Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
While searching out the web, I ran across an interesting article in the Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel dated 25 May 1995. The issue at hand was harvesting the organs of anencephalic babies (not fetuses) for their organ parts, by killing the baby first. Fr. William A. Sassman, his photo in the 1973 Tartan (St. Andrew's yearbook.) …
Continue reading "The Man Who Facilitated My Exit from the Episcopal Church"
It's time to mark another anniversary here, in this case the thirty-fifth one of my family business' signing our first contract with the Petroleum Corporation of the People's Republic of China for the sale of pile driving equipment. That may not seem like much today but then we were selling into an economy that was …
Of all of Jesus Christ's post-resurrection appearances, this one is, in many ways, the most intriguing: Meanwhile Mary was standing close outside the tomb, weeping. Still weeping, she leant forward into the tomb, And perceived two angels clothed in white sitting there, where the body of Jesus had been lying, one where the head and …
Continue reading "After the Resurrection, Did Our Lord Need Purification?"
If I had to pick a favourite Bible verse or passage, it would be this: The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought by the High Priest into the Sanctuary, as an offering for sin, are burnt outside the camp. And so Jesus, also, to purify the People by his own blood, suffered outside …
Continue reading "The Meaning of Outside the Camp: A Good Friday Reflection"
Today is Nowruz, the spring equinox festival of the Iranians. To my Iranian friends, who have meant so much, hope you've had a good festival season (it runs about two weeks back in the old country.) Last November I ran a piece about the Persian origin of the term "King of Kings," which most Christians …
Continue reading "Happy Nowruz to the People of the "King of Kings""
Long-time readers of this blog will recall my brief history of the French engineer Barré de Saint-Venant.  I recently gave a more complete treatment of the topic at the Holy Spirit, Science, and Theological Education Conference at Regent University.  You can download the paper here.
We're coming up on Holy Week. Churches will be rolling out their Easter musicals. Because people don't go to church on Good Friday like they used to, churches will also put the Passion narrative on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday...what's that all about? It is, strictly speaking, the celebration of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, beginning …
The ACNA has released their "Texts for Common Prayer." It's something I've mentioned from time to time over the years. But it's obvious; if the ANCA plans to be a real church and a real Anglican province, they need to have a real prayer book. The danger has always been that liturgists who were clumsy, …
Continue reading "Dumping at Last the "Contract on the Episcopalians""
This election cycle has been a wild one, and we're not even halfway through the primary season. Both parties are seeing broad-based revolts in their bases. The Democrat establishment has done a better job of managing the upheaval, because they did what the Republicans did not: pick one candidate and get behind her. Bernie Sanders …
Continue reading "If the Country Doesn't Make It, Will You?"
This past weekend my wife and I got to see Lee University's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. It was a strange production; it was one of those things where the audience sat on the stage and the performers did their thing in the seats. The program regaled us with the usual politically correct …
Positive Infinity 