Blog of Concord

Successor Blog

2006-05-06T10:32:00.000-04:00

The successor to "Blog of Concord" may be found here.

On hiatus

2005-10-26T14:35:00.000-04:00

The blog is officially on hiatus. I don't know whether I have anything worth sharing, and any and all of my energy ought to be devoted to sharing it with my congregation.

Pax vobiscum.

Bill Cork evacuates from Houston

2005-09-23T11:32:00.000-04:00

Former-Lutheran-turned-Catholic blogger Bill Cork has left his home in Houston TX and is now with friends or family in Atlanta, blogging about the latest natural disaster to assault our fellow citizens on the Gulf of Mexico.

A turn for the worse?

2005-09-23T11:15:00.000-04:00

According to all the reports, the Vatican is preparing to forbid self-identified homosexuals from studying for or being ordained to the Catholic priesthood, even if they promise to remain celibate.

On the face of it, this is very wrongheaded.

I suppose one could make a prudential argument for serious consideration whether gay men should present themselves for a life where a) they will be living with other men in close quarters for eight years or more and then b) they will be on their own in the parish, with few opportunities for psychosocial intimacy except with members of their family or (surprise surprise) other men, adults or young adults.

But to ban "them" completely flies in the face of common sense, good judgment, and moral decency. First of all, who are "they?" Someone who has a live-in boyfriend, someone who has a wet dream every couple of months, or both?

Granted, there is a huge problem in seminaries everywhere (Protestant as well as Catholic) with a gay subculture. Seminaries, like universities, have become havens for the gay subculture, or even simply a highly charged sexual subculture with no distinctions between gay, straight, or whatever. This story on NPR tells of a man who sued the Jesuits in the late 1980s for sexual harassment after entering a seminary and finding himself receiving sexually suggestive cards, invited to gay parties, etc.

But the Vatican has to be kidding itself if they think that simply making a rule against gay men is going to work out. You have to invite people into a life of discipleship and make it possible. I knew people (faculty as well as seminarians) at seminary who were not living in compliance with Vision and Expectations, and yet there were some who were. It also begs the question: are you going to ban all egotistical, unforgiving people from the ministry as well? Because if you are, then I ought to turn in my collar too.

I'm willing to see how this plays out, but I hope I don't have to. I would rather see seminaries, non Roman Catholic as well as Roman Catholic, forming sinners in a life of obedience rather than banning sinners from the Church. The policy in V/E expecting those who self-identify as homosexuals to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships has to be enough. What it does is offers a standard. Now we need to form people to live according to the standard. That is the hard work.

Gerhard Krodel, R.I.P.

2005-09-01T09:42:00.000-04:00

My intern supervisor had only his dissertation to complete on a doctorate of history when he started his seminary studies. His university offered him the opportunity to complete the dissertation and attain to the degree. He discussed it with Dean Krodel and President Steumpfle and said that he didn't think he could keep up with the coursework at Gettysburg AND do the dissertation, so he thought he would decline the opportunity to do the dissertation. Krodel told him:

"You vill not use us as an excuse for your failure!"

He completed the dissertation.

Prayers Requested

2005-08-27T19:30:00.000-04:00

Prayers are hereby requested for Joseph Benjamin Pisano, five-year-old son of Joseph and Erin Pisano, both friends of ours from college. He was struck by a sports utility vehicle on Monday and is currently in critical but stable condition at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. Prayers are asked both for his healing and for the strength and comfort of the family. Please pray also for his maternal grandparents, Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Arnold.

Thank you for your prayers.

Pat Robertson and the domestication of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2005-08-25T10:51:00.000-04:00

Now it's personal.

Until now, Lutherans were simply sharing in the general outrage over "religious" broadcaster Pat Robertson's encouraging the U.S. government to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

But now, he's brought Dietrich Bonhoeffer into the fray.

In his written statement clarifying his remarks on Chavez, Robertson cites Dietrich Bonhoeffer as partial justification.

The Pat sez:

I am a person who believes in peace, but not peace at any price. However, I said before the war in Iraq began that the wisest course would be to wage war against Saddam Hussein, not the whole nation of Iraq. When faced with the threat of a comparable dictator in our own hemisphere, would it not be wiser to wage war against one person rather than finding ourselves down the road locked in another bitter struggle with a whole nation?

The brilliant Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived under the hellish conditions of Nazi Germany, is reported to have said:

“If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver."

On the strength of this reasoning, Bonhoeffer decided to lend his support to those in Germany who had joined together in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and killed by the Nazis, but his example deserves our respect and consideration today.

Andy Weaver, a pastor in my synod, sent out an email with the title "Leave my Bonhoeffer alone." His email reflected the shocked sensibilities nearly all Bonhoeffer admirers or students feel, I'm sure. A former professor, Gil Waldkoenig, responded with this list:

Reasons why Bonhoeffer's attempt to assassinate Hitler was qualitatively
different from Robertson's call for assassination of Chavez

1. Bonhoeffer was committing an act of resistance within his own
country.
Robertson was sniping at another country's head of state

2. Bonhoeffer was on record for pacifist views and took up violence as
a last resort (in the "just war" tradition)
Robertson is on record for war-mongering, and jumped to
assassination without advocating other avenues.

3. Bonhoeffer risked his own life to try to stop the key perpetrator of
the Holocaust and the war. Robertson risked nothing in his demagoguery over
political issues.

4. Bonhoeffer was trying to stop his own country's war and genocide.
Robertson suggested something that would start a war between his
country and another.

5. Bonhoeffer's act was a personal act of resistance under a regime
that had stolen his voice, vote and power as a citizen.
Robertson's voice, vote and power are admittedly distended but not
undermined by the regime under which he functions

6. Bonhoeffer didn't announce publicly his desire to assassinate
Hitler.
Robertson was grand-standing in one of his "news" and commentary
broadcasts.

7. Bonhoeffer took responsibility for his own action.
Robertson said somebody else or, at best, "we," as in the US
government, ought to do it.

8. Bonhoeffer was a theologian who earned his degree in an established
university under the standards of the academic community.
Robertson is the typical self-anointed American huckster preacher,
is not in conversation with serious theologians, and does not respect
the serious academic theological community

9. Bonhoeffer could write well.
Robertson can't even speak clearly.

10. Bonhoeffer acted out of profound sadness.
Robertson has glee over US power and his own self-inflated role in
public policy

It should be noted here that Bonhoeffer has been cited by those who advocate the assassination of abortion providers, etc. In The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon, Stephen R. Haynes describes the phenomenon of Bonhoeffer's "domestication:"

"If these mainstream conservative spokespersons (James Dobson, etc.) hint at parallels between Nazi crimes and legal abortion, others leave no doubt that we are living in the midst of a second holocaust...In the past decade religious rationales for attacking abortion providers and the institutions that sustain them have been personified by two men: Paul Hill and Michael Bray. Hill is the better known of the two. In September 2003, he became the first American executed for antiabortion violence after being convicted of murdering a physician...After the murders, Hill reflected on criticism of his actions from the Christian community:

'Before World War II the church in Germany also shrank from resisting the evils of an unjust, oppressive government. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is an example of a church leader who, as an individual, sought to protect innocent life by plotting the death of Hitler...Few people today, looking back, would say that the active civil disobedience of that time should have been restrained. We can be certain that the counsel of restraint today will be regretted by those who look back on it in the future.' "

Haynes continues that while responsible pro-lifers have explicitly condemned anti-abortion violence,

"...there is no doubt that invocations of Bonhoeffer which condemn Christian passivity in the face of the 'American holocaust' provide symbolic encouragement for radical antiabortion activists...playing into the hands of Bonhoeffer devotees on the radical right who agree that America's Nazi-like culture must be resisted and conclude that Bonhoeffer's relevance lies in his reluctant decision to wield the sword to fend off chaos and protect the defenseless."

But Haynes makes the sword double-edged, insisting that all of our appropriations of Bonhoeffer for our own purposes are suspect:

"Some Bonhoeffer scholars have responded...by calling attention to the distinction between murder and tyrannicide. But in focusing on what Bonhoeffer meant, they ignore the more crucial issue of what Bonhoeffer means, a task that require a thorough critique of all attempts to make Bonhoeffer "ours" by establishing parallels between Naziism and contemporary movements or programs we find distasteful...Indeed, liberals have been as guilty as anyone of ascertaining Bonhoeffer's relevance for contemporary political life by portraying their own governments in Nazi images."

We are on vacation...

2005-08-20T17:21:00.000-04:00

So far my wife, the three kids (6,4, and 1) have been back in Lancaster County as tourists, doing the Strasburg Railroad and PA Train Museum on Thursday, and today doing the Renaissance Faire. Sunday we'll be in Camden at the Aquarium, Monday the Please Touch Museum in Philly, and then to NY for the day Tuesday. Home on Tuesday night and back to work on Thursday on a very, very busy fall.

My question is this...

2005-08-16T11:01:00.000-04:00

Well, if you followed the aforementioned link to ALPB's Orlando updates, you would be aware that the Churchwide Assembly, by passing Recommendation Two on Sexuality, refused to get specific about what "faithful pastoral care" to all its members exactly means. One would think that this will become a hot issue at Synod Assemblies next year. They also rejected the hare-brained scheme of the Task Force and Church Council by a bare majority 50% to 49%. This has traditionalists sort of happy, but it's more a sigh-of-relief happy or dodged-a-bullet happy. "Progressives" or "revisionists" are either really hopping mad or "we'll get em next time." No one is satisfied, and this issue is not going away.

But my question is this:

If you studied sexuality in the American Roman Catholic Church for four years, took 1,000 bishops, priests, and laity, stuffed them into a big room in Orlando, and told them to decide these questions on homosexuality without recourse to a magisterium or a Pope, how much different would the results be?

I am tempted to believe that you would have gotten something very much the same as you got from the ELCA in Orlando.

This has the effect of making me feel better about my church "after all, we're not worse off than everyone else, we're just as bad off as everyone else!" But it seems to say that our chief issue in the mainline Protestant world is the issue of governance.

The only difference between the Roman Church and the Protestant Churches right now is the Pope and the Magisterium. It is there to "safeguard the deposit of the faith" from error and false teaching. Protestants, having been burnt once (sometimes literally) by the authorities when their interpretation of Scripture ran afoul of the prevailing winds within church governance, have dismissed these authorities out of hand, preferring with Luther "to acknowledge no fixed rules for the interpretation of the Word of God."

This leads to a situation in which a more-or-less representative group of the Church is told to decide these questions, as opposed to, in the Catholic tradition, members of the Church who are called to a specific purpose, that is "to transmit and protect the deposit of the faith." Those latter folks are going to act far more in accordance with the tradition rather than to let contemporary orthodoxies and pragmatic concerns dictate their stance.

Of course, with Luther, we take our stand on the idea that "Popes and Councils can err and have erred in the past." But the sword is certainly double-edged. We have no recourse, as non-Roman Catholics striving to live in conformity with Scripture and the apostolic teaching, to appeal to authoritative interpreters of Scripture. We have to choose our own authorities rather than having them in place for us. Of course, this gives us more freedom, which for some is the highest good. But it cuts both ways. For those of us who want to take our stand on the issue of blessing same-sex unions, or ordaining those people in them, our cherished freedom with regard to married clergy or ordaining women becomes the bane of our existence. Similarly, those who cherish the freedom of the Protestant world because it allows for change on the issue of homosexuality may also find the freedom undercutting orthodox action on abortion, names for God, etc.

What is all of this to say? The people of the Roman Catholic church hold various and diverse positions on the issues surrounding sexuality, or any other number of issues. But the Magisterium and the Pope grant what might be called a "safe space" for the voice of Scripture and the apostolic tradition to be proclaimed and lived. That safe space is much harder to define in our current Protestant situation. To create that safe space with integrity in a world that seems intent on abandoning the tradition for its own conceptions may be the task of the next twenty years.

Comments? Plaudits? Smack-downs?

Orlando Assembly Updates

2005-08-08T16:13:00.000-04:00

Richard O. Johnson, associate editor of Forum Letter, live-blogs the ELCA Churchwide Assembly here.

It may not be as a big a deal as Fr. Richard Neuhaus live-blogging the papal conclave in April, but it seems like a big deal to us Lutherans.

Is anyone really surprised, man?

2005-07-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

I am 16% Hippie.

What? Am I a Republican? Why did I even bother taken this test?! I guess I’ll back to my George W. Bush fan club and tell them I just wasted 10 minutes of my life. At least I don’t stink, man.

Take the
Hippie Test
@ FualiDotCom

The weird wacky world of Harry Potter fandom

2005-07-23T09:03:00.000-04:00

If you have an hour to waste, click on some of these links and see just how seriously some take the Harry Potter books...

A before-the-release term paper on why Harry and Hermione would never get together...

The wailing and gnashing of teeth of those who hated book six...

And this...

For all our efforts in trying to explain away JKR's ridiculous plot holes and unforgivable character assassinations in HBP, it turns out that JKR really is a shallow, short-sighted, and highly irresponsible writer.

And I thought faith bloggers were weird...

On dealing with telemarketers

2005-07-20T13:28:00.000-04:00

I hang up on them. Not rudely at all. I don't rant and rave or swear at them (even if I'm at home alone and no one knows I'm a pastor). But I hang up on them.

This is how I do it:

If I feel like I'd be marginally interested in the product, I say: Please send me a catalog.

If they won't, or if I'm not interested at all, I simply interrupt the caller and say: "I'm not interested. Thank you for your time."

And I hang up. No more words, no waiting for the telemarketer to agree that this conversation is over, nothing.

The reason I do it this way follows:

A polite conversation has a mutually agreed upon ending. It happens when both parties acknowledge that the conversation is ending. It must be initiated by one party, but concluded by both.

Telemarketers know this. They know that it takes two to conclude a polite conversation. They know that the callers will also share this assumption.

Therefore, their rule is: Do not let the conversation end. There will always be an answer, a question, a rejoinder, a refusal to acknowledge that you are attempting to end the conversation. Those who have been brought up to be polite will follow the rules they have learned, and will not hang up on someone.

If I know they are not playing by the rules of polite conversation, I am free to take action. I am free to terminate the conversation on my own, knowing that they will never agree that the conversation is over. I do this not because I am impolite, but because the rules are different than normal. And I do it without anger and without guilt.

I do not think I am being uncharitable. Indeed, perhaps I am being most charitable by not wasting their valuable time. And I am never verbally abusive or even surly. I often am friendly.

(click)

The blogosphere takes notice...

2005-07-14T14:14:00.000-04:00

...of Braaten's bombshell, and that we are less than one month from Orlando 2005.

Good stuff on Verbum Ipsum - where the question is raised "What's Spirituality Got to Do With It?" - and Versus Populum, where hopefully we are beginning to get to the real issue: what is the source and norm of our proclamation, faith, and life?

Meanwhile, Pietist writes his own open letter to the ELCA:

"Oedipus Rex came to mind. I know the reference is only a partial one. That particular tragedy is about someone who fought and killed a man whom unknown to him was his father. I wonder if Hanson will is going to be seen as the tragic figure who unknowingly presided over the poisoning of his own mother (our mother the Lutheran tradition in which we were weaned)."

We can perhaps staunch the flow. We must rebuild our educational system. We need to help the faithful clergy. We need to reassure the membership that ours is a sound church built on sound doctrine and the experiments in liberal theology have had their day.

Braaten on the State of the ELCA (Hint: he's not happy)

2005-07-14T03:44:00.000-04:00

Dwight is back. In a big way.

He, along with others, posts an open letter from Carl Braaten to the Rev. Mark Hanson, bishop of the ELCA, on the state of the church.

...the kind of Lutheranism that I learned – from Nygren, Aulen, Bring, Pinomaa, Schlink, P. Brunner, Bonhoeffer, Pannenberg, Piepkorn, Quanbeck, Preus, and Lindbeck, not to mention the pious missionary teachers from whom I learned the Bible, the Catechism, and the Christian faith -- and taught in a Lutheran parish and seminary for many years is now marginalized to the point of near extinction. In looking for evidence that could convincingly contradict the charge that the ELCA has become just another liberal protestant denomination...there is not much there to refute the charge. As Erik Petersen said about 19th century German Protestantism, all that is left of the Reformation heritage is the aroma from an empty bottle.

"Recently in an issue of the Lutheran Magazine you expressed your hope that Lutherans could some day soon celebrate Holy Communion with Roman Catholics. My instant reaction was: it is becoming less and less likely, as the ELCA is being taken hostage by forces alien to the solid traditions Lutherans share with Roman Catholics. The confessional chasm is actually becoming wider. So much for the JDDJ! The agreement becomes meaningless when Lutheranism embarks on a trajectory that leads to rank antinomianism."

My friend Wolfhart Pannenberg has stated that a church that cannot take the Scriptures seriously is no longer a church that belongs to Jesus Christ... Does the ELCA take the Scriptures seriously? We will soon find out. Whoever passes the issue off as simply a hermeneutical squabble is not being honest – “we have our interpretation and you have yours.” Who is to judge who is right? The upshot is ecclesiastical anarchy, sometimes called pluralism. To each his own.

I regretted that Braaten gave no background and did not go into some specific instances of what he considered "the drift into liberal Protestantism" meant. I therefore explicate what I think it means in the comments section of Dwight's blog.
Here is my contribution:

1. Braaten drops the name of Karl Barth a lot and refers to
"liberal Protestantism" or "Kulturprotestantismus." (Caveat: "liberal" does not mean "21st-century Democrat:" in the letter, Braaten mentions that he is against the Iraq war.) "Culture-Protestantism," obviously a put-down term rather than a school of thought, might be generically described as a Christianity that gives lip-service to creeds and confessions while in actual doctrine and practice taking its cue from the contemporary culture. Barth specifically disagreed with the experience he had with "cultural Protestant" German theologians who said that the will of God could be discerned in several places, i.e. in nation and culture. The term can also illuminate those Christians who live uncritically to the culture and are not formed by the culture of Christ. His turning point came when these theologians supported World War I on the basis that God also spoke through the will of the nation, and his defining moment came when many of that same school later supported Hitler on the grounds that Volk and nation was an instrument of God's will independent of the church's proclamation and witness. Barth was the primary author of the 1934 Barmen Declaration which famously stated that "Jesus Christ is the one Word of God that we must obey in life and death," and to posit that there were other loci of authority that we could set alongside or in opposition to Christ was heretical.

2. In the contemporary "Protestant" culture, Braaten and others see a Kulturprotestantismus which differs in its assumptions about the culture but is one with the primary assumption that Barth critiques: the idea that one can know God and God's will through other means than through Christ. In our context, this means: there is no mediator - God or Christ primarily speaks to us through our experience of self and world and the experience of those who are oppressed, whatever their experience may be. Neither the Scriptures nor the Church are truly sources of authority - at best, they become the confirmation of God granting me my own authority as authentic self-interpreter. When they contradict my view or my culture's view of reality, they may be set aside because they do not define Christ for me: rather, my own understanding and experience defines Christ for me. This may best be summed up in our day by what is now the unofficial creed of our full communion partner, the United Church of Christ: "God is still speaking," and its unofficial symbol, the comma. How does God speak? Not through Bible, Sacrament, Creed, confession, or community, but through my own imaging of who God might be and my own unique experience of reality. This necessarily leads to a plurality of truths, which in effect is a negation of truth, for the notion that there can be more than one truthful answer to a specific question is logically bankrupt.

3. How is this played out in the contemporary situation? Obviously the homosexuality question for Braaten and those like him is a key issue, for it encapsulates the revolt against Bible and Church as sources of authority and sets against them the witness of the self that "God has authentically created me this way," which is a revelation granted in an inner sense to the self and which may not be disputed by Bible or Church. But it should be noted that the acceptance of homosexuality is only one and the most visible symptom of the main assumption which is simply this: The Scriptures and the Church formed by their teaching are not the primary or sole revelation of God. God must be experienced, known, and apprehended by myself above and beyond the witness of Scripture and the Church. The Scriptures may confirm the self's apprehension of God, but they may not correct it. Moreover, they are not the "final word." They are simply "a" word to be set in dialogue with other words, and interpreted according to the disposition and beliefs of the believer. "God is still speaking."

In the academy of the ELCA, including my alma mater, Gettysburg Seminary, and from its bishops and pastors, in its social statements, denominational materials, and materials published by its publishing house, the following assertions are made, perhaps not bold-facedly, but "between the lines," for those who are enlightened and would seek to be.

a. The Trinitarian doctrine and the Incarnation are not revelation, but are primarily products of religious imagination. When they are taught as authoritative, they displace the views of other religions and of feminist and womanist "revelations" of the identity of God.

b. Because of the above, the Christian faith is not in a privileged position as regarding visions of the divine.

c. Jesus encountered the reality of God, but was not God himself. We in fact have the same capacities as Jesus.

d. The Bible is only authentically read as a document that describes how people were touched by the experience of God. A reading which would attempt to define the nature of God, describe historical occurrences, or draw conclusions for life together is a "text of terror" which excludes those who read the text differently.

e. Sin is inauthenticity to self, not disobedience to God.

f. When considering ethical questions, the primary locus or reference is the self. A decision on abortion (to take one example) is to be judged upon whether "I" am able to bear a child without undue emotional, physical, or financial hardship. The same self-referential assumption is made in the case of physician-assisted suicide, stem-cell research, divorce and remarriage, etc.

Catholicism and Orthodoxy provide obvious antidotes in their structures to the doctrine of the authority (some would say "tyranny") of the self. The irony for Lutherans is that Luther insisted that he himself had the authority to interpret the Scriptures. However, his was not the freedom to add or detract to them according to his predispositions, but to read them as they actually were. Naturally none of us free ourselves from our "baggage" so thoroughly as to interpret the Scriptures free from bias. But to interpret them in a way that the clear texts are discarded or superseded by my own bias or by another principle is to fall into error.

One final personal word: the homosexuality debate is often seen as a debate about certain kind of people: who is in, who is out. I would posit that Braaten and those like him might say that it is about where God speaks: in the self or in the Scriptures (which are also "means of grace" with the Sacraments). When we listen, which we are exhorted to do, do we listen together to the teachings of the Scriptures and the witness of the tradition, or do we listen to the voices of our aspirations and desires, which Lutherans have traditionally believed are "curved in upon themselves" and do not tend to seek the will of God but rather to substitute their own wills? I do not wish to give glib answers to those who struggle with homosexuality or with the issues surrounding it. I am against bumpersticker theology in all its forms. But I hope it has become clear, at least, why this issue is the lightning rod for those who are concerned that the moral and religious discernment of the self has displaced the Scriptures as the "inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of our proclamation, faith, and life." (ELCA Constitution 2.04)

The late Shelby Foote on Book TV

2005-07-11T22:47:00.000-04:00

I've been watching this off and on for the past few days. Foote died earlier this month.

Great stuff, especially when he talks about other writers and how he writes.

Book Report

2005-07-05T10:15:00.000-04:00

Title: The American Religion
Author: Harold Bloom (Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, The Book of J)
Written: 1991

The author sez: The true American religion is not Christianity but is a variation of Gnosticism, and this is American religion's peculiar genius. Seen among other places in the Cane Ridge revivals of 1801, Transcendentalism, New Age, and African-American religion, the most unique permutations of the American Religion are Mormonism and Southern Baptism. The true American originals were Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, and E.W. Mullins, Southern Baptist and articulator of the concept of "soul competency," which says that the soul is competent, without any mediation, to deal with God on a one-to-one basis.

Quotable:
What is the American Religion?

"Freedom, in the context of the American Religion, means being alone with God or with Jesus, the American God or the American Christ. In social reality, this translates as solitude, at least in the inmost sense. The soul stands apart, and something deeper than the soul, the Real Me or self or spark, thus is made free to be utterly alone with a God who is also quite separate and solitary, that is, a free God or God of freedom. What makes it possible for the self and God to commune so freely is that the self already is of God..." (p. 15)

What's behind Mormonism?

"Mormonism is a wonderful strong misprision, or creative misreading, of the early history of the Jews. So strong was this act of reading that it broke thorough all the orthodoxies - Protestant, Catholic, Judaic - and fopund its way back to elements that Smith rightly intuited had been censored out of the stories of the archaic Jewish religion. Smith's radical sense of theomorphic patriarchs and anthropomorphic gods is an authentic return to J, or the Yahwist, the Bible's first author." (p. 84)

On Jimmy Swaggart, of whom Bloom considers himself "a fan":

"Visiting a prostitute was [Jimmy] Swaggart's equivalent of the Holy Ghost cultist passing a lighted blowtorch over hands or face. We are in the pattern that Gershom scholem, meditating upon such Kabbalistic figures as Nathan of Gaza and Jacob Frank, named "Redemption through Sin." Swaggart's genius was to convert his falling forward on his face, as it were, into being slain in the Spirit, thus falling back into the arms of the congregation, his television viewers." (p. 179)

And here Bloom visits California, and puts a self-proclaimed religious geniusin his place:

"The Californian God differs in that he is a kind of public orange grove, where you can pick as and when you want, particularly since he is an orange grove within. His perpetual and universal immanence makes it difficult for a newager to distinguish between God and any experience whatsoever, but then why should such a distinctinon occur to a California Orphic? Matthew Fox, ostensibly a Catholic priest, has formulated a curious doctrine of 'panentheism' to avoid this collapse into pantheism, but Fox is one of my defeats. Several attempts on my part to read through The Coming of the Cosmic Christ have failed, as no prose I have ever encountered can match Fox's in a blissful vacuity, where all things flow to all, as rivers to the sea." (p. 186)

On the Baptist experience (and "In the Garden" is alluded to several times):

"The Baptist experience of knowing Jesus, in a solitary and renewable encounter, takes priority over public worship, doctrine, or acts of charity. And since what can know Jesus, in some way already is akin to Jesus, then the saved Baptist participates now in the Resurrection and the Life...If one's undying spirit accepts the love of Jesus, walks with the resurrected Jesus, knows what it is to love Jesus in reurn, alone with jesus in the only permanent and perfect communion that ever will be, then tehre can be no churchly authority over one. As for the authority of Scripture, even it must yield to the direct encounter with the resurrected Jesus." (pages 205-206)

My response: A wonderfully illuminating book. Now I know why we Lutherans hate "In the Garden" so much. Makes me appreciate the catholicity of our Lutheranism that much more. Does our Presiding Bishop understand that this is why Lutheranism cannot compete, on a large scale, in the American religious marketplace? The spiritual experience that most Americans seek, and which the Baptists and Mormons excel at, does not come easily to Lutheranism, if at all, and we have an innate distrust of the same. (Although, Chip, look at Africa - lots of Lutherans in Africa!)

The most disquieting part of this book is how much Bloom sympathizes with those he describes, like Smith, Swaggart, etc. He sees them as heroes of the religious imagination, authors like the ones he describes. What I think he fails to see is how hurtful the Gnostic-like religions can be, trampling on the poor, the uneducated, those who are unable to make the high standards of knowledge or achievement these faiths demand.

No Word from the Lord

2005-06-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

Lee at Verbum Ipsum: "Jesus never said a word about about highway appropriation bills or FCC regulations!"

His point (or at least as I take it) - this is intellectual laziness - whether from the left (never said anything about abortion, homosexuality) or from the right (never said anything about environmentalism or government subsidies).

I once made the point to someone I was helping interview who brought up the "Jesus never said a word about it" line re: homosexuality that any theology that could fit on a bumper sticker was suspect to me.

Anyhow, I'd like to play a game. Feel free to join in. The more outlandish the better.

Jesus never said a word about...

SUVs
antidepressants(so there, Tom Cruise!)
post whoring (or comment whoring, in blogworld)
breastfeeding in public (hi, Annette!)
Social Security
watching "R"-rated movies
fairly-traded coffee
maple trees
public broadcasting
the flat tax
illegal immigrants
bubble-gum flavored ice cream (I'm against it)
DVD players in cars (ditto)

Happy anniversary!

2005-06-25T07:15:00.000-04:00

It's the 475th anniversary today of the presentation of the confession of the "Lutheran" party to the Imperial Diet at Augsburg - otherwise known as the Augsburg Confession.

To celebrate, I am going to assist at a wedding Mass for the first time in my pastorate. :)

Live-blogging from camp

2005-06-22T12:31:00.000-04:00

This week I am a camp pastor at Camp Mount Luther, our Upper Susquehanna Synod camp. My family has been here much of the week, but they are at home for a couple of days and so I have time to sit and write for a little bit.

It was a very eventful couple of weeks. Our Vacation Church School was last week, and was successful. This is, I must admit, my least favorite part of being a pastor. Not the getting up in front of kids and acting silly part, but the planning and execution part. Nevertheless, with the help of an awesome staff, eighty kids had a great week.

Following VCS was our Synod Assembly. Both memorials to the Churchwide Assembly which oppose the Church Council recommendations passed without nearly the intensity of debate that I expected. I have a feeling that we all know what we are going to say about this topic anymore. In a way, that is too bad, for certainly a substantive discussion might be fruitful.

We also passed resolutions condemning torture and religious abuse (I wasn't sure about this one, but the speakers for the resolution convinced me), against the "Separation Wall" in Israel (abstained - although I understand the land grab issue, I also sympathize with the need of Israel to defend itself and can't help but notice that there have been not nearly so many suicide bombings since the wall began to go up - anyone want to disabuse me on my ignorance?) and other resolutions and memorials relating to supporting Augsburg Fortress, Christ-like living, evangelism, social ministry, etc.

I was on the Committee for Reference and Counsel this year, and am proud (not in the theological sense) to say that because of the commitment of our chairperson (not me), our hard detail work on the resolutions/memorials and our willingness to send them back to the originators if they were unsubstantiated or unclear, the process was a much smoother one than in years past.

I am using some of the down time I have this week to read Bonhoeffer's Ethics. I have been putting this off until I had some serious time to chew on it. I can only say that I am chewing. Yum, yum. I hope to be able to blog on the conclusions I come to and the questions that are raised.

Quiz results

2005-06-14T08:10:00.000-04:00

OK quiz - not the best, but oh well.

You scored as Karl Barth. The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology.

Which theologian are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

When Two Cultures Collide...Zen Judaism

2005-06-13T22:48:00.000-04:00

Excerpts heard on Car Talk.

The Torah says,"Love thy neighbor as thyself."
The Buddha says there is no "self."
So, maybe you are off the hook.

more

Do we need to change the rules?

2005-06-10T10:22:00.000-04:00

Lee links to Marcus's post on the inadequacy of traditional Christian sexual ethics and adds his own thoughts.

There seems to be this unspoken assumption in Marcus's post that for two thousand years Christians were behaving in accordance with the "traditional" sexual morality. IMHO, baloney. In every century there was tension and flagrant, cheerful ignorance of the Church's official position. What do you think those wonderful English madrigals are about?

To me, the "moderns won't accept a traditional Xian sexual ethic even though they can accept a three-tiered universe" is an argument about splitting a two-sided coin. Most non-Christians think we're too repressed. Most Christians I know actually believe sex is best saved for marriage, even though in their particular case an exception ought to be made. :) I assume our forebears thought basically the same things.

As for "what is sex for?" I could not read that other article from the Century. But the idea that "sex is for sanctification" seems a little optimistic to me. The phrase reminds me of what Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson said about his sexual relationship with his partner. He said, "It's sacramental to me." I don't think that we ought to be elevating sex to sacramental status. It gives it an ultimate quality that frankly, the results don't bear out. Moreover, it does not address adequately the self-seeking sinfulness that frankly, I believe is part of even the best sexual relationship. We cannot fully throw off that old Adam even when we want to.

But I think that is what the culture (and I think many to most cultures across time) has done. We have reduced transcendence to orgasm, and fulfillment to variety, spontaneity and ecstasy within a monogamous relationship. Frankly, it is the consumer/technical mindset that pushes this especially in our culture, for the entire marriage/sex industry, non-pornographic and pornographic, is based on the premise that there is a better orgasm out there, and that if we're not having it, there's something wrong.

I protest!

2005-06-07T11:53:00.000-04:00

Camassia provides more evidence why I like her style, by taking my Matthew Fox protest and addressing it far more intelligently and reasonably than I.

And speaking of protests, here's one my wife and son were involved in yesterday in New York.

The first three articles

2005-06-05T23:19:00.000-04:00

Article One - God
Article Two - Original Sin
Article Three - The Son of God

The order of the articles, part 2

2005-06-05T22:11:00.000-04:00

I really would like this blog to be a place where I can explore questions with other folk. Camassia's blog is the best example of this I can find so far. Lee's is good too. I really don't intend to rant and/or pontificate all the time (I'm just so darn good at it!)

But something I read over on Ut Unum Sint gets me back on my previous post on the Trinity being the first article of our Augsburg Confession. Matthew Fox, former Catholic priest who was banned from teaching by the Vatican in the mid-90s and currently is an Episcopal priest, will be teaching the Professional Leader's Event in the ELCA's Northern Illinois Synod this fall. Dr. Fox just was in Wittenberg, where he called for a new Reformation and posted "95 Theses" near the Castle Church Door.

In opposition to the original 95 Theses, Dr. Fox's make very little sense in a linear fashion. They alternate between rants against the Roman Catholic Church, bromides about homosexuality and economic justice, and promulgation of a neo-Gnostic pastiche which would probably make a second-century Gnostic twitch with laughter.

Among the most problematic theses:

1.

God is both Mother and Father.

I would affirm that God is neither male nor female. However, the term "Father" as a designation for the first person of the Trinity is part of our Triune Confession of God, the first of our Lutheran Confessions.

2.

At this time in history, God is more Mother than Father because the feminine is most missing and it is important to bring gender balance back.

5.

“All the names we give to God come from an understanding of ourselves.” (Eckhart) Thus people who worship a punitive father are themselves punitive.

6.

Theism (the idea that God is ‘out there’ or above and beyond the universe) is false. All things are in God and God is in all things (panentheism).

Panentheism seems to me to directly contradict the Christian notion of Creation by a God who is not this world but who creates this world.

16.

Christians must distinguish between Jesus and Paul.

But which Jesus? Certainly not the Jesus of John 17. Certainly not the Jesus of Matthew 28:16-20. Certainly not the one who says that those who indulge in porneia will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. In other words, that which accords to Fox's predetermined notion of Truth in Jesus and Paul will be used, and that which does not will be discarded.
23.

Sexuality is a sacred act and a spiritual experience, a theophany (revelation of the Divine), a mystical experience. It is holy and deserves to be honored as such.

What about the sin that dogs our sexuality from the word go - the desire to possess and use the other for our own purposes? Well, read on...

32.

Original sin is an ultimate expression of a punitive father God and is not a Biblical teaching. But original blessing (goodness and grace) is biblical.

33.

The term “original wound” better describes the separation humans experience on leaving the womb and entering the world, a world that is often unjust and unwelcoming than does the term “original sin.”

Contra article two of the Augsburg Confession.
Besides, this is totally illogical. If the world is often unjust and unwelcoming, then where did that come from? If "bad stuff" originates with the world, where did the bad stuff come from in the first place?

54.

The Holy Spirit works through all cultures and all spiritual traditions and blows “where it wills” and is not the exclusive domain of any one tradition and
never has been.

That God does work through other faiths than Christianity is a given. How God does so and whether Christianity has a superior claim is another question. I suggest that those who are Christians should believe that Christ is the self-revelation of God to humanity.
88.

When science teaches that matter is “frozen light” (physicist David Bohm) it is freeing human thought from scapegoating flesh as something evil and instead reassuring us that all things are light. This same teaching is found in the Christian Gospels (Christ is the light in all things) and in Buddhist teaching (the Buddha nature is in all things). Therefore, flesh does not sin; it is our choices that are sometimes off center.

1. What?
2. The fact that this guy calls himself a theologian is breathtaking. "There is no sin, there are only bad choices?" Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot? Auschwitz was a bad choice? Apartheid? Slavery? Gang violence is the result of bad choices? How about sex slavery in Asia? Child pornography? Even his favorite sins - economic injustice, etc? A bad choice is Folger's Crystals rather than fairly-traded organic coffee. A sin is killing rather than giving life, lying rather than truth-telling, taking rather than receiving.
3. The fact that this guy cannot distinguish the idea of "our flesh" as the poetic biblical term for the sin that dwells inside of us rather than denigrating the entire bodily existence is disturbing. The entire Christian tradition has been remarkably pro-body as an expression of God creating the world and seeing it as very good. However, it realizes that our very selves are turned away from God and towards ourselves, something that Fox represents to perfection but cannot see himself.

90.

"God” is only one name for the Divine One and there are an infinite number of names for God and Godhead and still God “has no name and will never be given a name.” (Eckhart)

Again, contra article one.

I am quite astounded and distressed that those in authority in the Northern Illinois Synod have chosen to invite this person, whose teaching and beliefs directly contradict the Lutheran Confessions, and in fact have their roots in the ancient heresy of Gnosticism, to teach their pastors and professional leaders.

In the seminaries, the Confessions are not treated as binding on our consciences. We do not study them in depth, we do not treat them as much more than historical documents which are interesting in themselves as a resource for where Lutheranism came from. We take vows to preach and teach according to them when we are ordained, but that does not seem to mean too much.

"Christians must distinguish" (to coin a phrase) between interpretation of the Confessions and unfaithfulness to the Confessions. And yes, we as Lutherans do owe loyalty to the Lutheran Confessions. We value them as "true witnesses to the Gospel." Or we used to.

When you invite a Matthew Fox to teach your professional leaders, a man who celebrates a "Cosmic Mass," a man who rejects the catholic faith as expressed in the Creeds, a man who openly states (among other things) that there is no such thing as sin, that we need no Savior other than ourselves, then you are no longer teaching and preaching according to the Lutheran Confessions.

Blogwatch Central

2005-06-03T04:00:00.000-04:00

Eve responds to an email I wrote her on the use (and abuse?) of converts and conversion stories.

Clint at Lutheran Confessions weighs in on the virus that is "open communion" - the practice of explictly inviting those who have not been baptized into the Christian life into the fellowship meal of Christ with his Church.

Touchstone's Russell Moore writes on bringing up violent Christian boys. It is certainly an entertaining piece. He gets in a few good digs against Precious Moments and The Polar Express, a movie I knew I didn't want my kids to see the moment I saw the preview.

I really doubt that I would take four-year-old boys to see the latest Star Wars movie. I also do not allow gun-play in my house, even though I shot everything in sight when I was a kid.

But I fear that the latest wave of anti-war and non-violent rhetoric is not truly non-violent. It may be avoidance of responsibility for others and closing one's eyes because one does not want to see what is really there.

There is a certain way in which everyone is violent, in which one does not need to "learn" from society the methods of force. According to Moore and others, an aggressive spirit is simply part of maledom, and ordering such a spirit and directing it towards the good is the Christian task. There may or may not be a certain virtue in learning to fight and strive, controlling one's fear in order to defend the weak and helpless, and saying to those possessed of a truly violent spirit, "This far and no farther." That I believe is a Lutheran first use of the Law, and a Christian being an instrument in God's first use of the Law has been a Lutheran tenet from Dr. Martin himself.

I am reminded of a story that a friend told me. His son was being bullied at school, and had gone to teachers and so forth, but the bullying did not stop. He told his son one day, parked in front of the school, to tell the bully "no," and if he insisted, to hit him. His son responded, "You're nuts and I'm out of here," and got out of the car forthwith.

But he did it, and it worked.

Is this simply giving in to sin? Ignoring Jesus' own words on non-resistance? Or is there a sense in which one must first know one's own strength in order to give it up? And is there a responsibility, attested to in Scripture as well, that those possessed by a truly violent and chaotic spirit must be held in check by those who are able to master and command their own instincts to violence by the Word of God?

Both arguments appeal to me, and reason does not show me which is proper and correct.

The order of the articles

2005-06-01T23:09:00.000-04:00

At last week's retreat of the Susquehanna and Chesapeake/Potomac chapters of the Society of the Holy Trinity, one of the presentations made mention of a book that is a required homiletics text at one of our Lutheran seminaries.

The book is titled "Trouble with Jesus: Christology, Feminism, and Homiletics" and advances the thesis, among others, that the trouble started when the early Christians began confusing the person of Jesus with his message.

Making disparaging comments about every single ecumenical council, the book claims that we are to use Jesus as the example and exemplar for our own efforts, that it is the quest of Messiahship that can be found in all of us. Or something like that.

The big revelation that I came to is that I've been used to thinking of the fourth article of the Augsburg Confession as the first important one. It's not. There is a reason that the first article confesses the nature of God. To the extent that we do not confess and understand God as Trinity, we are no Lutherans, no Christians.

To believe in Christ is to acknowledge the mystery of the Incarnation, to believe that, for us, God who is beyond time, space, and culture bound himself permanently to time, space, and culture.
In becoming human in Christ, the Word of God speaks God's language to us, but also speaks our language to God, representing us to God and bridging the divide of sin.

Unfortunately, this faith is being discarded as "primitive" in portions of our church. If it is not being flatly denied, it is being ignored as esoteric and divisive. It seems we have a choice, on one hand, between the bearded grandfatherly distant Deity who creates and sends us to find our way, and on the other, the Life Force within each of us, affirming each disparate, unique, and non-negotiable path.

Or is there a third way, old as Christianity itself, in our first article, affirming our creation by God; celebrating our adoption as the brothers and sisters of the Word of God who became like us in order that we might be
sons and daughters of his Father; and recognizing the Spirit that strives in us as in one sense alien and in the other transforming us to be truly ourselves in God?

Neil Armstrong in Gettysburg

2005-05-31T06:48:00.000-04:00

This is astronaut Neil Armstrong in Gettysburg for the Memorial Day ceremonies. In town over the weekend, we discovered that he was going to be speaking. Dr. Armstrong makes few public appearances. He spoke not a word about the moon, but spoke well, saying, among other things, that those who came back from war were not always overjoyed to have survived, having been through what they'd been through and seeing so many friends die. He also said that our responsibility to fallen soldiers was to create a nation of which they could be proud; one where success was neither guaranteed or denied to anyone. He even (I think) tried a passable Hal Holbrook Lincoln accent for his Lincoln passages. In this photo he is looking straight at the camera for us. Before this he gave a little two-fingered wave to Michael and Katie Grace.

I had expected Michael (to whom I have read every moon landing book appropriate for his age group) to be overawed. He was thankful, and happy, but I don't think understands what a rare opportunity this was.

We really had to be creative to get this close. We got there about twenty minutes before the ceremonies, and already a large crowd had formed. There was a very little space at the front as close to the rope as you could get, and I got them down there and knelt down for all the appropriate parts. So I suppose no one got blocked by us.

Benjamin F. Martin: France in 1938

2005-05-19T14:28:00.000-04:00

I already returned this book to the Lycoming College library (what a wonderful place) - but I am trying to post on the books I read, so I'll go ahead with a few remarks:

This book is easy to read, goes into just enough detail about the past to make 1938 intelligible, and parallels the commentary on the political machinations of that year with descriptions of the trials that mesmerized the public, movies and fashion, and descriptions of the two books Sartre wrote in response to the events of 1938. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what the titles of these works are. But the main character in each of them, who could represent France or Sartre, respectively, is a man paralyzed by indecision because each responsible decision he could make would be a loss of freedom. He is a man consumed by longing and terrified by responsibility and so he refuses to act.

As for the politicians, it seems that:

a) the fear of Communism and a worker's revolution both hamstrung French efforts to implement a war economy (i.e. repealing the forty-hour work week to increase production) and threw enough support to Germany as a counter-weight to the Soviet Union to swing minds away from confrontation with Germany;

b) the defensive mentality of Generals Gamelin and Petain, to name two, meant that the French did not believe that they could win a war with Germany and thus never had a plan to win once that war came. It was a key factor in France not marching in 1936 nor to come to the aid of Austria or Czechoslovakia in 1938. The French relied on alliance with the British and the Maginot Line. Because Britain (led by Chamberlain and Halifax) did not want to fight either, France took the easy way of believing that Hitler could be appeased.

c) Finally, the anti-semitism still pervasive in the right wing meant that any move against Germany could be seen as overly supporting the Jews. The Germans and rightly so bear guilt for the Holocaust, however, it should not be denied that anti-Jewish feelings in the rest of Europe aided and abetted the Nazi attitude, if not the methodology.

Blogwatching

2005-05-11T21:58:00.000-04:00

It's my first blogwatch! (fanfare)

Camassia posts (and receives many replies) on "is the purpose of sexuality procreation?"

Lee explores the "goodness" (or the justness) of the good war.

Inside the souls of America's youth

2005-05-11T21:40:00.000-04:00

Soul Searching, by Christian Smith...perhaps a ministry-changing book. It reads like the Habits of the Heart of the early 21st Century. Expect many posts on it soon.

Here's a taste:

...we suggest that the de facto dominant religion among contemporary U.S. teenagers is what we might well call "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism." The creed of this religion...sounds something like this:

1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and in most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

...we are not suggesting that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a religious faith limited to teenage adherents in the United States. To the contrary, it seems that it is also a widespread, popular faith among very many U.S. adults. Our religiously conventional adolescents seem to be merely absorbing and reflecting religiously what the adult world is routinely modeling for and inculcating in its youth...

More to come...

Luke 9:51-62

2005-05-09T23:32:00.000-04:00

"He set his face to go to Jerusalem."

Praise God that the NRSV retains the literal translation, "he set his face." But this is no mere religious pilgrimage, as the Samaritans seemed to believe in verse 53; this is a journey to a place of combat and conflict, the place of his exodus or his "taking up." Such a journey demands no mere geographical orientation, but an orientation of heart, soul, and mind.

The Samaritans can only see that he is facing south toward Jerusalem - and they know all they need to know about him. Such an attitude is similar to the prejudical attitude of the Pharisees in the Gospel of John. But Jesus refuses to allow James and John the righteous joy of calling fire down upon them (interestingly, an incident only in Luke, which confirms their designation as "sons of thunder" unique to Mark). God alone is judge. They went on to another village. What was their reception there? Apparently Christians are not to waste much time in imprecations against those who do not receive the message, but are to get on with proclaiming it.

And then we find the three "would-be disciples of Jesus," as the subheadings in many Bibles would have it. They all seem to revolve around the idea of homelessness or rootlessness. The first must reconcile himself (and presumably does not) to the idea that a physical home is not in his future should he follow Jesus. The others must leave home, and fully, in order to have a home with Christ. Although we cannot understand the radical nature of this text from our society of autonomous individualism, perhaps we may think, What cherished ideals, where I feel at "home," must I leave in order to be with Jesus?

And finally, I ask myself: Where must I set my face? Where is my Jerusalem, the place of conflict and crucifixion? And what homes, where I feel comfortable, must I leave in order to be homeless with the Lord?

Yet another reason we're homeschooling

2005-05-09T23:15:00.000-04:00

Montgomery County, Md. had to have their sex-ed curriculum struck down on religious reasons - not for shoving creationism down kids' throats, but for this blatant appropriation of religious teaching:

Myth: Homosexuality is a sin.

Facts: The Bible contains six passages which condemn homosexual behavior. The Bible also contains numerous passages condemning heterosexual behavior. Theologians and Biblical scholars continue to differ on many Biblical interpretations. They agree on one thing, however. Jesus said absolutely nothing at all about homosexuality. Among the many things deemed an abomination are adultery, incest, wearing clothing made from more than one kind of fiber, and earing shellfish, like shrimp and lobster.

Religion has often been misused to justify hatred and oppression. Less than a half a century ago, Baptist churches (among others) in this country defended racial segregation on the basis that it was condoned by the Bible. Early Christians were not hostile to homosexuals. Intolerance became the dominant attitude only after the Twelfth Century. Today, many people no longer tolerate generalizations about homosexuality as pathology or sin. Few would condemn heterosexuality as immoral — despite the high incidence of rape, incest, child abuse, adultery, family violence, promiscuity, and venereal disease among heterosexuals. Fortunately, many within organized religions are beginning to address the homophobia of the church. The Nation Council of Churches of Christ, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches support full civil rights for gay men and lesbians, as they do for everyone else.

Now, how are we supposed to believe in a "religiously-neutral environment" in the public schools when things like that are out there? And I'm sure this is not isolated.

Actually, we're not homeschooling strictly for religious reasons, but whoa, nelly.

From the Volokh Conspiracy, via OpinionJournal's Best of the Web Today.

An idea whose time has come

2005-04-27T22:02:00.000-04:00

With great fanfare, I refer you to...
"The Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas"

It at least deserves some serious consideration.

(I hate "Here I Am, Lord.")

Pope Benedict XVI

2005-04-19T16:45:00.000-04:00

O God our Father, give your wisdom and heavenly grace to all pastors and to those who hold authority in your Church, especially Pope Benedict XVI, that by their faithful service, faith may abound and your kingdom increase, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Who is the Lord, here?

2005-04-19T06:53:00.000-04:00

"Lord, get rid of this headache."

Is this a prayer, or a command?

What earthly servant would dare speak thus to his lord?

What lord would endure it?

Yet this is how I spoke to my Lord this morning, in the space between sleep and wakefulness, as casually as could be, as if I were snapping my fingers, calling for my morning coffee or jam with my toast.

"Lord, get rid of this headache."

Ask, and you shall receive. But we are not told to treat our God and Creator as our servant or butler. That is not asking, that is commanding. And perhaps my prayers are weak because they are not prayers.

Oh, and by the way, Lord, is there anything I can do for you today?

Sermon - Third week of Easter

2005-04-18T22:16:00.000-04:00

On the road to Emmaus...

Unitarian Jihad

2005-04-12T15:30:00.000-04:00

Hee, hee, hee.

(Found it on Touchstone's weblog)

ELCA Council recommends "exceptions"

2005-04-12T11:39:00.000-04:00

Moses and the Didache set before the faithful two ways...the way of life and the way of death.

The ELCA Church Council set before the faithful two ways...and invited them to walk on either or both.

All right, maybe that's unfair, maybe that is flippant, but it seems to be the best way to summarize the situation before the CW Assembly.

Basically, the Church Council is forwarding the recommendations of the Task Force on Sexuality to the CW Assembly. This is what I have been able to discern after a quick reading.

The only good news here is that Council is recommending that a 2/3 majority be required for Recommendation Three, because it would require adopting new bylaws.

ELCA News Release here.

Text of Recommendations in PDF here.

Brown/Meier: Antioch and Rome

2005-04-09T22:45:00.000-04:00

Over our baptismal font is a stained glass window - Ss. Peter and Paul. Peter holds the keys; Paul the sword of the Spirit.

How did these two, who were so bitterly opposed at Antioch, come to be linked so closely? Why did their names become linked forever in liturgical celebration? How were they reconciled?

In 1983's Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Early Catholic Christianity, John Meier and the late great Raymond Brown collaborated to reconstruct the situation in these great centers of early Christianity during the first three generations of the faith. Meier used the following documents to illuminate the situation at Antioch: Galatians and Acts for the first generation; Matthew for the second generation; Ignatius's letter to Rome for the third generation. In like manner, Brown uses the following for Rome: Romans for the first generation; 1 Peter and Hebrews for the second; 1 Clement for the third.

The main thrust of their argument is this: There were at least four main competing versions of Jewish-Christian mission to Gentiles in the first century. The first insisted on circumcision (the "circumcision party" so vehemently opposed by Paul.) The second did not insist on circumcision, but required a basic adherence to the food laws (the position espoused by James in Acts.) The third, Paul's view, required neither circumcision nor keeping kosher. The fourth not only did not insist on circumcision or keeping kosher but "saw no abiding significance in Jewish cult and feasts" (represented by the "Hellenists" in Acts 6, and the Gospel of John).

The upshot of all of this is that Peter occupied the the "middle" between the competing claims of the circumcizers and the Hellenists, and even between James and Paul. Thus Peter became the "rock" which the most Jewish and Gentile Christians could build upon in Antioch. Paul's letter to Rome tolerated the moderate Jewish observances which were in practice there, notwithstanding his fierce rejection of circumcision in Galatia, and even his opposition to the kosher requirement in Antioch. Brown attributes this to either a maturation in Paul's thought or perhaps simply desire to be accepted in Rome. Paul was received in Rome after his letter, as was Peter, and their martyrdoms there linked them in history and cemented Rome's self-identity as the heir to the apostolic witness after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

This book is short (under 250 pages, including indices) and a quick read that packs a whole lot of information between its covers. I really found it to be almost like reading a really good mystery story. One would expect this sort of work from scholars of such eminence as Brown and Meier. This inspired me to pull Early Christian Fathers from my shelf for the first time since Christianson's class. But I think the best thing it does is it seems to make excellent sense of the various strands of the New Testament. How can Matthew exist side-by-side with John? What about Galatians, with its story of conflict between Peter and Paul, and Acts with its story of harmony, not perfect harmony, but harmony nonetheless?

And it answers my question about how Peter and Paul can be in the same stained-glass window. They were closer than perhaps they realized, nearer the center than either those who saw Christianity as Judaism plus Jesus or those who saw Christianity as Jesus without Judaism. Did they reconcile face-to-face? Perhaps, perhaps not, but they were reconciled by the Christian community nonetheless, by their convergent if not always identical preaching of Christ and most radically by their shared martyrdom for Christ in the capital of the Empire.

Tolle, lege.

Maundy Thursday sermon

2005-04-08T11:18:00.000-04:00

It's here.

Shuttle Roll-Out

2005-04-06T14:09:00.001-04:00

At the time of this posting, the space shuttle Discovery is being rolled out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39 on its crawler-transporter.

My son Michael is obsessed with space and space travel. So was I, when I was a kid, and in a way I still am. However, my realistic side is doubtful about the potential or long-term value for such travel. I must say that I believe the world cannot afford to put large colonies in space, on the moon, or on Mars. And furthermore, the question must be asked, why live there? These are not human habitats. Exploration, yes. But long-term living - I just can't see the point.

However, I must say, I am grateful for the interest, because my son and daughter enjoy non-fiction as much as or more than fiction. I must say I wish they were more interested in life on earth as much as they seem to be interested in life and space.

Hey - they're six and three - give them a break!

Sermons posted

2005-04-05T22:26:00.000-04:00

I have posted two of my recent sermons on a new blog.

Hope, this Sunday's texts, and John Paul II

2005-04-05T22:10:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking of preaching this Sunday about hope, the need for humans thereof, and therefore the response of the world to the death of the Pope (understood, the media's need for a story has something to do with how the response is reported and fanned).

But it seems to me that the response has something to do with how hopeful the man was, and how hope was rekindled with his words, yea even resurrected, in Eastern Europe and all over the world.

Of course, you cannot have hope without something to hope in - and this week's resurrection text from Luke is all about hope rekindled. From "we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel" to "Were not our hearts burning within us..." after a walk and a meal.

What would the world be like if our hope was in God, and specifically in Christ's resurrection? What would our lives be like if we viewed them through the lens of this hope?

These are just some rough ideas, at this point...all are subject to change.

A prayer for the Pope

2005-04-01T09:55:00.000-05:00

O merciful Father,
you teach us in your holy Word
that you do not willingly afflict or grieve your children.

Look with pity on the sorrows of John Paul, your servant,
for whom we pray.

Remember him, O Lord, in mercy.

Strengthen him in patience,
comfrot him with the memory of your goodness,
let your presence shine on him,
and give him peace through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Great minds think alike

2005-03-26T23:09:00.000-05:00

Unintentionally, the new template I picked is the same as Clint's at Lutheran Confessions. I guess I'm just trying to be just like him.

BTW, my middle name is Clinton.

And today is my baptismal anniversary! I just remembered that while singing "We Know That Christ is Raised" during the vigil. I was baptized March 26, 1972, which was Palm/Passion Sunday. So now I share a baptismal anniversary with the children I baptized this evening.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

2005-03-26T22:42:00.000-05:00

I am currently celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord by drinking coffee and listening to Robert Shaw's exquisite recording of Rachmaninoff's Vespers (All-Night Vigil).

Our senior pastor, Bob, had chest pains Wednesday and admitted himself to the hospital. He thought he would be out later that day. As it turned out, he was incorrect - a catheterization revealed that he had four arteries 60-70 percent blocked. So, instead of doing Holy Week services, he had quadruple bypass surgery.

As you may have guessed, this meant that I had some extra work to do. Fortunately, the sermons on Good Friday were quickly snapped up by our local Council of Churches head, two retired pastors, and Bishop Main. I only had one sermon to do on Good Friday (hooray!) If my bishop had a ring, I would kiss it.

But I did all the liturgies, a new thing for me during Holy Week. Usually I just breeze in and let Bob handle all the details. This was different.

If you have never washed twelve pairs of feet, keep this in mind. It is exhausting work. You are on your hands and knees, bent over, and you don't get a break. By the end of it, my back was stiff as a board and aching, my pulse was up, my breathing was heavy, I was sweating. For me, it is that experience that reminds me of what Jesus was ready to go through for me and for all of us. It also brings home to me what service Jesus models for us - it is not easy - it involves the whole body and mind, and it will tire us. But that is what he commands.

Friday, as I mentioned, was easy thanks to the guest preachers. But then I got a call that a member had had a massive stroke. Out to the hospital, to the church for baptismal preparation, and back to the hospital. Home at 9:45, lay down on the couch, and did not wake up until about five a.m.

Tonight was the Vigil and I baptized two babies. Remember in your prayers two new holy ones of God and sisters of Christ - Angelina Gabriela and Brenna Virginia. Angelina snuggled right up into the crook of my arm as I poured the water over her head. Brenna was a little bit fussy, but she calmed down as soon as I pulled her back in and started to dry her off.

I have a cold that has been just waiting to grab me and take me down, but it does this thing where my throat gets sore just a little bit, and then it backs down. Today the sore throat is more pronounced and I started to have a headache during the Vigil. I have no doubt that tomorrow after services it will try to pounce. Unfortunately, next week does not get easier as I most probably have a funeral, definitely a wedding at the end of the week, and the Youth Service to prepare for. I am not ready for the Youth Service. I had promised to get a musical group together and have not. I don't quite know what I am going to do.

But all of this pales next to the Resurrection. May your celebration of our Lord's triumph be blessed.

A quote from von Balthasar

2005-03-22T23:22:00.000-05:00

"Faith is a movement of the entire person away from himself, through the gift of grace; thereby he lays hold of the mercy of God given to him in Christ - in the form of the forgiveness of sins, justification and sanctification. In this movement away from himself man has done all that he, through grace, can do; he has done all that God requires of him. Since his intention is to leave himself, without reservation, and hand himself over entirely, this movement implicitly contains all the 'works' he will eventually do. They are not some second entity besides faith; if they are performed in a Christian spirit, they are only forms in which faith expresses itself.

"As an act of the whole person, faith travels in a direction away from itself and toward God. That is why reflection on itself and any attempt to make itself secure are foreign to it. The gospel may promise a 'reward in Heaven' to a faith that is rightly lived out, but faith itself is very far from calculating any 'merit' that may bring about such a reward.

"The word 'merit' insofar as it concerns some value conferring a right to something is theologically an unhappy term that would be better dropped...We need have no qualms about dropping the word, for there is a biblical word ready to replace it: fruitfulness..."

-from In the Fullness of Faith

This seems to me to be Bonhoeffer-ish, especially when he talks about faith being unreflective. And "toward God?" Well, that sounds just like Nachfolge.

Huzzah.

As you may have guessed, prayer but no sermon tonight.

Has your kid ever done this?

2005-03-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

My daughter Katie was alone at the table finishing her dinner tonight. I was washing the dishes, Annette was on the computer, Michael was upstairs getting his pj's on, and Nicholas was, well, being a crazy one-year-old. So I come out to the table to get the dishes still there and what do I find?

She has been drinking from the maple syrup bottle. There is maple syrup on her shirt, in her hair. She has drunk AT LEAST FOUR OUNCES AND MAYBE MORE. She throws a crying fit that she does whenever she gets caught at something.

Amazingly enough, she hasn't thrown up and she's asleep. I really expected her to vomit. She was a little - OK, a lot - wired before bed, but she's asleep.

Today was our Renewal of Ordination Vows and Blessing of Oil service. It was, for lack of a better descriptor, very nice. One thing about Renewing Worship (the ELCA move toward a new worship resource) - it does have some really good hymns which are new and fresh. Sang a couple of Herman Steumpfle hymns and another based on John 3:16, which is not a "new" hymn but one that I've never heard before. And I thought RW would be all pop songs.

To pray and to write sermons - I hope to stay awake.

Easter at King's starts tomorrow.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified...

A Holy Week Feast from the BBC

2005-03-21T22:55:00.000-05:00

I know what you're thinking - you're to fast during Holy Week. This, however, is different.

Sure, church attendance is miserable in Britain. Sure, the Anglican Communion is on the verge of schism over homosexuality. Sure, the traditionalists in the C of E are outraged over Charles's and Camilla's impending nuptials, with the blessing of the Archbishop of Canterbury. But as long as the Anglican church music tradition is available over broadband, I'm all for the British government funding their religion.

This is a new project - "Easter at King's." The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, justly famous for their Christmas Eve Service of Lessons and Carols, is offering a series of concerts and special worship services which will be broadcast over BBC 3.

I've posted the schedule below. If you want the complete article from the source, with the list of readings and music during worship, click on the header of this post.

And if you're at work (or at church) and can't listen live, the BBC archives this stuff for at least a week.

The lineup includes:

Holy Wednesday:
4:00pm UK Time (11:00 AM EST)
CHORAL EVENSONG
Live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge

7.30-9.35pm UK Time (2:30 - 4:35 PM EST)
PERFORMANCE ON 3:
Bach: St. John Passion

Maundy Thursday:
8.00-9.00pm UK (3:00-4:00 pm Eastern)
Live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge
PERFORMANCE ON 3:
Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories
for Maundy Thursday
The King's Singers
Lessons sung by the Chaplain, the Rev. Richard Lloyd Morgan

Good Friday:
10.15 - 11.30pm (5:15 EST)
Haydn: The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross
Salomon String Quartet
Reader: The Rev. Ian Thompson, Dean of King's

Easter Sunday:
4.00-5.00pm (11:00 am EST)
Festal Evensong
Live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge

Performance On 3
6.30-8.10pm (1:30 pm EST)
J.S. Bach:
Lobet den Herrn BWV 230
Suite No 3 in D BWV 249
Easter Oratorio
Choral Scholars of King's and Clare Colleges
The Academy of Ancient Music
Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

Palm/Passion Sunday

2005-03-21T13:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a very good day. I thought our Palm/Passion Sunday celebrations went off very well.

Annette said I looked angry during my sermon, though. I think she might have a point. I often look angry when I am trying to preach Law. I often look angry, period, when I am trying to be serious. I may need to videotape my sermons to see whether or not something needs to be done.

Later this afternoon I have to go see someone who is in the hospital. This would not ordinarily be an issue except it is my day off and this is someone from my interim church who was taken off the rolls years ago and now is in trouble and wants a pastor. So I have to go away from my family, and the eldest already is not pleased about this, to drive twenty miles to Lewisburg and see this guy. It is not Christian to be angry about this but I am. I would not begrudge this if it were an active member of the congregation. Part of me thinks that the experience will change my attitude - I hope so. I told Brenda, the secretary, that secretaries get to see pastors who are grumpy about going and doing things and not the side that is always glad to be of service.

Anyhow, pray for this guy - his name is Oliver.

Edit: in posting this, I look at the new quote in the headline of the blog and say "I should be ready to yield anything." But I am mostly upset that this puts me in another situation of time-debt to my family, and it seems to be so arbitrary. I have no idea of this guy's personal situation, and why he wasn't involved with the church. But this is just par for the course - something goes wrong and people expect you to show up. Maybe the word "expect" is not the proper word. Maybe it is that he "needs" me at this time. Which is understandable - he is in serious trouble. But when the Church needed him?

Certainly I will not give this guy the third degree - this is not the time. And I may be wrong about the particulars of the situation.

You may wish to pray for me, too. :)

Mini-vacation

2005-03-14T09:40:00.000-05:00

This weekend was busy, but a really nice break from routine, especially with Holy Week and Easter coming.

Visited friends in the Gettysburg area on Friday - a fellow pastor whose wife and mine are very close philosophically as well as spiritually. My kids reacquainted themselves with their children. They are expecting a third in April - blessings and prayers, Heidi and Christopher!

On Saturday - a whirlwind tour. Left Gettysburg for York, and Annette got to see a best friend from high school. Left York for Dillsburg, where we saw a close friend of Annette's who is probably moving to the far west of the U.S. in the late spring.

Then met my parents at the Camp Hill Barnes and Noble, who took Michael for Sunday and Monday. They went and saw Rick Henly, a trumpeter who has played on Broadway and has solo albums out. We'll see them later today. We drove home to Williamsport - I needed to be up for church.

With Michael away, pretty low-key at home yesterday and today. We had Chad Hershberger at church, who is the director of Camp Mount Luther. I am quite hopeful that his visiting Sunday School and Children's Church really gets people interested in the camp. We need a larger camp participation - it is one of the things that really vitalizes a congregation. It seemed to be a welcome visit and the kids seemed excited. He said it was the first time he had gone around to individual Sunday Schools and this made an impression.

Made pretzels with Katie after church at the children's activity. Read a book to the kids that we picked up in Gettysburg: Pretzels by the Dozen. Katie is enjoying being the eldest. Her mother asked her whether she missed Michael. She said, and I quote, "Well, I needed a little break."

Today I've been puttering around with the template, cleaning up a bit and just hoping to stay flexible with my time; not to get too distracted by anything and get a couple things done. I think that it is good to visit other people's homes for the simple reason that you are less inflexible with your own - people live in a variety of circumstances and have different problems and successes. You get different perspectives on how you want to do your home life and order your life.

Scylla and Charibdis

2005-03-14T09:19:00.000-05:00

Related to the post below on Robert Casey, Jr. - Democrats, like Odysseus trying to get "home" (the White House?), try to steer a middle course through dangerous waters - the rapids of abortion politics.

Coming up for air

2005-03-09T05:48:00.000-05:00

Picked up the Paul Roche translation of the works of Sophocles yesterday at our sole downtown bookstore. Read Ajax.

Yesterday we had a very civil and substantive discussion at our conference meeting regarding providing some sort of memorial service for a couple who was coming-to-terms with an abortion. Led to discussion about funerals for children who did not survive to full-term (which my wife and I know from first-hand experience). I'm quite impressed with how respectfully we handled everything, since there are a variety of theological stripes in the room.

Received a return email from the pastor who published his belief in open communion in the Lutheran last month. He was very nice. I'm sure he continues to be wrong, but he was very nice (heh).

I have deleted some of the blogs and added the N.T. Wright Page, an unofficial page with links to as many of his writings as are online. That can be found in News/Reference.

The race is on

2005-03-05T21:24:00.000-05:00

Today, Bob Casey, Jr. announced his 2006 Democratic candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Rick Santorum.

This represents a race with national implications. Rick Santorum, a Roman Catholic, is an up-and-coming Republican who gained his seat during the "Republican Revolution" of 1994. He was cited in Newsweek's year-end magazine as a "rising star" in politics.

It only gets more interesting. Bob Casey, Jr., also a Roman Catholic, from the heavily Catholic Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area in the northeast of the state, was the highest vote-getter overall in the Pennsylvania 2004 elections. He has impeccable pro-life credentials. His father, then Governor of Pennsylvania, was also a pro-life Democrat. For that reason alone he was refused an opportunity to speak at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Now Governor Ed Rendell, the former national chairman of the Democratic Party, has endorsed Casey and pressured Barbara Hafer, formerly a Republican and pro-choice, not to run for the Democratic ticket.

It will be fascinating to see whether Casey's name recognition and pro-life stance can cancel out Santorum's strength on the abortion issue. But will rank-and-file Democrats who are pro-choice support Casey? If Casey wins, it will be seen to prove that a more moderate stance on social issues might be what bumps the Dems over the hump. Whatever happens, it will greatly influence what the Democrats emphasize in 2008.

All eyes on Pennsylvania over the next couple of years.

Headlines

2005-03-05T15:17:00.000-05:00

On NPR.org, regarding the Syrian pullout...
"Assad: Coordinated Withdrawl from Lebanon"

I didn't know Syrians drawled, did you?

On AIM last evening...
"Report: Women Worst Off in Last Ten Years"

Evidently, English is worse off as well.

The latest on the "process"

2005-03-05T14:06:00.000-05:00

Seventeen ELCA theologians have signed on to a "Statement of Theological and Pastoral Concern" which urges the Church Council (meeting this weekend) to reject the Task Force's Report. A news article about this is here - apparently ELCA.org is down at this point in time. The signatories read like a who's who of North American Lutheran confessional/evangelical catholic theology, including Braaten, Jenson, Benne, etc. Notable in her inclusion is Jean Bethke Elshtain - I didn't know she was ELCA! She is also the only woman to sign.

I have searched in vain for an online copy of the statement. News stories abound, but nowhere can the complete document be found.

Another notable development: there are rumblings from the Task Force itself that their next assignment, developing a Social Statement on sexuality, may be an impossible job. I will edit post and link to ELCA News on the subject as soon as the site is back up.

Most gracious God, we pray for your holy catholic church: fill it with all truth and in all truth, with all peace; where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, heal it and unite it in your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Edit (21:13 on 5 March): Here is a link to the ELCA News article on the "Statement Of...Concern," and here is an article regarding the daunting job the Task Force has ahead of it (a social statement). The first five paragraphs are the key, in which Bishop Payne admits that there was frank discussion on whether or not the task force can come up with something in two years.

Andrew doesn't get it

2005-02-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan, who gets it so relentlessly when it comes to iPods, doesn't get the Pope. (Well, that's obvious, you might be thinking.) But he writes thusly regarding the Pope's illness (italics are mine)

THE POPE'S LIFE: We have been informed that the pontiff's current suffering and persistence against multiple illnesses and debilities is sending a message about the dignity of suffering and the importance of life. There is indeed a great truth to that. But there is also a point at which clinging to life itself becomes a little odd for a Christian, no? Isn't the fundamental point about Christianity that our life on earth is but a blink in the eye of our real existence, which begins at death and lasts for eternity in God's loving presence? Why is the Pope sending a signal that we should cling to life at all costs - and that this clinging represents some kind of moral achievement? Isn't there a moment at which the proper Christian approach to death is to let it come and be glad? Or put it another way: if the Pope is this desperate to stay alive, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Mr. Sullivan seems never to have read this:

It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.

And the Pope's commitment is obviously that it is not up to him when he is to depart and be with Christ, and lie down and rest with the saints. Sullivan writes from his human-centered perspective - obviously, the Pope should know and decide out of freedom when his time is. John Paul II thinks differently - or should I say, he has a different conception of human freedom.

Program on St Matthew Passion

2005-02-26T16:56:00.000-05:00

One of my absolute favorite - if not absolutely my favorite - pieces of music. I fell in love with it by reading Bernstein's The Joy of Music, and then going out and buying the CD. I was hooked immediately.

In 2002, for the School of Religion, I did a class on the Passion. It was not well attended, but a lot of fun all the same.

One half hour of interviews. Link is to New Testament Gateway Weblog - then to the program.

Edit 28 Feb. 2005: Oops. It's no longer there. You will get, however, an Arthur Miller retrospective - at least until tomorrow.

Hitchhiker's Guide - the Movie

2005-02-26T16:27:00.000-05:00

My first response is: This. is. so. cool. Viewing the trailer, though, I see that there have to be some major plot changes. And, as far as I can tell, Zaphod only has one head.

Arthur Dent, however, looks very - well - Dent-ish.

http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/main.html

We have retreated into the iWorld

2005-02-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

I do not own an iPod. I do not have a radio in my car. And I do not live in a large city. But this article still is relevant. And at the next lock-in, should we get rid of the iPods?

Walk through any airport in the United States these days and you will see person after person gliding through the social ether as if on autopilot. Get on a subway and you’re surrounded by a bunch of Stepford commuters staring into mid-space as if anaesthetised by technology. Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t overhear, don’t observe. Just tune in and tune out.

It wouldn’t be so worrying if it weren’t part of something even bigger. Americans are beginning to narrow their lives.

You get your news from your favourite blogs, the ones that won’t challenge your view of the world. You tune into a satellite radio service that also aims directly at a small market — for new age fanatics, liberal talk or Christian rock. Television is all cable. Culture is all subculture. Your cell phones can receive e-mail feeds of your favourite blogger’s latest thoughts — seconds after he has posted them — get sports scores for your team or stock quotes of your portfolio.

Technology has given us a universe entirely for ourselves — where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger, hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves or an opinion that might force us to change our mind about something are all effectively banished.

Atomisation by little white boxes and cell phones. Society without the social. Others who are chosen — not met at random. Human beings have never lived like this before. Yes, we have always had homes, retreats or places where we went to relax, unwind or shut out the world.

But we didn’t walk around the world like hermit crabs with our isolation surgically attached.

My comments on Recommendation One

2005-02-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

I sent a letter to our Synod Council (and also to the Presiding Bishop, Vice-President of Church Council, etc.) regarding the Recommendations of the ELCA Task Force on Sexuality. Recommendation One reads:

Because the God-given mission and communion we share is at least as important as
the issues about which faithful conscience-bound Lutherans find themselves so
decisively at odds, the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality recommends that
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America concentrate on finding ways to live
together faithfully in the midst of our disagreements.

A relevant section of the commentary reads:

If the assembly approves this first recommendation, it is
declaring that this issue does not have to be church dividing.

Following were my comments:

In Recommendation One, the “Commentary” reads in part: “If the assembly approves this first recommendation, it is declaring that this issue does not have to be church dividing.” If the issues of blessing same-sex unions or rostering individuals who are sexually active within a committed same-sex relationship is solemnly defined as “not church dividing,” then to me the burden of proof has suddenly shifted to those who would oppose a change in policy. Why, if this issue is not church dividing, should anyone oppose allowing changes in the policy?

Moreover, I am concerned about the first statement in the Recommendation: “...the God-given mission and communion we share is at least as important as the issues about which faithful conscience-bound Lutherans find themselves so decisively at odds...” On the face of it, the response to this phrase ought to be and is a hearty Amen! However, I would also submit that in a world that is saturated with sexuality, in a world where people look to the Church of Jesus Christ for guidance and the Word of God regarding sexual conduct, the matters on which we disagree are not incidental to the mission we are engaged in together. The questions we are facing are not on the level of whether or not flowers should be put on the altar or even on the level of whether a new service ought to be added with guitars and drums. The questions we are facing are fundamental questions regarding what the Gospel means when confronted with a particular situation.

The questions should and must be asked: When we reach out in mission to the world God made, what is the content of our proclamation of Christ to those who seek answers concerning human sexuality? How can the Church give two conflicting answers to the questions concerning same-sex genital relationships and still claim to be “one in mission?” Moreover, do the differing answers we give on these matters illuminate fundamentally differing understandings of the mission we have been given from God?

What I am currently reading

2005-02-25T21:50:00.000-05:00

Just finished Bonhoeffer's Creation and Fall, as noted below.

Am hopping and skipping through sections of Wright's The Resurrection of the Son of God.

At the recommendation of Dwight P., have begun Christ Present in Faith by Mannermaa.

Am reading Augustine and the Catechumenate for my Society of the Holy Trinity presentation two Mondays from now.

And am preparing for John 9 two Sundays from now.

Otherwise, I'm not reading anything. :)

I'm speechless

2005-02-23T22:20:00.000-05:00

In the "My View" column, our denominational magazine features an article by an ELCA pastor who defends communing the unbaptized with a few anecdotes and the question that trumps all other answers: "Jesus didn't exclude anyone. Why should we?"

Doesn't our denominational magazine have any responsibility to its readership? Does its solicitation of reader viewpoints extend to any opinion, no matter how uninformed, misinformed, or damaging to Christian faith? Does the magazine have any responsibility to Scripture, tradition, or even the efforts of the ELCA Worship Staff?

Sigh...this is why I'd never recommend The Lutheran to any of my parishioners interested in learning or living the Christian faith.

Here I raise my Ebenezer...uh oh

2005-02-21T22:06:00.000-05:00

Ebenezer Lutheran Church...

Such a solid name for a congregation, and yet...

click here

Creation and Fall...

2005-02-21T22:03:00.000-05:00

...rules.

Just finished it tonight. Oh wow. I am, like, speechless.

The Ethics awaits, as does my discussion with Brett...

2005-01-14T07:50:00.000-05:00

Words of the day:

"pastoral"
"conscience"
"may"
"but"

The scariest part of this report is Recommendation One, which reads as follows:

Because the God-given mission and communion we share is at least as important as
the issues about which faithful conscience-bound Lutherans find themselves so
decisively at odds, the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality recommends that
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America concentrate on finding ways to live
together faithfully in the midst of our disagreements.

By approving it, the Churchwide Assembly would, in the words of the commentary, be "declaring that this issue does not have to be church dividing." This would be an absolute and clear victory for a revisionist position, making gay and lesbian rostered ministers and same-sex blessings just one of many ways of "living faithfully." Once a Churchwide Assembly decides that the issue does not have to be church-dividing, the "unity" of the church trumps right doctrine and practice any day.

More on this, I'm sure.

N.T. Wright on the Tsunami

2005-01-09T22:54:00.000-05:00

Oh, he goes by "Tom Wright" often.
And no, I still haven't made it 1/4 way through Resurrection of the Son of God.

Darn Blogger

2005-01-03T23:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, I just spent 30 minutes blogging about the article I just linked to below, only to have it all disappear when I tried to preview it. Before I lose my sense of God-given peace, I'm going to bed.

I'll try again later, maybe.

Pax Christi

Or, in the New Year...Century's staff converts to Orthodoxy?

2005-01-03T23:08:00.000-05:00

In the New Year, A Protestant Devotion to Mary?

2005-01-01T10:50:00.000-05:00

Link to the cover story of the December Christian Century.

It is an overview article, meant for introduction to the subject of "a Protestant Mariology" and at some points clearly written to ask questions and provoke discussion rather than to state unequivocally what ought to be done.

But it makes some good points, such as the following:

We might begin considering the place of Mary in devotion by noting some ways not to renew a discussion about her. We ought not speak as though all that matters about her is the virgin birth. This question, central in the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early 20th century, treats Mary herself as a side issue, a mere conduit for the one she bore. A second way not to proceed is to use Mary to say anew that which Protestants already say. For example, when Luther treated Mary he tended to depict her as a model for justification by grace alone—that is, as further evidence for what he already believed. If we are to attend to Mary anew, the effort should yield something fresh, something neglected in our own churches and lives.

Also worth noting is that Robert Jenson, in his Systematic Theology, comes out in favor of asking the saints for their intercession:

Jenson argues that death does not sever the bonds of the body of Christ—as even most Protestant eucharistic prayers makes clear. To ask for a departed saint’s prayer, then, is not in principle different from asking another Christian for her prayers. We hold that the saints are not simply gone but are ever alive to God, and so we ought also consider them to be available as intercessors, and powerful ones at that.

It would have been interesting to learn from this article what the official Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue came up with on the subject of Mary and the saints, not to mention the dialogues between Roman Catholics and other churches.

There is a two-page sidebar elsewhere on the site detailing an Hispanic Methodist pastor's negative response.

The God of Jesus Christ and the Tsunami

2004-12-31T10:12:00.000-05:00

From OpinionJournal, Orthodox theologian David B. Hart writes:

Perhaps no doctrine is more insufferably fabulous to non-Christians than the claim that we exist in the long melancholy aftermath of a primordial catastrophe, that this is a broken and wounded world, that cosmic time is the shadow of true time, and that the universe languishes in bondage to "powers" and "principalities"--spiritual and terrestrial--alien to God. In the Gospel of John, especially, the incarnate God enters a world at once his own and yet hostile to him--"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not"--and his appearance within "this cosmos" is both an act of judgment and a rescue of the beauties of creation from the torments of fallen nature.

Whatever one makes of this story, it is no bland cosmic optimism. Yes, at the heart of the gospel is an ineradicable triumphalism, a conviction that the victory over evil and death has been won; but it is also a victory yet to come. As Paul says, all creation groans in anguished anticipation of the day when God's glory will transfigure all things. For now, we live amid a strife of darkness and light.

When confronted by the sheer savage immensity of worldly suffering--when we see the entire littoral rim of the Indian Ocean strewn with tens of thousands of corpses, a third of them children's--no Christian is licensed to utter odious banalities about God's inscrutable counsels or blasphemous suggestions that all this mysteriously serves God's good ends. We are permitted only to hate death and waste and the imbecile forces of chance that shatter living souls, to believe that creation is in agony in its bonds, to see this world as divided between two kingdoms--knowing all the while that it is only charity that can sustain us against "fate," and that must do so until the end of days.

Creation and Fall

2004-12-28T19:55:00.000-05:00

"Creation and Fall" is an amazing book that has a prominent place on my library shelf. It has been formative on my thinking in several respects. When you have finished it, let's have a discussion about it.

IHS, Brett

Bonhoeffer book

2004-12-20T21:05:00.000-05:00

I just finished a book on Bonhoeffer, titled, interestingly enough, Bonhoeffer. Stephen Plant, of Cambridge. Wonder if Dr Steinke studied with him? Excellent work, focusing on his academic writings, and asking the right questions. Best chapter: the one focusing on the works that influenced him, including the Luther Bible, Kant's philosophical works, Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, and (amazingly enough) Beyond Good and Evilby Friedrich Nietzsche.

Apparently Nietzsche has references in the Ethics, which I plan to buy in the spring when Fortress publishes the new translation of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works. I also am going to get Creation and Fall.Bonhoeffer's critique: the idea of ethics as how can I do good? and how can I avoid evil? is an after the fall question. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the problem to begin with. Simple obedience to the will of God, a "childlike" state, is a theme in Act and Being, Discipleship, and Life Together, vs. the agonizing over good and evil that ethicists do. For Bonhoeffer, the serpent's question, "Did God really say?" is the pitfall of theological ethics.

The Pentagon's New Map

2004-12-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

Watching CSpan online. Thomas P.M. Barnett discussing his book The Pentagon's New Map.

Michael broke the door to the oven today. He slipped going into the kitchen and lost his cup. Shattered the oven door. Now Annette was out at the time having "personal time." She's still out at the movies.

But the kids are now all asleep and the fire is still burning.

Famous Atheist becomes Theist

2004-12-12T22:10:00.000-05:00

From Touchstone weblog comes this link to an interview with noted atheist Anthony Flew, who after decades of atheism, has come to the conclusion that the SCIENTIFIC evidence for a creative theistic force is so much stronger that his position is changed. Read the entire interview. It is fascinating not only for his comments on science, but his discussion of the teaching of morality from a secular perspective and his comparison of Islam and Christianity.

-Chip

Society of the Holy Trinity Retreat, Dec 6-7, Part I

2004-12-11T15:11:00.000-05:00

Retreat was held at St. Cyril's Academy, Danville, a beautiful abandoned high school that does still host a preschool, the convent of the Sisters of St. Cyril and Methodius, and a retreat center, of which the Society has had the run of past Decembers.

Worship was held in the Basilica, a gorgeous worship space that is as evocative as you can imagine. Starting with Evening Prayer at 5:50, we went through the entire office, with Compline at 10:00, Morning Prayer at 7:50, and Eucharist at 10:30.

I met Matthew Schuster, a first-year seminarian at Gettysburg who is hanging in there.
:) And I hope gaining a lot from the experience, as I did, and I'm sure you did too. I think we come into these places as certain people, and leave still those people. I don't know too many people who change radically as a result of their experiences there. Can you think of some folks who do?

Conversation focused on the Rule of the Society, with special attention given to a section not included on the website. Mainly, we discussed issues pertaining to the call of a pastor in this society, the crisis of authority, and so forth. Something I had not thought about:

The concept of the ministry being an "order" rather than an "office." Argument in favor: the term "ordination" which is still used for the conferring of the "holy orders," as opposed to "installation" of the office in a particular place. The idea is that an individual represents the "order" of ordained ministers, rather than simply being elevated to an "office" which in theory can be occupied by anyone. When a pastor is "just like" anyone else, and in theory does not know more than anyone else, there is no real reason to listen to him/her if he/she says anything that is uncomfortable. However, a member of an "order" can be expected to be bearing an authority that is not his/her own.

I realize that this may not be congenial to Word Alone-attuned ears. The idea itself was a revelation to me, and I don't know that anyone really ever said anything about it at Gettysburg. But the more I think about the atmosphere there: the fact that no one wore clerics there, the idea that non-ordained people were regularly preaching, the neglect of the term "Pastor," points to a ALC pastoral understanding of the office that pretty much was unchallenged.

I mentioned that every time I attended Mass, and prayed the Eucharistic Prayer, which included, "We pray for the Holy Father, His Holiness John Paul II, our bishop, N., and all the bishops, together with the clergy and the whole family of Christians you r Son has won for you," I felt uncomfortable with the hierarchical nature of the whole thing. To which came the response that the Church IS hierarchical. Hmmm. Not sold on the whole thing yet. But this comes from a pastor who is not afraid to say no to Luther.

Finally, (for this post), I have decided that the way I am going to be able to keep the Office is by one office of readings each day, rather than trying to do two. If I can read the Psalms for Morning Prayer when I get up, so be it. But making it a priority to do one office per day hopefully will keep me on track. It was simply mentally exhausting to not have the space at home to do Morning Prayer when I got up, and too tired after 9:00 to do Evening Prayer.

Expecting a Ripple, Non-Compliant Congregation Undergoes "Catastrophe"

2004-12-11T14:34:00.000-05:00

"Asked why the ministry would violate church policy to call Mason in the midst of
such an active community ministry, Kalke said: "We called her because we needed an associate pastor. We needed a person who was culturally competent." CCLM asked the synod to provide candidates for the call, but it did not offer anyone, Kalke said, so CCLM hired Mason first as a staff person before it called and installed her as an associate pastor.

" 'We didn't expect a catastrophe,' Kalke said of the synod action in response. 'We expected a ripple.' "

This is what happens when congregations routinely violate Synodical and Church policy with impunity, or at most, with a slap on the wrist, and for whatever reasons, a Synod decides that "in this case" harsh sanctions ought to be imposed.

Can anyone really believe that CCLM had any right to expect that their congregation number would be revoked - after all of the ELCA's and the Pacifica Synod's willingness to flout the stated policies of the Church again and again?

What is at question is why the Pacifica Synod should choose to impose the more "draconian" penalty in this case. Was it a case of not wishing to undercut the position of the revisionist party in the ELCA so close to August 2005? Or, is it another strategy: that old saying that the best way to get a "bad" law off the books is to rigorously enforce it?

Or perhaps it simply is as Bishop Finck states: "What we have said to the [CCLM] board is that [Mason's orientation] may be the central issue for you, but it is not the central issue for us."

Selections from the Classics, as I read them

2004-12-11T14:33:00.000-05:00

What, another new blog? I can't keep this one updated!

Luther movie reviews from Christianity Today

2004-11-30T22:40:00.000-05:00

Headline: Luther, Luther, Luther!

Best quote - the last line: "Each generation, it seems, gets the Luther that it needs."

Why the Classics may still be the Classics

2004-11-30T22:24:00.000-05:00

Before I read this article, I decided - thirty minutes a day with the Classics and I may be somewhere in twenty years.

I am currently on Book XII of The Iliad.

This article inspires me - and makes me pray for good teachers for our kids in school - and good pastors as well...

Growing Up 80s and Christian

2004-11-18T07:11:00.000-05:00

Interesting article from someone who remembers how it was back in the day.

God's Awful Music, Pure and Clean

Clearer News, at least

2004-11-17T20:59:00.000-05:00

OK - what it REALLY means is that Council recommended to Assembly that ANY Task Force report recommending a change in standards require a 2/3 majority vote to pass. This is a non-binding recommendation and I believe can be ignored by the Assembly. But the recommendation is a positive.

Here is the salient passage of a new, revised news release:

In the rules of procedure recommended by the council for the
assembly are requirements that a two-thirds majority vote is
needed to adopt recommendations from a task force that require
amendment of a constitutional or bylaw provision, or establish a
practice or policy that is contrary to an existing practice or
policy of the ELCA, such as a policy or practice contained in a
social statement.

Following is a very interesting little part of the article:

In a report to the council, the Rev. Kenneth M. Ruppar,
Richmond, Va., chair of the council's legal and constitutional
review committee, proposed on the committee's behalf that the
assembly rules be recommended except for the section regarding
task force recommendations, most of which which require a two-
thirds majority vote to be adopted. Instead, the committee
suggested the section regarding the rules on task force
recommendations be considered at the council's April 2005
meeting.
But many council members said they wanted to adopt the
assembly rules, including task force report rules now -- as the
council indicated at its April 2004 meeting -- before the Studies
on Sexuality task force report and recommendations were completed
and made public.

Quotes following prove the wisdom of this. Any decision AFTER the Task Force made its report on whether to make Task Force recommendations either simple majority or 2/3 would have constituted an implicit referendum on the Task Force. By doing this, in the words of a council member, the Church Council has "protected their integrity."

It seems that most, if not all, task force recommendations of any sort require a two-thirds majority. Some were eager to suspend in this case.

Read the whole article here - although it is all messed up with question marks on the webpage (how ironic!)

Good News...I think

2004-11-17T07:12:00.000-05:00

The council commended Rules of Organization and Procedure for the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, and it defeated an attempt to defer action on possible additions to a section of the rules on voting to adopt "certain recommendations" from ELCA task force reports. The addition states that a two-thirds majority vote is required to adopt recommendations from a task force that requires amendment of a constitution or bylaw provision.
The council's discussion on churchwide assembly voting rules took place in light of a report and recommendations coming from the ELCA task force for the Studies on Sexuality in January. The task force plans to share its report and recommendations confidentially with ELCA lay and ordained ministers through e-mail on Jan. 12. It plans to release the report and recommendations publicly on Jan. 13, with a news conference here at the Lutheran Center.
Speaking against the motion to defer action Linda J. Brown, council member, Fargo, N.D., said, "It is critical that we act on the rules of procedure independent from upcoming recommendations to protect our integrity." Initiating a two-thirds rule "is consistent," she said.
"This is not a neutral recommendation," said Ellen T. Maxon, council member, Washington, D.C., who spoke against implementing the two-thirds rule. The rule "sets a high bar and sends a clear message that, if you want change, it's going to be harder" to achieve, she said. The "cleanest way" to avoid sending that message is by letting a simple majority vote prevail. "Let the assembly do what it wants and not have the church council decide for it," Maxon said.

If I read this correctly, it means that the Church Council must approve by 2/3 the Task Force's recommendation.

This is good...I think.

Of course, a passage by 2/3 could send a strong message to CW Assembly to adopt.

Full story here

The kids are wide awake...

2004-11-17T06:46:00.000-05:00

And "practicing a play."

The good news - they're morning people.

The bad news - they're morning people.

What is up with that?

What Does It Mean, Reverend Bishop?

2004-11-15T20:42:00.000-05:00

Jason and Brett, and whoever else might pick this up:
What does this mean? asks our Bishop. Is he reciting the Small Catechism as a child, as Luther recommends pastors and bishops do, following his example? Is he asking himself what the decline in membership in the ELCA, the decline in giving to the churchwide expression, the anxiety in the church as we continue our march to Orlando 2005 means? Or is he asking himself why every single news release regarding himself in recent months has had to do with politics and war?

No, rather this:

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The death of Yasser Arafat, the recent
U.S. presidential campaign and election, and multicultural
challenges facing the church prompted the presiding bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to ask, "what does
all this mean?" in his report Nov. 11 to the ELCA Church Council.

What it means, first of all, is that it was a grievous error for Bishop Hanson to accept and for the Church Council to allow him to accept the Presidency of the Lutheran World Federation. This only exacerbates his peculiar temptation to believe that his primary focus is to speak as a "world leader" and advise other "world leaders" rather than to feed the bishops and clergy of the ELCA who are his charge as Presiding Bishop.

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, speaking on the day of Arafat's
funeral in Cairo, Egypt, and burial in Ramallah, West Bank, said
he spoke earlier in the week to the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (and Palestine).
Younan was to be at Arafat's funeral in Cairo and hoped to get
into Ramallah for the burial, Hanson said.
Hanson said Younan asked him to remind the ELCA that the
Palestinian people are more mature than is reported in the media
and some people believe. Younan also asked Hanson to challenge
President George W. Bush "to be a peace broker and to work for a
two-state solution" in the Middle East, Hanson said.

With all due respect to both bishops, I rather think that President Bush has listened to Prime Minister Blair and come out strongly on the day of Arafat's funeral for a two-state solution in the Middle East. Whether he will take Bp. Hanson's advice seriously is another matter. There are just under 5 million ELCA Lutherans who would love for the bishop to be encouraging them and listening to them, for a change.

On the U.S. presidential election, Hanson questioned
observations of election analysts that Bush was elected on the
basis of "personal moral values and fear of terrorism."
"Fear hardens lives, and fears close borders," Hanson said.
"Faith opens our eyes. Fear causes us to flee the world; faith
gives us the courage to go out into the world. Faith causes us
to see the world through the eyes of the cross."

What indeed, does this mean, in concrete terms? Is the Presiding Bishop suggesting that American Christians should not keep in mind, when choosing a leader, who best can protect them from clear and present danger to their lives? Whatever happened to Luther's insight that government, as an expression of God's LOVE for the innocent, has a mandate to protect them from those who would cause harm to them?

Hanson returned to themes he pressed during the campaign.
He asked what it meant that a president was elected who
supposedly speaks to moral values, yet neither Bush nor Sen. John
F. Kerry could address "moral issues" such as poverty, HIV/AIDS,
lack of clean water in the world, genocide in Sudan and "horrific
acts" in Fallujah.
"What does it mean for those of us who care about those
things and are dismissed as not caring about moral values?"
Hanson asked.

What it means, to my mind, is that the Bishop of the ELCA needs to be setting about articulating his views in such a way that it inspires people to follow rather than simply heaping more guilt upon them. Moreover, the Bishop, for as interested as he seems to be in politics, should be a little bit more savvy of the media "spin" that has used the phrase "moral values" to paint every Bush supporter with the fundy brush.
Or perhaps all that it means is that Bishop Hanson was not approached by an exit poller.

Religious groups that focus on what he termed
"fundamentalism" and "Pentecostalism," are getting more
attention, Hanson said, adding he was "not willing to say that in
that religious landscape we have nothing to say as Lutheran
Christians." The ELCA can "become an evangelizing church in a
Lutheran 'key,'" he said.

That is because Pentecostals and fundamentalists, for all we whine and complain about them, take each individual seriously. For Bishop Hanson, it seems as if we privileged need only be awakened to our privileged status, and all will be well. He is not interested in our healing, only in the healing of those who interest him.

Comments? Chime in. As always, I could be wrong, and as always, I pray for my bishops and for my fellow pastors.

Links added

2004-11-14T21:39:00.000-05:00

I figured out how to add links to the sidebar. (Applause)

Check them out, if you don't already know about them. Oremus Bible Browser is the only site I know of that offers online searching of the NRSV.

Back in the pulpit for the first time since Oct 10. Consecration Sunday Dinner bet. services so no Sunday School. No YG tonight either. Almost like a vacation day for me.

The kids are asleep and I am listening to the Music Box on witf.org. Tonight I hope to say Vespers, do a little reading and go to bed.

How it all began

2004-11-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

A slightly different take on the Creation of the internet...

And yes, I blogged this post with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Now to work.

President Hanson weighs in on Arafat

2004-11-11T18:45:00.000-05:00

Film at 11.

http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/1556.EN.html

anyone interested?

2004-11-11T18:33:00.000-05:00

give me a holler. Let me know.

Pax Christi
Chip