I missed the offensive part!

All I heard and saw was 30 seconds of a Mom telling her story about her son and then a website URL to find out more about the story! CBS did the right thing to air the commercial, and to ignore the critics. It was entirely within the rights of Focus on the Family to negotiate the deal and then air the public service message they wanted to get out. They have a constitutional right to do that and to spend their money as they choose. It was entirely appropriate for the best college football player in history to use the platform that he has earned to get out a personal message in a manner of his choosing. No one coerced him into doing this.

The fact remains, that had Bob and Pam Tebow followed their doctor’s advice, the world would not have Tim Tebow today. That’s a sobering thought that cannot be denied. How many other exceptional people like Tim have been sacrificed since Roe v. Wade? Could one of them have already found a cure for cancer? Could one of them have become the President of the United States? Run the numbers. The statistics say that we have sacrificed a huge resource on the altar of self convenience and expediency.

FocusOnTheFamily.com
Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life.

I applaud Tim’s parents for the choice for life that they made. I applaud Tim for speaking up for what he believes is best, and for putting those beliefs into action. I applaud Focus on the Family for getting the Tebow story out in a sensitive, classy, positive manner.

Resources

• Tim Tebow Foundation – exists to bring faith, hope and love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need.
• Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association – serving the Philippines
• Focus on the Family – More about the Tim Tebow Story

Their next event is the showing of a film called At the End of Slavery – the battle for justice in our time. It is scheduled for Monday evening, January 18 (Martin Luther King Day) at the Oak Park Public Library.

Get Event Details

I encourage as many of you as possible to attend and find out more about International Justice Mission.

RSVP

I would have to agree with Jay that the answers is “Yes” when “capitalism” is properly understood and practiced. This view is counter to a growing number of young American evangelicals who are buying into the viewpoints of evangelical activists such as Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, who criticize the “capitalist” system and argue that in a nation as wealthy as America the government can and should take care of the poor.

It was good to hear Jay make a very good point that in order to be a Christian, there is no imperative that one must be a capitalist. Rather, Christians my hold to many different economic and political viewpoints and remain Christian. However, this does not mean that all the possible viewpoints are equally valid. Jay states that he believes “capitalism” rightly understood actually reflects the Christian worldview and values more closely than any other economic system, and that the Christian worldview actually contributed strongly to the rise of capitalism. I agree.

What do you think?

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has a long history of promoting the culture of free enterprise. Last year they embarked on The Project on Values and Capitalism, seeking to engage in a conversation with evangelical college students on the topics of economics, values and faith. Here are links to resources that I found very enlightening.

• Marvin Olasky – Speaking on: “Social Justice, Free Markets and Evangelicals” – (audio file)
• Jay W. Richards speaking on: “Can Christians Be Capitalists? – (audio file)
• P. J. Hill, professor of economics at Wheaton College, discussed the Christian doctrines of Imago Dei and the Fall and their implications for a Christian understanding of social institutions. A transcript of his remarks are available here.

Looking for more? Try: American Enterprise Institute YouTube Channel

Additionally, Arthur Brooks, President of AEI spoke on Thursday, January 7, at Calvin College on: “The New American Culture War.” Read his Wall Street Journal article about The Real Culture War Is Over Capitalism: Tea parties, ‘ethical populism,’ and the moral case against redistribution.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed the incredible computer generated graphics and special effects that made the other world (Pandora), otherworldly. The story was interesting too… how these future earth humans could link up a human with a “genetically engineered” avatar version of themselves, one mixed with the DNA of the local world inhabitants. This genetic combo produced some pretty interesting “blue people” avatars (See Jake Sully below).

Neytiri and the Avatar of Jake Sully

The biggest problem I had with this movie was the worldview that the filmmaker “preached” to me during the whole thing. It went like this…

• Humans are bad
• They destroy the environment of their own world
• They move on to other worlds and destroy those as well
• They form evil capitalistic corporations that are only interested in the bottom line
• Humans/corporations do bad things like kill innocent indigenous beings just to make a buck

On the other hand…

• Native indigenous humanoids are pure and near perfect
• The indigenous humanoids may be more technologically “primitive” but they are in tune with Nature
• Native indigenous humanoids are “spiritual” and can connect with the “spirit” of all animate and inanimate things and are therefore superior to earth humans
• They apparently can only do good
• Only humans that understand the value of these indigenous humanoids and work with and for them are noble and worth anything
• In the end the “good” guys (indigenous natives) win against the bad guys (earthlings) through the power of their superior spiritual networking with the planet.

I mean, I love a good “evil vs. good” sci-fi/fantasy epic thriller as much as the next guy… but this kind of overt anti-human, environment-worshipping, nature-spiritualizing preachiness was just too much.

It doesn’t even come close to Lord of the Rings – still the master standard in my book.

Before his death in 2008 from throat cancer, he had became an outspoken skeptic of man-made global warming and wrote and spoke on the topic and environmentalism in general. I reviewed his book, State of Fear in 2007 which deals with the topic of man-made global warming.

This is an interesting video clip where he comments on Environmentalism as a religion through his training in anthropology. I think his perspective is very interesting and informative. What do you think?

Ideas on Liberty, Religion and Society

A friend recently asked me to put together some resources on the conservative economic and political worldview (especially from an evangelical Christian perspective), so that he could become better informed on this viewpoint. I decided to turn my research and information gathering into a blog post so that others might benefit from it as well. These are all resources that I have used, still use and/or tap into to stay informed on this general topic. You will notice that I shy away from the shrill, reactionary and negative approach of some “conservatives” in favor of a more thoughtful, engaging and reasoned approach.

This post will be updated as I gather more information. Please leave your comments below on additional recommendations!

Newsletters

• Hillsdale College – “Imprimis” (FREE)
• “The Freeman“ – Free E-newsletter of The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

Magazines

• World Magazine – We subscribe and get the print version – delivered every 2 weeks.
  • Africa Rising – Mindy Belz
  • Minding Africa’s Business – Mindy Belz, Alisa Harris
  • Godly Endeavor – Marvin Olasky
• Christianity Today – We subscribe to the print version, however all content is eventually posted online
• National Review – Founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.
• US News & World Report

Books

• “Money, Greed and God“ – Jay W. Richards
• “Economics Does Not Lie“ – Guy Sorman
• “Human Action: A Treatise on Economics“ – Ludwig von Mises
• “The Search for God and Guinness“ - Stephen Mansfield
• “Infidel“ – by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• “The Law“ – by Frederic Bastiat - This is a relatively short book, dealing with the correct role of government, law, and true justice. It draws on a Christian worldview in terms of private property rights, but is mainly just logic-based. It is a little academic but still an easy read.
• “What We Can’t Not Know” – J. Budziszewski
• “Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity“ – James D. Gwartney (Florida State University), Richard L. Stroup (Montana State University) and Dwight R. Lee (University of Georgia)

Essays-Articles

• “I, Pencil“ by Leonard E. Read - This short essay explains how the coordination needed to make a simple pencil is its own kind of miracle. Example of what society can do without a central planner.
• “Imago Dei and the Fall: The Implications of Two Christian Doctrines for Economics” - Lecture by Dr. PJ Hill, Professor of Economics at Wheaton College - My son Marshall saw Dr. Hill give this lecture in November 2009 at the American Enterprise Institute in DC. After reading this myself, it is a tremendously coherent argument for why free-markets are the best economic system, based on the foundational Christian beliefs about how God originally created humans and the reality of how we’ve fallen.
• “The Problem with Conservatism” - J. Budziszewski
• “The Problem with Liberalism” - J. Budziszewski
“I, Pencil” by Leonard E. Read
This short essay explains how the coordination needed to make a simple pencil is its own kind of miracle. Example of what society can do without a central plannerby Leonard E. ReThis short essay explains how the coordination needed to make a simple pencil is its own kind of miracle. Example of what society can do without a central planner.

Authors-Thinkers-Speakers-Economists

• Dinesh D’Souza – Thinker, author, columnist – heard him speak at a Ravi Zacharias event
• Marvin Olasky – the personal series describing his path from Communism to a conservative-Christian it a must read
• Michael Novak – Theologian and Author
• Thomas Sowell – African-American Economist, Professor, Author, Thinker
• Chuck Colson – Breakpoint, Prison Fellowship, author of many great books on Christian faith and culture
• Mark Steyn – Author and columnist, who also happens to be Canadian
• Walter Williams – Professor of Economics at George Mason University
• Milton Friedman – Nobel Prize-winner in Economics
• Friedrich Hayek - advocate of Austrian Economics

Websites-Blogs

• Townhall.com
• Free Republic
• First Things
• Institute of Economic Affairs – UK
• Who Really Cares? – Charitable Giving Stats

Organizations

• The Acton Institute
• The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
• Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
• The Center for Vision and Values – Grove City College
• The Hoover Institution of Stanford University

Media

• “John Adams” – HBO Mini-series
• “Liberty, Rights and the American Founding“ – FEE Seminar on YouTube
• WIND Radio 560 AM –  Chicago Talk Radio
• “The Call of the Entrepreneur” – This video by the Acton Institute tells the story of 3 different entrepreneurs and demonstrates the true value that entrepreneurs create for society, weaving in aspects of Christianity. It gives the conservative view of businessmen and wealth, not as evil but as a beneficial part of society.

Some Western analysts describe the religious revivals around the world in terms of the growth of “fundamentalism.” This is the fallacy of ethnocentrism, of seeing the world through the lens of our own homegrown prejudices. Remember that fundamentalism is a term drawn from Protestant Christianity. It is an American coinage that refers to a group of early twentieth-century Protestant activists who organized against Darwinian evolution and who championed the literal reading of the Bible. Fundamentalism is a meaningless term outside of this context.

I couldn’t agree more. So, can someone please explain to me what this word has to do with the Taliban or any other militant religious extremist? Can we agree to stop using this term indiscriminately and focus on what we are really meaning to say?

As Catherine Barsotti and Robert Johnston say in their helpful book, Finding God in the Movies: 33 Films of Reel Faith,“ Successful movies do not merely transplant us somewhere new; they inspire us to become one with one of the characters.” And this film certainly does that. We look at the Holocaust through the eyes of an 8-year-old whose country and family would have him believe that the Jews were enemies and were getting what they deserved. But Bruno’s childlike identification with Shmuel tells him otherwise. — Breakpoint.org

This is a very powerful, emotionally gripping story with implications for our current culture and world situation. I encourage any adult who reads this blog post to go see the film, or read the book (it is not for children!)… then sit down over coffee with some friends and have an open discussion about it. There is a discussion guide available below to help.

Watch the movie trailer (above)

Book: Boy In the Striped Pajamas (Movie Tie-in Edition)

Discussion Guide: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

May we never forget.