Erik Raymond, at Irish Calvinist, has a cogent post about how politicians deliver their important messages to the masses:
Does this not sound a bit old fashioned to the sophisticated evangelical pastor? After all, we are told by many ‘experts’ today that talking to people in large chunks of time is not effective. Furthermore, it is often said to be arrogant and archaic to stand up behind a podium and have people sit down while you talk.
But what do you see at the National Conventions? A speaker, a podium, a crowd seated, an appeal to action, and even propositional statements! What’s more, we have panels of talking heads dissecting everything about the speeches with the tenacity of a hyper-calvinist in a Methodist church.
There are many times you can end up in a place and wonder how you got there. I think that kind of experience has happened for many who have grown up as Democrats but call themselves pro-life. In an essay at First Things, Suann Therese Maier lays out her journey that has led to her decision to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin this November. Of note:
I remember my father, a successful young Chicago attorney, telling me why the Democratic party was the party of “our people,” and why so many Catholics were Democrats, and why the party stood for the little guy, the poor and the defenseless. I remember listening as a young girl in our kitchen as Saul Alinsky organized my parents’ Catholic friends on racial and economic issues in our Chicago living room. And I remember the night in 1992 when Pennsylvania’s governor, Robert Casey, was denied a chance to talk against abortion at the Democratic national convention.
I will vote for Sarah Palin because Roe v. Wade is bad law, and it needs to fall. I don’t doubt the intelligence and character of men like Doug Kmiec, the younger Bob Casey, and others who sympathize with the Obama campaign. But I do doubt their judgment. At the end of the day, the Democratic party in 2008 has conceded nothing to pro-life Democrats. The fact that Sen. Obama listens respectfully to pro-lifers without calling them reactionary dunces does not constitute progress. Results and behavior are what matter. On both those counts, the party has again failed to show any real sensitivity to pro-life concerns. In that light, high profile Catholics who support Obama are simply rationalizing their surrender on Roe.
Finally, I will vote for Sarah Palin, not because I’ve left the Democratic party of my youth and young adulthood, but because that party has left me. In fact, it no longer exists. And no amount of elegant speaking, exciting choreography, and moral alibis will bring it back.
"Stand: A Call For the Endurance of the Saints" is a collection of messages from the 2007 Desiring God National Conference.
As they have done in past years, the folks at Desiring God have collected the talks given at the national conference and put them in book form. The 2007 conference, Stand: A Call For the Endurance of the Faith, is now being offered as a book.
Here is what it says about the book from the DG site:
Many people seek to better their lives by leaving, changing, swapping, or modifying their commitments. But God’s Word holds up a beautiful value that, while difficult, leads to deep satisfaction and great reward: endurance. Such long, steady, hold-the-course perseverance is especially needed within our vacillating generation.
This thoughtful series, taken from the Desiring God 2007 National Conference, not only elevates the virtue of godly endurance but bears witness to its power in the Christian life through the exhortations of John Piper, John MacArthur, Jerry Bridges, Randy Alcorn and Helen Roseveare. Each contributor represents a different kind of endurance: from MacArthur’s longtime, faithful shepherding of a church to Alcorn’s radical obedience in the culture wars, from Bridges’ unswerving patience through suffering to Roseveare’s courageous constancy on the war-torn mission field.
Stand will awaken and solidify rugged, Christ-exalting endurance in people who are weary in their faith journey or who simply long to remain firm to the end. And for everyone who dreams of a Christian culture-shift from brief trial runs to lifelong commitments, this latest offering is a watershed that will serve to seal that vision in people’s minds and hearts.
You can order the book here or, if you want, you can go here to listen, view or download the messages. The topics include:
Certainties that Drive Enduring Ministry, Part 1 (John MacArthur)
A Conversation with John Piper and John MacArthur
Four Essentials to Finishing Well (Jerry Bridges)
Certainties That Drive Enduring Ministry, Part 2 (John MacArthur)
Today’s Decisions Determine Who You’ll Be Tomorrow (Randy Alcorn)
Speaker Panel Q&A (Various)
A Call for the Perseverance of the Saints (Helen Roseveare)
Gov. Sarah Palin's job performance as a mother has come under scrutiny.
Albert Mohler weighs in on the uncomfortable announcement that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol is five months pregnant:
The Palin family asked to be left to deal with this privately, an understandable impulse for any family. But this isn’t just any family at the present. The moment Sen. John McCain announced Gov. Palin as his running mate, the entire Palin family became a public issue. This was amplified by the fact that the entire Palin family (except for the oldest son, Track, soon headed for deployment in Iraq) stood there before the public.
One central feature of the public introduction to the Palins was the presence of Trig, the 4-month-old baby boy who is the couple’s fifth child. Trig was diagnosed with Down syndrome prior to his birth, and the Palins translated their pro-life beliefs into a beautiful portrait of human dignity. As the couple said, they never even considered aborting the baby, but considered him a gift from God.
Now there is another gift — this time in the form of a pregnant daughter and a child conceived outside of marriage. The Palins spoke of their pride in the fact that their daughter would keep her baby and marry the father. Once again, the Palin family chooses life over death, birth over abortion, when aborting the baby would be justified by many and considered the easy way out of an embarrassing situation. Yes, that baby is a gift, as is every single living human being, born and unborn.
But the entire nation felt the awkwardness of the situation, and even part of the embarrassment. Yes, as Steve Schmidt said, “Life happens,” but not always like this. And Mark Salter is certainly correct in describing the situation as “an American family.” Still, this is not the script many families would choose — especially evangelical families who had been most encouraged by Gov. Palin’s choice as Sen. McCain’s running mate.
And, as Gov. Palin is scrutinized far and wide following this announcement, Mohler raises a concern that many of us have:
A more interesting angle on this story has to do with the question of motherhood. In this case it is the Governor as mother that is the issue, rather than the daughter. As Jodi Kantor and Rachel L. Swarns of The New York Times frame the issue:
When Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was introduced as a vice-presidential pick, she was presented as a magnet for female voters, the epitome of everymom appeal.
But since then, as mothers across the country supervise the season’s final water fights and pack book bags, some have voiced the kind of doubts that few male pundits have dared raise on television. With five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and, as the country learned Monday, a pregnant 17-year-old, Ms. Palin has set off a fierce argument among women about whether there are enough hours in the day for her to take on the vice presidency, and whether she is right to try.
It’s the Mommy Wars: Special Campaign Edition. But this time the battle lines are drawn inside out, with social conservatives, usually staunch advocates for stay-at-home motherhood, mostly defending her, while some others, including plenty of working mothers, worry that she is taking on too much.
I was asked about this on Friday in an interview with Stephanie Simon of The Wall Street Journal. As that paper reported:
So Ms. Palin’s decision to accept the nomination for vice president just four months after the birth of her disabled son gave pause to a few conservatives. But just for a moment.
“If I were her pastor, I’d be very concerned for her and her family,” Mr. Mohler said. “But it looks as though she’s found a way to integrate it all in a way that works.”
Well, I would be even more concerned now. Do I believe that a woman can serve well in the office of Vice President of the United States? Yes. As a matter of fact, I believe that a woman could serve well as President — and one day will. Portraits of significant men of history hang on the walls of my library –but so do portraits of Queen Elizabeth I of England and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The New Testament clearly speaks to the complementary roles of men and women in the home and in the church, but not in roles of public responsibility. I believe that women as CEOs in the business world and as officials in government are no affront to Scripture. Then again, that presupposes that women — and men — have first fulfilled their responsibilities within the little commonwealth of the family.
Mohler encourages us to think hard about this situation. It is definitely a knotty issue, but one we should all think about and address in our own families.
“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.” — Sarah and Todd Palin, in a statement to the Associated Press on the disclosure that their unwed daugther, Bristol, was five months pregnant.
“Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” — Barack Obama, on the campaign trail in March in Pennsylvania.
OK, I’m kind of wearing out the Sarah Palin posts today, but this article in the Wall Street Journal gives a good summary of her political style while she’s been governor in Alaska:
When she ran for governor as a Republican outsider in 2006, she took on not only a sitting governor from her own party but Alaska’s Republican establishment — vowing to clean up a political system that had been rocked by an FBI corruption investigation.
After winning handily, her popularity in Alaska has soared as high as 83% as she has gone on to sack political appointees with close ties to industry lobbyists, shelved pork projects by fellow Republicans and even jumpstarted a campaign by her lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell, to unseat veteran Rep. Don Young of Alaska in the Republican primary held this past Tuesday. The winner has yet to be declared in that contest, as Mr. Young currently leads by less than 200 votes and a recount seems likely.
Gov. Palin has shown similar fearlessness in going after Big Oil, whose money has long dominated the state. She appears, for example, to have forced Alaska’s dominant oil producers, ConocoPhillips and BP PLC, to finally get serious about a natural-gas pipeline — without making any tax or royalty concessions.
“People see her as the symbol of purity in an atmosphere of corruption,” says Anchorage pollster Marc Hellenthal. “She’s more like Saint Sarah.”
We will hear much in the coming days and weeks about Sarah Palin. In her own words, she considered herself “an extreme longshot” to be chosen as John McCain’s pick for vice president. She is decidedly conservative and a strong family person.
After she had her fifth child this past April and the child was diagnosed as a Down syndrome child, this is what she said about how she and her husband felt about it:
“We’ve both been very vocal about being pro-life,” Governor Palin said. “We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential.”
“I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection,” Palin told the Associated Press. “Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?”
Fox News has just reported that Sarah Palin, 44, the governor of Alaska, will be John McCain’s choice as vice president. This according to Fox News as confirmed by senior McCain sources.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could be John McCain's pick for vice president.
DENVER (AP) — John McCain kept his vice presidential pick a closely guarded secret hours before the high-stakes announcement Friday as top prospects seemed to drop away and speculation moved to darkhorse candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Rockstanding 
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