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| 2016 Nike Air Mag Back-to-the Future |
Who can blame secular news media for highlighting such Christian (I use the term loosely) shenanigans? On preachers and their pricey sneakers: "Like pop idols hoisted for worship, these pastors aspire toward casual majesty and achieve prefabricated fabulousness."
Other articles of note:
"Secular government is breaking its promise of liberty, and the American church is breaking its promise of virtue." (David French, on "Two Painful Truths")
On the example of Augustine: "Augustine had the wisdom to discern sound doctrine, the courage to defend it, and the pastoral love to demand it from his people." (Brian Litfin, on "Why We Need More Pastors Like Augustine")
Reflecting on socialism. "When Fidel Castro and the socialists took power of Cuba in 1959, they quickly expropriated (stole) and nationalized farms, land and businesses in the name of social justice. These actions were intended to 'level the playing field' and spread the wealth of land and business owners to those who were not as privileged. Despite these seemingly noble intentions, this tyranny for the oppressed had catastrophic results for all. Dissenters were routinely rounded up and executed on the orders of militant revolutionary, Che Guevara." (Tami Gomez, on a portrait of socialist Cuba)
God created humans with his touch. But... "We’ve sexualised or trivialised touch so much in our modern world. And touch – or lack of it – is a symptom of that most modern of malaise, loneliness. Loneliness is the new normal for vast swathes of our western world." (Stephen McAlpine, on "Touch")
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| Detail, Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel |
My current reading: I've just finished Carl Henry's classic, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, written in 1947. Still amazingly relevant. He makes an excellent, and biblical, case for our social involvement in the life, ethics, culture, and well-being of our nation. And I'm currently working my way through T. S. Eliot's Christianity and Culture, originally written in 1939. He sees the inseparable connection between values, culture, and economics, and that secular governments will take to themselves increasing moral authority. Christianity ultimately is the only answer to totalitarian governments. The lessons of Hitler and Stalin are very applicable today, but not perhaps in the way many people think.
Current audiobook: Listening to A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God's Sovereignty, by Joni Eareckson Tada (David C. Cook, 2010). I am listening to the version from ChristianAudio.com, read by Joni herself.
Fountain pen of the week: a 1928 Parker Duofold "Big Red", one of the oldest pens in my collection. You can read more about this prized model here.
Final quote. "The Bible is a book that speaks of nothing so much as God’s clear and open trustworthiness in the matter of his gracious and merciful dealings with humanity. Thus, it was inevitable that a movement which took God’s grace so seriously [the Reformation] inevitably placed Christ and the Bible at the center of its reforming program, and underscored the fact that God does not just save, but gives us firm and secure grounds for knowing that he has so acted: the sacred history, the life and work of Jesus Christ, and the inspired Bible which is the means by which, humanly speaking, we come to know and understand these things." (Carl Trueman, Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow)
In "this week" I post some of the things I'm reading and thinking about, usually once a week. To receive my posts by email you may subscribe above, just below my profile.
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