age segregation

interesting story from Mollie Hemingway about voluntary age segregation in churches and its unforeseen effects. number one on the list; no funerals. “Cool! Your church has funerals,” a friend recently said after I told him about attending one for a fellow parishioner at my church. My friend attends one of those churches that meet in [...]

Story of Stuff

for something different, here is an outstandingly well done critique of a bit of leftist propaganda being shown in school to nine year olds across the country. It is in four parts. So far I have only watched the first two, but bravo! part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

AP story on Matt Chandler

the Associated Press has a story on Matt Chandler and his battle with brain cancer. On Twitter, Matt says: Associated press article on our battle with cancer…pray it moves people toward the gospelhttp://bit.ly/bvGzYG and here is a clip from the story, but be sure to read it all (UPDATE: here is a longer version of [...]

fotos on a Friday

trying Kodak Ektachrome 100G slide film in the Nikon F5. love the 105mm and sun rays maximal bokeh sunset through the tree and Natalie being the “tall girl in the middle.”

more reviews of The Shack

some big guns have turned their attention to Wm P. Young’s book, The Shack. Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian has read it and Dr. Al Mohler is concerned about the discernment ability of modern evangelicals in light of the fact that this book is so popular among them. If you remember my main concern with [...]

an interview with Hitchens

Marilyn Sewell, a unitarian minister, interviews atheist Christopher Hitchens here. hilarity ensues. here is a glimpse, but it continues on in this vein. The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe [...]

the big day

well, the big day has arrived. the day we have all been anticipating with bated breath and beating hearts. Today Apple unveils its “Latest Creation.” noon our time. be there or be square. should be interesting. UPDATE: introductory video here. Interesting, but too expensive for something that nobody who has a smartphone and laptop really [...]

couple of good ones

I have had a couple of windows open the last couple of days in order to post about them. one political and one theological. here we go. first the political: I believe it is crucial to understand that it doesn’t matter if the people engineering a collectivist state have sinister motives or not. In fact, [...]

Glory of God

here is a message from John Piper about why he finds the Glory of God to be the central point of the Bible and all creation. fascinating stuff.  the intro: How does the Bible orient us around the glory of God? I’m just overwhelmed, and have been for 40 years, with the centrality in the [...]

why do you love the church?

if you love the church, why? (the “if you don’t, why not”? is a whole ‘nother post) Josh Harris lists some wrong reasons why people sometimes love their church. what do you think?  Here are a couple to get you started, then go read the rest of his post including the reason we should love [...]

on the occasion of the March for Life

on the occasion of the march for life, here is a repost from September 2008 of a survivor of an attempt to end her life: here is a clip of a talk by a young lady who survived an attempt on her life and lived to tell the tale (albeit with scars). Makes for an [...]

Roe v. Wade @37

37 years ago the Supreme Court issued its opinion legalizing abortion by fiat nationwide. That legally unsupportable seizure of state police authority remains in effect today, but there are increasing signs of cracks in the abortion on demand edifice. Science and technology have marched ahead. 4d ultrasound and better resolution on regular ultrasound show any [...]

fridae fotoes

Natalie’s basketball team. more depth of field experimentation and I caught the grackels looking for a place to roost

“He’s Done Everything Wrong”

Mort Zuckerman of U.S. News and World Report is not happy. Probably everybody has seen this editorial by now, but wow. Zuckerman is not a conservative, but he is WAAAYYYY disappointed in President Obama’s first year. It is all interesting, but here are a couple of excerpts: Obama’s ability to connect with voters is what [...]

the Bible isn’t boring

John Piper on the Bible

Amos Story

new video released from Aaron Ivey. Aaron is one of the worship leaders at the Austin Stone. He released an album last year Between the Beauty and the Chaos Aaron and his wife Jamie embarked on the adoption of brother and sister Amos and Story from Haiti about two years ago. late last year, the [...]

Book of Eli

Julie and I went to see the Book of Eli yesterday evening. it was a rollicking good time and such a pleasure to have our faith not ridiculed and instead treated respectfully. It was an ordinary run of the mill B action movie except for two major things. number one is that Denzel Washington was [...]

no man can serve two roles

James Ceaser has written a fascinating article about Barack Obama as the Leader of Humanity and the President of the United States. It is long but delicious. Combined with Jonah’s book it explains a lot of the disconnect that Peggy Noonan and Charles Krauthammer have been noticing. here is some of it regarding the intellectual [...]

james cameron’s intent

let’s ask the man what he intended with Avatar. my emphasis added below. the director with his star Zoe Saldana said that  “Avatar” — with its depiction of mineral exploitation on a distant planet and a cadre of trigger-happy mercenaries charged with instituting a scorched earth policy — is very much a political film. But [...]

retrospective on O’s first year

Peggy Noonan and Charles Krauthammer wrote pieces this week about Barack Obama’s first year as president and their view of what went wrong. Why did such a popular president crash so far in the polls so soon? Here is a small part of Ms. Noonan’s article that I think gets to the nub of it: [...]

Matt Chandler update

here is a video from Matt Chandler giving an update regarding his treatment and status. HT to numerous people on twitter.

fridai fotoes

It is so much fun to mess with depth of field. and sun rays. and grass flash and sun. Which one of these two? I think I like the less gold one better, but I am not sure.

Kay Bailey Hutchison on abortion

just now at the debate, Senator Hutchison ducked the question on whether she supports Roe v. Wade or not. She does. She has been explicit about her strong support for it in the past. Here she is in 1993: UPDATE: From Texas Alliance for Life [I]n 2003, [Hutchison] voted for a resolution that stated “‘It [...]

scott brown

I don’t know if a Republican can actually win in Massachusetts, but if one can, then Scott Brown looks like the one who can do it. I just love this advertisement: And I loved the debate the other night where he reminded David Gergen that this isn’t Ted Kennedy’s senate seat, it is the senate [...]

easily offended

Kevin DeYoung asks why are we always so offended all the time in this culture. I think he gets to the heart of the answer in this paragraph. For starters, being hurt is easier than being right. To prove you’re offended you just have to rustle up moral indignation and tell the world about it. [...]