Deof Movestofca's Grand Web Tour #2: 20 links in 27 days

Note: the following first appeared on the "¤ Deof Movestofca's Web Tour ¤" static page, but were moved here to keep it from getting overloaded with links.

 N.B.:The author of the "Pastoral Musings" blog has written that he is moving to new hosting, so any links to that blog might not work at the moment.  I believe only the first link in the list is affected by this.  (Also, for those who are fastidious about such things, it might add a day or so to the "27" mentioned in the title).

A New Genre? In which it is éxplainéd that thosé who intérprét padding in resumés as lying don't undérstand thé resumé litérary génré (I figured if I was going to break out the character map anyway for "resumé", I might as well make the most of having to do so).  My recommendation for similarly-styled satire is James Thurber's essay "The Macbeth Murder Mystery".

U.S. lacks Christian heritage, billboard claims  Whéré I argué that ultimatély it doésnt mattér (in térms of whéthér thé Biblé is trué or not) whéthér the founding fathérs wéré Christians or not (I figured I'd add a few more "é"'s just for the fun of it).

Do All Religions Lead to God? 7 reasons why the parable of the six blind men and the elephant doesn't prove religious pluralism.

all in a good brew  In which I try, in my response, to link bad arguments against coffee (I would say "bad coffee", but in my opinion, that's redundant) and religion and somehow manage to wrongly wind up with what appears to be a female avatar.

from possibility to certainty in just 6 short pages an examination of the "argument" that Jesus and/or his parents were once Pharisees based on the flimsiest of evidence.  IOW, typical skepticism masquerading as scholarship (the book he quotes, not the post itself).

Of Xmas and Other X-things One would think that somewhere in this post there would be some mention of the X-Men.  But no, she has to discuss the Greek letter chi and chiasm.  Blatant bait and switch, if you ask me.

Basketball and Babylon An examination of the "court narratives" in Genesis (Joseph), Esther, Nehemiah, and Daniel, plus a suggestion from yours truly that their might be an "anti-court narrative" with Satan in Job (the Book of, that is, not the man himself).

Does Grace Produce Disobedience? An open letter to "Mr. Grace-Loving Antinomian".

Bad Art and the Tortured Beauty of the Cross "Bad art encourages escapism among Christians. Good art, epitomized by the Psalms, helps us long for the new creation even as we learn to love all God's creatures."  I couldn't have said it any better, although I would (and did) recommend Chris Koelle's digital graphic novel of The Book of Revelation as an example of good art.

Productive for the Glory of God, Good of Neighbors In which I argue that while scripture does mandate that workers should be productive, it also requires that those for whom they are productive should adequately recompense such productivity.

All (Animal) Guts, No Glory Why you shouldn't send a court magician to do a prophet's job

Hoarders Matthew 6: 19-21 seems like the perfect verse for this post.

Why Is Tebow Hated So Much? To paraphrase Alfred E. Newman, "What, me worry about what the world thinks about me?".

Alzheimer’s, Pat Robertson, and Human Nature Anti-biblical teaching is anti-biblical teaching regardless of how well-meaning it is or who's teaching it.

Who Will Be Greatest?  I couldn't leave a reply on the page because the comments seem to have been disabled for it.  However, it does make some of the same points I was trying to do in my "Ministry success: it's not about "our" success, it's about God's (Pen & Parchment, Parts 1 + 2)" post.

Snoopy & Theology I could be wrong about this, but I believe Charles M. Shulz wrote this strip (if you were thinking of George P. Shultz, has it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong?)

What Religion Should You Be? Even they agree I should follow Christianity.

Skye Jethani: The Wrong War on Christmas Response: "I think we, as Christians, would do better to focus on what Christmas means to us and stop worrying about what it means to non-Christians."  (Original post: Are Christians Fighting the Wrong “War on Christmas”?)

How Churches Can Save the U.S. Post Office Thinking outside the (mail)box.

5 Issues Your Members Will Talk About in 2012 A good example of how preaching can inform church members on political issues without endorsing a particular position or candidate.

It's already 4:47* AM and I haven't wished y'all a happy Christmas!

Just where are my manners?  I must rectify this immediately, if not sooner.

HAPPY

HAPPY

JOYFUL
JOYFUL

CHRISTMAS!

Wishing you and yours the Happiest of Christmases... Christmasi... Christmice....  Oh, well, y'all know what I mean (I hope)!

*Official posting time was recorded as 4:49, but what do they know?

The linkage continues with Pastoral Musings

Okay, so so I'm a bit late in announcing the trading of links with yet another blog, this time Pastoral Musings.  This time, though, I have a perfect legitimate excuse: he never told me he was adding my blog to his blogroll.  Then again, I never told him I was adding him, so I guess that sort of makes us even.  I'm simply the type of person that if I think your blog is good enough, then I'll simply add it to my Hand-Pict Links over on the sidebar to the right.  Then again, I can sometimes be forgetful, so feel free to remind me in a comment (the blogs had two of them so far, so it shouldn't be that difficult for me to see another) or drop me an e-mail if you think I've missed yours (comments are probably better since I tend to check them more frequently than I do my e-mail).  Please note, however, that the above is not intended to imply any obligation, legal or otherwise, on my part to participate in such an exchange of links and I reserve the right to refuse any request if I choose to do so.  On the other hand, you'll never know until you try and it never hurts to ask.

Wouldn't someone who banned a banner be a banner too?

The Passive Habit: The phony culture war and Christmas decorations

Just a general observation about the church-state-Christmas display debate: Who cares? Having the sense of humor I do, I'd let the skeppies put up any self-righteous mission statement they can dream up.

Should an atheist group be allowed to add a sign that states there are no gods and that religion is a myth to a holiday display?  Better yet, should anyone really care whether they do or not?  My response is pretty much summarized as an extended yawn:

Part of the problem is that there are worse problems than this.  For example, anyone swayed one way or the other by the inclusion or exclusion the banner needs some serious help learning basic logic.  The truth or falsity of the Bible rests on the Bible itself, not on propaganda plays (on both sides in this case).

A later, expanded comment:

I suppose I could have made that clearer by stating it as a conditional, as in, "If there is anybody who is..., then they need...."  I doubt there is anyone who really that lacking in intelligence to think "oh, look.  There's a sign that says there isn't any gods.  Therefore it must be true" (although given the general sorry state of (il)logic these days, it wouldn't totally surprise me either).  If no one is swayed, then excluding the banner serves no real purpose.  In the unlikely occurrence that someone is swayed, then he or she is so inept at logic that he or she would find some other "reason" to believe that anyway.
Then again, I feel the same about public displays of the Ten Commandments.  If any of them actually caused an upswing in morality (which I also doubt), it would probably be due more  works-based thinking than to true repentance.

Introducing my first blog link-exchange (WOOT!)

I would like to welcome The Passive Habit to the ranks of Hand-Pict Links.  Cameron, the author of said blog, is a co-denizen of TheologyWeb.com, which is where he suggested we exchange links.  SO IF THIS ALL ENDS IN FUTILITY AND/OR TEARS (OR WORSE), I JUST WANTED YOU ALL TO KNOW IT WAS ALL HIS IDEA.(hence the highlight).
(OK, I know, I know, I should have done this back around a week ago when I first added it, but I sort of just got the idea today.  I never claimed to be the quickest thinker out there).