The Allen Family in Mozambique

When my oldest son went to preschool, I would pick him up after school was out and would stay afterwards out back to chat with Dan Allen, one of the few other dads who wasn't working a job that time of day. We would adjourn to the schoolyard, with his kids and mine running ahead and climbing all over the playground equipment.

In those days, Dan and I spoke of many things. Dan is a deeply convicted and devout Protestant, and I the same thing, only Catholic. We discussed abortion, evil cultural influences on children, Islam, and morality. We spoke of sin, redemption, forgiveness, faith, heaven, and hell. We saw something unfold over time, a truism I first heard from Mark Crutcher at one of his seminars I'd attended 15 years before - namely, that because religious conservatives seek, affirm and embrace that which is true, they find more in common with each other beyond sectarian lines than they do with liberals bearing their own denominational label, who reduce and deny that which is true.

All the while our children played near us, sometimes cutting in competing for our attention. His two beautiful little girls had a way of hugging each other "sorry" when they'd accidentally hurt one another, and would hug my kids when they accidentally hurt them.

Those people are very far away from me now. After having given the matter much prayer and thought, the Allen family - Dad, Mom, and girls - sold their home, packed everything up and went off to Mozambique to do missionary work for their church. I've added their new blog to my blogroll.

Personally, I wouldn't do that with my kids. Mozambique is poverty stricken, AIDS ridden, and not as safe as America. By Dan's first blog entry alone, it looks like the country suffers from poor infrastructure, scarcity, and overpricing as well. Personalizing the situation by imagining my own family in it clarifies in my mind why the Catholic Church defines unmarried vocations for missionary priests, brothers, and nuns. But this family feels led there by the Spirit to do God's work, to bring the Gospel and loving hands to the people of Mozambique.

And so they have. And so they do. I pray for their success and eventual safe return.

The Christian Case Against Obama

To see the Christian case against voting for Obama, go here. Click the full page spandex thingie in the upper right of the page viewer. It fits on a single printable page, and holds links to supporting evidence on each point made for those who are interested.

The guide comes from CatholicVote.com, but no Christian can afford to draw divisive sectarian lines at a time like this. Heck, I'd say run with it if it were from JehovahsWitnessesVote.com. (Now that, ah say, that's a joke, son!)

Tough to be a Christian

I think anyone who's ever been marked as a Christian on the job or in public can relate to this video. It's got an endearing homemade production feel about it, a little camp, and background music reminiscent of those good old Charlie Brown cartoons.

Roll 'em!





Update:

All right, what gives here? I found a different film and cast, same setting and the same exact script. Is this the Joe Biden school of ministry, or what?

Bad Movie: The Golden Compass

Be sure to boycott the movie The Golden Compass, due for release in theaters on December 7, and pass the word to all your friends. It's based on a trilogy by British author Phillip Pullman, an avowed atheist who hates Christianity and the works of C.S. Lewis; he wrote his series of books to sell atheism and create a distaste for God and religion to young minds as a counterforce to the good wrought by the popularity of The Narnia Chronicles. Pardon the spoiler here, but as best I understand it, the feel good ending of the trilogy is when the kids poke a sword into God and kill him (the character "Yahweh"). The forces of darkness are supposed to be the Church hierarchy, but you wouldn't know that since in the stories they're called "The Magisterium".

While the film version of The Golden Compass waters down the venom and blunts the teeth of the most heavily vitriolic elements of the books, and stars Nicole Kidman to give it the cover of legitimacy, the real danger lies in the boon to book sales to be generated by interest in this film. (Think Harry Potter, Narnia, and Lord of the Rings). The worst stuff's in the books, which will surely fuel a crisis of faith in many a reader.

This is the real deal. Check it on Snopes. Here's the official movie synopsis.

Bad movie! Pass it on. Tell it from the pulpit. Blog it. Forward it.

Update: Don Danz tells it all so much better. Get all the details from him here.