Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
It's another week along the Southwest Freeway in Houston as Victoria Osteen has embroiled herself in a controversy over remarks about why we worship God. Â The usual people say the usual things, and the usual fracas ensues, just as it has over much of what her husband Joel says. I think we'd be better off, …
Continue reading "Victoria Osteen's Moment, or "What Are We Doing Here Anyway?""
From Augustine, City of God, XII, 22: That the whole human race has been condemned in its first origin, this life itself, if life it is to be called, bears witness by the host of cruel ills with which it is filled. Is not this proved by the profound and dreadful ignorance which produces all …
There's a good deal of bad news coming out of the Middle East these days, with the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.  The continued existence of either or both is in question, although give their artificiality it's amazing they've lasted as long as they have.  In response to their brutality on Americans, Yazidis, Iraqi Christians …
@DaleMCoulter muses on his students: The task was not to defend the tributary of Christianity in which my students had first touched the waters of baptism, but to show them that it was fed by a vast river stretching back two millennia. In short, I defended Christianity by helping them swim upstream so that they could …
Continue reading "The Complicated Business of the "Tradition""
There's always something going on out there, and in the last couple of weeks one of those somethings has been the flap over the musician Michael Gungor's post on the age of the earth: Do I believe God exists? Yes.Do I believe Jesus is the Son of God? Yes.Do I believe that Scripture is God-breathed …
There’s a great deal of kerfuffle over Ann Coulter’s article about Samaritan’s Purse physician Kent Brantly, his contracting Ebola in the course of treating it Liberia, his transport to the CDC in Atlanta and the cost associated with the entire process. Evidently she thinks him insufficiently patriotic to have gone to another place and fight …
Continue reading "The Disciples of Ayn Rand and the Disciples of Jesus Christ"
Amidst the sorrow and tragedy that dominates the news these days, the Vatican weighs in on a matter that may seem trivial to some: The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW) has urged the church’s bishops to crack down on boisterous exchanges of peace during the Eucharist service. In a letter dated 8 June 2014 …
Continue reading "The Sign of Peace and Those "Happy-Clappy" Masses"
@danbalz wonders why this keeps happening: The Center for the Study of the American Electorate (CSAE) recently issued a dreary summation about participation in the primary elections so far this year. Based on the 25 states that have already held their primaries, the report chronicled a pattern of voter indifference and, in some cases, record low turnout. I …
Continue reading "It's Easier to Vote When It Makes a Difference"
Including, in some places, DUI on a lawnmower: Â A Northern Colorado man was arrested on suspicion on DUI but it was what he was driving that makes this case unusual. He was driving a lawnmower. Police said Kenneth Welton was driving drunk from bar to bar along a very busy 8th Avenue in Garden City …
Continue reading "They'll Bust You for Anything in the U.S."
A familiar mantra comes from Billy Graham's grandson: "The core message of the Christian faith has been lost in the public sector because what we are primarily known for is our political ideology or opinion," Tchividjian told The Christian Post. Over the last 30 years, the Religious Right has replaced Christianity's foremost message of the …
Continue reading "If You Don't Want People's Opinion, Don't Ask"
Positive Infinity 