I didn’t know that T4G was restricted to men only. Read all of Michael Bird’s post. It’s the must read post on this event.

Meanwhile…Karl Barth on Generous Orthodoxy?

James K. A. Smith’s new book is available: Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, And Foucault to Church (h/t Macht). Since it is destined to be one of the books we ought not read, you can be sure I’ll get my copy soon.

Reformed Baptist theologian Michael Bird posts an insightful, balanced criticism of an issue he has with T4G. I’ve been waiting for someone to make this very point. To me, such analyses are far more helpful than line-by-line analysis of the published statement. I am interested in the cultural and social forces that shape these events for I think they are just as informative about the gospel that is in view by participants as are their positive statements. I didn’t include Article XVI in my earlier post because I thought it was a negative, harmful example of “cultural renewal” that grates against the much better XV and XVII.

Truly Reformed Hell has been located: The 2006 SBC Pastor’s Conference!!

I’m almost inspired to start a blog aggregating the posts that this is going to generate. The washed and the unwashed!! Together!! For the…..never mind.

Methodists! Emerging people with cool church names! Seminary profs and prezes! Non-Calvinists! Anti-Calvinists! The “Only Good Calvinist Is A Dead Calvinist” guy!! The POPE!! (Who has a major league big head pic!)

I’ll wager that for some, the Truly Reformed Version of the SBC would be a little more narrow about who they let in the door to talk about evangelism.

Craig Blomberg is an emminent New Testament textual scholar, and he’s written a comprehensive and interesting piece on the Judas Gospel.

Adrian Warnock is wanting to encourage bloggers around the Christian blogosphere to blog through the “Together For The Gospel” statement, item by item. I told him that I wouldn’t be participating (I don’t want to see my name in print at certain blogs any more if I can help it) but that some of you might enjoy making a contribution.

The “Together For The Gospel” Statement is on-line. Here’s the idea from an earlier post of Adrian’s.

I think Josh, Joel and Jim really need to do this :-)

How many sermons did you preach this week in addition to posting 5 things to IM?

Coherent interesting posts at that.

You are like the EveryReady bunny you keep writing and writing and writing.

More power to you; you are The MAN.

MODERATOR: Sunday to Sunday, eight sermons, one Q/A with the students, plus my classes and Bible studies. Thanks to all who pray for me. God sustains me and gives me a word. I am exhausted though.

IM is updated with: The iMonk Warning Label (Shouldn’t You Have One, Too?)

Rich Nathan is pastor of the Columbus Vineyard (an example of a very solid Vineyard Church) and a guy whose book Empowered Evangelicals is a must-read if you want to hear the “rest of the story” regarding much of the Charismatic movement. Nathan wrote a detailed response to Charismatic Chaos. It’s on line here, but a good pdf is available from Vineyard USA (bottom of the page.) His response makes it clear why Charismatic Chaos is, in my opinion, a very flawed book that represents the extremes as the mainstream.

I’ve never had a problem criticizing the charismatic movement, but ever since I read Charismatic Chaos, I’ve felt it was a very inferior analysis, and did not represent non-Charismatic evangelicals well. Now that Mahaney and SGM have proven that charismatics can have a high view of scripture, etc. the book needs to be criticized honestly, rather than defended like it is inerrant.

A reformed Baptist blog, writing about the inclusion of charismatic C.J. Mahaney in the “Together For The Gospel” group, says the following:

After all, didn’t John MacArthur write Charismatic Chaos? Has he changed in his beliefs? No, not at all. We have not changed our position on the charismatic gifts, nor have we found the continuationist position to be exegetically tenable.

I have a better idea: Admit that Charismatic Chaos is a book that is full of extreme examples of near cultic charismatic abuses, and has nothing whatever to tell us about Mahaney and SGM. Let me put it this way: Macarthur wrote a lot that is wrong in that book, and rather than say that the book is right and Mahaney and company will benefit from the kindness of reformed Baptists in seeking to win them away from their continuationist ways, why not say the book is flawed- badly- and should be revised or replaced?

I think it’s great that Mahaney is included, but I think defending Charismatic Chaos as a sound work on the Charismatic movement is simply too much. The current attitude toward Mahaney and SGM is great. The book is not.

Michael: I have used, fairly extensively, MoinMoin, MediaWiki and Confluence. Avoid MoinMoin and similar like the plague. Confluence is a commercial product, I believe. MediaWiki rocks.

Just finished the third sermon. Still need to read some prep for my Bible class, but I need a break.

I’m reading all these blogs who have been in Louisville at Together For The Gospel. Appears to me that the SBTS community was a large chunk of the crowd. What really gets me though is how many of these guys admit that they go to 4 or 5 conferences a year. (!!!) Sheesh! When I was at the big church, driving the lease car, etc., I got to go to 1) the SBC every other year 2) The KBC every other year 3) One conference paid by the church. Now, on my own time with two weeks of vacation, I could pay my way to whatever I wanted to attend, but I was fortunate if I got to one conference a year.

When I was pastoring, my church leaders got bent out of shape for me taking a class at SBTS 40 minutes away. I got one convention, no conferences, and two weeks vacation to do what I wanted. (I’m thankful for that, because I got to some excellent conferences.)

How are you guys getting 4 and 5 conferences into your ministry expenses? Is the church paying for this? If you are paying for it, do you have a copy of the hypnotic spell you used on your spouse? (And don’t get me started on the new trend of cruises instead of conferences. I want to go to a conference, and not be forced to eat the buffet.)

If I sound bitter, I’ll tell you why. Here at OBI, I have the freedom to travel, and there is about $1000 in my compensation designated for “professional development.” It’s just really really hard for me to be gone from classes/preaching very much. And then I can’t find conferences that interest me. Suggestions always welcome :-)

I really want to commend any church that allows (and finances) their pastor/staff to take in good conferences.

Adrian Warnock sends along a note saying he is gauging interest in “Together For the Gospel” DVDs and audio of the panel discussions. If interested, why not check out this post at his blog and leave a comment?

I continue to be disappointed that these sort of meetings never seem to locate the problems facing evangelicalism with the Christian publishers and Christian marketers that now shape evangelicalism. How can they miss this?

Michael, you can’t bite the hand that feeds you.

I thought the preamble was well-stated, if a bit too polemical for a confession of faith. I think there’s a lot that could have been done with this claim: We are concerned about the tendency of so many churches to substitute technique for truth, therapy for theology, and management for ministry. Unfortunately, I think their prescriptive antidote, while technically correct (proclaiming an authentic gospel) is, for all practical purposes, abstract and impersonal.

An example. In Article VII, they state: We further affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord over His church, and that Christ will reign over the entire cosmos in fulfillment of the Father’s gracious purpose. Notice the verb tense change between those two thoughts. You see, if Christ is only Lord over His church right now, and only will reign over all things at some indeterminate time in the future, then you have effectively neutered the Great Commission:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

“Making disciples and teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us” is one of the clearest expressions of the “cultural mandate” that can be imagined. Its vision is cosmic: all human practices, products and institutions are suddenly challenged by the risen Lord who has all authority on earth. The consummation of his reign is acoming, but He is Lord over “every square inch” of the cosmos now.

This alternative abstract, impersonal, ethereal gospel was clearly expressed by Al Mohler when he said: The goal of Christianity is not cultural renewal, but rather, preaching the Gospel to sinners. No wonder my pastor about had a seizure when he heard this. Oddly, a few of the articles in the same confession repudiate this disembodied and disemboweled gospel. Article XV on cooperative ministry and Article XVII on racial reconciliation explicitly tie failure in historical-cultural and social-cultural flesh-and-blood reality to the gospel as antidote. But what are these articles calling for except “cultural renewal”? Confusing, isn’t it?

Perhaps in their concern to inveigh against “techniques,” “therapy” and “management” (which I applaud…loudly) they are sweeping away with it all cultivation of God’s world for human beings. The gospel is about practices and products (because it’s for embodied human beings), but that doesn’t mean that the cultivating mandate is reducible to pragmatism. Hardly! Cultivation is almost always in opposition to pragmatism. It seems to me that this confession starts well but is muddled over the very concrete and personal implications of the gospel.

Oh, and Article III is an absolute hoot! We deny (...) that the truth of the Gospel can be expressed or grounded in anything less than (...) the ability of language to convey understandable truth in sentence form. What a goofily false claim to put in a confession.

Barb has been touting this essay by Joseph Minich, and this excerpt shows why.

Definitions of various Christian types.. Quite funny. Several HTs.

I’m two sermons down, one to go. I also want to start on a couple of IM things, one on what to do with anger, and the other on the relationship of the doctrines of incarnation and justification.

Anyone use a wiki or notes program that would be good for students?

Quake as a text adventure. (HT to Gadgetopia)

The Touchstone Archives are growing.

I’ve become a projection nut job. With flickr and my associative way of thinking, I’m becoming rather annoying with this new gadget.

Michael,this lays the groundwork for a true “us against the rest” confession.  Articles 1-12 are good.

The question is:  Where does this confession place the souls of folks that don’t conform to the “ideal” of this confession?

Blue Collar Preacher: Good preaching from…..well….go see for yourself.

Does a person have to show unwavering belief in the Gospel to be a Christian?

The audio for the recent “Together for the Gospel” sessions is available from SGM. Panel discussions were not recorded. I’m trying to put this meeting into some context. I’d guess that we’re seeing the construction of a Calvinistic post-denominational network of some kind, not unlike Rick Warren/Bill Hybels/emergent/Driscoll are all up to. I’m particularly interested in how this interacts with Mohler’s trajectory to become the dominant theologian in the SBC, but to also have an even more prominent role as a culture war general, a la Dobson/Focus.

I was impressed with several things that I “overheard” at this conference. These are all good men, with ministries that ought to be heard and imitated in many ways. The primacy of the Gospel can never go wrong. When that primacy, however, is tied to twenty other issues I am less enthusiastic. The confessional document that is coming out of this meeting will have some continuing significance for these guys, I think, as I expect it will be specifically anti-N.T. Wright and anti-emerging in any form. We’ll see. [UPDATE: The document appears to be about 50% anti-emerging church, and the rest countering various concerns from open theism to generic Arminian revivalism. A good confessional document. Interesting that it has nothing to say about Baptism, but takes a strong stand on the Lord’s Supper :-/

This particular statement is amusing: We deny that evangelism can be reduced to any program, technique, or marketing approach. I expect Mohler will pass this along to the rest of the SBC leadership. The SBC comes up with a new “sales approach” evangelism program every year, right down to the current “Baptize a Million” sweepstakes.]

I continue to be disappointed that these sort of meetings never seem to locate the problems facing evangelicalism with the Christian publishers and Christian marketers that now shape evangelicalism. How can they miss this?

Annie, I think I’d prefer your ‘preferred role’ as well. Incongruently being the sappiest member of our family and my workplace as well I find myself overwhealmed with joy and love at all sorts of ‘victories’ I’m blessed to observe. We were at a seminar for America World Adoption last evening and while watching the video of Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapmen receive their two adopted daughters in China I lost it, even though I’ve seen the vid a couple of times before.

Life is nothing to me without passion; joy and pain, struggle and victory…all should be liberally seasoned with tears and laughter.

Your statement about various traditions reminds me of some lyrics that I’m going to quote (from memory so mistakes are mine) from a song by John Michael Talbot and Michael Card called Brother to Brother...

And some of the pastors
Have pastored themselves off their sheep
So He has come out against them
And scattered His people of faith

Ok Phillip – now you are on my bad list. ;-) I think there might be a way to redeem strip clubs . . . in the sense that they are replacing in a bad way something that you were meant to have in a good way. So you redeem them by enjoying a wildly wonderful sex life with your wife. (Is it “TR/PC� to say that?)

I went to a retreat which had the kind of praise music we all like to shred around here (myself included) but the sweet ladies were so genuine, I had to appreciate their heart rather than sit there bitter and critical the whole time. People hunger to connect with the Lord and faith with their whole beings, emotions included. So saccharine, sappy, sentiments based on bad theology need to be purged, but what do we present as the alternative? Stoicism?  I see many people making accurate critiques of saccharine emotion in the church, but not so many examples of deep, healthy emotions . . . save at the funeral I sang at this month. This is why I love Piper so much, he is so deep both with head and heart.
People need the freedom to be a little “mushy� so that they have the freedom to feel at all. BTW – I am feeling quite ecumenical lately, and I think I owe it to the bht. Let the charismatic be a bit too emotional and the presby lean toward being overly intellectual. Thank God there is some diversity or I would get really bored. There are so many “personalities� of churches, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. We now look at “choosing� a church by considering which personality our own strengths and weaknesses can compliment for the long haul. Personally, I’d rather be the life and “closet charismatic� in a presby church than the one pleading for theological depth at a seeker-sensitive one.

Enough rambling – where is the “Annie’s mutterings� category??

Are you a Presbyterian or a Baptist?

The Christian Vision Project

The Harrowing Silence. If you missed this…don’t.

IM is updated with some thoughts on anger.

Matthew: You’re going to love the new look of the ESV journaling Bible.

Dick Staub covers the NYTs article on MecyMe and CCM.

I have to prepare three sermons tomorrow, and I’m feeling pretty dry after preaching 6x already this week. Pray for me.

Mexico to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs

Maybe now Mexico will get a bunch of illegal aliens from us.

A USB turntable. I have a turntable, but this would make for a several-year project of turning all this vinyl into something else. Hmmmm….

I think this would be most interesting. This week substituting for the public high school I have taught students in Advanced Placement classes and in DAEP (Disciplinary Alternative Education Program). There sure is a variety of teenagers out there.

Annie: I plan to redeem saccharin emotions, but unfortunately that’s slightly lower on my list than redeeming televised endoscopy, strip clubs, and cockfighting. It’s in the top ten, I think! Top fifteen, anyway.

The Liturgy of the Hours. Why have you guys been hiding this? It will be on the sidebar from now on.

There are saccharin expressions of emotion, but calling emotions themselves various names doesn’t work with Christian hedonism. The emotions are among God’s holiest gifts, and of course, one of the most corrupted. I particularly think Christians have- under the influence of a feminized approach to just about everything- put value of sentimentalism as opposed to real love.

Wife Swap isn’t about swapping wives. It’s a bizarre show, but it’s something like a mission trip, or Survivor. What they need to do is have a Swapping Teenagers show. Or swapping pastors. Now that would rock.

Off to grill chops.

Megamom Barbra Curtis has been invited to be on “Wife Swap” and is seriously considering it. Whattaya think? Tommy and I disagree, in a friendly, fun way of course. ;-)

BTW – instead of belittling “saccharine” emotions, why not redeem them? What is wrong with childlike, tender affection toward the Lord?

Working to make you argue with me from home . . .

Duke sponsored a Beyond the DVC event, and it’s pretty high powered. Download and listen.

Artist, BHT friend and excellent lurker Michael Buckley is selling some of his work on ebay. Give it a look. The BHT comic book can’t be far behind.

Atlanta area BHT readers ought to consider a 3d at the Ravi event at the Fox theater. Wish I could take in one of these. I have DVDs and they are excellent.

Doug Wilson finally has a post on the Wright/Borg matter. The comments thread will be vaguely familiar.

Lurkers have been sending some good links. That pomo emergent guy in Woodstock sends me this piece on tattoos and pastors. You might need a “Bugmenot.com” password, but it’s worth it.

Another lurker makes an interesting observation about R.C. Sproul’s presentation at t TFG:

Didn’t I hear this at the Ligonier Conference in Dallas in 1994? Nearly the same talk?

One can’t tell from Challies’ summary if Sproul spent a lot of time on NPP and Noll’s “Is the Reformation Over?” thesis. Perhaps he did, and if so, good for Sproul. Or, perhaps Sproul’s mention of NPP and Noll was a sentence or two. The bulk of Challies’ summary sounds much like a talk from 1994 and a few Ligonier audio tapes from the mid-90s on the Roman system.

I think it a worthy task to compare and contrast Reformation theology from Roman theology. However, it’s odd that instead of addressing substantively the current challenges (NPP and Noll) to historic Reformed understandings of justification, Sproul addresses…..Tridentine Rome.

Another lurker tells me that a major document will soon be published in this space: PresbyteriansTogether.org. It’s a call for charitable theologizing in the reformed family. I wish them ever success. If you are Presby and feel the current atmosphere for doing theology needs some savoring with the salt of charity, this will be of interest to you.

Another lurker says Wright is a liberal and we need to embrace that:

Michael, I am new at lurking around here. I am a somewhat liberal evangelical, strike that, I am a liberal somewhat evangelical (left of Wright anyway), and I have to disagree with the defense of Wright that thinks he has mispoken or that he is at least wrong if he didn’t misspeak. He seriously means what he says and considers a theological liberal to be every bit as much a Christian as he is if they follow Jesus as Lord. Too many Wright followers are ex-fundies and still want to send people to hell for not toeing the line on these historical determinations. They think Wright can still salvage that way of thinking for them. But he can’t in my opinion and probably wouldn’t try. I posted to this effect at … site after you, and at more length at … Anyway just wanted to say good job defending Wright, but don’t apologize for his remarks. By the way Borg has done more good for the mainline world than Wright has so far. I’m not sure how many are aware of that. Wright is though.

I’ve been spending the afternoon tinkering with Clay’s new computer. (He turns 18 Monday and graduates in two weeks.) It’s a hoss. Sager makes some incredible machines.

That would depend on which meaning of love you mean, wouldn’t it? ;)

I’d argue that the various Greek words that we translate love represent meanings that are good, though some can also represent corruption. But, what often passes for love to many today has little to do with any of those ideas. The resident philosophers can have at it beyond that. What I think Bill (of the BHT) and I ultimately agree on, though, is that saccharine emotion should not be considered to be love.

When did it become that? I dont know, but as I’m just young enough, I’ll blame the 60s. 8)

In honor of this discussion, someome can play Tina Turner’s “What’s love got to do with it” on the pub jukebox. This pub does have a jukebox, doesn’t it?

When did love become a sappy emotion?

Jason: My bad.  I was wondering how anyone could think my post was a positive endorsement.  I’m glad my communication skills aren’t that bad.

What the heck?

I wonder which came first, “Justice Sunday” or schlocky patriotic movies being screened for churches? Any link?

Citizens of heaven, folks, we’re citizens of heaven.

Jason is referring to Bill at Thinklings. Follow the original link where Jason speaks about the bar across the street.

Bill, are you referring to this? If so, I don’t recall commenting on it. (Unless you are calling out another Jason. If so, my bad.) The Bill I was referring to is here, unless you are one and the same and I’m just ignorant. In any case, I was connecting Michael’s post to this one. (I’m really going to irritate them with all the pingbacks!) When I said “feel the love” I was just expressing appreciation that the two things I read today made me think of the gospel.

As to your sentiment about a sappy equating of Jesus to “luv”, I’m with ya there.

Jason: While I appreciate and agree with your post, I think you misunderstood mine.  I found the pastor’s “Jesus = love” statement to be highly offensive.  Reducing the life of the most important and influencial person in the universe to a sappy emotion makes me sick.  I felt like swatting him upside the head.  (not very loving, I know)

Michael, I forgot about that essay. I remember reading it last year when I was introduced to your site. I like the combination of your essay and Bill’s post as a prelude to the Gospel. It’s a powerful reminder (to me anyway) that we are the lost, the least, the unloved, and we hate God, each other, and ourselves (at least by our actions). It also reminds me that in spite of all the inter-blog and interfaith sniping that goes on, God still loved us enough to send Jesus to die and rise again and save our sorry backsides. You’ve got to love the gospel. Just when you don’t know what to say at a Bible study or a worship service, the simple truth reveals itself. Jesus is Lord – feel the love, y’all.

The #1 Internet Monk essay of all time was on the topic “Why Do They Hate Us?” I got over 100 emails from atheists on this essay. Predictably, a lot of Christians said I was wrong, and what people disliked was the Gospel, not us. Riiiiight.

Bill over at the the blog across the road wrote a nice post last night about our need to love each other. It hit me enough where I live that I thought it worth sharing the love.

Jason, something that my wife has forgiven but will never forget is that I didn’t notice her until she was more than halfway down the aisle. Our flower-girl was my soon-to-be niece and thinking that she was supposed to make it all of the way to the front before my wife started I kept my eye on the cute four year-old instead of the beautiful twenty-three year-old.

Kent, I may have been redundant. With no science to back me up, I was thinking of the sexual part as a subset of the biological part. It may have been a meaningless distinction, but it satisfied my strange need to write words/thoughts in groups. 8-)

As for Adam seeing Eve for the first time, I like how Bill Cosby put it. He saw her and said, “whoa, man!”

In a strange way, I like to relate that thought to my wedding day, when standing at the altar and seeing my bride enter the sanctuary. I pity the man who didn’t feel that way at that time. (It’s something like the stupor Michael mentioned, but amplified 1000-fold. I expected it, and enjoyed every second.)

Wow, that’s a major bummer for plants and bacteria.

Bob and Buffy however, may have a future.

Josh said ‘gametes’. Heh.

Josh’s scripture rewrites are majorly funny.

The Church and the Pawnshop (from Mere Comments)

A good summary of the “Why Men Hate The Church” movement. There is a lot being said here that we need to listen to.

The Kiwi is raising some questions about churchless Christians. He always make me realize I have to think outside of the box.

A few notes about Bob taking note of Buffy.

1) When Bob goes to Bible study, if he’s not telling himself that he’s going to notice Buffy and several other women, he’s a moron.

2) Bob needs to be living with his sexuality in a way that a) doesn’t criminalize his own existence and b) doesn’t excuse his own sinfulness. One of the best ways to deal with that is honest HUMOR. I learned this from my dad, who laughed at sex constantly, and was one of the most pure-of-heart men I ever knew. He had a fearful respect for what sex could do, but when he would uncover one of my sexual transgressions- including one involving a car breakdown in a farmer’s field late one night, with a “friend”- he was extremely forgiving and gracious. He taught me to laugh at the absurdity of sexuality and that we can never transcend our sexuality, but we can often be victorious over it by treating ourselves as fools to whom God (and the fall) have given an impossible assignment.

3) Bob’s “lingering” looks and thoughts are parts of his life he MUST become more aware of. He must comprehend them and what is going on as it happens…or before if possible. The great problem I have with sexual attraction is the bio-chemical induced emotional-rational STUPOR it puts me in. It’s a “zone” and a mature man has to know the “zone” is there and has to know that when he’s in it, he’s frequently on cruise control and will comprehend too much after he’s “awake.” GET AWAKE NOW. Deal with what’s on the horizon NOW.

4) Older couples have a lot to teach us. Grandma is usually not quite as freaked out as Bob’s young wife about the fact that grandpa is still looking at the waitress after she’s left the table. She may kick him, which he deserves, but she doesn’t go home crying, squawking that “you don’t love me….”

Jason, isn’t it interesting that ‘biological/sexual being’ is redundant? (Not trying to correct, just trying to point out the nature of biological beings.) If I remember correctly from my barely survived biology class of twenty years ago, in order for things to be considered ‘life’ they must eat, excrete and reproduce.

So it seems to me that the simple truth of our biological nature demands sexuality.

If that’s not enough in itself it seems significant that the first time that God noted that what he’d created was not simply good but very good was when he created Eve…and when Adam saw her he said the Hebrew equivilent of “Oh Wow, Oh Wow, Oh My, Oh My”.

I don’t believe that God discouraged him at all at that moment.

Travis, the most freeing thing that happened to me as a biological/sexual being is to learn to discard popular culture’s notions of beauty. I wish desparately that I could expand and expound on that, but it is still too subjective and intuitive for me to put into words. I still struggle with what I see, and I still struggle against the barage of voices that tell us what beautiful is, but if more men and women could learn to see beauty as an idea that has to do with so much more than mere physical appearance, so many sins and troubles could be avoided.

BTW, have you considered cosolidating the links to your Plastic Goddess posts? They’re quite good.

I wonder how much of the problem we see today as western Christians has to do with the Victorian and Puritan influence on our church culture. Though today’s society is far removed from those ways and values, their influence is still felt. I often look with envy on other cultures that don’t seem to worry about these things. (Of course, they have their own sins to deal with.)

Travis, I don’t know if I’d put it like that. Today (I’ve heard it even from a pulpit or two) men are the brunt of jokes and we all know what “he’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight� means. If we are a spouse, we are responsible for keeping our “one flesh� intact and our mate satisfied. There are a lot of tempations out there and if a spouse doesn’t provide a healthy sexual outlet, somebody else will supply an unhealthy one

Ellen, agreed.  The problem comes when the progression goes something like this.

1. Men are considered “visual” beings when it comes to sex, and so they can’t help but look at all those Hollywood girls.


2. Women are told (whether directly or indirectly) that they must be just as concerned with how they look and how sexy they are in order to keep their husbands from adultery.  Hence, it’s the wife’s responsibility, not the husband’s, to keep from adultery of the heart.


3. Women become depressed and the whole thing backfires, because you have to have millions of extra dollars and 8 hours more free time each day to compete with Hollywood girls.

I guess what I’m getting at is just what everyone else is getting at. Husbands and wives work at this together.  It’s not solely the responsibility of one or the other to keep the husband from gawking at Buffy.  I just think men need to find a way to gain understanding of what real beauty is and not believe the Hollywood version.

Michael, your abject refusal to use categories proves your pomo tendencies.

Would it make sense to turn the categories into (jn’s) and (sw’s) and such?

Christopher: Well, I’m not sure I want to actually go to all that trouble (modifying the template) for something I wouldn’t actually use. I was hoping we could pass in something like ”&posts=50” on the URL. :-(

Michael, it’s due to my inclusive rather than exclusive nature. Would you prefer I limit myself to one category per post?

Mod: I just didn’t know what was going on. I don’t use categories so I was just a bit puzzled. Categorize away.

Kent: Could you shed some light on why your posts have multiple categories? Are you checking those boxes or is something else going on?

Ellen, my mom and her husband were at our home for a rather difficult visit these past few days. Most of the difficulty centered about my mother’s husband of the last twenty-seven years; a fellow teacher she married when I was nineteen. He was actually my driver’s education teacher and was known at the highschool they taught at and I attended as somewhat of a drunkard. He was popular – kids liked him – but it was evident to them that his life was ruled by intoxication.

My mom, in comparing the two men she married, said of her second husband: “At least he’s a happy drunk”. Which I guess in her economy of time and place was a compliment; to me it’s always been a sad commentary.

I’m thankful for the wonderful times I had with my father before his death; grateful that he left me with enough paternal love to hang onto that despite his alcoholism and self-inflicted death I was able to accept the Father above as a Father indeed.

I got pretty ticked at him when I had to take care of the mother (my grandmother) he left behind without his help and my wedding day was saddened by his absence. I’m forty-five and would still appreciate his presence in my life…I write that and a voice in my head said: “If he sobered up”.

I’m thinking about parenthood a lot as we work through our homestudy and prepare for adoption. I think I’ll end with a quote from Bed and Board by Robert Capon; I just finished it over lunch.

I find that my fine generalities have dashed themselves to pieces against the six very concrete children that I have. I live surrounded by a mixture of violence and loveliness, of music and insensitivity. I take my meals with clods and poets, but I am seldom certain which is which. Nowhere is my life less reducible to logic than in my children; nowhere are my elegant attempts at system ground more violently to powder than under the stumbling stone of the next generation. Far from having advice to give you, I am dumfounded by them and admit it. And yet I rejoice too, for nowhere is there so much to keep me sane. I apologize in advance but I know only one word to describe it: It is absurd.

Kent, my son’s dad died when Tom was 14.  There are part of helping him become a man that I simply cannot help with and that is frustrating

Kent, whoops…that was supposed to be PWinn…

Christopher: Why would you say such a thing to a social worker?

Kent, the URL would have to be generated in the template using PHP:
In PHP, set some variables like $day, $month, and $year using WordPress’s the_date(); function (i.e. the_date(‘Y’) would give the year, the_date(‘m’) would give the month, and the_date(‘Y/m/d’) would give the current taxonomy of year/month/date), then splice them together with get_bloginfo(‘url’).
So, a generic link (which could go underneath the Date marker) would be:
get_bloginfo(“url”) . ”/archives/” . the_date(“Y/m/d”) . ”/?order=asc”;

Ellen, To Own a Dragon will be wonderful and painful for them, as it was to me.  My father died when I was fourteen and I was stunned at how insightfully Don described and advised my struggles with this loss.  In an interview about the book somewhere or another Don stated that he felt that he was always about ‘ten years behind’ everyone else.

Don’s thirty-five and I pridefully battled with the fact that a guy ten years my junior could inspire me so deeply and be so durned wise; then I remembered saying to a friend some time ago that I felt like I was ‘twenty years behind’ everyone else…which makes me Don’s emotional peer at a developmental age of twenty-five.  Oh well, I guess immaturity is better than no maturity at all!

Kent, my son (agge 19) is devouring Donald Miller’s books – all of them.  And now he’s loaning them out to friends (some believers and some not).

We were talking about “Through Painted Deserts” and he still remembers nearly ten years ago when we were on vacation and I was telling the kids that not only does God put us in people’s path when we need help, He puts people in our path when they need help.  We were traveling in a full size van and had taken a lot of “extras” and as we were having this discussion we passed a couple in a small car going up the mountain – the hood was open and steam was coming out.

We turned the van around and pulled up behind them and asked what they needed.  Because of the “extras” (which had been poked fun at along the way), we “happened” to have two gallons of coolant – exactly what these folks needed.

But we did make a point of saying that God had prepared for this – both to the couple and to our kids.

And I believe that if we make a habit of saying (often) “God is good”, we understand that God is even in the small things – or maybe even mostly in the small things.

Loved this from a Relevant Magazine interview with Donald Miller, it seems to speak to a level of integrity that’s become rare in market-driven ‘Christian Writing’:

RM: Yeah, I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. It’s actually a positive thing in that most Christian writers seem to have an inability to write from where they actually are. They end up writing from where they should be, or think that they are supposed to be. I see it as you being honest. There’s a certain restlessness that comes with being an American; you see it in Samuel Clemens’ life, Jack Kerouac’s life. That ultimate American restlessness, that desire to wander is captured, I think, in your book …

DM: Well, writing the book the first time I was reading Steinbeck and Hemingway and Kerouac, and my natural tendency is to write prose and to be poetic, and there’s a lot of that in Through Painted Deserts, but because I wanted to write it like an American book, it’s toned down much more than it would be in another book.

RM: As a Christian writer, where do you want to go? Do you feel like you’re a part of a certain movement of writers that are helping to change some things in Christian culture?

DM: It’s becoming OK to write reality. But here’s the struggle: there’s a whole boatload of Christian writers who are unable to process reality, and because of that there’s just a few of us who are doing an OK job and are getting famous off it. And you just kind of go, “That would be ridiculous if it was in any other culture besides church culture.” There’s this thing in religious culture where you need to be this kind of person, you need to be an example, and you have to be a role model, and that’s no longer true—you can just be a friend and tell the truth.

RM: Right. You can look at Jesus’ disciples in the Gospels and realize they are running around not doing a good job of being role models …

DM: ... And they’re so amazing at writing reality. They were just writing what happened. I mean, can you imagine if … you know, pick your favorite Christian author and imagine if they’ve just spent a couple years with Christ, and the publisher says, “I want you to write 70 pages on the essence of who Christ was and what happened.” You would not get the Gospels … you just wouldn’t. You would get sap, melodrama … you would get emotional manipulation. You would get points, in terms of, “Let’s boil this down and get five critical ideas that are an acronym.” That’s what you would get.

What’s great is that with Lauren Winner, Chris Seay, David Dark and some of these guys, it’s OK to say, “This is what really happened.” Unfortunately, there’s a bit of disconnect sometimes with other Christians. I did an interview with a Christian television station, and this very, very sweet lady was doing the interview, and she said, “In this book, the two of you pray that God will send a mechanic to fix the van. God sends a mechanic, he fixes the van, and then you drive off and never mention it again. You never mention that God showed up; you never pray and thank God. Why did you write it like that?” And I said, “Because we didn’t.”

Scott, you said, “Over the past 4 months, I’ve had more discussions with various armchair theologians on the importance of works in the Christian walk.

A dear friend describes that as “grace gets you saved, works keep you saved.”

Annie: I think sometimes that it is the circles we travel in. There are times I’m stunned at the attitude of women toward men.

On women being “responsible” for “competing” with other women. Travis, I don’t know if I’d put it like that. Today (I’ve heard it even from a pulpit or two) men are the brunt of jokes and we all know what “he’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight” means. If we are a spouse, we are responsible for keeping our “one flesh” intact and our mate satisfied. There are a lot of tempations out there and if a spouse doesn’t provide a healthy sexual outlet, somebody else will supply an unhealthy one.

As far a “Buffy” goes – guys, women know what they’re doing. There’s a difference between having a figure that you can’t hide and flaunting it and we know the difference.

...leap to the front of the church and bludgeon the pastor with a hymnal during a memorial service, so I restrained myself, but I did pick up some interesting insights from him. (uber-JN). (btw, he said it took half his career to figure this out)

“Anytime you see the word Jesus in the bible, you can insert the word love”.

That was the last mention of Jesus in his musings. He did read a poem by Frost and excerpts from Alice in Wonderland for our edification. He even occasionally mentioned the person we were memorializing, but it was clearly an afterthought.

(this wasn’t my church)

First, for those who complain about the BHT being “upside down,” you can read from top to bottom with a little manual tweaking of our URL to add ?order=ASC. For example, to read today’s posts top to bottom, use this link. I’m not sure how to construct an URL that will tell WordPress to display “today’s posts” or “the last 50 posts,” but someone else might.

You’re welcome.

Secondly, a friend and lurker sent me a nice summation of the Federal Vision brouhaha that I like because it reminds me so very much of my own summations. Not in quality—his is much better, more detailed, and so on—but in tone. In short: these guys have primarily pastoral concerns and are within the bounds of orthdoxy. Whether they’re correct or not is another question, as the author is at pains to point out.

A third thing: I have to say thanks to Christopher. I’m delighted that you were able to read back through the BHT discussion and change your mind on the resurrection. I feared that I’d been ungracious to the point of obscuring what I was trying to say. I’m impressed that you looked beyond that and revised your view.

That’s the BHT: enforcing orthodoxy one person at a time!

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Over the past 4 months, I’ve had more discussions with various armchair theologians on the importance of works in the Christian walk. These discussions have run the gamut from “Christians should be good people, and their works may reflect on their heart” to “I have a list of 53 sins that will send you to crisp in the fires of hell”. Works, works, works, works, works…

You ask them a question about grace, and all of the sudden, grace is conditional… not only conditional, but not even defined as “unmerited favor”. Faith? Pfft. Worthless unless you can be a good little boy or girl (and one guy apparently defined “good girl” as “no-makeup-wearing, no-jeans-wearing, and a burka wouldn’t be a bad idea so that you don’t cause other people to lust and thus get sent to hell with you”.

Ironically, my pastor taught on this exact subject this past week… apparently, he went to a free-lunch deal sponsored b one of the various tape duplicator companies, where the representative got up and gave a sermon (as opposed to a sales pitch, I guess) for 20 minutes that was little more than “you’d better watch out, you’d better not cry, you’d better not pout, and I’m tellin’ you why: Jesus Claus is comin’ to GETCHYA!!!”

Booga Booga Booga.

I had lunch with him yesterday and we both had a good laugh over it. He said unto me, “You know, Scott – it was almost like watching the Catholic TV channel”. I said unto him, “kinda – except I don’t think the Catholics are THAT much into works… their works are more sacrements than actual ‘be good’-Elliot-type-E.T.-inspired theology.”

He said, “you know – you’re right… these Baptists are more into works than the 15th-Century Catholic Church ever was.”

After these past few months, I think I’m going to go disappear up a mountain for a few days.

These two sentences don’t exactly follow each other, except in the “man as beast� view of male sexuality. Your husband can’t help his sexual desire and that’s a good thing, but monogamy is a project for the entire marriage. 

Excellent.  I knew I wasn’t hearing what I thought I was hearing.

Our man can choose what to do, but he can’t choose the fact that the female form is sexually appealing to him. His choices from there are entirely his and entirely moral.

“Listen, your husband can’t help his sexual desire. So you’ve got to be all sexy and seductive and keep him away from all those other women.â€? These two sentences don’t exactly follow each other, except in the “man as beast” view of male sexuality. Your husband can’t help his sexual desire and that’s a good thing, but monogamy is a project for the entire marriage.

I’m going to make an attempt to clarify on the sex discussion, because I must be misunderstanding what I’m hearing (reading, whatever).  I entirely agree that sexual desire is biological (um, for men and women, by the way).  What I don’t agree with is that, because sexual desire is biological, we throw our hands up in the air and say, “Well, men just can’t help themselves.  They’ve got to stare at Buffy’s cleavage and want to have sex with her (even the married ones), and that’s ok, ‘cause it’s normal biology.”

It’s also not OK to then say to Christian women, “Listen, your husband can’t help his sexual desire.  So you’ve got to be all sexy and seductive and keep him away from all those other women.”  We simply cannot put our wives in competition with other women.  That can only result in disaster.

“has no f******g idea” = “are perhaps ill-informed on this topic”

“has his head up is a**” = “is, quite possibly, slightly off in his understanding, from my perspective.”

“is a stupid s******d” = “may have some doctrinal differences with me on matters I feel quite passionate about.”

“should go f**** himself” = “I wish he would drop this issue, because I’m very tired of discussing it, and I’m too far into denial to get help for my compulsive blogging.”

Michael,

As a UK lurker who likes the BHT & iMonk ethos and ambience, I’m going to I stick my head over the parapet to wonder whether my American cousins underestimate how British Tom Wright is in his verbal communication and how understated his comments are. I read:

“belief in the bodily resurrection is foundational” = “you’re not a Christian if you don’t believe in it”
“I actually think that’s a major problem and it affects most of whatever else he does, and I think that it means he has all sorts of flaws as a teacher” = “he’s not”

“but I don’t want to say he isn’t a Christian” = “I’m not dropping my friend in it, and ultimately only God can judge”.

Strikes me you just can’t get out of your own culture to understand us Brits – what hope for understanding 1st Century Jews?

I’m available as a personal coach, if anyone is interested. I’m actually considering seeking some certification in this area. (Yes, this is serious, and no, it is not about me being a negative example.)

A 16 page, 1984 Macintosh Ad. I found the explanation of the workings of a mouse scintillating.

My career as a Baptist evangelist is over. I return to chapel preaching- and maybe blogging- tomorrow.

These eleven quotes from Jazz artists co-opted for this site on presentations seemed to co-opt well for my own photographic art. Good stuff (‘S’-word alert).