“The best argument for any creed is the godly living of its professors. Protestantism used to have a grand and victorious advantage on that point. She is ceasing to wield it. The wealth begotten by her very virtues of industry, thrift, and probity has debauched many of her children. ‘Jeshurun has waxen fat, and kicked.’ And unbounded flood of luxury sweeps Protestant families away. A relaxed and deceitful doctrine produces its sure fruits of relaxed and degraded morals. Church discipline is nearly extinct. Meantime spurious revivalism, relying upon all species of vulgar clap-trap and sensational artifice, upon slang rhetoric and the stimulating of mere animal sympathies, instead of the pure word and spirit of God, is hurrying tens of thousands of dead souls into the Protestant churches. These evils have gone so far that a profession of faith in these churches has come to mean nearly as little as a professed conformity to Rome means.”
~ R. L. Dabney, Discussions: Secular, Vol. IV, p. 545f
Every Easter, Orthodox churches around the world read this sermon by John Chrysostom (349-407), the early church’s famed preacher and archbishop of Constantinople at the great Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia). (Note: Eastern Christians will celebrate Easter on April 27 this year):
Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Is there anyone who is a grateful servant?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!
“The only haven of safety is the mercy of God, as manifested in Christ, in whom every part of our salvation is complete.
“As all mankind are, in the sight of God, lost sinners, we hold that Christ is their only righteousness, since, by His obedience, He has wiped off all our transgressions; by His sacrifice, appeased the divine anger; by His blood, washed away our sins; by His cross, borne our curse; and by His death, made satisfaction for us.
“We maintain that in this way man is reconciled in Christ to God the Father, by no merit of his own, by no value of works, but by gratuitous mercy.”
My wife and I recently ceased patronizing a breakfast diner we used to enjoy with our children, because of its consistently unclean restrooms.
But such market penalties are not enough for the state of Florida. A proposed law in the Sunshine State would mandate that all eating establishments provide “enough” toilet paper. No sh*t.
What gets me the most in that linked story is that the report says the “only problem” with the bill is that it “doesn’t dictate how much toilet paper is ‘enough.’”
Actually, the bigger problem is that too few people anymore question whether such legislation is the purview of government in the first place. Does defending “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” really ensure that everyone be able to spare a square?
One great thing about the Internet is how easy it is to access tons of information on almost any subject imaginable. One real bad thing about the Internet is how easy it is for tons of bogus information to be spread, and to be accepted, by the undiscerning. (For example, I wrote about one example in my experience of this phenomenon here.)
Of course, just as the solution to the fact that some abuse their gun rights is not found by taking away everyone else’s gun rights, the solution here is not found by banning or regulating the Internet. Rather, the solution, in part, is to take away the abusers, so to speak.
So, with that in mind and my tongue firmly in cheek, but 100% on-board in my spirit, I say “hear! hear!” to Crunchy Con Rod Dreher’s post on this subject, which I quote here in full:
“When I’m Maximum Leader of America…
“…I will pass a law taking away the Internet rights of people who send over 20 percent of their e-mails with FW:FW:FW:FW: in the subject line.
“I realize, of course, that this will take away all access to the Internet for 98 percent of all Americans over the age of 65. But it’s a small price to pay.
“And once that’s done, I’m going to decree mandatory prison time for people who forward crazy Internet rumors without having first checked them with Snopes.com. An older friend of mine used to FW:FW:FW:FW stuff like that to me. Inevitably I would look it up on Snopes, then send him back a link to information showing he’d sent me something bogus. He didn’t appreciate it one bit.”
Incidentally, this type of thing is why I have long included a link to Snopes.com in my blogroll, found under the heading, “Odds & Ends.)
How do you think you would have turned out if your parents named you a name usually associated with the opposite sex? Would your skin toughen or would your psyche break if you endured childhood mockings like those of A Boy Named Sue?
“Researchers have studied men with cross-gender names like Leslie,” Dr. Evans explained. “They haven’t found anything negative – no psychological or social problems – or any correlations with either masculinity or effeminacy. But they have found one major positive factor: a better sense of self-control. It’s not that you fight more, but that you learn how to let stuff roll off your back.”
This finding is especially remarkable when you consider the names of some people these researches talked to: Golden Rule, Mary Mee, Candy Stohr, Cash Guy, Mary Christmas, River Jordan and Rasp Berry.
“All of them, even Happy Day,” researchers say, “seemed untraumatized.”
Was it the same for those a century ago, who bore the following names?: “Garage Empty, Hysteria Johnson, King Arthur, Infinity Hubbard, Please Cope, Major Slaughter, Helen Troy, several Satans and a host of colleagues to the famed Ima Hogg (including Ima Pigg, Ima Muskrat, Ima Nut and Ima Hooker).”
Read about these and a bunch of other wacky names here.
“The bossiest, smuggest, preachiest, most didactic people I know are the ones who are Green, and who want everyone else to go Green, too. They are the new fundamentalists, the new Sermonizing Class. … always quick to point out what someone’s doing wrong: why regular milk has too many chemicals, why driving your Taurus is bad for the environment, why your clothes could have been made of organic cotton. They think they’re educating you. But as soon as you make a joke about the milk, they don’t laugh. That’s because one problem with all passionate, argumentative fundamentalists is that they cannot laugh at themselves. ”
“If Christ accepts of you, you need not fear but that you will be safe, for he is a strong Lion for your defense. And if you come, you need not fear but that you shall be accepted; for he is like a Lamb to all that come to him, and receives then with infinite grace and tenderness.”
