Sadly, This is Not a Parody
March 5, 2010
Detroit School Leader Can’t Pen a Coherent Sentence
The Lord bless him real good, but there must be a better way for Mr. Mathis to serve the Detroit community.
“Christian Voodoo”: OK, NOW I’ve Seen Everything
February 8, 2010
A friend sent me info about a family that is attempting–with the encouragement of their “church”–to incorporate voodoo (or, more technically as they call it, “vodou”) into their “Christianity” for the sake of two adopted kids from Haiti. Now, of course it’s great that these folks adopted a couple of kids from Haiti–well, let’s put it this way: it’s great that they had it in their hearts to do so–but what kind of silliness is this?
More disheartening is that the pastors of a Baptist church would tolerate this instead of (lovingly) offering the family the kind of counsel they need to put away the works of darkness as they embrace the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. What fellowship does the light of Christ have with the darkness of voodoo? None. And the most loving thing that Revs. Thompson and Haak could possibly do would be to disabuse this misguided family of any notion to the contrary–rather than affirm their idolatry.
Of All the Things Jesus Does for Me…
August 27, 2009
I’ll have to confess that I’d never grasped the deep theological truth that He “spins me right round, like a record right round”.
Ah, but they “love the Lordy” (watch ’til the end–if you can–for that nugget of heavenly devotion). C’mon, everybody, start a love train!
As if “Animal Rights” Weren’t Enough…
November 15, 2008
To think, it wasn’t that long ago that I joked, when hearing about the silliness of “animal rights”, that one day some nutjob would argue for “plants rights”. Now, many people think animals actually have “rights” (they do not, and indeed cannot), and the day may be coming when people think the same for petunias. Hmmm…no more walking on the grass??? And for goodness’ sake, please don’t eat the daisies!
The Love of a Father
September 17, 2008
My own dad sent this to me awhile back in an email, and I thought I’d post it.
A son asked his father, ‘Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?’. The father, despite having a heart condition, says ‘Yes’. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying ‘Yes’ to his son’s request of going through the race together.
One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let’s join the Ironman together.’ To which, his father said ‘Yes’ too. For those who don’t know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island . Father and son went on to complete the race together.
Now, watch the video–and keep a handkerchief handy:
And here’s more of their story…
Life is a gift, whether the “quality” of that life meets the standards of some people or not.
Obama’s Christianity: “Faith Fit for our Age”
August 15, 2008
5000 or more miles after I was warned that the Toyota needed new tires, I decided the other day to take her in to Sam’s Club and get, as my Nascar fan friends might call ‘em, four brand new Mr. Feel-Goods. This procedure would take about an hour, I was told, leaving me with some time to kill at Sam’s. What to do, what to do. I decided to redeem the time (well, after wasting a little of it, admittedly), and so I sauntered over to the book section, where I was confronted with a book by the name of The Faith of Barack Obama, written by Stephen Mansfield and published, unfortunately, by Thomas Nelson Publishers (perhaps you’ll get the “unfortunately” after reading this post, Nelson being known, at least loosely, as an “evangelical” publisher). Knowing I couldn’t polish off the whole thing in the time allotted, I perused the chapters a bit before settling on Chapter 3, entitled “Faith Fit for our Age”. This is, apparently, the “money chapter” of the book, where we are introduced to the substance of Barack Obama’s “Christian” faith.
You’ll note the quote-marks around the word “Christian”.
To the author’s credit, he tags the chapter well: “Faith Fit for our Age”. Unfortunately, the faith of Barack Obama, as described by the author, is not what most evangelicals–wait, hold that…what most historic evangelicals…would describe as “Christian”. Without giving away the whole thing–I’d encourage you to read it for yourself if you wonder what the man believes–there are several things I’d point to. One, Barack Obama is a universalist. Two, he has, at best, a poor view of Scripture, evidenced by his dismissal of Romans 1 in favor of his (mis)reading of Jesus’ “red-letter” words (“Lord, deliver us from ‘red-letter Christians’”). Three, the author majors on the honest doubts that Obama has, which might not be a problem in one sense; I think that there are some of us who come off too cocksure on some of the finer points of theology. Problem is, the theme of “doubt” seems to occupy Obama’s beliefs more than faith in the finished work of Christ. The reader is left somewhat befuddled as to what Obama actually believes (granted, there are fleeting references to placing faith in Christ, but precious little by way of explanation as to what, for Obama, that term might exactly mean).
One thing which is clear, though, if this book is accurate: Obama’s faith is massively influenced by the spirit of the age in which we live, as though his entire take on Scripture and faith is funneled through the grid of his (hyper-liberal secular) worldview, instead of the events/issues of the world being funneled through a Christian worldview. Now in one sense, I recognize that Obama is, in this regard, not unlike a whole lot of professing Christians, including some who’d label themselves “evangelicals” (if we water down the term far enough). But to the author–and apparently, to Thomas Nelson–this is not a problem, but rather only that which is “fit for our age”.
A far cry, it seems to me, from “the faith once delivered…”
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
