Thursday Notes

• The sale of Christian books is on the rise. At the risk of sounding overly cynical, why then do Christian bookstores devote such a relatively small amount of their floor space to books? Why do I have a hard time finding solid reading material?
  
  
• The United Church of Christ, which on Monday endorsed the concept of same-sex marriage, says that it has experienced a sudden surge of interest this week, including about 10 times the normal three-day traffic on their website. Since Monday four independent churches have expressed interest in joining the UCC.
  
  So, here's the question for those of us who are more orthodox on this issue. We've traditionally attributed the growth of evangelicalism to the fact that we are faithful to the scriptures. If the mainline churches with their liberal and unorthodox theologies experience a growth spike is that also attributable to their faithfulness? IOW, does the historic growth of evangelicalism have more to do with cultural compatibility or biblical faithfulness?
  
  
• Baseball and softball have been dropped from the 2012 Olympics -- to be replaced by golf, rugby, squash, karate or something called "roller sports". This is the first time since 1936 that a sport has been cut.
  
  
• Google has released a toolbar that works with the Firefox browser -- includes gmail button, spell check, a very cool language translation function, and a bunch of other great options.
  
  
• The terrorist attacks in London demonstrate not only the moral deficiencies in the world view of the attackers but also their diminished mental capacity. For just when the American and British people were starting to express their war weariness these attacks on innocent people have handed the administrations of Tony Blair and George Bush the social capital necessary to step-up efforts. They have strengthen the resolve of the civilized world to stay the course in the battle on barbarousness.
  
  "...the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming." Psalm 37:13
  
  
• Overheard on the BBC, level-headed Dr Andrew Dearden: "We resist evil by not becoming evil."
  
  Apparently one of the bombs went off just outside the offices of the British Medical Association, where there was a major physicians meeting underway. Within minutes of the blast there were lots of doctors on the scene -- including Dearden, who serves on the BMA council.
  
  
• London blast pictures on Flickr -- citizen photo-journalists.
  
  
• Extensive blog coverage of the disaster in London.
  
  
• Jake is trying out the blogging thing.