Blog - Page 252 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Film and Racism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:36-05:00November 15th, 2007|Categories: Race and Racism|

I am drawn to films about the subject of racism. I grew up in the deep South during the pre-civil rights era and thus still remember the blatant divisions along the lines of color and race. I also went through the first years of integration at the University of Alabama in the 1960s and remember, as if it was still yesterday, how blacks were treated on campus in those days. And, most important, there was one person in my childhood, Hassie Tubbs, who had almost as much influence on my life as my two parents. Hassie was our maid but she was also our care-giver who watched me and loved me like a mother. She was a devoted, selfless person and a faithful Christian. Her family also became a vital personal part of my family. So, I am drawn to seek deeper understanding of that era and film often provides a way for me to enter into that world with my senses and heart.

Last evening I watched the 1999 HBO film (DVD) A Lesson Before Dying, starring Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) and […]

Do Not Stress Community as an End in Itself

By John Armstrong|2007-11-15T08:00:58-06:00November 15th, 2007|Categories: Renewal|

For thirty years or more I have talked about the need for community. I have also stated the obvious, i.e., community cannot happen in large church settings, at least not in most ordinary circumstances where we actually live day-in and day-out. I have, therefore, urged churches to seek community life in smaller settings, to pray for it, to cultivate it, to intentionally pursue it. I am convinced now that my emphasis was wrong. Let me explain.

Richard Rohr, the Catholic Franciscan spiritual writer, often provokes me. I disagree with him about a great deal, especially politically. But I read him precisely because he has a lot to say to me that I need to think about and then put into my life in appropriate ways. I am reading his book, Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go (Crossroad, revised edition 2003) this week in my morning devotional reading. Understand that Rohr has spent his life building community among lay people, first in Ohio and now in New Mexico. Writing about his own lay movement Rohr says: "We place no special emphasis on community in […]

Milton Friedman: A Sane Voice for Our Times

By John Armstrong|2007-11-14T11:54:26-06:00November 14th, 2007|Categories: Economy/Economics|

The late Milton Friedman (1912-2006), winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, was one of the best and the brightest of the twentieth century. He not only impacted scholars and academics but he also impacted the lives of ordinary people the world over, but not in ordinary ways. You would be hard pressed, if the truth is known, to name one economist in our lifetime who impacted so many lives for so much good as Milton Friedman. I am utterly serious in saying this. I am thus appalled at how few Christians know or care about the thought of this man and how much it contributed to the good of so many in this world.

You may say, at first glance, how can you write this when Milton Friedman was an agnostic who disavowed the role of religion in economics so consistently. I answer, "The man’s ideas were right and his religious views have nothing to do with the rightness of what he taught about economics." He did recognize that values were necessary to sustain a solid economy but he saw no […]

The Leadership Crisis and the Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:36-05:00November 13th, 2007|Categories: Renewal|

Is there really a crisis of confidence in leadership throughout America? Polls say there is and anecdotal evidence is abundant. The Center for Public Leadership/U.S. News survey says the rise in lack of confidence in America’s leadership is up 7% from last year. Nearly 80% of us believe the country will decline unless we get better leaders soon. The president’s numbers are very bad, but those for congress are much worse. And most people think that we are moving, as a nation, in a negative direction. When asked to compare things to twenty years ago most Americans believe that we are in far worse shape today.

When the type of leaders are separated by various categories it becomes even more interesting. The highest level of confidence is in military leaders, followed by medical leaders and then the Supreme Court. Religious leaders rank fourth and at the bottom of the fourteen categories listed are the media and entertainers. Both liberals and conservatives responded similarly to many of the same questions when it came to the question of confidence in leadership.

First […]

Lars and the Real Girl: A Surprisingly Good Film

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:37-05:00November 12th, 2007|Categories: Film|

Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) is a quiet and super introverted single man with a dull office job in a small Midwestern town. He refuses to engage in good natured social jousting with his co-workers and shrinks from the flirtatious attention of a co-office worker, Margo (Kelli Garner). Margo shines as a caring, thoughtful but a bit ditzy, sweetheart. Lars attends the local Lutheran Church regularly and lives in the garage apartment behind the childhood home occupied by his brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), and pregnant wife, Karin (Emily Mortimer). Karin is continually worried that Lars is friendless and needs companionship and human interaction, which is clearly the case.

Six weeks into the story Lars makes an announcement that he has been joined by a companion, the lovely Bianca, a half-Brazilian, half-Danish missionary, wheelchair bound, young woman raised by nuns, whom he met on the Web. Gus and Karin are thrilled Lars had found companionship until they find out that Bianca is a custom-ordered, anatomically correct, silicone doll. Gus does some online research and then becomes totally appalled at his younger brother’s delusional behavior. […]

Will Israel Strike Iran?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:37-05:00November 11th, 2007|Categories: Current Affairs|

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejab’s boast that his nation now has 3,000 operating centrifuges is seen by some U. S. military sources as the "tipping point" that might lead Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities very soon. If Israel launches such a preemptive strike it will not be the first time. The London Times, in a weekend edition, said the U.S. is reluctant to launch an attack but Israel is a "different matter." Even Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak said a military strike was an option for dealing with this Iranian threat to Israel’s security, noting: "We cannot take any option off the table."

Centrifuges are used in enriching uranium, a process that can be used to produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead. Experts says 3,000 centrifuges are sufficient to produce a nuclear warhead within a year or less. Time is running out and I expect Israel will not sit back and allow this to happen without response. Given the threat that Iran poses to them you can’t blame Israel one iota. After all it is Ahmadinejab who […]

No. 1 Loses Again

By John Armstrong|2007-11-10T19:02:21-06:00November 10th, 2007|Categories: College Football|

Well, it doesn’t pay to be ranked No. 1 this year in college football. No. 1 lost again today. This time it was the Buckeyes of Ohio State losing to the up-and-coming Fighting Illini of Illinois in a classic football game. Juice Williams is as exciting a young multi-talented QB as there is in the game and he’s only a sophomore. And who says Ron Zook is not a good coach? Florida didn’t think so but this guy can recruit and he can build a program out of nothing. A few years ago this was one of the worst programs in all of college football.

One of the worst now is, and I do not want to beat a proverbial dead horse, clearly Notre Dame. This is the first ND team to ever lose nine games and they still have two more to play. And it is the first time since 1944 that they have lost to two service academy teams in the same year. Things are pretty dreary in South Bend and I am not talking about the weather. (I promise […]

The Problem of a Perpetual Youth Culture

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:37-05:00November 10th, 2007|Categories: Culture|

The transition that is surely coming to America (and the Church as well), as the baby boom generation reaches retirement age, is hard to predict. The impact will be great, if for no other reason than this—this generation is so large in number and influence.

One of the major problems, as I see it, is that people grow up very slowly in our culture. I know this is true for most of us in the baby boom generation and some of those who are so slow to grow up are the leaders of this generation. People are perpetually working out their identity problems on television, on the Internet, in various groups, etc. And the Church becomes a place where a lot of this is being done, or at least we are attempting to do it. This is one reason why we promoted "small groups" for the past twenty years or so. Robert Wuthnow has some important social research on small groups but I am pretty convinced that the way they are conceived and directed within most local churches is a failure. (The […]

Joseph Leiberman is an American Patriot and Hero

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:37-05:00November 10th, 2007|Categories: Politics|

I admire Senator Joseph Lieberman. I admit it without the slightest bit of hesitation. I can’t think of anyone in public life, or at least in public political life, who is as far to the left on some social issues as Lieberman is, and yet at the same time inspires me personally to hope and believe that non-partisanship and true courage is not dead in America. The way he responded to his defeat in the primary election in 2006, the way he responded to the radical fringe of his own party during that time, and the way he has practiced his faith in public and in private have all inspired me. This man is a real American hero, period!

Yesterday, Senator Lieberman lashed out at what he called the politically paranoid, hyper-partisan role the Democratic Party has developed in opposing Republicans concerning a strong foreign policy. Lieberman suggested that the guiding conviction in foreign policy is not pacifism or isolationism. (When I first read this I thought to myself, "Joe, this time you must be wrong.") No, Lieberman believes that the guiding policy […]

Idealism Will Burn You Out

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:37-05:00November 9th, 2007|Categories: Spirituality|

I grew up in the 1960s generation. That tells you a lot really. We were disillusioned, on a very profound level, yet very idealistic on another. I adopted elements of both of these as my own intellectual and spiritual life developed over the decades that followed. In my first two decades of adult life and ministry, serving as a pastor in the local church, I was mostly an idealist. I dreamed about making a huge difference by pastoring a faithful and biblical flock. Over the last fifteen years, or so, I have had to resist the opposite extreme, disillusionment. This period of time corresponds to my present ministry with ACT 3. I have seen so much that breaks my heart, in me and in others, that I wonder about the whole business.

I am actually never far from falling off the wagon on either side. I am too often driven by my vision of what things could be, or ought to be, but my age now (58) tends to take that away after years of real experience. The danger now is to become […]