Here is a short statement or sketch on something that I hope to develop some more in the near future. I speak of the comparatively new and alarming trend in Christian circles toward the demonization of certain basic foods. I am not speaking of those who have genuine allergies, but rather to a larger, culture-wide …
A Random Recommendation
A few weeks ago, Nancy and I watched a movie we really enjoyed. The cinematography appears to have been done by Andrew Wyeth, with the whole movie powerful and understated. You have the clear and satisfying sense of having been told a story. The good church folks in it are blinkered and provincial, but are …
Church and Kingdom Distinct
“When we envision the kingdom of God on earth we are not envisioning everything under the authority of the church. We’re envisioning everything under the authority of King Jesus . . . Christ’s kingship is wider than His rule over the church” (Steve Schlissel, Christian Culture in a Multicultural Age, p. 8).
Disaster A or Disaster B
As the campaign unfolds, I will be writing more about all of this, but let this serve as a basic orientation. This November, we are facing a choice between disaster A or disaster B. We are piloting a plane that is going to crash, and we have the choice of crashing in the sea or …
Hidden Under the Lights
“Faking of the words and pictures to fit the theme has been particularly prevalent in compilation programmes which purport to reconstruct out of stock footage some historical scene or happening . . . The accumulated documentation of our time will be so vast, and for one reason and another, so slated, that posterity will know …
With or Through?
“Has there ever been a more perfect instrument for seeing with rather than through the eye, than the camera?” (Malcolm Muggeridge, Christ and the Media, p. 62).
A TV Panel of Caterpillars
“So, let me add that Christianity is, and always has been, and always will be, not just essentially a religion of hope, but in itself, the most stupendous hope the world has ever known. Only Incarnate god would have dared to hold out to us all, mere men and women of every sort and condition, …
News As the Ephemeral Foundation of the Air Castle of All Media
“But, of course, the essential quest has been for news. This is the Unholy Grail, the ultimate fantasy on which the whole structure of the media is founded. Shouted down a telephone, tapped out on a teleprinter, carried breathlessly to the stone to catch the edition, beamed by satellite through the stratosphere, whispered confidentially in …
Rein In That Renegade
Reading the judgments of God is not something we have to learn how to do in the first place. In the first place, we have to understand what that means and what it does not mean. After that, we must learn to read the judgments of God. It is not the case that we live …
Because the World is a Story
A short time after 9-11 occurred, I had an online debate/discussion with Andrew Sandlin on the question of whether Christians can speak prophetically about the providential meaning of events in our own time. Of particular interest was the question of whether or not we can say that a particular event or disaster was God’s judgment …