Saturday Selections

I'm getting a lot of hits from Spero News.

Have you been listening to Ken Myers' podcast from Mars Hill Audio?  It's called Audition, and it's a great free resource for provoking thoughts on theology & culture.  And if you don't subscribe to Mars Hill Audio, I recommend it.  At least get a free sample issue to try.  It's a key resource for stretching me beyond my current intellectual boundaries.

I've gotten through part of the Book TV discussion with Andrew Sullivan and David Brooks.  The conversation focused on Sullivan's new book The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How We Can Get It Back.  I originally caught some of the end of the show on TV.  It is intriguing concerning political conservatives and evangelicals.  You can also get at least some (maybe all?) of the video at YouTube, which has worked better for me than the Book TV video.  Al Mohler just had Sullivan on his radio show as well.

Speaking of evangelicals and the political world, I'm very interested in the recent comments of David Kuo, who is currently a columnist at Beliefnet.  Kuo served as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and has written the new book  Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.  I just bought the book and look forward to reading it in the next couple of weeks. I was introduced to Kuo by watching Charlie Rose's interview a couple of nights ago.  Here's the Google Video of the program, and the Kuo interview begins at around the 35 minute mark.  Justin Taylor points to the Books & Culture review of Tempting Faith.

I'm already tired of the online discussion about Ted Haggard, and find Stephen Shield's post on the matter very helpful.  Mark Driscoll's good advice in his post on the subject are must reading, though nothing profoundly new (a typical sign of most good advice).

The late Mitch Hedberg has some important thoughts for us as Thanksgiving approaches.

I don't listen to country music, but the new CD by Alan Jackson is really good.  It's called Like Red On A Rose. 

I'm finishing up preaching Colossians this Sunday.  I've enjoyed N.T. Wright's commentary (TNTC) the most.  Then I'm taking two Sundays off for vacation and a planning retreat.  Tim Etherington will be preaching for me from Jude.

Comments

[bjnotbk]

Steve, thanks for the heads up on Mars Hill on MP3. I use to get the tapes and loved them. Earlier in the year I contaceted Mars about MP3 versions and requested to be put on the list to be notified upon release. I will be heading over to the site today for my subscription. These are highly recommened.

[Ken]

I saw David Kuo on C-Span one evening, and was impressed by his Christian witness. To my own shame, I had been turned off to Kuo through some conservative talkshow or another. As he spoke of God convicting him that he needed to apologize to the Clintons for his personal attacks on them (through political speech writing), I was transfixed. It was a simple story, but so clearly a Christian one.

I read a helpful post on his Beliefnet blog (not written by Kuo). A reader mentioned that Kuo has been dismissed by the religious right even though he is their dream come true: a believer in the media limelight who witnesses for Christ wherever he goes. (E.g., witnessing to the resurrection on The Colbert Report.) But Kuo is seen as unfriendly to the current Republican cause, so he's rebuffed instead.

I understand how easy it is to paint the world in red and blue. Yet we have to be careful about how we choose our friends: It shouldn't be based on our relationship to George W Bush but on our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ken Shomo