Bible Theme Parks!?

Life often imitates art. Maybe you remember the episode of the Simpsons where Ned Flanders--the annoyingly wierd, overly zealous, legalistic supposedly Christian neighbor--opened up a Christian amusement park called "Praiseland." Well stand back, now there's "The Holy Land Experience" in Orlando, Florida (along with a host of other similar endeavors).

For $30 you can experience such exciting amusements as:

• A musical reenactment of Christ's death and resurrection, delivered daily by one of the park's three Jesus impersonators!
• A six-story replica of Herod's temple!
• A gift shop that sells Holy Land T-shirts, plastic swords and shields, and biblical cookbooks!
• And much more!

Some people have complained: "What you have is this radical, paradoxical combination of the sacred and the profane, or maybe the sacred and the trivial."

If you tend to agree, perhaps one of the Jesus impersonators could dissuade you: "There are a lot of things we could do here to bring in money, like serve alcohol, but we don't."

But one commentator observed: "places like Holy Land Experience and Dinosaur Adventure Land belong to a long-standing American religious tradition of evangelism as entertainment."

I guess it's not so different than your average Sunday morning worship service these days. And, hey, at least they don't serve alcohol. Because that would make it profane.

Chavez, the Lunatic Thug

Does this little girl look happy to you? Well, would you be happy if Hugo Chavez had his arms around you like that?

I'm enraged that he after he is graciously allowed to enter our country he then has the nerve to blast our president in the most uncivilized, rude, and immature manner. What a frightening, unstable man.

Can we please just kick the UN out of New York and get the heck out of the UN once and for all!? (It'll never happen.)

So Long, Tomcat

"By Friday [9/22] the Tomcat will be gone." This article talks about how the US Navy's F-14 Tomcat, made famous in the hit movie Top Gun, will be retired after 36 years of service, and includes bios of some of the men who flew it. Wow. She was a beauty.

Abu Ghraib II?

Where's the outcry?

About one week ago, American forces transferred to the Iraqis control of the Iraqi prison made famous for the degrading and humiliating treatment by a number of American servicemen and women. And what is the result?

• Allegations of routine torture: "...Screams were coming from the cell blocks housing the terrorist suspects."
• Mass executions: "on Wednesday [9/6/06], 27 prisoners were hanged."
• Prisoners left behind suspected as much: "They had pleaded to go with their departing captors, rather than be left in the hands of Iraqi guards."

In the words of one suspected terrorist: "The Americans were better than the Iraqis. They treated us better."

Seems even America's terrorist enemies know that we will treat them better than their fellow countrymen will. So why is the American media machine so clueless? Where's the public outcry?

Meeting at the White Horse Inn

My pastor recently had the opportunity to meet the participants of the White Horse Inn radio program. I still haven't heard what all they discussed, but I was excited he got to do this. Perhaps I'm living vicariously, but oh well. (My pastor is second from the right.)

2006 Ligonier Conference

Join us this weekend--Friday, September 7 and Saturday, September 8, 2006--for the fall 2006 Ligonier Conference. The subject is the Atonement of Christ and its significance in our lives. Speakers will be R.C. Sproul and Ligon Duncan. Here's a brief summary:

Beginning with the man’s need for atonement, they will discuss the identity of those Jesus came to save, look at how He ransoms us from God’s curse, and answer common questions about the meaning of the crucifixion.

Everyone who is anyone will be there. It should be a great time. Join us!

Burkha Gowns

Just got back from Hawaii. But I'll talk more about that later.

Read this article today on Drudge. Apparently, Muslims will start getting their own specialized gowns whenever they go to hospital in the UK.

What I want to know is, do they flap open all way way down the back, like a traditional hospital gown?