An amazing potpourri of posts were submitted
for this week’s carnival. Jeremy
Pierce may regret inviting me to present, since I am not below above
adding my own two cents here and there. Enjoy.
Allen Scott presents The
Gambler at Journey across the Sky.
This is an argument against those who approach God with the immature faith of
Gideon of old. Thankfully, God seems to be able to work with even that level of
faith.
Wickle at A True Believer’s Weblog shares some thoughts about preachers, leaders, and
commentators who claim that they know why God does what He does in a post entitled
Speaking
for God.
Over at Chasing the Wind, a post argues that we are commanded to
witness, and the Holy Spirit will infuse us with power, but we are witnesses,
not the prosecution; the Holy Spirit will do the convicting.
At Clashing Culture, Mike asks
how we might be able to tell if a scientist is a Christian or not. His straightforward answer: Their scientific work product
will be silent on the matter; the best way to know is simply to ask or read
what they say about their religion. The answer sometimes works with the “hard”
sciences. But not even then if you talk to a theoretical physicist. To take
another example, it’s very hard to tell where Dawkins’ science ends and his
anti-religion begins.
In light of recent events in Texas, Pligchild
at FLDS View asks: How much
religion, and how much freedom, is guaranteed by the first amendment? Some of
us old-timers think that polygamy should not be guaranteed by that amendment. But
maybe we are trying to have it both ways.
Crystal Nichols at a Christian in the Corporate World
gives examples of how one might Turn
the World Upside Down based on biblical principles.
Chris at Homeward Bound gets down with
a post entitled A
Christian in a Lexus and other perplexing thoughts. He makes the
counter-cultural claim that the Gospel should actually impact our behavior as
consumers.
Tom Gilson at Thinking Christian talks about the danger of
going into the future without a firm stake in the past. The Lord’s Supper
gets him going.
Chad Gibbons at In a Gloomy Wood, Astray tells us The
Top 10 Reasons the Dispensationalist did not Cross the Road. Now that was
funny.
Nick at Ignite Her Passion describes what
marriage should be like from a complementarian point of view: a mutually
satisfying perfect circle. How long ya been married, Nick?
Mark Olson at the great and not so Pseudo Polymath has a thoughtful post
on the strange relationship of
Christian ethics to poverty.
Claudia Riley tells
it like it is when religion divides a family in two. Her Standing Straight blog is a
joy to read. As she notes, she see parables everywhere.
Annette at Fish and Cans has a poignant
post up about being a honorable person. She quotes scripture in a
hard-hitting paraphrase:
A gold pot used as a potty is not going to be used as a fruit dish now is
it?
For The Kids writes about how when
God closes the door, he opens a window, over at Reasonable Kansans. There are
reasonable Kansans? I didn’t know that. But I like the post better where the
author spouts
off about how religion courses in college are “a convoluted mess.” Hear
that, James McGrath?
Leticia Velasquez has a beautiful Happy
Birthday post up for her daughter Isabella. This fine Catholic blog was a
discovery for me. Thank you, Leticia!
Theresa Twogood of Olin E Publishing addresses the
age-old question: why is all
this stuff happening to me of all people?
Dave Lafferty of Dante Explorer gives us 10 Reasons
to Read Dante. A nice T. S. Eliot bon mot: “Dante and Shakespeare divide
the world between them - there is no third.” He needs to do a follow-up post
about what translation to read it in. There are some awful translations out
there. What a great blog you have, Dave!
Rodney Olsen
has a post up entitled Art or
Pornography? It’s hard not to agree with Rodney: it is better to err on the
side of censorship in a case like the one he cites.
Over at Double Barreled Opinions,
there is a reasoned
response to a anti-religious rant by Steve Pavlina.
Jeremy
Pierce looks at Ezekiel 3
and touches on the question of how hard human hearts can be. Isn’t that the
truth? In Isaiah 6, God takes responsibility for hardening human hearts. This
subject deserves further treatment.
My own submission: On
the Difference between Heaven and Purgatory.
The original blog carnival was the Carnival of the Vanities, and hosts for that often added their two cents. We've had Christian Carnival hosts do it on occasion. I usually resist and just comment on the posts I have something to say about, but that's more to be fair to all the posts and not single out some over others. It's not because commenting by hosts isn't allowed. It's usually the comments critical of a post that I'm especially resistant to putting in the carnival, and you seem to have commented positively, so I have no problem with it.
Posted by: Jeremy Pierce | June 04, 2008 at 08:23 PM
The primary purpose of a carnival I think is to have fun and thrilling time.
It's amazing how many thoughtful bloggers are out there.
Posted by: JohnFH | June 04, 2008 at 09:10 PM
Regarding your comment about Ignite Her Passion ending with "How long ya been married, Nick?" - LOL Yeah - I could see why you would say that.
The post describes the perfect circle in a marriage relationship as God designed marriage.
Unfortunately, we as human beings tend to mess things up quite a bit - nothing man gets involved in is perfect - including marriage - but we can try to get better and better with God's Word and His help.
To answer your question: 7 years and loving it. :o)
Posted by: Nick | June 04, 2008 at 10:59 PM
I wish you well, Nick.
One very common way for a marriage to be tested is through lack of mutual consideration. But the rubber hits the road in a marriage in all kinds of ways. In sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer . . . till death do us part.
I'm sure your readers will appreciate your reflections on handling a variety of crisis situations.
Posted by: JohnFH | June 05, 2008 at 07:29 AM
I am grateful that you included my post in the carnival, considering that I am the atheist at Clashing Culture (one more will be joining soon.) However, I resented the gratuitous anti-Dawkins comment at the end.
Dawkins is obviously poorly understood and his viewpoint is unfairly characterized among Christians. He only felt it necessary to step in with his scientific dissections of religion because the religious insist on supplementing "faith" with the position that it can be demonstrated. In The God Delusion and in The Blind Watchmaker he clearly demonstrated why such a position is foolish.
I think that many sectors, and not just the creationists invited such a book, and I find it rather ironic that the reaction to it was so strong and largely missed the point.
Thanks again!
Mike
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | June 06, 2008 at 08:43 PM
Mike,
I wish you well in your blogging. Dawkins elicits strong reactions for valid reasons. Anyone who dishes it out like he does must be ready to have it dished back at him.
Furthermore, his speculations about the nexus between the evolutionary process and human traits and proclivities are just that, speculation. But don't take my word for it: read around in the field of evolutionary biology, and you will discover that Dawkins' take on things is far from being considered the gospel truth.
He should not be taken too seriously.
Posted by: JohnFH | June 06, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Many thanks for hosting this week. I have a request, though; the links to "Chasing the Wind" are incorrect and lead to a "page not found." Can you correct them? The blog should be at http://chasingthewind.net and the post should be at http://chasingthewind.net/2008/06/01/empowered-to-witness/
Posted by: Michael | June 07, 2008 at 10:26 AM
Michael,
I'll fix it right now.
Posted by: JohnFH | June 07, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Thank you for posting my article. Wonderful site.
Regards,
Dave
Posted by: Dante Explorer | June 22, 2008 at 12:35 PM