CRN.Info and Analysis

I was watching an episode of Carnivale (an HBO show set in a traveling carnival during the Great Depression) and in this episode the carnival was almost flat broke. The manager of the carnival declares they’re going to have a fireball show.

“What’s a fireball show”, I thought to myself, “this could be interesting.”

They start showing the fireball show. The scene opens with a carnival barker enticing people to come into the tent and see the man eating chicken. He talks about the dangers of the man eating chicken and how when its done there’s nothing left but bones. When the room fills up with paying customers he pulls the curtain, and there, is a man eating a chicken. Needless to say there are no refunds. The fireball show also featured rigged games so no one wins, and a museum of fake creatures, such as the turtle boy, which is a turtle shell with a doll’s head. As all this chicanery is going on, the carnival sends out pick pockets to rip off as many people as possible. The scene ends with the carnival manager going through wallet after wallet, taking the money and discarding the wallets.

But that still didn’t satisfy my curiosity. Why is it called a fireball show? The show didn’t answer that. So I turned to my trusty friend google which turned up this nugget:

A show with a poor performance which allowed so many dishonest practices on its grounds that the towns played by it were literally “burned up” for any show that tried to follow it.

Ah, now that makes sense. Sometimes I get asked why I bother writing about the sites that are written about here. The reason is that Slice, C?N, and the rest of the watchbloggies are fireball shows. Anyone who comes across them are burned up for any Christian or church they encounter in the future. And its not because of their theology, no matter how flawed it may be, and its not because of their biases and prejudices no matter how much it skews the stances they take. Instead it has everything to do with how they make their points.

When they write, there is no compassion, grace, mercy or love in their words. All these things are commanded by scripture, especially so in our dealings with other people who Christ has suffered and died for. Their fire breathing is in direct disobedience to the scriptures, and as a result they’ve obscured the gospel.

In Matthew 17 we see an exchange take place:

24After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax[b]?”

25″Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?”

26″From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the sons are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27″But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

A temple tax was extracted from Jesus. In this conversation with Peter Jesus clearly indicates that they are sons of God and that the king doesn’t tax his sons. In other words the temple is Jesus’ house. If he wants to he could pull up a cot and take up residence. By right, he should be exempt from the tax. Instead of going in and demanding this exemption, he pays the tax, so that he “we may not offend them”.

Can you imagine any of the blogs that have been criticized in this space putting aside their rights in order to avoid giving offense? I can’t.

I hope and pray this is just a very vocal minority getting lots of attention because of their screeching. I pray that our churches don’t act this way in general, because if so, the gospel is getting burned out in towns across the country.