tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-100613442012-02-05T15:30:21.666-05:00Reflections on faith and lifePJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.comBlogger491100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-81297110610830082022009-08-20T12:38:00.002-04:002009-08-20T12:47:03.414-04:00

David Fisher at the Reformed Pastor has a quote from Jim Wallis that is worth some reflection. Wallis says the soul of the country is sick and fixing the health care system “would be the moral achievement that could repair, and even heal, our damaged national soul.”Why do people keep treating the Bible as if it were a political platform document? There is a biblical imperative to take care of our

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-77536455641159658102008-03-31T03:04:00.000-04:002008-03-31T03:16:38.558-04:00

A new round in the ongoing homosexuality debateFor a generation, the Presbyterian Church (USA), like many groups in society, has been locked in an increasingly bitter debate about homosexuality. Last week, Reformed Pastor blogger David Fischler reported the PCUSA group “That All May Freely Serve” (TAMFS) is done with lobbying and pleading. In his March 24 post “Funny, San Jose Doesn’t Look Like

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-35524605518503903562008-03-20T14:19:00.003-04:002008-03-20T14:28:25.823-04:00

‘Best political speech’ praise shows how ‘grievances’ have replaced reality as the basis for discussion“Barack Obama this week gave the best political speech since John Kennedy talked about his Catholicism in Houston in 1960,” Nicholas Kristof wrote in the March 20 New York Times. He praised the way it acknowledged “complexity, nuance and legitimate grievances on many sides.”The nuance part is

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-55123208226511896052007-06-29T11:05:00.001-04:002007-06-29T11:08:13.170-04:00

A different perspective on church property conflictsHigher judicatories in the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches have been locked in conflict – and sometimes in court – over the property and other assets of congregations trying to leave their authority. Judicatory officials explain this as protecting the interest of the larger church in the property of particular congregations. But this shows

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-20703855447925983902007-05-31T23:18:00.000-04:002007-05-31T23:35:44.141-04:00

The unintended outcome of the fight against violent media.'Parent seminar examines violent media content' was not the headline in the paper the other day. Though by all accounts it probably could have been, and maybe should have been. The parents who went to the seminar came back challenged and motivated. The informative presentations opened their eyes to some important new challenges. They felt

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-54907602911448701552007-04-10T23:57:00.000-04:002007-04-11T01:41:32.408-04:00

It's all in the eye of the beholder — but should it be?The lead from Sky News sets up the tragic disagreement:A woman left infertile after cancer treatment says she feels "distraught" after losing a five-year legal battle to try to become a mother using her own embryos.In 2001, Natallie Evans and Howard Johnston went through an in-vitro fertilization procedure and had six embryos created. Evans

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-14283062623700723842007-03-03T00:02:00.000-05:002007-03-03T22:14:22.551-05:00

The theological conflict in the worldwide Anglican communion has produced its share of intense heat. But that’s a post for another day. The encouraging thing is the conflict has also produced its share of intense light. The conflict has provoked some deep thinking about just what the purpose of a church is.Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi offered this reflectionIt is not enough, however, to “make

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-16757474447565319012007-02-19T02:35:00.000-05:002007-02-19T14:53:52.673-05:00

The new movie (and earlier book) The Bridge to Terebithia offers lots of opportunities for reflecting on ultimate issues.If you don’t believe the Bible, one girl tells another, God will send you to hell. The other girl can’t believe that. Waving an appreciative gesture at the beautiful creation around them, she says God doesn’t have time to send anyone to hell. He’s busy creating all this beauty

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1170479302912029202007-02-03T00:00:00.000-05:002007-02-03T00:08:22.933-05:00

Blogging from the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators conference in Philadelphia:If our memory of our heritage is the foundation of our faithful future, and it is, then it's important to remember properly. Frances Taylor Gench, plenary speaker at the APCE conference, suggested that was not an easy task. Like urban myths in repeatedly-forwarded notes across the internet, interpretive

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1170392659174059122007-02-01T23:59:00.000-05:002007-02-02T00:09:12.073-05:00

Blogging from the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators in Philadelphia:The theme for this year's conference involves flying forward and looking back. And so the opening evening focussed on looking back. Our preacher, the Rev. Bill Carter of Clark's Summit, PA, opened with a service celebrating the counter cultural attitude biblical faith takes toward the past. When it comes to making

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1170303479104507222007-01-31T22:59:00.000-05:002007-01-31T23:29:52.463-05:00

Blogging from APCE in Philadelphia:It was a sad shock to read of the death of Lois Anderson and her daughter Zelda White. Lois was a retired Presbyterian Church missionary. She and her husband Bill had served some 40 years in Africa. For generations, the Anderson family has been arguably the first family in missions in the old UPNA stream of the church. Their exemplary dedication to proclaiming

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1169484937924256562007-01-22T11:48:00.000-05:002007-01-22T11:55:37.946-05:00

Every few months, some public interest group or another highlights something most of us realize. Children live in a more violent world these days. It's not that the town they live in is more dangerous. But, since children tend to view the world through their imaginations, when the things that fuel their imaginations are more violent, their world is more violent.Movies and music are more violent.

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1168847081251004622007-01-15T00:17:00.000-05:002007-01-15T02:54:54.936-05:00

"Is God Dead?" asked a seminal cover story in Time magazine. Yes, the western European cultural leadership eagerly affirmed. Not so much that God was alive and now was dead, but that the myth of a "Most High God" beyond this world was no longer a vital reality. It was no longer a living part of our culture.A generation of church leaders embraced this insight, and developed what they called a

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1167548388564600562006-12-31T01:54:00.000-05:002007-01-01T00:38:15.646-05:00

For many years, children have sung the twisted holiday carol “Jingle bells, Santa smells, Robin laid an egg...” Kind of irreverent, a little twisted, but not all that far from the classic Spike Jones take on the holiday. “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” and “I’m getting nothin’ for Christmas” have a kind of innocence, even if they don’t exactly toe the standard reverent Christmas

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1162233958791794472006-10-30T13:41:00.000-05:002006-10-30T13:45:58.816-05:00

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” Look it up in a dictionary of cultural literacy or other phrase book, and you’ll find it called an aphorism or adage. It’s a quick, dramatic way of saying in the long run, ideas are what matter. In the long run, the people who write the histories decide who the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are.You won’t find “the pen is mightier…” listed under practical

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1158163168304143232006-09-13T11:44:00.000-04:002006-09-13T11:59:28.363-04:00

Why do evangelicals care about how society defines marriage? I often hear or read things like "Expanding the understanding of marriage to embrace homosexuals will have no effect on your marriage. It's just making the definition more inclusive." I beg to differ. As one of my teachers put it, inclusiveness is simply the transitional form from one orthodoxy to another. It may sound cynical, but it

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1157252595748936362006-09-02T22:52:00.000-04:002006-09-03T02:37:12.446-04:00

"The game begins in the spring, when everything is new again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains comes, it stops, and leaves you to face the fall alone."That's from the beginning of Bart Giamatti's famous essay "The Green Fields of the Mind" Baseball fans, he writes, "count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1156314088443827242006-08-23T02:21:00.000-04:002006-08-23T02:21:28.566-04:00

Considering the continuing challenge and threat of Racist, antisemetic and other kindred groups, The blogger Laughing Pastor finds something to celebrate in the church's heritage:I am proud to be part of a faith tradition that stood up and spoke out during the Nazi era. People like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who refused to remain silent. The banner depicted above is a symbol of the words spoken in

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1156229816946525102006-08-22T02:35:00.000-04:002006-08-22T02:56:56.956-04:00

In these confusing times, where can we go to find helpful moral guidance? In a previous post, I wrote about the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s attempt to offer that kind of guidance to teens through their God's Gift of Sexuality curriculum. The goal, according to a writer for the project speaking at an introductory workshop, was to free teens from rules so they could find the loving choice in each

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1153278215909685102006-07-18T22:56:00.000-04:002006-07-18T23:03:35.923-04:00

Mark Smith posted this in the Classical Presbyterian blog comment section (scroll down to get the whole comment): "[T]he church should be clear on what it considers the most important facets of Christ-like behavior. If you sat down and wrote out a list of Christ-like behaviors, I really don't think sexuality is even in the top 20."He offered his start for such a list:Loving GodLoving One

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1153018448125593682006-07-15T22:39:00.000-04:002006-07-15T22:54:08.136-04:00

You never know what you'll find on line. One odd but intriguing link I found was to a site called the Portrait Illustration Maker. I can't say it looks exactly like me: the beard is seldom that well trimmed, and I don't think I have a shirt exactly that shade of blue... but the presence of the coffee cup is certainly true to life. The little portrait icon was made by the Abi-Station. The Portait

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1152805899745469872006-07-13T11:40:00.000-04:002006-07-13T12:24:41.763-04:00

Reporter Sharon Cohen begins the story this way: He was a stern-faced sniper - and a soft-hearted Marine who handed out candy to kids in Iraq. He was a warrior who wrote poetry about life and death. ...he had dreamed of joining the military ever since he was a little boy who liked to watch "M-A-S-H" on television and dress in fatigues and a camouflage shirt...."He told me lots of times that he

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1152285192715980622006-07-07T10:44:00.000-04:002006-07-08T12:49:17.886-04:00

Most of the coverage of Ken Lay's death remembers him as the mastermind of an elaborate corporate fraud. The San Francisco Chronicle's editorial is typical: "Because of Lay's accounting fraud, 5,000 jobs were lost, as well as $1 billion in employee pensions." And they comment, "Regrettably, Lay, who died at 64, will never spend time in prison to pay for what he did."But Kenneth Lay was a more

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1152118307353050772006-07-05T12:46:00.000-04:002006-07-05T12:51:47.373-04:00

Many years ago, the ad for a horror movie advised, when the movie got too intense, just keep repeating “It’s only a movie, it’s only a movie…” Lots of people have similar advice in responding to the horror show that is The DaVinci Code. Just keep repeating “It’s only a novel. It’s just a work of fiction. It doesn’t prove anything.”Except, of course, it’s never just a story.Stories shape the way

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1147363511452599052006-05-11T11:27:00.000-04:002006-05-11T12:05:11.480-04:00

The example of the Amish and the Mennonites came up several times during the week I spent with a team doing clean up and recovery work along the Gulf coast. Hurricane Katrina hit the end of last summer, and as this spring begins it seems the recovery work has hardly begun. Many people are still waiting for insurance companies and government agencies to fix things.And yet some communities have

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1145997218287409332006-04-25T16:33:00.000-04:002006-04-25T16:46:24.023-04:00

A 12-year-old girl and a 23-year-old male are accused of murdering three members of a family. That's unsettling enough, but what adds a special chill to the story is the information about how these two got together. "Accused killers met on vampire website": The tie that binds the two -- aside from the criminal charges they now face -- is the Internet.According to a friend of the 12-year-old girl,

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1145700132534908212006-04-22T06:02:00.000-04:002006-04-22T06:02:12.580-04:00

With all of the alternatives and demands on our time these days, it's easy to lose track of what truly matters. I know I often need to ask -- and probably don't ask as often as I should -- whether I'm working for God or for myself. Any signposts that can help me stay on the proper path are deeply appreciated.You may not be able to follow the link to this helpful posting at Dave Hackett's Frontier

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1145572996990426152006-04-20T18:43:00.000-04:002006-04-20T18:46:38.703-04:00

The parlance of our times in the National Post offers comments that reveal the state of our celebrity leadership. The quote from Mary J. Blige printed April 20 about says it all:"My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block."There's a unique comfort and affirmation found when we can make up our gods as we go along. The pain

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1135490096685996832005-12-25T00:51:00.000-05:002005-12-25T00:54:58.120-05:00

As I finish setting the gifts around the tree, and get ready to settle in for a short winter's nap (kids get up early on Christmas, y'know), I thought I'd share some reflections on The Gift behind all these other gifts.Christmas begins with the amazing promise that Mary "'will give birth to a son. And he will be called Immanuel.' The name Immanuel means 'God with us.'" (Matthew 1:23)What's so

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1135291570548375712005-12-22T17:46:00.000-05:002005-12-23T01:27:02.836-05:00

"Being right is wrong," the retired minister titled his reflection. After more than sixty years dealing with religion, he was discouraged. "As I watch religion function in this country and around the world, rather than experiencing hope, there is a great deal of disappointment."The reason for his disappointment is one that resonates with many modern people. "The most divisive and damaging

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1128487363584367582005-10-05T00:42:00.000-04:002005-10-05T00:42:43.600-04:00

O. Benjamin Sparks, interim editor of The Presbyterian Outlook, posted an interesting defense of the role of government in the Katrina disaster. His editorial, Abandoned people, principles suggested the disaster should cause us to put an end to "the anti-government rhetoric in which our culture has been awash in recent decades." He writes, "We are responsible for one another, and government --

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1124773986170196902005-08-23T01:13:00.000-04:002005-08-23T01:15:12.613-04:00

In last Saturday's Toronto Star, David Haskell, assistant professor of journalism at the Brantford campus of Wilfrid Laurier University, contemplated the precipitous decline in the United Church of Canada's membership. In many ways the decline of the United Church flies in the face of common sense. How can their numbers be dropping when they seem to be the only major Christian denomination in

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1122732723331710902005-07-30T10:12:00.000-04:002005-08-01T01:28:31.846-04:00

Marriage used to be about family, about creating a place where children could grow and thrive. Children used to be, if not actually the centre, at least part of what was central to the meaning of family. Not that every family had children, any more than every vehicle is pulled by a horse. But, just as "horsepower" is the standard by which we measure vehicles, so "good for children" was how we

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1122613905265754242005-07-29T01:11:00.000-04:002005-07-29T01:29:16.106-04:00

As social conservatives work to "defend marriage," perhaps it's time to consider whether the biggest threat isn't direct challenges to traditional marriage. Perhaps the biggest threat is the slow erosion of what marriage means. Last Monday, Dale Price at Dyspeptic Mutterings posted a link to a Fox news report that highlighted that erosion. The Fox news article by Jennifer D'Angelo carried the

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1118969309832692782005-06-16T20:48:00.000-04:002007-06-30T23:07:44.808-04:00

"We need separation of church and politics" declares columnist Anthony Westell in a CBC News Viewpoint posted at the CBC web site. He is concerned because evangelicals, though still "a minor factor" seem to be "growing rapidly." Why does that growth concern him?People like US President George Bush show what can happen when evangelicals get into power. Bush claims to be guided by Jesus when he

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1118125854951798862005-06-07T02:18:00.000-04:002005-06-16T02:04:05.686-04:00

Continuing from the conclusion of my last post, "People may call it circling the wagons, but churches are strongest when they are who they were meant to be, a firm place to stand on the faith delivered to the saints," note this comment from Dale Price on his blog, "Dyspeptic Mutterings":...the greatest risk to Catholic thought is to downplay, secularize or attempt to harmonize it with the

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1116573698754719792005-05-20T03:21:00.000-04:002005-05-20T03:31:50.280-04:00

Remember the moment in My Fair Lady when Prof. Henry Higgins wonders with great frustration "why can't a woman be more like a man?" A recent column by Richard Amrhine in the Free Lance-Star posted at Fredericksburg.com sounded a little like that. "Catholics don't rock the boat," the headline for Amrhine's article declared. After suggesting the election of Benedict XVI as pope presented Roman

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1116052073940051362005-05-14T02:27:00.000-04:002005-05-14T02:35:46.850-04:00

Law & Order offers stories "ripped from the headlines" and certainly unafraid of controversy. The episode that aired Wednesday, May 11, on NBC certainly deserved to provoke conversation. In it, the detectives reopened a nine-year-old cold murder case, and tracked down a promising suspect. And the accused admits to the crime and is prepared to literally throw himself on the mercy of the court. But

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1112733437293179122005-04-05T16:37:00.000-04:002005-04-16T01:46:59.170-04:00

A couple of days ago, I wrote advance directives are not the answer to the question of end of life care because changing circumstances could very well lead a changing of decisions. In the Saturday, April 2, Toronto Star, columnist Helen Henderson wrote that is exactly what happened to her. (The article is no longer available free on line.) Ms. Henderson wrote about people who saw the images of

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1112603014879889412005-04-04T04:19:00.000-04:002005-04-04T04:23:34.880-04:00

Whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, I suppose most of us in my generation who work in the Church or other Christian service serve in some way under the influenced of the ministry of Pope John Paul II.In 1979, I was freshly graduated from college and beginning my career in Christian work. The then-new Pope John Paul II was honouring Chicago's Polish community with one of his early visits. I was

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1112259387906856142005-03-31T03:40:00.000-05:002005-03-31T03:59:37.426-05:00

It usually takes a hospital admission before people think seriously about advance directives and living wills. But these days people are hearing the advice about getting one before it's needed... just in case.But, as I've focused on "what I would want," I find I'm really not all that sure of what I'd really want. This far removed from the reality of the choice, it just seems so hypothetical. What

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1110959549104763702005-03-16T02:42:00.000-05:002005-03-16T02:52:29.106-05:00

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NIV)Few churches have much of an Easter Saturday service. Good Friday usually merits a special service or two. Often these have extra elements to help them stand out as

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1110264942892215712005-03-08T01:42:00.000-05:002005-03-08T01:55:42.893-05:00

““For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NIV)This material Paul passed on “as of first importance” is certainly one of the oldest, most original Christian affirmations of faith. Previous posts have looked at

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1109360524171562802005-02-25T14:37:00.000-05:002005-03-04T01:26:34.190-05:00

Part of what made the deaths of Gandhi, Kennedy, and King — and others through the years — such tragic experiences was the sudden, unexpected shock of the news. It was one thing to lose the inspirational leader. Add to that the loss of a sense of predictability or stability in the world. If this could happen even to them, what assurance do any of us have?It's hard enough to go on after a profound

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1108542867464587592005-02-16T03:27:00.000-05:002005-02-17T11:22:12.633-05:00

"Here we have Christianity reduced to 12 hours, the least interesting 12 hours of Jesus's life, religiously speaking." That's how William Schweiker, University of Chicago theological ethics professor, described Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ.The suffering and death of Jesus may be "the least interesting" to Prof. Schweiker, but the church closest to Jesus did not share that

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1108453610041178552005-02-15T02:40:00.000-05:002005-02-15T02:48:28.583-05:00

In the early 70s, Presbyterians in the United States published a new Worshipbook. Its “Service for the Lord’s Day” included a new creed, which in the congregation I attended was called simply the Contemporary Statement.This is the good news which we received, in which we stand, and by which we are saved: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1108024509057941592005-02-10T03:35:00.000-05:002005-02-10T03:38:25.323-05:00

It takes a special kind of courage to love the doctrine of original sin. Too often over the years I've heard people say things like "I like that church; they don't focus on all that negative stuff like sin." But what a blessing we miss out on because we don't realize just what sin means. So it was quite refreshing to run across Rebecca Writes: Why I Love the Doctrine of Total Depravity. Rebecca,

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1107795295547607872005-02-07T11:53:00.000-05:002005-02-07T11:54:55.546-05:00

Most school children grow up with the story of Aesop, famous for his clever and pointed fables. They may be as important in English and American culture as they were to the Greeks. Most of us have at least a few of the fables of Aesop planted in our memories. Maybe the Dog in the Manger, perhaps the Fox and the Crow, almost certainly the Tortoise and the Hare. But who was Aesop? Most stories

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10061344.post-1107616294127948722005-02-05T10:08:00.000-05:002005-02-05T10:11:34.126-05:00

A generation ago, people referred to the religion that dominates the Middle East as Mohammedanism and its followers as Mohammedans. The current edition of the American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language notes that usage is considered offensive. It's easy to understand why because that language severely distorts the teachings of Islam and its followers, Muslims. Muslims protested the

PJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00789222484014113052noreply@blogger.com0