Category Archives: Culture
- December 18, 2007
- A Hitchens made of Straw– also posted in Nature of God
A little while ago, I posted a short bit about Hitchens’ reply to a speech that Romney, a presidential candidate who happens to be Mormon, had given. Wuzzdem had made a nice little parody of Hitchens’ reply that tickled me a bit. During the course of writing that post, I claimed that Hitchens’ [...]
- December 16, 2007
- Christians and the Other– also posted in Imagio Dei, Othering, Unity
Question of the day (this time with an answer):
How do we, as Christians, conceptualize the Other?
How should we treat these people, both to their face and within our communities while they are not present? They think that they know how to best relate to that which is “wholly Other” - [...]
- December 15, 2007
- Link of the Day: Deconstruct your Faith– also posted in Practices
Came across this excellent link today via while reading novus lumen :: The Redemption of “I Am Legend”, that listed 10 ways to “deconstruct” your faith. I know some of them are excellent ways to refresh or re-examine the way you orient yourself towards God and fellow humans. I can’t vouch for the [...]
- December 13, 2007
- Thursday’s Must Read
Today’s link of the day comes from iamjoshbrown.com ::The Consumptive Church: Appeasing The White Man’s Guilt. I wish I could quote the whole thing for you, but here is a bit to whet your appetite.
In hindsight, choosing to buy nothing like I did, had less to do with my critique of consumption [...]
- December 9, 2007
- Hitchens in ur Kitchens– also posted in Humor, Nature of God
The sometimes funny WuzzaDem looks at Hitchens’ reply to Romney’s Mormon speech: Shocker: Christopher Hitchens Bashes Mitt Romney Speech.
According to the admittedly very contradictory scriptures of the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth warned his disciples and followers that they should expect to be ridiculed and mocked for their faith. After all, how likely was it [...]
- December 6, 2007
- Mary’s Magnificat: A National Anthem for Terrorism
Over the last few weeks I’ve been studying Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). I’ve never paid much attention to this text – it’s just one of those passages churches sappily pull out once a year to reinforce our American sentimentality about Christmas.
But I recognize quite quickly that this passage does not buttress our sentimentality toward [...]
- December 4, 2007
- The Golden Compas, Part II
Is The Golden Compass anti-gnostic propaganda? If it is, should the Christian Community embrace it?1
I was talking with a good friend of mine last night after Heroes. On the boob tube an ad ran for The Golden Compass, which prompted a shift to that topic. My friend was telling me that the [...]
- November 25, 2007
- Question of the Day: Christians and Government– also posted in Politics
If we accept, which I do, Tom’s rejection of the soteriology of the State, how should Christians interact with the government? I don’t see a scriptural imperative, as the situation of a participatory government as we Americans have currently did not exist during the writing of our set of sacred texts. Given that [...]
- November 21, 2007
- Golden Compass– also posted in Hermeneutics, Postmodernity, Practices, Relativism
Is there any reason to not watch this movie?
What should be our standard with movies (culture)?
- November 15, 2007
- Purple Haired Peter
In our Gospels as Literature class last year we came up with various Jesus’ for each Gospel. I am talking about all the Gospels, mate, from the Canonical ones to the less popular but wildly fantastic noncanonical Gospels, such as the crazy docetic Gospel of Peter, which was the most popular Gospel for a [...]
- November 13, 2007
- Jesus: How Great is He?– also posted in Nature of God, Postmodernity
One of my recent purchases from iTunes was How great is our God by Chris Tomlin. The song has a great little melody and simple lyrics but the end product is an addictive anthem.
The song is one of my favorites because it projects the truth of our days. People are [...]
- November 6, 2007
- The Peace of Christ and the Soteriology of the State– also posted in Politics
Violence is the default reality of our society. We assume violence. We consume violence. We trust violence. It is our default reality because we can see no other alternative to defeating evil in many circumstances. We run to it before considering other possibilities. We flee to violence because it offers us protection and preservation. Indeed, [...]
- October 30, 2007
- Christianity and the Theo-Political World– also posted in Politics
During the conception years of Christianity religion and the state intertwined quite nicely. In fact, no sharp dichotomy necessarily existed, especially when one considers the influence of the Imperial Cults which demanded Roman citizens worship the Emperor. There was no ’secular’ vs. ’sacred.’
In the fullness of time Christianity grew up in this theo-political culture. [...]
- October 27, 2007
- Church and State
I took this picture a few weeks ago while I visiting my hometown.
(Click for larger view)
A couple of things leap out at you at first:The American Flag draped around the Cross
The lack of any Church officials on the parade, just two service persons.However, the most striking part of the float is the captions at the [...]
- October 22, 2007
- Monday Afternoon Links– also posted in The Existance of God, Women in Christianity
Here are some good, bad, and discussion promoting links from around the ‘verse.
LCMS Invites Emerging Guru Dan Kimball from Slice of Laodicea by Ingrid
The human embodiment of Christian unity, Ingrid, freaks out because Kimball, who does not hate McLaren, is speaking in St. Louis at the Missouri Lutheran Church Snod. A small apocalypse ensues. [...]