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<\/a><\/p>\nThe controversy around Rob Bell\u2019s book has calmed enough for us to begin a series on his book, and we will begin that series this Friday. We will patiently examine the major ideas\/chps of his book.<\/p>\n
But we are glad to resume Weekly Meanderings\u2026\u00a0 back in action is the word<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cMonday was a nasty cold day. \u00a0Clouds, heavy as a cow\u2019s teat, hung overhead, threatening to drench anyone at any moment. I put on some sweats and thought about going to the club to workout but then figured, \u00a0why bother? This is the sort of day Jesus would pick to bust the sky wide open and come on back. So I stripped the sheets from the bed because Mama taught me that if you are expecting company you\u2019d better have clean linens. I\u2019m not at all sure what Emily Post would say on this matter, but being southern and all, I think it\u2019s only hospitable to ask Jesus to stay the night whenever he gets here. The distance between heaven and earth can seem so very great some days, I expect Jesus might be worn out when he arrives. Even if he can\u2019t stay the night, he might appreciate a clean bed and a nap.\u201d<\/p>\n A must-read from Mike Cope<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Adjustment Burea fan? Thomas Oord<\/strong><\/a> sees The Adjustment Bureau in terms of open theism: \u201cThere is so much more to this movie than what I\u2019ve described here. And this description comes after my seeing Adjustment Bureau one time. I plan to see it several more. I\u2019m sure that not everyone will like the conclusion of this movie. But for open theists, this flick comes as close as any in describing God\u2019s flexible plans and creaturely freedom. No movie can do full justice to all of my views of God, of course. I mean, how does a filmmaker depict an omnipresent being!?! But The Adjustment Bureau goes a long way toward sorting out the complex issues of love, freedom, God, and the future.\u201d<\/p>\n From Roger Olson<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cThose who accused Bell of teaching universalism based on promotion of Love Wins jumped the gun and owe him an apology.\u00a0 I won\u2019t hold my breath.\u201d<\/p>\n Our friend, JR Woodward<\/strong><\/a>, did a series on Rob Bell. Rachel Held Evans<\/strong><\/a>, a 20something, ponders what\u2019s becoming of evangelicalism.<\/p>\n Jim Martin<\/strong><\/a> has a wonderful post about 5 questions to ask before you quit, and before you move on, read the story of how he learned not to quit. Mike Glenn<\/strong><\/a> has a post we need to consider before we die. (Nice little serious subject on a Saturday AM.)<\/p>\n Nothing like a young professor\u2019s enthusiasm<\/strong><\/a> about a course the first time teaching it. And nothing quite like a young pastor\u2019s enthusiasm either, and an older pastor decided to offer some wisdom <\/strong><\/a>\u2014 and it\u2019s good wisdom. Here an older \u2014 but not very old<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 professor comments on his new book.<\/p>\n Announcement<\/em>:<\/p>\n Meanderings in the News<\/p>\n 1. Great feel-good story<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cIn the opening match of the night, Arizona State\u2019s Anthony Robles took a 7-1 decision from Iowa sophomore Matt McDonough. Robles, who was born without a right leg, got the only takedown in the first period of the match and worked a pair of tilts to secure five back points. \u201cI had a lot of butterflies going out there.,\u201d said Robles, who admitted he\u2019s most likely done as a competitive wrestler but wants to remain involved in one facet or another. \u201cThis year I think that was the biggest difference in my wrestling, was my mental game. Going into every match I was real relaxed, real calm. But before that, before this match, it was nothing but butterflies. I felt like I was going throw up, I was so scared I almost started crying. \u201cBut it\u2019s just the atmosphere. It\u2019s the true athletes that are able to just overcome that.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Kate Zernike<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cCAMBRIDGE, Mass. \u2014 When the\u00a0Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a> acknowledged 12 years ago that it had discriminated against female professors in \u201csubtle but pervasive\u201d ways, it became a national model for addressing gender inequity. Now, an evaluation of those efforts shows substantial progress \u2014 and unintended consequences. Among other concerns, many female professors say that M.I.T.\u2019s aggressive push to hire more women has created the sense that they are given an unfair advantage. Those who once bemoaned M.I.T.\u2019s lag in recruiting women now worry about what one called \u201ctoo much effort to recruit women.\u201d Much as a\u00a0report accompanying M.I.T.\u2019s acknowledgment<\/a> more than a decade ago offered a rare window on an institution tackling gender discrimination, the new study, being released Monday, shows how thorny the problem is \u2014 and not just at M.I.T. \u201cIt\u2019s almost as though the baseline has changed, because things are so much better now,\u201d said Hazel L. Sive, associate dean of the\u00a0School of Science<\/a>, who led one of the committees writing the report. \u201cBecause things are so much better now, we can see an entirely new set of issues.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Robert Pozen<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cLiberals should not be fighting Social Security reform \u2014 they ought to be leading the charge for change, for a simple reason: The program is no longer progressive. Contrary to popular opinion, the structure of federal retirement programs today favors middle and high earners over less well-off retirees.\u201d<\/p>\n 5. Andrew McCarthy<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u00a0argue<\/a> that, although President Obama\u2019s unilateral commencement of a war against Libya is constitutionally wrong, he clearly has the\u00a0power<\/em> to do what he has done, for there are no legal remedies. This is a political dispute, not a legal one. Congress, if it is so disposed, will have to flex its competing constitutional muscles to rein the executive branch in. The courts should not, and almost certainly will not, intervene.\u201d<\/p>\n 6. Jerry Markon<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cBERKELEY, Ill. \u2014 Safoorah Khan had taught middle school math for only nine months in this tiny Chicago suburb when she made an unusual request. She wanted three weeks off for a pilgrimage to Mecca. The school district, faced with losing its only math lab instructor during the critical end-of-semester marking period, said no. Khan, a devout Muslim, resigned and made the trip anyway. Justice Department lawyers examined the same set of facts and reached a different conclusion: that the school district\u2019s decision amounted to outright discrimination against Khan. They filed an unusual lawsuit, accusing the district of violating her civil rights by forcing her to choose between her job and her faith. As the case moves forward in federal court in Chicago, it has triggered debate over whether the Justice Department was following a purely legal path or whether suing on Khan\u2019s behalf was part of a broader Obama administration campaign to\u00a0reach out<\/a> to Muslims. The decision to take on a small-town school board has drawn criticism from conservatives and Berkeley officials, who say the government should not be standing behind a teacher who wanted to leave her students.\u201d<\/p>\n 7. Farhad Manjoo <\/strong><\/a>on e-books: \u201cAs convenient as they are,\u00a0I\u2019ve long worried<\/a> about the many ways in which e-book purveyors\u00a0restrict readers\u2019 rights<\/a>. You can\u2019t resell the books you purchase for the Amazon Kindle, and you can\u2019t read them on most other e-readers. We also don\u2019t really own e-books in the same way we own paperbacks\u2014Amazon has gone as far as\u00a0remotely deleting titles<\/a> from users\u2019 devices.\u201d<\/p>\n 8. Matt Soerens<\/strong><\/a> on ministry to the undocumented: \u201cThe church\u2019s Great Commission is to \u201cmake disciples of all nations\u201d (Matt. 28:19), and immigrants\u2014regardless of their legal status\u2014present a mission field at our doorstep. Churches should welcome immigrants, recognizing a divinely appointed mission opportunity. Welcoming immigrants who are here unlawfully, of course, raises new questions for many churches. First and foremost for many is, Are we breaking the law by helping? In general, the legal answer is no. In most states, it is entirely lawful to preach the gospel to undocumented immigrants as well as compassionately meet their tangible needs. We can minister effectively and still be fully in submission to God-ordained governing authorities. As laws change, though, Christians in some states may need to wrestle with whether their mandate to love immigrant neighbors requires civil disobedience.\u201d<\/p>\n 9. My friend Gerry McDermott<\/strong><\/a> got a kerfuffle going at First Things: \u201cEvangelical theology has long been divided between those who emphasize human freedom to choose salvation (Arminians) and those who stress God\u2019s sovereignty in the history of salvation (the Reformed). Now this old division has been overshadowed by a larger division between new opposing camps we may call the Meliorists and the Traditionists. The former think we must improve and sometimes change substantially the tradition of historic orthodoxy. The latter think that while we might sometimes need to adjust our approaches to the tradition, generally we ought to learn from it rather than change it. Most of the Meliorists are Arminian, and most of the Traditionists are Reformed, though there are exceptions on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n 10. Ten fastest growing cities in the USA<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanderings in Sports<\/p>\n<\/a>Vince Bacote<\/strong><\/a>, on pride and ambition: \u201cWhat is it about the pursuit of our ambition, our legitimate and godly desires for success in vocation, that can become poisonous when it meets that admiration and recognition of others? I\u2019m reminded of a conversation that I had with the late\u00a0Stan Grenz<\/a> at a conference in Nashville nearly a decade ago. I told Stan about my desire for an increase in public speaking opportunities as part of my vocational goals, and the first words out of his mouth were, \u201cIt\u2019s seductive.\u201d I was a bit stunned by this, because I thought he would give me some tips about how to accomplish my goals, yet the first words were a warning. As someone who did a lot of traveling and speaking, Stan was keenly aware of the pitfalls that ride along with those who travel the road of success. Stan never explicitly named the siren song with the sweetly dangerous tune, but my guess would be that he and John Piper had the same thing in mind: pride that can take root unnoticed and grow into a ravenous beast.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>2. This is not the first, nor is it the last<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cNearly half the city workers in Costa Mesa received layoff notices last week. Street sweepers. Firefighters. Mechanics. Payroll clerks. Animal control workers. In all, about 210 of the city\u2019s 472 employees, many of whom have worked there for decades. On Thursday, as the notices were being handed out, one\u00a0maintenance worker committed suicide<\/a> by jumping from the city hall roof. \u201cIt\u2019s like they decided to blow up the city,\u201d said Billy Folsom, 58, a mechanic who got a pink slip. \u201cIt\u2019s devastating.\u201d The cutbacks are necessary because the escalating costs of providing pensions for police, firefighters and other unionized employees are draining the city\u2019s revenue, city leaders say. Within three years, city projections show, more than one of every five tax dollars will be spent on employees\u2019 retirement benefits, which were made far more generous in the years before the stock market crashed in 2008.\u201cJust do the math \u2014 this is unsustainable,\u201d said Jim Righeimer, the city\u2019s recently elected mayor pro tem. He campaigned on the pension issue, eliciting anger and a counter-campaign from the city\u2019s police and firefighters. \u201cUnder these kinds of burdens, we can\u2019t do everything the city needs to do.\u201d<\/p>\n