Blog - Page 74 of 318 - John H Armstrong

"Skyfall"–The Best Bond Film of All?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:05-05:00November 21st, 2012|Categories: Film|

“Skyfall,” the new James Bond film, is more realistic and believable than any Bond film I’ve seen. It is also much less cavalier in its attitude toward morality and womanizing than we have come to expect from the various Bond films. I actually liked it and recommend it, especially if you like action and espionage as much as I do.

I have not read the Ian Fleming novels, upon which the various Bond films are supposedly based, but those who have read the books assure me that this film is a lot closer to the true character of the books than the Roger Moore-era Bond films. Daniel Craig is superb and thus is clearly the most believable and likable of all Bond characterizations. And Judi Dench masterfully plays her role as the leader at MI5. In addition to these fine performances Academy Award winning actor Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men”), is a superb villain named Silva. Silva is a former MI5 agent and becomes the ultimate tempter. He does a number on Bond’s weariness before […]

The Spiritual State of the Nation (4)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:05-05:00November 20th, 2012|Categories: Abortion, America and Americanism, Culture, Current Affairs, Politics, Roman Catholicism, The Future|

Yesterday I continued my survey of what recent election exit polling told us about great divisions that are ever so apparent in America culture today. Our national election revealed some huge divides that are not likely to be resolved anytime soon. What does all of this mean for us spiritually as a nation of almost 315 million people?

Defining Ourselves By What We Are Against

Several Catholic responses to the election offered insights that I think are helpful and sound. These writers opined that we are in danger of defining the church by what we are against more than by the good news we preach.

Take same-sex marriage. For many in the church this is not a threat to the church but an issue in the civil realm. I share this view, as some of you already know. Same-sex marriage will not alter my moral bearings or change my view of marriage, based precisely on the teaching of Jesus in a text like this one in Matthew 19:1-12:

When Jesus finished teaching, he left Galilee and went to the part of Judea that is east of the Jordan […]

The Spiritual State of the Nation (3)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:05-05:00November 19th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, Culture, Current Affairs, Politics, Separation of Church & State|

Last week I began a review of the exit-polling data from our recent national election that has been crunched an analyzed since November 7. It provides some intriguing story lines that are clearly emerging. It also reveals something to us about the spiritual state of our nation. For example, the National Catholic Reporter says, “We live in a new America.” It is an America in which a black man wins a second term as president, an America in which a large majority of white votes can no longer assure a victory and in which Latinos played the most crucial role of all. President Obama’s victory was accomplished by a broad coalition of minorities, including Hispanics, Asians, women and younger voters. Obama captured all but two of the states he won four years ago even though the total vote was much closer this time.

Christianity Today, the flagship publication of evangelical Christianity in America, notes that in defeat the evangelicals’ political unity was at an all time high. The so-called “born-again” vote went 4-1 to Romney. Though there […]

What Is the Difference Between Complete and Finished?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:05-05:00November 16th, 2012|Categories: Humor|

I am not sure who to attribute this humor to but it is worth sharing. A friend sent it to me recently.

No dictionary has been able to adequately explain the difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED. However, in a recent linguistic conference held in London, England, and attended by some of the best linguists in the world, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese was the clear winner.

His final challenge was this: Some say there is no difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED. Please explain the difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED in a way that is easy to understand.

Here is his astute answer:

“When you marry the right woman, you are COMPLETE, but when you marry the wrong woman, you are FINISHED

And when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are COMPLETELY FINISHED!”

His answer was received with a standing ovation lasting over 5 minutes.

More Insights from the Recent Catholic Synod of Bishops on Evangelization

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:05-05:00November 15th, 2012|Categories: Evangelism, Missional Church, Uncategorized, Unity of the Church|

I had the privilege of being a guest at the Anglican Centre in Rome in 2011. This centre was opened through the vision and leadership of Archbishop Michael Ramsey. The Anglican Centre in Rome was founded in 1966 and is located in the historic center of Rome, only a few minutes from the Vatican. It is a registered United Kingdom charity, but its work is for Anglicans across the world. Its director acts as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative to the Holy See, but he is available to the whole Anglican Communion. The Centre includes a library, a reading/seminar room, and a chapel dedicated to St. Augustine of Canterbury. My visit included a lovely time with the director, Canon David Richardson (seen in photo to the right of Pope Benedict XVI). David has recently announced his retirement, effective April, 2013. Our small team celebrated a liturgical reading and hymn prayer service together with Canon David.

The Anglican Centre was established just after the conclusion of Vatican II to be a permanent place of dialogue and relationship between the global […]

Teaching Leaders in Indiana: Proclaim As One

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:05-05:00November 14th, 2012|Categories: ACT 3, Gospel/Good News, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

Yesterday, November 13, I led a day-long retreat for Christians leaders in Anderson, Indiana. I enjoyed meeting with, and connecting with, pastors and leaders of Proclaim, a ministry that began several years ago.

Proclaim is a group of congregations and individuals, situated northeast of Indianapolis, Indiana, that is dedicated to proclaiming the Good News of Jesus. Proclaim desires to be an Anderson area network that proclaims the message of John 17:20-24 in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men, women, and children regardless of their race, background, family history, personal history, financial status, education, religious affiliation, temperament, occupation, or location.

Proclaim has one simple mission–to be a ministry called out by God as a coalition of Christian congregations seeking Christ’s unity in the environment of diversity, shaped by a confession that God’s kingdom matters most, empowered by Christ’s commission to transform our neighborhoods into a place of grace, and functioning as a strong, yet flexible community that makes ministry in unity possible.

I am profoundly pleased with what I saw and experienced in Anderson. This is another illustration of how the vision I outline in my […]

Evaluating the Spiritual State of the Nation (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:05-05:00November 13th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, Culture, Current Affairs, Freedom, Missional Church, Separation of Church & State, The Church, The Future|

Yesterday I blogged on the post-election discussion about where America is spiritually in 2012. Where do we seem to be going as a nation? For people on the political right this is a time of outright despair. For people on the political left there is hope and joy. I find both positions lacking in perspective. One reason I say this is because elections have rarely produced the hopes and dreams of the people who were elected or who voted. Why? Such a perspective relies too heavily on the outcome of elections as the true test of what is happening in the wider culture. The true test of our character is in our people, in our communities and in our public life, not in elections or the media.

I’ll give one illustration of this point. The young voters who voted overwhelmingly for Obama are more likely to be pro-life than many “Boomers” who voted for Romney. This may shock you but it is true. But for these younger voters their pro-life stance is not about politics. In time their view could impact their politics but I do not […]

Evaluating the Spiritual State of the Nation (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:06-05:00November 12th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, Missional Church, Politics, Postmodernity, The Church|

Now that our national elections are over we can begin to assess some things about the state of the nation a bit more clearly. I would like to reflect on the “spiritual” state of America during the next few weeks.

“The Sky Is Falling”

Every election season offers us various versions of the idea that if the right people are not chosen “the sky is falling.” In this election we were told that the next generation of Americans is doomed if XYZ is not elected. Many political conservatives, including Governor Romney, argued this was the most important election in our lifetime! Why? Because our grandchildren would inherit a land less free, less prosperous and less safe. The truth is always more complicated than this type of election rhetoric. We cannot know if this is really true regardless of which party, or person, won last Tuesday. The future ultimately belongs not to our leaders, but to the Lord our God. This is the Christian doctrine of divine providence. When we forget this we do so to our peril as Christians.

This great country has survived wars, even a massive civil […]

The Social Media: What Changed and How?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:06-05:00November 9th, 2012|Categories: Books, Social Networking|

Over the last decade the emerging social media–most of which did not even exist before the year 2000–abruptly altered our use of the Internet, itself a medium of only a little more than a decade-plus. Interactive platforms, called 2.0 web platforms, brought us Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. All three of these have experienced phenomenal growth by freely offering us useful tools and technologies that we are only now beginning to understand. These platforms soon began to take control of much of what we do. They dominated the time that many spent online. They have even driven a whole new generation away from email before my generation got settled into the new medium of electronic mail.

On what Rory O’Connor calls “[a] breathtakingly short [time] period, social media become touchstones of modern communicates and culture–and in the process upended entire industries, changed cultural norms, and disrupted both national and then international politics and, to a lesser degree, governance” (Friends, Followers and the Future, 17).

Almost overnight the previous century’s centralized, one-way media reality of limited channels for distribution of news and information was transformed. New methods were becoming […]

Catholics and Reformed Christians in America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:06-05:00November 8th, 2012|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Reformed Christianity, Renewal, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

My dear friend, Brother Jeffrey Gros, the Catholic Studies Scholar in Residence at nearby Lewis University, is one of America’s leading proponents of dialogue and missional-ecumenism between Roman Catholics and evangelicals. Jeff not only knows and understands evangelical Christianity he knows and loves real evangelicals, people like me. I am honored to learn and grow through this deep friendship.

Jeff helps me stay vitally connected to what is happening inside the vast global reality that is the Roman Catholic Church. Jeff is a member of the Christian Brothers Conference and the former Associate Director of the Secretariat on Ecumenism at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. In 2012 Jeff was honored with an award by the Washington Theological Consortium for his significant contribution to ecumenism.

Brother Jeffrey is well-known in the ecumenical movement for broadening the reach of ecumenism. He has written widely in theological journals and periodicals, has edited numerous books on ecumenism, and has spoken on the subject to various religious and educational groups throughout the world. He served for 10 years as Director of […]