Blog - Page 235 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Juan Williams on King, Obama and Race

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:00-05:00April 4th, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

One of my favorite writers and news commentators is Juan Williams. He has told the story of the African-American experience as well as any black writer that I know. He is intelligent, seemingly a moderate liberal politically, and speaks truth in ways that I think are helpful and insightful. (He is also a thoughtful Christian.) His opinion column in today’s Wall Street Journal is an excellent follow-up to my blog on the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., forty years ago today.

What is the legacy of Dr. King? How does Obama relate to it and how should we view his staying at Trinity United Church of Christ for twenty years under Wright’s leadership. As always Juan Williams forced me to rethink a couple of my own points and he also opened some new ones that I think are a serious part of the race conversation we are having at this moment.

Forty Years Ago Today

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:00-05:00April 4th, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

It was one of those days you never forget. I remember precisely where I was when I heard the news, standing on the balcony of my second floor apartment across the street from the football stadium on the campus of the University of Alabama. I feared for the future of my country and what would happen. I refer, of course, to the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee, at the young age of only 39 on April 4.

It was hard to believe at that precise moment. I feared rioting would be unleashed and our society impacted profoundly. Both proved to be true as the weeks unfolded. Later that year the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was shot in Los Angeles just after winning the California primary.
These two deaths, in such a […]

The Nation's "Preacher-in-Chief"

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:01-05:00April 3rd, 2008|Categories: Politics|

Sally Bedell Smith is a bestselling author who has given us the best portrait we have of the Bill and Hillary Clinton years in the White House. She is not a partisan, revealing nothing of an agenda to promote or attack the Clintons, much like several biographers who have written about Bill alone.
Smith’s excellent book, For Love of Politics, is an immensely interesting, even entertaining, sketch of how this couple navigated personal issues as well as politics for eight years as a team. (Make no mistake about it they are a team!)

Today I cite only one comment from the book. Special negotiations were underway to sign NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Bill learned of secret negotiations, without U.S. involvement, that had been underway in Norway for months to try and solve the issue of the Palestinians and the West Bank/Gaza Strip debate. Bill, being quick to grasp the value of being seen between Rabin and Arafat invited them to […]

Can Christ Be Truly Glorified in Blogging?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:01-05:00April 1st, 2008|Categories: Personal|

I just concluded a phone conversation with a young man that I deeply respect. He is a well-trained brother in New Testament studies with an advanced degree in the field, some years of pastoral experience and is now working in the marketplace. He gives me great insights and a lot of loving input as my friend and peer. I feel like he is my son, at times, and love him dearly. He is also a guy who thinks both biblically and outside the box of conservative/liberal Christian political correctness.

As we spoke on the phone I shared with my friend a growing doubt about the value and place of blogging, or at least the kind of blogging that I have done for nearly four years now. What I have done is similar, at least in form, to what almost everyone else is doing in this Internet medium. Here are the positives I see in such blogging:

1. I am a writer and […]

A Roman Catholic and Reformed Forum on the Eucharist

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:01-05:00March 29th, 2008|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

Tomorrow evening, at 6:00 p.m., ACT 3 is pleased to host another one of its regular forums for the general public. This one will feature Father Thomas Baima and myself on the subject of the Lord’s Supper. Tom contributed the Catholic chapter to my book, Understanding Four Views on the Lord’s Supper. The book also includes a Lutheran, Baptist and Reformed view of the Eucharist. I hold to the Reformed view. So the two views we shall discuss tomorrow are from these two different perspectives. The event will not be an acrimonious debate but a dialog among friends. Tom and I have shared much personal fellowship over the last four or five years. We have also shared the same platform a number of times now.

I am well aware that there are those who think such an event is, in itself, a "sell out." Obviously, I think otherwise or I would not take part in it. I believe that you would learn […]

Economic Plans Do Matter: Keeping Markets and Morality Close Together

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:01-05:00March 28th, 2008|Categories: Economy/Economics|

As Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton draw nearer to a very important primary race in Pennsylvania they seem to continually seek to "one-up" each other with the newest economic solution packages for what they think will gain votes for their respective campaigns.
One cannot be exactly sure what they are actually promising voters without a good deal of careful reading. Says one writer in a paper today, "They often appear to be playing a game of policy leapfrog." Sen. Clinton proposed a $30 billion package on Monday that would provide grants and loans to localities so they can acquire foreclosed properties, make improvements and then sell them. The aim, she says, is to head off big clusters of foreclosures that can undermine neighborhoods.

Then yesterday Senator Obama countered Clinton with his own $30 billion package, although he says his would help financially […]

Our Economy Will Grow Again if Washington Allows It

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:01-05:00March 28th, 2008|Categories: Economy/Economics|

There is a great deal of low-level panic in the public and private sectors over the American economy. The housing market is bad and the cost of fuel keeps rising. Unemployment has grown. Inflation, a huge problem in the 1970s, is still not a major cause for concern. Syndicated columnist and financial adviser Lawrence Kudlow
expressed my thoughts perfectly when he wrote last week: "I applaud the Fed for backstopping the financial system and preventing a run on the whole banking sector. That’s what it’s there to do. Treasury Secretary Paulson said repeatedly, ‘the government is prepared to do what it takes to maintain the stability of our financial system.’ He is absolutely right. So is President Bush, who said ‘we’ve taken strong and decisive action in challenging times,’ adding that ‘in the long run our economy is going to be fine.’"

The panic that many feel is not rooted in real long-term prospects so long as Washington does not try to over-correct […]

A Nazi Story Like Very Few I Have Seen on Film

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:01-05:00March 27th, 2008|Categories: Film|

Sophie Scholl was a bright, committed, serious 22-year old woman who joined a growing resistance of various intellectuals and students in 1942-43 to oppose Adolf Hitler. Scholl ended up paying for her involvement by being arrested, interrogated and beheaded, all within six short days in the summer of 1943. She was part of what was known as The White Rose, a student resistance group that produced a series of six leaflets to undermine their government following their miserable military defeat at Stalingrad, a defeat that cost so many German lives and showed where the future would lead under German national-socialism. This led to the idea of "All Our War, " a new phase which would foolishly lead to the death of millions more, both Germans and the Western allies who fought against them.

Director Marc Rothemund, using long-buried historical records, beautifully recreates Sophie Scholl’s last six days in this moving 2006 movie, now available on DVD: Sophie Scholl—The Final Days. The film […]

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:02-05:00March 26th, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

The seventy-minute documentary film, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, is a genuinely shocking account of the brutal murder of a fourteen year Chicago African-American boy in Money, Mississippi, in 1955. His simple offense was whistling at a white woman in a public place. The Emmett Till story shocked many Americans, especially outside the Deep South, and thereby became the real public spark for the Civil Rights movement. Indeed, you cannot understand the rise of the Civil Rights era without this story. Before Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., before James Meredith and Medgar Evers, there was Emmett Louis Till. And there his very brave mother Mamie Till-Mobley, who courageously insisted on having an open coffin at his funeral so that the entire nation could really see what happened to her boy. (The sheriff in Mississippi had tried to bury Emmett Till’s body before anyone could see it.)

Emmett Till, the only child of Mamie Till-Mobley of Chicago, was sent by […]

Two Personal Prayer Requests

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:02-05:00March 25th, 2008|Categories: Personal|

I appreciate the fact that hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of you who read these blogs pray for me and the mission of ACT 3 in some way. I am in your debt. I write this short blog to make two specific requests:

1. Tomorrow I will undergo foot surgery for about an hour. Two different procedures will be done on the same foot that I had surgery on two-plus years ago. I will be resting for a few days and then should be able to move around in a special post-surgery shoe.
I hope to preach on Sunday, March 30, at First Reformed Church in South Holland and then share the platform with Fr. Tom Baima in our ACT 3 Forum on Sunday evening at Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church. See our Web site home page for information.

2. Our ministry, like so many non-profits of this type, goes through financial ups and downs in the course of twelve months. We have […]