The rise of anti-semitism within the Democratic party is very troubling. I have noticed this trend over the last couple of years and it seems to be getting more shrill. It can be seen that the internet is both a blessing and a curse for the political parties. A blessing in that truth and strategy can be disseminated quickly. A curse in that the fringe can have a huge influence that is out of balance with their numbers.

The Democratic Party has been a congenial political home for many American Jews since the era of FDR. The party welcomed them into its ranks (along with many blacks and urban dwellers) and its programs comported well with many values Jews cherish. The Party was also seen as one that had offered help to the doomed Jews of Europe, opposed prejudice, and supported the fledgling state of Israel from enemies that boasted of its plans to destroy the state. Read More.

The most important aspect of this study is that it shows gender matters. Women and men are different and this also impacts how we learn. Notice I said different, not better or worse, just different. More study needs to be done.
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For all the differences between the sexes, here's one that might stir up debate in the teacher's lounge: Boys learn more from men and girls learn more from women.

That's the upshot of a provocative study by Thomas Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College and visiting scholar at Stanford University. His study was to appear Monday in Education Next, a quarterly journal published by the Hoover Institution.

Vetted and approved by peer reviewers, Dee's research faces a fight for acceptance. Some leading education advocates dispute his conclusions and the way in which he reached them.

But Dee says his research supports his point, that gender matters when it comes to learning. Specifically, as he describes it, having a teacher of the opposite sex hurts a student's academic progress. Read More.

My answer is yes and no. Yes, if we equate conservative politics with christianity. No, if we believe our christianity can have no bearing on our politics. Being a christian should impact every aspect of who we are, including who we vote for.

...The Church must become very wary of power plays because power, as Lord Acton has reminded, has a corrupting influence. But, in truth, so does powerlessness insomuch that it can make us complacent. And that complacency, on all issues of import, is dangerous to the Church as well.

The "emerging church" movement promotes a term we could learn from -- sacralization. It is, in the words of authors Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger (Emerging Churches), "the process of making all of life sacred" and "represents the interaction of kingdom and culture." Christians should indeed have the goal of making all of life His, and that would include the issues facing contemporary culture and political solutions. Read More.

Church and politics

After having lived in South Africa and witnessing many things, I can say Satan is real and evil. The interpretive hoops that Kelly uses are substantial and he fails to talk about any sort of demonic forces that Satan is head of. In short this article is very uninspiring.

"There's little or no evidence in the Bible for most of the characteristics and deeds commonly attributed to Satan," insists a UCLA professor with four decades in what he describes as "the devil business."

In "Satan: A Biography" (Cambridge Press), Henry Ansgar Kelly puts forth the most comprehensive case ever made for sympathy for the devil, arguing that the Bible actually provides a kinder, gentler version of the infamous antagonist than typically thought. Read More.

For those who are interested, my main blog is:

www.ronsbloviating.blogspot.com

I am a contributor here:

www.RedBlueChristian.com

Has consumerism infiltrated the Church? I would argue yes, Jesus has simply become another brand that we wear. In our consumer driven society we can take off one label and replace it with another. When a christian is one who goes to church but then reverts back to being whatever label they would like to be during the week that is consumerism.

It used to be that we were defined by who our family or friends were, now we are defined by what we consume. Likewise we are defined by the church we go too, and it's impact on how others may see us. We shop for a church like we shop for a car, what is the color, does it have full options, leather interior, etc. If our church is not meeting our need this year we shop for a new one. This is all a result of the power of consumerism. It impacts every aspect of our lives including our understanding of the church and Christ.

I believe we need to get back to the concept of who we are in Christ and not what we have in Christ. Only in the US could a radical prosperity doctrine take place. This article deals with some of these issues:

Christian critiques of consumerism usually focus on the dangers of idolatry—the temptation to make material goods the center of life rather than God. This, however, misses the real threat consumerism poses. My concern is not materialism, strictly speaking, or even the consumption of goods—as contingent beings, we must consume resources to survive. The problem is not consuming to live, but rather living to consume.

We find ourselves in a culture that defines our relationships and actions primarily through a matrix of consumption. As the philosopher Baudrillard explains, “Consumption is a system of meaning.” We assign value to ourselves and others based on the goods we purchase. One’s identity is now constructed by the clothes you wear, the vehicle you drive, and the music on your iPod. In short, you are what you consume.

This explains why shopping is the number one leisure activity of Americans. It occupies a role in society that once belonged only to religion—the power to give meaning and construct identity. Consumerism, as Pete Ward correctly concludes, “represents an alternative source of meaning to the Christian gospel.” No longer merely an economic system, consumerism has become the American worldview—the framework through which we interpret everything else, including God, the gospel, and church.

When we approach Christianity as consumers rather than seeing it as a comprehensive way of life, an interpretive set of beliefs and values, Christianity becomes just one more brand we consume along with Gap, Apple, and Starbucks to express identity. And the demotion of Jesus Christ from Lord to label means to live as a Christian no longer carries an expectation of obedience and good works, but rather the perpetual consumption of Christian merchandise and experiences—music, books, t-shirts, conferences, and jewelry. Read More.

consumerism

Faith

I had several classes with Dr. Ray Anderson when I was at Fuller. He is an able theologian who gets to the heart of the matter. Anderson is heavily influenced by Barth and Boenhoffer so it is no surprise that he takes a strong Christiological approach to an emergent theology. He brings out a very relevant point, if we strive to be post modern and culturally relevant but lose sight of who Christ is have we developed another gospel?

Timely questions, and important in light of where some of the emergent ideas seem to be heading.

Ray S. Anderson

The modern attempt to integrate the secular academy with a religious worldview took the form of the question--What has Jerusalem to do with Athens? Tertullian (160-225 A.D) was the first one to use the formula, in a negative way, and it has been replicated in a hundred different ways in our modern quest for assimilation, if not integration, of faith and reason. In my recent book, An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches, I argue that, for the apostle Paul, the seminal issue was not the debate at Athens but the debacle with the leaders of the church at Jerusalem. The geographical distance between Jerusalem and Antioch could be measured in miles; the theological distance was, as Kierkegaard once put it, and a point that Barth later adopted, the 'infinite, qualitative distinction between God and man.' The church at Jerusalem was held captive by the religion of Moses (Ishmael); the church at Antioch under Paul's leadership was inspired by the creative and eschatological vision of Abraham (Isaac). Thus, for Paul, the question became--What has Antioch to do with Jerusalem?

In arguing my thesis I do not intend to disparage the Christian community at Jerusalem. It was the source of an incredible spiritual force that resisted attempts to suppress and even destroy it. When those who were dispersed due to persecution fled to other cities, including Antioch, they carried with them the gift and power of the Spirit along with the message of a crucified and risen Messiah. When I contrast Antioch and Jerusalem it is for the purpose of sharpening the focus on the content and direction of the emergent theology uniquely envisioned and proclaimed by the apostle Paul. In reading the growing body of literature coming out of the emerging church movement, I worry that a postmodern philosophy has too easily become a hermeneutical criterion in which attempts to make the message if the gospel culturally relevant is in danger of presenting 'another gospel.' I argue, instead, that the contemporaneity of Christ is not established by attempts to make the historical Jesus relevant to our culture, but is the result of the eschatological 'moment' (chairos) of the resurrected Christ occurring through the Holy Spirit in our time as a proleptic manifestation of the Kingdom of God. While Barth held that the Word of God becomes contemporary through the preaching event, Bonhoeffer argued that it is Christ himself who is contemporary through the church--'Christ exists as community.' I take this to be more in line with Paul's view of the emerging church at Antioch and through the mission out of Antioch, that Christ, not merely the message about Christ, is the essential content of the gospel and the formative character of the church. Read More.

Ray Anderson
Karl Barth
emergent church
emergent theology

This is interesting, apparently the gay community is becoming intolerant. I'm always fascinated by how those who claim to be tolerant are so intolerant themselves.

The same sex marriage issue is not going to go away anytime soon. I am afraid there will be extensive polarization on both sides. Most evangelical Christians will be against same sex marriage based upon scriptural principles. This is correct because we believe that there is a higher order for morality. At the same time we must love all people regardless of what we may think of there actions. The old phrase love the sinner hate the sin is actually true!

PROVINCETOWN -- Town leaders here are holding a public meeting today to air concerns about slurs and bigoted behavior. And this time, they say, it's gay people who are displaying intolerance.

Police say they logged numerous complaints of straight people being called ``breeders" by gays over the July Fourth holiday weekend. Jamaican workers reported being the target of racial slurs. And a woman was verbally accosted after signing a petition that opposed same-sex marriage, they said. Read More.

gay rights

This article gets to the heart of the differences between Christianity and Islam.

From John Piper:

February 8, 2006

What we saw this past week in the Islamic demonstrations over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad was another vivid depiction of the difference between Muhammad and Christ, and what it means to follow each. Not all Muslims approve the violence. But a deep lesson remains: The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted. This produces two very different reactions to mockery.

If Christ had not been insulted, there would be no salvation. This was his saving work: to be insulted and die to rescue sinners from the wrath of God. Already in the Psalms the path of mockery was promised: “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads” (Psalm 22:7). “He was despised and rejected by men . . . as one from whom men hide their faces . . . and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

That’s the most basic difference between Christ and Muhammad and between a Muslim and a follower of Christ. For Christ, enduring the mockery of the cross was the essence of his mission.  Read More.

Islam

John Piper

Interesting:

What place does American patriotism have in the church of Jesus Christ? This is the question that those of us who are American pastors and church leaders must address. Read the whole thing.

flag

Remember the book Chariots of the god's by Daniken? Ever wonder how he came up with this theory? It seems he took it from a French horror writer!

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SKEPTIC VOL. 10, NO. 4 (2004)

The idea that extraterrestrials served as humanity's earliest deities came to popular attention with Swiss author Erich von Daniken's 1968 best-seller Chariots of the Gods and the influential 1973 NBC documentary In Search of Ancient Astronauts, based on that book. But for people familiar with the science fiction magazines of the 1940s and 50s, von Daniken's "revolutionary" assertion held more than just a hint of other writings that claimed long before that the gods were not of this world. In fact, much of von Daniken's case perfectly parallels the work of a certain New England writer of horror stories, and the route from horror story to nonfiction best-seller bounces us from America to France to Switzerland.

Providence, Rhode Island author H.P. Lovecraft has been justly hailed as a master of the horror story, and his work claims a place beside Edgar Allan Poe and Steven King in the pantheon of the genre. Born into a wealthy family in 1890, Lovecraft's life was a series of reverses and declines as his family lost their fortune and his parents succumbed to madness. He was precocious and self-taught scholar who read voraciously and devoured as much literature as he could read. He read the novels of H.G. Wells, whose War of the Worlds told of the coming of alien creatures to earth. He also read the eighteenth century Gothic masters of horror, and above all Edgar Allan Poe.

When he set about writing his own works, he began to blend the modern world of science fiction with his favorite tales of Gothic gloom. Lovecraft tried to bring the Gothic tale into the twentieth century, modernizing the trappings of ancient horror for a new century of science. Lovecraft published his work in pulp fiction magazines, notably Weird Tales, though many of his works were not published until after his death in 1937. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, science fiction and horror magazines reprinted Lovecraft's tales numerous times, and he became one of the most popular pulp authors.

chariots of the god's

Daniken

From Dr. Jim West:

Like every other theologian worth his salt, Karl Barth made up words when he needed to express a concept for which one did not exist. Paul did it, of course, and so did many of the other biblical writers. And Barth, too, wasn't afraid so to do.

In 1933 while corresponding with Dietrich Bonhoeffer about the "Arian Paragraph", Barth described the attitude of some Confessing Christians (those who disagreed with the racism of the Nazi's) and their hesitancy in speaking out about the German Christians (that is, Christians who belonged to the Nazi Party) with one of his own invented words- "Mundtotmachung".

"Making the mouth dead"... Isn't that a beautiful descriptor? "Mundtotmachung" is exactly what happens when Christians now refuse to, or fail to, oppose what is wrong in government or society. Thank you Karl, for one of the most intriguing words- and useful. Now, whenever someone acts the toady, we can succinctly say that they have succumbed to "Mundtotmachung".

-Leave it to Barth to come up with such a descriptive term. For those who don't know Barth is considered one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century.

Karl Barth