Bits and Pieces -- for the Taxman Cometh

Liz Bowater has a great post on the unlikely idolatry of "peace, justice, and ecology"

I work in a subculture where those three things--peace, justice, ecology--are seen as the chief end of man and I often lament the Godlessness here. In house church, while praying the Prayers of the People, my prayer for them often becomes something of a request that God would help me direct them toward worship of Him, rather than of his creation. And I have to remind myself every day that, although my coworkers and I all find great joy in the same line of work, there is a line drawn between us.

The chief end of my existence lies solely in a God that they do not know. And because of that, we exist in very, very different worlds.

Meanwhile, John Schroeder responds to one of my earlier post on intellecutual snacking.

Could it be that the new communication technology will enable a balance between the intellectual and the experiential? Can we harness it in ways that are both emotionally evocative and intellectual stimulating, acheiving the kind of wholeness that God intends? Can it be used to reach those we have previously written off as unreachable?

Here's an interesting Link to the Pew Forum's page on profiles of the major presidential candidates, their religous connections, and their basic resumes. Interesting reading, but I'm wondering when they'll get Chris Dodd and Mike Huckabee on the page? (Hat Tip: Mark Daniels)

The Evangelical Outpost gives its nominations for the most influential forces in conservative media. What are your guesses -- FOX, Limbaugh, and Coulter. Nope, not even blips on the radar. The triumvirate is: Paul Harvey, Reader's Digest, and the Boy Scout Handbook:

On Paul Harvey....Harvey is often overlooked as a influence even though he has millions more listeners than any other conservative on the radio (including Rush). His "Paul Harvey News and Comment" airs for 5 minutes in the morning and for 15 minutes before noon. Yet the octogenarian manages to say more in those 20 minutes than other hosts say in 180.....

On Reader's Digest....before email made it possible to spam your friend's inboxes, people submitted their jokes and anecdotes to "All in a Day's Work", "Life in These United States", and "Humor in Uniform." Before we had PorkBusters and Michelle Malkin, we got word of bizarre government spending and behavior from "That's Outrageous." And before there was a conservative blogosphere to digest the news, there was Reader's Digest....

and of the Boy Scout Handbook handbook we get....Such an earnest and irony-free worldview is naturally antithetical to the South Park-style mock-the-world moronity that pervades the culture.....

Excelsior
Russell