Blog - Page 266 of 318 - John H Armstrong

How Baseball Reflects the Culture Debates

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:16-05:00June 7th, 2007|Categories: Baseball|

This entry is not as much about baseball as about culture and how baseball mirrors problems within the culture. I once had a friend who played in the Major Leagues for five seasons tell me that baseball, with its various social and personal problems, is no better and no worse than culture in general. It tends to present a large stage upon which we can see a reflection of our popular culture in general. I agree with this analysis.

A famous and talented baseball player named Gary Sheffield, who plays for the Detroit Tigers, recently did an interview for GQ Magazine. Gary has a long history of making outrageous statements and attracting lots of attention. He seems, off and on, to simmer with anger below the surface. A few years ago Gary openly declared himself to be a Christian, along with his wife who is a gospel singer. He has played for four or five teams over his career, including the Atlanta Braves. When Sheff was a young player he admits to fielding a ball at third base and throwing it into the […]

The Chicago Cubs and Their Somewhat Lovable Losing Ways

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:16-05:00June 6th, 2007|Categories: Baseball|

Anyone living in Chicago, baseball fan or not, is forced to hear a great deal about the Chicago Cubs, like it or not. Love them or hate them, they dominate the sports scene here for six months every year. They are the darlings of many, many fans and most of the media. Their appeal in this great city far exceeds that of their cross-town rivals, the Chicago White Sox, who always come in second in polls and total fan base. The White Sox won a World Series Championship in 2005 but the Cubs will celebrate 100 years without a World Series Championship next year yet their place is sold-out for every game. Go figure.

As most of my readers know I am a big lifetime baseball fan. I love this game with a passion. But I am not a Cubs fan! I find many Cubs fans insufferably mercurial, even passive-aggressive. (I number some very good friends, and a few donors to ACT 3, among my friends who are Cubs fans. None of them fit this category so I am being broad in my […]

Thomas Merton on the Road Ahead

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:16-05:00June 5th, 2007|Categories: Spirituality|

Thomas Louis Merton (1915-1968) was an American monk and writer who was born in Prades, France, the son of artists. In his teen years he was orphaned and then lived a very unsettled life until he moved to the United States in 1935. (His mother was an American.) After studying literature at Columbia University he became familiar with Catholicism and after study and prayer entered the Catholic Church in 1938. (Not your typical spiritual journey, via literature at Columbia University, to the church.)

Merton then taught at both Columbia and St. Bonaventure, writing poetry and fiction on the side. In 1941 he entered a Trappist Abbey in Gethsemani, Kentucky. His monastic name was Brother Louis. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1949. It was his spiritual autobiography, The Seven Story Mountain (1948), that brought him the first international fame that he received. It became a huge best-seller and continues to sell to this day. From 1949, until his untimely death from electrocution in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1968, Thomas Merton published prolifically and maintained extensive personal correspondence with numerous people, famous and […]

Death: Our Enemy

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:16-05:00June 4th, 2007|Categories: Death|

I have been shaken over the weekend by two deaths. One was closer to me personally. A man, who showed very few signs of being that close to taking his own life, decided last Wednesday night that it was time to end it. He was loved by those who really knew him. He was also a humble servant who was known in his small community as a deeply caring individual. My personal dealings with him, here and there over the course of nearly forty years, were always pleasant. He was kind, gentle and always loved children. He had reached a point of deep financial stress and thus came to believe that he had nothing else to live for in the coming years. Simply put, he lost all hope. He said that he did not fear death. So life had no more appeal and death was preferable. When the news came on Friday morning I was shocked. Various people whom I deeply love are now touched profoundly by this tragedy. My words to them are very few. My thoughts are filled with compassion, thus I […]

Trinity Sunday: The Doctrine By Which the Church Stands or Falls

By John Armstrong|2007-06-03T11:11:36-05:00June 3rd, 2007|Categories: The Trinity|

Today is Trinity Sunday in the church liturgical calendar. Growing up in a non-liturgical church I had never even heard of Trinity Sunday until I was an adult. In fact, I hardly ever heard of the doctrine of the Trinity during most of my childhood. I can still remember the first sermon I heard that was devoted to the doctrine. I was a young adult in my early twenties. I have since then preached on the Trinity quite often. I have even taught several adult classes on the doctrine. But I do not recall, at least from my background, a single sermon specifically on the Trinity. This is one of the real weaknesses of not following some kind of liturgical form that requires the whole church to deal with the central mysteries of our great common faith week-to-week.

In the New Testament what is to be "confessed," as well as "believed," is Jesus Christ (cf. Romans 10:9-10 and Philippians 2:10-11). But very early the Christian Church understood that "confessing" and "believing" in Jesus involved more than human emotions and an a-historical faith […]

The Growth of Christianity in Latin America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:17-05:00June 1st, 2007|Categories: Missional Church|

Latin America is presently experiencing the largest growth of Christianity ever. This growth is taking place in many regions and among many different Christian groups. But none is growing faster than Latin American evangelicalism. This success in growth does bring difficulties. This is pointed out wonderfully in the John Stott Ministries spring 2007 newsletter, which says this development is "not without its growing pains."

A John Stott Ministries-Langham Scholar, Dr. Daniel Salinas, studied Latin American theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and then returned to Latin America. He concluded that a full gamut of cultural trends, linked with diverse theological perspectives, has produced some serious problems in the church of Latin America. He cites two in the recent Stott newsletter: The prosperity gospel and the misdirection of church leadership.

The Midas Touch

Latin American Christians are all too often looking for increased income and a higher quality lifestyle. Who isn’t, especially when you’ve known generations of real poverty? Salinas recently concluded, "They have become like a redeemed Midas who can convert anything they touch into gold." Daniel argues that Latin […]

Deliver Us from Evil

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:17-05:00May 31st, 2007|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

Readers are well aware that I am an ecumenical and orthodox Christian. And I am in no way an anti-Catholic. While I remain a committed Reformed Protestant Christian I have learned so much from Catholic theology and Catholic friends that my life would lack more profound blessings than I can begin to enumerate without the contributions that I have received from this Christian tradition. I frustrate some of my best Catholic friends because I have not converted. I also frustrate some evangelicals, who believe I have "sold out" and thus lost my distinctive Protestant views on certain doctrinal issues by being so accepting of Catholics and Catholic thought. Yet I am loved by many from both sides of the division brought about by the 16th century Reformation.

My purpose in all of this endeavor is to love God, to love Christ’s church (all of it), and to pursue unity in peace, while I retain my confessional beliefs with integrity. Some do not think this can be done, thus they regularly comment to that effect. Others find in my journey something that offers […]

Mother Angelica

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:18-05:00May 29th, 2007|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

Most of you have seen her on television at some point over the last twenty-five years. She is a diminutive lady who wears the traditional habit of Roman Catholic sisterhood. I refer, of course, to Mother Angelica. I thought about her again today as I listened to a brief interview of Raymond Arroyo. Arroyo is the Catholic writer and news director/lead anchor for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). He is also her biographer. Arroyo was chatting about her life and work and as well as his best-selling book, Mother Angelica’s Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality, now a top-fifty book on Amazon. I have not yet read the book but likely will try to do so very soon.

For those of you who do not know much about this lady her story is remarkable, regardless of what church you belong to personally. She established Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1961. Twenty years later, in 1981, she began EWTN, which has now become the largest religious media organization on the planet. Her program Mother Angelica […]

Taxing Business Will Not Solve Our Health Care Crisis

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:18-05:00May 28th, 2007|Categories: Politics|

Universal government health care has become a major issue in the United States. At least one Democratic candidate for president, John Edwards, is running on the issue big-time. Another, Hillary Clinton, has a mixed-record and is still trying to find her way forward on what she thinks the public will buy into, or so it seems based upon what the media tells us about her campaign. In the end, we are not really quite sure yet where Obama and Clinton actually stand on this issue but I expect them to put forward some version of the so-called “moral imperative” talk in due time. Even some Republicans have begun to talk this way as well.

Every candidate, both Democrat and Republican, ought to pay real attention to what happened in my state recently. When Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich tried to get a state health-care bill through our legislature, by taxing business profits, he lost his legislative proposal by a vote of 107-0.

The governor, fresh from several large tax increases in his first four years in office, was re-elected in November […]

The Loss of Memory

By John Armstrong|2007-05-26T10:39:55-05:00May 26th, 2007|Categories: Culture|

This is Memorial day weekend in the United States. Monday is designated as a national day to recall the sacrifice of fellow Americans who defended our life and liberty with thier lives. Very few of us will do anything symbolic, or otherwise, to remember these valiant defenders. Memorial Day is one holiday that we tend to pass by and treat as just another day to fix up this or go here and there. That is sad really, since our liberty will likely only last as long as we have the collective will and memory to defend it.

Yesterday, walking through the Atlanta Airport, I saw a billboard that made me stop and read it. It pictured a group of goldfish swimming in formation. The caption said, "Did you know that goldfish have a memory of their last experience that lasts for only three seconds?" I reflected on that question off and on since Friday afternoon. I think it represents the problem in our land. We have a collective memory that lasts about three seconds. We remember the last video game, the last […]