

Get William Doyle’s amazing book here.

The town is abuzz with politalk.  I talked to a nice lady on the Square about the whole circus for about 20 minutes this morning.  Here are some of the rumors I’ve heard so far:

-A drunk man sat down at the bar at Ajax over the weekend.  Unfortunately, one of his drunken slurrrs mentioned killing one of the candidates.  Witnesses say he was escorted out into the night within 2 minutes by two men in dark suits.

-An undercover, plainclothes Secret Service agent blessed out a hired security guard for granting him access to the secure area when he told them, “I just live on the other side of the Ford Center, can you let me cut through this way?”

-Various other rumors abound about street closings, the KKK and campus activities.  I’ll post updates as I hear them.

On a walk yesterday, I happened to notice some strange black spheres in the windows of a few of the buildings around Ford Center.  I had never seen them before and was curious.  I thought about taking a picture with my phone but decided against it because I really didn’t want to be speeding down University Avenue in the trunk of a Black Lincoln.

Reasons and Disclaimer

From the beginning, people have asked why we didn’t put the fact that we are a Methodist church in our name, on our sign or on the front page of our website.  They had a lot of questions:

-Are you trying to hide something?

-Is this a real Methodist church?

-Do you think every new church plant should hide their denominational affiliation in order to reach new people?

The answers: No, Yes, No.

The Skinny:

Some people think that we are trying to intentionally hide the fact that we are United Methodist or that we are even a “church”.  This is not true.  We are a church. We love being a church.  Throughout human history, the Church (universal term for the gathering of believers worldwide) has been a beautiful thing.  On many occasions, it was the place of hope and peace within the communities that it was a part of.  Although the Church has fallen short at times, we still believe that the church is God’s plan for bringing his redemptive message to the world and we are honored to be a part of it.  We also believe that John Wesley’s (founder of the Methodist movement) perspectives on Scripture and community are as important and inspired today as they’ve ever been.  We enjoy the connection and support of the Methodist conference in MS and we are blessed to be able to see what God is doing in churches all throughout the state and the world.

At the same time, we also recognize the fact that in Oxford, MS, there are many people for which the Church has failed.  Many went there searching for peace and wholeness and were unable to find it.  This has been especially true for many seekers in the Bible belt.  Because of this, we are desperately trying to bring fresh ideas and a fresh face (a different name, different terminology) into the conversation about faith, with the hope that they will give pursuing a lifelong relationship with God another try. 

I don’t think that every new church should feel the need to do this.  For some communities (and it’s up to the local pastor to decide if their’s fits in this category or not), it’s actually best for a church to display a denominational affiliation more prominently as they introduce themselves there.  It all goes back to knowing the city that you are trying to reach and being willing to responsibly do what it takes to reach it.

Well, I finally got an iPhone.

Anyone who knows me knows that it’s been a long time coming.  I even wrote about it on my blog a while back.  I had this plan to read through the Bible and then go buy one when I was finished.  It was a good plan too.  I would read some and then post some of my notes on the blog.  I was enjoying the accountability and everything was moving along just fine until several of my friends told me that I had the most boring blog in the world.  ”Lame,” they said.

So, I gave up.  And then I forgot about it.  

BTW, I do still read the Bible regularly during my personal time.  I just prefer using a reading plan like this one, as opposed to strictly reading it all the way through book by book.

…And then months went by…and the price went down…and then the day finally arrived…

I was the first person in line at the Oxford store.  I meant to get to the store between 5:30 and 6a because I had been warned by ATT employees to get there early if I wanted to get one. But then I woke up at 4 and couldn’t go back to sleep.

I pulled in the parking lot at 4:30a and listened to the BBC alone in the parking lot for about 20 minutes before the second person in line showed up. He was a nice older man who was buying a phone for his daughter. We spent the next 3 hours trying to figure out the HAM Radio he had bought the day before (Irony?).

By 5:15, there were about 8 of us.

By 6, closer to 15

By 8am, the line stretched to the end of the building and the excitement was growing.

Then they opened the door and the iPocalypse began.

I stood in the store for over an hour and watched all of the iTunes screens at all of the kiosks show the same thing – nothing. I also watched all the people (this guy included, I suppose) wait in the rising heat for a chance to come in the store.

About 9:30, they let me take the phone home unactivated and by 10:30a, it was fully operational.

Just in time for me to take a nap.