Evangelical Outpost

Joe Carter has returned. And he's not alone.

Matthew Anderson—one of my oldest blog buddies—will be joining me as a senior editor. Together we hope to help shape these young writers, honing their writing and reasoning skills and preparing them to provide thoughtful reflections on culture, politics, and religion from an evangelical Christian worldview. Our goal is to make EO an incubator for developing intriguing opinions and introducing interesting individuals.

In the process, we plan to bring you an engaging and entertaining mix of content, from book reviews and essays to opinion pieces and link lists (i.e., the return of 33 Things) and much, much more. We especially want to provide critical reflection on matters—daycare, cremation, etc.—that few of us stop to consider. Most of all, though, we plan to introduce you to interesting people—our contributors, our commenters, and our friends in the community of Christian bloggers.

I, Blogger, take thee, Commentor

The NYT has a nice article on a very modern romance: Ann Althouse, whose blog averages around 500,000 visitors a month (I visit several times a day!), had agreed to marry Laurence Meade, who has left comments on her blog over the years.

Congrats, Ms. Althouse and Mr. Meade!

the most emailed article on the NYT website right now

This one, which can be dubbed "the sexperiment." I mentioned it here, before she did. I rarely blog about something before Ann Althouse, but I feel especially blog-happy when I do.

I didn't beat Ingrid, though - "At the sight of this 'pastor' lounging around on the bed on ABC News, I felt the gag reflex kick in." Yup: I did, too. Although, I have to say, Ingrid, the red color on your site - no, the scarlet color - makes me think of this.

I beat Michael Spencer, but I don't have a letter to send to Pastor Young like he does.

True Woman

My mother-in-law is attending the True Woman Conference in Chicago this weekend. Tim Challies will be live-blogging. With speakers such as John Piper, Janet Parshall, and Joni Eareckson Tada, the conference should be an intriguing event. You can't sign up now to attend since all tickets have been sold, but the conference will be streamed live on the web.

Is Jesus Enough?

That's the question Brant Hansen has had on his mind.

My name is Brant, and I'm on mind-altering drugs. And that is both the best first line, ever, on this blog, and -- distressingly --it's also quite true.

Read the rest, please.

an interview with Joe Carter

Justin Taylor interviewed Joe Carter about the current state of Evangelical Outpost and his new venture at Culture 11.

you mean, he's not Bach?

If they handed out medals for guest-blogging, Frank Turk over at Justin Taylor's place would get the gold for this piece on Christian bookstores. Go read it now and you'll understand the meaning of my title.

Look at me! I'm blogging!

Some people blog purely to get attention. Can you believe it? I mean, seriously...

Right now I'm watching The Young and The Restless on the the Soap channel. I guess I started watching it way back in high school, because my mother watched it. She watched most of the ones on CBS - Y&R, The Bold and the Beautiful, and As The World Turns. She used to watch Guiding Light, but I don't think she does much these days.

So back to Y&R. Of all the characters I find downright frustrating (paging Brad, the houseboy-turned-executive...), I would have to say Nikki is probably the biggest one. I mean, what is she thinking? She only agreed to elope with David Chow because she learned that her former husband Victor, to whom she's been married at least twice and their love affair is one of the most famous in soapdom, has recently become engaged to Sabrina, a French woman at least one-third his age. He's displaying classic signs of using (his drug of choice is anything he can place a bet on), but she's completely ignoring it. She didn't even have him sign a pre-nup, that's to prove how trusting she is of him. The woman has been through a lot, even for a soap opera character. She should really know better.

Anyway, I thought I'd write that just to put down something random. After all, I haven't blogged for a couple days and I can't just put up a link to something else, you know?

apparently, you must be smart cookie to read this blog

Get a Cash Advance

Jollyblogger's favorite 2007 post

David Wayne thinks that this post is worthy of being called the blog post of the year.

proof that some bizarre stuff can be found out there

No, Hillary isn't.

Top 20 theological pick-up lines.

This discussion over at Pyromaniacs.

Ochuck's love poems.

I think the folks over at Think Progress have been so blinded by their contempt for President Bush that they can't distinguish between when he's speaking literally and when he's speaking metaphorically.

A.J. Jacobs is shaping up to be the guy who does some outrageous activity and then writes about it. First, he wrote a book on his journey through the Encyclopedia Britannica. Now, he's written a book about how he followed rules in the Bible for a year. Since he's Jewish, it's probably safe to assume he stuck with the Old Testament and ignored the New Testament.

Mo' Better Blogging

Justin Taylor, one of my favorite bloggers (I know - I have so many!), gives some helpful tips and links on how to be a better blogger.

Some of the big tips:

• Be yourself
• Write less
• Write to be scanned
• Use common keywords
• Link a lot
• Don't tease with titles
• Allow exceptions

"rich bloggy goodness" blogging

Tim Challies, who runs one of my most favorite blogs, has a series on blogging and the blogosphere.

• My Story
• History and Societal Trends
• State of the Blogosphere
• Wrapping It Up

And to think - he's a Canuck! (Just a loving jab, Tim!)

198 Things

Probably the thing I most enjoy about Joe Carter's blog, The Evangelical Outpost, is his periodic listing of "33 things," which are usually 33(!) articles he finds informative, provocative, and/or humorous. I will link to them because I'm betting that you'll enjoy them, too.

You can read them all in successive order, like this:
1
2
3
4
5
6

Or, if you prefer, you can just go here and read them all at once (from post #6 to #1 in the series).

Be forewarned: some of his earlier links have already disappeared.

Also while I'm on hiatus...

Let me leave you with some things to check out and/or ponder.

• Whatever happened to the Holy Spirit? Dan Edelen wants to know.
• Kill the bear!
• According to this Wikipedia article, the upcoming episode of Lost, "The Man from Tallahassee", will feature conversations between Locke and Ben. Will Locke ask a question I would ask if I were him - "If you saw our plane fall from the sky, why did you decide to 'infiltrate' us, lie to us, and harm us when you should have come to help us?" Then again, it's such an obvious and giving-away-the-show-storyline question that there's no way any character will ask that (and no Other would directly answer it).
• I was a fan of pro wrestling back in the early 1980's. Those were the glory days of Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and WrestleMania III. I felt very sad reading this article about the current use of steroids by some pro wrestlers. (When I worked as a university hall director a few years ago, one of my resident advisors was a niece of this wrestler - he claims to be a Christian.)
• Maybe the less you know about aliens, the better.
• Joe Carter lists 10 things we've forgotten about the Iraq war. He also gives a scathing critique of Jim Wallis' views on Darfur (for God's sake, save them!) and Iraq (saving them offends God!).
• Improbably, I'm a fan of Bravo's Project Runway. There will be a season four. Style guru Tim Gunn has a book coming out - and in case you hadn't noticed, Gunn himself is out as well.
• I'll believe this about a Real World cast when I see it. Every season showcases nothing but the same sex-crazed, constantly-intoxicated 20-somethings who fight about sex and alcohol - they're just in a different city each season. RW stopped being interesting after San Francisco, and I pity the poor people who've only seen it from Las Vegas on.
• Mark Driscoll reveals a bit of himself with this post. Frank Turk brings up important points on one aspect of Driscoll's post: the apparent need for multiple services and video broadcasting. iMonk talked to Noel Heikkinen about it.
• I probably shouldn't have, but I chuckled at reading this bumper sticker.

Rich bloggy goodness

Apparently, there's a blogosphere cookbook. (HT: M. Malkin)

Update: If you Google "rich bloggy goodness," I'm the fourth one down. Of course, if you Google "good brownie," I come out on top.

cornfield bloggin'

The current issue of INtake magazine (based out of Indianapolis) has a nice section on Indy blogs. You can read the article here. Several of the blogs listed are on my "Indiana" blogroll to the right. Congratulations on the mention, fellow bloggers!

Three series to check out...

Dan Edelen completes his series, "Unshackling the American Church."

Pastor Mark Roberts has a continuing series on The Da Vinci Code.

iMonk and centuri0n play Q&A about Christian retail on both their blogs - go here for iMonk and here for cent. (Links to both of them - they should be happy)