http://mereorthodoxy.com Reasoned discourse on faith, politics, and culture Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:51:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en February 17th is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. Around this time last year I wrote a reflection on fasting as it is portrayed in Isaiah, wondering at the nature of a true fast. I think it’s sort of funny that I end up writing about this stuff, ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2361 Or at least on life support. Andrew Jones suggested that 2009 represented a decisive year for the movement, and he's been as careful observer of it as any.  Of course, people disagree with him--but then, when it comes to that conversation, everything is up for grabs, isn't it?  Which, I gather, ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2354 One of the main themes of Evangel’s early days was evangelicals’ complex relationship to culture. I recently came across Evangel contributor Dr. Russell Moore’s astute analysis on the question from 2007 in the pages of Touchstone, the other ecumenical magazine of record. Dr. Moore’s piece really needs to be read in its entirety, ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2351 Like Matt Milliner, I'm impressed by David Schaengold's post over at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, wherein he relates observation decks, science, and the joy of observation: Being happy merely to see and to understand, as scientists are, is the feeling responsible for observation decks, whose most intellectually incurious and aesthetically ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2347 Heather MacDonald's latest piece at National Review explores some of the questions surrounding gay marriage, and the difficulties that arise when parental status and identity is established solely by intent, rather than by biology--as it is in the case of homosexual marriage. The question, of course, that MacDonald has to answer ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2345 I've watched this trailer three times now, and I just can't quit. HT:  Josh Trevino http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2330 The Oscar nominations came out Tuesday morning. Pixar’s Up already won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film. It shouldn’t have. The movie is on par with Pixar’s others, which of course means it is very good: characteristically inventive, incisive, and attractive. But Up was not the best animated film ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2310 The report that Mark Sanford didn't want to include a vow of fidelity in their wedding vows is the least surprising, and the saddest, news I have heard in a while. According to his wife, the discredited governor of South Carolina whose liaisons with  an Argentinian woman last summer were a national scandal ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2318 Son of God. Prince of Peace. Son of Man. Cagefighter? While the first three masculine titles given to our Lord Jesus are biblical and sufficient enough to express the wonder of Jesus, the last title seems to be ever-more increasingly projected onto Jesus by evangelical churches which have long struggled ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2314 No doubt many of our readers are very familiar with all the quotable (and some unquotable) C. S. Lewis, so they should not be surprised to be reminded that the eminently understandable academician said, “The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our ... http://mereorthodoxy.com/?p=2272