Around The Horn – 5.06.10

How I Pastor My Family
Many people ask me, “What do ‘family devotions’ look like at your house?” or, “How do you pastor your family?” or even more simply, “Do you pray or read the Bible with your wife and children?” Here is one attempt to answer those questions.

How to Write an Awful Worship Song
The main point of your song should be your experiences and how God makes you feel. Don’t bother with objective truth about God. I would suggest that you use the words “I” or “me” at least 12-15 times. For example, “I feel like singing, yes I feel like spinning, because You make me feel so good inside. Like it’s my birthday, but more awesome.”

Race and Resentment
Recent stories out of both Philadelphia and San Francisco tell of black students beating up Asian American students. This is especially painful for those who expected that the election of Barack Obama would mark the beginning of a post-racial America.  While Obama’s winning the majority of the votes in overwhelmingly white states suggests that many Americans are ready to move beyond race, it is painfully clear that others are not.  Those who explain racial antagonisms on some rationalistic basis will have a hard time demonstrating how Asian Americans have made blacks worse off. Certainly none of the historic wrongs done to blacks was done by the small Asian American population who, for most of their history in this country, have not had enough clout to prevent themselves from being discriminated against.

A Mirror for the Human Race
In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty, urging Americans to come to the rescue of those who live “on the outskirts of hope.” Nearly 50 years later, Kristyn Ulanday and Max Esposito are on the case, and their tool of choice is a camera.

The Marginalization of Christians in the U.K.
I do think the church needs to wake up and, much more importantly, Bible-believing Christians need to wake up to what’s happening in the nation. We do need to gain our voice again. A friend of mine said he thought the church in the West generally was suffering from a lack of confidence. I’ve pondered that phrase and I think there’s a great deal of truth in it. You don’t find Christians in Asia, Africa and South America being afraid to use their voices.  I think we are becoming marginalised and too easily silenced when we need to with grace but with courage speak up for Jesus and we do so out of love for the society we are part of. We will do everything to win people for Jesus but we will defend to the death the right of others to exercise a different faith or a different way.

Bonhoeffer Stood Fast – Theology Has Consequences
Last month marked 65 years since the doomed Nazi regime hanged German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer on April 9, 1945. Christians across the theological spectrum continue to revere him. Some remember his advocacy for Jews, others his teaching on “costly grace,” and still more his aid to officers plotting to assassinate Adolf Hitler.  But his legacy has been disputed over time. Some have championed him as a post-Christian prophet of ethics that transcend confession. Pacifists claim Bonhoeffer because he expressed scruples about war and his help with killing a head of state, even one so evil as Hitler. Many evangelicals revere him as an opponent of “cheap grace,” champion of Life Together, and model of The Cost of Discipleship.

Oprah Struggles with Our ‘Spiritual’ Age
So, Oprah and the Style gods are saying that what Hunter did was absolutely wrong? By what standard? Might her behavior, and that of the candidate himself, even be called a “sin”? Is it always a sin to have sex with a person who is married to someone else? Where, precisely, does it say that? Who gets to articulate the exceptions to the rule?  Is the problem here that what Hunter did was tasteless and embarrassing? What, precisely, did “Miss Spirituality in Alignment With the Truth” do that was wrong, according to the commandments of OprahAmerica? She was following her own feelings, living out the experiences as they came to her. She was following her own path, just what Oprah adovcates, right?

Photo Gallery: Extreme Earth
Jacqui just subscribed to National Geographic.  I’m glad she did.