Bill at Walloworld is hosting the Christian Carnival this week, and if you scroll down past the carnival, he’s got some interesting posts of his own, including Is Atheism a Sign of Mental Illness? and From Here to There and a follow-up post, The Message of Art, both about Christian artistic expression. I have some thoughts about art and Christianity myself which I plan to write about someday. In the meantime, if you’re interested, head on over and read about it at Walloworld. (I have a neighbor who calls our home “Earlyworld.” I think it’s because with eight children there’s always something going on.)
I found the Generator Blog via H2Oboro Library. Find links to all sorts of generators on the web: name generators, password generators, etc, I made this cool button at Cool Text, a site that generates logos and other graphics for web users.

. . . the proper stance is not before it (the world) with our arms wide open, cross-gartered and grinning, urgently hoping there will be a pearl somewhere in the next load of manure, and capering about with grateful delight when it is found—the obvious attitude of so many of those ingratiating Christian reviews . . . By SM Hutchens at Mere Comments

There’s a major discussion going on at Mere Comments about the relationship of Christians to the movie industry, particularly addressing the questions of whether or not Christians should be consumers of movies and theatre and whether serious Christian periodicals should review popular movies. Go here for the post by Hutchens that started the discussion.
I watch movies; I also read books, many by non-Christian authors. I read news, mostly on the internet nowadays, mostly for the same reasons I watch movies and read modern novels and nonfiction: to find out where my culture is going these days and what I can do to be salt and light in the dark places. Occasionally, I run across the rare gem of truth. I think there’s a balance that needs to be maintained in all these activities. I work to teach myself and my children, especially, this balance. It is easy to become absorbed in movie watching or blog reading or listening to popular music or any one of a number of other relatively harmless activities to the detriment of living life. Even reading can become a substitute for living the Christian life. Nevertheless, all these activities can be touchpoints for the gospel, and not only that, but I can find truth and God can speak through a novel or a work of art or even a movie. Discernment, not cross-gartered grinning acceptance (love that picture), is the key, and Christian periodicals surely can be useful in helping us to develop that discernment.