Safe Haven

The thoughts I had regarding the "Historic Church Documents" page here are thus: There is quite a variation in confessional position represented by the documents here. Reformed, Anglican, Lutheran, and of course, creedal documents from the early undivided church are here. I must conclude that their presence represents affirmation by the proprietors, which presents problems by the fact of the variance alone. Possible Reasonable Explanation: The differences between them, say the authors, are less than the gulf between all of us and Tridentine Rome. But if it were a united Protestant front, wouldn't they unite ecclesial governments? I cannot conclude that the documents' presence was an act of mere reportage, because there is nothing overtly contrary to the Reformed tradition on the page. That they believe all these traditions can broadly be called Reformed is astonishing, and is an insult to anyone holding the other confessions. Still, perhaps it's a way of affirmin...

I would say I'm pretty conversant with pop culture; maybe too much. Then again, I think I'm pretty discerning. All prospective (Protestant) pastor-types learn to develop a little voice in our heads that affirms (in some sense, if possible) and challenges everything that we, or our parishioners may watch or hear. Like every twentysomethingish (American) dude who happens to be a Christian, I have my odd list of famous or influential people that I'd love to befriend and testify to Christ in their general direction. In my dreamworld, it's set up like this: "You have one hour to tell influential person X whatever you wish about Jesus and the gospel, and they won't run away." It's a rotating list of sports heroes, political figures, pop singers, etc. I realized today I had to add a name to my list, even though he's not American, and he is, in my words, an "awesome pariah": George Michael . You can't grow up in the 1980s (especially listenin...

"Casino Royale" was on my TV when I returned tonight. I love this movie; it once again demonstrates that Texas Hold 'Em is "BA," Daniel Craig did a superb acting job, and you can take this character seriously now. However, I hate the final climactic scene. I had to turn it off. Yes, I am a sap. Worse still, I logged into Facebook, and there is a feature called, "Friend Finder." It then informs you which of your friends found friends with it. And the cursed thing keeps showing my current "like" interest. For the record, we saw 1 movie, ate ice cream, and had one other thing fall through. In any case, I'm trying to forget her, because it's a hopeless cause, but even one inch square, she takes my breath away. Sheesh. Someone punch me.

Today was my first day back at seminary. It's a conservative evangelical seminary of some repute, committed to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (with no real gripe against other confessionally Reformed documents). I doubt anyone can see my own doubts about Reformed Theology or Protestantism in general. [Well, now they know, idiot.--ed.] Yeah, well. I'm jazzed about my professor for Psalms and Wisdom Literature; I was mad that his Wikipedia entry is threatened with deletion for lack of notability. He's "BA" as my brother would say. I've made friends with some prospective Catholic priests, and their laments about modernism overtaking some of their teachers sadden me. I know if not for that thorny problem of visible communion with the Catholic Church, they would be ridiculously blessed by him, as we are. I don't know whether to root for this or not; obviously, if I did, I would place myself in communion with the successor of Peter. That may ...

I feel always a little bit betrayed when I consider that one alleged proof-text of double-imputation: 2 Cor 5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (ESV) That "might become" seems fairly significant, no? But don't jump to any hasty conclusions. [grabbing BGAD lexicon] Um, I did not find a verse reference for the exact form in the Greek, but the subjunctive after the "in order that" strongly implies the "might." Anyway, it most assuredly does not say, "possess the righteousness of God". It says "in order that we might become the righteousness of God." As in, we are not currently displaying it. Same problem in Romans 1 and 3: However full our forgiveness and security may be, the text really isn't talking about an alien righteousness; it's talking about the character of God shown forth in us as a whole. In fact, it may be significant that the...

I need to follow up on what I said yesterday; I thought I covered my bases in terms of my intention not to speak with any binding or wide-ranging authority. In addition, though I was discussing something important, I surely felt some parts would go down easier when leavened with a little humor (the success of which you are free to dispute). And I definitely am not trying to shut down discussion among different groups of people (various groups of women, or men and women); in fact, the opposite is the case. But I definitely needed to say what I said. I'm open to disagreement, correction, and whatever else. That post, however, was my view of things as a relatively young, single, pseudo-evangelical with an admittedly big mouth and a keyboard. My small yet quickly arriving sample size of correspondence on that piece is of two kinds: 1. "How dare you hate on 'Lost'! It's the greatest show ever made/on today/I've ever seen!" And my only comment on that is that yo...

Having no other authority than that which I might assign to myself, and in truth, whatever is granted by my entry into the baptismal font of the Triune God, I feel compelled to discuss an issue of great importance to this generation: modesty. I have no wish to bind the consciences of my fellow believers beyond what the law of Christ requires, and that which is appropriate for my influence and station. But it is worth discussing. I begin with an illustration. Two twenty-something Christian women come up behind you or I; one turns to another well within our earshot and says, “Girl, you look cute today.” Simple words, indeed. Nothing inherently threatening or overtly wicked about any of them. And I cannot say that I myself have fled sexual immorality in every case of testing, as the Bible commands. But what I can tell you is that when I hear these words, I run. I don’t turn and look. I don’t see if I know them. I just run. In fairness, if a girl says this to her other girl friend, there i...

“Hannah And Her Sisters” This post is named after a Woody Allen movie. In honor of Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Feingold, a Thomist Catholic scholar friend of some note, to whom I have affectionately affixed nicknames, such as “The Hebrew Catholic Jack Collins” (high praise indeed) and “The Hebrew Catholic Woody Allen,” it is so named. [Don’t lie to everyone; you did it because you have/had a childhood crush on Barbara Hershey.—ed.] Guilty as charged! “Beaches” tears me up at the end. [Homophone Alert: I was trying to use the present tense of “torn up” when I realized that they both suffice; I tear up at that movie, and it tears me up. In any case, while I have you here on an aside, I should note that I figured out something about crying in this culture between men and women I think I should share. Tons of men cry; some men have been taught that crying equates to weakness, (which is absurd and unhealthy) so even the healthy ones have some sort of Crying Threshold, where if they cross it, thei...

Baseball is far and away my favorite sport. I fell away when the St. Louis Blues hockey club was good in my childhood, and because my brother harbored not-too-farfetched dreams of being an NHL goalie. But "The Boys of Summer" (cue the Henley ) are my obsession. Still, football (American, that is) has a place in the hearts of two brothers who watch pretty much every sport, and who, to this day, maintain that they could announce any of them should the need arise. (Call us, seriously.) But football needs a kick in the pants to approach "Distirbingly Misplaced Affection" status. And one man has kept me between the navigational beacons of "Casual Fan" and "John Madden" for the balance of my life...Brett Favre. That's right: the one that every self-respecting football fan is supposed to hate, because the current crop of announcers gets all in a lather at the sight of him, and because he's retired and unretired more times than Rocky Balboa. Well...

Hey, what's with all the Mormon TV commercials? Are those noted missions going more poorly? I can't dignify that theology by a link, but I'd be glad to tell you about it. It features attractive people (read: hot) telling us about all the perfectly normal roles they play in life and work, a humorous anecdote, and then the person says, "I am [name], and I am a Mormon." That last line ruins it all. Anyway, I should say some good things about Mormons, before I tear into them/it again. I'd venture to say, nearly all Mormons are extremely nice. Maybe it's fake in some cases, but everyone I ever knew that was remotely Mormon seemed/seems very kind. They're generally quite moral in their living, which may well be in stark contrast to the movement's early leaders. BUT...these commercials seem designed with this thought: "If we make them seem normal and well-adjusted, the evangelicals won't notice we don't believe Jesus is God." More pointe...

A brief note on baseball if I may: With apologies to Jim Palmer or whomever (wrong? AKR, get on the grammar case, stat) who noted with appropriate snark that the minimum qualification for a "quality start" in baseball (6 innings pitched, with no more than 3 earned runs allowed) still means a 4.50 ERA, (not particularly effective overall) I would say that today showed us that the stat isn't completely worthless. Chris Carpenter, a prototypical pitching "ace" if there was one, showed it again. He wasn't terribly sharp today; he couldn't locate, or place, any of his various pitches in the preferred location; he surrendered 2 runs in the first inning, 1 in the second. Yes, the Cardinals still lost; yes, Carpenter would surely entirely blame himself; yes, I am a homer...BUT, anyone who watches a baseball game knows: if your pitcher finishes 6 innings, surrendering 3 runs or less, you're definitely still in the game. Two bad innings...and 4 zeros following...

You know, I can recall getting rather heated with a friend of mine when he read a quote from a Francis Collins book (one of the human genome dudes) defending Christianity from atheists (ironic, that) via also defending evolution. It was one of those "make your head explode" kind of quotes like, "No reasonable person of any intelligence denies the science behind evolution." Granted, I am a Christian, and a deeply "conservative" orthodox (whatever that means) one, at that. I am not a scientist, but I was under the distinct impression that science at its best draws provisional conclusions that are always testable and falsifiable, and that "what we know" can change radically based upon new information. It just seemed like a very unscientific statement from a man who should know better. I always identified very sympathetically with Michael Crichton's portrayal of R. Karp, a fictional scientist in his master work, The Andromeda Strain . Karp had di...

So there I was, reading Jurgens on the Fathers, (pp.87-89, for those scoring at home) when I came across this breathtaking paragraph from (St.) Irenaeus: “It is possible, then, for everyone in every Church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the Apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles, and their successors to our own times: men who neither knew nor taught anything like these heretics rave about. For if the Apostles had known hidden mysteries which they taught to the elite secretly and apart from the rest, they would have handed them down especially to those very ones to whom they were committing the self-same Churches. For surely they wished all those and their successors to be perfect and without reproach, to whom they handed on their authority.” Yikes. Give me a moment. [Birthing a Reformation-era bovine with a tasty, er, um, disposition, God-wil...

I found myself reading Thomas Aquinas and John Henry Newman (please permit me to 'Protestantize' them by leaving off their honorifics) where they lamented and denounced the loss in some quarters of a so-called "dogmatic principle." I'm not going to find it and quote it here, but we can see with a little effort that in matters of religion, we have two basic choices in how we approach the issue: either the process/effort earnestly pursued becomes paramount--in which case specific truth claims are superfluous or even harmful--or truth and error in religion is possible, error has consequences, and is, to say the least, undesirable. When this journey of mine began--I have to say--it was provoked by a sudden realization that I saw the abyss of relativism right before me, that much of what we Protestants had rejected had unwittingly left us prey to an abiding uncertainty that persisted even as we did our best to be faithful Christians who heeded what was revealed to us. ...

5 Completely Pointless, Random Mind-Dumps From My Brain To Your Face 5. I don't know if Rob Bell preaches anything close to the gospel, but I listened to the first ten minutes of one sermon, and at least he is funny. 4. I didn't know that Anglican prelates hung out at hipster churches. 3. If he is turning 40, how come he looks 25? 2. Cards game, 21st. Good (looking) company. Done and done. 1. Wendy's Spicy Chicken. Good things, good things.

Note to the "fake profile, 21-years old, now attending Covenant Seminary, porntastic spam-bots" of Facebook: I may be lonely, but I am not in fact that stupid. Every Covenant Seminary student knows that even if there were a girl that "hot" (if you will pardon the word choice) she'd be engaged in 3.4 seconds. Besides, your weird "two last names" or "two first names" or the ever-popular, "I have an exotic foreign name you will find irresistible" gives you away. I hope you don't mind if I politely ignore your friend request; even if you do exist, we haven't met. If we had, and the word "friends" could be reasonably affixed as an appellation to our association, well, you should be so lucky. [Intriguing Side-Rant: I had to look up the word "irresistible." Doesn't it seem plausible that one could spell the end of that word 'able'? I must confess, I was tempted. But I looked at it; it just wasn't...

If I had known that Gwyneth Paltrow could sing like this , I would have gone to see that movie. Of course, we have to thank Smokey for writing it. She is joined on this track by Huey Lewis, the lead for 1980s rock band Huey Lewis and the News, one of the true nice guys in music, by all accounts. In case you forgot, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds is the epitome of cool, and he proves it by joining Gwyneth on another track from that soundtrack. The words needed to change the the sex of the protaganist are kind of janky, as I like to say, but I've got no complaints.

I'm up to page 84 in Jurgens on the Fathers. That's what he should have done: named it "Jurgens on the Fathers." How delightfully pompous! [You should be done with that whole first volume, you bum.--ed.] I'm in the midst of two pieces for OFB, and decided to do a third. I have nothing earth-shattering to report, though I will say it was quite intriguing how things went down with those cats [Internal Debate on Slang Usage: I'm quite semi-famous for referring to groups of people (especially men) as "cats" when discussing some matter of life, e.g. "Those cats was/were reading the Shepherd of Hermas, yo [in the liturgical free-for-all before the canon was settled]." My question is, would it be more appropriate to spell it "kats" to avoid confusion with actual cats? Justin Klein seems to favor "kats." I suppose I could say that "kats" is the papist spelling in this context, while "cats" is the more arrow-s...

We observed the Lord's Supper today; because of where I am in my faith journey, what used to fill me with joy and expectation now fills me with trepidation and doubt. It is not Our Lord I doubt; may it never be! Rather, I am amazed that we had never considered the validity of our eucharistic celebration. I don't have the information and the means as yet to decide the merits of the Catholic claims, but the fact that I know the contours of those claims, I know how the story will end if they are true, it fills me with boatloads of hesitation when I do the things that we do. The sermon was from Romans 1:16-17: "for I am not ashamed of the gospel..." It was all around a beautiful message. The focal point was this generation and its cynicism, and their great need of Christ. I yearn for them to know him, as I do for people my age who are leaving the Church (any of them) in droves. But it morphed into a "gospel as imputation" sort of thing. First reaction: "Rom...

5 Thoughts While Watching "Inception" 5. What the jimmy is going on in this movie? 4. It sounds like Ken Watanabe...and it is! 3. Even Leo DiCaprio can't ruin this movie. 2. This movie is freaking me out...let me out of here! Oh, sod it; I might as well stay to get some closure. 1. Seriously, what is going on? [Completely Pointless Fantasy Baseball Rant: I started off with the best pitching in the league, or at least the luckiest. I got Carpenter and Rivera, and ended up with Ubaldo Jimenez. He was a possible star budding after a 15-win campaign, but noone expected 15 wins in the first half of the season. Needless to say, I'm glad I held on to him. Meanwhile, Mariano Rivera remains the best closing relief pitcher in the game...at age 40. Though Ubaldo got levelled for seven starts (7.54 ERA) before this last outing that was good, his ERA stands at a nifty 2.67. You can have a few bad ones when it's 1.00 through 12 starts. Poor Chris Carpenter: 11-3, 2.93 ERA. He s...