Christian Carnival CLXX (170)

Praise Him for the Carnival Edition

It is an exciting time for the Christian Carnival: Dory's absence has led to a flowering of ideas and an explosion of structural items for the Carnival. I will discuss some of these features interspersed among the posts.

The overall thought that I have is that God is so Good. Many people have jumped up almost simultaneously to re-build the structures that we no longer had access to; and, rather than compete, we have supported each other in whatever ideas have arisen. It be cool, as are this set of submissions. The posts, BTW, are in order of receipt.

Elizabeth at At a Biblical Home describes "How Darwinism Hurts Women" - several of the ways that an evolutionary worldview is detrimental to women.

Peter Smythe warns: "Hebrews 2:9 - For Mature Audiences Only"

Matt Jones looks at Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort's intentions to "scientifically prove God's existence" and is somewhat skeptical.

Richard, at dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos theophilos discusses the meaning of the "Birth pangs of new beginnings" in Matthew and Mark and the significance of the absence of the word in Luke.

Bryan at THEOdyssey explores the "The God-shaped Vacuum"

Google Group for Notification of Members

We have set up a new Google Group - Christian Carnival II - as a notification list to tell folks who the next host is, where to send the submissions, and when the Carnival is posted. Even if you on not own a blog (or never intend to submit to the Carnival), but you would like to be notified of where and when the Carnival will be posted, please go and join this group. Incidentally, there is no reason to join if you pick the "no email" option: you do not have to be a member to read the notices at the site; and the only purpose of the Google Group is email notification about the Carnival.

All messages to the group are moderated except for those of the moderators; and the current host. Incidentally, there are five "owners" of this group with equal access - we will not lose access to it if one person is no longer available. Once you join, you will be able to see how to send messages to the group (which, again, will be moderated)

Now, we just need those who read the Carnival to join the Google Group; and enjoy the next set of posts.

Chasing the Wind has created a Christian Carnival blogroll, and posted the HTML code you can put in your sidebar to link back to the more recent Carnivals.

Jan has The View from Her on "Q Day One" after attending the Q Conference last week - a gathering to explore the role of the Church in influencing both culture and the future.

Lillie applies A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye to "Slavery and Abortion: Moral Relatives" -

Abortion is justified by saying the aborted fetus is not a human being, just a blob of tissue. Slavery was justified was saying that the slave was not a human being, but something less than human.

Henry at Participatory Bible Study Blog takes a "Look at New Perspectives on Paul ". This is just an overview of a discussion that he intends to relate to studies on Galatians, Hebrews, and even the gospel of Mark.

This week at Light Along the Journey John examines how we should think biblically about all the things we think we can't do without in his post "Need". BTW: John will be the host of next week's Carnival.

Submission Gmail

There is also one email to send all submissions for the Carnival to. The moderators will make sure the forwarding is flipped when it should be flipped. Again, there are five moderators to make sure these tasks are done.

So, again, send all submissions to the Christian Carnival to the gmail email. Back to our program.

Barbara points out another of her Tidbits and Treasures about a "Christian Alternative to MySpace" - a faith-based networking site called JCFaith.com

Jeremy at Parableman examines "Carhart, Religion, and the Constitution" - particularly

the claim that the Supreme Court's upholding of the partial-birth abortion ban is just religiously-motivated, along with a reflection on a different view of constitutional issues taken in this decision as opposed to previous ones.

Mark at Pseudo-Polymath examines "A Great Stroke of Luck … or Something Greater?"

I was recently Chrismated into the Orthodox church. In the Orthodox church Chrismation is a sacrament associated with Baptism for which Confirmation might be a analogue in the Western church. In this essay I discuss that event and some of what I went through before that event.

Amanda of Imago Dei asks the question, "What's the deal with H.R. 1592?"

In response to Pseudo-Polymath's question: what can we do towards Christian reconciliation now, Weekend Fisher at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength has written "The Anti-Christ: A Call for Discussion Among Lutherans".

This post re-opens old controversies and is nearly guaranteed to raise tempers among both Lutherans and Roman Catholics. I have to respectfully ask the Roman Catholics to pass over this conversation as a matter internal to Lutherans.

Christian Carnival Forum

One of the blessings of the current situation is that Nick Queen, the original founder of the Christian Carnival, is actively involved again - and came up (with help from others) with the Christian Carnival Forum. It is a bulletin board type site, and it allows the scope of the Carnival to expand greatly - the ideas for its use are just beginning to be explored. Go visit, look around at some of the discussions, and give your ideas.

Practically, it is serving three real functions right now:

1. A place to discuss how, why, and when we are going to use these new tools
2. A place to volunteer to host a future Carnival
3. A place to link posts that will, or could, not, for one reason or other, be submitted to the Carnival - but would be of interest to Carnival readers

I am sure more uses are coming - how would you use it? To paraphrase an old TV show: "We have re-built it; and it is stronger than ever".

Now, all you need to do is enjoy it - and here is the last set of posts for just that purpose.

Lingamish: "Dinthi Day 36"

As our month of posts about life in an African village ends we finally have a snake story and it's a big one! It has a happy ending (but not for the snake).

Katy at Fallible presents "DNR":

“He will not live the day,” he said. “You have a decision to make, and I need to know now."

Don at The Evangelical Ecologist writes a review of a book by Christian author Bill McKibben called "Hope, Human and Wild - Living Lightly on the Earth" that folks mightfind useful.

Dana at Principled Discovery looks at what it means to "Cleave to that Which is Evil"

Thanks for taking all of these great rides.