Ahh. If only I hadn't read the rest of the article. This independent (me) is hardly a lover of all things Bush or McCain and would agree with many of the comments made by Pastor Baldwin. However, it would seem that he is unaware that scripture says nothing about support for one Caesar over another being necessary for defining oneself as a true Christian.
Instead, he says "I will say it straight out: any Christian or conservative who supports John McCain has no principles left worth defending!"
Where the scripture is clear, we should be clear. Where it is unclear (as in the case of support for particular political partisans) we should tread carefully.
I love reading your stuff, because it is very challenging, but you are so prolific at times, I cannot keep up. How do you balance you family and blogging, and all things God? ---------- I also realized the last year that I am a little more libratarian than I thought on so many things. Maybe the stupitity of all candidates lately has gotten me so cynical that I actually started thinking. {:^)
God, of course, takes top priority. I get up rather early, so that lets me start off the day with God. You've seen my Bible Reading plan, but this year I decided to follow the liturgical calendar, so I've been using the Book of Common Prayer from 1928. I like the Morning and Evening Prayer, and I've been so blessed by reading through the Psalms each month, that I'm currently revising my Bible Reading plan to incorporate that.
When I get home from work each night, I plan family devotions. Just about 10-12 verses that read and explain to for my children. It's very exciting to see them enjoy it and ask for me to read more.
Most of my blogging takes place on my lunch break. But as a graphic artist, there are those occasional times when something has to render and I can post something short while I wait.
Can you listen to mp3 at work? If so, there are many audiobibles available online. Begg, Piper, Sproul, Way of the Master Radio, Gary DeMar all have great podcasts that you can subscribe to on iTunes. RTS (on iTunes) and Covenant Seminary have many of their seminary courses available to listen for free. Lately, I've been listening to podcasts in the morning and a Church History course in the afternoons. Those are where most of my ideas for posts come.
If Todd (WotMR) plays a great clip, I'll probably hit YouTube to find it and post it on the blog, for example.
Welcome to the libertarians. On the Nolan Chart, I'm just one notch to the right of absolute libertarian. I discovered libertarianism about ten years ago, right after I was married. I bounced around a bit politically, but once I decided to sit down and study my Bible to find out which political philosophy was most Biblical I became radically libertarian.
Thanks for the input. I will look at some of those. Maybe during lunch, instead of Rush, I could listen to a few of those. Gotta have Glenn Beck though...gotta have Glenn Beck. As far as the libertarian twing, I guess I have always been the conservative, but reading John's blog regularly, and his recent comment on libertarian social justice:
"By libertarian social justice, I mean that the Church has an obligation to address social evils directly. For example, if the Church responds to poverty by lobbying for state-run social welfare programs, then the Church is avoiding its responsibility. A more authentic response by the Church would be to directly aid the poor."
As well as conversations with the rest of the media group at church and my pastor's latest sermon series, I have really began to re-evaluate things in a way that allows me to me a true "compassionate conservative," with Jesus as the true example.
Thank you for the link to John's blog. I'll be checking that out.
I was just discussing a similar topic with a coworker yesterday. It is too easy to let the government take care of the poor or take care of a need in some foreign nation. And so we become hardened to the needs around us because someone else will take care of it.
I would be interested in your pastor's sermon series, too. Does he have the sermons available online?
Let me be the first to warn you, while we are a Methodist church, and fully compliant with the church Discipline, our services are pretty contemporary and non-liturgical. We have an emergent church feel without all the dropping of basic Christian tenets for the sake of placation and numbers.
Last Sunday's sermon is the one that really hit home in terms of libertarian social justice in his sermon on Amos 5.
You can go to the iTunes store and search for The Woodlands United Methodist Church. Our "campus" if you will is The Loft Church. The current sermon series is titled Untold Stories: Forgotten Tales of the Church.. You can subscribe and download. The previous series, Seven on the 7 Deadly Sins during Easter was also good.
Thanks again and let me know if you cannot find stuff and I will send a direct link to the church website.
6 Comments:
Ahh. If only I hadn't read the rest of the article. This independent (me) is hardly a lover of all things Bush or McCain and would agree with many of the comments made by Pastor Baldwin. However, it would seem that he is unaware that scripture says nothing about support for one Caesar over another being necessary for defining oneself as a true Christian.
Instead, he says "I will say it straight out: any Christian or conservative who supports John McCain has no principles left worth defending!"
Where the scripture is clear, we should be clear. Where it is unclear (as in the case of support for particular political partisans) we should tread carefully.
Idolatry, even today, is a very serious charge.
Brian,
I love reading your stuff, because it is very challenging, but you are so prolific at times, I cannot keep up. How do you balance you family and blogging, and all things God?
----------
I also realized the last year that I am a little more libratarian than I thought on so many things. Maybe the stupitity of all candidates lately has gotten me so cynical that I actually started thinking. {:^)
PAX
JD
JD,
Thanks. I always appreciate your comments.
God, of course, takes top priority. I get up rather early, so that lets me start off the day with God. You've seen my Bible Reading plan, but this year I decided to follow the liturgical calendar, so I've been using the Book of Common Prayer from 1928. I like the Morning and Evening Prayer, and I've been so blessed by reading through the Psalms each month, that I'm currently revising my Bible Reading plan to incorporate that.
When I get home from work each night, I plan family devotions. Just about 10-12 verses that read and explain to for my children. It's very exciting to see them enjoy it and ask for me to read more.
Most of my blogging takes place on my lunch break. But as a graphic artist, there are those occasional times when something has to render and I can post something short while I wait.
Can you listen to mp3 at work? If so, there are many audiobibles available online. Begg, Piper, Sproul, Way of the Master Radio, Gary DeMar all have great podcasts that you can subscribe to on iTunes. RTS (on iTunes) and Covenant Seminary have many of their seminary courses available to listen for free. Lately, I've been listening to podcasts in the morning and a Church History course in the afternoons. Those are where most of my ideas for posts come.
If Todd (WotMR) plays a great clip, I'll probably hit YouTube to find it and post it on the blog, for example.
Welcome to the libertarians. On the Nolan Chart, I'm just one notch to the right of absolute libertarian. I discovered libertarianism about ten years ago, right after I was married. I bounced around a bit politically, but once I decided to sit down and study my Bible to find out which political philosophy was most Biblical I became radically libertarian.
Thanks for the input. I will look at some of those. Maybe during lunch, instead of Rush, I could listen to a few of those. Gotta have Glenn Beck though...gotta have Glenn Beck.
As far as the libertarian twing, I guess I have always been the conservative, but reading John's blog regularly, and his recent comment on libertarian social justice:
"By libertarian social justice, I mean that the Church has an obligation to address social evils directly. For example, if the Church responds to poverty by lobbying for state-run social welfare programs, then the Church is avoiding its responsibility. A more authentic response by the Church would be to directly aid the poor."
As well as conversations with the rest of the media group at church and my pastor's latest sermon series, I have really began to re-evaluate things in a way that allows me to me a true "compassionate conservative," with Jesus as the true example.
PAX
JD
Thank you for the link to John's blog. I'll be checking that out.
I was just discussing a similar topic with a coworker yesterday. It is too easy to let the government take care of the poor or take care of a need in some foreign nation. And so we become hardened to the needs around us because someone else will take care of it.
I would be interested in your pastor's sermon series, too. Does he have the sermons available online?
Let me be the first to warn you, while we are a Methodist church, and fully compliant with the church Discipline, our services are pretty contemporary and non-liturgical. We have an emergent church feel without all the dropping of basic Christian tenets for the sake of placation and numbers.
Last Sunday's sermon is the one that really hit home in terms of libertarian social justice in his sermon on Amos 5.
You can go to the iTunes store and search for The Woodlands United Methodist Church. Our "campus" if you will is The Loft Church. The current sermon series is titled Untold Stories: Forgotten Tales of the Church.. You can subscribe and download. The previous series, Seven on the 7 Deadly Sins during Easter was also good.
Thanks again and let me know if you cannot find stuff and I will send a direct link to the church website.
PAX
JD
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