The discussion over the so-called single issue voter in this election cycle has certainly created tension within the church. The label describes a person who seemingly applies a litmus test on abortion to candidates to determine which candidate for whom they’ll be voting. A theologian and pastor I greatly respect, Greg Pinkner, argues that it is a prioritized issue rather than a single issue for voters. I’d excerpt his argument, but that would give away its brilliance. I strongly recommend you read it.
Category: Religion
Thank goodness for Global Warming!
Posted by – 4/5/08
It really seems to have helped stave off that grim reality. It might help us all to step back for a minute, read a short history of climate change histerics, and realize that Al Gore might go down in history for merely being a fiercely agenda-driven Nobel award winner. My prediction? We’ve already seen the media shift from the inconveniently rigid term “global warming” to the more flexible “climate change.” I’d put money down that within 5-10 years, we’ll see the media start touting the horrors that will befall us if our government fails to do something to combat the impending ice age.
Perhaps we need to think about this rationally. Historians can easily tell you about the mini ice age the world experienced between 1600 and 1900. And since then, we’ve gone back and forth on our predictions of doom. Might the Earth’s temperatures naturally fluctuate, regardless of the existence of man? And shouldn’t the fact that the media has issued no less than four dire warnings of alternating nature in a century tell us that even our own effect on nature is inconclusive? I think it’s about time we start thinking reasonably about it all. Of course we need to be good stewards of our environment. But when we start mindlessly legislating and subsidizing specific industries and fuels as the result of a movie? Stuff like this starts to happen to the rainforests. (And yes, that last article is published by the NY Times, one of the major pushers of every “climate change” scare. Hmm… perhaps they’re just in it for the sensational effect rather than solid journalism…)
A Resolution to the Belmont/TBC Fiasco
Posted by – 11/13/07
I received an email a half-hour ago from President Fisher of Belmont announcing the official end of the relationship between Belmont and the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Included in his email was a statement released by Belmont’s Board of Directors:
Belmont University is pleased to announce that it has reached a mutually agreeable settlement of all disputed claims with the Tennessee Baptist Convention. We believe that this resolution honors the many significant contributions that Tennessee Baptists have made to the University and upholds the teachings of Jesus Christ, whom we all seek to serve by ending litigation.
The settlement concludes a 56-year relationship between Belmont and the TBC and provides gifts by Belmont to Tennessee Baptists of $1,000,000 next year followed by annual payments of $250,000 for the next 40 years. These gifts are an expression of gratitude to Tennessee Baptists for the financial and spiritual support that they have provided to the University over the past five decades. The funds will be added to an endowment at the Tennessee Baptist Foundation to support Tennessee Baptist missions and ministries.
Approximately $4,900,000 in funds being held for Belmont by the Tennessee Baptist Foundation for the benefit of the University will be transferred to another trustee selected by Belmont. Of that amount, $1,500,000 represents funds which are subject to the terms of the settlement agreement between Belmont and the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
Belmont is grateful to the many Tennessee Baptists who have encouraged the University as it seeks to broaden its Christian mission by including on its Board of Trustees Christians who are members of churches affiliated with other denominations. The University will continue to be a student-focused, Christian community of learning and service with a rich Baptist heritage that we intend to foster and nurture through our ongoing relationships with local Baptist churches. That is our promise and our covenant.
Though Belmont is parting ways with the TBC, we trust that our shared history has provided important groundwork to achieve common goals of the Convention and the University, and that our futures will evidence this good work. Belmont is committed to its Christian mission and to cherishing its Baptist roots.
Marty Dickens
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
I’m glad to see the end of it. Earlier this year I went down with some 25 to 30 other Belmont students to protest the TBC’s actions (detailed in the post “I’m Not Jesus.”)
Of course, instead of the Tennessee Baptists winning a settlement like the hethens do, they’ve won mandatory gifts for 41 years from Belmont. How nice of Belmont. Nobody gives me mandatory gifts totalling $11 million. That’d be nice.
But it is definitely a positive to see them settle it out of court. May 2008 would’ve seen the case placed on the court docket with a judge determining the validity of the document signed between Belmont and the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 1951. Given the settlement, I’d say that document was valid enough for Belmont to want the case never to reach that judge.
There’s a great letter to the editor in a recent Baptist & Reflector (the newsjournal of the TBC), and once I get a copy of it in front of me, I’ll throw in a few quotes.
I always did like food references!
Posted by – 10/4/06
A lovely food analogy, using one of my favorite beverages, from The Refugee Baptist:
What we need is an officially endorsed Baptist coffee: Bitter enough for fundamentalists, smooth enough for moderates, and weak enough for liberals. Then we could get an “overwhelmingly” supported creamer from a B&R poll..short on substance, easy to write about, and luke-warm journalistically.
Scripture is Inerrant!
Posted by – 10/4/06
…except for that part about not suing fellow believers. From Burning Screams:
Even while directly contradicting its belief in the “inerrancy” of scripture by disobeying the command to not sue your Christian family, I find it ironic Belmont’s endowment is approximately the amount the SBC (sic) is asking.
In the case of a SBC victory, how many scholarships will be cut? How many programs will be lost? How many people will lose their job? But the truest question and maybe the only one that matters is how many non-Christians will be completely repulsed by this Baptist action of selfishness and greed. How many non-Christians on that campus will swear off Jesus Christ forever because of pettiness of the Christian church.
…instead, one Christian sues another–right in front of unbelievers! - 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 (NLT)
Seinfeld's Genius to a Whole New Level
Posted by – 4/29/06
I thought the writers of Seinfeld were all absolutely genius before, but this takes it to a whole new level. My buddy Dave calls me earlier today to let me know that he’d been doing some study in the Hebrew language (he’ll be going to Seminary in the fall), and came across a brilliant little jewel. The Hebrew word ‘yada’ is often used in reference to sexual relations between a man and a woman. So apparently, you really can ‘yada yada’ the best part.
Posted by – 4/17/06
Instapundit has a bit of a round-up on the Belmont blog scandal. As if Glenn Reynolds needs my assistance.
Michael Silence at my hometown newspaper, the Knoxville News Sentinel, notes that Bill Hobbs’ assassin might not really be able to handle the openness of the blogosphere.
God or the Girl
Posted by – 4/16/06
Caught the second episode of this tonight. The show is called “God or the Girl”, and it follows four young Catholic men as they’re trying to decide whether or not they’re called to the priesthood. It seems to be taking a positive look at the Catholic church, yet it’s not something that’s aired on a Catholic channel. Instead, it’s being promoted by A&E. It intrigues me. And I think that’s the whole point. In it, not of it. When you segregate your culture and give it its own channel, you take away your legitimacy. But when a mainstream network like A&E carries a show on God, people stop and take note.
Just a thought.
Surfs Up, Belmont
Posted by – 4/15/06
I’m still confused about the whole situation, but once again, Belmont makes waves in the blogosphere, and it’s for a nasty reason.
Update: All you could ever want to know about the Bill Hobbs story, thanks to Half-Bakered. And more. All for the children. And now, for some queries into how the trouble-maker’s employer might feel about Kopp himself.
Frustrated
Posted by – 12/4/05
Here I am, living in Nashville–the capital of Country and Christian music. And I’m just in another one of those moods. I’m sitting in church, actually, running sound for the youth program this fine Sunday mornin’. As the high-schoolers file in, I’m watching the music video playing on the screen. The pre-screened, fully-approved, sanitized music video. It’s a song called Apparitions of Melody by the band Kids in the Way, a group akin to bands like The Juliana Theory or Mae. Anyway, it’s not particularly incredible. What catches my attention, though, is that this is approved. Frankly, I’m glad it’s now accepted in the Christian mainstream, but I’m very disturbed by the reasoning behind its acceptance. The hardcore-, screamer-, emo-type music groups are accepted by Christian labels, not because Christians feel that these are people of worth with real talent and quality music, but because Christians realized that they can use bands like Kids in the Way to “reach” the unchurched emo kids. Really, they must know that anyone that doesn’t go to church isn’t going to pickup an album that screams rather inartistic lyrics about how there’s a guy out there that knows how they feel. Christian label executives surely know they are really marketing this stuff to parents of these kids, parents that don’t know what else to do but buy clean music that claims to safely replicate the music their kids already enjoy. Until they stumbled on this brilliant idea, those weirdo emo kids just made Christians uncomfortable, and we can’t have that in the Church.
If the purpose is to reach unchurched kids, then why is all the marketing done in-house? Why are there so many concerts inside church buildings? Why are new releases flooding our youth ministers’ desks? Why did it take Switchfoot making it to a secular label before their music really took off?
The concept is so transparent, it’s laughable. And everyone outside the Christian music bubble can see it coming a mile away, but it seems that no one inside the Christian music industry can figure out why “Christian Music” (as if music itself were somehow saved, rather than a person’s soul) is the joke of the entertainment industry.
It’s completely the wrong approach! The most heartfelt music is always that which is honest, sometimes even painfully so. The first time I heard Nickel Creek’s Doubting Thomas, it brought me to a place of intimacy with the artist, a feeling of common understanding, and then to a long moment of introspection. But that kind of song would never be allowed on a “Christian” album. Why? Because the artist is honest about his questioning of God. Yes, that’s powerful music. But it’s not safe. Out-of-touch parents wouldn’t approve, they wouldn’t buy it for their kids. It wouldn’t sell. Not to the Christian market.
Perhaps that’s one word that can sum up the Christian music industry: safety. It’s all about the music being safe, clean, and sanitized. And it cannot exist any other way, for it cannot survive.
“Is he safe?”
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver… “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis