An excellent question, from comments: Is there any reason for hope? … What is there to be hopeful about? I think everyone has asked that question at some point. If you haven’t, then you should have — it’s one of the most important questions there is. And it’s a question that calls for more than one answer. Or maybe for one big answer in many, many parts. Here’s one part: That video is from Plant With Purpose, originally Floresta, a... Read more
Amos 5:10-15 They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who... Read more
Here’s another book for my list: Left Behind and Loving It, by D. Mark Davis. From Amy Frykholm’s review for The Christian Century: For people interested in the weird intersection of the Bible and American culture, this book does the trick of making you see better because you laugh more. Frykholm is herself author of Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America, which has made its way from being on my list of books to actually being in my pile... Read more
And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song … “All Four Seasons,” Sting “Autumn in New York,” Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong “Autumn Leaves,” Eva Cassidy “Autumn Leaves,” Nat King Cole “Autumn Sweater,” Yo La Tengo “Autumngirlsoup,” Kirsty MacColl “Door Into September,” Jacob Altemus “Four Seasons in One Day,” Crowded House “Four Seasons in One Day,” Mary Chapin Carpenter “The Late September Dogs,” Melissa Etheridge “Leaves on the Sidewalk After the Rain,” Jonathan Richman “Lullaby of the Leaves,” Chet Baker “Moondance,”... Read more
To those who say that our expenditures for Public Works and other means for recovery are a waste that we cannot afford, I answer that no country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order. Some people try to tell me that we must make up our minds that for the future we shall permanently have millions of unemployed... Read more
So says Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association: My argument all along has been that the purpose of the First Amendment is to protect the free exercise of the Christian religion. Fischer’s interpretation of the no-establishment clause of the First Amendment is that there is no establishment clause in the First Amendment. He believes that “the Christian religion” — that is, real, true Christianity according to his definition of it — is established, privileged and protected in a way... Read more
Sharp-eyed students of American pop-eschatologies may have noticed an inconsistency in the views I’ve attributed to Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann. The previous post cites a couple of examples of Bachmann repeating the sorts of conspiracy theories popular among “Bible prophecy” premillennial dispensationalist fans. Yet in an earlier post — “If Michelle Bachmann doesn’t want to be regarded as having close ties to dominionists then she should stop hiring them” — I noted that her campaign staff includes prominent... Read more
Matthew Avery Sutton argues “Why the Antichrist Matters in Politics” in a New York Times op-ed column. Writing for First Things, someone named Matthew J. Franck is deeply wounded that Sutton, rather than Matthew J. Franck, was invited to write for The New York Times. Franck’s response to Sutton’s column conveys three main points: 1) That Matthew J. Franck thinks very highly of the intellect and scholarship of Matthew J. Franck; 2) That no examples can be found to suggest... Read more
It’s not easy to tell the difference between a survey reporting a change in behavior patterns and a survey reflecting the same behavior, but a change in respondents’ willingness to be honest with pollsters. The latter is my guess as to what’s really revealed in the studies cited in Tyler Charles’ Relevant magazine article “(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It” — subtitled “A surprising new study shows Christians are having premarital sex and abortions as much (or more) than non-Christians.” “Surprising” to... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 413-417 We come today to the first kiss between Buck Williams and Chloe Steele. Jerry Jenkins is not a writer I trust to handle such a scene, and the involvement of Buck Williams as one of the parties to this kiss introduces a significant “ick factor,” so I’ve been anticipating this passage with something like the disgust expressed by a young Fred Savage in The Princess Bride — “Do we have to read the kissing parts?” I... Read more
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