a few links for your consideration, aka sausage, aka linkathon

Colleges struggling to stay afloat. The article states that net tuition revenue has flatlined or declined in 73% of colleges in recent years, which is the revenue you get after you rule out grant monies as counting in any fashion.

 

Did changing tax codes in the 1940s play a role in changing the nature of jazz? At least one author proposes it did play a role. 

 

Margaret Thatcher's perverse victory and the prospect of an ethical economy, by John Milbank.  I'm sure Halden Doerge will be nodding in agreement all the way to the end on this one. ;)

 

Then there's this one, Margaret Thatcher as a liberal.  A couple of interesting, at least slightly incendiary pieces on Thatcher's legacy for consideration.   

 

For those who can't get enough Johnny Cash, there's a 60+ box set of Columbia stuff out now.  :)

 

Carl Trueman considers the adage 'Count no man blessed until he is dead' in terms of pastoral legacies and movement-building.  While some people make much of thinking through legacies for grandchildren and great-grandchildren (and maybe there's something to that) a certain author still warned people against speaking too confidently about even what you may do tomorrow.  :)  Not that that stopped some people from confidently declaring how this or that item of real estate would be used anyway.  Such is life.

 

C.S. Lewis wrote somewhere that a truly humble artist simply doesn’t care where he ranks, because he is simply trying to create the best art that he is capable of. I can’t think of any better way to apply humility to the writer’s life. If we tie our sense of self-worth and validity as an artist to our commercial or critical success, we will always ricochet between the extremes of hubris and despair. The only way to write and maintain your sanity is to approach your craft with humility and honesty.

 

Superman at 75 over at Cinemagogue.

Oh, yes, here's a little sermon by former MH pastor Bill Clem.  Though there's a few things that could be said about the sermon (such as I enjoyed it) this is just a set of links for perusal and consideration.  But for the person who mentioned in a comment a few months back that Clem discussed his time at Mars Hill in the sermon, that was kind of an understatement.

There's stuff about Samson as a very-bad-Nazirite and about Ecclesiastes to get to ... some time ... later this year ... maybe.  :)  But, again, this is a day for posting links of stuff to read. 

 

 

reminder--Cinemagogue conference coming up this weekend

http://cinemagogue.com/2013/03/30/pacific-northwest-cinemagogue-conference/

James Harleman will be presenting thematic material from his book Cinemagogue and how he's approached film criticms as an art and ministry over the last decade. 

We will, rest assured, have a review of the book Cinemagogue but for now we happily remind readers who may be in the Puget Sound area this weekend that there's an event.

Mockingbird digs up a little Evil Dead

http://www.mbird.com/2013/04/mockingbird-at-the-movies-evil-dead-2013/

Mockingbird has a little feature on the re-make of Sam Raimi's cult horror classic Evil Dead.  It's a fun little read.  Seeing as we've had a few words of our own about the pleasantly worthy re-make we'd be remiss not to link to Mockingbird on the subject.  :)

Challies on the new Pope and on Mahaney, has a fan of a pot called a kettle black?

http://www.challies.com/articles/the-humble-pope

What is humility? Humility, in the words of Wayne Mack, “consists in an attitude wherein we recognize our own insignificance and unworthiness before God and attribute to Him the supreme honor, praise, prerogatives, rights, privileges, worship, devotion, authority, submission, and obedience that He alone deserves. It also involves a natural, habitual tendency to think and behave in a manner that appropriately expresses this attitude.” Mack gets straight to the heart of humility when he shows that it is expressed before God before it is expressed before man. Humility before others must grow out of humility before God. If we are fundamentally proud before God, we simply cannot be humble before man.

Like any of us, Pope Francis can only be humble—truly humble—if he first attributes to God “the supreme honor, praise, prerogatives, rights, privileges, worship, devotion, authority, submission, and obedience that He alone deserves.” Yet Roman Catholic doctrine, and especially doctrine related to the papacy, steals from the honor, rights, prerogatives and authority of Jesus Christ and attributes them instead to the Pope. By definition and by Catholic dogma, Francis is no humble Pope.

 

http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/book-review-humility-true-greatness

There is a certain irony in the pursuit of humility. We see a glimpse of that in the title of this book, Humility: True Greatness. Humility is true greatness. The pursuit of humility and the pursuit of greatness are one and the same, provided that we seek greatness as defined by the Creator. I have never met C.J. Mahaney (though hope to some day), but from all accounts he is well-qualified to write a book on such a difficult subject. And this is a difficult topic. After all, how can a person write a book on humility without sounding like he feels he is most qualified? The truth is he can, provided

he uses the Scripture as the foundation for his teaching. And that is exactly what Mahaney does.

... Humility: True Greatness is a truly great book. I do not know of a person who shows no pride in his life, and thus I do not know of a person who would not benefit from reading it. I highly and unreservedly recommend this book.

Now given the allegations of sexually abusive clergy in both organizations and that both organizations had leadership at the highest levels that shielded abusive clergy from further discipline or enquiry is Challies at risk of being a fan of a pot calling a kettle black here? 

The former Catholic charismatic founders of church networks live Sovereign Grace Ministries and Mars Hill may give us examples of Catholic boys who have gone on to live up to the kind of top-down leadership that doesn't get publicly questioned that would fit the caricature we get of how the Catholic Church operates.  It's like the boys left the Catholic Church but their idea of the Catholic church leadership culture may not have necessarily left them. 

As you hit middle-age (and earlier) you can have all these troubling epiphanies about how you've turned into your parents.  It may be that the neo-Calvinist scene that sprung up out of jack Catholics who went Protestant and then charismatic and then kinda-maybe-Reformed (but not particularly) may be playing out that narrative before us. 
 

The Atlantic on Willie Nelson, country, rock, pop and jazz--the boundaries were always more permeable than marketing would suggest

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/what-willie-nelson-understands-about-country-deep-down-its-like-jazz/274996/

Wenatchee The Hatchet has almost no regard for country music written by people born after about 1960.  Ergo Garth Brooks is kinda lame at best while Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson (and, of course, Hank Williams Sr) are highly worthy!  Don't imagine that we've only ever listened to Haydn string quartets here (though we've listened to a few of those)!

Tim Challies thinks the new Pope isn't quite humble enough.

http://www.challies.com/articles/the-humble-pope

 

What is humility? Humility, in the words of Wayne Mack, “consists in an attitude wherein we recognize our own insignificance and unworthiness before God and attribute to Him the supreme honor, praise, prerogatives, rights, privileges, worship, devotion, authority, submission, and obedience that He alone deserves. It also involves a natural, habitual tendency to think and behave in a manner that appropriately expresses this attitude.” Mack gets straight to the heart of humility when he shows that it is expressed before God before it is expressed before man. Humility before others must grow out of humility before God. If we are fundamentally proud before God, we simply cannot be humble before man.

Like any of us, Pope Francis can only be humble—truly humble—if he first attributes to God “the supreme honor, praise, prerogatives, rights, privileges, worship, devotion, authority, submission, and obedience that He alone deserves.” Yet Roman Catholic doctrine, and especially doctrine related to the papacy, steals from the honor, rights, prerogatives and authority of Jesus Christ and attributes them instead to the Pope. By definition and by Catholic dogma, Francis is no humble Pope.
 

In the words of Wayne Mack ... wouldn't words from Mahaney have sufficed? 

http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/book-review-humility-true-greatness

 

There is a certain irony in the pursuit of humility. We see a glimpse of that in the title of this book, Humility: True Greatness. Humility is true greatness. The pursuit of humility and the pursuit of greatness are one and the same, provided that we seek greatness as defined by the Creator. I have never met C.J. Mahaney (though hope to some day), but from all accounts he is well-qualified to write a book on such a difficult subject. And this is a difficult topic. After all, how can a person write a book on humility without sounding like he feels he is most qualified? The truth is he can, provided

he uses the Scripture as the foundation for his teaching. And that is exactly what Mahaney does.

 

... Humility: True Greatness is a truly great book. I do not know of a person who shows no pride in his life, and thus I do not know of a person who would not benefit from reading it. I highly and unreservedly recommend this book.

 

Or is it less apt to quote Mahaney in the wake of some other news these days when building a polemic against the new Pope? 

April is the cruelest month, said T. S. Eliot

Was April 15th what he was thinking of when he wrote that famous line about April?  Probably not, but it is a fun speculation to consider on this day, breeding lilacs out of the dead ground.

Anyway ... .