Friday, August 28, 2009

Added to blog roll

Here's an interesting and thoughtful take on why John Piper might say some of the things he does. An overall great blog I might add, check it out.

Also added recently, Inhabitatio Dei, by Halden Doerge. An editor, among other things, with Wipf & Stock Publishers. Both worth the visit.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Powers and Principalities

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (ESV)

Thoughts for later...

An excerpt from Rene Girard on Powers and Principalities.

From Faith and Theology blog (Ben Meyers)
"William Stringfellow’s theological writing is pervaded by the conviction that the resurrection of Jesus frees us from the dominion of death. The world is ruled by principalities – by suprahuman, suprapersonal institutional powers which bind human life to the service of death.

More from William Stringfellow (Via F&T)...
“The … ingenious aggressions of the principalities against human life in society, the victimisation of human beings … by the demonic powers exposes a crucial aspect of the contemporary American social crisis.
The American problem is not so simple that it can be attributed to a few – or even many – evil men in high places…. Our men in high places are not exceptionally immoral; they are, on the contrary, quite ordinarily moral.
In truth, the conspicuous moral fact about our generals, our industrialists, our scientists, our commercial and political leaders is that they are the most obvious and pathetic prisoners in American society.
There is unleashed among the principalities in this society a ruthless, self-proliferating, all-consuming institutional process which assaults … and destroys human life even among, and primarily among, those persons in positions of institutional leadership. They are left with titles but without effectual authority; with the trappings of power, but without control over the institutions they head; in nominal command, but bereft of dominion….
The most poignant victim of the demonic in America today is the so-called leader”. (An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land, pp. 88-89).

Ben Myers adds:
The most striking feature of Stringfellow’s work is his powerful analysis and critique of the “principalities.” For him, the principalities are institutionalised forms of death. Institutions exist for the sake of their own expansion and self-perpetuation; they are not subject to human control, but are autonomous entities vis-à-vis all human agency. Human beings often believe “that they control the institution; whereas, in truth, the principality claims them as slaves(Free in Obedience, p. 99).


Revisit also,
Paul and Caesar: A New Reading of Romans - NT Wright.
Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament - Walter Wink

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Onward Christian soldiers....

(CNN) -- Two former Blackwater employees have made statements against Blackwater Worldwide and its founder Erik Prince, accusing the security company and its former CEO of murder and other serious crimes in Iraq, according to court documents filed this week.

Specifically murdering people involved in investigating them.

Who is Erik Prince? Maybe you should find out.

60 minute interview from 2007.

Or just check out independent journalist Jeremy Scahill. Twice asked by congress to testify on his findings while investigating Blackwater (Now called Xe).

The church should stop playing chaplain to the Empire.

Derrick Crowe continues to hammer the point home. The war in Afghanistan has increasingly relied more and more on long distance weapons, ie; drones, missles and assorted airstrikes. These tactics will not win the population over for the all too important reason that in kills them. And it kills them at a higher rate than the intended targets.


BBC reports that U.S. forces piloting helicopters killed three children last night in the Arghandab district of Afghanistan. Absolutely heartbreaking.

At this point, if you can read a chart, you should be able to determine that even if troops on the ground are added, they still fail to decrease civilian casualities. These are not just casualities of war in general but specific deaths due to our methods and tactics.

Elull on Prayer

From Inhabitatio Dei

“The person who claims to be full of hope but fails to lead a life of prayer is a liar. Prayer is the sole ‘reason’ for hope, at the same time that it is its means and expression. Prayer is the referral to God’s decision, on which we are counting. Without that referral there can be no hope, because we would have nothing to hope for. Prayer is the assurance of the possibility of God’s intervention, without which there is no hope. Prayers is the means given by God for the dialogue with him, that is to day, it is the very junction of the future with eternity, where we have seen that our hope is located. In its dialogue it embraces the past presented for pardon, the future defined by cooperation between the praying person and God, and eternity, which prayer lays hold of through the sighs uttered by the Holy Spirit.

“Without such prayer we can piece together a few false hopes to give the appearance of hope, but all that, even when arranged theologically, can only be illusory. That is why it is quite right to recall that hope is based on God’s promise constantly fulfilled and renewed. But how can we forget that, throughout the Bible, this promise is linked with the ceaseless outcry of prayer? It is man’s prayer which demands the fulfillment, and it is again his prayer which demands its renewal and its ongoing. Without prayer, the promise and its fulfillment are forces just as indifferent and blind as Moira (fate) and Ananke (necessity).”

~ Jacques Elull, Hope in a Time of Abandonment, 272-3.