Newsweek has a fascinating conversation between Jon Meacham and Franklin Graham about Graham’s disinvitation from the “National Day of Prayer” ceremony at the Pentagon. To me what was most interesting was Meacham’s open animus towards Franklin’s position—an odd posture for a journalist. Meacham simply tells Franklin that he is offended by the public expression of Franklin’s views on Islam.
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Presidential Proclamation—National Day of Prayer
There were some rumors last month that President Obama was cancelling the annual “National Day of Prayer.” But those rumors turned out to be untrue. On April 30, President Obama declared May 6 the “National Day of Prayer” by presidential proclamation. In his own words:
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Thanking the God of Fortuitous Moments
In the days after the 9-11 attacks, I remember thinking, “This could be our new normal.” I wasn’t alone in this. Everyone expected that terrorists would eventually mount another successful effort and strike again. In the early days after 9-11, it was inconceivable to think that we wouldn’t be hit again by a terrorist attack on the homeland. Nearly ten years later, however, we still haven’t had another major terrorist attack. All of that could change tomorrow, but it is nevertheless remarkable that we still haven’t been hit. Instead what we have seen is a series of failed attempts to attack the homeland. From the shoe-bomber to the Christmas day…
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This Means War
I just heard the news that the Christian rock band Petra is getting back together for a reunion tour. This is beyond belief, but I say more power to them. Greg Volz not John Schlitt will be lead singer. For those of you who can’t remember or haven’t heard of Petra, you can check them out below. You will see that, for some unexplained reason, tortured and confused teenager dude was a running motif in their videos from the late 80’s.
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GCR Report Online Now
You can download the report from the SBC’s Great Commission Task Force here: www.pray4gcr.com. The video above is an introduction to the GCR effort that you can show to your church. Chairman Ronnie Floyd presents the full report in the video below.
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Russell Moore on the Gulf Oil Spill
For a great perspective on all things ecological, see Russell Moore’s “The Gulf of Mexico and the Care of Creation.” He writes: ‘Some conservatives, and some conservative evangelicals, act as though “environmentalism” is by definition “liberal” or even just downright silly… ‘There’s nothing conservative though, and nothing “evangelical,” about dismissing the conservation of the natural environment. And the accelerating Gulf crisis reminds us something of what’s at stake… ‘We need the creation around us, including the waters and all they contain, because we are not gods. We are creatures who thrive when we live as we were made to live. We exercise dominion over the creation not only when we…
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Lampooning Emergents
Ted Kluck is one of the most hilarious guys on the planet. He has a piece on his blog lampooning an emerging website that is laugh-out-loud funny (HT: Kevin DeYoung). He writes: “I have tried my best, at times, to satirize the late, great Emergent Church movment, and I have to admit all of my efforts pale in comparison to this website, which is completely serious.”
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B21 GCR Panel
B21 hosted a panel discussion on Wednesday on the effort to mount a “Great Commission Resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention. Video above.
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N. T. Wright Retires as Bishop
From the Diocese of Durham: The Bishop of Durham, Dr N. T. Wright, has announced that he will be retiring from the See of Durham on August 31. Dr Wright, who will be 62 this autumn, is returning to the academic world, in which he spent the first twenty years of his career, and will take up a new appointment as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
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What about Derek?
The following question appeared under my last blog entry. “Has anyone noticed that Derek Webb has been touring with JNAPP? Or that she has been touring with him… Maybe you could provide a blog post about Derek. I’ve been wondering for about a year now where he stands on some things.” The short answer is that, yes, I have noticed. But, no, I don’t know where he stands on the big question asked by Larry King—Can you be gay and Christian? I used to be a big fan of Derek’s music, but I’ve had a tough time listening to his work ever since his “Mockingbird” album (which I wrote about…