Home

  • Think Before You Review

    The fact that Catholic bishops ordered a favourable Golden Compass review off of their web site shows that someone in the US RCC is definitely "asleep at the switch" concerning this whole business.

    Having been covering this since early November (the original review, the follow-up and a comment on the whole business of the "magisterium,") it’s obvious that Philip Pullman is a definite anti-theist with a special animus towards Roman Catholicism.  Although this site has been criticised for making an issue out of this for a work of fiction, with fiction what’s inside will come out one way or another.

    There are obviously some "reappraisers" (to use Kendall Harmon’s lovely term) in the bowels of the RCC bureaucracy, but another part of the problem is in the Catholic intellectual system.  It’s still Christianity’s best, but its overemphasis on natural law leads Catholics to look for moral goodness and correspondence to Christian values in places where it either doesn’t exist or exists in an alien context.  Catholics, like their Protestant counterparts, have put the uplifting of morality high on their agenda, but they’d better put more emphasis on basic theology and doctrine rather than some "morality" based on "natural law" whose goalposts are all too easily moved.

  • Mike Huckabee’s Ice Storm

    The clean-up from the ice storm in the Midwest brings back memories of the Arkansas ice storm of 2000, when Mike Huckabee was governor and Bill Clinton was going out as President.

    A photo from the aftermath of that ice storm, in central Arkansas.  From Delayed For My Appointment:

    But for me Christmastime took a definite turn downward when my mother passed away a few days before Christmas. We had her visitation just before the holiday and afterwards took her back to her native Arkansas for burial.

    It was an eventful time in the “Land of Opportunity.” Its “favourite” son, Bill Clinton, was going out of office shortly, not to be replaced by his sidekick Al Gore, who had lost his own home state. Arkansas had been hit by a record ice storm, darkening the state and making travel difficult. All of these events served as a distraction for the moment.

  • What Our Country Has Become

    The Mogambo Guru has hit the nail right on the head:

    Now, pick up that remote control and hit the "fast-forward" button from 1776 to the last half of the 20th century, where we see that we have finally overruled the Jeffersonian republic that made America into the world power that it became, in favor of that Hamiltonian nightmare of a huge, powerful, dictatorial, fascist federal government, an eviscerated Constitution and a corrupt Federal Reserve destroying the dollar.

    Mr DiLorenzo sneers at me that I am being much too narrow, and says that we now have "a republic of excessive public debt; inflationary finance fueled by a central bank that is the cause of perpetual boom-and-bust cycles; a dictatorial executive branch aided and abetted by ‘black-robed deities’ who have ‘reinterpreted’ the Constitution so much that the founders would not even recognize what is called ‘constitutional law’; a tax burden that is even more excessive than that borne by medieval serfs; a standing army that is misused at the expense of genuine defense of America; an arrogant, imperialistic, and monopolistic government in Washington that rarely pays any attention at all to the citizens of the once-sovereign states; government policy that routinely benefits big, politically-connected businesses and wealthy individuals at the expense of the rest of society (neo-mercantilism); and protectionism."

  • Jeanne Assam: When All Of The Pieces Fit Together

    The breathtaking story of Jeanne Assam’s quick termination of the massacre at New Life Church illustrates something that most people–Christian and non-Christian alike–don’t think about, and that’s the vital role of support personnel in the life of any church or parachurch organisation.  The people "up front"–pastors, preachers, music leaders and the like–get all of the attention and visibility, to say nothing of their portion of the compensation.  But for anyone who has worked in a church or ministry, those who labour in supporting roles–secretaries, maintenance personnel, security guards, sound and media people, and others–are just as vital as those with the visible roles, and in situations such as Assam faced more so.

    Most of these people work at below market rates.  For some, their position is their vocation; for others, it is a transition to other ministry that God has called them to do.  After they are done at their paid position, most volunteer in other roles in the church.  Assam’s work as a security guard was just that: a volunteer role on top of her work for the Beveres.  In any case they bring their God-given talents and abilities, along with their training, to God’s work.  Examples like this only underscore the importance of everyone whom God has placed in the body of Christ to carry out the work he has set us to do:

    “For, just as in the human body there is a union of many parts, and each part has its own function, So we, by our union in Christ, many though we are, form but one body, and individually we are related one to another as its parts. Since our gifts differ in accordance with the particular charge entrusted to us, if our gift is to preach, let our preaching correspond to our faith; If it is to minister to others, let us devote ourselves to our ministry; the teacher to his teaching, The speaker to his exhortation. Let the man who gives in charity do so with a generous heart; let him who is in authority exercise due diligence; let him who shows kindness do so in a cheerful spirit.” (Romans 12:4-8)

    If there is a spiritual lesson from this, it is that there are no unimportant people in God’s kingdom.

    Was It A Hate Crime?

    One additional thought about this comes out in the following:

    Earlier Monday, a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it appeared Murray "hated Christians."

    Had Assam not taken Murray (the shooter) out, could any "hate crime" statute (I’m don’t know if Colorado has such, but many states do) been applied to this?  The better question is, would it have been applied?

    I’ve bloviated on this subject before, and frankly I’m glad we didn’t have to find out.

  • Some Thoughts on the Exit of the San Joaquin Diocese

    It’s unsurprising but monumental all the same: the Diocese of San Joaquin in central California finally votes to leave the Episcopal Church (also covered here.)  Although both sides (especially the orthodox) have had a lot to say, a few observations are in order.

    First, it’s not quite a done deal yet.  TEC will surely fight this.  The fact that a California diocese is the first bodes well for the orthodox; California courts have favoured the "neutral legal principles" approach to property disputes, which has blunted the effect of the Dennis Canon as ex post facto.  With a diocese new legal issues are raised, and there’s always an uncertainty associated with litigation.  The question of whether the Diocese will make good its escape will remain an open one for some time to come.

    Second, in the general scheme of things the number of dioceses that have seceded or who are considering secession is relatively small.  Even if all of these opted out and either made it stick or came to some kind of exit pact with 815, it wouldn’t change the map of TEC very much.  One thing one learns very fast is that TEC has many dioceses, too many in fact.  The loss of a few would trim episcopal maintenance costs and streamline administration.  If the central church was able to retain the parishes who wanted to stay with it, the neighbouring diocese boundaries could be readily redrawn, an assistant bishop or two could be added to cover the extra territory, and life could go on.

    The fact that TEC has vociferously fought any exiting parishes and will doubtless extend this pugnacious attitude to entire dioceses speaks more for the desperation the central church feels than anything else.  To start with, the loss of some dioceses for any reason would probably lead to others asking for the same thing, a "domino effect," if you please.   With a small diocese, this isn’t a big deal, but if a Texas or South Carolina were to demand this, TEC would have a real problem on its hands.

    Beyond that, the constant characterisation by the left of their opponents as a small group of renegades is belied by their tenacious blocking of the exits.  The fact is that many of the parishes that want out are vibrant, prosperous parishes with a younger demographic that TEC needs badly.  There’s also the element of the property itself; much of TEC’s pastiche in society is connected with the historical nature of its parishes and properties (Christ Church in Savannah is a good example of this.)  The governing left in TEC knows that, to finance its vision of the future, it needs the properties of the past and a conservative constituency that doesn’t mind reproducing itself in the present.  It reminds me of my father’s caustic comment about the Palm Beach County Sheriff Department being full of rednecks; knowing too well the nature of the beat, my response was simply, "So who else wants the job?"  In our society "traditional" people end up doing the job for an effete elite that is incapable or unwilling to do what has to be done.

    In the end, TEC does not have the resources to litigate all of the parishes and dioceses that want out, irrespective of the small proportion of either to the total.  As things stand TEC’s best hope is to win some key legal victories in states with laws that give an opening to departure (such as the current litigation in California and Virginia) and hope that everyone else gets the message.  Failing that, it’s going to be a long road to a cashless church.

    The most sensible thing for TEC to do would be to offer those entities that did want out a cash deal that would be a) reflective of the value of the property and b) cheaper than litigation.  Setting a time limit would force the orthodox into a "fish or cut bait" position that would actually limit the number of the exiters.  This would also raise cash to both finance the fight with those who wake up and smell the coffee too late and to offset the fact that liberals do not give as generously as conservatives.

    But sensible solutions are out of fashion in the U.S. these days; we’re probably looking at many years of "nine yards and a cloud of dust."  Even if TEC were to get an administration in the White House that would try to make life difficult for churches that didn’t embrace homosexuals, that in itself would detonate a morass of litigation and political activity that would dwarf anything TEC is contemplating.

    San Joaquin’s action is more like Winston Churchill’s description of the Battle of el-Alamein; not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.  We look back on World War II and see the outcome as obvious, but that wasn’t the case for the participants.  It isn’t for us, either outside TEC, inside the church, or those who are in transition from one to the other.

  • The Best Way To Deal With the Penn State Halloween Videos Mocking the Virginia Tech Killings

    The best way to deal with the miserable Penn State Halloween mockings of the Virginia Tech shootings is for the Texas Aggies to beat them in the Alamo Bowl December 29.

    At this year’s Aggie Muster, a letter of condolence to Virginia Tech was read.  (It was, actually, a joint letter from both Texas A&M and the University of Texas, both schools having suffered mass fatalities.)  For us, the pain was heartfelt.

    Hokies, we promise we will do our best.

    Gig ’em!

  • Why Dads Matter

    Academics Shawn Christianson and Jeffrey Stueve wrote about the importance of a father’s love for their children. The majority of social science research, they maintained, does not recognize sufficiently the bond parents form with children in their loving and caring of them. Not only is there little mention of love in family theory, but many contemporary theories focus on self-interest.

    A father’s love for his children is often expressed in the sacrifices they make, whether in times of crisis or just in the everyday choices of family life. Obviously some fathers fail to take responsibility for their children, Christianson and Stueve acknowledged. At the same time, however, many do cooperate with their wives in raising their child.

    Read all of "Why Dads Matter"

  • A Powerful Minority?

    The New York Times assures us of the following concerning Mitt Romney’s speech in College Station:

    Still, there was no escaping the reality of the moment. Mr. Romney was not there to defend freedom of religion, or to champion the indisputable notion that belief in God and religious observance are longstanding parts of American life. He was trying to persuade Christian fundamentalists in the Republican Party, who do want to impose their faith on the Oval Office, that he is sufficiently Christian for them to support his bid for the Republican nomination. No matter how dignified he looked, and how many times he quoted the founding fathers, he could not disguise that sad fact.

    This statement overlooks a few facts:

    • Suppose he gets through all of the "fundamentalists" and wins the Republican nomination.  Will liberals vote for a Mormon?  Will feminists vote for an adherent of a religion which is a male-centred as Mormonism?  Will atheists vote for anyone who believes in any kind of god(s)?
    • If Mike Huckabee wins the Republican nomination, won’t liberals be as adverse to him as they would be to Romney?  Adding to the left’s distaste is the fact that both of these men have held high position in their respective churches.
    • The whole constitutional business of a "religious test" was intended for appointed positions, not to impose on the electorate a standard by which they were supposed to choose.  A truer violation of this Constitutional provision was the resistance to John Ashcroft’s confirmation as Attorney General.

    The editorial did admit to the following:

    CNN, shockingly, required the candidates at the recent Republican debate to answer a videotaped question from a voter holding a Christian edition of the Bible, who said: “How you answer this question will tell us everything we need to know about you. Do you believe every word of this book? Specifically, this book that I am holding in my hand, do you believe this book?”

    But that’s the country we live in today.  Twenty years ago, I was a county coordinator for Pat Robertson.  I was asked to give a speech in his support at my Pachyderm Club; the president of the club at the time was (and is) a Mormon and he even encouraged me to join (which I did.)  But that was then; this is now.

  • Authority and Evangelical Churches

    During a recent ministry conference I was attending, I was listening to a well-known (and one I respect) leader in men’s ministries.  He was explaining to a pastor why women leading Sunday School classes didn’t work.  His explanation?  “Men won’t accept the authority of a woman.”  He went on to extend this argument, saying that women in his area ended up only pastoring churches that no one else wanted.

    Regular visitors to this site are well familiar with my opinion of women in ministry, whether it be in a fictional/Anglican context (At The Inlet) or as they relate to the church I’m presently a part of.   But my friend has brought up this issue in the context that most Evangelicals do when they object to women in ministry: the issue of authority, that it is not right for a woman to be in authority over a man.  Implicit in his statement is the concept that the church has some kind of authority and that authority is exercised in the teaching and pastoral roles.

    In spite of the fact that all we hear people talk about is freedom, the issue of authority is one that interests everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.  Even an atheist like Philip Pullman of Golden Compass fame can be characterised almost as anti-authoritarian as he is anti-theistic.  The evil kingdom in the movie is called “Magisterium,” and not by accident.  Evangelicals may miss it, but Roman Catholics will not: magisterium is the idea of Catholicism that the church has authority invested in it by God to make authoritative pronouncements on matters of faith and morals, and in the all-inclusive concept of Roman Catholicism that means just about everything.  That kind of assertion invites rebellion, and rebellion is something that the Catholic church continues to experience a great deal of, be it Continental Masonry, Pullman or Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.

    So where do Evangelical churches fit into this?  The honest truth is that every Evangelical church–without exception–is the result of an act of rebellion from constituted ecclesiastical authority. That trend started with Protestant churches in general, although most of these complicated the issue by their alliance with the state.  But look where it went from there.  The Methodists seceded from the Anglicans, the holiness and Pentecostal churches in their turn seceded from the Methodists, and the Baptists simply seceded from everybody including themselves.  The multitude of denominations is a testament of one secession from another, of one rebellion against existing authority after another.  As noted in Taming the Rowdies, in the US the rebel churches not only succeeded in rebelling against constituted secular authority (the British) but then turned around and, with the connivance of the Freemasons, managed to get the established churches booted out of their places in all of the colonies!

    So how can this endless cycle of rebellion and fragmentation be justified?  There is only one way: those churches and people that have taken their leave from the ecclesiastical authority they were under have done so because they first put the authority of God himself above that of whatever institution they were a part of.  They wanted to be, to use a phrase that has taken on new meaning lately, closer to God, either doctrinally, in their form of church government, or their method (or lack thereof) of worship.  Part and parcel with that is a rejection of the concept of magisterium.  The only way that any church under these conditions can claim any kind of authority is in a purely derivative sense.  They can only say, “We are right because God has said this in his Word and we are following it.”  Implicit in that is the idea that, should they in their turn stray from the truth, that others have the right to go off and start the process of purification and renewal all over again.

    Authoritarianism, however, hasn’t gone away from Evangelical Christianity, even in the face of this endless cycle of rebellion.  I bring up Bill Gothard’s name up frequently, but he and his disciples have moulded a generation of Boomer pastors and church leaders with a very authoritarian, top-down model of life order.  (The Boomers didn’t need much encouragement in this regard.)   The problem with these people–and the men’s leader I cited at the front of this article is among them–is that they are attempting to superimpose a concept of authority on a church structure that wasn’t designed to execute it, and the result is confusion, confusion that is helping to make transmitting the Gospel to the next generation more difficult.

    Now I’m not one to spend all of my time in a local church plotting against the pastor or even the big-bucks in the church (although the Bible doesn’t sanction any authority to them, actually quite the opposite.)  If you have an organisation, you have, well, organisation, which implies lines of authority just to keep things together.  Your pastor, elders, Sunday School teachers and the like should be at a level of maturity and Biblical knowledge that earns your respect.  But to invest evangelical churches and the people there with authority that approaches magisterium is simply unwarranted by both history and the express purpose of evangelical churches to start with.  If the whole idea is to emphasise the authority of God, than his authority should be the governing one.  Put another way, in Evangelical churches, people should be seeing less of us and more of Jesus.

    The day I come to the conclusion that submission to a human authority structure is the ne plus ultra of the Christian life is the day I return to Roman Catholicism, because the Roman Catholic Church is the only Christian church with a consistent theory (if not always practice) of authority.  The Gothardian ideal of a Christian under an umbrella of protection without holes or tears in his or her church can only be realised in the Catholic church.  Non-believers like Pullman and Brown implicitly understand this, which is why their main target is Roman Catholicism.

    Evangelicals would do well to grasp these truths and apply them constructively to their own churches.  If they did, they would not only be more consistent to their own heritage, they would make their churches more attractive to the new generation, which has been micromanaged enough.

  • The Healing of Jennifer Wood

    After a hiatus of some weeks, the podcast is resumed with the video testimony of Jennifer Wood, healed of Erythropoetic Proto-Porphyria.  (If you haven’t heard of this, don’t feel bad, many of her doctors hadn’t either!) Click here to view her moving testimony.

    Note: in the interest of keeping the download time to a minimum, I’m using the 3gp format, which is a highly compressed cell phone format.  It’s viewable in the newer versions of iTunes and QuickTime.  If you’re having trouble viewing it, or the image is just too small, leave a comment and I’ll upload it in a different, podcastable format.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started