Pop Goes Postmodernism by Michael Horton is the featured article at the ModRef website (which needs the old addy back guys.) Michael doubts that Post-modernism- as it’s yacked about in most evangelical circles- means much of anything important. I totally agree.

Call me dismissive, but I cannot get beyond the notion that pop postmodernism is little more than the triumph of popular culture with its obsessions with technology, mass communications, mass marketing, the therapeutic orientation, and conspicuous consumption. Postmodernism- or whatever one wishes to designate our brief moment in history- is the culture in which Sesame Street is considered educational, “sexy” is the term of approbation for everything from jeans to doctoral theses, watching sit-coms together at dinner is called “family time,” abortion is considered “choice,” films sell products, and a barrage of images and sound bites selected for their entertainment and commercial value is called “news.” This easily translates into hipper-than-thou clubs passing for youth ministry, informal chats passing for sermons, and brazen marketing passing for evangelism, where busyness equals holiness and expository preaching is considered too intellectual. It can account in part for homes where disciplined habits both of general domestic culture and of instruction in Christian faith and practice give way to niche marketing and where churches become theaters of the absurd.

You read this sort of thing all the time from Christians on the net. Kingdom Now and all that, but well beyond that, too. Is the only way to be a Christian in America to declare the government evil because the Constitution doesn’t endorse Christianity?

Mr. Whitehead, who was Jefferson’s god? It wasn’t the Holy Trinity. So what did he mean by “Nature’s God”? Could it be the same ambiguous God Americans worship today?

“One nation under God” right now means Jesus, Isis, Pan, Mammon, Allah, and a hundred others. Jefferson and Franklin helped set the course for this ambiguity. Moral decay tends to happen when your founding document, an almost holy legal text, doesn’t acknowledge the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now the freedom-enumerating Constitution is a dead letter that the authoritarian government pays lip service to.

TOMPAINE.com – Yes, Liberals, You Won The Culture War. No doubt what this progressive is saying. Scalia is “hysterical” in his opinion.

Significantly, Justice Kennedy’s self-assured opinion in Lawrence rested on “rational basis” analysis, finding that there is no rationality in legislated homophobia and its repressive sexual agenda. The gay movement has convinced not just law schools and judges, as Justice Scalia thinks, but most of America of the irrationality of treating one-tenth of the population as sexual criminals. So there is no going back now. As Thomas Paine once observed, there is no way to force a people who have been enlightened to “unknow” their knowledge or “unthink” their thoughts.

An Introduction to Psalms by Bono. Yeah, that Bono. It has some nice sentences. I liked this one.

Anyway, I stopped going to churches and got myself into a different kind of religion. Don’t laugh, that’s what being in a rock & roll band is, not pseudo-religion either… Showbusiness is Shamanism: Music is Worship; whether it’s worship of women or their designer, the world or its destroyer,whether it comes from that ancient place we call soul or simply the spinal cortex, whether the prayers are on fire with a dumb rage or dove-like desire… the smoke goes upwards… to God or something you replace God with… usually your self.

The Battleground God Game. Basically, this is an exercise in whether you can defend your belief in the existence of God without contradiction. This page has the explanation and the rules, then links you to the actual game.

Kairos puts forward the idea that, if What Would Jesus Eat? is a million seller, can these be far behind?

“What Would Jesus Shoot? A Christian Hunter’s Guide to Firearms”

“What Would Jesus Boot? Computers that will make you Rapturous”

“What Would Jesus Invest In? 12 Can’t-Miss Investments for the Christian Trader, Plus a bonus investment for the one that does go wrong.”

“What Would Jesus Bake? A Recipe-filled Follow-up to the Best-Selling ‘What Would Jesus Eat?’”

“What Would Jesus Abort? Planned Parenthood’s New Translation of the New Testament, with a forward by Rev. Mark Bigalow”

“What Would Jesus Pay? A Christian’s Guide to Negotiating Your Best Deal”

“What Would Jesus Sue? A Legal Guide to Christian Guerrilla Judicial Activism”

“What Would Jesus Design? Furniture and Interior Recommendations from the World’s Most Famous Carpenter”

“What Would Jesus Cellar? Top Wine Recommendations from the Nation’s Top Christian Oenophiles”

“What Would Jesus Sell? Amway’s Biggest Catalog EVER!”

“What Would Jesus Use to Survive an Attack by a Weapon of Mass Destruction? Survival Gear for the Christian Who Already Has a Year’s Supply of Food Stashed Away in a Plywood Structure The FBI Doesn’t Know About”

“What Would Jesus Pave? A Conservative Christian’s Guide to Protecting Our Wilderness While Opening Up New Areas to Development”

“What Would Jesus Use? A Deeper Understanding of Christ Through a Deeper Understanding of Cannabis”

“What Would Jesus Join? Clubs and Associations That Won’t ‘Raise Eyebrows’”

“What Would Jesus Ski? A Vacation Guide for the Saved”

OpinionJournal says that Howard Dean’s 6 million + fund raising makes him the front runner….and that is the best news since George McGovern.

Karl Rove must be jumping for joy. Apart from the Sharptonkucinichmoseleybraun also-rans, Dean is the best opponent the Republicans could possibly hope for. Can anyone imagine such an intemperate lefty winning a single “red” state? If President Bush merely carries the same states he did last time around, he has 278 electoral votes and a second term. Against Dean he could phone it in.

“He (Dennis Kusinich) said Americans “are aware their needs are not being met.”

From “I feel your pain” to “I will meet your needs.” The Democrats have the “Vision Thing” down.

Geoff was here had this interesting little observation. I hope he runs out, gets Desiring God and learns the truth.

Kevin and I had a discussion last night about the song “Above All” by Michael W. Smith. Kevin said the line “he took the fall, and thought of me, above all” had always given him pause, that he had deep seeded theological problems with making humanity the number one thing in Christ’s mind when He was on the cross. It reminded of John Piper at One Day ‘03. Piper said that the greatest disservice that his generation did to ours was putting humanity at the center of the Salvation message. It reminded me of Louie Giglio saying that God does not value us most, He values Himself most and to say anything else is to make God an Idolater.

”...Christ died for God and God has made Him LORD of all,
for He drank the bitter gall, the cup of wrath, but He rose in majesty that grace might reign through righteousness, blessed obedience, our sabbath rest and we cry, holy, worthy is the Lamb…”- Steve Camp

Paula White Ministries Main Page Matching Game. Match the smart-aleck comment with the appropriate graphic on the Paula White page:

“Look at my imaginary baby!”

“Hey! When Benny does it, they fall the other way!”

“Before…..and After!!!”

“This is the church, this is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people!”

“Michael Jackson did it. So can I!”

“I preach like T.D. jakes, but I rap like DMX!”

Step into the study, pour yourself a cup of coffee, get comfortable and let’s enjoy the Gospel of Mark.

Out of all the books in the world, why read this one? With a hundred other activities and interests to pursue, why devote your mind to some religious text out of the Bible? How is it going to help you?

Obviously the reasons to study Mark are many, but let me suggest what persuades me. Hopefully it will persuade you as well. More »« Less

SCOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m off to the print shop to print MILLIONS!!!!!
You are a Genius!! A truck of that Irish Beer I keep obsessing about for that man.

ROFLROFLROFLROFL!

MikeB: I wasn’t going that low. But I knew someone would :-)

What I would like to know is what’s Paula White holding in her hand in that picture to the right of the banner proclaiming “Satisfied Woman” :-O

OK… Michael asked for it, and so here it is… the first official “Chick Tract Transmogrification”: “Mel Gibson is a Catholic and Wants You to Fry in Hell”.

I have issues. A guy at FoundersFriends posted this:

“What is your opinion of having an American Flag in the sanctuary?”

Mr. Unresolved Hostility (that’s me) responds:

“What is your opinion of a church having a “sanctuary?” :-)”

Also, reportedly, the biggest joke in D.C. right now goes something like:

“What do you call it when John Kerry has sex with his wife?”

“A Fund Raiser.”

CT catalogs the reaction to the Lawrence Case. For once, there is a lot of unanimity about something in the culture war. Though many evangelicals have diverging views on Sodomy laws, there is a lot of agreement that striking down the moral basis of such laws swings the door wide open for everything else to plead legality. It may not be that simple in every instance- for example sex with children is different from sex between adults- but the Court’s reasoning takes away the largest possible foundation stone for regulating adult human sexual behavior, and leaves us doomed to endure who knows how many legal challenges based on this law.

Some P. J. O’Rourke, from his review of Hilliary’s book:

Hillary calls Bill’s mother “Virginia Cassidy Blythe Clinton Dwire Kelley” and eulogizes her as “an American original—bighearted, good humored, fun-loving”—by which she means a drunk. “I didn’t use makeup,” declares Hillary, “and wore jeans and work shirts most of the time. I was no Miss Arkansas,” but “no matter what else was going on in her life, Virginia got up early, glued on her false eyelashes and put on bright red lipstick, and sashayed out the door.”

After all, life revolves around Hillary. “In my own life I have been a wife, mother, daughter, sister, in-law, student, lawyer, children’s rights activist, law professor, Methodist, political advisor, citizen and so much else.” So very much else. “I was raised to love my God and my country, to help others, to protect and defend the democratic ideals that have inspired and guided free people for more than 200 years,” a slap in the face to those of us who were raised to say please and thank you and not track mud into the house. Little wonder that when Hillary meets Queen Elizabeth, “She reminded me of my own mother.”

HAS “LIVING HISTORY” been dumbed down for its intended reader? Yes, assuming its author read it. I don’t doubt that she wrote part of it, but no one seems to have read the final text. Otherwise, how to explain such sentences as, “The dominant architecture was Soviet-style socialist realism,” or “Tom and I spent late nights wrestling over the fine points of legal interpretation” (a euphemism sure to be taken up by the British tabloid press), or this description of a 1992 bus trip campaigning: “Bill, Al, Tipper and I spent hours talking, eating, waving out the window.” Which must have been a sight, though nothing compared with the trip to Russia when Hillary and Mrs. Boris Yeltsin “laughed our way through a day of public appearances and private meals with local dignitaries.” I hesitate to think there was a logical explanation, but Hillary does say, “Ireland invigorated and inspired me, and I wished we could bottle up the good feelings and take them back home.” It’s been done before.

Does anyone know if I can purchase a laptop with no software on it? I’ve found some great computers at Dell and Toshiba, but buying it with no OS seems to be out of the question. It would be loaded with Win2000 since we own the licenses for it here at the church (the computer is for the church). If anyone has any suggestions just E-mail me (it’s down there by my name).

Ever wonder what T.D. Jakes would sound like if he was transformed into an attractive blonde white woman? Well, even if you never wondered, you can still find out at Paula White Ministries. This kind of preaching really interests me because it is completely different from what I understand preaching to be. It is more “event” than “exposition” or “proclamation.” The Word is what comes through the preacher more than what is in the Bible. The use of music to punctuate the sermon is, of course, very effective. The highly dramatic and personal flaovor is also interesting; addressing people by their situations, or by situations that are very dramatic. And like much African-American preaching, the emphasis comes down to things like “your circumstances will change,” “God is on your side,” “Your miracle is on the way,” etc. Paula also has a very unique logo. If I tried that, it would look very different.

I don’t remember if JimN was the first to point me to Hormone Hostage at Unix Gal, but all you guys with women in your lives need to read and remember. I keep a stash of Dove Dark Chocolate on hand so that when my best-beloved gets psycho, (only happens about twice a day), I can stuff one in her homicidal little hand. In about 15 minutes, she’s human again. Much cheaper than lithium and just as effective.

Michael: The Theory (I forget his real name right now) is an interesting guy. Young.

(Wow, now I’m actually old enough to use that label dismissively. Weird.)

I gather from the long discussion re: CCM and Larry Norman the following True Facts&trade:

CCM well and truly sucks and is utterly irrelevant to the culture.

After 30 years, Larry Norman is still one of the few Christian artists whose work can be favorably compared with anyone anywhere, not just with those working inside the stale and cloistered confines of CCM. “community”.

The acceptance of CCM as a valid form of “ministry” is proof that the church is theologically anchorless.

Making music is a trade, like making bricks or making software or making bagels. Anyone who limits himself to selling his product only to Christians is – at best – a fruitcake. In any other market, if you aren’t making enough money to stay in business, you deserve to fail. Why should CCM artists be exempt from this rule? The NEA takes taxpayer money and funds artists that cannot survive in the marketplace – maybe CCM should apply to the government for subsidies…

“When Keaggy came onto the stage I had a hard time recognizing him. The previous times that I’ve seen him live he is wearing a cap and doesn’t have any facial hair. This time there was nothing covering his head and he had a gotee. Regardless, his playing was unaffected”.

!!!!

Michael: Enjoy the Cove. Make sure to swing by Montreat (just a few miles down the road), if just to see the college made of rocks dug out of the mountain.

Michael: I didn’t mean to say that my desire to pick a fight with you was latent, I apologize. (JN)

One more on CCM: From Blogcritics.

Doggone it Michael: Give me a week. (VBS) and then I’m going to fix your printer problem. I’ll have you give me remote control over them (bwhaaaaaa) and I’ll either fix them or wipe them completely. (JN) I have a reputation (undeserved) of having godlike knowledge of all Microsoft systems. If I can’t fix this I’m going to have to turn in my Bill Gates fan club membership card and learn Linux!

I don’t know which is the worse sin: reading a Catholic encyclopedia or being demon-possesed…

Thanks Richard. Your use of my stuff is amazing to me. I hope it is helpful. You need to send me some sermon tapes so I can hear what you are doing with all my hard work. Congrats of the soccer success, and “wine country” sounds great. Just be sure someone can drive straight on the way home.

Phillip: How dare you confess to the latent desire to pick a fight with me over pragmatism? I have a public image to uphold here. I pick all the fights and you people are the innocently bludgeoned victims. (JN) BTW- I am sure that you could do some floral work for the boys who spend too much time in the bar.

Alex: Since we’ve now determined what is your problem with women in ministry, there is hope for you. Start here. If it works, come back and start on Rob and Ronald. (Frankly, I think both are too far gone, Rob having appeared on TBN and Ronald being a happy fundamentalist.)

Today’s sermon contained the verse, “You have not because you ask not.” OK. Here are some things I would like to have.

A portable cassette player that works. Walkman type. No problems. Just works.
-An AM radio that really will pick up stations out here in the woods. I want to hear the Reds. Is that too much to ask?
-An intelligent recommendation on how to get rid of my vast collection of albums.
-A solution to my network printer problems. I have the wireless network going on 3 (to be 4) computers. But none of the network computers will connect to my printer.
-Unused Zip disks.
A simple, efficient way to kill musquitoes that are in the house that doesn’t involve me and a flyswatter.

Michael and Denise: Congratulations your upcoming milestone anniversary. Have a great time at the Cove. Elizabeth and I will be celebrating our 18th anniversary next Sunday in Vancouver where our daughter will be playing in the Provincial Soccer championships. We will be spending a few days in BC’s wine country (the Okanagan Valley) before heading over there.

BTW, Running Wounded is superb. I used it in my sermon this morning.

God is so good, so faithful!

An Interview With Ann Coulter – Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views) scores the big (actually not so big) interview with She Who Must Be Heard. (Ann Coulter, who is priceless.)

I dunno. It made me smile.

Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren’t so irritating. – Bill Gates

“Drinking With Calvin and Luther! I just ordered this so I can read it and then send it to Bill.”

Demon possessed women haters. It all stems from the demon liquor!

Drinking With Calvin and Luther! I just ordered this so I can read it and then send it to Bill.

Right Wing News has this little bit about the Spike Lee/TNN case. Guess we will see how big Spike’s ego really is.

However, things just got much more interesting. You see the judge ordered Lee to put up a, ”$2.5 million bond by Monday – money that would go to The National Network if Lee loses his court battle against it.” That means Lee stands to fork over a cool $2,500,000 if he loses this frivolous lawsuit—which I believe he will in the end if he pursues it that far.

So let me get this right. The three main groups of Palestinian terrorists have agreed to a cease-fire. That’s good, right? I’ve prayed for such a thing. But who is against it? Who hates the peace plan because it goes against their whacked out notions of end times prophecy? Evangelicals, that’s who. They prefer ideas like building walls and deporting the Palestinians. So, I guess if we are going to be good Christians, we need to ask President Bush to give everything from Egypt to Kuwait to Israel. It’s in the Bible you know: Genesis 15:18 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

Whatsup ya’ll? I took a long enough nap this afternoon that I’ll be up till 3 a.m.! Preached on Matthew 7:7-11 today, and Jesus’ constant reminders that the life of the disciple is lived in persistent and persevering dependence on God, and prayer is the indication and evidence of that. If you took the SotM as your example, you are faced with the Lord’s Prayer on one hand and the text above on the other. Combined, they tell me to let God’s Kingdom agenda determine what I pray for, and let my understanding of God’s sovereign and wise Father’s heart determine how I pray. It is significant that Jesus does a “double triple” emphasis: Ask, Seek, Knock x2. That really ought to say it. In the process of persistent, persevering dependent prayer, our prayer agenda will become more like that of the Father, and our eyes will be opened to more and more of his Fatherly goodness. Good passage. The SotM has been great for me to preach through. I needed it.

Campolo has moved to a rather clownish position within evangelicalism. Though CT lauds him as a prophet, I think he is more of a freelance oaf. The court jester of liberalism. I probably agree with him 80% of the time, and I agree with the major sentiments in his talk linked below. But his partisan manner and his blindness to his own fundamentalism are offensive. Does Campolo not hear the meanness and narrowness of the very fundamentalism he despises in his own comments? Yes, Tony, Liberals can be irritating fundies, too! Eschatology, women in ministry: these are emotional issues that the church has debated with sincerity for a long time. Your opponents are demonic? Gee Tony, you’re making me look good. Get a grip. Go home. Enjoy some heterosexual marital relations. Have a diet coke. Watch a Phillies game. There….feeling better?

Denise and I are excited about next week. On Monday, July 7 we will depart for “The Cove“in Asheville, North Carolina and 4 days/3 nights at the Billy Graham conference center. Dr. Piper will be teaching through Romans 8. July 8 is our 25th anniversary. If you’ve read “Running Wounded,” you will know why we are truly grateful for this significant milestone.

At the Maynard Jackson funeral, a photo-op grabbing Bill Clinton proved he is an idiot, by Bush-bashing, race-baiting and touting the glories of relativism in his eulogy.

“And he (Maynard Jackson) had certain convictions because he knew that politicians made choices that affect people’s lives,” he said. “He saw how much good affirmative action did for well-connected white folks and he thought it ought to be tried for other people as well.”

“Sure enough,” Clinton said, “it worked.”

As mayor, Jackson pushed through a citywide affirmative-action program that required municipal contractors to take on minority-owned businesses as partners and pressured the city’s major law firms to hire black lawyers.

“Maynard believed politics should be practical not radical, that we should all strive to be righteous not self righteous and that life was a search for the truth and that it was wrong to claim to have the truth and then use it like a stick to beat other people with,” Clinton said.

Guinness Beer FAQs

Is there a Guinness smiley/emoticon?Licking the rich, creamy Guinness foam off the upper lip:
(:-{d)

Mathyoo over at the IM Forum has started a thread on music recommendations that follow up on my essay about Larry Norman and today’s CCM. He’s recommending Vigilantes of Love (Bill Mallonee). If you’ve read the article (or just get my drift about what Norman was doing) I’d love your recommendations too.

Well, I guess if Brother Campolo is right, that makes John Calvin, John Knox, Martin Luther, B.B. Warfield, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, R.C. Sproul, D.A. Carson, the Hodges and a host of others God-hating demons (JN). Not to mention myself. And I was wondering why those horns starting popping out…

Outrage as Oxford bans student for being Israeli. Yes, it’s good to know that the world of academia is such a wonderful, tolerant and enlightened place. What a story.

A Guide For The Un-Initated To Buying Guinness In An Irish Pub.

And everything else you want to know…

Arrogant Bastard is quite good. I’ve had a few pints in between Guinnii (Guinness, plural) at our Irish session. If I remember correctly it’s a coppery amber ale of some type. Pretty strong, maybe almost in the barleywine category.

Mary opens the door, and there stands Timothy, her man’s boss at the Guinness brewery, with cap in hand. Fearfully, she asks, “Whatizzit Tim?”

Tim answers “Mary, the worst has happened. Your husband Seamus has had an accident.”

Mary cries “is he alive Tim?”

Timothy answers, “I’m afraid not Mary.”

Mary explodes in tears. Tim comforts her. After a few minutes she composes herself and asks, “well Tim, did he go quickly?”

Tim looks down and says, “No, Mary, he didn’t perish so quickly.”

“Well, Tim, how did he die?”

“Well, Mary, he drowned in the beer vat.”

“And he didn’t go quickly you say?”

“Well, no, Mary. You see, he got out to pee three times.”

Campolo: Opposition to women preachers evidence of demonic influence – (BP) Brother Campolo has obviously been reading the BHT, and has outed Rob, Alex and Ronald for what they are: DEMONIC!!! (JN)

This is kind of interesting until you get to the last shot at SBTS. (Tony is such a mix of good and not that good.)

“I hear Christian radio denouncing poor Harry [Potter] who chooses the right friends and runs with the right crowd and does the right thing. ... That’s good for kids to hear,” he said. “Instead of preaching against Harry Potter I suggest that you people who are preachers start preaching against those really hot sellers in the Christian community, those ‘Left Behind’ books. Nobody wants to say it. You are scared to attack the ‘Left Behind’ books which are false theology and unbiblical to the core. And it is about time you stand up and say so.

“I mean all of this stuff comes out of not only fundamentalism. It comes out of dispensationalism, which is a weird little form of fundamentalism that started like a hundred fifty years ago. ... Augustine doesn’t talk about it. Calvin, Luther, none of those people talk about it. Southern Seminary has now enshrined Calvin. Well, if you’re going to enshrine Calvin at least accept his eschatology, which would put ‘Left Behind’ out of business tomorrow,” he said.

Red Sox 25, Marlins 8. That’s not a basketball score. That’s 14 runs in one inning. Two pitchers getting nobody out. (BTW- Olsen is OK.) A number of records were approached in this one, including the utter humiliation record.

Mel comments on Passion.

“I’m not a preacher, and I’m not a pastor,” the 47-year-old director-actor said. “But I really feel my career was leading me to make this. The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelize.”

Gibson said the film “was a strange mixture of the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, along with this incredible ease. Everyone who worked on this movie was changed. There were agnostics and Muslims on set converting to Christianity.”

Are there people out there who would like to become part of the Boar’s Head? E-mail me and we’ll talk about it.

Here’s a post for Jack. (We need a pic for this)

Hero of the day: Arthur Guinness

Legend has it that Arthur Guinness, dismayed at the debauchery overtaking his native Dublin and destroying the family base therein, once prayed that God would give him the inspiration to concoct a healthy alternative to the whiskey that flowed freely at the pubs throughout the city. Soon after, his prayers were answered and he developed an early version of the stout now sold in over two hundred countries worldwide. The genius of his premise lies in its simplicity: make it healthy, make it thick. The vitamin content was vastly higher than that of Irish whiskey-so high, in fact, that even the New World doctors (before the discovery of fetal alcohol syndrome, of course) used to advise pregnant women to drink one glass of the stout daily. Guinness also designed the brew to be so thick that his fellow Irishmen would get full long before they got inebriated.

All legends aside, the facts still remain. After receiving the equivalent of a $150 inheritance from his godfather the Archbishop of Cashel, Guinness apprenticed at a small brewery in Leixlip for several years. He then set out on his own, with his recipe, and founded the St. James street brewery in Dublin. And as far as looking to the future, from the beginning Guinness was attuned to his legacy; to secure the brewery for ensuing generations, he signed a 9,000-year lease. Water was a vital resource for the business and, although there were over 200 breweries in Dublin at the time, Guinness persevered and secured for himself access to the precious resource. His direct legacy lasted for 227 years. He helped his own cause a bit by fathering 21 children (10 of which survived) and his posterity carried out his entrepreneurial benchmark across centuries. Among his most notable accomplishments are the employer-employee relations he fostered. He set wages at 10-20% above his competitors; guaranteed pensions for widows; offered paid vacations, free medical care, education, and housing, to name just of a few of the perks he offered his employees. Employment in his brewery was a prized position during his life and afterwards, and the magnitude of charitable work he carried out in his community reflects the faith in God and the attenuation to His principles Guinness maintained until his death.

Roast Rowan, anyone? Now being served at the International Buffet.

And finally, Breakpoint reviews this scintillating title: The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament. Now, what could that be about? Seriously, this is representative of what happens at seminaries that decide to pull up the anchor of orthodoxy and sail only in the storm winds of cultural idolatries.

Eric: We will vote on your fate Monday morning. Do whatever business you have with God in the meantime. Judgement Day is arriving.

Please don’t delete me! The most contact I usually get with a computer these days is walking by my dead one in the basement and saying, “Gee, I wish i could afford another computer.” I am still alive, and I check when I can!
Scott: thanks for a Soylent Green reference! I yell “Soylent Green is people!!!” everytime I get in a crowd. My wife and friends have come to expect it.

Judd: I have made some progress. Zone Alarm was most of my problem. I did a system restore to the day before big problems and that helped to. USB doesn’t work WITH the XP drivers? That’s weird.

IM is updated with an article about CCM and a certain aging Christian rocker that I spent a day obsessing over. (I’m still editing this one.)

It’s homecoming day at OBI. Good turnout. Awesome barbecued pork and chicken at lunch. Burger and hot dogs in 30 minutes. All under big tents on the ball field. Wish ya’ll were here.

Hope you get your XP problems fixed, Michael. I know how you feel. My Win98 has run like a champ for 3 years, and suddenly last week it starts hanging on shutdown, getting occasional blue screens of death, etc. So I reformat C:, install from scratch 5 times, same thing. I pony up for a full copy of XP, it installs like a champ- but most of my USB devices no longer work, even with the certified XP drivers! I’m now in Windows hell.

Just catching up on the discussions. Very stimulating indeed.

On Christians & the arts—saw an interview on some TV show the other day with the director of “Bruce Almighty”. He claims to be a Christian. Didn’t see the movie myself.

Jim, I’m not a huge fan of Razormouth either. I don’t like Whitehead. I think his god is civil libertarianism. I don’t like P. Andrew Sandlin because I don’t like anybody who is ashamed of the front name their momma give them. And, if they’re into a mushy phase about stop being nasty old Calvinists and start being nice Jesus people, it’s hard to take them seriously with a name like “Razormouth”. Seems like a ham-handed attempt to be “relevant” at the expense of ignoring a lot of what the bible says about the mouth.

As I shoot off my own :-) Actually, I read ‘em from time to time and they have a few good things to say.

James Robison just delivered a beautiful, straightforward yet gentle rebuke to the end-times evangelicals for not supporting the pursuit of peace in the middle east. I wish everyone could have heard this talk. Quit imposing your end times schemes and selling your books. Love Palestinian children and people. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and all its people. Support the President when he is seeking to be a peacemaker, defend the innocent and protect the helpless. Don’t let defending your theology cause you to be uncompassionate. James is a gem. He has a real world Christian heart and mind. I especially liked his appeal to not impose our beliefs, but lift up our savior through genuinely compassionate living.

Hey Scott….I’ve found your partner in a great adventure. Go find this guy. With your stories and his art, you’ll make millions.

Unfortunately, Tilton is no parody. (Except for the sound effects.) You now I have asked you guys for that tape for almost two years now. Is it so hard to take a hint?

Okay, a friend at work hooked me up with this. Parodying corny charisma at its worst. Check out the videos and prepare to hurt yourself laughing. Robert Tilton’s Fun and Games Page

They’ve printed me twice. Therefore…..I love them. (JN)

RM has some good things going for it- namely that Joel has Andrew Sandlin and John Whitehead writing regularly, which is always interesting. The other writers are all right, and some of the guest pieces are great. The current design looks good, and I definitely feel there is a vision behind RM that I agree with and recommend.

On the downside: I would agree that adding comments has been pretty bad overall. Yeah, it brings back the participants and some readers, but the quality varies widely. As a blogger, I know I benefit greatly from the overall coolness and intellect of you guys, and if I had some of the jokers that Joel has making comments I would turn it off. The main problem I have with RM is that it seems to go in spurts. I guess this is a technical problem or finding a dependable host or something. (www.hostdime.com is so fine, if anyone cares.) The book ads and the “support RM” blurbs won’t make regular readers shout for joy.

I admire and look up to RM, and I wish them the best.

Michael (and Kevin, and anyone else who posts there), I don’t quite understand how you can stomach Razormouth. Some of their articles are good, but the noise-to-signal ratio is incredibly high. The could solve a lot of that by disabling comments, but then they might end up being Yet Another Enclave of Disaffected Theonomists….

(I’m an equal-opportunity offender.)

Jim: I suspect it is good for both of us that we live 2000 miles apart. I fear that if we were close enough to see each other, we’d be dangerous. I am in violent agreement with you almost all the time, but I am nevertheless shocked, shocked I say, to find a Yankee who is not suffering from a severe case of cranial-recto-insertion in the matter of Herr Lincoln and states rights.

I salute you, my friend!

Michael: I’ve got an idea, but it’ll have to wait until next week…

Last night, I caught enough of Pat Robertson to know that he’s pushing the view that by backing an independent Palestinian state, the US is going against God’s will. (It took several hour of scrubbing myself, but I’m now cleansed from hearing Robertson.) Michael asked a while back about how a Christian should respond to the Middle East (presumably without resorting to the idiotic, simplistic, defeatist, wrong-headed, (insert disparaging adjective here) approach that Pat Robertson and the rest of the dispensationalists end up taking. There’s an IM article in me somewhere on this, but for the time being Peace and Game Theory by N. Z. Bear is a good place to start if you’re looking for some clear thinking on the Israeli-Palestine situation.

Our friends over at Razormouth have run a couple of interesting columns lately. They might be described as Calvinists flagellating themselves for being those mean, ol’ narrow minded Reformed jerks, and encouraging Reformed Christians to be more “Jesus” people and less “Calvin/doctrine” people. R. Heath McClure writes on “Why I Left Calvinism” and Jamey Bennett writes on “Jesus- All in All.” I commend both articles, and would like to make one comment of exception.

There are different flavors of Calvinism out there. The Founders/Piper flavor is most definitely more evangelical and warm-hearted than some other flavors. There is a substantial difference between a Douglas Wilson and a John Piper. I’m not into personalities here, I’m just saying there is a real difference, and I would commend my friends who nodded in agreement at the RM articles to look into what I am saying. Read Geoff Thomas’s preaching. Listen to Dr. Piper or Alistair Begg. Listen to a Founder’s Conference preacher like Fred Malone. There is a warm-hearted, evangelical Calvinism out there.

Read Scalia’s dissent. Don’t trust what you hear in the press. Their snickering referrences to his “Let me be clear that I have nothing against homosexuals” take the statement entirely out of context:

Let me be clear that I have nothing against homosexuals, or any other group, promoting their agenda through normal democratic means. Social perceptions of sexual and other morality change over time, and every group has the right to persuade its fellow citizens that its view of such matters is the best. That homosexuals have achieved some success in that enterprise is attested to by the fact that Texas is one of the few remaining States that criminalize private, consensual homosexual acts. But persuading one’s fellow citizens is one thing, and imposing one’s views in absence of democratic majority will is something else

Read Thomas’ dissent. Note that for Thomas and Scalia, this isn’t a case about sodomy; it’s a case about sodomy laws:

Punishing someone for expressing his sexual preference through noncommercial consensual conduct with another adult does not appear to be a worthy way to expend valuable law enforcement resources.

Bill, if Eugune Volokh is right, then in overturning the sodomy laws the court has pulled another Roe v. Wade: they have “discovered” a right in the constitution for any adult to have sex with any other adult in any way they want as long as there is no money involved. That’s breathtaking, and Scalia’s dissent shows why he’s the smartest person on the bench today, and vindicates Rick Santorum. Nobody has successfully refuted Santorum’s assertion that this ruling opens the door to all sorts of other things, including incest, polyamory, and gay marriage. Why? Because they can’t. In order to do so, they would have to somehow find a standard by which those activities can be illegal, while consensual homosexual sex is not. And that’s just not possible without a moral standard, the court has just ruled that a moral standard can’t be the basis for such a law.

And now you’ll hear a Yankee say something you never thought you’d hear: America is not governed by the Constitution, and has not been since Lincoln took office. The Constitution is a remarkable balance between states rights and individual liberties, and limits the role of the federal government. Since the Civil War, our country has not been governed according to these principles. When Lincoln decided that preserving the Union in fact was more important that honoring the states-rights principles that form part of the basis of the Union, this country moved away from Constitutional rule. Over time, the focus of government power has shifted back and forth between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, but it as remained firmly within the exact place that the founders feared it would end up: within a centralized government that uses coercion to force its will upon states and individuals.

All right. Time to weigh in on some serious stuff now and forget about Hell House.

What is your take on the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Texas’ anti (homosexual) sodomy laws. I was surprised to see RM (Sandlin) decrying it since they are a pretty libertarian site.

My thoughts in no particular order.

It’s a stupid law. You can’t outlaw sin, and if you do, you have to outlaw them all.

Does Texas have the right to make stupid laws? Maybe. Haven’t thought it out thoroughly yet.

America is not a theocracy. America is not and has never been a “Christian” nation. Did we have a significant number of Christians there at the beginning, shaping things the way they wanted? Sure, maybe. I suspect we over-glorify the founding fathers.

If the theonomists have their way they will not only outlaw homosexual sex but also heterosexual married sex that doesn’t result in procreation.

Does this decision open the gate for homosexual marriages? I don’t know. But that’s not really the point.

My mind is easily changable on this one so have at it!

Scott: The reason I have some confidence in the movie as a straight narration of the last twelve hours is all the info from all over the world I have received as a result of email on my IM piece. I have received more mail on this piece than any IM article other than “Why do they hate us?” This has included a lot of people in the cinema press who, for some reason, think I have a personal relationship with Mel! I have been asked at least 10 times if I can get ahold of an advance copy of the film! There are a LOT of RCC folks very excited about this movie, and they have sent me a lot of links. I even got a homemade soundtrack to the movie from a guy in Italy. Also, the film is an adaptation of a written work by the same name that covers the same period of time. (A popular mystical text.) But we shall see. In the meantime, don’t you think we need a CHICK TRACT response to this RCC propaganda?

There’s also the possibility that Mel may be pulling a “Pulp Fiction”, and be screwing around with the timeflow in the film. You know, start with The 2 guys on the road to Emmeus (sp?), then go back to the whipping, then the betrayal in the Garden, then to the trial, up to the Resurrection, back to the 1st half of the crucifixion, on to Peter denying Him, up to the Road to Calvary, back to Christ by Himself in the garden, up to the last half of the crucifixion.

I was sitting at the bar in The Highlands Pub in Lewisburg, PA on Tuesday night, and there before my wondering eyes was genuine Arrogant Bastard Ale on tap. I was enjoying my frosty cold Guinness and was not at all interested in corrupting my palate with some snotty American Brew, but after seeing their web page, I wonder if I made a mistake…

The movie is about the last twelve hours of Jesus’ life. Going to the rez would be out of that. IMO, any attempt to put the rez on film would doom the movie to be silly. Some things should never be the subject of a special effect. The Bible in the hands of Hollywood is always a cause for concern.

It’s interesting how different our perceptions of CCM are depending on our decade of reference. I see very little that is interesting in the 80’s.

I go away for two days and I miss, like, everything!

On Passion: Does not this line from the review give a hint? “And best of all is a final look right into the camera of Mary, holding her dead Son.” Or am I reading too much into the word “final”?

Hell House and similar productions are crappy evangelistic tools, and should be judged only on the basis of how they entertain. In my view, they are poor entertainment as well.

I’d marry my current wife again, but I’m not sure she’d marry me. :) Also, Wednesday was our ninth anniversary. Congrats to Ken on 21 years. Wow.

Man, the CCM discussion has turned interesting. Please lets avoid any mention of Stryper, but I’m down with White Heart, or I was before the last album or two. Along with Harvest/Stonehill/Norman/Phillips/Green and so on. Keaggy is an awesome musician. I happen to know that he’s getting Glass Harp back together, so that ought to be interesting. I still think Sunday’s Child is my favorite album by anyone, ever. I love all these guys, warts and all. Russ Taff is great. Switchfoot’s new album is incredibly good. It’s one of the four I picked up recently.

Charlie Peacock annoys me a little in that everybody he produces ends up sounding like they were produced by him. I guess that’s supposed to happen, a little, but…

And Carman sucks now. He was good once. Too bad.

Earthsuit higher than Russ Taff? They’ve got to be crazy. That whole list is upside-down.

Finally, Michael, all the way back at 6:05PM on the 24th, I was comparing and contrasting the current discussion with previous ones. My point is basically this: the label of “pragmatism” is useless as a point of debate and shuts down dissent due to it’s personal and unanswerable nature.

I’m reading Creed or Chaos by Dorothy Sayers. Here’s a quote I like:

If spiritual pastors are to refrain from saying anything that might ever, by any possibility, be misunderstood by anybody, then will end—as in fact many of them do—by never saying anything worth hearing.

And I liked this one, too:

The children of this world are not only (as Christ so caustically observed) wiser in their generation that the children of light; they are also more stimulating and bolder.

And one more:

Your misdeeds and mine are nonetheless repellent because our opportunities for doing damage are less spectacular than those of some other people. Do you suggest that your doings and mine are too trivial for God to bother about? That cuts both ways; for, in that case, it would make precious little difference to His creation if He wiped us both out tomorrow.

A great read. Highly recommended.

King James crowned by Cavaliers. Anyone care to speculate about whether we are looking at the next Michael Jordan, or the beginning of the end of astronomical sports salaries?

Are You Worthy?

Dennis Miller is coming to Fox News. Duncan Currie makes the point that DM is not a predictable conservative, but he will be a heck of a lot of fun. A coup for Fox.

Scott: I am happy that the reviewer says Mel has created a work of art, since that was my hope when I wrote on the movie. Do it for love, not for $. I am now waiting for the anti-RCC crowd to emerge and begin trashing the entire thing. Fundamentalists can’t be FOR this movie. It just wouldn’t be right. (BTW- I wonder if Mel ever thought of having people fill out little cards at the end of the mov…...HEY! If my church could print the cards, hand them out at the movie, we could count the decis…......I’LL BE RIGHT BACK!!!)

[heavy sigh]

Oh, alright, since Michael baited me…

I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition…

Heavy sarcasm on.

So, since the Bible is wrong when it says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ”, and when it says we are to appeal to the conscience with the preached Word of God, etc., and since we know the best way to evangelize is by the “Judgment House/Hell House” method of creating an emotional spectacle that the unbeliever can’t resist, I say why not go back to the people who really knew how to do this stuff and do it right. That’s right evangelism fans, we’re talking about the Inquisition. Torture. Burnings. Brandings. The rack. All done, of course, for the glory of God. If you are going to make an impression on the hell-bound sinner, we need to get as close to reality as possible. We might want to start with just burning the skin on a few volunteers using matches. Then maybe burn some small animals in an incinerator. Then, move on to the last demonstration, where someone is actually tied to a stake and burned alive. Real, physical pain and torment should be very effective in making the point that no one wants to die and go to hell. The key, of course, will be making the Gospel plain after this demonstration. We don’t want to be accused falsely of manipulation. But we need to make it clear that the feeling you have as you watch someone burned alive in a dark pit IS the Holy Spirit.

Heavy sarcasm off.

Someone’s seen Mel Gibson’s Passion. Basic Gist:

1. Very faithful to a RCC interpretation of the crucifixion. Definitely Mary-centric.
2. There will be subtitles.
3. It is no more anti-Semitic than the original story.
4. The reviewer didn’t give away anything about the Resurrection.

Baptist Hell House at Landover Baptist can’t be topped. Check out the clickable interactive floor plan for ideas for your own Hell House.

BTW- It’s Christian Heritage Month over there, if you want to get up a bus.

On the Henry Institute site I linked earlier today, there is an entry about Dr. Mohler fielding radio questions about piercing and tongue splitting.

Mohler challenged evangelicals to get beyond the “yuck factor” (or the “ouch factor,” as the case may be). He laid out what he sees as basic biblical elements of a theology of respect for the human body, and applied these principles to contemporary teen culture. He also pressed evangelicals to identify the kind of despair that would lead teenagers to seek refuge in what many would consider nothing less than self-mutilation. Mohler called for evangelicals to give attention to these matters—not from prejudice or apathy—but from the standpoint of a worldview informed by divine revelation.

Having Alex and Kurt say neither one had ever heard of Larry Norman was sort of like the time in 1980 a youth group kid asked me, “Was Paul McCartney in a band before Wings?”

Speaking of which, here is big archive of Beatles’ interviews from 1962 to 1984. Lots of interesting stuff in about 75 different interviews.

Great. My home church has decided to do “Judgement House.” I once threatened to quit when a group wanted to do one of these for our school. Real life won’t do it for evangelicals. They gotta have the big top.