Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Although one underestimates Biblical ignorance at one's peril, the story of Daniel in the lions' den is well known to many. Most Christians would interpret Daniel getting pitched into same den as a result of his refusal to worship a god or gods other than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If one reads …
Continue reading "The Real Reason Daniel Was Thrown Into the Lions' Den"
Although I'm sure his Presiding Bishop finds this post suitable for framing, somehow Episcopal minister Frederick Schmidt's appeal to the authority of the church doesn't quite connect. Let's start with the issue he uses to illustrate his point: the proper colour for Advent: In a recent dust-up over liturgical colors, a colleague of mine was …
Continue reading "An Episcopalian's Appeal to Authority Falls Flat"
It's time once again for a new semester. This is not true everywhere; for some schools with greater prestige and the possibility that the graduate could become President of the United States (yeah, Republicans, we're seeing that again,) it's just the end of what is now denoted as Winter Break, with exams looming towards the …
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church depicts Our Lord and Saviour in a rather topsy-turvy way: In her book The Heartbeat of God, Jefferts Schori also taunts Jesus many times, calling him both a Hell's Angel gang leader (115) as well as a "party animal" (4). This kind of depiction of Jesus Christ and …
Continue reading "What a Motorcycle Gang Knows that Katharine Jefferts-Schori Does Not"
One of the many things that separates me from my contemporaries is the fact that I played soccer in junior high (that designation dates me!) and high school. Today soccer is de rigeur for people growing up in these United States, but until, say, the late 1970's that wasn't the case. A good deal of …
Continue reading "The Value of Failure: A Lesson From Soccer"
Recently received this from the web hosting service of this site, and am in hearty agreement: You may have heard about Protect-IP (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) currently under consideration in Congress. If passed, among other things, SOPA requires Web hosting companies like 1&1 to police websites in order to prevent them …
It's lonely at the top: Air Force One had just landed in Manchester, N.H., on a brisk Tuesday morning last month when President Obama made an admission to Valerie B. Jarrett, his close friend and senior adviser. “I just called Reggie,” Mr. Obama said. It was his first domestic trip without Reggie Love, the former …
From Patrick Morley's Second Wind for the Second Half: No man can do everything he wishes. Choices must be made...For our personal decision making we should conduct a little civilian triage: Who can't live without you, or you without them? Who would be nice to help if you don't have to neglect the first group? …
Continue reading "…we should prioritize everything on the basis of who will cry at our funeral."
It's been a long, illustrious career: RTÉ newsreader Anne Doyle has read her final broadcast tonight, exactly 33 years to the day since she first appeared on national television. She read an eight-minute main evening news bulletin at 8.50pm, shorter and earlier than usual because of the Christmas schedule. The broadcast ended with a special …
This is the time of year when we think of, amongst other things, all the things we were doing and experiencing at this time of the year in days past. For me, this Christmas is a milestone in one respect: forty years ago now, I was in New Orleans, along with my entire family, on …
Continue reading "On Christmas in New Orleans, Latitudinarians and Evangelicals"
Positive Infinity 