I AM A fan of conservative talk radio. I like to listen to Rush Limbaugh, Gordon Liddy, and Mark Levin, but I have to remind myself as I am listening to these guys talk about religion that they are NOT talking about biblical Christianity (especially the Reformed kind). What I am hearing from these guys when they talk about religion, or not, is American Deism.

Most conservative radio and political celebrities ARE echoing the religionist views of our founding fathers, which is deism.

I know it will be a shock to many but most our founding fathers were NOT Christians and that the United States was and is not now a Christian nation. With that being said. please read this fantastic blog entry God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck by Russell D. Moore::

God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck | by Russell D. Moore | Sunday, August 29th, 2010

A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the evangelicals cheering that they’ve . . . <<< Click HERE to continue to read the story on the source website >>>

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I APOLOGIZE FOR not posting. I have been working a lot at work and working on the church website. Please check out the new look of Kanawha Saline Presbyterian Church website.

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THE OWNER OF the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Robert Sarver, opposes AZ’s new immigration laws.

Arizona’s Governor, Jan Brewer, released the following statement in response to Sarver’s criticism of the new law:

“What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying?

What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn’t be ejected?

Furthermore, what if Suns’ ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary food and drinks?

And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?”

-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

STATISM IS HERE and if it is defeated we will have a hard tyranny (not the soft tyranny we have now) here in the United States within 50 years.

The left is working hard to force pure statism on us and destroy the constitution. One example on the leftist are trying to force tyranny on us is to push for the abolishment of the Electoral College.

The United States does not have a direct democracy but a representative republic. If the Electoral College is done away with we will have tyranny of the majority. The states will smaller population will have little to say on how they are governed.

Click here to read on a good article on the Brilliance of the Electoral College and then check the article below how states like Massachusetts  are working to bypass it:

Mass. Legislature approves plan to bypass Electoral College -  July 27, 2010 05:09 PM | by By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.

“What we are submitting is the idea that the president should be selected by the majority of people in the United States of America,” Senator James B. Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, said before the Senate voted to enact the bill.

Under the new bill, he said, “Every vote will be <<< Click HERE to continue to read the story on the source’s website >>>

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WHEN I ATTENDED West Virginia State College years ago I had to take a Race and Gender Class which was nothing more than a sensitivity training course disguised as academics. This class was one step away from a Soviet Union style re-education GULAG designed to get my mind right in eyes of the elites in academia.

I have been reading on the Internet and watching cable news of a story of a graduate student in Georgia suing Augusta State University after being told she MUST go to a “diversity sensitivity training” and if she doesn’t change her beliefs or agree to the “re-education” plan that the university will expel her from the program.

Jennifer Keeton is a Christian working on a master degree on counseling and Augusta State University is demanding that she change her views on homosexuality or she will NOT graduate. According the reports I have been reading the university has taken steps to make her change her beliefs by giving her additional assignments to increase her exposure to the gay population and one of the assignments is to attend a Gay Pride Parade in Augusta.

The day is coming in this country the way it is in Canada where a minister’s sermon delivered in a church can get him thrown in jail and force him to go to a “re-education camp” to get his mind right.

Below is the story from FOX News and other related links ::

Lawsuit Claims College Ordered Student to Alter Religious Views on Homosexuality, Or Be Dismissed – By Joshua Rhett Miller – Published July 27, 2010 | FoxNews.com

A graduate student in Georgia is suing her university after she was told she must undergo a remediation program due to her beliefs on homosexuality and transgendered persons.

The student, Jennifer Keeton, 24, has been pursuing a master’s degree in school counseling at Augusta State University since 2009, but school officials have informed her that she’ll be dismissed from the program unless she . . . <<< Click HERE to continue to read the story on the source website >>>

• Christian Counseling Student Sues to Stay in School‎ – AOL News
• Online site taking bets on Augusta State lawsuit‎ – Atlanta Journal Constitution
• Georgia Grad Student Sues University Over Gay Sensitivity Training‎ – ABC News

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My Critical Rating: C+*
Directed By: Joe Carnahan
Written By: Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom, and Skip Woods
Staring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and Sharlto Copley

Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of action and violence throughout, language and smoking – oh no, you fundies out there may have a problem with the smoking)

THE A-TEAM WAS an 80’s television series that was about four Vietnam vets that were framed “for a crime they didn’t commit.” While on the run from the military police, they were “soldiers for hire” by those who needed Special Forces soldiers to kick some butt. It was a fun show.

The success of the TV show relied on four colorful characters that had great chemistry and excellent casting. The movie version definitely brought most of these qualities of the TV show to the big screen. Even the casting of BA Baracus, which I think, would be the hardest character to cast because Mr. T was such an outrageous character in real life that it would have been hard to get any actor to do justice to the Mr. T’s portrayal of BA Baracus. When you can’t recreate the character you reinvent the character.

Some Good Points:

• Everything about the original television show that was great was, for the most part, brought over to the big screen bigger and funnier.
• Even with the great casting of the 80’s television show it was still a low budget, cheesy television series, and the movie version amped the budget and the action. As Hannibal Smith puts it in the movie, “Overkill is underrated, my friend.”
• Despite the some to the silliness of the premises of the television show and the movie, it is nice to have a full action movie that was fun for fun sake.

Some Weak Points:

• The “crime that they didn’t commit” was really far fetched for the movie version of the A-Team. Are we really to believe that a set of engraving plates of US currency really fell in the hands of Arabs in Iraq? Please, I think the writers could do better
• I would like to see, even with a movie like this, a little more connection between the action and characters. The A-Team characters are fun and colorful and action in a movie like this can over take these characters. The two rules for any good movie are good story and good characters. Action is how the story happens and story is how characters reacts to the action in the story. This movie would have been much better, I think, if the action was a little bit tighter with story and character.
• Enough with the macho chicks in action movies! The feminizing of men and the masculating of women have moved from our general culture and are now invaded the “guys” movies. In a movie like this women are better being damsels in distressed.

All-in-all, I give this movie an overall grade of “C+” (flawed but worthy on the yahoo movie grading scale). That doesn’t mean I would not recommend this movie. In fact, I enjoyed this movie and was fully entertained, but The A-Team is what it is. Therefore, it gets a grade of C+. I hope there will be a sequel.

*A+ Oscar-worthy :: A Outstanding :: A- Almost Perfect
B+ Memorable :: B Good :: B- Fair
C+ Flawed but worthy :: C Mediocre :: C- Disappointing
D+ Poor Effort :: D Dreadford :: D- Truly Awful
F All-time worst!

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Father, we confess that we are sinners and that we have sinned… We are guilty of having itching ears. We have failed to receive and proclaim the truth; we have wandered off into myths; we have listened to and preached a false a gospel of self-improvement, self-reliance, and self-righteousness because it suited our passions. We cry to you now for mercy and forgiveness. Fill our hearts and minds with a passion for the gospel of redemption through Christ alone. Teach us to be faithful witnesses of your grace and to serve each other humbly, compassionately and faithfully. In the name of our crucified and risen Savior. AMEN.

I’VE HEARD VERY little about Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. He is a pastor of a church that is considered to be a “Reformed Christian megachurch.” I am not sure that I like the wording of “Reformed Christian megachurch, but I will go with it since it is from Wikipedia.

Driscoll has been getting a reputation from religious (and non-religious) media as the cussing preacher, and when I heard that my interest in him peaked. I immediately had to ask myself, “What did he say that causes so many people to call him the cussing preacher?”

What I have discovered, by doing a Google search, that apparently he had used words in his sermons that most of the moralistic Christians in America would think is inappropriate for a minster of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be using, EVER (since we pressure pastors to be more moral than the rest of us), and one those words apparently was the dreaded “f” word. Personally I find this interesting since the title of this blog is of a “cuss” word (skubalon) that was written by the Apostle Paul that will now be with us for all eternity.

On this blog, let me state for the record that I don’t give a rat-ass about what some would believe to be profane words that should never be delivered in a sermon. I am more concerned about the orthodoxy of the theology of the one who is delivering the sermon (meaning is it Reformed?).

What I find so amazing that more controversy has been stirred up about the “language” in a minister’s sermon than the blatant heresies of guys like Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Pat Robertson, or Joyce Myers (to name a few)!

During the holiday weekend I took some time to listen to some of his sermons and one of the key points in many of his sermons is the seriousness of his sins (and our) before a holy God. Definitely more than in an Osteen “sermon,” which in Osteen case is zero. You would be lucky if Christ is even mentioned at all in an Osteen’s sermon, unless he needs a moral illustration.

Mark draws a very bleak verbal picture of our sinful condition, and I imagine that his harsh vocabulary is used to make it even clearer to his congregation of the seriousness our sins. I am sure this kind of “language” is really offensive to a false Christianity of What Would Jesus Do.

I often thought what sermons would be like if Martin Luther was alive and preaching in America today. I bet some of his sermons would knock us (out of our seats)—I could of said “off our asses,” and what I have heard and read about Martin Luther is that Luther didn’t shy away from what he thought needed to be said, or restrain his vocabulary. Mark Driscoll may be mild compared to a Luther sermon.

I also think that Driscoll made good points on how profane the Bible is (video below). In fact, I think if today’s moralistic Christians (yesterday’s fundamentalist) were truly honest they would not be able to give the Bible an R rating. The Bible is NOT a nice book of moral guidance. The Bible is God’s pronouncement how profane and offensive we are to Him and in many places it is proclaimed in very clear “vulgar” vocabulary and how Christ had to become a curse in order to redeem His people.

I also think that Driscoll’s frank vocabulary is particularly communicating the truth of our sins to the men in his congregation (and podcast audience) who need to hear it in a way that has not been watered down by a Christianity that has been so feminized. In the end, I think that many Christian men will appreciate the brute honestly. I just hope that they are not singing the Jesus is my boyfriend music (praise and worship). BTW – He also reminds me of Steve Jobs when he comes out to preach in casual clothing.

The one point that I always like to make is that Christianity is NOT a mode of behavior but it is a message that is to believe. The true mark of a true church is the word properly preached and the sacraments properly administered. I also want to make it clear I haven’t heard enough from him to determine that his theology is orthodox but I have a few Reformed blogger friends who like him and listen to his podcast.

If the “harsh” language is getting the truth of God’s word to his hearers and the sacraments are properly administered to hypocritical Christians then all have to say to that is “Fuckin’ Aye.”

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I LIKE GOVERNOR Chris Christie. Below is a video that demonstrates the kind of Republican (sorry about the partisan politics) we need to lead our country right now.

This a man has a pair and use them when facing the liberal press.

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I HAVE HEARD the hosts of the White Horse Inn quoting the great theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer on several occasions and still I don’t know much about this great man.

After hearing the interview with Eric Metaxas about his new book, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, on Steve Brown, ETC I am really eager to get this book to read more about this man { Click here to listen in a Popup }. I am particularly interested in his involvement to conspire to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

It really is going to be an act of discipline for me to read a book that is over 500 pages and I don’t see an auto version of this book so that I can listen on my Ipod as an alternative.

Below is an introduction of an article on the Fox News website by Lauren Green about this new book about Bonhoeffer. Check it out:

New Bio of Executed WWII Pastor/Spy Reveals U.S. Influence — By Lauren Green – FOXNews.com

On April 9, 1945, 65 years ago today, just a few weeks before an allied offensive brought Germany to its knees and ended World War II in Europe, a young, mild-mannered Lutheran theologian was hanged by the Nazis in Flossenburg Concentration Camp.

His crime … conspiring to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theological genius of the 20th century, is now emerging as a war hero, martyr and spy.

“What is so amazing about the story of Bonhoeffer is . . . <<< Click HERE to continue to read the story on source website >>>

MICHAEL SPENCER, ALSO known as The Internet Monk, has died after recently being diagnosed with cancer. I know that many in the blog-a-sphere benefited from his insights on blogposts, podcasts, and other writings in other publications (like Modern Reformation). He has been an inspiration to us in the Reformed Theology blog circles (including me) and he will be missed by many. The blog-a-sphere will not be the same without him.

Below is In Memoriam from the Internet Monks site::

Dennis Michael Spencer of Oneida, Kentucky died at home on April 5, 2010 after a four-month struggle with cancer. He was 53.

Spencer was born September 16, 1956 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. He graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Kentucky and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Spencer served as youth minister and pastor in several Kentucky Baptist churches before becoming the Campus Minister at Oneida Baptist Institute in 1992, where he ministered the past 17 years.

Spencer was also widely known in evangelical Christian circles for his web site, “Internet Monk: Dispatches From the Post Evangelical Wilderness” (www.internetmonk.com). The site was also home to his podcast, Internet Monk Radio. His book, Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality, will be published in . . . << Click HERE to read the rest on the Monk’s Blog >>

The White Horse Inn || The Merry Monk || Reformed Chick Blabbing

Click HERE to hear Steve Brown interview the Internet Monk.

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I ONCE HEARD that Christian Science is like Grape-Nuts. Grape-Nuts are neither grapes or nuts and therefore Christian Science is neither Christian or science.

However; my interest was peaked when I came across a story about the come back of Calvinism on the Christian Science Monitor’s website.

Actually, Calvinism (ie, the Reformed Faith) hasn’t went anywhere but I think many have been drowning in a sea of moralistic, therapeutic, deism (or the “hope and change is not working out for them) for so long that many are discovering the true Christian faith, as express in Calvinism, and they are find it more refreshing than the junk food of Joel Osteen and Joyce Myers.

Don’t look for the Joel Osteen’s books to come off the best seller’s list anytime soon because the religion of the United States has always been moralistic, therapeutic, deism and will be for a long time; unless the Lord blesses us with a new reformation of the church.

Check out the intro to the story and click link to finish the story on the story’s website ::

Christian faith: Calvinism is back
By Josh Burek, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / March 27, 2010

Snow falls resolutely on a Saturday morning in Washington, but the festively lit basement of a church near the US Capitol is packed. Some 200 female members have invited an equal number of women for tea, cookies, conversation – and 16th-century evangelism.

What newcomers at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC) hear is hardly “Christianity for Dummies.” Nor is it “Extreme Makeover: Born-Again Edition.” Instead, a young woman named Kasey Gurley describes her disobedience and suffering in Old Testament terms.

“I worship my own comfort, my own opinion of myself,” she confesses. “Like the idolatrous people of Judah, we deserve the full wrath of God.” She warns the women that “we’ll never be safe in good intentions,” but assures them that “Christ died for us so we wouldn’t have to.” Her closing prayer is both frank and transcendent: “Our comfort in suffering is this: that through Christ you provide eternal life.”

It is so quiet you can hear an oatmeal cookie crumble.

Welcome to the austere – and increasingly embraced – message of Calvinism. Five centuries ago, John Calvin’s teachings reconceived Christianity; midwifed Western ideas about capitalism, democracy, and religious liberty; and nursed the Puritan values that later cast the character of America.

Today, his theology is making a surprising comeback, <<< Click HERE to continue to read story >>>

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