Recently in Church Category

John McCain's band of white advisers had best take a stroll down the lane of African-American oratorical history before they launch their next anti-Obama missive. [This is not to suggest that there is anything racial about McCain's ad. I'm sure that his color blind associates aren't even aware that Sen. Obama has more melanin than Sen. McCain.]

McCain's new web ad, "The One" mocks Obama's grand, seemingly arrogant oratory.

The problem with it is that it simultaneously mocks generations of African-American oratory. As my friend Patton Dodd pointed out to me, would the fact that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., filled his speeches with grand rhetorical flourishes make us doubt his ability to lead? I'm wondering what the ad meisters would do with this "arrogance"

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

Or consider Barbara Jordan. Should her 1976 convention speech, one of the greatest political speeches in American history, have caused people to doubt her leadership ability simply because she said,

There is something special about tonight. What is different? What is Special? I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker.

A lot of years passed since 1832, and during that time it would have been most unusual for any national political party to ask that a Barbara Jordan deliver a keynote address...but tonight here I am. And I feel that notwithstanding the past that my presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American Dream need not forever be deferred.

By the McCain camp's standards, every great speaker should be disqualified from public office simply because they refer to themselves in the personal pronoun and because they use rhetorical flourishes. Perhaps this gives an insight into who McCain is considering for his VP pick - someone who utterly boring in their public addresses... Al Gore.

Note - Most of my blogging now occurs at Culture11.com a new media company. My blog is here.

Very interesting little MTV interview with pop sensation Katy Perry - of "I Kissed a Girl" and "Ur So Gay" fame. It seems she was once Katy Hudson, Christian recording artist.

This post comes from Ian Spier, an ORU graduate:

The ORU scandal has many an alumni concerned--concerned that a university with already questionable credibility has now lost whatever shred of it remained, and concerned, as a result, that their degree (arguably, a good one) has been devalued.

I think, as alumni, that we SHOULD be worried, and our worry should motivate us into action. Much like shareholders in a corporation, ORU alumni are stakeholders in the university. We draw value from the piece of paper, the diploma, that has been granted us. We expect the administration--the president and the Board of Regents--to guard that value.

Here's the glaring truth that ORU students are slow to grasp: that university exists for us. It is ours, not the Roberts', not the Board's, not Tulsa's--ours. Here's how it works:

- The Board of Regents exists to serve and guard the "public interest" (ORU is non-profit institution)
- The "public interest," broadly, is the value of education to a society. Narrowly, it is the value of education to the particular students who choose to attend ( i.e., you and me).
- Therefore, the Board exists to serve the students and has a fiduciary responsibility to guard public monies, student monies, and the student interest.
- Given this, the Board appoints a president to run the university in accordance with the responsibility which has been entrusted to it. The president serves at the will of the Board, derives his (or her) authority from it, and must discharge his duties in accordance with the duties placed on the Board.
- Therefore, the president exists to serve the students and the guard the student and public interest.

One sees the obvious "thread." Both the Board and the president exist because of the students. A university is not a fiefdom ("ministry"), headed by some feudal landlord ("televangelist"), who mandates services from his tenants ("students"). It is an institution accountable to, among other entities, society at large and the student body in particular.

While at ORU, it was drilled into our heads that "attendance at ORU is a privilege, not a right." This maxim that the Roberts have forced on students is not only false, but also a false dichotomy. It is neither a "privilege" nor a "right" to attend ORU. It is a "choice." When that choice is made, certain rights and duties attach, both on the part of the students and the administration. Students and alumni, then, have both the right and obligation to demand not only that the university be "accountable"--this is the baseline, the bare minimum--but that it promote a quality, viable, credible education. When the Board and/or president fail in their fiduciary responsibility, then they fail to discharge the duties for which their office exists in the first place.

The broader point of this analysis is this: leadership at ORU, and within the church more broadly, proceeds not on the notion of "appointment by God," which only serves to make that leadership inviolable, insulated, and unaccountable; nor on the notion of "electoral accountability," which would make leadership "political," with all the attendant and well-known machinations. Rather, leadership and, correlatively, followership are social constructs. They are social choices we as Christians make each and every day. Leadership proceeds on what our collective ideas about leadership are. Those ideas are informed by Scripture; by our experience; by quasi-intrinsic notions of fairness, right, and justice; by history; and by plain, old common sense.

When Tyler Perry's new movie buried the new George Clooney flick and the new Cate Blanchett and Mark Wahlberg films as well, a lot of people began to ask why.

USA Today has a succinct answer:

Perry has managed to tap into a tough fan base, one that rarely goes to movies. Married's faith-based audience, like that of The Passion of the Christ, did not show up in many studio tracking polls.

"It's a group that doesn't have a lot of movies made for them," says Paul Dergarabedian of Media By Numbers. "So if they find a filmmaker they trust — and they trust Tyler Perry — they're going to turn out."

Learn more about Perry here and here and here.

Here's a concept, something positive and a bit original to help people and there isn't any controversy. What a deal!

State government and the Arkansas Interfaith Conference will work together in a pilot program to help Arkansans obtain their share of an estimated $ 280 million in federal and state benefits that are unclaimed each year, state and conference officials said Monday.

Dubbed the Benefit Bank of Arkansas, the program will make it easier for people to obtain benefits, they said. Volunteers and computer software will assist them. It starts next year.

The money is already out there, this program will help people access it.

Thanks to Joe for sending it along.

Wondering if this pushes the limits of 'Christian outreach'? Another massively popular Halo video game is out, which means another controversial opportunity for churches to outreach to youth. Already passed $300 million in sales, Halo 3 is being picked up...

Here are two quick videos about the new book, unChristian: and...

A new book is out from the president of the Barna Group - an evangelical polling, consulting, uber group. His name is David Kinnaman and along with Gabe Lyons he has written a book that is a sober read for...

Following up on yesterday's post on the "religious left," I found a brilliant and thought-provoking post on Greg Boyd's blog. He begins this way: Someone e-mailed me with a question worth wrestling with. He said he heard a well known...

Relevant Magazine has an interesting feature about the future of the church. It features Rick Warren, Rob Bell, and other Christian leaders. Here is their take on politics: How should Christians be involved in the political system? Rob Bell: At...

Interesting story - a Christian satellite channel is apparently one of the more popular channels in Iran. This stood out: ...SAT-7 [has] deliberately chosen not to tackle political issues and focuses instead on the message of hope and peace. "I...

A thought from the old hymn, "Faith of Our Fathers" about what it means to love Jesus and love others: Faith of our fathers, we will love Both friend and foe in all our strife; And preach thee, too, as...

Author and former Time journalist David Aikman writes in Christianity Today about the increasingly "attack dog" mentality of some Christians: What disturbs me... is the extent to which some Christians have turned themselves into the self-appointed attack dogs of Christendom....

I have become a huge fan of Greg Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN. Huge. Read his blog, listen to his sermons, this guy is real. Yesterday he wrote about watching Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. It’s a...

As you probably heard last week, an Arlington, TX church rescinded its offer to hold a memorial service for the brother of one of its employees after the church discovered that.... this is where it gets confusing. The church has...

The Anglican Church in Jamaica has added songs by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh to their hymnals: Church leaders said that Marley’s “One Love,” and Peter Tosh’s “Psalm 27” will be the first reggae tunes to be added to the...

A jarring report in USA Today: Protestant churches are losing young adults in "sobering" numbers, a survey finds. Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school...

Yesterday in Iowa Rudy Giuliani kept up with his practice of not talking about his religious practice: "My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not so good Catholic, I prefer to...

Many people wonder who will become the next Billy Graham. Mark Batterson, a pastor in Washington, DC, doesn't answer the question. In highlighting the possibility of new technology to communicate Jesus like never before, he does show where we should...

New Life Church, in Colorado Springs, is the mega-church founded by now-disgraced pastor Ted Haggard. It was the collateral damage of last fall's revelation of Pastor Haggard's relationship with a gay prostitute. Membership fell by more than 30%. Those remaining...

Is the complete mess of the Republican party any clearer than with the fact that all of these men who are trying to compete for votes and attention - and are really trying to mobilize the completely disinterested conservative Christian...

John asked a question in response to my anteater ditty: "Ah David, is there anything that doesn't draw you closer to God? Collapsing buildings, anteaters, the Red Sox?" Thinker gave a great answer. Here it is in part: One of...

Four years ago, a little girl in Boston was shot, partially paralyzed, and sentenced to life in a wheelchair. Last year she entered a Boston courtroom and said to the man who shot her, "I forgive you." It so moved...

People of the world are too busy for God, so says a major new five-year study: In data collected from over 20,000 Christians with ages ranging from 15 to 88 across 139 countries, The Obstacles to Growth Survey found that...

A follow-up from the friend who posted last week about Huckabee. He read the discussions here and elsewhere and wanted to respond. The second and third paragraphs are the most significant because my friend's attitudes are those of lots of...

I went to church yesterday even though I haven't ever been on a Saturday before. It was a short service - 20 minutes or so. There was no singing and no sermon. And the service was held at noon outside...