#151 Interesting Links XVI

The Global Good Neighbor Initiative - Haven't gotten a chance to look extensively at this site but it looks like a positive step toward understanding ours or any country's proper role in the world.

Total Depravity - If you're looking for a thorough analysis of the theological concept of total depravity, you could hardly do better than Loraine Boettner's.

The Econoblogosphere - This is a great visual display of some of the best in economics and finance blogging out there.

Running the Numbers - Another cool visual display turning demographics into art.

A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation - This was an NYT opinion piece by Jon Meacham. If you still say America was founded on Christian principles, read this.

#149 Robinson on Life

When my son was born one week ago, I got this sense that somehow my life had started to come to an end while his was just beginning. It's almost as if I felt that I'd passed some sort of mystical torch on to him and I am now headed towards death while he is using the energy I once reserved for myself to live his life. At the tender age of 25, my time has past while his is just getting started. That feeling reminded of a quote from Marilynne Robinson's Gilead that Sean the Baptist pointed out over on his blog.

"I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again. I know all this is mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that. There is a human beauty in it. And I can't believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us. In eternity, this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don't imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try."

Sean's suggestion based on the quote was that instead of living each day of your life as if it is your last, as we are so often told to do, live each day as if it is your first. That's a great way to look at it but I think the quote has plenty of theological reverberations besides. So I keep reading it over and over again. As young as I am, I feel like I've been through the Trojan War and thank God for his grace in keeping me upright to this point. I am already singing my ballad. My son's time in the epic war is just getting started.

#148 Mark Siljander and Al Qaeda

In case anyone is still wondering why so many disaffected Republicans are voting the party out of office this cycle, check out the Republican corruption scandal timeline. The timeline only goes through August of 2007 and if you've been watching Fox News, you've surely missed a lot of these stories. It's time to teach the party in power a lesson. I'm sure we'll do it to the Democrats 10 years from now. As Andrew Sullivan alerts us, the former Republican congressman charged with aiding al Qaeda signed the following manifesto back in 1986:

“We affirm that this God-inspired, inerrant Bible is the only absolute, objective, final test for all truth claims, and the clearest verbal picture of reality that has ever come into the hands of mankind. By it, and it alone, are all philosophies, books, values, actions, and plans to be measured as to their consistency with reality, visible and invisible. Whatever statements or values are in opposition to the statements and values of the Bible err to the degree of their opposition...

We affirm that the Great Commission is a mandate by our Lord to go forth into all the world and make Bible-obeying disciples of all nations. Getting men's souls saved is only a preliminary part of fulfilling the Great Commission. Our work is incomplete unless we teach them to obey all He commanded. The words of the Lord's prayer for God's will to "be done on earth as it is in heaven" are another way to state the essence of the same Great Commission...

We affirm that all Bible-believing Christians must take a non-neutral stance in opposing, praying against, and speaking against social moral evils such as the following… B. Adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bestiality and other forms of sexual perversion."

No alarms, and no surprises.

#147 Books of 2007

Following my albums of 2006 post, here is a list of all the books I read in 2007 ranked from favorite to least favorite. Just like last year, I assumed that since I got to pick out the books, there was a better chance that I would give them a high rating but I was surprised to see how few I gave a truly high rating to. So here’s the list for 2007 and once again, suggestions and donations are welcome.

I - Recommended Reading

1. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch, 8 out of 10

2. The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, 7 out of 10

3. New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide by David Alan Black, 7 out of 10

4. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 7 out of 10

5. Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot, 7 out of 10

6. Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf, 7 out of 10

7. The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder, 7 out of 10

II - “I’m going to put this out there, if you like it you can keep it, if not you can throw it back”

8. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, 6 out of 10

9. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, 6 out of 10

10. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll, 6 out of 10

11. Commentary on Romans by N.T. Wright, 6 out of 10

12. How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, 6 out of 10

13. A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren, 6 out of 10

14. The FairTax Book by Neil Boortz & John Linder, 6 out of 10

III - Not worth the effort you will put in

15. A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston, 5 out of 10

16. The Colony by John Tayman, 5 out of 10

17. The Covenant with Black America, 5 out of 10

18. E = mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis, 5 out of 10

19. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, 5 out of 10

20. The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation by Margaret A. Mitchell, 4 out of 10

21. Christianity by Hans Kung, 4 out of 10

22. Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson, 3 out of 10

23. Theology of Hope by Jurgen Moltmann, 3 out of 10

24. Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur, 1 out of 10

#146 Albums of 2007

These albums didn’t come out in 2007 but this is the list of all the albums I bought or was given in 2007 ranked from favorite to least favorite. All things considered I did some catching up on older music and bands I'd heard things about along with some pretty piss-poor purchases. So here’s my list for this year, and here’s to 2008! Suggestions and donations are welcome. Books of 2007 will be posted after the year ends when I finish my reading.

The Best
1. Led Zeppelin - The Best of Led Zeppelin
2. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
3. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

Good, Glad I Have, But Could've Done Without
4. Yes - The Very Best of Yes
5. Damien Rice - 9
6. Radiohead - In Rainbows
7. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
8. Wilco - Summerteeth
9. My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me the Workhorse
10. Stevie Ray Vaughn - Couldn't Stand the Weather

I Thought They'd Be Good, But I Won't Listen That Much, If At All
11. Pink Floyd - The Wall
12. Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
13. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
14. Isobell Campbell - Milkwhite Sheets