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On August 6, 2013 By In Culture, Pro-Life

How Greenspan And Bernanke Are Ending Civilization As We Know It

Greenspan managed to get away with a low-interest boom in the nineties, thanks to the rise of cheap imports from overseas markets. China both kept their prices low and bought US treasuries so that government debt could increase with little consequence in popular perception.

The Fed’s low interest rates and the resulting cheap money fueled bubbles during the Clinton and Bush (the younger) years. When the NASDAQ crash occurred, we had an opportunity to suffer through a recession and reset the economy. Bush, however, probably believed he would never be a two-term president under such conditions. And it is easy to see the lure, since he would probably lose to a candidate who would pressure the Federal Reserve to inflate another bubble. So why take the thankless job of Martyr? Part of the answer is: So you don’t go down in history as the single president who destroyed the American economy, and so discredited the Republican brand, that the very worse possible successor to your stimulus precedents could win the office.

Remember: Bush picked Ben Bernanke to be the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve because he pretended that we were not facing a dangerous housing bubble. Since Bush, Mr. Hope and Change kept Bernanke in power where he has doubled down on the toxic stupidity that has degraded the economy further since the day he (Bernanke) stepped into office.

This brief history of recent events is commonly recited to explain why we are now poor, broke, underwater with debt, and/or unemployed. Everyone wants recovery. But I am rehearsing this recent history to make another point: we are headed into a far worse economic situation in the long term because of this recession and “slow recovery” so that, even if we had a fantastic recovery tomorrow, we will still suffer more economic pain in the future.

The engine of recovery and of real economic growth in general, is people working. And, while we were already headed toward problems, this recession has come at the worst cultural time. It is going to be much worse.

It is happening in several different ways at once. One area I have already written about is student debt combined with post graduate un- or underemployment. Couples are indefinitely delaying children because they don’t see how they can make it on their income with their expenses—a major expense being student debt.

For readers who have been taught the overpopulation myth, the impending disaster may be hidden from their view. But unless something changes dramatically, America’s de facto one-child “policy” is going to bring economic stagnation. (This is especially true in countries that provide for the aged by a pension system that requires more working young people than retirees.) Economic bubbles are misallocated investments and resources. …[D]uring a recession and anemic ‘recovery,’ in a culture when it is easier than ever to not get married and not have children, a further and more massive misallocation is easily made. A demographic winter gets arranged in order to pay bills. Present indebtedness leads to less people in the future.

Mish (who I think is the best Austrian economics blogger dealing with contemporary trends) touched on another aspect of this issue with his post, “Bernanke wants 2% inflation in a deflationary world. Who pays the price?” He points to a PEW study that provides this graphic:

Pew Living at Home2

So as married 31-year-olds reach their thirty-second birthdays, not enough younger people are getting married to replace them. And we can guess their probably not breeding either.

The reason they are not marrying isn’t too hard to figure out. Young women are rarely willing to move into the guy’s parent’s basement. And they are probably even less likely to want to bring a crib into the room.

Pew Living at Home1

Mish writes:

Bernanke wants 2% inflation in a deflationary world. Wages have not kept up with inflation as Fed policies exacerbate the trends. The result is apparent. Everyone pays the price, but especially young adults who cannot afford to get married, and they certainly cannot afford a house. The Fed wants home prices up to help out the banks, but what about the new household formation? And what about student loans and the ability to pay those loans back? And think about how cheap money allows corporations to borrow money for next to nothing to buy technology to replace humans with hardware and software robots.

This effect on young adults is far more perverse than the consequences of their absence from marriage, parenthood, or the workforce. The most toxic consequence is that they get used to it.

There are parents who will actually defend their child basement dweller as someone who ought to not enter the workforce. But the damage is not limited to that extreme. The time to begin life as an adult should not be delayed.  As I argue here, much of Obama’s “economic” speeches seem to be designed to entice us all to be satisfied with a basement, subsidized, existence.

time child free lifePeople who can’t live without the protection of authority figures, and who can never get married or form a household, are increasingly the future of America. Even those who do have some sort of role in the productive economy are being urged to see children as a problem they can do without. Of course, I actually agree that couples should be politically free to breed or not, but you know how that works out—with the non-parents turning into busybodies lording it over parents and telling them how to raise their children. This also often happens with the elective single-child parents over against the multi-breeders. That aspect of the future will also be ugly since it will amplify some ugly features of the present. This recession has hit us at a time when the culture is most inclined to decide that babies are a dispensable luxury, and when the resulting political environment will make it harder to parent children if you love lots of them.

All of this promises a future of economic decline, and probably far worse things. Human beings are being trained for domestic captivity without any real means to pay for the costs of the zoo.<> полный аудит а

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On August 1, 2013 By In Culture, Politics, Theology

A Life of Plunder: The First Temptation of Foolishness

wal-martProverb begins with a promise of, and praise for, the value of wisdom. Verse 7 warns that fools despise it and/or being instructed in it.

But the first warning Proverbs gives of a specific sin seemed, at first, counter-intuitive to me:

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.

My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us ambush the innocent without reason;
like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
we shall find all precious goods,
we shall fill our houses with plunder;
throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse”—
my son, do not walk in the way with them;
hold back your foot from their paths,
for their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed blood.
For in vain is a net spread
in the sight of any bird,
but these men lie in wait for their own blood;
they set an ambush for their own lives.
Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors. (Proverbs 1:8-19, ESV)

Why is this temptation the first concern of wisdom”

After the Fall, as we find it recorded in Genesis 3, the first big sin was brother murdering brother–the sin of Cain against Abel. One might be inclined, at first glance to associate this story with Solomon’s warning to resist the lure, “let us ambush the innocent without reason.” But I don’t think that hold’s up. Here “without reason” isn’t referring to the motivations of a psychotic thrill killer (though there is a hint in much of Proverbs that this way of life leads to an addictive thrill), but it means simply unjustly–that is, “without cause.”

Cain was motivated by resentment due to God’s approval of Abel. That is not the temptation here in Proverbs 1. Rather, the bloodshed is a means to an end. The temptation here is for a life of plunder, a shortcut to wealth:

we shall find all precious goods,
we shall fill our houses with plunder;
throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse…

Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain.

So of all the sins that could possibly head the list in Proverbs, why does Solomon start with the temptation to join a gang and acquire loot? Why is a life of plunder the first temptation?

A general observation: From my reading in Proverbs, I think the main concern is how people drift into sin–how they start down a wrong path. If so, it is not surprising that Cain’s sin wouldn’t be the forefront. His hatred of Abel, who had done him no harm at all, and from whose death he gained nothing, seems to go far beyond what we have here in the beginning of Proverbs.

If my instinct is right to look back at the first stories of Genesis as the background to Biblical wisdom (stories that include a contrast between God’s way and humanity’s way to “become wise”) perhaps we should go back earlier than the story of Cain and Abel. Rather than looking for a negative example of embracing a life of plunder, we might look for a corresponding positive command.

The first recorded command in the Bible is to embrace a life of productivity:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28, ESV)

So what are the alternatives. If you don’t want to take dominion over world, you survive and attempt to thrive by taking dominion over people. If you don’t live by being fruitful, you find those who have done so and cut them off, stealing the fruits of their life and labors.

Notice how rejecting God’s ways are parasitic. Someone has to work the land and produce good things by labor and exchange. Without such people, human life is impossible. But some find it tempting to let others do the work, and then take a shortcut by using violence to plunder such people.

One implication of all this which I believe Proverbs repeatedly addresses, is that it is not enough to repudiate plunder. Knowing you should not steal or rob is insufficient. You have to embrace as best you can a life of work and savings and investment. Otherwise, you will always find yourself tempted to resort to the other means of acquisition. In fact, by failing to work, you’ve taken the first step toward theft.

I can’t help but think of the national media campaigns against Wal-mart and McDonald’s for the crime of not handing over more cash to their employees. I’ve written several times about this recently:

One way to teach plunder is to rationalize it as if it was owed. While people who have truly wrecked the economy (a crime perpetrated by as many Republicans as anyone else, by the way) are only given a passing glance, or even treated as saviors, companies who have no control over the economy, and who depend on the will of consumers to live, are used as scapegoats.

If laws are passed to match these impulses, we can say of the reduced employment and/or string of bankruptcies that result: “these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.”<>регистрация а googleтехническая поддержка а в контакте

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On August 1, 2013 By In Culture

The Lure of the Cool

“There is a…kind of temptation, which, I fear has not passed from me. Can it ever pass from me in all this life? It is the desire to be feared and loved by other men. Saint Augustine

Cool 2

We all want to be in the “in” crowd or as C.S. Lewis called it “The Inner Circle.” We have a desire to be in that circle of men who are accepted and adored.  Christians are not immune to this. In fact, I would argue that the desire to be cool drives more men to leave Christ than almost anything else in our age.

And so it is not surprising that Paul Raushenbush, the senior religion editor at the Huffington Post, wants Christianity to be cool. In this article he declares that to his great delight Christianity has once again become cool. How did this marvelous transfer from the kingdom of uncool to the kingdom of cool take place? The Pope declared that he would not judge gays and Desmond Tutu declared that he would rather go to Hell than go to a Heaven with a homophobic God. For Raushenbush it has been a good week for Christianity. Finally, after years of bondage to fundamentalism (aka, the Bible), we can move on and make Jesus, God, and the Bible into our own cool image. Let me point you to a few things of note. (By the way, Al Mohler disputes that the Pope meant what the media and Raushenbush thought he meant.)

First, Raushenbush states very clearly what uncool Christianity is: women are not equal, haters of science, degrading to the LGBT community, suspicious of other faiths, and pro-military. In order for Christians to be cool again they must do the following: deny the Biblical roles of men and women, accept evolution as fact, accept climate change as fact, accept the LGBT without calling them to repent and change, and accept people of other faiths as good, spiritual, ethical people who are all on the stairway to Heaven.  These things are battle lines.  Here is where the world is attacking. So many Christians, especially pastors and seminary professors, want to fight other battles. Why? They are cowards and like Raushenbush they do not want to be thought of as uncool, backwards, fundamentalist, or traditional. If we refuse to speak out on these points we have run from the battle. Now of course, we can do this badly and in an unbiblical manner. Our desire should be to fight the battle in a way that pleases our Lord. But we must fight. And I would take a man who fights badly over a man who doesn’t fight at all.

Second, do not read the words through your own eyes. Read them through their eyes. Many Christians will say, “Well I would not want to go to a Heaven where God hates gays either.” But this is not what they are saying. When Desmond Tutu says, “homophobic” he does not mean hatred of gays, which most Christians in our day oppose. He means any refutation of sodomite lifestyles is unacceptable. When they say, “climate control” they do not mean “godly stewardship.” They mean population control through birth control and abortion. They mean refusing to take dominion. They mean hatred of God’s established order. They mean a  pseudo-pantheism. Notice how his article ends. He invites his gay friends to a disco mass at his church. He notes how they enjoyed it and felt comfortable.  Then he says they may never go to church again.  “I don’t need them to become Christians.” In other words, he rejects everything Christianity is. He rejects Jesus, mercy, grace, Hell, judgment, the Trinity, and everything in between. When they talk about sodomy, climate control, etc. this is what they mean. Even the “pro-military” swipe, which I have some sympathy with, must be taken in context. Raushenbush does not mean what I mean when we talk about American foreign policy. The author establishes meaning, not the reader.

Third, men who teach these things are wolves. We do not like to say this. We waver. We shuffle our feet and look at the floor. We slink towards dialogue and compromise.  But make no mistake. Men who long to be cool and yet still be Christian are hirelings.  Men like Raushenbush, Tutu, Jim Wallis, Rob Bell, are butchers not shepherds. They hate the sheep, which Christ purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28) All around them sheep are bleeding and dying at their hands. One day they will be held accountable for the slaughter. The men who refuse to confront them will also be held accountable. (Ezekiel 34)

Napoleon Dynamite

Finally, guard your own heart. Raushenbush is a lost fool bound for an eternity in darkness if he doesn’t repent. It is easy to say, “That will never  be me.” But Saint Augustine understood the draw. He knew that his heart could easily be led astray by the desire to please men, the desire to be cool and powerful.  The world seduces us with her images of cool, young, sexy people. Our hearts tell us we can follow Jesus and be one of the in crowd. I can follow Jesus and not deny myself . I can follow Jesus and still love the world and the things of the world. I can follow Jesus and still be hip. I can follow Jesus and still be adored by the secular scientific community. I can follow Jesus and not be thought of as bigot or homophobe or hater of women. Brothers and sisters, it is not true.  Paul became like scum and refuse. (I Corinthians 4:13)  Jesus himself became a man of no reputation. He was despised, afflicted, and not esteemed. (Isaiah 53:3) Our father in the faith, Moses, left the glories of Egypt to suffer affliction with the people of God and live with the reproach of Christ. (Hebrews 11:26) Let us guard our hearts for the lure to be counted among the cool does not just sit in Mr. Raushenbush’s heart. It sits in ours.<>проверить популярность а

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On July 31, 2013 By In Culture

My Mower, My Nemesis: A Tragic Poem for Guys

Every hero has his nemesis, a villain still unbeaten

As Batman has his Joker, (both Christian Bale and Michael Keaton.)

Superman, Lex Luthor; Spiderman, the Goblin Green

I even have a nemesis, mine’s a Craftsman lawn machine.

 

It was given to me free of charge, by a friend I had befriended

All the belts and pulleys broken, needing only to be mended.

But with it came a caveat; a warning from my friend

Lest blessing turn into a curse and friendship quickly end.

 

He said he’d fixed this hunk-a-junk, time and time again

And he wondered if his gift to me might be some kind of sin.

I assured him that was not the case, for I knew how to mechanic

His gift, it was a blessing, not even mildly satanic.

 

I told him I would show this old lawnmower who was boss

But he knew full well his loss was gain, and that my gain was loss.

So with a prayer and blessing, he watched me drive away

“God grant you peace through trying times”–last thing I heard him say.

 

I got it home and jumped right in–pulled pulleys, belts, and springs

I ordered new ones on the web and I fixed everything.

I cranked her up and mowed the grass for most of that first summer

But when the drive belt snapped in two, it all became a bummer.

 

Long story short—it’s been the case for most of these three seasons

One thing fixed, another breaks, and I’ll never know the reasons.

And then one time the deck broke off—had to weld it back together

Wished grass would cease to grow so fast, I prayed for drier weather.

 

Wish I could say, “It works right now,” but right now it is broken

“God grant you peace through trying times”—no truer words were spoken.

So if you have the income of a famous movie actor,

I’ve got a pit to throw it in– my Craftsman garden tractor.

 

And when this mower finally dies, I won’t lose a moment’s sleep

Perhaps I’ll buy a zero-turn, or perhaps I’ll buy some sheep.

They’ll safely graze; they’ll eat my grass until they’ve had their fill

And if they become my nemesis, I can throw them on the grill.

rack of lamb

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On July 29, 2013 By In Culture, Politics, Pro-Life

It Is Time For Christians To Recognize The Evil Empire

mordor is DCI’ve written some posts opposing US military intervention. This post has almost nothing to do with that topic.

The Eastern European Pro-Life Virus

Here is a story from Macedonia that was published earlier this month:

“A ‘virus’ of restrictive abortion legislation is spreading from Eastern Europe, health experts and rights campaigners have said, amid Church pressure and misguided government attempts to stop falling birth rates. Just weeks ago a new law was introduced in Macedonia tightening up relatively liberal abortion legislation which had been followed for more than 40 years. And last month, Lithuanian lawmakers gave initial approval to some of strictest abortion legislation in the world. Tighter abortion laws are also being considered in Russia and the Ukraine while the Georgian parliament is expected to debate abortion laws after the country’s Orthodox Church made calls in May for it to be banned. Critics say that some governments appear to be moving towards introducing total bans on the procedure. Bojan Jovanovski, executive director of the Health Education and Research Association (HERA) in Macedonia, told IPS: ‘What has happened here is not unique and is happening in a lot of countries, spreading like a virus from Eastern Europe westwards… What this law here will do in the short term is it will make it harder for women to get an abortion, because of the bureaucracy and hurdles they will face. This will possibly lead to them undergoing illegal abortions and the problems that brings with it. But its wider meaning is that it is a step towards more restrictive measures and, ultimately, a ban on abortions.’ In recent years Eastern Europe has witnessed a push, in many cases driven by socially dominant Churches, to reinforce or tighten abortion legislation and deter access to them.”

This is amazing news. If Russia was to truly stop most abortions in that country, it would have immense demographic consequences—arguably extremely positive consequences—for that country. As one via the United Nations as our proxy:

“Amid a surge of anti-gay violence and repression in several countries, the United Nations’ human rights office on Friday launched its first global outreach campaign to promote tolerance and greater equality for lesbians, gays, transgender people and bisexuals. Called Free & Equal, it’s an unprecedented effort by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to change public attitudes around the world on issues that have bitterly divided the U.N.’s own member states. The multi-pronged campaign — announced at a news conference in Cape Town, South Africa — will include videos and public-service announcements distributed through social media, a new website, a series of fact sheets, and engagement by celebrities well-known in different regions of the world. ‘Changing attitudes is never easy… It begins with often difficult conversations,” said Navi Pillay, the high commissioner for human rights. “And that is what we want to do with this campaign. Free & Equal will inspire millions of conversations among people around the world and across the ideological spectrum.’… According to the human rights office, at least 76 countries still criminalize consensual, same-sex relationships, and discrimination against LGBT people is widespread in many other nations. Less than half of the U.N.’s 193 member states have gone on record in support of gay rights and in opposition to laws criminalizing homosexuality. In March 2011, for example, only 85 states signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council expressing their concern at violence and human rights violations against LGBT people. Radcliffe said funding for Free & Equal is being provided by outside contributors, and is not reliant on U.N. funds, thus skirting any possible opposition from U.N. members who oppose gay-rights activism.”

So, at the same time the so-called US Department of Justice has used its resources to force a California school district to “accommodate” a girl who calls herself a boy—by, among other things, allowing her to use the boy’s restroom—the American elite (perhaps with some Western European help—is financing a propaganda war on what remnants of Biblical sexual ethics exist around the world.

The Russian Resistance

And as far as the US establishment is concerned, Russia is the big “bad guy.”

“Putin has embraced the Russian Orthodox Church, and his government has introduced various social programs to promote young couples having more children. Putin has also pushed through another law banning gay foreign couples from adopting Russian children. All U.S. adoptions of Russian children have since been banned. In response, the U.S. state department issued a travel warning for homosexuals in Russia. ‘Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is widespread in Russia, as harassment, threats, and acts of violence have been targeted at LGBT individuals. Government officials have been known to make derogatory comments about LGBT persons,’ the warning said.”

Americans and others are pushing back however they can. Boycotting vodka (I’d be amazed if local Russian consumers cannot make up for the slack) and threatening to boycott the winter Olympics. Ad Age reported,

“Led by President Vladimir Putin, Russia has taken a host of actions of late, including passing one measure that bans ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.’ The controversy could cause headaches for U.S. corporations linked to the 2014 Winter Olympics that will be hosted in Sochi, Russia. In a column in the New York Times this week, actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein called on the U.S. Olympic Committee to demand retraction of Russia’s laws ‘under the threat of boycott.’”

Who Is The Evil Empire Now?

There are lots of reasons to doubt Putin’s character. It is easy for me to wish death upon him just for the Smolensk Crash, apart from all his other alleged sins or crimes. But it is naive to think that a good person could gain the reins of power in almost any current government, not least that of the United States of America.

As a public figure, Putin is leading Christian resistance to the United State’s ruling class’ hard push for sexual perversity–for a pagan planet. If he improves Russia’s horrible abortion ethic, and does so as part of a general Eastern European revival of a pro-life practice, then speculations about his personal character are beside the point. Russia becomes a new Constantinople working to hold back the hordes of infidels howling to conquer them.

There may be good reason to expect Christendom to revive south of the equator. Perhaps Russia’s prominence will be temporary. But even so, I think that temporary protection would be important and helpful.

American Evangelicals need to pray for it. With Christianity spreading in China, the whole world may change in ways we can’t easily envision. Think of China and Russia giving aid and support to Kenya in resisting Obama’s culture war.

So stop calling Russia Red. Practice a new phrase: Holy Russia.

And whether or not that happens, be sure of one thing. The United States is the Evil Empire. We Christians are the enslaved masses that Sam and Frodo saw as they approached the Dark Tower. Our taxes (which, lest anyone misunderstand me, God says we should pay) are supporting the Eye.

We live in Mordor.<>cms 1с битрикс

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On July 25, 2013 By In Culture

Are You Planning on Yelling at Your Children Today?

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.  Galatians 6:1

In his sermon series entitled, Loving Little Ones, Douglas Wilson makes application of this passage from the larger church body to the specific microcosm of the Christian home. In our homes we have leaders and followers, teachers and learners, older, wiser ones and younger, foolish ones; everyone in both categories being brothers and sisters in Christ. Pastor Wilson pointed out that in our homes we tend to leave the “ye who are spiritual” part out of the verse. We assume that folks “at church” need to remember this verse whenever they may be admonishing, exhorting, rebuking, or correcting us, but when we get home, this verse does not apply when we are correcting our children. In the church, folks need to remember the “spirit of gentleness” part; especially when they are correcting us.  If they don’t, we get to turn things back around, make an accusation at them, and then completely ignore whatever they were trying to say to us. At home, we pretend like we are the “ye who are spiritual” ones by default, therefore “spiritualness” gets defined by however we are doing things at the moment.

Brothers, these things ought not be so. If we are at home and an offense is committed by one of our wee ones, and then we fly off the handle, then at that moment, there are zero spiritual people in that room. There is no one in that room fit to restore anyone that has been caught in a transgression, because both people in that room are in the middle of a transgression. We need to be restored before we are biblically fit to do any restoring.

In Toby Sumpter’s ruminations about the Newtown shootings last year, he made a point that I won’t soon forget. He said,

We snapped at (our children) in anger, in frustration. They were whining in the backseat of the car, they were embarrassing us in front of our friends. And so we pulled a 9mm semi-automatic and shot them with words and looks and our tone of voice.

Our unbridled wrath is the same as murder. It kills our neighbor, and it does not restore our children. It does not “teach them a lesson” in the way that we may be hoping. It teaches them lies about God. We call Him “father,” and rightly so, but when was the last time He snapped at you?  When was the last time He got that serious look on his face, wagged His finger, and scolded you until you learned your lesson? He is long-suffering toward usward, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

The God of heaven and earth is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Do we get to set that list aside until we’ve raised our children? If we do then we’ll be raising them into the same moral relativism that we ourselves are practicing. Not to mention that we’ll look just as stupid as the parent in Wal-Mart, leaning down into the face of their child, chewing them out publicly, because they won’t biblically discipline them privately. We don’t get a pass on looking stupid just because we’re Christians.

In Galatians 5, the chapter preceding Galatians 6 if you haven’t been counting, Paul gives us some very practical lists,

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

We have probably abstained from orgies and sorcery our entire lives, and drunkenness for most of our lives, but what about fits of anger? When the lamp gets knocked off the table and shatters, or the rebellious little pill says, “no”, or the teenager asks, “why” again today, we must remember that parents who habitually practice “fits of anger” will not inherit the Kingdom of God. And remember, on the contrary, that “those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Christ not only says, “Mine,” over every square inch of creation geographically. He also says, “Mine,” over every word that we speak to our children today and over every disciplinary action that must take place. So, unless the house is on fire, don’t yell at your children today. Or tomorrow. Or ever.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.  Galatians 6:1<>game_free play java game free анализ а проверка тиц

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On July 23, 2013 By In Culture

The Twitter Pope

popebanner1“The pope is not the head of the Church, but he is that Antichrist.” It is with that flowery language that the 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith describes the highest office of the Roman Church. a As a Protestant who cares deeply about preserving some level of catholicity with my Roman Catholic brothers, I take exception to that clause as does the congregation in which I serve. There are theological reasons to believe the early Reformers were a bit too quick on their assumption, however, it is no small thing to consider that were we in their circumstances that proposition would not look as foreign to 21st century Reformed Protestants.

If the papal office were the Antichrist it is safe to assume that the world is still not under his spell. If Twitter is any indication, the pope has a long way before reaching Bieber-esque popularity. b

Indulgences from Twitter

The Guardian summarizes:

In its latest attempt to keep up with the times, the Vatican has married one of its oldest traditions to the world of social media by offering “indulgences” to followers of Pope Francis‘ tweets.

The indulgences are granted to those who cannot attend the Catholic World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, a week-long event starting on the 22nd of  July. But it’s not as easy as you think:

A senior Vatican official warned web-surfing Catholics that indulgences still required a dose of old-fashioned faith, and that paradise was not just a few mouse clicks away. c

It’s not simply about following the pope’s Twitter account, it’s about praying and accompanying the week-long youth event in Rio. So there are a few qualifications that would keep us from overly trivializing the actions from the Vatican.

New Times, New Methods

This social awareness of the Roman church is a result of a global decline in membership. Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in a time of tremendous turmoil as the well-publicized sex-abuse scandal resulted in an increasing distrust of Roman Catholic leadership. Overall, Roman Catholic churches in America have lost 5 percent of their membership during the last decade, and the decline would have been much steeper still if not for the offsetting impact of Roman Catholic immigrants from Latin America. d These drastic measures taken by the Roman church are a sign that new times require new methods, and that entails seeking new followers.

Pope Francis may prove to be the right man for the right time. He has re-energized the Roman Catholic faith in a short period of time more so than did Benedict in his entire papacy. Francis, who has been referred to as an “unconventional pope,” has shown himself to be savvy politician. He shakes hands and kisses babies with tremendous ease. Gone is the day of the inaccessible Holy Father. Francis cracks jokes and delivers unscripted remarks, much to the occasional dismay of staffers scrambling to keep up. e He knows that his church is overwhelmed with bad PR and he appears to have a clear, albeit unconventional plan to rescue her from  herself. His success is likely to turn the negative perception of the papacy.

“Like a spiritual rock star, he routinely packs St. Peter’s Square for his weekly appearance to bless the faithful. Hundreds of thousands of devotees, perhaps millions, are expected to turn out to see Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, during his trip to Brazil, the world’s most populous Roman Catholic nation.” f This is the new face of Roman Catholicism in the world. The pope may be far from dominating the Twittersphere, but for the catholic youth indulging in the pope’s latest tweet may be the quickest way to improving the church’s reputation.<>продвижение ов яндекс и google

  1. WCF, XXV.6  (back)
  2. Justin Bieber has the largest twitter following in the world with over 42 million  (back)
  3. Ibid.  (back)
  4. Pope Bedict and the Decline of American Catholicism  (back)
  5. Pope Francis the Unconventional  (back)
  6. Ibid.  (back)

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On July 14, 2013 By In Culture

5 Revealing “If I ever see Zimmerman I will…” Tweets

by Steve Macias

In case you live under a rock, Zimmerman was charged with the shooting death of Florida Teen Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman pleaded not guilty, claiming he shot 17-year-old Martin in self-defense. The court case is a circus – the entire deck of race cards and their corresponding jokers have declared their opinion about the case, including President Obama.

Zimmerman stood in a courtroom today as a jury declared him not guilty of all charges. The ruling spawned the hashtag #IfIEverSeeZimmerman to trend  almost immediately on the social networking site Twitter.

No matter what you happen to believe about the case, the tweets show how the American public views the case. I’ve picked five of the most revealing tweets:

 

Prosecutors called Zimmerman a liar and portrayed him as a vigilante who had grown frustrated by break-ins in his neighborhood committed primarily by young black men. Zimmerman assumed Martin was up to no good and took the law into his own hands, prosecutors said. The case was heavily politicized. Those who feared the case would be used to attack self-defense and the right to own a gun held their ground in favor of Zimmerman. Others saw the case as an opportunity to demonstrate the existence of violence in and against black communities in modern America.  In some cases, demonstrating that in this country it is almost worse to be racist than a murderer. If Trayvon wasn’t black, the case would never have made the news.

Trayvon_Martin_on_the_backseat_of_a_car

Those who are upset about the ruling feel this was unjust, so much that rumors and tweets about riots and violence have become an equally big news story. What are they to do when they feel slighted? How do they respond to what they perceive is injustice? A young man is dead – the jury’s acquittal of Zimmerman can not rob him of his victim’s humanity. The jury’s acquittal is not necessarily a declaration of wrongdoing on Trayvon’s behalf.

In any possible verdict, it still remains tragic that Trayvon is dead.

I hope the jury is correct. I can not say for sure that what they did is right. I surely hope it is, but we are still left with feelings that don’t belong in a criminal case.

This case transformed from a homicide trial into a divisive political circus. Quickly. Instead of questing for truth, people took sides and swallowed talking points. Justice in this one case became secondary to the vision of justice for society that each party following the case had in mind. I mostly ignored the headlines, but a few did catch my eye. One was about the political affiliation of the judge, another about the witnesses chosen to testify which asked — was justice or simply victory being sought?

OJ Simpson Trayvon MartinI was just four years old when OJ Simpson was acquitted. High profile cases like his pushed their way out of the courtroom onto our television screens — “courtrooms” became primetime money makers for the entertainment industry with characters like Judge Judy. The justice system is now a content producer for entire television channels and weekly programming. Is this cultural obsession with courts healthy?

Strangely enough, the culture that obsesses over courtrooms is a most savage and brutal one. They kill millions of their own innocent children, wage endless wars in foreign countries, and steal and lie to their own countrymen in a pursuit for “liberty and justice for all.”

Fallen man cannot have justice for all. Complete justice is God’s alone and we can not hope to right every wrong in our world. What we have seen in my short lifetime is the duplicity of injustice because of our bureaucratic efforts to have justice for all. Vengeance is the Lord’s. A victim is reconciled on God’s terms — not the whims of a state legislator. God’s burden is light.

Man has attempted to escape God’s sovereign justice and to erase his standard for justice. In looking around we can see the language of justice constantly being used in the absence of real justice. Courts and legislatures invent crimes and punishments, apply them as they feel appropriate, and enforce them at their whim. They place their hope for true justice in the hands of fallen men, fallen governments, and degenerate institutions that trade justice for political gain, power, and profit.

Contrary to what the left says, prisons will not reform man. Contrary to what the right says, brute strength will not save man from his nature.  Only the transformational power of Christ upon each individual will reform man — one by one and from the bottom up. RJ Rushdoony said that only “an order dedicated to the whole word of God and Christ’s regenerating power can give justice because it rests on a new man of God’s making.” Christ’s regeneration produces self-control.

The same invisible hand that rewards good ideas and innovation in the market, metes out justice in our culture. A marketplace is first a marketplace of ideas, which are always religious ideas that guide our wants, desires, choices, and morals. The invisible hand of the Holy Spirit doesn’t depend on the black robes of courtrooms to administer true justice. The Supreme Court of Roe V. Wade is supreme evidence of a partition of man’s justice against God’s.

Why are the people so angry? Why do they threaten with riots and revolution? People are upset about injustice. People long for true justice. Many look for this justice in the failed solution of a man-centered state, not understanding it can only be found in our reigning King Jesus.

Even the pagan poet Virgil longed for a hope greater than man’s ability — a hope from above to rescue us below.

“Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto-

Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,

Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras”

“A new race descends from the lofty sky;

and that should take away sin-

Thy influence shall efface every stain of corruption,

And free the world from alarm.”

  Like Steve on Facebook and follow @SteveMacias on Twitter.<>стоимость контекстной рекламыпродвижение а москва цены

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On July 10, 2013 By In Books, Culture, Worship

10 Reasons to Sing the Psalms

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By Uri Brito

Many of us grew up in theological backgrounds where the psalms were known, but not sung. These theological backgrounds are anomalies throughout the history of the Church. E.F. Harrison observed that “Psalmody was a part of the synagogue service that naturally passed over into the life of the church.” Calvin Stapert speaks of the fathers’ “enthusiastic promotion of psalm-singing” which he says, “reached an unprecedented peak in the fourth century.” James McKinnon speaks of “an unprecedented wave of enthusiasm” for the psalms in the second half of the fourth century. Hughes Oliphint Old argued that Calvin appealed to the church historians (e.g. Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen) as well as the church fathers (e.g. Augustine, Basil, Chrysostom) for the singing of psalms. While the Reformers did not advocate the exclusive singing of Psalms they did express “a partiality for Psalms and hymns drawn from Scripture.” a 

The Reformer Martin Luther urged that Psalms be sung by congregations so that “the Word of God may be among the people also in the form of music b.“ By the end of the 19th century, however, most hymnals produced had limited psalms to a couple of well-known pieces like Old One-Hundredth. Beyond that, scriptural references had all but disappeared. Terry Johnson summarized the state of psalmlessness:

This eclipse of psalmody in the late nineteenth century is quite unprecedented. The psalms, as we have seen, have been the dominant form of church song beginning with the Church Fathers, all through the Middle Ages, during the Reformation and Post-Reformation eras, and into the modern era. By the beginning of the twentieth century the church had lost the voice through which it had expressed its sung praise for more than 1800 years. c

Though the last hundred years were not psalm-friendly, we have seen in the last 30 years a kind of revival of psalmody in the modern church, especially in the Reformed tradition. New hymnals, like the Cantus Christi, and many others are including old and new psalms ( metrical and chants).

So why should we sing the psalms? Aren’t the 19th century hymns and contemporary songs sufficient to fulfill the worship demands of the modern congregation?

The answer is a resounding no!

There are ten reasons I believe congregations should begin to sing psalms once again:

First, Psalm-singing is an explicit biblical command (Ps. 27:6). The Scriptures encourage us to sing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16). To have the word of Christ dwell in you richly means to invest in the rich beauty of the Psalter. How can we sing what we do not know? Is there a better way to internalize the word than to sing it?

Second, Psalm-singing was the ancient practice of the Church and it continued for 1,800 years. We honor our forefathers and our history when we sing their songs.

Third, Calvin observed that the psalms are “An Anatomy of all Parts of the Soul; for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that it is not represented here as a mirror.” The psalms are satisfying to the human being. We are homos adorans; worship beings. God is not against emotions, he is against emotionalism. The Psalter is an emotional book. It provides comfort for the people of God at different stages of life. As a minister I have never once walked into a hospital room and been asked to read a text from Leviticus or Romans, but rather every time I have been asked to read a psalm (most often Psalm 23). The psalms reach deep inside our humanity in time of pain.

Fourth, singing the psalms builds our Christian piety. It is nurturing to our souls. It is God’s devotional book; God’s hymnal. Singing the psalms restores the joy of our salvation. Ask me what book of the Bible I would take to a desert island, and I will not hesitate to say “The Psalms.”

Fifth, the psalms are ultimately made for the body. You may sing the psalms on your own, but they reach their culmination when sung together. They are meant to be roared (Ps. 47:1), because they were written by the Lion of Judah. When we sing together we are both being edified and edifying one another. “We sing because in singing we join together in common breath and melody in a manner that no other medium can duplicate…We become an assembly unified in purpose and thought. And by our singing, we hear God’s Word for us, and the world hears it loud and clear.” d

Sixth, we should sing the Psalms because they re-shape us; they re-orient our attention. We are a people constantly being sanctified by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit has specifically inspired 150 psalms for our sanctification. How should we pray? How should we ask? How should we lament? The Psalms helps us to answer these questions, and thus shape us more and more after the image of Christ.

Seventh, by singing the Psalms we are worshiping the Spirit. The Spirit hovers, shapes, re-makes in the Bible. He is the music of God in the world. In an age when the Third Person of the Trinity has become the source of theological confusion, the Psalms keeps us focused on His role and purposes in history.

Eighth, we should sing the Psalms because our current songs are often cheap and shallow. The Psalms are rich and full of substance. If we wonder why the evangelical community is so powerless, one reason for this is its trivialized worship. Modern worship is often a pietistic exercise, which is manifested in poorly constructed and pessimistic theology. But the Psalms teaches us that God is full of mercy and powerful over all His enemies (Ps. 2). The Psalms are political statements. They are direct attacks on those who challenge the supremacy of King Jesus.

Ninth, the Psalms should be sung because our children need them. Our little ones need to know the God they worship in profound ways from their earliest days. We become what we worship, and so our children will become what we sing.

Tenth, you should sing the Psalms because the world needs them. The world does not need a weak Gospel. She sees plenty of it already. She needs to hear a Gospel of a God who delights in praise, who will not allow evil to go unpunished, and who prepares a table for us.

This may all sound daunting and strange. But I’d encourage you to take that first step. What first may appear to be strange may become a wonderful journey into praise and thanksgiving to the God from whom all blessings flow.

For more information on how to sing the psalms, or for resources, please contact me at uriesou@gmail.com.<>заказ статьи ваккак определить тиц

  1. See Terry Johnson’s The History of Psalm Singing in the Church; I depended heavily on that article for the quotes on this paragraph  (back)
  2. Luther, Martin. Tischreden. No. 2545. Quoted in F. Blume et al., Protestant Church Music (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1974  (back)
  3. Ibid.  (back)
  4. From the article: “Why do we sing the Psalms?”  (back)

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On June 17, 2013 By In Culture, Theology

What’s In a Name?

by Peter Jones

Naming is an essential part of the human experience. We all place names on things around us. That is a car. That is a Toyota Sienna minivan. That is a 2001 tan Toyota Sienna minivan with three dents in the hatch. And on and on it goes. We follow after our Creator who named the night, the day, the sun, the moon, and man. But he did not just name things as nouns, he also declared them to be good or very good. After the fall he named things good or bad, righteous or unrighteous. The Scriptures explicitly forbid us from calling good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). The Christian life is one of naming things correctly.

In our postmodern era, it is hard to hold this line. Our world is a complicated one. Things were simple once, back in the day. But now we have become more aware of the overwhelming complexity of this world. Names used to be so obvious. But we were deceived then. There used to be truth that we could name, but now there are only truths, socially constructed ideas that help us name our various realities.  We used to know a woman from a man. Now is it a woman or man? Who knows? (more…)

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