For those of you who love the gospel and have been following the "Firing of Marty Minto" from WORDFM, will be disappointed at today's Dividing Line broadcast. Marty has shown that money drives businesses, even Christian ones.
I don't have a problem with Christian businesses. I encourage them. But if you are going to build a business that supposedly discusses the gospel, you had better be prepared. The gospel by nature is divisive and alienates those who are opposed to it.
One day Christian radio stations like WORDFM will have to give an account. Were they pleasing God or men?
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Editing Art
My wife made a great point to me this morning. She was watching a TV program in which the guy from CleanFlix.com was being interviewed along with a liberal college professor. Cleanflix edits movies in order to make good movies available for children. For example, Cleanflix edited 6 minutes from Saving Private Ryan in order to get a great movie to a younger audience.
The liberal school teacher was offended that people would "edit art" and "sanitize" the real world. She also didn't believe in editing movies because of their language because that is "how people talk." So would it be appropriate for a student in her classroom to say to the professor, "F___in B__ch, May I get a drink of water?"
I seriously doubt the professor would consider that appropriate, even among "people who normally speak that way." Then again, perhaps we Red Staters are just too dull to understand the nuances of life.
The liberal school teacher was offended that people would "edit art" and "sanitize" the real world. She also didn't believe in editing movies because of their language because that is "how people talk." So would it be appropriate for a student in her classroom to say to the professor, "F___in B__ch, May I get a drink of water?"
I seriously doubt the professor would consider that appropriate, even among "people who normally speak that way." Then again, perhaps we Red Staters are just too dull to understand the nuances of life.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Joe Bob and the Door
I know it is hard to believe, but there is this thing called Christian Satire. Being a former Bostonian suburbianite, I grew up on sarcasm. But can Christians really use humor in their messages, even sarcastic humor?
Apparently the Wittenburg Door feels that they can, and they do. A video tape series called God Stuff Videos has a tape on TV Evangelists. Showing false teachers in their most ridiculous moments is quite funny. Healing people with broken necks isn't funny when a faith healer cranks their necks around, but watching a narrator make fun of their schemes is.
For a moment I thought I was back in Atlanta watching TV (refer to Fletch Lives Post), but apparently Dallas has their fair share of false teachers too. Teachers like Benny Hinn and Paul Crouch are shown for what they are. Charlatans! But hey, if you are going to investigate something, do it with humor.
An atheistic comedian (Lewis Black), I believe is correct when he says, "Patriotism is good for America. Religion is good for America. But the both together without humor is very bad.... You end up with Islam." If we can't take a good honest look at ourselves and laugh then we might be in trouble.
Apparently the Wittenburg Door feels that they can, and they do. A video tape series called God Stuff Videos has a tape on TV Evangelists. Showing false teachers in their most ridiculous moments is quite funny. Healing people with broken necks isn't funny when a faith healer cranks their necks around, but watching a narrator make fun of their schemes is.
For a moment I thought I was back in Atlanta watching TV (refer to Fletch Lives Post), but apparently Dallas has their fair share of false teachers too. Teachers like Benny Hinn and Paul Crouch are shown for what they are. Charlatans! But hey, if you are going to investigate something, do it with humor.
An atheistic comedian (Lewis Black), I believe is correct when he says, "Patriotism is good for America. Religion is good for America. But the both together without humor is very bad.... You end up with Islam." If we can't take a good honest look at ourselves and laugh then we might be in trouble.
The Left's Inquisition
Dr. White had in an interesting take on the radical left's view of government and evanjellyism's inability to be consistent or to be able to deal with the issues. Read his BLOG here.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
God Bless Our Brave
I received an e-mail from my pastor this afternoon. When I read it I went and checked to see if the story is true. It is. God Bless those who protect our way of life.
Maybe you'd like to hear about a real American, somebody who honored the uniform he wears.
Meet Brian Chontosh.
Churchville-Chili Central School class of 1991. Proud graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Husband and about-to-be father. First lieutenant (now Captain) in the United States Marine Corps. And a genuine hero. The secretary of the Navy said so yesterday.
At 29 Palms in California Brian Chontosh was presented with the Navy Cross, the second highest award for combat bravery the United States can bestow. That's a big deal. But you won't see it on the network news tonight, and all you read in Brian's hometown newspaper was two paragraphs of nothing.
The odd fact about the American media in this war is that it's not covering the American military. The most plugged-in nation in the world is receiving virtually no true information about what its warriors are doing. Oh, sure, there's a body count. We know how many Americans have fallen. And we see those same casket pictures day in and day out. And we're almost on a first-name basis with the jerks who abused the Iraqi prisoners. And we know all about improvised explosive devices and how we lost Fallujah and what Arab public-opinion polls say about us and how the world hates us.
We get a non-stop feed of gloom and doom. But we don't hear about the heroes.
The incredibly brave GIs who honorably do their duty. The ones our grandparents would have carried on their shoulders down Fifth Avenue. The ones we completely ignore. Like Brian Chontosh.
It was a year ago on the march into Baghdad. Brian Chontosh was a platoon leader rolling up Highway 1 in a humvee. When all hell broke loose. Ambush city. The young Marines were being cut to ribbons. Mortars, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades. And the kid out of Churchville was in charge. It was do or die and it was up to him.
So he moved to the side of his column, looking for a way to lead his men to safety. As he tried to poke a hole through the Iraqi line his humvee came under direct enemy machine gun fire.It was fish in a barrel and the Marines were the fish. And Brian Chontosh gave the order to attack. He told his driver to floor the humvee directly at the machine gun emplacement that was firing at them. And he had the guy on top with the .50 cal unload on them.
Within moments there were Iraqis slumped across the machine gun and Chontosh was still advancing, ordering his driver now to take the humvee directly into the Iraqi trench that was attacking his Marines. Over into the battlement the humvee went and out the door Brian Chontosh bailed, carrying an M16 and a Beretta and 228 years of Marine Corps pride. And he ran down the trench. With its mortars and riflemen, machineguns and grenadiers. And he killed them all.
He fought with the M16 until it was out of ammo. Then he fought with the Beretta until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up a dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up another dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo.
At one point he even fired a discarded Iraqi RPG into an enemy cluster, sending attackers flying with its grenade explosion. When he was done Brian Chontosh had cleared 200 yards of entrenched Iraqis from his platoon's flank. He had killed more than 20 and wounded at least as many more.
But that's probably not how he would tell it. He would probably merely say that his Marines were in trouble, and he got them out of trouble. Hoo-ah, and drive on. "By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, 1st Lt. Chontosh reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service."
That's what the citation says. And that's what nobody will hear. That's what doesn't seem to be making the evening news. Accounts of American valor are dismissed by the press as propaganda, yet accounts of American difficulties are heralded as objectivity. It makes you wonder if the role of the media is to inform or to depress - to report or to deride. To tell the truth, or to feed us lies.
But I guess it doesn't matter. We're going to turn out all right. As long as men like Brian Chontosh wear our uniform.
If you are as proud of this Marine as I am, then send this to EVERYONE YOU KNOW !!
Maybe you'd like to hear about a real American, somebody who honored the uniform he wears.
Meet Brian Chontosh.
Churchville-Chili Central School class of 1991. Proud graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Husband and about-to-be father. First lieutenant (now Captain) in the United States Marine Corps. And a genuine hero. The secretary of the Navy said so yesterday.
At 29 Palms in California Brian Chontosh was presented with the Navy Cross, the second highest award for combat bravery the United States can bestow. That's a big deal. But you won't see it on the network news tonight, and all you read in Brian's hometown newspaper was two paragraphs of nothing.
The odd fact about the American media in this war is that it's not covering the American military. The most plugged-in nation in the world is receiving virtually no true information about what its warriors are doing. Oh, sure, there's a body count. We know how many Americans have fallen. And we see those same casket pictures day in and day out. And we're almost on a first-name basis with the jerks who abused the Iraqi prisoners. And we know all about improvised explosive devices and how we lost Fallujah and what Arab public-opinion polls say about us and how the world hates us.
We get a non-stop feed of gloom and doom. But we don't hear about the heroes.
The incredibly brave GIs who honorably do their duty. The ones our grandparents would have carried on their shoulders down Fifth Avenue. The ones we completely ignore. Like Brian Chontosh.
It was a year ago on the march into Baghdad. Brian Chontosh was a platoon leader rolling up Highway 1 in a humvee. When all hell broke loose. Ambush city. The young Marines were being cut to ribbons. Mortars, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades. And the kid out of Churchville was in charge. It was do or die and it was up to him.
So he moved to the side of his column, looking for a way to lead his men to safety. As he tried to poke a hole through the Iraqi line his humvee came under direct enemy machine gun fire.It was fish in a barrel and the Marines were the fish. And Brian Chontosh gave the order to attack. He told his driver to floor the humvee directly at the machine gun emplacement that was firing at them. And he had the guy on top with the .50 cal unload on them.
Within moments there were Iraqis slumped across the machine gun and Chontosh was still advancing, ordering his driver now to take the humvee directly into the Iraqi trench that was attacking his Marines. Over into the battlement the humvee went and out the door Brian Chontosh bailed, carrying an M16 and a Beretta and 228 years of Marine Corps pride. And he ran down the trench. With its mortars and riflemen, machineguns and grenadiers. And he killed them all.
He fought with the M16 until it was out of ammo. Then he fought with the Beretta until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up a dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up another dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo.
At one point he even fired a discarded Iraqi RPG into an enemy cluster, sending attackers flying with its grenade explosion. When he was done Brian Chontosh had cleared 200 yards of entrenched Iraqis from his platoon's flank. He had killed more than 20 and wounded at least as many more.
But that's probably not how he would tell it. He would probably merely say that his Marines were in trouble, and he got them out of trouble. Hoo-ah, and drive on. "By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, 1st Lt. Chontosh reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service."
That's what the citation says. And that's what nobody will hear. That's what doesn't seem to be making the evening news. Accounts of American valor are dismissed by the press as propaganda, yet accounts of American difficulties are heralded as objectivity. It makes you wonder if the role of the media is to inform or to depress - to report or to deride. To tell the truth, or to feed us lies.
But I guess it doesn't matter. We're going to turn out all right. As long as men like Brian Chontosh wear our uniform.
If you are as proud of this Marine as I am, then send this to EVERYONE YOU KNOW !!
Infallible Popes
An interesting story appeared in the Yahoo News. Those of you who believe in Papal Infallibility will not change your mind since the church interprets the church and history, but I thought this story would be a little revealing for those of us who do not do so.
This first papal election of the new millennium is the crowning glory in a papal history that survived enough bizarre twists to fill a dozen sequels to Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code."
"In some past elections, people behaved very badly," the Rev. John O'Malley, a noted Catholic historian, said this week from his office at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Massachusetts. "Right up through John Paul II, popes have been trying to tie up the loose ends of the process."
One of the most bizarre loose ends was the "cadaver synod" after the election in 896 of the insanely vengeful Pope Stephen VI. He harbored so much anger at a predecessor, Pope Formosus, that he had his corpse exhumed.
Piling crime upon crime like a modern suspense novel, Stephen soon was thrown into prison himself. Formosus' friends crept into his cell and strangled him.
"In some past elections, people behaved very badly," the Rev. John O'Malley, a noted Catholic historian, said this week from his office at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Massachusetts. "Right up through John Paul II, popes have been trying to tie up the loose ends of the process."
One of the most bizarre loose ends was the "cadaver synod" after the election in 896 of the insanely vengeful Pope Stephen VI. He harbored so much anger at a predecessor, Pope Formosus, that he had his corpse exhumed.
Formosus' decomposing body was dressed in papal vestments, propped in a throne and put on trial for crimes against church law, including perjury. Unable to mount a defense, Formosus' ghastly remains were convicted. As punishment, the three fingers Formosus once used to bless the faithful were hacked from his right hand. His body was dragged away and thrown into the Tiber River.
Piling crime upon crime like a modern suspense novel, Stephen soon was thrown into prison himself. Formosus' friends crept into his cell and strangled him.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Law of God For Christians Too?
Over the last few months I have had great discussions with a pastor friend in California. I have been revisiting the subject of how the Law of God as revealed in the Old Testament is aplied to believers in the New Covenant. Throughout the New Testament the Old Covenant Law is often quoted without apology and used as an authoritative source for New Testament instruction.
This morning I was listening to Greg Bahnsen debate Craig Feinberg. This is an "in-house" debate among Christians. When I first heard Feinberg, I thought I was listening to someone who had my views on the Law of God. This simply showed my ignorance of the debate topic. It was only after listening carefully to the rebuttals that I began to hear what Feinberg was saying.
All in all, I think I learned something today. If you can afford a whopping $1.99, you can download the debate here. It is worth it. It may only wet your whistle so to speak and hopefully drive us to "search the Scriptures daily" to see if this is so.
This morning I was listening to Greg Bahnsen debate Craig Feinberg. This is an "in-house" debate among Christians. When I first heard Feinberg, I thought I was listening to someone who had my views on the Law of God. This simply showed my ignorance of the debate topic. It was only after listening carefully to the rebuttals that I began to hear what Feinberg was saying.
All in all, I think I learned something today. If you can afford a whopping $1.99, you can download the debate here. It is worth it. It may only wet your whistle so to speak and hopefully drive us to "search the Scriptures daily" to see if this is so.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Is America Christian?
World Net Daily's article on Christianity says:
"With 80 percent of Americans describing themselves as Christians, 45 percent of the population attending church on any given weekend, tens of millions buying Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life" and believers making Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" one of the top-grossing movies of all time, America appears to be bursting its seams with vibrant Christianity.
There's just one problem.
Although Christians comprise the vast majority of the nation's citizens and voters, America is becoming increasingly un-Christian and even anti-Christian with every passing year – from its culture, to its laws, its public education system, its news media and most other major institutions. Whether the battlefield is abortion or "gay rights," public prayer or euthanasia, most of the fights are being won by the bad guys. Why?"
Exactly, WHY? Perhaps the problem is in the definition of Christian in the first paragraph? If watching a movie by a man who does not know what the Biblical Gospel is and reading Rick Warren's material defines a Christian nation, is it really that difficult to see why we are having problems?
Believe me when I say I welcome more movies by Mel Gibson. Rick Warren's books are not horrible, just extremely weak. Christianity should be defined Biblically, not culturally. When denominations can not define sin and question the sufficiency of Scripture, do we really wonder why America is not a Christian Nation?
"With 80 percent of Americans describing themselves as Christians, 45 percent of the population attending church on any given weekend, tens of millions buying Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life" and believers making Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" one of the top-grossing movies of all time, America appears to be bursting its seams with vibrant Christianity.
There's just one problem.
Although Christians comprise the vast majority of the nation's citizens and voters, America is becoming increasingly un-Christian and even anti-Christian with every passing year – from its culture, to its laws, its public education system, its news media and most other major institutions. Whether the battlefield is abortion or "gay rights," public prayer or euthanasia, most of the fights are being won by the bad guys. Why?"
Exactly, WHY? Perhaps the problem is in the definition of Christian in the first paragraph? If watching a movie by a man who does not know what the Biblical Gospel is and reading Rick Warren's material defines a Christian nation, is it really that difficult to see why we are having problems?
Believe me when I say I welcome more movies by Mel Gibson. Rick Warren's books are not horrible, just extremely weak. Christianity should be defined Biblically, not culturally. When denominations can not define sin and question the sufficiency of Scripture, do we really wonder why America is not a Christian Nation?
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Dobson and Friends?
Perhaps I should not be amazed, but I am. Not only did Dr. James Dobson consider Mel Gibson's movie "anointed by God", but now he seems to be legitimizing Rod Parsley's ministry as if it were Biblical. Is there no boundary that defines what is and is not of the faith anymore? (Focus on the Family's Citizen Link.)
Rod Parsley is another Word of Faith teacher that evangelicals need to part ways from. A google search will show you the outlandish things this man will say and do. Perhaps you may have seen him on TBN. Perhaps you may have never heard him say anything wrong. Most TV evangelists don't on TV. It is usually that 31 minute that we miss. Sometimes they slip and air their nonsense on TV too. Click here for a critique of Rod Parsley's nonsense by G. Richard Fisher (no relation to me).
God's people be warned. There are many false teachers today. It does not matter if Dr. Dobson seems to legitimize them or not.
Rod Parsley is another Word of Faith teacher that evangelicals need to part ways from. A google search will show you the outlandish things this man will say and do. Perhaps you may have seen him on TBN. Perhaps you may have never heard him say anything wrong. Most TV evangelists don't on TV. It is usually that 31 minute that we miss. Sometimes they slip and air their nonsense on TV too. Click here for a critique of Rod Parsley's nonsense by G. Richard Fisher (no relation to me).
God's people be warned. There are many false teachers today. It does not matter if Dr. Dobson seems to legitimize them or not.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Tied in Knots For Good
Well, they finally tied the knot. Paige and TJ got married. I wasn't sure, but it sure seemd like the "Spear of Destiny" had prodded TJ out into the church. At first TJ about chewed his teeth down. Then he must have swallowed that gum. It was the sternest look I had ever seen.
Once the bride came in, he seemed to relax and they both made it through the ceremony. She was truly beautiful. After a few more marital sessions, I think they'll make it. :-)
Congrats TJ!
Once the bride came in, he seemed to relax and they both made it through the ceremony. She was truly beautiful. After a few more marital sessions, I think they'll make it. :-)
Congrats TJ!
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