In which the pond contemplates a moral monstering this meditative Sunday ...

It being a meditative Sunday, the pond is delighted to report that a whole new world unfolded before its eyes this week.

The long absent lord moves in mysterious ways, and who'd have guessed that thanks to her, the pond would be quoting Peter Hastie denouncing Hillsong:

I recall that in the 1950s A. W. Tozer, a holiness preacher, used to warn the evangelical church against compromising God’s holiness by turning the corporate worship of the church into an occasion for entertainment. It was all done in the name of attracting the youth back to the church and preventing a further slide in church numbers. But Tozer warned that anything that compromised God’s holiness would not arrest church decline. Today, half a century later, Thomas Bergler has issued the same warning in his book, The Juvenilisation of American Christianity. 
“Juvenilisation,” he says, “is the process by which the religious beliefs, practices, and developmental characteristics of adolescents become accepted as appropriate for adults.” Those at the forefront of this movement adopted a number of working principles in their approach to youth. One of these was “it’s a sin to bore a kid”. This led some leaders of this initiative to adopt the music of contemporary youth culture, to which they then tried to wed the idea that a personal relationship with Jesus would lead to a thrilling and happy life. No one thought seriously about where this could lead because it was done with a laudable end in view. 
But as time went on Christian teenagers began to speak of the Christian life in terms of falling in love with Jesus and they often used similar language to those who had a semi-erotic, emotional fascination with a teen pop idol. Although this was done with the goal of appealing to the young, the result was that youth and adults have embraced immature versions of the faith, many of which have little or no stress on biblical holiness. (here in pdf format, may be slow to load)

Don't listen to the pond calling Hillsong juvenile, immature, childish and unholy, listen to the Presbyterians!

And the pond was vastly relieved to learn that Old Testament slavery had nothing to do with the slavery on view in the United States: It was part of a very fair and effective system of justice when it was applied rightly.

Most of the Hebrews who were slaves in the Old Testament period were debt slaves - they owed money and were paying it off, or they had stolen something and could not pay it back with the added compensation, so they worked it off. This is neither cruel nor an abomination, but eminently sensible. (Peter Barnes, in pdf form here, may be slow to load).

Guess those Egyptians had a point after all, and how petulant of Moses to demand they let his people go, but at least anyone working for the man (or woman) these days now understands they're just living through an eminently sensible form of biblical slavery.

Yes, thanks to Peter Hastie, the pond discovered the world of AP, Australia's reformed evangelical periodical, last four issues in pdf form here.

Naturally those wretched atheists were front and centre of biblical wrath, moral monsters, deserving to be judged and sent to hellfire for all eternity (AP is big on hellfire, doom and wrath and judgment and punishment):

Of course, it goes without saying that biblical kindness and generosity don't extend to gays and marriage ...

And it turned out that Peter Hastie is a dab interviewer and that his interviews have been gathered together under his name - as a tag - here. The pond particularly commends his interview with Melinda Tankard Reist.

But it was inevitable that creationism would be the lure that drew the pond on, and how tragic to discover that the pond had missed out on the assembled wisdom that gathered in Singapore in 2014:

Don't click on that button, you godforsaken moral monsters.

Like the pond, you've missed it, and besides it's just a screen cap.

But still, thanks to a return visit to The greatest hoax, Evolutionary theory is riddled with contradictions, it's possible to guess what might have been some of the talking points:

And then there was an elegant demolition of the entire theory of evolution thanks to the humble horse:

Of course young earthism and creationism and an historical Adam and Eve are matters which greatly trouble the angry Sydney Anglicans - see that eternal doofus Michael Jensen getting into hot water in the comments section of Christ and Creation for hinting that perhaps Anglicans might join the nineteenth century in terms of science.

Of course Adam and Eve are essential to the angry Sydney Anglican order of things:

The creation of Adam and Eve was not an accident of design but a deliberative model of the Creator to establish humankind in the context of family. The creation of Eve was for Adam, a helper suitable for him, so that together they might exercise the dominion accorded them as image bearers of God. (Glenn Davies, here).

But how do these strands come together? Well moore.edu.au has a splendid pdf, an essential interview with Claire Smith by Peter Hastie in pdf form here ...

Claire makes many important points about feminism, not the least being 1 Timothy 2...

If, however, you mean, ‘Is it sexist in that women are inferior to men?’ then it’s not sexist. This is not a statement about worth. It’s a statement about our participation in the congregation and in one limited aspect of what happens in our congregation involving teaching and authority. In fact, not even all teaching, but a particular sort of teaching: the ongoing, authoritative, formal instruction of the congregation. So, it’s saying, ‘Women are to be submissive in that they are not to have a formal teaching role with respect to men in the congregation.’ They are not to engage in that sort of teaching.

Indeed, women should just butt out, which makes it particularly poignant to read Claire teaching how women should just butt out of teaching ... as if she had something ongoing, authoritative and formal to instruct the congregation about, instead of jibber jabbering like a woman when she should have fallen silent ...

But back to Hastie himself. The pond recently rather hastily produced a gobbet derived from the moral monsters of twitter, but today, we thought it important for meditators to be able to see a reproduction of the whole page, which can be found in pdf form here:

Now a correspondent has already pointed out that in terms of Roman history, Mr Hastie's understanding of the historical events is rather befuddled and confused, if at least a switch on Gibbon's notion that paganism was tolerant, and christianity intolerant, and hence contributed mightily to the downfall of Rome ...

But the pond takes on the wider point about seeking shelter from the storm.

... the apostles give us no hint that the fear of persecution should ever discourage us from preaching the gospel ...

Indeed, indeed. The benefits of slavery, the moral monsters of atheism, the submissiveness of women, the wickedness of gays, the wonders of Adam and Eve, the joys of creationism, the marvel of a young earth ... all should be preached throughout the land ...

Which does however make a recent stand taken by one Andrew Hastie passing strange, and a tad bewildering and disappointing ...

No Brendan Foster, he doesn't have strong leanings towards creationism. He publicly and wholeheartedly supports creationism ...

Why did you pussy foot around the truth? Remember:

... the apostles give us no hint that the fear of persecution should ever discourage us from preaching the gospel ...

Oh wait, the pond gets it:

... the apostles give us every hint that a fear of voters getting the wrong idea and voting the wrong way should always discourage us from preaching the gospel ...

Oh dear:

Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.
And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

Thanks to Carl Heinrich Block for the picture: