Horrifying

There’s a reason why I’m not in the medical field. My dad doesn’t do to well with the sight of blood; blood doesn’t bother me. I just… don’t deal well with pain. Too much empathy, you might say. Don’t tell me about your broken arm. I’ll be massaging my elbow for an hour. **Please** don’t tell me about giving birth to your first baby. It’s undignifying for a man to clutch in pain at body parts he doesn’t even have. But I could have made a fine mortician. Once a thing is dead, it’s dead. I don’t hurt on its behalf.

That said, I had always assumed that I had a fundamental difference of understanding with people who kill unborn children. Continue reading “Horrifying”

Across the Pew

Brad Hightower at [21st Century Reformation](http://www.21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/) has written a few posts recently about our tendency to judge a congregation’s worship by our culture. Specifically, in [this](http://21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/2005/02/bob-dole-and-impotent-worship.html) post, he addresses the tendency to think that a service that doesn’t do it the way you remember it when you were a kid is somehow slipping into apostacy, or at best, dishonoring God. The title of the post is “Bob Dole and Impotent Worship,” so I bet you can guess where he stands on nostalgia in worship, but he adresses the issue with much grace and insight. He continues his thoughts [here](http://21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/2005/02/how-big-is-your-tent-or-do-you-prefer.html) with the question, “how big is your tent?”

>We worship a Missionary God, and, if we desire to enjoy His presence, we may find that we will need to find His presence by becoming incarnational in a world other than our own. ***Those who***, like Peter, ***are being led by the Spirit*** into the world of others and who can put down their self-centeredness for just one moment, and look for God’s grace in the world around us in other boxes and other perspectives, ***these are the sons of God.***

This is a very important issue to address. A lot of churches have died over unwillingness to compromise, confusing the *content* of their worship with its *style*. This conflict isn’t always framed in terms of “hymns vs. songs.” I’ve heard of people griping because we used the contemporary worship music of the mid-90’s instead of the early 80’s.

My own church is currently making the transition from hymnals to overheads, from organs to guitars. Or perhaps, not so much a switch as a blending, which I’d like better anyway. It’s funny, though. The choir will bring out a new arrangement of a golden oldie and expect to whip it out in a night, and I’ll be completely lost. All the wizened heads will look at me: you’ve never even heard of this song? Usually, I’ll have heard one line from it, maybe a reference from a sermon. Nine times out of ten, I’ll be enamoured with the hymn, and then roll my eyes as we switch back to “Lord I lift your name on high.”

Jones Soda Co.

Seth Godin is [pointing]( http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/02/need_vs_want.html) everybody to a [FastCompany article]( http://www.fastcompany.com/subscr/92/open_jones-extra.html) about the [Jones Soda co.]( http://www.jonessoda.com/). It’s a great (and long) article about how to market when you’re the little guy. They built their entire brand without any traditional advertising.

But I’m not concerned about that. What’s got me fascinated is that you can order a case of 12 personalized Jones Sodas. With your picture on them. (sorry, no direct link.)

Hey, no mass media advertising, but it worked. I want a couple cases of these at my wedding. With wedding pictures on them.

Dad… ?

God’s Work

This was in my mailbox from one of my bridesmaids who is an exchange student in England this year. I hope you enjoy it.

February 08, 2005

Cover story

We’re doing God’s work — and John Prescott’s
Penny Wark
A former stockbroker turned fundamentalist pastor has ended homelessness in Southport. Would his scheme work nationwide?

PASTOR PETE is small and round, with a big white beard and a voice that bubbles with infectious vigour. He is 62 and looks like Father Christmas, sounds like Rolf Harris and is a self-confessed hugger for whom everything is possible and nothing — not even the darker recesses of the human condition — presents an obstacle to making things better. This is why the people of Southport, on the Lancashire coast, view him as a hero.
Continue reading “God’s Work”

Moral Neutrality

Politics for a Christian, in my opinion, is primarily an act of apologetics. There’s nothing wrong with participating in society simply because you are a member of that society, but as Christians, we have a duty to participate in society *as representatives of Jesus Christ* This means that very little of what we do in public is morally neutral.

As I said yesterday, we have a calling to be both salt and light. As salt, we have a responsibility to intervene and actively bring corruption to a halt (see: preservative). As light, we have a responsibility to instruct the world on the difference between sin and righteousness. Often we get to do both at the same time.

OMF Serge makes this same point with much better clarity than I could over at [Imago Dei](http://www.imago-dei.net/) in his series on [The Myth of Moral Neutrality](http://www.imago-dei.net/imago_dei/2005/02/the_myth_of_mor.html). For one thing he has concrete examples.

Hat tip: [New Covenant](http://newcovenant.blogspot.com/)

Fusion Power

According to [Luboš Motl](http://motls.blogspot.com/), who is [reporting](http://motls.blogspot.com/2005/02/goldston-about-fusion.html) on a seminar on the subject, the plans for engineering fusion power plants by 2050 are right on schedule. I didn’t even realize that fusion was considered feasible… ever. Shows what I know, don’t it?

I think I had fusion power mixed up with “cold fusion,” which may be a [nice webdesign tool](http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/), but as an engineering feat, it’s still considered unfeasible.

Hat tip: [Pseudo-Polymath](http://pseudopolymath.blogspot.com/2005/02/quick-hit.html)

Christian Politics?

One of my online discussions for seminary was a question of whether we ought to discuss politics in church. Almost everyone who responded to the question wholeheartedly endorsed the position that people should say nothing – nothing – at church in regard to politics. The most political statement that any person should make is that you should vote.

I think I was one of the very few people who pointed out that it’s one thing to pray for your political leaders and always honor and respect political authority. It’s another thing to deliberately censor yourself from political activity in a system that requires precisely that activity. Might as well have asked Constantine, upon conversion, not to pass any Christian laws so that he could properly “render unto Caesar.” In a democratic system, we **are** Caesar.

Continue reading “Christian Politics?”

Goodblog

I’ve added a new category to the blogroll at the right. The “Under Surveillance” category is going to be where I put new blogs that I’ve discovered until such time that I decide to keep them. If I decide again’ it, they’ll discretely disappear, never to be heard from again. If they stay, I’ll move them up to a ”real” category, above, and put a few notes up about why everyone ought to read my newfound blog.

[Pseudo-Polymath](http://pseudopolymath.blogspot.com/), was a quick decision. I have no idea what Pseudo-Polymath means, but the tagline is “Christianity, Ethics, Bike Racing, and current events from right of center.” I’m pretty sure it’s the ‘Christianity’ that I’m going to focus on. At least, He’s going under the “Religion” category.

Mark Olson, whose blog it is, is a good thinker, a good writer, and has a **lot** of interesting things to talk about. Here are a few of them:

Continue reading “Goodblog”