Category: Links

No Mystique about Feminism

When historians set out to date the moment when the women’s movement of the 1970s officially consolidated its gains, they could do worse than settle on last Tuesday’s primaries.

“Anti-Vuvuzela filters” promise quiter world cup

Somali Soccer Fans executed by Radical Muslims for watching World Cup

Gunmen believed to be from a radical Islamic group in northeast Mogadishu, Somalia, shot two people dead during an impromptu raid on a house where people were watching a World Cup match Saturday night, Reuters reports.

When Kissinger calls, it’s World Cup Time!

My own prediction? The winner, in order of likelihood, will come from: Spain, Brazil, the Netherlands, Argentina, Italy, Germany. Possible surprise? Ghana. And if America does well, President Obama will benefit. As Kissinger knows, U.S. indifference to soccer has long been a source of intense global suspicion.

The Best Weapon against North Korea’s lies: information

Other options have failed. We should test if the North Korean regime can survive the collapse of its lies.

Ergun Caner, Ex-Muslim, Evangelical Leader, exposed as fake

An unrepentant Caner maintains his innocence, saying that he “never intentionally misled anyone.” He blames the campaign to discredit him on Calvinists and their Muslim interlocutors. At the same time, many of his duped followers are refusing to accept reality. They are taking their anger out on those who have exposed the fraud and not on the charlatan himself.

The Legitimacy of Inferences

All of these arguments are initially attractive because of their simplicity. Obviously, simplicity is not the criterion for truth.

Introduction to the South Beach Diet

Within days of adopting it, you’ll see that the South Beach Diet lifestyle allows you to eat healthy, delicious food that will not only promote weight loss and good health but will do so while satisfying your hunger. Now that’s a terrific recipe for living!

Journalist quits at 89 amid ‘hell’ firestorm

Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas has abruptly retired amid the fallout over her controversial statements about Israel, her employer announced Monday.

Israel and Outremer

Ten years later, though, only the military advantage endures. Diplomatically and demographically, Israel increasingly faces the same problems that bedeviled the 12th-century kings of Jerusalem.

Time detects safety flaws in ‘Creation’

Fire: Sure, fire gave man the opportunity to survive in a cold, hostile world and also provided the key to building a technological culture – from the Bronze Age to the Space Age. But at what cost? Even today, the power of fire far outpaces our ability to use it safely. Nearly 3,000 people die annually in the U.S. from fires and its dangerous byproducts: smoke and heat. That number could rise dramatically.

Learning from the Gores about the Grace of Separation

Far too often we are surprised by news that a couple is divorcing when we all thought things were fine. But seldom do we hear, as we did with Al and Tipper, that a couple is separating. Was this carefully crafted PR language to avoid the “dword”—or is this truly descriptive of their situation? Few know. Regardless, it provides an opportunity to discuss marital separation and what it can mean for marriage.

A Culture of Resurrection

Our church doesn’t have enough funerals,” associate pastor John Stoltzfus said in his annual All Saints’ Day sermon. In his suburban Mennonite congregation, members tend to leave the area after they retire. They move into denominational retirement communities, or they head south to warmer climates. Sometimes, older members will continue to spend their summers in the Chicago area but winter somewhere in the Sun Belt. So, in his eight years as senior pastor, Todd Friesen has performed just ten funerals. Other pastors he knows who serve at churches where retired members stay in the area perform on average one funeral a week.

Questions About the Gulf

BP’s latest failure to plug the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is one more crushing disappointment to Louisiana’s beleaguered people, one more strike against the company and one more signal to President Obama to redouble efforts to contain and clean the spill.

This Memorial Day, honoring a military that’s in isolation

Note: I found this piece by E.J. Dionne to be quite disturbing. He argues that wars bring about racial reconciliation and financial prosperity. He has probably never heard of the “broken window” fallacy. He argues further for the advancement of women in the military, which is in my opinion a despicable practice.

A Description about how most of us feel about the future life compared to the present life (Contra Mundum)

Piper, Sailhamer, and Creationism

Rather than seeking to interpret the Bible in light of contemporary scientific claims of the age of the earth, we should uphold what the Word of God teaches by challenging the faulty presuppositions of today’s mainstream scientists. Then we will be faithful to what God has revealed and expose the “nakedness” of the emperor of contemporary science.

The Mediterranean Massacre

The answer is that Israeli society has long ago been poisoned by the bacillus of fascism, and – sheltered under the umbrella of US military and financial support – the bacterium has flourished in the perfect Petri dish of generous American aid. Now the creature has broken out of the laboratory, and is roaming the world in search of victims – and finding them in a couple of boat loads of lefty journalists and international do-gooder types. What we ought to be asking ourselves, somewhat nervously, is: who’s next?

A Great and Growing Inferiority Complex of Calvinists

Culture! How badly we do want it! We are not happy about our Christianity and we are not happy about our Calvinism unlessit is “cultured.”

Two Kingdoms and Cultural Obedience

Ending Explanations of LOST

In the end, for me, LOST was a touchstone show that dealt with faith, the afterlife, and all these big, spirtual questions that most shows don’t touch. And to me, they never once waivered from their core story — even with all the sci-fi elements they mixed in. To walk that long and daunting of a creative tightrope and survive is simply astounding.

Facebook Responds

Facebook’s existence is predicated on people wanting to share information about their lives. It should trust that users who want to share everything will and not force the hand of those who don’t want to.

An Ecclesiology of Escapism

The case for a pretribulational event in Revelation rests on a patchwork of inferential ideas, none of which can withstand the scrutiny of rigorous hermeneutics. As it turns out, the pre-tribulationists only hope is to interpret the Philadelphian church in a vacuum, excising it from its cultural, literary and immediate context. The result is a church that is devoid of its own historical personality and serves as nothing more than a historical prop allowing modern believers to extrapolate an ecclesiology of escapism.

The Triune God: Rich in Relationships

When we hear the names, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, we sense that in the mystery of God there must be a wondrous community. It is the one name of God in which “the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit” are so different that they are named successively, yet bound together with the conjunction “and.”

Foxy News

The Fox News site is not quite as bad as that, but is pretty clearly keeping Balaam on retainer as well.

The Problem with the ’64 Civil Rights Act

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, while I join the sponsors of H.Res. 676 in promoting racial harmony and individual liberty, the fact is the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not accomplish these goals. Instead, this law unconstitutionally expanded federal power, thus reducing liberty. Furthermore, by prompting raced-based quotas, this law undermined efforts to achieve a color-blind society and increased racial strife. Therefore, I must oppose H.Res. 676.

Check it Again

Job applicants would have the right to receive a copy of the background check so that they could challenge inaccurate information. And the bureau would be required to correct inaccurate information in its database. The bill allows the F.B.I. to raise the fees it charges employers to cover the cost of cleaning up the data. No one should be denied a job because the government’s information is wrong.

Vote Endorses Muslim Center Near Ground Zero

After a raucous hearing, a Manhattan community board backed a proposal on Tuesday evening to build a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center.

Priest Arrested in Brazil on Charge of Sexually Abusing Boy

The authorities in Rio de Janeiro said Sunday that they had arrested a Polish priest and charged him with sexually abusing a 16-year-old former altar boy.

Instead of Shrugging Ron Johnson is Running for Office

Johnson, a pro-life Lutheran, will highlight Feingold’s opposition to banning late-term abortions: “I would like to ask Russ, ‘Have you ever witnessed a partial-birth abortion?’ ” But this year the “social issues,” as normally understood, are less important than the social issue as Johnson understands it — the transformation of American society in a way foreshadowed in fiction.

‘Dead’ Manassas Man returns to life–and to jail

Rodney Newsome’s life as a dead man lasted about seven months, until he got arrested again.

Throwing the Rule Book at the NFL

The N.F.L. was sued for restraint of trade by American Needle, a company that makes team-logo clothing, after the league gave Reebok exclusive rights to make caps with logos of all 32 professional football teams. The N.F.L. argued it did not violate the Sherman Antitrust Act because it was a single entity, not a group of teams conspiring to restrain trade and inhibit competition.

The Presidential Planner

This morning, President Obama will meet with the NCAA men’s basketball champion Duke Blue Devils at the White House to honor their 2009-2010 championship season in the Rose Garden.

After You Believe, a review

Tom Wright is  well-known for insightful theories about Judaism that are swiftly developed so we gain fresh and enduring insights into the New Testament. He has  brought into the field of play ideas like this: that Jesus’ kingdom vision and mission were about the “end of the exile,” that the apostle Paul’s understanding of justification was not so much about personal redemption as about Gentiles being included in the people of God alongside Israel, and that Paul’s gospel message itself was, in the very core of that message, about Jesus as Lord (with the anti-imperial cult implication being that Caesar was not). Wright, then, has been at the center of the Third Quest for the historical Jesus, the New Perspective on Paul, and now the “fresh” (anti-empire) perspective on Paul.

Responding to Spill, Obama mixes regret with resolve

As for his drive before the spill to expand off-shore drilling, he said he still thinks he was right and that more oil will be needed until enough alternative fuels can be developed. “Where I was wrong,” he said, “was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.”

Note: These posts will now appear once a week containing a list of all (or almost all) on-line articles I have read this week. Each article will be linked and a short paragraph from the article will be posted under each link.

The Sin of Ham Revisited by James B. Jordan

When we expose our secrets to someone, we give them power over us. That’s why we are careful when we do so, and so angry and humiliated when we are betrayed. And rightly so. If someone accidently finds out one of our secrets — “sees” our secret —  and then tells others, that is an assault on us. There was no sin in Noah’s resting naked covered by his tent; the sin was in Ham’s exposing it and uncovering Noah from the covering of his tent.

California Pastor Frustrated with “Comfortable” Christianity

Chan will deliver his final sermon at Cornerstone later in the month. He said he plans to move with his family to a developing country.

Traducianism

“Traducianism was held by Tertullian and many Westerns; since the Reformation by Lutherans; also by the Eastern church. Roman Catholics and most Reformed theologians are creationists, though Shedd and Strong favor traducianism. Modern studies in heredity and psychosomatic unity are indecisive, but can easily be interpreted on the traducianist side.”^[1]

Should Pastors get Ph.D’s?

If you’re already a pastor, I wouldn’t get a PhD. It’s a lot of work, and the payoff is really small. Really small.

Southern Baptists mark 3rd year of membership decline

According to a newly released annual report, membership in the Southern Baptist Convention fell in 2009 by 0.42 percent to 16.16 million. That marks the third consecutive year of decline for a body that had previously bucked the shrinking trend of other denominations.

Haggards incorporate St. James Church in Colorado

Haggard told The Gazette of Colorado Springs that newly formed non-profit would provide an orderly way for him and his wife to be reimbursed for the traveling expenses they incur as they visit churches across the country to give paid talks.

Bucer’s Baptismal Theology

One of the interesting things about Martin Bucer is to trace the development of his baptismal theology over the course of his teaching as a Reformer.

Fox News Panic: Glenn Beck Loses 50% of Viewers

Glenn Beck has been in denial about his ratings slide for weeks now. First, he claimed that there is no ratings decline for his Fox News show, and then he claimed that the weather was to blame for his 33% drop in viewership. However by attracting only 1.7 million viewers on Friday, Beck hit a new all time low which is now 50% off of his peak audience of 3.4 million.

Obama’s Endorsements don’t seem to help Democrats

WASHINGTON – Voters rejected one of President Barack Obama’s hand-picked candidates and forced another into a runoff, the latest sign that his political capital is slipping beneath a wave of anti-establishment anger.

The Fragrance of God Reviewed

Deluged with inquiries about the ark

Adding to our skepticism about the find is (as we have stated before) that the volcanic activity on the mountains of Ararat as well as several earthquakes make it doubtful that even parts of a wooden structure could have survived for over 4,300 years. Furthermore, much of the wood would have most likely been scavenged right after the Flood to erect forms of shelter and to build fires (in a cold mountainous region). Also, as we look at the photos of this latest proposed Ark, we do not see evidence of the wood being coated with pitch (as Genesis 6:14 indicates). Other items seen in the photos are suspicious-looking as well; we will have more to say about our doubts on Saturday’s posting.

Thanks be to God for their safe return

The 48 students, eight teachers and eight crew members from the Class Afloat school program had left Recife, Brazil, only 10 days before. 
Then their ship capsized, taking all of their possessions: passports, clothes and schoolwork. They spent a harrowing 40 hours bailing water out of the rafts and bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean before being rescued by merchant vessels.

Brown calls voter “bigoted” in campaign gaffe

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught out calling a voter a “bigoted woman” Wednesday, in an embarrassing gaffe on the campaign trail barely a week before the general election.

President Obama Meets Billy Graham by TIME Editors

All the presidents needed the prayer. But they also wanted the picture. When Barack Obama visited Billy Graham on Sunday afternoon, he became the 12th president to meet with the famed evangelist — but the first to do so at Graham’s mountaintop home in Montreat, NC, a rambling house built from the remnants of log cabins that Ruth Graham salvaged more than half a century ago, and where Billy Graham has lived ever since.

Post-Christian Era by R.J. Rushdoony Continue reading “On-Line Article (s) I Read Today, XXII”

Anthony Flew, Philosopher and Ex-Atheist, Dies at 87 by William Grimes

Let the Koreans take care of the Koreans by Doug Bandow

This is a ludicrous position for both the U.S. and South Korea, six decades after Washington saved a far weaker ROK from a North Korean invasion in the midst of the Cold War. Neither country is well-served by Seoul’s continuing defense dependency on America.

Wheaton Conference Report by William B. Evans

That being said, I suspect that no sentient being could come away from the conference without an appreciation for Wright’s rhetorical gifts and power.  I had heard Wright speak in other contexts but had never heard him preach until Friday morning, when he preached to the students in the college chapel service.  His sermon, in which there was nary a pause or break, consisted of a thirty-five minute guided tour of the book of Ephesians with application.  I came away from that service with a sense of just how relentlessly verbal Wright can be, and of how he has been able to churn out some many books of such consistent quality.  I also came away sensing that the Wheaton invitation was not a misstep and that Wright is a man of authentic evangelical (small “e”) piety even if, in my judgment, he is not “right” on everything–in short, he really does love the Lord and genuinely strives to be biblical.