Tony Campolo Speaks Candidly About Bart Campolo – "I really could have done a better job of nurturing my son in the 'nurture and admonition of the Lord.' I could have spent more time listening to him and answering his questions. Sadly, what is done in time is irrevocable." But then there's this: "He brings to that humanist community all the zeal, and then some, that I have tried to bring to the preaching of a holistic gospel all the many, many years of my life. He pointed out that the secular humanists on campus had very little in the way of community, and he hoped that something of the sense of community that he felt as a teenager in an evangelical youth group might be evident among these University of Southern California students. He unashamedly declares that he wants the secular humanists to have something of a sense of mission, which he sees as all too absent among them."
The First Church of TED – New York Times: "I grew up among Christian evangelicals and I recognize the cadences of missionary zeal when I hear them. TED, with its airy promises, sounds a lot like a secular religion … A great TED talk is reminiscent of a tent revival sermon. There’s the gathering of the curious and the hungry. Then a persistent human problem is introduced, one that, as the speaker gently explains, has deeper roots and wider implications than most listeners are prepared to admit. Once everyone has been confronted with this evidence of entropy, contemplated life’s fragility and the elusiveness of inner peace, a decision is called for: Will you remain complacent, or change?"
Why Can't We All Just Get Along? We Do! – "Never mind the outspoken Christian leaders who reject the Big Bang and human evolution; nearly 70 percent of rank-and-file evangelicals in the United States say they don't see religion and science as being totally at odds, a new survey found … Among evangelical Christians, about 48 percent said they see science and religion as complementary to one another, while 21 percent think science and religion refer to different aspects of reality and see them as entirely independent of one another, the survey found."
Facebook Bans Christian Organization's Ad – All the advertisement said was, "I Am A Christian—Join the movement at: www.YesIAmAChristian.com". But Facebook replied, "Your ad wasn't approved because it doesn't follow Facebook's Advertising Guidelines for language that is profane, vulgar, threatening or generates high negative feedback. Ads can't use language that insults, harasses or demeans people, or addresses their age, gender, name, race, physical condition or sexual preference." Wait, what? Pressed for clarification a website official replied, "Your ad wasn't approved because it doesn't follow our language policies. We've found that people dislike ads that directly address them or their personal characteristics such as religion."
Why The Dones are Done – Small church advocate Karl Vaters copies a list of reasons people are leaving their place of worship, then notes: "None of the things people usually leave the church over are things that actually define the church. The church is two simple things—neither of which almost anyone wants to be done with. The church is people loving Jesus and loving others. When former churchgoers say they’re done with church, they’re seldom actually done with loving Jesus or loving others. What they’re done with is the extras we’ve attached to Jesus and people—often at the expense of the two essentials."
A Never Ending Supply of Made-Up Words – "Though I myself find most doctrinal disagreements to be a major snoozefest … I have managed to acquire over the years a small set of really interesting tidbits that for me represent the highlight of the Calvinism-Arminianism debate. It’s the Calminians and the Arvinists! If you take a close look at those two words—Calminian and Arvinist—you’ll see that they are basically the two halves of the words Calvinist and Arminian that have been chopped and glued back together with their rival halves. This right here is the kind of Christian slang that moves me to the edge of the proverbial seat and makes me literally push my glasses higher on the bridge of my nose. This is linguistic gold, ladies and gentlemen." Then, the author at The Dictionary of Christianese, pursues this in a depth greater than many doctoral theses.
For Those Who Say They Don't Want a Funeral – "I wanted no funeral. I didn’t want people standing up to testify to what a great guy Stan was. 'He served Christ so faithfully, for so many years.' 'What an example of a godly man!' If only they knew. If they saw the laziness and self-centeredness and waywardness and mixed motives and mean-spirited thoughts, their accolades would be silenced. I didn’t want hagiography. I didn’t want people testifying to a man they thought they knew, extolling virtues that would be dwarfed by vices. Not having a funeral would avoid a sideshow. But I have changed my mind—for two reasons. One, a friend died. The family decided not to have a funeral, nothing to acknowledge him or his death. At first I took it in stride, but then it occurred to me that something was not right with that. In not acknowledging his death, they did not acknowledge his life."
A Defense of Infant Baptism – Kevin DeYoung: "One, the burden of proof rests on those who would deny children a sign they had received for thousands of years. If children were suddenly outside the covenant, and were disallowed from receiving any “sacramental” sign, surely such a massive change, and the controversy that would have ensued, would been recorded in the New Testament … Two, the existence of household baptisms is evidence that God still deals with households as a unit … Three, children are told to obey their parents … Children in the church are not treated as little pagans to be evangelized, but members of the covenant who owe their allegiance to Christ. Four, within two centuries of the Apostles we have clear evidence that the church was practicing infant baptism."
One for the Road – Last week, Julie Roys' Up For Debate radio show looked at how Lent has spread beyond its mainline roots with this opener, "Protestants observing Lent is like the English celebrating the 4th of July." Guests on the one hour program are Bryan Litfin and Carl Trueman.
Paul Wilkinson blogs daily at Thinking Out Loud, and edits C201, a 24/7 devotional site.
