Forbes columnist: ‘Wall Street is about to become the new Catholic Church–the most distrusted and vilified institution in America’
Dan Gerstein (HT: Rod Dreher)
‘No evidence that recession pulls people to the pews’
Daniel Burke, Religion New Service (HT: Bruce Tomaso)
Study: Teen pledges of abstinence have little impact on sexual behavior
WORLD Mag (see ‘Inkblot Data’ story)
Uncle Jay explains the headlines of 2008
(HT: Gospel Soundcheck)
Two sad extremes: Western cultures over-sexualize young women, Islamic ones stifle their sexuality
‘Ten for the History Books from 2008′
Things that happened for the first time in 2008
A list by FellowElder at Pure Church
Ray Boltz’s new song, ‘Don’t Tell Me Who to Love’
Joanne Brokaw of Gospel Soundcheck discusses the origin and rationale behind Boltz’s new single. Boltz, a fairly well-known Christian artist, recently announced that he is gay.
Listen to ‘Don’t Tell Me Who to Love’.
Up with Rick
Two commendatory commentaries on the Rick Warren/Obama inauguration:
John Mark Reynolds writes ‘Rick Warren: A Public Educator Worthy of Honor’ at The Scriptorium:
“Rick Warren refuses to bow to the thoughtless assumptions of the American right or the American left. He flays the comfortable in both camps …”
And Justin Wise writes, “God bless Barack Obama for reaching out to Rick Warren. God bless Rick Warren for reaching out to Obama.”
‘Why do conservative Christians have so many children?’
Two or Three’s Daniel G. offers six reasons conservative Christians have more children than liberals and non-Christians.
Bad reporting on church discipline case in Florida
At the GetReligion blog, Mollie Ziegler Hemingway discusses the way journalists have reported the case of Rebecca Hancock, who says she has been harassed and threatened with public rebuke by the leaders of Grace Community Church in Mandarin, Florida:
“There are so many problems with the coverage that it’s hard to get it all down. Note the last line of the first paragraph above. It’s not that the church is going to go ‘public’ with her sin, they’re going ‘very public.’ There’s really no need to overly dramatize the situation, particularly when the woman in question has taken her situation to the national media — and not the congregation.”
Weekend Walkabout, December 20, 2008
26 posts from the week that escaped mention (almost!):
“All” Always Means ALL. Right? - Phil Johnson
A Bad Sign - The Sacred Sandwich
CCM Magazine’s Top Ten Artist Blogs of 2008 (HT: Worship.com)
Don’t Waste Your Sexuality - Josh Harris
The Elvis-Beatles Relativity Fallacy - Rod Dreher
“Free” Christian music downloads from CompassionArt - Gospel Soundcheck
Glorifying God in Our Christmas Shopping - Tony Reinke
“Does my gift serve the soul of the recipient?”
How Hellish is ‘Time Out’? - Russell Moore
If Only it Were That Clear - Mark D. Roberts
Jonestown and the Reformed Movement - R. Scott Clark
“As weird and impossible as Jonestown seems today, what happened to them and what they did to themselves, is not utterly unrelated to ideas, causes, and personalities in the Reformed movement over the last three decades.”
Killing is My Business, and Business is Good - Paul Manata
Lewis’s Famous Essay on Bulverism (HT: Victor Reppert)
Martin Luther’s Christmas Book - Between Two Worlds
No Good Reason - Cerulean Sanctum
“In sorting through this clothing, the realization that I throw away just about nothing hit home.”
Online Community…Does it exist? YES! But I Think You Are Asking the Wrong Question - Rhett Smith
Phillips Daylight Window Concept Presentation - Joshua Sowin
Q+A :: How many U.S. churches exist? - Church Relevance
Reflections from a Church Pianist - Amy Scott
“When I have a brain freeze at a bad time, I’ve got a special look for the other musicians that asks, ‘What are you people thinking, man?’”
Six Christmas Poems - Marcus Goodyear
Tim Challies Day - Justin Taylor
Unpacking forgiveness in real life - Dan Phillips
Volition: A Short Film - Jonathan Ignacio
“It is a fifteen minute film focusing on three of the worst atrocities of human rights this world has faced.”
Why read through Calvin’s Institutes in 2009? - Ligon Duncan
Xmas Giveaway - Trevin Wax
“For the next ten days (Dec. 15-25), you have the opportunity to register to win all ten of my favorite books this year. Plus, an ESV Study Bible. That’s $260 worth of books!”
You Should Subscribe - Green Baggins
Zeitgeist as Agent? - Pseudo-Polymath
“Consider … for a moment the intelligent ant colony … from the ant’s perspective … here with man as ant. “
Among UK youth, Simon Cowell more famous than God
… according to a Daily News story (HT: Kris Rasmussen)
I found this interesting:
“‘Being fat’ tops the list in the category of the ‘very worst things in the world’ among the tween set, and when asked what they would do if made king or queen of the world, a ban on divorce was the most popular answer.”
‘Deconstructing Christmas’
In an essay posted at Emergent Village, Mark Douglass, co-leader of the Wilderness Way Community, considers which Christmas elements are worth keeping, and which need to be ‘tossed’:
“Keep: Songs and Traditions from Around the World — again, the transcultural/contextual paradox of Christ’s birth invites a wealth of music and celebration to connect us with the world’s celebration of Christ …
Toss: Material Gifts — We live in a time of year-round excess that needs a strong witness to restraint. What better witness than turning Christmas into a season of charitable giving and gifts of time, presence, and community rather than another opportunity for material excess?”
Read the whole thing.
Not all screens are created equal
At Culture11, Alan Jacobs responds to an essay by Christine Rosen in which she laments the multiplication of various screens in the lives of we 21st century humans: computer, phone, TV, etc. (see ‘People of the Screen‘).
Jacobs says not so fast …
“There is no such thing as ‘the screen’; there are screens, plural, and they are not all the same.”
Read his entire post, in which he recommends Albert Borgmann’s work, Holding On to Reality: the Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium, to gain some proper perspective on new technologies.
