After a long, dry period of blog neglect my good intentions here are to now resume regular posting (providing the work crew currently resurfacing the road to hell doesn’t need my good intentions for paving material.)

Pretty much all of my discretionary hours over the last nine months have been wholly owned by a book project. As you may know, I took a real job back in January of ’11 because I and my family were in the habit of eating and not sleeping in cardboard boxes beneath overpasses. That pushed book writing into nights, weekends,

This book isn’t one of mine. It’s another of my “ghost” projects. This will bring the number of published books I’ve written or edited for other people over the last 18 years to “34.” That’s not quite two books per year for not quite two decades–but there have been some years recently in which I wrote four books. Of the previous 33 books, three have made the New York Times non-fiction list. And precisely two have contained acknowledgement with my name in it.

I’m not complaining. That’s the deal with ghostwriting. Ghosts are supposed to be invisible. It’s in the job description.

Of course, those years of cranking out a book every three or four months were those in which I didn’t have a fulltime, 8-5 job. I was self-employed or freelancing. This book I just finished last week was begun last September and was supposed to be  complete by the end of December. That’s right. I was supposed to submit the manuscript almost five months ago.

Blessedly, I had a profoundly patient client and publisher. The whole ordeal made it abundantly clear that books are not going to be a part of my life for the foreseeable future.

In any event, I now have a significant chunk of my life back so blogging will recommence, along with exercise, recreational reading, date nights with my bride and other evidences of having a life.

Stay tuned.

Recently came across this promotional poster for the Avengers . . .

I’m looking forward to the move. So much so that it might actually get me to darken the door of a movie theater–a rare occurrence. But something bothered me about the rendering of Thor in this image. He didn’t quite look like the actor in the Thor film. Here’s a close up . . .

He reminds me of someone. But who? Wait a minute . . .

I don’t know. Is it just me?

I recently came across an online display showing how the offical face of the Betty Crocker company has changed over the decades. I thought I would go ahead and provide the interpretation of what each iteration is saying to you:

Message: The overall image says, “We’re living in the dawn of a golden age of technological wonders. Like radio. So make some cake.” But the eyes . . . the eyes are saying, “Help me.”

***

Whoa. What the . . .? Geez, what did we do? Whatever it is, we’re sorry. Can we have the radio lady with the helmet hair back? Please? The message seems to be, “I’m staring hate daggers at you because there’s a Depression on, some guy named Hitler is treating Central Europe like his personal hobby farm, and you’re bellyaching for chocolate cake? You’re too selfish to live.”

***

Ahh, that’s better. This Betty is kind, sympathetic, and apparently trying to hide her profound sadness behind a weak attempt at a smile. Message: “You sure have been drinking a lot since you got back from Korea, son. What happened over there? I wish you’d talk about it. Anyway . . . if you get out of bed . . . I made bundt cake.”

***

“You can have it all ladies. Successful husband. Your own career. Family. Social status. Pearls. Look me right in my serenely confident eyes. Would I lie to you? Relax. There is zero percent change that your children are about to become smelly, promiscuous, drug-soaked, anarchists. Care for a brownie? The kids made them.”

***

“So, our kids are smelly, promiscuous, drug-soaked, anarchists. That’s okay! We’ve got to loosen up. No need to be so uptight. See, even my hair has relaxed. Everything’s going to be alright. Have a cupcake. Oh, and one other thing . . . I want you.”

***

Or not. “Sorry about that brief lapse in judgement, America. Not sure what I was thinking. I actually suspect someone slipped LSD in the icing but I can’t prove it. Anyway, Nixon is about to be reelected, the country is back on track, and so is my hair. Now you’ll have to excuse me. I have an appointment to be dipped in starch.”

***

And now for something completely different. This Betty isn’t forcing a smile, she’s suppressing one. She’s in on the joke. Message: “I find traditional gender stereotypes confining and bourgeois. I’m wearing this big bow ironically. I like my architecture and artists like I apply my make up–minimalist.”

***

“Hi. I’m Jimmy Fallon’s mom. Look into my black, soulless eyes and abandon hope. I have. Also, I’m a computer-generated composite designed to be more racially ambiguous and therefore more inclusive. Less WASP-y. Am I part Latino? One-quarter Asian? Of Italian Catholic descent? Why yes! Thank you for noticing.”

Excellent essay on the unscientific underpinnings of the green movement over at the “Defining Ideas” site:

“The vogue of environmentalism stems from two ancient myths disguised today by a thin veil of scientific authority.”

I don’t actually have the time to spare for this, but I cannot NOT comment on President Obama’s invocation of Jesus and his personal Christianity in support of forced redistribution of wealth by the government in the same week his administration was deploying the coercive power of the Executive Branch to force Catholic Charities to pay for birth control and abortions.

First, the President’s statement:

But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.” It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.

This largely theological argument was put forth in support of raising taxes on the rich. It’s a familiar one. I’ve seen similar arguments from the prominent politically liberal Christians such as Jim Wallis, Brian McClaren and Tony Campolo and the whole Sojourners crowd.

It invariably sounds holy at first blush. But there is a common fallacy in these arguments–one that is essentially heretical and idolatrous at the root. Allow me to explain.

As many have observed, President Obama’s statement above takes the God who requires much from those to whom He has given much and substitutes the government in His place.

In the view of the Christian Socialist, it is the government that bestows the privilege of earning wealth and it is the government’s right and responsibility to determine how much of those earnings any individual deserves to keep, AND who deserves to be the beneficiary of that confiscated wealth.

As John Hindraker at Powerline succinctly put it:

In drawing this equivalence, Obama implicitly substituted the government for God; in Jesus’s teaching it is God, not any earthly ruler, who gives us much and expects much from us in return.

My Sojourner-y friends make frequent appeals to Jesus’ calls for charity and compassion for the poor. And those calls are real, legitimate and vitally important. But as I tried to explain to a earnest left-leaning young brother a while back:

“The teachings of Jesus and the rest of the Bible absolutely compel me to reach into my wallet and help the poor, widows, orphans and the oppressed. But those same teachings forbid me to reach into my neighbor’s wallet and force him to do the same against his will. Or to vote to use the coercive power of the government to achieve the same end.”

Why? Because true Christian charity is voluntary–an act of the will that comes from the heart. If it is forced or coerced, it does not please God nor comport with the Bible’s manifold encouragements to share, give and help.

There is, however, a Bible word for resenting the fact that someone has more stuff than I do.

The Bible calls it covetousness. And the ugly truth is, the spirit of covetousness is at the heart of virtually all “soak the rich” political policies. Ironically, President Obama’s “to whom much is given” quote was drawn from the 12th chapter of Luke–a chapter in which Jesus warns His followers to “beware of covetousness.”

But the most egregious sin of  this line of political thought isn’t envy and resentful coveting. It’s pure, old-fashioned idolatry. The arguments of politically liberal Christians consistently put government in the role of God or Messiah.

As Hindraker’s colleague at Powerline, Scott Johnson, wrote in a post titled “Render Unto Barry:”

Reverend Obama not only offers up the endorsement of Jesus for his economic policies, he also presents himself as standing in the shoes of Jesus, requiring much from those to whom much is given . . . As for Obama’s invocation of Jesus, when Obama demands that “the rich” pay their “fair share” — the text implicitly underlying yesterday’s sermon — Obama is closer to Caesar than to God.

Biblically speaking, the role of the Messiah is to bring deliverance and relief from poverty, sickness, lack and oppression. This is the role Jesus–the one true Messiah–claimed for Himself in a synagogue one day as he chose to read from the 61st chapter of Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Today there are many who claim the name of “Christian” who view Messiah to be the legitimate role of government. Our president is one of them.

It is no accident that four years ago candidate Obama encouraged and stoked the frenzy of messianic fervor that surrounded his campaign. (For a great overview of this phenomenon in images, go to the blog “Is Barack Obama The Messiah)  Obama was and is the perfect embodiment of this idolatrous liberal Christian exaltation of Government-as-Messiah. (By the way, George W. Bush was infected with a mild strain of this flu, too.)

This is not new. For much of the last half of the last century there were European political parties that called themselves, Christian Democrat, Christian Democratic Socialist, etc. (Check out this 1953 Time Magazine article about the movement.)

These were the principle force behind the construction of the anti-capitalist welfare state that is currently bankrupting Europe and making it impossible to enact the reforms necessary to save it.

When you make government a false messiah, it becomes a jealous god. Which is why this week we saw the government claiming the right to override and supersede the conscience of the Catholic Church in the name of “women’s’ health.”

If you really want to understand the roots of this phenomenon, and you’re up for a very meaty, very philosophical read, I enthusiastically recommend Prof. Herbert Schlossbergs’ masterpience book. It’s appropriately titled:

Idols for Destruction

Destruction is where idolatry invariably leads.

I’ve thrown together a little video of my first few hours on the ground in Nepal. It runs about four-and-a-half minutes. Have a look. A little commentary follows:

If you’re having trouble viewing the video, click here.

To get to Kathmandu required about 32 hours of travel–including a 15-hour non-stop flight from Chicago to Delhi– with very little sleep.  After a few hours sleep at the very nice Hotel Himalaya in Kathmandu, I was picked up by a wonderful local Christian man who coordinates much of the work of Puresa Humanitarian in Nepal.

We needed to pick up our film crew at the airport but had a couple of hours to kill, so my host took me to one of the holiest spots to the world’s 800 million-plus Hindus.

I was jet-lagged, disoriented, and on sensory overload as we walked along the Bagmati river opposite Pashupatinath Temple. I’ve traveled all over the world but this was the “other-y-ist” place I’ve ever been.

The opposite bank of the river is lined with “ghats”–stone steps that allow pilgrims to come bath in the river and for families to burn the bodies of deceased loved ones and then toss the cremains in the river. (Yes, the same river in which the pilgrims are bathing, not to mention cows are walking and pooping amid the ubiquitous monkeys.

The wind was blowing toward us across the river, which meant we were constantly walking through the smoke of about a half dozen burning human bodies. The smell was . . . distinctive . . . and unforgettable. Gongs and bells were randomly sounding along with an occasional blast from a conch-shell horn. Cows, monkeys, snakes. All that and the jet leg combined to make this feel like a walk through the outer suburbs of hell.

Oh yeah . . . and then there were these guys:

More video and pics in the days to come. More than you probably care to see.

A week of traveling in Nepal has left me grateful, dazzled and utterly exhausted. Kathmandu. Bairahawa. Pokhara. And a little mountaintop village we could only reach on foot.

Nepal is a place of astonishing beauty. The people are largely warm, friendly and industrious. Oh, and the children are ridiculously cute.

Nepal is 80% Hindu, 11%, Buddhist, 4% Muslim, 4% Kirant, and .9% “Other.”  Somewhere in that .9% are Nepal’s Christians. In those statistics lies the answer to the question: “Why is Nepal such a poor nation.”

I’ll share more thoughts, pics and even a video or two in the days to come.

I’ve always been of two minds about the shroud. I’ve been skeptical that it is the burial cloth of Christ, simply because the Bible states clearly that Jesus was “wrapped” in “strips” (plural) of linen.

John 19:40–Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.

Nevertheless, it’s a pretty mysterious and amazing little artifact. The fact that the image on the shroud is essentially a 3-D negative that current artists can’t find a way to reproduce is fascinating.

Israeli botanist says plant images on the Shroud of Turin could only have come from a spot near Jerusalem. Here.

The 10 Biggest Threats the World is Facing in 2012.