The script for Kirk Cameron’s new movie, Fireproof, called for Kirk’s character to kiss the actress playing his wife in the movie. There was just one problem. Cameron refuses to kiss any woman except for his real-life wife.

“I have a commitment not to kiss any other woman,” the former child star of “Growing Pains” told Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford Monday on TODAY in New York.

To get around the conflict, the filmmakers employed a bit of movie magic, Cameron explained. They dressed his wife, actress Chelsea Noble, like the movie’s female lead and shot the scene in silhouette.

“So when I’m kissing my wife, we’re actually husband and wife honoring marriage behind the scenes,” Cameron said as Gifford and Kotb melted from the romanticism of the moment.

Fireproof opens in theaters this Friday, September 26th. You can learn more about the movie at the Fireproof website. Click here to find theaters and show times near you. (Note: Fireproof was made by the same group that produced Facing the Giants in 2006.)

• It’s going to be a while before robots take over the world. “Can military robots from non-superpower countries be ready for battle if they’re running into garbage bins and mistaking plants for elevators?”
• Why Isn’t the Batman TV Series on DVD? Because the whole licensing issue is a mess, that’s why. TVShowsonDVD has the full story.
• Sarah Palin’s Faith Journey. The Weekly Standard presents a good overview of Sarah’s Palin’s Christian faith.
• Nightline, YWAM, Baby Killing and the Amazon. Tonight’s Nightline (11:35 p.m. ET; ABC) will investigate a missionary group’s campaign against infanticide among Amazonian Indians.
• CEO Rejects $22 Million Severance. CEO Robert Willumstad explained, “I prefer not to receive severance payments while shareholders and employees have lost considerable value in their AIG shares.”

As a backyard bird watcher I really enjoyed these photos of bird feathers closeup over at Quazen.com. The above photo is from a female mallard.

Related post: Birds and Their Color Palettes

Michael Hyatt (President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers) shares his thoughts on modesty following the 2008 MTV VMA awards.

It got me to thinking, Where are these girls’ fathers? Has anyone ever taught them the concept of modesty? Or have all the men in their lives simply exploited them as sex objects? Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a prude. But I do think some basic guidelines are in order. These are not rules about skirt length or the amount of cleavage you can show. I’m just not a very good legalist; they are simply guidelines.

I gave these to my girls when they were growing up. Frankly, they haven’t been perfect in following them. Modern culture exerts a powerful influence. Nevertheless, I wanted them to have something that would transcend current fashion and guide their attire once they were older and, perhaps, a little wiser.

Here they are: “Four Guidelines for Modesty”:

1. If you have trouble getting into it or out of it, it is probably not modest.
2. If you have to be careful when you sit down or bend over, it is probably not modest.
3. If people look at any part of your body before looking at your face, it is probably not modest.
4. If you can see your most private body parts or an outline of those parts under the fabric, it is probably not modest.

What do you think about guidelines for modesty?

Related post: Women’s Clothing That is Modest and Trendy

Yesterday’s message in the Called series was titled Called to Community. The main idea of the message was that God has called us to community as believers. Here is a brief outline of the message:

Why has God called us to community as believers?

I. We need each other.

    A. Encourage each other in the battle against sin (Hebrews 3:12-13)
    B. Pick each other up when we fall (Galatians 6:1-2)
    C. Spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25)

II. We belong to each other.
    A. We are family (Galatians 6:10)
    B. We are the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27)
    C. Each member of the body belongs to all the others (Romans 12:4-5)

III. We are called to bear witness to Christ.
    A. God is building a people (Titus 2:13-14; Revelation 21:3)
    B. Jesus died for the church (Ephesians 5:25-27)
    C. Our unity testifies to the world that God sent Jesus (John 17:20-21)

Note: Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Was Sarah Palin out of line with her prayer or simply following presidential precedent? On June 8, 2008 Sarah Palin prayed for our troops at Wasilla Assembly of God Church in Wasilla, Alaska. In a heavily edited interview broadcast September 11, 2008 Charles Gibson questioned Palin about the appropriateness of her words as a political candidate.

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war?

PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote.

GIBSON: Exact words.

Well, yes and no. Gibson only quoted part of her words. Palin’s words come out very different when placed in context. Here are her exact words:

Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God’s plan. So, bless them with your prayers, your prayers of protection over our soldiers.

There is a big difference between claiming that something is God’s plan and praying that something we do lines up with God’s plan. Gibson accused Palin of doing the former, when she was actually doing the latter. As Palin explained to Gibson in the interview:

PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.

But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.

Palin has historical precedent for praying this way, as the following video makes clear. The video contains clips of former presidents Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln praying or requesting prayer for our nation in times of war. (As an aside, I get a little tired of the “media elite” mantra that gets thrown around as in this video, but the content of the historical clips is well worth a watch.)

(Video length: 4:52)

(HT: Instapundit)

TRANSCRIPTS FROM VIDEO:

Bill Clinton asks for God’s blessing on our troops (from Clinton’s address announcing air strikes in Iraq; December 16, 1998):

In the century we’re leaving, America has often made the difference between chaos and community, fear and hope. Now, in the new century, we’ll have a remarkable opportunity to shape a future more peaceful than the past, but only if we stand strong against the enemies of peace. Tonight, the United States is doing just that. May God bless and protect the brave men and women who are carrying out this vital mission and their families. And may God bless America.

John F. Kennedy prays for God’s blessing concerning the imminent Soviet threat (from Kennedy’s Inaugural Address; January 20, 1961):

The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forbears fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God … (With a good conscience) our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt leads the nation in prayer on D-Day (from FDR’s radio address to the nation; June 6, 1944):

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization … O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; … faith in our united crusade … With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy … Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace … Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.

Abraham Lincoln speaks about prayer, God and war (from Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address; Saturday, March 4, 1865):

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.

Back to the Gibson/Palin interview:

PALIN: But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.

That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie …

GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”

PALIN: I believe that there is a plan for this world and that plan for this world is for good. I believe that there is great hope and great potential for every country to be able to live and be protected with inalienable rights that I believe are God-given, Charlie, and I believe that those are the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That, in my world view, is a grand — the grand plan.

GIBSON: But then are you sending your son on a task that is from God?

PALIN: I don’t know if the task is from God, Charlie. What I know is that my son has made a decision. I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do and serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than himself and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer.

So, what do you think? Was Sarah Palin out of line with her prayer, or was she simply following presidential precedent?

LINKED: Ann Althouse (Thanks!)

Related posts:

• Palin, Prayer and Pipelines
• Journalists Code of Ethics
• Sunday at Sarah Palin’s Church
• Sarah Palin Roundup

Jordan at Worship Trench quotes Jonathan Edwards on why we sing in worship: “We sing in worship to engage and express our affections. There is no other reason to sing. If we aren’t dealing with our affections in worship, we might as well just read the lines of the songs dryly together in paragraph form without any music. We worship with music too because God has created music with a certain nature where it tends to move our affections deeply.” (modernized translation)

Jim Martin quotes Dallas Willard on spiritual transformation: “The central problem facing the contemporary church in the Western world and worldwide [is] the problem of how to routinely lead its members through a path of spiritual, moral, and personal transformation that brings them into authentic Christlikeness in every aspect of their lives … The local congreations, the places where Christians gather on a regular basis, must resume the practice of making the spiritual formation of their members into Christlikeness their primary goal, the aim which every one of its activities serves.”

Phil Ryken comments on the recent adoption of Sharia law by the British government. “According to The Sunday Times (9/14/08), the British government has incorporated Islamic law into the British legal system by establishing five sharia courts. The judgments of these courts are now enforceable with the full power of British law, running all the way up through the High Court. This is only the latest step in the Islamicization of Britain. The results will be especially damaging to women, since many of the disputes that end up before sharia tribunals are domestic, and the rights of women are dramatically restricted under Islamic law.”

Gizmodo reports on a mystery object observed by the Hubble Telescope. “The object also appeared out of nowhere. It just wasn’t there before. In fact, they don’t even know where it is exactly located because it didn’t behave like anything they know. Apparently, it can’t be closer than 130 light-years but it can be as far as 11 billion light-years away. It’s not in any known galaxy either. And they have ruled out a supernova too. It’s something that they have never encountered before. In other words: they don’t have a single clue about where or what the heck this thing is.” (Go to Sky and Telescope: Hubble Finds a Mystery Object for more information.)

Greg Gilbert points to two conversations going on about What is the Gospel? “It seems to me that the two major camps in this conversation—those who say the Gospel is the good news that God is reconciling sinners to himself through the substitutionary death of Jesus (call them ‘A’) and those who say the gospel is the good news that God is going to renew and remake the whole world through Christ (‘B’)—are largely talking past one another. In other words, I don’t think the As and the Bs are answering the same question. Of course both of them say they’re answering the question ‘What is the gospel?’ and thus the tension between the two different answers. But I think if we pay close attention, we’ll see that they are actually answering two very different and equally biblical questions.”

A public lecture was once advertised under the title, “How to make your wife treat you like a king.” The lecture hall was absolutely packed out, with men from all sections of society waiting to hear where they were going wrong. Finally, the speaker stood up to address the packed and expectant gathering. “Gentleman,” he said to them, “the answer to the question being posed is every simple. If you want your wife to treat you like a king, there is one thing you must do: treat her like a queen.” (J. John, Ten, p. 118)

HT: Unashamed Workman

• Free Engineering Courses at Stanford. “For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world.”
• Mob violence against IJM staff in Peru. “The mob of 300+ angry villagers forcibly accosted our staff and tied them up in the center of the village.” A young woman from our church recently completed an assignment with IJM in Thailand. It is dangerous work, and we prayed for her constantly.
• Thinking Biblically about the Banking Crisis. Justin Taylor interviews David Kotter on the current banking crisis.
• Don’t Check Your Portfolio! “New research shows that the less often investors check the value of their portfolios, the happier they are. And the wealthier they are, too.” Well, it might not hurt to look a little bit!
• Sarah Palin and Complementarianism. Denny Burke responds to David Gushee’s questions about complementarian Christians who support Sarah Palin’s bid for the Vice-Presidency.

Albert Mohler’s reflection on the recent power outage in Louisville, Kentucky reminded me of this (very sad) poem by Steve Turner.

“POWER CUT/ELECTRIC MARRIAGE” – by Steve Turner

When the lights
            went out
and the sounds
      died down
and the pictures
      stopped moving
there was nothing
left to say
      between Mr and Mrs.
Both forced within
the same dull radius
of candle flame
their silvered anniversary
barely showed a glint.
The stereogram had
now stopped its mad
                  singing.
There was no hot
coffee in which to
drown the need for
            conversation.
Television did not
feel bright enough
to play gooseberry
            that night.
Sheltering together
within the dull radius
                  of flame,
quartercentury lovers
wonder if it’s still
possible to be friends.
And on the night
electricity walked out
of their lives
there was nothing left to do
                        but sleep.

(Source: Steve Turner, Up To Date, pp. 28-29.)

I first read this Turner poem probably back in college days (early 1980’s). I found it incredibly sad then, and it has haunted me ever since.

Click here for more poems.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

In light of ABC’s recent editing of Charles Gibson’s interview with Gov. Sarah Palin, I thought it might be helpful to review The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. The Code outlines four major responsibilities for those in professional journalism: 1) seek truth and report it, 2) minimize harm, 3) act independently, and 4) be accountable. Here are some of the bullet points under the first heading.

Seek Truth and Report It:  Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. Journalists should:

• Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
• Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.
• Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
• Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.
• Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it.
• Never plagiarize.
• Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.
• Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.

So, according to the Journalists Code of Ethics, there should be no bias, distortion, misinformation, misrepresentation, oversimplification, stereotyping or advocacy in the news media. Hmmm. It seems that journalists from both sides of the political aisle would do well to review these guidelines for the remaining weeks of the election season. What do you think?

Note: Click here to see the edits made in the ABC interview with Palin.

Related posts:

• Palin, Prayer and Pipelines
• Palin, Prayer and Precedent
• Sunday at Sarah Palin’s Church
• Sarah Palin Roundup

• Questions? The NYC Library has answers.
• Christianity in a Nutshell. Michael Patton gives a good summary of Christianity in seven brief paragraphs.
• Was Jesus a Community Organizer? Allan Bevere responds.
• Church History Sites. Church history professor Chris Armstrong lists his favorite websites about church history.
• Children’s Christmas Plays. Looking for a children’s play for Christmas? Tony Kummer’s got links and information.