Dear Alyse

OOOF! My school allows us to see individual assignment grades before the final grades come out, and it is ugly at points. I can't do math, but I think it'll be OK. I'd like to say that I am a real person, not a robot, and one with a physical disability at that. If you give me what amounts to "busy work," I have to make a choice. One thing I'm really proud of is the work I did in my Hebrew in Exegesis class on a word study paper (97) and the individual exegesis paper (88). I had already been aided by a 96 on the group exegesis paper, having teamed with "Deano" and "Exegetical Michael Jordan." I needed those, because that's the very class which worries me. Then again, I think now all I fear is the term GPA; if it was below 2.25, that will be the end of my studies. [There might not be any point in finishing.--ed.] Well, I've not decided to become Catholic, hermeneutical and ecclesiological doubts aside. [But it surely affected you--ed.] You're d--- right it did. I kept seeing the haggard lady from "The Princess Bride" shouting, "Schism! Boo! Boo!" "TT" has this joke he tells whenever enlightening us with some point of pre-Reformation history and anticipating the outcry from our more evangelical anti-Catholic brethren: "Don't you know the Church started in 1521?" And I must've heard him quote Jaroslav Pelikan 50 times: (possible paraphrase) "Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living; Tradition is the living faith of the dead." [Oddly papist for a Lutheran, no?--ed.] Yes. It reminded me one morning though of seeing three men in the front row at COK: The Reformed University Fellowship campus minister, an Anglican priest, and the director (or some fairly important dude) of Campus Crusade for Christ at MU. [Isn't this a PCA church?--ed.] I think so! Though it always felt a bit Anglican to me. [Minus the "extra" books.--ed.] Right. It might be a falsehood for us all to claim the Apostle's Creed as a point of unity given its context and meaning, but what a glorious conceit it is! And I predict that serious confessional Christians will have oddly uncomfortable and glorious opportunities for dialogue in the coming years that were not always there. [Side Rant: Can I just say that the cases of Hugh Latimer, Jan Hus, and the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre really bother me? Pardon me if those "heresies" don't set me on fire quite like Docetism or Arianism. I'm definitely expecting to see those people in Heaven/New Earth, even if I am a papist. I wonder if there'll be a Texas Hold'Em game with those cats, Luther, Pope John Paul II, John Calvin, and Mother Theresa. I'd be happy to take a seat if/when I get there. [You sure Luther/Calvin will make it?--ed.] How can anyone be sure? But I verily have a soft spot for both of those Reformers. Even if they are schismatics. They seem like my kind of guys. For the record, I have absolutely zero sympathy for Servetus. I'm thankful that it isn't normal to execute heretics, in some sense. But if you're under a death sentence from the Catholics, Lutherans, and the Reformed, it may be a strong hint that you need to re-think your position. It's treated as some black mark against Calvin, when it's nothing of the sort. The only acceptable excuses for denying the Trinity are of the "I'm a lifelong Jew/Hindu/something else" variety. Sorry. But being some flavor of Protestant (especially in the 16th century) strikes me as a very understandable "mistake."] Anyway, we should be thankful that the way of the world is causing us all to question the wisdom of the Christian "family spat."