The view from the rear

As I’ve mentioned before, I am on my church’s worship team … as a graphics tech (I have coined the term “graphician,” feel free to use it). What that means is that I’m in the back of the worship center, operating a computer. That computer shoots song lyrics, Bible passages, readings, etc. onto a screen in the front via projector.

This does, though, put me behind even the back row of seats. I can see everyone, and sometimes it really is a genuine joy!

First of all, let me state that there is a reason we don’t run a micrphone to the tech booth. I am that reason. Let’s put it this way — What I lack in singing talent, I make up in volume. I sing very loudly.

I do, though, enjoy worshiping. I clap, I raise my hands, and I have my eyes closed more than half the time while I’m running those lyrics. (Don’t tell Chris, though, okay?)

When I do have my eyes open, it’s a great blessing to see the congregation in the same place.

Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t just the youth that get into expressive worship. There is a lot going on. A lot of people with grey hair are as expressive as anyone else. It is genuinely a thing of beauty to see the congregation meeting with God, pouring out their hearts in worship.

I have often been challenged by non-believers asserting that there is no real proof of God’s existence, and I have often answered that I have concrete proof, but they can’t understand it because they haven’t experienced it.

Those moments are some of that proof.

There are other times when the congregation isn’t all in the same place. At times, there might only be one or two people clapping, or raising their hands, or whatever. I love those moments, too, because I know that those one or two people are doing what they’re doing because they’re in God’s presence and not at all bothered that others around them aren’t reveling the same way.

It is genuinely a thing of beauty, and an awesome experience, to be able to see the church in worship. There is an extent to which this is a privelege unique to those of us on the worship team. We’re the only ones in a good vantage point to see the whole congregation. It’s a wondrous thing.

Christian Carnival CCLXI

The 261st Christian Carnival is up at Ignorant Historian.

It looks like there are some new blogs on there … at least, some blogs that I haven’t seen before. As always, I would encourage you to check it out.

Looking for Something to Read?

Might I suggest Healing Magic by CindyDavis and John Richters?

It is book one of the Desert Magic trilogy, and it comes out in February.

I haven’t seen the book yet, but I do admit to a certain bias … John Richters is my father-in-law. An honest review will come once I’ve got my hands on a copy.

What is a “Christian Nation,” anyway?

Very often, I hear people explaining why the US should or shouldn’t take this, that, or the other action based on the assertion that the United States is a Christian nation.

Almost inevitably, this conversation degenerates into a discussion about the country’s founding. Take, for example, this article here. The next step is for the secularist to start trying to pluck the article apart by going after the vulnerabilities, such as Ben Franklin. While he did, indeed, make references to God, his spirituality is also well documented as being more than a little … shall we say? … erratic.

Then we can get into conversations about Deism, the Treaty of Tripoli, and so on.

We can delve into discussions about Connecticut’s state constitution, opening prayers at the Continental Congress, who wrote letters to whom, Thomas Jefferson’s Bible, and all kinds of fun things.

However, I’d like to make my own assertion: None of that matters, really. We can discuss some other time whether the US was founded as a Christian nation, but that’s little more than a historical note. If the question is whether the US is a Christian nation, then history really doesn’t play a part in it. After all, Christianity isn’t inherited. Christianity isn’t a culture, or a language, or an ethnicity.

Other bloggers commemorate Roe v. Wade anniversary (Updated)

Considering that I read a whole lot of pro-lfe blogs, it should come as no surprise that a lot of my favorite bloggers also commemorate the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling.

Ronnica at Ignorant Historian has an anecdote. Frankly, I don’t know how well I would have handled the situation in which she found herself. Please check out her thoughts in “A Sad Day.”

GrannyGrump at Real Choice, ever a source of good, solid information about the realities of abortion in America, presents information about an abortion death “A year to the day before Roe” and debunks the myth that Roe v. Wade saved women’s lives.

Fundayreformed is posting an ultrasound video celebrating the life of the unborn in his post “Video for anniversary of Roe v. Wade: ‘I’m Holding a Miracle’.” Having seen my 5th child moving yesterday in an ultrasound, I know what this is like. I’ll say more in a follow-up.

Over at Religion and Morality, cshande has copied an article about President Obama’s abortion policies, and it’s well worth the read.

Polycarp at The Church of Jesus Christ notes that “Democratic-Friendly Groups to Participate in March for Life.”

I will try to update this as I come across more such posts.

OneMom noted “Another year, more than a million dead.”

The dread anniversary

It happened the same year that I was born … which means, I suppose, that I was fair game. Since my mother reads this blog at least some of the time, I’d like to thank her for not using the “freedom” she was said to have on January 22, 1973.

The United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution, in some hidden aura, apparently, includes protections for the right to kill human beings who have committed the crime of not yet being born.

Yes, it was 36 years ago today that the Supreme Court ruled, 7-2, in the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton cases. I’ve said often in this blog that being pro-life means more than just opposing abortion, but today is one of those memorials that brings all of us to focus on abortion. It’s a heartbreaking day, to think about it.

Christian Carnival CCLX is Up

The 5th anniversary edition of the Christian Carnival is posted at Fish and Cans.

If you like to see good Christian blogging, you should go check it out.

If you don’t like good Christian blogging, and that’s why you’re reading my blog, please don’t tell me.

President Bush’s legacy: What will it be?

Before I go anywhere with this post, let me point out that we don’t know how history will judge President Bush yet. There are some factors that need to be considered:

- We don’t know the long-term effects of some decisions: At this point, we don’t really know how wars in Afghanistan or Iraq will turn out. We don’t know what’s happening with Pres. Bush’s economic actions, or even whether they will be associated more with the outgoing President or the incoming one.

Out with the old, in with the new: Inauguration Day

President George W. Bush has about two and a half hours left on the job as I start this post. From here on, the question is how history is going to judge him. That’s a mixed bag, about which I will post later tonight (preview: I don’t claim to know, but I speculate about some things that will likely be big factors in how he’s remembered).

Today, Pres.-elect Obama is going to take on his new job as leader of the free world, Commander in Chief of the United States military … President of the United States.

I didn’t vote for Obama, but I’m looking at today with a measure of hope. President Obama is going to take office with a number of things in his favor — he has strong popular support, he’s a smart man, and he hasn’t made some of the mistakes that the previous administration has. He enters 2009 with a relatively-clean slate.

On the other hand, there are parts of his promised agenda that I don’t like — most notably the Freedom of Choice Act, but including a number of other things.

Still, today is Inauguration Day. Let’s be optimistic for now.

I have, however, this other pet peeve.

The nation is in a terrible recession, described (wrongly) by some as the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. In my own group of friends, I know three people who have been laid off in the past two weeks alone and several who are still in peril. Facing trillion-dollar federal budget deficits, I would like to see the Inauguration scaled down.

I’m not saying this, by the way, because I don’t like Obama. I thought the same thing about Bush and Clinton, and that’s as far back as I’d considered it. “Average Joe” Schriner described what his inauguration would have looked like on his blog:

An Ashtabula Star Beacon story about our 2012 campaign for president ran today.  Lifestyle Editor Carl Feather wrote that there would be no gas guzzling motorcade to our inaugaration, we’d bicycle.  He noted that during the speech I would include a slide show of pictures of aborted babies and a plea for America to stop the Holocaust.  There would be no gala balls, just a simple rice and beans dinner for a few — in solidarity with the poor.  “Joe would direct the folks who sponsor those soirees to use that money to feed people in a Third World country.”  At the end of this part of the story, Mr. Feathers wrote: “We’re talking real change here…”  Note: To view the entire story:  http://www.starbeacon.com/archivesearch/local_story_014191755.html

I could certainly stand to hear a story about a President who decided to skip the gala ball for the rich and well-connected to have a party on the taxpayers’ dime in favor of a simple meal. Ah, well … dare to dream.

Some good MLK Day Posts

Looking around the Google Reader …

BibleDude has a transcript of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech, with a video. Enjoy.

Raffi at Parables of a Prodigal World has a great post called “Some Thoughts on Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and First Grade Social Studies.”

Kevin D. Hendricks takes a look at some of “The Radical Words of Martin Luther King Jr.”

OneMom looks at another sermon Dr King preached.

Polycarp at The Church of Jesus Christ presents Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and on a related note also offers “The Cross and the Lynching Tree.”