Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,

Born to set Thy people free.

From our fears and sins release us;

Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

There’s a nice YouTube rendition of the song at Windows to the World

Over at Notes on family ministry in a changing world, Drs. Cloud and Townsend remind of the importance of the role parents play in the moral guidance of their children, particularly at times like Christmas where there are myriad other influences and philosophies floating around:

To this advice I add one further step: Christian parents have a moral and spiritual imperative to model and teach their children about how God wants us to live with one another—and that lesson can begin with celebrating the birth of a baby who changed the world: a small helpless baby that set the example for love, respect, faithfulness, and obedience. The birth of Jesus is God’s love made real and Christmas is our opportunity to celebrate God’s love with our children.

It is time, yet again, for the best and brightest in the MAC to voice their opinions on questions posed by one of our own. This week’s host… what the hell?

Yo MAC Bloggers… I’m proud of you and Imma let you finish… but the MAC Blogger Roundtable is the best roundtable of all time. OF ALL TIME!

Thanks, Kanye. This week’s host is Kyle Warber of Fire Up Chips, a site which covers the…. drumroll… Chips of Central Michigan. Not the notoriously better Chips like Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar, or Sun Chips Garden Salsa. Regardless of their noncoverage of those tasty treats, Kyle does give excellent coverage to CMU… like they needed any more attention. *Jealous stare* This week’s roundtable takes us on a journey of winless teams, the importance of receiving stats, WMU’s bed shatting so far, and Roy Orbison Tattoos. You can check that out here.  It also features the MAC Power Poll, the now weely tradition. Our ballot and such:

1. CMU
2. NIU
3. Temple
4. Ohio
5. WMU
6. BG
7. Toledo
8. Kent
9. Akron
10. Buffalo
11. Ball St.
12. Miami
13. EMU

Not anything exceptionally Earth shaking. I’m a little uncomfortable ranking BG only 6th, but I’m not sure if 2-4 teams deserve to be higher, regardless of how much I know about them or how good I think they are. Temple at 3 seems high, as they are not a dominant sort of team, but their record in conference now is still perfect. As for Buffalo, they will continue to be ranked at the bottom of the chart, and Lord help them when the teams below them win.

OverThePylon doesn’t care about Buffalo people.

Congrats, Kanye. You finally got something right.

hello nice reederz its denns the vizsla dog hay so the sunday awards and meem show is on hiatus for this week however i hav this viddyo frum a wile bak wot dada tuk of trixie watching sum peepul wot wer wakking weeds up on the hill chek it owt oh hang on that annoying prodooser smerf just came in yes prodooser smerf wot do yoo want???

ummm ok shoor prodooser smerf we can do an award meenwile heer is that viddyo wot i promissd my nice reederz:

as yoo can see trixie wuz tayking the day off frum watchdogging wich is wot mayks it the lazy sunday viddyo!!! ok and now i wood like to present the following blog award frum a kitty naymd reese it is the blog buddies award!!!

this is a verry kyoot award isnt it??? i wood like to giv it to evrywun hoo comes to visit me yoo ar all my buddies!!!

ummm shoor prodooser smerf heer is sum water for yoo!!!

ha ha ha wot do yoo think of that prodooser smerf???  so i gess i hav gotten the last laff after all ha ha and their is nuthing yoo can do abowt –

Later …

Anyone who has the propensity to follow the college football universe through the lens of bloggers and non-mainstream media types I would hope is already following Clay Travis. For those that aren’t, Travis has built himself a career out of smart writing, excellent insight, and a passionate love of college football, most notably the SEC and the Tennessee Volunteers.

Clay Travis

Travis is working now at AOL Fanouse, which puts his name on the same marquee as heavy hitters like Jay Mariotti and Kevin Blackistone. He’s an accomplished author with one book already a best seller in Dixieland Delight, and the upcoming On Rocky Top sure to follow. That sort of national sway and success allowed Travis to be one of the few folks privileged enough to be a stone’s throw from the coaches and players of the Southeastern Conference at their annual Media Days last week, where he managed to blow past the amount of awareness and reputation of hundreds of columns and two books with the utterance of six simple words to Florida QB Tim Tebow: Are you saving yourself for marriage?

Simple question, really. Yet, the backlash from this particular question has gone supernova in a mere matter of days. Perhaps it was who he was asking, since after all, Tim Tebow has become the messiah-like ambassador of Christian faith and values. Not by his choosing, certainly, as he simply lives his life the best way he knows how. Blame the media for this larger than life Christ-loving and Christ-like persona that goes hand in hand with Tebow, the same media who now finds it appropriate to criticize and condemn Travis’ question to the Gators signal caller.

Rasie your hand if waiting until marriage

I find it incredibly hypocritical of the column writers and pundits that they laud Christian values and beliefs espoused by Tebow, and then won’t allow those beliefs and values to be questioned. They made Tebow’s defining characteristic his belief and passionate following of Christ, so it’s only natural that someone ensures the storylines repetitively jammed down our throats are actually expanded and confirmed. What isn’t natural is questioning that. Doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, though I can’t say I’m surprised or shocked since the mainstream media making sense hasn’t happened for years.

Tebow, to his credit, handled the question remarkably well. He didn’t appear to be offended, didn’t stutter, answered it directly, and moved on. You know, like most every other question that was asked of him. So to me, if the person being asked doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, then why does Tony Barnhart, Dennis Dodd, and Chris Low have such a tremendous issue?

Clay Travis today responded to the criticism and also posted a video of the question itself. You can check that out here. An excerpt of Clay’s commentary:

For the record, I’d ask the same question tomorrow, the next day, and the day after. I still don’t understand why the question got more attention than the answer.

Kudos for that.

The bottom line through all of this is this again draws sort of a line in the sand between the “mainstream” media and the new media. The mainstream media seems dead set to paint Travis as reckless, disrespectful, and part of those damned bloggers that are ruining sports. In truth, Travis asked a question that was a non-issue and a virtual “So, what?” moment at worst. At best, Travis asked a question that has been bantered about sports bars and living rooms by the common fans. And that is what makes bloggers a vital necessity for the sports landscape. Bloggers give sports fans a place to congregate, a place to banter about the issues of the day, a place to be with people who are as passionate about sports and teams as any casual to serious fan.

The mainstream media can sit on their high horse and believe all they want that it isn’t really reporting unless they do it. They can think that the casual fan cannot understand the complexities or dynamics of the sports universe unless it is explained and presented by someone with a long background, education, and with seats in the press box. Unfortunately for them, with the success of authors like Clay Travis, Spencer Hall, and Brian Cook, the high horse riding media’s place in the sports universe is becoming increasingly unnecessary and virtually unneeded. And I, for one, am damn ok with that.