Saturday, July 31, 2010

“Philosophy Lite: Churches in the 21st century” plus 3 more

“Philosophy Lite: Churches in the 21st century” plus 3 more

Philosophy Lite: Churches in the 21st century

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 12:40 PM PDT

  • Originally published July 30, 2010 at midnight, updated July 30, 2010 at midnight

By Raymond Smith

Most Christians today are aware that the church is undergoing change. Many new independent churches are springing up, worship styles are changing, architecture is changing from stained-glass windows and steeples to simple rectangular buildings, musical groups perform, attendees are dressing less formally, and drama and Powerpoint presentations are being used.

Most of these changes seem to be welcomed, especially by the younger generation. The churches that hold on to the old ways often find their membership dwindling. Meanwhile, church leaders are sorting all of this out and trying to determine how they should react to the situation.

The title, "The Emerging Church" has taken on a negative connotation suggesting liberalism - liberalism of the Postmodernism and Moral Relativism sort. That sort of emergence is not good.

It is good that the church is trying to keep up with the times because these new ways seem to be attracting great numbers of young people who might otherwise reject the church of the past. However, church doctrine is not up for compromise.

There are certain unalterable truths upon which all Christendom has rested, such as redemption through faith in Christ, the Bible as our only source of truth, there is a life beyond, and a time of judgment. There is also a danger that some worship features may amount to mere entertainment.

There is a new emphasis on home groups and house churches. While these options were popular in the early days of Christianity, they were often done out of necessity because of the persecution of that day. While these small groups offer close fellowship and sharing, they are not without serious problems. There must be strong and educated leadership, otherwise they may go astray in their theology. The leader must be solidly established on basic Christian doctrine.

Retreats are a popular way of deepening fellowship and commitment. For the Protestants, there is the Walk to Emmaus, a three-day weekend designed to bring the pilgrim into a deeper relationship with the Lord and with others. The ACTS retreat sponsored by the Catholics is similar in content and style. I'm not supposed to reveal any of the "secrets" of the retreat, but the food is great.

Some churches are deeply involved in the social gospel, which some fear will take the place of piety and evangelism and even cause some to think that good works will get them to heaven.

For those interested in the changes that are taking place in the church, there are books on the subject; the Internet and Google are helpful and George Barna's polls are very instructive. Go to Barna.org and click on "Updates."

The churches that grow will be those who seek to understand their member's needs and wishes without compromising basic Christian doctrines. They will be churches that challenge members to a deeper spiritual life and to find and develop their own personal ministry. They will be churches who thoughtfully address all areas of Christianity and keep everything in balance.

Raymond Smith is president of the Strong Families of Victoria.


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Leo Strauss - Philosophy's mystery man

Posted: 31 Jul 2010 01:11 AM PDT

31 July 2010

Listen Now - 2010-07-31 |Download Audio - 31072010

According to some commentators, there was a mysterious, dark presence lurking behind the Bush administration. He was, said his critics, elitist, illiberal and anti-democratic. He encouraged American's leaders in imperialist militarism, neo-conservatism, Christian fundamentalism and the deliberate deception of those they led. And he did all this despite having died in 1973. He was Leo Strauss, professor of political science at the University of Chicago. But was this passionate student of classical philosophy really as dark a figure as all that?

Transcript available Monday 2 August


Guests

Peter Berkowitz
Senior Fellow
Hoover Institution
Stanford University

Publications

Title: Virtue and the Making of Modern Liberalism
Author: Peter Berkowitz
Publisher: Princeton University Press (1999)

Title: Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist
Author: Peter Berkowitz
Publisher: Harvard University Press (1995)

Presenter

Alan Saunders

Producer

Kyla Slaven

Sound Engineer

Charlie McCune

Radio National often provides links to external websites to complement program information. While producers have taken care with all selections, we can neither endorse nor take final responsibility for the content of those sites.

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Possum Philosophy: The runaway privy, a true tale

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 02:28 PM PDT

By Stephanie Porter-Nichols
Published: July 30, 2010

By ROBERT "ROCKY" CAHILL/Columnist

If this were a Sherlock Homes novel, it would likely be titled the "Attack of the Runaway Privy," or perhaps "The Outhouse's Revenge." Possibly even, "The Case of the Loo on the Lam." However, I think I will simply call it "Only in Virginia's Southern Highlands." The story goes like this…
It was a dark and stormy night (actually it was an average workday in the town of Saltville). It seems this past week, Saltville Town Manager Michael Taylor was reviewing municipal bills for accuracy when he came across one that puzzled him. It was a monthly bill for a portable toilet. On further review, Taylor saw the account had received monthly bills running throughout last winter. While the town occasionally rents these units when expecting large crowds for special events, it does not normally keep them year round. Since he had no idea where the toilet in question was, if indeed it was in town, Taylor called the rental firm.
As it turned out, the town had rented the moveable johnny-house and never contacted the rental company to return it. It was stored at the town's Salt Park behind some of the recreated historic buildings at the back edge of the property and had been apparently been overgrown by weeds, so much so that it was almost completely hidden.
As fate would have it, Taylor had been considering renting a portable toilet to place along the Salt Trail as summer weather and downtown events have produced a growing number of users for the trail. Although the town now has public toilets in the downtown area, Taylor believed a portable one placed on the trail somewhere near the Salt Park would be convenient. Since the account was already active and the john was fairly close to where Taylor wanted to place one, he decided to have the town crew relocate the blue loo.
The town crew jumped on the task. A staff member took off with the town's forklift. Two more employees accompanied him in a town truck to the site where the portable potty had spent the winter, hidden in the weeds. The relocation project started off propitiously enough. The guys located the toilet and were, as far as I can tell, able to get it loaded on the forks of the forklift with relative ease. That part of the mission accomplished, the "Great Outhouse Migration" began. The crew headed for the soon-to-have-a-new-toilet site.
Things went well enough for government work, at least at first. As it was a relatively short trip, it did not take long, even allowing for the slower speed of the forklift lumbering along balancing the burdensome toilet as it was. Finally, the cumbersome convoy reached the spot designated for the placement of the portable pot. The fellows in the truck parked, awaiting arrival of the john. They looked back, seeing their fellow employee herding the outdoor privy down the old dusty trail.
Now here is where the details grow a bit murky. Perhaps the forklift operator could not see around the loaded toilet. Perhaps the truck stopped a bit sooner than the forklift driver expected, or the forklift was moving slightly faster than it appeared to the guys in the truck. For that matter, maybe neither, maybe everything was transpiring just as planned, up to a point. Either way, the employees in the vehicle rolled out of the truck to signal to the operator that they had arrived. Just as they reached the back of the truck, the forklift driver presumably proceeded to stop. And it appears that it was a rather quick stop at that, perhaps by necessity, perhaps by accident.
The employees behind the truck looked up and realized the forklift had indeed stopped. What they didn't realize, until just a tad too late, was that while they had stopped and the forklift had stopped, the portable toilet had, unfortunately, not stopped. In fact, it had sailed off the forks of the lift and was approaching them rather rapidly. So rapidly that it took them by surprise, bumping them both. Thank goodness it only bumped them, and they were bumped out of the way.
Once the terrible toilet had brushed the two fellows out of its way, it sailed merrily along smacking directly into the back of the town pickup. This impact was rather hard. So hard in fact, it did leave a dent in the truck's rear bumper, while somehow phenomenally not damaging the tailgate.
According to unnamed sources, the portable john had very little contents. Only a tiny amount sloshed about. I am sure no one was happier about this than the two employees brushed aside by the flying-fortress-of-fecal-fallout.
I can only imagine the horror in their eyes. After all, they were facing what they no doubt considered sure death, though perhaps not sure what the cause would be: death from the high-speed impact or drowning in the well-ripened, months-old contents of a portable public toilet. I can't say what went through these guy's minds, but as for me, I would most definitely prefer a quick death from high impact over a slow, torturous death by drowning in porta-potty-poop. In fact, I think I would prefer almost any other form of demise, even public stoning.
Now comes the truly funny part. In order for the town's insurance to pay for the damage, the employees had to file an accident report with the police department. These reports call for an accurate account of the incident given in great detail.
Can you imagine some insurance claims adjuster, sitting at his desk, going over that report, "Town truck damaged when run-away portable toilet knocked down two town employees, then proceeded onward, smashing into a town-owned pickup." It would be my guess that the most serious injury related to the escape of the porta-john will occur when the insurance adjuster pulls a muscle or cracks a rib from laughing. This event may well go down in the annals of unusual insurance claims history.
As one of the employees (who shall remain nameless) put it, "I worked at [his former employer] for some 17 years and never had a single accident on the job. Now I've been here about six months and I have already been run over by a [expletive deleted] house."
Where else in the world would two municipal employees suffer minor injuries and a town vehicle be damaged by a portable toilet on a rampage? Like I said earlier, only here in the Southern Highlands.

A freelance journalist, Robert "Rocky" Cahill writes regularly for the News & Messenger. His Possum Philosophy column appears in each Saturday edition. 

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Chargers have holes to fill

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 11:36 PM PDT

Chargers begin full workouts without players responsible for 17 Pro Bowl trips
11:43 PM PDT on Friday, July 30, 2010
By JIM ALEXANDER
The Press-Enterprise

SAN DIEGO - If there is a predominant philosophy in the NFL it is this: Anybody can be replaced.

That one is going to be put to the test at Chargers Park this summer.

The team held its first full-squad workouts Friday, and there were 17 Pro Bowl appearances missing from the equation.

Some are gone for good. LaDainian Tomlinson (five Pro Bowls) is a New York Jet. Jamal Williams (three) is a Denver Bronco. Kassim Osgood (three as a special teams star) is a Jacksonville Jaguar.

Then there are those who were expected to be in camp and weren't. Wideout Vincent Jackson (one Pro Bowl) -- who faces a three-game league suspension anyway for running afoul of the league's substance abuse policy -- is unsigned and at an impasse, seeking a long-term deal. So is Marcus McNeill (two Pro Bowls), whose job is merely to protect Philip Rivers' blind side.

Rookie running back Ryan Mathews (i.e. Tomlinson's heir apparent) is still unsigned as well, a time-honored NFL tradition for first-round picks.

And three-time Pro Bowl selection Shawne Merriman, who has a one-year, $3.26 million tender from the Chargers on the table, didn't report to camp not because of money differences but because he wants assurance that he's going to stay here.

"I need to know I'm not going to be on the trade block every three weeks," he told the San Diego Union-Tribune. And on his Twitter feed Merriman posted this cryptic message: "Sometimes in life its (sic) better to do what you have to do now so you can do what you want to do later."

The response from inside camp: Somebody will play those positions.

"I know we've lost a lot of guys who were very good players, and I appreciate what they did in this organization," Coach Norv Turner said. "But we don't have to play with seven or eight guys. We line up with 11. We have guys who can have the same kind of production as those guys had. I think the fans and the people who watch them will embrace them."

One person's absence is another person's opportunity. Jackson's situation has created a window for both Malcom Floyd (45 catches, 776 yards, one touchdown in 2009) and Legedu Naanee (24-242-2).

"Malcom Floyd's going to have a big year," linebacker Stephen Cooper said. "If Vincent doesn't show up, Malcom has the opportunity to fill the No. 1 slot. I think he'll put up a lot of big numbers and do a great job.

"Legedu's definitely going to be a force. I think he's going to create a mismatch problem for a lot of linebackers. We'll see what happens."

With McNeill missing, the first shot at left tackle goes to Tra Thomas, a 13-year veteran who played his first 12 seasons with Philadelphia and reached three Pro Bowls himself. But Thomas turns 36 in November.

"The career he had in Philadelphia speaks for itself," Rivers said. "He'll be a positive, both in the meeting rooms and on the field."

But is there a level of anxiety without the guys Rivers has grown accustomed to?

"That doesn't exist," Rivers said. "And it's not a slight to Marcus. I love Marcus. He's a heck of a player. But whoever lines up there, I'll feel confident. We won't play one bit different."

Meanwhile, fullback Mike Tolbert split reps with Darren Sproles at running back during Friday's morning drills, though Mathews (1,808 yards and 19 touchdowns at Fresno State) should be in camp soon now that the players picked around him have set the market value for his draft slot.

But plugging another player into a slot is one thing. Replacing a star's impact is another, and even Cooper acknowledged that you don't just replace a Merriman with a draft pick or a backup.

"The chemistry (is different), definitely, because we know he's one of those guys who has to be on the field," Cooper said. "He's a force to be reckoned with, because he gets to the quarterback and causes a lot of havoc.

"But," he added, "I really feel confident he's going to be in here with us this next week."

Reach Jim Alexander at 951-368-9543 or jalexander@PE.com

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