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A La Carte (5/12)
- 05/12/09
- 11
60 Years in an Iron Lung
“Martha Mason passed away last week at the age of 71 after spending 60 years living inside an iron lung. Mason was paralyzed from the neck down due to a childhood case of polio and was one of about 30 Americans left who live full time in iron lungs. There are no documented cases of anyone living in an iron lung for as long as Mason.”
A Fetus or a Baby?
Here is an interesting article which shows how unbelievable, how ungodly, the pro-choice debate really is.
Why Mother’s Day is a Bad Idea
Dr. Mohler takes this one on and includes an interesting history of the occasion. “Mother’s Day is a bad idea because it subverts the reality of faithful mothering and robs faithful mothers of their true glory. Mothers deserving of honor are handed cards and taken to lunch, when songs of praise should instead be offered to the glory of God.”
John Piper @ The Basics
You can hear the first two messages from John Piper at the Basics Conference. The first is a breakout session followed by an open Q&A. The second is a keynote address.
Deal of the Day: The Minority Report
Ligonier is offering a good discount on Carl Trueman’s The Minority Report. “Carl Trueman presents a collection of essays on a wide-range of subjects, including Adolf Eichman, the iPod, Roger Beckwith, the Blues, Watership Down, American Idol, Nietzsche, Zen-Calvinism, and Augustine. His goal is to force readers to think about what they believe, how they behave, and why. With wit and wisdom, Trueman topples the idols of contemporary pop-evangelicalism and dares us to reflect on matters many of us would rather not.”
“Martha Mason passed away last week at the age of 71 after spending 60 years living inside an iron lung. Mason was paralyzed from the neck down due to a childhood case of polio and was one of about 30 Americans left who live full time in iron lungs. There are no documented cases of anyone living in an iron lung for as long as Mason.”
A Fetus or a Baby?
Here is an interesting article which shows how unbelievable, how ungodly, the pro-choice debate really is.
Why Mother’s Day is a Bad Idea
Dr. Mohler takes this one on and includes an interesting history of the occasion. “Mother’s Day is a bad idea because it subverts the reality of faithful mothering and robs faithful mothers of their true glory. Mothers deserving of honor are handed cards and taken to lunch, when songs of praise should instead be offered to the glory of God.”
John Piper @ The Basics
You can hear the first two messages from John Piper at the Basics Conference. The first is a breakout session followed by an open Q&A. The second is a keynote address.
Deal of the Day: The Minority Report
Ligonier is offering a good discount on Carl Trueman’s The Minority Report. “Carl Trueman presents a collection of essays on a wide-range of subjects, including Adolf Eichman, the iPod, Roger Beckwith, the Blues, Watership Down, American Idol, Nietzsche, Zen-Calvinism, and Augustine. His goal is to force readers to think about what they believe, how they behave, and why. With wit and wisdom, Trueman topples the idols of contemporary pop-evangelicalism and dares us to reflect on matters many of us would rather not.”
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (11)
I was disappointed with the Mohler article. He rightly criticizes Mother’s Day as the over-commercialized garbage that it is and then says we should celebrate it anyway. What a cop-out.
Unless you’re a mother, the decision on whether to celebrate mother’s day may not really be yours to make. If your mom is going to feel hurt and unloved if you fail to give her a call or send her a card, then…you should probably give her a call or send her a card.
Hmm…
I saw that the audio for The Basics was up, so I downloaded the first session and tried to find the question about Driscoll in the mp3. I didn’t find it.
But now I’m thinking…
What’s wrong with me that I’m more interested in the controversy than in the content of the conference?
By, the way, Tim: The last three times I’ve tried to post here, I’ve hit a bug with the “Preview” button. When I hit preview, my comment gets posted.
I found Mohler’s take very confusing. Of course he’s right to decry sentimentalism, and to remind us that the glory belongs to God (though why he feels the need to pit that AGAINST showing our mothers a good time rather eludes me. We should always give glory to God. Should I never do anything nice for anyone to thank them?)
But this just struck me totally wrong:
“Undeserving mothers, who abdicate their true responsibility, are honored just because they are mothers. ”
Maybe because the fifth commandment says we should?
Thanks for the post on abortion.
I think it is a mistake to think that we should only honor mothers who are honorable. No one ever fully lives up to that. We should honor our moms, even the bad ones, because the Lord requires it. They are not worthy to receive it, and we are not worthy to give it. But thanks be to God for all his grace!
The problem with attacking something like Mother’s Day as overly sentimental is that too many of us become suspicious of feeling happy about something and having a good ‘ol time. Is there a place for honoring our mothers in non-sentimental ways? Of course. But sentimentalism is not a sin, and too many Christians have made it one. Frankly, I’m rather tired of it.
Michael, I’d say that feeling or showing sentiment is not a sin, but sentimentalism, which is defining the importance of something by the warm fuzzy feelings we have about it, is either a big mistake or a sin. I think that’s what Mohler’s concerned with, primarily, and to that extent, he’s right. But then his examples and illustrations go on to decry even feeling or showing proper sentiments just because those sentiments aren’t all there is to life, and that’s where he loses me completely.
Pentamom,Yes, mere sentimentalism is wrong, but like you, I think Mohler is being reductionistic. Warm fuzzy feelings are a gift from God and I think it is entirely biblical to say so. Yet as you point out, if anything is reduced down to ONLY warm, fuzzy feelings, we have a big problem. And certainly Mohler is right in saying that we have trivialized and sentimentalized motherhood itself. It’s surely a mark of our cultural and spiritual demise that we generally do not take time to offer proper tribute to mothers for the biblical virtues they possess.
Yes, Michael, I think we’re on the same page. I can sort of understand Mohler’s reaction because he wants to distance himself from the over-sentimentalism and point out that sentimentalism without substance is deadly, and that that IS what Mother’s Day has become, for most of the world. But the problem there seems to be with the ungodly spirit of the world, not with the concept of having a day where we stop and do special honor to our mothers and, in the case of fathers, the mothers of their children. To react against honoring your mother because people mostly do it wrong is just the wrong reaction.