Pat Robertson

Scot McKnight's blog contains a good discussion on Pat Robertson's suggestion that the US government "take out" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Particularly worthwhile was this nugget from poster Bob Robinson:

Pat Robertson represents the syncretism in American Christianity that has allowed the politics of the Right to blend into our Christian faith. Most Christians I know cannot differentiate between the politics of Rush Limbaugh and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Christian Scriptures are constantly warning us against syncretism, when aspects of one religion are assimilated into another thus changing the purity of the original faith.

Robertson’s syncretistic Christianity is not the pure religion of Jesus Christ—it is a syncretism of Christianity with American capitalism (because of the oil interests in Venezuela) and extreme right-wing politics (because of Chavez’ leftist agenda). This syncretism has taken Robertson “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition” (Colossians 2:8) so much that he is no longer following Jesus Christ—it is no longer Christianity.

What’s sad is that he does not even know it. What’s sadder is that many of his viewers don’t know it either.

W.H.C. Frend

W.H.C. Frend, church historian extraordinaire and author of The Donatist Church, has passed. Here are obituaries from the Church Times and the Daily Telegraph.

checking in

Started back to work last week -- I'm swamped. The kids seem o.k. so far, but then again everyone plays nice the first week. This is my second year teaching and while I feel much more confident and much more 'together' than last year, there are still many things to learn and to balance.

I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. The tired feeling hit me hard about midday today. That's exactly what I don't need when I have to deal with 6th graders at the end of every day!

Anyway, enough of that. On a lighter note, I get to crow about my latest book purchases: the Clyde Pharr translation of the Theodosian Code and John Matthews' Laying Down the Law (a monograph on the Theodosian Code). Yeah, I know it's totally dorky, but I'm thrilled. My very own copy of the Theodosian Code sitting handsomely on a shelf. Maybe I'll post some more pics later in the week...

Anyway, on a completely different note, go look at the most recent issue of Sojourners magazine. There is a great deal of good sense in this article by Brian McLaren.