Christian Carnival 257 is Up

Looking for something to read this New Years Eve?

Head on over to Ancient Hebrew Poetry for Christian Carnival CCLVII. There aren’t as many entries this week as some other weeks, but I guess that’s not too surprising for the week between Christmas and New Years.

Still, I would repeat my encouragement of Christian bloggers to participate. Click here and fill in the blanks to submit a post.

For now, though, head on over and check it out. Enjoy!

Hierarchy of Sin

Two months ago, OneMom had a post up called “The Evil Democrats” (which was a sarcastic title, by the way, please don’t go flame her without reading the post!). I referred to it once, and promised a second post. I’m sure that no one was really missing it, but here’s that long-delayed post.

OneMom referred to the e-mails she gets that seem to regard homosexuality as the only really important sin, or at least worse than other sins.

I’ve wanted to write about this for a long time, and I’m going to take this opportunity.

Racial Humor: Unacceptable

Yesterday, I posted my support for Chip Saltsman as chairman of the Republican National Committee, something I hadn’t done before because I’m not a member of the Republican Party and therefore don’t really have a huge interest in its leadership.

However, I recant.

Heck, I wish I hadn’t said anything about it, now, so that I wouldn’t have to do this. (That means I was wrong twice in one post — Alfie corrected my Presidential history, and then I read this over at the Alligator Report. I looked for some indication that it wasn’t true, but then I saw Saltsman’s response.

Mr. Saltsman gave out copies of a parody CD called “We Hate the USA,” which includes “Barack the Magic Negro,” a song parody in which Paul Shanklin, whose parodies are regular features of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, pretends to be Al Sharpton complaining about Barack Obama. I heard it on Limbaugh’s show months ago, and was thoroughly disgusted.

Yes, I know that the title comes from an L.A. Times article, and I realize that there has been precious little outcry against the Times. That doesn’t make it right for anyone else to use it.

Quick Hits

There are several things that warrant more attention than I’m ever going to give them, but I’m tossing a few words their direction, anyway …

- Arson at Sarah Palin’s church: Was it motivated by hatred of the governor/VP candidate? Maybe. I don’t know. In the current, no-holds-barred, hate-or-love style by which we do politics, it’s certainly possible that it was motivated by political hatred. Or it might not. I refuse to speculate further until we know who did it.

- Lawsuits against Obama’s credential to be President: These are sheer idiocy. I realize that I’m inviting trouble by treading here, but the fact is that the Supreme Court is refusing to hear these cases because the Justices know, from a surface evaluation, that the cases have no merit. Feel free to quote whatever you like … the Supreme Court disagrees with you and they have better things to do than listen to paranoid rantings.

- Bailouts: I could and should have written several posts on these topics already … and I might. Basically, though, it’s this simple. No. There should be no bailouts. Ever. At all. The only thing that should be deemed “too big to fail” is the Constitution, though one could make a case for the free market system. Reasonable regulations should be in place to prevent any small group of people from being able to blackmail the entire country like this ever again. Does anyone remember when banks were smaller by means of regulation? I bet that deregulating interstate banking doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore, does it?

- Bailout Accountability: When I was a Member Service Rep at my Credit Union, we asked people what they were going to do with money we lent them. Even for unsecured loans, we typically wanted an explanation, anyway. That was for a few thousand dollars. The idea that we’re handing over millions — or billions — without accounting for every bit of it shows exactly what’s wrong with the government.

- McCain vindicated: On one point, anyway … he stated that SEC Chairman Christopher Cox should be fired. Is there anyone left who disagrees with him?

- Then again …: I seem to remember stories about billions of dollars spent for Iraq’s reconstruction for which no one can give any accounting.

- Death Penalty in NH: Although NH has capital punishment in law, we haven’t sentenced anyone to die, much less executed anyone, in decades. Until now. Michael Addison, who killed police officer Michael Briggs, was sentenced to die. This will get at least one post. I think that most of the state is doing some soul-searching right now.

- Labeling is Disabling: Chatting about politics with a friend of mine in real life, he turned and asked me, “Are you a protectionist?” I then stammered over that answer. I would say “no,” but I suppose it depends on your definition. This is one of the things I love about Mike Huckabee’s vertical politics … instead of trying to attach labels and name names, we would discuss ideas and policies.

- RNC Chairman: Since I’m not a member of the Republican Party, I haven’t had much to say on this subject, but I think that the GOP will miss a real opportunity if they pick anyone other than Chip Saltsman. I like Michael Steele, too, but Saltsman (who was the national chairman of the Mike Huckabee campaign) has shown a record of ideas-based campaigning, of managing money brilliantly, and achieving real results. In a lot of ways, the Republican Party is on the ropes right now.

- Remember Bristol Palin?: Of all the many despicable things that happened in the 2008 campaign, nothing compares to the attack on Bristol, Sarah Palin’s daughter. The accusation was that she is, in fact, the mother of Palin baby Trig, and that Sarah faked a pregnancy to cover up for it. Lots of pictures (many of them two years older than Trig) came out to prove that she looked pregnant (real classy, that!) and all kinds of theories were floated. One comment, though, stuck out to me in all of the discussion, and included a challenge:

Watch my words — Bristol will conveniently and allegedly miscarriage after the election. And I dare say, rather silently as well.

You’ll find that one here, if you scroll down far enough (it was made on October 11).

Has anyone found any account of anyone apologizing to Bristol Palin?

I really don’t care what you think of Sarah Palin. I don’t think she was a good choice for VP, myself. That has nothing to do with the character of Bristol, does it? Smearing teenage girls was wrong when the Right did it to Chelsea Clinton, and hasn’t gotten any less wrong over the years.

- Gitmo as Sacred Cow: I keep hearing people ask whether this Presidentor that would have closed the prison at Guantanamo Bay (to date, I’ve heard the question asked in reference to Washington, Lincoln, Reagan, Kennedy, F. D. Roosevelt, and Eisenhower). I wonder if the people asking this question remember that it’s only been open a handful of years. This isn’t a hallmark of American security, it is a Bush gesture. By the way, I don’t think that any of them, except possibly Lincoln, would have opened it. Abraham Lincoln had a dark side, and if I’m honest enough to address that, I have to concede that he might have opened such a facility.

Still, I have to wonder why so many people are so eager to help the government exempt itself from Constitutional restrictions.

- The “War on Christmas” joke I can’t use: Near my parents’ house is another home where people decorate to excessive and annoying lengths for every holiday. You know those annoying inflatable yard ornaments? These people have a dozen out for Christmas. I thought about taking a picture of the decorations when they were all deflated, and then again when they were all up. Then I was going to post them as one which provokes the “war on Christmas,” since I was thinking that a BB gun would be well-used amending their excesses, and then as an “after” shot showing the carnage. But, I took no pictures.*
* No inflatable Santas, reindeer, or snowmen were hurt in the writing of this post.

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Book Review: “Boomtown” by Nowen N. Particular

Just in case I needed confirmation that the past few weeks have zipped by … It’s taken me more than a month to get to posting the review of Boomtown, which I’d received from Thomas Nelson.

This is a kids’ book, and my boys are going to read it, as well. My 12-year-old son (nicknamed “Tickle”) is, in fact, reading it.

Boomtown

The premise of the book? The narrator is Rev. Button, the new pastor of Boomtown Church, one of three congregations in the wacky town of Boomtown, Washington. They arrive in 1949, and the book takes them through most of a year, during which he and his family get to know and love the quirky characters of Boomtown — all of whom are colorful and strange, and who share a love of blowing things up.

Merry Christmas

A few millenia ago, Adam and Eve (our great-great-great-great-great … uhh …you get the idea! … -grandparents) used to walk around in the Garden of Eden chatting with God. I have no idea what this looked like, but I do know that it has to have been good. Think about it … God, the Creator of the universe, is right there, hanging out with the man and woman that He made.

Then, of course, Adam and Eve messed it up. Before we get to be too hard on them, though, let’s bear in mind that the only reason they were the first sinners is because they were the first people.

Still, because of their sin we all have had to live with the curse from the Fall, and the separation from God. However, He didn’t just curse mankind. He also cursed the serpent, and it is that curse that deserves particular attention today (Genesis 3:15, NIV, courtesy of BibleGateway.com):

“And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring ^[a] and hers;
he will crush ^[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

With this is foretold the events we commemorate today — there is hope despite the Fall of mankind. Satan will be crushed.

For millenia thereafter, mankind lived with a separation from God. We didn’t get to walk with Him, hang out with Him in the fields, or any other such thing … until about 2000 years ago.

A woman in Bethlehem, still a virgin, gave birth to the Son of God and named Him Jesus. For a little more than thirty years, some of mankind could again know a part of the experience Adam and Eve had known long before. It’s not clear how many people really knew what they were experiencing — some knew better than others, of course.

For about thirty years, Jesus walked among us. It was by no means the same as in Eden, but once again God walked with mankind. For a time, God was right there, bodily, among the human race.

Can you fathom what that must have meant?

God came back. Not because we deserved Him, but because of His absolutely mind-blowing grace. (By the way, if His grace doesn’t blow your mind, you might want to spend some more time thinking about it!)

He gave us a taste of what eternity can be. A few people knew Him, and got to touch Him and be His friends.

Then, of course, came the end of that phase. In order to seal the deal, Jesus had to atone for our wrongdoing. He suffered in a way that no one else had or could. Not only was He beaten and crucified (not unique events, I’m afraid), He was afflicted for every sin every sin, so that His punishment would atone for them.

We now have the opportunity to live that life, forever in the presence of God. We can’t earn it. We can’t deserve it. We can be given it, if we remember Who that baby in a manger is and why it mattered.

By all means, enjoy your festivities and your family. I don’t think for a moment that there’s anything inherently wrong in that. My family had ours yesterday, and I’m quite content with it.

Please, though, don’t leave that baby in the manger. He’s far more than can ever fit in a manger, a stable, or any other man-made construct.

I am going to walk with Him on the other side of eternity. I hope that you are, too. It neither began nor ended with that first Christmas … but it is a noteworthy waypoint. God came back to earth, bodily, to be among us after what we’d done, betraying Him before. Wow.

Merry Christmas.

Christian Carnival CCLVI

Greetings! Welcome to the 256th Christian Carnival, hosted right here at A True Beliver’s Blog.

Thank you for taking some time out of your Christmas Eve (or whenever you’re reading this) to check out what’s happening in our little part of the Christian blogosphere.

For those not familiar with it, the Christian Carnival is a weekly roundup of Christian blog posts. Bloggers submit their own posts, selected from the previous week (a week defined in this case as Wednesday-Tuesday). For example, today’s posts should all be dated from 12/17 to 12/23.

The host then puts them all together and posts it. Every Wednesday the Carnival appears, wandering here and there to different blogs whose writers have offered to host.

There is no cost, no obligation, and no risk in participating. It’s open to posts of a Christian nature — which doesn’t have to mean theology or Bible study, it can be family life, current events, politics, or just about anything else from a Christian viewpoint. “Christian” is fairly-broadly defined, as well. It’s open to those of Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Orthodox beliefs, so long as we are looking at a Christian viewpoint. One thing that came up several times this week is that we’re not just talking about Christianity … we’re Christians. I read some very interesting posts this week which were submitted to the Carnival, but which weren’t from a Christian point of view or to promote a Christian point of view. Those are fine posts, but don’t really belong here.

Would you like to participate next week? Click here for the Carnival Submission Form and fill in the blanks.

Want to know where to find the Carnival in future weeks? Click here for the schedule.

For more information, click here.

So, here we are. These are the posts of Christian Carnival CCLVI:

FMF of Free Money Finance asks “To tithe or not to tithe?” in a post called “Good Thoughts on Tithing.”

Vickie Sloderbeck from Joyful Journey Productions offers some advice on “Caring for your Husband.’

ChristianPF of Christian Personal Finance reminds us that “God’s promises to meet are needs are not contingent on how the economy is doing!” in a post called “Trusting God in a recession.”

Larry Jackson at My Take is deeply concerned about the course the US culture is taking as he sees “Christianity takes a backseat to Islam.”
Lindsay at Female Impersonator gave some thoughtful insights in her post “Gendered Language and Early Christian thinkers, part 2.”

Renae at Life Nurturing Education takes some time to collect scattered thoughts and refocus on “Considering Christmas.”

Rich at Blogger for Christ puts forward “Ten Basic Christian Beliefs.” I’m happy to say that, by the grace of God, I’m on board with all ten, by the way!

Frances at Christianity Lived Out asks, “Is the church missing out on real fellowship?” in a post called “Fellowship.”

BibleSEO of Bible Study Exposition Online presents a looks at the “Genealogy of Jesus Christ – the Messiah.”

HiScrivener of The Writing on the Wall warns, “This is where PC is going to take this world, and the Church unless the Body of Christ unites and speaks out” in his post “Princess Diana memoirs have gone sacred … as in a cow.”

Raffi at Parables of a Prodigal World presents his picks for the “Top Ten Emergent/Missional/Post-Evangelical Blog Posts of 2008.”

Weekend Fisher at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength praises God for giving us back our dignity as humans, and giving us back this humble world as a place that can contain the divine in a post called “The incarnation: Making it meaningful to be human.”

Jeremy at Parableman says, “As President Bush’s presidency comes to a close, we can look to a recent interview to find out a little about his faith. Some of it is genuinely new information, while other elements surprised people but shouldn’t have.” He looks at this is a post entitled “Bush’s Faith.”

JCL from The Real Estate Investing Journey offers “Tithing advice for buy and hold real estate investors. How to bring excellence to tithing” in a post entitled “Tithing on Gross vs. Net – What Exactly is Gross Income for Real Estate Investments?“

My own entry for this week is a fairly short and simple one, called “Dealing with a Baby God.”

As I put this together, I realized that I owe an apology to the administrators … I was not very good about checking dates on posts. I let a couple get by that are outside the correct range. I see it now, but I’m not doing anything about it because the posts were sent to me several days ago (one on Saturday), and I don’t think it’s fair for me to send them an e-mail on Christmas Eve to correct the matter. The fact is, I probably won’t be online again until tomorrow morning, and I should have noticed before now.

If I’ve missed anything else, please leave a comment and let me know, I’ll fix it as soon as I can.

Next week, the Carnival will be at Ancient Hebrew Poetry.

Thank you all, and have a wonderful, merry Christmas!

Dealing with a Baby God

My pastor made a comment this past Sunday at the beginning of his sermon, and I wrote it down as something worth blogging. So, here it is.

He was speculating about why Christmas is so much bigger than Easter in the lives of most Christian Americans. He points out that Christmas is only the beginning of the story that has its fulfillment in Easter. In my words, “Star Wars” (Ep4: A New Hope, of course) is fine, but its real purpose is to set the stage for “Return of the Jedi.”

My pastor speculated that it’s because it’s really easy to deal with the baby in the manger. There He is, being born, there are shepherds around because God loves poor people, there are angels because it’s a big deal, and magi because they’re there to celebrate. Great. We can deal with this.

Once you take that baby and make Him into a man, He becomes harder to handle. He said things, He did things, and He called us to be changed. Then, He died and came back out of the tomb.

God out of the tomb is completely unmanageable. We can’t hold that one back, limit Him, or try to pretend that it’s just a nice story. The Nativity can be trivialized and tamed — the Resurrection can’t.

There is talk about how to “keep Christ is Christmas,” or whether Christians should observe Christmas at all, and just about everything in between.

For my own part, I think that it’s fine to observe Christmas as a remembrance of the event. But while we’re at it, let’s remember that the Incarnation of God on earth wasn’t an end unto itself. He came to the earth to live, teach, die, and rise again. He didn’t stay in the manger.

That’s part of why I was so excited to see the second chorus of “What Child is This?” when I read it. Right there in the Christmas song, it reminded us that He came not to be born as a baby and stop there, but to be pierced with nails and a spear (among the other things that ripped His flesh that day). It wasn’t His birth that redeems us, it was His death.

Yes, by all means, celebrate the birth. The birth of Jesus is the beginning of the process that leads us to the death and resurrection, which is what makes it possible for any of us to have eternal life.

But let’s never forget that ours isn’t a God in a manger, He didn’t stay wrapped up in swaddling clothes, and He sure wasn’t a baby forever.

And, just in case I don’t run into you between now and then, … Merry Christmas.

Plugging Christian Carnival CCLVI

I realize that I haven’t mentioned it in a while, but I should have. I’m a big fan of the Christian Carnival each week, and I would encourage any Christian bloggers reading this to go ahead and participate. Don’t make me nag! (And just ask Frances, I will!)

The 256th Christian Carnival is being posted by your very own Wickle right here on Christmas Eve.

The Carnival is really pretty straightforward. Every Wednesday, the host blog puts up the Carnival, which lists the posts submitted by any Christians who want to participate.

If you’d like to participate, it’s easy and almost-entirely painless. Choose a post dated from last Wednesday up through this coming Tuesday (12/17-12/23) from your blog. It doesn’t have to be about theology or deep Christian thought, so long as it’s by a Christian and promoting Christian thought in some way — be it about religion, family life, politics, news, music, culture, or whatever else. Then, simply click here and fill in the blanks.

I’d love to see a good turnout this week, so please jump in, and then come on back on Wednesday to read some great Christian blogging.

Thanks.

Christmas Songs: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

This, by the way, is the song that prompted me to write this series.

This series is less than a quarter of what I’d planned, but I find myself pressed for time lately, and not getting as much written as I’d hoped. Maybe I’ll start planning ahead if I do something like this in the future …

If you’ve been in a church anytime around Christmas, I’m sure that you have heard this amazingly-powerful classic, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” It’s one of my favorites (of course, I have many favorites …), and the beauty of the tune makes it a popular choice for performers.

Beyond the performance, though, this song appeals to God by citing prophecy over and over, and it deals brilliantly with the actual Christmas event as a demonstration of the needs in humanity now.