Nebraska Has A Lutheran Pastor, Dan Delzell, Who Doesn't Know The Catechism

A Lutheran pastor should know better than to ask, as Rev. Delzell does for The Christian Post, here:

"Is it up to us to hand out the punishment to lawbreakers....and the free gift of eternal life to sinners who repent and believe the good news? All of this is beyond us, and outside of our human understanding."

Well yes, it is up to you. And no, it is not beyond us.

I guess they don't teach The Office Of The Keys anymore in the Lutheran Church, number five of the six chief parts of the small catechism, knowledge of which was normally assumed in pastors, and also expected of confirmands . . . already at the age of 13.

It is based on these texts:

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

-- Matthew 16:19

Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ... Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

-- Matthew 18:18, 21f.

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; [and] whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained.

-- John 20:23

Clearly in Matthew the emphasis is on the side of overflowing mercy, but you rarely find that from Christians these days, who are very quick to condemn.

Things are evidently worse in Lutheranism than I thought.

"Long lay the world in sin and error pining", but no more?

The irony of those lines penned by John Sullivan Dwight in 1855 is the horrible, bloody history of the world which soon followed in their wake, mocking them more loudly with every passing decade, from the American War Between The States through the murderous World Wars right on to the present-day, but purposely-ignored, inhumanities of man in Africa, China and the United States.

Yes, in the United States, where over 50 million unborn have been slaughtered in the last 40 years while we go about our business, often go to church and generally think we enjoy ourselves, and Francis Fukuyama tells us with a straight face that thankfully we no longer engage as a species in montrous projects of social transformation.

People who say, as this one does, a Roman Catholic named Howard Kainz, that the world is no longer "in the condition it had been in for most of human history" because in "the Church" God "provided a firm basis for Christian life" do not have their eyes open to the sorry facts of the world. Religious denial of reality is no less pernicious than the ideological sort, say, of Marxism, which may have something to do with the fact that the former often prepares the way for the latter.

If we are not still in sin and error pining I don't know who ever was, or why or how they were ever redeemed from it. If "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom," it is not self-evident that we have it.

The Protestants, at least, helped begin the process of recovering the reality of man's sorry state, beginning with Luther's open hostility to the denial of reality implicit in the Catholic tradition, most famously that in the purchase of absolution a spiritual difference was made between the one who bought it and the one who didn't. If the Catholics are still afraid of this all these years later, as Kainz is, they are right to be, because Protestantism actually means death to all such ideology, if but for the fact that it has succumbed to it itself. Carried through to its logical conclusion, Protestantism would finally detect in Christianity's own origin the denial of reality which is the seed of its own destruction, but by and large this has not happened except among some academics, starting with Albert Schweitzer, whose long but thin line of followers bears witness to the recalcitrant inelasticity of human nature. 

If we were to be honest brokers of the essential message of Jesus, we would admit that it is followed by next to no one claiming the name Christian because it cannot be, at least for very long, not without being possessed of the fundamental conviction that God is about to bring the world to final judgment: 

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Christians today run away from that message and all the texts in the Gospels which support it, not in the least because Jesus was tragically mistaken about the future, as disappointed true believers perennially discover. To have anything to do with it is to associate error with deity, and this cannot be allowed, for the obvious reason. But Christians also run away from true repentance because if it were followed, they would not be able to utter all this nonsense about leading "the Christian life" while holding down jobs, paying off mortgages, entering into marriages, raising families, enjoying relative ease and saving for a "safe" retirement.

"So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."

To repent would mean turning one's back on all this, on one's former way of life, with a desperate urgency which does not exist.

"But God said unto him, [Thou] fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"

Accordingly the urgency has been transformed in the wake of the failure, spiritualized, internalized and specialized, as in the special calling to monasticism practiced by the few, but even that is now nearly forgotten, its last bastion the priest's call to celibacy. Luther himself was close to the original understanding, though he did not follow it himself and thus contributed to the continuation of its "spiritualization":

"And take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife, Let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won; The kingdom ours remaineth."

Faint echoes of this message have been heard in living memory, for example in the popular 1965 film "The Sound of Music" where we see a young woman torn between her feelings of love for a man and her desire to renounce the world, not for an imminently coming kingdom and judgment, but for a life closer to God in the convent.

In 1933 Oswald Spengler reflected correctly on this residuum of the original teaching, now divorced from its apocalyptic setting in the modern "spiritualized" consensus, that 

Christian morality is, like every morality, renunciation and nothing else. Those who do not feel it to be so are materialists. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" means: do not regard this hard meaning of life as misery and seek to circumvent it by party politics.

But if the Marxists try to circumvent the "hard meaning of life" by party politics, the Christians try to circumvent it with their notions of the realized kingdom of God in the Church and its sacraments, where the vagaries of existence are spiritualized away into a denial of reality no less mendacious than the failed achievements of Soviet five year plans.

We are no closer to becoming 2 Peter's "partakers of the divine nature" than we are to Trotsky's "superman" who "will become incomparably stronger, wiser, more subtle."

The way forward for people of faith is to stop denying reality, and to begin by saying, "God be merciful to me, a poor, sinful being."

"The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

Who Knew? I'm A Verdammten Menschen, Not A "Condemned Creature"

I always wanted to be a mensch.

in hoc signo vinces

 "εν τούτῳ νίκα" 

The World Ends . . . For Moe

Give me that world, Herring, or I'll marinate ya.

See him say it, here, in "I'll Never Heil Again" (1941).

You nitwit! You shattered my world!

Lesbian Minister Wonders Why Only 3 In 10 In Her Pews Are Men

Ah . . . how would she know they are men?

Dumbest story of the year, from, where else?, Canada.

Here.

Yoda Sings The 23rd From The Bay Psalm Book

Aww! Restore my soul doth he! Yes.

The Lord to me a shepherd is,

Want therefore shall not I.

He in the folds of tender grass,

Doth cause me down to lie:

To waters calm me gently leads

Restore my soul doth he:

He doth in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake lead me.

Story here.

Jesus' Warning Against Libertarianism's Apocalyptic Role

"Increased lawlessness will cause a chilling effect on compassion for the many."

You recognize the line better, perhaps, from the King James Version, which doesn't translate it as an objective genitive:

"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."

-- Matthew 24:12

Who else in our time but the libertarians combine both concepts, demanding to practice every sort of vice as a consequence of being free, while disdaining the managerial state by "going Galt"?

I am not an apocalypticist, but contemporary libertarians who claim they can also be Christians don't know what they are talking about. Children, of course, don't like to be told "No", and often take the ball and go home. That such infantilism should become elevated to a philosophy is not surprising in an age when self-absorbed baby boomers have produced legions of individuals who have failed to launch.

"I I Me Me Mine" sang The Beatles. 

Not even the Mayans believe it's the end of the world.

Mayans themselves reject any notion that the world will end. Pedro Celestino Yac Noj, a Mayan sage, burned seeds and fruits to mark the end of the old calender at a ceremony in Cuba. He said: "The 21st is for giving thanks and gratitude and the 22nd welcomes the new cycle, a new dawn."

More here.

"I Don't Believe In The End Of The World . . ."

Speaking in a live interview to five television channels on Friday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev seized on a chance reference to the Mayan prediction to express his scepticism. "I don't believe in the end of the world," he said, before adding mysteriously: "At least, not this year."

More, here.

The American Economy Is Sick Because The People Are Sick

"Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

-- Matthew 7:16ff.

If The World Ends On December 21st . . .

. . . the drinks are on me.

Are We To Be Equal To The Angels, Or Over Them?

"Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?"

-- 1 Corinthians 6:3

"But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection."

-- Luke 20:35f

God Forbids Your Tattoos, Your Piercings, Your Shaving

"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the LORD."

-- Leviticus 19:28

"They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh."

-- Leviticus 21:5

To Jesus The Coming Of The World To Come Removed The Reason To Marry

And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him."

-- Luke 20:34ff.

Another Papyrus Fragment Of The NT Rises From The Dead. So What?

The story is here.

"And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

-- Luke 16:31

And Moses Smote The Waters, And They Were Turned To Blood

Rare red tide hits Sydney beaches

"And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that [were] in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that [were] in the river were turned to blood."

 -- Exodus 7:20

"There are some possible risks to human health including skin rashes and eye irritation and for this reason the beach will remain closed until the algae dissipates," according to a local spokesman, quoted here in a story about the rare phenomenon.

"So they took soot from a kiln, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses threw it toward the sky, and it became boils breaking out with sores on man and beast."

-- Exodus 9:10

That's all the reward they get

 

 

Therefore when thou doest [thine] alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

-- Matthew 6:2

Raymond Arroyo Slanders Evangelicals On Laura Ingraham Show

He just said on the radio program that atheists' efforts to proselytize demonstrate how "evangelical" the atheists have become.

Just a little ancient Catholic bigotry against Protestants coming out there, and just in time for Thanksgiving, too!

Wafer worshipper.

We're Embarrassed By Gadgets. Moral Failures? Not So Much.

Seen here.

You Want Spiritual Experience? This Is As Good As It Gets.

"And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place." 

-- Genesis 18:33

Peter And John: Rebellious, Disobedient Protestants

What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them [is] manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny [it].

But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.

And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.

For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all [men] glorified God for that which was done.

-- Acts 4:16ff.

What's Wrong With Rod Dreher, In A Nutshell

"I am a conservative Christian who believes that Obama’s re-election is on balance a bad thing for American Christians, for a number of reasons."

"On balance"?

That's like saying cancer is on balance a bad thing for the body, as if there might be something good to be said for it. 

Oh, but I can hear it already: "All things work together for good", or some such riposte, I'm sure.

Like Keynesianism, Christianity always has an answer for why its not wrong.

Here.

Jesus, The Protestant

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:

But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:

Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.

Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

-- Matthew 5:33ff.

Joel Miller Shouldn't Blame Luther For Attacking Tradition. He Should Blame Jesus.

Joel J. Miller here says Luther bears the blame for everything from religious factionalism to individualism and moral relativism, as if Protestantism's "dangerous idea" had no basis in the Bible itself. (Why John Wycliffe and Jan Hus get a pass is anyone's guess.)

Against this the antitheses of the Sermon on the Mount immediately leap to mind, but so do the moral critiques of the prophets against Israel and Judah. In fact, Matthew's Jesus displays a moral vision so redolent of the critical spirit which animates the prophets that it is inconceivable to imagine his oeuvre as collected in the gospels apart from it.

But Protestants continue to try, which is the real problem with Protestantism, not to say Christianity generally. Today's Protestants prefer to emphasize the Pauline compromises, like living at peace with all men, rather than taking seriously the Jesus they claim to worship, the one who upset the tables of the moneychangers and came to set the earth of fire. Today's Protestants don't seem to be simply ignorant of the teaching of Jesus as Paul seems unaware of it. Protestants today generally pretend the Jesus of the gospels doesn't even exist. And the reason for that is that he represents a threat to the status quo of their church in the world.

The value of Luther's rediscovery of the Scriptures is that this opened the discussion anew about why there is such a difference between what the Scriptures teach and what we mistakenly imagine to be God's kingdom.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Catholics didn't like it then, and now Protestants don't. It's a family tradition.   

Life Isn't A Right. It's A Reward.

"I think I'll try to tell him the war is over"

"The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life."

-- Proverbs 22:4

The Cost Of Discipleship Is The Same For Rich And Poor Alike

Everything.

It is a conceit of the poor that the rich have too much and will incur God's judgment for it when the little they themselves have also stands between them and the Kingdom of God.

"So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."

-- Luke 14:33

Jesus Didn't Hate Rich People. He Loved Them. Do You?

"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions."

-- Mark 10:21f.

Timothy Dalrymple Skewers Bill Keller, Won't Vote For Jesus

Alrighty then.

Story here.

Americans Exaggerate Church Attendance By 88%

So says this story, which reports that about 24% actually go to church every Sunday when 45% claim to do so.

As the French say, everything in America is big.

Let's Bring Back Hangings And The Age Of Edward

So says Peter Hitchens, here:

We disagree about almost everything, but I find him impossible to dislike. In person he is polite and engaged, and in print always a contrarian but never a controversialist, sincere in beliefs that are almost as unfashionable on the right as they are anathema to the left. He champions civil liberties but abhors libertarianism, would like to bring back hanging and see off pre-marital sex, and is in a perpetual state of lament for the passing of Christian values, which he dates back to the first world war. "If anybody else tells me that I think the 1950s were a golden age, I'll strangle them. I remember the 1950s – chilblains, Wall's ice cream, everybody smoked. I didn't like the 1950s." Hitchens's golden age was the late Victorian/early Edwardian era, a period of "How shall I say? Increasing self-imposed moral conduct."

On "Scripture"

"Scripture" is a construct, a box which we manufacture in which to carry God around, not unlike the ark of the covenant. Its handlers similarly use it to perform miracles of various kinds, from changing human hearts to changing water, bread and wine into "salvation". But we have no instructions to build such Scripture like we have for the ark.

In a way the construction of such a box for God is a reactionary response to his perceived departure in the form in which he had been known. This is true even of the ark where God dwelt, whom the author of Hebrews said cannot be contained in houses made with human hands, nor even by the universe which God himself has made, as Solomon observed, who proceeded to build him a house anyway.

The presence of God prior to these events, however, in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, was what led the people forth. It was not the other way around, picking up "God" and taking him here and taking him there. And in the mornings it was God who did the saving, with heavenly manna. And it was at length to be God who did the writing of Scripture, inscribing with his very fingers his Law on tablets which he gave to Moses.

All these stories are in what we call "Scripture", but who is doing the writing? 

Are You A Disciple?

"So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."

-- Luke 14:33

On Making War: Every Christian A Smith And Wesson

And every Jew a .22.

While Catholic Europe acquiesced under the tyrannical hand of Hitler, and Orthodox Russia under the dictatorial hand of Stalin, it was Protestant America which took up arms to defeat them both.

Think about it, and buy a gun today.

USA Today Celebrates The Decline Of Protestantism

You wouldn't know it from the article, here, that Protestantism remains the overwhelmingly dominant religion of America, despite losing its majoritarian ranking. Protestants still outnumber Catholics by over 2 to 1, on whom the unaffiliated are gaining fast.

Judging by the comments section, it will only be a matter of time before the secularists begin tearing religious people limb from limb for sport.

Forget that turning the other cheek stuff. It's best to be armed and ready for them.

God, guns and guts made America great. Let's keep all three.

Meanwhile, subscribers to that USA Today rag are only encouraging the bastards. USA Away is more like it. Forget 'em.

Roman Catholic Wafer Worship: And You Thought Idolatry Was Dead

Not only do Catholics worship a man as a god, they worship a wafer and keep vigil over it in various places all over the world.

And you thought circumambulation of a meteorite marked only others as so 7th century, so primitive.

Videos here and here.

Cold Obstruction

"Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;"

-- Claudio, William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 1

It's Sunday! Get Ready To Pray Like A Hypocrite!

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men."

-- Matthew 6:5

(original "Tebowing" photo and story here)

So, Did You Pray Like A Gentile Today?

"I do not tolerate jibber jabber in my courtroom."

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."

-- Matthew 6:7

A Proposed Definition Of "Prophet" For The Devil's Dictionary

"Prophet": a person who takes himself too seriously, being a late product of a rich and declining civilization which has stopped excelling at everything except narcissism, which it has in such abundance, regrettably, that it exports it.

Rare Sighting Of The Rare Pillar Of Fire

CNBC.com

"And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians."

-- Exodus 14:24

The Kingdom of God in Pictures

mostly empty real estate

fat pastors

the tithers who pay for it

The Islamic Repudiation Of The Divinity Of Jesus

"Allah forgiveth not that partners should be set up with Him; but He forgiveth anything else, to whom He pleaseth; to set up partners with Allah is to devise a sin most heinous indeed."

— Qur'an, sura 4 (An-Nisa), ayat 48

Was Mary's Pregnancy With Jesus "Wanted"?

Well?

"And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; ... And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house."

 -- Luke 1:39,56

Why "Roman Catholic Conservative" Is An Oxymoron

"Roman Catholic conservative" is an oxymoron because Catholicism positively reeks with respect for the very elites who are at best irrelevant and at worst inimical to the self-governed man.

"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." -- Thomas Jefferson 

There Is Nothing Hid From The Heat Of The Transcendent Moral Order

"The heavens are telling the glory of God . . . In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and there is nothing hid from its heat. The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever; the ordinances of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb." -- Psalm 19

The Theology Of Suds

The theology of suds: drowning the old man daily, preferably in a pail of lager.

There's The Everyday Helmet, And The Sunday Go-To-Meeting Helmet

Vladimir Putin's Indispensable Prop For His Tyranny Is Russian Orthodoxy

"What were the 2000s then? Through a miracle of God, with the active participation of the country's leadership, we managed to exit this horrible, systemic crisis."

"I should say it openly as a patriarch who must only tell the truth, not paying attention to the political situation or propaganda, you personally [Vladimir Putin] played a massive role in correcting this crooked twist of our history."

-- Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, quoted here

Why Descartes Is Wrong: "Our Mind Is Under Our Complete Control"

"The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], And desperately wicked; Who can know it?"

 -- Jeremiah 17:9

Quite apart from that, is the mind under our complete control when we are dead? The fact that we cannot control the fact that we cannot avoid death suggests otherwise. The ancients would say that our mind could not possibly be under our complete control, dead or alive, since it, like the rest of our selves, depends utterly on God for its existence. Human being is contingent being, and therefore is not autonomous.

William Lane Craig is much too sanguine about Descartes, here.

Rod Dreher Can't Pass Up The Chance To Slam Protestantism

Rod Dreher blows a gasket because some Catholic parish educators actually resigned! resigned! rather than sign a loyalty oath, here:

Of course this being the Washington Post, the story is written with a liberal bias that distorts the story. Note that “to all the teachings of church leaders” above. That is simply not a factual statement of how the Roman Catholic Church understands itself, or has ever understood itself. For Catholics, the Church has the right to teach authoritatively on faith and morals — an authority that is exercised through its leadership. This is what the Protestant Reformation was about! It is beyond embarrassing that this has to be explained to a reporter for The Washington Post. Then again, it has to be explained to liberal Catholics that they can’t pick and choose what to believe, and remain as Catholics in good standing. This is something I will never understand about modern Catholics. They want to have their church, but only on their own terms. Which is not Catholic.

Oh for the days when the heretics went quietly to the gallows, eh?

Note to Rod Dreher: The educators who resigned aren't Protestants. Protestants don't resign. They stand on their principles until they get excommunicated by Catholics. These teachers, whatever else they are, decided it was more important to back down than do that, however petulantly they may plead their case now in the pages of The Washington Post.

It is beyond embarrassing that this has to be explained to Rod Dreher.

Get a grip buddy.

Is The Absence Of Human Transformation The Best Argument Against Christianity?

A certain fellow named Robin Schumacher, featured at Real Clear Religion, goes on at some length, here, to acknowledge that the best argument that is made these days against Christianity is the one made by ever larger numbers of contemporaries who point out that Christianity must be untrue because Christians behave so badly, and concludes:

"[T]he fact is that an authentic Christian life is the only thing that defeats the best argument against Christianity."

This is a very unsatisfactory conclusion to what really isn't a very helpful discussion about arguments for or against Christianity.

What it amounts to instead is a demonstration of what passes for the accepted understanding of what is true conversion in some circles. In other words, it's not really about Christianity per se, it's about human actors and their experiences relative to that subject. In short, it's about us, not about Christianity or its object, God.

Key for the author is the notion that conversion is a form of human transformation, which can be authenticated on the evidence of human experience. "If you were truly converted you wouldn't do x."

What is it about Christianity, contemporary or otherwise, that it so quickly veers off into a kind of narcissism where adherents and opponents alike wind up agreeing that man is the measure of all things? The authentic Christian life is the only thing that defeats the enemies of Christ? I'm sure that comes as quite a surprise to God. Last I checked, God needed or depended upon no one for anything. There is sophistry. And then there is philosophy.

I think one answer for this narcissism may have something to do with what Krister Stendahl once called the introspective conscience of the West. The tortured conversion of Muhammad comes to mind in W. Montgomery Watt's biography of the prophet. Or the Jesus of The Fourth Gospel, at war with the Jews over his paternity. Or the ever autobiographical 13th apostle, Paul of Tarsus, who happens to be the most interesting because he is so immediately, candidly available in his letters as he plies the waters between his sectarianisms and his Roman citizenship. It shouldn't come as a surprise that these models would attract adherents in whom the same tendencies operate. In truth, however, thoughtful people would probably agree that narcissism is a broadly human phenomenon, not simply a characteristic of the West.

But there are counter trends in some of our literature which bear thinking about. Consider, for example, that conversion in Luke's Acts of the Apostles is occasionally portrayed as conversion of a whole household, based on the personal experience of a single person in it. For those household members personal human transformation, being born again, is hardly in sight. Even in the cases of the personal salvation of the individual head of the household who leads the rest into the fold, notions of human transformation seem wholly absent. Far from the world of altar calls involving personal crises, repentance and emotional decisions for Christ, what we find instead is concrete deliverance from temporal calamities, infirmities, threats and dangers. Like Paul's own conversion, these amount to almost unwilled experiences submitted to and accepted in the face of an overwhelming, sovereignly acting, Providence.

Some of these stories in Acts are reminiscent of nothing so much as stories of God's deliverance of his people Israel from Egyptian slavery, the plagues, the angel of death and the Red Sea waters. It is more about God continuing to act in history than it is about what happens in the hearts of men.

One might also mention the apocalyptic ethics of Jesus in The Synoptic Tradition, where personal conversion amounts to a renunciation of all the traditional contours, roles and behaviors of human existence in a desperate attempt to escape the destruction which Jesus said was coming on the world forthwith. This is not some comfortable religion of personal fulfillment, but a (crazy?) rejection of it which depends utterly on God to establish his kingdom quite apart from any human agency, even Jesus'. 

Anyone with a little honest experience of the world knows that there are many what we call very fine people who are not Christians, and many Christians who are just plain drek. If one gets bogged down in this navel-gazing cul-de-sac, however, what gets distorted about our thinking about conversion is that conversion becomes too much about how we act, and not enough about how God does.

"We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."

-- Acts 14:15ff.

Jesus Never Imagined Such A Thing As "The Christian Family"

"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

"And a man's foes [shall be] they of his own household."

-- Matthew 10:35f.

Storm gods punish America for ObamaCare with rare derecho

Reuters notes the rarity, here:

More than 1 million homes and businesses in a swath from Indiana to Virginia remained without power on Wednesday, five days after deadly storms tore through the region. ...

Much of the damage to the power grid was blamed on last weekend's rare "derecho," a big, powerful and long-lasting wind storm that blew from the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Is "Catastrophic Damage" God's Judgment For ObamaCare Ruling?

Catastrophic damage to power grids occurred hot on the heels of the ObamaCare ruling last week, centered on Washington, DC, as reported here:

Almost 2.4 million people from Illinois to Virginia were still without power Monday morning, with the biggest concentration of outages in the Washington, D.C. area. ...

Power crews worked on Monday to restore service to homes and businesses, and officials in some areas said the job could take up to a week. Utilities in Ohio, Virginia and Maryland described damage to their power grids as catastrophic.

I believe the technical legal phrase for such catastrophes for insurance purposes is "acts of God."

Religious people sometimes find theological significance to such acts. Secular people do too: God is very useful to them when it comes to not having to pay for the damage He is supposed to have caused.

Is God Expressing His Displeasure Over ObamaCare Ruling?

Millions without power after storms on Friday, after ruling on Thursday.

Hm.

The Grandmothers Of Bolshevism Celebrate ObamaCare

"[W]e are convinced that health care is not a privilege, reserved for those who can afford it, but a right that should be available, at high quality, to all."

-- National Council of Churches

"[A] huge step in the right direction [single payer health care] and we celebrate provisions in that law that continue to fill the gaps and expand existing health care, particularly to low-income Americans."

-- United Methodist Board of Church and Society

"We rejoice today as the Supreme Court rules to uphold [the] constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act."

"[S]ingle payer [is the] best vehicle for providing such health care resources."

-- Presbyterian Church USA 

"The Supreme Court decision today is a clear signal that we as a country are moving toward the realm of God on earth -- the realm of this merciful, compassionate God, full of love for all."

-- United Church of Christ

(source)

"Now, all Communist systems in the West are in fact derived from Christian theological thought: More's Utopia, the Sun State of the Dominica Campanella, the doctrines of Luther's disciples Karlstadt and Thomas Münzer, and Fichte's State Socialism. What Fourier, Saint-Simon, Owen, Marx, and hundreds of others dreamed and wrote on the ideals of the future reaches back, quite without their knowledge and much against their intention, to priestly-moral indignation and Schoolmen concepts, which had their secret part in economic reasoning and in public opinion on social questions. How much of Thomas Aquinas' law of nature and conception of State is still to be found in Adam Smith and therefore - with the opposite sign - in the Communist Manifesto! Christian theology is the grandmother of Bolshevism. All abstract brooding over economic concepts that are remote from any economic experience must, if courageously and honestly followed out, lead in one way or another to reasoned conclusions against State and property, and only lack of vision saves these materialist Schoolmen from seeing that at the end of their chain of thought stands the beginning once more: effective Communism is authoritative bureaucracy. To put through the ideal requires dictatorship, reign of terror, armed force, the inequality of a system of masters and slaves, men in command and men in obedience - in short: Moscow."

-- Oswald Spengler, The Hour of Decision, 1933

Some Evidence Of Outsiders' Dim View Of Jesus' Origins

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just [man], and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.

-- Mt.1:18-19

I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.

But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.

Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God.

-- Jn.8:38-41

Nora Ephron's Religion: You Can Never Have Too Much Butter

Transcribed remarks here:

WERTHEIMER: You think this movie might bring back butter as some�

Ms. EPHRON: Well, it should, because you can never have too much butter. That is my belief. And I stuck it into the movie. If I have a religion, that's it.

May she rest in grease.

How To Know When You're In The Wrong Church

When the pastor asks for proof texts teaching the doctrine of original sin, you mention Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me," and everyone laughs.

Philistines At University Of Virginia Oust President Who Wouldn't Axe "Obscure" Academic Departments Like Classics and German

I drew you a map.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The money-grubbing transformation of academia began long ago. First the principle of selectivity in admissions had to go, with the introduction of the GI Bill. Then Latin had to go as a requirement. Then any foreign language at all, or even any core classes. At length college football and basketball became the centerpieces of the public face of universities. Its education graduates who now teach your sixth grader can't spell in their own language, let alone reason in it. The latest development is only the logical conclusion in this process of relegating the central to the periphery, and now to the useless.

Read all about it here in The Washington Post:

The campaign to remove Sullivan began around October, the sources said. The Dragas group coalesced around a consensus that Sullivan was moving too slowly. Besides broad philosophical differences, they had at least one specific quibble: They felt Sullivan lacked the mettle to trim or shut down programs that couldn’t sustain themselves financially, such as obscure academic departments in classics and German.

Ich bin ein Berliner. Sie sind verruckt.