Children of Men, in real life: Japan's shrinking population

If you've seen the movie, you know the premise. But it's not that farfetched, as the media is starting to notice. This article chronicles Japan's slow-motion demographic catastrophe: fewer and fewer children being born, resulting rather unsurprisingly in an overall population that is beginning to shrink.

I'm not philosophically in sync with Whitney Houston on many things, but in this case she's right: children are the future of any society - as well as a blessing and a heritage from the Lord. Any society that devalues them invokes His curse -- destroying itself, as these numbers make clear. And please understand that I'm not going after Japan particularly, merely the whole Western obsession with self, of which Japanese society is merely one example.

(h/t Susan)

The Gay Marriage Movement Has Never Really Been About Gay Marriage

I'm recommending this column by Maggie Gallagher in National Review Online. She analyzes the arguments offered by the pro-gay marriage lobby, particularly that of equating resistance to gay marriage to racism, and demonstrates pretty effectively what the true goal is. Her conclusion is right on the money:

The architects of this strategy have targeted marriage because it stands in the way of the America they want to create: They hope to use the law to reshape the culture in exactly the same way that the law was used to reshape the culture of the old racist south.

Gay-marriage advocates are willing to use a variety of arguments to allay fears and reduce opposition to getting this new “equality” principle inserted in the law; these voices may even believe what they are saying. But once the principle is in the law, the next step will be to use the law to stigmatize, marginalize, and repress those who disagree with the government’s new views on marriage and sexual orientation.

And,

Many of the harshest legal conflicts could be alleviated with religious-exemption legislation. But gay-marriage advocates will fight those religious exemptions tooth and nail (as they did in Massachusetts when the Catholic Church asked for one for Catholic Charities) because, they will say, it’s the principle of the thing: We wouldn’t give a religious-liberty exemption to a racist, so why should someone who opposes gay marriage get one?

We miss the forest for exact descriptions of trees when we offer up the track record of homosexual promiscuity and disease, the need of children for a father and a mother, and the slippery slope of polygamous, bestial, and incestuous unions as primary reasons why gay marriage should remain illegal. Every one of these arguments is quite true, and useful in some contexts. Yet each of them assumes that what gay marriage advocates want is marriage. Ms. Gallagher makes the compelling point that the goal is not marriage but elevation of sodomy to the status of an inalienable right, with all the chilling ramifications that would have for anyone who dares to speak or to advise in favor of biblical norms.

Apropos of Nothing Else on this Blog: New Twist on a Great Old Idea

I think this is a really clever update of a great old idea: the rainwater cistern.

Once upon a time, houses were commonly built with cisterns under or adjacent to the foundation for catching rainwater, which could then used in the garden or for washing. My beloved old house in Appleton, Wisconsin (built approximately 1912) appeared to have one under the cellar floor -- alas, with the pipe system removed.

Since then, I've been intrigued by the possibility of somehow sneaking one onto my property (which would require a David Copperfield-level deception perpetrated against my nosy homeowners' association). It would require a rather large hole in my backyard, and it's a bit hard to think of a way to explain that.

This clever young Australian architect, however, has designed a modular system (you can purchase as many chambers as you like for your site, each holding something like 50 gallons) that can be plumbed together and installed in any number of ways. The under-the-deck idea is a win-win: no digging below grade, a space that would most likely be wasted anyway, and it's barely visible! I wish her well! And maybe, maybe, I'll order a set sometime!

Slaughter in the Heartland

Having been raised by transplanted Kansans, visiting the Wheat State once or twice a year throughout my childhood was a sublime pleasure. Our destination was Grandma's house in Rosalia, a tiny burg a few miles outside of El Dorado (which is pronounced with a long "a," unless you want to sound like you're from California, or Mars, or some equally irrelevant place), and among the persimmon trees and the old sheds out back, I spent many a happy hour.

Perhaps you, like me, still think of Kansas (if at all) as one of those heartland places where the good is still known to be good, and evil is still called evil. It's a nice, tempting image, but quite far from the reality that, among other evidences, one of the nation's most infamous late-term abortionists makes buckets of money at his vile trade in nearby Wichita. And for another, that when a good man tasked with enforcing the law runs afoul of those who have benefitted from the abortionist's PAC money, he ends up the victim of shocking breaches of constitutional powers, cronyism, and corruption, with $200,000 in legal fees to boot.

Please take a few minutes to read this chronicle of the experience of Phill Kline, the state's former attorney general. His approach to opposing abortion was masterful: he merely insisted that the state enforce the laws on its books - a commendable methodology for one tasked with law enforcement, you might think. And the result? Denis Boyles of National Review Online tells it far better than I can.

And while you're reading, consider that many watchers have Governor Kathleen Sibelius on Barak Obama's short list for VP.

H/T Tony Woodlief writing in World on the Web. Don't miss the nice pictures he links of the honorable Governor grinning with the abortionist.

Net Stuff #3

Rick Phillips offers some godly counsel on church vision statements (benefits and pitfalls) here.

Third Millennium Ministries offers Jim Ellis' concise explanation of Hyper-Calvinism: what it is, and what it isn't.


Amy Scott, of Amy's Humble Musings fame, offers edifying thoughts on contraception and the so-called "quiver-full" movement. Her post is irenic, and the gajillions of comments after it are for the most part a generous discussion of a deeply-felt issue.

Ten Reasons Internet Monk Doesn't Read My Blog. [Ouch]

But this is sad. I've mentioned my former membership in the Worldwide Church of God, and I've also mentioned The Surprising God Blog. Just dropped by there for a little visit, and near the top was this post. Imagine just for a moment reading the "us" of Ephesians One as all humanity, and then please tell me how Herbert Armstrong's universalism has not made its way into the new, improved WCG in another form.

Look at Me, Believing

Two days ago, I posted the lyrics to an anthem-ish praise chorus that does me a world of good when I sing it. Modern worship music has become the subject of so many angry rants that it's almost a wonder anybody ventures into the arena with new songs. So I like to give credit where credit is due.

That isn't to say that there aren't problems with a lot of songs today, though. Here's something I've noticed, and the best way to talk about it is probably just to start with some of the lyrics in which it appears.

I heard a story just the other day

About a man who gave His life away for me

Complicated yet it seems so clear

If I open up my heart You'll be so near to me

I believe in You

I believe in You

I believe in You

I believe Your Word has set me free

With all that I am I will live my life for You

I believe

I read a story just the other day

About the way You healed a blind man, made him see

Here I stand I'm crying out to You

All I need is faith to see a miracle in me

I believe in You

I believe in You

That was I Believe by Henry Seeley, and it has gotten a fair amount of "air time" in my congregation and, no doubt, in thousands of others. Not bad, in some ways: it never actually gives the name of Jesus, but it really cannot be talking about anyone else, and it alludes to His work on the Cross. And here the composer, and thus the congregation, asks for more faith, which is a pretty on-target request.

In the singing of it, though, something else comes out. And I'm not talking about the cute new trend in pop-Christian hymnody of cramming too many syllables into too few beats. You know, like in the first stanza of this song where "If I open up my heart" is to be sung in the same space allotted to "About a man" two lines previous. (Try it, it's nearly impossible)

No, instead do a pronoun count. And while you're at it, imagine a congregation repeating, "I beliiiiiiiiiiiiiieve in You [rest, rest], I beliiiiiiiiiiiieve in You [rest, rest], I beliiiiiiiiiiiieve ..." several times over. It's a bit monotonous, for sure, like the joke where the congregation gets tired of repeating "I could sing of Your love forever," and substitutes, "We've been singing this song forever." But where's the emphasis? Is it not on the believer, believing? After all, what is the purpose of saying "I believe, I believe," again and again? And then there's the way the song begins: not, "This Man gave His life for me" -- an affirmation of the central truth of the Gospel -- but "I heard a story" ... about this Man. (And I beliiiiiiiieve it, too) The effect is that the song is actually less a straightforward glorification of the Man who gave His life for me, as it is a song about me, hearing and experiencing the story of the Man who gave His life for me. See the difference?

This odd occurrence, of lyrics purportedly exalting Jesus as Lord and Christ, while actually placing at least as much focus on the worshiper doing the exalting, seems to run through many modern choruses -- some of which really do not work as choruses, anyway. Consider Matt Redman's The Heart of Worship (complete lyrics here).

I think this song is supposed to be penitential: "I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it ["it" being the act of worship, apparently] When it's all about You ... For a song in itself Is not what You have required ...And it's all about You, All about You, Jesus ... " Here we have a contrite worshiper of the Triune God who realizes that he has made some sort of a mess of the act and work of worship. He has made a "thing" of worship. We are never really told what that "thing" is, but it isn't right and he's sorry about it, and he pledges that from now on he'll bring "more than a song." He will return to the "heart of worship."

OK. Well, whatever his problems were before, he vows that with the Lord's help he will now worship in spirit and in truth. Amen to that. But here's the thing: again, "I" am prominent. Is a chorus of "I'm coming back to the heart of worship!" and, "It's all about You!" really a self-emptying exultation of the Lord Who is worthy of all worship? Or is it more about the songwriter's journey as a worshiper? Chronicling one's path from darkness to light may be personally useful, and may also edify others, but such qualities do not necessarily a God-honoring praise chorus make -- for it is really more "my story" than "The story."

Redman's "It's all about You!" finds its complement in another Passion song, Jesus, Lover of My Soul:

It’s all about you, Jesus.

And all this is for you.

For your glory and your fame.

It’s not about me, as if you should do things my way.

You alone are God, and I surrender to your ways.

There's nothing doctrinally false about these words. There is something about them that is doctrinally lazy, however. Reading them, a great big "No s***, Sherlock!" rises unbidden from me. "Of course it's not about you! When was it ever? This just in: cavities can be bad for your teeth." And so on. Far from a mature insight into the Word of God, this lazy lyric comes off more like an attempt to work into a song the snowclone "It's not about [blank]." Clever. Relevant. Weak is the new Strong. That sort of thing. And once again, we are invited to focus not so much on Christ, as we are on the composer's experience of worshiping Christ, which is not quite the same thing.

Songs like these increase my sympathies -- at least a little -- for the exclusive-Psalmnody crowd. It's hard to go down this self-referential road when you allow yourself nothing but metrical psalms and a pitchpipe. Seriously, though, I believe that the Church has much more to see of unfolding grace, and thus that she should continue to find her voice in new songs. Which is why I am also quite thankful for the Holy Spirit's sovereignty over hymnbooks. The cream continues to rise to the top, and more lousy songs are being left behind every year. I just hope these "Look at Me! I'm on a Journey of Belief!" songs will go the same way. We have far, far better words to sing.

[note: the paragraph-formatting thing is continuing to REALLY annoy me. Everything looked perfect in Preview, with nice spaces between paragraphs, until I right-and-left-justified. The spaces disappeared, and no amount of reformatting brought them back. Aaarrrgghh...]

Then Bursting Forth in Glorious Day

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
'Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Brought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

Singing in the bass section, I noticed how all the singers perked up and sang with greater fervor this morning, beginning with the third line of the third stanza. And me too. Somehow the glory of these Ketty Getty/Stuart Townsend lyrics had eluded me before.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!