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I found this post and thought it was very well done. I saw Hotel Rwanda again recently and Crash this weekend. I was impressed by Cheadle’s performances in both films.

dlw

There is a decent summary of claims that the decline of annual aggregate oil production is going to cause apocalyptic problems over at Theologyweb. One of my students from Mexico told me that he was saving up to hole in during the coming apocalypse and I think he was only half joking.

I consider myself a quasi-optimist inasmuch as I think that given the evidence it should be easy for professionals to call for immediate action/leadership to reduce our dependence on oil/gas by taxing oil/gas so as to spur innovations/research immediately. I also think that such a tax can be made politically feasible if we reform our tax-system to make it simpler and more progressive.

Int’l governance will loom in its importance as we begin the search for alternatives to oil for energy. We do not need to replicate research and it will be important that the results be accessible to all, or else we will have the sort of political imbalances currently being caused by the wealth created by oil.

dlw

There is a good post by Attytood on how New Orleans is a casualty of GWII. And so it seems the cost of our immediate preemptive unilateral action in Iraq continue to mount.

My friend Matt writes a nice commentary on how Bush’s speech where he compares the War on Terrorism/Iraq with World War II. The two are quite different for many reasons, but a chief difference is the difference between having a state and non-state enemy. Japan was an imperialistic power with the ability to take over much of the world. Al Quaeda is a violent cult compared to them. We routed Al Quaeda and Afghanistan easily and could have captured Bin Laden by now if we hadn’t diverted so much resources to Iraq. Also, one simply can’t win a “war” on terrorism as broadly defined by the BushAdmin and administered selectively with their Bush Doctrine.

But I disagree with Matt that there are no more parallels between the two after 9-11. I think there is a need for us as a country to make economic sacrifices in the form of european-level oil/gas-taxes to keep the amount of revenue going to middle-eastern oil-autocrats from skyrocketing and to force them to make political/religious reforms and to prepare us for the decline of the aggregate oil-supply.
dlw

I just ran into the concept of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s fellowships while I was reading Operation World’s prayer page for Nigeria. Apparently 800 chapters of such organizations exist in Nigeria and they exert a considerable influence on the leaders of the political and commercial world in Nigeria. I’m not sure what John Yoder would say about that(lately Joe Carson of the Affiliation of Christian Engineers has been peppering me with somewhat tongue-in-cheekish questions about how Yoder would react to whatever.) but I can see it providing some needed intermediary institutions to foster humanitarian business-friendly reforms.

And so I thought I would do some internet researching on the organizations and found out about the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, which now has some involvement in 160 nations and transcends denominational, racial and cultural but not sexual barriers. It is an organization of spirit-filled businessmen. Its mission statement is to:

* To reach men in all nations for Jesus Christ
* To call men back to God.
* To help believers to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to grow spiritually.
* To train and equip men to fulfill the Great Commission
* To provide an opportunity for Christian fellowship
* To bring greater unity among all people in the body of Christ.

I initially was interested in what was entailed by the Full Gospel, but it seems it probably involves the baptism in the Holy Spirit, rather than a call for Christian Businessmen to exert more social responsibility but it seems that such is happening in Nigeria at any rate. I’ll try and email them and find out more of what they mean by the Full Gospel.

dlw

Anyone who spends large amounts of time arguing on this topic with a hope of being the one that resolves it politically qualifies as an abortion-nut.

I contacted Colleen Rowley, the former FBI informant turned whistle-blower turned democrat party candidate for the House of Representative of MN, wrt my idea to depoliticize abortion. I was pleased to be informed that the idea would be passed along to her. Tonight I received the following email reply from Ross Rowley her husband I believe.

Thanks for sending us your thoughts on abortion. Coleen agrees with the idea of de-politicizing and depolarizing it. She thinks along the same lines as Jim Wallis and considers herself pro-life but against criminalizing abortion. The goal of ending unwanted pregnancies/abortion can be agreed to–I think– by both sides of the debate. It is just how to do it. The country with the fewest abortions–Belgium–allows abortion. Some countries with a large number of abortions have made it illegal, ie any number of Latin American countries.

I replied,

undoubtedly, but I would also caution you against implicitly accepting the prolifers frame of viewing every abortion as equal or that we are human beings from conception.

Read more

I was considering XPatriatedTexan’s idea for an alternative to US occupation of Iraq. He thinks that it is worth considering having a much larger occupation force composed of Egyptians and Pakistanis. This would have the advantage of being a muslim-led occupation with the numbers needed to keep the peace for the foreseeable future.

I posted the idea at a Christian Liberal-activist board, CrossLeft, and got some skeptical response as to its feasibility that accused me of holding liberal activists with disdain. And when I allerted XPT of the response, he gave a thorough reply that I am going to repost here.

Do I hold peace activists (or any “liberal activists”) in disdain? No. I am one. The political fact is that America is never going to endorse a candidate that is avidly anti-military (which is what is seen when anyone talks “immediate withdrawal”). One has only to remember Jimmy Carter’s failed foreign policy or McGovern’s lackluster bid for the Presidency to see the proof of that. Simply screaming “Get out now!” is counter-productive as it is advocating a position that is extremely irresponsible and isn’t going to happen. It does, however, paint all activists as being part of the “radical peace-nik fringe”. While there is nothing wrong with being a peace-nik or even radical about it, it is a losing strategy. So, I see it as politically naive, but do not look at them with disdain.

Read more

I got into a discussion with a young anabaptist, Greg, a southern evangelical conservative political wag, James Atticus Bowden(JAB) and Liberal Baptist historian Streak over at Haysoos Politicas after I stated that I thought John Yoder got the NTestament wrong in stating that the state is to be viewed as an irreparably pagan institution that Christians should generally avoid direct involvement with.
Read more

Operation World’s country for today is Nicaragua. Apparently Evangelicals in Nicaragua have gone from 1.8% in 1960 to 13.7% in 1990. But there are many serious divisions and problems facing the evangelicals in Nicaragua and many of them are economic and political in nature. Read more

I just took the following denominational quiz and got the following rankings.

1: Anabaptist (Mennonite/Quaker etc.) (100%)
2: Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene (85%)
3: Pentecostal/Charismatic/Assemblies of God (78%)
4: Baptist (Reformed/Particular/Calvinistic) (76%)
5: Church of Christ/Campbellite (71%)
6: Seventh-Day Adventist (69%)
7: Baptist (non-Calvinistic)/Plymouth Brethren/Fundamentalist (62%)
8: Congregational/United Church of Christ (59%)
9: Eastern Orthodox (59%)
10: Anglican/Episcopal/Church of England (56%)
11: Presbyterian/Reformed (51%)
12: Roman Catholic (49%)
13: Lutheran (46%)

I think the fact I fit highly with the Anabaptist and Methodist categories reflects the importance that early Pietism is playing in my theological development. It also reflects the doctrinal mix of questions, which did not always offer enough option. I am not surprised that I am lowest with state-churches of different stripes. Although, I am glad my correlation is relatively high with all of these groups. Let me know what scores you get.

dlw

I was visiting Michael Kaspar’s travelblog when I found a link to the website of Operation World. Operation World has webpages that are full of information on different countries and are meant to be prayer guides for those countries. Read more

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