Barackomania

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Watch'em swoon!



Maybe it's because they aren't getting enough fact in their diet?

h/t ModernCounterCulture

Great Reading for Great Lent

I ran across an EXCELLENT idea: reading the Church Fathers as a Lenten devotion.

There are two versions: one is pretty heavy, the other is light.

I hope that you'll consider doing one of them this Lent.

H is for Hypocrisy

On Wednesdays, I try to blog on a worship topic. However, my seminary has decided that the worship of perverse sexual acts and child rape is appropriate, so I'm interrupting my regular schedule.

(Sort-of...they promote it with the title V is for Venite. And venite is a legitimate liturgical topic which I'll need to return to at some point.)

Q is for Questionable Judgment

Here's the link to their site discussing the upcoming campus-sponsored production of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.

R is for Risible

Here's my response (which may or may not be on the site...they moderate, and I was censored in public discourse throughout parts of my seminary career):

I'm personally saddened to see the Women's Center sponsoring this play. In a notorious section, "The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could," a woman recounts how as a 13 yr old girl she is given alcohol and then seduced by a 24 yr old woman. In the original form (which has been unsatisfactorily redacted to omit it and change the age from 13 to 16), she dismisses the substance abuse and statutory violation by saying: "Now people say it was a kind of rape.... Well, I say if it was rape, it was a good rape...." In another segment, a six year old is queried about her genitalia (smells, names, etc.). As the father of beautiful little girl, I would be hard pressed to stay in my seat through such a performance.

The rest of the play wavers between diatribes against men and male-female sex as inherently violent, or about sexual practices that really deserve to stay in the bedroom. How this play actually addresses violence against women (especially when it is celebrated in the above scene), or opens frank conversations about the role men - and women - have in the sexualization of children and women (objectification is a prologue to rape and oppression) is perhaps beyond the scope of Wimminwise to answer. But it would be helpful to reflect on why this play at this seminary - of all the venues and content available - is appropriate and effective.

O is for Objection

Beyond the politicization of a day that Christians should remember for martyrs, they overturn a divinely-ordained institution (heterosexual marriage). Worse, marriage is meant to be a mysterious - almost sacramental - expression of the union of Christ and His Church. What are we to make of this from a seminary?

B is for Bias

Why is homosexual rape given a pass by an event promoted as anti-violence-against-women?

H is for Hypocrisy

We have a mandate to reform the culture to the Scriptural norm (the norming norm), not let culture corrupt the message of the Scriptures.

E is for End!!!

U is for Update: They posted my response. It was the same old "You don't know what you're talking about." However, I have it from an eyewitness that the attendance at these events has been blissfully low. As some one once termed roughly 1/3 of the campus population: "middle-aged bitter divorcees and their dogs."

Sad, really. Men need to be molded by their interactions with the pain of women....this just stops with scolding.

Zombie-economics

A spectre is rising! The return of economic nationalism!

This is the cover story from the Feb 5 `09 issue of The Economist. I gotta love anything with zombies. That it throws in the problem of anticapitalist fear-mongering protectionism just ices the cake.

Milgram Study Still Shocks!

Chuck Colson reports on a recent rehash of the Milgram experiment.

The results: apparently 40 years of slamming authority structures, transcendental meditation, and not really educating our children has produced the same result as the last 5,960 years of recorded history. DEPRAVED HUMANS.

In fact, this is just one in a long line of scientific proofs for the one indisputable starting point of soteriology - Total Depravity. There is no place in our humanity (will, body, intellect, etc.) that exists as an island of righteousness or wholeness. We are corrupt in even our best intentions - and the more honest one is, the more they recognize that to be the case.

(BTW, I challenge any skeptic to sincerely examine the claims of any other religion and find one as consistent with reality - scientifically defined or otherwise - as Christianity has proven to be.)

So what do we do? If all the vast techno-prowess we have still leaves us with wicked humans with itchy fingers on bigger and badder weapons, what's to be done.

The answer is simple: Tell'em about Jesus.

Obama's ProLife Gaff

President Obama just spoke at the first Washington Prayer Breakfast of his presidency. It was a soaring speech filled with the high-flying oratory that got him elected. Really excellent coverage of it is available at USA Today, where they cataloged highlights minute by minute and posted a full transcript in PDF format. Please note what he said in his opening remark:

“We know there is no God who condones the killing of an innocent human being.”

Really? Do you really believe that or are you just blowing smoke?

Please, Mr. President...live up to that rhetoric and turn away from FOCA and other life-destroying policies before it's too late. End violence in the womb and focus on the peace-bringer who defeated the tomb.

It's our last hope...our only hope for change.

Prayer to the Holy Ghost by Martin Luther

We now implore the Holy Ghost
For the true faith, which we need the most,
That in our last moments He may befriend us
And, as homeward we journey, attend us.
Lord, have mercy.

Shine in our hearts, O most precious Light,
That we Jesus Christ may know aright,
Clinging to our Savior, whose blood hath bought us.
Who again to our homeland hath brought us.
Lord, have mercy.

Thou sacred Love, grace on us bestow,
Set our hearts with heavenly fire aglow
That with hearts united we love each other,
Of one mind, in peace with every brother.
Lord, have mercy!

Thou highest Comfort in every need,
Grant that neither shame nor death we heed,
That e'en then our courage may never fail us
When the Foe shall accuse and assail us.
Lord, have mercy!

Do you pray to the third person of the Trinity at your church? Why or why not?

Kenotic Hymn to O Danny Boy

Finally, this tune - London Derry Air - can appropriately be sung at funerals!

Blessed Bumper Stickers

I intended to do a series of these and got sidetracked by leaving my former cult. I'll try to do better.

Profile of a sinner

The kindly saints at Cal.vini.st have done us a great service in exploring the biblical definition of a sinner. They go through several statements from scripture, showing how every sinner:

• does not seek after God.
• is dead in their sin.
• is a child of wrath.
• is without excuse.
• suppresses the truth of God.

Exceptionally fine edification from the five-point fellas at Cal.vini.st!

Born-Again Baptized Buddhist Bishop?

Stand Firm and The Living Church are reporting that an ordained priest in the ECUSA, who has described himself as having undergone Buddhist 'lay ordination,' is now positioned to run for bishop of the diocese in an unusual election. The others have covered both sides of the issue well enough. All that's left for me is small-minded snark...so here goes.

If you meet the bishop, kill him.

Oh wait…that’s not a Koan from Buddhism. It’s the Koran and Islam.

PRAY IT AIN'T SO!

Democrat's Prayer for Our New President

"Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our Republic to the present day,that He will so overrule all my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a united and happy people."

—ANDREW JACKSON

Hinder, O God, our president's steps to unleash the evil of unrestrictable abortion in our country. Give grace, O God, to his advisors to give him counsel that is wise and truly just. And strengthen the hands of his opponents until such time as he seeks your will for the preborn. Amen.

Authentic Christian Living under Obama

I ran across this excellent post on how to live as a politically conservative Christian under the Obama presidency. It's written by the Rev'd Dcn. Bart Martin, oa chaplain in the REC. Here are the bullet points.

1. Pray like a Saint Augustine
2. Know the times like an Edmund Burke
3. Love the law of God like a King Josiah

For an explication, see the whole blog post.

Wolves in Sheepdog Clothing

Is your pastor leading you? Or just watching the show?



You should know what you believe, why you believe it, and why it makes a difference.

h/t ReverendFun

Hoping for Change

Norma changed. Let's hope another high-profile abortion activist says "Yes we can!" to saving the unborn.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Theology

Mercy! But the Lord knows what His children need for their growth.

You've probably heard of the 7 Deadly Sins as propagated by Pope Gregory I (and the new and unimproved version). But the good folks at Theology Forum have drawn up a list for those of us who have been through or are engaged in theological education.

1. Pride: they have a tendency to condemn others and become impatient with their faults. They are very selective in who can teach them.
2. Avarice: they are discontent with the spirituality God gives them. They never have enough learning, are always reading many books rather than growing in poverty of spirit and their interior life.
3. Luxury: they take more pleasure in the spiritual blessings of God than God himself.
4. Wrath: they are easily irritated, lacking sweetness, and have little patience to wait on God.
5. Spiritual gluttony: they resist the cross and choose pleasures like children do.
6. Spiritual envy: they feel unhappy when other do well spiritually. They are always comparing.
7. Sloth: they run from that which is hard. Their aim is spiritual sweetness and good feelings.

May God have mercy on me, a sinner, and incline my heart to his love and his law.


h/t The Theology Forum

Congratulations Mr. Obama

Thank you for proving that the Declaration of Independence actually means something.

All people created equal? ...Check!

Endowed with unalienable rights? ....Check!

Liberty and pursuit of happiness? .....Check!

What more could you ask for? Oh wait....

Mr. President, build up a wall of protection around the unborn and make LIFE - essential to equality, liberty, and pursuing happiness - an unalienable right for everybody.

John Stott on Solving World Problems

"I sometimes wonder if the comparatively slow progress towards world peace, world equity and world evangelization is not due, more than anything else, to the prayerlessness of the people of God."

--From The Message of Thessalonians (The Bible Speaks Today series: Leicester: IVP, 1991), p. 125.

How about it, folks? Got some time this morning? Not that much time? Okay, go here.

Late to the party? No problem.

I hate to say I told you so

You can't say you weren't warned.





Okay, in all seriousness, I don't think any of that's going to happen. But I do want to remind Christians that you have a duty to pray for your leaders, that we might live peaceably with all.

Lord I believe, Help my unbelief!

h/t A Softer World