Oct
27
2011
The Shack, Screwtape, and Culture-Making: Kingdom People – Year 3
This week, I’m taking a break from posting new content, and since this blog is turning 5, we’re taking a look at some past Kingdom People posts. Here are some notable posts from the blog’s third year (2008-09).
I’m convinced one of the reasons people like this blog is because of the interesting people who agree to be interviewed here. Blogs that are all about the blogger usually bore me, primarily because none of us are as interesting as we think we are. So I try to point people to interesting people that I run across and interesting ideas that deserve a hearing.
One of the most interesting people I’ve interviewed here at Kingdom People is Andy Crouch. I sent him a few questions about Culture Making, which he answered at length. Crouch’s work is provocative and engaging, and even when people disagree with his conclusions, his work serves to stimulate good discussion about the creation mandate. “Interview with Andy Crouch” (January 9, 2009)
During Kingdom People’s third year, I also began posting more regularly about pro-life issues, beginning with this post after Obama’s election titled “Can the Pro-Life Movement Succeed?”
The 2008 presidential election represents a major setback for the pro-life cause. President Obama will likely replace two or three judges on the Supreme Court. His replacements are sure to maintain the majority opinion that favors Roe vs. Wade.
Despite this major setback, the ascendancy of Obama to the highest office in the land fills me with tremendous hope that the abortion debate will be turned around in this country. Why?
I also started writing more regularly about issues related to the Southern Baptist Convention. My favorite post on SBC matters is where I tried to imitate C. S. Lewis by offering Screwtape the demon’s perspective on Convention matters. “Screwtape on the Southern Baptist Convention” (March 30, 2009)
The fact that we lost the battle over the Book almost caused me to lose hope. But we still have a chance. The gospel and the cursed Commission are the tools the Enemy has used against us all these years. You will do well to make sure that these Baptists focus on everything else.
I fear what lies in store for us. The Enemy will not give up on these people. So neither should we.
For the first three years of blogging, an inordinate amount of my focus was on reading and reviewing books. I’ve backed off the reviews a little bit in recent years, but I still like to tackle the books creating the most conversation. The Shack was one of those books:
We should never let a cultural phenomenon go by without wondering about the reasons for its popularity. Here are a few reasons I think The Shack is so popular…