OK, two more things: (And Anne Katherine Robinson, you may officially stop reading until the second "thing," because this is about pop music, though the self-depracation and witticism may be worth it. Your choice.) I woke up with a song in my head: "Isn't She Lovely" by Mr. Stevie Wonder. Which was weird, because I have an absolute certainty that I am not father to a daughter. Still, a lovely song it is. And the second song that popped in was "I Can't Sleep Baby (If I)" by R. Kelly. It was a huge hit when I was a teenager. And Mr. Kelly is sadly better known for his legal troubles, and the fact that 87.8% of his songs are about sex. Not relationships, as you may be thinking. Yet this disarmingly simple song is one of those that makes you say, "He sang the #@&! out of that one." It's just criminal how good a voice he has, and he's wasting it, and his life, at least by appearances, in pleasure. He wrote and sang the annoying but memorable "I Believe I Can Fly" for the movie "Space Jam," and I listened to "The World's Greatest" a couple times yesterday. It's a thinly veiled ode to Muhammad Ali, as the video would indicate, which means I'm a fan. :) [You always have smooth-singing black dudes in your head.--ed.] True. It's one of those secular "hymns" that doesn't make any sense, but it's oddly uplifting.
[Oddly Pro-Catholic Insight On Authority and Succession] In the absence of an hermeneutic from scripture alone that gives one distinct, discernable body of body of truth by which traditions can be judged, the fairest thing to do is admit the historical and theological evidence on its own merits. Remember, it was the Reformers who claimed that scripture supported their position(s). If humility demands that we on the Protestant side listen to each others' traditions to avoid reckless overemphasis, it surely demands that same humility to say that rejecting particular Catholic doctrines or authority is not quite so simple as we pretend. Scripture cannot serve as a critique of anything if the precise content of the corrective is not established.
[Oddly Pro-Catholic Insight On Authority and Succession] In the absence of an hermeneutic from scripture alone that gives one distinct, discernable body of body of truth by which traditions can be judged, the fairest thing to do is admit the historical and theological evidence on its own merits. Remember, it was the Reformers who claimed that scripture supported their position(s). If humility demands that we on the Protestant side listen to each others' traditions to avoid reckless overemphasis, it surely demands that same humility to say that rejecting particular Catholic doctrines or authority is not quite so simple as we pretend. Scripture cannot serve as a critique of anything if the precise content of the corrective is not established.
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