Announcing: The Rebelution Tour

If God wills . . .

Click on the image below to download the teaser ad.

What you see above has been taking up a lot of our time lately. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we prepare. God bless you all!

If you live near Sacramento, we hope to see you in March!

Visit us at www.rebelutiontour.com

Well, We're Back: Sweet Home... Oregon

Brett and I have just returned home to the Northwest after completing our two-month internship with Justice Tom Parker of the Alabama Supreme Court. The opportunity to work with Justice Parker and his staff was a gift beyond what we had imagined beforehand.

Justice Parker is a great example for rebelutionaries of a godly leader. Our admiration and respect for him and the work he is doing in Alabama greatly increased during our time under his leadership. Not only is he a justice who fears God more than man, but he has also surrounded himself with staff members who share his vision to combat judicial activism, to restore the historic foundations of law, and to raise up future generations to do the same.

The privilege of working alongside such powerful Christian legal minds — men whose credentials are too lengthy to mention here — was a tremendous blessing. We have no doubt that the knowledge, understanding, and ability that we gained through our time at the Court will prove invaluable as we continue to seek God's will for our lives.

We were also blessed during our time "down South" through fellowship with many godly individuals and families, each of whom God used to deeply impact both Brett's and my life — and particularly through the godly counsel and care of the family whose household we joined while in Montgomery.

God used our time there to convict us of many inconsistencies in our own lives, to expose gaps in the way we thought about many things, and to reveal weaknesses and build strength. The entire trip was truly a life-changing experience.

Another significant impact of the trip was in regards to The Rebelution. Many of the messages written about here — particularly our slogan Do Hard Things™ — are still in the developmental stages. Although neither of us has had time to post much over the past few weeks, we have been giving a great deal of study, thought, and prayer to the many aspects encompassed by a genuinely rebelutionary mindset.

It's exciting how much clearer our vision and understanding has become over the past two months. Now that we're home, we have to decide how to best communicate that understanding — and more importantly, how to change our own lives to be more consistent with that understanding.

Our specific plans for the next year are quite "up in the air." There are a lot of very exciting possibilities, but nothing is 100% confirmed. For now, Brett and I have decided to take a break from blogging for the remainder of the year — to spend time with our family, to discuss the future with our parents, and to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Please be praying for both us and our parents as we seek God's will in making several life-shaping decisions for the next year. We look forward to resuming regular posting in 2006. We also predict that there will be several exciting announcements made next month that you will not want to miss.

For now, we encourage all of you to focus your gaze on the "reason for the season" — Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, come to earth as a ransom for our sins. To Christ — the rebelutionary's Commander in Chief — be all honor and glory and might forever and ever.

God bless you all! Merry Christmas!

Soli Deo Gloria,
Alex and Brett Harris

BREAKING NEWS: Meeting In Nation's Capital

Leaders of movement meet in DC

Washington, DC — Sources have reported a meeting in Washington, DC, last week between several national leaders of "the rebelution" — a worldwide movement of Christian young people rebelling against what they call "society's low expectations."

The three young men, Alex and Brett Harris, natives of Oregon, and Tim Sweetman, a DC area resident, were spotted last Friday night in a Ruby Tuesday restaurant downtown. While sources differ on the topic of their conversation, reports include "blogging," "future plans," and "seeking God's will."

Our photographers were able to snap the above photo by blending into the crowd during a private photo shoot. Further coverage as events warrant.

Copyright © The National Scoop 2005

It's That Time Of Year: Homeschool Blogger Awards

Click on the banner to cast your votes for the first Homeschool Blogger Awards. Hosted by Spunky Homeschool. The link now works.

Here are Brett's and my recommendations:

• Inspirational Blog: Fearlessly Feminine
• Arts Blog: Rhetorical Response
• Current Events Homeschool Blog: Legal Redux
• Blog Template Design: Agent Tim Online / SmartHomeschool
• Canadian Homeschool Blog: Oneway Purpose
• Curriculum/Business Blog: StillThinking
• Dad Blog: Doug Phillips
• Mom Blog: Mother-Lode
  
• Family Blog: The Common Room

Also, be sure to cast your vote for The Rebelution in the Best Teen Blog category, the Best Group/Team Blog, and in any of the other categories for which it was nominated (see this post for a full list).

Each person can vote once per category, and you must supply a valid email address. Make sure you get your eligible friends and family members to vote before December 26th!

God bless you all! Merry Christmas!

Friends, Its Official...

Brett and I are very pleased to announce that The Rebelution has been voted by its readers as the Best of 1001-1750 in the 2005 Weblog Awards.

Brett and I were truly blown away by the enthusiasm and support The Rebelution received from its readers during the competition. Each of your willingness to vote — day after day, week after week, on multiple computers — was beyond what we ever expected. Brett and I really didn’t win this award, you did.

God has greatly blessed Brett and I through the blog — particularly through each of you, our readers. In a rapidly growing blogosphere, even good content does not guarantee readership. It has been amazing to see God's sovereign hand work through our parents and friends, through the generosity of established and successful bloggers, and through the faithful readership of rebelutionaries around the world — to take The Rebelution from 'brand new blog' to a 'Weblog Award winner', in little over four months. To God be the glory. Soli deo gloria!

As promised, we would now like to individually recognize our top supporters — those who voted most, and those who petitioned their readers to vote for The Rebelution as well. However, much information is lacking, particularly regarding individual vote totals. Please take advantage of the comments section to let us know how many times you voted so that we can recognize and thank our top five voters.

For now, we would like to give a big thank you to each of our fellow bloggers who alerted their readers of the competition and encouraged them to cast their vote for The Rebelution. We owe you all a large debt of gratitude.

Our Top Five Voters:

1. HannaH (Recordari) — 29 votes
   
2. TIED: Hannah (Uncomformed) AND Jason — 22 votes
   
3. Marshall (Advancing His Kingdom) — 19 votes
   
4. Kaitlin (Mission Amare) — 15 votes
   
5. Dale Stoltzfus — 13 votes
   

Blogs Who Linked:*

• Advancing His Kingdom
• BitterSweetLife
• Blog of Bryce
  
• The Common Room
• Do It For Him
• Greener Grass
  
• Legal Redux
• Liberty and Justice For All
  
• Look Who's Tattling Now
  
• Rambles on Random Things
  
• SecDef
• Skydives and Freefalls
• Semicolon
• Sunday Morning Coffee
• The Two Sisters
• Unconformed
  
• Zealous Endeavor

Please alert us to anyone we missed. Thank you all again! God bless you... And Merry Christmas!

* Necessary Disclaimer: Just as with the blogs we link to on our sidebar — the content, views, and opinions found through the above links are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect the views of, The Rebelution or its authors.

A Flurry of Announcements

Click on the banner to vote for the Rebelution in the Homeschool Blog Awards.

Dear rebelutionaries,

You are amazing. Thank you all so much for your continued enthusiasm and support for The Rebelution. Be sure to keep voting every day.

With that said, there are a few important announcements that need to be made.

First, Brett and I are in Virginia for the rest of the week and do not have Internet access unless we take 30 minutes out of our "lunch break" to walk to the Apple store in the freezing cold weather. Suffice to say, we will most likely not be able to post in as timely manner as we would like.

Second, I want to address something that Brett and I are very concerned about. There are several of The Rebelution's readers who have visited Right Wing Sparkle's blog and left very mean-spirited comments. While we appreciate the enthusiasm of these readers, such comments are inappropriate and unacceptable. Remember that you are representing The Rebelution, Brett and me, your fellow rebelutionaries, and most importantly, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I would ask each of you — you know who you are — to go and apologize to RightWingSparkle. Thank you.

Third, Brett and I have been nominated in multiple categories in the first annual Homeschool Blog Awards. You can only vote once in this competition, per category. Be sure to enter your email address when you vote. Please cast your vote for The Rebelution in the following categories:

Best Teen Blog — Best Team/Group Blog — Best Current Events Blog — Best Photo Blog — Best Informational Blog — Best Inspirational Blog

Brett and I would be honored to be awarded any of these categories, but if we had to choose one, we would choose Best Homeschool Teen Blog. It is a highly competitive category with many incredible blogs. Please vote for us in all of the categories — but Best Teen is most important, due to the quality of the competition.

Important: If were planning to vote for us in the Best Inspirational category, please do us a favor and vote for our sister's excellent blog, Fearlessly Feminine, instead. She's a true rebelutionary, fighting against what our culture claims are "high" expectations, but are really increasingly low expectations of young ladies today.

On the same thread, two other blogs Brett and I are really pushing for are Agent Tim Online for Best Design, Rhetorical Response for Best Arts Blog.

Soli Deo Gloria! God bless you all!

Go and Vote for the Rebelution

Weblog Awards 2005: Vote Every Day!

This post will stay here until voting ends. Be sure to check below for new posts!

Remember, you can vote once, per computer, per day. If you keep track of your votes, we'll recognize our top five supporters here on the blog. Feel free to be creative (i.e. email relatives, call through your church directories, :wink: etc.) Thank you all so much!

UPDATE: As another incentive, we will also recognize (including a link) every blogger who posts encouraging their readers to vote. From what we can tell The Rebelution is the only homeschool blog, and one of only two teen blogs in the entire Weblog Awards.

Go and Vote for the Rebelution

What's all this about?

Teens In The News: Michael, Glenn, and Graham

Seen any teens in the news? Let us know! If we post about it, we'll give you credit for the tip. Email us at rebelution [dot] blogspot [at] gmail [dot] com.

Michael Viscardi - Science Champion: 16-year-old Michael Viscardi, a homeschool student from San Diego, California, has been making headlines for his victory in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology, winning a $100,000 scholarship.

The Associated Press reports: [HT: Hannah and The Insomniac.]

Viscardi tackled a 19th century math problem known as the Dirichlet problem, formulated by the mathematician Lejeune Dirichlet. The theorem Viscardi created to solve it has potential applications in the fields of engineering and physics, including airplane wing design.

Glenn Wolsey - Online Entrepeneur: At 13 years old, New Zealander Glenn Wosley is the founder, owner, and contributor to Macs N Pods, an website devoted to news, reviews, articles, discussion, and how to's for Apple products. Started only four months ago, the site already has 1.2 million hits, and international advertisers are paying to take space on Wosley's site.

Homeschooled since he was nine, Wosley is also the reigning champion of the New Zealand Schools Web Design Challenge, beating out over 2,500 entrants last month with a site he designed about the sport cricket.

Wosley's story is a good example of the importance of both personal intiative and networking. The Manawatu Standard reports:

Wolsey is self taught in web design, but has had help from US online innovator Tim Robertson, whose own site gets 20 million hits a month. "I found Tim through Google, told him how much I liked his site and what I was doing, and he has become a mentor to me," Wolsey said.

Graham Bensinger — Sports Broadcaster: At 18 years old, Graham Bensinger is already making his mark as one of the hottest sports broadcasters in the nation. Host of "The Graham Bensinger Show," a weekly sports show carried each Saturday on ESPN Radio 1380 AM in St. Louis, Missouri, Graham started his preparation during his early teen years.

A sports fan for as long as he can remember, Bensinger launched an Internet radio show in January 2001, at the age of thirteen. To get his first interviews, Graham sent out fifty letters to former professional athletes, many of whom were baseball Hall of Famers. Out of the fifty, four responded, and Graham got his first interviews. From there, he began contacting the agents and publicists of potential interviewees, and slowly but surely worked his way up.

In August 2003, his show began airing on Sporting News Radio, and a year later he signed a contract with ESPN Radio. While seemingly a rookie by industry standards, because Graham prepared throughout his teen years, his experience is that of a seasoned veteran. His list of interviews include icons like John Madden and Bob Costas; legends like Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Dan Marino; talents like Terrell Owens and Serena Williams; as well as two interviews with OJ Simpson.

In a November feature article on CNN.com, we are told: [HT: The Homeschool Revolution]

Bensinger says his age can be both a help and a hindrance when going after interviews, noting that when he started, some athletes did not want to have anything to do with him...

"I think as I've continued to get interviews," he says, "people see that I'm working hard, that I'm doing my homework, [and] the age doesn't have as much of an effect..."

While other teens may spend their free time hanging out with friends, Bensinger devotes hours to research, arranging and confirming guests, preparing questions and reading the latest sports headlines...

"Sure, you sacrifice some valuable time with friends," he says. "But on the same note, I love what I'm doing, and I know where I want to be in life and know where I want to get in life..."

"I think the difference between those who are successful in life and those who aren't is whether or not you have the drive and motivation and follow [your dream]," Bensinger says.

"Sure, people are going to say 'No,' and say, 'You can't do this' and 'You can't do that.' ... But if you work hard, in the end you will succeed."

Notice how these excerpts confirm and enhance principles we've spoken about on The Rebelution:

• Many people in our society do not expect young people to be capable of quality work.
• The way to success and accomplishment is hard work (i.e. "doing hard things").
• Young people who are willing to do hard things prove that preparation — not age — is the deciding factor in a person's ability to perform a responsibility.
• When you have a calling and a vision, you have to sacrifice. But it's worth it.

You'll notice that none of the above teens appear to be Christians — at least, not so far as I can tell from the articles I've read. However, like Michael Sessions, these young men turn our society's expectations of teenagers upside down. They demonstrate how capable young people can be if they apply themselves. They prove the power of a young person dedicated to a dream.

Friends, as Christians we have a calling that is higher than any earthly dream. People like Graham, Michael, and Glenn prove our potential, but the question is whether we are willing to take the principle and apply it to our own lives and to matters of eternal significance. Are we? Because that's what it means to be a rebelutionary.

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found hard and left untried." — G.K. Chesterton

Do Hard Things™

Weblog Awards 2005: A Finalist

Brett and I were honored for The Rebelution to be nominated for several awards in this year's Weblog Awards, hosted annually by Wizbang. Today it was announced that we have been chosen as a finalist in the category of Best of the Top 1001-1750 Blogs in the TTLB Ecosystem.*

We would be most appreciative, and greatly honored, if each of you would be willing to take the time and vote for us. You can vote once, per computer, per day (24 hours) and — in a competitive category like this one — every vote counts. Voting ends Thursday, December 15th.

Go and Vote for The Rebelution!

* Nominations were based off of early November's TTLB rankings.

Dear Rebelutionaries: An Apology

It has come to my attention — through the loving rebuke and wise counsel of my father — that I included a careless falsehood in my recent response to Deputy Headmistress's comment regarding the original post about David Ludwig and Kara Borden. In it I wrote:

...[Y]ou will notice that I never claimed that either David or Kara were saved. My first reference to Christianity was to say, "David and Kara, you understand, are churchgoers, youth group attendees, from Christian families, with Christian friends." Later, I referred to them as "homeschooled teens from Christian families." However, I did not claim that they themselves were born again.

This was not true. Though the post has been edited several times since it was first published — with the current version most clearly reflecting my conclusions on the matter — the original wording actually read, "David and Kara, you understand, are Christians, from Christian families..." This was soon changed, nevertheless, my claim that I had never labeled David and Kara as Christians was false. Even though I was not intentionally seeking to deceive, my statement was wrong — both literally and morally — and I ask all of your forgiveness.

I bring this up, not to spark a debate about David or Kara's salvation, but only to apologize for my lack of journalistic integrity. Although my response was not originally intended as a post, my failure to accurately represent the truth through my words certainly gave the appearance of dishonest revisionism — even while that was not my intention.

While small, this is still serious. Both the original post and my comment to Deputy Headmistress were accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. I want the apology to be as well. Even if nobody noticed, I would rather tell the world, and apologize, than to leave it unaddressed. Once again, please forgive me.

In closing, I would like to take this time to thank each of you for your faithful readership, encouragement, and support. Please remember us in your prayers. God bless you all!

A Debtor to Mercy, Alex Jordan Harris

Up Again: Noah Riner Video Available Online!

Noah Riner, 21, sparked national controversy on September 20th with his speech to incoming freshman at Dartmouth College's annual convocation ceremony. In the speech, Riner did the unthinkable: extolling character while pointing to Jesus Christ — not only as the best example of character, but as the solution to man's inherent corruption.

Unsurprisingly, Riner's speech has received a great deal of media attention, by traditional media outlets, both secular and Christian, as well as by countless blogs. Alerted in early October by David MacMillan III of In Rejection of Mediocrity to a hosted video of the speech, The Rebelution, along with Agent Tim Online, became one of the first two blogs to link to it. However, within the next month the video was removed from the server on which it was hosted, and has been unavailable online ever since... That is, until now.

With the generous assistance of Eric Rice of Wright Film Association, The Rebelution is pleased to announce that the video of Noah Riner's convocation speech is back online. Links contained in previous coverage have been updated, so if you haven't read about this incredible display of Christian courage, go read and watch.

To just download the .wmv file, right-click here and save to your hard drive.

Request: Hosting For Noah Riner Video

As some of you know, The Rebelution was one of the primary sources in the blogosphere for commentary on Dartmouth University student Noah Riner's convocation speech to incoming freshman two months ago, as well as being one the few sources on the Internet that provided a link to a video of the speech.

Unfortunately, since that time the video has been removed from the site on which it was hosted — and to my knowledge — is no longer available anywhere online. I have the .wmv file on my computer but do not have a decent place to host it. That's where you, our readers, come in.

Here's my request: Would anyone — with hosting capabilities and decent bandwith — be willing to permanently host the .wmv file?

If you would be willing to help The Rebelution make this powerful speech available to the public in video format, please email us at: rebelution [dot] blogspot [at] gmail [dot] com.

UPDATE: Eric Rice of Wright Film Association has kindly offered to host the video file. The URL will be made available within the next 24-48 hours and the links in past posts will be updated.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Teens In The News: Patrick Armstrong

In a chilling reminder of the lessons being learned from David Ludwig and Kara Borden, news broke yesterday morning that — for the second time in less than a month — a homeschool teen has been arrested for murder.

Patrick Armstrong, a 14-year-old homeschooler from Fayette, Maine, has been charged with killing his neighbor, Marlee Johnston, 14. Both teens lived in the same neighborhood where, last Saturday, Marlee's body was found in a nearby pond, after she failed to return from a walk with the family dogs.

The Morning Sentinel reports:

Maine State Police are being extremely tight-lipped about the case. They have not released a cause of death, outlined a motive for the killing, or detailed the types of interactions the two teenagers might have had. The Medical Examiner's Office said the office is withholding the cause of death at the request of the Attorney General's Office.

It has been reported that certain personal websites published by Armstrong, which are not publically accessible, demonstrated a troubled and angst-ridden teen.

A troubled and angst-ridden homeschooler? That's right. And yet another who is likely a murderer.

This is tragic. And yet, it is also sobering. As we have discussed over the past few weeks: homeschooling, by itself, is not enough to prevent tragedies like this from happening. Going to church, by itself, is not enough to prevent tragedies like this from happening. Both of those things are good, but while many things are used by God as means of imparting His grace, they are not grace itself. To claim otherwise is to make homeschooling, or church, or a book, or a blog, or a method, or a mere human being — rather than Christ — our god.

The past month has been a wake-up call to the homeschool community and the body of Christ as a whole. Let us firmly resolve not to slip back into complacency.

May God have mercy.

Other bloggers covering the story: SpunkyHomeschool, Agent Tim, and Spunky Junior.