9-11 Blogroll

Christian bloggers unite! 
We have, and on this 10th anniversary of the worst Islamic terrorist attack on the United States, we have collaborated on writing a collection of blogs in remembrance and response to 9-11.  Please welcome the Apologetics Bloggers Alliance blogroll with a drumroll:

"Divine Commands Post 9/11" (MandM)
"The Problem of Evil:  Whose problem is it?  Is it a problem?" (Tilled Soil)
"The Need for Moral Choices and Consequences" (Possible Worlds)
"Ground Zero:  Why truth matters in preventing another 9/11-style attack"  (Wintery Knight)
"My 9/11 Memorial: Christianity Offers Authentic Hope In The Face Of Suffering" (Bringing Back the Tao)
Remembering 9-11:  Which revelation is true?  The need for evaluating religious claims" (Eric Chabot, Ratio Christi - Ohio State University)
"If God, Why Evil?" (In Defense of the Christian Faith)
"Unsung Lessons from 9/11:  'Moral Monsters' & Fear of Death" (Clay Jones)
"9/11 and Religious Pluralism" (Another Ascending Lark)
"The Tiptoes of Tolerance" (Valley Girl Apologist)
"9-11" (Deeper Waters)
"Do all roads (and flights) lead to God?" (Sarcastic Xtian)
"On September 11, 2001, harmless things became fearful" (J.W. Wartick - "Always Have a Reason")
"Remembering 9/11:  A Young Californian's Perspective" (Take Two Blog)
"The Two Ground Zeros" (Reasons for God)
"Suffering and the Cross of Christ" (Hieropraxis)
"America after 9 11:  Is Religion Evil?" (Apologetics Guy)
"Resources on the Problem of Evil" (Apologetics 315)
"Atheism, Evil, and Ultimate Justice" (Faithful Thinkers)
"9/11: 'Full Cognitive Meltdown" and its Fallout" (Thinking Christian)
"Where was God on 9/11?" (Cold and Lonely Truth)
"The Three Faces of Evil and A Christian Response" (The Real Issue)
"Christianity and 9/11:  Guilt by Association?" (Tom Gilson, The POINT)
"Did God Allow the Attacks on 9/11 for a 'Greater Good?'" (The Gospel According to Erik)
"Where was God on 9-11?" (Neil Mammen's Blog)
"From Ground Zero to Ten Years Later--September 11, 2001" (Sententia)
"9-11 Remembered" (Answering Muslims)
 
and of course, there's mine too:  "9-11, Jihad, and the Christian" (Talitha, Koum!)

**Many, many thanks to the idea guys behind this collaboration, especially Greg West of The Poached Egg.  Without him, getting all these individual links would have been hard!)  :-) **

Happy 2010

This year, I'd like to start the blog by offering up a New Year's prayer:

Dear Lord of Heaven and Earth,
I submit and commit my thoughts to Your plan and approval. May you make this year one in which my thoughts and my words reflect the truth of Your Word, nature, and glory. May I speak with the wisdom only You can supply. May everything be done according to Your will on earth as it is in heaven, and that includes cyberland as well.

May believers take seriously and use wisely the gift of communication in the time we are given this year. Bless all You allow to hear and understand the Gospel.

Soli Deo Gloria
Amen!

Welcome to the New 'Elle: Et elle

After a bit of a scramble, the next generation of Intellectuelle is up and running, renamed Et elle! This will be a co-ed effort featuring a number of fresh voices and blogging styles. Please don't hesitate to give it a whirl.



Many, many thanks to Bonnie Lindblom and Sarah Flashing for making this happen.

The Interview: Matthew Lee Anderson

There is no doubt that electronic media in the form of Internet communications is the ultimate revolution of life on earth. Ever since the first century AD, Christians in particular have been eager to use whatever medium readily available to make the Christian message public. Perhaps Paul the Apostle is our greatest example, meeting people in the marketplaces, institutions of higher learning, and the open air "chat room" of the Greek Areopagus. Today, our Areopagus is the blogosphere, webzines, and YouTube (and GodTube too maybe...maybe not).

The blogosphere in particular, as big and wide as it is, has made it possible for many bright people to contribute to the intellectual life of the thoughtful Christian. A few months ago, my friend Matthew Lee Anderson, organizer of the original GodBlogCon, graciously gave me a few precious moments of his time to let me peek into his literary forays. Amongst his online on goings are his blog, Mere Orthodoxy, a smattering of articles on popular Christian websites, and a chapter in the book, The New Media Frontier. So what is up with this guy, certainly a young man at 26, having so much to say?

LW: Blogging, particularly Christian blogging, has, as far as I have seen, really taken off in the last five years. There are numerous apologetics, commentary, and devotional-style blogs out there right now (including mine!). Tell me about the blog you contribute to, Mere Orthodoxy, and what role it plays in the blogosphere.

MA: Mere Orthodoxy, or just Mere-O, started as a joint venture with college friends. We wanted it to be a haven for reasonable conversations about faith and culture from the standpoint of mere orthodoxy, the classical, conservative Christian tradition.

LW: What role does your blog play in the blogosphere?

MA: It’s a small role; I wouldn’t say that it is a major stopping point in the Christian blogging community. We at Mere-O try to aim at more substantive analysis about events happening in church and culture, and sometimes that doesn’t play well online. Politics are what always draws traffic, and there were so many issues were related to faith and politics in the last election cycle.

LW: What are the issues that you personally like to emphasize?

MA: I don’t really have a specific area. It depends on what I’m reading at the time. Life and death issues are always an interest for me; so are theological issues particularly from a historical angle. Of particular interest is the state of the church in North America and how we can make it thrive, specifically with young people.

LW: The book, The New Media Frontier, contains a chapter by you. Briefly tell me about the purpose of the book and what your thoughts are in it.

MA: [Jokingly] That was a mistake by the publisher. They should not have had me in there. The purpose of the book is to equip those who are unfamiliar with new media (particularly blogging). For Christians, it is a valuable resource. I was at a Family Research Council meeting recently and the room was full of laypeople who were aware enough to come to a blogging conference, but they didn’t understand how to blog, how to comment, or what to write about. Those who do blog seem to be culturally aware Christians. The book seeks to provide laypeople with a greater cultural awareness on a practical level. It contains chapters on using the new media within church settings, apologetics, and bioethics. The day-to-day Christian life has to be carried over to your online neighbor with the goal of being a winsome witness for the Gospel.

LW: Now, you've also written a couple of other things that have gotten some attention lately. The first is your article, titled The New Evangelical Scandal, in which you point out that political allegiances in younger evangelicals have shifted because of shifting priorities. It has drawn some criticism but a lot of agreement as well. I perceive that those who disagree that they ought to be thought of negatively in this way. Rather, they see it as a positive. How do you respond to that?

MA: I understand the rationale behind the leftward shift in thinking (having a greater affection for social justice, big government accommodation, and repudiation of the religious right). However, I have a difficult time sympathizing with a lot of it, because much of it is a failure of them to understand the issues well. For younger evangelicals to say there are other things that Republicans need to address is correct. But to then say that we should campaign for and support someone who misses the abortion issue but supports others is misguided. Abortion and marriage are still among the most important issues that come to my mind.

LW: How serious is this situation, in your opinion?

MA: Well, I’ve taken a lot of grief for the article, being pigeonholed as the typical right-wing nut. My tone towards the younger evangelical liberalization was critical, but a lot of their conclusions I’m okay with. I employ many of the things they emphasize, like [open dialogue and] conversation, which is always desirable. My criticisms are primarily about their reasons for using them. I don’t think the situation is all that serious, because most people who really love Jesus can also be persuaded to think more clearly about Jesus as well.

LW: The criticism I see from "younger evangelicals" against, to make a contrast, "older evangelicals" is a lack of cultural engagement and anti-intellectualism. Yet, I can see that younger evangelicals are also guilty of those same things, only in different ways. For example, I don't see much sympathy for poor, disenfranchised Southern white people. I also don't see any more interest in pursuing Christianity intellectually than in previous decades proportionally to the available information out there. How do you view the criticism?

MA: The second criticism is spot on. We should persuade Christian evangelicals that reading hard books is something we should be doing with our time. It is true that there is as much anti-intellectualism with the younger crowd as with the older. Most younger, white evangelicals tend to be more intellectual in part because their parents put them through college. We're using what our parents provided and berating them for what most of them had no opportunity to have at the same level. Let’s check the criticisms we are making and the plank in our own eyes first.

Regarding cultural engagement, our parents’ generation did engage in culture but differently. Beating up on the evangelical ghetto is an easy thing to do. [But let’s consider that] the Jewish people preserved their culture in a hostile world by living in a ghetto. Sometimes that is a good cultural strategy to have. Our parents saw their world as hostile, so that may have been a good strategy. For us, the new engagement may end up being consumption. A lot of the mantra of cultural engagement may be an excuse to consume the culture without asking, “is this antithetical [to Christianity]?” We don’t need to consume culture in order to witness to it.

LW: So, you're twenty-six years of age and fit into the age group that typically encompasses "younger evangelical," as do I. Why do you think differently than the evangelicals you describe?

MA: I’m not sure that I do think differently; I do, after all, identify with the ethos of the young evangelical. If I do think differently, it is due to my own education and adherence to [the ideas of] G.K. Chesterton. We need to cultivate Chestertonian patriotism with respect to evangelicalism, which loves it while working to reform it. That’s what I’d like to do.

LW: You also wrote an online series about dating and marriage. A lot of people are going to wonder how does a twenty-something young man who's still technically a newlywed himself know anything about marriage! Tell me what this book does.

MA: People forget that Josh Harris wrote I Kissed Dating Goodbye when he was 18. I think there is something to be said for saying what needs to be said. I think I am writing as one who has made a lot of mistakes, all the mistakes (though I’m not making a comparison between me and Josh Harris). The insights into marriage and dating are fundamentally from my own experiences in dating, both painful and joyful. I came to realize that no one in the Christian world has any idea how young people are supposed to navigate dating. The confusion and the decay of the social fabric place an immense responsibility on the individual to make good decisions themselves, because no institution is helping them along the way. My writing tries to address how thoughts about God and relationships affect their romantic life. Then I move into the practical as to how they should behave. I really want to push off the “what should I do?” questions and ask instead “what do I think about marriage and God?” If you’re on your own, you are going to do well or do badly based on who you are. [It’s a call] to make sure you’re a good person and understand the Gospel.

LW: Please share an example of what you’ve learned.

MA: I’ve learned that we talk a very good game about marriage in the evangelical world, but few people actually commit to the principles [of Christian marriage]. Personally, I was getting the emotional benefits of marriage without being married, which is a common occurrence, both in the evangelical world as well as the world in general. Ask 90% of evangelicals about marriage [and they’ll say] “yes, I believe in marriage,” but in reality that belief doesn’t affect their day-to-day romantic life. That’s really a problem. I reached a point where I realized that even though I affirmed marriage in some abstract way, I didn’t really have any reasons why it was better than any of the alternatives. People don’t have a robust vision of why they should get married.

LW: What can the church do to correct this perception?

MA: The misperception of marriage is that whatever it is, it is in the eye of the beholder. We do funny things at weddings, and we don’t know why. Helping young evangelicals to understand the traditions surrounding weddings and marriage would be a good start--for example, cutting the cake and serving each other—the idea behind it is that this is the first act of mutual service, which is at the heart of Christian marriage. The [joke of] shoving of cake [into the face] is a perversion of that. We need to recover the [meaning of] traditions and grasp the deeper ideas of marriage. These are fundamentally Chesterton’s views; he says it a lot better than I.

We spent the last few minutes talking about church and moving to St. Louis. I am thankful that we have both found The Journey the church we call home. Matt is a great interviewee; I found his prefacing every answer to my questions with “That’s a great question” to be flatteringly complimentary.

As to what I think, I feel particularly refreshed to hear a young Christian articulate the way he does about how he thinks faith should be lived out in everyday life. Our pastor often says we are “living in the tension,” which, in this case, would be the tension between expressing Christian truth to an often unreceptive audience and reserving it for the sake of interpersonal diplomacy, both of which are crucial to the advancement of the Gospel. Christians in every generation should keep this tension in mind and ask for the godly wisdom that determines when and how liberally we should express both.

Could this be the reason?

Why getting anything done online is so hard to do???

Confident Christianity--Dot Com!

The Confident Christianity apologetics blog has now launched its apologetics website, confidentchristianity.com. Yay for birth! Congratulations to Mary Jo Sharp. I pray and hope that her site is blessed with much traffic and changed hearts and minds.

Booyah.

Two Chix Apologetics

I found this group on Facebook (yes, I gave in...), and am wowed by finding other women who like talking about theology and Christianity as I do.

The blog that goes with the Facebook group is called Confident Christianity. Coolness...

Complegalitarian Moves to WordPress

Goodbye, Blogger! The Complegalitarian blog has a new home at WordPress. If you're interested in jousting about gender roles in the Christian church, join me in a discussion over there. Now, behave! :-)

Look Ma, No Hands!

Update on the 2008 EO/Wheatstone Academy Symposium

And the winner is....

Not me. When I cracked open the e-mail this morning, I screamed. Coming in Fifth Place among so many talented and astute bloggers is not too shabby for this babe in the woods! At this point, I win a prize, but who cares? I WON FIFTH PLACE--yee haw! Many many thanks to Joe Carter at the evangelical outpost, Wheatstone Academy, and the essay judges for a terrific symposium. Their probably volunteer efforts are highly appreciated...by ME, who won Fifth Place!

Here are the top five winners of the contest:

First Place: Mark Fedeli at A Deo Lumen
Second Place: Jordan J. Ballor at The Acton Institute Power Blog
Third Place: Mark Stanley at Digital Reason
Fourth Place: Jeff Nuding at Dadmanly
Fifth Place: Letitia Wong at Talitha Koum (that's me!)

Honorable Mention: Donnell Duncan at The Cracked Door

Here is the list of prizes that the five finalists have to choose from:

(1) A full tuition scholarship for a Christian high school student of the winner's choice to Wheatstone Academy. [A $950 value]
(2) The 'Quintessentials' from Stand to Reason, including the Ambassador Basic Curriculum, Tactics in Defending the Faith DVD, Decision Making and the Will of God CD set, and a signed copy of Greg Koukl's new book Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air. [A $150 value]
(3) A full-tuition scholarship to the upcoming GodBlogCon (September 2008). [A $150 value]
(4) A two-year subscription to Touchstone Magazine. [A $59.95 value]
(5) A year subscription to Townhall magazine. [A $34.95 value]

I'll happily eat the crumbs under any other winner's table, glad just to be in Fifth Place!

Read my essay here: “bro RU SAvd?” and Other Unhelpful Ways to Evangelize

Go Pecadillo!

Okay, okay. My conscience tells me I need to say something else nice about the Pyromaniacs/Team Pyro. I like Pecadillo's blog, although there are some elements to it that truly frighten me and some that make me throw up a little in my mouth.

My hats off to America's finest out there, braving criminals and B-rated restaurants from sea to shining sea. Pec, you run in an arena of twisted genius that angels and I dare not tread. The Lord be with you.

Ah, the Crotchety Sound of Inspiration

I know I'm late to the game on many fronts. But being on the cutting edge of motherhood has it's sacrifices, ya know? Anyhoo, coming home from Midrash planning last Sunday evening gave me the almost-never opportunity to turn on my car radio to my local FM talk radio station (who listens to talk radio on a Sunday night???). And a revelation hit me--on the air was an articulate, strong-minded, politically charged woman that sounded like she was taking thoughts out of my own mind and broadcasting them all over St. Louis. Who is this?!, I wanted to know. Well, you can take a gander at the links below, but man, not since I discovered Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham as a college student have I found a kindred spirit in this young gal on the airwaves. She says what I think; she must be brilliant. ;-)

Kudos to Dana Loesch.
97.1 FM Talk link
Dana's political blog
Mamalogues

And she lives in St. Louis, too! And she's a mom of two the same ages as mine! And..and..and...don't worry, the afterglow will subside in time.

What Are My Credentials?

Tim Challies has written a book called The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment.

He operates a great blog and has made himself known as a terrific Christian thinker in the blogosphere. In spite of that, some other bloggers think that blogging is all he is qualified to do, since Challies has no higher (Christian) education. Before I get into whether this is fair or not, I would like to point out that such questioning applies perfectly to me as well. So, whatever befalls Tim Challies in the numerous comboxes out there also sets a the temperature of my reception out in Christendom should I, too, write a book one day.

Compared to the average layperson in a similar lifestage to mine, my mainstage interests in theology and philosophy (and politics, I grudgingly admit) are unusual. Through NO church influence, I began studying Christian apologetics, culture, and theology at age 12. I became a believer in Reformed Theology at age 19, again, not as a result of any church/pastoral influence, but by the biblical and theological strength of Calvinism, aside from the divine conviction that this was so. But as a Calvinist, I would say such a thing, wouldn't I? :)

Now, as an adult, I find that that the God-given learning experiences I have diverge greatly from most other moms and homemakers. It's weird, because I don't see myself as being particularly different that any other SAHM with wee ones. But I'm blogging and reading Alister McGrath (if and when I can) when many of my mom-friends hardly know what blogging is and are reading, for lack of a better term, chick books (not that there's anything wrong with that...).

I have credibility and speak authoritatively on topics I know well to the people who know me. For Tim Challies, the situation is the same. Those who have endorsed his book know him and his strengths. They are confident enough in him as a Christian thinker to support him. As I see it, he fares much better than many a pastor who have written pure heresy (Benny Hinn, anyone?).

Blogger Mike Leake has blogged three considerations addressing credibility in the Christian world:

1) If they have an accurate Christology as clearly revealed in Scripture
then perhaps it is from God.
2) If their teaching sounds like the world, then it is not from God. (This is where the Osteen's and prosperity teachers fall off). If their teaching matches up to what is revealed in Scripture then it should be received.
3) What do trusted believers say concerning the matter?
Since the Holy Spirit dwells in believers and he confirms truth, what is the
consensus of godly men. Since this one is the most subjective it is the most
unreliable, but still should be strongly considered. Ultimately our trust in
discerning these matters should be in the Lord.

The rest of his post is great, so I highly recommend everyone to take a look.

Ultimately, credibility is found in the truth. Anything written, said, or implied by Christians as public message must correlate with Truth (with Schaeffer's capital "T"), whether it be Tim Challies, seminary students, or a humble homemaker like myself.

The thing I'd like to throw out there: Christian teachers and leaders aren't made, they're born (you might say reborn). The luxury of a seminary education may be out of reach or for some individuals. For others, seminary isn't a divinely appointed thing. In either case, formal Christian ed shouldn't be held as a prerequisite to the edifying of the Church.

Religio-blogging Catches Newspaper's Eye

On Tuesday, USA Today featured a look at Christian blogging in the Life section of the paper. The article highlights blogging activity for Southern Baptists, Catholics, and Episcopalians. Overall, the article is neutral on reporting the hot topics among each denomination, though of course, the clashing in cyberspace is what gets printed. Frank Page, SBC President, is quoted twice for exclaiming "For Christ's sake, stop!" in referring to the heated disagreements over SBC matters.

Page fretted in a Baptist Press column that battling bloggers frighten off
"lost souls and new believers." He wrote, "Lost people are seeing the deep
division and sometimes hatred that is flowing froth among churches and among those who are involved in convention discussions. For Christ's sake, stop!"

The article similarly points out vociferous disagreement over the gay issue among Episcopalians and the larger Anglican church. It runs aground when it comes to Catholics, as it seems the author couldn't find anything more controversial than the Pope's decision about accessibility of the Catholic mass.

My curiosity is piqued. Why quote Frank Page thus? Why point out the war of words occurring in cyberspace to the largely uninterested public? I think the media is again doing what it does best when it handles the religious sector in any way, and that is to mess up the story or make one out of nothing. It seems to be playing the latter this time. Whatever.

But, a few people are getting their 15 minutes out of this. Two bloggers in each denomination have mentions as representatives of the fray. They are:

Southern Baptist
1. Ben Cole -- SBCOutpost.com, baptistblog.wordpress.com
2. Wes Kenney -- weskenney.net, SBCToday.com

Catholic
1. John Zuhlsdorf
2. Rocco Palmo

Episcopal
1. David Virtue
2. Louie Crew

Why I'm the Damsel

At one time
Dead dogs and dead women
Pearls worth more than girls
Someone extended a hand
To give Life
"Talitha, koum..."
And now
Pry the tail out
From the viper's own jaws
This time
Still needs Someone
"Talitha, koum..."
Little girl, arise

I'm no poet. This art was lost on me after studying free verse poetry in high school, which came after the understandable iambic pentameter and the haiku. If there is no form, no necessary rhythm, no need for rhyme, no nothing, then what makes a poem a poem? Can't anyone be a poet if they scribble out some words in short little nonsentences? Maybe I'm a poet afterall.

I'm that girl, if born 2,000 years ago, who probably would have died young, perhaps mourned, but easily forgotten. Body burned in a trash heap. I'm that girl, born today, bombarded with ideals of false rights and false liberation. I'm lucky to be alive. I could have still ended up in a trash heap, only in much smaller pieces.

Who bothered to give me worth? Who bothered to raise me from radical death? Not your average man (or woman) on the street. A Divine Man, an oxymoron. Jesus. He's given radical life to women throughout time. That is why my blog is called, "Talitha, koum."

The Damsel's Virgin Blog Entry

(That's right...this is my first blog entry ever.)


I hate blogging, I really do. It's a tedious, time consuming way to ignore the demands of my young family and keep me glued to an expensive plastic box. But, I love theology and the world of ideas. I also love to stick my nose in controversy, and the internet doesn't lack for any. So, I feel compelled to blog, not out of ego but just wanting to crack some brain cells over what interests me. I know that blogs are great communication tools, either for sharing one's genius or to lay bare one's ignorance for all the world to see. Any Tom, Dick, or Sally can make a name for him/herself and be heard with a blog--that's good and bad...which leads me to why I feel compelled to blog: balance. There is no shortage of bloggers dishing out daily doses of spiritual error, deceit, and Christianity bashing. Conversely, too few can or do articulate matters of Christian faith and theology in a visible and effective manner. So, I'm here to try and join them. Will I succeed or will I be scraping myself off the pavement from a painful crash and burn? We will see.

How I plan to run this blog:
1. I will only blog about things I'm interested in. This is not a political, news, or entertainment blog, though if something catches my interest, I might blog about it.
2. I will not blog daily. Daily (or even more frequent) posts will be RARE and should be viewed as a sign of some divine compulsion. Look for entries on a much less frequent basis. How infrequent? Good question.
3. I will allow PG language only. That goes for anyone leaving comments as well. I will make anyone violating literary civility a victim of my own brand of oppression by deleting offensive comments and banishing the author if need be.
4. I will reply to comments left on my blog if I care to.
5. This will be an evolving blog directly related to my ability to use its features, so please pardon any cheesy-ness. I am still learning.

With that get-to-know-ya out of the way, I leave you to wait with baited breath for my next entry. Enjoy.