Below is a quick but thoughtful response by John Piper on the blessings of checks and balances in the American government. Now I would love to ask him why he’s not Presbyterian then, since both systems function with the same underlying presupposition (the wickedness of the human heart and its need for accountability). But since there are no Baptisterians (presbyterian in government, but hold to believer’s baptism) that I know of, that’s not going to happen. And that’s cool. I’m still down with him. I tried to link to his site, but it wasn’t working. So here it is.

The Supreme Court rendered a decision last week concerning Guantanamo Bay. Unlawful combatants there now have constitutional habeas rights (protection from unlawful detention). The decision was considered a rebuke to the Bush administration and the way the armed services are doing their work under his leadership.

Here is what amazes me and awakens thankfulness in my heart to God. I heard the president from Rome speak these words: “We will abide by the Court’s decision. That doesn’t mean that I have to agree with it.”

Don’t let this go by without wonder and gratitude. Here is the most powerful leader in the world standing in public in the middle of Europe and saying for the whole world to hear that some of his decisions are nullified and his authority is curtailed and that he will submit to it.

Imagine such a thing in Myanmar or North Korea or China or Vietnam or in a half a dozen African regimes. Unthinkable.

What an incredible privilege we have to live in a land where human power is checked.

I believe in the wisdom of this kind of democracy because I believe in the almost unbounded potential of the human heart for evil. Power corrupts. It is biblically wise that there are checks and balances in the American system.

Another reason I believe in the wisdom of such a democracy is that Christian faith cannot be coerced by force, and unbelievers cannot be executed for their unbelief by anyone but the returning King of kings. Therefore, governance that limits the power of men to force faith or kill the faithless is a good thing.

I am thanking God today for the freedoms and the power-restraints of America.

This is a funny little video of Connar’s purring. Hope you enjoy it. Dare I say cute?

Connar had his first vacation this weekend (click here for the pics). A little town called Tampa. My parents headed out of town and my brother-in-law and girlfriend (his, not mine) flew in, so we hit up the North Tampa area for the weekend. On Sunday, I was able to get away to worship. Amy should be back in the saddle by this Sunday. I worshiped at a PCA church plant only a mile down the road from my parents house.

They incorporated a lovely blend of hymns and a few praise songs (one ‘brought me back’ to my youth ministry days) with a modified liturgy. I felt right at home. On top of all that, one of my buddies who I hadn’t seen for a year, just happened to show up for the 2nd week in a row. You see, the previous week a woman passed out during the sermon. The pastor never finished, so my friend and his wife decided to come back this Sunday. Cool providence.

One of the more moving things I witnessed was from a worshiping parent. He was singing lustily and joyfully while holding one of his children: perhaps 3 years old. I’m not really good at guessing ages though. Anyhow, with his face periodically looking at his son, he appeared to me as though he were singing to or singing over him. The child was kind of fidgety and had his hands covering his ears. As though he didn’t want to hear. How’s that for a picture of sin? Covering our ears instead of listening to God singing over us.

But the dad kept singing, and it seemed to calm the child. It reminded me of that verse in Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” As God would have it, the benediction came from this same passage. Cool providence. And how apropos to witness this on Father’s day.

If you’re one of the few, (I wouldn’t go so far as to say “the proud”), who read the Herald (though I personally have nothing against it), then you’ve no need for this link. Obviously you would have read my article in Saturday’s paper. If you’re among the larger percent of the population living outside Manatee County, or neglected this great duty of Geoff’s article reading, you can click here for a link to my article. Due to the fact we have a newborn now living with us, I felt encouraged by all the tired traveleres who’ve traversed this same path. So the article deals with the suffering aspect of fellowship. People need others to share their joy. But folks also need other folks to share in their sufferings, just as Paul instructed us toward the special fellowship of sharing in Jesus’ sufferings. I actually got an email from a reader on the same day it “hit the press.” Not a bad start, eh? Hopefully it will move us all toward deeper community.

I was listening to a lecture the other day by a pastor named Mark Driscoll. I’m usually a huge fan of him. I think his vision for ministry is very much consistent with that of the Reformed tradition of redeeming culture, seeking community and mercy, and transforming the city. And on top of that, I think he is hilarious.

However I learned the danger of idolizing folks as I listened to him defend a minority position on elders. Only men who are married can become elders at his church. He gets this from the elder description passages in I Timothy and Titus as they specify that an elder needs to be ‘a man of one wife.’ I won’t exegete (breakdown and interpret) the passage for you, but will say that I don’t hold his position.

But the problem with Driscoll was not so much that he disagreed with the other pastor he was co-lecturing with. The problem was that he was so stinking arrogant, belligerent, disrespectful, (and had to get the last word in), that I wanted to punch him. I really did.

I felt like throwing away his books, deleting his link on my blog, and telling my father-in-law to disregard another lecture I burned for him where he identified the dangers of the emergent church.

A week later I have calmed down. Well it didn’t take that long, I guess. And I realized two things.

1.) Arrogance and dogmatism on unclear and minority matters will only turn people away from you. And fast.

2.) Idolizing people is dangerous on a variety of fronts (besides the obvious replacement of Jesus with another). I was so angry because I held him in too high an esteem. I had idolized him. He’s a dude with issues. I should have expected him to have weaknesses. I do. And I hope that people don’t throw out everything I say when I’m defensive or respond angrily without grace to something they say.

So I can still learn a bunch from him, without idolizing him or becoming a thoughtless groupie.

Just when I thought my neighbors couldn’t be nicer, another family pulls up in their mini-van and drops off a mini basketball autographed by none other than Dick Vitale. Apparently he is a regular at the First Watch or Broken Egg (where she is a waitress) or something like that in Lakewood Ranch. How cool is that, eh? This neighborhood is definitely a special place and community is forming where there was no community before. Amen.

On Monday I called my neighbor to see what he was up to. A month or two ago he offered to load his pick-up truck bed with nearly a ton of landscaping rocks. So I took him up on his offer. He told me he didn’t have much to do the whole afternoon. And he proved it.

After getting the rocks, he helped me unload them and place them all over the yard. Since he is professedly more anal than I am (not too tough), it was helpful to have someone more skilled, or at least, more attuned to aesthetics. It turned an extremely ugly yard into a decent looking yard.

Then he offered to drive back and grab a bed-full of mulch! So we put half in my yard and I helped him put some in his yard. Talk about a great neighbor. Fortunately I have several great one’s on my cul de sac.

I’ve noticed that doing yard-work puts you in the path of your neighbors, and so is quite a good thing. But I hadn’t ever experienced actually doing yard-work with your neighbors. We had a blast and learned a ton about each other. I’m actually looking forward to helping him lay some sod. Hopefully we’ll do it early in the morning though….

Someone who posted on my blog has a sports/faith blog. On it I found this article relating to athletes who like to play the “God card” and compare themselves to Jesus. Terrell Owens, known for saying “I love me some me,” also said that he should expect people to hate him because, “they hated on Jesus.” Click here for an interesting article critiquing a fellow Dallas Cowboys teammate Roy Williams’ comparison to Jesus.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a professional athlete. Or rather a Christian who is a professional athlete. Christ’s lordship applies to everything we do. There is nothing that exists outside Christ’s Lordship for the Christian’s life. Nothing.

So I often wonder how I would, or at least should, act in specific sporting situations. Especially in the ‘unwritten rules of the game.’ For instance, retaliation in baseball. Retaliating against a neighbor or enemy is one thing. But is retaliation in baseball entirely different?

Recently the Tampa Bay Rays went to Fenway Park for a series. One evening a dirty Red Sox player named Coco Crisp, slid hard, high, and late into the Rays 2nd baseman. The next night, James Shields, drilled him with a fast ball in the hip. Crisp didn’t take kindly to it.

He charged the mound, and Shields swung hard at him and missed. A melee ensued and several folks got thrown out with several more getting big suspensions.

The Rays 2nd baseman, a Japanese player, said that he felt like his team really “had his back.” They don’t do that kind of stuff in Japan (strangely enough the place that brought you Kamikazes) he said. I guess you could say that the retaliation pitch was really showed love to Aki. I mean, that pitch really showed Akinora Iwumura that Shields cared about his safety and well being. He would risk being thrown out of a game to protect his teammate.

As a Christian pitcher, I don’t think I would have a problem throwing a retaliation pitch. Its just part of the game. If someone charged the mound, I guess I wouldn’t have a problem defending myself either. But would a more godly approach be a tackle instead of a punch? How should one react to a brawl? Is it more loving to sit on the bench or to charge the field? What do you do when you’re out there? Pull people off? Tackle folks in order to protect your teammates?

If you want to check out the video of this brawl-and as far as brawls go, this one is solid-click here.

Here’s a cartoon that a friend sent to me. I found it apropos and humorous. Of course the cartoon spelled my name wrong-but I’m used to that. Connar will have to get used to it too (normally spelled Connor, I think).

However, diaper duty really hasn’t been that challenging except when Connar pees on himself and the surrounding areas. I’ve not really been sprayed yet. He normally just sprays himself. Kind of gross to see his face covered with pee. But not to him.

Anyhow, I’ve been so blessed to be part of two neat communities. My church community has been huge, bringing meals every other day. And good ones at that! I can’t imagine not having such a community in my life. I don’t see how people live disconnected to this Family. They have blessed us so greatly and have really made our joy more complete through their desire to care for us and be excited for us.

Another community has been my neighborhood. My next-door-neighbor brought us over MORE gifts. She and her daughter had already given us stuff, but they gave us more yesterday. And they are not the only one’s who brought us over stuff, or offered services. We’re very thankful for this community as well. Just thought I’d share the joys of community.

Are there struggles in community? Of course. We’re people. But I think, experientially, the blessings far outweigh the struggles.