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A La Carte (3/4)
- 03/04/09
- 10
What Masculine Provision Looks Like
"This from a sobering story on the downturn from the NYT called 'Forced from Executive Pay to Hourly Wage' by Michael Luo that follows a former six-figure executive in his daily work."
Pastor Resources Offer
Reformation Trust is offering John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology free for pastors (though a $5 S&H charge will apply).
US Savings Over Time
This is a very interesting interactive chart that shows savings rates for Americans over time. Note a) how savings rates have plummeted over the last few decades (as consumerism and credit have become widespread, I suppose) and b) how it has bounced up in the past few months.
Love, Sex & Mammon
Russell Moore's editorial for Touchstone look at "Hard Times, Hard Truths & the Economics of the Christian Family." " A time of economic crisis is, therefore, a time for the Church to reconsider--and re-imagine--her priorities. The first step is to recognize that one of the roots of the family crisis all around us--in the pews we sit in or preach to every week--is the wallet in our own back pocket."
R.A. Torrey on Tobacco
This is interesting in the context of what I wrote on tobacco a couple of weeks ago. Can a Christian use tobacco? "There are laymen and ministers who purpose to be out and out for God and to make their lives count to the uttermost for Him who do use tobacco, but their lives do not count for God as they would if they did not use tobacco, because..."
"This from a sobering story on the downturn from the NYT called 'Forced from Executive Pay to Hourly Wage' by Michael Luo that follows a former six-figure executive in his daily work."
Pastor Resources Offer
Reformation Trust is offering John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology free for pastors (though a $5 S&H charge will apply).
US Savings Over Time
This is a very interesting interactive chart that shows savings rates for Americans over time. Note a) how savings rates have plummeted over the last few decades (as consumerism and credit have become widespread, I suppose) and b) how it has bounced up in the past few months.
Love, Sex & Mammon
Russell Moore's editorial for Touchstone look at "Hard Times, Hard Truths & the Economics of the Christian Family." " A time of economic crisis is, therefore, a time for the Church to reconsider--and re-imagine--her priorities. The first step is to recognize that one of the roots of the family crisis all around us--in the pews we sit in or preach to every week--is the wallet in our own back pocket."
R.A. Torrey on Tobacco
This is interesting in the context of what I wrote on tobacco a couple of weeks ago. Can a Christian use tobacco? "There are laymen and ministers who purpose to be out and out for God and to make their lives count to the uttermost for Him who do use tobacco, but their lives do not count for God as they would if they did not use tobacco, because..."
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Comments (10)
Though I'm not a smoker and personally I can't stand smoking, Torrey doesn't convince me with his points. You can really apply his points to other areas. If I buy ice cream, it can be considered unhealthy, of no value and a waste of money. I understand what he is saying, but in my, not so humble opinion, point number 5 is the only one that holds water.
I agree with you, Fillip, though I don't think point 5 is an ace-in-the-hole either. I've given a point-by-point response over at my blog, if anyone is interested in joining the discussion.
http://sola5guy.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-smoking-sinful-part-ii-response-to.html
The best of legalists would heartily agree with Torrey, as well as those who dutifully sacrificed bulls and goats without a shred of mercy to others. Convince me that the works of service that my Marlboro-smoking deacon dad in the 1970s did for widows, orphans (of which I was one) was in vain.
Your best option is silence, Mr. Torrey.
It won't be hard for Mr. Torrey to keep silent as he has been Dead (Text link) for quite some time.
1 Corinthians 8:12Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
Strachan remarks:
"Would that the world had more men who took the burden of provision upon themselves, placing it squarely upon their back, and less men who leaned on their wives to carry the heavy load."
It should be noted that in the case of the Coopers, who were profiled in the Times article, Mrs. Cooper still works as a personal trainer. There's no mention of how much she earns, but I can't imagine it's much less than what Mr. Cooper earns as a janitor. In other words, their financial situation is solidly egalitarian in that each partner is helping with financial support.
Moore asks:
"Why do we speak endlessly about marital communication and “love languages” but never address the question of whether institutionalized day care is good for children, or for their parents?"
Why? Because creating better marriage relationships is clearly a good thing and everyone agrees that's the case. Loving one's spouse is explicitly biblical. Not everyone agrees that daycare is "bad" or harmful to children, and it's more difficult to make an explicit biblical case against it. So that's why.
Torrey is a solid leader of the past and one I respect but I'm not convinced at all concerning the issue of smoking. I have never smoked and lost my mother largely due to smoking but I refuse to use scripture completely out of context to argue my point of view that smoking is sin. I do believe one can argue clearly and consistently from scripture that certain activities are not profitable for a christian and from a scientific view point it does real damage but I cannot label it sin .
I find it astounding that no one has noticed that the six figure executive in the NYT article was a woman and not a man at all. It is Ame Arlt, 53, divorced, who was a six figure executive and took on an hourly wage.
Mr, Cooper was earning a professional wage of 5 figures. He remains married to a wife who also works.
Ame Arlt fills a similar demographic to mine - 53, divorced and supporting a family as a single parent. Women like Arlt simply do not exist in certain types of Christianity. We are invisible and the message is that we will be ignored and deliberately turned into men if the story is any good. There is no place for the single woman in Christianity, and yet half of us are single.
Its astounding that no one noticed that the six figure executive in the article was a woman named Ame Arlt.
Hey Tim,
I'm later than some, but here's my response to Torrey, which includes links to my first two posts on the issue after you had asked the question before.
Thanks for the good stuff as always.
AndrewChristians in Context