Christian Carnival CCXLII

The Christian Carnival is a weekly collection of some of the best posts of the Christian blogosphere. It's open to Christians of Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic convictions. To be included, you are supposed to submit a post from the past week for consideration. Below the fold, I introduce the posts submitted in the last few days, and a few others as well.

Jeremy Pierce discusses Palin and God’s Will. Some of the criticism of Sarah Palin has involved her view of God's will, a view that is very common among Christians of most stripes but is being misinterpreted as a much more extreme view. Over at Brain Cramps for God, another Sarah Palin post. If the Christian blogosphere is any guide, the all-out attempt by some to destroy the credibility of Sarah Palin is having a boomerang effect.

Rodney Olsen asks the question: Can a deed be so dark that there's no pardon or forgiveness from God? Go here.

Many excellent Christian bloggers do not submit entries to the carnival. A Catholic blogger evangelicals and other non-Catholics would do well to read: Mike Aquilina. Here is an excellent post about How the Byzantine Tradition reads the Bible.  

Christian self-help sites are a dime a dozen. ProsperingServant offers advice on how to go from a layoff to an amazing job. Here is another example, from New Zealand and not overtly Christian: How to be a hero.  

Fish and Cans looks at a passage that never ceases to fascinate: Genesis 1:1-2. Claudia in Hawaii has a moving post entitled It Ain’t Easy (with a beautiful photo).

Can God be Lonely? That’s the title of a post on a site that should get an award for catchy titles, like “She Touched Me,” and “Make More Money Fast.” The last title probably describes the goals of the blog fairly well.

Michael Mole asks a very interesting question: What is the most important thing to God? Our happiness? Our holiness? Prayer? Bible study? Saving sinners? Check out his answer here.

Yvette Nietzen comments on James 1:22 and the importance of being doers of the word, not hearers only.

Brian Niece is posting on Psalms 1 and 2. His blog is an interesting example of the appropriation of academic research on the Bible by an educated public.

Study Bibles are a hot topic right now. Check out Henry Neufeld’s comparison of NLTSB, NISB, and NOAB on Exodus 15:1-21 here.

This post touches on the topic of whether torture should ever be a legal or extra-legal option in the hands of the state. According to a poll to which the post links, Americans are evenly divided on the issue, whereas evangelicals by a majority ( – along with Alan Dershowitz, I might add – ) think torture needs to be, as I would phrase it, safe (not causing permanent bodily injury to the tortured) and rare (a last resort).

Screwtape is back!! And he ( AKA Raffi Shahinian, love that name) has a few thoughts on Emerging/Emergent over at Parables of a Prodigal World right here.

Drew of Notes from Off-Center notes the fallacy of casually ignoring the processes by which social structures, traditions, and systems of belief inform and create one’s understanding of Truth as revealed in the Bible. He also takes Hector Avalos to task for falsely claiming that the Bible is not “uniquely vital and essential for Christianity and the American religious life.” Go here.

Why are Christians so worried about the Large Hadron Collider? Two reasons why they shouldn't be, right here at Gladio Mentis – Sword of the Mind.

Ronnica of Tale of a Kansas Girl says I Choose Thankfulness. Barbara of Tidbits and Treasures has a post entitled Troubles Hampering Your Life?

If I missed noting your post in my terrible haste, let me know.

Comments

[J. K. Gayle]

If the Christian blogosphere is any guide, the all-out attempt by some to destroy the credibility of Sarah Palin is having a boomerang effect.

John, Thanks for this Christian Carnival. Don't want to sidetrack it at all, but read the line you wrote here twice, wondering... how the boomerang keeps turning. Some who don't so easily claim Christianity are rather turned off by the Christian-right-wing-politics march. If the feminist blogosphere is any guide (and warning, some of this is not very nice at all; I mean the stuff some feminists are reporting about the sexism), then there's another tide:
http://www.feministing.com/archives/011083.html
http://www.feministing.com/archives/011077.html
http://www.feministing.com/archives/011082.html
http://girlwithpen.blogspot.com/2008/09/polar-bear-moms-against-palin.html

[JohnFH]

It is well-known, Kurk, that many of the historic secular feminist organizations aligned themselves with the Democratic party decades ago and expect it now to advance its causes in exchange for unwavering support.

That NOW and other organizations support Barack Obama is not surprising at all and is not the result of a boomerang effect following Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy on the ticket of a party that "true-blue" feminists love to hate.

The politically partisan nature of organizations like NOW is just one of many reasons why the number of women (and men) who self-identify as feminists is in decline and is nowhere near to being a majority.

Politics is a second-order issue by definition I would think, something that Christians and everyone else ought to be able to disagree about without breaking fellowship. I have many avid Republicans and many avid Democrats among my friends, Christian and otherwise. Some of them are splendid examples of a caring human being; some are not.

Guess what? There is no correlation whatsoever between being a caring human being and party identification.

I think of you, Kurk, as a very caring person. Still, I have the same opinion of Sarah Palin. Fancy that.

I think Sarah is better qualified to be a politician than you or I are, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

[J. K. Gayle]

Thanks for your kindness, John; and your kind words. The human labels (i.e., "Christian" and "feminist" and so forth) are dicey, but I couldn't agree with you more that "There is no correlation whatsoever between being a caring human being and party identification."

[phuckpolitics]

Thanks for including my blog on the carnival.

[JohnFH]

Yeah, well, I almost didn't, Mr. pp, because your blog's name is kind of stale in my book. But no one's perfect, so I overlooked that.

[brianniece]

Thanks for the include in the carnival. I've gleaned a lot from your blog in the last few weeks since I stumbled on it.

Thanks for your scholarship.

[Jeremy Pierce]

John, thanks for hosting. I'm exhausted and need to sleep, but I wanted to point out that the Roman numeral for this post is wrong. The X should be before the L for 242.

[JohnFH]

I'll fix that, Jeremy. Haste makes waste.

[Claudia]

Thanks for including me, even though I was a bit late. I've enjoyed your mind-boggling blog.