Phil Johnson of Team Pyro has this excellent post on Christian political activism.

Steve

I am not a huge fan of Fox News but I have always liked and admired Brit Hume.  JT at Between Two Worlds blog reports that Hume is changing his role at Fox News which will reduce his work to 100 days a year.  His purported reason:  “Bible Study”.

Steve

UPDATE:  With Seth’s encouragement, I changed the title of the post (from The BS of Brit Hume) because it was unfunny and confusing.

by John Piper
LINK

Father in heaven, as we approach this election on Tuesday, I pray

1) that your people will vote,

2) and that they will vote with a sense of thankfulness for a democratic system that at least partially holds in check the folly and evil in all our hearts so that power which corrupts so readily is not given to one group or person too easily;

3) that we would know and live the meaning of

* being in the world, but not of it,
* doing politics as though not doing them,
* being on the earth, yet having our lives hidden with Christ in God,
* rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God’s;

4) that we would discern what truths and values should advance by being made law and which should advance only by the leavening of honest influence;

5) that your people would see what love and justice and far-seeing wisdom demand in regard to the issues of education, business and industry, health care, marriage and family, abortion, welfare, energy, government and taxes, military, terrorism, international relations, and every challenge that we will face in the years to come;

6) and above all, that we will treasure Jesus Christ, and tell everyone of his sovereignty and supremacy over all nations, and that long after America is a footnote to the future world, he will reign with his people from every tribe and tongue and nation.

Keep us faithful to Christ’s all important Word, and may we turn to it every day for light in these dark times.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

Intro - I have promised to write my final argument to explain and defend why I am casting my vote for Barack Obama this Tuesday. We all mustn’t forget how blessed we are to live in a country where we are free to exercise our consciences and cast ballots to select those men and women to represent us in our government. The founders instituted a grand experiment where the belief would be tested that the people could govern themselves. The constitution, which I love, guarantees that I and every American, having met a very minimal base set of requirements, can exercise that right without interefence from anyone, be it church, family, employer or government.

It has not always been this way. It used to be that the base set of requirements to vote in our republic were narrow and restrictive. You could cast your vote if you were a member of the landed gentry. If you were a non-white, a woman, a non-protestant or poor, then you were left completely out of the political process. Indeed, If you read through the amendments to the constitution, you are often reading through a history of death and struggle where slowly, ploddingly, our nation grew to understand that government by the governed must include all of us and not just a select few. It signifies a trail of blood and heartbreak where the disenfranchised, the owned, the invisible, the outsiders gave up their fortunes and their very lives so that they could be truly free to control their own destiny.

So I know that my vote on Tuesday is part of a sacred trust given to me by the Founding Fathers and their descendants whose vision was that we the people truly could govern ourselves. It is a privilege that I shall not take lightly.

One of my goals as I make my final argument is for you to understand how I’ve come to this place. The first presidential election in which I voted was for Ronald Reagan in 1984. I have never since voted for a democrat. Much to my chagrin, I even voted for George W. Bush twice. It’s not so much that I have always voted for the Republican as I was voting for the pro-life candidate, who always happened to be a Republican. I have always been cognizant of the fact that the unborn cannot vote and that their lives cry out for justice in light of one of the most despicable and un-democratic decisions ever made by a court. A decision that cast aside laws in every state and put us on a path of strife and division from which we have never recovered. Many of us have sought and fought, vainly it seems, over the years to overcome that heinous ruling. Seemingly, our hands are tied and there is nothing we can do to reverse it. You may wonder at this point what has entered into my moral calculus that would allow me to reverse my lifelong habit. I’ll do my best to explain in my final post.

How someone gets from here to there is a pretty complicated and difficult to understand process. I have a whole post in my head where I think over the difficulty to persuade and move a heart or mind intellectually. My movement away from the traditional evangelical and conservative way of thinking has taken many years. If I could point to any one thing that precipitated that movement it was an event several years ago where my I was filled with doubt about many of my core beliefs. A lot of this had come about as a result of my own error, my own sin and desire to rebel against the status quo. During that time, there is s real sense in that my eyes were opened to see beyond the small world of reformed evangelical Christianity. I was at a place where I really didn’t care what other people believed or thought about me or my religion. I really saw that this world and this country is FILLED with people who are very very different from me, who have unbelief or different belief from my own. Whose paths had taken them to places I couldn’t even imagine. And during this time of rebellion, that was something I grew to love about my country. You see, it is a very remarkable thing to be able to see the world from a different point of view. To be able to know people who are totally and completely OTHER than yourself and find yourself loving them and appreciating their point of view.

By God’s good mercy, this rebellion ended by my coming back to Him. My brother gave me a book called “Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin.” The book agreed with me that indeed the world is not the way its supposed to be, but it also reminded me that that’s ok, because He also has promised to fix it.

But I learned some valuable lessons while I was away. In addition to the obvious ones of faithfulness to God and family, I also have never forgotten just how wide the world is outside of myself. God had given me empathy and taken away self-righteousness and had shown me minds very different from my own. He caused me to once again love the Truth but he also gave me the humility to not cling to it so tightly that I am unable to accept the possibility that I am wrong.

I tell you that story because it explains how I grew to love something that, in my opinion, must be protected and cherished for the proper functioning of our Republic. PLURALISM. In the circles I run in, that’s a dirty word. It is so often associated with all kinds of bad philosophies like relativism or post-modernism. But I must confess I can hardly understand why so many hate it. Protecting that principle is the foundation of mine and every citizen’s liberty to live our lives and practice our religion. Sure, in church we have to settle on our beliefs and doctrines and believe them wholeheartedly and defend them vigorously, lest truth become totally irrelevant and God be forgotten. But I am not just a Christian, I am a citizen of the United States, which holds out promises for everyone who is willing to participate. Our founders understood that and that is why they made a point to not establish any official religion. I am convinced that their desire was to allow all people to freely practice their religion or worldview without the meddling influence of government. Conversely, I believe that they wanted to make sure that no particular worldview, religion or sect would hold sway over any other. What that means practically is that my responsibility as a citizen is to pursue my own happiness, live my life freely and responsibly and to defend to the death your right to do the same. The amazing thing is that when we do this, everyone flourishes. American civil society stands out like a lighthouse of hope on the shores of the earth. I have marvelled how good we are at embracing immigrants of every color and religion and providing for them the ability to merge into our culture and succeed. We do this better than anyone else.

But I am afraid we’ve started to stray really far off that path and to be perfectly frank, I think the Republican Party, swayed by their “base” of pro-lifers, Dobsonian evangelicals, homophobes, and anti-immigrant bigots are leading the way. When your party’s base thinks that corporate hegemony, injustice, torture, kidnapping and the rejection of constitutional and human rights are perfectly within the bounds of good governance due to our difficult circumstances, then I think something is profoundly broken with your party. And I want to have nothing to do with them. They anger me. Combine that with the fact that I don’t give a damn what they think of me and we are in for some strong chemistry.

Before I end, I want to say a few thing about my “Philosophy” or approach to my vote. First, in regards to my faith, I don’t think our nation is a Christian nation nor do I believe that it was founded as such nor do I think I should vote to make it such. My Christian faith provides me with some very basic core principles that inform my vote: Protection of life and property, compassion for the poor, freedom of conscience. That last one is not in itself a biblical ideal but it is necessary for the flourishing of the gospel in a free society.

Second, in regards to country, at a bare minimum our government must protect life and liberty and seek to structure society to provide the most opportunity for as many people, for happiness, success and flourishing as is humanly possible. I think we need to strive vigorously to avoid wars and only enter into a war through a broad consensus and only after ever other avenue has been tried. I think exporting democracy will often be a failed venture. We need to restore our standing in the world. We need tax and economic policies that are wise and fiscally sound that will create real wealth, jobs and economic growth. We need to restore justice and eliminate torture and kidnapping and other damnable U.S. policies on the war on terror.

Third, I want to see the end of the culture wars. Our nations is SO DIVIDED that I am not sure we can stand for it much longer. It may not be possible, but I eagerly desire to see basic respect between the warring factions. It may not be possible, but its a hope.

This post is already WAY longer than I had originally intended. But before I end I think its only fair for you to know my influences. Here’s the list of blogs I read. Here’s my Amazon wishlist in no particular order. Many of the books I have read or am reading.

I will be writing four more essays between now and Tuesday. If you’re mostly interested in the Abortion argument, to be fair to me you need to hear me out on everything else, because its all figured into my calculus.

1. Why we need Change.
Why not McCain / Palin?

2. What I love about Obama
His Intelligence
His Rhetoric
His Thoughfulness
His Pragmatism
His Leadership
His Campaign

3. Whats wrong with Obama - (Abortion)

4. Closing Statement

There are probably safer ways to be relevant.

Steve

Here are the videos from the “Civil Forum” at Saddleback church Saturday Night, led by Rick Warren..
I didn’t watch Saturday night and I still haven’t viewed these videos, but I will over the next few days.
I want to encourage y’all to watch them and then after you have, answer the following questions in the comments.

1) Who do you think did better?
2) Who was more comfortable and appealing in this venue?
3) Who do you think will have more appeal to non-ideological voters?
4) Who felt more comfortable speaking about faith?
5) Do you think this forum helped or hurt either candidate with evangelical voters and if so explain?

Add your own questions in the comments, those were just off the top of my head.

Scott

Obama First
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5
PART 6

McCain Second
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5

I have been humbled this week. Humbled to learn, most remarkably, that God can use me. It is genuinely shocking, really. I certainly don’t want this post to become a “isn’t Seth great” post. If it smacks of that please forgive me from the outset. I really want it to be a “isn’t God great” post.

First, I had lunch with my cousin this week. We always TALK about getting together when we see each other, like we did last weekend. But this week we actually did it–we had a lunch. It was a warm time and a remarkably open time. (And a sad/profoundly happy time as he recounted the story of a dear friend who was very publicly caught in a major sin [that’s the sad part–not that he got caught but the way sin ensnares] but the TRULY remarkable ways that God is working through the situation in his friend’s life [that’s the happy part]).

Then he told me something that blew me away…he thanked me for a conversation we had, together, almost all of which I don’t remember, at the beach when he was on the cusp of starting college. My cousin is a very nice looking young man. And I told him that in today’s world (in fact even more so today, much less then) that there are women who would gladly have sex with him…and that he needed to care about the CHARACTER of the women he spent time with and that he dated. (That part I remember, albeit vaguely.) But he said that I said more, about how our lives are the aggregation of the choices we make…and that we needed to work hard to make the right choices, mostly about loving God and going hard after Christ in this life and embracing the Gospel (or something like that). And then he said — “I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN THAT.” He implied that my words played a role in getting him through college with his character intact. I am still in shock.

Another story…some dear friends were at a conference last year (don’t remember what kind of conference — marriage or family or something else) and they were attending one of the sessions and the speaker told this story about when he was in high school he received counsel from someone about the Gospel and Jesus … whatever … and then he MENTIONED ME BY NAME as that one –having influenced him to follow after Christ and enter the Christian ministry. My friends mentioned his name to me…I DON’T EVEN REMEMBER HIS NAME. I don’t know what I said to him. WOW.

Now here’s what’s weird about those stories. Both of those “talks” happened A LONG TIME AGO. I have now been a Christian for about 24 years now. That counsel I gave was probably given 18 - 22 years ago. Remarkably, both of those talks are still bearing fruit, in there own way, today. But back then I had a LOT MORE ZEAL and a LOT LESS KNOWLEDGE. Back then, I spoke, in earnest love out of an ignorant heart but with a lot of zeal. And the Holy Spirit used that. And then, as I grew in knowledge, my love and earnestness waned. I “grew” to a point where I knew a lot but became a lot less useful.

(At this point I want to include a long comment about doctrine and knowledge not only being useful but necessary and important. But the occupational hazard of gaining knowledge and understanding is that with it can come pride [the waning of humility] and unbelief [the waning of faith]).

I have only recently begun to “recover” from this and see it. And my hopes and dreams are that, without compromising my theological integrity, that I can become winsome and loving and good and kind again and that I can use words that reflect that commitment. That any knowledge I have will be wisdom in His arsenal used for the glory of Christ and the growth of His kingdom. All with a profound joy that defeats spiritual pride and unbelief. I want to REALLY care about people. I want to smile a lot more. And hug children and make them laugh. And weep with those who weep. And enjoy the beauty of a sunset or a spring morning. And ALL of that as spiritual fruit that belies understanding. And then, out of that, to speak words to people.

There are hopeful signs. A few days ago I was speaking to my dear brother, very casually really, about “living with our wives in an understanding way…” (1 Peter 3:SOMEVERSE). Today, he said it helped him. Just a little while later, although he was still struggling with some difficult emotions, he began to think about her SO AS TO UNDERSTAND HER. And then shortly afterwards, they were working through their disagreements together. WOW.

I just have a few takeaways from this post. The first is this. Out of your Christian joy…SPEAK. It is truly shocking that God uses us. Far more than we know. But not if we don’t speak sometimes. Two, pray that God will increase your love for people. Really…that you would have a delight in people that is truly spirit wrought and sincere. And, here is the trick, then number one will come easily.

Soli Deo Gloria

Seth

I find discussions of Introversion vs Extroversion to be fascinating. I found this great article on how to sell to introverts. (HT to the JollyBlogger.) If nothing else this article confirmed that I am an introvert. It also reminded me of an article I read a while back over at StevePavlina.com about how to move from being an introvert to an extrovert. You can look for my comment there. I still argue, despite Steve’s reply, that such movement is not required. I (still) actually prefer the company of introverts to extroverts. (No offense to all my wonderful extroverted friends.) And I like my introversion.

And yet…and here is my main point…I have found that my extroversion rises and falls, to some extent, with my levels of personal happiness. The happier I am in any given moment the easier it is for me to enjoy people. Furthermore, I believe that we DO need to develop within us, as Christians, an “extroverted impulse”. In other words, I have come to believe that I DO NEED to enjoy people to be the best kind of Christian that I can be. So I am granting that my introversion does give me opportunities for personal growth. Even if my “wiring” might incline me to a greater enjoyment of privacy and alone-time, the responsibility to “love my neighbor” gives me a reason to operate outside my comfort zone. Given these two insights, (extroversion rises with my happiness and some extroverted-behavior is a responsibility and duty) then the way to grow in this area is to work on increasing my enJOYment of God.

Seth

“That Christian who has free grace, who has free justification, who has the mediatorial righteousness of Christ, who has the satisfaction of Christ, who has the covenant of grace most constantly in his sight, and most frequently warm upon his heart—that Christian, of all Christians in the world, is most free from a world of fears, and doubts, and scruples which do sadden, sink, perplex, and press down a world of other Christians, who daily eye more what Christ is a-doing in them, and what they are a-doing for Christ, than they do eye either his active or passive obedience.

Christ has done great things for his people, and he has suffered great things for his people, and he has purchased great things for his people, and he has prepared great things for his people; yet many of his own dear people are so taken up with their own hearts, and with their own duties and graces, that Christ is little eyed by them or minded by them!

This is the great reason why so many Christians, who will certainly go to heaven—do walk in darkness, and lie down in sorrow.”

- Thomas Brooks, A Cabinet of Choice Jewels

HT to girl talk

Seth

Emily sings that perennial worship favorite, Lord I Lift Your Name On High.

I cannot recommend highly enough this article interviewing Thabiti Anyabwile, author of The Decline of African American Theology,on Black Liberation Theology and how it sheds light on the Jeremiah Wright/Obama kerfuffle.  A sample:

What did you think when you first heard the sermons from Sen. Obama’s former pastor. Jeremiah Wright?

Actually, I had two reactions. First, I thought they were fairly typical kinds of comments whenever African American pastors begin to whoop on political issues. One thing the viewer needs to keep in mind is that in terms of sermonic style, Wright appeared to be in the almost-always-dramatic climax of a typical African American sermon. Those parts of the sermon tend to have great emotional effect, as evidenced by the shouting crowd, but are very often not the main point of the sermon. Second, I reacted like most other people, thinking, Ouch. That’s gonna leave a bruise for everybody concerned — Wright, Obama, Trinity, and most viewers.

Has anything surprised you about the wave of indignation that has followed news of these sermons?

I’ve been surprised that so much effort has been made to saddle Obama with the views of his pastor, and that not as much attention seems to be given to equally controversial remarks made by white pastors. Rod Parsley’s comments about Islam barely received a nod.

I’ve also been surprised at how deep the ignorance of the African American church and its preaching tradition goes. Anyone with a passing familiarity with the church in either its historical or contemporary form would recognize Wright’s preaching in style, and sometimes in content, as essentially what has been preached for at least 100 years in African American churches. There’s much to object to in some of the language. But it’s essentially what is shared in a lot of churches whenever the comments turn political.

And this comment is particularly illuminating:

If you keep in mind that historically black preaching aims at emotional effect, it’s entirely possible to resonate with the emotion of a point while not at all holding to the particulars of the point. I don’t think this is healthy. But it is typical and it may help to explain why 8,000 people could attend that church, hear such things, and continue to love their pastor, serve together, and go about their everyday lives without expressing that kind of sentiment. The preaching moment is primarily affective, not cognitive.

The whole interview is excellent.

Steve

HT to JT at BTW

Do you know how the date for Easter is determined? I didn’t think so. In fact, I had no idea either until I read this article in Christianity Today History and Biography. According to the article, Easter falls the “first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox”, “the method of Dionysius Exiguus (c.500-550)”. Read the article, it is interesting and brief.
P.S. I wish the Eastern Bishops had won the debate and that our Easter was tied to the Jewish Passover calendar. Alas, they didn’t and it isn’t.

MSNBC, in conjunction with Newsweek, has posted a very insightful article on the new evangelicalism and its chafing at the power and policies of the Religious right. Because I now call myself a Christian libertarian, there is much that I disagree with about this movement. By calling on government to social action, the new evangelicals relinquish there responsibility to help the poor at a personal, local and church level. Government power is coercive. The church’s responsibility to help the poor should be the result of renewed heart, full of compassion. So I think both the religious right and the new evangelicals are wrong. But if I had to throw my hat in one ring or the other, I would go with the new evangelicals any day.

You can read the article here.
Steve

But what I am suggesting is this - secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryant, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history - were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their “personal morality” into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

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Barack Obama

The whole speech is excellent. You can read it HERE

HT BHT