panting for God

Posted on June 7, 2009 by bkingr

how long has it been since you felt like this?

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.

Jeff Mangum talked about self feeding this morning at church.

The thing is that until you have a soul thirsty for God, you simply won’t put much effort into self feeding. Certainly, there is a place for discipline in the Christian life and sometimes we keep doing what we know we ought to be doing because we know we ought to do it. But when you fall in love with God, then you hunger/pant/thirst for Him and you aren’t satisfied with anything less than personal time with Him.

It occurs to me that this hunger/panting/thirsting for God is given to us by God as a gift. II Peter 1:3. But then notice II Peter 1:5 “5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith…”

These are the same two sides to the coin as always. God gives us the power and therefore we make every effort.

Pray for God to make you hungry to know Him to pant for him like a deer pants for water, then make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love.

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Teaching

Posted on June 7, 2009 by bkingr

Mark Driscoll has a post on the spiritual gift of teaching.

The Spiritual Gift of Teaching Defined

The gift of teaching is the God-given ability to understand and communicate biblical truth in a clear and relevant manner so that there is understanding and application.

People with the Gift of Teaching

Learning, researching, communicating, and illustrating truth are qualities that an individual will manifest when exercising the gift of teaching. These people enjoy studying and learning new information, and find great joy in sharing it with others. The format of teaching varies from one-on-one discipleship to formal classes, informal Bible studies, large groups, and preaching, which is a form of teaching.

…..
Do You Have This Gift?

Do you enjoy studying and researching?
Do you enjoy imparting biblical truth to others?
Do others come to you for insight into Scripture?
When you teach, do people “get it”?
When you see someone confused in their understanding of the Bible do you feel a responsibility to speak to them about it?
Do you enjoy speaking to various sizes of groups about biblical issues you have strong convictions about?

so what do you think? is this your gift?

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trusting God in judgment

Posted on June 7, 2009 by bkingr

R.C. Sproul has a good reminder of the need to trust God even at the point of judgment.

A person who trusts God trusts not only His promises but His judgment. Even in a prayer of contrition, such a person acknowledges that God would be absolutely justified to destroy him for his sin. You can never come to God’s church, come to the Lord’s Table, thinking that God owes you something. If you do, you’re better off not to pray, not to commune, because you are blaspheming and slandering the Giver of every good and perfect gift, Who has treated you only with mercy.

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completely in the tank

Posted on June 6, 2009 by bkingr

your “objective” news media is completely in the tank for Barack Obama, and the creepiness from the campaign continues in the newsrooms.

take a look at this.

CHRIS MATTHEWS:….I think the President’s speech yesterday was the reason we Americans elected him. It was grand. It was positive. Hopeful. It said to the world, if you’re a good guy, you’ve got nothing to fear from us. If you’ve got national aspirations, if you want to be respected as a people, if you want to be treated as an equal people in the world, we’re on your side. If you’re an aggressor, if you want to hold down other people, if you’re driven by a predatory ideology, if you’re out to hurt this country, look out. We Americans are that rattlesnake on that first flag, ‘Don’t tread on me.’ But what I liked about the President’s speech in Cairo was that it showed a complete humility. What he did was rob from the enemy, those who want to destroy us, their main case, the belief that only by extremism can the East reach equality of dignity with the West. The question now is whether the President we elected and spoke for us so grandly yesterday can carry out the great vision he gave us and to the world. If he can, he’ll be honoring what happened on D-day 65 years ago tomorrow. He will be delivering the world once again from evil. Evan Thomas is editor at large for Newsweek magazine. Evan, you remember ’84. It wasn’t 100 years ago. Reagan and World War II and the sense of us as the good guys in the world, how are we doing?

EVAN THOMAS: Well, we were the good guys in 1984, it felt that way. It hasn’t felt that way in recent years. So Obama’s had, really, a different task We’re seen too often as the bad guys. And he – he has a very different job from – Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is ‘we are above that now.’ We’re not just parochial, we’re not just chauvinistic, we’re not just provincial. We stand for something – I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God. He’s-

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

THOMAS: He’s going to bring all different sides together. It’s a very different-

emphasis added

could you ever in your wildest dreams imagine grown men talking like this about another man? Especially grown men who are supposedly cynical hardbitten journalists whose job it is to “speak truth to power?”

in addition, what is up with the whole “Reagan was all about America” and Barack Obama “we are above that now” mentality? Do Evan Thomas and Chris Matthews really believe that to be a good thing? Do they think that such sentiments will help Barack Obama with his policies and programs here in the U.S.A.?

This is some scary stuff.

bonus exchange, just because it is so amazingly teen girl crushlike:

THOMAS: Reconciliation only after the fighting. That’s not – Obama’s not doing that. Obama – we’ve had our fighting. Obama is trying to sort of tamper everything down. He doesn’t even use the word terror. He uses extremism. He’s all about let us reason together. I think he has a much tougher job, frankly, because-

MATTHEWS: What’s his shtick? Reagan had the United States arms race, winning the arms race. And we had the threat of high frontier, we were going to beat the Soviets at technology.

THOMAS: I don’t think he has – his shtick is he’s the teacher. He’s the teacher. He is going to say, ‘now, children, stop fighting and quarreling with each other.’ And he has a kind of a moral authority that he – he can – he can do that-

MATTHEWS: If there’s a world election between him and Osama Bin Laden, he’s running a good campaign.

THOMAS: Yes, he is.

emphasis added

the problem is that you can’t parody this. It is so over the top on its own that all you can do is shake your head in disbelief and wonder when the snapback will start.

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speaking of music

Posted on June 5, 2009 by bkingr

The contemporary christian music business is suffering.

An extraordinary number of things have worked against the Christian music in recent years, even before the recession—starting with illegal downloads. (Yes, even Christians steal music.) There was some relief when Christian music found its way into stores like Target and Wal-Mart, but sales didn’t increase much, and Christian bookstores were hurt. Radio found a formula and a target audience, but record labels, feeling the pinch and afraid to take risks, focused so much on that target that music became homogenized. Now radio is pinched as well.

The camel’s knees are starting to buckle. But is the recession enough to break the entire industry?

that is the introduction to a very interesting 5 (short) page article. Take a look at the whole thing. some very interesting tidbits in there about the life of music artists and how much they make from selling their music.

hat tip to Challies.

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free music

Posted on June 5, 2009 by bkingr

Resurgence is starting a music wing called Re:Sound. To kick things off, they are giving away a free EP of eight songs.

I just downloaded them and have listened to the first two. Interesting.

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photo phriday

Posted on June 5, 2009 by bkingr

some more hot weather sun loving flowers

wildflowers in the sun

wildflowers in the sun

wildflowers in the sun

wider view
wildflowers in the sun

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dealing with doubt

Posted on June 4, 2009 by bkingr

here is John Piper talking about doubts

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD2O13CIb6U&hl=en&fs=1&]

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fascinating statistics

Posted on June 4, 2009 by bkingr

Vitamin z has posted some bits from Mark Noll’s new book, The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith

here are two of them (out of five that z posted):

This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined–and the number of Anglicans in church in Nigeria was several times the umber in those other African countries.

This past Sunday more Presbyterians were at church in Ghana than in Scotland, and more were in congregations of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa than in the United States.

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Really severe rhetoric

Posted on June 4, 2009 by bkingr

a friend of mine sent me this story wherein a British blogger points out that the bad guys have no fear of Barack Obama.

School’s out! Suddenly it is playtime for all the naughtier elements in the more “reclusive” parts of the world who enjoy kicking Uncle Sam’s butt but didn’t much relish tangling with Dick Cheney and (what was that other guy’s name?). This time Comrade Kim is really throwing his toys out of the playpen. He has even unilaterally revoked the 1953 armistice between the Korean War belligerents, which means, in case anybody is interested, that North and South Korea are once more at war.

So, what is the response of the Messiah in the Oval Office? Really severe rhetoric, is the answer. The soundbite manufacturers have been burning the midnight oil and the auto-cue is going into meltdown. So is the confidence of Asian leaders. The word is out: the most powerful nation on earth has got itself a pussycat for a president and all the bad guys are queuing up to give him the finger.

It is a measure of Obama’s acknowledged impotence that some of those who are now cheeking him are doing so with a degree of sophistication they had not previously exhibited. Irony and sarcasm are being deployed in an unlikely place: Tehran. It is the worst-kept secret in the world that Iran is dependent on North Korea for the development of its nuclear programme. When Kim last lit the blue touch-paper, in 2006, Tehran roundly supported him. This time the mullahs have come up with a more teasing ploy: they have righteously condemned him.

….
President Pantywaist’s enemies are taking his measure and they are liking what they see. Perhaps, in some Macchiavellian way, Obama thinks the appointment to the Supreme Court of a Latina woman of apparent bias, who seems unlikely to find in favour of a white male American, will either appease or frighten his foes. Come back, Dick Cheney, all is forgiven.

Bonus question: why does Barack Obama hate America so badly?

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oh, I'm much worse than that

Posted on June 3, 2009 by bkingr

I love this bit of self-deprecation and reliance on grace from Martin Luther as updated by Carl Trueman. This is some good stuff.

…..it has been brought to my attention over the last years that I am the hapless lackey of right-wing Christian America, the ruthless dismantler of everything good and virtuous at Westminster Theological Seminary (both the right and the left have advocated that one), a communist apologist for Islamic terrorism, a fundamentalist, a liar, a liberal (political and theological), an inveterate street fighter, a spineless girlyman, and a symptom of the crisis in American higher education whose very existence explains why so many young people leave college ill-equipped to deal with real life.

…..
Now, I have to confess that, in the early days, the web insults that were forwarded to me did hurt a bit. I suspect that anyone who says that such things do not hurt is a liar. I may have had my blood replaced with ice water when I took the job of Academic Dean; and I can confirm the rumours that I do not have a shadow or cast a reflection in the mirrored glass in Machen Hall; but, despite the hearsay, I do remember getting a lump in my throat at the end of Bambi when I was child; and I can enjoy the occasional episode of Dancing with the Stars as much as the next man. Yes, I am human and I have the feelings too.

….
Look, to repeat: the web is bandit country. Let the wild and the whacky compete with the sane and the measured, the incoherent and rambling with the logical and well-argued, the extreme with the moderate. If people believe you are really a lizard from the Planet Iguanadon who has assumed human form and infiltrated a church or a seminary to make it the base for an Iguanaman takeover of the entire Christian church, then let them do so. Nothing you can say to the contrary will do anything other than convince them of the depth and sophistication of the extraterrestrial reptilian conspiracy. Their emotional and psychological needs are clearly more serious than your own; and if you respond to such nonsense, you give it credibility and allow the parasitic nature of the attack to succeed. Ignore it and it may not go away, but sane people will see it for what it is and walk by, slightly embarrassed, on the other side of the virtual information highway.

There is, however, a spiritual dimension to blog attacks which is, ironically, conducive to spiritual health and growth. Here I have learned much (as elsewhere) from the master theologian, churchman, public figure, and normal Christian believer, Martin Luther. It is well-known that in his writings in table conversation Luther would often refer to visits from the Devil, how the Devil would come to him and whisper in his ear, accusing him of all manner of filthy sin: “Martin, you are a liar, greedy, lecherous, a blasphemer, a hypocrite. You cannot stand before God.” To which Luther would respond: “Well, yes, I am. And, indeed, Satan, you do not know the half of it. I have done much worse than that and if you care to give me your full list, I can no doubt add to it and help make it more complete. But you know what? My Saviour has died for all my sins – those you mention, those I could add and, indeed, those I have committed but am so wicked that I am unaware of having done so. It does not change the fact that Christ has died for all of them; his blood is sufficient; and on the Day of Judgment I shall be exonerated because he has taken all my sins on himself and clothed me in his own perfect righteousness.‘

go read the whole thing. Hat tip to vitamin z.

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Jim Manzi nails it

Posted on June 2, 2009 by bkingr

Jim Manzi perfectly captures the intense problems with Sonia Sotomayor’s identity politics approach to judging.

Many bloggers have made the argument that Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s famous “wise Latina” comment has been taken out of context. If you read the whole speech, they say, her statement is far more innocuous in context. As a result of these urgings, I read it. I’m not so sure it looks better in context.

….
That said, Sotomayor makes the indisputable point that decisions made by judges are at least partially impacted by their biological characteristics and life experiences. Human judgment clearly plays a role in such decisions; hence the need for human judges, as opposed to “law interpreting algorithms” in the first place. A key point, of course, is that in the passage under consideration, she goes beyond this and asserts not just that her decisions would therefore be different than those made by a white male but “wiser.” What she doesn’t address is that if we take a relativist approach to making judgments, how can one judgment said to be wiser than another? What is the objective standard of wisdom to which she implicitly appeals when making her assertion?

…
It seems to me that a thoughtful jurist would then be compelled to find the limit condition to subjectivity, or else assert that there is no such limit. In other words, is anything asserted by any judge equivalently valid as an interpretation of the law as any other statement? Is there any such thing as law, really? Or is it all just rhetoric used in support of power politics? With no stopping condition the legal philosophy that refuses to accept the idea of objectivity becomes legal nihilism: The law is whatever those who have the loyalty of the armed forces say it is, or more precisely, act as if it is.

emphasis added.

which gets me back to the original problematic quote:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” — Judge Sonia Sotomayor, in her Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law in 2001

aside from the extremely offensive racialist message, what does she mean by “better”? Better according to what standard? as far as I can tell all she means is better according to her own subjective thoughts, opinions, or feelings. Better becomes simply what I like better and the rest of you will just have to go along.

Could it mean anything else?

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paperback version is out tomorrow

Posted on June 1, 2009 by bkingr

the paperback version of the book is out. No more excuses for not getting and reading one of the most important books explaining the ideological antecedents of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton.

Get it tomorrow. Read it Wednesday.

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revitalizing a local church

Posted on June 1, 2009 by bkingr

JD Greear is posting a series on The Resurgence blog about revitalizing a local church.

the introduction:

I’ve been asked to speak on church revitalization at the Advance Conference this year. Six years ago when I was called as a pastor, Homestead Heights was a declining 41-year-old Baptist church. Attendance was down to about 350 people, and more were leaving. Today, the Summit Church consists of four campuses spread across Raleigh-Durham. To God’s glory, this past Easter we had 4400 people in service and saw 160 profess faith in Christ.

he then makes the point that the revitalization must be centered around the Gospel and gives two bad reasons for wanting to revitalize. Go read it; good stuff. I am looking forward to more in the series.

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why I collect the cell phones at night

Posted on May 31, 2009 by bkingr

Al Mohler is reporting on a New York Times story about texting taking a toll.

….Katie Hafner offers a view into the lives of American teens. They are fanatical texters. As Hafner reports, “They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.”

Authorities now blame excessive texting for sleep deprivation, distraction in school, poor grades, and even repetitive stress injuries. These teens are texting while they should be sleeping, and they are sleeping with the cell phone set to vibrate so that they can respond to texts from friends without waking parents.

….
Sherry Turkle, one of the most insightful analysts of digital culture, goes so far as to argue that texting is changing the way American adolescents develop. Instead of growing into independence and developing life skills, teenagers are texting mom several times a day, asking questions about decisions they should be learning to make.

On the other hand, texting also allows teens to be in almost constant and unbroken communication with peers, largely outside of parental control or knowledge. To be disconnected from the cell phone is to become a digital non-person for a period.

….
Christian parents bear the responsibility to monitor, supervise, and limit the digital exposure of their children…..Teens should not be allowed to sleep with cell phones in the bedroom, and parents need to set clear parameters for the use of phones for both voice calls and text messages. Commonsense rules will go a long way toward restoring sanity.

emphasis added.

Just trying to do what we can to assist with better decision making. Obviously kids will do what they are going to do and there is little we can do to stop it. But we can put some obstacles in the way.

I collect cell phones (and iTouch) when I go to bed. Our TV is password protected for any programs TV-14 or above. Our computer is password protected at logon. We change the passwords every 90 days or so.

Any other suggestions?

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New Atheists are boring victims

Posted on May 30, 2009 by bkingr

Charlotte Allen tweaks the new atheists, Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens et al. Nicely tweaked too. Here are the first five paragraphs to get you started, but go read it all.

I can’t stand atheists — but it’s not because they don’t believe in God. It’s because they’re crashing bores.

Other people, most recently the British cultural critic Terry Eagleton in his new book, “Faith, Reason, and Revolution,” take to task such superstar nonbelievers as Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins (“The God Delusion”) and political journalist Christopher Hitchens (“God Is Not Great”) for indulging in a philosophically primitive opposition of faith and reason that assumes that if science can’t prove something, it doesn’t exist.

My problem with atheists is their tiresome — and way old — insistence that they are being oppressed and their fixation with the fine points of Christianity. What — did their Sunday school teachers flog their behinds with a Bible when they were kids?

Read Dawkins, or Hitchens, or the works of fellow atheists Sam Harris (“The End of Faith”) and Daniel Dennett (“Breaking the Spell”), or visit an atheist website or blog (there are zillions of them, bearing such titles as “God Is for Suckers,” “God Is Imaginary” and “God Is Pretend”), and your eyes will glaze over as you peruse — again and again — the obsessively tiny range of topics around which atheists circle like water in a drain.

First off, there’s atheist victimology: Boohoo, everybody hates us ‘cuz we don’t believe in God. Although a recent Pew Forum survey on religion found that 16% of Americans describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, only 1.6% call themselves atheists, with another 2.4% weighing in as agnostics (a group despised as wishy-washy by atheists). You or I might attribute the low numbers to atheists’ failure to win converts to their unbelief, but atheists say the problem is persecution so relentless that it drives tens of millions of God-deniers into a closet of feigned faith, like gays before Stonewall.

hat tip to art.

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biblical illiteracy

Posted on May 29, 2009 by bkingr

Randy Alcorn is concerned about the level of Biblical illiteracy in the church today, even among its leaders. It is a very real concern.

Biblical illiteracy among Christians is arguably at an all time high, with chilling implications that can hardly be overstated. I know that various things in the church will inevitably change, such as songs and hymns taking on new forms, and that’s fine. What isn’t fine is for God’s people to neglect His Word.

….

Most importantly, the Bible itself is a book, sixty six books in one. If our young people are not readers, then they will not be readers of God’s Word. If they aren’t readers of God’s Word, their spiritual lives will dead end. The church’s future leaders will not know what God has said, and when that happens how can the church function as the body of Christ when it is disconnected from the mind of Christ?

We’re already seeing the first wave of biblical illiteracy among many current church leaders. When Scripture says an elder must be “able to teach” this implies much more than communicative skill. It requires an active working knowledge of God’s Word. In my opinion, no one should be a church leader—whether an elder or overseer or pastor who anyone who gives direction to the church—unless he is a daily student of God’s Word and knows it far better than he knows the contestants on Survivor and American Idol. And he should be far more passionate about Scripture than about television programs, movies, golf, football, NASCAR, politics, blogging, or other interests.

……

…if pressed to name the twelve tribes of Israel (in many cases, even the apostles), they wouldn’t get more than a couple. Ask “give two passages that indicate Christ is the only way to God,” and you won’t have to wonder why people are not sharing their faith in Christ. They don’t know what to share. How can you share what you don’t know? How can you know if you do not know God’s Word?

God promises His Word will not return to Him empty, without accomplishing the purpose for which he sent it. God’s Word, in the hands of His Holy Spirit, has the power to transform lives, to shape them for eternity. But our sanctification, as individuals and families and churches, can only go so far if we are not steadily gazing into God’s Word. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth.”

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friday fotoes

Posted on May 29, 2009 by bkingr

My lovely wife and I celebrated 20 wonderful years of wedded bliss last weekend in Grapevine at the Gaylord Texan.
gaylord texan

Gaylord Texan

and the sky was really funky one evening this week
sunset

here we are on self timer
Gaylord Texan

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some questions for "a Latina Judge"

Posted on May 28, 2009 by bkingr

Judge Sonia Motomayor, Barack Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, is really an amazing piece of work. Matthew Franck has more from the speech she gave in which she declared that a wise latina will generally make better judicial decisions than a white male. He also has some questions.

published as “A Latina Judge’s Voice,” 13 Berkeley La Raza Law Journal 87 (2002). These lines are from the last of its seven pages:

I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.

There is always a danger embedded in relative morality, but since judging is a series of choices that we must make, that I am forced to make, I hope that I can make them by informing myself on the questions I must not avoid asking and continuously pondering. . . .

These remarks, prompt some questions, such as: What exactly do you think are those occasions when your “sympathies and prejudices are appropriate” in reaching a decision? And when did the Supreme Court “suggest” that there would be such occasions in the exercise of the judicial function? Why do you think that judging is a “series of choices” that you “must make” rather than a series of discernments of those choices that the law has already made? What have you learned in your study or practice of law and judging that makes you believe that judging is an exercise in “morality”? Is there a role for moral discretion for the judge interpreting the Constitution or a statute—the principal business of federal appellate judging? What would that role be? And while it’s refreshing that you recognize the “danger embedded in relative morality,” yet you appear to embrace it nonetheless as inevitable for a judge; so what do you mean by “relative morality”? It sounds like “relativism,” or the notion that morality is inherently subjective, to be guided by the passions rather than reason. It’s a dubious business to assign to judges the role of moralizers or moral philosophers in the first place; isn’t it infinitely worse to suppose they are to be, not moral reasoners, but moral emotionalists?

emphasis added.

my previous post has a video where she admits frankly that interemediate appellate judges “make policy.” The quote above shows that she is perfectly willing to admit that, at least in some instances, she believes that making that policy involves an “appropriate” use of her own “opinions, sympathies and prejudices.”

I mean really what can you say? It is just amazing to me that she feels no need to obfuscate the fact that she believes judges make policy and use their own biases and prejudices to do so. She feels that she can come right out and say it without euphemism or cloaking of any kind.

I wonder if she will be able to do anything toward building coalitions on the Court. If she feels that she should just nakedly assert her own prejudice in decision making, then it might be difficult to persuade other justices to join her in such a project given that they may have different biases and prejudices that they feel should be indulged at the expense of the rule of law.

It will be an interesting and tragic thing to watch over the next 25 to 30 years. Just wow. Remember always that elections have consequences and this is one of them.

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self-righteousness is no respecter of persons

Posted on May 27, 2009 by bkingr

courtesy of vitamin z, I ran across Tullian Tchividjian’s excellent post on the double reach of the disease of self-righteousness. good stuff.

Now, it’s very interesting that in the Bible it’s always the immoral person that gets the Gospel before the moral person. It’s the prostitute who understands grace; it’s the Pharisee who doesn’t. It’s the unrighteous younger brother who gets it before the self-righteous older brother. Tim’s book points this out well.

There is, however, another (perhaps more subtle) side to self-righteousness that younger brother types need to be careful of. There’s an equally dangerous form of self-righteousness that plagues the unconventional, the liberal, and the non-religious types. We anti-legalists can become just as guilty of legalism in the opposite direction. What do I mean?

It’s simple: we can become self-righteous against those who are self-righteous. Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents’ conservative, buttoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of “older brother religion” with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of “younger brother irreligion” which screams, ”That’s right, I know I don’t have it all together and you think you do; I know I’m not good and you think you are. That makes me better than you.” See the irony?

go read the rest to see the cure.

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piper on driscoll

Posted on May 27, 2009 by bkingr

Here is a blog post containing six minutes of audio of John Piper discussing the controversy between John MacArthur and Mark Driscoll. Very interesting indeed.

If you want a more complete narrative of the fuss, Jonathan Christman has a nine part run down focusing on Phil Johnson and Mark Driscoll including Phil Johnson’s letter to Mark and Mark’s video response. Again, very interesting indeed.

Here is a page with all of the links to Jonathan’s posts about the matter. I found parts VII, VIII and IX to be the most interesting.

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judicial nominee

Posted on May 26, 2009 by bkingr

Judge Sonia Motomayor is President Obama’s pick to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. She has an interesting track record to say the least.

Here is an article by Stuart Taylor in the National Journal about her infatuation with identity politics. This is nothing more than naked disgusting racism:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” — Judge Sonia Sotomayor, in her Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law in 2001

The above assertion and the rest of a remarkable speech to a Hispanic group by Sotomayor — widely touted as a possible Obama nominee to the Supreme Court — has drawn very little attention in the mainstream media since it was quoted deep inside The New York Times on May 15.

It deserves more scrutiny, because apart from Sotomayor’s Supreme Court prospects, her thinking is representative of the Democratic Party’s powerful identity-politics wing.

Sotomayor also referred to the cardinal duty of judges to be impartial as a mere “aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others.” And she suggested that “inherent physiological or cultural differences” may help explain why “our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.”

So accustomed have we become to identity politics that it barely causes a ripple when a highly touted Supreme Court candidate, who sits on the federal Appeals Court in New York, has seriously suggested that Latina women like her make better judges than white males.

Indeed, unless Sotomayor believes that Latina women also make better judges than Latino men, and also better than African-American men and women, her basic proposition seems to be that white males (with some exceptions, she noted) are inferior to all other groups in the qualities that make for a good jurist.

Any prominent white male would be instantly and properly banished from polite society as a racist and a sexist for making an analogous claim of ethnic and gender superiority or inferiority.

emphasis added.

Silly me for thinking that the law was the law no matter what the ethnicity is of the one interpreting it. Obviously “inherent physiological or cultural differences” ought to lead to different results. only a philistine white male like myself would fail to see this obvious fact.

and here is a video capturing the real problem with Judge Motomayor’s vision regarding the role of the courts. Her view that the intermediate appellate courts are for policy making is a refreshingly honest glimpse into the liberal judicial mind at work.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfC99LrrM2Q&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

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why American believers don't give

Posted on May 26, 2009 by bkingr

one thing we have noticed in visiting churches this year is that budgets are in deep trouble. It is to be expected in a recession like this that church receipts would be down significantly, but we have seen several churches who have in 2009 received only 35 and 40% of the amount that they had budgeted to receive.

Todd Hiestand takes a look at whether or not American Christians are selfish and what some of the factor are that inhibit giving to the local church or to parachurch organizations. very interesting stuff.

here are the first two of five reasons that he believes inhibit giving:

Reason #1 – We are shackled with debt.
I believe this is one of the biggest reasons we aren’t more generous. We just can’t be. Every dollar we make is accounted for and the flex that we have after we take care of teh necessities is taken up in debt payments. I know that in my congregation there are some who wish they could give more but they just can’t figure out how to because they are paying off so much debt. The biggest issue is that most of us don’t know how to get out. That’s a big responsibility of the church in my mind. We need to help people live healthier financial lives. Not for the sake of reasonability. Not just because its a wiser way to live. I think far too often teh call to being debt free is couched in reasons that aren’t based on mission. But, we need to call people to a debt free lifestyle so they can more freely respond to the needs of others.

Reason #2 – Our churches aren’t worth giving to
I think this is a significant issue our churches need to face. If fact #6 above is correct, I think we can’t just blame it on selfishness. I have found that when a church is doing something that is perceived as significant, people generously and freely give financially towards it. But I believe that most of what our churches do is not worth giving too. If most of what the church does is inward focused, then I too would not be too excited to give to the local church. If our churches were more mission focused and outward focused in their very nature and we told the stories of what God was doing through them, I believe we’d have a different story here. I’m happy to give to buildings, salaries and programs if those buildings, salaries and programs are changing the world and doing the work of the kingdom. Sadly, I just don’t think this is generally the case.

go read the rest of Todd’s post for six facts about giving and the other three reasons that Todd believes that christians fail to give.

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Memorial Day

Posted on May 25, 2009 by bkingr

Pete Hegseth:

….Americans across this great country will join together in remembering those American warriors—throughout our storied history—who gave their lives in defense of freedom. From the blood-soaked beaches of France to the bombed-out back-alleys of Fallujah, the American G.I. has fought—and died—opposing that which is evil and oppressive, and defending all things good and free.

Memorial Day is about one thing: remembering the fallen on the battlefield and passing their collective story to the next generation. These stories, and the men who bear them, are the backbone of this American experiment and must never be forgotten. As John Stuart Mill once said, “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.” The minute, excuse me—the second—we believe our freedoms “inevitable and/or immutable,” we cease to live in history, and have soured the soldier’s sacrifice. He died in the field, so we can enjoy this beautiful day (and weekend). Our freedoms—purchased on the battlefield—are indeed “worthy of war.”

And this day, with America still at war, it is also fitting that we remember the soldiers currently serving in harms way. Because, as any veteran can attest, just one moment, one explosion, or one bullet separates Veterans Day from Memorial Day. Soldiers currently in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting for our freedoms today, knowing it’s possible they may never see tomorrow. These troops—and their mission—deserve our support each day, and our prayers every night. May God watch over them—and their families; May He give them courage in the face of fear, and righteous-might in the face of evil.

Memorial Day Weekend

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Zach is thankful for Mark Driscoll

Posted on May 24, 2009 by bkingr

Zach of Vitamin Z is thankful for Mark Driscoll.

Most people know that Mark is known for his strong push for men to act like Biblical men. Sometimes I feel that this crosses the line and could give people the impression that he believes a real man has to be a fist pounding, beer drinking, UFC loving, likes to fight kind of guy. I know this is not Mark’s intention, (which he explicitly stated last night) but I fear that it could be heard that way by some.

But… I know why Mark stresses these things with such intensity and I completely agree that it is a huge need in our Christian culture. As he says, “You get the men, you win the war”. I know this is true and I am thankful for Mark leading so many broken men in Seattle and beyond into loving their wives well, loving and teaching their kids well, and stepping up to lead in the church well.

Go check out the rest at the link above.

In other words, Mark Driscoll is the opposite (masculine) influence to the dominant Christian culture as reflected in The Shack (completely feminine).

I am thankful for Mark Driscoll as well.

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