Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Recently an "old China hand" friend of mine sent around an email with this piece about the analogies between our current situation and that of Nazi Germany in the 1930's. Leaving aside the attribution problems of the piece itself, I'd like to address this issue, because I keep hearing it come up in our discourse. …
Continue reading "Is the US Really Headed Down the Road of Nazi Germany?"
Thomas Farr at the Washington Post thinks that the Obama Administration is side-lining both American law and policy on this subject: Religious freedom advocates were encouraged by the President's stated views and allowed themselves to hope that America's international religious freedom policy, long isolated at the State Department, would be strengthened under the new administration. …
Continue reading "The Changing Priority on Religious Freedom"
The subjects of evolution and creation are explosive ones, not only because of their scientific implications, but for their social and political ones as well. That's been the case since Darwin first set forth the theory.  It is certainly true today; for all of their protestations about the desire to be "scientific," implementing whatever can …
From here (where there's more): Church of God Eurasian Theological Seminary provost Ilya Okhotnikov recently participated in a dialogue in Russia which is addressing the high divorce and abortion rate in the country. Russian Orthodox Church leaders called on Christians to be firm in defending traditional marriage and lamented the family crisis in the country. …
Continue reading "Russian Church Leaders Defend Traditional Marriage, Speak Out on Family Issues"
It seems that the prospect of women in ministry--and especially women as diocesan bishops--is always linked to a discussion of the nature of authority in churches. That was certainly the case in my own 2007 piece on the subject, Authority and Evangelical Churches, and now the CoE's "Ugley Vicar" takes on the issue in his …
Continue reading "Women in Ministry and Authority in Churches: A Response to the Ugley Vicar"
Disappointing but unsurprising: Two days after President Obama's State of the Union speech, in which he announced plans to repeal "Don't ask, Don't tell," Perkins received a letter from the chaplain's office at Andrews rescinding the invitation. The letter cited Family Research Council statements calling them "incompatible in our role as military members who serve …
Continue reading "Tony Perkins Gets the Boot From the National Prayer Luncheon"
While beating around the net, I came across this bizarre 2008 piece in the Daily Kos: The attendance at the Lifebuilders Conference is notable as a very damning link to neopentecostal dominionism; Lifebuilders is a yearly "Lay Missionary" conference of the Church of God of Cleveland, TN, a neopentecostal dominionist group which can be considered …
Continue reading "Knowing Who Your Real Friends Are: The Daily Kos and Bill Gothard"
This speaks for itself: http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnplayer/cbnPlayer.swf?s=/vod/RWR1v2 Hermilo Jasso's website is here.
This 2005 piece, from David "Spengler" Goldman, is as succinct of an explanation of the importance of blood in spiritual life as I've seen: All religion is about life, that is, about life eternal. Humankind cannot bear mortality without the hope of immortality, and for this men will sacrifice their physical existence without hesitation. That …
From the 1928 BCP, it's the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard: For the Kingdom of Heaven is like an employer who went out in the early morning to hire labourers for his vineyards. He agreed with the labourers to pay them two shillings a day, and sent them into his vineyard. On going …
Continue reading "The Gospel for Septuagesima: Christians Need to Stop Pining for the Big Payoff"
Positive Infinity 