A.O.W.C.U.T.G.D.F.P.

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I’ve seen a bunch of ANSWER antiwar march fliers around school lately, and it makes me want to append to them: “Beware the A.O.W.C.U.T.G.D.F.P.!!!”

Update: Pity they let that domain expire. Anyway, AOWCUTGDFP was an acronym for “Authoritarian Opportunists Who Cozy Up To Genocidal Dictators For Peace,” referring to ANSWER’s backing from the communist Workers World Party, whose preference for non-democratic tyrants and despots tended to cast a pall over high-profile peace marches. You can still see AOWCUTGDFP as saved by the Web Archive.

De Quiros pulls a Godwin

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I usually appreciate Conrado De Quiros’ columns, and I stand as a Christian against unjust war, pero sobra na po ito. With the deliberate comparison to Hitler, De Quiros is pulling a Godwin, which in newsgroup and message board culture usually indicates that a person is running out of more meaningful arguments for his stand. It’s worse than Krugman implicitly making a Marcos out of Bush. C’mon, Mr. De Quiros. There are far more reasonable arguments against the war than the straw man demonization of American political figures; we can do this without sounding like a Boondocks strip.

(Okay, “just-war” Christians, Republicans, Filipino pundits, Marcos loyalists, Boondocks fans… anyone left whose feathers I haven’t ruffled? Heh heh. “Left.”)

Nucleus?

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A site about why people blog wouldn’t be complete without its own blog, I suppose. Something extremely simple and straightforward, with a PHP/MySQL backend. I’m considering Nucleus. Any feedback?

Narnia Sequencing

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When you read The Chronicles of Narnia, do you read them in the order they were written, starting with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; or do you read them according to the story’s chronology, starting with The Magician’s Nephew? I’m currently reading them the second way, and it doesn’t feel quite the same.

WhyBlog.org

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My thesis project, WhyBlog, is up. If you have a blog with an RSS feed, help me out and submit your info with the reasons you blog. In the future, contributing feeds and quotes will be displayed in some as-of-yet undetermined postmodern format.

(You know what? That red and white on black layout is just sooo late-90’s. I’m gonna change it.)

Mozart Requiem

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While we’re on topic of music, let me just say that this Mozart Requiem, performed by Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music with the Winchester Cathedral Boys’ Choir, is the hands-down absolute best recording of the Requiem that I have ever heard. Best. Ever. Pure-voiced Emma Kirkby is now officially my favorite soprano. I am just being carried away on waves of rapture now, listening to the Offertorium movement, Domine Jesu, which was Mozart’s absolute final work: he wrote the bass part from his own deathbed. And it shows.

(Thanks for sending it over, Sara!)

Domine, Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, Rex gloriae,

libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum

de poenis inferni

et de profundo lacu.

Libera eas de ore leonis

ne absorbeat eas tartarus,

ne cadant in obscurum;

Sed signifer sanctus Michael

repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam,

Quam olim Abrahae promisisti

et semini eius.

Reverence and Music

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God is My Boyfriend? Razormouth critiques theological ambiguity in modern praise-worship.

Who Wants to Hear “Les Miz?” Adventist preacher David Smith quotes C.S. Lewis on the need for humility in the face of conflict between traditional and modern worship.

Addendum: This contrast is certainly not intended to be a divisive finger pointed between contemporary and traditional church music. Rather- oh, I’ll just repaste my comment:

If worship is just time between you and God, then why go to church at all? Why not just sit at home with your bible and guitar and sing godly love songs in your room all Sunday?

Rhetorical question, of course. The church’s worship is a community event in which the body of Christ meets for the edification of its members and the glorification of God. Proper edification and holy worship must be based on the Word of God, and not just any loving words that evoke one emotion or another.

There’s nothing wrong with good modern music in our worship. I’ll bet there’s even some amazingly profound Christian Metal or Hiphop out there. But before we beat on our drums that “Jesus Rocks,” we must first make sure that our words and songs are solidly founded upon Jesus the Rock — whether in traditional or contemporary church music. That job is up to our songleaders and choirmasters, as they are led by the Spirit.

At the same time, we who critique Christian musical traditions must approach these with humility and respect for the reverence with which the singers worship the Lord. While we must be critical of theological problems in our midst, we must never cease to exhibit the gentleness and love of the Spirit among each other, regardless of cultural leaning.

Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.