Katie’s Beer

Good post at Veith’s blog (focuses on faith and vocation) this morning:  The Candidates’ Day Jobs and the Bailout.   I’m for whatever truly needs some sort of bailout.  I’m not for throwing in, whole-hog, student loans and mortgages.  This plan needs meticulous scrutiny and study…I’m all for suspending the campaign for a couple of weeks.  Set up a three debates mid-October through the end of October.  I think we all know by now who stands for what.

If people doing their jobs (senators being senators) causes them to, as Veith put it, “present themselves as riding in on a white horse, delivering votes, and saving the economy”, then so be it.   I cringe when I think of all the money wasted on campaigns and Americans still remained divided.

The President’s words in last night’s speech concern me, but I also think he shouldn’t have delivered such a sanitized speech.  I would have preferred a McCain-style speech, specifically citing failures and announcing some firings.

America needs a vocal and unabashed leader who won’t spot-check himself in the mirror of polls.  I think I have to go back to Reagan to find someone like that.  Clinton was the king of poll-checking. Obama also strikes me as a poll-checker; McCain does not.

Tags: Vocation, Election 2008 by TK
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The Doctrine of Vocation
From The Cranach Institute

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, observed Luther, we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. And He does give us our daily bread. He does it by means of the farmer who planted and harvested the grain, the baker who made the flour into bread, the person who prepared our meal. We might today add the truck drivers who hauled the produce, the factory workers in the food processing plant, the warehouse men, the wholesale distributors, the stock boys, the lady at the checkout counter. Also playing their part are the bankers, futures investors, advertisers, lawyers, agricultural scientists, mechanical engineers, and every other player in the nation’s economic system. All of these were instrumental in enabling you to eat your morning bread.
Before you ate, you probably gave thanks to God for your food, as is fitting. He is caring for your physical needs, as with every other kind of need you have, preserving your life through His gifts. “He provides food for those who fear him” (Psalm 111:5); also to those who do not fear Him, “to all flesh” (136:25). And He does so by using other human beings. It is still God who is responsible for giving us our daily bread. Though He could give it to us directly, by a miraculous provision, as He once did for the children of Israel when He fed them daily with manna, God has chosen to work through human beings, who, in their different capacities and according to their different talents, serve each other. This is the doctrine of vocation.
- From *God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life*, by Dr. Gene Edward Veith.
See excerpt of book (and order book) here.

Therefore I advise no one to enter any religious order or the priesthood, indeed, I advise everyone against it - unless he is forearmed with this knowledge and understands that the works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they may be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone.

- Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520)

Consider the two paragraphs above. Then consider this story, told by Dr. Terry Mattingly at Get Religion:

(This column was syndicated by Scripps Howard News Service on 10/11/2006)

Like millions of other American kids, Alex Kendrick couldn’t believe his eyes the first time he saw “Star Wars.” “I remember sitting in that theater, looking up at that big screen and thinking, ‘I want to do that. I have to do that. If it’s the last thing I ever do, I’m going to make movies,’ ” said Kendrick, the writer, director and actor whose low-budget “Facing the Giants” football flick has made headlines.

The evangelistic indie movie cost $100,000 to make and, showing on 418 screens in faith-friendly smaller markets, has made nearly $3 million at the box office in two weeks. It’s backed by Provident Films, Sony BMG and Samuel Goldwyn films, but the critics have been merciless. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted: “It preaches to the converted — literally.” And then there was this Richmond Times-Dispatch love letter to Kendrick: ” ‘Facing the Giants’ may have been made with all the best intentions in the world, but it was also made by writers who can’t write, directors who can’t direct, editors who can’t edit and actors who can’t act. And they’re all the same guy.”

It helps, however, to understand that the Southern Baptist guy at the heart of this movie has had a tough time turning his “Star Wars” epiphany into a career reality. He is learning how to make movies and “Facing the Giants” is only his second try. Kendrick never had a real chance to study screenwriting, editing, directing or acting. When the time came to pick a career, he did what many young media-driven believers end up doing. He entered the ministry. It’s hard to explain to outsiders how this kind of thing happens…. Read the rest…

Tags: Vocation by TK
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Walt Whitman

LaShawn Barber shares her favorite childhood poem…

O ME! O life!… of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

~Walt Whitman

I read LaShawn Barber’s posts frequently. Not because she is a well-known Christian or conservative, but because she embodies Luther’s concept of vocation. She seamlessly ties in faith, culture, politics, technology and life. She inspires me to write and make my blog a platform to contribute to the world in the ways God has provided to me. Recently she wrote about her own continuing growth in writing and bloggging, in LBC Retooling,

I have a confession. I am bored out of my skull with the political ranting and raving and nitpicking. I’ve got to take this blog to the next level, mix things up a little bit.

Since November 2003, I’ve basically done the same thing: check the headlines, pick a story, rant and rave about it, link to other bloggers blogging about it, try to get links from other bloggers blogging about it (”chasing the link”), wait for the comments, read the comments, comment on the comments…and start over again the next day.

That’s what most bloggers do, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. It’s just not the right format for me anymore. I do some of my best writing on the blog. I put most of my time and energy into it. In fact, I put so much time and energy into it, I don’t have time to do writing outside the blog.

My former boss at the former day job, a liberal, gave me very good advice at a “goodbye and good luck” lunch. Although he leans left, he really liked my writing. He didn’t agree with most of it, but he thought I was a good writer. I told him about my plans to build up the blog, and he advised me to get into the habit of submitting op-eds to print publications once a week. At the time I waved it off. My focus was the blog, the online world. Now I remember why it’s important for a writer-blogger to do non-blog writing.

I need to focus more on filling up this page than joining the next blog swarm or catching the next meme. I want to reach more people with my ideas and opinions, and the best way to do that is to be published in a wider range of print and online pubs. Instead of being one of hundreds of bloggers commenting on MSM stories and op-eds, I want bloggers to comment on my MSM stories and op-eds. Read on…

Thank you, LaShawn!

Tags: Blog-keeping, Vocation by TK
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Dr. Veith, over at Cranach blog (focusing on the study of vocation and the Christian) reported in his post Tennessee Traveler,

“I’m on the road again. Really early in the morning, I caught a plane and now I’m in Tennessee. The Lily Foundation has funded a bunch of programs in Christian and church-related colleges on “Vocation,” which is quite welcome, though the understanding of that concept is not consistent, I’ve noticed. Still, I’m doing what I can to clear up the matter.”

Spurred on by an interesting discussion at Get Religion, Dawn Eden writes again, on the topic of the vocation of journalism and how Christian journalists can assure free speech rights for themselves and influence the field, I started to think about why I am wary of Christian professional societies as having any benefits beyond Christian fellowship.

I would tend to go the opposite route and recommend that any professional work diligently within their field’s recognized professional society to influence it through their actions. That same individual should also be strengthening their faith daily and weekly through God’s Word, solid preaching of both the Law and the Gospel and receiving strength and forgiveness through the sacraments. Exceling as a Christian in one’s vocation does not necessarily mean wearing one’s religion on one’s sleeve.

I’m trying to correctly remember C.S. Lewis’ quote about the world needing good literature, not more Christian writers (bad paraphase, someone help out here)? Wouldn’t the same apply to any vocation?

I’m thinking that a study of Luther’s teaching on vocation would be very helpful to anyone hoping to influence their profession and would ultimately go farther in obtaining free speech rights than joining a Christian professional society. Just my thoughts…

Update for 2-24-06

Something occurred to me this morning as I read the comments of the Get Religion thread. How is what happened to Dawn Eden ultimately a bad thing? One commenter said Dawn Eden was “beat up”, but God’s Word tells us that we will be persecuted for our faith on this earth. God promises in His Word that He will work all things for good and He delivered. The Opinional Journal featured her NYDN review, she’s getting great publicity for her upcoming book (which will proclaim the good news while entertaining readers) and she is gaining many readers for herself (and her new employer). She may have been temporarily beat up, but she stood strong in God’s Word and now look at her! She may be attacked for her faith again, but I don’t doubt she will continue to cling to the cross of Jesus Christ as proclaimed in God’s Word for her help and salvation. She did that all without a Christian journalists’ society, but not without a good pastor and church.

Take being said, I am not against professional societies for Christians of particular professions. It is strengthening to gather with other like-minded professionals from time to time. I just don’t think those societies should think that God needs them to do His work on earth.

Lucas Cranach was a good friend of Martin Luther’s, who became a great artist. He was also a businessman who ran a pharmacy and the printing shop that published Luther’s translation of the Bible. He was also something of a politician, who served on the Wittenberg town council and for awhile was mayor of the city. As a layman who lived out his faith in his various callings, Cranach embodies the Reformation doctrine of vocation. In the spirit of Lucas Cranach, this blog will discuss issues of Christianity and culture with a Lutheran twist.

Tags: Vocation by TK
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In her review of Annabelle Gurwitch’s new book for the New York Daily News , Fired, Dawn Eden shares some incredible details of her last days at the New York Post:

“…maybe my own pink-slip experiences have made me overly skeptical of dismissals that are tightly plotted and teem with deadly zingers. Even the firings of mine that came suddenly were, in retrospect, the result of long-simmering differences that finally bubbled to the surface.

Consider my exit from the New York Post. On the day I got the ax as a copy editor, Col Allan, the editor in chief, called me into his office and told me that he was “very concerned” about my blog, where I discuss my beliefs as a Christian conservative. He then lowered the boom (those “fired” synonyms just keep coming). But the first intimation that something was up had come days earlier.

It was then that I got in trouble with my boss, and a Post reporter, by making changes in an article about in-vitro fertilization. I was merely trying to add factual balance. (When three embryos are implanted and two “take,” the third one–it seemed worth mentioning–”dies.”) The newspaper, however, thought that the changes reflected “rabid anti-abortion views,” as a Post gossip column would later put it. When my boss refused to fire me over the incident, the unsatisfied reporter found my blog, printed out certain passages and took them to the top brass.

The word then came down from on high: “When you give an interview, if you talk about being Christian, don’t mention that you work for the New York Post.” I agreed. But I had agreed to the same thing four months before, after I gave an interview to a media-gossip Web site and my comments had stirred concern at the paper. When Mr. Allan finally fired me, then, it wasn’t entirely clear whether the reason was my blog, my beliefs or my editing. But for days I’d had the feeling that something bad was going to happen.”

I haven’t highlighted any particular phrase in her account, but certainly some of it shocked me. Of course, I’m not an intrepid journalist but just a wife, mother and employee who likes to write. In my world, I can’t imagine being fired for my views unless they were just so extreme from the main or I was just downright beligerent that working with me was impossible. Sounds like Ms. Eden has found a good home at the New York Daily News. Has the day finally come where a reporter can have opinions and beliefs and still be given a fair chance as a mainstream journalist? I would think that the Get Religion thinktank run by Dr. Terry Mattingly, whose goal it is to make sure the reporters report stories with religious components accurately, is a good example of this positive trend.

Dawn Eden’s blog can be found at www.dawneden.com. Ms. Eden does a good job of reviewing Ms. Gurwitch’s book, Fired. Isn’t she the girl from that movie show? Yep, it was the show, Dinner and a Movie. Hilarious!

Tags: Blog-keeping, Vocation, Religion, social issues by admin
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