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A La Carte (12/22)
- 12/22/08
- 7
Surreal Faith Mark Tooley writes a review of Shane Claiborne's Jesus for President. "In Jesus for President Claiborne wants Christians to disavow their country and all civil governance in favor of exclusive allegiance to a nonviolent Jesus whose chief mission is resisting "empire." But Claiborne's interpretation of Jesus, his few selective quotations from early church fathers notwithstanding, is largely divorced from the universal church's understanding of the Savior."
The Demise of Dating According to this article in the Times, "The paradigm has shifted. Dating is dated. Hooking up is here to stay." Joe Scarborough challenges the MSM This is an enjoyable four minutes of television. "Joe Scarborough challenges the MSM on the lack of attention to Obama's Chicago roots in light of Blago." Loving Your Cellphone to Death "In the latest you've got to be kidding, in funerary trends, funeral directors are now telling us that people currently under 40 are increasingly requesting to be buried with their cellphones, or in some cases with their Ipods or Xbox games."
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
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Comments (7)
I first heard Shane Claiborne's spiel at Catalyst 2 years ago. Where-as the 60s movements tried to remove god/morality from culture, Shane wants the 60s all over again, but with a little God mixed in.
"But Claiborne does not explain how he might have reacted had he come upon a pregnant woman, or child, or elderly person, being beaten in an ally by less spiritually intimidated attackers."
Wow. Does the author of this article really think that this is what America is doing? Defending the downtrodden of the world? What are they smoking?
Good grief, there are many places where MILLIONS of innocent people are being slaughtered and the US hasn't invaded to liberate. Where's the full-scale protection of pregnant women, children and the elderly in Darfur? In Somalia? In Liberia? In Rwanda? Oh wait, there's no economic point to helping those folks.
America is defending its own interests. That's perfectly fine for a country to be doing, I'd expect nothing less from a government, but how dare he suggest that God has anything to do with it.
Shane's theology may be shaky, but to counter it by saying that America is doing God's work to defend the weak is utter nonsense.
--A non-American Christian.
RE: The Demise of Dating
It used to be that “you were trained your whole life to date,” said Ms. Bogle. “Now we’ve lost that ability — the ability to just ask someone out and get to know them.”
As if that's a good thing? Here is where, I think, the church has dropped the ball. It's one thing for the 'world' to act this way, but I suspect that the statistics aren't that much different for 'churched' kids. When the church offers teens little more than a cheap imitation of what the world does (Christian serial dating), it's setting them up for heartache (when is it acceptable to hurt your brother or sister in Christ?), sexual immorality (exactly how far can one go without becoming sexually aroused?), and levels of emotional intimacy that should be reserved for marriage.
While a few churches have taken bold steps to discourage teens from dating, most have merely caved in to the culture and bought into the lie that teens WILL date and MUST date to be happy and healthy. A quick survey of history shows that dating, as practiced in our culture, is just a blip on the radar screen of history.
On the Demise of Dating...umm, this is not new and to think the term 'hooking up' needs to be explained to those over 30 is amusing at best (some other demographic may apply), one needs to look no further than 'pop' movies from the 60s (and earlier) to see evidence of this. That it’s become more common, I can't say, but I can say that the concept of dating is absurd in the first place. Finding a life-partner based on what is learned during dates is like moving to a new city because you enjoyed being there on vacation. One knows to show their best side on a date but that’s hardly a reflection of real life. A young couple will probably start out living in less than perfect housing on a very tight budget making the movie followed by coffee date a dream night. Now throw in a baby or two and what does this have to do with a date? Courting while volunteering in the nursery at church makes much more sense. Do they handle the kids patiently, week after week? Do they turn green at the very thought of changing diapers?
God bless,
-jim
http://ke4juh.wordpress.com/
"to think the term ‘hooking up’ needs to be explained to those over 30 is amusing at best "
I'm 35, married for years, and i'd no idea what hooking up meant. I had to read the article to find out.
Stephen writes: "Where-as the 60s movements tried to remove god/morality from culture, Shane wants the 60s all over again, but with a little God mixed in."
I haven't read his book, but based on the review it doesn't seem like he's saying that at all. He's essentially preaching a pacifist anti-nationalist message. I don't agree with him on the extreme passivism (though, I'm probably closer to his view than most evangelicals), but the anti-nationalist message rings true.
Carol writes: "When the church offers teens little more than a cheap imitation of what the world does (Christian serial dating), it’s setting them up for heartache."
Agree and disagree. I happen to believe there is a "right" way to do Christian dating, that doesn't lead to sin and doesn't result in the parties sustaining emotional wounds. Then again, I rarely see it implemented. Practically speaking it ends up looking like what some people call "courting", only without the rigid structure.
Jim writes: "Finding a life-partner based on what is learned during dates is like moving to a new city because you enjoyed being there on vacation."
To play devil's advocate, marrying someone without first having had sex and/or lived with them is like buying a house without getting it inspected.
I agree with Jim Brown that Christian "dating", as commonly understood , is too stilted and artificial to provide the kind of real-life information that should be the basis of a marriage decision. Of course, the proper level of information should also include cohabitational and sexual information as well. I wouldn't buy a car without driving it and I wouldn't promise to live/sleep with someone for an entire lifetime with no first-hand information on that score.