This past Sunday morning, I had the honor and privilege to portray Martin Luther to the children of Christ Church of Arlington (PCA). Over the course of the summer, in place of the normal Sunday School curriculum, Tacye Clarke has been leading all the children of the church in a tour of music through church history, exploring how music has changed over the millennia and what ideas — about God, about the place of the Christian believer, etc. - are conveyed in both the words and style of music used at various times. As part of this wonderful course, Tacye has invited various “guests” to speak to the children. So, for example, just a few weeks prior to Martin Luther’s appearance, King David showed up in the talented person of Steve Clarke, who focused especially on the Psalms and what David was trying to convey in a few representative songs.
As the “Father of the Reformation,” I came before the children wearing Steve’s graduation gown from law school and projecting a professorial voice. Luther was, of course, both a doctor of Law and of Theology and was the Chair of the Bible at Wittenberg University, in addition to being the famed pastor of City Church of Wittenberg, so this seemed appropriate. Being not the actor that Steve is, I chose to speak from a podium to emphasize this all the more, though I explained that I enjoyed addressing children about the things of God for, after all, “I” had six children of my own. I did not have what I wanted to say fully memorized so I got around that by explaining apologeticly at the start that I would be speaking from my notes since, at 523 years of age, my memory is not what it once was.
I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body. I frequently sat down to my meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand of God’s providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness. I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that He has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been thinking about writing something about the remarkable story of Rick Ankiel, the fallen Cardinals pitcher reincarnated as an outfielder, returning years later to the Major Leagues to slug a home run in his first game back, and two more two nights later. What a remarkable and uplifting story!
Well, Charles Krauthammer has written the article I wished to, and thus saved me the effort. (Thanks, Philip, for bringing this to my attention!). Here it is, with my hearty recommendation: “The Natural Returns to St. Louis.”
The suggestion is clear: theological differences aside, all monotheists worship the same God. But this is patently false. It is an assertion that relies on the simplistic math that one God = one god. But one letter (A) does not equal one letter (B). And to say that this man is the same is that man because they are both men is absurd. Just look at their pictures! Check out their bios.
Unfortunately, Roman Catholics like “Tiny” have been been among the worst in pushing this false equation in the name of “ecumenical dialogue.” Consider this quote, for instance, from Pope Paul VI in the August 11, 1970 issue of La Croix:
“THE HEBREW AND ISLAMIC PEOPLES, AND CHRISTIANS… these three expressions of an identical monotheism, speak with the most authentic and ancient, and even the boldest and most confident voices. Why should it not be possible that the name of the same God, instead of engendering irreconcilable opposition, should lead rather to mutual respect, understanding and peaceful coexistence? Should the reference to the same God, the same Father, without prejudice to theological discussion, not lead us rather one day to discover what is so evident, yet so difficult — that we are all sons of the same Father, and that, therefore, we are all brothers?”
More recent Popes have said essentially the same thing. (To be fair, many Roman Catholics aren’t falling for it — see the comments to this post at CWN). And they aren’t the only ones prompting this error — President Bush is on record saying that Christians and Muslims pray to the same god. And it is on this point that I have one of my very few disagreements with Ron Paul, too.
I’ve blogged about the subject in the past (“C.S. Lewis on Whether Allah = the God of the Bible”), so I won’t belabor this much longer except to press home the main point: Christ says that no one has seen the Father who hasn’t seen Him (John 6:45-47). Muslims don’t recognize the Trinity, therefore they are worshipping another God. Case closed.
Oh, and regarding the motive behind Bishop Tiny’s plea: the radical Islamists assure us that peace will only come to those who convert to the Muslim faith, but Jihad forever against the infidel. I’ll suffer their Jihad, thank you, before I ever pray to Allah.
Despite evidence that, properly used, DDT is neither harmful to humans nor animals, environmental extremists fight for a continued ban. This has led to millions of illnesses and deaths from malaria, especially in Africa. After WWII, DDT saved millions upon millions of lives in India, Southeast Asia and South America. In some cases, malaria deaths fell to near zero. With bans on DDT, malaria deaths and illnesses have skyrocketed.
Environmental extremists see DDT in a different light. Alexander King, co-founder of the Club of Rome, said, “In Guyana, within almost two years, it had almost eliminated malaria, but at the same time, the birth rate had doubled. So my chief quarrel with DDT in hindsight is that it greatly added to the population problem.” Jeff Hoffman, environmental attorney, wrote on grist.org, “Malaria was actually a natural population control, and DDT has caused a massive population explosion in some places where it has eradicated malaria. More fundamentally, why should humans get priority over other forms of life? . . . I don’t see any respect for mosquitos in these posts.”
And as has been said by others, a “living constitution” is a “dead letter.”
The common rejoinder from pro-war conservatives at this point is that an actual congressional Declaration of War is anachronistic, for some reason or another. But what they are really doing is arguing for a “living constitution.” They just abandon textualism and original intent for guns instead of butter.
(as quoted from a recent email conversation I had with a colleague,
after making reference to key points of my article, “Is the Iraq War Constitutional?” )
Check out this fascinating video concerning a series of facts about our rapidly evolving world, esp. in terms of technological advances — it is well worth your six minutes!:
(Video is 6:06 long. Click video to play)
My only beef with the video is its strong insinuation that the U.S. government should spend more on research and education and that our schools should place more focus on science and technology. Both, I think, are counterproductive:
First, the state should stay out of education and leave it to parents and private philanthropy.
Second, with technology changing so fast, career-oriented schooling is pointless. What is vastly more important is equipping students to be well-rounded individuals, steeped in history, langauage literature and math — the liberal arts. In short, give students depth in a wide-range of areas — give them wisdom — and teach them how to learn. Then they can adapt to whatever the world throws at them.
Third, the nature of government subsidizing of technological research is to pick the winners or likely winners ahead of time. But the government can’t know that, and what it “invests” our tax dollars in may be obsolete before it is created. Better to free up the market and remove disincentives to private investment, research, and entrepreneurial activity by lowering capital gains taxes and burdensome regulations, for starters. Then the market will much more efficiently meet the demands of our rapidly changing world.
These are the dog days of summer. It’s hot. Congress is out of session and the news is slow. It’s hot. Many families are on vacation. And who wants to sit in front of the computer, given the high angle and intense heat of the sun in northern hemisphere, at this time of year?
Which is to say, in case you haven’t noticed yet, postings at the Borg Blog for August, especially starting now, will be more sporadic and less frequent until after Labor Day. Oh, most days will still see news postings. Every Sabbath will feature a Lord’s Day Meditation. And many other entries will still be posted fairly often.
But there won’t be as much original material. And next week — from Monday, August 20 to Friday, August 24 — I will be at the beach with my family, with a computer happily nowhere near reach. So, consider yourself forewarned. Keep checking in, since there will usually be something new here. Just not as often. Until Labor Day, of course. And then the Borg Blog will be back to laboring along at the familiar clip.
This past Sunday morning, I had the honor and privilege to portray Martin Luther to the children of Christ Church of Arlington (PCA). Over the course of the summer, in place of the normal Sunday School curriculum, Tacye Clarke has been leading all the children of the church in a tour of music through church history, exploring how music has changed over the millennia and what ideas — about God, about the place of the Christian believer, etc. - are conveyed in both the words and style of music used at various times. As part of this wonderful course, Tacye has invited various “guests” to speak to the children. So, for example, just a few weeks prior to Martin Luther’s appearance, King David showed up in the talented person of Steve Clarke, who focused especially on the Psalms and what David was trying to convey in a few representative songs.
As mentioned 
Lord’s Day Meditation
I’ve been thinking about writing something about the remarkable story of Rick Ankiel, the fallen Cardinals pitcher reincarnated as an outfielder, returning years later to the Major Leagues to slug a home run in his first game back, and two more two nights later. What a remarkable and uplifting story!
Peace with Muslims may be had, suggests Dutch Bishop Martinus “Tiny” Muskens, if non-Arabic speaking Christians 
These are the dog days of summer. It’s hot. Congress is out of session and the news is slow. It’s hot. Many families are on vacation. And who wants to sit in front of the computer, given the high angle and intense heat of the sun in northern hemisphere, at this time of year?