We interrupt the bruhaha

One of the people who, over the years, has greatly influenced me spiritually has been Dr. James White. That's not a badge of honor in a lot of circles, but those circles tend to be places where they play a lot of theological twister, so they don't worry me much.

I bring it up because I usually don't bring it up at all -- mostly because I recognize that often my approach to internet engagement isn't the came calibre as what James brings to the table, and frankly I don't want to bring any of my baggage to James' doorstep. He's an honorable man who is an elder in his church, and I'm just a guy with comic book art on his blog.

But that said, James has published a video to YouTube you need to watch:

And I bring it up because this is an interesting turn of events for James. For years, he's been engaged in what I think it is safe to label "house" apologetics -- apologetics for Christians and against aberrations of the faith which pose as orthodox expressions all across the spectrum. It's sort of the primary work of the elder that he's been doing, and it was good in general and overall instructive to me personally.

But this new thing -- an apologetic focus on Islam -- is a little more interesting, if you ask me. There is no greater question in the world today than whether Islam and the Christian faith can coexist, or whether they should coexist, or in what way one might be superior to the other. It is the basis of a much more immediately-dangerous culture war than the one we have been fighting in the West for the last 3 centuries because quite literally Western political culture is at stake.

For James White to be digging out trenches on that front does not bode well for Islam and its apologists. This is work which is both defensive and evangelical, and I applaud him for answering that call.

the radical question

My friend Phil Johnson linked me to this post at La Sabot Postmoderne (a blog which never can seem to die), and it reminded me of this post from the archive, earlier this year.

I like the joke. I'm not sure I like the implications of the joke in terms of pragmatics.

Here's what I mean: if the "answer" to the dilemma is that the Left likes the Islamists better because they have a habit of bombing the perceived common enemies of the Left, it seems like this is a call to fight fire with fire.

I am certain that Sabot does not mean this. But, as Instapundit was pointing out in the first half of this year, it doesn't take a very complicated syllogism to get to the place where we're in that scene in the Untouchables where Sean Connery is instructing Kevin Costner on what it's gonna take to stop the Mob.

Must Read

Islam vs. Islamists, and PBS vs. the world.

Read it yourself, and then write to PBS and tell them that their waste of donor and federal money by scrapping this project is shameful and deserves criticism. You can't say more than that fairly until you get to see the documentary.

And I for one and dying to see that documentary.