Around the Blogosphere…

Funniest Video:
Slate with “Captcha Talks Back” 

Coolest images: 
MSNBC highlights Alexa Meade, who applies paint directly onto living models and then photographs them in a way that makes the pictures look like paintings.

Boldest Series:
Tony Jones with “There are Two Marriages” 
“I got married on July 13. In a church, by a pastor, surrounded by family and friends.  We wore wedding clothes.  We had a reception.  You can see the pictures.  It really happened.But we didn’t make it legal…”

 Best Response:
Micah Odor with “The Importance of Being ‘Evangelical’” 
“Here's the thing. I'm a Christian. So's John Piper (with whom I don't always agree). So's Rob Bell (see above). So's the Pope (again). So's Tim LaHaye, or the CBMW, or the Sojourners, or anybody else with whom I frequently disagree. It doesn't matter. These people are still Christians just like me. Or, perhaps more accurately, each one is 'a wretch like me.'"

Best Conversation-Starter:
Rachel Stone at Her.Meneutics with “Are Evangelical Women Primarily Interested in Parenthood?”

Best Contest:
Ian Cron with “Your Great Novel’s Opening Sentence”

Best Witness:
Scot McKnight at the Huffington Post with "Christianity as Country Club"

Most Relatable:
Emerging Mummy with “In Which I Can Feel Like Sisyphus”
“When I'm picking up for the eleventy-billionth time, when every one needs to eat and it seems like wejust ate, when we are wondering what to do with our one wild and precious life that sure isn't feeling very wild or precious right about now, when the laundry is piled unfolded and someone spills their full glass of milk on the floor I just washed and the bickering and noise enters its second hour and the house is too hot and there isn't much time for the things that I want to do on the day off, I feel like Sisyphus, futile, pushing a rock up a hill that will never summit.”

 Most Encouraging:
Ed Stetzer with “Legalism, The Help, and A Woman’s Place” 
“Some will pursue and live the high value of motherhood. Others will not marry at all. Some will stay home with their children, others will work in business, charity, and government. As all follow Christ, we can rejoice.” 
[This is exciting to hear from a complementarian. I’m not crazy about the whole “there is no higher calling than motherhood” line at the beginning, but I think this shows that not all those who interpret the Bible from this perspective demand that women fit into the Stepford Wife mold. So those of us who disagree must be careful not to turn complementarians/hierarchalists into caricatures. Views among Christians about the role of women in the home and church indeed vary greatly. I appreciate this perspectve from Ed! ]

Most Winsome: 
Robert Fulford at National Post with “When Words Die”

Most Likely to Inspire Some Facepalm Action:
The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood with “The Bad Girl’s Club”
[Among the “dangerous” are Ann Hutchinson, Margaret Fox, and (one of my personal heroes) Julian of Norwich. But don’t worry, "these aren't the worst women that history can dig up.” Really? I wish this was a parody, but it’s not.] 

Most Pressing Question of Our Day:
Leandra Palermo at Serious Eats with “The Troubled Relationship Between Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams.”

Remembering 9-11…

ABC News with “9/11 Babies”

This site includes the names of all who died on September 11

Rachelle Gardner invites you to share “9-11 Memories in 100 Words”

Caleb Wilde with “Not a Time to Politicize or Preach, This is a Time to Remember”

Bart Campolo with “Take a Walk on 9-11”

Matthew Paul Turner with “A Good Way to Remember 9-11: At a Mosque”
[I so wish I could make it over to Murfreesboro for this. It’s a shame how much hate the Muslims in this community have had to endure.] 

On the blog...

Most Popular Post:
“Ask  A  Calvinist (Justin Responds)”

[Apparently this post caused quite a stir over at Justin’s site, where his readers are currently debating whether or not I’m actually a Christian and whether Justin should have “extended the hand of fellowship” to someone like me.]

Most Popular Comment:
In response to “Ask a Calvinist,” Shack Guy wrote:
“Justin, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!  I think you've done a good job showing that being a Calvinist does not make you "mean and graceless"!  I appreciate the Calvinist concern to reject the idea that "God has accomplished 99% of the atonement, and that we must accomplish the remaining 1% by having faith."  Thank you for fighting hard on that one! But I end with the same reaction the Steven Bill had--I feel my core issue unanswered, that God "picking and choosing who he will save" is inconsistent with love.  Justin responds to this with exegesis, but I find that inadequate to support such an earth-shattering contradiction.  I don't see it as an exegetical issue, but as an issue where we are reading the Bible with warped lenses--a lens that starts with the conviction that Adam is powerful enough to damn the human race, but Jesus is not powerful enough to save more than a few.” 

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