Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

I have been remiss in not posting over the last couple of weeks.  Way too much stuff going on including my wife in a triathlon and me and some friends involved in a quck tour around London.  Plus KP and the kids arrived in London a week ago.  But, I have still been reading, and have a couple of things for you to ponder.

A couple of posts on the “War on Terror”.  First, this article http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/156mifoa.asp makes a point that I think is absolutely correct, President Bush will be treated kinder by history than would seem credible today.  The reason is that he understands in a way that no one else seems to in politics that the fight against radical Islamic fascism is a fight for the very existence of our way of life in the western world.  Contrast this with this story in from the UK, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2068366/Islamic-extremists-should-get-therapy%2C-Home-Office-tells-local-councils.html where the UK Government sets aside money to convince radical terrorists that they are wrong.  At one level they are correct, this is a clash of ideologies and so winning hearts and minds is a prerequisite to winning at all.  But, as the saying goes, walk softly AND carry a big stick.  The response in the UK and Europe seems to be that we will not need to fight this we just will need to sit down and reason our way through it (or is that Obama ………).  That, I just cant see. 

A few friends from Crosspoint visited me a couple of weeks ago - it was a blessing for me and something of an eye-opener for them.  London is a vastly diverse and my friends were surprised how often and how many languages you hear as you walk around.  London is the kind of city where St. Paul would have loved to preach the gospel because here he would have access to many different cultures.  That said the city is faced with profound challenges - it, like Europe, does not have the tradition of acceptance and assimilation of immigrants that is part of the fabric of the United states.  This short article talks about the challenges the city faces.  http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_otbie-immigrant_assimilation.html

And I need to draw your attention again to Baxter Kruger, theologian and fishing lure designer.  http://baxterkruger.blogspot.com/  I wish you could know his enthusiasm and heart for the gospel of our Lord Jesus as I do.   In another article of his Baxter talks about the power of C.S. Lewis as a writer was his transparent joy in being a Christian.  Too often we are just cranky complainers with nothing to offer the world - we need to think more of the gift of life that comes from our Lord Jesus and offer that continuously to the world.

And finally, a word on “Sex and the City” the movie.  Is it just me (it kind of feels this way) that thinks these people - whatever the four women’s names - are empty shells of nothing?  As an engineer I was taught that nature abhors a vacuum - SITC is doing a good job of proving this wrong.  Because, after however many series and a movie nothing has shown up yet to fill the designer shoes of this collection of airheads!  Really, has there been a single word uttered by any character in this show that was worth the ink used in the script revisions?  Not as far as I can see.  And yet, there are people that treat Carrie’s (oops, reveled I know at least one character’s name) outpourings like they are gospel.  Maybe I am just a guy who doesn’t get it, but please no more SITC.