Congratulations to the winners of the EO/Wheatstone Academy blog symposium.  Thank you to all of you who submitted your wonderful essays--it was a very close race. The following posts earned their authors one of five fantastic prizes:

      First Place: Mark Fedeli at A Deo Lumen

      Second Place: Jordan J. Ballor at The Acton Institute Power Blog

      Third Place: Mark Stanley at Digital Reason

      Fourth Place: Jeff Nuding at Dadmanly

      Fifth Place: Letitia Wong at Talitha Koum

These lucky authors have their choice of one of the following:

(1) A full tuition scholarship for a Christian high school student of the winner's choice to Wheatstone Academy. [A $950 value]

(2) The 'Quintessentials' from Stand to Reason, including the Ambassador Basic Curriculum, Tactics in Defending the Faith DVD, Decision Making and the Will of God CD set, and a signed copy of Greg Koukl's new book Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air. [A $150 value]

(3) A full-tuition scholarship to the upcoming GodBlogCon (September 2008). [A $150 value]

(4) A two-year subscription to Touchstone Magazine. [A $59.95 value]

(5) A year subscription to Townhall magazine. [A $34.95 value]

The first place winner will have their choice of items with the second place deciding between the remaining items, etc. The fifth place winner will automatically receive the unselected item.

Donnell Duncan at The Cracked Door earned an honorable mention.  A $200 donation to Compassion International will be made in his name. 

Many thanks to all who made this symposium a success, especially our distinguished judges--James Kushiner from Touchstone magazine's Mere Comments, Melinda Penner from Stand to Reason, Matt Lewis from Townhall.com, and Matthew Anderson from Mere Orthodoxy. 

Thanks to all who helped spread the word about this symposium.  As promised, we put all your names together in a hat--literally!  The following three blogs were drawn, and each will receive a copy of The New Media Frontier, forthcoming from Crossway Books:

Ogre's Politics and Views

True Grit

Unbridled Warhorse

Thank you also to the generous sponsors who donated our exciting array of prizes, especially Wheatstone Academy.

Yesterday a document was released at the National Press Club entitled An Evangelical Manifesto: A Declaration of Evangelical Identity and Public Commitment, spearheaded by Os Guinness and signed by over 80 evangelical leaders. I would encourage anyone interested in evangelicalism to give it a careful reading, or at the very least, to read Justin Taylor's excellent summation.

Other than the Bible, there are few documents that I agree with word-for-word (and that includes most things that I have written). Still, I found enough to agree with in the manifesto to add my name as one of the additional signatories.

I hope to have more to say about it in the future but for now here are three initial thoughts:

Iron Man {movie} - The world of comics books is dominated by two publishing houses--DC and Marvel--each with its own unique universe of superheroes. But while they rarely converge, the DC and Marvel universes often mirror one another. Take, for example, two of the most intriguing characters.

In the DC universe there is Bruce Wayne, a brilliant, emotionally damaged billionaire industrialist and playboy who uses his resources and genius to transform into the crime-fighting hero Batman. In the Marvel universe there is Tony Stark, a brilliant, emotionally damaged billionaire industrialist and playboy who uses his resources and genius to transform into the terrorism-fighting hero Iron Man. While they share many key similarities, they also have traits that make them polar opposites. For example, Wayne is a brooding introvert, while Stark is a gregarious extrovert. But in both cases it is the man under the mask (or titanium helmet) that fascinates us.

Unfortunately, movies based on comics often forget this point. Because they focus on the costume they often fail in the critical component of casting. A prime example is the Batman film series which suffered through three disastrous casting choices (Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney) before director Christopher Nolan found Christian Bale. Luckily, Iron Man director Jon Favreau found the perfect lead in Robert Downey Jr. (At first Downey seems to be a strange choice for a superhero. Then when you consider that the character of Stark is a charming, womanizing, alcoholic it seems almost as if the actor was typecast.)

The casting of the other characters is also unexpectedly spot-on. As an actress, Gwyneth Paltrow is usually a bit twee, a bit precious. But in Iron Man she transforms the role of Pepper Potts from a pre-feminist Girl Friday into an admirable servant-leader sidekick. Likewise, Jeff Bridges--bald and bearded--adds layers of nuance to the two-dimensional character of Obadiah Stane.

While the characters and performances are memorable, the plot is standard fare. Indeed, the story is so basic that to describe it would give too much away. Suffice to say that like in most superhero movies the "origins" section is the most interesting (Iron Man has two origins sections, the second being the best part of the film).

Many critics and moviegoers have also tried to discern the politics of the movie. For those so inclined here is all you need to know: Tony Stark loves the American military and acts accordingly in every situation. Whether this makes the movie liberal or conservative is debatable; the fact that such speculation is tedious and boring, however, is beyond dispute.

Just as The Dark Knight claimed the title of Greatest Superhero Movie Ever (DC universe), Iron Man can claim the title of Greatest Superhero Movie Ever (Marvel universe). If there is any justice in the (Marvel) universe we will be seeing Iron Man sequels for several summers to come. Rating: A

Darius Rucker, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" {music} -- Hootie's gone country? Yep. Darius Rucker, former lead singer of the iconic 90's band Hootie and the Blowfish, will soon be releasing his debut country solo album on Capitol Records Nashville. His first single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It", debuted at #51 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs.

The inevitable question that comes to mind when hearing the single is, "Does it sound country?" After hearing the song most people will conclude, "No, not really." But this isn't surprising. Rucker also made a decent solo R&B album that didn't particularly sound like R&B. And he didn't sound much like a frat rock singer either, even while heading up the greatest frat rock band of his era. Rucker has a distinctive voice that can handle almost every style of popular music without quite fitting into any specific genre. "Don't Think" may not be a great country song, but it's a good Darius Rucker song. And for Hootie fans, that's quite enough. Rating: B-

Sara Bareilles, "Love Song" {music} - "Love Song" debuted in June 2007 on the Billboard charts at #100, rose to #4, and since dropped back down to the #8 slot. After hearing the song in commercials (Rhapsody), trailers for chick-flicks (Made to Honor), and on the radio for the past 26 weeks, it's understandable if you've grown tired of the song. But there's a reason why people can't stop playing it: Bareilles has created a perfectly crafted pop song.

With McCartneyite skill, Bareilles mixes a bouncy piano line, an incessantly catchy melody, and subtle, superb phrasing to create an aural masterpiece. Close your eyes, listen again, and try to hear with fresh ears the technical mastery of one of the best pop songs of the decade. Rating: A+

My son brought home a toy from McDonald's yesterday. It's a little plastic singer named "Hippie Harmony" that plays a 6-note tune whenever you lift her "microphone arm."

Every note that warbles from the cheap speaker in the back of her head is now stuck in my head.

We all know what it's like to be unable to stop humming a catchy tune. But as we hum, it's not usually the whole tune. The only part stuck in our mouth and reeling us in is the hook.

Hippie Harmony's song is only a hook.

Of course, the toy's tune is not a good pop song, because it's just 2 seconds long, but it gets its message across. I'm humming it.

Sometimes our writing, preaching, marketing, or any kind of important content-creation should be like a well-crafted pop song: 97% forgettable context making the 3% that is a hook even more memorable.

Other times, the content should be all hook, 100%. Like Hippie Harmony, we should sing it, say it, or write it--and then be done. Sit down.

Either way, we need a hook--a point. Then, whatever we write or say beyond that should serve readers by enhancing that point.

Because, after all, the point is...the point. We're not. Good writers, preachers, marketers, etc. get out of the way of their message.

Hippie Harmony will be in the garbage soon. That is to say, if she had an RSS feed, I wouldn't subscribe. Still, no matter what municipal dump she ends up in, her effect--small as it may be--is staying right here in my mind.

As she gets trucked away, I'll be humming her tune.

To most people, our articles, blogs, sermons, and sales pitches are like low-grade plastic doohickeys: Hopefully, we're not a nuisance to have around--in fact, we might be somewhat helpful or convicting or amusing. But when it comes down to it, we're simply not that important in and of ourselves.

But we keep writing, blogging, preaching, and selling!

It's not that surprising, I suppose--we have messages that really matter to us. We can't shut up--we're too excited about what we have to say.

This is exactly how it should be. The message of what we write or say is what will make our contribution to the blogosphere or church service matter to people.

Any time we're creating content that we think is important we should constantly think, how can I cast my hook so it lodges most securely (and helpfully) in my readers' minds. Sometimes it will be amid a lengthy article with all kinds of supporting text. And other times, like this McDonald's Happy Meal toy, we'll just sing our 6 notes and be quiet.

Either way, the goal is never to make ourselves more valuable to more people, but to leave behind a message that will serve an audience who may very well have already forgotten who we are. If our content is important and we heed our hook, people will still be humming our songs long after you and I have gone the way of Hippie Harmony.

1. N.T. Wright on the Afterlife and the After Afterlife

A bit obvious but still needs to be said. As David Wayne notes, "What Wright is doing, in his typical erudite and winsome way, is affirming what all Christians have always believed about the eternal state - it is a new heavens and a new earth." (HT: ThinkChristian)

2. How to Think -- Managing brain resources in an age of complexity

3. Ross Douthat: What's The Big Deal About Sex?

If you think that sex, by virtue of being bound up not only culturally but biologically with emotional attachment on the one hand and reproduction on the other, is a unique kind of physical act, one that's intimate by its very nature in a way that, say, preparing dinner isn't, then it makes sense to assign a hierarchy of moral value (and moral stigma) to different kinds of sexual activity - most likely with monogamy at the top, serial monogamy somewhat lower, promiscuity lower still, and activities that treat sex as a commodity to be bought and sold somewhere near the bottom. I don't think, however, that accepting this sort of hierarchy, and believing that some of the acts at the bottom deserves to be banned as well as stigmatized, requires you to shun any girl with multiple notches on her bedpost as a slut, any more than believing in a moral hierarchy that runs from true generosity to miserliness requires you to show the mildly stingy the same disdain you would bestow Ebenezer Scrooge or Mr. Potter.

4. 12 Spiritual Lessons from 'Prince Caspian'

5. Harvey Mansfield on "Hook-Up or Shut Up":

However high-minded their courses may sound - "Mirror of Princes," say, or "The Political Philosophy of Aristotle" - college students today enter a low hook-up culture when they leave the classroom. In case you don't know, a hook-up is a brief sexual encounter between two partners who don't necessarily know each other before and who don't necessarily want to know each other after. And it's free. The sort of transient sex that once was available to men only for money can now be had, without paying, from college women - as long as the man is a fellow student and minimally artful about his approach. If he is thwarted in one overture, he may try another with a reasonable prospect of success.

No doubt lurid anecdote and popular myth cause us to exaggerate the actual frequency of campus hook-ups: Most college students do not share in these delights. But most students also believe that "everyone does it," even if the individual student, for some reason, cannot locate a partner. Thus an active minority sets the tone and makes hooking up a "culture." When there are no sexual boundaries, either official or informal, the standard becomes the extreme, and all students feel the pressure to appear more promiscuous than they are. The traditional double standard of sexual conduct - more restrictive for women than for men - has been replaced by the single standard of the predatory male.

6. Quote of the Week: "The perception of us being political has been by default. It's like, 'They don't curse that much, and they're not misogynistic, and they don't do gunplay and drugs, so ... they're political.' But really, that just makes us considerate." -- Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson on his hip-hop band The Roots

7. Matt Jenson: On Viewing a Body

The thing about a viewing is that one's loved one is semi-available. This is disturbing for two reasons. On the one hand, she is not fully available in the way she has always been for us. The last time we saw her, she had been speaking and moving. She had been another subject with whom we could relate, a 'Thou' to our 'I'. Now she hovers somewhere between a 'Thou' and an 'It'. Maybe she is a 'She', one to whom (still whom, though) we refer in the third person. But she can no longer serve in the second person capacity. She can no longer be addressed properly, and she no longer addresses us.

Still, we do address her. She is available to us. This may be a partial availability, but it is an availability nonetheless.

8. U.S. among most Bible-literate nations

Americans are among the world's most 'Bible-literate' people and Spaniards, French and Italians are among the most ignorant about what the "good book" says, according to a new study released on Monday.

A poll carried out in nine countries - the United States, Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Spain and Poland - also showed Americans were most willing to donate money to spread the message of the Bible.

9. For the two weeks around Mother's Day, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is holding its Thanks Mom awareness and donor recruitment campaign. The program is a way to say "Thanks, Mom" for giving you life by sharing that gift with another person. During the campaign, costs to join the Registry are covered for first 46,000 who join by NMDP's partners and contributors.

10. The Skeptic on the media's obsession with the "pedophiles run amok!" story line:

Yesterday Phil Johnson, of the aptly named Pyromanics blog, threw gasoline on the flames of the debate about Christian involvement in politics with his provocatively titled post, "How Evangelicals Traded Their Spiritual Authority for a Mess of Political Pottage." Near the conclusion Phil writes:

How did the evangelical movement get so far off track? I wouldn't suggest that evangelicalism's recent obsession with political activism is the only factor, but I do think it's a major one. If the same energies and resources that were poured into failed political efforts had been channeled into evangelism instead, I'm convinced that would have been instrumental in producing more spiritual good and hindering more of society's evils than all our lobbying, demonstrating, and voting combined.

I'm a fan of Phil's work so it's with some reticence that I criticize his argument. But it's worth debating because it contains a commonly held erroneous view. Aside from the false dilemma and the assumption that energy and resources that produced a failure would have been successful had they only been applied elsewhere, Phil's contention fails for the simple reason that his premise is based on a myth.

Contrary to what many secularists claim--and many Christians believe--we evangelicals are not all that politically involved. Sure, like most Americans we talk a lot about politics, especially in an election season. But the claim that we are involved in actual political activities--lobbying, organizing, campaigning, etc.--would be difficult to support with actual evidence.

I say this not only as a self-professed (and self-critical) member of the "religious right" but as one who has direct observation post on the political battlefield. From my vantage point it is easy to see that the commitment--much less the influence--of Christians in politics is wildly overstated.

For example, Family Research Council (FRC)--the premier lobbying organization of the Christian right in Washington, D.C.--has been attempting to collect signatures on an online petition asking President Bush to approve new Title X regulations ensuring that no taxpayer money goes to subsidize the abortion facilities of groups like Planned Parenthood.

To date, almost one million emails have been sent to Christians asking them to do nothing more than add their name. This is about as minor a level of commitment or involvement as it gets yet only about 3% have done so. More Christians voted for the 5th place contestant on last week's American Idol than have petitioned to defund abortion mills.

This is the typical reaction at the grassroots level to almost every political initiative in the "religious right." Lot's of talk; little to no action.

FRC is considered one of the major players in the world of conservative evangelical politics. And yet the organization's ability to have any influence or impact in the political realm is limited by the lack of grassroots commitment. Though FRC and similar groups attempt to rally the troops, they are unable to lead the army of politically engaged evangelicals because such a group is all but nonexistent.