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  • The 700 Club on GAFCON and Orthodox Anglicanism in North America

    The 700 Club had a nice piece (video here) on the emergence of African-allied Orthodox Anglicanism in North America, including interviews with Bishops Robert Duncan and Martyn Minns.

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  • The Importance of a Firm Foundation in Offshore Oil

    The current controversy over expanding offshore oil exploration and production includes an important consideration: during Katrina and the other hurricanes that hit the Gulf coast during the middle of the decade, there were no oil spills.

    One important reason for this was that none of the platform foundations failed. (Right: one of those pile foundations being installed.)

    As I quote in a companion website:

    Driven steel pipe piles are the foundations for approximately 4,000 steel jacket platforms that rest on the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico. More than 100 platforms were destroyed in these three hurricanes combined, which essentially tripled the number of platforms destroyed by hurricanes in the history of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico…

    While the damage to offshore platforms from these recent hurricanes was unprecedented, there were few if any failures of pile foundations either axially or laterally…The photograph (not included) shows the leg of a steel jacket near the mudline. The outer jacket that the pile was inserted through failed, while the pile remained intact. The "flange" in the jacket leg was formed by the rocking motion of the platform after the leg ruptured.

    The pile foundations performed better than expected. Structural modelling for individual platforms with loads based on hurricane hindcasts indicates that numerous platforms should have failed in the foundation. These results include platforms that actually failed in the jacket above the foundation as well as platforms that did not fail. While there is some conservatism built into the pile foundations for offshore structures, there is now a wealth of information to better understand the actual capacity of full-scale pile foundations under design loading. Offshore piles are about an order-of-magnitude larger than those in the pile load tests originally used to develop the methods for predicting capacity.

    A more realistic assessment of foundation capacity will be an important contribution from these recent hurricanes, particularly since design loads are increasing and foundation capacity is likely to limit the design of new platforms and the re-qualification of existing platforms. Ongoing research aims to improve these predictions. (Gilbert, R.B., "Offshore Experiences in Recent Hurricanes." GeoStrata, January/February 2007, pp. 28-31)

    Foundation integrity is essential to the shut-off technology at the sea floor to work properly and prevent leaks.  This is a tribute to those who designed and built these structures.

    Like anything else in this world, a firm foundation is essential:

    In fulfillment of the charge which God had entrusted to me, I laid the foundation like a skillful master-builder; but another man is now building upon it. Let every one take care how he builds; For no man can lay any other foundation than the one already laid-Jesus Christ.  (1 Corinthians 3:10-11)

  • I knew CNOOC. You’re No CNOOC.

    Remarks like this (coming from U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), member of the House Appropriations Committee,) are why I don’t even believe that our government can do socialism properly, at least not today:

    We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.

    I’ve done business with state-owned oil companies–ENAP (Chile,) PDVSA (Venezuela,) Petrobras (Brazil,) NPCC (Abu Dhabi,) and of course the legendary China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC,) the last of which I document in detail.  All of these have enough sense to know that, in order to run the refineries, one must have crude oil, which requires exploration and production development of one’s oil reserves.  The elevation of crude prices is what is driving the price of petrol and other fuels up.  Nationalising the refineries won’t help that; in fact, government interference with the construction of refineries in the U.S. contributes to the elevated price.

    Congress’ lack of understaning for the need for reliable crude oil sources–the issue of the debate over offshore drilling–is at the centre of our problems, and only shows the childish level of our politicians and political debate.

    But we’re not the only ones who haven’t connected the dots on this issue.  If Obama is elected president and he meets with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the items everyone should insist be on the agenda is that both countries work together to beef up their respective refining capacities.  The Iranians, all the while developing their nuclear capacity, have to send their crude out to get it refined.  If we were to simply mine their harbours, we could bring their entire vehicle fleet to a standstill, even though Iran is a major crude exporter.

    To paraphrase Lloyd "Tex" Bentsen’s put-down of Dan Quayle, I knew CNOOC and other state-owned enterprises, and Congress is no CNOOC when it comes to solving our problems.

  • When We Let the State Take Over God’s Role…

    …we get problems like this:

    The Rev. Jack Hibbs, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, said: “These judges crossed over from the realm of judicial or legislative powers into the church. They stepped inside of our churches, inside of our pulpits, inside of our Bible and redefined marriage for us.”

    The sooner we start making a clear distinction between civil marriage and marriage before God, the sooner we’ll be prepared to deal with fiascos like this in an intelligent way.

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  • The Economy: Between Marx and Milton

    The Royal Bank of Scotland has issued a global stock and credit crash alert:

    The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.

    "A very nasty period is soon to be upon us – be prepared," said Bob Janjuah, the bank’s credit strategist.

    A report by the bank’s research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as "all the chickens come home to roost" from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets.

    Whether this will come to pass, however, depends upon the possibility of inflation.  But Thomas Palley argues that we’re not in the 1970’s and Milton Friedman’s model for an inflation engine no longer holds:

    The US Federal Reserve has recently received much criticism from economic conservatives who claim it has ignored inflation, thereby risking a rerun of the inflation show of the 1970s. In response, renowned Princeton economist Paul Krugman has come to the Fed’s defense, arguing today’s inflation is fundamentally different from that of the 1970s.

    Krugman is right, but his arguments do more than defend the Fed. They also unintentionally demolish the foundations on which central banks have based monetary policy over the past 25 years. In effect, rethinking the inflation of the 1970s also compels rethinking economic policy.

    The essence of Krugman’s argument is that we are not watching a rerun of the 1970s show because this time round there is no mechanism for creating a price-wage spiral. That is because unions are now dead, so that workers are unable to ask for wage increases that match prices. As an example, Krugman contrasts the United Mine Workers contract of 1981, which bargained a three-year 11% annual average wage increase with current conditions. Where now are the unions demanding 11%-a-year increases? Indeed, where are the unions, period?

    Those pushes were augmented by cost of living provisions in union contracts, and the effect of those has been mitigated by, if nothing else, the way the cost of living is computed by the government.

    But if this is the case, we may be looking at what another economist predicted.  Central to Marxist theory is the condition of later capitalism, where competitive pressures induce capitalists to force wages down, thus impoverishing the whole economy, accelerating the spiral and leading to proletarian revolution.

    The occurence of that is not, contrary to Marxist theory, an inevitable result of history.  But it is certainly a plausible scenario, especially given the global nature of the economy and the fact that workers in various parts of the world are competing for similar work with vastly disparate wave levels.  It depends on a number of factors.  But such a course of events shouldn’t be counted out.

  • Moses Maimonides on Prophecy

    From his Guide to the Perplexed (II, XXXII):

    THERE are as many different opinions concerning Prophecy as concerning the Eternity or Non-Eternity of the Universe. For we have shown that those who assume the existence of God as proved may be divided into three classes, according to the view they take of the question, whether the Universe is eternal or not. Similarly there are three different opinions on Prophecy. I will not notice the view of the Atheist; he does not believe in the Existence of God, much less in Prophecy; but I will content myself with discussing the various opinions [on Prophecy] held by those who believe in God.

    1. Among those who believe in Prophecy, and even among our coreligionists, there are some ignorant people who think as follows: God selects any person He pleases, inspires him with the spirit of Prophecy, and entrusts him with a mission. It makes no difference whether that person be wise or stupid, old or young; provided he be, to some extent, morally good. For these people have not yet gone so far as to maintain that God might also inspire a wicked person with His spirit. They admit that this is impossible, unless God has previously caused him to improve his ways.
    2. The philosophers hold that prophecy is a certain faculty of man in a state of perfection, which can only be obtained by study. Although the faculty is common to the whole race, yet it is not fully developed in each individual, either on account of the individual’s defective constitution, or on account of some other external cause. This is the case with every faculty common to a class. It is only brought to a state of perfection in some individuals, and not in all; but it is impossible that it should not be perfect in some individual of the class: and if the perfection is of such a nature that it can only be produced by an agent, such an agent must exist. Accordingly, it is impossible that an ignorant person should be a prophet; or that a person being no prophet in the evening, should, unexpectedly on the following morning, find himself a prophet, as if prophecy were a thing that could be found unintentionally. But if a person, perfect in his intellectual and moral faculties, and also perfect, as far as possible, in his imaginative faculty, prepares himself in the manner which will be described, he must become a prophet; for prophecy is a natural faculty of man. It is impossible that a man who has the capacity for prophecy should prepare himself for it without attaining it , just as it is impossible that a person with a healthy constitution should be fed well, and yet not properly assimilate his food; and the like.
    3. The third view is that which is taught in Scripture, and which forms one of the principles of our religion. It coincides with the opinion of the philosophers in all points except one. For we believe that, even if one has the capacity for prophecy, and has duly prepared himself, it may yet happen that he does not actually prophesy. It is in that case the will of God [that withholds from him the use of the faculty]. According to my opinion, this fact is as exceptional as any other miracle, and acts in the same way. For the laws of Nature demand that every one should be a prophet, who has a proper physical constitution, and has been duly prepared as regards education and training. If such a person is not a prophet, he is in the same position as a person who, like Jeroboam (1 Kings xiii. 4), is deprived of the use of his hand, or of his eyes, as was the case with the army of Syria, in the history of Elisha (2 Kings vi. 18). As for the principle which I laid down, that preparation and perfection of moral and rational faculties are the sine quâ non, our Sages say exactly the same: “The spirit of prophecy only rests upon persons who are wise, strong, and rich.” We have explained these words in our Commentary on the Mishnah, and in our large work. We stated there that the Sons of the Prophets were constantly engaged in preparation. That those who have prepared themselves may still be prevented from being prophets, may be inferred from the history of Baruch, the son of Nerijah; for he followed Jeremiah, who prepared and instructed him; and yet he hoped in vain for prophecy; comp., “I am weary with my sighing, and rest have I not found.” He was then told through Jeremiah, “Thus saith the Lord, Thus shalt thou say to him, Thou seekest for thee great things, do not seek” (Jer. xlv. 5). It may perhaps be assumed that prophecy is here described as a thing “too great” for Baruch. So also the fact that “her prophets did not find visions from the Lord” (Lam. ii. 4), may be considered as the result of the exile of her prophets, as will be explained (chap. xxxvi.). There are, however, numerous passages in Scripture as well as in the writings of our Sages, which support the principle that it depends chiefly on the will of God who is to prophesy, and at what time; and that He only selects the best and the wisest. We hold that fools and ignorant people are unfit for this distinction. It is as impossible for any one of these to prophesy as it is for an ass or a frog; for prophecy is impossible without study and training; when these have created the possibility, then it depends on the will of God whether the possibility is to be turned into reality. We must not be misled by the words of Jeremiah (i. 5), “Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee, and before thou camest forth from the womb I have sanctified thee”; for this is the case with all prophets: there must be a physical preparation from the beginning of their existence, as will be explained. As to the words, “For I am young” (ibid. ver. 6), it is well known that the pious Joseph, when he was thirty years old, is called by the Hebrew “young” (na‘ar); also Joshua, when he was nearly sixty years old. For the statement, “and his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, was young,” occurs in the account of the Golden Calf (Exod. xxxiii. 11). Moses was then eighty-one years old, he lived one hundred and twenty years; Joshua, who survived him fourteen years, lived one hundred and ten years and must consequently have been at least fifty-seven years old at the time when the Golden Calf was made, and yet he is called na‘ar, “young.” Nor must we be misled by prophecies like the following: “I will pour out my spirit over an flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy”; since it is distinctly stated what is meant by “prophesy” in this place, viz., “Your old men will dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” For we call also prophets all those who reveal something unknown by surmises, or conjectures, or correct inferences. Thus “prophets of Baal” and “of Asherah” are mentioned in Scripture. And God says, “If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams,” etc. (Deut. xiii. 1). As to the revelation on Mount Sinai, all saw the great fire, and heard the fearful thunderings, that caused such an extraordinary terror; but only those of them who were duly qualified were prophetically inspired, each one according to his capacities. Therefore it is said, “Come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu.” Moses rose to the highest degree of prophecy, according to the words, “And Moses alone shall come near the Lord.” Aaron was below him, Nadab and Abihu below Aaron, and the seventy elders below Nadab and Abihu, and the rest below the latter, each one according to his degree of perfection. Similarly our Sages wrote: Moses had his own place and Aaron his own. Since we have touched upon the revelation on Mount Sinai, we will point out in a separate chapter what may be inferred as regards the nature of that event, both from the Scriptural text, in accordance with reasonable interpretation, and from the words of our Sages.

  • After Pentecost and Trinity, Ordinary Time is the Best

    I know it’s a little late, but it’s good to stop and think about the time of year we’re in (well, those of us who follow a liturgical calendar…)  The multiplication of same creates a little confusion, but from the beginning of Advent until at least Pentecost we have a busy agenda: Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension and all of the rest.

    But now were in a kind of limbo for many.  It’s called by different names: many churches count the Sundays after Pentecost, the traditional Anglicans start with Trinity Sunday, and the Roman Catholics technically refer to this (along with some of the space between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday) as Ordinary Time.  But some thought different.  It was probably the objection of the senior members of the committee charged with sorting things like this out: when you get up in years, you become aware that all the time you have is a gift from God, thus there is no real “Ordinary Time.”  So now Catholics refer to a “Sunday of the Year.”

    But it’s still considered the “low time” of the liturgical year.  For me, that was never the case.  I always thought (and still do) that this time is the best time of the year.

    To start with, most of it transpired when school was out.  For many in Palm Beach, this was the time when many fled north to cooler climes, but we were year-round residents.  Moreover, although we were certainly capable of summer travel (with near-disastrous results sometimes,) we generally stayed in town.  The distractions of the school year (with frequently concomitant social problems) were absent during this time.

    Second–and this is really the point of all this–the Sundays after Trinity generally presented the life, ministry and teachings of Jesus in the Scripture readings.  That was challenging.  For example, it’s easy to apply the story of the rich young ruler to a situation where there were nothing but around you.  Looking at the parable of the rich man and Lazarus head on in Palm Beach can be a jolt.  After that, it’s hard to accept Christianity as either mainstream or respectable, which explains my underlying dissatisfaction with our society in general and many of our churches in particular.

    The problem with the liturgical year is that the major events are too loaded on the beginning and end of Our Lord’s life and work on this earth.  Those are important, but Jesus’ central challenge to our comfort zone took place between these major events.  That challenge has stuck with me ever since, and that’s why I still think that “Ordinary Time” is the best time of the year.

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  • Ireland: Those Ungrateful Celts

    The Irish, in Celtic style, have pulled a good one on the EU with their rejection of the Lisbon treaty.  After many years of generous subsidies, the Euromasters expected the Irish to return the favour.  But for those of us who follow unruly Celts on this side of the Atlantic, the results were predictable.

    The South, that Celtic redoubt, operates in a similar manner.  It was lavished for years with Federal largesse, including the extensive military bases (convenient for armed forces disproportionally filled with Southerners,) Corps of Engineers projects, and of course the Great Colossus of Socialism, the Tennessee Valley Authority.  The Democrat party, which ruled the region for a century, could have made this country a one-party state as surely as Japan.  But…the Southerners didn’t like Washington’s meddling, including the civil rights movement and the Democrat Party’s penchant for Northern and Western liberal politics and people.  So they turned to the Republicans, and things haven’t been the same since.

    LBJ (a Texan himself) predicted that the 1964 Civil Rights Act would lose the South for a generation to the Democrats; it’s been more than twice that much time.  It reminds one of Geraldo Rivera’s remark about the Afghans: their loyalty cannot be bought, but it can be rented.  And rent, of course, doesn’t build equity.

    Many years ago I told a tableful of people at a foreign trade conference that the Irish, the Celts being the finest politicians the world has ever known, would wheedle the EU out of a lot of money, just as the Old Confederacy does.  One of my tablemates rolled his eyes in disbelief.  But now Bruxelles–and the rest of Europe–knows the truth.  And the truth is giving them heartburn.

  • Charles Bennison: the 1970’s Were Different

    Episcopal Bishop Charles Bennison, on trial in his own church, comes up with a novel defence of his brother’s affair with a fifteen year old girl:

    On the last day of a very unusual trial, Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. continued to defend himself against charges that he concealed his brother’s sexual abuse of a minor decades ago, saying yesterday that he acted within the standards of the times.

    "As poorly as I handled it," he said, "if I had applied today’s protocols then, things might have turned out worse."

    In October, the Episcopal Church USA suspended him as head of the five-county Diocese of Pennsylvania on the ground that he engaged in "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy" by failing to protect the girl or report his brother’s misbehavior. The church alleges that Bennison did so in order to advance his career.

    The trial that resulted was just the third Court for the Trial of a Bishop in the 232-year history of the Episcopal Church USA.

    Bennison said he was trying to guard the teenager’s reputation by not alerting her parents when he heard "rumors" of the sexual relationship.

    In the 1970s, he said yesterday, most adults, including the girl’s parents, would have viewed her not as an abuse victim but as guilty of immorality. That would have caused her shame, he said.

    "I was trying to protect her," Bennison said.

    Bennison, now 64, was rector of St. Mark’s Parish in Upland, Calif., when his brother John, a parish youth minister, started a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old member of the parish.

    I make the sexual mores of the 1970’s the theme of my novel The Ten Weeks.  However, as is frequently the case with Episcopal revisionists, Bennison is half-right.

    To start with, it’s true that things like this weren’t subject to the draconian routine back then we put them through today.  The 1970’s was an era when people more often than not drifted through a moral vacuum.  The collapse of sexual standards in the previous decade lead to a more "wide open" situation.  How much "shame" would have been associated with such a relationship in those days was widely variable.  This went on without effective opposition until the Boomers started having children and self-righteously woke up to the fact that such relationships are exploitative, disgusting and, when a serial predator is involved, dangerous.

    That realisation has led to the contradictory situation we have today where people on both sides of the 18 year divide are pushed by the culture to be sexually active only to find that life essentially ends when one hits the byzantine limits prescribed by law.

    Bennison’s big mistake, however, is to blithely ignore the fact that his brother, supposedly a man of the cloth, was having conjugal relations out of wedlock, which is a patent violation of the Christian sexual ethic.  Same ethic is far more consistent and simpler to apply and live by than the system we have at law today.  His brother (and Charles Bennison for that matter) has no business professing and calling himself a Christian if he’s not prepared to uphold that, let alone be a minister.  But the Episcopal Church had for all intents and purposes abandoned the fort on that one, as New York Bishop Paul Moore’s daughter Honor’s life is a testament to.

    If TEC gives Bennison the boot–and I hope they do–it will not only be a conviction of Bennison, but also of 40 years of open revisionism.  Liberals love to accuse conservatives of scapegoating, but that’s what’s going on here.  Bennison’s conviction should not be the end of house cleaning but only the beginning.

  • Open the Door

    This week’s podcast is Open the Door by the group Emmanuel, which lead worship for many years at the youth and leaders conferences put on by the Franciscan (and Charismatic) University of Steubenville.  It’s a nice "invitational" kind of song if you want something different from the ones that always get used.

    This post also announces the complete reorganisation of our Emmanuel offerings, with four albums that can be downloaded song-by-song or in one shot.  You can see all of these albums (and some history behind them) here.

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