Discuss Theology

Drew Brees thrilled me by giving his testimony over the web an interview to a rep of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

We started podcasting many months ago with our teaching podcasts from the School of Biblical Studies. You may wish to hear some of them. We are averaging well over 1,000 downloads a day right now. The web address is:
www.thesbspodcast.com

From the Washington post–Twenty-eight percent of traffic accidents occur when people talk on cellphones or send text messages while driving, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Safety Council.

The vast majority of those crashes, 1.4 million annually, are caused by cellphone conversations, and 200,000 are blamed on text messaging, according to the report from the council, a nonprofit group recognized by congressional charter as a leader on safety.

Because of the extent of the problem, federal transportation officials unveiled a organization Tuesday, patterned after Mothers Against Drunk Driving, that will combat driver cellphone use. The group, FocusDriven, grew out of a meeting on distracted driving sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation in the District last year.

Virtually everyone owns a cellphone, and it’s evident to anyone who drives regularly that huge numbers of people, including some who support a ban, use them while driving. Persuading people to break that habit could be a tall order for FocusDriven.

David Kirkpatrick, writer for the New York times termed contemporary conservative Princeton Philosopher Robert George in a recent article in the New York Times. Note the following paragraph to remind yourself at this Christmas season what the world really thinks of us.
He has parlayed a 13th-century Catholic philosophy into real political influence. Glenn Beck, the Fox News talker and a big George fan, likes to introduce him as “one of the biggest brains in America,” or, on one broadcast, “Superman of the Earth.” Karl Rove told me he considers George a rising star on the right and a leading voice in persuading President George W. Bush to restrict embryonic stem-cell research. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told me he numbers George among the most-talked-about thinkers in conservative legal circles. And Newt Gingrich called him “an important and growing influence” on the conservative movement, especially on matters like abortion and marriage.

Oral Roberts dead at 91
Jack Hayford, president of the California-based International Church of the Foursquare Gospel said, the following about Oral Roberts:

“If God had not in his sovereign will raised up the ministry of Oral Roberts, the entire charismatic movement might not have occurred. Oral shook the landscape with the inescapable reality and practicality of Jesus’ whole ministry. His teaching and concepts were foundational to the renewal that swept through the whole church.”

We are a kingdom of priests [like Ezekiel] who are occasionally called to be prophets [also like Ezekiel]. I think this is what happened with the Manhattan declaration. Good for us. I signed it, I hope you do to.

Several young disciples committed to read through the whole Bible in the coming months in various ways which really pleased me.

3 will read through it beginning with the smallest books
1 is going to read a book a day beginning with Ephesians and Colossians
1 is simply going to read it through cover to cover
2 are writing it out longhand beginning with Genesis
1 is writing it out beginning with Matthew
1 is listening to it on mP3
2 are going to read it aloud 30 minutes per day

What a joy to see young blooming disciples.

Christianity Today chronicled the recent discussions at Calvin College concerning various sexual behaviors. It struck me that orthodox Christian colleges are now facing the kinds of questions that other Universities and colleges faced a couple of decades back. I remembered my sojourn at Gordon Conwell a few years back and something Francis Schaeffer said about cultural lag. Basically the church lags the culture by a couple of decades. You see this in many things. I recently looked at a few old clips of Italian movies from the ’60′s, ’70′s, and 80′s. All of the dismal topics explored there are now being explored in the church and in the states in our contemporary milieu. Cultural lag exists and Calvin College is now experiencing it.

If we pay back 100 million dollars per day for the next 3,000 years we will still not pay off all of our national debt.–So says, Larry Edelson of Weiss Investment Research. Moses comes to mind in Deuteronomy 28 when I read this figure.

Brooksley Born graduated number one from Stanford Law School in 1964. Bill Clinton placed her high in his administration. She resigned after working for three years as head at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. PBS featured her story October 20, 2009 titled “The Warning”. If you are ready to be terrified, go to the web site and watch it for 55 minutes. This chronicles the past but at the end of the piece she gives her opinion of the financial future. “Pretty” would not be the word to use for it.