Around the Horn

John Thomas writes on Five Mistakes of a Church Planter. They are probably mistakes of pastors of established churches as well. It is worth reading and considering.

Scot McKnight links to this Wall Street Journal article, “Are Pop Songs Getting Sadder?” It begins with this assertion: “As measured by key and tempo — and setting lyrics aside —pop music has gotten gloomier since the ’60s.” It’s a strange source for the affirmation that keys and tempos carry meaning without word. In other words, music is moral. It has meaning even when you set the lyrics aside.

Here’s an interesting article on the senses, and the way we have distorted life by filling it with technological noise. You won’t like all the emphases, but it’s a good reminder to stop and smell the roses sometimes. And not just metaphorically.

And on Father’s Day weekend, this isn’t a bad reminder.

Finally …

At long last, we have discovered a level of government regulation the Democrats don’t like. We have found where the line is.

Unfortunately, it’s drawn squarely at the graves of the unborn, most of whom never make it to the grave. They are unceremoniously disposed of long before then.

This week, the Michigan Legislature was considering a bill to “increase insurance and regulations on abortion clinics, regulate the disposal of fetal remains, prohibit the use of teleconferences to prescribe abortion medication and make it a crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion.”

It’s hard to imagine what the downside of this is. What exactly is there to object to here?

But thirty-nine Democrats objected to it, anyway. It still passed with sixty-four Republican votes and six Democratic defectors. (So much for “They are all alike.” They are only mostly alike.)

To be clear, I object to this bill because it’s toothless. It will not do one single substantial thing to protect the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

In the name of women’s health, millions of young women (not to mention men) will be murdered, and this bill won’t stop that.

In a bizarre turn of events, a couple of women legislator’s chime in, making some rather absurd comments, both in the original article and in a follow up session. A follow up article says this:

And Byrum [one of the female legislators'] was gaveled out of order after she protested when she wasn’t allowed to speak on her amendment to the bill that would have required proof of a medical emergency or that a man’s life was in danger before a doctor could perform a vasectomy.

It’s hard to believe that this woman actually equated a vasectomy with an abortion.

Have we really stooped so low in our moral judgment that we don’t recognize the fundamental difference between sterilization and taking a human life?

Can we do no better than this?

Sadly, I imagine we probably can’t.

Unfortunately, millions of people are being systematically eradicated in a modern day movement that makes the Nazi Holocaust look small. The Nazi’s exterminated six million (6,000,000) people in about four years.

Modern society reaches that number about every fifty-two days (115,000 abortions per day worldwide; 42 million each year [42,000,000]) (source).

In America, the Holocaust takes place just about every five years (1.2 million abortions each year; five years to reach six million [source]).

The difference is that the Allied Armies, led by American courage and principle, isn’t standing up for these modern Holocaust victims like they did for the previous Holocaust victims. Maybe it’s because there’s no real courage or principle when it comes to defending the weakest Americans. There’s only politics.

These little ones are indeed the victims of politics,not to mention selfishness, lack of moral courage and integrity, and a gross deficiency of responsibility.

If 600,000 women were being brutally dismembered and chopped up and thrown out with the trash every year on the streets of America, there would be outrage, public demonstrations, and probably violence that not even the National Guard could quell.

But because these 600,000 women (and 600,000 men) are being dismembered, chopped up, and thrown out with the trash in doctor’s offices, we call it health care.

Strange health care, it seems to me.

May God help us and have mercy on us.

Time on the Military and Abortion

Al Mohler links to a short article in Time Magazine on the unavailability of abortion for women in the military unless they pay for it themselves outside a military hospital. This applies even in the cases of sexual assault.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) sponsored a bill to allow abortions for servicewomen in the cases of rape. It has passed the committee on a 16-10 vote.

This brings up yet again one of the ugly sides of the pro-abortion movement.

In this act, the worth of a child’s life is judged by his father’s actions. Because his father is a rapist, the child is denied the basic right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that our military is supposed to be defending.

It is inexcusable that in the twenty-first century we live in a land where someone can be killed simply because their father is a criminal.

These are the acts of lawless people from uncivilized cultures. These are the acts of criminals and terrorists. They are not the acts of freedom loving people.

It’s time for America to stop the charade that allows people to be killed for the sins of their father.

Around the Horn

At first, the Danish government has apparently mandated that churches must perform same-sex marriages. I say apparently because when I read stories like this, I always wonder what is not being said. However, since this is not a Christian source, it likely has no reason to paint it worse than it actually is. Is this coming to America? I doubt it since the outcry would be deafening. But if it does, it won’t be a big deal for the church. Pastors are not now required to perform any marriages. I do so at my own discretion, and I have managed to chase off most couples in the first counseling session or two. If it became “perform them all,” I simply would refuse to perform any. But I doubt the sky is falling yet.

At second, some in the SBC came out recently with a document entitled “A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation.” Others have commented on it (Roger Olson, Al Mohler, John Aloisi, Kevin Bauder, and more), and there are some significant problems with it. If anything, I think this will increase the divide over the issue because of the number of people who are not willing to embrace what is essentially a semi-Pelagian view of man. And part of the problem is that many of the defenders don’t seem to know what that even is.

In honor of the Triple Crown, at third this time around, is the news that I’ll Have Another, the horse that won the first two legs of horse racing’s Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness) was pulled out of the Belmont Stakes this past weekend. CBS reports that it was a choice to make money over making history. No horse has won the Triple Crown since 1977 when Secretariat won it, though a number of horses won the first two. The Belmont Stakes weeds them out since it is a longer run. But the owners of I’ll Have Another decided to go for the big payday that comes from stud fees (fathering other horses in hopes of producing a champion race horse), rather than the glory that comes from winning.

And last, it’s a sad day for NPR and all lovers of Car Talk. Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers (actually Tom and Ray Magliozzi) are signing off for the last time. Car Talk was a Saturday program on NPR about car repair that was quite humorous. It was one of my favorite shows on NPR. Fortunately, the producers will create some reruns that will continue to air.

The Problem with Kittens

Ogden Nash was reported to have said,

The trouble with a kitten is that
eventually it becomes a cat.

On this theme, the problem with Christian teenagers is that they become Christian adults. Thomas Berger gives an interesting perspective on this in this insightful article on the Juvenilization of American Christianity.

Juvenilization happened when no one was looking. In the first stage, Christian youth leaders created youth-friendly versions of the faith in a desperate attempt to save the world. Some hoped to reform their churches by influencing the next generation. Others expected any questionable innovations to stay comfortably quarantined in youth rallies and church basements. Both groups were less concerned about long-term consequences than about immediate appeals to youth.

In the second stage, a new American adulthood emerged that looked a lot like the old adolescence. Fewer and fewer people outgrew the adolescent Christian spiritualities they had learned in youth groups; instead, churches began to cater to them.