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5 Thoughts On This Tuesday



5. Are they too busy, or have Christian girls lost the ability to say, "No, thanks"?



4. I don't know if that mp3 site was just janky, or illegal, but in any case, 'A Love Story,' by Babyface is outstanding, and Arista should fire the guy who decided to shelve the album. Or is it "shelf"?



3. I eagerly await a Protestant answer to the hermeneutical/ecclesiological conundrum: 1) How do you prove a particular, well, anything from the Scripture? 2) If we disavow apostolic succession, how are we visibly, really connected to the Body of Christ? I await the Catholic answer to the same problem in 1), with an added bonus: It could appear that Catholic apologists appeal to Scripture when useful, and appeal to the revealed Tradition when the scriptural case is tenuous. I'm thinking St. Basil would freak out about that, I dunno. Let me state this in a humorous way: This is the "Everyone on 'The Journey Home' was in Fundie-Land Before This" objection. If you took one denomination or even family of theologies, any thinking person, full of love and humility, would say, "I think this about X issue, but I'd be happily wrong if Jesus tells me I had it wrong at the end..." In other words, any of us living in one culture will rebel in one way or the other. That's a long way from proving the One True Church. Take Beckwith, for example. His episode of the show sucked. It seemed like he described a caricature of Protestant evangelical faith (which I'd grant is common) both in depth of doctrine, and with respect to Catholicism, and naturally finding it wanting, he finds the most fully-orbed option, which is Catholicism. I hear him and others, when they talk about a faith that is received, not tested with a spirit of skepticism. On the other hand, none of us could test whether a person was using his own conscience as the arbiter of truth, or receiving the faith once delivered. I don't have to try that hard to translate everything he said as, "I'm exausted trying to do the hard hermeneutical work of applying the Bible, so I'll punt it to an infalliable Magisterium." Heck, I'm exausted. But if you start with the assumption your ecclesial community is infalliable, you won't see otherwise, unless you like cognitive dissonance sandwiches. It's like the lawyers and judges who believe the Supreme Court never changes its mind based on political or social pressure. Preposterous. The Catholic Church was impacted by the leaving, and their return is no different. Both sides are changed.

2. MMMMM, Coke!

1. I confess to Dan Winfield specifically that my exaggeration is out of control. Maybe I just enjoy the little things, but I worry that I bring the truth into disrepute, even if unintentionally.

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