Archives from Old Blog Site: 2005

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December 30, 2005
A Psalm for New Year’sI was looking for the reference for the verse about how “all flesh is grass,” on how the things of this world all pass away, as a fitting meditation for New Year’s. It’s from Psalm 103. But then I saw how those rather sad verses are transformed by the context, which evokes great joy in the steadfast love of God, in all of its many manifestations, which never passes away. Psalm 103 gives us the promises that indeed give us a “Happy New Year” no matter what happens. Click “continue reading” and see what I mean.Psalm 103
Praise for the Lord’s Mercies_A Psalm of David.
Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.* But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them. The Lord has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, Who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, You ministers of His, who do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works, In all places of His dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
~ Posted by Veith at 01:16 PM

Looking ahead
Another thing I like to do to celebrate New Year’s is to look up people’s predictions last year about what the new year would bring. Subtracting out the psychics, here is one and here is another. What are your predictions for 2006?
~ Posted by Veith at 10:36 AMLooking back
Since this is a Monday through Friday blog, today–as is already evident–will be the day we reflect on New Year’s. Looking back on last year, what do you consider the significant events, developments, or trends of 2005?
~ Posted by Veith at 10:00 AM

New Year
I realize that New Year’s Day is not an official holiday in the church year, but it’s always been a rather meaningful and contemplative time for me. I always go through the recaps of the top stories and milestones of the previous year (for example, those listed in the end-of-the-year (World). I also look back at my own and my family’s highs and lows during the past year. It’s a salutary exercise, a meditation on time, change, eternity; a reflection on the mutability of life and the permanence of God’s blessings. I also look ahead, wondering what all might happen in the next year.And on New Year’s Eve, we stay up till midnight to see the old year out and the new year in. That’s not as easy as it used to be. We are always at home. When our kids were here, younger, and more easily deceived, we would wickedly make them think that the ball that dropped on Times Square that they watched on TV applied for us too, not telling them about the time zone differences so that they would go to bed earlier, while still thinking they had seen the old year out. We’ll still manage some kind of toast.

Then on New Year’s Day, we, being Oklahomans even while living in the Wisconsin arctic, eat black-eyed peas for good luck. (We have sometimes had to scour the area’s grocery stores just to find some! People in Wisconsin think that to have good luck you must eat herring on New Year’s day. Though I will sometimes hedge my bets by eating some of that slimy stuff, I still believe in the efficacy of black-eyed peas. I hold to that even though I cannot deny that in general the state of Wisconsin over the years has had much better luck than Oklahoma.)That’s about it. What do you do for New Year’s?
~ Posted by Veith at 09:49 AM

Mob psychology
Thanks to the comment from “Kletos Sumboulos,” a confessional Lutheran psychologist, who commented on our discussion about mob behavior. He runs an outstanding blog called Amore et Labor (which is Latin for “Love and Work”). It focuses on what he calls “the psychology and spirituality of work.” In other words, Luther’s doctrine of vocation.Anyway, he says that when we join to a mob, two psychological phenomena kick in. (My comments are in parentheses, which “Kletos” is welcome to correct.):
(1) A “diffusion of responsibility.” That is, the individual responsibility we normally feel for our actions is watered down and distributed among the group. (I would suggest that this happens not only mobs, but in groups in general. Look what often happens to individual effort in school when kids are given a “group assignment.” Usually that means that the smartest kid in the group ends up doing all the work, but the rest consider it less urgent that they do something.)
(2) “Deindividuation.” The individual loses a sense of his personal identity and takes on the group identity. (This is the goal under collectivist ideologies, such as Communism, Fascism, and other more benevolent-seeming political ideologies. In less harmful ways, we can feel it happen when we get caught up with our team and the crowd in a football game [as when my Sooners beat #6-ranked Oregon in the Holiday Bowl last night!]. Perhaps a positive example takes place in church, when we become one with the “communion of saints.” But this can become dangerous when the group-identity takes over at the expense of our individual beliefs, principles, and conscience.)
~ Posted by Veith at 07:45 AM

December 29, 2005
Going Dutch: Down the moral slippery slopeThe loss of Christianity in the Netherlands has also meant a moral vacuum, of course, as the FoxNews feature blogged about below also noted. Legalized drugs mean marijuana and hashish bars on street corners. Legalized prostitution means sexual window shopping in Amsterdam. But the Netherlands is also a useful bellwether on what may be coming next. Having transgressed one moral boundary, the Dutch–eagerly sledding down the slippery slope–keep looking for the next one to transgress. That may be useful for us to see what will be next after, say, gay marriage and legalized euthanasia.
Having legalized gay marriage, the Dutch are now conducting legal group marriages (two women and a man; two men and a woman; or whatever other combination). Having legalized euthanasia when a patient requests it, the Dutch have now legalized involuntary euthanasia for patients who cannot, including children. And now the pro-death lobby is pushing legalization of a suicide pill, for people who are not seriously ill but who are just tired of life.
Could this happen here?
~ Posted by Veith at 09:23 AM

Going Dutch: Seeing religion as “toxic”
I caught a fascinating feature on FoxNews yesterday, about the precipitous decline of religion in the Netherlands. (Sorry, it isn’t posted on the FoxNews site, at least not yet.) One hundred years ago, Holland was one of the most religious nations in the world, with some 90% of the population going to church. Today, it is one of the least religious, with only 8% going to church. Experts can’t really say why that happened. But that’s only part of the story. According to an expert who was interviewed, the attitude towards religion is not just neutral or indifferent, as one would expect with a sheerly secular point of view. Most people are aggres-sively anti-religious. The expert said that people in Northern Europe see religion as “toxic.” “They are afraid of it.”I have heard elsewhere that this is one of the reasons Europeans have become so anti-American. They hold President Bush in contempt largely because he is openly religious. And they fear America because they know our country is still religious. They think we are becoming a Taliban-like theocracy. (While remaining strangely tolerant of actual Taliban-like theocracies.)

The view that religion and Christianity in particular are “toxic” is indeed the view of much of our cultural elite. Perhaps Europe is in the cultural vanguard. Do you think Christianity in America will similarly collapse culturally in the years ahead? (Recognizing, of course, that Christ will always preserve His church, if only as a small remnant.)
~ Posted by Veith at 09:14 AMMobs and human nature
Here is an update on the mob beating in Milwaukee that we posted about yesterday. The victim, a black man, has awakened out of his coma and will apparently recover. Safety tip: It has apparently become the in thing for teenagers to gather in large numbers and block roads. If such a group blocks your way, turn around and go by another route. Don’t stand on principle and insist on driving through. Call the police.

There have been four other mob beatings in Milwaukee over the past year, with one fatality. That does not include the 2002 beating death of Charlie Young, which was committed by a group that included children as young as ten. But here is what I would like us to contemplate, a remark by Criminal Justice professor Alan Fox: “People in groups do things that they wouldn’t do on their own.”
I am confident that when arrests are made in this case, neighbors and family members will say of individual perpetrators what a nice young man he is, how he never hurt anyone, how they can’t believe he would have done such a thing. And they will be right. But groups bring out the worst in us. We see this not only in poor inner city kids, but in middle class college students who riot after winning a championship, European adults who go berserk at soccer games, and–in less violent forms–grade school cliques and the casual viciousness that can take place in a group of fellow workers or advocates of a cause, even in church. That doesn’t normally harm people physically, but the gossip, put-downs, and psychological toll can be great, and the moral and thus spiritual damage it does to the perpetrators can be serious.We try to teach our kids the dangers of “peer pressure” (even as school and church youth groups do “trust building” activities that teach them to trust the group). But I think peer pressure can be just as much of a problem for adults. Do you think so?
~ Posted by Veith at 08:02 AM

December 28, 2005
Compare these twoConsider the two posts, below. Is there any essential difference between the cruelty in an inner city assault and the theologically-motivated cruelty of Rev. Phelps? Are they essentially the same? Is one of them worse?
 Posted by Veith at 10:14 AM

Depravity watch
As G. K. Chesterton said, the doctrine of original sin is the one Christian doctrine that can be proved. The daily newspaper provides an abundance of evidence. This is what happened Monday night right here in Milwaukee: A 50-year-old Milwaukee man was dragged from a car he was driving and severely beaten Monday night by a group of at least 15 teens and young men after he honked at them to get out of the street they were blocking.Witnesses said the attackers jumped off cars and did flips onto the man’s head, laughed and blasted music as if they were having a “block party.”
The victim, identified by family as Samuel McClain, suffered “severe head trauma” and was in critical condition late Tuesday at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa, a hospital spokesman said. His family was gathered at Froedtert, awaiting word on McClain’s fate. It was unclear whether he would survive Said a witness who called the police: “They just started stomping on him, beating him. They were having fun, like it was normal, like it was an everyday thing … I was in shock.”

Most sins give the sinner some apparent good: Theft gets you money or some desired possession. Murder can give the satisfaction of revenge or it can protect one’s freedom by eliminating a witness. Other sins give illicit pleasure. But to harm someone for no reason exhibits a viciousness that is pure evil, explainable only in terms of an innate human depravity and an alliance with the devil himself.
~ Posted by Veith at 10:01 AMWhat side is he on?
Michelle Malkin posts on the latest activities of the Rev. Fred Phelps. He and members of his church, Westboro Baptist of Topeka, Kansas, got attention for picketing at the funerals of gay murder and AIDS victims, with signs such as “God hates fags.” Now the group is branching out, picketing at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq, with signs like “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” Rev. Phelps believes the Iraq war is God’s punishment for the government’s tolerance of homosexuals.

Now, is there anything more likely to build sympathy for homosexuals than what Rev. Phelps is doing? Is there anything more likely to discredit Christianity?
I have known a lot of Baptists and even fundamentalist Baptists. They certainly do not approve of homosexuality, but they are all oriented to conversion. They are more likely to say “God so loved the world. . . “(John 3:16), than to say “God hates you.”And I have known a lot of Kansans and cultural conservatives–some of them on the extreme side–but I cannot imagine any of them–nor any Baptist nor fundamentalist–showing up at a soldier’s funeral and holding up a sign saying “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”

This made me wonder whether Rev. Phelps and Westboro Baptist might not really be fronts for the other side, an elaborate example of postmodernist, ironic, transgressive performance art.But checking the church’s website, I guess the group is real. According to the church’s doctrinal statement, the theological basis of what they do comes from a hyper-Calvinist emphasis on the Limited Atonement, that Christ died only for the elect and so hates everyone else. They picket funerals and use such inflammatory language because they think this is an example of “the foolishness of preaching.”
If Rev. Phelp’s ministry is not a conspiracy of atheists, it is at least a conspiracy of the devil.
 Posted by Veith at 08:05 AM

December 27, 2005
Theistic Evolution vs. DarwinismMany people in Christendom are “theistic evolutionists.” They accept Darwin’s theory of evolution, but believe that this is merely the mechanism by which God created His world. Many theistic evolutionists are crowing at the legal defeats of Intelligent Design as an alternative theory of origins. (See the comments on the many posts on the subject on World Views, WORLD’s main blog site.)

The problem is, Darwinism is just as incompatible with Theistic Evolution as Intelligent Design. Darwinism insists that changes in species are RANDOM, and that it is through these RANDOM–that is, undirected, unpurposeful, undesigned–mutations that life adapts and different species evolve. Theistic evolution teaches that God directed the process of evolution, which has a purpose and an end. To believe that God directed evolution is to go squarely against the most important tenets of Darwinian science. The notion that God guided the processes of evolution is, in fact, to believe in Intelligent Design.
 Posted by Veith at 09:35 AMStem cell scandal
We earlier blogged about Dr. Hwang of Korea, whose pursuit of cloning got him into trouble for harvesting the eggs of his employees for his experiments, an ethical violation. The point of that post, entitled Straining at a gnat, swallowing a camel, was that ethicists were getting all worked up over a technical infraction of a regulation (though the ethical violation was certainly real), while still assuming that the major moral infraction of generating embryos to kill them is OK.

Now we learn another lesson: seemingly minor ethical lapses are often signs of deeper and more significant ethical lapses. Investigations into Dr. Hwang’s methodology have found that his whole cloning research is fraudulent, that he never made the cloned embryos he claimed, that he faked his data, that his scientific papers hailed as the groundbreaking research that will open the door to all kinds of medical miracles if we just accept the practice of cloning embryos was a hoax.It will be interesting to see where this leaves embryonic stem cell research, since much of the pioneering research has not, in fact, taken place.
 Posted by Veith at 08:06 AM

December 26, 2005
Returning the Gift
The day after Christmas is called St. Stephen’s Day, commemorating the first Christian martyr. Paul McCain at Cyberbrethren makes a provocative and profound connection between this day being when so many people return their gifts and the way so many people, including those who slew Stephen, return the gift of Christ:On a day when shopping mall parking lots are stuffed full of people trying to return gifts, there is a certain dreadful and wonderful irony that the church this day remembers Stephen, killed by those who did not want the Lord’s gift of a Christ. And so, they took up stones to murder one of the Christ child’s faithful disciples, St. Stephen, who went to his death confessing the gift of the Savior Jesus.
 Posted by Veith at 04:46 PM

Into the public square
It was good to see Rev. Walter Snyder’s post on Christmas cited in the New York Daily News! His blog is a member of the Cranach community, linked in the right hand column of this page. (We have a few more that still need to be set up. Check them all out.) This is a good example of getting our message into the public square. Go here and follow the links.
 Posted by Veith at 09:58 AMThe hundred ton gorilla
Despite predictions that “King Kong” would surpass “The Titanic” and sweep away “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” after its opening splash, the third remake of the giant ape movie–while doing OK–has been a box office disappointment. In fact, the Narnia movie, despite its being out for awhile, has retaken the number one position. Click here for the box office charts.

I think the true 100 ton gorilla is not King Kong but director Peter Jackson. After his success with “Lord of the Rings,” the studios are letting him do whatever he wants. Studios would not let a normal director release a three hour movie, but insist on cuts and edits. When a movie goes for so long, theaters cannot show it as many times. That alone means it will be unlikely to reap the profits of a two-hour movie, since more showings can be fit into a day. Some long movies, of course, such as “Lord of the Rings,” can get away with that, but King Kong is an old and familiar story. I’m open to seeing it, if I can find the time, but I’m not particularly eager to do so. Have any of you seen it? Should I go?
 Posted by Veith at 09:24 AMIn defense of fruitcake
All of those comedians with their fruitcake jokes have harmed a noble holiday tradition. I happen to like fruitcake, and I was pleased to get one this year. It was made at the legendary Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas, the fruitcake mecca. But it seems even Collin Street Bakery has become ashamed of fruitcake. The name is nowhere to be found on the round metal box it came in and even on the mail-order catalog that came with it. The dense concoction is now called “Apricot Pecan Cake” and such like, depending on the flavors. I’m sure the Corsicana economy has been hard-hit by all of those comedians making fun of the product, but the true Texas approach to such a challenge should not be capitu-lation but defiance. I myself salute fruitcake (especially when soaked in rum). (Note: Please do not send me the fruitcakes you have been given. I do not like them that much.)
 Posted by Veith at 09:07 AM

On the second day of Christmas
For those who follow the historic Christian calendar, Christmas is just getting started! There are eleven days left! Woo-hoo!
 Posted by Veith at 09:05 AMDecember 23, 2005
Go to church on Christmas Sunday
We used to talk about “Christmas and Easter Christians,” those who never darkened the door of a church throughout the year, but just showed up on those holidays. Now there may be Easter Christians, but Christmas Christians are no more. In fact, even regular church goers tend not to go to church on Christmas. Pastors this year, when Christmas falls on a Sunday, are expecting a low, low attendance. The Christian blogosphere has discussed how prominent mega-churches are going so far as to cancel all Sunday services on Christmas day, a dangerous violation of God’s commandment that makes it hard to take them seriously as churches. We laypeople need to take the same lesson to heart. Don’t skip out on church on Christmas day! The very best way to honor the coming of Christ is to go to His divine service, where He really does come in Word and Sacrament, where He has promised to be with us when we gather together in His name, where we can greet our King in person! (HT: Todd Peperkorn)
 Posted by Veith at 01:22 PM

Christmas and vocation
You have simply got to read _for your Christmas edification Paul McCain’s post at Cyberbrethren on how Luther relates vocation to Christmas. A sampling of quotes from Luther on the subject: Here is another excellent and helpful lesson, namely, that after the shepherds have been enlightened and have come to a true knowledge of Christ, they do not run out into the desert-which is what the crazy monks and nuns in the cloisters did! No the shepherds continue in their vocation, and in the process they also serve their fellow men. For true faith does not create people who abandon their secular vocation and begin a totally different kind of living, a way of life which the totally irrational monks considered essential to being saved, even though it was only an externally different way of existence. [Klug, Luther’s House Postils, Vol. 1:48]
“We conclude, therefore, that a Christian lives not in Himself, but in Christ and in the neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor.” “On the Freedom of a Christian,” (LW 31:371)“These are the two things in which a Christian is to exercise himself, the one that he draws Christ into himself, and that by faith he makes him his own, appro-priates to himself the treasures of Christ and confidently builds upon them; the other that he condescends to his neighbor and lets him share in that which he has received, even as he shares in the treasures of Christ.” 1521 Christmas sermonBut you need to read what Paul says about these quotes, drawing on a discussion by the inimitable John Pless.
 Posted by Veith at 12:45 PM

More evidence for December 25 as Christ’s birthday
In response to my column on the evidence that December 25 was not set aside as Christ’s birthday because of some pagan holiday, but for good reason, alert WORLD reader Rev. Gary Hinman sent me this article on yet another line of evidence. The calculations are based on the course of Temple duties for the clan of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. The months are laid out with precision in the Gospel of Luke, including when his wife Elisabeth visited her relative Mary, and the unborn John leapt in the womb as he came into the presence of the unborn Jesus. Counting out the months leads us somewhere after the middle of December as the time of Jesus’ birth. The article also makes an argument from when lambs are born, requiring shepherds to be out in the fields watching their flocks. But the argument from Zacharias’ temple duties is even stronger than mine, since it comes straight from the Bible.
I found the article online. It was written by John Stormer, author of the Cold War classic “None Dare Call It Treason,” who later became a Christian and a Baptist pastor.“Lambs are born at the Christmas Season” Is there evidence that Jesus was born at Christmas??
by John Stormer
For too many years, pastors and teachers have said, “Of course we don’t know when Christ was actually born- but the time of year is not really important.” Jehovah’s Witnesses and others have taught that Christmas was “invented” in the fourth or fifth centuries. The supposed goal was giving a “Christian” facade or influence to the wild pagan or Satanic holiday observances during the winter solstice (the shortest days of the year).

What’s the real story? Is there any real evidence that Jesus Christ was born at Christmas? A careful examination of a number of seemingly unrelated Bible passages gives clear indication that the Lord Jesus was indeed born at Christmas time. Such study will give new emphasis to what Christ came to do. It will also provide a much deeper appreciation of all that is hidden in the Word of God which can be discovered by those who prayerfully search the scriptures. Every word in the Bible is there because God put it there. He has a purpose for every one of His words. Therefore, seemingly casual listing of periods of time, genealogical references, etc. have significance which can be discovered through prayerful study.In Luke Chapter 1, the Bible records seemingly unimportant details about what a priest named Zacharias was doing when an angel announced to him that he and his wife were to have a child. The child was to be John the Baptist who would prepare the way for the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Bible further records that the Lord Jesus was conceived in the sixth month after John the Baptist was conceived. Therefore, if the time of the conception of John the Baptist could be determined, the birth date of the Lord Jesus could be calculated.

The scriptures say (relevant passages are underlined): “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course… ” Luke 1:5,8 At this point Zacharias demonstrated his amazing faithfulness to his duties as a priest. Even though he had been given the wonderful news by the angel that he and Elisabeth would have a son, Zacharias stayed in the temple until the days of his course were completed.“And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months…” Luke 1:23-24 The passage then describes how an angel came to Mary to announce that she was to be the virgin mother of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. The scripture says: “And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth. To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary…” Luke 1:26-27 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.” Luke 1:39-40

Contained within these quoted passages are scriptures which point to the exact time when Jesus was born. (Remember that God puts every word and every detail into the Bible exactly as He wants it and for a purpose.) The underlined words are the key.In Luke 1:5 and Luke 1:8, we are told that Zacharias was a priest of the course of Abia and that he fulfilled his priestly duties in the order of his course. To under-tand the importance of the course of Abia and its bearing on the date of John the Baptist’s conception, it is necessary to turn to 1Chronicles 24:1-10. This passage describes how a thousand years before Christ, King David established the courses for priestly service in the coming temple. Twenty-four courses were established and numbered by drawing lots - twelve courses for sanctuary service and twelve for the government of the house of God.

Members of each course would serve during a month starting with the Hebrew month of Nisan. (Because of the way the Hebrew calendar fluctuates, the month Nisan can start anytime between early March and early April.) The sons of Abijah (the Old Testament spelling for Abia) were in the eighth course. Priests of Abia like Zacharias would, therefore, have each ministered for some days during the eighth month which in some years because of the fluctuation in the Hebrew calendar started as early as the fifth day of our month of October. Zacharias would have returned home when his days of service were accomplished and John the Baptist could have been conceived sometime between October 15 and the end of the month.After conception the scripture says that Elisabeth hid herself for five months. Then in the sixth month of her pregnancy (which, based on the above calculation, would have started about March 15 and continued until April 15) the angel announced to the Virgin Mary that the Lord Jesus would be conceived in her womb by the Holy Ghost. If this took place on or about April 1 a “normal” gestation period of 270 days would have then had the Lord Jesus due on or about December 25. How about that!

There are other scriptural and natural indicators that confirm that the Lord was born at Christmas time. IN the account of His birth in Luke 2:8, we read: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”My son-in-law, who has a degree in agriculture, after hearing the above presentation, told me, “Certainly, the Lord Jesus was born at Christmas. The only time shepherds spend the night in the fields with their sheep is during the time when the lambs are born. The ewes become ‘attractive’ to the rams in the month after June 21, the longest day of the year. The normal gestation period is five months so the ewes start lambing about mid-December.” He added: Isn’t it natural that the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world would be born when all the other lambs are born?

This “coincidence” was too amazing for me to accept until I checked it out. A former teacher from the school where I am the administrator is married to a Montana sheep rancher. She confirmed what I had been told. She said, “Oh, yes! None of the men who have flocks are in church for weeks at Christmas. They have to be in the fields day and night to clean up and care for the lambs as soon as they are born or many would perish in the cold.” Isn’t that neat? God’s Lamb, who was to die for the sins of the world, was born when all the other little lambs are born. Because He came and died the centuries old practice of sacrificing lambs for sin could end.There is another neat confirmation that God had His Son born at Christmas. The days at the end of December are the shortest (and therefore the darkest days) of the year. Jesus Christ said, “I am the light of the world.” So at the time of the year when the darkness is greatest, God the Father sent God the Son to be the Light of the world.

The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, lived a sinless life and was therefore qualified to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind (which is death). He paid it all- but all do not benefit from the wondrous gift God bestowed on mankind at Christmas.“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:11-12
John Stormer, Pastor Emeritus Heritage Baptist Church, Florissant, MO from the PCC Update, Winter 1996 (The ABeka magazine) (PCC - Pensacola Christian College)
 Posted by Veith at 12:35 PM

Lost verse of a classic carol
You may know the beautiful Christmas hymn “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” (though it too is unjustly neglected). But the English translation, as often happen, leaves out a verse. The new “Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary”–an excellent worship book from the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS)–puts it back in. (HT: hymnwriter Mark Preus)He was found in human fashion Death and sorrow here to know That the race of Adam’s children, Doomed by law to endless woe, May not henceforth die and perish In the depths of hell below. (Evermore and evermore) Click “continue reading” for an alternative translation by Mark Preus and the original Latin by Prudentius.
by Mark Preus:

Clothed in servant’s form and body, Took our flesh our death to know Lest the race of Adam’s children Perish in eternal woe, For the law of sin had plunged us To the depths of hell below.by Prudentius:
Corporis formam caduci, membra morti obnoxia Induit, ne gens periret primoplasti ex germine, Merserat quem lex profundo noxialis tartaro.
 Posted by Veith at 07:19 AM

A new “Visit from St. Nicholas”
Readers of WORLD will notice that I turned our blog discussion on St. Nicholas as a heretic-slapper into my weekly column. (I suspect I’ll get all kinds of flak from that: you are advocating violence! you are advocating Santa Claus! you are advocating honoring a saint! you are advocating the commercialization of Christmas!) But joining my larger conspiracy to re-Christianize the secular observances, faithful reader Jeff Samuelson, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church (WELS) in Clarksville/Columbia, Maryland, sent along his new redaction of “The Night Before Christmas.” He even keeps the meter right. (For links and an audio file, go to the end.)A Visit from St. Nicholas
A sound broke my slumbers one cold winter’s dawn — Grief-laden sobs and sighs deeply drawn. I rose from my bed and searched for the sound. In a chair by the tree, a stranger I found. With white hair and beard, and eyes long turned red — His cheeks glistened wet with the tears he had shed.

“Who are you?” I asked, though somehow I knew. The things all around him gave me a clue. Stockings were hung by the chimney with care, And Christmas cards spilled on the floor by the chair. My red Santa hat had been thrown at the tree And Rudolph and Frosty played on TV. The “spirit of Christmas” filled up the room But reindeer and tinsel only deepened his gloom.This had to be Nicholas — his beard left no doubt — But what brought this on I couldn’t make out. His red suit was missing, and where was his sleigh? And why was he here on the wrong winter’s day? No jelly-bowl belly and no “Ho, ho, ho!” Something was wrong, and I just had to know.

So “Nicholas,” I asked him, “what’s up with the tears? They’re hardly a symbol of holiday cheer! You’re not looking much like a ‘jolly old elf’ — This morning, it seems, you’re just not yourself.”He lifted his gaze and the tears left his eyes. A rage seemed to come as he started to rise. “My ‘self’ is the problem since someone took me And made me a someone I never would be. I came here to visit and saw what you’ve done: You’ve made me a rival to God’s only Son!”

“The children I’ve asked — they all knew my name. But Jesus their Savior — none cared that he came. These stories and specials and movies and songs — They’re all about me — and that’s simply wrong. It’s Christ you should think of and worship and praise — Go to the manger and ponder and gaze. Forget about me and look to your Savior — The very best gift of God’s loving favor.”  How could you do this? How dare you distract The children’s young minds from this wonderful fact? A babe born for sinners — what wonder, what joy! — Please focus their thoughts on God’s little boy!” I cried since my giving of gifts had been changed from a service of love to a practice … deranged. I’m glad to be seen as a figure of love But I will not compete with God’s Son from above.”
“I wept most of all when I saw I’d been made A reason to make little children afraid! To punish and frighten the ones that keep sinning? Oh, how that must keep the old Serpent grinning! Christmas is gospel — grace freely given; Trust in the Lord and sins are forgiven.” “So don’t use my name to threaten or plead The gospel of Christ is just what you need To change your dear children from naughty to nice And give them their place in God’s paradise. Forget me, I beg, if I get in the way Of Christ and his coming that first Christmas Day.” The darkness was lifting as light filled the room And Nicholas faded, along with his gloom. He’d freely confessed, and did not deny His place as a servant of Christ crucified.
A dream or a vision? I couldn’t quite tell. But he’d corrected my Christmas and broken the spell. And back to my slumbers I slowly returned And dreamt of the Baby whose story I’d spurned.Since then the Santas and reindeer are gone From my mantel, my window, my roof and my lawn. Instead there’s a manger scene down by the way — The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay — It’s part of my witness to God’s saving grace And Nicholas is happy to give Christ his place.

– Copyright 2005 — Rev. Jeffrey L. Samelson Christ Lutheran Church (WELS) Clarksville/Columbia, Maryland www.christlutheran.net
 (If you want the whole context, i.e. the sermon and how St. Nicholas relates to John the Baptist and our own witness, it can be found at: http://www.christlutheran.net   – the audio (it probably “listens” better than it reads) is at: http://home.comcast.net/~christlutheran/streams/20051211.ram – text is at: http://home.comcast.net/~christlutheran/TextSermons/ witness.html   – and an MSWord file at: http://home.comcast.net/ ~christlutheran/TextSermons/Witness.doc ) (I’m not looking for publicity (although my church could always use more), and I don’t claim it’s great literature. But if you were so inclined, I have no problem with you posting this, so long as there are no changes and the identifying information remains attached — I don’t want it “morphing” on the internet into something theologically other than what it’s supposed to be (really the only reason I slapped a copyright notice on). Thanks!)
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Proclaim Peace through Jesus! =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

Pastor Jeff Samelson Christ Lutheran Church (WELS) Clarksville/Columbia, MD christlutheran@threesolas.net www.christlutheran.net (301) 854-2100
 Posted by Veith at 06:11 AMDecember 22, 2005
Outlawing Christian prayer
I wrote about the new legal rulings against praying in the name of Jesus in a recent WORLD column. Here is what I said in my column of December 17, 2005, entitled “Rock of Offense”:
A federal court has ruled that the Indiana House of Representatives may not open with any kind of prayer that mentions “Christ’s name or title.” This ruling is far more significant than banning the Ten Commandments in courthouses or taking “under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance. What the Indiana decision does is to outlaw Christian prayer in the civic arena. And, if it stands, it will mean that no Christian clergyman or layperson can in good conscience pray at public events.
The word invocation does not just mean a prayer that opens a meeting. It means “calling upon” a deity. Virtually every prayer begins by calling upon the name of the person to whom the prayer is addressed.

Islamic prayers—as were also offered in the Indiana House and noted with approval in Judge David Hamilton’s ruling—begin “In the name of Allah, the merciful.” Is it legal to invoke Allah’s name, and not that of Jesus Christ?
He Himself tells His followers that they are to make their requests to God in His name (John 14:13). So Christian prayers have historically concluded with some variation of “in Jesus’ name we pray.”But surely just ending a prayer with that formula is not always necessary, some might say. Many prayers in the Bible, including the Lord’s Prayer, do not end that way. Surely Christian clergymen given the honor of praying at a civic event can live with the ruling. Leaving Jesus out of their prayers is a way to avoid offense. After all, we can still address our prayers to Him, if not in words at least in our hearts.

But the Lord’s Prayer too begins with an invocation that makes clear whom we are addressing: “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Furthermore, it lifts up His name: “Hallowed be Thy name.”It is true that prayers do not have to end in a particular formula, but they still must be offered through Christ. Jesus tells us to pray “in faith” (Matthew 21:22). Only when we are in Christ may we dare come into the Father’s presence. But through Christ, our intercessor and high priest, we have free access to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Also when we pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we do not know what to say (Romans 8:26).

The point is, Christian prayer is trinitarian but it is not generic. It may be possible to address the Trinity without mentioning any of the divine persons. But surely no Christian could accept the terms of the Indiana decision, that you can pray only if you do not invoke your God.Let us assume that the court’s concern for a strict separation of church and state is valid. Let us further assume the tenets of multiculturalism and the value of religious diversity. If I ask someone to pray for me, I can only expect that person to pray to the deity he believes in, using the forms of his religion. A Muslim will give an Islamic prayer. A Hindu will give a Hindu prayer. And a Christian will give a Christian prayer. Each person will pray according to his particular beliefs and the practices of his religion. The same must hold true when a legislature asks someone to pray.
In the Indiana ruling, a federal court dictates the content of a prayer, forbids the invocation of a particular deity, and mandates that prayers may only be directed to a universal divinity who reigns in an interfaith pantheon. That is not religious tolerance; it is religious intolerance. It does not promote religious diversity; it eliminates religious diversity. And when a federal court tells people who they can and cannot pray to and how they are allowed to pray, what we have is state-sponsored religion.
Copyright © 2005 WORLD Magazine December 24, 2005, Vol. 20, No. 50
 Posted by Veith at 08:55 AM

Hunger strike for right to pray in Jesus’ name
A Navy chaplain, Lt. Gordon Klingenschmitt, is holding a hunger strike outside of the White House, for the right to pray in Jesus’ name. New regulations allow chaplains to pray to a specific deity during chapel services, but on public occasions, they have been instructed to just pray to a generic god. Doesn’t this constitute the government establishing a new religion?
 Posted by Veith at 08:44 AMThe strange impact of Katrina
They say economics is the dismal science, but I find it fascinating. Hurricane Katrina certainly had a devastating effect, on the lives of its victims and in its economic impact. But according to this article, that impact is going to switch in 2006 to a strong positive for the US economy, as all of the rebuilding will be a huge boost for employment, manufacturing, and the construction industry. And because the rebuilding is going slowly, that should prevent the negatives of creating shortages in the rest of the country, bidding up prices, etc.
From a “Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel” article by Michele Derus, quoting Cliff Brewis, an economic analyst for the construction industry:
It now appears that U.S. markets will slowly absorb southern states’ massive reconstruction needs, including at least 300,000 homes, without the much-feared price run-ups in building materials costs, Brewis said. Within six months from now, Katrina will switch from economic drain to economic stimulus, boosting 2006’s Gross Domestic Product to the 3.8% to 4.3% growth range, he predicted.

“The way it will likely play out is, they’ll start with (rebuilding) infrastructure, to non-residential and then residential,” Brewis said. With $140 billion or more in storm-related work ahead, America’s construction industry can expect 2005 to be its 15th good year in a row, he said.Posted by Veith at 08:34 AMDecember 21, 2005
A lost hymn on the Incarnation
A tip of the hat to the great Australian theologian John Kleinig for sending me this hymn by Charles Wesley. You can hear the tune here. I have never heard of this hymn before, and I’m not sure why. It has some splendid Incarnational imagery:
LET EARTH AND HEAVEN COMBINE
Let earth and heaven combine, Angels and men agree, To praise in songs divine The incarnate Deity, Our God contracted to a span, Incomprehensibly made Man.
He laid His glory by, He wrapped Him in our clay; Unmarked by human eye, The latent Godhead lay; Infant of days He here became, And bore the mild Immanuel’s Name.

See in that Infant’s face The depths of deity, And labor while ye gaze To sound the mystery In vain; ye angels gaze no more, But fall, and silently adore.
Unsearchable the love That hath the Savior brought; The grace is far above Of men or angels’ thought: Suffice for us that God, we know, Our God, is manifest below.He deigns in flesh t’appear, Widest extremes to join; To bring our vileness near, And make us all divine: And we the life of God shall know, For God is manifest below.

Made perfect first in love, And sanctified by grace, We shall from earth remove, And see His glorious face: His love shall then be fully showed, And man shall all be lost in God. Posted by Veith at 11:19 AMTerrorist released and a Lutheran connection
A harbinger of our age of terrorism was in 1985, when TWA flight 847 was hijacked by Arab terrorists, who murdered a U.S. sailor and threw his body on the tarmack. Now Germany has released one of those hijackers, after 19 years of a life sentence.

The flight engineer on that crew, which was held hostage in a terrifying ordeal, was B. Christian Zimmerman. Not only was he a TWA pilot, he was a pastor of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. And through it all, he was able to minister both to the victims and the terrorists. He tells the whole inspiring and instructive story in his book HOSTAGE IN A HOSTAGE WORLD: HOPE ABOARD HIJACKED TWA 847 (CPH). The book is out of print, but used copies are available online.
 Posted by Veith at 09:16 AMG. K. Chesterton’s “The Wise Men”
Here is a tremendous poem on the Incarnation, plus the problems of many intellectuals in grasping Christianity, by one of the greatest of Christian authors (yet strangely neglected), G. K. Chesterton:
“The Wise Men”
Step softly, under snow or rain, To find the place where men can pray; The way is all so very plain That we may lose the way.  Oh, we have learnt to peer and pore On tortured puzzles from our youth, We know all the labyrinthine lore, We are the three wise men of yore, And we know all things but truth.  We have gone round and round the hill And lost the wood among the trees, And learnt long names for every ill, And serve the made gods, naming still The furies the Eumenides.

The gods of violence took the veil Of vision and philosophy, The Serpent that brought all men bale, He bites his own accursed tail, And calls himself Eternity.
Go humbly … it has hailed and snowed… With voices low and lanterns lit; So very simple is the road, That we may stray from it.The world grows terrible and white, And blinding white the breaking day; We walk bewildered in the light, For something is too large for sight, And something much too plain to say.

The Child that was ere worlds begun (… We need but walk a little way, We need but see a latch undone…) The Child that played with moon and sun Is playing with a little hay.
The house from which the heavens are fed, The old strange house that is our own, Where trick of words are never said, And Mercy is as plain as bread, And Honour is as hard as stone.  Go humbly, humble are the skies, And low and large and fierce the Star; So very near the Manger lies That we may travel far.
Hark! Laughter like a lion wakes To roar to the resounding plain. And the whole heaven shouts and shakes, For God Himself is born again, And we are little children walking Through the snow and rain. Posted by Veith at 07:27 AMDecember 20, 2005
In defense of the commercialization of Christmas
I love everything about Christmas, including its commercialization. First of all, it is very appropriate for non-Christians and secularists to observe this holiday. “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. . .and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11). This will happen at Judgment, but it happens too in a lesser way at Christmastime. The practically-universal holiday and its observances are signs of Christ’s Lordship, even among those who reject Him. (This is why eliminating the “name” of Christ imbedded in the word “Christmas” really is important for non-believers, though their efforts are ultimately futile.) All of their celebrating, gift-giving, family times, and warm and fuzzy feelings are tributes to Jesus, whether they like it or not. And such honor is fitting for the One through whom all things were made and the redeemer of the world.

But hasn’t Christmas become too materialistic? Shouldn’t we make it more spiritual? NO. This is the last of our worries today, when the hyper-spiritualism of the Gnostics has permeated our culture and our religious life. The Incarnation, which we celebrate at Christmas, is precisely about the MATERIAL realm. In Christ, God has become FLESH. He is not an inner feeling, much less a vacuous deity without form or substance, as our Gnostic culture prefers. He has become material. And we are too, so that our bodies (contra the Feminists) and what we do in our bodies (contra the Gnostic immoralists) are very important. In our current moral and theological climate, we desperately need to recapture the Biblical mindsets concerning the material realm, including the Creation, the Body, the Incarnation, the Sacraments, the Resurrection of the Body.But Christmas is not just a family holiday, as so many people are making it. No, it isn’t. But in a curiously neglected prophecy–indeed in the last verse of the Old Testament, transitioning into the New–we learn that a sign of Christ’s advent, referring apparently to John the Baptist, is the coming of a prophet who “will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6). So in our divorce-plagued culture, a time when this happens does indeed honor and point to Christ.

But isn’t there too much emphasis on presents? NO. A gift is a sign of the Gospel. Jesus is a gift. Salvation is a gift. The Word and the Sacraments convey God’s gifts of grace. In this selfish, me-centered world, giving gifts and (perhaps more importantly) receiving gifts can create a mindset necessary in understanding the Christian message.So Christians should be glad to see the secular world all decked out and celebrating the birth of Christ. Christ is not just for Christians. He is for the whole world, even for those who do not know Him and who are honoring Him against their intention and against their will. And it is a proof of His lordship that practically the whole world sets aside a day to be happy and giving in His name.
 Posted by Veith at 08:57 AM

Our material blessings
Finishing up my Christmas shopping last night, watching the crowds and soaking up the opulence of our shopping mall, I thought of a point made by novelist and cultural-observer Tom Wolfe. He observed that today in America the ordinary working stiff–the sort who would have been a downtrodden peasant a few centuries ago or one of the oppressed proletariat that Marx wanted to unchain–today has access to treasures, conveniences, luxuries, and a standard of living that goes beyond that of the Roman Emperors, the Bourbon monarchs, and the millionaire industrialists of days gone by.
 Posted by Veith at 08:49 AMOn the Incarnation of our Lord
In his comment on the “God in the Manger” quote yesterday, Brant said, “Maybe you should start a discussion thread/post on great quotes regarding the incarnation as we approach Christmas? I know there are some great ones out there, and I’m sure the commenters of this blog have a bunch.”
He offered, as an example, another great line from Luther: “The God whom the universe could not contain, is held in the arms of Mary.”
Then Carl chipped in with one from Charles Wesley’s magnificent hymn: “Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see! Hail, incarnate Deity! Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel!”

What are some other quotations or descriptions or sermon illustrations or other attempts to help us realize the magnitude of this wonderful mystery of our faith, that the Word who is God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1)?
 Posted by Veith at 07:16 AMDecember 19, 2005
The God in the Manger
A major hat-tip to What You Do Do Quickly for this heart-touching Christmas meditation from Martin Luther:  if you will have joy, bend yourself down to this place. There you will find that boy given for you who is your Creator lying in a manger. I will stay with that boy as he sucks, is washed, and dies…. There is no joy but in this boy. Take him away and you face the Majesty which terrifies…
I know of no God but this one in the manger…That person lying in the manger is both man and God essentially, not seperated one from the other but as born of a virgin. If you separate them, the joy is gone. O Thou boy, lying in the manger, thou art truly God who hast created me, and thou wilt not be wrathful with me because thou comest to me in this loving way- more loving cannot be imagined.” Posted by Veith at 09:30 AM

Santarchy
Mobs of drunks dressed in Santa Claus suits rioted in New Zealand, part of an international movement called santarchy. Advocates of combining Santa and anarchy claim they are protesting the commercialism of Christmas. Websites are devoted to this activity. I suspect a connection, if only one of worldview, with the bloody displays of slasher Santas adorning some of our festive city streets. Of course, pathological hatred of Christmas and its associations is at least as old as Scrooge. Can anyone venture an explanation?
 Posted by Veith at 09:13 AMHow child porn gets victims
You need to know about this, even though it will break your heart: Children are setting up webcams and adults are paying them to make pornography. Read this. We often criticize the “New York Times,” but this time investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald does some stellar work in exposing a little known aspect of the child porn industry. And after getting his story, the reporter turned over his information to the police and helped his young source escape from a nightmarish bondage.
 Posted by Veith at 08:43 AM

“Happy Holidays” after all
Here is a different take on the “Christmas War” from the inimitable Rev. William Cwirla, giving a distinctly Christian take on “Happy Hannukah,” “Happy Kwanzaa,” and the generic “Happy Holiday.” And he gives the true meaning of the blessing, “Merry Christmas”!Read the whole thing, but here is his conclusion:
I, for my part, would wish everyone without distinction a “Blessed and Merry Christmas.” Should someone say to me, “But I’m not a Christian,” I would say to them, “Nevertheless, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, became a flesh and blood human being born of the Virgin Mary in order to offer His Body and Blood to save you and all the world by His death and resurrection. And that’s why I’m saying to you, ‘Merry Christmas.’ He’s not only my Savior, He’s the Savior of the world, including you.” That’s the wonder and joy of Christ - He’s exclusively inclusive.
 Posted by Veith at 07:09 AM

December 16, 2005
I’m number 4!
My book The Soul of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has hit #4 on the Christian Booksellers Association general interest bestseller list!
 Posted by Veith at 05:06 PMGood books coming
I’ve just come back from the board meeting of Concordia Publishing House, and I’m pleased to report that some of your requests (in the “what books do we need” post below) have been anticipated, including some of the very reprints some of you had asked for. But what the board was most impressed with are three huge projects that will come to fruition in 2006 and that should help build up our Christian infrastructure:
(1) A brand new Sunday School curriculum, “Growing in Christ.” Sunday school attendance is way down in most church bodies, and much of the curriculum used even in conservative churches is little more than fun, games, and moralism–without bothering to mention Christ and the Gospel! This curriculum, though–while having fun and games–is Christ-centered and actually teaches the Bible. It uses beautiful REALISTIC art (not cartoons as some of you commenters complained) to get the sense of the historicity and truth of what the Bible describes. The curriculum is also very creative. For example, the publishers commissioned composers to put Bible verses and the articles of the catechism to music (good, appropriate music) to aid memorization.

(2) The “Concordia Curriculum Guide” to help Christian schools integrate the faith with academic content. The first one out will deal with Social Studies. Nearly a third of Lutheran Missouri Synod congregations have schools (so there are around 2,000 of them), but I think our church body as a whole does not give them the attention they deserve. This initiative should prove very helpful for our teachers in helping them fulfill their mission, to build schools that are strong both academically and spiritually.(3) “The Lutheran Service Book,” the new hymnal developed by the LCMS Commission on Worship and published by CPH. I had the privilege of working on this, chairing the translation committee, and I think this hymnal will rehabilitate “traditional” worship. It has lots of new and recently-composed music, but they are HYMNS, packed with meaning, written to be sung congregationally, and appropriate for worship. The orders of worship in the LSB include the beloved settings of the past, as well as some new ones that are still rich liturgically. And it has lots of creative features (such as alternate accompaniments for both “trained musicians” and “volunteer musicians”–one problem with the earlier hymnal is that many of the arrangements were just too hard to play for the typical church organist, so no wonder they went to simpler “contemporary” music).

What was most encouraging at the board meeting was hearing the results of a poll of churches, on how many will be ordering the book and when. Over half want to order it THE FIRST YEAR, far more than anyone anticipated, about the same number that use the last hymnal altogether. So it looks like there is a demand for this book. Hopefully, it will help bring peace in the worship wars and help bring our church body together. And for you non-Lutheran readers, I think that when this hymnal comes out, the rest of Christendom can get some good ideas as well for what worship in the 21st century–that is in accord with rest of Christian history–can be.
 Posted by Veith at 02:24 PMPerson of the Year
TIME MAGAZINE will announced its pick for the “Person of the Year” this weekend. Who do you think it should be?
 Posted by Veith at 12:56 PM

Lutheran Heritage Foundation
Do you like inspiring stories about successful mission work, from people carrying the Gospel to people around the world who have never heard it, or who are prevented from hearing it? Idly surfing the internet, I came across this remarkable interview with John Fehrman of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. I know it as a fine organization, publishing Christian material in a whole range of languages, but I did not know some of these stories.
 Posted by Veith at 10:59 AMLion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and vocation
So where do you see the theme of vocation in the Narnia book and movie?
 Posted by Veith at 07:41 AM

Lord of the Rings and vocation
From Rev. Alex Klages:
My wife has been hard at work on a blog-series on vocation in the Lord of the Rings. No doubt this is something Dr. Veith and others have written on and/or considered. Even so, I think Kelly’s words are pretty well-weighted (even if that is just my vocation as husband speaking!)
Check these out (in sequence): 1)http://www.mts.net/~aklages/kelly/2005/11/lord-of-vocations-part-i.html 2)http://www.mts.net/~aklages/kelly/2005/12/lord-of-vocations-part-ii.html 3)http://www.mts.net/~aklages/kelly/2005/12/lord-of-vocations-part-iii-frodos.html 4)http://www.mts.net/~aklages/kelly/2005/12/lord-of-vocations-part-iv-intro-to.html 4b)http://www.mts.net/~aklages/kelly/2005/12/lord-of-vocations-part-iv-intro-to.htmlShe’s still working on this series… Please let her know what you think!Thanks, Alex and Kelly! No, I have not written about this. I did see the theme of vocation in “Lord of the Rings.” Of course, I see that just about everywhere! But this analysis is quite good, both as literary criticism and as theology of the Christian life.
 Posted by Veith at 07:34 AM

December 15, 2005
Sheltering kids
In a break in our CPH board meeting, some of us were discussing whether or not the Narnia movie is suitable for young children. Ruth Koch, an educator and counselor on the board, observed that many young adults today were so protected by their parents from any negative emotions that today, now that they are grown up, they are unable to handle them. Either they shut themselves away from deep emotions–wanting to protect themselves from being hurt–or they fall to pieces when something bad happens to them (as it inevitably will).This reminded me of what Willliam Kirkpatrick wrote about the way stories shape a child’s moral imagination. Historically, stories have functioned to initiate children into life, teaching them to identify with virtue and to be repelled at vice, and helping them form the appropriate emotional responses in a safe, “virtual” way. Bruno Betteheim goes even further, arguing that fairy tales–even and especially the “scary” ones–anticipate the fears children already have and shows them that they can be victorious over what they fear.
 Posted by Veith at 07:04 AM

Those books we need
Thanks for the excellent and useful response to my query, occasioned by my being at a board meeting of Concordia Publishing House, about what books you think we need. I’m happy to say that some of what you suggested is actually in the works (from reprinting Krauth’s “Conservative Reformation” to using better art). I’m passing along your suggestions to the powers-that-be. Maybe tomorrow I’ll give you a preview of coming attractions. We board members were blown away by three major projects in the works that will do a world of good for our church and for Christendom in general.
 Posted by Veith at 07:00 AMDr. Meilander’s point
UPDATE: I guess the commentor wasn’t Gilbert Meilander after all. No matter. The point stands. But the ironies abound–the defender of virtue stealing someone else’s name; the accusation of cynicism from a perpetrator of identity theft.

Gilbert Meilander is one of the world’s top ethicists, someone whom I admire deeply. (He is an example of an LCMS Lutheran who is impacting the culture!) So I was thrilled to see that he reads this blog. I was dismayed, though, when going through the comments to see that he chastizes me. Here is his comment on the  “New Attack on Justification” post of December 9:
“I have yet to see the person who lives with the moral purity of Christ. But go ahead and try. And then when you fail . . . .” I’m astonished by the tone of this. Whatever happened to the idea that the Spirit’s gifts are intended to bring us toward the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ? Or the exhortation to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? That we will sometimes fall short does not mean this should not be our aim. A Lutheranism that understands justification in a way that teaches cynicism about such an aim is a Lutheranism that will fail to shape the next generation in God-pleasing ways.I have found that the best approach to take when being criticized is to accept the rebuke. I really am a bad person, so moral criticisms as almost always useful. (As in people who keep bringing up my article arguing that those in military vocations have the right to take joy in combat. I do believe that, but I am too bloody-minded sometimes. The recent accusations that are filling the WORLD mailbag that I am wicked for saying in my review of the “Pride and Prejudice” movie that men will enjoy gazing on Keira Knightley I reject, though no doubt sin can be found there too.) Accepting moral criticism is at the essence of the Second Use of the Law (the theological use, to drive us to repentance), so those of us who confess every Sunday that we are “poor, miserable sinners” should take that seriously. Other criticisms, as of our ideas, can also be useful. If there is a disagreement between me and Dr. Meilander, in general, he is more likely to be right than I am.

But I must explain. I am certainly not against living a Christ-like life. The discussion was about justification. My point was simply that if the only people who get to Heaven are those who live a life like Christ, then Heaven will be empty. At least of human beings. To get to Heaven, we do need Christ’s righteousness, which He gives as a gift, to be received through faith, and apprehended through Word and Sacrament. I’m sure Dr. Meilander agrees with that.Furthermore, I would argue that people come closer to living lives like Christ when they do not try to base their salvation on how good they are. As Luther famously pointed out, those who give alms to the poor because they think in doing so will earn them Heaven are doing their good works for themselves, not out of love for their impoverished neighbor in need. Their good works are tainted by their selfishness and by the good they expect to get out of it. True selfless virtue, the kind that produces sacrifice and love, comes when our self-righteousness fades and we recognize our own need in someone else’s. Trying to be righteous just through the law creates that judgmental, ungenerous, superior sensibility that the world rightly despises in Christians, and of which even we Lutherans are often guilty. But we come closer to the goal of living a life like Christ when we are in His grace, when we have a relationship with Him through His Word and Sacraments, when we are united to Him in faith.
So, for the record, I was only being cynical about erstwhile Christians who are willing to throw out justification by faith and are eagerly willing to accept the standard the Jesus set as a means of earning their salvation. If they are able to get to Heaven that way–and the doctrine of not only justification but original sin are in error–more power to them. I know I could never get to Heaven that way. But I certainly want to live a life like Christ’s.
 Posted by Veith at 06:26 AM

December 14, 2005
Book ideas
I’m at the board meeting of Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis. What books do you think need to be written–and published–today? What resources would be helpful to the church?
 Posted by Veith at 07:15 AMAustralia’s riots
Here I’ve been lauding Australia’s good ideas, and now that land is plagued with riots. My new sources in that country inform me that the trouble started when young Islamic men started harrassing the scantily-clad women on the beach. (I have seen this phenomenon working with international students from Muslim cultures. They often see women who are not “covered” as prostitutes and treat them as such, becoming overtly sexual in ways that outrage young women, despite how they are dressed.) Some lifeguards tried to stop the harrassment. The Muslims roughed them up. Then a mob of blokes rallied to defend Australian womanhood, attacking the immigrants. Then the immigrants formed convoys of cars to go into the suburbs, throwing bottles and trashing things.

All such civil disorder must be quelled. But this demonstrates the difficulties of trying to be multi-cultural. When one culture is tolerant and another culture is intolerant, the two are going to clash. Any accomodation must involve both sides. I somehow doubt that Australian beaches are going to feature more clothiing, in order to placate the Muslims. I don’t know the answer.
 Posted by Veith at 07:07 AMDecember 13, 2005
Being confessional when it hurts
One of my daughter’s teachers, in a Lutheran school, once spoke out in class against the death penalty. So at home we talked about the issue. We looked at Romans 13, which gives the lawful authorities the office of “bearing the sword” against evildoers. We also looked at the Augsburg Confession and the Apology (XVI), which affirm capital punishment and which all Lutheran teachers are pledged to uphold.

When my daughter the next day brought these texts to school, the teacher saw what Scripture and the Confessions teach and so she CHANGED HER POSITION. Even though she personally disapproved of capital punishment, she recognized that the practice must be legitimate anyway because the Bible says that it is. She believed the Bible not because she liked what it said but even though she did not. She reasoned that if she disagrees with something the Bible and the Confessions teach, then SHE must be wrong.How often do we see that? The usual approach when confronted with an authority that puts forward a position we don’t like is to question the authority or try to interpret it away so that we can be left with our personal preferences anyway. But this teacher showed herself to be a true Bible-believing Christian and a genuinely confessional Lutheran.
 Posted by Veith at 11:45 AM

The death penalty and abortion
California carried out the death penalty this morning. Many on the left pose this argument to pro-lifers: “You oppose abortion, but you support the death penalty! You are inconsistent and hypocritical.” I don’t get that argument. Most pro-lifers oppose abortion because it takes the life of a child unjustly, who hasn’t murdered anybody. A convicted murderer, though, deserves to die, and the state has the right to take his life. The distinction is one of innocence and guilt, helpless baby and hardened criminal.I do, however, think the argument does work when it is turned around. “You oppose the death penalty, but you support abortion! You want to spare the guilty criminal, but you want to kill the innocent baby. You are inconsistent and hypocritical.”

There are reasons, of course, to be against the death penalty–namely, that innocent people might be killed, which would be an injustice. (Again, that’s also reason NOT to support abortion.) And I would gladly encourage the anti-death penalty person to cultivate a “consistent ethic of life” that would be pro-life when it comes to abortion, as well. And I would gladly trade the death penalty for a ban on abortion. (It would be interesting to see if the anti-death penalty advocate would agree to that.)
 Posted by Veith at 11:35 AMWhy kids like Narnia
My sister, a school teacher, has been tracking the reaction of the kids at her school. The most common reaction: “That’s the best movie I’ve ever seen!” I think kids love this movie because it is, to use the in-term, “empowering.” Ordinary children they can identify with become the heroes. They take on responsibility normally associated with adults. They are taken seriously. They themselves fight the bad guys. And win. And get redeemed for the bad they do. And at the end they get to be crowned as Kings and Queens.

Any of you parents take your kids? What was their reaction? Did they pick up on the Christ symbolism?
 Posted by Veith at 07:27 AM
Narnia in the rest of the world
According to the Daily Record of Scotland, “Worldwide, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe took £61.4million and went to number one in 14 countries.” That’s, what?, over $120 million?
Also, the movie’s showing was the third best opening for the whole year, behind only “Star Wars Episode 3″ and “Harry Potter Episode 4.”
 Posted by Veith at 07:05 AMDecember 12, 2005
Additions that worked and that didn’t
A movie (a visual medium) cannot do everything a book (a verbal medium) can do. A movie has to keep the visual imagery going, whereas books can instead delve into the minds and feelings of the characters. So it is impossible for a book and a movie to be completely identifical. Besides, a book can take days and days to read, while a movie must be compressed into a mere two hours or so. So I’m willing to cut movies based on books some slack. Were there some additions to the storyline of the book that, in your humble opinion, did NOT work? What were some additions that DID work, even to point of underscoring important thematic elements?
 Posted by Veith at 09:04 AM

The movie as interpreter of the book
The best screen adaptations of a book can help us see things in the book that we didn’t see before. Did anything in the movie have this effect for you?
 Posted by Veith at 09:02 AMNot just faithful. But good.
Most Christians were worried about whether or not “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” movie would be faithful to the book. I was just as worried about whether or not it would be good just as a movie. If it were totally faithful, but came across as sappy, or fake, or preachy, or dull, what good would it do? I’m glad to say that the movie measures up with the best of them.

The film took in over $67 million in its first weekend, making for the second biggest December opening of all time, just after the third “Lord of the Rings” movie, but ahead of the other two (which were big too, taking #3 and #4.) (See Box Office Mojo.I have heard Tilda Swinton, who played the White Witch with an intense emotional coldness, mentioned as being Oscar-worthy. I’d like to see Best Actress go to little Georgie Hanley for Lucy.
 Posted by Veith at 08:21 AM

The Narnia movie the second time
The first time I saw the Narnia movie–in an advance screening in Milwaukee–I liked it. But I liked it even more the second time I saw it. The first time I was probably concentrating on analyzing the thing. The second time I just let it hit me, and–as many of you commenters have said–it packs a surprisingly emotional whallop.The second time was in Minneapolis at an annual readers’ retreat, this year held at King of Grace Lutheran Church (ELS). This time the highlighted book was “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” In the morning we talked about the book, then we went to the movie, then we talked about the movie. It was fun to go to the theater with some 90 kindred spirits, then compile what we picked up on. I was glad to meet in the flesh the redoubtable blogger Theresa Kiihn and her daughter. Anyway, it was a good time. And the point is, try seeing it a second time!
 Posted by Veith at 08:13 AM

December 09, 2005
So what did you think of the Narnia movie?
If you got an early showing last night or if you plan to see it this weekend, this is the place to give your reactions to “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” movie. Post your comments here. On Monday, when this blog resumes, we will have a more structured discussion.
 Posted by Veith at 08:42 AMThe new attack on justification
N. T. Wright is an Anglican bishop in England. Evangelicals and other theological conservatives like him because, among other things, he wrote a stirring scholarly defense of the historicity of the resurrection of Christ. But he believed that Luther had it wrong with this justification by grace through faith stuff. This is because Luther misunderstood the writings of St. Paul, who, according to Wright, was just talking about freedom from the Jewish ceremonial law, not the moral law. Actually, according to Wright, we are saved by good works after all.

Though this is being called the “new perspective on Paul,” this is not particularly new. This is basically the Roman Catholic take on what Paul says. Anglicans have never been particularly strong on justification. But what is remarkable to me is how so many evangelicals are seizing on this. Both liberal evangelicals and conservative evangelicals (including some otherwise hard-core Calvinists).
The Wall Street Journal has a column praising Wright from John Wilson, editor of “Books and Culture.” (Click “continue reading” for the article.) I think many evangelicals have been wanting to make salvation a function of good works for a long time, and this gives them a good excuse. Salvation comes from living like Jesus did. That usually gets translated into either conservative or liberal politics, or trivial lifestyle choices like not driving SUVs, recycling, affirming gays, or–on the complementary side–not drinking, smoking, or going to movies. I have yet to see the person who lives with the moral purity of Christ. But go ahead and try. And then when you fail, perhaps you will appreciate how Jesus really chose to live His life. By dying for you. HOUSES OF WORSHIP
Reform Party A British theologian takes another stab at it.
BY JOHN WILSON Friday, December 9, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
Some argue that God lacks a sense of humor, but for those with eyes to see, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Consider: The most influential biblical scholar in American evangelical circles today is a bishop in the Church of England who regularly inveighs against U.S. “imperialism.” For a comparable improbability, imagine a renaissance of the Democratic Party led by a devout Mormon from Texas.This scholar contends that the leaders of the Protestant Reformation–Martin Luther especially–misread St. Paul on the subject of justification by faith. A self-described Reformed theologian, he proposes nothing less than a reformation of the Reformation, 500 years on–and he does so by appealing to the Reformers’ own motto, sola scriptura, “going back to scripture over against all human tradition.”

His name is N.T. Wright. He has published three massive volumes of a projected six devoted to “Christian Origins and the Question of God,” the most recent of which argued forcefully for the historical reality of the Resurrection. In addition to his scholarly projects and his duties as Bishop of Durham, Dr. Wright produces a steady stream of popular books, tapes and other resources for the men and women in the pews.It is this unusual combination of prodigious scholarly achievement and pastoral concern that makes Dr. Wright’s influence so pervasive. But not everyone is thrilled. When a scholar claims that his tradition has gotten one of its fundamental teachings wrong, some alarm-ringing is to be expected. The American pastor and writer John Piper, for instance, is one of a number of prominent evangelicals to send out warnings about Dr. Wright. Another is J. Ligon Duncan III of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, who has singled out Dr. Wright’s influence as particularly dangerous precisely because, among proponents of the so-called new perspective on Paul, Dr. Wright “is the writer who has the clearest evangelical pedigree” and “the largest evangelical audience.”
So what is at stake in this theological argument? “The doctrine of justification is the doctrine of the Reformation,” says the distinguished Princeton Seminary theologian Bruce McCormack. Justification as it was taught to me and my fellow young Protestants a generation ago amounted to this: Catholics believed in salvation by works–doing good in your earthly life would help win you a place in heaven–but we Protestants, following Luther, knew that we were “saved by grace…through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Those words, from Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, expressed the very heart of the gospel, which Luther had recovered. And there was a parallel, we were taught, between the Catholic belief and the works-righteousness of the Pharisees, so uncompromisingly exposed by Jesus as mere outward show, divorced from inner virtue.

But for generations of Protestants, long before Dr. Wright, nagging questions remained. The Reformed emphasis on justification appeared to diminish the meaning of a life lived in obedience to Christ. Didn’t James write–in a letter Luther wanted to drop from the New Testament–that faith without works is dead? And sure enough, one perennial problem of evangelical culture has been an overwhelming attention to “getting saved,” while another has been a rigid legalism (don’t dance, don’t drink, don’t play cards), smuggling works-righteousness in via the back door.Dr. Wright’s work is part of a larger corrective enterprise–not a unified movement but rather a deep, massive shift on many fronts, including the rapid expansion of Christianity in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Old frames of reference lose their relevance; new alliances emerge. In the United States, high-level conversations between evangelicals and Catholics, initiated by evangelical leader Chuck Colson and the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus more than a decade ago and still going strong, have shown that there is no fundamental contradiction in their respective understandings of salvation–a rapprochement that would have seemed inconceivable only a generation ago. In the meantime, evangelical scholars and pastors have profited from a new appreciation of the Jewishness of Jesus and the Jewish context of early Christianity.

We may be in the early stages of the most significant internal change in Christianity since the 16th century–an exciting prospect. But Dr. Wright suggests that the key question for interpreters of Paul in the 21st century “may well turn out to be a matter not so much of comprehension,” as an onlooker following the intricate debates over justification might suppose, “but of courage”–the courage to live as a follower of Jesus.Who was it, after all, who told us to take as our model the faith of a little child?
Mr. Wilson is the editor of Books & Culture, a bimonthly review, and of “Best Christian Writing 2006.”
 Posted by Veith at 08:23 AM

Missouri Synod and the Christmas Tree
Who said Lutherans haven’t influenced American culture? Henry Schwan, one of the great Missouri Synod patriarchs–former synodical president and the author of all the extra stuff in the blue catechism–played a major role in America’s adoption of the Christmas tree. This despite accusations that Lutherans were worshipping trees. You’ve got to read this article by my friend Kevin Vogts, printed in the Lutheran Witness in 1998. Click “continue reading.”Henry Schwan’s Christmas Tree
by Kevin D. Vogts, director of Church Relations at Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon
Reprinted with permission from the December 1998 issue of The Lutheran Witness.

On Christmas Eve morning 1851, young Heinrich Christian Schwan, newly installed pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Cleveland, strode out into the forest near his parsonage and chopped down a small, beautifully shaped evergreen.
It may have been a fir, it may have been a Scotch pine, it may have been a Norway spruce; no one knows anymore. But it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the 32-year-old preacher lovingly carried the tree into his church, where it met with his wife, Emma’s, approval.The couple spent the afternoon festooning the tree with cookies, colored ribbons, fancy nuts and candles. The crowning touch would be the cherished silver star that Schwan had brought with him from his boyhood home in Hannover, Germany. The star was a powerful reminder to him of how happy his Christmases had been as a child.

He wanted to share this same happiness with his congregation, most of whom were also German-born and thus likely to have seen a Christmas tree in their pasts. The custom hadn’t caught on yet in America. In fact, to Schwan’s knowledge, this was the first time that such a tree had appeared within a church this side of the Atlantic.Once the tree was fully trimmed, Schwan carefully placed it in a prominent spot in the chancel. All that remained now was to light the candles bedecking its boughs. Standing back, gazing admiringly at their work, Heinrich and Emma could hardly help thinking, “Won’t the congregation be surprised tonight!”
The people were surprised all right.
Most were delighted. For them, seeing their handsome young pastor reading the Christmas story beside his bright, blazing tree enkindled wonderful Christmastime memories from the Old Country.

For others, however–those not familiar with the idea of a Tannenbaum, espe-cially one in church–it was not such a blessing.
“Oh, my goodness!” one lady gasped, covering her eyes. “What in the world is this supposed to mean?”“A tree in the chancel?” roared an indignant man. “What kind of a minister are you?”  Within a day or two, Herr Schwan’s Christmas tree was the talk of the town, and the talk was not good. A prominent local newspaper called it “a nonsensical, asinine, moronic absurdity.” It editorialized against “these Lutherans . . . worshipping a tree . . . groveling before a shrub” Worse, it recommended that the good Christian citizens of Cleveland ostracize, shun and refuse to do business with anyone “who tolerates such heathenish, idolatrous practices in his church.”

This, obviously, was bad press for the struggling immigrant members of Zion, especially those with stores and other businesses dependent on the public’s goodwill. And all fingers of blame pointed to the same man: the stunned, well-meaning Schwan.
To his credit, however, the young pastor, though sorely chastened, did not cave in–at least not right away. His Christmas tree was still in the chancel the following Sunday. But then it came down. Soon thereafter, Emma discovered Heinrich’s beloved tree-topping silver star in the trash.She cleaned it up and presented it to him. “Why did you throw this away?” she asked.  “Because,” he said disconsolately, “there never will be another Christmas tree in Cleveland.”  “Nonsense!” she replied. “This year you put up the first tree, and next Christmas there will be many trees in Cleveland.”

Emma saved the star, and her prediction came true beyond her wildest dreams.
During the following year, Schwan, perhaps inspired by his stalwart wife, carefully researched the issue of Christmas trees. He ultimately concluded that such trees were not a sacrilege but rather a solid Christian custom–a custom in which Christians could express their joy at the birth of the Christchild.He wrote many letters and received replies assuring him that lighted and decorated Christmas trees were de rigueur in many Christian countries. Emboldened by this knowledge–the fact that Christmas trees were not of pagan origin–he actively promoted their use as symbols of the joy of Christmas.
On Christmas Eve 1852, Schwan’s church again displayed a blazing Christmas tree. But this time it was not the only one in Cleveland. In fact, decorated trees appeared in homes all over town, and within five years Christmas trees were going up in homes and churches all across the country!

Although Pastor Schwan, as we now know, was not the first person to decorate a Christmas tree in North America (read article titled “Who Was Really the First?”), he was the first to introduce one into a church. And he was almost singlehandedly responsible for this custom gaining widespread acceptance and popularity in the United States.The location of Zion Lutheran Church has changed since the 1850s, but on its original spot, the corner of Lakeside Avenue and East Sixth Street, stands an historical marker that states:
“On this site stood the first Christmas tree in America publicly lighted and displayed in a church Christmas ceremony. [Here] stood the original Zion Lutheran Church, where in 1851, on Christmas Eve, Pastor Henry Schwan lighted the first Christmas tree in Cleveland. The tradition he brought from Germany soon became widely accepted throughout America. The present site of Zion Lutheran Church is at 2062 East 30th Street.”

Pastor Schwan would later rise to great prominence in the Missouri Synod, serving as synodical President from 1878 to 1899. He was also the original author of the questions, explanations and Bible prooftexts appended to Luther’s Small Catechism. Had it ever occurred to you that the pastor who wrote the questions in the back of your old blue catechism was the same fellow who popularized the Christmas tree in America?
So, as you put up your Christmas tree this year, or admire the tree (or trees) in your church’s chancel, remember the day when young Henry Schwan betook himself an ax and tramped into that snowy Ohio woods. Remember that, thanks to him, the Christmas tree in church is a unique Missouri Synod contribution to the celebration of Christmas in America!You may also be interested in reading the short article titled “Why Two Trees in the Chancel?”
Contributing to this story are authors of other works relating to H.C. Schwan and his tree: Del Gasche, “A Christmas Tree? In Church?,” Farmland News, 1989; Penne L. Restad, Christmas in America, Oxford University Press, 1995; and Helen Jensen, “Cleveland’s First Christmas Tree” (self-published, 1996). Posted by Veith at 08:15 AM

Swedish pastor acquitted in Bible as hate crime case
A Lutheran pastor in Sweden had been charged with a hate crime for preaching what the Bible ssays about homosexual behavior. He faced up to four years in prison. A lower court convicted him, but the Swedish Supreme Court has found him innocent, ruling that European Union guarantees of freedom of speech and religion trump the Swedish law. Click “continue reading” for the full details.
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USAThursday, December 8, 2005
PASTOR ACQUITTED OF HATE SPEECH BY SWEDEN’S HIGHEST COURT
By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
BORGHOLM, SWEDEN (ANS) — A precedent-setting verdict, upholding freedom of speech and religion, was issued on November 29 by the Swedish Supreme Court (SSC).
According to the Laywers Christian Fellowship in London, Sweden’s highest court, in a unanimous decision, acquitted Pastor Ake Green of charges of “hate speech” arising from a sermon he preached in July, 2003 denouncing homosexual behaviors.
Lawyers Christian Fellowship says Green was initially convicted under Sweden’s new hate crimes law, enacted in 2003, which makes illegal any expressions of “disrespect” or “incitement” “towards a group of people,” including groups with “sexual inclinations.”
The group says that up to two years in prison is the normal penalty under the law, but if a statement against any particular group is “especially threatening or disrespectful” or “disseminated to a large number of persons,” the crime is considered “major” and the perpetrator can be subject to up to four years in prison.
The Lawyers fellowship says Green had been convicted and sentenced by a lower court in 2004.
The group says: “It was claimed by some that that he had referred to homosexuals in a disrespectful way, but Green explained to the courts that he was referring to homosexual acts, not persons, Green said at his Supreme Court hearing November 9.”

Green commented: “I don’t take back what I said. I still think we should be able to voice our convictions without ending up in jail and if that happens I will be showing how ridiculous things have got.”In a 16-page ruling the Supreme Court said his sermon was protected by freedom of speech and religion under the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We are obliged to consider the European Convention on Human Rights and the way in which the convention has been applied by the European Court of Justice,” Supreme Court Justice Johan Munck said.  “We believe that it is probable that a conviction against Pastor Green would not hold up in the European Court of Justice.”

The Lawyers group says the decision to acquit Pastor Green is “very positive, setting a standard for the right to religious freedom and right to freedom of expression.”Pastor Green said he was now free to preach the word of God, and the decision was a relief both for him and other preachers.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, Public Policy Officer for the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship (LCF), remarked: “This decision sets a precedent and it is a very significant victory for freedom of speech and freedom of religion.”
With the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in the UK at the Third Reading stage, the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship hopes “that the British government will take note of this decision and consider the importance of freedom of speech and religion, and the necessity for Christian ministers to express their Biblically-based religious beliefs.”A link to a transcript of Ake Green’s sermon can be found at www.akegreen.org
** Michael Ireland is an international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Garden Grove, California. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in September, 1995. He is married with two children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station.
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
 Posted by Veith at 07:13 AM

December 08, 2005
Casuistry
There is a word for what the Israeli parliament has done (blogged below), in addition to legalizing murder. It’s “casuistry.” Yes, the word can refer to a legitimate analysis of cases, as when pastors discuss how to handle specific problems of pastoral care. But its more popular defintion is “complex reasoning to justify moral laxity.” Or, close attention to the details of moral laws in an attempt to get around them.Pascal–an amazingly profound Christian writer who almost never gets attention today despite his having also laid the groundwork for the computer–lambasted the Jesuits for their casuistry, their moral lawyering that allowed French politicians to get away with murder. I read an interesting article on Bill Clinton’s Southern Baptist casuistry, which rationalized what kinds of extramarital sexual behavior are not really sinning. Again, this is how sin combines with legalism to pervert the Law: trying to find ways to get around God’s Law so that we can sin while still feeling self-righteous.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, does the opposite: EXPANDING the scope of the moral law. So does Luther in his Catechisms, showing how the Ten Commandments apply in an even broader way than we might want them to.
Under the Gospel, though, we can freely admit our sinfulness and find forgiveness through Christ. We don’t have to justify ourselves. Christ has justified us.But in the earthly kingdom, what cruelty, vice, broken homes, and bloodshed are unleashed by casuistry! And now Israel will kill its sick and elderly, standing by while machines do it, as if sins of omission did not have the same effect as sins of commission.
 Posted by Veith at 11:14 AM
Israel finds way to euthanize without breaking the Commandment?
The Israeli parliament has passed a bill legalizing euthanasia, as long as it is performed by a machine. A timer will be put on life-support machines, which, without intervention, will simply turn them off. The device is similar to a “Sabbath Clock” that allows observant Jews to manage their machines without working on the sabbath.

Parliamentarians reached a solution after discussions with a 58-member panel of medical, religious and philosophical experts.
“The point was that it is wrong, under Jewish law, for a person’s life to be taken by a person but, for a machine, it is acceptable,” a parliamentary spokesman said.
“A man would not be able to shorten human life but a machine can.”Notice how legalistic moralism leads to logic-chopping loopholes, to missing the weightier purpose of the law, and thus to immorality.
 Posted by Veith at 09:19 AMSanta Claus, heretic slapper
Rev. Scott Stiegemeyer imparts the delicious information that St. Nicholas, who would later become the model for Santa Claus, attended the Council of Nicea, which affirmed the deity of Christ. Not only that, he got so fed up at the heretic Arius that he went up and slapped him, for which he had to apologize. (Rev. Petersen, who first brought this up, has more.)

We need to work that into our Christmas imagery: Santa Claus going around battling heretics who deny who Jesus is. And giving a gentle but heart-felt slap to people who take Christ out of Christmas. Department Store Santas quizzing children who sit on their laps about the Two Natures of Christ and giving clerks who say “Happy Holiday” a slap. Also teachers who forbid the singing of Christmas carols because they mention Jesus. And ministers who cancel Sunday church services that fall on Christmas day.We will need songs (”Santa Claus is Coming to Slap”; “Frosty the Gnostic”; “Rudolph the Red Knows Jesus”). And Christmas specials (”How the Arian Stole Christmas”).

Help me out here. What else could we do to recast Santa as a jolly old theological enforcer? I feel a column coming on.
 Posted by Veith at 07:44 AMDecember 07, 2005
Islam, Christianity, & Jihad
Thanks to Susan Olasky, on the main WORLD site, for alerting me to this fine scholarly article on Islam’s stance on Christianity and the necessity of “Jihad of the Sword.” It also speaks of how violence against Christians ties to the Apocalypse in Muslim eyes and the duty of PRIVATE Jihad (which is why Sunni clerics cannot specifically condemn individual terrorist acts).
 Posted by Veith at 12:02 PM

Pearl Harbor Day
12/7 was the old 9/11. Today is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Back then, Japan was an animistic Empire. Now that country is democratic, free, and prosperous. Back then, Japan was our sworn enemy. Now we are allies, Japan plays baseball, and Americans driveJapanese cars and eat sushi. Do you think such a change from hostility to friendship could happen in 50 years with our current adversaries in the Muslim world?
 Posted by Veith at 08:12 AM