Blog - Page 237 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Obama's Speech on Race: Where Do We Go From Here?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:04-05:00March 19th, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

One thing is certain about Barack Obama’s speech on Monday morning about his relationship with Dr. Jeremiah Wright, his pastor for twenty years—nothing is certain!

1. We do not know the full nature of their private relationship and never will. Personally, I do not think we need to know about their friendship, in every detail. This has even been the legal position of America for many years regarding pastors and the private life of their parishioners.

2. Jeremiah Wright said some hateful and seriously wrong things. Everyone, generally speaking, agrees with this assessment unless they are radically to the Left. The question here is “context” and “hermeneutics.” What did he mean? Why did he say it? What do we make of his ministry in the larger picture of things?
After watching this story for hours now I conclude that we […]

Even Money: The Evils of Gambling Exposed in a Film Noir

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:04-05:00March 19th, 2008|Categories: Film|

Even Money is an eye-opening gritty film noir that begins with scenes featuring cops, dead bookies and family dysfunction.
To this add a top-level criminal, who speaks but who you do not see him until him in a rather stunning conclusion, and you have a pretty good film. But this is not just another film about gambling. It shows the dark consequences in a revealing light.

For the past decade or so Hollywood has made a huge success of disparate interlocking stories. Some of them work. Some don’t. Even Money is such a film. The producer puts the story into a web that eventually goes somewhere with a pretty dramatic conclusion. The cast is excellent, featuring proven stars like Danny DeVito, Kim Basinger, Kelsey Garmmer, Ray Liota, Joy Mohr, Tim Roth, Nick Cannon and Forest Whitaker. The plot is clever and the suspense is tightly structured so as to leave the viewer on the edge of their seat during the last thirty […]

Hannah Montana: Pop Culture Does Matter

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:04-05:00March 18th, 2008|Categories: Culture|

Many Christians I know, who live in the world of the intellect and academic interests as I generally do, pay little or no attention to popular culture unless they are forced to do so. I mean who really cares about Madonna or Mariah Carey, who both made the newspapers today. Well, apparently lots of people do thus we call this "pop" culture and it is big in our society. And who honestly cared about the $48.6 settlement of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills in their divorce settlement yesterday in a British court? Apparently, once again, a lot of people did. The media may create some of this pop culture but generally they respond to what people are interested in as well.

Christians who are interested in "high culture" (so-called) tend to laugh at all this. I did that for about a decade. I still have very little interest in much of it but I no longer laugh since I want to communicate with people who live in the world of pop culture. This seems to be the majority of Americans if you’ve […]

Calvin on Reconciliation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:04-05:00March 18th, 2008|Categories: Biblical Theology|

For some reason I took my book, Calvin’s Wisdom (ed. Graham Miller) down from the shelf this morning and began reading quotations about reconciliation. I find Calvin far more interesting than Calvinists most of the time. Calvinists sometimes read him but often do not understand him.
By this approach they miss the "real Calvin" and even drive readers away from his work. Non-Calvinists, especially passionate anti-Calvinists, rarely read him and only know some of the things (e.g., predestination, etc.) he said that they profoundly disagree with. By this approach they miss the richness of the man’s great mind and strongly biblical theology. I love Calvin, do not always agree with him, but find my soul almost always fed by him.

Most of the quotes I read this morning had to do with Christ reconciling us to God the Father by his own sacrifice, surely a proper reminder in this Holy Week season. Here is one example:

"Christ propitiated God by his own […]

St. Patrick Was a Really Missional Christian

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 17th, 2008|Categories: Church Tradition|

St. Patrick, whose life is celebrated this day, was a truly amazing Christian. I remember when I first heard of him as a young boy. The famous W. A. Criswell preached a sermon titled: "St. Patrick Was a Baptist Preacher." That is a stretch, to say the least, but his point was more right than wrong in so far as Patrick was a great evangelist and missionary in the mold of the Baptists. I then began to read more about him and then after reading How the Irish Saved Civilization I decided to pursue this man’s life even more. I have to say that he is one of my favorite Christians of all time. If we were to grasp the missional spirit and vision of St. Patrick we might actually make a major impact on the West.

Here is a great prayer of St. Patrick’s to help you celebrate this very special day in Church history:

St. Patrick’s Prayer

[…]

Black Theology and Black Churches

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 17th, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

The heart of my post re: Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright was not about politics. It was about race and how we perceive race in the American Church. Because I believe we must learn to listen to voices that we do not normally hear well I suggested that we try to hear this story in a less condemning way than we are prone to hear it as white Christians.

In today’s issue of the Wall Street Journal there is a fine article titled: "Blunt Sermons Rooted in Black Tradition." The new pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Otis Moss III, the son of civil rights leaders, preached a sermon yesterday titled: "Why the Black Church Won’t Shut Up." He described how Jesus led the poor to Jerusalem, likening their plight to that of blacks under Jim Crow laws and the slaves who were shipped from Africa. Said Rev. Moss, "I’m sorry we’re a noisy bunch but if I shut up, […]

John McCain on Hannity's Sunday Interview

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 16th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

My wife called me this evening to watch Sean Hannity’s interview with Senator John McCain. As many of you know Sean Hannity was extremely critical of McCain during the primaries.
He did a very candid interview tonight and raised several of his objections quite fairly. I felt McCain handled them honestly and without attempting to curry favor with people who do not like him on some "hot issues." What interested me in particular was John McCain’s answer to the Jeremiah Wright/Barack Obama story of the past four days. He told Hannity that he "sincerely believed" Obama’s answers on Friday evening were truthful and that he would not turn this pastor and parishioner story into a political issue. He condemned the pastor’s inflammatory and hateful speech but he also said, "Senator Obama is a decent man and if he says something I believe him. I profoundly disagree with him politically and I will campaign hard against him but I do not intend to turn this […]

Peggy Noonan Asks the Right Question

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 16th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

Peggy Noonan was a speech writer for Ronald Reagan. She also wrote a better-then-average biography of Pope John Paul II. A devout Catholic she is both an insight political thinker and a keen observer of what makes a person able to explain things clearly so as to motivate others to follow them.

In her weekly column in the Wall Street Journal this past Saturday Noonan posed several questions about Senator John McCain’s campaign and his reigning philosophy of leadership. She noted:

"One always wonders with Mr. McCain: What exactly does he feel passionately about, what great question? Or rather, what does he stand for, really? For he often shows passion, but he rarely speaks of meaning (emphasis mine). The issues that summon his full engagement are issues on which he’s been challenged by his party and others. McCain, to McCain, is defined by his maverickness. That’s who he is. (It’s the theme of his strikingly good memoir, Worth the Fighting […]

Barack Obama and Racism: How Should Christians Respond

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 15th, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

By now everyone has seen, or heard, some of the exceedingly provocative clips taken from Dr. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons in which he advocates his Afro-centric black liberation views. Under normal circumstances Wright’s opinions would not much matter to a national audience, since there are a number of black pastors (and for that matter many white liberal pastors) who would agree with him about much of what he says in these sermons. But Jeremiah Wright happened to have been Barack Obama’s pastor and friend for the past twenty years.

Over the last 48 hours this has been the biggest political news story in the American media. I have tried to read and listen to this story quite a bit over the past few days. For some this proves once-and-for-all that Barack Obama is a racist. For others it proves nothing of the kind. One thing is clear here: To objectively confront the implications of Obama’s personal relationship with his pastor is an extremely […]

J. I. Packer on Happiness

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 14th, 2008|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

I was very blessed, about thirty or more years ago, to get to know Dr. James I. Packer as a person. He very humbly responded to me as a younger man and gospel minister and not only preached for me but came to my home on several occasions. This began a long-term friendship that has been one of God’s real gifts to my life. Writing this could sound like I am name-dropping but the fact is we are friends and have shared many hours of personal fellowship, conversation and prayer over these years.

For this, and several other reasons, I found two things about Jim Packer extremely interesting this past week. First, there is his excellent article posted on Christianity Today’s site on "Happiness." I encourage you to click the link and read Packer’s wonderfully warm and evangelical piece. Several years […]