Pro-life “Britney Spears” Sculpture Raises Ire
A life-size sculpture of a naked Britney Spears kneeling on a bearskin rug as she gives birth will be on display next month at Brooklyn’s Capla Kesting Fine Art gallery (more pics of the sculpture there).
The sculpture is to appear next to a display case filled with anti-abortion materials. It was created by Daniel Edwards, who said he never spoke to the 24-year-old pop star or met her, and fashioned her face and figure from photographs.
I think this is a very interesting statement by the sculptor – disturbing maybe, but interesting.
The Myth of a Christian Nation
There is a heated debate going on in the evangelical church – are we diluting the gospel by linking it with political activism? I personally think that there are extremes to be avoided, those of isolationism (we should not try to redeem culture), and Dominionism (trying to usher in God’s kingdom on this earth via politics).
In a series of two articles (listed below) at Out of Ur, pastor Gregory Boyd discusses how he began to preach about the dangers of co-mingling the gospel and conservative politics (I’d say that goes for liberal politics as well). Over 1000 people left his church (20%) after this series. He actually wrote a book on the topic entitled The Myth of a Christian Nation.
Arab Secular Woman Takes on Islam
In this amazing interview, an ex-muslim Arab woman takes Islam to task on TV, arguing with the host and an Islamic scholar. Below are some select quotes from the transcript. This and many other interesting videos on Islam can be found at MEMRI.
HT: Mynym
What Jesus Meant
Pulizter Prize-winning Catholic historian and author Gary Wills has penned a new book entitled What Jesus Meant. He proposes another look at who Jesus was, what he was like, and what he meant by the things he said and did. You can listen to the very interesting interview with Wills at KQED’s Forum broadcast. I liked a lot of what he said. Below are some exerpts from the interview, but go listen to the entire thing – it’s a little dry, but good.
Immigration hypocrisy
What would you call a nation that mistreats migrants, has prison terms for illegal immigrants, uses the police and military to detain undocumented aliens even though the law doesn’t allow for that and has overcrowding and bad conditions at about three-quarters of their immigration detention centers and holding facilities?
Be sure to send your complaints to Vicente Fox, President of Mexico.
This is a problem
Michelle Malkin has the best most extenisve coverage on the mass protests of illegal immigrants and hispanic immigrants over the possibility of a crack down on those coming across the US/Mexican border illegally.
More Evidence of Liberal Denial of Academic Freedom?
For those who doubt that there is a systemic liberal bias in the halls of Academia, witness the latest "leftist plot" at Baylor University. It seems that they are denying tenure to accomplished scholar Francis Beckwith. Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that he is a prominent critic of abortion, or because he supports the teaching of intelligent design (see his book Law, Darwinism, and Public Education)? Mmmmm, could be!
However, this may just be a problem at Baylor, where the entrenched liberal faculty are resisting a move back towards its more Christian roots. We’ll have to watch (who’s got popcorn?)
The web is abuzz with this, check out the list of articles, mostly heaping scorn on Baylor, for this.
Women in Ministry
Zondervan has an interesting series of books called the Counterpoint Series. One of the books is on my reading list, Two Views on Women in Ministry. However, I just read an excellent article by Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), in which he discusses how Yoido Full Gospel Church in Soeul, KOREA went from 6,000 to 760,000 members, in part, due to allowing Women in Ministry. Cool.
Two sides of stupid
Have you ever wanted to read of an issue where both liberals and conservatives are acting like morons – here’s your story.
Christians should “get out of San Fran”
San Francisco is the tolerance capital of America, except when it comes to Christianity.
The Way We Never Were: American Marriage
Scholar and author Stephanie Coontz explores the myths of traditional marriage in an excellent podcast. She is liberal and pro-gay, but her lecture, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, is thought provoking and very well done. She has also written a book on this subject (which I have not read) entitled Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. Here’s some snippets from the podcast.
Billy Packer still doesn’t get it
After three mid-major teams made the Sweet 16, after George Mason made the Final Four, after virtually every mid-major team playing well in the tournament, Billy Packer and Jim Nantz refuse to acknowledge they were totally wrong about including more mid-majors in the NCAA tournament.
Blumenthal’s bluster
Having read Sidney Blumenthal’s column “Apocalyptic president,” I feel inspired to write my first real, full-length fisk, so be forewarned.
Why Socioeconomics Don’t Explain Black Poverty
Sunday’s New York Times had a very good Op-Ed piece on black poverty called A Poverty of Mind. It cogently explained why we have largely ignored the cultural factors (that is, the black American subculture) in favor of socioeconomic and educational factors, and why these do not really explain the problem fully. I summarize his main points below.
Glad I’m not Dutch
Or at least, I’m glad my wife is not Dutch. First a politician proposed forced abortions for those deemed unqualified by the government. Now, Dutch Labour Party wants to punish educated women who stay at home.
Atheists are bad parents
Sam sent me a link to an Andrew Sullivan post discussing alleged discrimination against parents who were atheist. Eugene Volokh wrote a law article that cited 70 recent cases in which atheistic parents faced tougher obstacles in child custody cases.
Presbyterian “Evangelical” Changes Stance on Homosexuality
Jack Rogers, Presbyterian minister, considers himself an evangelical. He had the standards anti-gay stance that most evangelicals have, until he did an extensive study on what the bible says about homosexuality. Now he’s written a book, Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality. He believes that Jesus would accept gays and transgenders just like he did other socially marginalized people.
He was recently interviewed on KQED’s Forum program, check out Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality (real-media audio). I transcribed some of the interview below…
Roe v. Wade for Men – Logical, but Wrong
As much as conservatives want to bash Matt Dubay as a selfish, bad father, the 25 year old who refuses to pay child support for a child that the mother "should have" aborted, I find his argument a logical extension of pro-choice logic. Liberals who want to attack him don’t realize that it is their myopic concern for women’s rights, to the exclusion of a father’s and child’s rights, that has caused this problem.
Left-wing, racist coup
While praising Condoleezza Rice a St. Louis DJ accidentally said the word “coon” instead of “coup” – for that slip-up he is immediately chastised and fired. Two editorial cartoonists use racist language and images to describe Rice – several years later, they are still employed and well-paid.
List of PhD Evolutionary Dissenters Grows to 600+
Last month we reported on the List of Scientists who signed on to the Dissent From Darwin list. That list has another 100 members this month, and in addition, one mathemetician submitted an interesting letter that The Discovery Institute has published. Here’s some snippets.
I am a PhD mathematician who has recently (in the last couple of years) examined carefully the claim that the neo-Darwinian synthesis adequately accounts for the variety of life on earth. I have read countless texts on geology, biology (and cosmology) in a multitude of sub-disciplines and can honestly affirm that I am skeptical that the evidence points toward anything like mutation plus natural selection as being the cause of the variety of life that we see both today and in the fossil record.
Furthermore, I do not find any of the more involved hypotheses to hold water. Many of them are without evidence, or inferred from studies which are chosen specifically to support that particular hypothesis, and even then the fit is poor. Also, individual hypotheses which are cited as being well-supported components of the theory of evolution, in fact contradict one another.
Yep.
