Essays in defense of traditional marriage
Catholic scholars Robert P. George and Jean Elshtain have put together a collection of essays, from scholars from many disciplines, defending traditional marriage, entitled The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, And Morals. Table of Contents below.
This volume brings together the best of contemporary scholarship on
marriage from a variety of disciplines—history, ethics, economics, law
and public policy, philosophy, sociology, psychiatry, political
science—to inform, and reform, public debate. Rigorous yet accessible,
these studies aim to rethink and re-present the case for marriage as a
positive institution and ideal that is in the public interest and
serves the common good.
Whom does the media favor?
Conservatives often like to point out areas where the media favors the liberal candidate over the conservative one. Often the picture selection tells a story of bias. This time a Democrat is on the receiving end.
Global Cooling?
Over a year go, I wrote a flippant post about global warming and the lack of hurricanes. Too often my sarcasm hides my points instead of illuminating them. With that being said, trying not to be sarcastic or flippant, What do the supports of global warming do with this: Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling.
McCain and NY Times: BFFs no more
John McCain once called the New York Times and the media his “base.” Well, the base has turned on him. After their huge report on a possible-kinda-sorta-not really close affair with a lobbyist, they have unleashed their latest salvo at the man they endorse a scant month ago: He might not be qualified to be the president because he wasn’t born in America. Well, no he wasn’t, but he was born to American citizens on an American military base as his father was serving our country in Panama.
McCain is not my favorite politician in the world, but I tend to agree with the vast majority of people: the old (bitter) grey lady is out for blood when it comes to John McCain. Maybe it was an especially bad breakup and McCain dumped all their stuff on the floor under their locker during lunch period. I don’t know, but it looks like they may start keying the Straight-Talk Express or have their best friend MSNBC send him nasty text messages.
The three streams of modern Christian reformers
Mark Driscoll, the controversial pastor of Mars Hill Church who sometimes uses profanity, recently gave a talk at the Convergent Conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (you can get many great talks on the Resurgence podcast – iTunes RSS). In this talk, he discussed the three streams of modern Christianity have grown out of an original movement of Christian thinkers, and why he chose to separate from them early on. Interesting to hear an overview.
- Relevants – trying to innovate ministry, but not changing evangelical theology. Includes authors such as Dan Kimball, Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz), Erwin McManus, and John Burke. Driscoll likes these guys.
- Revisionists – a.k.a. the "Emerging Church", which emphasizes that faith is a ‘conversation’ with God, a dialogue. Rob Bell, Bryan McClaren, and Doug Padgett. Driscoll objects to this movement, mostly because it gives in to higher criticism, and doubts the miracles and resurrection of Jesus, if not the entire New Testament record. Their main influences include such liberal thinktanks as The Jesus Seminar. Driscoll thinks this movement will hang itself on its own liberal approach, and will become insignificant.
- Reformed – a.k.a. ‘new reformed’, or the "confessional, contextual Calvinists," which perhaps has its roots in Neo-Calvinism. Driscoll counts himself in this stream, which claims to follow in the footsteps of John Stott, J.I. Packer, and Francis Schaeffer. Stars in this stream include Driscoll himself, as well as Matt Chandler, the Acts 29 network, C.J. Mahaney, Wayne Grudem, Don Carson, and the Sovereign Grace Network. This group emphasizes biblical authority, but that current methods of doing church are NOT working or reaching people.
Survey: Traditional Media Is “Out of Touch”
A new Zogby survey released today shows that two-thirds of respondents are dissatisfied with traditional media outlets:
Two thirds of Americans – 67% – believe traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news, a new We Media/Zogby Interactive poll shows.
The survey also found that while most Americans (70%) think journalism is important to the quality of life in their communities, two thirds (64%) are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism in their communities.
Meanwhile, the online survey documented the shift away from traditional sources of news, such as newspapers and TV, to the Internet – most dramatically among so-called digital natives – people under 30 years old.
It’s also no surprise that Republicans and Independents are more likely to be dissatisfied with traditional media:
Republicans (79%) and political independents (75%) are most likely to feel disenchanted with conventional journalism, but the online survey found 50% of Democrats also expressed similar concerns. Those who identify themselves as “very conservative” were among the most dissatisfied, with 89% who view traditional journalism as out of touch.
Traditional media outlets have never adjusted to the proliferation of news outlets and the competitive forces that are now at work. Unless they can make substantial changes, they are unlikely to survive much longer.
Extreme identity politics
While many on the left have brought up evangelicals supporting Huckabee as merely being a “he’s one of us” phenomenon, the Democrats have their own candidates basing much of their appeal on their identity and not ideology. When that happens it can turn bad – quickly. For one it has already.
Inconsistent paradoxes
I’m a strange person – shocking as that may be. I tend to enjoy the inconsistencies of my life, the strange paradoxes that make me who I am. The one my wife finds so unusual is my rabid love of almost any “girl song” from the past decade or so – the sappy relationship song belted out by a female musician. That doesn’t seem to mess well with all the normal “guy” stuff about me – sports, action movies, etc.
Because I seem to be somewhat unusual in some aspects, I tend to see things in unusual ways. I make odd connections that others don’t see. Two of the most recent ones have been strange even for me.
Evangelical political disaster
Fellow Evangelicals, the day we have long hope to avoid has no arrived. We prayed that our nefarious schemes would lie hidden under the church pews, but unfortunately Kelvin Fisher of Rowlett, Texas has discovered our plans.
Why Americans fear Hispanics and other immigrants
Remember the big argument between Geraldo and O’Reilly over immigration? As it turns out, Geraldo got a book deal about it, and his review of the history of immigration to the U.S. is really interesting. His new book is entitled His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.
As a conservative who is moderate on this issue, I get a lot of crap from my conservative friends. This argument won’t end soon, and both sides have good points, but this book seems a worthy addition to the discussion.
Beautiful colors in nature
Lacking creative inpiration for your new web site color schema? Why not mimic the Creator? Colourlovers.com has some really cool palettes taken from nature. Nice.
Bart’s Problem: why do we suffer?
This past week on the radio interview show Fresh Air with Terry Gross, evangelical-scholar-turned-agnostic Bart Erhman talked about his new book, God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer. Bart’s rejection of Christianity and the reliability of scripture is threatening and upsetting to many Christians, since he is way more knowledgable on the Bible than most of us will ever be, and he was schooled at all of the best evangelical schools, including Moody Bible Institute. But Bad Bart had some interesting things to say.
Finishing What You Start
ICONS – the Independent Conservative Party ?
Based on the audio podcast and Hot Air post entitled Did the “religious right’s” mistakes make McCain inevitable?, conservatives who don’t like McCain are thinking about divorcing themselves from the Republican party in the near future. Tammy bruce concludes the 10 minute podcast saying:
"Obviously, the Republican party has become the new Liberal Party, the Democrats have become the Socialist Workers Party."
While this is a little bit of extremist rhetoric, even conservatives like me have to admit that McCain is not conservative enough, and that the Dems have been taken over by far left radicals that embarass classical American liberalism. However, any conservative party that takes the hardline anti-immigrant stand is one I won’t join. Bit ICONS is a cool name for a new conservative party. Really.
My First Jihad
Listverse.com has an off-color list of  Top 20 Kids Books Your Local School Doesn’t Stock. My favorite is the one shown here.
The resurgence of single-gender public education
One of the recent K-LOVE Closer Look podcasts was really informative, discussing the growing resurgence of single-gender education - that is, classes and schools for either all boys or all girls.
Brain development and psychological development studies show that boys and girls develop in different ways and at different rates, and a lack of awareness of gender differences makes our current "mass-production" public education model inefficient, if not poorly effective.
However, a spate of schools, including a whole county in Georgia, are moving towards ALL single-gender classes.
McCain: Well…maybe
There’s a lot for me, a Christian conservative, not to like about John McCain. But there are some things about him to like. This is one. Not so much that he has a son in the Marines, but the fact that his son enlisted as a grunt in the Marines, served in Iraq and no one really knew about it. That’s some Maverick, avoiding using his son’s military service as a political weapon, I can enjoy.
John McCain’s Conservative Problem
Huckabee’s Washington loss: God’s fault
What has been a strange and religious (strangious?) campaign already, just took what might be the most ironic turn yet: church services led to the Washington state GOP calling the primary for McCain. Huckabee lost because of church!?! Et tu Jesus?
