The Scylding wrote this at the Boar's Head Tavern today:

[M]ost Calvinists, many ex-Calvinists (myself included) and almost every single Calvinist Baptist that I’ve known, struggle with one issue: The need to rationalise, to understand, to comprehend everything God has said, implied or done. We want to “think God’s thoughts”. And when we can’t, we view it as a failure.

I know these Calvinists are out there, because I've encountered them (mostly) in the blogosphere. I will admit the Calvinists' reputations for being jerks is largely deserved.

I'm sure there are some people who think I'm a jerk (in fact, I can think of one or two of you right now who think so), but when I read things like that above it always runs counter to my personal experience since I began affirming the five points of Calvinism.

Since becoming a Calvinist I find myself:

a) saying and thinking "I don't know" a lot more than I did before and actually being more comfortable with mystery than I was before. My insatiable adolescent theological exploration -- wanting to "figure things out" -- might have led to my embracing Calvinism, but my embracing Calvinism cured my need to "figure things out." At least, I believe it did.

b) thinking much more of God and much less of myself. When I say I think much less of myself, I don't mean that I am less self-centered or less prideful (for that would mean I stopped being a sinner); I just mean that intellectually, theologically, and even devotionally, I am fine acknowledging that I'm an utter nincompoop.

And it seems odd to me, given the tenets of Calvinism, that more Calvinists aren't more forthright with their own nincompoopery, as well.

(Cross-posted at GDC)

Best thing I've read today:

Preach from the Bible, and from the Bible only. Again, does this need to be said? One thing's for sure. The Bible is fascinating, disturbing, offensive, sweet, alarming, comforting, stretching, shocking, controversial, caressing, strengthening. No way are you and I that interesting. Let's put the Bible front and center and let it be itself and do its thing, whatever the impact. Submerging the Bible for the sake of our cool personas isn't really cool at all. It's a way of avoiding risk, chickening out.

From this outstanding post by Ray Ortlund.

The N.T. Wright/John Piper rhetorical skirmish over justification continues:

Tom Wright responds to John Piper with new book.

Can I choose c, all of the above?

Whichever side you come down most on, isn't it great that these two distinct theological giants can disagree charitably and while affirming they are Christian brothers?

Hilarious. Because it's true.

Is "Colt McCoy" not simultaneously the most ridiculous, most sublime, and most fitting for quarterback position at the University of Texas name there could ever be.

Colt McCoy. That's so made up.

I can play this game too. Try these names on for size:

Chest Throckmorton
Branford Cannon
Biff Brawnson
Shooter McAwesomeness
Radical von Velociraptor

You try too . . .

Yep, he's a conservative ... along with a small plethora (if there is such a thing) of other Hollywood stars.

This is not something you normally see on the Huffington Post.

From Harold Ambler: Mr. Gore: Apology Accepted.

I'm not a scientist, and I'm certainly not a global warming climate change expert. But he makes a compelling argument. One issue I've had with the current intense focus on CO2 in the atmosphere: what if we're not really warming and are instead entering a cooling phase? I'm more concerned with the adverse effects of cold weather on the earth's inhabitants than the effects of warm weather. Not that I think we can control large-scale climate trends in any event, but I think we need to make sure that we spend our resources on the most effective actions. On that note, I also agree with his conclusion regarding what we should be doing: a full court press to develop other sources of energy and reduce pollution, but not an economy-crippling effort to suppress CO2 (what he calls a "trace gas") and stop development, thus consigning billions of our poorest to dark, smokey misery.

Also, full disclosure: Mr. Ambler is not a right-wing conservative, but rather a proud Obama voter.

Some excerpts:

Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that "the science is in." Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind.

. . .

it turns out that there is an 800-year lag between temperature and carbon dioxide, unlike the sense conveyed by Mr. Gore's graph. You are probably wondering by now -- and if you are not, you should be -- which rises first, carbon dioxide or temperature. The answer? Temperature. In every case, the ice-core data shows that temperature rises precede rises in carbon dioxide by, on average, 800 years. In fact, the relationship is not "complicated." When the ocean-atmosphere system warms, the oceans discharge vast quantities of carbon dioxide in a process known as de-gassing. For this reason, warm and cold years show up on the Mauna Loa C02 measurements even in the short term. For instance, the post-Pinatubo-eruption year of 1993 shows the lowest C02 increase since measurements have been kept. When did the highest C02 increase take place? During the super El Niño year of 1998.

More under the fold . . .

Read the rest of this entry . . .

Enjoy . . .

(There are several more chapters to come. Might be a few days till I get the next one up)

As many of you may know, the Thinklings enjoy an annual (and at times semi-annual) all-night tradition known as the Thinklings Entmoot. We had a great Moot last weekend. You can read about the moot here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. **

A series of short "Mootumentaries" are being put together to capture the spirit of this gathering. The first one is below. There are probably 3 or 4 more coming. I'll be posting another one later today.



You can watch this in HD on Vimeo

Note: the two as-yet unidentified persons in the video are Bird's brother Sha and my eldest.

** I know to many of you this endless re-capping of our Moots must seem like mega-hubristic navel-gazing. In many ways, you're right! :-)

Moot forevah!!!

Found via Tech Blog.

This afternoon I took the familiar three-hour trek from Waco to Houston to join my family for New Year's Eve celebrations. On the way to Space City, I listened to a lot of music: worship, classical, 80s rock, and, of course, U2. Among other anthems, I enjoyed two versions of U2's quintessential track, "One." Since my with-child wife is fast asleep right now (it's 10 p.m.), I thought I'd take the opportunity to blog about my favorite song of all time.

I recall being in high school gym class in 1992 and being asked by a cohort of mine if I had heard the new U2 song, "One." I wasn't much of a U2 fan back then -- heck, I wasn't a U2 fan at all -- and I told him I hadn't heard it, and, frankly, I didn't care to listen to it (I didn't tell him that last part).

A few months later many of the popular kids showed up to school wearing U2 concert T-shirts, and a popular shirt had a big "ONE" printed down its back. Believe it or not, I wasn't one of the popular kids back in high school, and I didn't care to get into their fads, so I continued to shy away from U2.

Eventually I heard the song, and in time I would listen to the song more than any one piece of music ever. The song was my bridge to U2, and to what has been my enjoyment of, I believe, the best band in history.

Is it getting better, or do you feel the same ... The song starts out benign enough, and with its subtle, almost cryptic, lyrics it can't quite be pigeonholed into the love song genre, but it definitely has an almost romantic flavor to it. In an interview with Rolling Stone (circa 2004), Bono said that there's "a little of everything" in the song.

On a random message board about the song, one poster said, "Somehow this song defines the bitterness in me." I can almost agree. A large part of the song sounds austere: We're one, but we're not the same/We hurt each other, and we'll do it again, and I can't be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt ...

Thankfully, the mood of the song changes, and I believe the crescendo turns from pain to love: One love, one blood, one life/You got to do what you should/One life with each other/Sisters, brothers.

I've heard people pontificate about lost love, citing "One" as a crushing love song, and I've heard people talk about the song's motif revolving around a common thread of platonic affection for all humanity. I've even heard Vineyard worship leader, David Ruis, say that the song is a prophetic utterance to the church at large. I think they're all correct.

To be sure, the song encompasses a vast landscape of human emotion, and the lyrics paint an unembellished picture of human feeling. In the aforementioned interview with Rolling Stone, Bono recalled an invitation by the Dalai Lama to some sort of world peace/oneness gathering. Bono declined the invitation, scribbling a curt reply: "We're one, but we're not the same."

In just about all live performances of "One," Bono expands the lyrical canon of the song by singing out to God: Hear us coming, Lord/Hear us call/Hear us knocking, we're knocking at your door/Hear us coming, Lord/Hear us call/Hear us scratching/Did you make us crawl?. While the addendum may sound heretical to sensitive ears, I think it's the boldest speech to the Almighty this side of King David. If we're honest, I think we all wonder whether God makes us crawl at certain points in our lives. Indeed, I think He does.

When I saw U23D with my wife, Brandi, at an Austin IMAX theater a few months ago, I remember listening to the song, watching the band in 3D, with my heart beating like a drum. I could actually feel my heart rate increase as I listened to the song. When "One" was over, I turned to Brandi and said, simply, "I love that song." I do. I really do.

[Click here to read the lyrics to "One."]

Maybe the best movie I've seen this year. Or maybe that was Wall-E, not sure. But Benjamin Button is incredible.

The casting, the directing, the writing, the cinematography, the performances, the story -- all riveting.

Brad Pitt especially is amazing, and while I've always thought he was more than just a pretty face, this role confirms he's a really fine actor. These days when most moviegoers are trained to think Al Pacino "Hoo-ha!"'ing like a machete through the scenery or Samuel Jackson and Kevin Spacey out-yelling each other is "good acting," the understated, natural simplicity of Pitt in Button seems all the more wonderful.

This movie is a great meditation on time, and on permanence and impermanence.

Making any New Year's resolutions? What are they?

The "religion of peace" resurrects the most scandalous form of execution.

On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion.

I was shopping at Mardel's (a Christian retail chain) today and overheard a guy asking a clerk to help him find a certain book by C.S. Lewis. She brought him over to the Bargain Book section (where I was browsing), began scanning the shelves, and said to him, "What was that name again? Lewis?"

Read iMonk's recounting of Rod Parsley's Christmas Bullcrap.

Unreal.
But it doesn't surprise me at all.

"If any man or angel preaches a gospel different from the one delivered to us, let him be . . ."

I'm salivating. Q Magazine is saying that the forthcoming U2 track, "Moment of Surrender" is the new album's "One." Awesome.

[Props to ex-Thinkling Sha for the link.]

A few more I must mention:

- Waking Sleep Paralysis, caused by D's (in Blo's case. Not in Bird's. Bird is in league)
- Sha's record-setting post-12am Moot participation
- Sneaking into the communion services of other traditions and pretending to be one of them. There were some guilty parties at this gathering.
- Trans versus Con
- "Are you smarter than your pastor?" (Note: I'm not)
- The future of the totally secure Bloo versus the future of the totally hacked Blo

- Being in league with demons while performing mind-blowing magic tricks
- Blo's TV watching vs. lack of blogging
- Adam, Blo's lone commenter
- 10-second videos
- Turning green while smoking cigars
- The ghost of Rod's parent's house
- Rob Zombie
- Who the favorite Thinkling is
- A point-by-point defense of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film
- Bigfoot hair
- Andrew going all John Locke on us and whacking his dad
- The thorn in Paul's flesh
- Blo losing to the clock in chess
- Billboy's infatuation with Sarah Palin (he admitted that when he sees Palin, he sees his wife, Jill)
- Sha's infatuation with Obama
- Obama's infatuation with infanticide

Boy, it was a fun night.

- "Tube me"
- "Tube yourself"
- Blo's hand-gestures in his show-and-tell regarding tubing
- The importance (or possible lack-thereof) of live worship music in church
- Who the most important Thinkling is
- "Play the clock, not the Blo"
- Barium enemas (really)
- Bono (naturally)
- The Bono/Palin ticket in 2012
- The Palin/Bono ticket in 2012
- Bono in any administration post whatsoever in 2012
- The conflation of Bono and Palin
- Blo's feet firmly planted in mid-air
- Rod's 1-point Calvinism
- Which Thinkling is which U2 member (I'm "The Edge")
- Which actors will play us in the upcoming Thinklings movie (I'm Paul Giamatti)
- Zombie movies
- Why bike-riding is better than car-driving when being chased by Zombies
- Other Zombie survival safety tips
- Zombie digestive systems
- Watered down coffee
- Watered down tea
- Watered down water
- Breakfast samplers
- How cr@ptastic The Happening was
- Universalism (well, we tried to broach this subject. Rod would have none of it. Not that any of us are universalists)
- How N.T. Wright owns John Dominic Crossan
- Whether Tony Soprano got whacked or what

And many other topics. More will come to mind when/if the production team starts going through the raw footage. The Christmas Mootumentary 2008 is coming out . . . soon.

Moot rocks. It went hard and we went home.