CNN’s Belief Blog reports that the marketing campaign for the new Superman movie includes a direct appeal to Christian movie-goers. A marketing firm is highlighting the Messianic themes of the film in order to attract the Christian market to “Man of Steel.” The firm has created an entire website filled with “Man of Steel” ministry resources including sermon outlines, video downloads, and digital images from the movie. They even hired a theologian to write sermon notes for pastors who want to make “Man of Steel” the subject matter of their Sunday morning sermon. The sermon intro calls for a viewing of the movie trailer during the sermon!
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Gender-bending ad to discourage teen pregnancy
There’s an ad campaign rolling out in Chicago that is designed to discourage teen pregnancy (see above). The ads feature enhanced images of teenage boys with pregnant bellies. Somehow this is supposed to make teens think twice about…what exactly? Most teens have heard of Photoshop and have at least a rudimentary understanding of the fact that boys can’t get pregnant. So what is the logic behind this ad campaign? Does anyone believe that these ads are going to thwart the flood of teenage hormones?
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12 obsolete technologies Americans still use
NBCNews.com has a list of twelve technologies that ought to have gone the way of the Dodo by now, but which many Americans are still using. Without question, this is a fascinating list—especially when I consider that my children don’t even know what many of the items are. The full article includes information about each item, including how many of each were sold in the last year. You’ll have to read the full article for the details, but here’s the list:
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Former SBC President explains why his church is severing ties with the Boy Scouts
Bryant Wright is the pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. In the video above, he explains why he is leading his church to sever ties with the Boy Scouts. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of this kind of thing in the coming months.
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How will gay “marriage” impact your marriage?
If you’ve ever been in a debate with someone about gay marriage, one of the conversation stoppers that proponents often throw out is this: “How does gay marriage hurt traditional marriage?” Or more personally, “How does my gay marriage corrupt your straight marriage?” The thinking goes like this. What two people do in the privacy of their own home ought not concern you, even if they choose to reinvent society’s most basic institution. After all, who are you to judge someone else’s pairing? If some people want to call gay unions a “marriage,” what’s that to you? The assumption in this line of argument is that marriage is a private…
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God help us if we don’t learn from Gosnell’s crimes
Kermit Gosnell was convicted yesterday of three charges of first degree murder. He killed countless other live-born infants, but prosecutors could only prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he murdered these three. Some were killed after being delivered alive into toilets. Others had their necks “snipped” with scissors after clinic workers had played with them. The crimes were so heinous and the conditions so gruesome that it’s staggering to imagine that people have been witnessing and participating in this horror for decades.
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A lump in my throat and mist in my eyes…
…after reading this from Rod Dreher. It’s Dreher’s story of moving away from Louisiana in a huff, and then of coming back in a hurry. For all you Louisiana expats, don’t miss this.
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Non-Christian Complementarianism?
A recent segment on NBC’s “Rock Center” features former volleyball star Gabrielle Reece and her new book on marriage. In the book, she tells the story of how her own marriage nearly ended after only four years. She and her husband were able to come back from the brink, and they are still married today now with three kids. The provocative part of the interview is when she explains that the key to their success is that she “submits” to her husband. The interesting thing, however, it that this is not a Christian couple who have embraced a biblical view of gender roles. They appear to be a typical, secular…
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Real Beauty Sketches
(HT: Daniel Martin)
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Being gay at Jerry Falwell’s university
I just finished reading what has to be one of the most riveting articles I’ve ever seen. The author is Brandon Ambrosino, and the title is “Being Gay at Jerry Falwell’s University.” Writing for The Atlantic, Ambrosino tells his story of coming out as a homosexual while he was a student at Liberty. This is not a conversion story. Ambrosino writes as one who has come to terms with his homosexuality and has embraced it. The real import of the story is how the Christians at Liberty University responded to the revelation of his sexuality. He had feared that they would want to stone him. But instead, he found out…