Category: Gospel and Culture

Yes, in our very own US of A there are orphans of polygamy, a product of a cult of a cult. A spin off of the Mormon, Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ, this fundamentalist cult in Utah prescribes fear of the world as a way of life–no DVDs, internet, short-sleeve shirts, or mainstream education.

Moreover, men are required to have three wives for eternal salvation (convenient), which results in regular expulsion of teenage boys and retention of girls. Only recently did government officials realize that there have been hundreds of boys orphaned by this sect. But steps are being taken to get the boys into homes.

Read the article and weep.

Check out Church Planting Novice and join the conversation.

In a edgy NYTimes article, Billionaire William Gross takes his wealthy peers to task in cheap philanthropy. He writes:

“When millions of people are dying of AIDS and malaria in Africa, it is hard to justify the umpteenth society gala held for the benefit of a performing arts center or an art museum,” he wrote in his investment commentary this month. “A $30 million gift to a concert hall is not philanthropy, it is a Napoleonic coronation.”

Read the rest and respond by commenting here. What is your perspective? What about middle class philanthropy?

Check out the new podcast from Mars Hill, which explores the relationship between religion and the arts, Philip Reiff’s view of culture, and interviews with legal experts on the tenure of key U.S. justices.

“The essential thing ‘in heaven and in earth’ is,

apparently (to repeat it once more), that there

should be long OBEDIENCE in the same direction;

there thereby results, and has always resulted

in the long run, something which has made

life worth living; for instance, virtue, art,

music, dancing, reason, spirituality–anything

whatever that is transfiguring, refined,

foolish, or divine.”

–Friedrich Nietszche,

Beyond Good and Evil (1886); HT: Mars Hill