Rev’d Canon Julian Dobbs (CANA): An open letter to Pastor Jones on burning the Koran

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Dear Pastor Jones,

Greetings in the name of the risen, ascended and glorified Jesus Christ.

I am writing this open letter to you, asking that you urgently reconsider your decision to burn copies of the Koran on September 11, 2010.

Around the world today, disciples of Jesus Christ are suffering at the hands of Islamic regimes and individuals, who are persecuting Christians for our shared faith in the eternal God of the Bible.

Many of these our brothers and sisters are living in hiding, some have endured painful persecution and some have lost their lives, simply because they have converted from Islam to Christianity and refuse to return to the Islamic religion.

Your decision to burn copies of the Koran at your church will put the lives of many thousands of Christians in the Islamic world at further risk and will seriously compromise their security and that of their churches, homes, schools and businesses.

Christians who are minorities in Muslim majority countries are not in a position to exercise the freedom of religion that citizens of the United States enjoy. Your proposed action in burning copies of the Koran is a reckless, irresponsible and unnecessary response to the challenges that are presented by a resurgent Islam.

The life transforming message of the good news of Jesus Christ is the greatest response we have to the suffering and injustice in the world. I urge you not to burn copies of the Koran, but encourage you to proclaim the unique message of Christ, his love and goodness, his mercy and forgiveness to a world which desperately needs to know the Living God of the Bible.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Julian Dobbs,
Archdeacon,
Convocation of Anglican in North America
here

The Entire Bible, One Tweet at a Time

Chris Juby is Summarizing the Entire Bible, One Tweet at a Time
Sept. 6, 2010

People talk about almost everything on Twitter -- from their lunch plans to breaking news to the latest Justin Bieber sightings. But amid all of the earthly chatter, some Tweeters are also finding time for the divine.

Take Chris Juby, 30, from Durham, England, for example. For years, he's had a daily habit of reading the Bible, but he's recently launched a project to summarize the entire Bible -- one tweet at a time.

Juby, a freelance web developer and director of worship at King's Church in Durham, does not simply re-type the text of the holy book. He reads a chapter of the Bible every morning and boils the words down to a single, 140-character tweet.

Genesis 1 becomes, "God created the heavens, the earth and everything that lives. He made humankind in his image, and gave them charge over the earth," in Juby's summary. the rest

What Revival Looks Like

By Cal Thomas
September 03, 2010

In calling for a spiritual revival in America at his Lincoln Memorial rally Aug. 28, talk show host Glenn Beck reached back into history and touched on a familiar theme.

What would a genuine revival look like and how did those that have transformed America several times in the past get started? Earlier revivals were not created from the mobilization of large crowds. They occurred when people did something infrequently observed in modern times: humbled themselves.

Depending on how you count them there have been at least three “great awakenings” in American history. All of them — along with revivals in other countries — had one thing in common. They all began with what the late revival historian J. Edwin Orr called “a concert of prayer.” the rest

What passes for American Christianity today is increasingly counterfeit. It appears more focused on a transient earthly kingdom, rather than a heavenly eternal kingdom. That is idolatry and violates the First Commandment: “Thou shall have no other gods before me.”

UK: Young gay men fuelling HIV epidemic, study warns

Researchers say that rising rates of syphilis along HIV among young gay men suggests risky sexual behaviour was to blame
The Guardian
Tuesday 7 September 2010

The HIV epidemic in Europe, including the UK, is being fuelled by the risky behaviour of young gay men, according to research published today.

Public messages and campaigns about the dangers of unsafe sex do not appear to be getting through to men who have sex with men, the researchers say – particularly the young ones.

By investigating the genetic profile of the virus in more than 500 newly screened patients over nine years, scientists in Belgium have identified clusters of people with type B virus – not the one that is most prevalent in Africa.

Those infected are almost all white, male, gay and young, they say. These men also tend to have other sexual diseases, such as syphillis, which suggests that they are involved in unsafe sexual behaviour and are not using condoms. the rest

Stephen Hawking's new claims opposes Isaac Newton; Christians responds

Physicist Stephen Hawking made headlines this past week for taking on arguably the most influential scientist in human history, Sir Isaac Newton.
By Eric Young
Christian Post
Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Newton, who left enduring legacies in mathematics and the natural sciences, had centuries ago warned against using the law of gravity - which he discovered - to view the universe as a mere machine, like a great clock.

“Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done,” the 17th century scientist and non-Trinitarian Anglican stated.

“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being,” he added.

Hawking, however, says “the universe can and will create itself from nothing” because there is a law such as gravity. the rest

While Hawking has long been known to be a deist – believing in the existence of an impersonal god on the evidence of reason and nature only – his denial of a personal god was notably more explicit in the excerpts from his latest work.

Just found this:
Albert Mohler: No Need for God? Stephen Hawking Defies Divine Creation
...Hawking actually believes that there are countless universes, and that the laws of physics on each might be radically different from all the rest. What we do know is our own universe and its operational laws, and these, he insists, do not require any notion of a divine Creator. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing,” Hawking and Mlodinow explain...

Devotional: Clear shining from God...

Clear shining from God must be at the bottom of deep labouring with God. What is the reason that so many in our days set their hands to the plough, and looked back again?—begin to serve Providence in great things, but cannot finish?—give over in the heat of the day? They never had any such revelation of the mind of God upon their spirits, such a discovery of His excellencies, as might serve for a bottom of such undertakings. ...John Owen image by Nick Russill

Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium

If Barack Obama were to marshal America’s vast scientific and strategic resources behind a new Manhattan Project, he might reasonably hope to reinvent the global energy landscape and sketch an end to our dependence on fossil fuels within three to five years.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
29 Aug 2010

We could then stop arguing about wind mills, deepwater drilling, IPCC hockey sticks, or strategic reliance on the Kremlin. History will move on fast.

Muddling on with the status quo is not a grown-up policy. The International Energy Agency says the world must invest $26 trillion (£16.7 trillion) over the next 20 years to avert an energy shock. The scramble for scarce fuel is already leading to friction between China, India, and the West.

Scientists prove that women are better at multitasking than menThere is no certain bet in nuclear physics but work by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) on the use of thorium as a cheap, clean and safe alternative to uranium in reactors may be the magic bullet we have all been hoping for, though we have barely begun to crack the potential of solar power.

Dr Rubbia says a tonne of the silvery metal – named after the Norse god of thunder, who also gave us Thor’s day or Thursday - produces as much energy as 200 tonnes of uranium, or 3,500,000 tonnes of coal. A mere fistful would light London for a week.

Thorium eats its own hazardous waste. It can even scavenge the plutonium left by uranium reactors, acting as an eco-cleaner. "It’s the Big One," said Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA rocket engineer and now chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering.

"Once you start looking more closely, it blows your mind away. You can run civilisation on thorium for hundreds of thousands of years, and it’s essentially free. You don’t have to deal with uranium cartels," he said.

Thorium is so common that miners treat it as a nuisance, a radioactive by-product if they try to dig up rare earth metals. The US and Australia are full of the stuff. So are the granite rocks of Cornwall. You do not need much: all is potentially usable as fuel, compared to just 0.7pc for uranium. the rest image

Development of Tiny Thorium Reactors Could Wean the World Off Oil In Just Five Years

The Higher Education Bubble: Ready to Burst?

Michael Barone
posted September 6, 2010

Imagine that you have a product whose price tag for decades rises faster than inflation. But people keep buying it because they're told that it will make them wealthier in the long run. Then, suddenly, they find it doesn't. Prices fall sharply, bankruptcies ensue, great institutions disappear.

Sound like the housing market? Yes, but it also sounds like what Glenn Reynolds, creator of instapundit.com, writing in The Washington Examiner, has called "the higher education bubble."

Government-subsidized loans have injected money into higher education, as they did into housing, causing prices to balloon. But at some point people figure out they're not getting their money's worth, and the bubble bursts.

Some think this would be a good thing. My American Enterprise Institute colleague Charles Murray has called for the abolition of college for almost all students. Save it for genuine scholars, he says, and let others qualify for jobs by standardized national tests, as accountants already do. the rest

Priest: Islam May Fill Europe's Religious Vacuum

Responds to Libyan Leader's "Provocation"
ROME
SEPT. 3, 2010

(Zenit.org).- On an official visit to Italy this week, the Libyan chief of state caused a few ripples by stating that Europe should convert to Islam. The general public was perhaps more shocked, however, by his request for a few billion dollars to stop African immigration.

However, a missionary priest did call for taking seriously Muammar al-Qadhafi's statements on religion, saying a European conversion to Islam just might happen if the continent continues denying its Christian roots.

Father Piero Gheddo of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and founder of the missionary news agency AsiaNews, said that far from being "folklore," al-Qadhafi's summons could become a reality in a few decades. the rest

"The fact is that, as a people, we are becoming ever more pagan and the religious vacuum is inevitably filled by other proposals and religious forces," the priest said.

'Islamization' of Paris a Warning to the West

Catholic church accuses BBC of 'anti-Christian' bias

Britain’s most senior Catholic has accused the BBC of harbouring an institutional bias against “Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular”.
By Heidi Blake
05 Sep 2010

Cardinal Keith O’Brien said the BBC’s news coverage is contaminated by “a radically secular and socially liberal mindset”.

The Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh said the corporation’s intolerance of religion is equivalent to its “massive” political bias against the Conservatives in the 1980s.

He also accused the corporation of plotting a “hatchet job” on the Vatican in a documentary about clerical sex abuse on the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain.

Cardinal O’Brien believes that atheists like Professor Richard Dawkins are given a disproportionate amount of airtime while mainstream Christian views are marginalised. the rest

Computers as Invisible as the Air

By JOHN MARKOFF
September 4, 2010

THE personal computer is vanishing.

Computers once filled entire rooms, then sat in the closet, moved to our desks, and now nestle in our pockets. Soon, the computer may become invisible to us, hiding away in everyday objects.

A Silicon Valley announcement last week hinted at the way computing technology will transform the world in the coming decade. Hewlett-Packard scientists said they had begun commercializing a Lilliputian switch that is a simpler — and potentially smaller — alternative to the transistor that has been the Valley’s basic building block for the last half-century.

That means the number of 1’s and 0’s that can be stored on each microchip could continue to increase at an accelerating rate. As a consequence, each new generation of chip would continue to give designers of electronics the equivalent of a brand new canvas to paint on. the rest image by Jeff Hitchcock

Abortion: Sacred and Holy?

Story

...If you listen closely you can hear the attendants (which include the mayor of our fine city of Houston Anise Parker) at this “dedication” commenting on their newly “sacred and holy” ground. They are speaking of the largest abortuary in the United States...

Brings to mind...

More perversion: Manual on How to Molest Children Is Legal, Cops Say

Texas Court Upholds Ban on Gay ‘Marriage’

By Peter J. Smith
DALLAS, Texas
September 3, 2010

(LifeSiteNews.com) - A Texas appeals court has struck down a trial court’s ruling Tuesday that the state’s ban on same-sex “marriage” violated the rights of a homosexual couple seeking a divorce. The court declared that “the natural ability to procreate” constituted the rational basis to restrict marriage to a man and a woman.

The Court of Appeals for the 5th District of Texas struck down the previous ruling that said that two homosexual plaintiffs married in Massachusetts, identified as J.B. and H.B., had a right to a same-sex “divorce” in Texas based on the “full faith and credit clause” of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs obtained a marriage license from Massachusetts in September 2006, moved to Texas in 2008, and later that year J.B. demanded a no-fault divorce.

Although the plaintiffs said they were not looking to challenge the state ban on same-sex “marriage,” the trial court judge said the state’s ban on same-sex “marriage” and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) also violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. the rest

Abortionists Kept Aborted Babies in Jars

by Matthew Archbold
Sunday, September 05, 2010

Two abortionists in Maryland (Dr. Steven Brigham and Dr. Nicola Riley) were ordered to stop practicing abortions in Maryland after a woman was severely injured.

Subsequently, police raided the clinic searching for medical records and to their horror they discovered dozens of unborn babies stored in a freezer.

After being shocked and disgusted my mind raced back to an incident a few months ago.

This would be a strange and horrible story if it had never happened before but just a few months ago another abortionist, this one in Philadelphia, was discovered to be keeping aborted babies in jars.

The offices of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell were raided earlier this year after a woman was injured and they found the conditions of the clinic to be “deplorable and unsanitary.”
Authorities reported: “There was blood on the floor, and parts of aborted fetuses were displayed in jars.” the rest

Papal Visit May Awaken Secular Britain from Religious Apathy

September 06, 2010
Ann Kane

While Rome burns, head clerics in Great Britain look on their Catholic kingdom with rose-colored glasses. Commenting on the upcoming "official visit" of Benedict XVI to Scotland and England, Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brigton, smugly says:

Pope Benedict is coming to a country where Catholicism is unusually stable, cohesive and vibrant enough in the current overall context of decline in the church in Western Europe. Indeed, I think he may well be relieved to be coming to a place where, unlike some of his other recent trips, there are no big problems for him to sort out.

No big problems? How about the fact that only 1 in 5 Catholics fulfill their weekly obligation to attend mass on Sunday? What about Archbishop Vincent Nichols, head of the church in England and Wales, endorsing the former Labour party's explicit sex education programs for children in faith schools? Nichols also continues to support a weekly mass for active homosexuals in a London parish. the rest

A couple of years ago, my son brought his British roommate to stay with us over the Thanksgiving holiday. Besides being ‘emo', he also felt like a fish out of water. Upon leaving to get back to school, he handed me a note. He wrote that he had never seen a family like ours in his entire life. He witnessed how connected we were to each other, and he said that in England, "families like yours don't exist."

British church minister jailed for 4 years after performing hundreds of sham marriages

By The Associated Press
posted September 6, 2010

LONDON — A British judge has sentenced a Church of England minister to four years in jail for his part in a sham-marriage scam.

Rev. Alex Brown was convicted last month of conspiring to facilitate the commission of breaches of immigration laws. Two other men were also convicted in the scam.

Judge Richard Hayward said Monday the women "were vulnerable to being exploited and they agreed to marry for money."

The marriage register of Brown's church, St. Leonards-on-Sea, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) south of London, was shown to jurors during the trial. Of 383 weddings between 2005 and 2009, 360 involved couples where the women were from Europe and the grooms were African. Found here

God no longer male, Scottish Episcopal Church rules

A new order of service produced by the Scottish Episcopal Church has caused controversy by removing masculine references to God.
06 Sep 2010

Female priests asked why God was still referred to as a man. The new form of worship, which removes words such as "Lord, he, his, him" and "mankind" from services, has been written by the church in an attempt to acknowledge that God is "beyond human gender".

Episcopalian bishops have approved the introduction of more "inclusive" language, which deliberately removes references suggesting that God is of male gender.

Science and faith: the conflictTraditionalists have criticised the changes on the grounds that they smack of political correctness and because they believe they are not consistent with the teachings of the Bible. The alterations have been made to provide an alternative to the established 1982 Liturgy, which, like the Bible, refers to God as a man.

The new order of service, which can be used by priests if they have difficulties with a male God, has been produced by the church's Liturgy Committee in consultation with the Faith & Order Board of General Synod and the College of Bishops.

The controversial changes were discussed at the church's General Synod recently. The minutes of the synod reveal that female priests had asked why God was still referred to as a man. the rest

CANA Deacon Ordinations at Church of the Holy Trinity, Syracuse, NY

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Four deacons were ordained today at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Syracuse, New York by Bishop David Bena. The Syracuse parish is affiliated with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) and part of the ACNA. The newly ordained deacons are Clayton Gilley and Samuel Leonardi from Tremont Church in Tremont, Maine where they will serve their parish under the supervision of Fr. Wayne Buchanan. The husband and wife team of Leroy and Helen Schultz are from Holy Trinity in Syracuse where they will serve their parish as deacons under the supervision of Fr. Jeff Altman. This is the third ordination service celebrated at the Church of the Holy Trinity since its founding in the summer of 2007. (pictures by Raymond Dague)

Bp. David Bena before the service

Bp. Bena gives the homily

Lying prostrate during the Litany for Ordination

Deacon Leroy Benjamin Schultz

Deacon Helen Welkley Schultz

Deacon Clayton Eugene Gilley Jr.

Deacon Samuel David Leonardi

The congregation prays over the newly ordained deacons

Presenting the newly ordained deacons

Bp. Bena and Fr. Jeffrey Altman, Rector of Holy Trinity

Brian and Kristen's Wedding

Raymond and I just returned from out of town attending my nephew's wedding:

The wedding was in a lovely old chapel...

Brian and Kristen and the children in the wedding party...

A picture of Brian and his Mom Barbara done with a really cool app from a droid... (thanks Kev!)

UK archbishop says pope not fishing for Anglicans

By Avril Ormsby
Fri Sep 3, 2010
LONDON

(Reuters) - The leader of the Catholics in England in Wales rejected accusations that Pope Benedict was fishing for converts and said "delicate and difficult" issues existed between his church and the Anglican Communion.

His comments come two weeks before Pope Benedict's four-day trip to England and Scotland, the first papal visit since John Paul II's pastoral visit in 1982 and the first-ever official papal visit to Britain.

Relations between the two churches have been tense since the pope offered disaffected Anglicans opposed to their church's ordination of women and homosexual bishops the chance to convert to Rome while keeping some of their traditions.

"There are delicate, difficult issues between our two churches at the moment," Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, head of the 5.2 million Catholics in England and Wales, told Reuters.

But, Nichols said the offer came after groups of Anglicans repeatedly asked for a response to their request for special provision to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. the rest

New Zealand Quake Causes 'Significant' Damage

7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes Christchurch early Saturday
04 September 2010

New Zealand authorities say a strong earthquake that shook the country's second largest city of Christchurch has caused significant damage to infrastructure, but no deaths.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency Saturday after the pre-dawn quake on New Zealand's South Island. Government seismologists put the magnitude at 7.1, while the U.S. Geological Survey gave a lower figure of 7.0.

Only two serious injuries were reported - one man hit by a falling chimney and another hurt by glass. New Zealand Civil Defense Minister John Carter says his nation is "extremely lucky" that there were no fatalities. the rest

Bishop Martyn Minns on the All Africa Bishops Meeting

September 2nd, 2010
Church of England Newspaper

The tables were turned in Entebbe, Uganda this week as hundreds of Anglican Bishops from all over Africa gathered for their second All Africa Bishops Conference (AABC). The first took place six years ago in Lagos, Nigeria in October, 2004 with the theme – “Africa Has Come of Age” – this time the theme was “Securing the Future: Unlocking our Potential”.

Both the Prime Minster of Uganda, the Honorable Dr. Apolo Nsibambi, and the President of Uganda, His Excellency Yoweri K. Museveni personally welcomed the Conference. They also hosted a five-course formal dinner at the palatial State House, Entebbe, accompanied by a full orchestra playing revival hymns. Both men turned the tables on the assembled bishops by using the opportunity to both establish their credentials as sons of the East African Revival and also deliver challenging biblically based sermons. Their words were refreshingly direct.

The Prime Minister called on the participants to sit lightly on their status as bishops and stay true to the plain teaching of Scripture. The President reminded them of the dangers of religious intolerance and challenged them to follow the example of Jesus especially in his commitment to preach the Word, feed the hungry, heal the sick and love the downtrodden. The messages were delivered with clarity and conviction and well received. the rest at Anglican Mainstream

Robert Gagnon: Truncated Love-A Response to Andrew Marin’s Love Is an Orientation

Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
August 31, 2010

Andrew Marin’s book, Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community (2009), has been gaining some traction in evangelical circles. Having just finished reading the book I am stunned that an evangelical press like InterVarsity would publish such a fatally flawed work—and that persons such as Scot McKnight (a New Testament professor at an evangelical university, North Park) and a certain Michelle Strombeck of Moody Broadcasting Network (a conservative evangelical organization) would provide endorsements for it. (A foreword by Brian McLaren is not surprising since McLaren had already surrendered to a homosexualist view. The same applies to Tony Campolo, whose enthusiastic video endorsement is posted on Marin’s site.)

Although I had read some interviews of Marin and got reports back from acquaintances about Marin’s claims, I’ve ignored his book until now because, frankly, I didn’t think his book would have much of an impact on evangelical Christianity. However, a recent puff piece on Marin by Heather Sells for the conservative Christian Broadcast Network has convinced me that it is time to respond (“Christian’s Outreach to Gays: I'm Sorry,” 8/20/10).1 Sells applauds Marin for allegedly encouraging Christians to remain true to their theology (he doesn’t) while reaching out in friendship to gays. There is not a critically constructive response to Marin presented anywhere in the article. the rest

Devotional: The LORD your God is with you...

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

Notwithstanding what you have been told in the past or what you may feel in the present, when God thinks about you, feels for you, and sees you, He opens His mouth and sings with inexpressible joy! God's love for you is so infinitely intense that He quite literally sings for joy. The depth of His affection is such that mere words prove paltry and inadequate. So profoundly intimate is God's devotion to you that He bursts forth in sacred song. I'm talking about you. That's right, you, not just all the other people reading this article. I'm talking about each and every one of you who is convinced that no matter how many times I tell you God loves you, still you imagine He must have someone else in mind. No, He has you in mind. ...Sam Storms image by Nicola

Syracuse: Man in dump truck leads police on chase

Story

An Introduction to Transhumanism: Attempting to Make a New Type of Person

by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D.,
Senior Fellow in Ethics
posted September 1, 2010

The ideas of the young international movement known as "transhumanism" are beginning to characterize the thinking of an increasing number of clinicians and bioethicists. I thought therefore that our readers might profit from a brief introduction to them.

Transhumanism is really a set of ideas that has developed in response to the rapid advance of biotechnology in the past 20 years (that is, technology capable of and aimed at manipulating the physical, mental and emotional condition of human beings). Conventional medicine has traditionally aimed at overcoming disorders that afflict the human condition; it has prescribed leeching, cauterizing, amputating, medicating, operating and relocating to dryer climates, all in order to facilitate health and militate against disease and degeneration; in other words, the purpose has been to heal (i.e., has been broadly therapeutic).

Technology is now making possible interventions that in addition to a therapeutic aim are intended to augment healthy human capacities. There is a gradual but steady enlargement taking place in medical ideals from simply healing to healing and enhancement. We are all too familiar with "performance enhancing drugs" in professional sports. But biotechnology promises to make possible forms of enhancement that go far beyond muscle augmentation. the rest

‘Brutal execution’ of 3 American Christians in Pakistan

August 31, 2010

Three American Christians who were providing humanitarian relief in the flood-ravaged Swat valley in northern Pakistan were murdered on August 24 or 25, according to local sources. The Fides news agency described the murder of the volunteers as a “brutal execution.”

The militant organization Tehreek-e-Shariat-e-Nafaz-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law), which the Pakistani government banned in 2002, is suspected in the attacks. Government officials have not yet released the names of the victims or their organization, according to a local source, because “they do not want to create panic in the world of humanitarian organizations and among donors, especially during this time of international mobilization for aid that is taking place.” the rest

For a Taste of Real Freedom, Check Out the Duggar Kids — All 19 of Them

by Charlie Richards
Aug 31st 2010

Excerpt:
You won’t find a television in their giant living room. The Internet is greatly restricted. The girls’ room (9 of 10 sleep in 1 room – the only exception is temporary, newborn Josie) didn’t have Hanna Montana or boy band or vampire posters or anything like it.

Lady Gaga did not make the cut.

The most prevalent thing on the walls of the Duggar house are family pictures and scripture. So, yes, you could say quite accurately popular culture was shielded by the walls literally built by the Duggar family.

Funny thing is, people tend to assume a child not immersed in popular culture is a child missing from reality. In some cases, that is true. Not the Duggars...

...My wife and I spent considerable time talking to the three teenage girls, Jill, Jessa and Jinger. They are sharp, fun and informed. They know what’s going on out there. But it isn’t at all a part of their every day life. And, to the shock and dismay of so many, they’re okay with that.

While, admittedly, I admire the Duggars for much of what they do, I didn’t expect what I saw in these three girls. The world has yet to beat them into submission. They don’t watch the Disney Channel, so they’ve yet to learn that adults are buffoons and parents are embarrassing. They don’t listen to the local rock station, so they’ve yet do discover life is supposed to be one promiscuous event followed by another. They don’t attend public school, so they’ve yet to learn teenage girls are required to be filled with angst and riddled with insecurities.

As we spoke to the three of them, one word kept jumping out at me: Freedom. These girls were experiencing freedom teenagers rarely taste. Completely free to be themselves. The exact opposite of the words so often used by media folk to describe the 19 kids. the rest image

Unplugging the Info-Tech God

Sep 1, 2010
Joe Carter

I never find the time to be alone with God during the week, so I’ve dedicated this Sunday afternoon to prayer. But before I do I should check my e-mail so I won’t be distracted. It won’t take long before. . . Thirty-two new messages, including one from the boss? I better reply right now. They might be important.

Some invitations from Facebook. Those are easy to clear out so let me accept them and I’m . . . hmm, I didn’t realize I had more notifications. Looks like Stacy finally launched a blog; I’ll just click through really quickly to check it out. Some great stuff. I really should add her blog to my RSS reader before I forget. What, “More than 100+ items”? Didn’t I just check this yesterday? I should really whittle these down a bit before it gets worse.

Wow, here I was about to focus on prayer and Bible study and my favorite theology-blogger has an excellent post on spiritual disciples. I have to share that with my own blogreaders. That’s a topic that’s really on my heart today, and it won’t take long. the rest

We consider it peculiar that Muslims stop five times a day to offer prayers to Allah, yet we stop what we do five times an hour to pay homage to our e-mail. “One of the most basic biblical insights,” says theologian J.I. Packer, “is that whatever controls and shapes one’s life is in effect the god one worships.” For many of us, the one true god to whom we give our devotion is the deity known as IT: information technology.

Satanist Church Rents Out Civic Center for Exorcism of God

Leader James Hale Says He Wants Ritual to Be Educational for the Public
By SARAH NETTER
Sept. 1, 2010

The leader of an Satanic church firmly planted in the Bible Belt has raised eyebrows by renting a theater in the Oklahoma City Civic Center for a ritual exorcism of God.

The Church of the IV Majesties is inviting members and the public to view the ritual, in hopes of erasing a lot of the unfounded fears many have about Satanism.

"We don't kill animals, we don't kill children," James Hale, the church's Lord High Master, told ABCNews.com. the rest

"It's a parody of the Catholic rite of exorcism. It's just a blasphemy ritual," Hale said.

ABC apparently took down the link for some reason, but you can find a similar story here.
Excerpt:
"We just decided that being right here in the middle of the Bible Belt, it wasn't a good idea to keep the secrecy you see in the traditional Satanist churches," he said. "Because secrecy breeds fear. And we're not looking to scare anyone."

Citing concerns for privacy and safety, Hale declined to say how many members the church has besides the seven members who are named on the church's state listing as a tax exempt religious organization, a designation they were awarded this spring.

Not Your Smallest Lutheran Church

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Russell E. Saltzman

It is very hard to swallow yet another Lutheran church body in America but that, following a two-day August 26-27 convocation in Columbus, Ohio, is what America has: the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). “North America” sounds rather expansive and that is only because some few congregations of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada will be part of the new denomination.

And I say “yet another” because in 1930 there were perhaps twenty to twenty-four Lutheran groups in America. Following nearly seventy years of fervent consolidation and church merger leading to the 1987 formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Lutherans have successfully reduced their synodical groups down to, hmm, some twenty to twenty-four church bodies. the rest