Monday ,
May 31
12:05
PM
Memorial Day activity (if I still lived in Hawaii):

11:59
AM
The Baptist
trail:
Now that we have seen the historical foundations of the Baptist church and
that they can be traced back to the Particular Baptists, we now need to
reclaim our heritage. The longer we stay away from Reformed doctrine the
longer we will see a decline in biblical knowledge and spirituality. We
must see that Baptist heritage is strongly rooted in the Reformation which
reclaimed Scripture from a pragmatic church. As we look around us today,
we see that most Baptist churches (and for that matter the Evangelical
church as a whole) are eaten up with pragmatism.
If we are going to see Reformation today, we must call ourselves back to
our Reformed heritage.
11:58
AM
What Rick Warren and Jimmy Carter
have in
common.
11:57
AM
Some 59
years after the war, meet the
new axis.

11:55
AM
Farewell,
America.
8:50
AM
Mark Dankof has some wise thoughts
about the Iraq War:
It may be noteworthy that
Douglas MacArthur and Robert Welch both opposed this country's involvement
in Vietnam. MacArthur understood that a conventional American military
force committed to a war of counterinsurgency in Southeast Asia was as
likely to bring disaster to the United States as it did to the French.
Welch had similar concerns, but raised the issue of another American
military adventure abroad without a Constitutionally required
Congressional declaration of war.
Similarly, the present
occupation and war of counterinsurgency in Iraq has had more responsible
conservative-Right critics than Bush and his minions in Corporate Media
have been willing to acknowledge. Colonel David Hackworth, Pat Buchanan,
Ron Paul, Howard Phillips, Reagan's NSA Chief General William Odom, ex-CENTCOM
chief/Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, and Constitution Party
Presidential candidate Michael Peroutka have all stated from the beginning
that military, political, and economic disaster was at hand in Mr. Bush's
Congressionally undeclared preemptive war in Iraq based on fraudulent
intelligence estimates. Just over a year later, it is apparent that these
patriotic, starboard leaning Americans were, and are, correct.
Mr. Kerry, who voted for Mr.
Bush's war, now claims to oppose it while advocating the committal of even
more American manpower to this clear disaster. Mr. Bush continues to
insist that his actions were/are justifiable and sustainable in the wake
of a credibility plunge that has not yet hit bottom, even in the aftermath
of the Abu Ghraib catastrophe. American voters who truly believe that both
our Constitution and old fashioned common sense were jettisoned in this
offensive, preemptive military action and occupation in the Middle East
have only one of three viable choices in the upcoming Presidential
sweepstakes--Michael Peroutka of the Constitution Party, Ralph Nader, or
the Libertarian nominee. The War Party has its bets covered with either
King George or Kerry.
8:40
AM
A reader linked a
sermon by Ravi Zacharias that included this thought-provoking poem:
First dentistry was painless.
Then bicycles were chainless,
Carriages were horseless,
And many laws enforceless.
Next cookery was fireless,
Telegraphy was wireless,
Cigars were nicotineless,
And coffee caffeineless.
Soon oranges were seedless,
The putting green was weedless,
The college boy was hatless,
The proper diet fatless.
New motor roads are dustless,
The latest steel is rustless,
Our tennis courts are sodless,
Our new religion--godless.
(Arthur Guiterman, "Gaily the Troubadour")
8:40
AM
Stephen Yates on the SBC resolution to abandon the
government school system:
In light of all this, not just Southern Baptists
but all Christians – and all people who wish to live lives free of the
fetters of the omnipresent and omnipotent state – have plenty of reason to
leave the federal government’s (Pharaoh’s) school system. Clearly,
government schools are producing graduates utterly unsuited to live in a
free society. There is no need to fear that abandoning government schools
means abandoning education – as educrats will argue hysterically if this
resolution is adopted. We now have evidence that homeschooled children are
usually around four years ahead of their government-schooled counterparts
in every major subject area. They win awards, go on to attend prestigious
universities, and even occasionally write books.
To adopt the resolution would be a radical step
for Southern Baptists, who have always assumed that Christianity and
government education were compatible. However, given the tailspin
government schools have been in during the past few decades, when the
Southern Baptist Convention holds its annual meeting in Indianapolis
beginning on June 15, the nation’s largest Christian denomination might
just reconsider its stance. If it does, we can expect shock waves to
reverberate through this country’s education establishment.
Read more
here.
8:32
AM
My interview with Robert Lloyd on WDXB will be aired this Wednesday, June
2, at
www.dixiebroadcasting.com.
8:30
AM
Presidential candidate Michael Peroutka:
100 percent
pro-life.
Friday,
May 28
8:53
AM
Who said it?
All the miseries and evils which
men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice...proceed from their
despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.
Noah Webster, who
died this day in 1843.
8:53
AM
I just stumbled across this outstanding portrait of Gen. Jackson on the
Southern Cause messenger board.

8:51
AM
What is really
controlling
many Christians this election.
8 :50
AM In case you're looking
for a
publisher....
7:31 AM Planning a
road trip? (Thanks to
Rachel Layne for sending this link.)
7:25 AM Lee Shelton of
Ever Vigilant responds to my essay "The
Truth About Terrorism":
Dave,
Excellent insight. The
truth about terrorism is that we can't fight a Fourth Generation war
with a Second Generation military. An enemy that can kill 3,000 people
with a box cutter clearly knows how to exploit our weaknesses to his
advantage.
We can invade every
nation on the face of the earth and we would be no safer than we are
today. My suggestion? End our interventionist foreign policy and restore
the right to keep and bear arms.
Keep it up!
All the best,
Lee
Lee
is doing just about as much as anyone I know for the cause of limited
constitutional government. If you haven't checked out his excellent
website yet, please go here.
7:15 AM Just received this
wonderful report from Pastor Matt Trewhella, leader of Missionaries to the
Preborn:
Dear Friends of the
Preborn,
All praise and honor be unto our Savior and King, Jesus Christ!
This past Saturday we returned from the Mid-Atlantic Tour! We traveled
over 3500 miles for 13 days and made 20 stops in 18 different cities
speaking up for our preborn neighbor. The weather was great! In the
80’s with blue skies almost the whole time. About 85 people traveled
with the Tour with others coming and going to help us along the way.
Everyone returned encouraged by our time of ministry from seeing just
some of what the Lord had done in the hearts of men!
Here’s just a few of the many highlights of the Tour:
In Florence, SC, a
woman stopped to tell us that she was being pressured by her family to
have an abortion. She had prayed that very morning and asked the Lord
to give her a sign if He didn’t want her to do it. She ended up getting
over 50 signs as she drove through our set-up!! She said she never goes
down the street we were on but decided to take it that day. We were
able to minister to her in the process. She is NOT going to kill her
child! May the Lord use this child, a brand plucked from the burning,
for His purposes!!
In Savannah, GA, a woman drove through our set-up and stopped. She was
astounded by the photographs. She had been planning to abort the child
she was pregnant with, but after seeing our pictures, she could NOT do
it!
In Durham, NC, a woman who was walking by stopped to talk with an
elderly woman holding a sign in our group. She was shocked over the
horror of abortion. She repented right there on the street for having
killed her child. The woman with our group declared the gospel to her
(which she was ignorant of) and was able to give her a bible!
In Lexington, VA, a police officer held one of our photographs while we
were out there! In Roanoke, VA, a missionary couple from Australia came
by and thought what we were doing was great. We are now working with
them because they want to take what we do to Australia! In Richmond,
VA, a pro-abortion counter-protester came over by where we were closing
in prayer. We were able to talk with her. She broke down crying
revealing that she had had a abortion. We ministered to her and she left
with a bible we gave her promising that she would keep and read it! And
I could go on and on!! The Tour was blessed of God mightily!
We will have a full report in our snail-mail newsletter that will go out
in a couple of weeks. If you are not on our mailing list and would like
to receive THE FULL REPORT, you can e-mail us at
mtpmilw@execpc.com. Just give us your
snail-mail and we’ll get it off to you.
If you would like to see MORE PHOTOS IN COLOR from this Tour, just click
here:
http://www.missionariestopreborn.com/default.asp?fuseaction=midatlantic_tour
Separated unto the Gospel,
Pastor Matt Trewhella

Thursday, May 27
10:55 AM More on Pinckney's
call for an
exodus
from government schools, which I
wholeheartedly
support.
10:45 AM Why stop-loss is
not only a breach of contract but slavery.
10:43 AM Bush's speech
alarms even war enthusiasts.
10:40 AM Just had a very
nice radio interview with Mr. Robert Lloyd of
WDXB radio in
Florida. We spoke about the Iraq War, the state of public education, my
forthcoming book Why I Stopped Listening to Rush, and the
Constitution Party and its
presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Michael Peroutka and Chuck
Baldwin.
9:45 AM It's been a busy
time at the farm. We're just about done with the framing on the new goat
barn and hope to begin putting the tin roof on this weekend. My son has also
begun fencing in a new (and very large) pasture that will give us more
grazing space come winter. The next big project is to construct the wood
shed near Bradford Hall, then the horse barn, chicken coop, and turkey coop.
Weather allowing, we intend to cut and bale more hay in the coming days.
Meanwhile I am working on the syllabus for my Philippians class this summer
and hope to have it posted on the seminary website early next week. It
should be a fun class as we work through the book word by word and clause by
clause.
Tuesday,
May 25
1:03 PM "Free speech" in
Iraq (kudos: BATR):
After the unfortunate attack
on a wedding party in Iraq by the U.S., and the surfacing of actual video
footage showing the wedding, Donald Rumsfeld announced this morning that
camcorders, digital or not, are prohibited from now on during any kind of
celebration, including weddings, birthday parties and anniversaries. "We ask
that the people of Iraq refrain from using camcorders of any kind and/or
regular cameras as well." Stated Donald Rumsfeld in a televised press
conference...
12:58 PM Pastor Scott Brown
on how the church can prepare men to be
shepherds in their homes.
12:55 PM As my son and I
were chatting yesterday he commented to me, "You know, dad, it's sad, but
just about the only people who will be voting for Bush this year are
evangelical Christians." The bond between Bush and evangelicals seems to be
weakening, however.
12:30 PM
Der Spiegel says Bush's speech had "pathos
without a plan." A key excerpt:
Die Rede des Präsidenten ist Teil einer groß angelegten PR-Offensive. Bis
zur für den 30. Juni des Jahres avisierten Übertragung weit reichender
Befugnisse an eine irakische Übergangsregierung will Bush wöchentlich im
Fernsehen auftreten. Der Präsident möchte seine Landsleute davon überzeugen,
dass er einen Plan für die Machtübergabe und den anschließenden Rückzug aus
dem Irak hat.
Das ist auch dringend notwendig: Einer am Montag veröffentlichten Umfrage
der Universität von Pennsylvania zufolge, sind 64 Prozent der Amerikaner der
Ansicht, dass die Bush-Regierung eben einen solchen Plan nicht hat.
12:05 PM Michelle Malkin on
our
muddled multiculturalism.
11:40 AM
Did any of my fellow horsemen notice that Bush
said he would keep troop strength at 138,000, which would mean "extended
duty for...The Second Light CALVARY Regiment"?
11:40 AM It's all a sham:
Why are Republicans giving the UN more money and
power? Why do our schools, under Bush's "No
Child Left Behind" programs, teach
"global citizenship" instead of a traditional American education? Why
are gun control laws continuing to tighten and the socialist expansion
of government accelerating under so-called conservatives?
The answers should be
obvious to the most casual observer. These changes are evidence of the
intentional destruction of American sovereignty and liberty by US
government insiders. And GW and other phony baloney conservatives are
leading the charge. His "war on terror" and "educational standards" are
just the excuses. It's all a sham. You have been duped I tell you.
Read
more.
11:35 AM In case you're
interested in modest clothing....
(hat tip: Ron Holland).
11:30 AM Clay Bennett does
it again:

11:05 AM Are state schools
neutral?
11:01 AM From the Mises
archive: The
Trouble with Public School.
9:25 AM Time to get caught
up on thanks: to Linda Craft at ReMax Realty for loaning us their moving
van yesterday...to my pastor and his wife, Horace and Joyce Murray, for a
wonderful Sunday dinner in their lovely home...to my Intermediate Greek
students for their excellent papers, one of which I am sending to our
journal editor for publication...to the building and grounds crew here at
the seminary for keeping our campus looking so beautiful...and to my
publisher for expediting the publication of Why I Stopped Listening to
Rush.
Monday,
May 24
8:23 AM A reader responds
to my essay "Suffer
the Little Children":
Dave,
I'm sure you took a little criticism for this article. However, children's
church and all the rest of the activities that keep children out of the
worship services are the direct result of the total breakdown of correct
biblical discipline. Parents (Christian parents included) of this generation
have done a terrible job of disciplining their children….
We have always kept our children in the worship service with us. I believe
it is the biblical thing to do. We have enough outside forces trying to
break the family apart without adding to it in the church.
8:20 AM Thomas Fleming on
Post-Christian America.
8:15 AM North Carolina
Southern Baptists
affirm value of public education.
7:03 AM Gary North on
Rush Limbaugh.
Saturday,
May 22
7:55 AM Pictured below are
Mr. Andrew Neamtu and his dear wife Corina. Andrew is a Ph.D. student of
mine from Romania who will be exploring the history and background of the
Romanian Bible translation of Cornulescu, comparing it with the Greek,
French, German, and several English versions. Andrew passed his Ph.D. orals
last Thursday with flying colors. Afterwards I treated them to their
favorite restaurant and then visited with them in their beautiful apartment,
where this photo was taken. Andrew has invited me to hold a pastors'
conference in Cluj, Romania, where he will serve as translator.

7:45 AM Today is
commencement at the seminary, and I would like to wish our graduates God's
richest blessings in whatever place of ministry the Lord should lead them.
It will be warm but clear for our
outdoor ceremony, and I look forward to meeting the families of many
graduates I've been privileged to have in my classes through the years. If I
could remind them of one thing it would be this: Remember that the greatest
work of the church is not the occasional burst of the miraculous, but the
day-in and day-out testimony of Christian living in the monotonous and
mediocre. Check your spiritual wardrobes daily, and when the outlook is
darkest remember that the uplook will be brightest! Congratulations, and
best wishes to all!
Friday,
May 21
7:30 AM
Off to Trinity Academy in Raleigh to speak to
their second grade class on the life of a Civil War soldier. The teacher is
the daughter of one of my faculty colleagues and has just finished a unit on
American history. I have special permission to bring my period musket and
"couters." I always enjoy educating children and youth about the most
important (and costly) conflict in our nation's tumultuous history, and
especially about the noble character of such men as Lee and Jackson.
Thursday,
May 20
4:30 PM "The biblical model
is elder-led or elder-directed congregationalism," says Baptist scholar Mark
Dever. "It is biblical and it is Baptist." Read more
here (PDF).
2:14 PM Glenn Ansley of
www.deeperdevotion.com sent me
this letter about our government school system:
Teachers from six
different states recently played the video of
Nicholas Berg's beheading in front of their
students. This unacceptable and irresponsible act only represents a
larger decay in America’s current educational system. Although the media
and respective school districts have renounced their actions as
“inappropriate,” they have failed to identify the source of such
monstrosities. I fear that Christian parents have also overlooked the
source.
Any educational system
that removes either God or parent from the student’s process of learning
is unbiblical. When a system removes both God and the parent, it becomes
dangerously harmful to future generations. Scripture makes it abundantly
clear that once you have “suppressed the truth of God” and “exchanged
the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man,” His unavoidable wrath will follow.
God has handed the public
school system over to its own depravity.
I am ashamed that more
Christian parents have not stepped forward to proclaim the wrath of God.
The few of you who have stepped forward have failed to recognize the
natural outcome of God’s wrath, and condemned the results rather than
the source. By only condemning the results, such as a man losing his
head in front of your children, you condemn God’s wrath rather than the
source of that wrath.
American schools have
suppressed the truth of God and rejected your involvement within your
children’s education. Why do you continue to subject your children to
God’s wrath by placing them in the very institutions that seek to
suppress His truth? Is it not time that Christian parents once again
become involved in their children’s education? Until you identify and
correct the unbiblical basis for your child’s education, there will be
no escape from monstrosities such as this. It is the natural outcome of
a generation seeking to suppress the truth of God.
8:38 AM Debbie O'Hara, one
of my favorite authors on the net, thinks all the hubbub about gay marriage
is misplaced.
The high rate of divorce
in the Bible-believing churches of our nation is pandemic. According to
Joseph Webb in "Till Death Do Us Part", one of the fastest areas
percentage-wise of divorce is among ministers and their wives. Was there
some fatal flaw in God's design of the marriage institution? Certainly
not. It is not God's fault that we have ignored his instruction. Not
having followed the Lord's prescription for marriage, should we then be
surprised at the moral chaos we have created? Should we be surprised
that more people are looking for us to accept "alternative" lifestyles?
She goes on to note what would happen if a
federal marriage amendment were passed and government got into the business
of defining marriage. Read
"Can Government Save
Marriage?"
8:35 AM Tom DeWeese, who
will be a keynote speaker at the Constitution Party's
National
Convention, takes on the Bush administration in "Let
the Patriot Act Die."
8:02 AM A surfing
competition taking place in Tahiti is bringing back lots of happy memories.

Wednesday,
May 19
12:25 PM Yes, you can work
without a SSN.
9:55 AM From "Simply
Rearing Pagans" on the proposed SBC resolution on public schools:
Chances the
resolution will pass appear to be slim at the moment. Southern Baptists have
already passed one resolution urging churches to support Christian schools
and home schooling and another affirming Christians who teach and work in
public schools. Moreover, SBC president Dr. Jack Graham has said that while
he supports Christian education, he doubts Southern Baptist will approve the
measure. But Bruce Shortt says passage of the resolution is much less
important than drawing attention to the already-growing movement of home
schooling and starting Christian schools.
I, for one, believe
that Pickney and Shortt's leadership in this matter is not only heroic and
courageous, but also a call from God. I see it as a breath of fresh air and
something that actually gives hope for the restoration of education in
America. Between 12 and 15 million evangelical Christian children attend
public schools. If the mass majority of these students were to leave public
education, it would cripple the one system that is doing more harm to our
nation than any single thing except perhaps the popular media.
9:50 AM How can you tell
when a nation has lost a war? In three ways, says Die
Zeit:
Woran merkt man, dass ein
Krieg verloren geht? Einmal an der Inflation des Wörtchens exit
strategy, zum Zweiten am Zittern von Hand und Zunge. Da redet Prokonsul
Paul Bremer plötzlich von Abzug, 48 Stunden später aber insistiert George
Bush: Wir bleiben. In Nadschaf gehen US-Panzer in die Offensive, einen Tag
später geht Außenminister Powell nach Canossa (alias Schuneh), wo er vor
arabischen Granden bußfertig um Vergebung bittet. Drittes Signal: Seit
voriger Woche glaubt eine Mehrheit der Amerikaner nicht mehr an Sinn und
Wert des Krieges.
Read
more.
9:20 AM Has it come to
this? Even staunch "conservatives" like George Will are now questioning the
Bush doctrine. Read about it
here.
6:22 AM Stephen Baskerville
has a good essay
on "no-fault" divorce, the power of family courts, and the child-support
conundrum.
6:20 AM OK, so I've stopped
listening to Rush. But
this is going
too far!
Well, I guess I’m done
complaining for now. Thanks for reading. For what it’s worth, the way I try
to get through this stuff is to realize that now I totally understand
how things like the Roman Empire or the Third Reich could have happened. If
the people in a certain society happen to be a lot smarter, richer, and
stronger than most of their neighbors, why not conquer them? It’s for
their own good.
6:08 AM Harry Potter
does Damocles.
6:05 AM Tow the line,
reap the benefits.
Tuesday,
May 18
3:23 PM Should Rumsfeld go?
No way, says
this
writer.

2:04 PM
Nowadays it’s almost impossible to get 80
percent of anybody anywhere to agree on anything.
The results of the latest poll
from Iraq show that a staggering 82 percent of Iraqis "disapprove of
the U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq." However skewed such polls may
be, the truth is we’ve killed a lot of innocent civilians, destroyed
numerous buildings, and alienated tons of Iraqis. See further, "Allies
accused of breaking Geneva Conventions on civilian losses."
11:16 AM Bush's poll
numbers: down
and down and down they go....
9:47 AM Ran across Lee and
Jackson at Drayton Hall in South Carolina earlier this month.

8:25 AM Let the
mass exodus
begin! (Hat tip: Icky's blog.)
8:22 AM Before you attend
that Promise Keepers conference this summer, read
this.
8:20 AM Listen up, you
guys. It's time to give up our narrow-minded Christian bashing. Experience
is what binds us together, not theology.
Got it?
8:12 AM Your
Olympic
competitor may be a he, a she, or a ...?
8:10 AM What right does
this New Testament professor have to speak out against the Gulf War?
8:05 AM This story gives a
new meaning to "lighting
up."
7:34 AM From a reader:
Thanks for Your "above
the law?" article.
I am so thankful to know
a born-again Christian is able to have the discernment to see the
cracks in the current administration.
Too many Christians fall
rank and file behind this administration simply because President Bush
claims to be a Christian. It is as if with that statement he can do no
wrong and should be supported no matter what the policy entails.
Monday,
May 17
12:40 PM The Journal of
Religion and Popular Culture discusses the
production of
Christian novels. The money quote:
The primary
gatekeepers of Christian fiction construct conventions that resolve the
tension between the ministerial intention to communicate a Christian message
and the industry imperatives to entertain and sell books. Inevitably,
Christian authors and editors privilege the pastoral role of fiction above
literary standards. The general conventions of the industry shape the
content of Christian fiction and produce a generalized Christianity or one
of many forms of popular evangelicalism.
Christian fiction is above all else a morally conservative and
audience-centered product; it is spiritually, doctrinally, and
denominationally generic; it accommodates culture by sacralizing a popular
cultural form yet does not engage culture; and
its aesthetic form, Christian realism, tends toward softened depictions of
reality. As one of many popular cultural forms, Christian fiction ministers
to readers, fulfills the mandate of the Great Commission, and nourishes
popular evangelicalism.
12:34 PM Peter Head of
Cambridge has written a fascinating essay on some
recently
identified Greek Bible manuscripts.
10:04 AM Charley Reese on
some black
holes in Iraq.
9:43 AM The
Lincoln
Reconsidered Conference is fast approaching.
9:40 AM The latest from
Paul Proctor:
In many churches today,
the priority and focus is wrong – dead wrong. Our attention ought to be
first and foremost on hearing, believing and obeying God’s Word, not on
manufacturing and marketing relationships in the name of Jesus for the
sake of church growth. If we try and relate to Christ before we repent
to Christ, we are arrogantly attempting to micromanage what should have
been surrendered – resulting in the hypocrisy of calling Christ King,
but stubbornly remaining on the throne of our own lives; giving Him what
amounts to lip service. Is there a better description of "Christianity"
today?
9:22 AM Your
tax dollars at work.
9:20 AM Third of U.S. Army
unfit to fight.
8:10 AM A longtime reader
sent this letter, along with a link to: "A
Disaster, Pure and Simple."
Dr. Black
No amount of spinning
by the Bush zealots can make this story go away. It's a stain not only on
our military, but on our great nation as well. I pray that God will give
President Bush the courage to call for a full-scale investigation, and not
merely use a few lower ranking soldiers as scapegoats. This is a classic
failure in leadership and command. I served over 20 years in the military
and no soldier has to follow an illegal order. You are told this from the
minute you enlist. Thanks again for your outstanding website.
Charles Porter
MSgt, Retired,
USAF
8:05 AM Farm update: The
chicks are hatching out at a furious rate, and we still have five hens
sitting...got 170 bales on Saturday...more cutting and baling this week,
weather permitting...who will catch the first bass at our new pond?...our
new calves are doing fine so far...still can't believe how utterly quiet it
is at night (except for the bull frogs down at the pond) - is this the life,
or what?...upstairs porch furniture is now in place...still preparing for
our first guests at Bradford Hall with great anticipation.

Thursday,
May 13
8:40 AM
Dr. Francis Schaeffer
(The
Great Evangelical Disaster,1984):
Truth demands
confrontation. And now we must ask where we as evangelicals, have been in
the battle for truth and morality in our culture. Have we as evangelicals
been on the front lines contending for the faith and confronting the moral
breakdown over the last forty to sixty years? Have we even been aware that
there is a battle going on?
8:23 AM Strange, isn't it,
that that historically accurate movie The Passion of
the Christ had only Latin and Aramaic on the titulus of the cross?
John 19:20 says it also had Greek. I'm not the only one with
concerns about the film's accuracy.

8:10 AM This will be a
great day in chapel as we commission our students who will be leaving for
the mission fields of the world. How I thank God for their radical
commitment to obey the Great Commission, even risking great danger in the
process. May God bless, protect, use, and bless them in every way.
8:05 AM
C. S. Lewis:
"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we
are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."
7:56 AM A breath of fresh
air from Doug Phillip's
blog:
The birth of the modern
home school movement might be traced back to 1983 with the rise of a
national movement, the founding of the Home School Legal Defense
Association, and the launching of key state organizations and publications.
(Yes, the modern home education movement prospered before 1983, but in a
more infancy stage.) This places home educators in their twenty-first year —
their graduation year, so to speak. Even as the home school movement has
come of age, it is a delight and a testimony to the Lord to see how God is
blessing home educators with some of the finest resources, opportunities,
and an independent network of dominion-oriented, Christ-proclaiming
activities and organizations — free from government (i.e., unconstitutional
and unbiblical) funding and oversight. It was a special joy for me to watch
some gigantic home school choirs and bands demonstrate remarkable
professionalism, even as they proclaimed Christ.
7:35 AM Opposition to the
proposed SBC resolution to encourage parents to take their children out of
government schools (i.e., let parents return to their historic
responsibility for the education of their own children) predictably
increases.
"This is not mainstream," says one opponent. Pardon the sarcasm, but
"Hellooo?" Since when is radical Christianity mainstream? OK, let's continue
to send our little "evangelists" to school. After all, we've been doing this
for years, and look how successful we've been. It's the best of both worlds:
they can become "salt and light" while developing a secular mindset. Oops, I
forgot: there's no difference between Christian education and secular
education!
In case you're interested, here's the
essay that started all this.
7:05 AM Read this sentence:
Those women there, probably
mothers, bearers of ideas far too voluminous for their brains of modest
capacity.
If it seems a bit strange to you, it
should. It's from the world's first
verb-less book.
Wednesday,
May 12
2:45 PM The apostle Paul
was a fighter. What was his strategy?
Many have been swept from
their moorings by the current of the age; a church grown worldly often
tyrannizes over those who look for guidance to God’s Word alone. But
this is not the first discouraging time in the history of the church;
other times were just as dark, and yet always God has watched over His
people, and the darkest hour has sometimes preceded the dawn. So even
now God has not left Himself without a witness. In many lands there are
those who have faced the great issue of the day and have decided it
aright, who have preserved true independence of mind in the presence of
the world; in many lands there are groups of Christian people who in the
face of ecclesiastical tyranny have not been afraid to stand for Jesus
Christ. God grant that you may give comfort to them as you go forth from
this seminary; God grant that you may rejoice their hearts by giving
them your hand and your voice. To do so you will need courage. Far
easier is it to curry favor with the world by abusing those whom the
world abuses, by speaking against controversy, by taking a balcony view
of the struggle in which God’s servants are engaged.
Read "The
Good Fight of Faith" by one of my all-time favorite authors.
2:43 PM Diploma mills are
doing brisk business these days. But
here?
1:45 PM
Colonel Paul Hughes, the first director
of strategic planning in Iraq after the war, said: "Here I am, 30 years
later, thinking we will win every fight and lose the war, because we don't
understand the war we are in."
Read
"Iraq: Time for
Exit Strategy?"
12:15 PM I'll admit it: I'm
a proselytizer for the Constitution Party. With only 173 days to go before
the election I believe it's time to speak boldly about the evils of our
two-party system. If you are open to considering an alternative, might I ask
you to visit Michael Peroutka's website and read "What
Others Say"? It'll help you better understand why so many of us
"conservatives" have left the conservative movement for the CP.
11:58 AM I'm glad to report
that the calves arrived at Rosewood Farm in great shape. Not having a cattle
trailer, my son, ever the inventive one, secured our large dog kennel to the
top of our Hardee trailer. It did the job just fine - and saved us the
expense of buying a trailer we would use only a couple of times each year.
My wife has decided to name the calves alphabetically - A to Z - so we can
keep track of which calf we got when. I can't wait to see them next time I
get out to the farm. Meanwhile some folks from California took a long look
at our Oxford property. There may be an offer in the making. We'll see....
After all, we were living on the Left Coast when we bought the home back in
1998.
11:56 AM Today's chapel
message was delivered by my friend and former student Finney Matthews of
Alpha Ministries, India, whose Board I have the privilege of serving on
along with Dr. Paige Patterson of Southwestern Seminary and Dr. Bill
Bennett, our campus chaplain. The work of Alpha Ministries in northern
India has grown despite tremendous persecution. Finney's message from Acts 4
was a stirring cry for the church to remain bold in the midst of political
and spiritual opposition. To listen, go to the seminary's website:
www.sebts.edu.
9:14 AM Malcolm Muggeridge, at the beginning of his
autobiography, wrote:
God,
humble my pride, extinguish the stirrings of my ego, obliterate whatever
remains of worldly ambition and carnality, and in these last days of a
mortal existence, help me serve only Thy purposes, to speak and write only
Thy words, to think only Thy thoughts, to have no other prayer than: "Thy
will be done." In other words, to be a true Convert.
I thought of those words as I received in
the mail last night the page proofs to my book Why I
Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon. The
account is an incomplete overview of my pilgrimage from Republican
"conservatism" to the new patriot movement afoot in the land. Once I have
reviewed the proofs and the cover, the book will go to press.
When Socrates took the hemlock rather than
submit to the dominant philosophy of his day, he did so with the full
conviction that in this battle nothing less than the survival of Western
civilization was at stake. Today, human civilization itself is at stake. I
make no claims to say anything new about our culture wars in my little tome,
but I am profoundly concerned about how people think. I rarely get as
excited about a book as I am about this one. It joins many others in trying
to get to the root of the crisis we face in America. Look for it to be
available this summer.
8:04 AM
Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, in his report
on the Abu Ghraib prison, found that between October and December of 2003
there were numerous instances of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal
abuses." This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported,
was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company and also by
members of the American intelligence community. Taguba’s report listed some
of the wrongdoing:
Breaking chemical lights
and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked
detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening
male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the
wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in
his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom
stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees
with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.
Some people at that Iraqi prison say that
American torture even led to death. In November, Staff Sgt Ivan L. Frederick
II, a 37-year-old MP with years of experience as a prison guard in Virginia,
wrote that an Iraqi prisoner under the control of what the Abu Ghraib guards
called "O.G.A.," or other government agencies—the C.I.A. and its
paramilitary employees—was brought to his unit for questioning. "They
stressed him out so bad that the man passed away. They put his body in a
body bag and packed him in ice for approximately twenty-four hours in the
shower. . . . The next day the medics came and put his body on a stretcher,
placed a fake IV in his arm and took him away." The dead Iraqi was never
entered into the prison’s inmate-control system, Frederick recounted, "and
therefore never had a number."
Murder is murder, abuse is abuse, whether
committed by Iraqis or Americans.
7:57 AM You know the church
is in trouble when most of its ministers use a
paraphrase in their work.
7:15 AM
Tomorrow night I plan
to host at my Oxford home some 60-70 dedicated Christian missionaries on
their "American Atrocities Tour," a four-state (Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia), 18-city campaign being conducted by Missionaries
to the Preborn from May 10th - 21st, 2004. The tour will stop in:
May 14th
RALEIGH, NC 7:15 - 8:45 a.m. at McDowell St. & Lenior
St.
DURHAM, NC 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at N. Roxboro Rd. (Bus 501) & E. Club
Blvd.
GREENSBORO, NC 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. at W. Cornwallis Ave. & Battleground Ave.
May 15th
CHARLOTTE, NC 11:30 a.m - 1:00 p.m. at E. Harris
Blvd. & N. Tryon St.
At each stop, the
missionaries will line the streets with large five foot photographs of
murdered preborn babies. The photographic display will include babies killed
by abortion in ALL THREE TRIMESTERS, as abortion is legal in all three
trimesters in America. They will also pass out 100,000 pieces of literature
during the twelve day Tour which expose
the
atrocities committed against the preborn. Since 1973, after the infamous Roe
v. Wade decision, over 42 million preborn babies have been killed by
abortion here in the United States. Now the people of Raleigh, Durham,
Greensboro, and Charlotte will be able to see for themselves exactly what a
preborn child looks like after he or she has been in the hands of an
abortionist.
I fully support this
effort, led by Pastor Matt Trewhella. For more information, please see his
website.
7:07 AM
Say what?
6:50 AM To my best friend:
Happy Birthday!

Her children
arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but
thou excellest them all.
Tuesday,
May 11
5:50 PM
Bush
debates Bush. Hilarious!
3:15 PM Tim Melvin has
written a truly remarkable article on the family. An excerpt:
I am convinced that
children of all ages should be with the parents in the house church
meeting. If we take Eph 6:4 at face value, it is the father who is to train
his children, not another adult teacher. The father who teaches his
children the things of the Lord six days a week will not need someone else
to do it on Sundays.
Read "Turning
the Hearts of the Fathers."
3:10 PM Here is one
habit I need to cultivate.
2:58 PM This response to a
recent blog posting is a good reminder that we all struggle with our bodies,
though in different ways.
Mr. Black,
I
just read your blog post about overeating. I thought I'd mention that
another sin (or pair of often related sins) I've noticed are frequently
overlooked (or simply unnoticed) in the church are anorexia (and other
eating disorders) and self-injury. As the friend of several teenage
girls who are dealing or have dealt with these issues I do wish the
church would pay more attention to them. Sadly, there are so many sins
to pay attention to that invariably some will be overlooked.
2:35 PM This week marks the
anniversary of Stonewall Jackson's death. I cannot think long about this
great American without tears welling up in my eyes. In the
lament I published last year, I cited some of Jackson's more famous
aphorisms. My favorite is undoubtedly this one:
“Duty is ours;
consequences are God’s.” Requiescat in pacem, dear General.

2:30 PM The latest "extreme"
sport?
2:15 PM Any minute now my
wife and son will be picking up our new calves from a farm in western
Virginia. We plan to raise several each year, butchering two for their
meat each fall. We could probably make do with just one for our family's
beef needs, which means we can sell the meat from one cow. Eventually our
plan is to sell farm-fresh chicken, goats, cows, and turkeys to anyone who
wants to KNOW what the animal they purchase has eaten. Oh, did I mention
the farm-fresh eggs?

12:33 PM Last week I
returned to light weight lifting after a hiatus of several months due to
shoulder surgery. It feels great to get back to the gym, and I enjoy (and
have missed) the special comradeship among lifters here at Southeastern.
In my opinion, you’re never too old, too
overweight, or too out of shape to start weight training. In a Tuft’s
University study, the participants (all of whom were over 50) increased
their daily energy expenditure by 15% through just 30 minutes of light
weight training three days a week. Even though they ate about 350 more
calories per day, the subjects lost an average of 4 pounds of fat over the
12-week training period. The message? We can turn the clock back. The only
question is: Are we willing?
To me this question is all the more important in
light of the disturbing numbers of overweight students I encounter every
day on campus. Why should obesity characterize so many Southern Baptists?
In my search for an answer to this question I ran across an interesting
Purdue University study of religion and body weight which found that
religious people are more likely to be overweight than are nonreligious
people. Sociology Professor Kenneth Ferraro found the correlation between
being overweight and being religious was statistically significant
regardless of a person’s choice of faith. The findings, published in the
March 1998 edition of the journal Review of Religious Research, came from
analyzing data collected in two national surveys. “The religious lifestyle
has long been considered a healthy one, with its constraints on sexual
promiscuity, alcohol and tobacco use,” Ferraro says. “However, overeating
may be one sin that pastors and priests regularly overlook. And as such,
many firm believers may have not-so-firm bodies.”
Ferraro doesn't say that religions intentionally
promote higher body weight, but two factors may be at work. “American
churches are virtually silent on excess body weight, despite a Biblical
dictate for moderation in all things,” he says. “In the Book of Proverbs,
gluttony is listed with drunkenness as a sign of moral weakness, but few
religious groups have any proscriptions against overeating.” At the same
time, he points out, most religions promote acceptance. “Overweight people
may find comfort in religious settings. Temples, synagogues and churches may
provide an important source of acceptance in the midst of a society that
highly values fit bodies,” Ferraro says. And, while being overweight was a
tendency across all religions, “Baptists tended to be the heaviest, with
Jewish, Moslem and Buddhist groups the least overweight.”
So, with your doctor's approval, I encourage
you to begin exercising today. Weight training is a good option, if you've
never considered it before. Sessions of about an hour in length, two or
three times a week, will get anyone off to a good start; even many
experienced weight lifters don’t invest more time than this.
Lifting
is one of the best things you can do for your metabolism, and whether you
wind up eagerly awaiting each workout or just cheerfully tolerating it as
necessary maintenance, it will almost certainly give you a stronger, leaner
body, and more energy. Not a bad return on the investment of about 3 hours a
week, including showers!
12:29 PM Alexander
Strauch's pamphlet on biblical eldership and church leadership is available
online free of
charge. It remains perhaps the most readable and Scriptural overview of New
Testament principles of eldership ever written.
9:52 AM David Hackworth on
the prison scandal:
Speaking of Karpinski,
she’s received only a mild slap on the wrist as the brass were circling
the wagons. Not a good sign that our country’s commanders intend to own up
to their respective roles in this catastrophic breach of human rights,
which will have consequences we all will have to pay for many years to
come.
Read
more.
9:50 AM Just read this
excellent essay on the "Deceitfulness
of the Heart" by (of all people) David Black (d. 1806).
9:48 AM
John Muether has a good
essay on why we don't read Bunyan's
Pilgrim's
Progress anymore -
and
why we should. A sampling:
Pilgrimage has
consequences. Sustained reflection on this theme will reap several benefits for
us. First it will subvert common misunderstandings of the Christian life. The
besetting problem for American Christians - evangelical or mainline - is
an overwhelming self-confidence that attends our notions of the
Christian life. One advantage to singing the great hymns of the faith is
their emphasis on our weakness and frailty.
8:55 AM A reader just sent
in this response to John Notgrass's essay "If
John Kerry Was President":
Contrary to fact statements take the subjunctive mood:
If John Kerry were
President
Since we're being
purists today, I would remind my readers of the following rules for English
composition:
-
Always avoid
alliteration.
-
Prepositions are
not words to end sentences with.
-
Avoid clichés
like the plague.
-
Eschew
ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
-
It is wrong to
ever split an infinitive.
-
Parenthetical
remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
-
Foreign words
and phrases are hardly apropos.
-
Never
generalize.
-
Comparisons are
as bad as clichés.
-
Don’t be
redundant or use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
-
Be more or less
specific.
-
One-word
sentences? Eliminate.
-
The passive
voice is to be avoided.
-
Even if a
metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
-
Who needs
rhetorical questions?
-
Employ the
vernacular.
-
Analogies are
like feathers on a snake.
-
Contractions
aren’t proper.
-
Eliminate
quotations; as Emerson once said: “I hate quotations.”
-
Exaggeration is a
billion times worse than understatement.
8:40 AM The Constitution
Party's presidential nominee Michael Peroutka has just picked up another
major endorsement, this time from K.C. McAlpin, the Executive Director
of the U.S. Immigration Reform Political Action Committee - "a national
committee that unites the concerns of the vast majority of the American
people who want to see their immigration laws enforced - and want to see
common sense limits put on immigration, and things done to, for instance, to
stop the threat of terrorism." At least Peroutka is willing to face
squarely our "Immigration
Madness."
7:17 AM Rosewood Farm
update: Yesterday, with the help of some seminary students (from Ghana and
Kenya) we moved furniture up to the farm, including a late 1800s grand
piano that four men could barely lift. It's still in beautiful condition,
and most of its keys still operate. We are now preparing to receive our
first guests at Bradford Hall - two pastors and their families.
Monday,
May 10
7:52 AM Ask for permission
first, then pray.
7:30 AM The latest on the
SBC resolution on government schools may be found
here.
7:10 AM A reader's email
alerted me to this timely quote by Mark Twain:
Each of you, for
himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is
a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside
at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases
of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and
what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot
shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an
unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your
country, let man label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation
shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your
convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by
your country- hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.
7:05 AM It was great to be
back at my home church in southern Virginia after being away for several
weeks preaching elsewhere. After the service I took my wife to her favorite
restaurant for Mother's Day to enjoy Ethiopian food. This weekend was as
busy as ever. Got a good deal on a hay mower we had been looking for for
some time. Looks like it's shaping up to be a good week to cut and bale. The
big news is that on Tuesday we are getting our first cows (calves, that is),
which we will raise for meat. Today I've a got a moving van, and some
students will be helping me move our heaviest furniture and our organ/pianos
to the farm.
Thursday,
May 6
8:57 AM Baptists were not
always so loath to practice
church discipline.
8:22 AM Have you noticed
how beautiful it is today in central North Carolina? Somebody needs to
take a nice long ride this afternoon.

8:20 AM Tom Ascol asks
"Why Work for
Reformation within the Southern Baptist Convention?"
8:18 AM "India
Undaunted" brought back many happy memories of my weeklong ministry to
Indian pastors in the state of Kerala.
8:16 AM La
historia muestra dónde la
conciencia y la tradición chocan, la mayoría del pueblo de Dios van con la
tradición.
Ahora mismo, la pregunta está delante de la casa...
¿Qué va a hacer usted?
Read El Cristianismo
Pagano.
8:10 AM
District 4 Superintendent Dr. Gary
Burgess said, "She has been placed on paid administrative leave. We are
investigating and I cannot comment further at this time." The parent who
brought the concerns to the district, John Cummings, said, "This is a
district matter between the district and its employee. If people want the
truth they will contact the district."
Guess what this teacher's crime was?
8:07 AM To my Greek
students: for an excellent and succinct guide to the textual variants in the
Greek New Testament, go
here.

7:57 AM WND just ran a
report about the downward slide of church attendance in America.
At The Baptist Banner website, T. C. Pinckney addresses this issue head
on:
(1) We
allow virtually anyone willing to walk an aisle, say acceptable words,
and be baptized to become members of our churches. This dilutes, as
Whitney said, our message and liberalizes our message. (2) Once on a
church role, the only means of removal at most SBC churches are death or
voluntary withdrawal ... the latter usually due to moving to another
area. This allows non-participating “members” to swing the outcome when
a contentious issue comes up. (3) Because we allow the unregenerate to
be full members, sin abounds and pastors fear to address it. It is only
the rare SBC church that exercises church discipline.
To remedy
this situation: Churches must counsel would-be members to be sure they
are regenerate before they are admitted to full membership. Church rolls
must be regularly purged of non- or only very occasional participants.
Pastors must not shy from addressing prevalent sins, and churches must
exercise loving church discipline per Matthew 18.
Read
"Who should join a Southern Baptist church?".
7:14 AM NPR aired a
magnificent report this morning on one-minute miler Roger Bannister and the
"Perfect Mile" - the match race between Bannister and John Landy. Read about
it
here. Inspiring!

Wednesday,
May 5
9:14 AM
"The administration's chronic rejection of good advice
has already been revealed as the primary cause for the
unnecessary deaths of hundreds of Americans
in Iraq, not to mention thousands of Iraqis. History will not be kind to Mr.
Bush." So writes
Karen Kwiatkowski.
9:05 AM
Writes Walter Williams:
There's no question that black students can
compete academically, but they face a perverse set of incentives. First,
racial preferences in college
admissions
reduce the incentive to work as hard as they might in high school. The
fact that colleges have race preferences in admissions helps conceal
fraud at the government schools that confer diplomas attesting that a
student is proficient at the 12th grade when in fact he might not be
proficient at the eighth, ninth or 10th grade.
Read "Poor
education prognosis."
8:23 AM
An investor group
headed by Al Gore is launching a
news
network that will offer "irreverent and bold" programming for young
adults. Hmmm, just what that narcissistic generation needs. Kyle Williams
suggests a
better use of time.
7:52 AM
Please pray for the
Telg family.
7:50 AM
The prisoner abuse
in Iraq
has been going on for some time. An
excerpt from a report by Major General Antonio Taguba reads:
Between October and
December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility, incidents of
sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several
detainees.
Meanwhile, as the scandal
widens, the
outrage in the Middle East is only beginning. America has never been
more hated in the Arab world. Tragedy is, we're
all
capable of such brutal behavior.
7:44 AM Employee fired for
using the H
word.
7:03 AM Many Americans
incorrectly think that the festivities of Cinco de Mayo, held each May 5th,
are a celebration of the independence of Mexico. Among other things, Cinco
de Mayo is a reminder of how a native populace can thwart a formidable
invading
army.
France brought 4,500 troops and began marching inland on its war of
occupation. Their objective was to occupy Mexico City. Gen Latrille,
commanding the French troops, was informed that the French would be welcomed
with open arms in Puebla and that the local clergy would shower them with
blossoms and would offer a special Te Deum in their honor. Mexican
President Juarez assigned the defense of
Puebla to Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza. Encountering unexpected opposition on May
5, 1862, Latrille attacked recklessly, and within two hours the French had
expended half of their ammunition. The decisive action of the day was
carried out by young Brigadier Gen. Porfirio Diaz, who repelled a determined
assault on Zaragoza's right flank. The invaders, witnesses of more glorious
days in Crimea, retreated to lick their wounds in Orizaba. That's how May 5
was added to the calendar of holidays in Mexico.
Any lessons
here today for another invading army that is facing an extremely hostile
and proud populace?
Tuesday,
May 4
9:24AM Just what we need:
another
Bible version.
7:29 AM The
BBC today
is running a survey on what people think the legacy of Margaret Thatcher
should be. Well, other than the fact that she could live on five hours of
sleep, I
would
applaud the fact that she embraced traditional American values such as
freedom and limited government, unlike her current
British counterpart, who leads the avowedly socialist Labour Party and who,
like Bush, is recasting society into a socialist democracy. But above all I
will remember Margaret Thatcher for cutting British taxes in half, for
getting rid of Britain’s insidious exchange controls, and for giving public
sector tenants the right to buy their houses off their local government.
That there is plenty of legacy for any politician, if ya ask me.
7:22 AM I wish
Devvy Kidd would
learn how to get to the point:
It is important for the
shadow government to continue to instill fear in the American people so
they will continue forfeiting their God-given rights for a false sense
of security. As was recently reported, Mr. Bush and his messengers have
been all over the country trying to stop the hemorrhaging by cities,
counties and states over the Patriot Act. With such massive opposition
to Patriot I, things are not going as planned for the global masters in
their pursuit to get Patriot II passed and signed into law. Drastic
measures usually follow set backs.
By the way, if
you think this is "unhelpful conservative bashing," wait till you read what
Bill Sizemore has
to say.
7:16 AM The latest from
Eric Margolis:
The U.S. "liberation"
of Iraq is going even worse than the Soviet "liberation" of Afghanistan.
U.S. forces in Iraq, particularly marines, are employing the same brutal
overkill that turned Afghans against the Russians. Such is the nature of
colonial wars.
History may not repeat
itself, but man's follies do. We don't recognize them at first, because
each time they return dressed in different disguises.
Monday,
May 3
12:30 PM Looks like we
preachers aren't the only ones guilty of etymologizing. Mel
Gibson writes in the "Foreword"
to
The Passion
(Tyndale House, 2004):
There is a classical Greek word which best defines what "truth" guided
my
work, and that of
everyone else involved in the project:
aletheia.
It simply
means "unforgetting" . .
. . It has unfortunately become part of the ritual of our modern secular
existence to forget. The film, in this sense, is not meant as a historical
documentary nor does it claim to have assembled all
the
facts. But it does enumerate those described in relevant Holy Scripture. It is not
merely representative or merely expressive. I think of it as
contemplative in the sense that one is compelled to remember (unforget) in a spiritual
way which cannot be articulated, only experienced.
Hmmm, let's
see here. We need to "unforget" in a "spiritual way" that can be
"experienced" but not "articulated." This interpretation of aletheia
would certainly be news to Bauer or any other New Testament lexicographer
I'm aware of.
Gibson's
film, it seems to me, is a good example of postmodern thinking.
Postmodernism has the following features:
1. an emphasis on
impressionism and subjectivity in writing (and in visual arts as well);
an emphasis on HOW seeing (or reading or perception itself) takes place,
rather than on WHAT is perceived. An example of this would be
stream-of-consciousness writing.
2. a movement away from
the apparent objectivity provided by omniscient third-person narrators,
fixed narrative points of view, and clear-cut moral positions.
Faulkner's multiply-narrated stories are an example of this aspect of
modernism.
3. a blurring of
distinctions between genres, so that poetry seems more documentary (as
in T.S. Eliot or ee cummings) and prose seems more poetic (as in Woolf
or Joyce).
4. an emphasis on
fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives, and random-seeming collages
of different materials.
5. a tendency toward
reflexivity, or self-consciousness, about the production of the work of
art, so that each piece calls attention to its own status as a
production, as something constructed and consumed in particular ways.
6. a rejection of
elaborate formal aesthetics in favor of minimalist designs (as in the
poetry of William Carlos Williams) and a rejection, in large part, of
formal aesthetic theories, in favor of spontaneity and discovery in
creation.
7. A rejection of the
distinction between "high" and "low" or popular culture, both in choice
of materials used to produce art and in methods of displaying,
distributing, and consuming art.
Perhaps this
explains the popularity of the film among
evangelicals,
with a
few exceptions, of course.
11:53 AM Last Sunday's
service in Roxboro was age-integrated as far as I could tell. If you are
working through this issue of age-integrated worship, youth ministry,
children's' church, etc.,
this author has some excellent advice, written in the form of a letter
to a pastor. It has an upbeat and positive tone. You could read it and
then perhaps pass it on to your own pastor. A key excerpt:
Jim, we Christians lament
the direction of our society and its influence upon our children, yet I
believe we continue to do things that contribute to the problem,
starting especially with our own lukewarmness toward God and our
responsibility as parents. Somehow we have come to feel that dropping
our kids off at Sunday School or youth group fulfills our obligation to
"train up a child in the way he should go" when in reality it merely
sets the stage for the creation of a "generation gap", courtesy of
today's youth culture. Unless we parents wake up, get our eyes back on
God, and get focused on our parenting, the problem will continue. We
need parents who understand that parental accountability for their
children cannot be delegated to others. Realizing the buck stops with
them, we need parents who will make sacrifices for their kids. We need
parents who are willing to take bold measures, Jim, for gone are the
Puritan days when society was kind to kids and the things of God. Our
children need protection while they are young so they can stand strong
for God on their own later and so they can reach their potential for his
kingdom. our kids are suffering and many Christian parents have adopted
the world's way of doing things for too long. I urge you as a church to
continue to think biblically and boldly on these issues. Even if you
disagree with the solution I propose or the reasoning I give, the very
discussion of these realities among parents may motivate parents (esp.
dads) to do whatever it takes to recapture the hearts of their
children. It will take time, humility, courage, and much prayer, but it
is never too late! Hang in there!
11:30 AM USA Patriot Act
naysayers up to 300
... and counting. My take? Go
here.
10:24 AM Just a
miscellaneous thought, but it seems like we got a ton of rain this weekend,
though the weather is starting to clear, which means we can go ahead with
attending to the horses' needs (hoofs and molars) this afternoon even if the
pasture will be a bit soggy. When you live in the country you never take the
rain for granted, especially when you've just planted corn, beans, and
sunflowers. After several years of drought in southern Virginia we are
almost back to normal water levels, and each rain storm brings much needed
moisture to the region. Today I was reminded of Matthew 5:43-45:
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes
his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous." This verse is sometimes quoted out of context,
as if rain were a punishment. Rain is not to be seen as trouble or as an
inconvenience. Jesus'
words were spoken to people living in a land with low rainfall, people who
depended on rain for their survival. To them, rain was a picture of God's
blessings. God is like that - He just keeps opening the big ol' spigot of
heaven and pours out blessings upon us day after day. Lobe den Herrn!

9:50 AM Heard the one about
the
panda who walked into a cafe, ordered a sandwich, ate it,
then pulled out a gun and shot the waiter? "Why?" groaned the injured man.
The panda shrugged, tossed him a badly punctuated wildlife manual, and
walked out. When the waiter consulted the book, he found an explanation.
"Panda," ran the entry for his assailant. "Large black and white mammal
native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Neat reminder of the importance
of
correct punctuation. Problem is, what's good punctuation in Great
Britain doesn't work in the U.S. (the use or non-use of the serial comma is
a good example).
9:43 AM A recent
Pew Report
chronicles how Americans translate on-line community and interest groups
into off-line social relationships. Howard Dean was even able to create
something resembling a movement around progressive politics. An
interesting glimpse from the report:
By far the greatest impact
comes in television viewing. Fully one-quarter of Internet users said
that surfing the Internet has led to a decrease in TV time. For the
Internet's most experienced users (those who have been online for three
or more years), this number rises to about one-third, as 31% of those
users say the Internet has decreased the amount of time they watch TV.
Traditional media also takes a hit when looking at time spent reading
newspapers. One in seven (14%) Internet users say the Internet has
decreased the time they spend reading newspapers. For the Internet's
veterans, this number rises to 21%, although these users are also the
most likely to go online to get news.
8:05 AM Had another very
good Lord's Day, this time in historic Roxboro, NC, at the Front Street
Baptist Church, which is heroically carrying on an inner-city ministry to
the largely ethnic community in which it is located. I spoke on "Jesus and
the Age 30 Transition" (a call to radical obedience) and afterwards dined
with this small yet vibrant congregation. The pastor, Lance Murphy, is a
student of mine at the seminary and is currently taking my Intermediate
Greek course on 1 Timothy. We share many interests. He grew up on a farm
riding horses and is also a member of the Roxboro Sons of Confederate
Veterans Camp, where I spoke recently. I also met many church members who
were keenly interested in the Hunley funeral. I pointed
them to the numerous photos of the event published at Dixie Daily News. This
weekend my son and I were able to complete the stairs and loft on our new
goat pen. So all in all, a busy and productive weekend. This week's goals
are to trim the horses feet, file their molars, and put the siding up on the
barn. If you enjoy the outdoors as much as we do you might like
this brief essay on farm life I recently stumbled across surfing the
net. It's from the September 23, 1871, edition of Harpers Weekly.
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