Hey everyone! Many of you have asked if we've set up an easy way for you to donate toward Jake's medical bills (which will total an estimated $20,000 out-of-pocket). With special thanks to our friend TJ Fech, we found this website that does just that. Will you help us pass it on by sharing this link? Thank you so much!!!


http://www.indiegogo.com/Jake-Coffin-Support?a=355149

The Men Behind the "Corner"

As many of you know by now, my dad passed away of lung cancer Friday November 18 surrounded by his family as Jesus took him home.  As it is briefly mentioned in this blog that "Coffin Corner" is named after my grandpa's and my dad's sports column in the Monterey Herald that ran weekly for many decades, I am humbled to now carry it on alone.  Pretty sentimental, I know.  But the thought gives me both pause and motivation to pay a bit more attention to the blog and get back to writing weekly updates.

For now, the update is this: Thank you for your prayers for my family.  Dad's memorial service will be Monday, December 12, 7 PM at Cypress Community Church.  Also, Jake is doing extremely well after his second chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma.

We - my entire family - greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers!

Marriage and Taxes

I was approached yesterday by a friend who's been living with his girlfriend for 10 years.  They have two kids together, and they're finally considering marriage.  However, the only thing stopping them is... taxes.

According to my friend and the research he claims to have done, his and her tax liability will increase by over $10,000 per year if they simply tie the knot.  He is basically asking if I'll preside over a ceremony without a marriage license.  While I ponder that, I need to hear from those of you with any experience in tax law to determine the validity of my friend's fear.  Does the government truly punish marriage like this?  If so, from a financial standpoint alone, I understand why my friends want to remain as they are.

Help me out, please.  I don't know the exact annual salaries for this couple, but I'm gonna venture a guess that both individuals make around $50,000 per year each.

And as another sub-topic: To my fellow pastor friends, have you ever conducted a license-less ceremony?  My initial thought is that I wouldn't do it, but then I need to explore what the Bible has to say about licenses, and I don't believe I'll find much.  Cynically, I think, "What's the point?" But then again, one of my answers to the quip, "We don't need a piece of paper to tell us we're committed," is that it's not about the license - it's about verbally committing vows in front of God, family, and friends - with the intent to never break them.

Anyway, let's discuss this!

Just testing something...

Pepsi Ad Racist?

Really? 

Apparently, Pepsi's Super Bowl ad with the black couple that ends with a blond running by them and turning the husband's head is racist, according to some liberal journalists.  Why?  Because the wife was a control freak, and that apparently shines a bad light on all black women, and is therefore racist.

I'm floored.  Is this where we are as a society?  I thought we were long past this.  How exactly does this one woman represent all black women?  Only if you're looking for it, I suppose. 

So I have some questions:

• Does a white domestic terrorist in the latest blockbuster movie reflect all white men?
• Does a Latino corrupt cop on the latest cop show reflect all Latinos?
• Does an Asian hooker on the latest TV drama now reflect all Asians?
• Does the white mother/wife in that stupid photo-cropping/editing commercial who obviously thinks very low of her entire family now reflect all white moms?

And more to the contextual point of this specific commercial, when I first read the headline that the commercial might be racist, I immediately thought they must be alluding to the fact that when the blond was HIT IN THE HEAD with a full can of Pepsi, that it might be a WHITE person raising the issue that it shouldn't be "funny" that a black woman nailed a white woman with a weapon, then ran away from the scene.  But that's apparently not the issue.  The issue is the fact that this black woman portrays a controlling wife. 

Amazing.  Someone please enlighten me.  Again, I thought we - as a society - were WAY past this.