Monday June 26, 2006

Politics: The Harris brothers have written about Brittany McComb, a valedictorian whose speech was cut off when she committed the egregious sin of mentioning Jesus.

Church: The Chicago Tribune reports on a church that has figured out a way of getting visitors through the doors. ” United Pentecostal Church of Harvey plans to provide the cash [$25] to the first 75 people who visit the church for the first time at each of two services, one at 10 a.m. and another at 1 p.m.”

More Church: Another paper, the Modesto Bee, is reporting that the play “Jesus Christ Superstar” is becoming increasingly popular in Christian circles. Sanctified blasphemy, perhaps?

Culture: Meanwhile, FoxNews reports that “Mannies” are all the rage. Britney Spears is leading yet another celebrity-driven fad: male nannies. Does this strike anyone else as a bad idea?

Friday June 23, 2006

Theology: The most recent issue of “Critical Issues Commentary” deals with the always-important topic of discernment, and in particular, the ability of the Christian to judge.

More Theology: John Hendryx of “Reformation Theology” (and, of course, Monergism.com) posts the always-contentious “Prayer of the Consistent Synergist.”

Politics: Canada’s Conservative government hopes to raise the age of consent. It is currently 14, but the Tories hope to increase it to sixteen (though there will be a “near-age exemption” for people who are within 5 years of each other). The law is intended to protect teens from predators. Canoe reports.

Technology: I’ve found the biggest page on the Internet. Considering its size, it is surprisingly fast-loading. You can see it here. If you decide to scroll across the page, it will take about seven times longer than the average human life span to scroll from one end to the other.

Thursday June 22, 2006

Review: Kevin Cawley has a good review (G-rated) of Mark Driscoll’s “Confessions of a Reformission Rev.” He softballs the issue of crudeness (and seems to blame the buzz about that issue on Fundies), but still concludes that “Mark’s approach often appears to be the opposite of judicious.”

Music: Bob Kauflin posted some information about the upcoming “Valley of Vision” CD and even included some sound clips and a trailer. Check it out!

Church: JollyBlogger points out that the PCA General Assembly is pretty boring this year. The SBC passed a statement against the consumption of alcohol and the PCUSA has “sort of” opened the doors to ordaining homosexuality. Yeesh. Anything the PCA does will be tame in comparison (I hope).

Technology: The “New York Times” reports that MySpace will begin to work towards protecting underage users of their technology. “Next week, the site will restrict how users over 18 can contact those aged 14 and 15.” It isn’t much, but at least it’s a start.

Wednesday June 21, 2006

Technology: A 14-year old girl is suing MySpace.com for $30 million after a man she met online through that service sexually assaulted her. Fox says that she claims “it does not take sufficient steps to protect underage members.” How about suing her parents for not providing adequate supervision?

Bible: The ESV, clearly seeking to provide a Bible for every possible contingency, has released the Journalling Bible which features wide, ruled margins that have almost 2 inches of available space to write.

Blog: Al Mohler has opened the doors to yet another blog (because I guess he doesn’t have enough to do already!). This one is called ConventionalThinking and is devoted to discussing the Southern Baptist Convention.

Politics: FoxNews has a series on Saddam Hussein, and new evidence that may point to justifying Bush in his decision to invade Iraq. You can read the series here.

Tuesday June 20, 2006

Lethargy: I apologize that there was no A La Carte yesterday. My parents decided to swing by for a weekend visit and since I only see them a few times a year, I thought it would be best to spend as much time with them as possible. Having done so, I am confident that I made the right decision.

Politics: The Thirsty Theologian, who has been known to quench his thirst with beverages a little more potent than water, takes issue with the SBC’s decision on alcohol. “Why did God not providentially place a couple of Southern Baptists in Cana of Galilee on that fateful wedding day to prevent his son from doing such a foolish thing?”

Family: Maryanne has an interesting article on what happened when she forced her kids to stop watching movies. “I will go to my grave believing that television and movies are an area of the culture that are Satan-owned. There is a level of darkness in Disney movies that children like Anna (very imaginative, creative, dreamy) should not be exposed to.”

Theology: Mark Dever posted a must read article at Together for the Gospel. He says, “the most basic practical division among evangelical pastors today may be between those who pursue faithfulness and assume relevance and those who pursue relevance and assume faithfulness.” He blew my mind with that statement which is just oh so true. Well done Dr. Dever!

Friday June 16, 2006

Theology: Doxa Digital Press has released all 4 issues of the Founders Journal 2003 for free download from their web site. They have several other good, free resources as well.

More Theology: Granted Ministries is a site I just discovered that “consists primarily of sermons that are available for purchase or free download.” It has lots (and lots!) of valuable resoureces to offer you.

Video: There is an amazing video at Google Videos showing the Australian lyrebird, a bird that attracts a mate by imitating just about every other sound it hears, whether that be the sounds of other birds and animals, or the sounds of car alarms and chainsaws.

Thursday June 15, 2006

Review: Gary Gilley, my favorite book reviewer, has a good review of Brian McLaren’s “The Secret Message of Jesus.” “This in essence is the gospel of the emergent movement: if enough of us become missional we can make this world a better place. What a sad substitute for the gospel message as found in Scripture.”

Politics: Mark Steyn must be a brave man to print an article like this on in Canada’s foremost news magazine. “The Islamoschmoozing has gone into full gear. What’s the harm? This is how nations die.”

Politics Bonus: Tom Ascol speculates on why Mark Dever did not get elected as Vice President of the SBC.

Music: Bob Kauflin has announced an upcoming music project, and has shared some lyrics for a new song. We asked the Sovereign Grace songwriters to submit songs inspired by the book, “The Valley of Vision.” Sounds great!

Wednesday June 14, 2006

Video: Lisa Nunley has linked to two videos showing some sad, pathetic clips taken from the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Click and see “Why Jan Crouch wants Your Grandmother’s Grocery Money…” Click and wonder how people can continue to watch this circus!

Technology: Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has officially discouraged people from using his site for serious academic study. This follows many examples of the site’s inaccuracies. It is still a helpful guide as long as the user realizes its fallibility.

Politics: Frank Page has been elected as President of the Southern Baptist Convention. I don’t know who he is, but a good number of good men seem to be quite pleased with the news. As we’d expect, BP News reports.

Work: I’m looking for someone to help me with a pretty major project. I need someone who is proficient in PHP or Perl or Ruby or just about any scripting language and has time to develop a couple of scripts for me. If that’s you, please send me an email.

Tuesday June 13, 2006

Debate: Al Mohler and Paige Patterson had a not-debate yesterday morning on the subject of Calvinism. Pure Church has a good blow-by-blow account of what sounds like an edifying discussion.

Conference: The big Southern Baptist Convention is happening this week and my buddy Scott Lamb has decided to liveblog it. You can read his updates here.

Du Jour: C.J. Mahaney has added his thoughts to an interesting discussion of the importance of complementarianism in maintaining the purity of the gospel. His article is entitled Deliberate Complementarian Pastors.

Giveaway: Carla Rolfe is hosting a summer giveaway at her store. Looks like the winner will walk away with a t-shirt, which is, I suppose, a good prize for a summer giveaway.

Monday June 12, 2006

Terror: Jonah Goldberg, writing for “National Review Online” blasts Canada (quite fairly, I thought) in an article called “The Price of Nice: Canada Learns.” Read it here.

Film: Pixar/Disney’s latest film “Cars” has been released (to rather flat reviews). Apple has posted the trailer for the next Pixar film, “Ratatouille” which will be released next summer.

Communication: “The Tennessean” has an interesting article on differing body language from around the world. Apparently America’s ‘OK’ signal will get you slapped in Germany and the Indian symbol for “I need to go the bathroom” is an elevated middle finger.

Nature: ABC Online tells the terrible truth about swans, long regarded as a symbol of love and fidelity. “They are in fact cheating philanderers that regularly flee the nest for extramarital sex, Australian researchers reveal.” And, “DNA testing has shown that one in six cygnets is the product of an illicit encounter, smashing the birds’ monogamous image.” Who knew?