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I’ve rediscovered Doug Groothuis (the “Constructive Curmudgeon”) this week. I recently purged all the RSS feeds from my overloaded subscription list and I’ve been adding them back one at a time if they prove worthy. Doug has returned and has found a place in my “A-list” folder.

(I’ve started using Google Reader, too — what GMail did for e-mail, Google Reader does for blog reading.)

I offer here a handful of entries Doug has posted over the last few months by way of introducing Dr. Groothuis:

The First Ever: Curmudgeon Cruise

On tap:

1. Eight principles on how to offend friends and enemies with the truth.
2. How to dissolve an audience in mirth without ever smiling.
3. Six principles for using the Bible to embarrass yourself and others.
4. How to insult others without them knowing it–right away.
5. Speed reading Kierkegaard (and other curmudgeons) for fun and profit.
6. Nine ways to denude celebrity Christians.
7. Seven ways to refer to obscure thinkers and jazz musicians in everyday language such that others are amazed, perplexed, and dismayed.
8. And much, much more!

Nontasking as a Way of Life

“Some things should not be multitasked, such as God and philosophy and conversations. Be there or be nowhere; but don’t be there and not there. There.”

The New Nihilists

An excerpt:

We don’t care much for philosophy, theology.
We can’t tell you what they mean.
But “whatever” is what does the trick.
“Whatever” is the scene.

YouWorld

Welcome to YouWorld. YourWorld, all the time, for You.

You matter to us. You do. You are worth it. It’s all about You. You can do it. You have done it. You can have it. You have it all. You will do it. We know You. You are special. Everyone will like You; it is guaranteed. You deserve the best. In fact, You are the best. You for You, in You, ever You, world with You, Amen…

Greg Koukl on Truth, Faith, and Belief

Greg Koukl has written a superb article on truth, faith, and belief. This distills paramount truths that so many are missing, especially those stupified under the spell of postmodernist philosophy. These concepts are vital to every aspect of the church’s witness today. Spread the word. Bravo to Mr. Koukl!

Ten Irrefutable Laws of Curmudgeonly Leadership

Coming soon to the “Management” section of Barnes and Noble:

1. Irrefutable Law #1: Never trust irrefutable laws of leadership. You may get refuted.
2. Irrefutable Law #2: Pundits are typically not to be trusted, except to be pundits– sell many books, mug for many cameras, speak at many conferences with jumbotrons, and make much money.
3. Irrefutable Law #3: Small books featuring big print, many endorsements, and lots of illustrations make for poor flyswatters, but adequate coasters.
4. Irrefutable Law #4: Curmudgeons lead by lamentation.
5. Irrefutable Law #5: Curmudgeons lead by failing often.
6. Irrefutable Law #6: Curmudgeons lead by being unpopular, misunderstood, and neglected. Who they lead is another question.
7. Irrefutable Law #7: Curmudgeons will be curmudgeons.
8. Irrefutable Law #8: Curmudgeons tilt at windmills, defend lost causes, try to turn back the clock, and wait eagerly for the Last Judgment.
9. Irrefutable Law #9: Curmudgeons perpetuate gloom for the common good.
10. Irrefutable Law #10: Question Irrefutable Laws #1-#9 whenever possible.

John Piper: Truth About Television

Groothuis quotes Piper:

…your capacity to know God deeply will probably diminish in direct proportion to how much television you watch. There are several reasons for this. One is that television reflects American culture at its most trivial. And a steady diet of triviality shrinks the soul.

I’m picking it up a little late, but Doug Groothuis lists his New Year’s refusals (rather than resolutions) for 2007. I love this guy.

The Constructive Curmudgeon: Fifteeen Refusals for 2007

The so-called “New Atheism” suffers from a fatal flaw: its messengers do not commend the message.

Greg Koukl often touts the need for Christian ambassadors to be characterized by knowledge, wisdom, and character: they must have an accurately informed mind, an artful method, and an attractive manner. The New Atheists, in the estimation of one critic, fall short of Koukl’s standard of winsomeness:

What is new about the new atheists? It’s not their arguments. Spend as much time as you like with a pile of the recent anti-religion books, but you won’t encounter a single point you didn’t hear in your freshman dormitory. It’s their tone that is novel. Belief, in their eyes, is not just misguided but contemptible, the product of provincial minds, the mark of people who need to be told how to think and how to vote–both of which, the new atheists assure us, they do in lockstep with the pope and Jerry Falwell.

For the new atheists, believing in God is a form of stupidity, which sets off their own intelligence. They write as if they were the first to discover that biblical miracles are improbable, that Parson Weems was a fabulist, that religion is full of superstition. They write as if great minds had never before wrestled with the big questions of creation, moral law and the contending versions of revealed truth. They argue as if these questions are easily answered by their own blunt materialism. Most of all, they assume that no intelligent, reflective person could ever defend religion rather than dismiss it….

The faith that the new atheists describe is a simple-minded parody. It is impossible to see within it what might have preoccupied great artists and thinkers like Homer, Milton, Michelangelo, Newton and Spinoza–let alone Aquinas, Dr. Johnson, Kierkegaard, Goya, Cardinal Newman, Reinhold Niebuhr or, for that matter, Albert Einstein. But to pass over this deeper faith–the kind that engaged the great minds of Western history–is to diminish the loss of faith too. The new atheists are separated from the old by their shallowness.

In short, the New Atheists come across as ignorant, shallow, and unattractive. That doesn’t mean their arguments don’t merit serious attention, but it does mean that a tactically shrewd Christian apologist ought to leverage a powerful fact: in the marketplace of ideas, the New Atheists may just be their own worst enemies.

HT: The Christian Mind: Modern Atheism: Old Arguments, New Tone

Perhaps you’ve read about the latest forehead-smacking embarrassment to issue forth from Pat Robertson. In the past I’ve gotten upset about his antics, but I’m trying to keep it in perspective… it’s an embarrassment, and the church is right to respond, but in the end, it’s just a distraction.

I still wish the guy would just hang up his cleats, though.

This episode and a conversation I had with some friends at lunch yesterday got me thinking: let’s suppose you work at CNN. Larry King is going to have a number of guests on his show to respond to some front-page religious issue. Your boss comes to you and asks for the name of a capable representative of the Christian worldview.

Whom would you recommend?

Justin Taylor inspired me today with his post Yes to Mess. Bottom line: high-earning, intelligent, productive people have messy desks. I actually got my desk cleaned off during my Christmas vacation, so I guess I better start cluttering it up again.