Howard Stern

In my life I have always found myself on the "conservative" side of the political and religious debate.
I was at Washington for Jesus in 1980, 1988, and 1996- marching and (once i was sold enough) voting for whatever republican party we were supposed to believe in at the time.
For those of you who don't know, the religious right was founded and created at those rallies by people with whom I became really close- especially in the 90's.
you have to understand that satellite and cable TV was propelled and pushed forward in the early days by Pat Robertson and friends- because they realized that this new medium was a viable outlet for Christians to get the word out, because network TV cost so much money, and the bandwidth existed to create and program entire networks around Christian themes and beliefs.
In other words, it was the "secular" market that drove Christians into the newer cable TV markets. Pat Robertson literally walked door-to-door in the Virginia Beach/ Hampton Roads area selling cable boxes getting faithful churchgoers to sign up for cable TV and watch the new Christian channel he was programming. Christian TV was a safe haven for Christian families to turn the TV on and "feel safe."
Later, we got smart enough to realize that not only could we control our own little channels on various Cable networks, but we could also throw some weight around and some political clout to push our beliefs on the popular media as well. We cracked down on content, and got bogged down in subcommittees debating what was decent and what was not, while all along Howard was building his own media empire.
So now fast forward 20-30 years to now, and the Religious right (we) managed to talk congress into cracking down on indecency on free radio channels- especially on "shock" jocks like Howard Stern- and what is it that we have actually accomplished?
1. Howard has the freedom to say whatever he wants on Monday morning
2. He isn't just going away, he is creating a whole network on Sirius, where he is programming 24 hours of material
3. He has the chance to pioneer a whole new medium and push the boundaries even further.
I'm not mad- I have listened to Howard's show for the last month or two. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal if we had just ignored him and left him alone- but no- we're in power, so we gotta fine him and censor him, and give him exactly what he wanted- publicity, controversy.
Its just like the early Christians in Rome, but this time we're Rome, and Howard and his followers are the ones being persecuted.
When you listen to his show, its easy to be "shocked" by some of the things he does- but when you really listen to what's going on, you hear something being communicated underneath; Equality, gut-wrenching honesty, self-depreciating humor, and realism, and these are all things that Jesus preached, but are missing from the message of the right. Rooting for the underdog, reaching out to the sick, and the poor, and the forgotten members of society. The religious right is missing out on the basic message of what Howard Stern does and says.
So, now Howard will have the freedom to preach his gospel any way he sees fit, and now there's nothing the religious right can do about it.
If we want to reach out to this generation, we need to focus less on what "they" (the far left) are doing, and spend more time using the tools and the media outlets we have to show that we have to capacity to care, to understand, and to listen instead of constantly trying to legislate morality.

"just" johntindale

In my younger years, I would sometimes take on different persona, in an attempt to define myself.
When I was in high school, I called myself "Mr. LCS" LCS- short for Lanham Christian School, which was of course where I attended high school. This nickname started as a slur by one of my friends- In those days it wasn't cool to like LCS. We all felt much more self-assured and much cooler as 'haters', but I decided to go against the grain and make the best of it. So one day, when I said or did something to point out that LCS might not be so terrible, one of my friends said "whatever- Mr. LCS," and I took that as my monniker for the next two years.

The thing they don't tell you in high school, is that once you graduate- its pathetic to have an identity that comes from what you were in high school. This led me to ask myself the questions; "Who am I? and Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? Where shall I find a good sammich and a beer?" So I just kinda "blended in" once I moved on to community college, work, and everything else that comes along with getting a life.

My next phase was "churchboy" this nickname deserves a long- drawn out description and discussion, but its not gonna get either for the sake of brevity. I think it might have been Keith Goldman who said it first- I'm not sure. The point of the nickname was that in our church in Annapolis, I was among the few that had grown up "churched" and had an experience of what church was supposed to be like, as opposed to most of the congregation who had mostly grown up "unchurched." I'll never prove it, but I'm sure Kirk Franklin heard it at Washington for Jesus, and used it for the title of his autobiography. I used to like the way Jeff Fenholt felt the nickname "churchboy" was too long, and would simply call me "church."

When I left that church, and my first marriage burned in flames, and my life came to a screeching halt- I realized that the 'persona' of churchboy must also die in flames, which led me to the same question that all fallen and retired heroes must ask themselves, "Who am I? and Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? Where shall I find a good sammich and a beer?"

I went back to my old faithful trade, and got a job as an hvac tech with a local plumbing/hvac company. Here I became JT. closer to the "real me" but not quite. It was a good job at which to throw myself because everything else was crumbling around me. When that whole thing fell apart, it wasn't so much of a life-changing experience, but it led me back to the questions, "Who am I? and Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? Where shall I find a good sammich and a beer?"

This time it didn't come as an epiphany or as a joke- It slowly crept up on me like a feeling that had been repressed for years. first it was a little disappointing- "I'm just John Tindale." Me-with all my failings, shortcomings and bad habits. Me-who I am when I am alone. Me, when I'm not trying to win any popularity contests or impress anyone. Me, ME, ME, ME-it became defiance, like Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live declaring "I'm Gumby Dammit" I declared to everyone around me "I'm John Tindale, dammit."

Most recently, the defiance has died down, and I'm more settled and comfortable with the idea. It only recently came to me that my website is "johntindale.com" and that my blog is johntindale.blogspot.com, and that my "myspace" is "myspace.com/johntindale" In days gone by it never would have occurred to me to be "just" johntindale. I'm comfortable with that concept. I don't need a marketing team, or writers, or a PR firm. I'm John Tindale. I even answer the phone that way. "Hi, this is John Tindale!"

I'm funny, but not funny all the time. I'm smart-but not always. I'm creative when I have time. I'm organized when I have a secretary. I'm good with other people's money, but not so much with my own. I'm mechanically inclined. I like movies. I like good TV (hard to find these days) I like comedians-except for most women comedians-and all the women comedians I think are funny are all gay. I'm a Christian, but a very liberal Christian. I like sex. I like beer. I'm divorced and remarried to a wonderful girl who is now proud to call herself Melanie Tindale. I like to party, but I hate hangovers.

I like the internet- It was a really good idea. I spend a lot of time thinking about my son. I think I'm management material. I want to be rich and start a bunch of foundations to fund research, invent cool stuff, advance technology and science, and send brilliant poor kids to college. I want to build a garage and call it my "lab." I want to finish seeing the world. I want to learn to weld really well. I want to build stuff in general. buildings, houses, schools, libraries, time machines and cars that hover. Mankind has not accomplished jack-squat until cars hover. I think we should have another reformation- and hopefully a resultant renaissance. I want my gravestone to say something really deep and profound, and I want a whole bunch of people crying profusely at my funeral. I'm interested in a lot of things until I "figure it out" and then I tend to drop it like a hot potato.

I want my son to go to, and finish college. I want him to succeed in life. I want him to be happy. I want him to love and respect his mother and know that I'm ok with that. I want him to be whatever he wants to be, and know that I'm ok with that too. I want him to be proud of his dad, John Tindale, and to know that his dad is proud of him too.

I'm John Tindale. take it or leave it. Love me, hate me, react with ambivalence. I am John Tindale, I am here because God ordained it from the beginning of time, My purpose in life is to build and establish things, and good sammiches and beers are everywhere- London, Philadelphia, DC, NY, Sydney, Kiev you just sometimes have to drink a few crap beers, and a few lousy sammiches in the quest, but the quest is the fun part.