another day, another destiny

We took possession of our new home on March 20th and moved in the following weekend. Unfortunately, we got slammed with a ton of snow right at the same time, so we scrambled to complete the transfer of our stuff before being swallowed by the drifts. I took some pictures around the house, and I thought a few turned out really great.

I don’t recommend driving in the snow (or at all, really) and taking pics.

Through the living room window.

The closest thing to Narnia in our neighborhood.

The huge tree in the middle of the back yard. I want to get this identical shot for the other three seasons and frame them all together.

I saved the best for last. This is my favorite one, and I’m kind of proud of it. I love the depth, the textured tree bark half-covered by snow, the simultaneous cloudiness and clarity. I’ll frame it eventually, probably as a B&W.

…since I’ve posted to this blog. Almost six months, actually.

I’m going to try and get this one going again.

This is excellent. The biggest problem I have with guys like Joel Osteen (note: this video is not specifically directed at Osteen) is that his message could only fly in a country like the United States. Try it in Africa or much of Asia and it would be especially disastrous and horrendously offensive. That’s a pretty good test of whether something is the accurately the gospel: does it apply to all peoples at all times in all cultures? If not, well….that should tell you something.

Psalm 26:1-8

O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell,
and the place where your glory abides.

Matthew 26:6-13

Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

This passage causes me to ponder whether the virtue of efficiency is taken to an extreme by the American church and ends up sacrificing some meaningful ministry opportunities. It brings to mind a discussion I had several years ago regarding what the church is known for–love or glitz. The paradox is that I can picture the church responding like the disciples in the above passage just as easily as I can see them spending inefficiently on the glitzy, “modern” presentation of the gospel. I think the conclusion I arrived at a few years ago is still worthwhile: if your heart is in the right place, and you actively seek wisdom, right actions will follow.

Recently I’ve been pondering what it is that brings people to belief in God, Christianity, etc. There are so many means by which people arrive at their conclusions or beliefs: some people are thoughtful and considering, while others simply maintain the status quo of their ingrained worldview and perspectives.

One one level it seems clear that belief cannot be arrived at simply by examining evidence; after all, there are so many seemingly smart, honest, and insightful people that hold mutually exclusive views with equal conviction. Whatever camp one falls into, surely one cannot in good faith maintain that all his opponents are either lying outright or have fallen susceptible to some masterful demagoguery. There must be another answer.

The Christian doctrine of total depravity attempts in part to resolve this issue: man is so wicked and so completely unable to recognize, let alone choose, truth (God), that God must do the choosing for him. Man is drowning, yet he doesn’t even know it. He cannot even reach for the life raft that God has placed beside him; God must actually fling it over man’s head and drag him back the boat, in effect doing all the work of saving man Himself. (Note: while this particular view of man is not universally accepted among Christendom, it is well within orthodoxy.)

But this doctrine begs the question: Is “total depravity” simply the deus ex machina of Christianity? Is it the excuse, explanation or rationale for being unable to prove it definitively based on the evidence? Is it an intellectual cop-out that only sounds academic and theological?

I will return to this with further thoughts.

Via Canada’s National Post:

TORONTO - In response to a series of controversies over abortion debates on Canadian campuses, the student government of York University has tabled an outright ban on student clubs that are opposed to abortion. Gilary Massa, vice-president external of the York Federation of Students, said student clubs will be free to discuss abortion in student space, as long as they do it “within a pro-choice realm,” and that all clubs will be investigated to ensure compliance. “You have to recognize that a woman has a choice over her own body,” Ms. Massa said. “We think that these pro-life, these anti-choice groups, they’re sexist in nature…. The way that they speak about women who decide to have abortions is demoralizing. They call them murderers, all of them do…. Is this an issue of free speech? No, this is an issue of women’s rights.” The school’s administration condemned the decision as contrary to its academic mission.

The article also notes that the same Gilary Massa, vice-president external of the York Federation of Students, had strongly opposed a campus-wide ban on the phrase “Israeli apartheid”:

[Her official letter] called for the ban on the phrase to be rescinded “in accordance with a basic commitment to freedom of expression and organization in the democratic context of the public university.”

The letter added, “This strange and unprecedented ban is a blatant violation of democratic freedoms of speech and dissent, and an attack on students’ right to organize. It is the position of the YFS and GSA [Graduate Students] that universities are sites where discussions and debates about difficult geopolitical questions should be promoted, not stifled. International controversy about use of the phrase ‘Israeli Apartheid’ cannot be resolved through repression, but through ongoing intellectual exchange.”

This rank hypocrisy on display here is galling. The story is a sad commentary on the state of higher-ed in the West. So much for the marketplace of ideas. What are these students afraid of?

A clip from a debate between atheist Dan Barker and Christian apologist Dinesh D’Souza. Watch the entire debate here.

Dan Barker’s monologue’s contained some of the most simplistic, evasive, illogical, rambling, meaningless, gobbledy-gook farcical attempts at argument that my jaw was consistently dropping to the floor. I have watched my fair share of debates, and this was by far the worst in terms of the atheist representation. Dan Barker sounds like a total moron whenever he opens his mouth. It was unfair to ask Dinesh D’Souza to debate a mind so vacuous. Dinesh’s response at the end of this clip almost had me cheering in my cubicle.

Sports analogies are a dime a dozen–because people understand them and they are great illustrations of various truths. It’s particularly hilarious (saddening?) when someone looks at the sporting realm, sees an obvious truth, yet totally misses its application in the real world. Take Jesse Jackson:

[1960s Civil Rights leaders] would all be pleased that white America is maturing. Blacks and whites have been playing together in athletics, entertainment, in the military and now as political leaders. Look at the Super Bowl last Sunday…They were able to transcend race because the playing field was even. The rules were public and the goals were clear, and there was inherent justice in the competition.

James Taranto notices the obvious connection to affirmative action:

Contrast this with, say, university admissions, in which the scales are tipped in favor of certain ethnic groups, based on rules that are shrouded in secrecy. If we want society to be more like the NFL, shouldn’t we be doing away with rules that enforce distinctions based on race?

Because it is separated from real life, sports is a perfect lens to evaluate the idea of affirmative action without bias. Jesse Jackson sees the truth clearly. But when it comes to the real world, it’s amazing how blind he is.

[Cross-posted here.]

Most of the time, moral equivalence arguments about America and its terrorist enemies come from the left, and they are rightfully dismissed as idiotic, relativistic tripe. Recently, however, a new comparison is unfortunately apt. On his blog, John Piper compares two recent news items.

Breitbart reports:

Two women suicide bombers who have killed nearly 80 people in Baghdad were Down’s Syndrome victims exploited by al Qaida.

The explosives were detonated by remote control in a co-ordinated attack after the women walked into separate crowded markets, said the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad General Qassim al-Moussawi.

Other officials said the women were apparently unaware of what they were doing in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert toughened security measures.

This is horrible, and proves that Islamic extremists continue to reach new lows in the wicked pursuit of their aims. Yet consider this, via Medical News Today:

Although no national data are available, the abortion rate of fetuses with the condition [of Down Syndrome] was found to be 59% in one California study and 92% in an English study.

In addition, the New York Times reported last year that “about 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.”

In terms of how we treat those with Down syndrome, America is as complicit in brutal and heinous murder as the terrorist enemies we fight.