Steve Reinemund at Redeemer - A CEO's Views on a Life in Business

Tim Keller wrote a book

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, writes to his church that, yes, he has written a book that will be available in February. It is called The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. The link above explains the need for the book.

You can pre-order it.

If you are unfamiliar with Keller, you can check out the message he gave at John Piper's 2006 national conference.

Nat'l terror center head quits for health

"The time has come for me to go ashore," retired Vice Adm. Scott Redd said in a note to his "shipmates" at the center Wednesday.

Willow Creek Repents?

"Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet."
Read the whole thing

White House Press Gaggle, 10/18/07

The National Counterterrorism had an announcement today. Vice Admiral Scott Redd has told the President that he plans to resign. This is a man who has had 40 years of government service. He has served his nation with distinction. The National Counterterrorism Center is part of the Director of National Intelligence operation; it plays a crucial role in protecting us from terrorist attacks. And we certainly wish Vice Admiral Redd all the best, and thank him for his commitment to serve.

Tragically Widening the Grounds of Legitimate Divorce, by John Piper

The October issue of Christianity Today carried an astonishing article on divorce and remarriage by David Instone-Brewer. What makes it especially amazing is that CT simply published it as if it were faithful to Scripture, with no counterpoint, and used the phrase on the cover “when to separate,” not “whether to separate”—even though Jesus said, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:9).

To put it bluntly, the implication of this article is that every marriage I am aware of could already have legitimately ended in divorce. I knew I disagreed with Instone-Brewer’s position. I wrote three chapters on marriage and divorce and remarriage in What Jesus Demands from the World and considered Instone-Brewer’s views more fully at that time. But I did not expect to read this astonishing extension of the divorce license. It is, in our context of easy divorce and cavalier covenant-breaking, tragic....

Read John Piper's Response to Instone-Brewer's Article in Christianity Today.

To Stop One Tooth From Aching, by C.S. Lewis

It may be asked whether, faint as the hope is of abolishing war by Pacifism, is there any other hope. But the question belongs to a mode of thought which I find quite alien to me.

It consists in assuming that the great permanent miseries in human life must be curable if only we can find the right cure; and it then proceeds by elimination and concludes that whatever is left, however unlikely to prove a cure, must nevertheless do so.

Hence the fanaticism of Marxists, Freudians, Eugenists, Spiritualists, Federal Unionists, Vegetarians, and all the rest.

But I have recieved no assurance that anything we can do will eradicate suffering. I think the best results are obtained by people who work quietly at limited objectives, such as abolition of the slave trade, of factory acts, or tuberculosis, not by those who think they can acheive universal justice, or health, or peace.

I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can. To avert or postpone one paticular war by wise policy, or to render one paticular campaign shorter by strength and skill or less terrible by mercy to the conquered and the civilians is more useful than all the proposals for universal peace that have ever been made; just as the dentist who can stop one toothache has deserved better of humanity than all the men who think they have some scheme for producing a perfectly healthy race.

Redd at whitehouse.gov

NY Times: Counterterrorism Leader to Resign

Statement by the DNI on VADM Redd's Resignation

DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Washington, DC 20511
October 17, 2007
Statement by the Director of National Intelligence Mr. Mike McConnell

“Vice Admiral Redd's service as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center has been vital to the conduct of our nation's war on terror. His leadership of the nation's counterterrorism mission has been critical in safeguarding the Homeland and protecting our interests from terrorist attacks. During these past two and a half years, his steady hand has guided NCTC through challenging and rewarding times. I know his decision to step down was difficult as he has selflessly served his country for almost 40 years. On behalf of the Intelligence Community, I want to thank Scott, his wife Donna, and their family, for their service in and commitment to this noble cause.”

After Comments, U.S. Terror Chief Resigns

NCTC spokesman Carl Kropf said Redd's decision to leave was "absolutely not" related to his comments, and that he had not been pressured in any way to step down.

In a statement released this afternoon, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell thanked Redd for his service. "I know his decision to step down was difficult," McConnell said. A spokesman for his office said there was "no pressure whatsoever" on Redd to resign.

Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D. on Meet The Press

White House Civil War

Never mind

Terrorism center chief resigns, citing chronic knee problems

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), retired Adm. Scott Redd, has told his staff that chronic knee problems are prompting him to step down.

In a written statement to the staff, Redd said he reluctantly submitted his letter of resignation to President Bush, to be effective Nov. 10. He indicated he needs to undergo long-delayed surgery that he "could no longer neglect."

NCTC spokesman Carl Kropf said Redd needs total knee replacement on both legs, and the terrorism chief believed the surgery, recovery and rehabilitation would keep him away from the job too long. As a retired admiral, Redd felt that if the "captain was not on the bridge, someone else needs to step up," Kropf said. --From National Security Producer Pam Benson (Posted 2:07 p.m.)

Terror-Fighting Center Chief Steps Down

Vice Adm. John Redd John Redd listens during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on 'Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland: Six Years after 9/11' on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 10, 2007. Redd, the head of the U.S. agency responsible for analyzing intelligence on terrorism and developing counterterrorism strategies, announced his resignation on Wednesday. (Jim Young/Reuters)

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Retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd said he is stepping down next month to have a long-delayed surgery and spend more time with his five grandchildren and the rest of his family.

U2's 'Joshua Tree' Blooms Again

Gossip more powerful than truth, researchers say

"We show that gossip has a strong influence... even when participants have access to the original information as well as gossip about the same information," the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences..."People only saw the gossip, not the past decisions," he said in a telephone interview. "People really reacted on it."..."Rationally if you know what the people did, you should care, but they still listened to what others said," he said. "They even reacted on it if they knew better."

What's So Great about Christianity?

The Importance of News...or lack of it