So much for ‘freedom’…

Date: 02/03/2012

Time: 4:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Location: 4th floor gallery Wilson Library

Cost: Free

Description:

Join us for this colloquium, which will include a special viewing of the exhibits followed by a reception. Music will be provided by guitar students in the studio of Maja Radovanlija, Guitar Instructor and Lecturer in Creative Studies and Media.

Program of Events
4:00 p.m. Welcome and exhibit viewing

4:30 p.m. Presentations by

• Bernard M. Levinson, Berman Family Chair of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible, Professor of Classical & Near Eastern Studies and of Law, University of Minnesota
• David Haley, Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Minnesota
• Michael Hancher, Professor of English, University of Minnesota
• Timothy Johnson, Curator of Special Collections and Rare Books, University of Minnesota

6:00 p.m. Reception and exhibit viewing

6:30 p.m. Presentations by:

• Chris R. Armstrong, Professor of Church History, Bethel Seminary
• Mark A. Granquist, Associate Professor of Church History, Luther Seminary

Prof. Levinson remarks ‘The colloquium is part of a series celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible with a special exhibits and events. The title of my presentation: “The King James Bible: Scripture, Statecraft, and the American Founding.”

So if you’re up there in the great frozen north, go.

Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar has made a mockery of Breaking the Silence. For a year the organization has been pestering him to allow its members to lead junior high school pupils on a tour of Hebron, just like the right-wing non-profit organizations do – and finally he agreed. But before the first student had boarded the first bus the police arrived and cancelled the tour. How surprising.

Sa’ar is a consistent politician with a consolidated worldview, and he was well aware of what he was doing. On the one hand, he really and truly believes that the trips to Jerusalem’s City of David, the Cave of the Patriarchs and the museum at Beit Hadassah in Hebron are important milestones in forging the national and Jewish identity of Israeli students. On the other hand, he is aware of and sensitive to the criticism expressed by many parents in his social milieu. They are not at all pleased with the route of the tour. Nor are they pleased about the fact that a private, extreme rightwing non-profit organization, funded by a Jewish millionaire, is in charge of the ideological education of their children – especially in the sensitive and controversial area of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Parents in Israel should be displeased.  What’s happening there, this incredible ‘Talibanization’ of Israel, should cause the entire world to be very, very troubled.  It’s the equivalent of giving the Christian Zionists of America exclusive rights to determine educational standards and programs.  And yes, that’s a disturbing and frightening thought, isn’t it.

Israel is in serious trouble.

Related articles

• Hushing Up Apartheid (desertpeace.wordpress.com)
• Excerpts From ‘An Open Letter to Christian Zionists’ (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• Israeli forces arrest Hebron journalist (alethonews.wordpress.com)

The downside is Mark’s pathology shows up in ways that are impulsive, aggressive, irascible, shut off from effective relational influence, and most apparent not respectful and submissive to anyone, though he claims otherwise.  I have hoped and still hope for something short of him destroying himself that would bring about substantial change for this ever increasing population of worshiper. Some have fretted there will be a great loss of Christians with the demise of Mark and/or the Church. I don’t think so. The church that comprises all of us will survive. The chaff will be blown away, but the church will remain.

If there are any Christians at Mars Hill they’ll be ok.  Those following the cultist, however, won’t.  In fact, Matthew 13 has it right-

24 He put before them another parable, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while his people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel in the midst of the wheat and went away. 26 So when the wheat sprouted and yielded grain, then the darnel appeared also. 27 So the slaves of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have darnel?’ 28 And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ So the slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, “No, lest when you gather the darnel you uproot the wheat together with it. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the season of the harvest I will tell the reapers, “First gather the darnel and tie it into bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my storehouse.”’”

If there is any good seed at Mars Hill, time will tell. The fact that Driscoll is Darnel, though, will also – eventually – be known even by the most devout of his cultish followers and defenders.

Related articles

• And the Verdict? Mark Driscoll Leads a Cult (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• Poor Mark Driscoll- He Just Can’t Stop Being an Ignoramus (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• Mark Driscoll: America’s Worst Pastor (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• The Cult of Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill (timothymichaellaw.com)

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says college students are being coddled, but his own educational record doesn’t exactly elicit images of a person who had to struggle to make ends meet while earning a degree. … But as the Post notes, Gingrich himself took a different path during college, according to a 1995 Vanity Fair article. According to the report, Gingrich leaned on family members for money and said he didn’t want to get a job while in school. Gingrich’s college experience also included a stint as a history professor at West Georgia College. The Wall Street Journal reports that while working at Georgia College, Gingrich was “often absent as he pursued political goals” and that he “spent little time teaching history.”

So he was a mooch, an unemployed git, and now he’s morphed into a hypocrite. He’s the ideal politician. He’s the model elected official.

Via Alastair Roberts on twitter.

A West Virginia sheriff pleaded guilty to voter fraud in the state’s 2010 primary election including illegally filling in some absentee ballots out of fear he might lose a close election, authorities said on Monday.  Lincoln County, West Virginia Sheriff Jerry Bowman admitted falsifying absentee ballots in a case stemming from an investigation by federal authorities, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.  Also pleading guilty to lying to investigators was Lincoln County Clerk Donald Whitten, the U.S. Attorney said.

Vote fraud… welcome to the third world, West Virginia.  Welcome home.

The owner of Bistro at the Bijou in downtown Knoxville booted state Sen. Stacey Campfield from her restaurant Sunday over his controversial comments on homosexuality and the origin of AIDS. The sign in front of the Bistro on Monday read, “Today’s Special: Fried Chicken. Crispy Chicken Livers. No Stacey.”

I’m sorry but if she had booted a black man just because he was black, or a gay woman just because she was gay, she would be rightly pilloried. I don’t agree with Campfield’s ignorance and I find him deplorable. But he’s entitled to his views and I’m disgusted with this Bistro owner. Were I previously inclined to eat there I would be disinclined to do so now.

Restaurant owner Martha Boggs didn’t take kindly to Campfield’s XM radio claims. “It was a spur of the moment decision to ask Mr. Campfield to leave, which he graciously did,” she said on Monday. “I just think his comments have gone from controversial to plain dangerous to give out the kind of misinformation that he has. And I thought it was important to show my support for the gay community and stand up to a bully, which he is,” Boggs said. “I just hope Mr. Campfield will re-think some of the comments he’s made.” “I am not sorry for what I did,” she added. “I just didn’t want to serve him.”

So, Miss Boggs, you’re a bigot. Good to know.  And it’s good to know that you only serve people who hold your views.  That’s bias in the extreme.  And that’s depraved.

Related articles

• Bistro at the Bijou owner boots, bans state Sen. Stacey Campfield for AIDS remarks (knoxnews.com)