Morning Report, July 10

First of all, Happy Birthday to Jean Cauvin, otherwise known as John Calvin!  Born in France in 1509, Calvin was trained as a lawyer, but encountered the writings of Luther and broke with the Catholic church in the 1520s.  After violence forced the Protestants out of France, Calvin fled to Switzerland, where, in 1536, be published the first edition of his Institutes of Christian Faith, a towering work in the history of theology.  See this article for more information.  While evangelicals differ on the positive or negative impact of Calvinist theology, there is no doubt that Calvin has wielded an enormous influence over all of Protestantism.

We “celebrate” today by offering a few videos for your enjoyment:

A trailer for a new documentary on Calvin, with some nice quotes from Calvin scholars:

And Marvin Olasky talking about Calvin’s influence on World Magazine and more generally:

Francis Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project, a prominent evangelical and frequent speaker at evangelical conferences such as the Veritas Forum, was named the head of the National Institutes of Health.  Collins today is one of the best known evangelical scientists and an effective spokesperson for the view that science and Christian faith can coexist peacefully and even productively.  World Magazine has a piece on Collins here.

Sarah Palin offers her own explanation for her resignation here.

A liberal and a conservative perspective on Obama’s stimulus bill.  People of faith, in my view, should listen to both sides and come to a reasonable view of how best to steward our national resources.

Charles Krauthammer is arguably the sharpest conservative commentator writing today.  Wherever you stand, anything he writes is worth considering.  Here he has reflections on Obama as a “foreign policy neophyte.”

A Christian perspective on the Bruno movie.

I missed this article about a week ago on America’s biggest mega-churches.  Evangelicals have all sorts of opinions, of course, on the role and impact of mega-churches.  I’d love to have the conversation someday about the plusses and minusses of mega-churches.