Comments Which Conservatives Block From Their Blogs For September 20, 2017

Sept 19

To Collin Hansen, Tim Keller, and Russell Moore and their blogpost video discussion of how sharing the Gospel is different today than it was in the past. This appeared on the Gospel Coalition website.

I think Keller's observations about sharing the Gospel today are very good. I would add an emphasis on the focus on the failures of the Church because of today's post modernism. Post modernism employs an negative outcome-based truth system so that if a belief contributes sins like marginalizing others, dominating others, and so forth, it cannot be true. We need to realize that past sins like marginalizing others, dominating others, war and such has greatly disillusioned people so that post modernism has become a natural reaction to those institutions that practiced those sins. Post modernism expresses the betrayal people feel toward those who claimed to know the truth. This is why the faults of the Church eclipse its contributions to society.
What we Christians could learn from the post modern rejection of the Church is to increase our revulsion at the same sins that so bother post modernism.
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To Joe Carter and his blogpost that contains a praeger video that boasts about charter schools. This appeared in the Acton blog.

First, Charter schools have a mixed record when examining the effects on the students. Though there were some reported improvements in certain areas, there were reported problems as well in terms of school accountability, college preparation for the students, the ability to remain open, and regular public schools being deprived of necessary funds.

If we take college preparation for example, the LA based Alliance College-Ready Public Schools stated that 95% of their low-income students go to college, around 75% did not finish (see https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/14/charter-schools-college-degrees/99125468/ ).

In addition, administrators of charter schools are as liable as administrators of regular public schools of making significant financial blunders. And, as mentioned before, some charter schools don't make it through the school year (see http://www.businessinsider.com/john-oliver-charter-schools-2016-8 ).

Additional problems include fraud and racial segregation (see http://www.salon.com/2014/05/07/charter_schools_are_cheating_your_kids_new_report_reveals_massive_fraud_mismanagement_abuse/ ).

But perhaps the biggest problem with charter schools is that it is designed to work on a faulty analysis. That analysis states that lack of competition is what hurts education in the public schools especially in some urban areas. But when one talks to teachers who teach  in inner city schools, their teaching performance is hampered by economic-induced instability in the homes of many of these students. Teachers sometimes design their course so that all work is done in class rather than splitting work up between in class and homework. And that doesn't include whether students get adequately fed before and after school.

Much of the instability is due to economic conditions that are described by many as hopeless. For what jobs do exist pay poverty wage even for those who have already take some college courses. Basically the economic system has abandoned certain areas of our city and that leaves people less able and motivated to get married and start traditional families.

So instead of pouring resources into urban areas that would provided economic hope for the residents by way of living wage jobs, charter schools are being formed as a way to help students escape their neighborhoods. And that is precisely the problem that is being overlooked here. That for many inner city neighborhoods, an individual's success is measured not by returning to the neighborhood to maintain a healthy status; it is measured by the ability to escape one's neighborhood. Such an approach facilitates a systemic abandonment of many inner city neighborhoods.
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To R. Scot Clark and his blogpost that quotes Carl Truman as he sides with a liberal who condemns liberal Christianity for both  not being able to cope with sex and its concern for the social consequences of those who approach sex in nontraditional ways. This appeared in the Heidelblog.

I am not sure that religiously conservative Christianity can adequately cope with sex either when one considers the sexual abuse of children in the Roman Church and  in the evangelical churches (see http://www.catholicconvert.com/blog/2016/11/25/sex-abuse-scandals-catholic-protestant-and-secular-you-may-be-surprised/  and  https://newrepublic.com/article/142999/silence-lambs-protestants-concealing-catholic-size-sexual-abuse-scandal  and   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/protestant-sex-abuse-boz-tchividijian_n_4019347.html ).

What seems to be a main point of emphasis both in what was quoted above and in the article cited is the animosity expressed not necessarily at sexual sins themselves, but at those who want the marginalization of the LGBT community in society to end. Pointing out that marginalization, as well as the marginalization of others, has more often than not been met with dismissiveness and derision by many religious conservative Christian leaders, one must wonder what happened to those who react that way and why aren't they  conscious of the Scriptures that warn us not to judge others because of our own sins and not to act like the Pharisee from the parable of the two men praying.
In fact, when we look at signs of the authoritarian personality type, obsession with sex is one of those signs along with hostility toward those who challenge tradition (see https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence-personality/authoritarian-personality ). And if we note what was just written, that obsession with sex can come out in abusive ways and that hostility toward others forgets or even denies one's own sinfulness and need for mercy and compassion.

The PCUSA concern about the marginalization of people, the LGBT community is not the only group studied, is Biblical. We are to care about the vulnerable. But many of us religiously conservative Christians have caused  Christians, both fellow conservative Christians who are also millennials and some more liberal Christians into a corner where they must pick between either marginalizing others in society or compromising Biblical standards on sex. Considering the post modern influence on conservative millennial Christians, we can understand how many millennials might be more prone to compromise those Biblical standards.
Yes, we need to warn ourselves and others about the the physical and spiritual problems that come with violating what the Bible teaches about sex. But we also need to be careful about how we warn ourselves and others and how we can respond when we do violate what the Bible teaches so that we can repent. It seems to me that too many religiously conservative Christians, such as Carl Trueman, have paid enough attention to the need of warning himself and others but have taken a 'damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,' approach in making such warnings.

We should also note that while many of us religiously conservative Christians are so focused on the sexual sins of today, we are unwittingly or intentionally following a historical flaw that other religiously conservative Christians have made: we have sided with those with wealth and power. We should note what happened to the predominant branch of the Church during and after the French, Russian, and Spanish Revolutions because they did side with wealth and power before those respective revolutions.





 

ONIM For July 4, 2016

Christian News

• Evangelicals In The Church Of England Urge 'Biblical' View On Sexuality -- Christian Today (UK)
• Christian Leaders Warn Against Election Violence In South Africa -- Christian Today (UK)
• Russia's Proposed Law: No Evangelizing Outside Of Church -- Christianity Today
• 20 Of The Most Creative Christians We Know -- Christianity Today
• Issues In The Future Of Evangelism -- Christianity Today
• Reflections From A Black Presbyterian On The PCA's Overture On Racial Reconciliation -- Reformed African American Network
• What I Saw In The 44th General Assembly Of The PCA(1) -- Mortification Of Spin
• Sexual Revolution: Take 2 -- Mortification Of Spin
• Listening To Abused Women -- Mortification Of Spin
• Christians Are The Most Persecuted Religious Group In The World -- McClatchy
• The Dark Pessimism Of American Christians -- The Week
• Open Letter To Reverend Franklin Graham -- Huffington Post
• Russell Moore: A Time For Choosing -- The American Conservative
• Hope After Brexit -- The Gospel Coalition
• A Conversation With Four Historians On The Response Of White Evangelicals On The Civil Rights Movement -- The Gospel Coalition

World News

• Angela Merkel Surprised By Massive Protest March Against TTIP In Berlin -- Business Insider
• Jeremy Corbyn 'Still Prepared To Call For Tony Blair War Crimes Investigation' -- Independent
• Empathy Is Killed By Popular Painkiller Found In 600 Different Drugs -- Psy Blog
• Noam Chomsky: America Is Only A Democracy For The 1 Percent -- Salon
• Chocolate Makes You Smarter, Study Suggests -- The Telegraph
• Germany Bans Fracking Forever -- Politics Breaking
• Singapore Airplane Catches Fire Moments After Making Landing -- Yahoo News
• Israeli Official: Reconciliation Deal Reached With Turkey -- ABC News
• 'I Believe In Miracles': A Palestinian Sprinter's Olympic Dream -- NBC News
• Brexit Has Given Voice To Racism--And Too Many Are Complicit -- The Guardian
• Hanoi'd With Jane -- Scopes.com
• DNC Convention Costs Leaving Young And Poor Delegates Out In The Cold -- Enabon
• Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Cornfields -- Real Farmacy
• SCOTUS Ruling Makes Corrupt Officials Harder To Prosecute, Experts Say -- Yahoo News
• Israel Should Be Deeply Disturbed By The Brexit Vote -- Mondoweiss
• The Radical New Face Of The Jewish Settler Movement -- Forward
• Racist Incidents Skyrocket After Brexit Vote -- Huffington Post
• Witness At Ted Cruz Hearing Accuses Congress' Two Muslim Members Of Muslim Brotherhood Ties -- Huffington Post
• Hillary Clinton's Email Story Continues To Get Harder And Harder To Prove -- The Washington Post
• Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, And Israel Occupation -- Common Dreams
• 7 Out Of 10 Amerians Agree That Economy Is Stacked Against Them -- Common Dreams
• Want To Cut Government Waste? Find The $8.5 Trillion The Pentagon Cannot Account For -- Yahoo News
• All Signs Point To ISIS In Istanbul Attack -- Yahoo News
• Three U.S. Students Among Those Killed In Bangladesh Restaurant Attack -- Yahoo News
• Elizabeth Warren Defends Israeli Shelling Of Gaza Schools, Hospitals -- Huffington Post
• The Play Deficit -- Aeon
• Shocking New Report: Bombing People Causes People To Hate You -- Daily Kos
• Alberta Passes Bill Banning Political Donations From Corporations And Unions -- The Globe And Mail
• Mississippi Forces Welfare Recipients To Work, Liberals Ticked At Surprising Results -- PolitiCulture
• New Poll Finds That Hillary Supporters Are Pretty Racist Too -- Slate
•  A Note On Lesser Evil Voting -- Counterpunch
• How Social Media Has Changed The Landscape For Editorial Cartooning -- Columbia Journalism Review
• Winners In Brexit: Old People, Old Media -- Columbia Journalism Review
• Activists Occupy Major Park In Budapest To Stop Unwanted Development -- Waging Nonviolence
• Puerto Rico Mounts Historic Decolonization Effort Amid Efforts To Free Oscar Lopez Rivera -- Waging Nonviolence
• As Britain Exists, The Need For A Strong Climate Agreement Remains -- Waging Nonviolence
• Cornell West's Bold Speech As He Abstains From Supporting DNC Platform -- YouTube

Pick(s) Of The Litter

• Noam Chomsky: We Are Suffering The Major Downside Of Global Economics -- Alternet
• Massive Turnout In Mexico March To Protest Oaxaca Massacre -- Telesur
• Clinton's "First Major Betrayal"?: DNC Surrogates Defeat Anti-TPP Measure -- Common Dreams
• In 'Voisine V. US,' SCOTUS Ruled People Convicted Of Domestic Violence Cannot Have Guns -- Policy.Mic
• My Four Months As A Private Prison Guard -- Mother Jones
• "My Four Months As A Private Prison Guard": Shane Bauer Goes Undercover To Expose Conditions -- Democracy Now
• Inside Mother Jones' Monster Investigation Of Private Prisons -- Columbia Journalism Review
• People, Even More Greedy And Stupid, Destroy The World--Stephen Hawking To Larry King -- RT
• Obama: "We Have To Twist Arms When Countries Don't Do What We Need Them To" -- RT
• Anti-Semitism Is Back. Will You Stand By Or Stand Up -- Huffington Post
• American Muslims Show Humanitarian Islam -- Huffington Post
• Istanbul Airport Attack: 36 Dead, 147 Injured, Turkish Officials Say -- CNN
• Mississippi Allegedly Shot An Unarmed Man And Let A Police Mutilate His Groin --  Think Progress
• Cleaning Up America's Backyard: The Overthrow Of Guatemala's Arbenz -- Huffington Post
• Obama Admin Approved Over 1,500 Offshore Fracking Permits In Gulf Of Mexico And Mainstream Media Has Ignored It -- Desmog
• Official: Airport Attackers From Russia, Central Asia -- Yahoo News
• Iraqi Officials: 91 People Killed In 2 Bombings In Baghdad -- Yahoo News