Mike Wittmer

Month: July 2009

  • lost in translation

    I have been off the web for about a week–it started late last week when the Amish hotel where I was staying knocked me off its free Internet service and messed up something deep inside my computer.  Beware of Amish people bearing technological gifts!  For those who may be interested, here is my ode to…

  • bracketology

    {On [multiple occasions in the past month] I have heard people defend a [heretical] statement by saying that the author told them that he doesn’t necessarily believe everything he writes. According to them, this author, let’s call him [Pete Rollins]—a man who is extremely likeable—can pretty much say anything [e.g., we have no revelation; Jesus…

  • Calvin at Baker

    In celebration of Calvin’s birthday week, Baker Book House on East Paris is hosting an important panel tomorrow night (Tuesday) from 7:00-8:30.  The lineup is Karin Maag, director of the Meeter Center at Calvin College, who will “dispel the myths” around Calvin, including his part in the death of Servetus; Richard Muller, a world class…

  • schmalliteration

    Is this ironic? The Grand Rapids Press on Saturday wrote this about Rob Bell’s homiletics conference: “Absent from the agenda at an upcoming seminar on sermons: How to alliterate three preaching points by starting them all with the same letter [isn’t the last part of this sentence redundant?]. After all, turning gospel teaching into rational…

  • keep a ring on it

    This week’s Time magazine has an insightful cover story, “Why Marriage Matters.” Along the way it claims that “There is no other single force causing as much measurable hardship and human misery in this country as the collapse of marriage. It hurts children, it reduces mothers’ financial security, and it has landed with particular devastation…

  • 4th of july

    Just for fun (and to be contrarian), here is an excerpt from John Wesley’s “A Calm Address to Our American Colonies.”  It shows that not every Christian, especially those in England, thought that America’s independence was a good thing.  Read Romans 13 at your parade or fireworks display and you’ll get his drift.  Here it is: …

  • I Q Test

    This 4 minute video was forwarded to me by Jim Grier, which means that if you find it funny then you’re probably pretty smart.  If you don’t get all of the humor–and there are approximately 37 distinct funny items (can you list them?)–then you may yet need a liberal arts education.