Blog - Page 239 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Other Boleyn Girl

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:12-05:00March 2nd, 2008|Categories: Film|

There have been a number of movies made over the decades about King Henry VIII and his several wives. The story is well-known to most of us. This is the story which provides the context for The Other Boleyn Girl, a newly released film which is an adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s best-selling 2002 novel. Starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana the film works as both a romance and a study of how power corrupts people and families. It also provides an unusual opportunity for these two young starlets to show a certain skill in an entirely different movie genre.

The film views its familiar slice of 16th-century history through the eyes of two Boleyn sisters: Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson). I was told by a reader of the novel on leaving the theater that the film did not allow for the detail and development of the characters seen in the novel but then this is common when such […]

Prisons, Crime and American Society

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:12-05:00March 1st, 2008|Categories: Culture|

The number of adults imprisoned in the United States reached an all-time high according to a new report released late this week. With this report came a great deal of discussion about this problem.

There are 1.5 million people in U.S. prisons, nearly 1% of the adult population. The Pew Center reports that this has also led to even higher costs to the taxpayers in the U.S. Last year the fifty states spent $49 billion on corrections. (The federal government spent $1 billion on prisons.) This rate has been growing at 6% annually for twenty years. Over the same period of time real spending on prisons has risen 127% compared to 21% on higher education, to use but one contrast. The Pew Center report suggests that for all this money there hasn’t been a "convincing return for public safety."

The issue is indeed complex. I have spent some time inside prisons teaching and preaching. I have also studied the prison system, and its numerous problems, with some degree of interest. There is a lot about our system to not like. […]

Be Sure to Check Out My Newest Missional Blog

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:12-05:00February 29th, 2008|Categories: Missional Church|

As regular readers know I began a second blog spot a little less than a month ago. It is found at Transformissional Church on the Web.
This site is totally dedicated to writing and resources about missional theology and church themes. A great new resource is recommended, for example, on today’s blog (February 29). Be sure to check this site out and bookmark it.
I write less frequently on this new site but I try to put something new up at least three or four times a week. It will have a number of valuable resources, especially for pastors and church leaders who want to better understand the missional mandate and what those of us who use this term "missional" mean by this seemingly new word.

Angelina Jolie the Humanitarian

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:12-05:00February 29th, 2008|Categories: Uncategorized|

Hollywood personalities are know for promoting all kinds of causes, especially those that are often provocative and sensational. Sometimes, however, a person from Hollywood will surprise you. Such is the case with Angelina Jolie, the famous and hugely gifted actress.

Yesterday Jolie said that the reinforcement of troops in Iraq has created an opportunity for humanitarian programs to increase assistance for Iraqi refugees. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, titled "A Reason to Stay in Iraq," Jolie detailed the plight of refugees there and says that their conditions have improved since she last visited Iraq in August of 2007. Her first visit was meant to encourage governments to provide more support for the needs of suffering people.

Jolie has served as as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations since 2001. She was back in Baghdad earlier this month to once again underscore the refugee issue.

On this recent visit Jolie had the courage to actually talk with […]

Canvas

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:12-05:00February 28th, 2008|Categories: Film|

Mental illness is rarely portrayed in film and when it is the subject is even more rarely done really well. One of the first films to deal with the subject directly was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Then the best big time film on the subject won the Academy Award for best film: A Beautiful Mind. With a star like Russell Crowe it was clearly destined to be a great movie.

The first film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was brave and good, at least for the time. The second was unique and had powerful acting to boot. It was, simply put, memorable. I own it and will go back to it now and then just because it is such a great movie, period

So, I was not prepared for the 2007 award-winning movie Canvas to be such a good film when I borrowed it this week. It is a heart-warming story rooted in real facts, not fiction. The […]

Did Obama and the UCC Violate IRS Regulations on Non-Profits?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:13-05:00February 27th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

The IRS is investigating the United Church of Christ over a speech Barack Obama gave to its national meeting last year after he became a candidate for president. Obama is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC) in Chicago. AP reports that a spokesman for the denomination says it received notice of the inquiry on Monday.

The IRS says there is reason to believe the speech violated restrictions on political activity for nonprofit groups. The denomination denies any wrongdoing.
UCC officials say they had consulted with lawyers before the Barack Obama’s June 2007 speech and made clear before Obama’s address that he was speaking as a church member, not as a political candidate.

I seem to recall this speech well and do not think it was a partisan political speech. I confess I am suspicious that this would become an issue at this precise moment (February 25) but then I do not know what is in the mind of […]

Is John McCain too Old to Be President?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:14-05:00February 27th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

A common statement I have heard, begun first by Chuck Norris in his campaign endorsement for Mike Huckabee, is that John McCain is simply too old to become president. I have thought about this a lot since I am aging myself. I sure hope, if my health is as good as McCain’s at 71, that I can still produce good work and be a leader in my own context. Aging does slow one down, certainly, but experience and age both offer many positive benefits not respected enough in the West. History bears out the fact that some of our greatest leaders were beyond 70 years of age when they did their finest work.

Today a column in the Wall Street Journal by Ryan Cole, a DC based writer, raised this question and answered it better than anything I have read to this point. Whether you like John McCain or not this kind of thinking should put to rest the age question […]

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:14-05:00February 27th, 2008|Categories: Uncategorized|

The New York Times was once the most respected newspaper in America. It still includes some excellent material–especially that written by some of its best columnists. But the word ‘once" sums it up in this case. The Times has become the place where "news" stories are too often fiction presented as fact.

One of the Times first hoax stories made Al Sharpton’s career as a public figure. Do you remember Tawana Brawley, who said she had been gang-raped by a bunch of white men? She was lying and the Times had not done its homework at all. Then a few years ago
the Duke University "rape" fiasco became a Times story as well. Now we know better. In both cases the TimesThe Star looked more like a newsstand gossip paper like than a respectable mainstream paper.

Then there was the infamous […]

The Parties of Man Are Not the Parties of God

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:14-05:00February 26th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

Christians need a serious reminder eight months out from our national election, and still deep into the Democratic Primary season, that neither of our two major political parties are God’s political party. I write a great deal about political subjects but I wish to remind people, left and right and everywhere in between, that your political brand or ideology is not God’s party or brand. As Sojourners magazine said a few years ago: "God is not a Republican, and he is not a Democrat either." (The only problem with this slogan is the ideology behind it. The virtual endorsement of certain views and parties by Sojourners, especially by Jim Wallis, would lead one to conclude that they prefer the Democrats most of the time!)

There is a fine line here I suppose. I am an Independent who counts himself a moderate conservative on most issues and a moderate liberal on a few. I often vote Republican but then I have made some […]

Charles Barkley Should Stick to Basketball

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:14-05:00February 25th, 2008|Categories: Abortion|

Charles Barkley, the great basketball player who played at Auburn and had a storied NBA career, should definitely stick to commenting on sports. Recently Barkley endorsed pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and said he has problems with those who oppose abortion. Barkley endorsed Barack Obama, which in itself is his choice and I grant celebrities the right to make any statement that want for a candidate they believe in personally.

But Sir Charles, as he was often called, added, "Every time I hear the word ‘conservative,’ it makes me sick to my stomach, because they’re really just fake Christians, as I call them. That’s all they are." When Wolf Blitzer asked Barkley to explain the terms he was using Barkley condemned conservative Christians for wanting to be "judge and jury." He added, just for good measure: "I’m pro-choice. And I think these Christians–first of all, they’re supposed to be–they’re not supposed to judge other people. But they’re the most hypocritical judge […]