Black Friday and other Friday Ramblings

Yesterday I indicated that I am a little bit envious of American Thanksgiving. We Canadians are impassioned about almost nothing (except our lack of passion and our distaste towards most things American) and make far less fuss about Thanksgiving than our friends across the border. I don’t think that is a good thing, but I also kind of like America and Americans. That is probably grounds for treason up here. While I often spend Christmas in the US of A, I have never spent a Thankgiving down there. Perhaps I’ll have to do that sometime soon.

While I am somewhat envious of American Thanksgiving I am in no way envious of Black Friday. In fact, one could make the argument that the entire long weekend is a celebration not of thanksgiving, but of excess and gluttony. On Thursday people eat far too much and follow that on Friday by spending far too much. Excess: it’s the American way! Wouldn’t it make for a nicer weekend if, instead of shopping, people went out and shared what they had rather than spend it?

Now that I have offended what is probably 80% of my readership, I will turn to other topics.

This just in: sending out an email announcing the conclusion of this month’s giveaway on a day when everyone is out of the office is just a bad idea. My inbox is being flooded with Out of Office notifications. Lesson learned.

A couple of weeks ago I received an odd review request. The producers of the film The God Who Wasn’t There asked if I would watch and review the production. It is an anti-God documentary that seeks to prove that Jesus never existed. What Bowling For Columbine did to gun culture and what Supersize Me did for fast food, this is supposed to do with religion. I’m not entirely sure what Bowling For Columbine did to gun culture, but if this production is a parallel, then I’d say “not much.” It is poorly made, terribly documented and the only shocking thing about it is that anyone could think it is shocking. I find it amusing that part of their marketing program is sending it to people like myself and Joe Carter, who didn’t like it anymore than I did. However, it does provide an opportunity to answer some of the common claims made against Jesus’ existence so I am hoping to examine some of the film’s claims next week. I will feed their marketing claim, but only with well-reasoned, rational, documented evidence to disprove their nonsensical claims. Here are a few of the claims made in the film:

• Jesus Christ is a fictional character.
• Jesus bears a striking resemblence to “other” ancient heroes and legends.
• Contemporary Christians are largely ignorant of the origins of their religion.
• Christianity is obsessed with blood.
• The Bible is, and was only intended to be, symbolic literature.
• There is no empirical data to support God’s existence.

And so on. As I said, there is really nothing new here, except perhaps a very poor interpretation of the sin against the Holy Spirit.

Earlier this week I received an advance copy of a forthcoming book dealing with the Purpose Driven movement and Rick Warren. I have read most of it and am happy to say that it explains the movement in a very thorough, yet even-handed way. There is nothing alarmist in the book and it avoids sounding like a rant. It is well-argued, well-researched and will surely help a lot of people unravel the Purpose Driven movement. I hope to bring a preview before long.

I have a couple of things I am hoping to begin writing this weekend with a view to posting them here next week. I trust that, upon the conclusion of this long weekend, there will actually be some people around to read them!

May God bless and keep you this weekend as you seek to honor Him in all you do.