Great Quote

I know Alabama is not any good right now, but I found this great quote this evening.

"The game demonstrated the superiority of the Southern teams over any aggregation that the damn yankees could send across the Mason and Dixon Line."

-- Sports writer Charles Israel of the Philadelphia Bulletin after the Tide's 61-6 win over Syracuse in the 1953 Orange Bowl.

OK....

Alabama may not be any good, but at least we are not Arkansas fans.

Great Article on Atheistic Tyrants

Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history

By Dinesh D'Souza RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF.

In recent months, a spate of atheist books have argued that religion represents, as "End of Faith" author Sam Harris puts it, "the most potent source of human conflict, past and present."

Columnist Robert Kuttner gives the familiar litany. "The Crusades slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did bloody battle with other Christians for another three centuries."

In his bestseller "The God Delusion," Richard Dawkins contends that most of the world's recent conflicts - in the Middle East, in the Balkans, in Northern Ireland, in Kashmir, and in Sri Lanka - show the vitality of religion's murderous impulse.

The problem with this critique is that it exaggerates the crimes attributed to religion, while ignoring the greater crimes of secular fanaticism. The best example of religious persecution in America is the Salem witch trials. How many people were killed in those trials? Thousands? Hundreds? Actually, fewer than 25. Yet the event still haunts the liberal imagination.

It is strange to witness the passion with which some secular figures rail against the misdeeds of the Crusaders and Inquisitors more than 500 years ago. The number sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition appears to be about 10,000. Some historians contend that an additional 100,000 died in jail due to malnutrition or illness.

These figures are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people.

Moreover, many of the conflicts that are counted as "religious wars" were not fought over religion. They were mainly fought over rival claims to territory and power. Can the wars between England and France be called religious wars because the English were Protestants and the French were Catholics? Hardly.

Read it all here

This is really an interesting article and I agree with it totally. I do not think D'Souza puts enough emphasis on the fact that there have been mass murders in the name of religion. I doubt he would disagree, but we certainly do not need to insinuate that human institutions in the name of religion are any less prone to violence than other human institutions. The human condition is evenly spread over everything we are involved with. That said, I applaud the article. - DOB

Pre-Scandal Interview With Ted Haggard

I am certainly not interested in piling on this situation, but I thought it might be helpful to hear the theology of Ted Haggard as expressed from the horse's mouth. The man and his family obviously need our prayers and to hear that, by faith, he is accounted righteous for Christ's sake.

What I am interested in shining a light on is this accountability/self-improvement kind of thought that passes for Christianity. Take a listen and hear what is being said. Think about it in terms of Matthew 5, Romans 3 and Luke 15 (Jesus friend of sinners).

Ted Haggard Interview

As a bonus, here is a response by The White Horse Inn's Mike Horton to that interview.

Mike Horton Response

I Love This Collect

O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Introducing....

one of the most important figures in American pop culture history. Approach with humility.

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Ted Haggard, Merle Haggard, and Joseph Stalin

Mama Tried

The first I remember knowin' was that lonesome whistle blowin'
And a youngun's dream of growin' up to ride.
On a freight train leavin' town, not knowin' where I was bound
No one could steer me right, but mama tried.

Was the only rebel child from a family meek and mild
Mama seemed to know what lay in store
In spite of all my Sunday learnin'
For the bad I kept on turnin' and mama couldn't hold me anymore.

And I turned 21 in prison, doin' life without parole
No one could steer me right, but mama tried, mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleadin' I denied
That leaves only me to blame cause mama tried.

Dear old daddy rest his soul, left my mom a heavy load
She tried so very hard to fill his shoes
Workin' hours without rest, wanted me to have the best
Oh she tried to raise me right, but I refused.

And I turned 21 in prison, doin' life without parole
No one could steer me right, but mama tried, mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleadin' I denied
That leaves only me to blame cause mama tried.

This song was written by country music legend Merle Haggard in 1968. It was one of his greatest hits. It also has something very profound to say about the Ted Haggard situation and the state of Christianity in general.

Christianity has made the decision that it will preach law over gospel. What I mean by that is that Christianity favors the moral improvement of their congregation over the proclamation that "if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:1-2). Our pulpits overflow with well-intentioned exhortations to do that which is right and good. The only problem is that these exhortations do not give the strength to do what they require. In fact, they tear down and render people defeated. The gospel is then is not preached in such a way as to inform them that Christ did it for them. And it is enough.

This is seen in our song above. The law (Mama) pleads, exhorts, and instructs, but the author rebels, flees, and increases his sin. He then ends up in a totally desperate situation. This is what happens when preaching becomes instruction. Either, the listener flees Christianity or her personality splits like an amoeba. Her public persona is holy, but her private reality is unevangelized, unabsolved, and is left to the doomed fate of fending for itself.

The second part is what happened to Ted Haggard.

"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life," he said.
- Ted Haggard

In his world of Christianity, Ted Haggard believed he could not bring his darker reality to God. He believed God loved only the lovely and holy. So, he kept it all patted down until it exploded. Somebody needs to re-read Luke 15:2 where the Pharisees complain that Jesus "receives sinners and eats with them". "Sinner" means Christian as well as non-Christian.

Now, there was a vast social experiment that required what it could not generate. It was called communism. Now, it was a worthy idea to have everyone selflessly working for a common goal. The only problem was that the "human spirit" (the bound will) could not possibly work for anything other than self-preservation. Coercion set in that quickly became violent. Twenty million dead later, we have learned a lesson in political science, economics, and sociology but not theology. The only thing that produces what it requires is the unmitigated, unmerited, and free gospel of Jesus Christ dying for sinners.

If you preach or are studying to preach, I invite you to grapple with this idea and reduce the number of people who say, "Mama Tried."

Paul Zahl Blog

Dean Zahl wrote this blog entry in September, but I thought it would be worth a re-read to those of you who might have read it. - DOB

September 8, 2006
EMERGENCY! (PART TWO)

I was leaving a service not long ago, having been just reduced to puree and gruel by a sermon that hammered me for 35 minutes with the Law, and I bumped into somebody I know. He is a layman. I asked him, "What did you think about the sermon?" This is what he said. He said, "It makes me wonder whether I did the right thing when I became a Christian. If it's really just all about effort, and trying harder, I think I'd be happier back in the world."

That was a shaking thing to say. In fact, it mirrored my own sentiments. I had thought to myself along the same lines, as I listened, once again, to a sermon that was pure exhortation. "If this is all it's about, just some perpetual form of cheerleading, I wonder seriously whether I have made a mistake. Have I put my eggs in the wrong basket?"

This is what Law does, when it is laden high on you like ten thousand starchily cooked pancakes. You know you can't do it. You know you can't do what you are being told to do. So a voice rolls right in, saying, "Chuck this! It's not real, it's not true, it's no different from the world's stoicism (at best), and is, to use the vernacular, a 'set up for failure'".

I think of that Nick Lowe song, so piercing in its truth-telling: "I'm a failed Christian." The singer wanted to be a Christian, he "tried" to be a Christian, but under the Law's terms, he failed. So now he's on the outside again, looking in – wistfully, 'tis true, but utterly sagging, probably never to return.

The Law creates “failed Christians." There are millions of them. Many of them are angry, many of them are resentful, many of them hate Christianity on account of the preaching of the Law, and many of them, in my opinion, are candidates for Islam. If not suicide.

I would like to direct your attention, dear Reader, to the following. We have almost all of us sung the Christmas carol "It came upon a midnight clear." It was written by Edward Hamilton Sears a long time ago. It has one killer verse, which, needless to say, has been cut from most contemporary hymnbooks, including our own. Here is the killer verse:

O ye, beneath life's crushing load
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.

Sears addressed his Christmas carol to real people, to people seeking relief and not instruction, balm in Gilead and not exhortation, Gospel and not Law.

Dear preacher or preacher of the mind: These are your hearers. They are crushed and bending low. Are you any different from them? I beseech, thee, give them what you need: Grace and Mercy, not Do's and Don'ts.

Love, and ever,
PZ

Coach Bryant Story

Bear Bryant was very good for the Sugar Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl was very good for Bear Bryant.

But there was at least one time they clashed.

In 1971, the Sugar Bowl committee decided getting Alabama was its No. 1 objective, despite the fact that Auburn and the Crimson Tide were both undefeated.

Callery was sent to Tuscaloosa, Ala., toward the end of the season and met with Bryant at 6 a.m. one Sunday. Bryant told Callery he wanted to come to the Sugar, then added, "I think I'll call Chuck (Fairbanks, the coach at Oklahoma, then undefeated along with Big 8-rival Nebraska) and see if we can't have a national championship game in New Orleans."

Fairbanks agreed.

The only thing Bryant asked of Callery was to wait until noon Monday to announce it. On the phone with the Sugar Bowl committee later that Sunday afternoon, Callery said things were looking real good but he wasn't ready to say more than that, and was on his way back to New Orleans.

While Callery was en route, Auburn coach Shug Jordan applied some pressure on the Sugar Bowl. Jordan wanted the invitation for his fifth-ranked team, and he told the committee if his team didn't get an immediate bid, that they wouldn't come to New Orleans, win, lose, or draw after Auburn's final game -- against Alabama. In an emergency meeting, the executive committee agreed to accept Auburn.

"I was just frozen when I heard," Callery said. "We had, in essence, already invited two teams that morning -- Alabama and Oklahoma. Now we had invited another one. I had to pour myself a couple of drinks before I called Coach Bryant. I must have looked like I was a fraud. You can't print what Bryant said when I told him. He did tell me to tell the Sugar Bowl that he was going to beat the hell out of Auburn.

"And he did." Auburn came to New Orleans with only one defeat on its record, but it was an eye-catcher -- a 31-0 kiss thrown by Bear Bryant to the Sugar Bowl.