It seems to me that due to:
1. 9/11
2. The Iraq War
3. The desolation of New Orleans
4. Our financial collapse
There should be calls to repentance going out in every church in our land. Judging by the history of the Church, when manifold judgments like this strike us we should proclaim a fast and repent to God for our sin and seek His face for direction. I don’t see that happening which perhaps is another indication of how asleep at the wheel we all are.
When she was twelve years old, the future Queen Elizabeth translated a work by Calvin called How We Ought to Know God. She presented the work as a gift to Queen Katherine, the wife of Henry VIII. It seems that Elizabeth was well-acquainted with the work of Calvin when she was young.
There is something strange about the make-up of people like Rowan Williams. We know that his ‘private theology’ is that homosexual sex is just fine. And now we get more confirmation that he ok with core elements of Roman theology that the Reformation found to be idolatrous. This pairing of love for Roman positions on Mary and saints with being fine with same sex activity seems to be somewhat common. Those who are heretics regarding sex are also quick to give away Reformational doctrines on idolatry.
Someone once said that the Episcopal Church’s position on homosexuality was wrong but that it had less practicing homosexuals inside whereas the Roman Catholic Church has the right position on paper with more actual homosexuals practicing inside of her. I have no idea if this is true or not, but it is an odd juxtaposition.
So Williams who is just fine with these Roman doctrines at the same time makes any reunion with Rome impossible by his tolerance of disordered sexual ethics. Odd.
There is something strange about the make-up of people like Rowan Williams. We know that his ‘private theology’ is that homosexual sex is just fine. And now we get more confirmation that he is ok with core elements of Roman theology that the Reformation found to be idolatrous. This pairing of love for Roman positions on Mary and saints with being fine with same sex activity seems to be somewhat common. Those who are heretics regarding sex are also quick to give away Reformational doctrines on idolatry.
Someone once said that the Episcopal Church’s position on homosexuality was wrong but that it had less practicing homosexuals inside whereas the Roman Catholic Church has the right position on paper with more actual homosexuals practicing inside of her. I have no idea if this is true or not, but it is an odd juxtaposition.
So Williams who is just fine with these Roman doctrines at the same time makes any reunion with Rome impossible by his tolerance of disordered sexual ethics. Odd.
Writing in Chronicles magazine about how funny Ned Flanders from the Simpsons is, Aaron Wolf says:
What’s disturbing is that evangelicals seem to be “just okily dokily” about being effeminate, anachronistic, milk-toast believers, locked in their own subculture of Christian rock CDs, T-shirts that read “God’s Gym” and “This Blood’s For You,” and copies of Left Behind. As Pinsky [Wolfe is referring to an article in Christianity Today] put it, “Flanders is actually the physical embodiment of ‘muscular Christianity,’ a man who would be right at home at a Promise Keepers rally.” It’s hard to imagine such “muscular” Christians as these standing unflinchingly before Nero, confronting the Moors alongside Pepin the Short, nailing 95 Theses to a door (or excommunicating the one who did so), or even calling someone a heretic.
I think the NFL should take a page from the Premiere League in the UK. They should start 10 clubs in smaller markets like Portland and stipulate that the top 2 teams in this second tier move up to the NFL for the next season. The bottom 2 NFL teams get relegated to the second tier league for the following year. How cool would that be? It would give an incentive to terrible teams to stay off the bottom of the pile and give small markets a shot at the big time.
Do you hear me NFL?
We aren’t there yet, and it gets a little old hearing every other person in America comparing us to Rome, and yet…
An Encyclopedia of World History says this of the third century:
The third century is characterized by the complete collapse of government and economics throughout the Mediterranean. Upon the death of Commodus, the armies asserted themselves against the Senate as they had in 68. The ultimate victor, Septimius, finally and frankly unmasked the military basis of the imperial power. After an attempted revival of “constitutional” government under Alexander, the imperial position became the reward of successful generals of increasingly provincial and uncultured origins. The one ideal which still dominated the armies was the preservation of the frontiers against the Germans and the Persians {something we don’t do right now – Joel}. Even the separatist movements were aimed, not at independence, but at the preservation of the imperium Romanum. To secure this end and their own support, the troops made and unmade emperors and drained the scanty resources of the civilians by taxation, depreciation of coinage, and exactions of food, quarters, etc. The military wholly absorbed the civil administration. Intellectual life ceased, inscriptions became rare, and archaeological finds show a rapid decline in skill and taste.
The author of the Black Swan tells us what we need to hear: no one knows the future. Models that “predict” future patterns based on past behavior are generally useless. Going to work in the Twin Towers was safe every day up until 9/11. Being a turkey is great right up until Thanksgiving Day.
“Experts” in suits don’t know anything more about the future than you do. All of their models are based on the past. Take all predictions with a grain of salt.
The current issue of First Things, which I subscribe to, contains an article with a topic very familiar to those of us who interact with the LDS Church: Is Mormonism Christian ? The authors are Bruce D. Porter from the First Quorum of the Seventy on the LDS side, and Gerald McDermott a Professor from Roanoke College from the (ahem) Christian side.
Are Mormons Christian? By self-definition and self-identity, unquestionably so. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints affirms that it is a Christian-faith denomination, a body of believers who worship Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and who witness that salvation is possible only by his atoning blood and grace. By the simple dictionary definition of a Christian as one who believes in or worships Jesus Christ, the case is compelling. To the title Christian a critic of Mormonism may add any modifiers he deems appropriate-unorthodox, heretical, non-Nicene, different-but blanket assertions that we are not Christian are a poor substitute for informed argument and dialogue.
The Church has power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation.
note: this is cross-posted with Endued
I think the Wall Street Journal’s update looks decent, but I’m not wild about websites with black backgrounds. It seems like they have quite a bit of content open to non-subscribers, so it will be worth checking back on the site. I wish everything over there was free, then it would be my news source instead of the NY Times which I read daily.
