Gluttony

Once again a call for government action to save us from ourselves. The evildoers are those who endeavor to discover what we like and then provide it. Once upon a time the responsibility for resisting temptation lay upon the one being tempted. No longer — we are all victims. Jacob Sullum reviews The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Diet, by David A. Kessler:

.... Kessler urges readers to eschew pasta, French fries, bacon cheeseburgers, candy, and other “hyperpalatable” foods that he and some people he interviewed for the book have trouble consuming in moderation. Kessler wants us to know he is powerless over chocolate-chip cookies and “those fried dumplings at the San Francisco airport.” Using himself and several similarly voracious acquaintances as models, he argues that “conditioned hypereating” is largely responsible for the “obesity epidemic.” He exhorts its victims to resist the machinations of the food industry, “the manipulator of the consumers’ minds and desires” (in the words of a “high-level food industry executive”).

Kessler fearlessly accuses major restaurant chains of a crime they brag about, relying on unnamed “insiders” to reveal that comestible pushers such as Cinnabon and The Cheesecake Factory deliberately make their food delicious — or, as he breathlessly puts it, “design food specifically to be highly hedonic.” Kessler certainly has the goods on the corporate conspiracy to serve people food they like. “We come up with craveable flavors, and the consumers come back, even days later,” a “research chef at Chili’s” confesses to him. Kessler also reveals that Nabisco lures Oreo eaters through a dastardly combination of sweet white filling and crunchy, bittersweet chocolate wafers, achieving “what’s called dynamic contrast.” Or maybe it’s “what the industry calls ‘dynamic novelty,’ ” as Kessler claims in another Oreo discussion elsewhere in the book. Either way, it’s so good it must be bad.

Not only do these sneaky bastards create irresistible food; they then turn around and tell people about it. “With its ability to create superstimuli, coupled with its marketing prowess, the industry has cracked the code of conditioned hypereating and learned exactly how to manipulate our eating behavior,” Kessler writes. “It has figured out the programming that gets us to pursue the food it wants to sell.” .... (more)

The Peril of Palatability - Reason Magazine

Conquest, crusade and jihad

The Muslims I know are peaceful people who are horrified by the kind of violence we witnessed this week. Whatever the killer's motivations, obviously he alone is responsible for his actions. There are those who argue that all Abrahamic religions inspire people to violence and that there is nothing unique about violent acts by an adherent of Islam. Anyone familiar with the history of Christendom certainly must acknowledge a lot of killing in the name of Christ. Raymond Ibrahim in The Middle East Quarterly asks "Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam?"

"There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur'an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam." So announces former nun and self-professed "freelance monotheist," Karen Armstrong. This quote sums up the single most influential argument currently serving to deflect the accusation that Islam is inherently violent and intolerant: All monotheistic religions, proponents of such an argument say, and not just Islam, have their fair share of violent and intolerant scriptures, as well as bloody histories. Thus, whenever Islam's sacred scriptures—the Qur'an first, followed by the reports on the words and deeds of Muhammad (the Hadith)—are highlighted as demonstrative of the religion's innate bellicosity, the immediate rejoinder is that other scriptures, specifically those of Judeo-Christianity, are as riddled with violent passages. ....

Therefore, before condemning the Qur'an and the historical words and deeds of Islam's prophet Muhammad for inciting violence and intolerance, Jews are counseled to consider the historical atrocities committed by their Hebrew forefathers as recorded in their own scriptures; Christians are advised to consider the brutal cycle of violence their forbears have committed in the name of their faith against both non-Christians and fellow Christians. In other words, Jews and Christians are reminded that those who live in glass houses should not be hurling stones. ....

Old Testament violence is an interesting case in point. God clearly ordered the Hebrews to annihilate the Canaanites and surrounding peoples. Such violence is therefore an expression of God's will, for good or ill. Regardless, all the historic violence committed by the Hebrews and recorded in the Old Testament is just that—history. It happened; God commanded it. But it revolved around a specific time and place and was directed against a specific people. At no time did such violence go on to become standardized or codified into Jewish law. In short, biblical accounts of violence are descriptive, not prescriptive.

This is where Islamic violence is unique. Though similar to the violence of the Old Testament—commanded by God and manifested in history—certain aspects of Islamic violence and intolerance have become standardized in Islamic law and apply at all times. Thus, while the violence found in the Qur'an has a historical context, its ultimate significance is theological. Consider the following Qur'anic verses, better known as the "sword-verses":

Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way. Fight those who believe not in God and the Last Day, and do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden – such men as practice not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book – until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled.

[click on the map for a larger version]

As with Old Testament verses where God commanded the Hebrews to attack and slay their neighbors, the sword-verses also have a historical context. God first issued these commandments after the Muslims under Muhammad's leadership had grown sufficiently strong to invade their Christian and pagan neighbors. But unlike the bellicose verses and anecdotes of the Old Testament, the sword-verses became fundamental to Islam's subsequent relationship to both the "people of the book" (i.e., Jews and Christians) and the "idolaters" (i.e., Hindus, Buddhists, animists, etc.) and, in fact, set off the Islamic conquests, which changed the face of the world forever. ....

.... The Crusades were a counterattack on Islam—not an unprovoked assault as Armstrong and other revisionist historians portray. Eminent historian Bernard Lewis puts it well,

Even the Christian crusade, often compared with the Muslim jihad, was itself a delayed and limited response to the jihad and in part also an imitation. But unlike the jihad, it was concerned primarily with the defense or reconquest of threatened or lost Christian territory. It was, with few exceptions, limited to the successful wars for the recovery of southwest Europe, and the unsuccessful wars to recover the Holy Land and to halt the Ottoman advance in the Balkans. The Muslim jihad, in contrast, was perceived as unlimited, as a religious obligation that would continue until all the world had either adopted the Muslim faith or submitted to Muslim rule. … The object of jihad is to bring the whole world under Islamic law.

Moreover, Muslim invasions and atrocities against Christians were on the rise in the decades before the launch of the Crusades in 1096. The Fatimid caliph Abu 'Ali Mansur Tariqu'l-Hakim (r. 996-1021) desecrated and destroyed a number of important churches—such as the Church of St. Mark in Egypt and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem—and decreed even more oppressive than usual decrees against Christians and Jews. Then, in 1071, the Seljuk Turks crushed the Byzantines in the pivotal battle of Manzikert and, in effect, conquered a major chunk of Byzantine Anatolia presaging the way for the eventual capture of Constantinople centuries later. ....

.... However one interprets these wars—as offensive or defensive, just or unjust—it is evident that they were not based on the example of Jesus, who exhorted his followers to "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." Indeed, it took centuries of theological debate, from Augustine to Aquinas, to rationalize defensive war—articulated as "just war." Thus, it would seem that if anyone, it is the Crusaders—not the jihadists—who have been less than faithful to their scriptures (from a literal standpoint); or put conversely, it is the jihadists—not the Crusaders—who have faithfully fulfilled their scriptures (also from a literal standpoint). Moreover, like the violent accounts of the Old Testament, the Crusades are historic in nature and not manifestations of any deeper scriptural truths. .... [references are included in the much longer original article which can be found here. The map is from this site.]

Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam? :: Middle East Quarterly

"The heart that never talks to God..."

Kevin DeYoung on how "Prayerlessness is Unbelief":

.... Too often when we struggle with prayer we focus on the wrong things. We focus on praying better instead of focusing on knowing better the one to whom we pray. We focus on our need for discipline rather than our need for God. Almost all of us want to pray more frequently, and yet our lives seem too disordered. ....

.... You need to think to yourself: “Tomorrow is another day that I need God. I need to know him. I need forgiveness. I need help. I need protection. I need deliverance. I need patience. I need courage. Therefore, I need prayer.”

If you know you are needy and believe that God helps the needy, you will pray. Conversely, if we seldom pray, the problem goes much deeper than a lack of organization and follow through. The heart that never talks to God is the heart that trusts in itself and not in the power of God. Prayerlessness is unbelief. .... [more]

Prayerlessness is Unbelief – Kevin DeYoung

The Reason for God

White Horse Inn presents an interview with Tim Keller about The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism:

How can we believe in God when there is so much evil and suffering in the world? Isn't it arrogant to insist that Christianity is the only true religion? These questions and more will be addressed on this edition of the White Horse Inn as Tim Keller joins the panel to discuss his New York Times bestselling book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

(click on The Reason for God below to listen to the interview)  

White Horse Inn

"Life not worth living"

Notoriously, the Nazis initiated a program to "euthanize" the disabled and mentally retarded. Today that is the justification for many abortions. In Britain, it may soon be the justification for killing children that have survived birth. Not long ago, Western society discouraged people from acting on the belief that they themselves were better off dead. Now we are very close to the point — at least for the elderly and disabled — of deciding for them. Wesley J. Smith:

Most contested cases of removing babies or profoundly disabled adults from needed life support have involved those with serious brain injuries or cognitive impairments. But once the idea that dead is better than disabled takes hold, it will soon spread to those with physical disabilities.

Now, in the UK, parents are fighting over withdrawing life support from a seriously disabled one-year-old child who is cognitively normal. From the story:

The mother of a chronically ill baby has defended her court battle with the child’s father to have his life support machine turned off. The boy, known only as RB, has congenital myasthenic syndrome, a rare neuromuscular condition that severely limits limb movement and the ability to breathe independently. He has been hospitalized since birth. Doctors want to take the 1-year-old off a ventilator, which helps him breathe, but the boy’s father, who is separated from his mother, opposes the plan. If the trust wins, it would be the first time a British court has ruled against the wishes of a parent whose child does not suffer from brain damage. .... [more]

UK Court to Rule Whether Baby Better Off Dead Than Disabled » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog

Faith comes by hearing

Kevin DeYoung explains why there are so many words in worship. In fact, he gives twenty-five reasons.

Knowing how to learn is no substitute for learning

Those who suffer the most from public education's deficiencies are the ones whose parents and home environment cannot compensate and who have no alternatives. They, especially, deserve good public schools. "E.D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy" by Sol Stern, from City Journal describes an important part of the solution. If you are an educator, as I was, the issues discussed in the article will be depressingly familiar. If you are the parent of young children, homeschooling may come to seem much more attractive.

The “Massachusetts miracle,” in which Bay State students’ soaring test scores broke records, was the direct consequence of the state legislature’s passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act, which established knowledge-based standards for all grades and a rigorous testing system linked to the new standards. And those standards, Massachusetts reformers have acknowledged, are Hirsch’s legacy. If the Obama administration truly wants to have a positive impact on American education, it should embrace Hirsch’s ideas and urge other states to do the same.

The "Hirsch" referred to is E.D. Hirsch, author of Cultural Literacy, and now The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools, about educational reform. His conclusions have been actively resisted by the educational establishment, who are guilty of doing a great deal of damage.

By the time Hirsch turned his attention to education reform in the mid-1980s, Romanticism’s triumph was complete. Most public schools, for instance, taught reading through the “whole language” method, which encourages children to guess the meaning of words through context clues rather than to master the English phonetic code. In many schools, a teacher could no longer line up children’s desks in rows facing him; indeed, he found himself banished entirely from the front of the classroom, becoming a “guide on the side” instead of a “sage on the stage.” In my children’s elementary school, students in the early grades had no desks at all but instead sat in circles on a rug, hoping to re-create the “natural” environment that education progressives believed would facilitate learning. In the 1970s and 1980s, progressive education also absorbed the trendy new doctrines of multiculturalism, postmodernism (with its dogma that objective facts don’t exist), and social-justice teaching. More powerfully than any previous critic, Hirsch showed how destructive these instructional approaches were. The idea that schools could starve children of factual knowledge, yet somehow encourage them to be “critical thinkers” and teach them to “learn how to learn,” defied common sense. But Hirsch also summoned irrefutable evidence from the hard sciences to eviscerate progressive-ed doctrines. .... The pedagogy that mainstream scientific research supported, Hirsch showed, was direct instruction by knowledgeable teachers who knew how to transmit their knowledge to students—the very opposite of what the progressives promoted.

An elementary school principal in my former school district instituted direct instruction with resulting great success on the part of her students. There was resistance, she was soon gone, and the school reverted to its previous ineffectiveness.

Hirsch’s theories, long merely persuasive, now have solid empirical backing in Massachusetts’s miraculous educational reforms. ....

There may be some reason for hope:

Perhaps the time isn’t too far off when Hirsch’s optimism will be vindicated. There’s a tantalizing hint of that possibility on the dust jacket of The Making of Americans. Original Core Knowledge supporter Diane Ravitch offers praise for the book, but two of the other blurbers are more surprising: Randi Weingarten, the newly installed president of the million-member American Federation of Teachers, and Joel Klein, chancellor of the nation’s largest school district. Usually, you hear those two names spoken in the same breath only when they’re in contention. Last month, moreover, Klein unfurled the results of a study that compared ten city schools using the Core Knowledge reading program with schools using other curricula. The Core Knowledge kids achieved progress at a rate that was “more than five times greater,” Klein said, heaping praise on the program. (more)

E. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy by Sol Stern, City Journal Autumn 2009

Not about a mythic me

Bob, who blogs at Wilderness Fandango, has been looking for a church and believes he may have found one. He explains an important aspect of his recent experience worshiping there:

...[I]t felt good to sing worship songs that were not about a mythic me loving God with all my heart forever and ever because I've totally surrendered, etc. Instead, the lyrics described the human condition realistically, and therefore emphasized our need for God, because our hearts are an undependable wreckage; God is the one of whom to use terms like "forever" and "totally." Ourselves, definitely not. And it's no small point. From faulty premises are derived faulty conclusions.

The message (on Genesis 13) started from the same understanding of the human situation. The preacher preached the Gospel, hard. I'm telling you, it was clear that he was tracking toward Jesus right from the start. The human predicament, self-will leading us to mess things up again and again, but the grace of God in Christ being bigger than all my sin. The Gospel!

The new Gnosticism

Lars Walker, commenting on disagreement about the authority of Scripture arising from the recent ELCA controversies:

It occurs to me that what we're seeing today in Christian liberalism is a new form of Gnosticism—a Gnostic heresy, if you will. The old Gnostics believed in a secret knowledge that was hidden from the unenlightened masses, and made them superior. The new Gnostics believe in a revelation which is secret in the sense of being personal—“I have my God who speaks to me things He/She might not say to you. However, for me, my revelation is authoritative, and nobody has any right to criticize it.”

This new kind of secret religion is open admission, however. Instead of a small core of enlightened masters, everyone is now an enlightened master.

Except for conservatives, of course. Conservatives are just wrong. And hateful. .... [more]

Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments: Egalitarian Gnosticism?

Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land

Michael Mckinley at The Church Matters blog provides information about a very good hymn new to me set to very good music new to just about everyone:

For the celebration of Mark [Dever's] 15th anniversary at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, his wife Connie wrote a new tune to "The Sands of Time Are Sinking." It's one of Mark's favorite hymns and he's often remarked that he wants it sung at his funeral. There aren't a lot of very good tunes for the words, but Connie has written a beautiful one.

The video is from the Church Matters site, as is the route to a downloadable pdf of the words and music.

  The sands of time are sinking, The dawn of Heaven breaks;  The summer morn I’ve sighed for, The fair, sweet morn awakes:  Dark, dark hath been the midnight, But dayspring is at hand,  And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.   The King there in His beauty, Without a veil is seen:  It were a well spent journey, though seven deaths lay between: The Lamb with His fair army, Doth on Mount Zion stand, And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.   O Christ, He is the fountain, The deep, deep well of love,  The streams on earth I've tasted, More deep I'll drink above, There to an ocean fullness, His mercy doth expand, And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land.   With mercy and with judgment My web of time He wove,  And aye the dews of sorrow were lustred with His love, I'll bless the hand that guided, I'll bless the heart that planned, When throned where glory dwelleth, in Immanuel's land.   O! I am my Beloved’s And my Beloved’s mine!  He brings a poor vile sinner Into His “house of wine.” I stand upon His merit, I know no other stand, Not even where glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.   The Bride eyes not her garments, but her dear Bridegroom’s face;   I will not gaze at glory but on my King of Grace. Not at the crown He giveth, But on His pierced hand; The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.
Church Matters: What to Sing at Mark Devers Funeral

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day

A hymn most appropriate for All Saints' Day is noted at Conjubilant With Song which provides all the verses to "For All the Saints." Below are the verses [some of them modified] sung above to Ralph Vaughan Williams's SINE NOMINE ["without name"], perhaps referring to all those saints whose names are not remembered on earth:

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to God, the Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

John Mark Reynolds, whose great aunt just died, writes:

.... Many suffered and all died, but none were forgotten by God. All of them passed from the horrible moment of death to His presence. They struggled and gasped and then they were at rest forever ... not the cold unfeeling rest of physical death, but the vibrant life of souls awaiting a second life and a new body. They throb with the music of the spheres and the future triumph of King Jesus is obvious to them.

There is no doubt in one dead man that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We struggle in this life and we strive and we hope and we plan ... and we exhaust ourselves in politics, business, and religious activity, but an end will come. Our striving is often lonely, but we are never alone. ....

Death is a reminder that for a Christian there is a community formed that is indifferent to time. We are surrounded by an ever growing multitude of those who know, who have set aside all doubt, and who rejoice in an imminent victory that they can see.

I am not alone.

You are not alone.

There is hope, because someone, some hundreds of thousands probably, have faced worse and gone one to victory. God’s grace is sufficient and the ever growing band of victorious Christians is to His glory and honor. We never are alone in our struggle, because millions of brothers and sisters are done with their labor and wait for us to join them.

Glory to God! .... [more]

Conjubilant With Song: The Feast of All Saints, Never Alone: All Saints » Evangel | A First Things Blog

Reformation Day

Tomorrow, October 31, is the anniversary of that day in 1517 when Luther nailed his theses to the church door, now observed in many Protestant churches as Reformation Day. The Wittenberg Door reminds us why the Reformation matters:

The basic doctrine of the Reformers was that the Bible is our only infallible rule of faith and practice. Not the pope, not human tradition, not church councils, but the Word of God must be our final court of appeal in matters of belief and conduct. This soul-liberating truth needs fresh emphasis in every generation.

Another doctrine rediscovered in the Reformation was justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Our salvation can depend on nothing except the perfect righteousness of Christ. The means of laying hold of the perfect righteousness is faith. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,” Paul says, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Without this truth there is no gospel, no good news for sinners.

Another truth stemming from the Protestant Reformation is the universal priesthood of believers. We depend on no priest or minister for our access to Almighty God. Jesus is the “high priest whom we confess.” Only through him do we have the right of direct access into the presence of a holy God. .... [more]

The Wittenberg Door: The Reformation

The dead shall be raised

My mother, at 98 the last of eight siblings - six brothers and a sister, has a favorite hymn: "When We All Get to Heaven." I was reminded of her and it by John Mark Reynolds's post "Not Afraid of the Dead" at Evangel — partly because of his reference to West Virginia of which she is a native, and her church there which, like many older churches, is next to its graveyard.

.... Christianity has never been afraid of the dead. In my homeland of West Virginia many a country church is near a graveyard. Families can arrive at the church to hear the Gospel while passing by those family members who have “gone before.” We were not afraid of the dead, we honor them, and I remember family picnics held in lovely old grave yards. ....

Funerals were sad when I was growing up, but also hopeful. “Her next waking thought will be with Jesus...” the pastor would say and so while we mourned for our loss, we rejoiced in her gain. We could honor the corpse, because it had once housed her soul and would do so again! ....

I rejoice that some sweet day: “The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend” even so it is well with my soul! [more]

Not Afraid of the Dead » Evangel | A First Things Blog

Bias

Mark Bauerlein on "The Research on Ideological Bias" in the college classroom:

As we know, one of the primary positions in discussions of discrimination today is "disparate outcomes." The argument says that if a body such as a police force, an entering freshman class, country club members, etc. has a disproportionately low representation of any identity group, then discrimination is at work. It may not operate on the surface, and it may not happen through the actions of any particular individual, but the fact that, say, only 3 percent of the group is African American reveals bias.

What about the disparate-outcomes argument in ideological cases, then? If a college faculty has only an eight-percent conservatives make-up, doesn't that call for an investigation, a committee, a task force? It certainly happens when other identity groups are under-represented.

Another defense says, "Well, sure, most profs lean to the left, but that doesn't mean they bring their politics into the classroom."

But this claim runs against thinking in the humanities that has dominated for 50 years. It says that political and ideological commitments run deep, that they are often unconscious, that the assumption that we are able to suspend them is an Enlightenment myth, that "the political" is everywhere, that buried ideological premises shape so many things we take for granted that we don't realize their workings...

Many of the responses to Bauerlein in the comments illustrate the problem. Needless [I hope] to say, the solution isn't affirmative action for conservatives, but a self-conscious refusal by professors to insist on conformity to their views, and the fair presentation of intellectually respectable alternatives [which requires the acknowledgment that such exist].

Brainstorm - The Research on Ideological Bias - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"And the evening and the morning..."

At Evangel, David Wayne provides the complete text of a tract by Steve Carl that explains the origin of Halloween and its alleged pagan associations. In the course of doing so, he explains something about the biblical reckoning of a "day" that has been largely forgotten:

The festivities traditionally began the night before, because until recent times both Jews and Christians began their day at dusk. This is not the result of culture or superstition, but because God made them that way (”… and the evening and the morning, were the first day”, etc.). So, to the early Church the evening of a Saturday, for instance, was the night before, not the night after — Saturday began with Saturday-evening (what you and I would call Friday night). In fact, what we call “Christmas Eve” today, was originally the evening of/before Christmas-Day. The same is true of New Year’s Eve. Similarly, the Hallowed Day began with the “Hallowed Even’,” which was ultimately contracted to the “Hallowe’en” we know today. Today, we still begin our celebration on the evening before – what appears on our calendars as October 31.

Halloween Schmalloween » Evangel | A First Things Blog

Bobbing along on the waters of ignorance

In a column contending for the legitimacy of historical fiction, a celebrated practitioner, Hilary Mantel, also makes a case for knowing some history:

.... It is true that in the days when statesmen and generals learned history (probably tables of kings and queens by rote) they were not conspicuously good at avoiding the errors of their predecessors; each turn of events seemed to strike them with the force of novelty and, startled, they would proceed to cock it up all over again. Henry Ford's contention that "history is more or less bunk" is perhaps not as crass a statement as it is often taken to be, because a good deal of what we think we know about the past is unverified tradition and unexamined prejudice. Tables of kings and queens, though not very useful, are at least verifiable, but no one learns that kind of history any more, and much of what we retain about the past is a collection of factoids, received opinions and accumulated moral judgments. This argues for better history, rather than less history. To try to engage with the present without engaging with the past is to live like a dog or cat rather than a human being; it is to bob along on the waters of egotism, solipsism and ignorance.

History offers us vicarious experience. It allows the youngest student to possess the ground equally with his elders; without a knowledge of history to give him a context for present events, he is at the mercy of every social misdiagnosis handed to him. .... [more]

Booker winner Hilary Mantel on historical fiction | Books | The Guardian

"If you love me..."

J.D. Greear on why the word “enough,” as in "have I done enough?" is the enemy of the Gospel:

.... Legalism has two unmistakable marks: pride in those who feel like they live up to the standard or guilt-complexes in those who don’t. The Gospel creates neither. The Gospel is not about how much you give, or whether or not you die, or if you adopt, or if you go overseas, the Gospel is about a heart of love that does things simply and freely in response to what God has done for us.

“Not under compulsion” is one of Paul’s favorite phrases in the context of generosity. The word “enough” is its own type of compulsion. The Gospel is not about any response that is “enough”; the Gospel is about the free response of love flowing from gratefulness for the sacrifice of Christ which set us completely free.

The Gospel is not about what we are to go and do for God, but about what He has done for us. There are only two ways to approach God… one says, “I’ll obey some standard, and because of that I’ll be accepted.” The other says “I’ve been accepted by what Christ has done for me, and I love in response. .... [more]

The word “enough” is the enemy of the Gospel « Between The Times

Screwtape

I once before noted that Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre was producing a recording of The Screwtape Letters. It is now available for order on CDs [with a DVD], with delivery in time for Christmas. From the site:

A dramatic twist on a diabolical comedy. This series of recordings chronicle the cunning advice of a world-wise demon to his novice apprentice Wormwood — who's been tasked with securing the eternal damnation and everyday demise of his human "patient."

Produced on location in England, Radio Theatre's The Screwtape Letters stars Andy Serkis ("Gollum" from The Lord of the Rings films) as Screwtape, and features Douglas Gresham (stepson of C.S. Lewis) as host. The production includes four audio CDs, 10 songs inspired by the book and a bonus DVD with video featurettes on the making of the drama, actor interviews and more.

The DVD accompanying the CDs includes this description of the Inklings:

The Screwtape Letters

All Hallows’ Eve

As Halloween approaches it is useful for the more excitable among us to be reminded that the Evil One has already been defeated. From "Concerning Halloween" by James B. Jordan:

.... "Halloween" is simply a contraction for All Hallows’ Eve. The word "hallow" means "saint," in that "hallow" is just an alternative form of the word "holy" ("hallowed be Thy name"). All Saints’ Day is November 1. It is the celebration of the victory of the saints in union with Christ. The observance of various celebrations of All Saints arose in the late 300s, and these were united and fixed on November 1 in the late 700s. The origin of All Saints Day and of All Saints Eve in Mediterranean Christianity had nothing to do with Celtic Druidism or the Church’s fight against Druidism (assuming there ever even was any such thing as Druidism, which is actually a myth concocted in the 19th century by neo-pagans.) ....

The Biblical day begins in the preceding evening, and thus in the Church calendar, the eve of a day is the actual beginning of the festive day. Christmas Eve is most familiar to us, but there is also the Vigil of Holy Saturday that precedes Easter Morn. Similarly, All Saints’ Eve precedes All Saints’ Day.

The concept, as dramatized in Christian custom, is quite simple: On October 31, the demonic realm tries one last time to achieve victory, but is banished by the joy of the Kingdom.

What is the means by which the demonic realm is vanquished? In a word: mockery. Satan’s great sin (and our great sin) is pride. Thus, to drive Satan from us we ridicule him. This is why the custom arose of portraying Satan in a ridiculous red suit with horns and a tail. Nobody thinks the devil really looks like this; the Bible teaches that he is the fallen Arch-Cherub. Rather, the idea is to ridicule him because he has lost the battle with Jesus and he no longer has power over us. ....

Similarly, on All Hallows’ Eve (Hallow-Even – Hallow-E’en – Halloween), the custom arose of mocking the demonic realm by dressing children in costumes. Because the power of Satan has been broken once and for all, our children can mock him by dressing up like ghosts, goblins, and witches. The fact that we can dress our children this way shows our supreme confidence in the utter defeat of Satan by Jesus Christ – we have NO FEAR! .... (more)

Biblical Horizons » Concerning Halloween

Dying churches

S.M. Hutchens reflects on his own experience with a church on its last legs and argues that although the end may be inevitable, it is often handled very badly:

.... As a former pastor of a dying church, I feel quite strongly that such congregations should be allowed to die—that they, just like human beings, when they see the signs of impending death, need to take reasonable steps to dissolve in an orderly and peaceful way. None should be assumed to last forever, and it may also be assumed that if God wanted them to keep going, he could easily and quickly supply the necessary resources, just as he could give any of us, if he chose, a greatly extended life span. But as a rule he does not—in fact, he endorses happenings that lead us to death. He expects us, when we are able, to make our preparations, and die well.

I wonder, however, how often this happens. The congregational "denial" phases I have heard of are usually extended and painful. Every other member seems to have an idea for a silly nostrum that will help keep the church going, and will be angry at their fellows for pointing out its obvious flaws. There will be charges and counter-charges about whose fault it is, and discussions, often acrimonious, of what might have been done in the past so this state of affairs would not have been reached.

There are always those who see the setbacks that have led to this point as tests of "faith"—specifically, the faith that this church, if everybody just believes, and pulls together, will survive, because God really wants it to—how, indeed, could he not, since we like it? .... [more]

Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments: Growing Churches