Posts tagged Spirit

Beck vs. Wallis

God forbid you watch Glen Beck - but if you do, you might have heard him “hammering” a man named Jim Wallis lately. His attacks are based on half-truths and out of context statements. Mr. Wallis provides the context to his comments that Beck leaves out here at the Sojourner’s website. If you’ve been following Beck’s reports on Wallis I encourage you to go check out Wallis’ side.

Donald Miller On Obama

Just read a really interesting interview with Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz and one of my personal heroes, all about why he’s voting for Obama. I’m posting some highlights, but I think it’s worth going to this link and reading the whole thing if you’ve been involved in any discussions about how a person’s Christian faith affects their voting in the coming election. I’m not putting these forward as my thoughts. These are Don’s. Maybe I agree with them, maybe I don’t. That’s not the point. The point is that here’s an opportunity for you to read some comments from a thoughtful, committed Christian on a challenging topic. Enjoy!

On the issue of abortion, he is the only candidate who has a plan to reduce the number of abortions. John McCain’s only plan is the same old trick: say that you are pro life and offer no plan at all other than to criminalize abortion. I simply think that plan hasn’t worked, and we have to face that fact and look for other ways to make progress.

I do wish Obama were pro-life. His plan to reduce the rate of abortion is a great step for the party, but I also wish he would defend the unborn to a greater degree.

Today on the news I heard a pastor say you could not possibly be a Christian and vote for Barack Obama. I cringed when I heard it, because yesterday in Colorado I met with about thirty African-American pastors who love Jesus and know Jesus, who will be voting for Barack. I wondered what they might think when they hear something like that, an angry white man telling them they do not know Jesus, and that they are going to hell.

Many of my friends will vote for McCain, and members of my family too. But it doesn’t matter to me. Family comes first, and so do friends. When I’m on my deathbed, Barack Obama and John McCain won’t be there, but my friends and family will. So they come first, and they are more important.

Studio 60

Caught the second episode in the Studio 60 two-parter last night. While the character bits and dialogue continue to be fun, the rest of the show is hurting. I’ve made it abundantly clear how I feel about the sketch comedy bits, so I won’t go into that again - but last night the whole Deus Ex Machina plot device for getting Nathan Corrdry’s character out of police custody was really disapointing.

As a Christian I’ve been really interested in Sorkin’s take on faith. He sets Matthew Perry’s character firmly against the often oppresvie dogma of religious fundemantalism and the politics of the Religious Right, but counter-balances him with Sara Paulson’s character who is portryaed as, for the most part, a thoughtful, intelligent, loving Christian. For the past two weeks they’ve been arguing about comment’s Paulson’s character made in an interview when asked about gay marriage. Her comments were (to paraphrase) “The Bible says gay marriage is wrong, but it also says ‘Judge not least ye be judged,’ so I don’t know.” A very honest expression, I thought, of how lots of (okay, maybe not lots of…) Christians approach what is a really confusing issue for people of faith.

I thought the whole thing was handled really well and appreciated the care and attention given to both sides of the issue (the issue here being, not gay marriage, but rather Christian perspectives on gay marriage).

Right up until the end.

Towards the end of last night’s episode Perry and Paulson’s characters are arguing about the Christian view point and Paulson’s character explains that America just needs a little time to get used to the issue. That gay marriage is just to alien to most people and they need time to adjust (again, paraphrased).

Okay, so now all the previous attempts to thoughtfully portray the tension that exist in Christianity and it’s views on gay marriage? Forget those. The real issue is that most people in middle America are homophobes and they’re afraid gay marriage will scare the horses.

I thought the show kind of undid all the good character building it had done up until that point with Paulson’s character. She went from admitting she didn’t have all the answers to being an apologist for a fairly hard to defend point of view.

That’s just me, though. Thoughts?