My Lifeway Memory: Doing Church of God Business in a Baptist Bookstore

The news that Lifeway Christian Stores will all close brought back a memory of something that happened in one of them that was, in some ways, life altering. In 2010 the Church of God decided to abolish the Department of Lay Ministries, which I was working for at the time.  That left me without a job …

Meritocracy? What Meritocracy? Just Pay the Money!

It's pretty sad out there: What many are calling the worst admissions scandal in higher education emerged Tuesday, with federal authorities announcing 50 indictments in a scheme that allegedly involved faux athletes, coaches who could be bribed, cheating on the SAT and ACT, million-dollar bribes and "guarantees" that certain applicants would be admitted to highly …

The Limitations of “Trad” Catholicism

To be Roman Catholic these days is an unenviable business, especially if you're aware of what's going on in the Catholic Church (and many Catholics, sad to say, are not.)  It's easy to comment on what's happening, but what really matters is how one plans to fix the problems that face the Church. Let's start …

Beating the Sheep Doesn’t Work

I recently reviewed Latta Griswold's The Middle Way, this is another quote from that, in his advice on sermons: The most ineffective, and ultimately the most objectionable of all preachers, is the scold. There is a vast difference between rebuking evil and exposing to a congregation the sins to which they are prone, and scolding. …

Science Still Lives Somewhere

Recently I posted a piece entitled The Day Science Died where I lamented the fall of a real scientific/technological urge in our society after we landed men on the moon in 1969. Evidently that urge is still out there, in this case Israel: A dramatic nighttime launch from Cape Canaveral sent Israel’s privately funded lunar …

The Day Science Died

This week's post comes on my companion website, Chet Aero Marine, and is entitled The Day Science Died. But the other thing that came in reading this book was an ache–an ache for a time when we were literally reaching for the stars (or at least the moon.)  The passing of that time–something that basically lost …

Book Review: Latta Griswold’s The Middle Way

If there's one term that gets misused in Anglican-Episcopal circles more than any other, it's the via media, the middle way, which Anglicanism is supposed to embody. Probably it's original intent was best expressed by the men who "translated" the King James Bible. In their dedication to their "dread sovereign," they said the following: So …

About Those Honorary Doctorates in the Church of God…

I've spent the past several weeks going on about social and political things, but this week I'd like to discuss a pet peeve of mine in the glorious church Church of God I'm a part of: the issue of honorary doctorates, and the calling of their recipients "Doctor."  Fortunately our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. …

Did Ronald Reagan’s Journey to the Right Begin in England?

We always talk about the old Soviet Union as an inspiration against socialism, but for Ronald Reagan that journey may have started in a more familiar setting: Maybe the single biggest surprise is the couple of pages devoted to the four months spent by American actor, Ronald Reagan at Elstree Studios making a war movie …

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