Blog Archive
for February, 2006
Evangelicals and Global…Brrrr…Warming
— Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 —
Timmy Brister, a master’s student at Southern Seminary where I serve as veep, has pointed out the convergence of two events of the past weekend: the release of the evangelical manifesto on global warming and the East Coast’s most bitterly cold winter front in ages.
Keep Reading...Vanity Fair Celebrates Patriarchy
— Saturday, February 11th, 2006 —
Are you as annoyed as I am by the gossipy celebrity magazines shouting across the supermarket racks, it seems always with the same old story? For years, they’ve warned us that trouble was brewing in the love affair of actress Jennifer Anniston and actor Brad Pitt. They screamed that Brad was in love with bad-girl actress Angelina Jolie. Then they showed us tearful images of Jennifer, telling us how Jennifer was learning to cope even though Angelina is pregnant with Brad’s baby, a baby she desperately wishes she were carrying instead. I know that only from glances at the covers, and it scares me that I know enough to write the above paragraph.
I’ve argued here before that, whatever feminism tells us, our choice is not between egalitarianism and patriarchy but between two visions of patriarchy: a Christian patriarchy that protects women as precious weaker vessels (1 Pet 3:7) and a pagan patriarchy that sees dominance over women as something to be grasped. I never realized that the celebrity gossip magazine covers are just one more example of patriarchy gone awry, emanating from one of the most feminist culture centers in the world. Until now.
Keep Reading...Piper on Islamic Cartoon Riots
— Thursday, February 9th, 2006 —
Evangelical pastor and theologian John Piper contributes today a thoughtful article on the current Muslim uprisings over the Danish cartoon representations of Mohammed. Writes Piper:
Keep Reading...What we saw this past week in the Islamic demonstrations over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad was another vivid depiction of the difference between Muhammad and Christ, and what it means to follow each. Not all Muslims approve the violence. But a deep lesson remains: The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted. This produces two very different reactions to mockery.
Twelve Condoms a Week?
— Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 —
Former teacher Jane Mack-Cozzo notes in the March 2006 issue of The American Enterprise that the Berkeley, California, public high school system has announced a new student organization, the Condom Club. Broadcast over the school public intercom system was the invitation for all students sexually active and thinking about becoming sexually-active to attend the meeting. They will, according to the announcement, receive “12 free condoms a week” and “free food.”
Keep Reading...Death, Intelligently Designed?
— Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 —
I have long been concerned with what I call the “dark side” of Intelligent Design. I am supportive of ID as far as it goes, pointing out the intellectual incoherence of Darwinism. But, at the same time, ID, left by itself, proves too much. Without divine revelation, the “design” of nature is red in tooth and claw. Unless we point to an alternative story, one that shows us that death is ultimately unnatural, the result of a cosmic curse (Gen 3; 1 Cor 15), we will have the same result as that of natural theology: namely, those most attentive to nature will recoil from the Creator as, at best, inattentive, and, at worst, malevolent.
Keep Reading...Opponent Research in an Internet Age
— Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 —
Opponent research has just gone to a whole new level. The Hotline reports that the newest minefield for public figures includes Internet networking sites such as “Facebook,” where teens and twenty-somethings post profiles and pictures.
According to Hotline, controversies so far have included pictures from the profile of the son of a network talking head show moderator’s son “lying in a hot tub with beer bottles and bikini-clad women.” The issue has implications for the 2006 elections as an Indiana congressional candidate, currently a sheriff, has had to respond to his daughter’s Facebook profile picturing her drinking while underage.
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