Thanksgiving

Last night my church had its annual Thanksgiving praise service. It’s an open mike night, and I headed joyfully to the front to deliver this thanksgiving:

I would like to give thanks to the Lord for giving me his favor in the form of a beautiful, godly new wife, Laura, whom I met in this church building—in that hallway—in a College and Career ministry team meeting.

In my search for a godly wife I studied carefully Genesis 2; Proverbs 31; Ephesians 5; and 1 Corinthians 7; and I sought the wise counsel of my parents and of my elders here, especially Mr. Wiginton and Pastor Vincent—many times. I read good books and paid attention at school. And I even listened carefully to the testimonies of happy husbands at services like this.

But it was only God’s overflowing grace that gave me this wife. I could not have known the future as he did. After 6 months of marriage I can honestly say I had no idea how wonderful it would be. Laura is a Proverbs 31 woman. Yes, I eat a lot better and my towels are all folded. But most of all I have a wise, godly companion who both sharpens and softens me. I praise the Lord that 20 years ago he turned the hearts of Laura’s parents to him (they were then totally lost) and formed up for me a helper who fits me.

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Never Forget. You’re Reminded.

This kind of insight is the real reason I read the New York Times. I actually don’t read the politics much.

For American audiences a Holocaust movie is now more or less equivalent to a western or a combat picture or a sword-and-sandals epic—part of a genre that has less to do with history than with the perceived expectations of moviegoers. This may be the only, or at least the most widely available, way of keeping the past alive in memory, but it is also a kind of forgetting.

[From Never Forget. You’re Reminded.]

The article canvasses the spate of recent Holocaust films, noting how different cultures—American, European, Israeli—treat the historical event in popular art. It’s worth your perusal.

Op-Ed Columnist – Obama and the War on Brains – NYTimes.com

Oh, Kristof! I’ve always liked you! Why do you have to think like so?

An intellectual is a person interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity. Intellectuals read the classics, even when no one is looking, because they appreciate the lessons of Sophocles and Shakespeare that the world abounds in uncertainties and contradictions, and — President Bush, lend me your ears — that leaders self-destruct when they become too rigid and too intoxicated with the fumes of moral clarity.

[From Op-Ed Columnist - Obama and the War on Brains - NYTimes.com]

Is there any moral clarity to be had regarding the issues you have—I think rightly—championed? Cambodian sex slavery? Darfurian genocide?

Today Kristof had a fascinating video about educating the beautiful children of the Pakistani rural areas. But his worldview was on display again: he closed the presentation by saying that Pakistan’s greatest enemy was “not India but illiteracy.” It’s neither, of course, and until liberals see the greatest enemy, the one inside their own hearts—as Alexander Solzhenitsyn did—the world will disappoint them.

BJU Statement on Racism

I applaud Bob Jones University, my alma mater, for stating this clearly in a statement released today:

Bob Jones University has existed since 1927 as a private Christian institution of higher learning for the purpose of helping young men and women cultivate a biblical worldview, represent Christ and His Gospel to others, and glorify God in every dimension of life.

BJU’s history has been chiefly characterized by striving to achieve those goals; but like any human institution, we have failures as well. For almost two centuries American Christianity, including BJU in its early stages, was characterized by the segregationist ethos of American culture. Consequently, for far too long, we allowed institutional policies regarding race to be shaped more directly by that ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures. We conformed to the culture rather than provide a clear Christian counterpoint to it.

Praise the Lord for the humility and wisdom of BJU President Stephen Jones. I have prayed for him and the University in the past to do the right thing with regard to this issue, and I prayed for him during the small (Facebook) controversy which gave rise to this statement. My prayers were answered beyond what I expected, and I rejoice.