I personally don’t like World magazine and would not read it if a member didn’t give it to me, but some observations I’ve found there are worth noting.
But first, why I don’t like the magazine. It’s dedicated to teaching children of the world without end how to live, how to think, how to be in this world. Some of the ads, for example “Christian Care Medi-Share, Biblical Healthcare Solutions” seem to me to be Protestant monasticism. You can live in this world without reallydoing so. Moreover, some of their features, for example “The Buzz: Movies & TV, Books, Notable Books, Music, and Notable CDs” all suggest there is a distinctively Christian viewpoint of these things.
This is all very Reformed, and this is as it should be because most of the writers are just that, and though they are by and large very good writers this Lutheran finds them onerous. This ad from the March 14, 2009 issue epitomizes this solid declaration of mine: “Recalibrating the Evangelical Mind with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.” This reminds me of moderate talk show host Michael Smerconish tag line for his syndicated radio show “Headlines Redefined.”
However, I blog not to blame but to praise. The March 14 issue helped me to stop wringing my hands over possible nationalization of everything from soup to nuts. Joel Belz editorial “Buy them out” had this to say: “[H]ow absurd it is to fret about the possibility of nationalized banks, nationalized auto manufacturers, nationalized health care, nationalized energy producers, nationalized retirement programs, and nationalized radio networks – how absurd it is to worry about all that when we long ago nationalized the educational systems that shape the worldview of 90 percent of all Americans” (4).
He’s absolutely right. The horse bolted that barn in the 1830s. We who’ve suffered the nationalizing of the minds of our children are now going to worry about what they do with our money, cars, health, energy and retirement! Thank you Joel Belz for telling me what to think about this. It’s a view of this world from the World worth noting .
