Short But Sweet, An Interview on Janet Mefferd Today
I guess I’m becoming a regular radio star! If you feel the need to Laugh very Out Loud, please do. Given I’m no big shot, but a little shot that keeps shooting (or typing as the case may be), getting anyone to want to talk to me about my best selling first book (if the need arises again, feel free), The Persuasive Christian Parent, is a bit of a chore. Persistence helps, and I’m nothing if not persistent. So I had the wonderful experience of being interviewed recently on a national radio show, Janet Mefferd Today. I checked out the stations list, and it’s more than a few, and coast to coast. You can listen if you want a short primer on the the subtitle of the book, God’s Provision for Building an Enduring Faith in You and Your Children. His provision becomes more amazing to me every day.
And I’m excited to say I was just invited for another interview Monday on the American Family Radio podcast, The Hamilton Corner, with guest host Alex McFarland. I can’t wait for that! I’ll link to that here when it’s available.
Some Reflections on 1984 in 2021
I recently re-watched the 1984 movie 1984, with John Hurt and Richard Burton, and I forgot how depressing it is. I’ve read George Orwell’s book, Nineteen Eighty-Four (written in 1949), several times, and it’s not as painful to read as the movie is to watch, until the ending. Director Michael Radford did a commendable job bringing dystopia to the screen. The reason the ending of the book is more devastating is because a movie can’t compete with a book which allows you to live in a character’s head, and living in Winston’s thought throughout the book made his ultimate defeat devastating. The absolute totalitarian power of the state is reflected not just in Winston’s outward obedience to the dictates of Big Brother, but in the end actually falling in love with Big Brother; he realized 2+2 can in fact equal 5. He was in every sense a broken man. An all powerful state can do that, but only to a man who has nothing outside of the material world in which to appeal. That’s what makes the movie, and the book, so depressing, but so hopeful for those who refuse to accept the worldview assumed by it. (more…)
Mercy Me and a Gospel Concert
Last week my son and I went to see the Christian band Mercy Me. Even though I’m not really a fan of the band, nor do I listen to Christian contemporary music (I don’t listen to much of any kind of music anymore), it was an enjoyable concert. It was held at the arena where I understand the Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightening play ice hockey (there were plenty of banners), and while it wasn’t packed, it was a substantial crowd. For a Christian band that’s been around for 27 years, I was impressed. The production, sound, and musicianship was impressive, and lead singer, Bart Millard, has a powerful voice and a winsome demeanor. His life was the inspiration for a hit movie staring Dennis Quaid called I Can Only Imagine, the name of a song he wrote after his father died. He is also clearly in love with Jesus, and the reason I write about it has to do with that. (more…)
Notable Quotation
The transition from secular hope to existential despair requires only the instant in which the bubble bursts and all is nothingness. Just now, a secular optimism is the mood of the American mind and the key-note of contemporary theology. The call is to clear away the defeatism of old and new orthodoxies and to venture with the secularists in the building of the new metropolis, the city of man. Let the church nail up its escape hatch to heaven, renounce its heritage of accomplished salvation, and become a partner with Christ, establishing in history the new mankind, which is the essential manhood of all men.
Yet this mood does not dispel more reflective and more somber expressions of despair. Sub-Christian hope will always disintegrate into despair and sub-Christian despair will always generate illusory hope.
The glory of the Christian hope has another center than the economy of abundance or the new mankind. God is the hope of Israel, the promised portion of his people. “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord…I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope…Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption” (Psalm 130:1, 5, 7).
—Edmund P. Clowney
From his Inaugural Address as the First President of Westminster Seminary Philadelphia, 1966.
President 1966-1984 (1917-1984)
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