Posting has been light lately, for three reasons:

1. I'm busy and tired.
2. Internet at the house has been a royal pain.
3. I'm busy and tired.

Thank you for your understanding.

CNN recently aired a documentary series entitled God's Warriors, in which they explored the agendas of fundamentalist/militant factions within Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. I didn't see it, but it looks like it was fascinating - and more than a little controversial. Here's some commentary from the evangelical outpost, some blustery indignation from The Northern Gleaner, and some good thoughts from Greg Boyd here and here. (Greg Boyd actually made it into the documentary. To see his segment, go to this page, click on "Christianity," and then click "Video Diary: Politics and Faith." Go Greg!)

This post by Joe Carter on the history of atheistic philosophy is pretty good, mainly because he manages to quote Chesterton twice.

Where do the New Atheists get this silly notion that they are heirs of the Enlightenment? ... The rationalists of the Enlightenment era were able to trust in reason precisely because they were theists or deists and believed in a transcendent, rational God. To think otherwise was considered, as the philosophers often noted, the height of absurdity.

Here's an intriguing - if somewhat abrasive - piece from LVMI about David Gelernter's book, Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion.

Gelernter would profit from reflecting about a remark often attributed to Voltaire: if you want to found a new religion, you should arrange to be crucified and rise from the dead on the third day.

You won't want to miss this recent highlight from Kamp Krusty: The Tyranny of Mattering.

Two things I know about the world:

1) Everything matters.

2) This can be a real problem.

Here's an excellent interview with the one-and-only Derek Webb: Part 1 and Part 2.

Thanks to the guys at Said at Southern for making this happen.

VOM, India:

KASHMIR – On July 29, five men from the Molvis Al-Hadis Mosque in Baramulla threatened Pastor Bashir Masih, and other believers preparing for Sunday worship. According to The Voice of the Martyrs' contacts in India, "The five men threatened the believers and instructed them to vacate the house, which is also used as a house church, within a month since it is located near a mosque." In the past, Muslim extremists have assaulted Pastor Masih's disabled son and Muslim village authorities have allowed extremists to block drinking water to Pastor Masih's home. Pastor Masih was a Muslim who converted to Christianity in 2005. His house church, Shalom Prayer House, was started in 2005. Pray for Pastor Masih's family and Christians in India who remain steadfast in their faith, despite persecution.

Victor Davis Hanson on why he studies dead Greeks:

Knowledge of Greek and Latin allows us, through some mysterious power of transformation, to glide through the keyhole and into the other side, where suddenly everything comes alive and continues to instruct and entertain about the unchanging human condition. And what a lesson it is in the world of Thucydides, and Euripides, and Horace and Tacitus! Like stale air before a fresh wind, immediately gone is the falsity of the modern politically-correct age.

After John Piper posted on the Minnesota bridge collapse, Greg Boyd posted some thoughts of his own and raised some concerns about how we interpret and explain a catastrophe like this. Coincidentally, both pastors happen to be from The North Star State - Piper resides in Minneapolis, Boyd in St. Paul.

Brant Hansen's side-splitting blog, Letters from Kamp Krusty, combines fearless criticism of the Evangelical establishment with a wonderful (if warped) sense of humor and a very precise level of corny-ness. Not to be missed.

A bleak picture indeed: Trevin Wax looks at Social Security and abortion.

Here's Owen Strachan echoing Victor Davis Hanson on why military history is necessary. I think it's a useful topic, but it appears that my harmless views on violence have now earned me the distinguished title of "culture-throttling pacifist." Is that kind of like being a peace-mongerer? If so, I rather like it. Maybe I should get some T-shirts made.

Owen Strachan on Christian education:

Our Christian institutions must push pupils to take intellectual dominion of their world, to develop a hunger for learning, to mold students into tenacious devotees of biblical faith who use their powers of reason in pursuit of God's glory. We ought not to be known for being schools where tests are easy and A's come readily. We should turn out students of the highest caliber, students who love learning not the sake of success, or even for the sake of learning itself, but for the sake of God's glory. We are to take dominion of the earth, right? This mandate was not given only to gardeners. It was given to us all, and it applies to every corner, every intricacy, of life. Let us fulfill it, and learn the truth, and ask good questions, and pursue knowledge until the day our own understanding is perfected.

VOM, Pakistan:

Pakistani officials have stopped all Bible classes for Christian prisoners in a Punjab jail, isolating an inmate who taught the classes and barring a local pastor from his weekly visits. Compass Direct News reports, "Protestant Pastor Munir Phool has been refused entry to Kasur city's district jail for his weekly visits since June 25, when Catholic prisoner Dil Awaiz was put in a high-security cell and tortured. Awaiz told Phool that Muslim inmates became angry when a Christian prisoner drank from one of their water glasses. The authorities retaliated by forcing the Christian prisoner to drink out of a glass used for cleaning toilets. Later, the authorities had Awaiz beaten and thrown in a high-security cell and deprived contact with other Christian prisoners." Pray for a speedy recovery for Awaiz and for Christians in Pakistan.

A visual journey through John 1:1-14:



Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!



(HT: Garrett)

More about how stuff is made than you'd ever want to know.

(HT: the evangelical outpost)

Dan Edelen on the Church's complacency in providing for the needs of even her own people:

If I don’t instill in my son that we go without certain things we want so we can use the money to help others in need, then it doesn’t matter how many Bible verses he’s memorized, he’s been deprived of the heart of God. I fear that too many Christian parents brainwash themselves and their kids into a sense of entitlement that stomps on the Gospel. God help us should the next generation be even more stingy than we’ve become.

Here's a profoundly challenging post at consumed from Matthew Crawford: Will you walk in the darkness, or make a fire?

The exposition defies excerpting. Read it.

VOM, Iraq:

Christians in Iraq are experiencing a rise in persecution from Islamic extremists. According to a Christian Broadcasting Network News (CBNNews.com) report, Reverend Canon Andrew White, an Anglican minister from Baghdad, told a committee on religious freedom that Christians have been kidnapped, tortured and killed. Rev. White said in the last three to four months conditions in Iraq had deteriorated considerably. He added that he was given disturbing news at a congregational meeting this month. "Things are bad for everybody in Iraq. I said to them (church members), 'tell me what has happened over the past week.' And the people went through what had happened, and I realized that 36 of my congregation in that past week and been kidnapped. None of them have been returned," Reverend White said. Pray God protects and encourages Christians in Iraq. Ask God to send the Holy Spirit to refresh believers who face hardships everyday.

While I'm not ready to read Harry Potter for myself or recommend it to others, I'm not ready to condemn it either. It seems I'm slower to judgment than I used to be, and not as quick to lash out in angry dogmatism and call it discernment. Two thoughtful articles - Of Boggarts and What Would Jonathan Edwards Say About Harry Potter? - have further checked my initial inclination to dismiss the series out of hand. (Thanks to Aaron at The Wardrobe Door for the second link.)

Dan Edelen has drawn an interesting distinction between what he terms "NT" and "OT" Christians. I'm not sure I've heard it put exactly like this, but I know what he's getting at. Unlike him, I'm not sure it is Spiritually necessary - or even logically possible - to reconcile the two Covenants, as the one was designed to fulfill and replace the other.

What's the best argument against religion? Yep, you guessed it: religion.

(WORLD)

VOM, Kazakhstan:

On June 22, a mother and her young child were barred from their home as court executors sealed the Baptist church premises in Shymkent where they live to prevent the church from meeting. According to Forum 18 News Service, the move followed the church's refusal to abide by a court order halting its activity merely because it does not wish to undergo state registration. In Semey, Baptist Pastor Viktor Kandyba, his wife and their 12 children were threatened with the seizure of half their home after the pastor refused to pay a fine for leading unregistered worship. Pray for Christians in Kazakhstan.

An interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

(A&LD)