On the murder of George Tiller

Robert George at National Review online via Mere Comments.

Whoever murdered George Tiller has done a gravely wicked thing. The evil of this action is in no way diminished by the blood George Tiller had on his own hands. No private individual had the right to execute judgment against him. We are a nation of laws. Lawless violence breeds only more lawless violence. Rightly or wrongly, George Tilller was acquitted by a jury of his peers. "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord." For the sake of justice and right, the perpetrator of this evil deed must be prosecuted, convicted, and punished. By word and deed, let us teach that violence against abortionists is not the answer to the violence of abortion. Every human life is precious. George Tiller's life was precious. We do not teach the wrongness of taking human life by wrongfully taking a human life. Let our "weapons" in the fight to defend the lives of abortion's tiny victims, be chaste weapons of the spirit.

The Music Man : A Gnostic, Postmodern myth... and a great show!

I saw a nice, funny, local production of "The Music Man" last night. I loved it. First time I have seen the play (and I have never seen the movie) though much of the music was familiar. I offered the following analysis of the play to my wife who looked at me and said, "You are a strange, strange man."

"The Music Man" strikes me as a Gnostic, postmodern myth. Harold Hill is the Gnostic messenger from beyond, offering the townspeople special knowledge and redemption from the prison of their ordinary life. If only they knew their real situation they would realize their need for the liberating knowledge he is offering.

The solution he peddles is to have faith, not in anything concrete or real but in the vision Hill offers. The fact that the vision is fraudulent and a swindle is irrelevant. The act of believing is a personal transformative event. The key is to believe : if you believe it, it is real. The townspeople are convinced in the end of Hill's message and are transformed by what they believe. The act of believing is itself redemptive.

Great song about a great car: the Gremlin

Great song about a great car. "In My Gremlin" by the Rave Ups.
The AMC Gremlin. A classic. American car making at its best and most absurd. My kind of car.

Pentecost: not the beginning of the gift but an addition to his generosity.

Leo the Great, on Pentecost (Sermon 77, FOTC, Vol. 93, page 336-337) :

If this faith is firmly held, I say, let us not doubt that, when on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit filled the disciples, it was not the beginning of the gift but an addition to his generosity.

The patriarchs, the prophets, the priests, and all the saints who lived in former times were invigorated by the sanctifying of the same Spirit. Without this grace no mysteries were ever instituted, no rites celebrated, - there was always the same strength of grace although there was not the same measure of the gifts.

The blessed apostles themselves did not lack the Holy Spirit before the Passion of the Lord, nor was the power of his strength absent from the Savior's works. When the Lord "gave" to the disciples "the power of healing and the power to cast out demons,"' he was bestowing the effects of the Spirit …

It is clear, then, that remission of sin does not happen without the aid of the Holy Spirit, nor can any lament as they should or pray as they ought without him … To be without him is exceedingly destructive and exceedingly deadly, because those who are deserted by their intercessor never deserve pardon. All, therefore, dearly beloved, who have believed in the Lord Jesus have the Holy Spirit infused into them.

Holy Spirit = Christ's glory

So says Gregory of Nyssa:


Now the bond that creates this unity is glory. That the Holy Spirit is called glory no one can deny if he thinks carefully about the Lord’s words: The glory you gave to me, I have given to them. In fact, he gave this glory to his disciples when he said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. Although he had always possessed it, even before the world existed, he himself received this glory when he put on human nature. Then, when his human nature had been glorified by the Spirit, the glory of the Spirit was passed on to all his kin, beginning with his disciples. This is why he said: The glory you gave to me, I have given to them, so that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, I want them to be perfectly one.

The Prodigal Preacher: A grandson contemplates a patriarch who favoured the company of strangers

This is an honest, brief recollection by a grandson of his Plymouth Brethren, grandfather preacher. Well done.

A bit:


A son writes to his missionary father:

Dear Daddy,

I am glad many are getting saved and Mummy is too. I will be glad when you are home. Hope you are having a nice time and I want to know when you are coming home.

And more:

Reading my grandpa’s correspondence left me with a riddle: how could a man so present to perfect strangers be so absent with his own family?

The preacher's temptation

The Princess, The Priest and the War for the Perfect Wedding

This looks like a wonderful, entertaining little series of webisodes about having a church wedding. Funny and right on the mark as brides ask questions that get asked all the time and a priest answers. Some of it is strongly from a Roman perspective but most of it seems common to all weddings. Ive only watched one so far but it looks to be very nicely done. Some description titles:

Why Can’t We Get Married On The Beach?

The Jerky Priest!

Why Cant we marry the Beatles? ( using secular music)

Dr. David Scaer on creation and sacraments

To celebrate CTQ online, here is a bit of a very, very fine article by one of my mentors and heroes in the faith, Dr. David Scaer: Sacraments as an Affirmation of Creation in the October, 1993 CTQ. What a wonderful article.


In the sacraments our gaze is focused first on things, material things, things belonging to God's creation, through which we look at the supernatural. It is not that we look around them, but through them, to see the supernatural reality.

What happens in the sacraments has in a sense already happened in the incarnation. In Jesus we see God.In water and bread and wine we find Jesus. In both incarnation and sacrament, the created becomes divine and serves the one divine purpose of salvation. In both Jesus and the sacraments the invisible is hidden in the visible, and thus creation is first affirmed and then elevated. Water, bread, and wine experience through the word of God a kind of redemption from their menial use and a sanctification through which the Spirit brings men into a higher relationship with God and confirms it.

Created elements are brought to their highest potential and by God's words surpass this potential without denying their limitations. In the sacraments ordinary things are raised to a higher, spiritual level, a dimension in which the Holy Spirit is working.

Concordia Theological Quarterly Online

I noticed that Concordia Theological Seminary has put a large number of back issues of Concordia Theological Quarterly online. There is wealth of great theological material available. A more noble way to waste time online! We call it research!

Determinism

A life of genuine love

The Spirit is the one working faith in believers, the faith that is the basis for this gratitude. Therefore, Christians cannot take credit for the improvements in their lives; the source and cause is still God's grace. At the same time, this progression is not a mysterious process. It is in faith that one responds in gratitude, and the good works that follow are responses of thankfulness rather than attempts to appease a God who is keeping score.

Luther was convinced that a religious message that did not proclaim the complete forgiveness of sins without any human work or merit could not produce the genuine and free acts of love that come from believing the gospel. Only when a believer has been released from any threat of punishment can there be genuine sanctification. When the fear of doing too little is taken away, as well as the pride of assisting in one's salvation, the believer begins to live a life of genuine love.

"Luther and the Holy Spirit: why pneumatology still matters" Currents in Theology and Mission , April, 2007 by Jeffrey K. Mann

A far more bitter and difficult task

People think: Doing good works is a heavy task, but believing is
something that is soon done. To be sure, faith does seem to be an easy
matter; but it really is a difficult art. Temptation and experience
certainly teach that, on the contrary, we must say that clinging to
God's Word so that the heart is not afraid of sins and death but trusts
and believes God, is a far more bitter and difficult task than observing
all the rules of the Carthusian and monastic orders.

Martin Luther, cited in "Luther and the Holy Spirit: why pneumatology still matters" Currents in Theology and Mission , April, 2007 by Jeffrey K. Mann

A sit down strike against standing ovations

I completely concur with Rev. David Petersen's words here about standing ovations. What he wrote is below and no, Pastor Petersen, it is not a Midwest thing. The same thing happens in North Carolina. Maybe it is America.

What is awkward is the urge to remain seated but then you think that others will feel you are mounting some sort of protest against the speaker or performance when really you are protesting the silly standing ovation. This is especially true at church conventions where the latest denominational leader is given an obligatory standing ovation.

Pr. Petersen:

I can't stand (pun intended) standing ovations. Standing ovations are now mandatory at every performance or event at which you clap at the end. The Bach Collegium - Ft. Wayne has never had a performance that didn't end with a standing ovation. Does that mean that every single performance has been better than the last? And that each was so much greater than could have been expected? Perhaps. But it turns out that the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic always ends with a standing ovation as well. Last week I was at an academic awards ceremony at South Side High School. Guess what? We didn't just clap at the end. We stood up and clapped. Why? Because we were so impressed. It was, after all, the greatest achievement of High School freshmen the world has ever seen.

We live in a Mr. Rogers' world. Our praise is always over the top. But now we have no way of expressing our appreciation for something that is truly spectacular. That is a shame. Not only have the performers come to expect it, but we can't actually tell them when they are truly great. This can't be resisted either. Because one person stands up and then everybody has to. You can't sit there while everyone else stands. Even if you think twenty freshmen who got B's or better on their report cards isn't exactly the most spectacular event or achievement of the last forty years.

This might be peculiar to America, maybe even the Midwest. When we saw Wicked in London last Fall (courtesy of the Lily Endowment in Indy) there was no standing ovation. The performance was fantastic. But we just sat and clapped. When we've seen off-Broadway tours that roll through Ft. Wayne and play at the Embassy there is always a standing ovation. We saw the Phantom of the Opera in Detroit 13 or so years ago and there was also a standing ovation. Wicked in London was every bit as good as any of those, but not standing ovation. In fact, I think it is the only live performance I've ever been to that didn't have a standing ovation.

The preachers lament

The best rock and roll ..

The best rock and roll is always talking about God but never mentioning Him.
-- Paul Gregory Alms

wIy cha'! HaSta! cha yIghuS!

That is Klingon for "Tactical … Visual … Tactical, stand by on torpedoes!" and here is an article on the imaginary Klingon language.

Define Baseball in 150 words

An article from Slate.

"Try to run to next base and finally reach where you started. Meanwhile, there are bad people wanting to stop you and send you home." Others made the national pastime seem like a scene from The Wild One: "Seven guys wait for these other two guys to play catch but this other guy is jealous because he wants to play and so he's trying to stop them with a stick."

Read the rest here.

The Bloody Sack of Rome, May 6, 1527

From Der Spiegel:

Pope Benedict XVI swore in the latest recruits to the Swiss Guard on Wednesday, the anniversary of the Sack of Rome. Almost 500 years ago, a German mercenary army went on a rampage in the Eternal City. It was the Swiss Guard's bravery that allowed the pope to escape to safety.

It was something that people across Europe could not quite believe had happened. Brutish intruders with wheel-lock pistols and long spears had been allowed to capture the Eternal City. Rome's Aurelian Walls had failed. The air in the city was filled with the prayers of desperate citizens, beseeching God to prevent a German victory.

But heaven did not intervene when, on the morning of May 6, 1527, an army of mercenaries fighting on behalf of German Emperor Charles V began to storm the capital of Christendom. Thousands of mercenaries, using crudely fashioned ladders made of laths and vine stakes, attempted to climb Rome's ancient defensive walls.

The city's defenders put up a brave fight. Powder smoke billowed from heavy cannons at Castel Sant' Angelo, the papal stronghold. Two waves of attacks were repelled.

But it was no use. At 7:30 a.m., the intruders broke through Rome's defenses and entered the Vatican district. From there, they crossed the bridges across the Tiber River and, with a horrible roar, advanced into the center of Rome.

Read the rest here.

Roman Catholics and tattoos

A good read here: how to find a tattoo that satisfies the urge for novelty while respecting the traditions of the Roman church.

Multi-tasking is a myth

Thanks to Cyberstones for passing this link along: very interesting article in the NY Times.

It certainly rings true in my experience. Plus all the talk about neurons sounds really science-ey so I am sure it true (grin).

I wonder if there is a difference between male and female in this area. A couple in my church were sitting in the church waiting for Lenten services to begin while our children's choir rehearsed. They both brought books to read. The wife comfortably sat in the nave listening and reading. The husband sought out an empty classroom down the hall to read and concentrate in quiet.

I cannot watch TV or listen to anything while I read. My wife does it all the time. I wonder.

A Journey through Darkness: NY Times Magazine cover story on clinical depression

It is one woman's story of her own depression and treatment. Well worth reading.

Rare Martin Luther Book Found

Rare Martin Luther Book Found


Call it the luck of the Irish: When Frank McGinity was contacted by representatives of the estate of a bookseller in Santa Paula, the president of the California chapter of the American Irish Historical Society walked into a book aficionado’s chance of a lifetime.

“(He) must have had a particular interest in Irish history and literature,” McGinity said of the late Edward Miller, who sold books in Burbank. Miller’s family was not interested in keeping any of the estate’s books so McGinity soon found himself the proud new owner of a couple thousand volumes, several rare, most out of print, and many on Irish history and literature.

But it wasn’t just a coup because of all the early editions by William Butler Yeats and Frank O’Connor, or the excellent condition of books that documented the Irish struggle for independence from England. Among the stacks and boxes of books he, California AIHS vice president Patricia Clark Doerner and UCSB professor Enda Duffy went through was the second volume of Martin Luther’s Der Ander Teil (The Other Part), a treatise the Protestant Reformer published in 1548.

“It just blew my mind,” said Doerner, who discovered the book while sorting first editions from copies, Irish books from everything else. “We’ve got a real treasure here.”

The 12,000-page book, in fragile but good condition, leather bound and just a little larger than a phone book, is an early edition published before Luther’s death. McGinity said there’s a good chance Luther reviewed this edition, before the two volumes were broken down into 12.

Other books of note include The Story of the Irish Citizen Army, Sean O’Casey’s account of the events leading to the Easter Rising of 1916 in Dublin, and The Fate of Father Sheehy, which chronicles the trial and execution of a priest who encouraged his congregation not to tithe to the Church of Ireland.

“It’s not just the story, but the legal proceedings,” Doerner explained.

On Sunday, the California chapter of the American Irish Historical Society will be holding a book sale, with more than half of its 15,000-book acquisition available for purchase. The early editions of the books on Irish culture won’t be for sale, but many of the collection’s old or out-of-print copies of novels will be. And the club might be persuaded to part with Der Ander Teil, for the right offer.

Faithfulness is all

He who is faithful over a few things is a lord of cities. It does not matter whether you preach in Westminster Abbey or teach a ragged class, so you be faithful. The faithfulness is all.

George MacDonald

Harassed hedonism

We have a suffocating sense of luxury and no sense at all of liberty. All the pleasure-hunters seem to be themselves hunted. All the children of fortune seem to be chained to the wheel. There is very little that really even pretends to be happiness in all this sort of harassed hedonism.

G.K. Chesterton

Denying the cat

A marvelous selection from G.K. Chesterton on original sin (from Shouting Boy whoever he is) :

Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact.

The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin—a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether or no man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing. But certain religious leaders in London, not mere materialists, have begun in our day not to deny the highly disputable water, but to deny the indisputable dirt.

Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved. Some followers of the Reverend R.J. Campbell, in their almost too fastidious spirituality, admit divine sinlessness, which they cannot see even in their dreams. But they essentially deny human sin, which they can see in the street. The strongest saints and the strongest sceptics alike took positive evil as the starting-point of their argument.

If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two deductions. He must either deny the existence of God, as all atheists do; or he must deny the present union between God and man, as all Christians do. The new theologians seem to think it a highly rationalistic solution to deny the cat...

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

On the comeback of the "!"

This is an interesting and humorous look at the revival of the exclamation mark. Once frowned upon email and the Internet has brought it back.

Some nice quotes discouraging the use of the exclamation point:

"Cut out all those exclamation marks, an exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes."
F Scott Fitzgerald

"You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose."
Elmore Leonard (about one every every book and a half)

"Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind."
Terry Pratchett

"All those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head."
Terry Pratchett