This is just really, really creepy. Reminds me of one of those videos you see of all the children singing for some communist dictator. You be the judge:
Did you get those lyrics:
We’re gonna spread happiness
We’re gonna spread freedom
Obama’s gonna change it
Obama’s gonna lead ‘em
We’re gonna change it
And rearrange it
We’re gonna change the world.
Do people really believe this drivel? Yeesh.
Jimmy Hopper sent this NY Times Book Review link to the Book Club, — it’s a great review of Marilynne Robinson’s new Book Home.
Gilead was my first exposure to Ms. Robinson. When I first heard that Gilead was about an old pastor about to die, I thought, “There is no way she will be able to accurately depict the a) office b) the sex c) the age and d) the religious depth of Christianity without stooping to caricatures. But she did it. And it was brilliant. I am hoping for only something half as good in Home.
This month’s issue of Gospel Today features 5 female pastors on its cover. Lifeway Christian Bookstores (a non-profit branch of the Southern Baptist Convention) made a decision to place the magazine out of sight and sell it upon request, only— due to their official stance that women cannot be pastors.
Roland Martin had a blistering commentary on their decision. His argumentation reached its pinnacle by crying out that Lifeway must treasure freedom of press just as much as it treasures freedom of religion. An empty argument, considering that his targeted audience doesn’t value the Constitution as much as it does the Bible.
But herein lies another mystery, pointed out by Sarah Vander Wal:
While I’m totally on board with the theology that women should not be pastors, I am still surprised by the actions of LifeWay. Why? Because of all the crap they DO have in their store. Example: Last time I was there, I saw a book titled, “How to Get the Most Out of God.”
Point taken, Sarah. Of all the things to hide from the kiddies and impressionable Chistians, why start with Gospel Today?
For the next 4 weeks (5 weeks, including last week, Sept. 15 - Oct. 17) Common Grounds Online will be hosting an online forum discussing the turmoil and theological trajectories in the PCA.
Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, John Frame, Reggie Kidd and sixteen other church leaders will be participating.
I am more than a little partial to the younger set, but I think it would be worthwhile to examine where the rifts are becoming wider and where bridges need to be mended or rebuilt. I will also shamelessly plug my friend Glen Lucke’s new book that covers the outline of these discussions. Amazon link, here.
Evidently E! Entertainment Television was captivated by The Way’s rendition of “The Renewed Mind is the Key”. The Friday, September 19th broadcast:
I realize that unbelievers can’t identify the best parts of the Redemptive story(except, perhaps, moralism), but they sure can recognize the worst.
This post is a convergence of several ideas:
1) John Piper’s Desiring God Ministry is hosting a conference September 26-28. This year’s theme is “The Power of Words and the Wonder of God.” Among the scheduled speakers there are: Sinclair Ferguson, Mark Driscoll, Paul Tripp, and of course, John Piper. There have been two promotional videos on YouTube that have created quite a stir.
This one:
And this one:
Keep in mind that Ferguson, Piper, Tripp, and Driscoll are Reformed believers. Ferguson and Tripp are both PCA ministers.
2) Seattle resident, Seth McBee, (loyal Riverwood podcast listener) hosts the blog site Contend Earnestly. Recently, he has been under fire for his position that there is an appropriate time to use “inelegant” words (Dorothy Sayers) for the glory of God. He would like to hear some other Reformed believers weigh in. So, let’s open up the opinion banks and begin a hearty discussion…
The woman in question is Sarah Palin. Check out this article from the NY Sun. It chronicles the reactions of some women in New York upon Gov. Palin’s selection as McCain’s running mate. Here is a representative sample:
“All of my women friends, a week ago Monday, were on the verge of throwing themselves out windows,” an author and political activist, Nancy Kricorian of Manhattan, said yesterday. “People were flipping out. … Every woman I know was in high hysteria over this. Everyone was just beside themselves with terror that this woman could be our president — our potential next president.”
“What I feel for her privately could be described as violent, nay, murderous, rage,” an associate editor at Jezebel, Jessica Grose, wrote just after the Republican convention wrapped up. “When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded from the incandescent anger boiling in my skull.”
and
Eve Ensler … said she was disturbed by the chants about oil and gas drilling during Mrs. Palin’s speech to the Republican convention. “I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination.”
Add these to the quote that serves as the title of this post.
What is wrong with these people? Are they mentally ill? I know I’m one-sided about politics, but I don’t know anybody on my side who goes into a “murderous rage” on the sight of Obama.
I think reactions like this are a lot of what’s wrong with politics today. It’s OK to disagree with the other side, but this is just crazy. Thank God, there’s a lot more to life than politics.
The Company: AIG
The Motto: “the Strength to be There”
The Headline: “AIG Booted out of DOW”
The Critical Response: “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing”
Enjoy some of AIG’s commercials below:
Before I get into it, “9/11” was a horrible, awful, and grievous event. I believe that.
At the somber ceremonies yesterday, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said:
Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day our world was broken. It lives forever in our hearts and our history, a tragedy that unites us in a common memory and a common story.
Never one to be left out, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said,
The entire world is linked in our circle of sorrow.
Both comments made me smile. Bloomberg either has a very shallow understanding of world history or he has a selective memory. Tragic though it was, the world has been re-shattering itself for centuries. And centuries. In the words of my two-year old son, “It got broked,” much earlier. Adam set quite a precedent for disturbing the peace.
The second comment made me smile due to Giuliani’s unwitting, border-line profundity. We are all linked in our circle of sorrow. However, our link is not found in 9/11 but in our common depravity. And he was so close, too.
This is really unbelievable. Watch this:
Everyone who’s even a casual reader of this blog knows how much I love watching political drama. This, however, is going completely off the rails. I know nothing of Rep. Cohen, whether he claims to be a Christian or not. If he does, then he is in serious need of rebuke about who Jesus is and what he was on this earth to do. It wasn’t “community organizing.” Suggesting such (on the floor of the House of Representatives, no less) either demonstrates shocking levels of ignorance or the cynical manipulation of his own religion for political gains.
If he’s not a Christian, then he’s the dumbest politician EVER (and that’s a prize for which there are many competitors). How many Christians will be offended by this? How many ordinary folks (especially women) who are not rabid partisans will be put off (or insulted) at Gov. Palin being likened to Pontius Pilate? Comparing your party’s candidate to Jesus? And the opposing Veep is Pilate? Disrespecting the religion of the overwhelming majority of people in this country is idiotic.
This attack is mean and offensive.
I like change. I really do. I just want things that should change, to be the things that do the changing. I don’t want trees to stay the same. They grow, they go through seasonal cycles, and then they rot, die, and fall on my roof. I want to see them change colors and then go to sleep for the winter. Trees are supposed to do that. But I don’t want something that is immutable (unchangeable) to be displayed as a shape-shifting conformer to the trendy cultures of men. You may think you want a God who is casually accessible through your current avant-garde tastes, vocabulary, and styles. But will you respect him in the morning? Will you respect him 20 years from now, dressed in polyester, rayon, mumbling, “Groovy, my child.”?
My growing love for “traditional” liturgy reflects this idea. The way I worship God, now, must be acceptable 20 years from now, because it reflects the immutable attributes of God—that are not cyclically shed or adopted by the Church’s whims. (WCF, shorter catechism, Q&A #4: What is God? God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his Being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.)
Walk with me, if you will, down memory lane:
“Jesus is My Friend” (Bonus: Christian Ska’s early years)
and….
“The Renewed Mind is The Key” (Bonus: seamless choreography)
Kudos to those who watched until the end. You did what I could not.
The reaction to Sarah Palin seems to be overwhelmingly positive, judging by the poll numbers. McCain/Palin now leads among the totally-crucial independent vote in Gallup’s latest survey by a whopping 15 points. McCain also has improved his standing with women voters to almost tied. I highly recommend this Bill Kristol article on Palin’s appeal as a Wal-Mart Mom. The basic thesis is that Palin’s appealing because she lives a life not terribly different from most ordinary folks, and they can identify with her. This makes it extremely problematic for her opponents to attack her. And, they should be especially careful of condescension. Enter Michelle Obama.
Now, remember that the First Rule of Holes is that when in one, it’s best to stop digging. Obama’s polls are slipping, as mentioned above, his fundraising appears to be declining, and Palin is out there connecting with ordinary folks really well. With that backdrop, Michelle Obama went to a Hollywood fundraiser, where a pool reporter named Patrick McDonald, was in attendance. Mr. McDonald works for LA Weekly, a gay magazine. Here’s the important quote from his article:
Obama then moved on to politics, where she first brought up her husband’s vice-presidential choice. “I think it was a really good pick—Senator Joe Biden,” she said, and later added, “People say they have amazing chemistry, and it’s true.” Obama continued with talk about Biden when she said, “What you learn about Barack from his choice is that he’s not afraid of smart people.” The crowd softly chuckled.
Wow. What a dumb thing to say. I have long thought that Michelle would wind up being a net liability for her husband in the long run (recall her comments about being proud of her country for the first time?). I offer this tidbit in further support of that view.
So, you all knew that I couldn’t keep silent over the Palin nomination for too long. Personally, Palin was my pick all along, but I never dreamed that McCain would actually have the guts to pick her. McCain is proving me wrong more and more often. As I’ve said before, despite several significant policy differences with him, I’m coming to really like McCain.
I delayed in commenting on Palin to see what the media and blog reaction to her would be. I knew she’d be controversial, but I never knew it would be anything like what it’s been. I have never seen anything like this before. We are witnessing a media and liberal meltdown the likes of which this country (though perhaps not the UK) has never been through.
Where to start? I could spend hours providing links, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. I suppose everyone who hasn’t been in a cave for the last week has heard about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy. Everyone also knows that Trig Palin, the 4 month old child with Downs Syndrome, was rumored by the Daily Kos to really be the child of Bristol, not Sarah, and that Sarah had faked her pregnancy to cover up Bristol’s - just like a recent Desperate Housewives plotline (not that I’d ever watch that or anything). This prompted the earlier-than-planned announcement of Bristol’s real pregnancy. I would link to this on Kos, but, in typical fashion for them, it’s been deleted. Here’s a Huffington Post story with a link to the original.
Now, if you’re the Obama campaign or a leftie in general, Sarah Palin presents a huge problem - how to you attack her? If you try the Kos stuff, you just look trashy. But, as the title of this post indicates, the woman hunts moose and knows how to use an M-16. Liberals have no paradigm for this. So, they’ve apparently decided that they’ll point out all these things that will upset religious conservatives or suburban moms. Case in point: Sally Quinn. Here’s a link to her completely over the top opinion piece on Palin. Money quotes:
And now we learn the 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant. She and the father of the child plan to marry. This may be a hard one for the Republican conservative family-values crowd to swallow. Of course, this can happen in any family. But it must certainly raise the question among the evangelical base about whether Sarah Palin has been enough of a hands-on mother… . Evangelical women also will have to decide if they will vote against their conscience by voting to put the mother of young children in a job outside the home that will demand so much of her time and energy.
and
Is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job? She is the mother of five children, one of them a four-month-old with Downs Syndrome. Her first priority has to be her children. When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick what choice will she make?
Unreal. Isn’t it amazing how post-modern liberal relativists like Sally Quinn have zero understanding of Christians? Bristol’s situation isn’t damaging to Palin among evangelicals at all. We didn’t just fall off a turnip truck. We know how easy it would have been for a politician to send her pregnant daughter off to the abortion clinic and have the problem quietly go away. But she didn’t do that. She’s living out what she believes, despite it being embarassing and potentially damaging to her political career. Not that this needed further proof, since she didn’t abort her son Trig, when over 80% of Downs Syndrome babies in this country are aborted.
Note also the condescension to all working parents - especially women. The obvious answer to the 3am question is that you get the dad to go see about the kid and take the call, if it’s that important. Believe this or not, even a CNN (!) anchor fired this rejoinder back at Quinn during an interview about this column:
Today’s latest kerfuffle involves a video that has surfaced of Palin addressing the church she grew up in (horrors!) and asking for prayer for the troops (of which her older son is one) and that their mission might be in accord with God’s will. Video is here. Is this supposed to upset someone? Pretty tame stuff, I think.
Bottom line is that the media (read: liberals) are in complete meltdown mode. (Michelle Malkin details the four stages of sexism against conservative women here. I think she’s dead on.) They have no paradigm for her and I think she scares the bejeebers out of them.
Exit predictions: Palin will not back down. Her speech tonight (to which yours truly will be GLUED) will be a grand slam homerun. The base of the party will be fired up like nothing McCain’s ever seen (he raised $7M in the 24 hours after her announcement, BTW). A week after the convention, McCain/Palin will be even with or outpolling Obama/Biden.
I’d like to hear anyone’s impressions of this situation, especially from women. Fire away!
Tomorrow is the day Marilynne Robinson’s new novel, Home, goes on sale. It is a continuation of the Gilead story and I’m sure it will be an early selection of the Riverwood Book Group. Ms. Robinson is one of the few serious Christian writers in the world today and this book is a big deal to me as, I’m sure, it is to many Christian (and non-Christian) readers in the postmodern literary wilderness.