Philosophical Fragments
The Christian and secular news and commentary one Christian found important or entertaining this morning:
1. THE PASSING OF A BROTHER. Certainly not entertaining, yet important, and saddening, is the passing of Michael Spencer, also known as the Internet Monk or iMonk. See our post on the subject here.
2. MINING HOPE. Our prayers are also with the families of the miners who died yesterday in a massive methane explosion. The life of a West Virginia coal miner is brutal enough already. 4 miners are still missing, and, if they have reached the rescue chamber, they have enough food and water to survive 96 hours. One family saw three members die while a fourth escaped.
3. RENEWING THEOLOGY. Graham Tomlin argues that the local church has neglected sound theological training for the past 200 years. Read the article at Christianity Today for why churches need to restore an emphasis on theology — and how it’s already happening. This, of course, was the subject of our first installment of the Cross Examinations series.
4. POLITICS ROUNDUP. CT‘s political advocacy roundup shows how some faith groups have responded to the use of GOP general funds (here is another, less serious response), how pro-life Democrats have come under fire, and who signed the “Covenant for Civility.”
5. REVIEW THE REVIEWERS. The Gospel Coalition has a slick new book review site.
6. FREE LAUGHS. Jon Acuff’s very funny Stuff Christians Like book is available in audio version for free.
7. REDEEMER INSIGHT. Justin Taylor has a helpful outline of Tim Keller’s views on 5 major problems facing the church — and how we can respond.
8. PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY. The nightmare continues for the Catholic Church in its clergy abuse scandal. It seems, however, that it may have been Cardinal Ratzinger’s number two, rather than the Cardinal (who is now the Pope) himself, who put the brakes on the proceedings against a priest accused of molesting as many as 200 deaf children between 1950 and 1974.
9. ACNE ON EVEREST. 13 year old Jordan Romero has already climbed Mount Kilamanjaro and Mount McKinley. Now he’s setting off to become, if successful, the youngest person to scale Everest.
10. BOMBING OUT. President Obama issues a new policy on nuclear weapon development and when nuclear weapons can be deployed.
11. FACE PLANTE. Some say the White House Press Corps is “teetering on the brink of obsolescence.” Is this a good or bad thing?
12. ILLEGAL ELIAN. Remember the exercise in absurdity that was the Elian Gonzalez controversy? Now Elian, ten years later, is shown attending a Young Communist Union congress. Elian was greeted as a national hero upon his return to Cuba; his father was elected to parliament, and Elian’s birthday is celebrated as a national holiday.
13. TO YOUR HEALTH. On the helpfulness of the just-passed health care reform legislation: Tom Harkin for the Left, and Norm Coleman for the Right.
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