Please ignore the comatose audience.

• R C Sproul on the relationship between science and Christianity. Very good stuff, but he’s gonna get thrown under the bus for his views, mostly by self-professing fans.
• Nick Lannon looks at how we (as Christians) view other people, particularly other Christians, through the lens of the suicide of Junior Seau.

Let me start by saying that this is going to be about the Andy Stanley kerfuffle. If you’ve missed out on what I’m talking about, hit your knees and thank God — even if you’re an atheist.  Also, if you fall in that category (blissfully ignorant) — and here I’ll commit a major sin of authorship — I suggest that you read no further, as your curiosity may be piqued. Then you’ll go and hit Google and start reading up on what this is all about. And then I’ll be partially responsible for you being exposed to articles and comments that have all the civility of Johnny Knoxville burping the alphabet during the prayer at a royal wedding.

In the sermon that everyone’s carping about, one of the other things that Andy said was:

“… people may misunderstand your grace towards sinners as somehow condoning their sin, but that is not the case.”

The story of the woman caught in adultery is a prime example of this. A cursory reading of the passage makes it look like Jesus totally let her off the hook. Actually, forget “cursory” — there’s a level at which I still don’t get it. And it’s probably a safe bet that you’re in the same boat.

Yes, He said “go and sin no more”, but He didn’t even specifically state that the act in which she was caught was sin. Based on nothing more than that single isolated instance (notice a pattern here?), we could just as easily conclude that He was telling her to stop smoking those funny cigarettes.

When Jesus told parables, people misunderstood all the time. And it wasn’t simply an issue of Him knowing in advance that this would be the case and thinking “c’est la vie“. Part of the reason that He used parables was specifically because people wouldn’t understand.

By sheer definition, not everyone can be the sharpest knife in the drawer. When we show grace, some people are going to misunderstand. The only way to avoid misunderstanding is to stop showing grace altogether.

Is clarity of your beliefs that important to you?

Yeah, there’s been a lot of Billy Crockett. So sue me. I like the guy.

Dennis Miller:

• When the Stones first went on the road, the road was the Appian Way.

Jim Gaffigan:

• Vegetables on pizza is like wheat germ on a donut.

Randy Alcorn:

• If you’re suffering today, may the God of all grace encourage your hearts as you look forward to the day when all will be made right.

Mark Driscoll:

• Silliness is probably a spiritual gift. It’s much needed. (click the link for accompanying picture)

• Carolyn Arends looks at Biblical interpretation, particularly in the light of the infinity of God’s nature. (I’d avoid the comments, as many avoid the point.)
• Carlos Whitaker talks about humility, and explores some ways to practice it online (particularly in social media)

Video actually ends at about 4:27

Dennis Miller:

• If Artest had hit Harden any harder he would have rendered him brain dead and thus, Artest.
• Goodell just fined two draft picks backstage for giving each other a high five too hard.

Favorite links of the week:

• Jeremy Lin on Tim Tebow
• Carlos Whitaker (and all of the rest of us, if we’re honest) gets schooled.
• Carlos also tells us to stop believing in Jesus.
• Brant Hansen shows us what he does during songs.
• Centricity U is back with Season 2.  First episode stars Aaron Shust.
• I recently wrote a criticism of a blog post that took a dump on Chuck Colson’s legacy. While inspired by the same thing, Jerry Hillyer wrote something much more to the point. If you haven’t read mine, and only have time for one, read his.
• A balanced perspective from Randy Alcorn (no surprise there) on “Christianese”.

In slight contrast, a friend of mine remarked that it’s sad that most of the articles in the secular press focus on his Nixon/Watergate years. One such article even (essentially) admitted to having to consult Colson’s web site to see what the man had been up to for the last 35 years. In one sense, this is sad. But in another sense, it’s a good thing. Though Colson was a prominent figure in the “culture wars”, he apparently did his fighting in such a way that he was not the focus.

Put another way, when John Doe heard the name “Chuck Colson”, he had one of two responses — either (1) “who?” or (2) “oh yeah, that Watergate guy.” He didn’t respond with, “oh yeah, that bigoted, homophobic and misogynistic jerk.” What does that say about who (or should that be “Who”) was most obvious in Colson’s life?

OK, to be fair, one John Doe did have that response. But Franky Schaeffer has a history of selling entire books that bash on dead guys (like his own father) in order to prop up his own agenda. So one measly blog post is hardly noteworthy.

Outside of special cases like Schaeffer, the only people who seemed to have a major beef with Colson were from a segment of Protestantism that was far too uncomfortable with his work with Roman Catholics on ECT and the Manhattan Declaration. Now, it has been well established that Online Discernment [sic] Ministries [sic] are wildly Romophobic. So, I cynically asked some friends recently if they wanted to start a pool on which ODM would be first to dump on Colson for his associations with Catholics. After all, they have a history of using not-yet-cold dead guys to prop up their agenda, too.

Ya know what? As far as I can tell, none of them “went there”. Kudos to them.

So that’s all I have to say. I just wanted to praise the authors for not …

Wait …

What ?!?!?!

(And you thought this post was over ….)

There’s a very prominent Christian blogger out there — we’ll call him Tom.

As is my wont, I’m not giving his real name. My issue is with the actions/attitudes, not the person. Though I don’t have any real desire to give the person any Google juice either.

Several years ago — I think it was in a comment thread on iMonk’s blog — someone referred to Tom as being “irenic”. At first I thought that was a typo, but “ironic” didn’t fit the context, so I hit an online dictionary and found this definition for “irenic”.

favoring, conducive to, or operating toward peace, moderation, or conciliation

And I thought, “yeah, that’s a good description of Tom”.  While he had no “Randy Alcorn” moment of major reconciliation, Tom is (was?) a very even-keeled guy who would seek to get rid of the dividing lines in Christendom when they weren’t of primary theological importance. Further, while not specifically addressing their Romophobia, Tom had — on more than one occasion — spoken out against the ODMs for their tendency to wantonly bash their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Heck, he even once had a meal with Rick Warren and came to the conclusion that he is not the anti-Christ (contrary to what ODM authors seem to believe). Tom disagrees with Rick on several issues, but he did not let that stand in the way of genuine fellowship.

So it was rather surprising (and massively disappointing) to watch Tom throw that irenic nature out the window and go for Colson’s jugular. In his article, he expresses “surprise” that others’ remembrances of Colson are uniformly positive. While giving Colson some credit for some of his work, Tom then accuses him of working “against the Lord’s church”, laboring for “outright sinful causes” and “undermin[ing] the gospel”. All of his accusations revolve around Colson’s work and alliance with Roman Catholics and those of the Orthodox faith.

Sigh.

Now — ya want to take the irony up another few notches?  Another definition of “irenic” is:

a part of Christian theology concerned with reconciling different denominations and sects

Yeah, I think we can stop applying that word to Tom from now on.

UPDATE: Since I started writing this, one of the ODMs did “go there”. But it’s pretty obvious from the ODM article that Tom’s article was both the impetus and inspiration for the ODM article. So Tom still retains a good bit of his uniqueness.

Max Lucado:

• “If u have the feeling that u r supposed to keep the saints free of weeds, lay down the hoe. That is the Gardeners job.” (B.Benson)

Brant Hansen:

• “The great Ansel Adams”, blah blah blah. Dude couldn’t carry Olan Mills’ lens cap.
• “World Peace to Be Suspended by NBA” — in accordance with scripture.

Jonny Diaz:

• Sometimes I misspell a word so badly, I end up spelling another word correctly. It’s rather embroidering.

Me:

• Sounds like someone is waterboarding a moose next door.

There’s an oft-quoted (at least in Reformed circles) line of Spurgeon’s: “Calvinism is the gospel.”

Sidebar: To be fair, Spurgeon states that this is his “opinion”. Unfortunately, he was also of the opinion that one should not be cautious when voicing one’s opinion. Even more unfortunate is the fact that many Reformed-types (who revere Spurgeon) take this self-aggrandizing fallacy as Holy Writ and strive to live up to it every day.

See, here’s the problem with that. If ”Calvinism is the gospel”, then anything that is not Calvinism is not the gospel or (put another way) “another gospel”. And we all know what Paul said about that.

Yeeeeeeeeeeah, I don’t think I’m ready to condemn someone to hell for not being a Calvinist.

You can safely watch this. It’s a fairly new performance. No spandex in sight.

Scotty Smith:

• Anybody can throw grenades at stereotypes & straw-men. It takes a lot of grace to enter a dialogue that doesn’t always result in agreement

N.T. Wright:

• The resurrection is not an absurd event within the old world but the symbol and starting point of the new world.

Steve Martin:

• Unhappy with library, looked up “donnybrook” on Google. Fist lurched out of computer and punched me.
• Able was I ere I saw Bubba.

Brant Hansen:

• “…God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens.” – Annie Dillard
• Good: There are almost no calories in a bag of Baked Lay’s chips. Bad: There are almost no chips in a bag of Baked Lay’s chips.
• Fostering a kid is a blessing, blah blah blah… Real story: It’s one more person for me to TOTALLY DOMINATE AT UNO!! #woot

Charlie Lowell:

• Love people even in their sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. -Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Me:

• Nothing reveals the wickedness of legalism better than the way the legalist treats those who have sinned. — Warren Wiersbe

This video is cued up to start at the beginning of the song. Watch from the very beginning of the video if you want to hear some of the back-story.

Guess that maybe I should’ve posted this last week, coming up to Easter. But then again, seeing as how the message is always appropriate …

Steve Martin:

• I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it turns out today is.

Carlos Whitaker:

• Jesus dnt promise U peace like a puddle. He promised U peace like a river. Peace is moving & exciting not still & stagnant.

Randy Alcorn:

• Whose laughter will be loudest and most contagious on the New Earth? Jesus Christ’s. http://www.epm.org/heavenbook

• Neil Degrasse Tyson explains why the de-funding of NASA is a Bad Idea (including how a bad Hubble telescope ties to the early detection of breast cancer)
• Carlos Whitaker’s son teaches him a bunch of lessons about God with one sentence.