January 13, 2006
Best. Joke. Ever.
I love blonde jokes, so I just HAD to pass on this one. It's a classic.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 06:21 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Interesting Quote, and some Background
I read an interesting post concerning the whole IMB controversy today at Scott Bridwell.com. The most interesting was a quote from a current IMB trustee, as published in The Northwest Witness associational paper.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 06:01 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 12, 2006
Nothing Good Can Come of This
So they've done it.
THEY being a majority of the trustees of the IMB of the Southern Baptist Convention. IT being booting Wade Burleson. Of course, they can't just end his service as trustee -- that can only be done in Greensboro this year, at the annual Convention, by a majority of messengers. But they've effectively silenced him. If you're looking for the "official" reports, here are the links: Baptist Press, Associated Baptist Press. If you want Wade's side of things, read his blog. Marty Durden at the SBC Outpost has also been covering this for the blogosphere. Wade Burleson is under attack because people don't like the message he's sending to the SBC. I've read no slander, no gossip, no breach of confidence in anything he's written. He's mentioned only two names of people who disagree with him, and has presented their views in a very fair manner. When he's noted potential imporprieties, he has never mentioned names. He has never revealed anything that happened in an Executive Session. We need people who are willing to expose problems. We need Wade Burleson as an IMB trustee. I'll be in Greensboro for the Convention. I'll be supporting Wade Burleson. When we start censoring those who reveal problems in our organizations, we have a major problem. The last thing we need -- the last thing we should want -- is a trustee board filled with Yes Men who won't dare stand up for what they really believe, for fear of being run out of town on a rail. This is not a good way to deal with dissent.Posted by: Warren Kelly at 01:19 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 11, 2006
Validation
So there are validators to see if your HTML, XHTML, and CSS are compliant (and I don't have to check -- I'm pretty sure mine isn't right now. That's one thing the new template will address).
Now there's a validator for your Christology. Are You Chalcedonian Compliant? (And just so you know, I am. 100%.)Posted by: Warren Kelly at 01:54 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 09, 2006
Biblical Authority -- The 'B' in Baptist
{I promised a series on 'Baptist Distinctives' some time ago, and this is the first in that series.}
I have a folder in my RSS reader marked "Potential Topics." As I read through articles in my RSS feeds, I copy items of interest and note to that folder, on the assumption I will one day write something about the topic of that post. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that I totally forget about what I've put there until I decide it's time to clean it out. By that time, I've forgotten whatever pearls of wisdom I had to contribute to the discussion.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 11:24 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 08, 2006
Interesting Post on Baptism and Churches
I've been thinking a lot about the whole Bethlehem Baptist Church paedo/credobaptist controversy, especially now that the controversial measure has been withdrawn by the elders. I read the new position statement that's on the church's site, and was especially drawn to this paragraph:
“The elders realize that the issue cannot be dropped because the majority of the elders still favor the motion, including almost all the pastoral staff, and because that conviction puts most of the elders and staff in conflict with at lease [sic] one literal reading of the Bethlehem Affirmation of Faith. Our Affirmation of Faith defines the local church as follows: ‘We believe in the local church, consisting of a company of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith, and associated for worship, work, and fellowship.’ In the most narrow reading, this definition would mean that a Gospel-preaching Presbyterian Church, for example, is not a church. Most of us do not believe that. So at least there are explicit clarifications that we believe we should make in the present Affirmation of Faith. In view of these things, we will be praying and thinking and discussing various ways to move forward together as a church.”(emphasis added) Interesting -- especially the part I emphasized. I have friends who are Presbyterian -- can I consider them members of Biblical churches? If not, what are they? Apostate?
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 02:51 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 07, 2006
Honesty!!
Cruising through my RSS feeds this morning (that list is getting bigger every day!), I found something great (as usual) at Tim Ellsworth's blog.
Baptistlife.com has a listing of Baptist "seminaries, divinity schools, and houses of study." Included in the list is the CBF's answer to Southern -- Baptist Seminary of Kentucky. The description readsBaptist Seminary of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky)(emphasis added, of course)
Affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship and CBF. Offering Masters degrees. Providing theological education "committed to spiritual death, intellectual honesty, and moral integrity."
I figure it won't be long until the description is changed, but Tim has a screenshot. Check it out.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 01:39 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 05, 2006
Jesus On Trial
{So, has anyone else noticed that in spite of my resolution to post proactively, everything I've done so far has been reactive?}
Luigi Cascioli, a retired agronomist and atheist, is taking the Roman Catholic Church to court for "abusing popular credibility" by teaching that Jesus existed. A Catholic priest, Father Enrico Righi, is the immediate defendant, but the precedent that the case could set is clear -- if Father Righi is found guilty, the rest of the Catholic Church will also be guilty of breaking that same law.Posted by: Warren Kelly at 08:36 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Shut Up Pat!!
Pat Robertson has done it again. According to Pat, Ariel Sharon's stroke is punishment from God for giving away Israeli land.
Face it, though -- we all knew this was coming. After all, we've had people talking about God electrocuting a pastor in Texas because he was part of the "emerging church" movement. And who better to say it than Pat Robertson? Seriously -- how many people are actually taking this guy seriously anymore? Yes, his cable TV show has a ton of viewers. I'd wager that many of those viewers are people waiting for the next idiotic thing to come out of Robertson's mouth. I know I used to watch Bob Tilton all the time for the pure entertainment value of a grown man claiming he got "ink poisoning" from laying on the prayer requests that people had sent to him as he prayed over them. And I used to do a great Ernest Angley impersonation. My point is that viewers does NOT equal influence. But Pat provides the perfect target for people who want to believe that all evangelicals are complete blithering idiots like Robertson. One of these days, maybe folks will figure out that Christians don't like Robertson any more than anyone else does. {UPDATE: Found a quote, thanks to Aaman Lamba at Blogcritics. Added it to the story above.}Posted by: Warren Kelly at 05:50 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 04, 2006
Twelve Hours! Let the Finger Pointing Begin
It took twelve hours, but someone has finally been able to tie to corrupt Bush Nazi administration (did I leave an epithet out?) to the mine tragedy in West Virginia.
The president of the United Mine Workers said on CNN that the administration was keeping the MSHA from doing its job. He also said that the tragedy wouldn't have happened in a union mine, because union mines are safer. I've been waiting for this. I told my wife this morning that it would end up being Bush's fault that the mine collapsed. We have to find someone to blame. Accident's don't just happen -- they happen becasue the government -- excuse me, I mean the Government -- doesn't take care of us. The Government is our shepherd, we should never want. Bad things happen, folks. It's a part of the fallen world we live in. Blaming people after the fact won't bring back the dead. Let's find out what went wrong, and try to make sure it doesn't happen again. And please don't start turning this into a political issue. Don't insult the memory of those who died by using their deaths as an opportunity to make political points.Posted by: Warren Kelly at 05:52 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 03, 2006
Happy New Year
OK, I'm a few days late. The main reason for this post is to actually have something on the page when it loads -- my other stuff is old enough that it's shuffled back into archives, aparantly.
A few of my resolutions this year: 1. Looking back over the past few months, I feel like I've been slacking off a bit. I've got a few series ideas that I started and left hanging in limbo, the Mark study is stalled, and I haven't done This Week in Church History since the first week of December. That will change. More substantive posts, more proactive posting (where I write something rather than just react and respond to what someone else has written). 2. I'm plotting a template change. I apologize to all the Internet Explorer users out there who really don't see the right sidebar. I had it fixed (actually had someone else help me with it, even), but it messed it up in Firefox. I'm reading a couple books right now that cover CSS pretty well, so maybe that will help me. The colors will probably stay the same (though if you have any feedback on that, let me know!). 3. More consistant podcasting. I know that many of you probably don't listen to the podcast (not everyone likes that type of music), but I'm going to try to set a schedule for myself and stick to it for both podcasts that I produce (many of you would enjoy Sunday at First Baptist). 4. Work on the book. Some of you have heard of it -- I'm working on a book. A sort of "how-to, why-should-I" book on podcasting for churches. The more podcasting I do, the more I see this medium as an untapped 'market'. Small churches with no radio or TV budget can podcast, and they need to be. The book will help them do it. 5. Return of the Blogroll Cruise. 6. Get back to the Christian Carnival and the Best of Me Symphony. I still get emails reminding me of those things, and I've not participated in too long. I'm going to start participating again. Those are just a few. I'm also renewing my resolution to lose weight (one of these years I might actually do it!), and I have resolved to no longer celebrate birthdays. I am going to follow in my father's footsteps, so this year will mark the celebration of the ninth anniversary of my 29th birthday. Yes, some of you math people will be able to figure out how old I am from that (or you could just look at this post and add a year). But most of all I resolve to enjoy this year, no matter what it brings me. After all, when life gives you lemons, sell 'em on eBay. (The funny thing is, I had already decided to say that, knowing nothing of the book or anything. Then I Googled it, and found that site. Who knew?!)Posted by: Warren Kelly at 11:11 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 24, 2005
Merry Christmas
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."
(Luke 2:8-15 ESV)
{picture is Bartolome Esteban Murillo's The Adoration of the Shepherds}
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 12:44 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 23, 2005
They Couldn't Do This Today ...
So I was cruising around the Internet looking for some stuff to post -- something quick and easy, so I could go wrap presents or something -- and I found something that really made me pause.
December 24, 1968. NASA astronauts James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman read Genesis 1:1-12 from lunar orbit.In his autobiography Countdown, Frank Borman later wrote, "There was one more impression we wanted to transmit: our feeling of closeness to the Creator of all things. This was Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, and I handed Jim and Bill their lines from the Holy Scriptures." About six weeks before launch, a NASA official had called Borman. Noting that the crew would be circling the earth on Christmas Eve, he said, "We figure more people will be listening to your voice than that of any man in history. So we want you to say something appropriate." (from the Christian History Institute)No WAY that could happen today. NASA would be sued. The three astronauts would be sued. Scientists around the nation would be up in arms at the unscientific sentiments expressed from these three astronauts. But in 1968, it was appropriate. We've come a long way, unfortunately.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 08:05 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 19, 2005
Why Now?
Why celebrate Christmas now? What made the early church start celebrating in December? We've been taught that it was to compete with pagan holidays -- in fact, one of my favorite cartoons recently mentioned it. But is it right?
Maybe not. Head over to Between Two Worlds and check this out. And think about what you've always been taught about Christmas, and how it may all be wrong.Posted by: Warren Kelly at 05:31 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 15, 2005
Prayer Request
On Christmas morning, after you've thrown away the wrapping paper and the kids have gotten tired of the new toys that they got, please remember to say a prayer for me. I've been invited to preach the morning service at First Baptist South Shore in South Shore, Kentucky.
I really covet your prayers for this one. The church is looking for a pastor, and asked me to submit a resume. After a lot of prayer, I decided I would. So this message could be a kind of trial message for me -- it will be the third sermon I've preached at the church.Posted by: Warren Kelly at 11:23 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 13, 2005
No Surprise Here
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 08:45 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 12, 2005
I Love It When ...
... people agree with me. From no less august a source than The Evangelical Outpost:
I find that I just don’t have the stomach for those old arguments anymore. I’m still willing to discuss doctrinal differences. But now I’m less sure that I’m standing on the right side of scripture. Is the view heretical or likely to lead someone away from salvation? Then I’ll fight it tooth-and-nail. If not, then I’ll have to sit it out.I'm probably still a bit more argumentative than Joe is, and I'll admit that I will slip and argue about trivia. I will always be more than willing to lend my opinion (wanted or not), and I will engage in healthy debate with my fellow Baptists about issues related to Baptist piety and polity. If I am challenged, I will respond in what I hope will be a civil and scholarly tone. But I won't be picking fights over millennial views. I won't go on a rampage against my Presbyterian friends over infant baptism. I reserve the right to think they are wrong, and they certainly have the right to be wrong (that was a JOKE, folks!!). And as I debate, I will try to learn from my "opponents," as I hope they will try to learn from me. Because that's the point of actual debate -- anything else becomes a fight.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 07:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 11, 2005
What Do We Do With These Swords???
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
I appreciate what Wade Burleson wrote today on his blog.
I am glad and I rejoice over the conservative resurgance. I am a conservative. I love my convention. But sadly, a new war has begun. It is a war initiated by fellow conservatives; conservatives who have forgotten how to put their swords in their respective sheaths. It is a war that technically may not have just begun, but one that simply never ended. Conservatives who loved the battles of decades past have fallen victim to a crusading mentality of bloodthirst. Since all the liberals are gone, conservative cruasaders are now killing fellow conservatives.Burleson has plenty of conservative "street cred." He's not some namby-pamby moderate, nor is he a crypto-liberal trying to undermine the resurgence. He's a genuine man with a genuine concern about the future of the Southern Baptist Convention. We have to ask ourselves the question: What do we do with all these swords? We spent almost an entire generation fighting for the soul of the SBC. We are going in a direction that Southern Baptists thirty years ago could not have envisioned -- a direction that many Southern Baptists despaired that we'd ever go in again. We've won. So now we've declared war on ourselves. We've gone from fighting the good fight on inerrancy to fighting over fine points of theology. We are majoring on the minors in a way that I haven't seen since I left the Independant Fundamental church I was baptized in. And we cannot let that happen.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 09:24 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 10, 2005
A New Controversy
There's a brand new controversy brewing in the Godblogosphere, and it started at one of those blogging awards shows that I don't get nominated for.
The Blogs of Beauty contest is intended to "honor those blogs written by women who seek to bring the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ to the blogging world." Great idea. But it ran into a problem -- how do you decide which Godbloggers are actual Christians? The lady who ran the contest recognized this, and established as a "Statement of Faith" the following:I believe in the Godhead of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as revealed in the Holy Bible. I believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and my only means for the forgiveness of my sins and my salvation. My salvation is found in no one but Jesus Christ.Orthodox, yet inclusive. Very good -- the contest wasn't meant to be denominationally specific, so this, I think, is a good list of criteria. And, after all, it ain't my contest, so the organizer can run it however she wants to. But wherever two or three are gathered, there is disagreement. And problems. Maybe that's why I've never organized my own awards (except for the Pewies and the Clewies, both of which are awarded on an extremely subjective basis). And one of the winners (the Best Humor blog), is a Mormon blog. I'm not going to get into the arguement over whether the blog should have won -- none of my business, actually, and I've only ever read her blog today (interesting, and pretty well written, actually). But the whole thing has led to many, many posts concerning what a Christian blog is, and what it isn't. So the question arises -- is Mormonism a Christian denomination?
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 11:01 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 09, 2005
Another New Christmas Poem
Read "Ode to the Grinch" at the SBC Outpost.
Posted by: Warren Kelly at 01:19 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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