Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • Moderate Christian Blogroll Feed Update

    Read it here. While many people get there updates on this blog, I now post all moderate Christian blogroll data on the Moderate Christian Blogroll Blog.

  • A Simple Witness

    The man was a good Christian. Any of us would be quite pleased to have his reputation for faith and Christian charity. He was part of a study group I led, and we were discussing witnessing.

    “I’m afraid to put a fish symbol on my car,” he said. “I might do something that’s not Christlike, and then what would someone think?”

    There is a risk in being a witness, but at the same time, a silent witness may not be sufficient. It’s important to be identified as a recipient of God’s grace through Jesus Christ, i.e. as a Christian person and not just a nice person.

    I was struck by the simplicity of it today in reading the lectionary passage for a week from Sunday. It starts with Genesis 24:34:

    And he [Abraham’s servant] said, “I am Abraham’s servant.”

    It’s easy to read right past that, but this morning it halted me. How simple! Abraham’s servant wasn’t certain he was going to be successful. In fact, he had asked Abraham to absolve him of failure ahead of time, should that failure result from a negative response from the family in Haran.

    It reminded me of a missionary who told me that he simply did good deeds, in his case feeding children in need. If asked, he would say, “I’m doing this because Jesus told me today.”

    Might it be possible that the one thing that needs to be added to your life and Christian witness is that simple statement, something like: “I am Christ’s servant?”

  • Jody Neufeld on Popular Bible Stories

    My wife Jody is basing her week’s series of devotionals on well-known stories of the Bible. She began yesterday with Daniel in the Lion’s Den, and today talked about Moses in the Basket on the River. She’s practical where I’m theoretical.

  • Good News and Bad News on Religious Tolerance

    . . . but which is which?

    MSNBC.com reports on a study of religious attitudes that shows that Americans are still very religious (92% believe in God, for example), but that they are much more tolerant of other faiths.

    Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attendees said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.

    In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.

    With those numbers, what can it possibly mean to be “evangelical” any more?

    While I celebrate tolerance, I’m disturbed by the tendency to identify tolerance with weak beliefs. Unfortunately, that is what is happening. People become tolerant by becoming less committed. The article refers to this as “humility,” but it doesn’t seem so to me. Humility in one’s beliefs would require one to have some beliefs, but to admit that one might be mistaken and to be open to correction. The particular evidence for this is those who try to keep the label “evangelical” while altering the definition.

    I would prefer a society made up of people with strong beliefs, who were willing to defend those beliefs, but were also determined to do so respectfully, and to respect–not agree with–the beliefs of others.

    As one last note, let me add that I think this is the attitude that fosters hate speech codes. The tolerant in this sense are not really tolerant. Rather, they are tolerant of those who agree with them that their religious ideas don’t matter all that much. They are conformists, but they conform to a culture of apathy and indecision. Thus when they encounter someone who doesn’t fall within that culture, they feel justified in suppressing that person’s expression.

  • Example of Energy Innovation

    An efficient solar collector that looks promising. Of course, no single technology is going to be a silver bullet.

  • David Ker is Underemployed

    He did this.

  • More on Campaign Finance

    While deploring the hypocrisy of Obama’s switch on the issue (though still preferring him to McCain), I will be very happy if his action is the death-knell of public campaign financing as suggested in this NYT article (via MSNBC).

  • Moderate Christian Blogroll Feed Problems

    Read about them here. I am working to resolve these. They do not relate to the database problems I’ve been having, but rather to some software that has fallen behind the times.

  • Robert Reich on Offshore Exploration

    One of my disappointments in John McCain is the amount of pandering he has done to various people. I regard his vacation from gas taxes as simple pandering. It solves no problems. It potentially creates many more. The only reason to favor it is that some people who don’t think beyond the next paycheck.

    Now before someone accuses me of elitism, I should note that I have been hit badly by the high gas prices. They hurt. But sometime, I expect within my lifetime, we’re going to have to bite the bullet, change the way we use energy, reconstruct some of our infrastructure (public transportation), and use less energy. I’m not one of those who think we will have to give up huge chunks of lifestyle to do this. I think there’s a very good chance technology will allow us to do very well whilst using much less energy. But there will be a cost. Developing, and more importantly implementing new technology will cost money.

    Which leads me to the actual topic. I think McCain is pandering on offshore drilling. It’s the wrong way to solve our problems. I would say it’s a short term solution, but it’s really a solution that will take a long time to provide a short term result.

    Robert Reich has a post today on this that says it succinctly, titled No To Further Offshore Drilling. When Reich was labor secretary in the Clinton administration I didn’t think much of his opinions, but I have now become a regular reader of his blog. He has been providing very wise advice on things like infrastructure spending, and now on oil drilling.

    It’s worth reading and considering.

  • Public Financing, Integrity, and Mixed Emotions

    Barack Obama has opted out of public financing for his presidential campaign.

    I greet this event with mixed emotions. On the one hand, Obama said that he would accept public financing and the limits that go with it. He is a supporter (or so he says) of public financing. Thus there is a question of integrity. It is simple political tactics–one might say politics as usual rather than “change.” On the other hand, I regard public campaign financing as a very bad idea, and I hope its time is passing. Obama’s action, I hope, will help underline the problems.

    I view public financing as an effort to limit free speech. I know the arguments in favor, in particular the idea that “ordinary” people get more say when you limit the contributions of the rich. But I simply don’t think that is a function that government can or should perform, and I think the history of campaign finance “reform” amply demonstrates that. In effect we have taken the power from those who have money, and given it to those who know how to manipulate the legal system.

    So while Obama has broken a promise, I hope that some good will come of it. The best good, in my view, would be complete elimination of public financing of elections, and also the end of the choking of free speech by attempting to regulate the money. Of course, that is way too optimistic, but I too can dream, can’t I?