ken wilson online

It’s as simple as that.  We can’t afford to put so much of our energy into the culture war.  We’re in a global economic meltdown.  People are losing their jobs.  We’re in this thing together with our neighbors around the world.  Oh yes, they are our neighbors, inasmuch as our fortunes are linked.  We can’t afford the polemics that culture wars generate.  We can’t afford to believe the worst about our neighbors.  We have to look for common ground in order to serve the common good, or else we’re going to pay a heavy price.
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It’s the political season, the golden moment for the talking heads.  I enjoy listening to them.  But I have a request: could we ban “look!”, “frankly,” and “sort of”?   Look seems to be the word of choice for the experts.   They are being asked to analyze the convention or the polls or their dog’s position in the race and they begin every other assertion with “look!”   I want to say, Look! We’re listening already!  We think you have something worth saying or we’d be on another channel. The hosts have asked you to be their guest, and not some other talking head.  Jesus said, “Behold!” but he was special.
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I’ve got some thoughtful responders to this blog and it’s one of the real benefits of a blog. You toss your thoughts out there and people respond. You rethink or you go a little deeper in your thoughts, maybe you revise, maybe you come away even more convinced having heard the responses of others. One of my thoughtful responders is Clif and I want to continue from a thought Clif laid down in a comment about the Rush Limbaugh post. Clif indicated that he thinks Christians who listen to Rush regularly do a pretty good job separating the wheat from the chaff. If Clif is right, then I’m probably a little overwrought in my previous post. But I wonder about that. Because there’s a Christian I know pretty well who used to listen more than he does now to Rush, and at least in one case, he didn’t do a very good job separating the wheat from the chaff. And I have a very high regard for the perspectives and discernment of this particular Christian, him being myself.
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Been doing little print and radio interviews related to the release of Jesus Brand Spirituality: He Wants His Religion Back. It’s a good exercise because both print and radio are looking for colorful and concise little expressions of things that pop up in the book. Like the idea that we need to dig extra hard for Jesus as the treasure buried in the field of religion, owing to the current “trademark infringement on the Jesus brand”–meaning the negative public perception of Christianity among those on the outside of faith looking in. I find myself illustrating this with the popularity of Rush Limbaugh among many Christians in the United States.
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