Doug Wilson on his Blog & MaBlog spoke true about The Tashlan Temptation:

In several places, I have seen credit given to evangelical activists for the Bush victory. And now, in the flush of victory, I would like to ask those evangelicals to consider the responsibility they now have. That responsibility is fundamentally this: have nothing whatever to do with Bush’s religious syncretism. Either serve Aslan or Tash, but never Tashlan.

and

I can understand a Machiavellan support, trying to buy time. What I don’t understand is an enthusiastic support, and roars of approval for religious statements made by the president when those same statements would get a preacher run out of his pulpit. In other words, schizophrenia has no future. If the Lord is God, follow Him. If Baal is god, then follow him. But do not halt between two opinions.

I really am a sucker for checklists. Most of my hobbies have always incorporated some kind of checklist - from stamp collecting to astronomical observing and even geocaching - even if you do not have a handle on anything else in your life, at least you can check-off something from a list.

Well, this may be a list that I can check-off and make things better for me and those around me?

clean sweep assessment

The Clean Sweep Program is a checklist of 100 items which, when completed, give one complete personal freedom. These 100 items are grouped in 4 areas of life with 25 in each group: Physical Environment, Well-being, Money and Relationships. These 4 areas are the cornerstone for a strong and healthy life and the program helps a person to clean up, restore and polish virtually every aspect of his/her life. The program takes between 6 - 24 months to complete.

So… How do I stack up - and what kind of progress can I make?

I read this article written by Omri Elisha, in “the revealer” and was impressed by some of the authors insights. The author is definitely not an evangelical, but appears to have studied “us” quite well.

…many American evangelicals rally their support and their blessings behind the President because, rather than despite, the fact that his life before September 11, 2001, seemed to contain so little that would have prepared him for what was to come.

Before the election, Laura Bush is quoted in Crosswalk email newsletter as saying:

In Ohio, I visited with a woman who summed up our success this way. She said, “President Bush was born for such a time as this. He never wavers when it comes to doing the right thing. It makes me feel so secure to know that our leader has such a love for our country.”

I don’t know which part of that statement jumps out at you, but I do know which part resonated the most with popular evangelical sensibilities. Six words: “for such a time as this.”

This is not empty rhetoric. It is a straightforward reference to the Bible — the Book of Esther, chapter 4, verse 14, to be precise — and it is among the most evocative and meaningful catchphrases in the language of evangelicalism.

She makes a good argument against those who think we see “W” as the messiah:

I hear a lot of people complain that George W. Bush thinks he is the new messiah, or at least some kind of prophet for the modern age, determined either to bring about an American theocracy or global Armageddon. As evangelicals like to say, “that’s between him and his God.” What I say, though, is this: As far his image in evangelical eyes is concerned, Dubya ain’t Jesus — he’s Esther.

HatTip: The Revealer: God Save the Queen

A Priest, a Promise Keeper, and a Calvinist walk into a Starbucks…

One afternoon the Apostle Paul was at a Starbucks talking theology with a group of college kids. As he went to the counter to order another Chai Tea, his shadow happened to fall upon a blind man sitting in a comfortable chair listening to the music and enjoying a tall Cappuccino. Immediately the man was healed of his blindness.
more…

In reading some of the arguements against the ‘Federal Vision’ folks I see so often that the picture that is painted is wholy inaccurate. It may be done out of ignorance or out of spite - but it is wrong either way. Doug Wilson makes fun of this in his post Mystery Theology Theater. Even John White of Alpha & Omega Ministries, who disagrees with Wilson, defends him against this agitprop in his online blog “11/15/04: Missing the Point: Repeatedly

How to Deal with Those Who Differ from Us by Dr. Roger R. Nicole is an interesting discussion of how we should behave when we are in disussions with both brothers in the faith and others. I need to read this through more carefully but what I read I like.

Outline:
Part 1: What Do I Owe to the Person Who Differs From Me?
Part 2: What Can I Learn from Those Who Differ From Me?
    Could I be Wrong?
    What are the Facts?
    What are the Dangers?
    What about Ambiguities?
Part 3 How Can I cope with Those Who Differ from Me?
    Biblical Arguments
    General Arguments
    Christian’s Goal

The last paragraph sums it up well:

A Christian in carrying on discussions with those who differ should not be subject to the psychology of the boxing ring where the contestants are bent upon demolishing one another. Rather “The Lord’s servant must not quarrel: instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses…” (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

How to Deal with Those Who Differ from Us

Just read this interesting article on Blogs for Kids by Sharon Housley

Flush out the writer in children. Blogging could draw out a young writer and open doors to their future. Consider encouraging your child to start blogging!

Children love having an audience. The instant recognition and approval that comes from a crowd just can’t be beat. Employing blogs to help develop good spelling habits, grammar skills, and develop a love for writing at a young age is an innovative concept that has potential benefits

She goes on to list the benefits including communication skills, writing skills, typing skills, and others.

She ends with the usual disclaimer:

Because blogging involves the Internet, parents and teachers should also take the opportunity to educate youngsters about the dangers of the Internet. The Internet is global in its reach and developing safe Internet habits at a young age is critical. Remind children not to disclose personal information including names, addresses or location of events they plan to attend.

So, am thinking that it might be interesting to get the kids going on some kind of photo blog. They have a cheap little digital camera - and could take pictures of some of their lego creations and other daily activities as long as they speak nice of their school teacher (Mom homeschools them).

Blogs for Kids

Well, I thought I was done with political stuff since the election but reading this article at dailyKOS, an unabashedly left leaning site, made me think and that is after all the best thing any article can do. So the question is how much of the ‘culture war’ is on biblical grounds and how much of it is our ‘conservative’ politics? How guilty are we of being, as he calls us, “Repuvelicals”?

From his article:

In my opinion, the problem with the church today is what I’ll call “Christianity, Inc.” (I think others have used this term before, but I don’t know who.) Corporate America has seen Christians as a lucrative demographic that is consistent enough in certain beliefs that “formulaic” marketing can be effective (and here I’m not just talking about advertising, but marketing). I believe this trend first started in the mid- to late-80s and is responsible for a lot of the “political” shifts we’ve seen in church attitudes today. In short (and to simplify it a bunch), I believe that marketers are responsible for creating “Repuvelicals”.

…

Christians are behaving just like good consumers should. They are unconsciously slipping into the “mold” that the marketers have laid out for them. It’s done so well that it has become part of the Christian culture.

Importantly, this directed marketing has given Christians a sense of separate identity. They are no longer Americans who happen to be Christians and happen to be Republican or Democratic. They are Christian Americans — separate from (and some believe, superior to) the rest. (Note this is just like typical “identity politics”, except, at the heart, it was not originally about politics, but rather money… although Republican politicians are now engaging in it as well, of course.) This has led to more and more of an “us” vs. “them” attitude, which the marketers have picked up on. (Which, in turn, has led them to market more and more to this attitude directly, until we have Christian bookstores selling in-your-face t-shirts, books about “taking back America”, etc.) Christians more and more believe that they are persecuted in this country, that their faith is under attack from all sides, that they are in the minority.

…

Furthermore, thanks to companies like Clear Channel, Christians across the country are being exposed to exactly the same political rhetoric. James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family” is carried on virtually every Christian radio station across the country, as are many other such programs. And while the protestant wing of Christianity is hopelessly fragmented into thousands of denominations and sects, Christians feel a sense of unity here. The idea here is: We may disagree about the proper way to baptize someone, but at least we can “all” agree on some certain core points. And although Christianity. Inc. is careful to never articulate these clearly, these are the core points around which it is organized. There is no doctrine on “Spirit 95″, our local Christian radio station. Instead there are platitudes, feel-good (i.e. non-controversial) Bible verses, and praise songs. Consequently, through this tendency to avoid anything controversial, there is very little discussion of Christianity itself at all! This happens at the local level. But these stations also play the national-level shows distributed across the country. Because of this, there is a hidden implication that the topics discussed by the likes of the Dobsons and the Robertsons must be part of the “safe” topics that we (apparently) “all agree upon”.

How ‘right’ can a guy on the ‘left’ be? It is easy to get defensive, it is harder to figure out how much truth is there in what he is saying. We know that welfare programs are not the answer but what are we really doing to help the poor? How much of the christian ‘market’ is driven to ‘conservative politics’ in the same way they are driven to the ‘Left Behind’ series? I disagree with the author’s belief that Democrats have the answers. I just don’t think the Republican answers are really any better. What is the Christian answer?


Originally spotted at theRevealer