It’s my third go around on my favorite radio/podcast program.

We talked about Halloween, the Election and House, M.D.

If SBE isn’t on your itunes, you’re missing one of the best treats on the web.

Thanks to Erik, Kathy and Steve for a great time.

RECOMMENDED READ: Clark Bunch at The Master’s Table makes the case for taking the opportunity to vote as a Christian’s duty.

UPDATE: Those of you planning to stop reading anyone who doesn’t praise your candidate PLEASE don’t read this. I want to keep you as a friend.

I am NOT looking forward to Election Day on Tuesday.

I was raised by a Roosevelt Democrat who taught me all the old time Democrat orthodoxy. College and seminary sealed the deal, and when I went to my first post-seminary church in 1984 I actually voted for Jesse Jackson in a primary and Dukakis in the general. I teared up hearing Dukakis speak on the Belvedere in Louisville.

Oh shut up.

I joined the GOP-post Reagan and voted for Bush in ‘92 and every Republican since. I’ve been perfectly comfortable as a libertarian-leaning Republican, and I never dreaded going to the polls to vote, even for Bob Dole. [Continue reading]

I was watching the documentary “Hell House” with my students in Advanced Bible, and one of the preachers kept saying that Satan wants to take as many “souls” as possible to hell with him, so the church is in a competition with the devil for souls.

I’ve heard this hundreds of times in my life, but it suddenly struck me:

Where in the Bible does it say Satan wants to take “souls” to hell?

It’s open mic here at the IM lounge on Halloween. Put on your costume and join the conversation.

Update: On a previous Reformation Day, I was lamenting the one-sideness of the current view of the Reformation (Written before my wife’s conversion btw). It was a sad, tragic necessity, but I have no probem lamenting it and I’m no cheerleader for all things “team!!”
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Because of the upcoming commemoration of Reformation Day, I would like to reprint some material- penned by a Roman apologist of the previous century- that convinces me that the Reformation, while tragic and sad, was and remains a sad, tragic necessity.

This is what the Reformation continues to be about for me: Does the material below, presented without comment, present Jesus Christ and the Father-God he reveals in his person, life, teachings, death and resurrection? Is this the Gospel? Is this the God of the Gospel?

This will, no doubt, be controversial, but the issue continues to be at the heart of the reformation divide and at the heart of any reconsideration of the meaning of unity. I just finished re-reading the Vatican II documents on Ecumenism. For all their excellence, they do not address the issues raised in the doctrine of indulgences. These are the statements of those who tell us to come home to the true church of Jesus. They ought not to be avoided. [Continue reading]

Two recent releases from Inter-Varsity Press will be of interest to those readers who identify with post-evangelicalism.

The first is the Pocket Dictionary of Church History by Fuller Seminary’s Nathan Feldmeth. It comes in at just over 150 pages.

IVP has recently released a series of Pocket Dictionaries that make useful, but longer, reference material available to those looking for a smaller, and cheaper alternative. (Check out the Pocket Guide to Apologetics. Excellent.)

I know that many of us have accommodated too much to “Googling” our reference needs. Sources wuch as Wikipedia are of unpredictable and uneven quality. A single source for brief, essential information is needed by many Christians who want to give a fair historical awareness to their teaching, writing and speaking. [Continue reading]

My other blog, Jesus Shaped Spirituality, has been neglected lately, but that will be changing. I’m going to be publishing a series of Bible studies I wrote several years ago (the first thing I actually did on the internet actually) on the Gospel of Mark. There are 35 studies, going through chapter 8.

The introductory study is up now. Each study features questions for discussion. These studies weren’t edited as carefully as I’d like, so please be forgiving of many errors. I’ll be posting the studies regularly.

READ: Gospel of Mark Study 1: Why Study Mark?

Some good things out there as we approach the end of this exhausting, frustrating election cycle.

Bill Kinnon launches off of some thoughts about the success of Fireproof as compared to the dismal performance of Amazing Grace, and makes some dead on true observations about evangelicals and the “We Need A Change” mantra.

Bill references John Armstrong’s fine writing on “Patriotic Grace.”

I like Russ Moore. He’d make a good president at Southern Seminary. But until he is, you should read his excellent thoughts at the Henry Institute, where his columns and sermons appear. He preached one of the best sermons I’ve heard this year on “Why Jesus Is A Single Issue Voter,” with excellent applications paralleling the current business with previous evangelical blind spots on human life issues. The sermon is also transcripted at the same site.

The Guardian has a video report on the mood among U.S. evangelicals who are pondering defeat.

Election discussion is welcome, but I’m actively moderating.

Yesterday, I experienced the great part of being a teacher; one of those experiences that make all the others worth it.

It was in my advanced placement English IV class. Our brightest seniors. I’m fortunate to be able to work with them.

A few days before we’d taken our final exam, and with two days left in the quarter, I decided to show the 1989 Peter Weir movie, Dead Poet’s Society, featuring Robin Williams in one of his finest performances, and then write an essay.

It’s the late 1950’s, and conformity is in the air at little Welton Academy, a college prepatory boarding school where Mr. Keating has been hired to teach senior English. Keating tosses the boys some high-grade existentialism and budding beat philosophy along with an adolescent love of romantic literature. The effect of Keating’s mentoring on his young charges is explosive, with results varying from the revelatory to the tragic. [Continue reading]

Other Osteen posts here at IM: Osteen Redux, The Mystery of Joel Osteen, Outing Joel Osteen.

Newsweek reviews Victoria Osteen’s new book. Thank God for Newsweek’s willingness to say what 90% of evangelicals won’t say.

With that story, Victoria unconsciously articulates the problem so many outsiders have with Joel and, by extension, with her. Joel Osteen is one of the most popular pastors in the country, but both he and Victoria seem, from the outside at least, to be spiritual midgets. More than 40,000 people come to hear them preach each week in a sanctuary that used to be the home of the Houston Rockets. Millions more watch them on television. Joel’s books are best sellers, and Victoria’s new one, though arriving in stores this week, is already high on Amazon’s spiritual book list. But the theology driving all this success is thin. Over and over, in sermons, books and television interviews, the Osteens repeat their most firmly held beliefs. If you pray to Jesus, you’ll get what you want.

And people actually ask me why I’m a “post-evangelical.” What planet are you on?

Putting down the word on Halloween. Talking about integrity.

Our sponsor is New Reformation Press. Great t-shirts, books and reformation resources.

Sojourn Music. Also visit Noisetrade.

Want to be an IM advertiser? Want almost 400,000+ unique visitors with close to 1.5 million page views so far this year to see your ad? Contact me.

Music by Rhodes, Sun Like Blood and Randy Stonehill

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Yes, I owe you all a podcast. I’m working on it. I have to go to Lexington today.

I don’t do lists of links, but Zoo Station has a fine one. Spend some time there.

As election time rolls around, I’m still unimpressed with either Presidential candidate, but I’ve made up my mind on the Kentucky Senate race. Mitch McConnell’s attack ads on Bruce Lunsford are the most incredibly vicious distortions and manipulations I’ve ever seen in politics. And this is a state where politicians still shoot each other with some regularity.

We’re studying Exodus in my Bible classes, and Peter Enns’ Exodus Commentary in the NIV Application Commentary series is outstanding for teaching that is aimed at bridging contexts and majoring on application. I have several good commentaries in that series. They are non-scholarly, but highly useful to the communicator.

Robert Velarde writes on C.S. Lewis’s view of pop culture. Lewis’s disdain for the newspaper reminds me that the information revolution has had a terrible effect on Christians. Few read. Few think. The majority believe all kinds of things that aren’t true or are patently ridiculous. But of course, without Snopes, how would I know that? [Continue reading]

Paul made a lot of sin lists. You know, lists of sins.

If you’re a preacher or teacher, you’ve probably used Paul’s sin lists a few times as the raw material for a talk or sermon. You’ve walked through the list, one sin at a time and said a little something about each one. It may not have been the most interesting talk you ever did, but it took up some time and sin is always relevant, right?

Those lists can be pretty spectacular.

Romans 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Comprehensive, that’s for sure. [Continue reading]

Originally published at the Steve Brown, Etc. Guest Room Blog. You also might enjoy “The Great Pumpkin Proposes a Toast,” from deep in the IM archives. Here’s a good post on “How to have a great Catholic Halloween.” No Protestants are harmed. It’s OK.

As October 31st looms, it’s time for true confessions.

I grew up among Southern Baptist fundamentalist Baptists. The KJV-only, women can’t wear pants, twenty verses of “Just As I Am,” Jerry Falwell, Jack Chick, twice a year revival kind of fundamentalist Baptists.

We were serious about things like beer. By sheer quantity of attention in sermons, drinking beer was the most evil act one could describe. We were serious about movies, cards, and something called “mixed bathing,” which normal people would call “swimming.”

We were serious about the Bible, Sunday School, suits and ties, and walking the aisle to get saved.

And we were big time into Halloween. [Continue reading]