The OOC

Rolling Stone has apparently seen the light (well, so to speak) and reversed its decision to ban an ad from Bible-publisher Zondervan:

Lisa Dallos, a spokeswoman for Rolling Stone publisher Wenner Media LLC, said Tuesday that the company had “addressed the internal miscommunications that led to the previous misstatement of company policy and apologize for any confusion it may have caused.”

Ah, anti-Christian bias sounds so benign when it’s described as “internal miscommunications,” doesn’t it? I wrote a bit on this on my blog when it first broke; OpinionJournal.com had a similar take.

Please renew my RS subscription, after all!

Anyone familiar with this church or pastor?

Jan 10, 10:43 PM (ET) – OVIEDO, Fla. (AP) – A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying “And when I go to heaven …,” his colleague said Monday.

The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church in this Orlando suburb when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beates, associate pastor at Covenant Presbyterian.

Before collapsing, Arnold quoted the 18th century Bible scholar, John Wesley, who said, “Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done … I go to be with Jesus,” Beates said in a telephone interview.

We released the slightly redesigned version of the OOC web site and publicly announced the blog this week, so I’l like to give everyone the opportunity to provide feedback — good, bad or ugly! — on either one. Please post your comments or (constructive) criticism to this topic. Thanks.

p.s. The site is best viewed with a Mozilla/Firefox/etc. browser. If you’re using Internet Explorer, you’re not only missing out on the full beauty of the OOC site (cough, cough), but you’re putting yourself at a higher security risk (seriously).

I have to admit: I love when we do Indelible Grace songs in worship. If you’re not familiar with their music, the following site will get you there (from byfaithonline.com):

RUF Music Site
Reformed University Fellowship, the college ministry of the PCA, has a music section on its Web site. You will find the RUF Hymnbook, sheet music, samples of hymns and tunes, ability to order CDs from churches and RUF groups, and more. Go to http://www.ruf.org/sounds/sounds.htm.

Today’s WSJ has an informative book review of Naomi Schaefer Riley’s “God on the Quad” (St. Martin’s, 274 pages, $24.95) about the rise of religious — and, in particular — Christian colleges:

It’s not news in academia, although it may come as a surprise to the rest of us: America’s 700-plus religiously affiliated colleges and universities are enjoying an unprecedented surge of growth and a revival of interest.

Wheaton College (alma mater of Seth D., John E. — others? — and current school of Elizabeth J.) gets some props:

The evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois and the Reformed-affiliated Calvin College in Michigan now rank among the nation’s leading liberal-arts institutions.

Go Crusaders, er, Thunder!

From the latest ByFaithOnline:

MTW Providing Relief Efforts for Tsunami Victims
Mission to the World is spearheading relief efforts for victims of the recent Tsunami in Asia. MTW is in the process raising funds to help those in need. It is also planning to send response teams through its Disaster Response Ministry (DRM). The DRM is a mercy ministry of the Medical Missions Department of MTW, created with the specific purpose of deploying trained and equipped teams to areas of disaster and need in different parts of the world. To read the MTW appeal letter, to donate funds and/or to volunteer to be a part of a response team go to http://www.mtw.org/home/site/templates/splash.asp

From OpinionJournal.com’s Houses of Worship section (“Tremors of Doubt”):

The Christian understanding of evil has always been more radical and fantastic than that of any theodicist; for it denies from the outset that suffering, death and evil have any ultimate meaning at all. Perhaps no doctrine is more insufferably fabulous to non-Christians than the claim that we exist in the long melancholy aftermath of a primordial catastrophe, that this is a broken and wounded world, that cosmic time is the shadow of true time, and that the universe languishes in bondage to “powers” and “principalities”–spiritual and terrestrial–alien to God. In the Gospel of John, especially, the incarnate God enters a world at once his own and yet hostile to him–“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not”–and his appearance within “this cosmos” is both an act of judgment and a rescue of the beauties of creation from the torments of fallen nature.

Whatever one makes of this story, it is no bland cosmic optimism. Yes, at the heart of the gospel is an ineradicable triumphalism, a conviction that the victory over evil and death has been won; but it is also a victory yet to come. As Paul says, all creation groans in anguished anticipation of the day when God’s glory will transfigure all things. For now, we live amid a strife of darkness and light.

I thought of Mark T. when I read this in this week’s ByFaithOnline:

Find WiFi Hotspots Anywhere
The Wi-Fi HotSpot List tells you where you can connect your wireless device to the Internet. Enter any address worldwide and discover wireless locations from one to 10 miles away. If you prefer, browse HotSpots in an entire region. Click a hotspot, and you’ll get the address, carrier, protocol and even a map! Go to http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/

I tried the church’s address and got one hit:

• intersection of Laclede Station Road and Weil Avenue (Approximate coverage is about half a block.)

I bet Mark has discovered a few others, though. 😉

Peter Barrs and I are, perhaps foolishly, attempting to start what I hope will be an OOC tradition for years to come: a New Year’s soccer game!

All parishioners in the fellowship, as well as friends and family — anyone hardy enough to suit up in potentially cold weather conditions — is invited to play:

When: Sunday, Jan. 2, 2005
Time: right after worship
Where: Deer Creek park
Who: anyone, young or old, talented or “athleticly-challenged

We’ll plan to play in just about whatever weather, so remember to dress warmly. Perhaps a few of us can bring some snacks to eat beforehand (and some hot chocolate?), but we can also go out for some pizza afterward, too.

Closer is a tough movie. Tough, as in difficult to watch, painful to witness and hard on the spirit. And yet, it’s worth watching. I don’t recommend it to everyone, but the movie offers some profound insights into the human condition, namely into the power of sex in relationships. As that theme indicates, Closer is replete with many tremendously vulgar scenes — not necessarily graphically. In fact, the most grotesque and vile parts are during dialogue.

So why would someone want to subject himself to such courseness? Well, in spite of that — or because of it — the movie is honest. It tells the truth about many things, namely three things that Hollywood, in fact, almost always lies about:

1. There is no such thing as casual or meaningless sex. Conversely, sex cannot be divorced from real intimacy in a relationship, much deeper than many people care to imagine or admit.
2. That love is a conscious choice as much as it is an emotion or feeling.
3. That all people long to be known, but also to be able to truly trust another, especially and ultimately in sexual relationships, and that broken trust in this area is devastating and profound.

The principle, four-character cast (Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman) illustrates the pain endured and inflicted upon each other in their relationships. I’m not sure whom I think does the best job, though Portman’s character certainly has the most memorable and truthful lines. Beware of a certain trailer for this film that presents it much more lightly and happily than it is. For all the film’s honestly, that trailer seems disturbingly dishonest after having seen it. (Interestingly, the reviewer at IMBD didn’t agree with me at all on the film’s merits.)

An interesting viewpoint on the topic of Hans’s recent moment-for-mission:

Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (named for the color adopted by the country’s reformist opposition), is a broad-based movement that brought millions of citizens into the streets to press for free and fair elections. Now it is on the verge of a dramatic victory. In just nine days, on Dec. 26, this nonviolent people-power movement will likely make pro-Western reformer Viktor Yushchenko the country’s next president.

On the surface, the Orange Revolution has had a secular look, with students, members of the middle class and workers rising up against corrupt rule.The movement has on its side the sexy Ukrainian girl group Via Gra, Eurovision song-contest winner Ruslana and the Klitschkos, Ukraine’s boxing brothers. Not to mention Sting and Gerard Depardieu.

But there is another side to Ukraine’s peaceful revolution. Interspersed with earnest youths, families and grandmothers who braved subzero temperatures at daily rallies for Mr. Yushchenko were nuns bearing orange sashes, proto-deacons and priest-monks.

The scene at Kiev’s Independence Square was part political rally, part rock concert and part fireworks display. But it was also a religious experience. Each day’s protest opened with prayer. On weekends, religious leaders held liturgies and prayer services for Orthodox Christians (whose adherents represent more than 60% of the population), Eastern Rite Catholics (10%), Protestants, evangelicals, Jews and Muslims. (Some 25% of Ukrainians say they are nonreligious.) [article truncated]