Check out this post on Guantanamo Bay over at The Weblog. Here's a quote to start you off:

"Insistence that one turn a blind eye to the abuses of one's own government in order to denounce the abuses of others, separated by wide expanses of time and space from oneself, is an affront to the principle of democratic self-governance. If anything should count as "un-American," such rhetoric should -- it denegrates the legitimate right and privilege of the people of the United States to exercise the principle of democratic self-governance, in favor of giving those in power a free hand to do whatever they want."

I find it greatly encouraging that Christians are starting to raise these issues in the blogosphere, kudos to Adam.

Which issues are really important for Christians to be involved in? Christians are well-known for being vocal on issues to do with homosexuality, abortion or the issue of creation/evolution being taught in schools, but are these things really as important as the issues that Christians often neglect? I for one have found it bewildering to survey the Christian blogosphere from time to time and find blogs who are zealously anti-abortion or anti-gay (for example) but who are silent on the issues of war, torture, or social justice, or even worse they condone these things as being Christian.

I came across this article discussing the alarming silence of many Christians over the Darfur genocide and subsequent humanitarian catastrophe. In the view of the writer, Evangelical priorities are hugely imbalanced with the result that serious issues like the Sudan crisis are ignored or neglected. Brian Mclaren is currently campaigning to raise awareness on the issue and had this to say in a recent sermon:

"We fight about whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed in front of buildings, but we fail to live out the Ten Commandments in relation to our suffering neighbors,” he said. “We’re here today, and we will gather for the coming five Sundays, to say that this division and paralysis are unacceptable to us. We are tired of being divided over trivialities; we believe it is time to come together over an emergency."

Mclaren gets an awful lot of criticism in some Christian circles, much of it being little more than thinly-disguised hatred, but he has hit the nail right on the head with this one. I also think that while undoubtedly many Christians are convinced that issues like gay marriage are an utter offence to God's holiness, their ignoring of the plight of the poor and starving is somehow less offensive to God's holiness and by their inaction imply that they believe that their priorities are also God's priorities, though the weight of scripture seems to be otherwise. Is the increased politicization of Christianity to blame? Here's Mclaren again:

"while between 200,000 and 300,000 additional victims were slaughtered in Darfur, the most highly visible leaders of American evangelicals seemed increasingly caught up in shrill debates about gay marriage and other largely political issues. “I think the religious community is being manipulated by political forces that profit by dividing the electorate and shaving off a few percentage points here and there...We’re paralyzed over here about certain issues while hundreds of thousands of people are dying.”

The article makes a valid point. To be honest I think the time, energy and resources invested in combatting the teaching of evolution in schools or whether or not the 10 commandments are displayed in a courtroom are luxury issues for Christians to be involved in. Not that they shouldn't be important necessarily, but it would be refreshing to see the Christian Right put the same level of zeal and effort into helping millions in Sudan as they did to protest about Terri Schiavo a few months back.

Read the whole article here. Hat-tip to Jonny for mentioning it to me.

Here's some posts and blogs of note from the last week or so:

Michael Spencer of The Internet Monk has a quality post on moral authority and postmodernism, and he makes the rather important point that very often Christian critique of postmodernity fails to rise above postmodernity itself because it makes the same assumptions. Adrian continues his series of features on the ESV Bible, as he has had exclusive access to the translators. I intend to get a copy of the ESV, but I don't think it will make the church-wide impact that people expect (and by church-wide I mean outside evangelical circles) though it's probably worth owning a copy. Parableman has an insightful post on some of translation problems with the ESV while Chris makes a point about theological bias in translation.

Phillip Johnson attacks the sarcasm and scornfulness of the Boar's Head Tavern with...er...sarcasm and scorn. I think they call that 'fighting fire with fire'  - which is how to get thrown out of the fire brigade. The Thinklings have also been interacting with the BHT lately and have a rather interesting post on the importance of the ascension that is worth reading.

I've also come across a couple of other blogs that are worth adding to your regular reading lists. Paul Whiting's blog has a lot of interesting theology on there, especially if you're into Jürgen Moltmann. He is currently looking at ideas about Mary and the Virgin Birth. Also be sure to visit the Jesus Creed and have a look at the spiritual formation assessment.

Lastly, if you you're a regular reader of Christian blogs you're probably aware of this quiz, of which I am the creator. Most people seem to have enjoyed it, and if it has stimulated them to explore theology further then I'll be happy. However, the significant number of people who have been outright offended by it should understand that it was only intended as a time-filler and not a once-for-all pronouncement about whether you're saved or not. I'm aware of the flaws within the quiz but due to server issues have not been able to fix them, so please stop flooding my inbox with complaints that I missed out your denomination. As for the sizeable number of Christians who think it is acceptable to send me hatemail and abuse because of something I've said (or not said) about your theological worldview, you should frankly be ashamed of yourselves and grow up, no one cares about your theology when your character sucks. The quiz will be deleted once the servers are up and running again.

As you can see from the snazzy new logo in the left hand column, I have joined up to Blog for Books. They operate an awesome scheme whereby they will offer you a book free of charge on the condition that you review it on your blog. They still have vacancies for a number of reviewers so if you fancy getting your hands on some free Christian books then visit their site right away! Here's the terms and conditions:

1. Link to Mind & Media with a special graphic I have designed for Reviewers only. Or place our Blog ad on your site the duration of the time you are reviewing books, dvds etc.

2. You review the book and the whole time you are reviewing the book you have a link with the graphic I will provide on your blog for 30 days. This must be in a prominent place for everyone to see, not at the bottom of your blog where no one can see it.

3. Tell others about Mind & Media, by writing at least one post, so we can share the books and other products, because we have more than enough for everyone!

4. You must put that the book you received was given to you from Mind & Media as a gift from the Publisher who donated the books for reviewers on your blog as a disclaimer. (This is a request of the publisher.)

5. Have a basic knowledge of HTML code so you can easily add graphics or links to your site.

6. There is NO LIMIT to the products you can receive FREE as long as you review the material and place the appropriate codes or logos on your site.

7. On average we give you about 4-6 weeks to complete your reviews.

8. We also use the Amazon associates program to promote the products, and you can either use our codes for Mind & Media and allow the sales to be given to Mind & Media, or you can open your own Amazon account and track your sales for us.

Expect to see a lot more book reviews here in the future. For now, read my latest (and only one so far) here.

Over 3,000 people have taken my theology quiz in the last week and I have an inbox full of comments, some good and some bad. This is the only way I have of responding to the comments and questions so here goes:

1. The quiz was too Christian

Well yes it was, not least because I only have a detailed knowledge of Christian theology and only had Christians in mind when I wrote the quiz. Perhaps I should have mentioned something in the title but Quizfarm doesn't let you write much of an intro.

2. Like all supernatural ideas, a load of rubbish

So why waste your time taking the quiz then? Like many atheists, full of inconsistencies.

3. You missed out my denomination.

Yes, there were several groups I missed out including Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheran, Anabaptists, Quakers, Anglican/Episcopalian, Celtic spirituality, and so on. This was due in part to the limited number of answers I could give and I have also been unable to develop the quiz further due to a problem with Quizfarm's servers.

4. The questions were too biased and there were too many leading questions.

A quiz of this nature is not an exact science and while many of the theologies on offer overlap (there are plenty of charismatics who are also Catholic for example) it is necessary to emphasise the distinctives and the differences rather than the similarities between the groups. I was not for one moment (as one e-mail suggested) trying to bring division to the church and create stereotypes, but to create clear results it is necessary to focus on the unique characteristics of each group, hence the questioning style.

The quiz format is very limiting it has to be said, and some answers need more than 'agree' or 'disagree' and although it seems to be fairly accurate from the feedback I've had. When Quizfarm is up again I intend to fix the quiz and tweak it slightly so that it reflects a wider audience.