How to Write

Excerpts from the style sheet of the Kansas City Star, where Ernest Hemingway worked as a reporter in 1917:

• Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.
• Eliminate every superfluous word, as "Funeral services will be at 2 o'clock Tuesday," not "The funeral services will be held at the hour of 2 o'clock on Tuesday." "He said" is better than "He said in the course of conversation."
• Avoid the use of adjectives, especially such extravagant ones as "splendid," "gorgeous," "grand," "magnificent," etc.
• Be careful of the word "also." It usually modifies the word it follows closest. "He, also, went" means "He, too, went." "He went also" means he went in addition to taking some other action.
• Be careful of the word "only." "He only had $10'' means he alone was the possessor of such wealth; "He had only $10'' means the ten was all the cash he possessed.
• A long quotation without introducing the speaker makes a poor lead especially and is bad at any time. Break into the quotation as soon as you can, thus: "'I should prefer,' the speaker said, 'to let the reader know who I am as soon as possible.'"

"Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing," Hemingway told a reporter in 1940. "I've never forgotten them. No man with any talent, who feels and writes truly about the thing he is trying to say, can fail to write well if he abides with them."

via Futility Closet.

Oct 21, 2011

Sanitizing User Input in PHP

if ($_GET['name']) { $name = filter_input(INPUT_POST | INPUT_GET, 'name', FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS); }

via Keeping Web Users Safe By Sanitizing Input Data.

Oct 20, 2011

Fundamentalism vs. Reformed Theology

Monergism:

Fundamentalism and its Similarities with Reformed Theology

1. The inspiration and verbal inerrancy of Scripture

2. The Deity of Christ and the virgin Birth

3. The substitutionary atonement

4. Justification by faith

5. The physical resurrection

6. The bodily return of Christ at the end of the age. 

7. Christ performed miracles

Fundamentalism (and its Differences with Reformed Theology)

1. The absence of historical perspective;

2. Ignores the Scriptures highly diverse literary genres;

3. The lack of appreciation of scholarship; aversion toward any secondary theological training; anti-intellectual;

4. The substitution of brief, skeletal, superficial creeds for the historic confessions;

5. The lack of concern with precise formulation of Christian doctrine; highly averse to theology;

6. Pietistic, perfectionist tendencies, often moralistic (i.e., major upon "issues" such as protesting Harry Potter movies; separating with Christians who are not KJV only);Guilt-Centered (Fundamentalism) Vs. Gospel Centered (Reformed) Sanctification 

7. One-sided other-worldliness - reclusive: church separate from the culture - the holy huddle (i.e., a lack of effort to impact their communities & transform culture);

8. A penchant for futuristic chiliasm (or: dispensational pre-millennialism);

9. They embrace some form of Manicheanism (or Greek dualism); 

10. Often demonize their opposition and are reactionary;

11. Envy modernist cultural/political hegemony and try to overturn the powers that be through political brute force rather than persuasion; Thus are often viewed by outsiders more like a political lobby than representatives of Christ;

12. Arminian tendency in theology (synergistic)

Oct 16, 2011

Richard Baxter's Invocation

Eternal, Almighty, and Most Gracious God! Heaven is your throne, and earth is your footstool; holy and reverend is your name. You are praised by the heavenly hosts, and in the congregation of your saints on earth, and are glorified by all who draw near to you. We are sinful and unworthy dust; but, invited by you, we are bold, through our blessed Mediator, to present ourselves and our supplications before you.

Receive us in your grace; renew us by your Spirit; recall us to your word, and grant that we may receive it with attentive, reverent, and obedient minds. Make it to us the savor of life unto life. Cause us to be fervent in prayer, joyful in your praise, and diligent in your service. May we find that a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere, and that it is good for us to draw near to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Invocation is adapted from the Savoy Liturgy (1660) of Richard Baxter (1615-1691), composed for nonconforming Christians following the restoration of the British monarchy after the demise of the Puritan Commonwealth.

Oct 15, 2011