Please Pray for Crazy Teenager
November 30, 2009
Hi, all,
My 19-year-old son Brent will be undergoing surgery this evening for an eye infection that has moved to his sinuses. Understandably, he’s nervous, and so are we. Please pray.
Update: Brent came thru surgery just fine; he’s recuperating. Should be in hospital 2-3 nights; they want to knock the infection totally out. The surgeon said that there was not as much infection in sinuses as anticipated. He’s got a drain in his eyelid to drain off junk. I think he’s doing OK, and it’ll be easier for Mom and Dad to sleep tonight than it was last evening. Mom’s at home in bed, while Dad is pulling the hospital shift. Thanks to all for praying; please don’t stop now.
Why I Can’t Sign the Manhattan Declaration
November 30, 2009
Recently, a group of evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox folks came together and drafted what has been called the “Manhattan Declaration”. In it, these leaders pledge to stand together and refuse to accommodate themselves, or the religious institutions they represent, to the encroachment of pagan society with regard to human life issues, issues of the fundamental definition of marriage, and issues of religious liberty. In short, there is much to agree with in this document, and a number of folks whom I deeply respect have chosen to add their names as signatories to the document. Charles Colson, whom I admirea dn respect deeply, but who seems committed to these types of ecumenical, gloss-over-the-issues types of things, spearheaded this one. Christian pastors are being called on to sign; indeed, any Christian can “sign on”.
I won’t.
In a nutshell, this document glosses over the gospel. And the gospel cannot be compromised for anything. Not for anything. Because if we don’t have the gospel, we got nothing. Zero. Bupkus. At several points, the document lumps together all of the above group under the name “Christians”. Granted, in one sense of the word, that is true–just as in some sense of the word, we could use that term to refer to pseudo-Christian cults like the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. At other points, it uses terminology such as “proclaim(ing) the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season”, and suggests that this is our common mission.
The problem ought to be obvious: while I am certainly sympathetic with the overall gist of the document (apart from the issue of the gospel), I cannot agree that I share a common mission with Rome, for instance. I’m not “doing the same thing”. My goals, my mission, my preaching, my teaching, my life is not devoted to a “gospel” which is no gospel, which glosses over the fundamental differences that divide these branches of “Christendom”. The gospel is the issue–and rather than linking arms with Roman Catholics as brothers/sisters in Christ (though on a different basis, we could stand together); rather than smoothing over the unsmoothable differences in our beliefs, it is incumbent upon me to stand first and foremost for the gospel.
Now, when it comes to the particular social actions advocated by this document, I would find myself in substantial, if not total, agreement with its aims. But I refuse to act as if the Reformation didn’t matter; I refuse to compromise sola fide; I refuse to embrace any “greater good” than the specifics of the gospel–because without its specifics, we have no good. And I thus refuse to sign the Manhattan Declaration.
Just to give you a little more food for thought, here are two respected Christian bloggers who have written on the subject:
Tim Challies on The Manhattan Declaration
Pyromaniac’s Dan Phillips on Nineteen Questions for Signers of “The Manhattan Declaration”
And here, further, are the responses of John MacArthur and Alistair Begg.
“The Biggest Ever…” – It’s Time for a Hypie!!!
November 28, 2009
On occasion, I hand out a “Hypie Award” to a Christian ministry that goes above and beyond the call of duty–or of propriety–or of common sense–in hyping some particular Christian product or ministry. And it’s time to do so again, this time giving the award to Outreach Marketing, for their declaration that “a cool movie that attracts both teens and parents” (entitled “To Save a Life”) constitutes “the biggest outreach to teens and their parents…ever!” Yep, that’s it! It’s the biggest–ever! Measured…how? Determined by…what independent board charged with determining such stuff?
So congrats, Outreach Marketing, you’ve raised…err…lowered…the bar when it comes to marketing in the name of Jesus!
Well, this isn’t Surprising…
November 28, 2009
Here’s an interesting article by a fellow Anthropogenic Global Warming skeptic (i.e., the idea that man’s activities are causing the earth to get warmer, a la Algore’s inane ramblings), detailing the information found out by a hacker who got “on the inside” of some privileged information:
Interesting read.
Who I’d Send to Cooperstown
November 27, 2009
One of my favorite pastimes through the years, sports-wise and prior to my dimmed interest in baseball, was to project who belonged in the Hall of Fame, to argue the various merits and demerits of different players with regard to baseball immortality. The Hall of Fame is a funny institution with funnier ways of getting in; the fact, for instance, that Phil Rizzuto and Bill Mazeroski have made the Hall in recent years is ample illustration of this fact (they each managed to be not good enough to be in the Hall for decades, but then magically, without fielding another grounder or swinging another bat, they got good enough. Silly.). It’s fun, though, because I like arguing opinions sometimes, and who belongs in–and who doesn’t–is a fun argument to have.
Straight from ESPN.com comes these words to set the tone for the debate:
Roberto Alomar is among 15 first-time candidates of this year’s Hall of Fame ballot, joining holdovers Mark McGwire, Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven.
Edgar Martinez, Barry Larkin and Fred McGriff are also new to the ballot this year. There are 26 candidates, three more than last year, when Rickey Henderson was elected in his initial appearance and Jim Rice made it on his 15th and final try. Dawson fell 44 votes shy of the 75 percent needed and Blyleven was 67 short.
Also on the ballot for the first time are Kevin Appier, Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga, Pat Hentgen, Mike Jackson, Eric Karros, Ray Lankford, Shane Reynolds, David Segui, Robin Ventura and Todd Zeile.
Other holdovers on the list announced Friday include Harold Baines, Don Mattingly, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Tim Raines, Lee Smith and Alan Trammell.
OK, here’s where I’d go with it: Roberto Alomar gets in. Easy. He was a great second baseman for many years, getting on base, stealing bases, fielding, you name it. Even swung for a little bit of power. Two biggest knocks were that he spit on some guy (dumb move, Robbie), and that he went from playing exceptionally well with Cleveland, in 2001, to the waste heap, in a very short period of time, hanging ‘em up at age 36. He retired 276 hits shy of 3000, and one imagines that if he’d not fallen off the table so quickly, he’d have breezed past that mark with ease. Dumbfounding…but not worthy of keeping a great player out of the Hall of Fame.
But after Alomar, it gets tricky. I’m really on the fence about Barry Larkin. I think I could be persuaded either way, but if you pinned me down, my first reaction would be “no”. He strikes me as another of those guys who come real close, but don’t quite fit into the conversation about the Hall of Fame, and same with the Crime Dog, for that matter. Fred McGriff was a feared home run hitter; it’s a shame that the strike of 1994 kept him out of the 500 HR club, which might have put him over the top.
I vote “yes” on Bert Blyleven. He is fifth all-time in strikeouts; he threw one of the nastiest curveballs in history; he toiled for some crummy teams (OK, maybe he shoulda made ‘em better). But how do you deny the guy who’s fifth in strikeouts a place in Cooperstown? Plus, he was from Holland, which has to count for something. Did you know that he pitched for years in wooden shoes?
Tim Raines belongs in the Hall of Fame. If Rickey Henderson had never been born, we’d be talking about the greatest leadoff hitter in the history of the game in Raines. He was, literally, a poor man’s Rickey Henderson, doing everything Rickey did nearly, but not quite, as well. But Rickey Henderson was an exceptional baseball player, and that puts Raines in the Hall. Shoot, he had to play in Montreal all those years; he oughta get some points for that. Put it this way: if Phil Rizzuto had played in Montreal instead of Yankee Stadium, he’d have had to buy a ticket to get into the Hall just like everybody else.
That said, I’m not so sure on Andre Dawson…but if you pinned me down, I think I’d nudge him over the line with a “yes” vote. Dale Murphy would have made it with another good year, certainly with two, but I leave him a little short. Don Mattingly flamed out too quickly. Jack Morris, Dave Parker, Lee Smith, even Alan Trammell (who gets the most sympathy in this quartet from me–but why isn’t Lou Whitaker right alongside Trammy?); none of them get the lever pulled. Nor Harold Baines, and certainly not Edgar Martinez, a nice little player, but Cooperstown isn’t for nice little players; it’s for the greats of the game.
Then, of course, what do you do with Mark McGwire? This is a thorny issue that is going to be coming up now for quite some time…Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, A-Rod, and the like; what you gonna do with these guys? And the fact is that for a guy like myself with a lot of opinions, I’m just not sure what to think. Some of these guys are loathsome, to be sure, and their actions harmed the game…but I just don’t know what I think.
So, if I were voting this year, I’d vote for Roberto Alomar, Tim Raines, Bert Blyleven, and possibly Andre Dawson. That’d be it.
Thoughts, anyone?
On the Al Groh Watch
November 24, 2009
I think Al Groh, coach of the UVa Cavaliers football team, is a decent guy, and probably a tremendous defensive coordinator, and he’s had some good moments as head coach, but this is Tuesday, and he’ll coach his final game against Va Tech on Saturday. No, that’s not official, but Scott Stadium will be burned to the ground if Groh isn’t handed his walking papers early next week. I’ve tried to take his side for a long time, because I believe that, in general, coaches are fired too quickly, but it’s obvious to me, now: Groh must go. I don’t relish that, but it’s a pretty inescapable conclusion.
Who, in his place? I keep wondering why nobody will give Terry Bowden another shot at coaching. I’ve always liked Terry, and he did a pretty good job in his previous coaching stints. Oops…I just Wikipedia’d his name, and found out that he has been the coach of Division II North Alabama, leading them to an 11-1 season thus far (one three-point loss), and to the D II quarterfinal this weekend against Carson-Newman (whose posteriors they’ve already whooped). Well, at any rate, so somebody finally did give him another shot, and I’d say he’s done pretty well. My vote is for Terry Bowden to assume the reins in Charlottesville. Long shot? Danny Rocco, who led Liberty from 1-10 to 8-3 in three years, a guy with UVa roots (as well as NFL roots). It’ll be interesting…
Postal Service Health Care
November 24, 2009
Sound good to you? I just spent better part of 20 minutes trying to get a simple answer to a simple question–and it’ll take another hour of research, according to the fellow who finally came out to talk with me. I had asked, “where’s the church’s mail, since I put in a mail-forwarding request on October 30th, and haven’t seen a single piece of mail yet?”
Yeah, I can’t wait to have these same folks (and their same level of competence) making decisions on how to treat my medical issues.
Update: The dear gentleman called me back and “had no record that we’d ever put in a change-of-address order”.
And the dear doctor called back and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Harvey, but we have no record of your previous health issues. Please refresh my memory: did you have terminal cancer or a slight backache?”
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
