Afternoon Delight 01/27/2007

» Chron: No earmarks could jeopardize Houston projects (Bennett Roth)
» Newsweek: Darfur: Aid Workers Are the New Targets (Rod Nordland)
» Politico: Politics 2.0 (Andrew Rasiej, Micah Sifry)
» Opinion LA: Bill Richardson, Iraq withdrawl, and the Cambodia factor
» LAT: Early on, Obama showed talent for bridging divisions (Richard Serrano, David Savage)
» USAT: Evangelical: Can the 'E-word' be saved? (Cathy Lynn Grossman)
» SF Gate: J. Matthew Sleeth: Alliance between evangelicals and scientists makes sense (David Ian Miller)
» Anniston Star: Evangelicals and immigration (Editorial)
» Christianity Today: Christianity Today: Making Radio Waves (John W. Kennedy)

» Beliefnet: Actor Dennis Quaid on Jesus and the Bible (Laure Sheahen)
Coogs represent!

» Leadership Journal: We Can't Do Megachurch Anymore (Wade Hodges, Greg Taylor)
Interesting tale of a onetime megachurch gone downhill in terms of membership. A bit confusing at times to follow who the "I" is in this co-written article, but it's innovative for at least being a first-person tale.

It's always a bit fascinating to see how all megachurches are stereotyped despite the broad diversity of worship and beliefs that exist in them. The authors here engage in a decent amount of the backlash aimed at such churches. But what's more telling is that they offer several poignant lessons from their own experience that seem to me at least, examples that I see at my own church. Namely, that much of the more useful activities don't happen when the cameras are on, or even under the roof that holds tens of thousands of people over the course of a weekend.

Perhaps it's easier to knock such churches if all you ever see of them is what airs from an edited sermon each week on the television screen. But much of what Hodges & Taylor say, I see already. Maybe that's far from universal, maybe it's a minority that engage their community this way. Dunno. But since my church tends to lead most of the "headcount" stats, it seems that it's also first in line to take some of the arrows that these authors at least offer more generally.

» Christianity Today: Striking Out the Liberals (Madison Trammel)

An unashamed, take-no-prisoners conservative, Pastore throws out sound bites like fastballs:

• "I'm sorry, but abortion is murder, and murder on a moral plane is more severe than dealing with the poor."

• "Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo … are pawns being played by the political Left."

• "I'm not a compassionate conservative. Compassionate conservatism is a euphemism for, 'We are never going to cut spending, but we will continue to hold taxes flat.'"

Listeners to Pastore's show, tagged "the intersection of faith and reason," are as likely to hear a discussion of Snoop Dogg's latest arrest as a spirited debate between Pastore and National Council of Churches president the Rev. Michael Livingston.

But Pastore is clearly most energized by politics.

Some people just need to come to terms with the fact that they're Republicans first and Christians second. Then again, I never liked Pastore when he was a baseball player, so maybe it's no shock that I think so little of him when he calls himself a radio talk show host pastor.

» WaPo: Bush Defies Lawmakers To Solve Iraq (Michael Abramowitz , Jonathan Weisman)

"Any indication of flagging will in the United States gives encouragement to those folks," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon. "I'm sure that that's not the intent behind the resolutions, but I think it may be the effect."

It's a hefty tax on the memory to recall the last time this administration was right about anything in Iraq. With that kind of track record, I fail to see why comments like these should be viewed as any more reflective of the truth.

Overheard while out with some friends a while back, one person noted their concern that America was losing the will to fight a war. Maybe, maybe not. Of more concern to me is an administation that is losing the know-how to fight a war.

SITE UPDATE: For the one or two of you that actually rely on the sidebar links of this blog, pardon the dust. I'm slowly integrating a new plugin to take care of my links for me, alphabetizing them and whatnot. It's a gradual move, though. I'm not about to kill a full day moving every cursed link over to the database from my old, hard-coding ways. In the meantime, there's a little bit of overlap and a little bit of missing linkage. The old sidebar probably hasn't been touched in over a full year, so there's some that will go bye-bye and a bunch of new ones will get added. A fun time will be had by all.