Safe Haven

5. There are many kinds of beauty, and we should affirm all varieties of it. But I shouldn't have to say that it's perfectly wonderful to be physically attractive. No one should have to apologize for it in the face of others' envy. 4. Actually, whether someone is an open homosexual has no direct bearing on what public policies they should or do support. In fact, if an openly practicing homosexual opposes gay unions, I call that correct thinking, not self-hatred. Frankly, those who would be offended by this don't know how to think. 3. The immoral man who nonetheless affirms he is immoral--and the laws which judge him thus--is better off than the foolish person who believes morality is determined by what he desires. 2. I really hate The Huffington Post. I don't hate progressivism; I hate stupid progressivism. 1. If you lose Camille Paglia, maybe it's time to re-think a few things. Just sayin.'

I've said this many times, notably here . The "arbiter/receiver Rule," stated by me as, "One cannot be both the arbiter of divine revelation, and a humble receiver of it at the same time," is a wordier, less quippy version of, "If I submit only when I agree, the one to whom I submit is me." A fundamentally invisible Church deals with the twin problems of ecclesial pluralism, and the charge of schism. You can't be in schism from an invisible Church. You can't be in heresy, either, from a Church defined by you, big enough to contain the opinion you happen to hold. That's why the divine authority of a visible community becomes of primary importance, and why reason suggests that such a community would have to be infallible in certain circumstances. If some group isn't the Church, what are they going to say when someone calls their bluff? "You are wrong! You are in heresy! We really, really, mean it this time"? Once more, wasn...

I don't find it ironic that Leithart's prosecutor is now Catholic. If you talk to him, it makes perfect sense. Jason Stellman has always been an ecclesial Christian; that is, his faith has always been a faith received. Once you make that decision, and investigate it to the end, the Catholic Church is inevitable. If you purge that highly ecclesial sensibility of the random individualist elements, (like Sola Scriptura) Mother Church is all that remains. Let's just be blunt: Leithart is a more perfect fundamentalist; he's read a lot of books, and he's got buckets of sympathy for the Church, at least insofar as it serves to obscure the central truth: he is his own arbiter of what counts as divine revelation . R. Scott Clark has roundly criticized the Federal Vision for being out of accord with traditional Reformed theology; he's right. But people like Rich Lusk have pointed out that the story with the sacraments has never been as stark as Clark says. He's righ...

5. Thank a character actor today. 4. I'm sure Alicia Witt is a fine actress, but to me, she will always be Alia: "Wait for my brother, Baron!" 3. Aren't you glad Mom didn't decide she had something better to do when the angel showed up? 2. I just need a tangible copy of Roman Holiday. 1. Happy New Year!

I'm not your typical political conservative. You probably know that. I still think George W. Bush is one of the most well-intentioned people we've ever elected president. I also think he's guilty of terrible offenses, and profoundly bad moral lapses in judgment. Maybe Dr. Peter G. Klein of the University of Missouri-Columbia is right; voting may be nothing more than an expression of identity. I do know that when one has not only tired of war, but realized perhaps that the entire rationale for a nation's entry into them has been nothing more than political expediency, national pride, and angst for about 100 years, if not longer, the peacenik starts to sound like a live option. If you've been Republican your whole adult life, and policy starts to reflect nothing more than an intra-generational culture war, rather than the real moral battles that need fighting, when abortion is just a card they play to stir up the rubes while nothing changes, when they nominate essenti...

10. When someone says, "According to Scripture..." my favorite retort is, "According to whom?" 9. I like Protestant liberals for this very reason, because they are frank to make this challenge, even if they don't leave anything orthodox in its place. 8. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that "Losing My Religion" is playing in the background. Heh. 7. On the other hand, it eventually leads to agnosticism or atheism if you deconstruct every human structure in human history. It's an act of faith to see this as unreasonable, for the Word made flesh to allow man's corruption to taint His gospel, that is. 6. A person needs to know the content and meaning of divine revelation in the places where he lives. If he cannot know the gospel, he cannot do it. 5. An invisible Church cannot define itself, or what it believes. 4. There is an irreconcilable conflict between the fundamental principle of the Reformation (Sola Scriptura) and the in...