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Is the Age of Entitlement Over?
A column by Thomas Friedman thinks so. Friedman is a great observer of American culture. In his view, we truly have reached lean times when residents of a county have to think about paying for a 911 call. They can pay a flat fee per year, or a huge fee per call. So many things we just simply take for…
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We Don’t Need Apostasy
We just need boredom. Our enemy is not interested in our utter rejection of the gospel if we are simply bored with our Christianity. I ran across this great C.S. Lewis quote from The Screwtape Letters: If you can once get him to the point of thinking that “all religion is all very well up to a point,” you can…
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Hurting the Poor
Usually it’s the Republicans who are bashed for hurting the poor. It turns out the Democrats are equal opportunity cutthroats as well. Note this: Once again, politics prevails; the poor and downtrodden are forced to bow before the vested interests. No wonder there’s a surging populist revolt in America. No wonder the ordinary, hard-working American taxpayer is offended by the…
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The Truth Just Hardly Matters at Times
This video from ABC shows what has been suspected for 9 years. The Peruvian air force shot down missionaries in cold blood with the CIA watching. The U.S. has known about this all along and did nothing back in 2001. It just gives the rotten feeling that missionaries don’t matter.
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Marketing and the Church
I get into debates with myself over what is “marketing” for the church. What “counts” vs. what “doesn’t count,” etc. But then I read articles like this one and just get sick. The article begins like this: In the back room of a theater on Beale Street, John Renken, 42, a pastor, recently led a group of young men in…
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Monday Thoughts
Some great thought-provoking posts and articles are surfacing this Monday. Bill Mounce over at Koinonia has some thoughts on the Ted Haggard situation. His big question is: “Why was Haggard removed from his church? Why were they not allowed to at least attend?” He readily admits he doesn’t know the entire situation, but he asks the question anyway. I find…
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Thoughts on Character
One of my greatest challenges, personally, is doing what I know to do at the best of my ability… when it’s not noticed. As a pastor, I must do ministry well, though I receive no award because I don’t have huge numbers, big buildings, or large budgets. Just pastor people well. As a teacher, I must teach well. I have…
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Why I Must be Prophetic
One of the tough lessons I am not learning very well over these past few years is the prophetic call of the Church. I can talk a good game, but I don’t act on it very well. Confession time. I’m a political junkie. I try and avoid it here, but if you follow me on Facebook, I’m full of it.…
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Faith in the Public Square
Apparently Brit Hume stepped into a firestorm a week ago on a news show. He recommended that Tiger Woods actually consider Christianity. Since that time, Hume has apparently been vilified all over the media and blogososphere. This column pointed out some of the fallout, then raised the idea that maybe we should, indeed, talk about faith. One of the main…
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Does Capitalism Do Better With an Enemy?
There is a new book, among many to come, discussing the current financial collapse. This paragraph of the review stuck out to me: Once upon a time in America and Britain, he observes, “the jet engine of capitalism was harnessed to the ox cart of social justice, to much bleating from the advocates of pure capitalism, but with the effect…
Category: Culture
