“God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners.” --William Wilberforce
As discussed in Part 1, it took nearly a half-century of dedicated advocacy by William Wilberforce and his Clapham friends before emancipation became reality in the British Empire. It was a frustratingly long time, but across the Atlantic, the prize took much longer to achieve and exacted a much higher price.
[Ed. note: This is the first installment of Annie Provencher's new column for BreakPoint. The first two paragraphs below explain her column's title, "Through the Window." --GRD]
“The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to ‘see through’ first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.” -- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
Lord Jesus, Let us look at the circumstances of our lives, the moments that fill our days, and the things that surround us as we look through a window: with our hearts set on seeing what is real and knowing what is true.
War Horse, directed by Steven Spielberg, is the tale of a boy and his horse . . . or perhaps more aptly put, a horse and his boy.
Syncretism (noun): “the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.”
I first heard of syncretism in a seminary course on missions that I took many years ago. It plagues missionaries across the world. New peoples in new places come to faith in Christ, but their old religion dies hard, and their old customs linger. Before long they become set in new patterns, more Christian than the old, but still not fully and truly Christian.
There's an important article inThe Public Discourseby Adam J. MacLeod that explains why capitalism and charities are vital for communities. MacLeod's idea ties in nicely with this commentary by Jim Liske, CEO of Prison Fellowship, regarding Mitt Romney's tax returns and America's little platoons.
MacLeod compares and contrasts America with Cuba, capitalism with communism. Capitalism tempered by faith-based charities greatly benefits society. Here's the really interesting part: Faith-based volunteers, writes MacLeod, "sacrifice in some degree their individual autonomy for the sake of some good greater than themselves. They are, in short, communal beings who act through communal means for common goods."
In an aside, I like the term free market better than capitalism because it comes with less baggage. Also, as BreakPoint Blog commenters have pointed out, the term social justice carries baggage too.
Keith Miller, the author of The Taste of New Wine, a revolutionary Christian book, has died at the age of 84. His book has sold millions of copies and has been continuously in print since its publication in 1965. Here is his family blog, where news of his passing is posted.
I remember when I became a Christian in 1968, just as I was going into college. I had little Christian background and had not spent spent more than a few dozen hours inside a church in my life. Most of church life seemed stale then, but there was a new Christian counterculture arising in America, in bits and pieces, which, when examined, had far more exciting ideas than the other new ideas coming into popular culture (and there were many in those days).
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By: Rebecca Poe Hays|Published: January 24, 2012 2:25 PM
At a recent gathering of seminary students who were engaged in ministry internships, one of the students began talking about her work as a children's minister. She was enjoying the experience, and the children all seemed to be enjoying their time with her on Sundays, but she expressed her concern that the curriculum she was using was not theological enough. "I don't want them just to hear Bible stories all the time," she said. "I want them to learn theology."
By: Dennis Babish|Published: January 19, 2012 2:24 PM
In a recent issue of the Washington Post Magazine, Susan Baer wrote a very touching story, “A family learns the true meaning of the vow ‘in sickness and in health.’” It tells of the marriage of Page and Robert Melton, a marriage that was a happy one with two little girls and everything positive going for them. This all changed in 2003, when Robert had a heart attack and stopped breathing for at least 30 minutes.
By: Rolley Haggard|Published: January 12, 2012 9:39 AM
Being a different Worldview Perspective on Calvinism Old and New, from one who was himself a Five-Pointer for 30 years, but who 12 years ago reached the settled conclusion that four-and-a-half of the five points of TULIP are utterly bankrupt, and who now argues with his Reformed brothers, without apology, (ironic pun intended) for semper reformanda on the so-called “doctrines of grace” (he DOES, however, apologize for the ridiculous length of this subtitle).
Divisive? Well, Duh
It would not be difficult to demonstrate that a generous portion of the heat being generated in the resurgent debate, outlined in Shane Morris’s recent article, stems from the Calvinist’s very-often-offensive vocal insistence that “real Christians” are morally obliged to be Calvinistic.
Chuck Colson and John Stonestreet interview former U.S. president Jimmy Carter about Christianity in politics.
[Ed. note: This is the first installment of Annie Provencher's new column for BreakPoint. The first two paragraphs below explain her column's title, "Through the Window." --GRD]