I remember watching Scott McClellan for several years on the evening news as President Bush’s then Press Secretary and always seemed to be very forthcoming, honest, but firm in his handling of the day’s questions. From the review I’ve read, either McClellan is a total complete disingenuous liar who is bent of avenging his removal or was an even better liar back when he was press secretary. In either case, he seems to be just another douche trading in his honor for a quick buck. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with everything the Bush administration has done, but come on Scott really . . . grow a spine and maybe even some heart while you’re at it.
The White House was a little more gracious with their response:
Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House, she said. For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad – this is not the Scott we knew.
As the article points out, it is really hard to see what Bush envisioned happening as he was sending Scott off:
One of these days, Bush, with McClellan at his side, told reporters that day, he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas, talking about the good old days and his time as the press secretary. And I can assure you, I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, Job well done.
Then again stranger things have happened after people leave the public’s eye. Maybe McClellan will forgive and donate the profits from his book to families of American soldiers wounded and/or killed in Iraq and maybe Bush will be able to forgive McClellan or at least shrug him off as just another detractor created by expedience.
I’m not sure if this is a totally fair characterization of Obama, but honestly I don’t really care anymore about being “fair” to people who define what should and should not be discussed about themselves, especially when running for the highest office in our country. A family member just sent me a link to this video which seems to do a decent job of putting together all of these things we continue to hear about Obama that he still will not denounce and continues to embrace. It also seems to do a good intro to Liberation Theology. Is it fair? You can decide for yourself.
Well Rebecca and I just got home from visiting a church in our new home here in Rome and we are both so excited. The worship wasn’t great, really there wasn’t anything on the surface appealing about the place. No one tried to market the place to us. No one was selling us the church or immediately trying to plug us in. From the view point of many churches I’ve been involved with, this place would sadly be described as a miserable failure.
But they’re not because they seem to get it. It being that the most important thing is the Gospel. Many churches try their best to mold themselves as much as they can to whatever culture they’re attempting to reach. This place, from our first impression seems to get that it’s the other way around . . . that we are to imitate Christ as the body of Christ, we’re not to be showy. The scripture teaches us that there wasn’t any thing visually appealing about Christ, nothing that would attract people to him. The Church as the aroma of Christ is meant to point people to the Gospel, not church culture.
I’m not belittling the necessity of marketing, only the use of marketing as a ploy. If you show up at a church as a lost person and everything you experience there is simply just a show imitating everything the world does and is (even in the purest form you can come up with), then what have you really gained? What is there to experience that is any different from what you experience every day? Sure it may be fun, you might be entertained, and you may enjoy the time spent there, but in the end you haven’t experienced the community of Christ, but the communion of the church imitating culture just to get you to feel comfortable enough to come back again. The use of culture to reach culture should never never never be elevated above the importance of the Word and the Gospel–which have no culture.
This place seems to get the Gospel, they seem to be very missional–planting other churches and partnering to see other nations impacted by the gospel. They taught from the Word, not from opinion or feelings or convenience.
Anyways, I’m very wary of speaking too soon about a place because of past experiences, but so far so good. Looks like we’ll be sticking around. I’ll keep you updated with our experiences there and might even mention the name of the place and give concrete examples of what exactly gives me this “sense” i speak of as time goes by.
I just woke up in the middle of the night and came across a post sharing a couple links from a friend. I read the links and believe that the Church really needs to hear this, so I will share them here as well.
For a portion of this political season, I was fairly excited. I kept up with the days events and waited anxiously as each of the primary results rolled in. The past few days have really been the nail in the coffin of any political excitement as each side continues to prove that they will do just about anything if they believe it to be politically expedient.
Obama gets his feelings all hurt cause Bush says something that isn’t directed at him, using the statement to blanket the networks with rhetoric defending the very thing that bush supposedly attacked him about. Then McCain fires back saying Obama wants to take all of our guns away and would destroy the world with his naive notions about diplomacy. Then Obama again repeats the same tired line taken out of context (for the millionth time) that McCain wants to keep us in Iraq for 100 years and tries to closely tie the media’s former favorite “maverick” to Bush and all of his failed policies. All the while Obama knows he’s using this as an opportunity to cover up his huge gaff from a debate a few months back where he said he would sit down and talk with anyone, something he’s now elevated to policy.
None of this really speaks of “change”, but in reality is just pumped up rhetoric parading about in sheep’s clothing. More of the same crap politics coming from more of the SAME type of crappy politicians. There’s a mental disorder out there, resultant of the fall that causes man to be hungry for power and say and do anything to attain it.
Nothing about this political season is exciting or new anymore. It never really was. I’ll go cast my vote for McCain, but I won’t do so with any sort of fervor . . . but will do so in hopes of preventing Jimmy Carter Part Deux.
Washington’s favorite guessing game is in full swing as the presumptive nominees are looking for their respective running-mates. Everyone seems to know who they will pick and seems to have at least a couple “inside sources” to back up their claims.
Well, here’s yet another article claiming that Mike Huckabee is at the top of McCain’s list. I can’t say I wouldn’t be happy if McCain decides he likes Mike, but I know it will surely cause the uber conservative douches to bitch and moan all the more about McCain. I really think that this ultra right-wing bunch is cheering for McCain to lose in the fall.
Let’s hope McCain keeps his rebel spirit up and decides on Mike. In addition to the reasons listed in the article, Huckabee would be a far better choice than just about anyone else:
Huckabee has gained more POSITIVE name recognition than just about any other pro-life conservative republican
He has proved his value in energizing the evangelical christian base of the republican party, something McCain could use a little help with
He complements John McCain’s sense of compassion and moral ideals
His quick whit and humor will hopefully help take some of the rough edges off of McCain’s sometimes gritty personality
He will help in assuring conservative voters that McCain’s Judicial appointments will hold conservative values.
He will add some much needed “star-power” to help win over the fainting masses of Obama zombies.
I guess time will tell if the article holds any water. I know I really hope it does.
I really don’t want to have an argument with anyone out there on this subject, frankly because I’ve done that before and it isn’t fun. Often times I’ve found that people on the other end of the discussion aren’t really interested in searching God’s word for biblical life-nourishing truth. Instead they would rather argue and insist on creating “biblical-worldviews” for themselves that prop-up and comfort their western, individualistic, and enlightenment inspired notions of Christianity–something that would make little sense to people such as Paul (who wrote half of the new testament).
Earlier I came across some great resources from one of the greatest BAPTIST pastors of our day on the subject of Calvinism, John Piper. It’s a several part seminar he did for people doubting and/or struggling through the “doctrines of grace” as they are called by some. If you’re interested, please do check out the TULIP seminar.
A designer friend of mine just sent a link to probably one of the funniest sites I’ve seen in a while. To really appreciate it, you really need to be a designer of some sort. It’s one hilarious quote after another of actual clients saying really really dumb funny stuff.