US Constitution Divine? Part 2

Some time ago I stumbled upon a painting (I later found to be done by a Mormon) of Jesus holding the US Constitution as if the Founding Fathers did not so much write it as they were handed it by Christ himself.  My brief comment about it was welcomed by a very vibrant conversation.

Lo and behold, there is a follow-up to the original painting:

The painting features current President Barak Obama standing on the Constitution and flanked by all the other presidents including George W. Bush who is just over his right shoulder. Click here for a larger, interactive, version of this painting.

What first strikes me about the painting itself (other than FDR standing) is that it is Obama who is standing on the Constitution amidst shreds of paper containing the Bill of Rights.  Could we not also put other presidents, like, I don’t know, George W. Bush himself who presided over the near military state as the Patriot Act was signed into law to “protect” the American people while giving the federal government unprecedented power over the populous?

Why a Divorced, Strong-on-Marriage Gingrich May NOT Be an Oxymoron

I don’t usually make political comments, but something occurred to me watching the news tonight.  Many have talked about the high divorce rates that continue to climb higher.  People who are divorced remarry 65% of the time and they have an even higher divorce rate than the rest of us.

Could it be that even with criticism (and perhaps because of it), Newt has achieved the status of the common man?  ”He’s been there! He understands!”

What a time we live in.

It’s Time to Let Your Child Die

In 1729 Jonathan Swift sarcastically presented a “modest proposal” in which he suggested that to combat the problem of poverty and overpopulation that the children of the poor could be sold for meat to the wealthiest of Englishmen, thus helping to  provide the poor with a lucrative source of income and reduce the burden of the lower class.  Perhaps his was the more sane suggestion.

Last week conversations erupted in regard to tiny little Amelia Rivera and her treatment at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  Amelia is nearly three-years-old and has a lower than average IQ and some developmental delay.  She also has a rare condition called Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome (WHS) that will soon require a kidney transplant.  The entire Rivera family is eager to find a donor within their family in hopes of helping their little gift have a long and happy life.  Yet tears still streamed from shocked faces as her parents talked with her doctor.

The sobs and jaw on the floor is in response to what the doctor just said. Apparently little Mia is not eligible for a transplant because she is too stupid. The doctor said it almost as delicately, suggesting that mental retardation excludes her from the transplant surgery, even if a donor is found within the family.  The social worker seated next to the nephrologist suggested that with a life-long regiment of taking anti-rejection drugs, they cannot trust Mia to be able to care for herself as the reason to justify condemning her to death.  The hospital has the resources to save Mia’s life, but they would rather see her die. Read more about this conversation.

The Whole Truth: Telling the Story of the Bible

How would you share what the Bible is about?  How does the Old Testament relate to the New Testament?  How can we decide what meaning the stories contained in the Bible mean to us?

I remember sitting in Sunday School class and hearing about the stories of David and Goliath, Daniel in the lions den, and Moses parting the Red Sea and wondering what this all means.  It seemed to be just a series of unrelated episodes, except for the common factor that God was intimately involved.

More recently I heard a sermon (at an undisclosed location) on Jesus calming the storm from the gospel of Luke.  The speaker eagerly talked about how the storm represents an obstacle in our lives that we have to try to get around or over or under, but Jesus may call us through the storm.  Does this interpretation accurately demonstrate the meaning of the passage?  What did Mark intend when he wrote it?  What did the event mean to those who witnessed it?  Most importantly what did Jesus intend to teach when he performed this miracle?

What we are talking about here is biblical theology.  It may sound intimidating, but it basically means the way that we find meaning in the pages of the Bible.  We all come to the Bible with a set of assumptions and learning to properly interpret the Bible helps us to comb through those assumptions and get to what the Bible is all about, first in terms of it being God’s Word, then in terms of it being God’s Word to us.

Twilight is Pornography

… so says Mark Driscoll

Let me track the logic for you. In the final chapters of his book Vintage Church, Mark recommends that pastors spend a concerted amount of time watching popular movies and television shows, with the exception of those he would consider pornographic (Vintage Church, p.225). He says that he owns multiple TiVo units so that he can watch everything while skipping through commercials to save time.

Dricoll seems to have a fairly liberal definition of pornography, at least in comparison to some. He accepts that there are acceptable depictions of the nude form in art (i.e. Michelangelo’s David), which many consider offensive. However, his concept of what constitutes as pornography has at least one interesting aspect. The definition of what Mark considers pornographic includes “along with sexual nudity and pornography, we also include women’s romance novels” (Real Marriage, p. 145).

I have heard this argument about these trashy novels before, and I think it holds merit. One of the distinct differences in the sexuality of men and women is that men are more visual in nature and women are more engaged by emotional content. The infamous Harlequin novels have graphic detail of sexual encounters according to the random interviews I have read with their authors. Their obvious appeal is the fantasy that it presents as these novels are consumed by a primarily female audience.