My former partner who lives in London once asked me, if Doctor Mohler doesn't know this blog. After I showed him my blog and he had a look at Doctor Mohlers blog he realized that he never mentioned me. And this is true. A couple of my questions have already been read by him or Russel Moore on an "Ask Anything Wednesday" but he never mentioned or dealt with his critics on his program. (And I hope that I am not his only one).
Does that mean that he doesn't know me or my blog? Most likely he knows me and my blog. I might be a harsh critic when it comes to him and his program (at least I hope to be) but I respect the rules of fairness when it comes to an intellectual debate over the Internet: I keep him, or better his team, informed about any article I post on his program. After some articles (those in which I called him Comrade Mohler for his idea of allying with the Far Left) Google-Analytics which I use to get statistics about the use of this website, showed visits from Louisville, Kentucky where his show is located.
The reason that he doesn't mention me is a different one, and as I listened a lot to his programs I suppose it is this: The show is about Intelligent, Christian Conversation. Whether the listener perceives this program up to intelligent should be up to him but this isn't the point. The two other words are more important to understand this program: Christian and Conversation. It is the goal of Albert Mohler over everything else to save souls. I remember that in one of the first shows by him I listened to he spoke about one appearance on TV in which he more or less said that the debate was secondary to him and his main goal was to get the Christian message out. He bragged about that he had to wait until the host used the name "Jesus Christ" in order for him to introduce that even the host can not even say this name without acknowledging that Jesus is Christ. Totally out of place, and I guess quite a frustrating experience for the host, but soundly what Doctor Mohler is about.
The word Conversation seems pretty clear. It is when two or more persons talk together. But especially when it is used on Christian Radio it has a further connotation. Then the word also implies that it is a friendly Conversation in opposite to a Debate in which two different ideas confront each other. The whole program might be conversational in so far as two or more persons talk but it is pretty much mono-directional when it comes to the message.
For this reason he would not endorse me on his show by mentioning my blog. I guess one thing that was either said by him or on the Way of the Master program describes his attitude towards engaging with other world-views well: I would not allow a bad preacher to preach in my church but I would always follow the invitation to preach at a bad preachers church. I am fine with this and I am always surprised when looking at those statistics how many people find my blog by searching for criticism of Christian Radio on Google.
That was a really long preface to open this blog article. But I deem it necessary to understand why I am in retrospect in some aspects surprised and it some aspects not how the show went.
I was really surprised that they had a guest on that didn't agree with most of what is said on this program. If it would have been just a usual program in which someone who is supposingly an expert on a matter of Christian life talks with Dr. Mohler or Dr. Moore it would have just been one of the less interesting standard programs. When after a couple of minutes it was clear that there was a sound dissent between the host and the guest I got really intrigued.
I can give Dagmar Herzogs point of view as far as the short but very interesting excerpt from her Book: Sex in Crisis: The New Sexual Revolution and the Future of American Politics allows me to. She is a vocal and witty critic of the anxiety that many feel towards sexuality caused by a combination of the influence of the Christian Right and the influence of the recent sexual revolutions around issues like Viagra and the constant lure of Sexuality. The conversation could have been quite a classical one if they would have focused on the second part of what Prof. Herzog thinks causes all this anxiety about sex. But then again I think that she underestimated the anxiety that conservative Christians towards sexuality. In this sense it proved her point almost perfectly when Dr. Moore hang up on her.
At this point I ask my readers to realize that they edited quite some things she said out and that the show that you find on the site right now does not have anymore the point in it at which Dr. Moore hung up on her. I listened to it live on the web as it happened and it could be that my memory betrays me, but as I remember she was talking quite technically when the conversation with her was ended.
I agree with Dagmar in so far as I also believe that the sexually loaded environment can raise our expectations of sex so far that we won't be satisfied anymore with the sex we have. In so far as I can extrapolate the point she wanted to make it is very true that the abstinence only campaign of the political right in the United States contributed largely to the anxiety that many people feel towards sex.
Human beings are also sexual beings. Sexuality is a big part of what and who we are. I was raised in Germany in an area that is predominately Catholic. Catholicism, a religion that embraces celibacy and abstinence only, is a good example how much anxiety it creates to suppress your sexuality. In the course of this your whole environment will get sexualized beyond the point it is. There was this story once told to me about this nun, who just allowed the girls in the Catholic school she was leading to wear white shoes since every other color would be sexually arousing to men around.
Over here in Germany I can not fully imagine how it is to live in a country that advertises abstinence only on a larger scale. I can just speculate what it would be like. Coming in combination with an already sexually charged world around me I would feel really pressed to find the right partner, since this partner will be the only one I could ever experience sex with. A sex that I would expect to hope to be as good as the one shown in all the culture around me. That would cause me a lot of stress, anxiety towards sex and frustration if the sex I one day get isn't quite as perfect as the world around me shows.
I agree with her that the images of sex around us raise our expectation of sex to a level that isn't healthy or normal anymore. I also don't think that the approach of the Christian Right helps to lower this anxiety. In some very unexpected way it makes it even worse. Until I listened somewhat longer to Christian Talk Radio I never got the idea that the union of a man and a women represents the union of Jesus and his Church. That is already quite weird. Adding to this that the act of sexual intimacy symbolized the intimacy between Jesus and his Church is seriously deforming a wonderful shared experience. To make out of this wonderful intimate experience a sacred, perhaps even ceremonial, act is deeply sick.
>From those things I read about Prof. Herzog I suppose I also disagree with her on some points. I'm not afraid of sex and I also don't think it needs to be perfect but other than she I tend to also have a functional view on this issue. Sex is a wonderful intimate experience but it can also be a good mean to help you relief stress, to build self-esteem and to overcome a mild depression. If you choose to have sex for the three last mentioned points you should just make sure that your partner also does not expect more out of it. As long as you have this sex safe (condoms, since just those also protect from STDs and not just from pregnancies) it can be a wonderful as well as helpful experience.
If you are now appalled by this confession of mine, I ask you to turn again to this Program I was writing about. If you host a radio program and you invite a guest in, you should know what this guest wants to say beforehand. If you don't know this exactly you are running with the risk the he or she might say something that doesn't really please you. But cutting him or her out, wasting by this their time and don't letting them make their point is exceedingly rude and morally wrong. I would advise Dr. Moore to listen again to the program of last Thursday in which they praised and proclaimed the virtue of chivalry. In my opinion it makes no moral difference whether you do that to a woman or to a man, but if he is in accordance with what was said on the program he sits in last Thursday, then an even higher amount shame should be upon him. He wasn't even host enough to thank his guest for her appearance at the end of the show.
I at this place want to thank Prof. Herzog for her quick reply after this show in which I asked her whether Dr. Moore really hung up on her during the program.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
AMP: Hanging up on Dagmar Herzog
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5 Kommentare:
When I lived in England, I got a lot of mileage out of a hilarious statement I heard, it goes, "You people take forever to say nothing!" I thought it was confined to Britainy, but apparently is true for the Rheinland as well. Did you know that the Bible says every idle word will require an account? Brevity is a virtue, but if conciseness is impossible, then stating your point and getting to it is the next best thing.
Brevity is first and foremost virtuous in spoken language. But the style of expression differs between spoken and written language. Since when a text is written you have the possibility to re-read what was written before, the writer of a text can and should use sentence structures that he would not use in speeches.
But you are right, the people from the Rheinland are known withing Germany to be quite talkative. But that can be a virtue in itself. Language doesn't just have the use of conveying information. It is also highly relational and the first and foremost means by which we relate to other people.
And that is also something that people who visit the Rheinland will discover: People over here seem to relate much closer to each other than in other regions of Germany. (especially in the quite untalkative north of my country.)
Dude, you in NO way suppress your sexuality by remaining abstinent. I am 30 years old, having only met the woman of my dreams 3 years ago, and on the verge of getting married. I have had no difficulty with my sexuality, NOR does anyone else. The reason that you or others feel that it "suppresses" it is because you're sinful and full of lust. You are satisfying the flesh by giving in to its desires before those desires should be tasted.
You are further in sin with your homosexuality, a CHOICE to live in this death-style where you'll contract aids, NEVER reproduce, and eventually die.
If you're going to attempt to speak on subjects you know nothing about, I suggest you actually research them before opening your mouth and inserting your foot inside it. You have a false concept of sexuality (in more ways than one) and think that somehow it is torture to "suppress" or sexuality. There is no torture whatsoever in it. Not my wife, I won't sleep with her. The reason why you THINK it is suppressive is because you have made yourself a SLAVE to your lusts and your sexual drive. Your drive does NOT control you, you control it. That is, unless you lack the appropriate will power to do such. And from what you are saying, that is definitely the case.
The reason why you create a blog is so you can argue with thin air and have the satisfaction of feeling you won the argument. Unfortunately, you will lose the argument/debate every time. You have NO foundation with which to stand in order to debate. Your foundation is flawed before you even attempt to open your mouth and argue what you do not know. It's about time you used that brain that God gave you and started thinking for once with it instead of blindly groping around in darkness, clinging to whatever philosophical terd you come across. Truth is intrinsic, regardless how much you try and dissuade yourself otherwise of.
germanmike, thanks for taking the time to comment on my blog recently and for listening to The Way of the Master Radio. I know that you're not a Christian so I pray that God would open your eyes to the truth and that you would see your sin as utterly sinful in the sight of a holy and righteous God. I pray that you will come under great conviction and that the Bible will make perfect sense to you.
Just think about it, I know you have heard these things because you listen to The Way of the Master Radio but here it goes again...have you ever lied (even once--fibs, white lies, etc.)? Have you ever stolen (the value is irrelevant)? Jesus said, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart." Have you ever looked with lust? If you have said "Yes" to these three questions (by your own admission), you are a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart; and we've only looked at three of the Ten Commandments.
Have you put God first in your life, or have you created a false god to suit yourself; a god you feel comfortable with? If God judges you by that standard will you be innocent or guilty on the Day of Judgment? You know that you will be guilty, and therefore end up in Hell. But WAIT! LISTEN. There's Good News! God Himself made a way for sinners to be forgiven. Jesus suffered and died on the cross to satisfy the Moral Law — You broke the Law, Jesus paid the fine!
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Then He rose from the dead, defeating death. That means that God can forgive you and grant you the gift of everlasting life. Today, here's what to do, confess your sins to God, repent (turn) from your sins, put your trust in Jesus to save you from eternal damnation, and you will pass from death to life. I pray that you will do this before it's too late and you meet the Lord face to face and have to give an account to Him for all that you have done in your body. Thank you for reading this germanmike.
Germanmike,
I pray that God is calling you to Himself. I too was consumed with sexual sin. However my sin was not sin with another male but sin with pornography.
Germanmike, God makes it clear in Paul's writings that He has, and is, revealing Himself to us in such a way that we are without excuse. We know that He hates sin and that sin is wrong. "18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them...."
I thank God that He did not give me over to my sinful desires. Who knows, I very well could be a modern day John Wayne Gacy, or Ted Bundy!!! But in His mercy He allowed me to come to the saving knowledge that His Son suffered the wrath that I deserve by being killed by God on the cross to atone for MY SINS!!! I did nothing. He did it all. PLEASE do not be like the ones Paul writes about in Romans chapter 1 where he says "24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity..."
I encourage you to read the following tract. It will give you a very loving and God centered view of what humanities walk with Christ is to look like. The sad part is that most do not heed the command of God to all, to be delighted and to have joy.
The great former athiest, C.S. Lewis said it best; "Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1995/1546_Quest_for_Joy/
Please hear His call and respond. If you cant hear His call, cry out to Him pleading for ears to hear. He will respond.
My prayers are for you. I pray that God will give you peace and joy and happiness.
To Him be the glory!
Americanmike
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