Posting Again

Ok, I've been a bad boy and havn't posted in ages, I'm erratic and all of that.

One thing I wanted to comment on. Appearantly there was a contest where a whole lot of awards were given out for female Christian bloggers. Appearently, one of the awards was given to a blog entitled "Daring Young Mom." Now thing about DYM is that she is appearantly a Mormon. Marla Swoffer posting at "Always Thirsty" put up this post in which she pointed out that Mormons are not Christians. She went on to suggest that the giving of an award intended for a Christian to a Mormon was an example of the low level of discernment practiced in most Christian churches these days.

The response, was sadly predictable, while some complimented Ms. Swoffer, she was given the standard accusations of being "unloving" and of attacking DYM. Actually, as she made clear in several subsequent posts, she was in intending to attack DYM, she was intending to criticise the lack of discernment practiced by Christians. The fact is, she's right. These days, anyone whocalls himself a Christian will be accepted as one, regardless of whether they actually believe anything that resembles historic Christianity. Daring Young Mom's response was priceless, "don;t say nasty things about my beliefes, it makes me cry". As if the Mormon church dosn't say heaps of unpleasant things about other churches. What was that in Joseph Smith's alledged vision about God saying that all the churches and the creeds are abominations.

The basic problem with the church today is a misguided idea about love. We hear the commands to love others repated ad nauseam and taken out of context, and appearenttly saying that other beliefes are false has been labled "unloving". But St. John, known as the Apostle of Love, was very clear on this. His command to Christians in dealing with gnostics was to have nothing to do with them, don't so much as sit down to a meal with them. But this is not a scripture text the modern church likes to talk about.

There is Life on Mars

The first episode of "Veronica Mars" aired in Australia last night. I'm not quite ready to join those who are hailing this show as the new Buffy, but it was certainly an enjoyable first episode.

Like Buffy, Veronica is a girl in a small, fictional, Southern California who was once part of the "popular crowd" but has now been forced very much onto the outer. Like Buffy, she's a stereotypically atractive blonde girl (although Kristen Bell is not quite as beautiful as SMG) and like Buffy, she conceals a real vulnerability beneath her toughness. But, what makes Veronica seem to me most like Buffy is the basic "high-school is hell" feel of the show. Veronica has, within a brief period, had her best friend brutally murdered, her father has lost his job, she's been raped, her mother has left her and her dad and she has lost her status as one of the cool kids at school. The dialouge, while not as funny as the dialouge on Buffy, does have a certain Buffy-esque crispness, and I think I recognise the influence of Buffy is certain parts of the characterisation of various high-school students.

On the down side, the sound-track is nothing like as good as Buffy's. They have "We Used to be Friends" by the Dandy Warholes as the theme-song. In their defence, I'd probably like that song a lot more if I hadn;t first heard it as the theme song of "My Resteraunt Rules" and it is more appropriate here.

Words of Wisdom from a Calvinist

Phillip Johnson has a post on his blog with excerpts from a piece by the great Calvinistic Baptist preacher, C. H. Spurgeon. The article needs to be sent to most of the Catholic priests around these days.

White vs. Brown

Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega mintistries has been doing a serise on Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" the serise has been good and White does an excellent job of demolishing Brown's alledged schoolarship, but I thought this post particularly amusing. How anyone can take Brown seriously is beyond me.