It swallows up all sins in a moment

Through faith in Christ, therefore, Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness and all that he has becomes ours; rather, he himself becomes ours ... This is an infinite righteousness, and one that swallows up all sins in a moment, for it is impossible that sin should exist in Christ. On the contrary, he who trusts in Christ exists in Christ; he is one with Christ, having the same righteousness as he. It is therefore impossible that sin should remain in him.

Martin Luther

that's what happens when you get too big for your britches

Hank Williams Sr. ( one of the Luke the Drifter spoken word singles) on the lessons that the years give you.



I've been down that road before

Now friends if you'll just listen to me
You'll get some good hard earned advice
I don't aim to meddle in your business
I'm just trying to save ya an awful price

You see these teeth that I ain't got
And these knots on my bald head
I'll guaranty you boys I didn't get um'
There a lyin' home in bed

Now take the smart-Aleck in any town
Of him folks want no part
He acts like his head was only
Made to hold his ears apart

Now he might not like what I'm bout to say
And my words might make him sore
But I'm just trying to be helpful
'Cause I been down that road before

To bully folks and play mean tricks
Was once my pride and joy
Till one day I was toted home
And mama didn't know her little boy

My head was swelled up so doggone big
I couldn't get it through my front door
Now I ain't just talkin' ta hear myself
I been down that road before

A little fella about my size
Got tired of bein' pushed about
So he went to work and when he got through
He'd knocked everyone of my teeth out

One time too many I rubbed him wrong
And he evened up the score
Now that's what happens when you get too big for your britches
I been down that road before

Now when you get to thinking your really smart
There's somebody smarter then you
And no matter how much you boast and brag
You can still learn a thing or two

Go get you some treatments just like I've had
And you won't hanker for more
I've really learned the meaning of living and loving
'Cause I've been down that road before

Now the man that walks this rocky road
Usually gets just what he deserves
But he's just a helpless servant
To a master that he servers

Now I've learned to slow my temper down
And not to pick no scraps no more
Boys its a lot easier on the head and the eyes
'Cause I've been down that road before

Three good quotes from Quotes of the Day

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.
- Kurt Vonnegut

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
- Barry LePatner

The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.
- Russell Baker

Some theses on cookies

Some theses on cookies.

Hydrox sandwich cookies are good.

Oreo cookies are better.

Double Stuff Oreos are much, much better. How did we ever live without Double Stuff Oreos?

Hypothetical Triple Stuff Oreos would be the incredible ultimate ... until Quadruple Stuff were introduced.

Satis est.

When church members leave

This a "not bad" article from the Christian Century on how pastors react to members who leave. I don't agree with everything he writes but he does make some good points.

Some bits:

Most of the time when people leave our church, however, they just disappear. We notice their repeated absence after some weeks have passed. If I can track them down, they'll often give me their parting shot, a short, abbreviated explanation of why they are leaving. These parting shots can be difficult to understand. Sometimes people are angry over a real or imagined slight. Some people cannot honestly address why they are leaving the church, so they convince themselves that they're "just not being fed," or they need a place with more music or better music or different preaching. Sometimes people just lie—they don't want to admit that they'd rather attend a large church where no one notices when they sleep in on Sunday morning, so they point a finger at a theologically wayward Sunday school teacher, or at my sermons. Once a woman said to me, "I don't know what's happened to your preaching, Gordon. Your sermons used to inspire me so much. But now they don't, so we're just going to have to try somewhere else."

Being in the ministry requires us to develop a thick skin. We need to learn to spot the bull and let it go without wasting too much emotional energy on it. But we also need to cultivate the ability to hear what people are really saying by listening to what is behind their words. However painful it may be, we must listen to the parting shots of those who leave, because there is truth buried there—below the anger and the scapegoating and the general dishonesty. My advice is to ignore one person's opinion of you or your ministry, and to watch for trends and patterns.

... and ...

For me as the pastor, these parting shots have one more effect. They are sometimes directed at our church's abilities and shortcomings, and for the first six to eight years that I was a pastor, they wounded me deeply. It would sometimes take me two weeks to recover fully. After a number of years I began to respond defensively, telling myself that the remarks said more about the people leaving than about me or the church. Behind my attitude was a smoldering anger born of pain, and of a fear that perhaps I wasn't doing a good job.

After almost 20 years at Covenant Baptist Church, I've found a middle ground. When people leave our church I listen carefully to their reasons. There's nothing much to be gained by arguing with them; after all, by the time people work up the courage to tell the minister they are leaving, they have made their decision. Sometimes I think the reasons they give are silly and don't worry much about them. Sometimes I recognize them as parting shots offered in anger. Sometimes I see truth in what people say.

Gilligan's Island

For a certain generation (mine) Brady and Bunch and Gilligan's Island were omnipresent afternoon diversions. Not so much the original prime time show but the daily reruns after school. I have seen every episode of the Brady Bunch at least twice and every episode of Gilligan's Island. For a brief period in my high school years it was considered humorous to sing the theme songs to these television programs on bus trips.

It still amazes me that children do not know these songs or have never heard of the programs. The Gilligan's Island theme is of course way superior to the Brady Bunch. Enjoy.

Gilligan's Island - Season 3 opening
by AH3RD

Internet melting our brains? Hogwash

By now the arguments are familiar: Facebook is ruining our social relationships; Google is making us dumber; texting is destroying the English language as we know it. We're facing a crisis, one that could very well corrode the way humans have communicated since we first evolved from apes. What we need, so say these proud Luddites, is to turn our backs on technology and embrace not the keyboard, but the pencil.

Such sentiments, in the opinion of Dennis Baron, are nostalgic, uninformed hogwash.

Advice from John Adams

Sound advice for free and popular governing from John Adams:

We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments, God grant us the way. But I fear that in every assembly members will obtain an influence by noise rather than sense, by meanness rather than greatness, and by ignorance and not learning, by contracted hearts and not large souls.

There is one thing, my dear sir, that must be attempted and most sacredly observed, or we are all undone. There must be decency and respect and veneration introduced for persons of every rank, or we are undone. In a popular government, this is our only way.

John Adams, 1776 (from McCullough's biography, page 106.)

A few drops of Blood recreate the whole world

We were created that we might be made happy. We were made happy when we were created. We were entrusted with Paradise that we might enjoy life. We received a Commandment that we might obtain a good repute by keeping it; not that God did not know what would take place, but because He had laid down the law of Free Will. We were deceived because we were the objects of envy. We were cast out because we transgressed. We fasted because we refused to fast, being overpowered by the Tree of Knowledge. For the Commandment was ancient, coeval with ourselves, and was a kind of education of our souls and curb of luxury, to which we were reasonably made subject, in order that we might recover by keeping it that which we had lost by not keeping it.

We needed an Incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live. We were put to death together with Him, that we might be cleansed; we rose again with Him because we were put to death with Him; we were glorified with Him, because we rose again with Him.

Many indeed are the miracles of that time: God crucified; the sun darkened and again rekindled; for it was fitting that the creatures should suffer with their Creator; the veil rent; the Blood and Water shed from His Side; the one as from a man, the other as above man; the rocks rent for the Rock's sake; the dead raised for a pledge of the final Resurrection of all men; the Signs at the Sepulchre and after the Sepulchre, which none can worthily celebrate.

Yet none of these equal to the Miracle of my salvation. A few drops of Blood recreate the whole world, and become to all men what rennet is to milk, drawing us together and compressing us into unity.

Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 45.

Not too Young to Get Married - Bob B.Soxx & The Blue Jeans

I am on a major Phil Spector kick. This is a great song. The lyrics are typical of the time.

Pop music no longer fantasizes about marriage. In songs like this of the early sixties, marriage was the dream come true, the end to (mostly female) teenage lonliness and longing.

The tempo on this single is amazing (it's fast!) and the lead voice is perfect(Darlene Love). Phil Spector was a genius. The horn part is nice as well. If your feet don't tap along with this one you are probably dead.

"He sure ain't the boy I've been dreaming of"

I've become slightly obsessed with this song.

It is just about a perfect song. "He's Sure The Boy I Love" by the Crystals, written by Mann/Weil.

First of all, the lyrics are fascinating. They are a complete inversion of the expected love song: instead of the normal "I met the boy of my dreams", this girl tells of meeting a boy she loves who is everything she has never dreamed of: poor, not good looking, no fine car or gifts to bring, only unemployment checks.

Add the wonderfully catchy melody, the incredible mono production by Phil Spector and the even more wonderful voice of Darlene Love and you have an almost perfect song.

Down below are the lyrics. Following that is a video of the Crystals version followed by a a version by Bruce Springsteen which goes a step further in switching the gender roles.


Always dreamed the boy I love would come along
And he'd be tall and handsome, rich and strong.
Now, that boy I love has come to me
But he sure ain't the way I thought he'd be.

He doesn't look like a movie star
He doesn't drive a Cadillac car
He sure ain't the boy I've been dreaming of but
He's sure the boy I love

He'll never be a big businessman
He always buys on the installment plan
He sure ain't the boy I've been dreaming of but
He's sure the boy I love

When he holds me tight,
Everything's right
Crazy as it seems
I'm his, whatever he is,
And I forget all of my dreams
And everybody knows

He doesn't hang diamonds round my neck
And all he's got's unemployment checks
He sure ain't the boy I've been dreaming of but
He's sure the boy I love



You can hear Bruce's version here.

How does a culture that has become unmoored from its own past cope with an influx of newcomers? That's Europe's problem

Here is a review essay of this book: Reflections on the Revolution in Europe By Christopher Caldwell

Some selections:

Europe has intractable problems with many immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants, and, of course, many immigrants have intractable problems with Europe. In "Reflections on the Revolution in Europe," Christopher Caldwell ponders the current state of a continent where the aging indigenous population is gradually being supplanted by young newcomers. Today's immigrants might be considered hostile to European values, except that Europe itself increasingly has only a foggy sense of what those values might be.

...

He also ruminates on far more than the increasing radicalization of generations of Muslim immigrants. Just as Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790) predicted a dire fate for the mass insurrection then aborning, Mr. Caldwell looks with alarm at Europe's continuing rejection of itself. Without a rejection of the religion and culture that sustained Europe for centuries, he says, the immigration troubles might never have occurred, or at least would not have been so severe: His verdict is suicide rather than murder.


...


The author notes that even the prominent German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who is an atheist, has acknowledged that "Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilization. To this we have no other options. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter."

210 reasons Rome fell

Here they are : (from the History blog) (compiled by German historian Alexander Demandt for his 1984 history Der Fall Roms)

Abolition of gods, abolition of rights, absence of character, absolutism, agrarian question, agrarian slavery, anarchy, anti-Germanism, apathy, aristocracy, asceticism, attacks by Germans, attacks by Huns, attacks by nomads on horseback.

Backwardness in science, bankruptcy, barbarization, bastardization, blockage of land by large landholders, blood poisoning, bolshevization, bread and circuses, bureaucracy, Byzantinism.

Capitalism, change of capitals, caste system, celibacy, centralization, childlessness, Christianity, citizenship (granting of), civil war, climatic deterioration, communism, complacency, concatenation of misfortunes, conservatism, corruption, cosmopolitanism, crisis of legitimacy, culinary excess, cultural neurosis.

Decentralization, decline of Nordic character, decline of the cities, decline of the Italic population, deforestation, degeneration, degeneration of intellect, demoralization, depletion of mineral resources, despotism, destruction of environment, destruction of peasantry, destruction of political process, destruction of Roman influence, devastation, differences in wealth, disarmament, disillusion with state, division of empire, division of labour.

Earthquakes, egoism, egoism of the state, emancipation of slaves, enervation, epidemics, equal rights (granting of), eradication of the best, escapism, ethnic dissolution, excessive aging of population, excessive civilization, excessive culture, excessive foreign infiltration, excessive freedom, excessive urbanization, expansion, exploitation.

Fear of life, female emancipation, feudalization, fiscalism, gladiatorial system, gluttony, gout, hedonism, Hellenization, heresy, homosexuality, hothouse culture, hubris, hyperthermia.

Immoderate greatness, imperialism, impotence, impoverishment, imprudent policy toward buffer states, inadequate educational system, indifference, individualism, indoctrination, inertia, inflation, intellectualism, integration (weakness of), irrationality, Jewish influence.

Lack of leadership, lack of male dignity, lack of military recruits, lack of orderly imperial succession, lack of qualified workers, lack of rainfall, lack of religiousness, lack of seriousness, large landed properties, lead-poisoning, lethargy, levelling (cultural), levelling (social), loss of army discipline, loss of authority, loss of energy, loss of instincts, loss of population, luxury.

Malaria, marriages of convenience, mercenary system, mercury damage, militarism, monetary economy, monetary greed, money (shortage of), moral decline, moral idealism, moral materialism, mystery religions, nationalism of Rome’s subjects, negative selection.

Orientalization, outflow of gold, over-refinement, pacifism, paralysis of will, paralysation, parasitism, particularism, pauperism, plagues, pleasure-seeking, plutocracy, polytheism, population pressure, precociousness, professional army, proletarization, prosperity, prostitution, psychoses, public baths.

Racial degeneration, racial discrimination, racial suicide, rationalism, refusal of military service, religious struggles and schisms, rentier mentality, resignation, restriction to profession, restriction to the land, rhetoric, rise of uneducated masses, romantic attitudes to peace, ruin of middle class, rule of the world.

Semi-education, sensuality, servility, sexuality, shamelessness, shifting of trade routes, slavery, Slavic attacks, socialism (of the state), social tensions, soil erosion, soil exhaustion, spiritual barbarism, stagnation, stoicism, stress, structural weakness, superstition.

Taxation, pressure of terrorism, tiredness of life, totalitarianism, treason, tristesse, two-front war, underdevelopment, useless diet, usurpation of all powers by the state, vaingloriousness, villa economy, vulgarization.

The mousetrap of his cross

Augustine, Sermon 130:

Along came the redeemer and conquered the deceiver. And what did our redeemer do to our captor? To pay our price, he set the mousetrap of his cross; as bait he placed there his own blood. While the devil, though, was able to shed that blood, he did not earn the right to drink it. And because he shed the blood of one who was not his debtor, he was ordered to release those who were his debtors" (PL 38:726-27).

Edmund Hill, The Works of Augustine: Sermons III/4, Brooklyn: New City Press, 1992, 311.

The Ethics of Flipper

The law of unintended consequences is never more powerful than when we mess with nature.

This is illustrated perfectly in this little essay about what happens when we try to protect dolphins: we end up hurting all others kinds of species. This is why environmental holy wars often go wrong. Passion and science do not mix.

Read it all here The Ethics of Flipper: How Saving Dolphins is Creating an Ecological Disaster.

Here are a couple of bits:

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the seven commandments that guide the animals are eventually reduced to one: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

While humans have always applied this standard to the animal kingdom (e.g., house cats are more equal than house rats), applying that maxim to the fishing industry—dolphins trump nearly all other marine species—is creating an ecological disaster.

...

But the law of unintended consequences often binds good intentions. Dolphin-Safe methods lead to the rampant destruction of other fauna. As the Environmental Justice Foundation discovered, saving one dolphin costs “382 mahi-mahi, 188 wahoo, 82 yellowtail and other large fish, 27 sharks, and almost 1,200 small fish.”

As one shark conservationist asks, “Is it worth saving dolphins, who were not and are not endangered, at the expense of sea turtles, sharks, and many other fish species who are endangered?”

The whole essay is worth reading.

Creation is theophany

Vladimir Kharlamov surveys patristic thought on deification in a recent article in Theology Today ( Volume 65 (2008): 158-168) and argues among other things that that the distinction between the essence and energies of God which is so important in later Eastern Orthodox theology is not a representative characteristic of the early church fathers. Here is his conclusion:


Creation for patristic authors is theophany.

The communicability between God, transcendent and incomprehensible in his nature, and humankind lies not in the ontological differentiation between divine essence and divine energies but in the fact of the Incarnation of the Logos, where the two natures are mediated and united in the person of Christ.

Nevertheless, human participation in the nature of God does not necessarily make this nature knowable. Human beings participate in God "as far as possible" for human nature. Divine nature is both mysterious and communicable. God and divine action in the world are beyond human comprehension, and at the same time, human participation in the life of God is real.

Frequently, we can encounter in patristic thought the paradoxical methodological
interplay of openness and hiddenness of God. We simultaneously know God, and we never will know him. We see God, and he is totally invisible. We are similar to God, and at the same time we are substantially different. We become gods, but never will we be identical with God. Deification for patristic writers essentially is both the actual experience and the mystery. It is the mystery of divine love toward humankind.

Carl Braaten : Aroma of an empty bottle

Carl Braaten writes about how the ELCA got to the point of the recent decisions on gay clergy.

His diagnosis of the current mindset of many Christians is accurate far beyond the confines of the ELCA:

Modern Protestantism is an amalgamation of historic Christianity and the principles of the Enlightenment, its rationalism, subjectivism, and anthropocentrism. The underlying assumption is the neo-gnostic belief in the inner-dwelling of God, such that everyone is endowed with the inner light that only needs to be uncovered. The light of truth does not shine through the Scriptures and the Christian tradition as much as through scientific reason and individual experience. This is what happened in Minneapolis: appeals to reason and experience trumped Scripture and tradition, punctuated with pious injunctions of Lutheran slogans and clichés.

And another good paragraph:

There was no lack of Lutheran slogans and clichés flying around the mikes at the Convention Center in Minneapolis. Bishop Mark Hanson voiced them well, as did most of the speakers. The Lutheran lingo reminded me of the phrase Erik Petersen coined to describe modern German Protestantism in its defection from the doctrinal theology of the Reformation; it’s “the aroma of an empty bottle.” There’s not much left of the original Reformation. The Lutheran “solas” can be used as slogans to mean the opposite of what the Lutheran confessors intended. In the current circumstance they are the tell-tale clichés of “gospel reductionism.”

Tolstoy or Dostoevsky ?

It is a question that is often debated: who was the greater writer?

David Hart says Tolstoy in a landslide.

He makes a good case for it while acknowledging Dostoevsky's gifts.

Trip to the Library

I am still making my way through the Brothers Karamazov. But I went with my daughter to the public library and, as usual, started poking around. I came home with a few books so now I am reading four (or seven if you include the church stuff) books at the same time.

Sigh.

Here is what I picked up:

The Folk Songs of North America in the English Language by Alan Lomax. Fascinating collection. I won't read it all but leaf through it.

Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga by Stephen Davis Every so often I get the urge to read a good rock and roll biography. I've read good to great ones on the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Bruce Springsteen and the Who among others. I don't think this volume on Led Zeppelin will be great but it is an easy read. I read it years ago but I don't remember much of it. It is making me want to dig out my Robert Johnson LP's and listen to them.

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English by John McWhorter I have just read a chapter of this but it looks really good. He is actually making the subject of grammar and grammar history interesting. Most histories of English focus on bare words, McWhorter focuses on words are used in sentences. If you want to know why English uses the word "do" and "ing" on the end of verbs, this is your book.

Mohammed is now the third most popular boy's name in England

And the English seem nervous about it.


This week, the Office of National Statistics published a list of the most popular boys' names in Britain: Jack, Oliver, Thomas, Harry, Joshua, Alfie, Charlie, Daniel.
They reflect a cultural tradition as old as the nation's history, and would provoke approving nods from Jack the Ripper, Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Becket and Harry Hotspur.
There is just one small problem: the list is deceitful. In reality, the third most popular choice for boy children born last year in England and Wales was not Thomas, but Mohammed.

The ONS explains blithely that it had no intent to deceive. Its normal practice is to catalogue different spellings separately, as in Mohammed, Muhammed and so on.
But if you add these variants together, as surely seems logical, then Mohammed is right up there, near the top of the list.

Read more:

Inescapable corn-fed handsomeness

This has to win the prize for over the top prose. This is from a GQ piece on Tim Tebow, quarterback at the University of Florida.

It is so overblown, it cracks me up.

Tebow is six feet three and 245 pounds, all thick polygons and smooth flat planes and inescapable corn-fed handsomeness. He's wearing a billowy white shirt and loose-fitting jeans that somehow only underscore the solidity of his bulk, like a tarpaulin draped over a concrete pylon. You can see why coaches have always wanted to deploy his body as a battering ram. ...

He looks smaller in person than on TV or on a stage. Something to do with the geometry of his body, the relentless blockiness; distance turns Tebow into a cartoon. Close-up he's rounder, reassuringly 3-D, wearing a sea blue T-shirt and long ivory shorts. He grabs a hard-boiled egg from a bowl at the dining commons. With exquisite casualness, he tosses it back and forth from hand to hand without cracking the shell. ...

Tim Tebow moves; glides? drifts?-back to his seat, his plate heaped with three sausage patties, a syrup-drenched waffle, and five hard-boiled eggs. "Can I get you anything to drink?" he asks, and pours me a glass of orange juice. ...

His chin is stubbly. He smells strongly of deodorant, and his thick-lashed eyes are impressively serene, considering that a mere forty-five minutes ago, back in the Florida weight room, Tebow was grunting next to a painted slogan that read PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY, doing calf raises with a 300-pound offensive lineman sitting on his shoulders. (In the weight room, Tebow wore a blue spandex shirt with an orange flame crawling up the sleeve; everyone else was in gray.)

Beatles Lyrics

You, I, the, to, me, and, a, love ...

Those are the words used most often in Beatles lyrics. That such a list exists and a news article to go with it is proof of media hype and overkill but, hey, so what.

The graphic you see is a wordle of all the Beatles lyrics. This is more interesting than the list itself. In fact, I see new song lyrics and titles in the picture:

"It's Her Love"
"Time Only Can"
"Honey Dance"
"Was it Lonely"
"Now when You're (A) Baby"
"She Your Girl"
"Nothing Much (Really Alone)"
"She's Gonna Cry"

Goodness, I think I stumbled upon the track listing for Paul's new album. Sorry, dude.

Here is the list of the top 100. A complete list is with the article itself.

you 2262
I 1736
the 1355
to 1097
me 1060
and 962
a 858
love 613
my 610
in 513
be 497
it 466
that 466
all 437
know 436
I'm 404
your 403
don't 401
of 369
on 368
Oh 343
she 330
is 328
do 321
it's 321
for 307
so 306
baby 300
her 285
when 285
Well 265
if 259
but 256
What 244
with 235
can 232
Now 225
got 220
say 218
Go 211
see 209
want 206
no 200
I'll 196
like 194
you're 194
get 191
come 183
Just 183
will 183
girl 170
gonna 164
Hey 164
She's 164
little 162
can't 151
tell 150
down 147
One 147
way 144
back 141
Yeah 139
day 136
up 136
was 135
time 134
we 130
there 129
right 124
said 123
out 122
never 121
how 120
too 120
why 119
Let 116
make 116
home 115
I've 115
have 114
good 113
at 111
he 111
long 110
that's 107
not 105
take 105
as 102
man 101
yeh 101
from 99
They 99
need 96
are 94
night 93
Please 92
mine 91
here 89
Yes 88
been 87

Agree? Under some conditions, war is necessary to obtain justice.

From the First Things blog a thought provoking survey and thoughts that go with it :

The George Marshall Fund has just released Transatlantic Trends, their annual survey of European and American public opinion ...

The most striking difference between Americans and Europeans is reflected in answers to the following rather cautiously worded statement:

Please tell me to what extend you agree with the following: Under some conditions, war is necessary to obtain justice.

The American response:

Strongly agree: 37 percent
Somewhat agree: 34 percent
Somewhat disagree: 11 percent
Strongly disagree: 14 percent

For those who are counting, that’s 71 percent who agree to 25 percent who disagree.

By contrast, the Europeans answer:

Strongly agree: 8 percent
Somewhat agree: 17 percent
Somewhat disagree: 22 percent
Strongly disagree: 49 percent

That’s 25 percent who agree to 71 percent who disagree.

The UK is the only European nation that could muster a majority who agree that under some conditions war is necessary to obtain justice, but only barely at 55-40 percent, coming in at percentages of: 20, 35, 15, and 25 respectively.

On the Continent one finds a rather dismal picture. Worth mentioning is the high percentage of Europeans who strongly disagree, suggesting that they believe that under no conditions can war ever be necessary to obtain justice ...

Pretty bleak, but then again, let’s look on the bright side. Who wouldn’t prefer having a nation of German pacifists than a nation of goose-stepping Nazi’s traipsing through Europe? Certainly, the German pacifism of the first part of the twenty-first century is to be preferred to the German militarism of the first half of the twentieth.

But militarism and pacifism, of course, don’t exhaust the range of moral options (and I would argue that they tend to go together like Tweedledee and Tweedledum, but that is for another day.) If they thought real, real hard, and reached deep into their heritage, Europeans just might be able to come up with a few conditions under which war should be waged for the sake of justice. Or maybe not so deep, maybe just as far back as, say, Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald. A visit to the American cemetery at, say, Normady, for example, might also serve to jar their collective conscience. But I doubt it.

My alma mater has a new online look

Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, where I earned both an MDIV and an STM, has a new online look.

Their website has been redesigned and it looks very nice.

Americans ought to accord their president a formal, ex officio respect, irrespective of party affiliation

I usually steer clear of politics here. It is just not what this little blog is about. But the furor over President Obama's school speech seems so absolutely ill spirited, pointless and stupid that I recommend this article by a "nonlefty libertarian who did not support Barack Obama in the presidential election".

Too many kooks ...

Here are some good parts:

Not so long ago, it was the right's indignant lament that Democrats did not accord sufficient respect to the president of the United States. The president in question happened to be the right's president, and Democrats, it is true, were universally dismissive of him, treating him with a contumely that brought them no credit. Overheated sections of the right--first the "birthers," now the "speechers"--are meting out to Obama precisely the sort of disrespectful treatment they execrated when it was directed by the left at President Bush. (How refreshing it would be, I say, and how restorative of civic decency, if George W. Bush were to make a statement today urging his party to accept an American president's right to connect directly with America's schoolchildren. After all, what was Bush doing on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001? And didn't his father speak to America's schoolchildren in 1991?)

Call me naïve, but I believe that Americans ought to accord their president a formal, ex officio respect, irrespective of party affiliation. He is, after all, the president of all of us (whether we like him or not), and it is unseemly that we should withhold civility from him on grounds of political disagreement. As things stand, no blow seems low enough, no criticism off limits, if the president happens to be from the other side. The pursuit of happiness has given way to the pursuit of picayune point-scoring. E Pluribus Unum ... Why do we still bother with that silly foreign phrase? Our great nation has become a Manichaean nation.

"Africa" by Toto ...

... sung a capella .. by a Slovenian ... Jazz ... chamber choir ... complete with weather sound effects. Perpetuum Jazzile is the name of the group.

Weird, huh? My daughter has been singing this song constantly since her high school history teacher showed this video. It is driving me crazy so I thought if I posted this, it would complete the circle and drive the tune from my head. I had mercifully forgotten all about this song. Now it is back.

It is strange that a song written and recorded by an American rock band from the 1980's travels to a European former Communist country, is transformed into a vocal jazz performance piece, captured on video, posted on the Internet and comes back to the US and is now being posted by a Lutheran pastor in NC and being watched by you. One thing todays technology can do is multiply and speed the transmission and transformation of cultural data. If you want another jolt, watch the Bee Gees medley below by the same group. And finally the original, incomprehensible music video "Africa" is also below. Who ever watched those things?

Separation not divorce

Dr. Paul Hinlicky comments on the aftermath of the ELCA's decision on gays in the ministry. He sees coercion against and a stifling of the voices who spoke against the decision coming. But he argues for remaining in the ELCA at least for the time being.

Here is one paragraph:

The plain, inescapable truth is we have two contradictory doctrinal propositions side by side in this failed institution. The one says: God loves gays gay and God desires homoerotic desire. The other says: God mercifully accepts the broken, gays and lesbians too, just as any others who likewise suffer the disorder consequent upon humanity’s universal sin. The life and mission of the church is organized in one way by the first proposition and another by the second. These two lives and missions are practically incompatible. Since we can see no further at this time, separation if not divorce becomes inevitable.

Recession Causes Home Barbering ?

Slate says it is a bogus trend. I think they are right. Fun article.

Tsarist Russia in color

From orrlogion:

The Library of Congress has a display of photographs taken by the royal photographer of Czar St. Nicholas II online. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was given special funding and transportation by the Czar, including a private train, with the commission to create a photographic record of his vast empire. Prokudin-Gorskii used a self developed method to create color photographs at a time when that kind of technology was almost non-existent. The result is a magnificent collection of color pictures of the Russian Empire dating to the to first decade of the previous century through roughly 1915....

Take a look at them. They really are spectacular. This one is of a mine near Ekaterinaburg.

God's spit

Luther on Mark 7

He thereby shows us that if we are to be loosed from the devil's bonds, and possess ready tongues and good ears this can happen only through the external Word and preaching, through external means. We must, first of all, hear the Word, not neglecting baptism or the Sacrament either, and the Holy Spirit will then be present to free the ears and tongues.

Therefore, we must be on guard against the fantastic spirits who despise the external Word and Sacrament, waiting till God speaks to them in the heart. No, says Christ, here is my finger, the external Word, which must sound in the ears; my spittle, which must moisten and bestir the tongue. In this way my work proceeds rightly and readily from place to place. We see this wherever the external Word has free course; there true Christians will he found.

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Without the Word, God does not reveal himself in our heart. To see and know him can happen only through the external Word and Sacraments. The Holy Spirit works in no other way.

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Next to the office of preaching, God also ordained father and mother, masters and mistresses in the house, who are there not just for their own sakes but in the place of God. They are to be listened to in external matters pertaining to all we do or purpose towards others. You should know that when you hear them, you hear God, except when they misuse their office and speak or command something contrary to God and his Word.

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These are the external means Christ points to, as in the case of the deaf and dumb man. Our tongues will not be loosed, our ears opened, faith in our hearts begun without the outward oral preaching of the Word and external Sacraments. Therefore father and mother, masters and mistresses, parish pastors and preachers are the fingers of our Lord God, the servants and spittle, through which he looses our tongues and opens our ears.

Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Volume 6, 399-400.

Self delusion is a killer

Here are a few sentences from an entertaining memoir, Closing Time, by Joe Queenan. He writes about growing up poor and Catholic as the son of an abusive, alcoholic father in Philadelphia in the 1950’s and early 60’s but manages to make you laugh with him.

This little excerpt helps us all remember that we sometimes we need reality checks, especially as pastors. Hopefully, spouses can do this. If not then get a trusted friend in the congregation who is not afraid to insult you every now and again. Without it we risk fooling the easiest mark in town: ourselves.

He always jump started his homilies by informing the adults in the room that he would have nothing to say to them, that he was only interested in talking to the young people, because this was their mass, not their parents. After this contemptuous introduction, he would deliver his rambling incoherent sermon in a weird, high-pitched voice, serving up a needlessly effusive mixture of high dudgeon and baby talk. He had gotten it into his head that this gibberish was a crowd favorite, as was the man who spouted it, though in fact we all hated his guts. Page 154.