Thursday, January 31, 2008
A Look at the Candidates as of January 31 - First up, the Democrats
Well, its January 31 and finally time for me to get back to posting (have been sick yet again for the past month) and especially to weigh in on the Presidential race.
Lets start off with the Democrats:
Friday, January 25, 2008
New Paper - How did we Get to Charismatic America
On January 7 the Barna Organization issued a report detailing that American Christians are now, by a plurality, Charismatic.
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=287
How did we get there? What does it mean to be a Charismatic? Take a look at my new paper on the topic. An additional paper should be forthcoming soon on more question about Charismatics and then one of what is an Evangelicals.
Charismatic_America_-_How_Did_We_Get_Here_and_Where_Are_We_Going.doc
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Pope Benedict - A Stand Against Casual Sex
I hear that Pope Benedict is about to get a media consultant in the form of an Italian movie maker. A lot of people have expressed displeasure with Pope Benedicts. They see him as too strict after the genial Pope John Paul II. To be fair, he was following a Pope who is going to go down as one of the five greatest all time, along with St. Peter (duh), Pope Leo, Pope Gregory, and Pope John 23 (being a Vatican 2 guy).
But people misread both JP2 and Pope Benedict. John Paul was solidly Chirstocentric in all he said and did, and his philosophy was backed by the powerful and detailed theolgy of Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict). The fact remains that the Roman Catholic Church of the past 30 years is not going to go silently into the goodnight, not without stating powerful truth in direct ways
2008 - A Year of New Promise
Okay, so 2006 and 2007 were very rough on my family and on me, and on my writing. For 2008, at least one post a day from your roving theologian.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
The Romney Speech - Can We Vote for a Mormon President
So Mr. Govenor Romney gave “the Speech” today. What do I think?
Thursday, November 29, 2007
TeddyGate - Islam, a Bear, and the Power of a Name
Well, the judge in Khartoum has ruled:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=4YMMTKNH05XDVQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/11/29/wsudan529.xml
Being Bi-Polar and Empty: The Struggle of Communicating When You have Nothing to Say
Well, it has officially been two months since I posted last. Why? Let me explain below:
Saturday, September 08, 2007
The Roving Theologian - Roving Again - Edinburgh and the 12th Rutherford Dogmatics Conference
The Roving Theologian was unable to post for a period of time, because I was, well, roving. This time to Edinburgh and then London for the 12th Rutherford Dogmatics Conference. This is a great theologicla conference, with some of the best papers that one gets to hear, and this year was on a topic of major focus for me.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Mother Teresa and Her Lack of Faith?
While I was in Scotland the story about Mother Teresa’s lifelong struggle with her faith came out in Time magazine. A number of my readers have asked me what I think of this. Is it true? If so, what does this say about faith, about her work, and about her as a model for other Christians?
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Should Dutch Christians Call God Allah? News from Religion in a Post-Christian World
If you have not heard about this little event in the Dutch town of Breda, read about it here:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1186557468267&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Now the easiest answer to this is simply to call this man a fool, a tool of pluralism, and dismiss what he is doing. Trust me, that is very tempting. But there are deeper theological, linguistic, cultural, and apologetic issues at play, ones that I doubt our dear Bishop Muskens has not really thought about.
A Shout Out to Jonah Goldberg and The Corner At NationalReview.com
I posted yesterday about Pat Schroeder and her inance comments on conservatives and reading books. I sent the link to Jonah Goldberg, probably the best of the writers at The Corner, their all-topic blog, and he posted a nice link back here. Too cool. If you are reading this off that link, welcome. Jonah is the best, not least of which because I told his boss Kathryn Jean Lopez that he looked like Jack Black in School of Rock 2 in one of the pics they had up there.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjUxY2UwYTlmY2FkOTM5ZmI1MDZhYTUwNDg1NTEwMzA=
Sttill he was kind enough to link back here. Thanks Jonah and NRO!
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTUxNDRlOTA0YTY5N2NhMjA0OTU1Yjg3MjQ1ODQ1ODA=
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Why non serving people are not necessarily Chicken Hawks
A few weeks back Mitt Romney got asked a question about why his five sons are not serving in the military. At the time his answer, at least as proclaimed by the media, was not particularly positive. Though his central point - that our military is all volunteer, and that his sons are responsible for their own choices.
But what about others, like me, who could have volunteered for the military after 9-11, support the war in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and did not. Does that makes us chickenhawks?
Pat Schroeder and the Reading Debate
Hmm, so the former representative from Denver (CO-01), is now the President of the American Association of Publishers, and based on a new report, states that Liberals read more books and write more books because conservatives only have “no new taxes” to say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101053.html
What do I have to say to this?
Monday, July 30, 2007
What is the Wrong with the Democratic Party?
I was one of those who back in the 1980s said that David Duke should not be allowed to use the name “Republican” anywhere in his coitre. In the 1990s I specifically avoided those who were just too dedicated to hating Democrats and especially Bill Clinton. To this day I turn the channel whenever one Anne Coulter comes on television, radio, or even a billboard!
But what is wrong with the Democrats?
Their people - not the elected officials themselves, but their supporters - are simply mean. By mean I do not mean that they care deeply about their particular policy initiatives. That is good and right.
I mean their uncontrollable desire to use curse words in describing anyone or anything that they disagree with on issues. But that is not even what I mean. This is what I mean:
Much Ado About Nothing - The Roman Catholic Church’s Newest Statement on “The Church”
I know that this statement from the Roman Catholic Church came out almost a month ago, so I am a little slow in posting on it. As I new it to be nothing new and nothing harmful - in fact, it was a great statment on truth in the midst of vapid pluarlism, I didn’t think it needed commentating on. I was wrong. I get asked still about what it says - and almost always the person asking me has been told it means something absolutely different than it actually means.
So here goes:
