The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

"Funny old world"

These two bizarre stories highlighted in Private Eye this week struck me as rather sad and all too true to life.
'My Way' deaths lead karaoke bars in Philippines to ban song
Frank Sinatra's "My Way" has been banned from many bars across the Philippines after at least six people were killed in the last decade while performing karaoke renditions of the song.
The so-called "My Way killings" have led to many bars in the karaoke-obsessed country removing the song from their playlists amid fears of violence.
Bar owners believe the number of deaths could be fuelled by what some perceive as "arrogance" in the lyrics of the song.
It is one of the most popular karaoke tunes in the Philippines which also has a more than one million illegally carried guns.
Most of the killings are reported to have happened after the singer sang out of tune and crowds jeered.
In one fatal case Romy Baligula, 29, was shot dead in the city of San Mateoin in 2007. He was halfway through My Way when a security guard shouted that he was out of tune. He carried on regardless and the guard shot him in the chest with a revolver.
Karaoke killings have been recorded elsewhere in Asia. In Thailand two years ago a man shot dead eight of his neighbours after becoming enraged when they repeatedly sang John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads.
In 2008 Abdul Sani Doli hogged the microphone for so long in Sandakan, Borneo that listeners stabbed him to death.
Rodolfo Gregorio, 63, a karaoke singer in the Philippine city of General Santos, said: "The trouble with My Way is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion. You can get killed."

Kenya: Thousands pray for pastors to rise from dead
The faithful of a church sect in western Kenya are refusing to bury two pastors killed a week ago in a road accident, hoping they will rise from the dead like Jesus.
Patrick Wanjohi and Francis Kamau Ndekei, of the Kingdom Seekers Fellowship, died on February 15, but overseer and self-styled apostle John Kimani said they were “just sleeping, they are not dead”.
“We are not going to bury them, because they have not completed their mission here on Earth. We need them back because without them the church will collapse,” he said.
Kimani had promised the faithful that “the two pastors would resurrect” on Saturday. Thousands braved torrential rain but nothing happened.
Now hundreds continue to pray round the clock for the miracle to happen.
Apparently the decision was eventually taken to bury the pastors.
There is a youtube video on this latter story here.
What a need for sober and faithful Bible teaching there is.

1 comment:

MFH said...

What need - let us petition the Lord of the harvest