In yesterday’s New York Times, the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, called on religious believers of all stripes to “respect, admire and appreciate other traditions.” In doing so, he explained how he has learned from and been inspired by Christianity. He writes: “In my readings of the New Testament, I find myself inspired by Jesus’ acts of compassion. His miracle of the loaves and fishes, his healing and his teaching are all motivated by the desire to relieve suffering.”
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Ray Boltz in the NY Times
Many of you will remember that in 2008 Christian pop music star Ray Boltz came out as a gay man. That was two years ago, but today’s New York Times has a profile of Boltz’s new album that was released in April. Now, after more than five years of self-imposed absence from stage and CD, Mr. Boltz has reached a musical and religious destination. As an openly gay man, living in a gay-friendly part of South Florida with his partner, Franco Sperduti, he has released his first album since coming out.
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DeYoung Reviews “Radical”
The Gospel Coalition has published an interesting exchange between Kevin DeYoung and David Platt about Platt’s new book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. DeYoung provides a critical review of the book, and then Platt follows with his response. Here’s an excerpt to give you an idea of DeYoung’s approach:
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The Final Act of Lost
The “Lost” finale was pure genius. I say this with no hyperbole. It was the best ending to the best show in the history of television. In my last post, I had two predictions about the final act: (1) good and evil will be sorted out, and (2) someone important will have to die. Both of those predictions were born-out in the finale. Good and evil were embodied in Jacob and his nameless brother, and their epic conflict finally came to an end in the battle between Jack and “Locke.” When Jack killed “Locke,” the good finally prevailed. Someone important did have to die in order to save the island.…
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CT on ‘Lost’
The series finale of “Lost” will air on Sunday night, and Christianity Today has an interview about it with Jeff Jensen, uber-fan and writer for Entertainment Weekly. The discussion focuses on the meaning of the “Lost” series, and I was especially intrigued by this exchange: CT: If we get to the end of the show and we don’t know exactly who is good, who is evil, won’t that be disappointing?
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Google TV
This is pretty unbelievable. (HT: Tim Challies)
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Same-sex “Marriage” and Interracial Marriage
It has become fairly common for people to make a moral equivalence between bans on interracial marriage and bans on same-sex marriage. The comparison is used to drive home the point that just as one’s race shouldn’t be used as a precondition for marriage, so neither should be same-sex pairings. Frank Beckwith has a must-read post arguing that from a legal standpoint, the analogy doesn’t hold-up. He writes:
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Why I can’t stand Libertarianism
On the most important issues, libertarianism is no better than rank liberalism, and sometimes liberalism is better. Case in point above. Here is the relevant exchange:
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McLaren in Louisville This Weekend
Brian McLaren will be preaching in Louisville this weekend in Saints Hall at Saint Matthews Episcopal Church. The event will be held at 7pm, Sunday, May 23, and the address for the church is 330 North Hubbards Lane. You can download a flyer with all the details here. The flyer indicates that he will be talking about his new book “A New Kind of Christianity.” Anybody want to go?
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God’s Grace on The Today Show
I’ve never seen Matt Lauer get choked-up on camera, but he did this morning while interviewing two Christian families for “The Today Show” (see video above). Lauer is astonished by their faith and even asks them if they ever doubted God through their ordeal. Both families confessed their faith in God’s sovereignty over painful tragedies, and it was an unusually beautiful thing to see on network television. What was the story about? In 2006, five students from Taylor University were in a deadly car accident, and only one of them survived. The lone survivor was a blond-haired co-ed who was hospitalized for weeks after the accident. For five weeks, the…