Seminary questions my orthodoxy
I am in the process of applying to seminary, and my application essay is causing some pause at one college. Check out the question they asked and my response.
We’re all going to die!
Last night, ABC aired a two-hour 20/20 special outlining various ways in which life on earth will end.
Neo-fundies and Contemplative Prayer
In my further investigations of neo-fundamentalism, I am coming to see how narrow it is, and which demons it is chasing. Chief of these is "contemplative prayer." It seems that promoting such evils is one of Rick Warren’s chief mistakes, and neofundies continue show their mistrust for anything but intellectual meditation. I’m not much for chanting or focusing on a word to enter an altered state, but yoga and mindful meditation are fantastic tools. The NFs seem to hate guys like Dallas Willard, too, who has written about spiritual formation. I’ll report back with more soon.
The Emmys crash and burn
As a duly noted member of the vast rightwing conspiracy, part of the evil conservative blogosphere and pawn of Karl Rove, I guess I am supposed to be aghast at the Emmys using a plane crash skit on the day a plane actually crashed killing dozens of people. My outrage should be at an all time high because Conan O’Brien said Fox News knew all about fake news the same day two Fox News employees were released by their terrorist kidnappers. But for some reason, I’m just not appalled. Someone must have taken my digusted, horrified, offended button.
The Glory of Open Air Preaching
I haven’t done open-air preaching for years, but I remember how much fun it was. Today at The Reformed Evangelist, Jeff talks about whiny Christians, has a link to a HILARIOUS parody of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (American Edition), and a truly great story of one preacher’s recent experience open-air preaching. Don’t miss it.
My Two Cents (08/29)
I’m starting a new feature, listing interesting links that I just want to mention, a la challies’ A La Carte. Enjoy.
Critique: A Checklist for Church Music
I’ve recently subscribed to a new suite of blogs that can pretty much be described as "anti-Rick-Warren." Besides sharing this ignoble purpose, many of these neo-fundamentalist, self-appointed "watchdog" sites (see 10 Principles of Biblical Discernment – Part I and Part II) are very critical and doctrinaire about issues, and some stray into Pharisaical territory.
I recently read a mostly good article on Faith & Practice entitled A Checklist for Church Music, which I need to bring some, um, balance to. While you’re reading this post, you might also want to check out Worship Leader or Lead Worshipper?, What is Christian Music, Are Musical Instruments Only for Old Testament Worship? and Why Most Churches Suck.
Joe Biden (D-Slave state)
Two questions:
1)How is this not a top story?
2)Who should be offended more: Southern voters for Biden’s insinuation that Delaware being a “slave state” would help him in the South or Black voters for Biden using his state’s former stance on slavery as a positive?
Who Abolished Slavery?
US News had a nice article on the history of abolition, entitled Who ended the slave trade? In it, the author makes some great observations that deal with our liberal, revisionists understandings of slavery, it’s origins, and it’s abolition. And the whole string of conversation begain with a review of David Brio Davis’s Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. Below, I summarize the excellent points made in the USN article.
Wrestling for Jesus
Chrsitians are willing to use any medium for evangelism (even Christian "porn"), but now comes Christian Wrestling Evangelism. Of course, the Baptists have been doing this for years. You gotta love it – or not. I mean, why not? We’ve already got Moses bobbleheads %-)
And of course, my new favorite whipping boy, SOL, condemned it back in May! I guess some of us have the ministry of condemnation ;)
What lies beyond gay marriage?
Conservatives have often opposed the legal approval of gay marriage because, they argue, it will open the door to redefining marriage as basically any kind of relationship (see Mainstreaming Polygamy), in effect diluting marriage to the point where it means nothing.
Now, we can’t blame gay activists for opening the door that all of the others walk through. However, their push for public validation of their illness has led to groups that now want to actually DO AWAY with marriage altogether. Despite the fact that I hate slippery slope arguments, I do think that this is probably an all or nothing battle going on.
A group of liberal intellectuals and activists has released a statement calling for the nation to transcend contentious debates over same-sex marriage and sexuality by, in effect, abolishing marriage as a social norm and institution.
Because they’ve caught all the terrorists
It seems that England no longer has a problem with terrorism. Yes, I know they just stopped a plot to blow up thousands of people and they have numerous outspoken Muslim clerics supporting violence, but how else can you explain their new assualt against the dangers of Tom & Jerry. In several episdoes Tom is seen smoking – the ultimate evil.
Bush lied, Pluto died
…or at least it was demoted. The Democrats have pounced on this issue and plan to make it part of their fall agenda.
No war for gaseous giants! Bring our satellites home!
Solution to the world’s problems
Based on my Random Observation #1 (Asian food is the world’s best unifying factor), I have a solution to all of our geopolitical problems.
You know it’s bad when…
Some say politics is worse now than it has ever been. I used to think that was not the case. I mean how do you top Andrew Hamilton being shot by Aaron Burr?
But if we take out actually killing someone, this has to be one of the lowest political thoughts ever.
Lesbian Music Festival Denies Transgender “Women”
The NYT reports on a growing "problem" in the lesbian community – descrimination against former lesbians who have had operations to become men. You see, they have "joined the enemy"
“It just saddens me to see so many of our strong butch women giving up their womanhood to be a man,” one friend said.
The sentiment was a tamer version of what many other women wrote on lesbian blogs and Web sites in the weeks after the episode [of the soap opera The L Word] was broadcast last spring. Many called for the Max character to be killed off next season. One suggested dispatching him “by testosterone overdose.”
Anti-Xian-Rock Fundies?
There are a few things that get my goat – gay apologists (who try to prove that the bible does not condenm homosexuality as sin), evolutionary patronizers (who treat those who doubt evolution as ignorant), and self-righteous heresy hunters (like CRS, for example) who tear down everything from Billy Graham to Christian Rock in their unbridled zeal for biblical purity. Don’t get me wrong, I probably agree with half of their stuff, but the other half is just narrow bigotry and fear-mongering (oh yeah, I dislike that too, hence my dislike for slippery slope arguments and liberal panic over the "scary fundamentalist Christians and Christian Right," and the "Christian dominionists.")
NY Times: We’re Not Biased…Wait, Yes We Are!
A correction that appeared in today’s New York Times offers a hilarious example of their bias (hat tip: Best of the Web):
An article on Tuesday about President Bush’s defense of American policy in the fighting between Israel and Lebanon incorrectly described the planning that led to Mr. Bush’s meetings on Monday at the Pentagon and the State Department. Mr. Bush’s schedule for the day was prepared weeks ahead as part of the annual presidential review meetings; it was not devised last week as part of a White House effort to seek political advantage on national security after Senator Joseph I. Lieberman’s loss in Connecticut’s Democratic primary and news of a disrupted terrorist plot in Britain.
At least they had the courage to come clean.
The Problem of Evil
The problem of evil is one of the top five, maybe even the top intellectual and practical objection to the goodness and existence of God. I find the Christian answers incomplete and not really intellectually satisfying, but they are interesting to investigate.
