Posted by Anthony on March 10, 2010
I’ve been thinking about the culture wars lately. I have a real problem with Christians who seem to be driving for a change in the culture just for the sake of having a ‘holy’ culture. I think we’d have to call that a legalistic culture. I believe that the Christian church should be about something more than creating white-washed tombs.
On the other hand, the nature of ‘culture’ is that it perpetuates itself, feeds itself, fuels itself. The culture is the air we breathe and the water in which we swim. It has the ability to mold us into its image, and once so molded, we mold others in that same image. Resistance isn’t exactly futile, but it is difficult. Conformity to the culture is the path of least resistance. It would behoove us, therefore, to ensure that the culture is not toxic. If the culture is healthy, the path of least resistance will more likely result in healthy beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Read the rest of the entry… »
Posted by Anthony on August 5, 2009
I’ve been getting some hits on my site regarding a past post about Rowling’s outing of Dumbledore as ‘gay.’ I couldn’t figure out but having scanned the news a bit I guess I get it. Some readers have taken offense to my ruminating about Rowling’s motives in having Dumbledore as gay, wondering if perhaps she was just trying to stick it to Christians.
I don’t know if that was her reason. But my post rankled some people, getting me accused of being arrogant, egocentric, ignorant, and most bizarrely, a liberal Christian. Wow, can’t remember the last time that charge was leveled.
Like I said, I don’t know if that was her reason. Honestly, I’m still waiting to hear the reason. I’d love to hear the reason. If it was some ploy towards the ‘acceptance’ themes in her books, then the brave and right thing to do was to have outed him in the series itself, and not afterwards. Learning that he was gay adds nothing that I can think of. If someone is aware of any place where she explains this, I’d be happy to hear it.
But imagine my surprise when I read that I am not the only person wondering about Rowling’s motives and speculating that perhaps it was just to rile up a certain segment of the population. None other then Daniel Radcliffe himself, the actor who plays Harry Potter in the movies, said,
“I think it’s wonderful that Dumbledore was outed as gay … Half of me thinks Rowling just did that to see if she could p*ss off the right-wing, but I’m not sure how true that is. I think she had it planned, I think she always knew he was gay.”
That Daniel Radcliffe! He’s so arrogant, egocentric, and ignorant! Oh, and a liberal Christian! Can you believe that guy? Positing ‘dark agendas’ is just ridiculous…
Well, and perhaps it is. But the reason for the speculation is that the ‘outing’ is positively mystifying. Besides simply not adding anything to an understanding of the series, if anything it darkens it. For example, I actually read someone wondering if Dumbledore’s interest in Harry wasn’t exactly platonic, if you get my gist. Ridiculous?
Well, I would have thought so until Rowlings started issuing post hoc revelations re-interpreting the text.
Anyway, I don’t know what Rowling’s motives were (both in conceiving of Dumbledore as gay and in revealing it) and would be happy if someone could direct me to any statements of her’s that clear it up.
Posted by Anthony on April 13, 2009
Quote:
Text messaging graphic pictures of yourself could soon be legal for teens in Vermont.
Lawmakers there are considering a bill that would make it legal for teenagers 18 and under to exchange explicit photos and videos of themselves – an act that’s come to be known by teens as “sexting.”
Under the current law, teenagers could be prosecuted as sex offenders if they get caught sending graphic sexual images of themselves, even if it was consensual.
Source
Here is one of those weird situations that our sexually saturated sex-crazed society has created for us to work out. First of all, I don’t think that teenagers should be prosecuted as ’sex offenders’ if they get caught ’sexting.’ The truly deviant ’sex offenders’ in our society are in an entirely different category so some distinction needs to be made. However, what many seem to fail to notice is that these ’sex offenders’ are being created by the libertine atmosphere in our society. Today it is ’sexting.’ In ten years, in and out of a few destructive relationships and ever pushing the limits of desensitizing, you get a sex predator. Then people have the audacity to be surprised.
This idea that you can unleash sexual expression without consequences is utterly ridiculous. Regardless, there seems to be a whole class of people in our society who want to take down every limit of sexual expression while feigning disgust when people behave without limits.
So, it should not be illegal in the sense that they could be made ’sex offenders’ but it seems to me that legalizing it is not the right tact. I mean, it is not the right tact if a generation hence you want a stable society that is not riddled through and through with pedophiles, sex addicts, broken homes, etc, etc. So what should society do? If the ’sex offender’ legislation is removed what should replace it? I honestly don’t know. I have the feeling that the solution to the problem is well beyond the reach of the government.
My hunch is that what is needed is a sea change among parents and citizens in general who will frown on this behavior and consistently condemn it. Parents in particular have to be vigilant in monitoring the use of technology by their kids and abandon the illusion that their kids, of all kids, wouldn’t dream of engaging in such behavior. Although that comes with with a caveat: kids who have been brought up with a clear sense of where the limits are and understand that consequences follow when the limits have been transgressed will be more likely to show restraint. Human history is pretty much agreed on that point.
In contrast, consider the advice provided by a certain ‘expert’ in the article:
Karen Salmansohn is an expert on talking with teenagers about smart choices. She writes books to empower girls, and says parents need to talk to their kids about the dangers of sexting — using their language.
“Don’t talk to them in language saying this is right this is wrong. That’s not going to get to a kid,” Salmansohn said.
“You have to talk them, you know what you think is cool isn’t so cool. You have to use the language of cool because that’s why they’re doing it.”
This is mostly nonsense. I don’t agree for a minute that kids are doing it because its ‘cool.’ We aren’t talking about a hair style fad. We’re talking about a particularly powerful biological impulse. An impulse, I might add, our society has collectively decided it won’t dare constrain. Read the rest of the entry… »
Posted by Anthony on January 21, 2009
I stumbled upon this essay by a man who apparently is gay and a Democrat giving tribute to President Bush. That was enough to intrigue me. While obviously I disagree on a number of points I found the article as welcome proof that one can find decent people across the spectrum. If only there were more of them we could have a conversation worth having.
Naturally, too, while agreeing with the author that Bush ‘failed’ in certain areas, he and I would disagree on which. But we do have strong agreement about where Bush succeeded.
Without further ado, here is the article:
Goodbye and thank you, George W. Bush. You did the very best that you could, and we are grateful for your service.
Posted by Anthony on January 15, 2009
This is not the first time I’ve said as much, but I maintain that though legislative efforts are important, the abortion debate is to be won on grounds other than that. I don’t think I am the only one to make the point. It has been noted that even on a best case scenario, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade throws the issues to the states. Finally, even if every state banned abortions there would still be women seeking them. At the bottom, persuading women to keep their children and enabling them to do so is utterly necessary.
As pro-lifers begin to gather in Washington let me submit that the Christian church holds in its hand the general resolution of this issue, and by extension, so many other issues.
What is required, in short, is for Christian congregations across the country to shake themselves out of the stupor that they currently find themselves in and take definite, loving, action. By love I mean the word as used in the New Testament, which is not a wishy washy panzy love, but can be hard at times. Hard or soft, it has the best interests of the other in mind, and according to the New Testament, it is willing to lay down its life for another…
The pattern is set in crystal clear clarity in 1 John 3:16 which says “This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
True love dies. Or, it is willing to die, and in the meantime expend every ounce of energy available to it.
What does this mean? If World War 2 had its Schindler in response to the German extermination of millions of Jews, do we have tens of thousands ‘Schindlers’ in response to the virtual global extermination of tens and tens of millions of the unborn? The answer, I think, is No.
If we as Christians were willing to love in this radical fashion I am convinced so many issues would fade away into oblivion. Gone would be the atheistic crticisms of hypocrites in the church, for example. Examples would multiply.
“Judge not, lest you be judged.” Indeed. I am guilty of my own charges. I too need to love in the radical way described in the New Testament. As I evaluate my situation I recognize that the whole structure of my life is set up to make that sort of activity difficult to implement, except now and then. Does this mean I throw up my hands and say “Oh well! I have my excuse, then!” No. I am steadily chipping away at the ’structure’ and hope to put in its place something which will allow me the freedom and flexibility to act as I know I should regarding the people in need in my own neighborhood- and this includes those considering abortions.
God did not include an expiration date on the contents of the New Testament. The admonitions to radical love are still in effect. My contention is that a critical mass of Christians carrying out love as described in the New Testament would be utterly transformative. I have good reason to believe that: we saw it in history as the Christian church sprang into existence.
Think about it.
Posted by Anthony on November 7, 2008
A Christian Review of Anne Rice’s Called out of Darkness
Read my reviews of Anne’s other books, Out of Egypt and Road to Cana.
PURCHASE CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS
I was pleased to have Anne Rice’s latest release sent to me for review. Her spiritual auto-biography,
Called Out of Darkness: a spiritual confession, is available for purchase
through Amazon.
Welcome Catholic News readers! Feel free to drop a comment. You may be interested in my own book series,
Birth Pangs. Take a look after you finish the review!
Anne Rice begins her book by laying out in careful detail what her early life was like. It was a life that was thoroughly drenched in the Roman Catholic Church and culture as it was practiced in New Orleans. She attended Catholic schools and had Catholic friends. At one point, she wanted to be a nun. She delighted in the architecture of New Orleans and her Catholic surroundings.
However, she fell away from all this after high school. Though the seeds had been planted earlier on, in college she came into contact with people who loved learning, were smart, and cared about doing the right thing- all without religion, Christianity, or Catholicism. Anne reports that the controversies and strict moral teachings of the Catholic church weren’t primarily what drove her away from the faith. It was instead a disconnect between her and God, an inability to separate her relationship with the church with her relationship with Jesus Christ.
In a section on page 124 she says,
The church had become for me anti-art and anti-mind. No longer was there a blending of the aesthetic and the religious as there had been throughout my childhood.
Desperately I sought to escape the sense of sin that seemed to dominate every choice facing me. I lost faith in Hellfire. Or to put it differently, faith in Hellfire simply did not hold me firmly, as faith in God had once done. I left the church.
I stopped going. I stopped being a Catholic…. I quit for thirty-eight years.
…
I could not separate my personal relationship with God, and with Jesus Christ, from my relationship with the church. As I mentioned, I’d stopped really talking to God a long time ago. I hadn’t felt entitled to talk to Him in a long while. I’d felt far too demoralized to talk to Him. I just wasn’t the Catholic girl who had a right to talk to Him. I harbored too many profane ambitions.
I really enjoyed these frank and honest thoughts. I spend a lot of time talking to atheists and nonChristians and a lot of them were Christians at one time. They too could not separate their personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ from the relationship with the church. Incidentally, there are an awful lot of Christians who have this struggle, too. If you read my blog regularly, you will see that I speak to this fairly often.
Anne’s journey back to the faith was embodied in the novels that she wrote. If you don’t know, Anne is the author of the series of vampire books, beginning with Interview with a Vampire. Since I haven’t read these books, I merely report what Anne says about them in her spiritual auto-biography. After a long discussion about the appeal of her books and what drove her to write them, she says:
Read the rest of the entry… »
Posted by Anthony on July 1, 2008
A review of Where are all the Brothers? Straight Answers to Men’s Questions About the Church. Buy from Amazon.com for $9.99
. The Review is below.
Book Description
In this unique book, Pastor Eric Redmond confronts the important question of “Where are the black men in the African-American church?” with a candid approach that combines wisdom with a conversational tone.
Instead of side-stepping issues, Redmond converses with readers about some of their reasons for not going to church—the church seems geared toward women, the preacher is just an ordinary man, Islam appears to offer more for the black man, organized religion is not necessary, churches are just after your money—and approaches their skepticism with respect but also with corrective truth. On these and other topics, Where Are All the Brothers? speaks about the things that men think about in private or discuss at the barbershop when it comes to church and religion, challenging them to reexamine their long-held assumptions.
About the Author
Eric C. Redmond is pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Temple Hills, Maryland. A former assistant professor of Bible and theology at Washington Bible College and a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, he is the 2007-2008 second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He blogs at The Council of Reforming Churches and A Man from Issachar.
Product Details
Pastor Redmond has produced a punchy little book that covers nine areas where people, men in particular, give reasons for not going to ‘church.’ These nine areas are broken up into nine days, and Pastor Redmond invites the reader to invest just ten minutes a day for nine days to hear his answers to their objections. Each chapter is just a few pages long and definitely manageable, even for those who protest that they don’t like to read. By necessity the book only touches lightly on each topic, but I was impressed to see authors like FF Bruce and CS Lewis brought to bear in the ‘Further Study’ sections. Those who want to go deeper will be able to.
Pastor Redmond writes with a distinct audience in mind that is evident from the beginning. He wishes to address the questions that men ask, but black men in particular. Their absence from the African American Christian community is something he highlights and wishes to remedy. Still, apart from one chapter, I’d say that the book could be useful for most men. That chapter is an evaluation of Islam versus Christianity and the sense among black men that Islam is more ‘manly.’
Here are the chapters: “Isn’t the Church Full of Hypocrites?” “Wasn’t the Bible Written by Men?” “Isn’t the Church Geared Toward Women?” “Isn’t the Preacher Just a Man?” “Doesn’t Islam Offer More for Black Men?” “Aren’t Some Churches Just After Your Money?” “Is Organized Religion Necessary?” “Jesus Never Claimed to be God, Did He?” “What to Look for to Find a Good Church” There are two appendici- Appendix A is “The Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecies about Christ in the New Testament” and Appendex B is “The Church Does Not Welcome Homosexuals.”
There is some pretty impressive apologetical reasoning bundled into some of these chapters. Read the rest of the entry… »
