News & Comment - Winter 2009
[from the Christian Standard online newsletter 2-28-09]
It's been a big month for Nikki Grimes, a children's book author and a member at Crossroads Christian Church (Corona, CA). Her book Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope has appeared on The New York Times best-seller list for 15 weeks (topping the list on February 8) and this month the book also won an NAACP Image Award for children's literature.
Kent comments:
Yes, by all means let us glorify a book about a President who approves of forcing us all to fund abortions, and would like to re-make the United States in the image of economic fascism. What great material for a Christian magazine.
Days before Barack Obama's inauguration as president, police started posting bright red signs on light posts around Washington D.C.'s capitol hill: "WARNING: This area has been declared a PROSTITUTION FREE ZONE by Order of the Chief of Police". The special ban ends January 25. "Now, maybe I'm not reading this the way your average tourist or Obama supporter would," a Washington Post columnist wrote, "but to me, this sign... means that everywhere the signs aren't, prostitution is just fine and dandy." (Washington Post)
Kent comments:
I'm trying to 'bite my tongue,' I'm trying, I'm trying, but . . . aside from the intriguing ambiguity of that sign (read it a few times to see what I mean) I simply must make a comment here. Why ban the physical act in a town devoted to the metaphorical act? There is a very real sense in which, politically speaking, our new President is the 'madam' of a political 'house of ill repute.' (That's Congress, in case you are still wondering.) Rare are the politicians in Washington today who have not sold themselves repeatedly for their power.
Kent comments:
Sometimes a picture - even if contrived - REALLY IS worth many words.
(RNS4-JAN20) A man watches the inauguration of President Barack
Obama at the National Mall on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009.
Kent comments:
I sincerely hope I am wrong, but is he praying to Obama? Far too many people seem to think that Obama is worthy of prayer - not for, but TO!
from: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/01/warren_applauds.html
Rick Warren complimented Barack Obama's invitation to openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson to pray at the inaugural kick off event on Sunday.
“President-elect Obama has again demonstrated his genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground," Warren said in a statement provided to Christianity Today. "I applaud his desire to be the president of every citizen.”
Warren and Obama have continually been taking heat from members of the gay community since it was announced that the California megachurch pastor would give the invocation at the swearing-in ceremony next Tuesday. Robinson was one of the earliest critics, saying "it was like a slap in the face.”
“I’m all for Rick Warren being at the table,” Bishop Robinson told The New York Times, “but we’re not talking about a discussion, we’re talking about putting someone up front and center at what will be the most watched inauguration in history, and asking his blessing on the nation. And the God that he’s praying to is not the God that I know.”
There is speculation over whether Warren will pray in Jesus' name or not. Robinson told the Concord Monitor that he doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible.
"While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans," Robinson said. "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."
Kent comments:
We must wonder what other varieties of perverts Rick Warren wishes B.O. had invited to the inaugural event. There is as yet no word of anyone who practices bestiality being invited to participate. Why the slight to the 'animal lovers'? Rick - and his buddy Barack - should be ashamed for being so closed-minded!
January 6, 2009 2:49PM
Library of Congress seeks inaugural sermons
Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service
The Library of Congress' American Folklife Center is seeking sermons that are preached in U.S. houses of worship during inaugural week.
The library said it would mark the historic inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president by adding sermons from a range of houses of worship and secular settings to its spoken-word collection.
"In anticipation of citizens' efforts to mark this historic time around the country, the American Folklife Center will be collecting audio and video recordings of sermons and orations that comment on the significance of the inauguration of 2009," the center states on its Web site. "It is expected that such sermons and orations will be delivered at churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship, as well as before humanist congregations and other secular gatherings. The American Folklife Center is seeking as wide a representation of orations as possible."
Kent comments:
Does this not seem a little bit racist to anyone else? The Library of Congress is engaged in this effort because, and only because, the President-elect is black - to be more accurate, he is partly black. What if we were to celebrate because some other elected official was white? It is an odd culture in which we live.