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Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jan 2009

Everyone is talking about it. Endless chat shows. NPR (National Public Radio), CNN, NBC, Fox – you name it, they’re talking about it.

The economy is having a little teeny-weeny problem right now. Same in the UK, I hear. Same just about everywhere. People are comparing it to the Great Depression (thankfully no one’s claiming it’s going to be as bad yet). People are coming up with plans and building projects. Newsweek is saying it’s worse than we think,¹ The Washington Post reviews books that point the blame at the Government,² CNN discusses our emotions and how they affect the economy.³

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Nov 2008

Whoever is at fault, and wherever the blame lies, the last few weeks in America have shaken many people’s confidence in the financial system.

You probably know the news as well as I do. What’s really important from an evangelical Christian point of view is the opportunity this crisis has created. We are being called to examine where our hopes lie and witness to a confidence not ultimately in the market but in our God and his Word.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Dec 2008

It is not the best of times, nor the worst of times. It is a time of uncertainty.

As President elect Barack Obama waits in the wings, the economy, in particular, appears to be on the verge of something akin to the ‘R-word’ (= R***ssion), if not, some fear, actual Depression. It could get worse. It could get better. It could be one thing. It could be another. People talk about it. People wonder. No one knows for sure. It is, in short, a time of uncertainty.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Oct 2008

Whatever you think of America, you can’t deny that its Presidential elections this year are fascinating.

There’s Barack Obama — first African-American candidate for the White House. Now there’s Sarah Palin — first female candidate for Vice-President. And, in between, there’s…what’s his name again?...oh, yes, John McCain.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Aug 2008

When we first arrived in America, some nine or so years ago now, petrol (‘gas’) cost a little over a dollar an American-size gallon. This summer gas registers at over $4 a gallon. That (for the mathematically challenged among you) means a price hike by a factor of four times. What’s more, much of that increase has happened within the last year. For a while beforehand gas prices had hovered more normally around the mid $2 range.

Of course, in England petrol remains far more expensive. But what matters for the impact on the culture is the differential. Petrol is still, when you calculate it all in terms of dollars to pound and gallons to litres, about twice as expensive in the UK as in the USA. But when we arrived the difference was far greater than that. Petrol in the UK was at least four times as expensive back in the late 1990s, if not rather more.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jul 2008

Obama has finally won the presumptive Democratic nomination for the next President of the United States. If it did not quite go down to the wire (or to the Convention) it came as close as could be. Hilary Clinton, apparently stunning even her close supporters, still did not resign her intentions immediately, but left a day or two before announcing that she accepts that Barack Obama has won.

It must be difficult for Hilary. She, we might guess, thought she had the market cornered on ‘firsts’, running as potentially the first woman President, only to be defeated by potentially the first African-American President. Even as late as this week, her supporters were claiming victory in the ‘popular vote’ (sounds familiar?), others suggesting that Clinton had been subtly disparaged by anti-feminist or misogynist sub-texts — how can you be both tough enough and likeable as a woman in power?

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jun 2008

The ubiquitous cry of children on a long journey (‘Are we nearly there yet?’) has often been at the back of my mind watching the off-again, on-again foray of the Clinton-Obama smack down.

Clinton’s donations receive a massive boost after one win — a million over the internet in 24 hours. Obama plays down the win. Clinton plays up the win. Next round, and this has been going on for month upon month already, and it’s two more states, one goes just barely to Clinton, the other easily to Obama. Played up by Obama, played down by Clinton. Clinton has less money. Obama has more. The pundits talk. The spin doctors spin. The voters vote. The talk show hosts talk. News item after news item. Yawn. ‘Are we nearly there yet?’

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Apr 2008

‘Cussing’ is American slang for swearing and — yes — there is a preacher who has been given that nickname.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has lots that would commend him to EN readers. He is theologically conservative. He is Reformed. He has grown a church from a plant in 1996 to around 5,000 or so today. And all this in Seattle, after New England the least churched and most secular region of America.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 May 2008

After various senior Moslem and Christian clerics co-signed a document called ‘A Common Word’ in the New York Times, John Piper appeared on YouTube distancing himself from the document. More recently still, Yale University is calling a conference to further develop the ‘common word’ agenda. You can find details about that at http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24022

Here are some excerpts from a document some of our Yale students looked at recently as a response to these new ‘common word’ initiatives:

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Mar 2008

At the time of writing we have just been through ‘Super Tuesday’. It’s been a fascinating series of Presidential primaries, as the Democratic hopefuls for their party’s nomination dish out to each other, and the Republicans likewise. Mitt Romney has suspended his candidacy.

And so we have left in the field McCain, who appears at the moment to be certain to win, against Huckabee (R), and Clinton against Obama (D).

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jan 2008

‘Evangelical Elite’ – can those two words really go together? Apparently they can, and increasingly they do, according to Michael Lindsay’s new book, Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. You can read a full and fascinating interview with Lindsay about his new book in Christianity Today at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/november/33.35.html.

Lindsay has conducted an astonishingly wide-ranging and penetrating research into the ‘elite evangelicals’ who function in small cabals at the top of the greasy pole of such institutions as Harvard, Hollywood, Fortune 500 companies, and Washington DC. He finds that they are consistently orthodox in their faith, by his definitions, despite being exposed to such a high level of the power that corrupts. Frequently they encourage one another in invitation-only small groups that meet once a month, like the Boston First Tuesday group convened by Tom Philips, former CEO of Raytheon.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Feb 2008

As long as it’s not Clinton (and at this stage it still could well be), America will have someone in the Oval office whose name is not Bush or Clinton for the first time in five terms. First there was Bush Sr., then there was Clinton, then Clinton again, then Bush Jr., then Bush Jr. again. Now — well, if Hilary gets it that will make six Presidents in a row coming from two families. Whoever said America doesn’t have ruling elite?

Intriguingly, though, it could be someone different. Huckabee is an ex-Southern Baptist pastor, who, despite his relatively unsophisticated sounding educational or professional background, is gathering a reputation for impressive speaking abilities. Obama — wouldn’t it be something for America to have a President called ‘Obama’? That would certainly strike against those who caricature the current global war on terror, if it be such, as simplistically cultural, or religious, though Obama, of course, seems to be a church attendee of some sort. (Mind you, it’s hard to get anywhere in current American politics unless at some point you say something about your ‘faith’.)

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Dec 2007

Willow Creek has become probably the most influential church movement in America and perhaps around the world.

As their pastor, Bill Hybels has introduced a seeker-driven structure to their church whereby the church engages creatively and with contemporary relevance to the needs of the non-Christian. Their discipleship structure has tended to be very programme-orientated.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Nov 2007

So here’s the kind of question I most commonly get asked about our church. Not ‘what do you believe?’, not ‘what is your vision for the church?’, not even ‘what kind of programmes do you have for our children?’ No, the question I most commonly get asked — by outsiders, you understand — is ‘who do people vote for?’

The election is still a year away (November 2008…), but already positioning is going on for the religious vote. Rudy Giuliani, famed former mayor of New York City, is trying to deal with the possible negative repercussions of his well-known pro-abortion stance. Conservatives, it is felt, will not possibly support him for that single reason. And, in fact, an influential group called The Council for National Policy, has voted that if Giuliani is nominated as the Republican presidential candidate they will seek to form a Third Party. That’s fighting talk.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Oct 2007

On July 21 2007, William Lobdell, the Los Angeles Times Religion writer, authored a piece which described how being a reporter for religion caused him to lose his.

Apparently, Lobdell had viewed the post as Religion writer for the LA Times as a calling, an opportunity for a serious Christian like himself to set straight the many inaccuracies that the main stream media foisted on an unaware audience. He had come to Christ years previously at a retreat run by an Evangelical Mega Church. He had accepted Christ in his heart, had sensed that he was born again, and had become part of the culture that encourages quiet times and devotion to God.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Aug 2007

So I can never tell how much any one issue is becoming controversial in the ‘broader’ church — after all, we all live in villages, so to speak.

But one ‘emerging’ issue seems to The Emergent Church (though I bet they’d rather we say ‘the emergent church’; postmodern sensitive dudes seem to like lower case grammar, just read any McLaren book).

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jun 2007

‘I am the Law’

Rochelle and I have now lived in America for seven years. In that short space of time we have been sued twice. I’m not sure if this is a remarkable regularity for Americans, but given that in my entire existence in England previous to that I had never been sued at all, it does seem somewhat astonishing to us.

On one occasion, a driver, without a valid license or registration for his vehicle, was in an accident with ours and proceeded to sue us subsequently for damages to his jacket and tie. It was raining. We stood outside in the rain together. We actually sheltered under the same umbrella which had been kindly donated to us by a member of the church who happened to be passing. The legal procedure was dropped in the end. I know someone has sued for slipping on a back porch because it was wet when it was raining. I ask you: do people have nothing better to do with their time?

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jul 2007

On Sunday June 3, eight of the Presidential hopefuls for the Democratic Party lined up for a publicly televised debate on CNN out of Manchester, New Hampshire.

On Monday June 4, the three ‘first tier’ candidates (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) lined up for a publicly televised event broadcast by CNN out of George Washington University in Washington DC. This time they talked about their faith.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Feb 2007

This week I highlight three diverse stories from the American continent, which in different ways indicate the growing confusion besetting the evangelical movement.

Politics?

First, there is the story running in the Colorado Springs Gazette, published on January 7 2007, concerning the new situation for evangelicals in Colorado Springs. For years, the city has been dubbed ‘the evangelical Mecca’ or ‘the evangelical Vatican’, host to the massively influential ‘Focus on the Family’ ministry of Dobson, and the, until his recent moral demise, charismatic ministry of mega-church leader, Ted Haggard. Last summer, Ted Haggard sat in his book-lined office at New Life Church, smiled, and said: ‘It’s happened. My whole vision has happened.’ But now, as reported in EN, Haggard has been discredited, and the political connections of the evangelical elite with the Republican Party have suffered a trouncing at the polls. Dobson travelled far and wide in support of Republican candidates, but the Democrats took control of Congress. Dobson blamed the party; pundits blamed social conservatives like Dobson. But the real story is that the evangelical-Republican alliance looks shaky.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 May 2007

In the last week, America has been gripped by two very different news events.

Most recently the college campus of Virginia Tech has been rocked by the sudden and unexpected violence of one of its own. A student went on a murderous rampage, killing dozens of fellow students, and eventually (as is all too predictable in such grim farces) committed suicide. This has deeply shocked a nation, for university campuses are still viewed to some extent as havens of learning and reason, and the carnage explodes the myth. As a member of the Yale community I received a forwarded message from Yale’s President Levin expressing the deep condolences of Yale towards the terrible happenings in Virginia.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Apr 2007

What do a US Army General and a left leaning New York magazine have in common? Answer: They both hate torture.

In a fascinating story that spans issues related to the influence of popular media, the actual versus the perceived views of top military brass, the survivability of extreme conservatives even in Hollywood, The New Yorker ran a story this last month that described how the head of West Point (= Sandhurst) confronted the makers of 24 (the hit US drama) about their romanticisation of terror.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Jan 2007

First he denied it. Then he confessed it. Now the dust has settled we need to consider it.

What would make Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, Senior Pastor of New Life Church, a 14,000 member charismatic success story, with the ear of the President of the United States, at only 46 years old a respected member of the evangelical dynasty, what would make him engage in homosexual activity with a male prostitute over three years and take crystal methamphetamine?

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Mar 2007

It’s been coming for some time. But now it’s here (or thereabouts). Yes, you’ve heard right: in Pennsylvania (a state in America; not China, or North Korea, note!) 75-year-old Arlene Elshinnawy and 70-year-old Lynda Beckman were arrested for sharing their faith on the public sidewalk.

They faced 47 years in jail for spreading the gospel because of a Pennsylvania ‘hate crimes’ law. This law is, I’m told, nearly identical to HR 254, the ‘hate crimes’ bill reintroduced in Con-gress and apparently on the ‘fast track’ in the House Judiciary Committee.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Mar 2007

JONATHAN EDWARDS
The Holy Spirit in Revival
By Michael Haykin. Evangelical Press. 228 pages
ISBN 0 85234 599 2

Michael Haykin’s Jonathan Edwards: The Holy Spirit in Revival is a fine piece of writing indeed.