The White House is apparently debating cutting troop levels in Iraq by 50% in 2008. I hope they don't go soft on us. Bush will not make friends by pulling out, so he better stick to his guns. Read it here.A few new books are coming out and attacking Hillary. These are a little different that some of the attack books in the past, as they are written widely-respected journalists. One of the books is claiming that Bill was going to divorce Hillary in the late 80's to marry one of his many lovers. Read it here.
Even though home sales have been soft for awhile now, this story says that sales of vacation homes are up 4.7%. Read to see who is buying these homes. And before you decide to buy one yourself, I read yesterday that the return on investment after inflation on real estate from 1890-1990 was 0%. Homes are a bad investment.
Looks like the guy who stayed awake for 11 straight days didn't break the world record afterall. Someone else, who he didn't know about stayed awake longer, plus, Guiness doesn't recognize the record. Read it here.
Here is an article about environmental initiatives at Christian colleges.
Also, check out this great debate between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson on whether Christianity has been good for the world. It is a five piece article. Part one is here.
Enjoy your Saturday.
3 comments:
I don't know what to think about the Christian Schools proclaiming environmentalism. I understand that we should be good stewards of God's creation. But to me it seems that something is very fishy about this whole thing. Many things in the article disturbed me. But because this is a only comment and not my own blog entry I will talk about only one part that upset me a little.
"J. Matthew Sleeth, author of Serve God, Save the Planet, says, "Students need to realize there is more to life than how fast an Internet connection is or how big your house is." Sleeth, who spoke on 21 college campuses in the last six months of 2006, says reaching students before they graduate gets them to "rethink issues before beginning real patterns of consumption." "
He is right that there is more to life than internet speed or houses, but is our higher calling really to recycle more paper or drive a hybrid car? Is it to "rethink patterns of consumption?" The first thing I thought was if he told them to go to Africa for twenty years laboring with a tribe for the Gospel, you wouldn't have to worry about patterns of consumption. I could not believe it when I read it..."more to life than internet and houses... and it is recycling!" ABSOLUTELY NOT! The Gospel is so much more important than our meager attempts to save this earth. Even Jesus Himself says that the Gospel is more important than the earth, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." (Matthew 24:35) I know that not being wasteful is biblical; but this earth we live in is under a curse and the pollution of the earth is just another effect of it. The cure to the curse is not a "gospel of environmentalism", but the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Does anyone else feel this way about this or am I totally overreacting to it?
Johann,
I think Christians urging other Christians to be preoccupied with the environment is weird. Jesus was not preoccupied with the environment and neither were his disciples.
I think this is a wasteful distraction for Christians who've been taken in by the world. Christians have no special duties with regard to the environment and everyone wants to live in a wholesome environment. Nobody wants to live in a dump. There is no reason for special Christian concern with the environment.
To sign Christ's name to environmental agendas is to squander Christian momentum. We have bigger fish to fry.
Johann,
I share most of your sentitments.
Environmentalism has become the new macro morality. Going green is equivicated to "good person" by a growing segment of the population.
This has displaced traditional micro standards of morality, i.e. honesty, hard work, intergity, fidelity.
To think that anyone would think that not living carbon-neutral is that same as cheating on a spouse, or a test, or swindinling cash, etc. is mind boggling to me.
Let's all hope that the "more to life" is bigger than simply changing our consumption habits.
Thanks for the comments guys.
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