Typical FB & online debates....

This is precisely why I try to avoid online debates....

Go ahead, I double-do-dare-you to debate this one!

[HT: Z / 22]

Wars & rumors of war

Foreign Policy online has an article they published before the new year signaling a number of hotspots around the world that are on the brink of war, or could easily be pushed that way.

Across the globe today, you'll find almost three dozen raging conflicts, from the valleys of Afghanistan to the jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the streets of Kashmir. But what are the next crises that might erupt in 2011? Here are a few worrisome spots that make our list. 

1. Côte d'Ivoire
2. Colombia
3. Zimbabwe
4. Iraq
5. Venezuela
6. Sudan
7. Mexico
8. Guatemala
9. Haiti
10. Tajikistan
11. Pakistan
12. Somalia
13. Lebanon
14. Nigeria
15. Guinea
16. Democratic Republic of the Congo

Thankful for the relative peace in which we dwell (despite living in a secular state), but also praying that the Prince of peace will come and bring His kingdom and set everything right.

Going Postal Over Culture?

Mark Driscoll has a good article on Christians and culture called, "Why Christians Go Postal Over Facebook, Jay-Z, Yoga, Avatar, and Culture in General."

He writes...

I’m not advocating either a permissive or a restrictive approach to debatable cultural issues. Rather, I am encouraging Christians to involve themselves in culture not merely for the purpose of entertainment but primarily for the purpose of education. As a missionary, you will need to watch television shows and movies, listen to music, read books, peruse magazines, attend events, join organizations, surf websites, and befriend people that you might not like to better understand people whom Jesus loves.

 He offers a helpful taxonomy for dealing with culture:

·     Receive – There are things in culture that are part of God’s common grace to all people that a Christian can simply receive. This is why, for example, I am typing on a Mac and am going to post this blog on the Internet without searching for an expressly Christian computer or communication format.

·     Reject – There are things in culture that are sinful and not beneficial. One example is pornography, which has no redeeming value and must be rejected by a Christian.

·     Redeem – There are things in culture that are not bad in and of themselves, but can be used in a sinful manner and therefore need to be redeemed by God’s people. An example that has resulted in a great deal of media attention is sexual pleasure. God made our bodies for, among other purposes, sexual pleasure. And, although many have sinned sexually, as Christians we should redeem this great gift and all its joys in the context of marriage.

Check it out here.

The Subversive Manger Scene

Pretty clever commentary on our culture, IMHO.

[HT:  Reclaiming the Mission]

Britian's got talent? Brit's got 47 yr. old Susan Boyle

Filed under: You've gotta check this out!
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Wow, didn't see this one coming!


I love moments of beauty like this. Echoes of another world.

More popular than Jesus?

This actually isn't surprising, but in the recent Harris Poll, Jesus gave up his number one spot on the list of America's favorite heroes to Barack Hussein Obama.

Check out the Chicago Sun-Times article here.

Can he do it? Can he save the world?

According the the polls, Americans believe that Obama CAN save us, but according to this article,

Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama's first administration, he added.

Hmmm. I don't think he can do it, even with an extended honeymoon period and the media in his hip pocket.

As for me, I'm betting on Jack Bauer coming in at the last minute to save the world! He's already done it multiple times.


Obama or Bauer. Where will you place your faith? Choose wisely.

Bratz & the Pornification of a Generation

Filed under: "Things that make you go, 'hmmm'"
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Here's an interesting article in Newsweek.

A new book traces the migration of porn culture from adult theaters to the mainstream—and asks what that means for kids.

The idea for a book about porn culture came to Kevin Scott the day his daughter decided she absolutely had to have a Bratz-doll pony. For months, the 5-year-old had begged him for a Bratz doll—clad in spike heels, fishnets and miniskirt, enormous puppy-dog eyes protruding from her oversized head. Her sexy look seemed a little too sexy for a preschooler, so he and his wife bought her a different doll, which she was happy with. Except that a few months later, Bratz came out with Bratz Babyz. "If Bratz had looked like Barbie hookers, these looked like baby hookers," Scott says. Again, he convinced his daughter that My Little Pony was just as cool—and for a moment, the conversation ended. Until, of course, the Bratz came out with Bratz Ponyz. And then, says Scott, an English professor at a small college in Georgia, "I realized porn culture and I were in a death match for my daughter's soul."

Jesus Isn't For the American Dream

The Internet Monk has a recent rant that's worth reading called, "The Suburban Jesus Hates Me." Opines the iMonk,

"...I don’t get Jesus AND the American Dream. Some people do. Great. I don’t.

"...Suburban Christianity is frequently not about an honest following of Jesus. It’s about an edited, reworked Jesus who blesses the American way of life and our definition of normal and happy.

Read it all here.

Good stuff. I've been saying for a long time that the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of the American Dream cannot co-exist. One can only have one Lord.

Me, Myself & I

Filed under: "I Never Thought About It From That Perspective"
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Caroline Winter asks in the NY Times,

Why do we capitalize the word “I”? There’s no grammatical reason for doing so, and oddly enough, the majuscule “I” appears only in English.

Consider other languages: some, like Hebrew, Arabic and Devanagari-Hindi, have no capitalized letters, and others, like Japanese, make it possible to drop pronouns altogether. The supposedly snobbish French leave all personal pronouns in the unassuming lowercase, and Germans respectfully capitalize the formal form of “you” and even, occasionally, the informal form of “you,” but would never capitalize “I.” Yet in English, the solitary “I” towers above “he,” “she,” “it” and the royal “we.” Even a gathering that includes God might not be addressed with a capitalized “you.”

And after pondering some possible effects, she concludes,

Still, there seems to be something to it all. Modern e-mail culture has shown that many English speakers feel perfectly comfortable dismissing all uses of capitalization — and even correct spelling, for that matter. But take this a step further: i suggest that You try, as an experiment, to capitalize those whom You address while leaving yourselves in the lowercase. It may be a humbling experience. It was for me.

Interesting read.
[HT]

Futile attempts at love & relevance

Over at RelevantMagazine.com, Spencer Spellman asks, "Are We Cheapening Our Faith?" Such a question was prompted in his mind when he passed by a church sign that read, "Give Satan an inch and he'll be a ruler."

He opines,

"Is this where the Church in America has come to? Where Christianity is seen and communicated through t-shirts and marquees. We don’t communicate our business projects, vacation plans, and political positions through marquees and t-shirts, so we don’t need to communicate our faith through such means."

His point is that much of Christianity today is stuck in the ghetto of irrelevance, and these gimmicks are our cheap attempts to love our neighbor. Read the short but good article here.

His conclusion:

"The challenge then is to recapture the love of Christ. We will never be able to recapture that love until we stop living out of our own Christian sub culture and start spending time with Christ and with people. C.S. Lewis said it well when he stated: “Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable.” Let us be a people who reveal ourselves fully, and better yet, reveal Christ fully."

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If you have the time, the 9marks blog has an interesting and very humorous entry entitled, "We Watch TBN So You Don't Have To." The comments section has an interesting discussion, too, on the place of satire and mockery in the quest for truth. One person opines, "Good satire isn't cruel since the target deserves it. A punch in the face can be cruel if the recipient is innocent, but it's not cruel to punch a mugger."

Dang this is Sweet!

2009 Trans Am....


Now, repeat after me....

"I don't need this to be happy."

"I don't need this to be happy."

"I don't need this to be happy."

Now that we've taken care of that little detail, we can continue on.

Seriously, I find myself fascinated by all kinds of technological creations these days mainly because of what it says about our ability to bring forth amazing things from God's good creation.

What I mean is this...think about what the Bible says in the Creation account of Adam and Eve and the charge He gave to them. He gave them this world and charged them to take dominion over it. In other words, they (and we) have the wonderful challenge to bring out all the hidden potential that is embedded in this creation.

Now Adam didn't know about it at the time, but think about all the 'potential' that has been unlocked, discovered, birthed, delivered....


The Guitar. The Piano. The Saxophone.

Delicious wine (and frozen raspberry margaritas from On the Border!)

College football. Baseball fields. Fade-away three pointers.

The personal computer. Wifi. The iPhone. The Internet.

Air travel. Space travel. Catamaran sailing.

Brain surgery. Medicine. Vision enhancement procedures.

Mathematics. Physics. Engineering.

Tex-Mex. Italian. Mom's cooking.

Ceiling fans. Remote controls. Incredibly comfortable couches.

Film. Stories. Inspiration. Watercolor. Photography.

Trans Ams. Corvettes. Mustangs.

And Dr. Pepper

And if you stop to think about it, so much has been discovered and developed in the last 100 years of our history (even in the last 10!). Imagine what still awaits discovery? I wonder which of these will be a part of the New Heavens and New Earth?

So, join me in admiring the 2009 Trans Am. Let's just help each other from thinking we need to have one to be happy.

Batman & Bush Co-Crusaders? Hmmm....

Filed under: "I Never Thought About It From That Perspective"
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Here's an interesting opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by Andrew Klavin comparing the recent Batman Movie, "The Dark Knight" to President George "W" Bush and the war on terror.

"The Dark Knight," then, is a conservative movie about the war on terror. And like another such film, last year's "300," "The Dark Knight" is making a fortune depicting the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.

Conversely, time after time, left-wing films about the war on terror -- films like "In The Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Redacted" -- which preach moral equivalence and advocate surrender, that disrespect the military and their mission, that seem unable to distinguish the difference between America and Islamo-fascism, have bombed more spectacularly than Operation Shock and Awe.

Why is it then that left-wingers feel free to make their films direct and realistic, whereas Hollywood conservatives have to put on a mask in order to speak what they know to be the truth? Why is it, indeed, that the conservative values that power our defense -- values like morality, faith, self-sacrifice and the nobility of fighting for the right -- only appear in fantasy or comic-inspired films like "300," "Lord of the Rings," "Narnia," "Spiderman 3" and now "The Dark Knight"?

The moment filmmakers take on the problem of Islamic terrorism in realistic films, suddenly those values vanish. The good guys become indistinguishable from the bad guys, and we end up denigrating the very heroes who defend us. Why should this be?

The answers to these questions seem to me to be embedded in the story of "The Dark Knight" itself: Doing what's right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Many have been abhorred for it, some killed, one crucified.

I haven't seen the film yet, though I want to. I imagine such thoughts will illicit either hearty "Amens" or cause people's blood to boil.

Interesting take, nevertheless.

Teen Pregnancy Glamorous?

Filed under: "Things that Make You go Hmmmm...."
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Al Mohler has some thoughts about the recent OK! cover story of now 17 year old Jamie Lynn Spears journey into motherhood with the cover quote, "Being a mom is the best feeling in the world."


Mohler opines, "The OK! magazine cover makes teen motherhood look positively glamorous." Read the rest.

Do you think this sort of thing reflects the culture, shapes the culture, or both?

Granted Mohler's perspective, what else needs to be said?

Cars Don't Define Our Social Status

In a post entitled, "Detaching from Material Possessions a Sign of Emotional and Financial Maturity," Frugal Dad says...

When I finished college I needed a new car, because after all, I was working and earning a salary and I “deserved” it. I leased an SUV, and several years later traded it in on a newer, used Chevy Silverado. Oh, how I loved that truck–sport trim package, V-8, ice-cold air, CD player, great sound system, etc, etc. It also came with a new monthly payment, and an increase to my insurance premium. For a few months I drove that truck and loved it. My grandfather had offered his old truck to drive, but I wanted a “cool truck.”

One day, after writing out the check for the monthly payment, and the increased monthly insurance premium, something hit me like a ton of bricks. I sat there watching my kids play in our backyard, and then looked over at that “new” truck. How much could their futures be improved by taking this $400 a month and applying it to our other debts, and then saving it for their future education? How could I be so selfish.

...I’ve adopted a utilitarian view on automobiles (and other things). They are literally hunks of metal pieced together, set on four tires, and sold to us for the purpose of transportation. Cars don’t define our social status, and are horrible indicators of wealth. Never again will I fall victim to worrying about what others think, or what marketers try to convince me to think.

Good stuff to remember on a number of different fronts...especially the line about cars not defining our social status. Very important as I'm looking to buy a used mini-van in about a month. Especially because what I really want is this.

Mohler's Asking, "Where are Europe's Babies?"

Filed under: "Because it Needs to be Said"
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Al Mohler comments upon the thought, "You can't have a country where everybody lives in a nursing home" in a post asking "Where Are Europe's Babies?"

Run for the Border....

Filed under: "Because It Needs To Be Said"
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One of the feeds I have in my Google Reader is "Stuff White People Like." Its a satirical 'mockumentary' type blog poking fun at us white people. One of the listings I busted out laughing on b/c of our life situation was #75: "Threatening to Move to Canada"...

"Often times, white people get frustrated with the state of their country. They do not like the President, or Congress, or the health care system, or the illegal status of Marijuana. Whenever they are presented with a situation that seems unreasonable to them, their first instinct is to threaten to move to Canada.

"For example, if you are watching TV with white people and there is a piece on the news about that they do not agree with, they are likely to declare “ok, that’s it, I’m moving to Canada.”

"Though they will never actually move to Canada, the act of declaring that they are willing to undertake the journey is very symbolic in white culture. It shows that their dedication to their lifestyle and beliefs are so strong, that they would consider packing up their entire lives and moving to a country that is only slightly different to the one they live in now."

And for a humorous note at the end, Stuff White People like note, "Canadian white people threaten to move to Europe."

Let the record show that we love our country and are not moving to Canada because of dissatisfaction, but because of opportunity.