The Resurrection, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1635

On this beautiful day when Christians celebrate the resurrection of their Savior, I’d like to recommend you take a moment and enjoy the wonderful works of art that have been created commemorating this event.

I recently heard a woman on the radio chastising Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias for believing in something like the resurrection when the four gospel accounts were so contradictory. The apologist amply answered her protest.

For those who have similar concerns about the validity of the resurrection accounts as recorded in the four Gospels, I encourage you to read this harmony of the resurrection accounts.

First, I think Republican hubris played a huge role in the Democrat (and Obama’s) rise to power. Beginning in 2006 with losses in both the House and the Senate, the Republicans began their steady downward spiral to where they are today. They squandered their opportunity when they were in the same position that the Dems will be in after January. They, ironically, conducted themselves as traditional Democrats and increased the size of government, violating that and other core conservative values. They appeared to believe themselves untouchable. Sadly, they found out they weren’t.

George Bush, in his last four years in office, also squandered much (though hampered in the last two years with an oppositional House and Senate). He simply didn’t do much to further conservative thought and remained, in my mind, aloof as the figurehead of the Republican party. The public’s view of him as everything wrong with our country (not a fair estimate, but understandable) hurt any chance for a Republican to take office. (Ironically, we’ll see how the Dems spin the fact that they have control of both Houses and the Presidency but ALSO have such low approval ratings—even lower than Bush’s.)

Second, and most importantly, I believe the election of Barack Obama had much to do with the failure of the Church to effectively communicate its message to it’s own people. Yes, I didn’t say communicate its message to the World, but to its OWN people—both black and white. While I recently heard that polls indicate that the African-American vote helped Obama, it didn’t put him over the top. There wasn’t a significant increase, overall, in the number of black voters (with the increase coming from in younger voters). Rather, it was white independents and moderates who elected Barack Obama. Nevertheless, I find two points interesting.

First, the African-American community as a whole votes very traditionally on issues such as family and abortion. Ironically, they selected a candidate who is anything but traditional. Did the A-A community know Obama’s stances and voting history on these core moral issues? Or, was it more that they chose to overlook it—much like most of America—in favor of economy and the prize of having a black President? My own experience in urban education leads me to believe that they abdicated their role as salt and light to the World in favor of race. That’s a harsh statement, but, as I indicated, it holds true to what I hear consistently in my all-minority school.

As I indicated previously, polls show that moderates and independents won this election for Obama. Most of those were white. The present state of the mainline Protestant and Catholic churches also shows a clear willingness to PUT ASIDE mandates about life and the family in favor of progressive politics. After all, in their view, times change and the Word of God is a book written by men that must be revisited as society evolves.

I wonder what would happen if evangelical churches made their focus—over the next four years—one of educating their congregations about the core values of the Christian church. Because the Church has a different vocabulary—a different way of looking at the World—our account of life and meaning is vastly different. I have to agree with Robert Lewis Wilken:

Nothing is more needful today than the survival of Christian culture, because in recent generations this culture has become dangerously thin. At this moment in the Church’s history in this country (and in the West more generally) it is less urgent to convince the alternative culture in which we live of the truth of Christ than it is for the Church to tell itself its own story and to nurture its own life, the culture of the city of God, the Christian republic.

I can’t help but wonder what would happen in the 2010 and 2012 elections if the Church was grounded in this way.

The B&N in King of Prussia had a pretty good selection. Well, for me it did. I was looking for books specifically about pastels and oil/watercolor/acrylic painting. It shouldn’t have been too hard but I was surprised the amount of material that simply missed the mark.

I’ll give you a simple rundown of the order I placed through Amazon. I’ve already received two of my selections (woo-hoo!) and am looking forward to the others coming ahead of schedule as well. Here’s the list:

1. Pastel School (Learn as You Go)
2. Painting with Pastels: Easy Techniques to Master the Medium
3. Landscape Painting Inside and Out: Capture the Vitality of Outdoor Painting in Your Studio With Oils
4. Oil Painter’s Solution Book Landscapes: XX Answers to Your Oil Painting Questions
5. How to Paint Like the Impressionists: A Practical Guide to Re-Creating Your Own Impressionist Paintings
6. Layer by Layer Acrylic Painting

Yes, I know there aren’t any watercolor-technique books in the list and only one acrylic book. I’ve got some watercolor resources available at my house. I just need time to go through them and think out how to incorporate the info. Of course, what to include is also helpful. I’ve got that to figure out too. Though time is short, it’ll come together.

Well, I’m off to bed. Good night!