1. Greg Boyd, senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN and professor of theology at Bethel University posted a review of Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth. Tolle has recently partnered with Oprah to do a online religion class that is based on this book and has been controversial. He does a great job dissecting the book and pointing out where it is inconsistent with a biblical worldview.
2. This commercial parody would probably more accurately reflect Planned Parenthood’s worldview.
3. Florida’s Senate Passes Evolution Academic Freedom Act.
The Florida Senate voted 21-17 Wednesday, following a strong majority vote in the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee, to submit the Evolution Academic Freedom Act for vote in the House.
If passed, the new bill will give full protections and freedoms for teachers and students in Florida schools to share views in the classroom that challenge some or all parts of Darwin’s theory of evolution.
The new bill was largely prompted by legislators after the Florida Board of Education decided to begin requiring the instruction of evolution in schools earlier this year.
Many teachers and students reportedly felt marginalized, discriminated, or ostracized if they shared personal views that ran counter to Darwinism.
Read the rest – Source: Christian Post
4. This is completely nasty.
5. Hillary Clinton… a prayer warrior? Ummmm. I highly doubt it.
6. Evangelical Politics – Three Generations: Shane Claiborne, Chuck Colson, and Greg Boyd are part of panel discussion at the National Pastors’ Conference moderated by “Speaking of Faith” radio host, Krista Tippett. You can download the audio here (right click and select “save as”). You can watch the video here.
7. Joe Carter posts on “10 Ways Darwinists Help Intelligent Design” read part 1, part 2, and part 3. Great series… check it out!
8. From the Friendly Atheist – “20 Things that Christians Do In Church That Annoy Me“
9. Great advice from Abraham Piper in a guest post on Between Two Worlds. Made me rethink how I do my syndication feed. I’ll start syndicating the entire post.
10. Steve Brown interviews Tony Jones on “What is the Emergent Church?”
11. Calvinism 101? Try these articles on T.U.I.L.P. – Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints.
12. More on Calvinism, Thomas McDill, assistant professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, wrote a guest post at Justin Taylor’s blog on the good he sees in the resurgence of Calvinism among young evangelicals. The catch here is that he is an Arminian (so he offered some cautions as well). HT: Ben Witherington
13. John Piper encourages us to make much of Christ with this economic stimulus package that is coming in the mail.
14. The Church of the Nazarene has their own rap song. Ummmmm…. interesting.
I think the EFCA needs a rap song too.
15. Keith Buhler shares five bad reasons not to see Expelled. The movie is great, and you should ignore the pro-evolution brouhaha over it. Just go see it and make up your own mind.
16. By the way, men and women are different. C. Michael Patton discusses on his blog the theology of men and women and their roles, and so he compares and contrasts the two major positions on this matter: complementarianism and egalitarianism. Great post for a hot to handle topic.
17. While I don’t agree with all of Rob Bell’s theological positions I do like some of the NOOMA videos, below is one of my favorites – “Rich”.
Part I
Part 2
18. We should be so thankful everything that we take for granted here in the United States. As I’m writing this I’m sucking down a Caribou Coffee Chocolate Northern Lite Cooler – $4.40 (before tax). Reading this article about Myanmar refugees living in Thailand, I am reminded that many people exist on way less a day that what this drink cost me.
Trying to figure out who is working with refugees there I found that Strategic World Impact, a Christian relief organization headquartered in Bartlettsville, OK, is doing some good work there. Also Baptist World Alliance is bringing attention to the crisis there. Though they don’t have a website (at least not what I could find), Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School and College is working alongside these refugees as well.
HT: Ellen Stevens
19. Being a reformed evangelical when discussing Calvinism with some Arminian brothers and sisters I’m often asked, “Why evangelize if God has predestined those who are saved?” Bob Hayton has a great blog post on this topic sharing how Calvinism informs evangelism.
Despite what many have said or heard, Calvinism does not negate or downplay evangelism. Charles Spurgeon, George Whitefield, William Carey, and Adoniram Judson were not exceptions to the rule. Rather, they are simply some noteworthy examples of evangelists and preachers who were both Calvinistic in theology and evangelistic in practice.
Of course, Spurgeon said it best. When asked why his doctrine of election did not move him to preach only to the elect, Spurgeon replied: “If you’ll go around and pull up their shirttails so I can see if they have an E stamped on their back, I will.”
20. Larry James has been blogging on Race in America – here’s the first post of that series at Everyday Citizen.
Please visit our Calvin-admiring site, TheAmericanView.com and comment. Thx. JLof@aol.com
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Great stuff! Thanks Shane!