We got the news anchor we wanted, but not the one we need

I grew up in Richmond, Texas, a town on the Brazos River of (at the time) shy of 10,000 people.  When I was young, the river flooded rather severely – so much so that our little town got even national media attention.  I remember seeing on CNN how high the river had gotten, and how people were forced to leave their homes.

The number of evacuees from Richmond was something that every news source agreed upon, even the Houston reporters – 20,000 people had left Richmond.  Keep in mind that the entire population was less than half of that, and most of us were fine.  My family didn’t evacuate, and I don’t recall knowing a single family that did.  In fact, I had a friend who lived a few blocks from the river, and he hadn’t left either.  The reporters were either grossly incompetent or they were lying.

Ever since then, I’ve been a bit suspicious of the news media.  That suspicion has deepened in a time where the internet and cable news channels no longer have to come up with news to fill a mere newspaper or hour-long news program, but all day of every day has been commented upon, examined, and filled.  There’s no way we’re not going to have news reported.  The question is whether what is reported is actually news, and is actually worth reporting.  And also, is it true?

Most of what went wrong with the New Calvinism could have been fixed by Old Calvinism

When I was a young Christian, I was influenced from many directions, and I was listening to and reading quite a few different (and contradictory) authors and pastors, not really knowing which path I needed to take (or really what the differences were between them).  As I matured in my faith and my understanding of the Scriptures, I took a hard turn down the New Calvinism stream.  I was introduced to this through John Piper, as were most people in this group, and people like Mark Driscoll were regulars on my iPod.

As time went on, I continued to learn and to grow, and eventually I found myself in what we may call the Old Calvinism, though still enjoying listening to these other pastors.  It was about that time though that things started shifting, and not for the good, and now I had the theological foundation to recognize the problems.  Some time ago, I publically (over Twitter) repented of my role in the New Calvinism, because I started seeing the movement as inherently dangerous and getting more dangerous.  I was well behind people like John MacArthur and Carl Trueman, who had recognized the problems much earlier, but they were starting to become clear to me.

Merry Christmas! Or whatever!

I try to avoid stores as much as possible at Christmastime – I try to do most of my shopping online – and I don’t keep up with all the lists of stores that are refusing to say “Merry Christmas.”  So I don’t know if I’m supposed to be boycotting the store down the street or not, and I really don’t care.

I’m not terribly impressed with people who think they have done some great work for the kingdom when they complain to a 19-year-old cashier who just said “Happy Holidays” that she is doing the work of the devil or some such nonsense.  Honestly, having worked retail for several Christmases, the season is difficult already (unless you’re on commission, you’re pretty much working twice as hard as any other day, but for the same amount of money), and if you’re try to add pressure to these people’s lives because they greeted you in a slightly different way than you wanted, then you really should be looking more into the doctrines of love and charity.

Charity by Meme, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ice Bucket Challenge!

When I was in college, I was listening to my favorite morning show personalities on the radio, and they were interviewing some film star (I don’t recall who).  In the course of the interview, the radio guys brought up a charity that they ran in town, but presented it along these lines, “Well, Mr. So-and-So, you are a Hollywood guy, you have plenty of money, and we run a charity in town here to help children.  Since you have plenty of money, we can count on your support for the poor children, right?”

Of course he said yes.  He had to.  He had no idea what this charity was or what they did.  Yes, their mission was the “help children,” but what did that mean?  Did they take kids out of school and teach them to make moonshine?  Did they train them to be circus acts?  Did they teach them Islam, or Mormonism, or some strange religion that worships Bill Murray?

I suppose they were probably good, but I don’t know for sure.  I was in college, so I certainly didn’t have any money, so I never looked into the group to make sure they were okay.  But even at the time, I recognized what they had done – they had basically blackmailed the guy into giving them money.  Had he said no, they would have been talking about it for days, how Mr. So-and-So hates little kids, and the actor knew it too.  He had to offer up something to keep them happy.