Jayson Whelpley

Glenn Beck & the Christian Church (Part 1)

2010-03-15T22:10:06Z

I’ve been holding out on posting this until I was chill out a bit and think about it without simply ranting. I think I’m there today, helped by a link posted by a friend(/mentor/coworker/boss).

Albert Mohler: Glenn Beck, Social Justice, and the Limits of Public Discourse

Mohler does a good job of weighing out the history behind the “Social Gospel” in the past 103 years. The Social Gospel movement in the Christian church has been one that has removed the Gospel of eternal salvation and replaced it with a “Gospel” of charity work and social justice politicking.

I suggest that everyone reads his article as he points out some things that need to be pointed out, particularly in the realm of the limits of public discourse (hence the title of his post). But he misses on some things and on them he misses by a wide margin.

First, the smaller, he doesn’t differentiate effectively between social justice and the “Social Gospel.” Though the Social Gospel movement is concerned about social justice, it does not have the corner on the Church’s concern for social justice.

Second, I think he grossly misstates the New Testament’s instructions on Christian-faith based social justice (emphasis mine):

The New Testament is stunningly silent on any plan for governmental or social action. The apostles launched no social reform movement.

(Mohler does agree later that we are supposed to seek justice at some level, but he apparently bases this on nothing in particular.)

I felt the need to break up this post, since it was so long, the rest of this post will be up tomorrow morning.

Twitter Weekly Digest for 2010-03-14

2010-03-15T05:38:24Z

Ohh, yeah! http://twitpic.com/17b4at #
Ordered about 20 lbs. of coffee beans & roasted a batch last night & just made an amazing cup using the Clever Coffee Dripper. #coffeewin #
“But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face…” http://read.ly/Gal2.11.ESV Was this before or after Peter’s sheet vision? #
Walking bye. Need to go here again soon. (@ Galaxy Hut) #
Lunch & website consultation w Jim Dempsey, second lunch w my bride at Whole Foods. Good day. http://twitpic.com/17l1n6 #
Birthday party w the neighbors downstairs. http://twitpic.com/17mle9 http://twitpic.com/17mleb http://twitvid.com/174D9 #
Birthday “party” with our neighbors downstairs. #
I called Richard Alpert’s arrival method within 3 episodes of his first appearance, 3 years ago. #
Hey! I thought that someone was supposed to die?! #lost #
ICP on Nightline. Seriously? They’ve been around since ‘89 and were huge in the late 90s and NOW they’re covering them? #
HAHA! I just saw and heard the word “Juggalo” on Nightline! My life is complete. #
Juggalos are a gang! Gotta watch out for them as well as those Straightedge kids. (Monroe County, PA!) #
Seriously, Juggalos and Ligers in one Nightline?! I can’t watch anymore TV, all sorts of geekdom are coming up and I can’t handle it. #
Headed to the Hill to meet with one Blazer Smith. (@ Rosslyn Metro Station) http://4sq.com/4Gm82L #
Reading this on the Mtero at Fareagut West: iphone theft on WMATA escalating: http://j.mp/aV7yfY /via @LawVolDP #
As much as I love Chinatown Coffee, Pergrine is the best coffee I’m DC. (@ Peregrine Espresso) #
Chuck Norris is 70?! Mind = blown. #
The Storage Store shipped Amazon order 3 weeks late, no response to my email -> low rating. Don’t buy from them if you want your stuff soon. #
Well, it’s official, we can announce it. We’re moving to Orlando in August for about a year. Our hope is to move back to DC August 2011! #
Working on getting my design portfolio online. #
Win an iPad to use w/ free @Logos Bible Software app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad! Details: http://bit.ly/L4ipad1 #
Suhweet, I have my entire design portfolio up. Web and print. http://JaysonWhelpley.com #
e #
Churchkey for dinner w 2 guys from church/small group. Wanna join us? #
Fun times last night with @myobie + 2 at Church Key and @mark_armstrong’s mid-lease party – @stephenelliot was there too. #
Got the mail out of the box & recieved a ripped envelope with this beautiful face peering at me. (@shelbyabbott) http://twitpic.com/18l2vp #

Portfolio is up!

2010-03-12T20:28:13Z

I spent some time today getting all of my images uploaded and set up so that you can see all of the pretty and not-so-pretty things that I’ve made.

Web Design

Print & Other Designs

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

2010-03-11T16:47:17Z

I’ve been thinking about posting something related to this bill for a while now. As a person in Christian ministry who has supporters who cover the whole spectrum of social conservatives to social progressives, I have felt that weighing in here for the world to see may be a bad idea. I’ve talked about it in conversations where I can talk through the nuances of my view at length, but things on the internet can blow up in ways that are often uncontrollable.

After seeing this, I had to.

This video outlines the points of the bill that talk about the death penalty that is associated with it. I’ve been opposed to the bill since I first heard about it, but as someone who is not Ugandan and doesn’t know any Ugandans I didn’t feel that it was an opinion that I could do anything with. But, now I wanted to post this in light of the video post I added the other day where pastor John Piper talks about the fact that Christians have no basis to impose the death penalty for offenses against morality. This bill is being backed by a number of “Evangelical” leaders from the United States!

Even if I wasn’t opposed to the banning of homosexuality on a legal level, the vagueness of the bill and its obtuse range of offenses that can lead to the death penalty makes it nothing less than a travesty of any country’s legal system.

Cinema’s New Lowest Common Denominator

2010-03-10T00:58:47Z

This will be the new highest grossing movie of all time.

This happened in January

2010-03-08T22:24:48Z

: Student loan statement.

But it’s still beautiful when a student loan dies.

We’re officially debt free!

Piper: How Could God Kill Women and Children? (Video)

2010-03-05T17:21:50Z

For my second video post in a row, I want to share a video from a series where people submit difficult questions to be answered by John Piper. For anyone who follows me on Twitter or reads this blog regularly, you know that I’m a fan of John Piper’s teaching (though I don’t agree with everything he says).

In this video he answers a common question that even I sometimes struggle reconciling. I agree wholeheartedly with how he addresses the question. You need to watch it all the way to the end.

Reactions?

Twitter Weekly Digest for 2010-03-07

2010-03-07T22:56:00Z

New tip at CruTech: USCM.org email on Gmail: Go to your settings and then accounts/import. For your USCM email se… http://bit.ly/aYl0zP #
Just got some free @starbucks certificates because I emailed them about a bad experience in one of their shops. Free coffee is good coffee! #
Free books from @christianaudio! "The Cost of Discipleship" (Bonhoeffer) & "Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die" (Piper) http://bit.ly/Wua3R #
Reflections on Dobson's retirement. By Matthew Paul Turner: http://bit.ly/95hf3p #
Crap, I feel like I was supposed to have lunch w someone today or tomorrow… Thursday? I can't think of who. Maybe I'm just losing my mind. #
INBOX: 6 (which is better than the 101 that it was yesterday). Still no signs of my ghost-appointment. #
Dude who plays Keamey = Christpher Walken – 25 years + lots of muscle #
Folksy & the Chin: worst show ever. #teamcoco #
Just reported a jam on I- 66, Idylwood VA. Slow. http://bit.ly/a1duyb using @waze – Social GPS. #
Stupid iPhone Google sync is down. I have no contacts or calendar items now. #
Chillin. I love this place's coffee. — at Chinatown Coffee http://gowal.la/s/7yy #
Getting some plugs. (@ Rick's Tattoos) http://4sq.com/9LK7Zc #
Heading to meet the Cabal for some Diner breakfast, convo, bible and maybe some prayer. /via @shradar #
Where does one obtain "Getting It" certification? Are there classes? Can I audit the class? Does life experience count toward credit? #
Columbia Study on Cigar & Pipe Smoking Corrupt Misuse of Junk Science: http://bit.ly/aq8ABM #
Computer was recognizing iPhone as either a camera OR in iTunes, not both. Here's the fix (for you & future reference) http://bit.ly/cKI1Vj #

Signposts of Fundamentalism (Video)

2010-03-05T17:00:59Z

I came across this excerpt from a sermon that Mark Driscoll preached last week (I think) on Luke 5:12-26 where Jesus heals people and upsets the Pharisees. At this point Driscoll takes an aside to point out some of the signpost of what Fundamentalists tend to be.

I like these. I think he may contradict himself about quoting a person a lot and (mis?)quoting the Bible a lot, but I get his point.

What do you think of his definitions?

Also it is really fun to watch the first 5 seconds muted… it’s an awesome little dance.

Is display:none cheating?

2010-03-04T21:42:30Z

So, I’ve been doing a lot of web design stuff lately and I have this thing that I do that feels like cheating.

Sometimes I can’t find that code that is inserting something onto the page, I look through plugins and themes and everything and I can’t find where this little snippet or that little image is coming from. So I figure out what the code is that surrounds it, I head into my CSS editor and I add a little bit of code:

display: none;

Guess, what it does! It makes it not show up on the page. It’s still there if you turn the CSS off or if you look at the code, but it doesn’t show up.

Two questions:

Is it cheating?
Does this provide some sort of deep insight on how I look at the world and edit my life accordingly but allow the things to still be there under the surface?