World Magazine 10/29/2005: a Good One!

There is so much to read, I despair of getting to what is on the bookshelf and what comes in the mail. Its tough to read the WSJ thoroughly every day, and the issues pile up. At home, the mail brings Forbes and First Things, QST and CQ (amateur radio magazines), the AAII Journal, three alumni magazines, Dr. Dobson's newsletter (I never read it anymore; he was always a little much for me, and now he's too much; but God bless him), the Jews for Jesus Newsletter (don't read that either, although its a good one), the quarterly publication (or is it monthly?) of the Center for Bioethics, and assorted other Evangelical periodicals (not Christianity Today - its a good one, but I never got to it when we subscribed). (I won't go into what comes into the office or what we read on the 'net or comes via email.) Finally, there is World Magazine. It comes every week, and its just thin enough that I can read almost all of it in a MetroRail sitting. I don't agree with all of its editorial policies, but for 20 minutes a week its well worth reading. This week for example:

Joes Belz writes about church closings, an issue that is very much a live one with us at our church with its declining membership.

The Culture Beat section gives an update on what's happening in a theater near you or on DVD and this issue the "cultural editor" gives a "Peek into Narnia" and the upcoming movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Did you know that the special effects people on that project are the same as those on the Lord of the Rings series?

Priya Abraham and Marvin Olasky have a feature on the devastation of malaria in Africa and the terrible mistake the West made in banning or not supporting DVD, based on the pseudo-science of Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring. World is quite interested in African issues.

Another issue the magazine is tracking is the bird flu and this issue has an article entitled "Bird-flu Watching". Hand washing, it turns out, could be an important element in dealing with it. And there will not be enough vaccine for everyone, not nearly everyone.

Hugo Chavez is kicking out New Tribes Mission from Venezuela. But I'm sure you heard that on NPR. (You didn't?) Read what the indigenous tribes to whom NTM ministers have to say about the situation. Chavez terms NTM a "true imperialist infiltration", but his government does nothing for the people whom the Christians are infiltrating, nor does anyone else.

The federal courts come down hard on a self important state bureaucrat who tried to close down a Christian school that has a "highly successful, tough-love recover program", according to an article entitled Heartland Justice. So its not all bad news in this magazine. Not at all.

Marvin Olasky takes on Peter Singer. Part of a dignified exchange of views between these two is featured in Olasky's column. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

My favorite this issue is Andree Seu's column entitled "The Power of Now: Call forth what's yours with no double-mindedness." She (or maybe its "he") talks about being a "strenuous believer", as Seu notes and quotes Francis Schaeffer. Seu writes:

I've whined so much about a poor memory, depression, and insomnia that a friend suggested I take a bottle of "white-out" and delete Philippians 4:13 since I wasn't using it anyway. Francis Shaeffer agreed with him: "faith is simply believing God. . . . It is ceasing to call God a liar. . . . There are oceans of grace which wait. Orchard upon orchard waits, vineyard upon vineyard of fruit waits. There is only one reason why they do not flow out through the Christian's life, and that is that the instrumentally of faith is not being used."

As a board certified whiner, Seu's column hit me between the eyes.

Here is another passage from Seu's column, maybe the best:

The kingdom of God comes and "the violent take it by force" (Mattew 11:12). They sue for grace [I like that verb]. They say, like Jacob, "I won't let you go until you bless me." They ransack God's Word for promises. They believe them like a 5-year-old; and not like a sophisticate. They prefer the plain meaning to the obscurantist theology of unbelief. The call forth what's theirs in Christ without double-mindedness."

If any reader of this blog will promise to read World, I will give him (using the pronoun in its gender neutral, traditional form) a subscription for a year. Just put your request in the comments.