Something I Worry About

Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, ‘Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,’ or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally, we shall insist on seeing everything—God and our friends and ourselves included—as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p 118

Love + the Single-Issue Vote

If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another. — 1John 4:20-21 TNIV

I know a man who, when he was 80, had a little sick fun at the expense of the interim pastor at his rural Christian and Missionary Alliance church. Meeting the younger man at the door of the sanctuary, he engaged him in a conversation about what happens to infants who die. The pastor assured him that God in his goodness embraces infants who are gone too soon. “So, then,” said the old fellow, “I guess you’d have to say the abortionists are some of the better evangelists,” and left the young man sputtering.

It’s fair to say that old gentleman was feeling his oats when he ambushed his young preacher that day. It’s also fair to say he was feeling a little fed up with people who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

I have friends who reject most everything John McCain has said and done in this century, but who feel he is nevertheless the only choice for president because his stance on abortion sounds like theirs.

I don’t think it is.

I think, sadly, that Senator McCain and his party today are like the son Jesus talked about who told his father he would go out into the vineyard and work, and then didn’t. And I think in these days Senator Obama and his party are like that man’s brother, who told their father he would not go into the vineyard, but then did go after all.

Consider this fractured (but loving) take on 1 John 4:20-21

If we say we love the unborn yet hate the born, we are liars. For if we do not love a living child, whom we have seen, we cannot love an unborn child, whom we have not seen. And God has given us this command: Those who love the unborn must also love the born.

I don’t trivialize abortion. I feel sick about all that abortion signifies in my culture. But I don’t trust people who claim they love the unborn while showering contempt on the born.

And then there's this from Ecclesiastes:

A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man—even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place? — Ecclesiastes 6.3-6 TNIV

In a pinch, I come down on the side of the God of mercy, whom my old mentor, his young preacher and I all agree embraces infants who are gone too soon. To the rest of us:

If you say you love the unborn, fund full health care for the born.

If you say you love the unborn, fund education from early childhood through college or trade school for the born.

If you say you love the unborn, see to it that any parent willing to work full time can earn a living wage.

If you say you love the unborn, make the world a much better place for the born.

If you say you love the unborn, prove it by loving the born.

Coldplay | Violet Hill

There is no high ground. But there could be.

collateral damage | is this who we are?

From Mike King’s blog

yeh, we could use some adult supervision here

Clearly, Vanity Fair and Annie Liebovitz drank the cool aid.

But where are this child's parents? Failing that, where's her management?

Did they drink it too?

food fight | there's no such thing as a winnable war

biting the hand that feeds me (i think...maybe)

Here's a chicken and egg conundrum courtesy of filmmaker Robert Greenwald whose point couldn't be clearer: Fox News may well be more sexually graphic than its self-identified entertainment sibling Fox Broadcast — all behind the guise of outrage at the sexualization of American media culture.

To prove this Mr Greenwald shows graphic examples from the Fox News feed — some of which are quite simply crazy (like the bump and grind Spring Break footage that dominates the screen while reporters in a little box cover a bit of serious news about a murderer in South Florida.

So...full disclosure...I've written several books published a company now owned by a company owned by a company owned by the company that owns Fox News and Fox Broadcast (home of The Simpsons!). I'm not entirely clear what that makes me.

And I'm offering you the opportunity in the frame below to view the offending footage from Fox News in Robert Greenwald's exposé. I'm not certain what that makes me either.

You can get back to me with clarifications if you have them...