Tom Coburn attempts to educate a single payer advocate, but the part that interested me most: “Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. And you can’t love through the federal government.”

h/t to the blog prof

It does not advance the church’s mission – or increase our individual sanctification – to allow government to do our jobs – Social Justice, For The Glory of Government.

Reposted

In the last week or so, we’ve seen attacks by Muslims against Christians in the Phillipines, Pakistan, Iraq, and Nigeria.  Media coverage has been disingenuous, failing to note the religious motivations behind the attacks, and shifting blame onto the victims to at least some extent.  John at Powerline wonders if Christians care that our brothers and sisters in Christ are being slaughtered.

No doubt readers can refer us to some Christian sources–evangelical, most likely–who have tried to draw attention to the plight of Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia who are being exterminated. But any such effort has wholly failed to gain traction in the “mainstream” Christian community.

I think I understand what John means – why hasn’t mainstream Christianity mobilized with the enthusiasm and energy they – we – express when someone has the temerity to call a Christmas tree a “holiday tree?”  (Don’t even get me started on how silly that is.)  Why isn’t the AFA boycotting someone over this?  I have no idea.  Speaking for myself – which is all I’m qualified to do – yes, I care.  But lacking the ability to do anything but pray, I’m not sure what my response should be.  I haven’t got any particular sources which would enable me to add  to the knowledge about these attacks.  It seems pointless to build a website about it – if I have something to say I can post it here or in the Greenroom at Hot Air.  I don’t know anybody I can give money to help these people, and I’m not sure money would even help.  I’ve told people, and they’re also praying, and really, that’s the best thing – and probably the extent – of what I can do.

I have a problem that’s driving me absolutely wild.  I have a great knack for remembering what I hear.  I can recognize voices really well – far better than I remember faces – and quote movie lines verbatim even years later.  The other day when a Hot Air commenter compared me to Stalin and accused me of thinking I’m smarter than everyone else (yes, really) I replied with advice to switch to decaf via a movie line from, of course, Real Genius.  Hey, just because no one else catches this stuff doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun with it.  The point is, Real Genius was released in 1985.  I’ve seen it a few times since, then, but not so many that I should have it practically memorized.  It’s infuriating how easy it is to do that, or hear a voice and place it from a brief encounter years ago, yet so hard to memorize bible verses I find especially meaningful.  Anybody else have this problem, or a similar difficulty memorizing verses?

The other day, an interview with Elton John quoted him as saying that Jesus was a compassionate gay man. Now – probably after a stern lecture from his public relations people – he’s backpedaling furiously.

Well, let me clarify the situation first of all. It’s not actually in the interview in Parade magazine. Parade magazine did a kind of a sneaky thing and put it on their website that I said this. And I, I might have said this as part of the conversation during the interview. And the interviewer did a wonderful job. And I’m very, very happy with the article in Parade magazine. I think everybody’s individual faith is their own business, and I do believe in Jesus, and I believe that he was a compassionate person, and I see him as, from my point of view, and that’s just my point of view, and I’m not, as a compassionate gay person. Someone who was persecuted. Someone who forgave people. And, and that’s how I see him. He could have easily been Jeannie White, Ryan White’s mother, you know, who went through that awful thing. It’s just I identify in my mind as someone like that… [Read more...]

We all know about blessings in adversity (as I experienced with regard to Hurricane Katrina) and how abundance can sometimes keep us from chasing hard after God – as in the rich young man who would not give up all he had to follow Jesus.  How can you know something is either good or bad without the benefit of an eternal view?  For example, the Black Death caused many millions of deaths… but triggered the end of the serf system, led to the Renaissance, and some argue, the Reformation.  Gene Veith has a thought-provoking story-building exercise about how a farmer responds to his impetuous neighbor’s assessment of his changing fortunes.