Tim Keller--Resources

Tim Keller has radically affected my life in a positive way, to such an extent that I almost can't be sure whether I knew the Gospel before I started listening to his way of presenting it in the summer of 2008. In talking with other Christians, I basically encounter two kinds of people: those who value Tim the way I do and those who haven't heard of him. Since I've had a few people ask me for more information on his stuff, I decided to just put a posting on the website for easier access.

Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York City)
Redeemer's free sermons (start here, at the top)
Tim Keller resources (excellent site)
Monergism's links to TK resources (Audio and Print)
The Reason for God

Theological Tuesday

~What is the role of suffering in Christianity?
~What should we do with 1 Cor 5, especially verse 11?
~Is Michael Spencer right about American Evangelicalism?
~Is Dinesh D’Souza right about atheism?

Ethics: Should we want Obama to succeed or fail?

Rush Limbaugh recently created a stir among both liberals and conservatives by commenting that he hopes President Obama fails, which he claims is what all conservatives really want but are afraid to say. At the CPA Cconference, he reiterated this comment, claiming that he certainly doesn't want America to fail. However, in his mind, Obama succeeding and America succeeding are mutually exclusive. Of course, what other people are saying is that this is like hoping the ship goes down just so you can prove there really was an iceberg there. Also, some of this rhetoric sounds similar to the opposition to the war in Iraq by many liberals, which was often insinuated as being unpatriotic. So, is Rush right that we should want Obama to fail, or should we be wanting him to succeed?

Links:
Limbaugh's original comments (Media Matters)
Limbaugh's speech at CPAC

What do you collect?

There are two kinds of people in the world (in addition to the hundreds of other two kinds of people in the world): those who collect things and those who do not. In my own experience, these two races almost always intermarry. Since I've recently been sorting through some of my grandfather's stamp collection, I thought it would be fun to talk a little bit about what we collect, why we collect it, and whether we find our collections bringing us closer to other people or alienating us from them.

Various Current Events

CASC and Prop 8 Part 1, Part 2 (Findlaw)
Attack on religion in Connecticut (Hartford Courant Blogs)

Read the text of House Bill 1098
DNC presents top 5 anti-Limbaugh slogans (CNS News)
Wealthiest list down 30% from last year (USA Today)
RNC Chair says abortion “a choice” (Wash Times)
Obama creates women’s issues panel (White House)
Obama lifts embryonic stem cell ban (White House)
Senate ends DC voucher program (Wash Times)
Murtha’s earmark factory (Politico)
Body odor as ID and lie detector? (Wash Times)
Science discovers brain’s “God-spot” (Fox News)
SF reacts to weird insta-mob events (SF Chronicle)
FOCA could cause Cath. hospital closures (STL Post-Dispatch)
Muslim woman ejected over head scarf (Wash Post)
Man jailed 20 years for paper on women in Islam (NY Times)

Wacky Wednesday--Socialism Would Be Better

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Capitalism cultivates a relativistic mindset because it rewards the popular rather than the good.
~Capitalism fosters coveting, envy, greed, and materialism.
~Since the means of production were produced in collaboration with other people why shouldn’t everyone share equally in their benefits?
~Does the Book of Acts seem more like capitalism or more like communism to you?
~Only a centrally planned system can preserve a decent culture.
~By not being in control of wealth, people aren’t tempted to worship money like in capitalistic societies.
~Capitalism alienates the laborer from the product he creates.
~Isn’t equality better?
~The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.
~Some problems are too big to be trusted to private enterprise.
~Government is an excellent deliverer of many services.

Wacky Wednesday--The Stimulus Plan Is Wise

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Government spending is a great way to keep the money circulating.
~Some things are too important to let fail because of the empty rhetoric of conservative idealism.
~The people who oppose this are, wanting Obama to fail, wanting liberal ideas to fail, or racists.
~The situation is so dire that we have to do something.
~If we don’t do everything we can possibly do and the whole thing falls apart, we’ll always feel guilty about that.
~We are world leaders, and they are looking to us for leadership by example.
~Government spending got us out of the Great Depression.

Links:
Recovery Act (Wikipedia)

Theological Tuesday

~What does it mean to “judge not?”
~What is the role of suffering in Christianity?
~What is legalism?
~What is idolatry?
~Is prayer only about words?

Ethics: Do Motives Matter?

When we raise our kids, we largely cultivate in them two forms of evil: pride (you’re better than the sort of person who does that) and fear (if you don’t want to get punished, you’ll behave). Sure we get them to behave, but aren’t we nurturing evil in the very center of their virtue when we do this? Isn’t what we ultimately want for them that they will be good for the sake of being good? So, is it better to do the right thing for the wrong reasons or to do the wrong thing for the right reasons? If doing the right thing for the right reasons counts 100%, what percent does doing the right thing for the wrong reasons count? In large part, these questions are getting at the difference between common virtue and real virtue. And, as Jonathan Edwards is so vehement to point out, don’t underestimate the value of common virtue in this world. If a man avoids running you off the road because he doesn’t want to damage his car, you’re still alive, right?

Bad TV

There at least three kinds of bad television shows: Shows which are so bad that they go away immediately and no one remembers them, shows which are bad but seem to generate enough popularity with other people in spite of the fact, and shows which start out well, get you excited, and then become not merely worthless, but disappointing to boot. So, today, I thought it would be fun to talk about such shows, focusing in on the last two categories mostly, since it’s very hard to remember the truly awful flops. Also in the process, perhaps we’ll talk about why it seems to be so much easier to make a great first season than to continue making great seasons.

Various Current Events

Washington allows euthanasia (Christian Post)

Rush Limbaugh’s speech at CPAC
Pleasant Grove v Summum case (Findlaw)
International woman’s day (CS Monitor)
Disturbing DOJ nominees (Christian Post)

Gov. Brewer’s proposed recovery plan (AZ Republic)

Arrest warrant for Sudan’s leader (NY Times)

A President, a boy, a genocide (Nicholas Kristof)
Presidential bait-and-switch (Karl Rove)

Beware dealing with Putin (Garry Kasparov)
The Limbaugh fuss (Politico)
USSC sends chilling message on prayer (Rutherford Inst.)
In praise of Mexico’s war on drugs (WSJ)

Fairness doctrine issues (LA Times)

Obama’s tax changes worry non-profits (AP)

Why Obama’s tax changes won’t kill philanthropy (WSJ Blogs)

Rethinking the mortgage interest deduction (NY Times Blogs)

Prop 8 argued in CA Supreme Court (LA Times)

Wacky Wednesday--Photo Radar Is Bad

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~It’s just a ruse for generating more money for the state.
~They cause people to drive more recklessly as they slow way down for only the cameras.
~Law enforcement should not be privatized to non-police entities who operate for profit.
~It heavily encourages people to falsify their license plates.
~Real brains behind the real eyes on the road are necessary for reliable law enforcement.
~How sure are we that all the cameras are accurate all the time?
~How sure are you that the right car gets photographed even for a genuine speeding violation?
~Multiple lanes of traffic seem to make this whole thing just about impossible.
~People actually slow down too far below the limit and become dangerous for that reason because they’re more scared and ignorant.
~Privacy concerns require that the government be incapable of tracking your movements and recording them in public.
~They are wildly unpopular with drivers.
~It’s virtually impossible to mount a defense against one because you aren’t immediately aware that you have been photographed. Even if you suspect that you have, how can you possibly refute one?
~They violate the right to confront your accuser.
~The fact that they feel the need to tell you ½ mile and 300 feet in advance is an admission that something fishy is going on here. They certainly feel no such compulsion when a cop is sitting on the side of the road.
~It runs the risk of inviting camera-based totalitarianism.
~This is the beginning of the end times.

Wacky Wednesday--Exclusive Psalmody Is Right

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

Definition: Exclusive psalmody is the practice of worship by singing only the psalms a capella.

~There’s never a question of the words being compatible with or pleasing to God.
~When people try to worship God their own way, it infuriates Him and brings severe consequences upon them.
~Sola Scripture: The Bible is our only standard for faith and practice.
~Is God’s Word not enough for you?
~Where God has not revealed His Will, no faithful response is possible, therefore we can only live in faith as a response to what He has revealed.
~This is just a logical extension of the Second Commandment warning against false images and (by implications) false forms of worship
~If you start from the notion that man is depraved, would you ever get to the conclusion that man could properly decide for himself how to worship God?
~This protects the church from its own dangerous tendency to invent new rules.
~The congregation learns the psalms by heart.
~Any other sort of worship is going to risk requiring the congregation to participate in something offensive to his conscience.
~If someone is this particular in their method of worship, how likely are they to honor the instructions of the Bible everywhere else in their lives?
~Have you heard or read modern hymns? That alone is the best argument for it.
~You’ll never run the risk of turning worship into a rock concert.
~If a group of people had only their voices and the Bible, would their worship be defective in any way?

Links:
Exclusive Psalmody (Wikipedia)
Nine reasons for regulative principle (T. David Gordon)
Some questions about regulative principle (John M. Frame)
Thoughts on exclusive psalmody (Lee Irons)
Exclusive psalmody (Third Millenium)
Exclusive psalmody homepage (Covenanter.org)
Exclusive psalmody (W. Gary Crampton)

Theological Tuesday

~What does it mean to “judge not?”
~What is the role of suffering in Christianity?
~What is idolatry?
~Is prayer only about words?

What's the Most Christian Car?

Cars. We all drive them. We all see them. And, since we’re Americans, we all to some degree identify ourselves with and by them. So, the preliminary question is whether any one car is more Christian than another. But the real question is, “If you had to preach Christ from a brand, make, model, or feature of car, how would you do it?” As usual, I recommend you start with a particular one you know fairly well and see if you can dig anything out of it to illustrate God. And in the end, we, certainly want to know which sort of car we all should be buying to prove we’re real Christians.

Ethics: Should We Try To Save The Newspapers?

Newspapers are in big trouble. Ad revenue is down. Subscriptions are down. In short, income is dangerously down. Nonetheless, newspaper consumption is at an all-time high, but the vast majority of the increase is on the Internet. I can read the LA Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and even (presuming you can endure their website) the Arizona Republic online…for free. You might say that the web is like a parasite, killing its own host as well as all the derivatives that depend upon it. If newspapers actually went away, some estimate that 80% of all the news content on the web would go away. I personally know that without newspapers, I couldn’t do my job half as well as I do. In short, a free press may wind up not existing if the press actually becomes free. So, the question is whether as a society we should be trying to do something to save them? How important are the newspapers really, and to what degree does our society need them? And, concluding that we do, what can (or should) be done to fix the problem of their decline? In short, does the newspaper meltdown constitute a pressing and legitimate public policy problem?

.

Links:

How to save your newspaper (Walter Isaacson)

Is online journalism on its way out? (Howard Kurtz)

What would micropayments do for journalism? (NY Times blogs)

You can’t sell news by the slice (Michael Kinsley)