News flash! Glenn Beck is a Mormon!

From the blog of Dr. Russell Moore:

Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah. 

The problem with Beck is that the God he is urging others to get back to is not the Christian God. He's the vague god of Americanism that rewards those who can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, the one that rewards "family values" and being moral polite people. The Americanistic god holds up the founders as its saints and exposits the constitution to its congregation. I know it might sound unbelievable to some of us that our nationality can become our religion, but I would point you to the Romans for an example. Every kingdom of this world will fall to the Kingdom of God, and that includes America.

Mormonism is an American religion and it reveals its roots. It tweaks Christianity to make it a religion not of grace but of works. "God worked his way up to becoming God, and if you work really hard you can become a god too." It's rubbish, and it's demonic. Jesus came to stand in the place of those who could not and would not stand before God as righteous in order to reconcile them to God. He died for his enemies. He died that "the people who are trying to subvert this nation" might worship their Almighty Creator. As people who are in the world but not of the world our only allegiance should be to the Kingdom of God. All other priorities and purposes should flow out from God's Kingdom purpose in our lives. I don't think this is Beck's mission. I think God is a section of his Americanism and not the other way around.

 Let me be clear. Hard work, family values, morality, and politeness are not bad things. They are very good things, but when they become the definition of the gospel (what will save us) rather than the effects of a life transformed by Jesus, then they have become sin for us. Also, the men and women who have fought for America have done a noble thing. As and agent of the state, God's word says that he uses them to uphold justice in the world. Furthermore, soldiers need Jesus too, so there should be Christians in the military as missionaries to our soldiers. I only mention the military, because it's usually the first question that comes up when I start questioning America.

Fashion's Free Culture

This is a great TED talk on the industries that do not have intellectual property rights, specifically the fashion industry. We definitely need a new model for music. The music industry was not always the way it is now. It used to operate more like the fashion industry does today. Want proof? Johnny Cash's Cocaine Blues. Written by Luke Jordan in 1927. Johnny tweaked the lyrics a bit. Just do a Youtube search for Leadbelly, and you will find that a lot of songs you know today by (white) artists were made famous a long time ago by Leadbelly (House of the Rising Sun, Where did you sleep last night?, Black Betty, etc). He loved to collaborate with other artists and get their takes of his songs. I don't know what a change in copyright would mean for multimillion dollar artist homes, but I am sure it would greatly raise the bar of creativity in this vocoder-driven industry.

The Inception of Judah Meche

*As always Facebookers, click through to the original post to see the slideshow.

Marching Band Version of The Bed Intruder Song

Antoine Dodson...what can I say?

The Better Angels of Our Nature

From Rolling Stone's interview with Katy Perry:

‘Letting go was a process,’ she says. ‘Meeting gay people, or Jewish people, and realizing that they were fine was a big part of it. Once I stopped being chaperoned, and realized I had a choice in life, I was like, “Wow, there are a lot of choices.” I began to become a sponge for all that I had missed—the music, the movies. I was as curious as the cat.’”

This is a lesson to us parents. You have to guard against telling your children that Christians are better people than those who do not believe. We may not say it explicitly, but our kids will definitely pick it up implicitly if we do not look out for it. Remember the fault of the Pharisee in Luke 18.

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” 

(Luke 18:9-14 ESV)

The Pharisee, instead of trusting God for his righteousness, trusted in the righteousness that God wrought in him. The result is that the Pharisee did not walk away justified. It's a very scary thing to think that we could miss God, because we trust in the upright character he has brought about in our lives rather than trusting him, but it's the truth. We have to be careful with our children lest they grow up with this error. Children's minds already have a legalistic bent. Mom and dad are not better than the guy down the street. We just trust that Jesus was better for us, and that God is transforming us. Mark Driscoll is fond of saying that there are two kinds of people: bad people and Jesus. We need to pray that our children's eyes would be opened to this distinction work as hard as we can to make it evident in our lives.

You could have God, but you choose light beer.

Excellent post from The Resurgence. We are far too easily pleased indeed. Be a good hedonist and go for the greatest amount of pleasure for the longest duration...and also click the link.