Careful Thought

And a Sunday UPDATE:

I guess the Dbacks should have stayed in the dugout…

To Whom It May Concern - neener, neener, neener!

This is another Tintoretto , called Christ Before Pilate. It was painted in 1567 at the Sala dell’Albergo in Venice, one of a series of the Passion of Christ the artist painted at that location.  From the Web Gallery of Art :

In a very fine and measured luministic web the figure of Christ, wrapped in a white mantle, stands out like a shining blade against the crowd and the architectural scenery. He is centred by a bright ray of light and stands tall in front of the hypocritically bureaucratic judge that is Pilate, who is portrayed in red robes and as if sunk in shadows. Certainly taking up the idea of Carpaccio in his St Ursula cycle, Tintoretto portraits the old secretary at the foot of Pilate’s throne. He leans against a stool covered with dark green cloth and with great diligent enthusiasm notes down every moment, every word spoken by the judge amid the murmurings of the pitiless crowd which obstinately clamours for the death of Christ.

Tags: faith in art, Pilate Before Christ, Tintoretto

A seagull in Scotland has developed the habit of stealing chips from a neighborhood shop.

The seagull waits until the shopkeeper isn’t looking, and then walks into the store and grabs a snack-size bag of cheese Doritos.

Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and shared by other birds.

The seagull’s shoplifting started early this month when he first swooped into the store in Aberdeen, Scotland, and helped himself to a bag of chips. Since then, he’s become a regular. He always takes the same type of chips.

Customers have begun paying for the seagull’s stolen bags of chips because they think it’s so funny.

Ever wonder why there are deserts?  (No, not because of global warming or man’s inhumanity to Gaiea.)  Most people tend to shudder at the thought of spending time in such a barren and lifeless wilderness.  Others, including those who live in or near the desert , love them for their beauty - and for all the living things that reside there. 

I am a pseudo-volcano geek, and I love pictures like this from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.  This shows what looks to be a barren volcanic plain with a large stream of lava coursing through it.  What you don’t see is that less than an hour away from this place (Kiluaea, on the south shore of Hawaii’s Big Island) lies Hilo, on the island’s eastern shore, with incredibly lush rainforests.

In the ancient Jewish tradition, and even in the New Testament era, the barren places were a refuge.  One writer explains, “In the Hebrew Bible, wilderness is where the Torah is given, where David and the psalmists find inspiration, where Elijah hears the ‘still, small voice’.”

On a physical level, even volcanic wildernesses have their place and function.  Reasons describes it this way:

Earth, on the other hand, retains CO ₂ in its atmosphere because of a delicate balance between plate tectonics and volcanic activity. Unlike Mars, Earth experiences considerable surface movement. As our tectonic plates collide, carbonate deposits are pushed deep into the crust. As the carbonates decompose there, they release CO ₂ . Volcanic activity, then, sends the CO ₂ up to the surface, replenishing the atmosphere. Both tectonic motions and volcanism must operate in balance to maintain this steady cycling of CO ₂ and carbonates. Earth’s current levels are just high enough - and low enough (we humans can’t handle too many earthquakes and eruptions) - to provide for the needs of advanced life.

So even the most barren, inhospitable places serve a function. 

I can’t count the number of times God has had me in the wilderness, either because that’s where I needed to be or because that’s where I chose to be.  My personal desert is prayer.  There are times when it seems like every prayer I utter bounces off the ceiling and falls dead on the floor.  I can spend weeks or months in that state when suddenly God will smack me in the back of the head, as if to say, “What?  Aren’t you listening?”  I’d been missing out on the whole “ Be still and know that I am God” bit.  How many times did Christ himself seek out the wilderness to find fellowship with His father?  Those times aren’t wasted.

I don’t know about you, but I love the desert.

Technorati Tags: desert , wilderness , Kilauea , prayer

Military contractors are nothing new, and today in Iraq they are becoming more active in combat situations than in the past.  This New Atlantis piece identifies three primary roles for them: 1) general support, including construction and transportation; 2) consulting firms, like MPRI, who provide training for the Iraqi army; and 3) military provider firms, those contractors that sometimes participate in front-line tactical actions.  Blackwater military contractors primarily fall into the second and third categories.  In that context, then, they are really more in line with traditional mercenary forces.  Blackwater has been taking a lot of heat in Iraq recently, particularly as they take a more active role in military operations .

It surprises me that the lefties are so adamantly against these guys.  Mercenary soldiers lighten the burden on active duty troops, thus making it easier for the Harry Reids and John Murthas of the world to decrease our troop commitment.  The tradition of the mercenary soldier goes back as long as folks have been marching out to war.  Some find it distasteful, though, and they have had a checkered past (including Blackwater).  I would contend, though, that it would be easier to put mercenary troops in the field and command them, because they would not be subject to the same restrictions as traditional troops.  Their Geneva Convention status might be problematic, but they would obviously know that going into the situation in the first place.

* - Doobie Brothers, Black Water

UPDATE:  Several commenters have pointed out that there are indeed elements of evangelical Christianity that advocate dominionist or theonomistic approaches to government, but I would contend that these are fringe groups and do not represent Christianity, or evangelical Christianity.  Many who are opposed to Christianity use a fallacy of composition (i.e., some do this, so all do this).  But it is a phenomenon that bears watching - on both sides.

ORIGINAL POST:  There’s an interesting new twist on atheist slams against Christianity - dominionism.  The concept is not new, but the term has grown more popular of late.  The idea is that there is a massive conspiracy of evangelical Fundamentalist Christians seeking to take over the country and implement an Islamic-style theocracy.

The tactic is to latch onto isolated cases of ‘Fundamentalist oppression’ or faith-related pronouncements by public figures, and make them into something heinous.  Favorite examples are prayer before football games or at graduation ceremonies, overzealous military chaplains , presidential speeches invoking God’s blessing, any Fellowship of Christian Athletes activity, or just about any time God is mentioned in public.  The whole notion of winning a lost world to Christ ( Matt 28:16-20 ) is seen as ominous and threatening.  Perhaps it is, if you’re lost.

The problem is that there is no conspiracy.

As someone commented on another post ,

[All of these are professing Christians]:

- the president
- the vice president
- most of the Supreme Court
- a vast majority of both houses on Congress
- a vast majority of the governors and legislators in the 50 states

I don’t buy it.  There’s a huge difference between professing your faith and taking part in a theocratic conspiracy.  Presidents and statesmen in the past have been much more vocal in invoking God and his blessing on our country than President Bush and his eeeevil co-conspirators.  There is a significantly lower percentage of the general public that professes to be Christian than at any time in our past.  So how come the Christian Theocracy [cue ominous music] hasn’t risen in the past 250 years?

The whole idea is an atheist fever dream.  Unfortunately, the level of bile and vitriol is ratcheting up.  You’ll likely hear more of the eeevil dominionist conspiracy and its threat to free thought everywhere.

Was this from a young-earth website? (HT: Worse Than Failure )

Well, for starters, if you’re a citizen of the US, you need to be able to pass this test .  It’s a comprehensive quiz on what used to be taught as Civics.  I doubt, though, that many public schools would be caught dead teaching such archaic concepts as Western Civilization, Fundamentals of Democracy or the like.  The quiz consists of 60 questions and should take you about 10-15 minutes.

Before a George Clooney or even a Harry Reid is allowed to spout off in public about foreign policy or the Constitutionality of the President’s policies, he should have to score at least an 80% on this. 

No bonus points if you can’t identify the year of the events depicted in the picture (plus or minus three).

(HT: KingDavid at Far Wright )

If you have a magic bat, why not a magic tire?

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcwNwPmCn8s"]

This was all over ESPN from the Mets/Braves game on 12 Sep 2007.  Is it real?

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3zO0ZxDS4c"]