I know one of the old broadcast networks uses, "Must See TV" as their slogan (at least they did last time I watched). However, these are two truly must-see films. One is a major motion picture, the other is a documentary.
True Grit is the major motion picture - and I don't think I've seen a more thoroughly Christian movie come of out the movie-making establishment since Chariots of Fire.
Eggsploitation is the documentary. It just won the Best Documentary award at the California Independent Film Festival State Awards. Eggsploitation spotlights the multi-billion dollar business, get that? business that is the infertility industry. Not for the faint of heart.
Buy the documentary, go see True Grit as well. You won't walk away from either as quite the same person.
(more on both later this week)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Have you heard the one about the . . .
Pastor, the Hindu, the Buddhist and the Swedenborgian?
Rick Warren is teaming up with three medical authorities - Oprah's favorite Doc, Dr. Oz (a follower of Swedenborgianism), Dr. Daniel Amen (who advocates tantric sex) and Dr. Mark Hyman (who advocates Buddhist meditation techniques).
And you wonder why I don't trust Pastor Warren?
Details here , here and here .
ht: Johnnette Benkovic, Women of Grace
Rick Warren is teaming up with three medical authorities - Oprah's favorite Doc, Dr. Oz (a follower of Swedenborgianism), Dr. Daniel Amen (who advocates tantric sex) and Dr. Mark Hyman (who advocates Buddhist meditation techniques).
And you wonder why I don't trust Pastor Warren?
Details here , here and here .
ht: Johnnette Benkovic, Women of Grace
Barbara Feldman understands, but does Carolyn Custis James?
Tonight, whiledoing some searching for information in connection with the book review I am preparing, I ran across this on blogging maven Barbara Feldman's website:
"Okay, I got the message. Thanks for letting me know I stepped out of line when I quoted Mao Tse Tung in a recent Surfnetkids newsletter. He was a mass murderer, and therefore doesn't deserve the privilege of being quoted."
And yet, Zondervan is publishing a book evoking the Maoism while their author, Carolyn Custis James, consistently labels it, "A Chinese Proverb". It's not a Chinese proverb anymore than, "A man is a problem? No man, no problem." is a Russian proverb (it's not, it's a Stalinism).
But no, the religious feminist James evidently thinks it sounds good so she has taken it and run with it.
Half the sky? According to Mao, women only held up their half of the sky when they were economic producers, not when they are holding up the entire sky for their own children.
"Okay, I got the message. Thanks for letting me know I stepped out of line when I quoted Mao Tse Tung in a recent Surfnetkids newsletter. He was a mass murderer, and therefore doesn't deserve the privilege of being quoted."
And yet, Zondervan is publishing a book evoking the Maoism while their author, Carolyn Custis James, consistently labels it, "A Chinese Proverb". It's not a Chinese proverb anymore than, "A man is a problem? No man, no problem." is a Russian proverb (it's not, it's a Stalinism).
But no, the religious feminist James evidently thinks it sounds good so she has taken it and run with it.
Half the sky? According to Mao, women only held up their half of the sky when they were economic producers, not when they are holding up the entire sky for their own children.
Why I'll be having Chick-fil-A for breakfast
Homosexualist groups attack fast food chain for supporting marriage
"The fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A has come under fire from homosexualist groups, which have criticized its support for a Christian marriage counseling event sponsored by a pro-family organization, and blamed the company's Christian roots and connections as evidence of its "homophobic" habits.
"The fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A has come under fire from homosexualist groups, which have criticized its support for a Christian marriage counseling event sponsored by a pro-family organization, and blamed the company's Christian roots and connections as evidence of its "homophobic" habits.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Liberated for death
I picked up a copy of Gail Collins's new book, When Everything Changed, today. It covers the dramatic transformation of women's lives from 1960 to Hillary Rodham Clinton's bid for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. I may post a review at some point. For now, however, I'd like to make note of just three quick items:
First, and perhaps a bit odd, is that one of the three icons of American womanhood pictured on the cover of the paperback edition is Michell Obama who is renowned for nothing so much as being a wife and mother.
Second, the back cover assures us that Collins writes in an "agenda-free tone". I had to chuckle at that since, before I read that blurb on the back cover, I had already scoured the index and found not a single mention of common terms associated with religion including: Protestant, Evangelical, Catholic, ordination, pastor, priest, Egalitarian. Nor did I find any names of religious feminists listed in the index. That tells me the book is religion-free, not agenda-free. Whether or not one views religion as a positive force, how can you pretend to be writing an "agenda-free" book on women's history for the last fifty years and not mention the transformation in religious practice?
The last item I want to mention is the pictures. Along with poking around the edges of a new book and reading through the index, I always turn to the pictures before I settle in to read. Along with pictures of Gloria Steinhem and Betty Friedan, in this section we also find pictures of Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly. But the picture section ends with the photograph of a woman I have never heard of and I doubt if any of you have, either.
The last picture is of Lori Piestawa, the first woman to die in the Iraq conflict.
Oh yes, we've been liberated for much in the past 50 years, included being liberated for death.
First, and perhaps a bit odd, is that one of the three icons of American womanhood pictured on the cover of the paperback edition is Michell Obama who is renowned for nothing so much as being a wife and mother.
Second, the back cover assures us that Collins writes in an "agenda-free tone". I had to chuckle at that since, before I read that blurb on the back cover, I had already scoured the index and found not a single mention of common terms associated with religion including: Protestant, Evangelical, Catholic, ordination, pastor, priest, Egalitarian. Nor did I find any names of religious feminists listed in the index. That tells me the book is religion-free, not agenda-free. Whether or not one views religion as a positive force, how can you pretend to be writing an "agenda-free" book on women's history for the last fifty years and not mention the transformation in religious practice?
The last item I want to mention is the pictures. Along with poking around the edges of a new book and reading through the index, I always turn to the pictures before I settle in to read. Along with pictures of Gloria Steinhem and Betty Friedan, in this section we also find pictures of Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly. But the picture section ends with the photograph of a woman I have never heard of and I doubt if any of you have, either.
The last picture is of Lori Piestawa, the first woman to die in the Iraq conflict.
Oh yes, we've been liberated for much in the past 50 years, included being liberated for death.
Religious Feminism's basic error
Religious feminism's core dysfunction is that they derive their sense of value and self-worth, their identity from what they do, and not from who they are.
This can be seen again and again, over and over in their writings. It is seen in the published writings such as those of Rebecca Merrill Groothuis (see her references to women's "full humanity" in Chapter 18 of Discovering Biblical Equality) and in their blogs where complaints about "narrow gender roles" saying women have nothing to offer outside of the home abound.
If only women can gain access to education, they can be of some use to the world. If only we can find economic work, then we can be productive. If only we can sit at the head of the table in the boardroom, then the world will be a better place. And it is patently obvious that the Church will never reach the lost for Christ until it gets with the program and puts women in the pulpits.
For those of us who are Christians, our worth and value are derived from who we are, adopted sons of the Father, not in what we accomplish according to the world's standards:
This can be seen again and again, over and over in their writings. It is seen in the published writings such as those of Rebecca Merrill Groothuis (see her references to women's "full humanity" in Chapter 18 of Discovering Biblical Equality) and in their blogs where complaints about "narrow gender roles" saying women have nothing to offer outside of the home abound.
If only women can gain access to education, they can be of some use to the world. If only we can find economic work, then we can be productive. If only we can sit at the head of the table in the boardroom, then the world will be a better place. And it is patently obvious that the Church will never reach the lost for Christ until it gets with the program and puts women in the pulpits.
For those of us who are Christians, our worth and value are derived from who we are, adopted sons of the Father, not in what we accomplish according to the world's standards:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
-- Ephesians 1:3-6, NASB
Saturday, January 15, 2011
It's really quite simple
I received a review copy of Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women by Carolyn Custis James, in the mail tonight. As is my habit, I trudged around the margins, looking at the notes, being disappointed there is no index and generally noting that a page in the front says, "Four pages to be left for endorsements".
Well, I guess that means it must be in important book, right? Obviously, I am not a fan of multiple endorsements so I hope you'll forgive the snark.
There will be a full review coming up in a week or two. In the meantime, I did want to take note of two things in the, well, notes. First, you need to know that Mrs. James is all about ezer-warriors or simply, ezers her preferred term for women whose primary concern is not domestic affairs. Now if Mrs. James' primary concern is with women who ask the hard questions, (doing theology) and are ezer-warriors, it's a wonder these smart, theologically-minded women are so fragile and unschooled that they need dumbed-down, pedestrianized definitions of words that, one would think, ezer-warriors who "do theology" would be able to handle without such a basic explanation. But here are the definitions Mrs. James uses in her book for two theological terms:
The quite simple bit is that both of those words have much simpler definitions. Ecclesiology = The Doctrine of the Church -and- Anthropology = The Doctrine of Man.
Apparently, such directly simply explanations are beyond the ken of Mrs. James' army of warrior-women.
sigh.
Well, I guess that means it must be in important book, right? Obviously, I am not a fan of multiple endorsements so I hope you'll forgive the snark.
There will be a full review coming up in a week or two. In the meantime, I did want to take note of two things in the, well, notes. First, you need to know that Mrs. James is all about ezer-warriors or simply, ezers her preferred term for women whose primary concern is not domestic affairs. Now if Mrs. James' primary concern is with women who ask the hard questions, (doing theology) and are ezer-warriors, it's a wonder these smart, theologically-minded women are so fragile and unschooled that they need dumbed-down, pedestrianized definitions of words that, one would think, ezer-warriors who "do theology" would be able to handle without such a basic explanation. But here are the definitions Mrs. James uses in her book for two theological terms:
Ecclesiology is the part of theology that centers on what the Bible teaches about the church, the people of God, and what it means to be the people of God.
Anthropology is the part of theology that centers on what the Bible teaches about human beings - male and female, [goodness, if she hadn't included those last two words, I might have thought anthropology had nothing to do with us womenfolk!]
The quite simple bit is that both of those words have much simpler definitions. Ecclesiology = The Doctrine of the Church -and- Anthropology = The Doctrine of Man.
Apparently, such directly simply explanations are beyond the ken of Mrs. James' army of warrior-women.
sigh.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
We have met the enemy
"Today we see in a truly terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the Church does not come from outside enemies but is born of sin within the Church,"
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
New Health Food discovery!
Courtesy of Brian Saint-Paul, a post to lighten the mood. Perhaps, lighten it in more than one way?
Booze: The New Health Foodhttp://www.insidecatholic.com/myblog/booze-the-new-health-food.html
Note that the study linked showed that both teetotalers and heavy drinkers suffered poorer health than moderate drinkers.
Booze: The New Health Foodhttp://www.insidecatholic.com/myblog/booze-the-new-health-food.html
Note that the study linked showed that both teetotalers and heavy drinkers suffered poorer health than moderate drinkers.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The Fatherhood of God
For those of you who have taken a peek at the heresy being purveyed at that linked site in my last post. Here is a nice, I won't say little, but a very refreshing defense of the Fatherhood of God:
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Demonstrations cheerfully provided!
Just in case anyone needed a discussion demonstrating the truth of the definition of religious feminism I gave in the previous post. Check out this discussion before it gets hidden from public view:
Answering the claim of liberal feministic theology
Answering the claim of liberal feministic theology
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Defining Feminism
Since a Denver Seminary student has commented on this blog disputing whether or not the seminary teaches feminism in its classes, it seems appropriate to offer at least a preliminary definition of feminism:
Feminism is the belief which denies the created order of the sexes. Religious feminism, in particular, is the heresy which denies the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the authorship of Scripture and denies the paradox at the heart of orthodox Christian anthropology - that man and woman are equally created in the image and likeness of God and that, by creation and sovereign decree, God has established the headship of the man over the woman.
Feminism is the belief which denies the created order of the sexes. Religious feminism, in particular, is the heresy which denies the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the authorship of Scripture and denies the paradox at the heart of orthodox Christian anthropology - that man and woman are equally created in the image and likeness of God and that, by creation and sovereign decree, God has established the headship of the man over the woman.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)