CRAHACH ARCHIVES FROM BLOG OLD SITE - 2006
December 21, 2006
Christmas break
This afternoon we head out over the river and through the woods to Oklahoma for Christmas, so this blog will begin its Christmas break. So let me wish you–the best readers and most perceptive commenters in the blogosphere–a merry and blessed and Christ-filled Christmas. May you keep Christ in Christmas, keep the mass in Christmas, and keep the holy in the holiday.
Posted by Veith at 10:13 AM
The story of St. Boniface and the Christmas tree, posted below, reminds me of another one of Christmas’s violent saints: Jolly old St. Nicholas, slapper of heretics. So I thought I’d re-run my WORLD column on the subject from December 24, 2005. I also commend to you the lively and creative blog discussion we had about this, which included some original Christmas carols that deserve to become part of our holiday fare.
Why not take the Santa Claus tradition a little further? | Gene Edward Veith
Santa Claus had his origins in St. Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop of
And we’ll need new songs and TV specials (”Santa Claus Is Coming to Slap,” “Deck the Apollinarian with Bats of Holly,” “Frosty the Gnostic,” “How the Arian Stole Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red Knows Jesus”).
This addition to his job description will keep Santa busy. Teachers who forbid the singing of religious Christmas carols—SLAP! Office managers who erect Holiday Trees—SLAP! Judges who outlaw manger displays—SLAP! People who give The Da Vinci Code as a Christmas present—SLAP! Ministers who cancel Sunday church services that fall on Christmas day—SLAP! SLAP!
Thanks to reader SSchaper–also to commenter Puzzled– for alerting me to an account of the origin of the Christmas tree that goes way, way back to the missionary who first evangelized the German tribes. who That was St. Boniface. His apologetic technique to get through to the barbarians was to cut down the Sacred Oak of Thor. To the Germans’ amazement, Boniface did not get hammered. This convinced many of them that Boniface had the true God after all. According to this story, after cutting down the Sacred Oak, Boniface saw an evergreen tree nearby, which he used as an object lesson to teach about the everlasting life through Christ, who died on a tree: According to tradition, when he chopped down the pagan Thor’s Oak at Geismar, Boniface claimed a tiny fir tree growing in its roots as the new Christian symbol. He told the heathen tribes: - “This humble tree’s wood is used to build your homes: let Christ be at the centre of your households. - Its leaves remain evergreen in the darkest days: let Christ be your constant light. - Its boughs reach out to embrace and its top points to heaven: let Christ be your comfort and your guide.” So the fir tree became a sign of Christ amongst the German peoples, and eventually it became a world-wide symbol of Christmas.
Posted by Veith at 06:13 AM
Mythbusters get recognized
I’m glad that one of my favorite shows on television, Mythbusters, has finally made The New York Times. OK, it was a month ago, but I’m gradually getting caught up.
Posted by Veith at 10:07 AM
We should pay tribute to Joseph Barbera of the animation company Hanna-Barbera, who died earlier this week. Hanna-Barbera was in the shadow of Disney and Bugs Bunny’s Warner Brothers. And in focusing on made-for-TV animation, its works are uneven, but they display a genius for artistic conventions.
I could never much hack “Scooby Doo,” though I appreciated how it pretty much always had the same plot with the villain being someone wearing a mask of another character. But “Tom and Jerry” also took a single simple story line and played it with infinite variations. Hanna-Barbera’s mastery of conventions is evident in “The Flintstones,” the primal sit-com. My favorites, though, were the extremely funny animal characters, each of whom also had his repeated conventions: Heckle and Jekyll, Yogi Bear, Quickdraw McGraw, and Snagglepuss (”exit, stage right, running all the way. . . “).
Posted by Veith at 09:36 AM
In addition to human rights, we now have calls for animal rights. And next is a call for machine rights. In
Posted by Veith at 09:14 AM
Obama’s church
Thanks to commenter Kathy for the link to Barack Obama’s church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ. This sounds like one of the few mainline liberal Protestant congregations that has managed to attract black people, most of whose churches are evangelical. It seems like liberal, social gospel theology is back in vogue, being embraced by the so-called “evangelical left” and getting much more media attention as an attractive alternative to conservative Christianity. I’m wondering if we may see a confluence of old school liberalism with the doctrinal emptiness of certain megachurches. Might “mainstream” Protestantism become mainstream once again?
Posted by Veith at 12:23 PM
There is an easy, safe, and inexpensive way to make our food safe from all of these e-coli and other infections, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal: irradiation (subscription required). Even though zapping meats, fruits, and vegetables has been thoroughly studied, with absolutely no harmful effects ever detected, the media, environmentalists, and anti-science activists have made it sound scary and blocked the technology from being implemented. Click “continue reading” for excerpts.
The recent E. coli outbreaks are playing as a familiar morality tale of too little regulation. The real story is a much bigger scandal: How special interests have blocked approval of a technology that could sanitize fruits and vegetables and reduce food poisoning in
Somehow this side of the story never seems to make it into the mainstream media. . . .
Posted by Veith at 12:05 PM
As the comedian formerly known as Kramer as demonstrated, there really ARE forbidden words. In fact, according to Wall Street Journal editor Daniel Henninger, other kinds of bad language–including the f-word–are going out of vogue, at least among comedians, and maybe, to a degree, in the culture as a whole. We can only hope.
Posted by Veith at 11:58 AM
A study has found that Christmas music, more so than other kinds, has a calming effect on babies. Daycare workers have long noticed how babies do not cry as much when Christmas music is played in the background. Other styles they play, such as soft rock or classical, do not have the same effect. Click “continue reading” for details.
[oas:casperstartribune.net/news/national/top:Middle1]
The holiday season is in full swing and it is giving nurses who work with newborns something to be thankful for. Their rows of usually fussy infants have been seduced into a collective calm, thanks to the tunes of Christmas.
“They are usually pretty cranky,” said Amanda Ring, a women and children’s health nurse at
Studies have shown that babies are born with the ability to perceive and process basic musical sounds and patterns, often with a preference for those in major keys. It just so happens that most holiday music is written and performed in such keys.
Even in adults, soothing music can be used to initiate a state of relaxed awareness in the brain, studies show. The music triggers neural impulses which themselves cause nervous system reactions that produce relaxation in muscle tone, brain wave frequency, and other reflexes. “It’s not surprising that newborns would feel soothed by almost any music,” Hanser said.
Christmas-music expert William Studwell, professor emeritus at
Posted by Veith at 11:47 AM
Christmas vs. Solstice Festivals
Commenter RJ on last week’s post about how Christmas was NOT based on a pagan holiday admitted that historian William Tighe was right that the Roman’s “Festival of the Sun” was initiated after the Christians celebrated Christmas, but he pointed to numerous other pagan Solstice festivals, insinuating that Christmas was based on them.
Obviously, there were pagan Solstice festivals, but Tighe ’s point is that there was not a ROMAN solstice festival. Yes, the Celts and the Germans had theirs, using a Yule log, etc. But the Greco-Roman church certainly did not take a Celtic or a German pagan holiday and Christianize it into Christmas. Yes, when Christianity spread to the Celts and the Germans some of their Solstice customs were taken over (as Kelly in her comment well accounts for). But Christmas was initially put forward as a new and distinctly Christian holiday. (No, not as we celebrate it today, with colored lights and shopping malls, but as a major festival and “mass” of the church year.)
Posted by Veith at 10:04 AM
Tommy Thompson vs. Barack Obama
Tommy Thompson has made the first steps in a run for the GOP presidentla nomination. Tommy, as we Wisconsinites call him, may have been one of the most effective governors ever, getting re-elected more than any one else in state history, serving from 1987-2001. He cut taxes and dramatically turned around the state economy. He has to be one of the most creative policy architects and implementers, whose successful experiments on the state level–such as welfare reform and private school vouchers for the poor–have been emulated nation-wide. A conservative and pro-life midwesterner who has successfully carried blue state
But he doesn’t have a chance. He does not come off well on TV and has absolutely no “charisma.” He is the opposite of Barack Obama, who has “charisma” but absolutely no record of accomplishment. But I believe Obama has a lock on the Democratic nomination and has a very good chance of winning the presidency.
Posted by Veith at 09:52 AM
Stem cell atrocities
The Ukraine has been called “the stem cell capital of the world.” Now we know why. Read this story from the BBC. Here is the lead:
Healthy new-born babies may have been killed in
Posted by Veith at 09:15 AM
Congratulations on being named Person of the Year
So Time Magazine named you Person of the Year. Does that make you feel good, or does it make you feel that Time is slipping away? Can you think of a better candidate?
Posted by Veith at 09:05 AM
Putting mass back into Christmas
I’m back in
Time for our weekly church report. Hit “comment” to say what you got out of church this week.
Posted by Veith at 08:49 AM
December 14, 2006
Missouri Synod Lutherans and the Christmas Tree
Thanks and a tip o’ the hat to blog reader Jayfromcleveland for putting up on his blog this account of the first Christmas tree to be put up in a church in the USA, back in 1851. (This is not the article by Kevin Vogts that appeared in the “Lutheran Witness” in 1998.) Henry Schwan went on to become the third president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. He was also the author of the supplementary material in the synodical edition of Luther’s Small Catechism, questions, answers, applications, and Bible verses that are still used today in the church’s catechesis. Click “continue reading” for the article.
From the “From Cleveland” blog:
My wife found this article from the December, 1958 issue of “The Record,” a customer-promotion magazine printed by Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company. This is not reprinted with permission since I did not have time to trace down the correct parties to inquire. It is hoped that this is a reasonable “fair use” since this article is provided for information and education.
As far as I can tell, this fits the known facts of the subject, and shows that the origin of the Christmas Tree tradition is at least ostensibly based on an apocryphal myth of the Nativity, and is not specifically of pagan origin, as is constantly alleged each Christmas season. I’d encourage all Christians to become critical thinkers — to “prove all things” ( 1 Thess 5:21) — and to add corroborable facts to their unvarnished devotion to the LORD.
_Reverend Schwan’s “HEATHEN” TREE
By Robert Dale
It was Christmas Eve, 1851. Rev. Henry Schwan stood at the door of the Zion Church of Cleveland, Ohio, welcoming the hundred or so members of his new congregation. _ _When at last he closed the door, he walked slowly up the aisle toward a beautiful, green tree glistening in the light of candles - the first Christmas tree at an American Christmas service. There had been other trees in a few scattered homes, but none before had ever been placed in a church. The congregation stared.
After Rev. Schwan read the Gospel story of the Nativity, he felt closer to his people this Christmas than ever before. But those feelings boomeranged. _ _”What business did a foreigner have decorating a tree in honor of Christ?” demanded one man, not a member of Schwan’s congregation. _ _”‘Twas idolization, pure idolization!” another non-parishioner muttered. _ _”Blasphemous!” said a third. “We won’t let it happen again next year!” _ _Finally, the outsiders talked of bringing Rev. Schwan’s action to the attention of the sheriff, the mayor, the governor. But the townspeople were reminded that the Constitution of the
“And so,” said Pastor Canfield, “long before the first known Christmas trees, a pious man envisioned the evergreen as a symbol of the Father’s everlasting love, and the Christ Child’s star-bedecked birthday gift as a sign from Heaven, and he penned the miracle for posterity.” _ _Rev. Schwan received congratulations for his long studies. And as Christmas approached he felt the deepening of friendships. On the Christmas Eve of 1852, one year after the uproar of the Christmas tree in Zion Church, many in Cleveland celebrated by decorating a Christmas tree. Stepping outside the door of
Christmas was NOT based on a pagan holiday
Another Christmas special re-run: My column for WORLD refuting the old charge that Christmas was based on a pagan holiday:
Why December 25?
According to conventional wisdom, Christmas had its origin in a pagan winter solstice festival, which the church co-opted to promote the new religion. In doing so, many of the old pagan customs crept into the Christian celebration. But this view is apparently a historical myth—like the stories of a church council debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, or that medieval folks believed the earth is flat—often repeated, even in classrooms, but not true.
William J. Tighe, a history professor at Muhlenberg College, gives a different account in his article “Calculating Christmas,” published in the December 2003 Touchstone Magazine. He points out that the ancient Roman religions had no winter solstice festival.
True, the Emperor Aurelian, in the five short years of his reign, tried to start one, “The Birth of the Unconquered Sun,” on Dec. 25, 274. This festival, marking the time of year when the length of daylight began to increase, was designed to breathe new life into a declining paganism. But Aurelian’s new festival was instituted after Christians had already been associating that day with the birth of Christ. According to Mr. Tighe, the Birth of the Unconquered Sun “was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians.” Christians were not imitating the pagans. The pagans were imitating the Christians.
The early church tried to ascertain the actual time of Christ’s birth. It was all tied up with the second-century controversies over setting the date of Easter, the commemoration of Christ’s death and resurrection. That date should have been an easy one. Though Easter is also charged with having its origins in pagan equinox festivals, we know from Scripture that Christ’s death was at the time of the Jewish Passover. That time of year is known with precision.
But differences in the Jewish, Greek, and Latin calendars and the inconsistency between lunar and solar date-keeping caused intense debate over when to observe Easter. Another question was whether to fix one date for the Feast of the Resurrection no matter what day it fell on or to ensure that it always fell on Sunday, “the first day of the week,” as in the Gospels.
This discussion also had a bearing on fixing the day of Christ’s birth. Mr. Tighe, drawing on the in-depth research of Thomas J. Talley’s The Origins of the Liturgical Year, cites the ancient Jewish belief (not supported in Scripture) that God appointed for the great prophets an “integral age,” meaning that they died on the same day as either their birth or their conception.
Jesus was certainly considered a great prophet, so those church fathers who wanted a Christmas holiday reasoned that He must have been either born or conceived on the same date as the first Easter. There are hints that some Christians originally celebrated the birth of Christ in March or April. But then a consensus arose to celebrate Christ’s conception on March 25, as the Feast of the Annunciation, marking when the angel first appeared to Mary.
Note the pro-life point: According to both the ancient Jews and the early Christians, life begins at conception. So if Christ was conceived on March 25, nine months later, he would have been born on Dec. 25.
This celebrates Christ’s birth in the darkest time of the year. The Celtic and Germanic tribes, who would be evangelized later, did mark this time in their “Yule” festivals, a frightening season when only the light from the Yule log kept the darkness at bay. Christianity swallowed up that season of depression with the opposite message of joy: “The light [Jesus] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
Regardless of whether this was Christ’s actual birthday, the symbolism works. And Christ’s birth is inextricably linked to His resurrection.
_•_Copyright © 2005 WORLD Magazine_December 10, 2005, Vol. 20, No. 48
December 13, 2006
Evidence Jesus was born on December 25?
Just as TV is rerunning old TV Christmas specials, we will rerun a blog entry from last year:
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
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
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
“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
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 understand 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
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 06:27 AM
FAQ about the Islamic Civil War
You can’t tell the players without a program. Here is a useful summary about the Sunnis and the Shi’ites and why they are at each other’s throats.
Realize that most of the bloodshed in
That most of us never realized the information in this FAQ is telling about our ignorance of our enemy, and I suspect the same can be said of many of our public officials.
Posted by Veith at 06:09 AM
Liberals to woo evangelicals
The Washington insider publication The Hill reports that Democratic heavyweights–including Hillary Clinton–are hiring religion consultants to help them get chunks of the evangelical vote. What are the reasons why they might well succeed?
Posted by Veith at 06:06 AM
December 12, 2006
Rembrandt’s exposition of Matthew 19
Rembrandt is one of the greatest Christian artists.
Posted by Veith at 06:53 AM
Christmas time. . . is here
The best of all the animated Christmas specials, as I say every year, has to be “Charlie Brown Christmas.” Among its many virtues is its terrific music, a simple jazz score that captures perfectly the melancholy thoughtfulness of Charlie Brown. Here is an account of Vince Guaraldi, who wrote the music and played the piano for that Christmas classic, which mocks the season’s commercialism and ends with Linus reading its real meaning from the Gospel of Luke.
Posted by Veith at 06:11 AM
December 11, 2006
Apocalypto Now
I haven’t seen Mel Gibson’s new movie, Apocalypto, seeing as how I am rather squeamish when it comes to violence. I trust Dr. Luther’s review, which tells me that it is very good. (If any of you have seen it, please give us your take.)
The question remains, why did Gibson, fresh after “The Passion of the Christ,” turn to a depiction of ancient Mayan civilization? If he is the politically-incorrect (and sometimes just incorrect) scourge of the liberal cultural establishment, why go after the Mayans?
My suggestion is that he is, in fact, striking at a bedrock tenet of postmodernism: The myth of the noble savage. In showing the Mayans to be such a brutal, head-chopping and heart-tearing-out culture, he is undermining the foundation of multi-culturalism and cultural relativism. Those of you who have actually seen the film, please tell me if I’m right.
Posted by Veith at 07:03 AM
The Greeks had a computer
Archeologists have been studying a mysterious device discovered on the wreck of a Greek cargo vessel that sunk 2,100 years ago. It is called he Antikythera Mechanism. Here it is:
Posted by Veith at 06:51 AM
Don’t forget the Treaty of
In our Bible class, studying earthly authority, we got into the perennial question of whether the colonies were right to rebel against the king in 1776. We have taken this up on this blog, but, be that as it may, a recent trip to the National Archives reminded me of a highly relevant fact, to those who might doubt the legitimacy of our American government. That fact is The Treaty of Paris.
In this document of 1783, the king of
Article 1: His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and independent states, that he treats with them as such, and for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof.
The point is,
The Treaty of Paris used to be exhibited in the National Archives as one of our founding documents, along with the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. I went back to the archives, now that I am in the neighborhood and now that the building has undergone an extensive renovation, but the Treaty of Paris is back in storage, no longer on display. But it should be.
Posted by Veith at 06:32 AM
What we learned in church
On the cover of our bulletin this second Sunday of Advent , to tie in with the readings, was a picture of a ferocious John the Baptist (from the terrific church resource site Scholia). That doesn’t look too Christmasy, said the pastor, but then went on to show how it is, how REPENTANCE is the way to prepare for the coming of Christ, who brings with him forgiveness. So, what did you learn in church yesterday?
Posted by Veith at 06:19 AM
December 08, 2006
Philosophical critiques, abridged
After writing one of yesterday’s blog entries, a thought flashed into my mind: “The problem with pragmatism is that it doesn’t work.”
I thought that was a great sentence, both summarizing a philosophical position and criticizing it at the same time, all in one brief sentence. So I tried to come up with some more:
The problem with Platonism is that it is too idealistic.
The problem with Existentialism is that its meaningless.
The problem with Hegel is that he goes back and forth.
The problem with Nihilism is that it has nothing to say.
Posted by Veith at 06:34 AM
Arabs claiming victory
The Islamic world is reading the report of the Iraq Study Group and is claiming victory over the
Posted by Veith at 06:31 AM
An honest atheist
When we come across something we agree with, we are often blind to its flaws. Here an atheist eviscerates Richard Dawkin’s latest book “The God Delusion,” with its claims that religion is the source of all evil and atheism does nothing but good. Click “continue reading” for a sample of Shannon Love’s explanation of how the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition do NOT discredit Christianity and how atheism, on the contrary, has promoted political oppression and mass murders.
“Atheists like to single out both the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition as examples of inhumanity that occurred because of religion. (The very fact that we atheists feel compelled to reach back 400-800 years for our kneejerk examples of bad religious behavior should set off warning bells.) Yet both events had significant materialistic or practical drivers that would have created much the same events without any religion being involved. The Crusades arose as a counterattack against the Muslim military expansion that had consumed half of the Christian world. Had the United Atheist League conquered half the lands of the League of United Atheists the same dynamic would have applied. Contrary to many people’s view, no atrocities occurred during the Crusades that hadn’t occurred when Christians fought Christians or Muslims fought Muslims. The massacres of the inhabitants of cities that so occupy the modern mind did not arise out of religious bigotry but from the established rules of medieval siege warfare. Cities taken by storm were put to the sack. The Crusaders established Christian kingdoms in the
Likewise, the Spanish Inquisition sprang from the very secular needs for political control and money. The purpose of the Inquisition was to create legal and cultural justifications for the seizures of vast amounts of wealth from those accused. The religious aspects of the persecution were just a gloss, as in every other action taken during that time. In modern times, atheistic communists carried out nearly identical actions for nearly identical reasons. (The most strange thing about our view of the Spanish Inquisition is that we regard it with special horror even though the use of torture for both investigation and punishment was a universal standard at the time. What so shocked the contemporaries of the Inquisition was not the fact that it tortured people. Every police power of the time tortured people. What shocked the contemporaries was the class of people who got tortured. Mutilating peasants didn’t raise anyone’s eyebrows, mutilating the rich and noble did.)
Dawkins simply repeats the shallow and ahistorical version of history that any hip 19-year-old college freshman can regurgitate on cue. If Dawkins had approached the question from an empirical point of view, he would have readily determined that evidence for the degree to which religion does or does not promote inhumane decisions can only be found in the history of the last 300 years or so. Only during that time frame have atheistic ideologies gained any significant power to actually make good or bad decisions. Unfortunately for atheists, recent history shows that the more atheistic a political ideology, the more destruction it wreaks when it acquires power. The first true atheistic regime in history arose during the 1792 French revolution, which promptly consumed itself in the Great Terror. Atheistic communism next assumed power, and it killed 120 million people over 80 years, and brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation more than once. Mussolini was an atheist and the Nazis, who held a diverse mixture of atheistic, deistic and pagan beliefs, were united only by their antipathy towards traditional religion. National Socialism as an ideology was rigorously secular and justified its killings with appeals to a materialistic pseudo-science. Dawkins spends about 4 pages (what about Hitler and Stalin? weren’t they atheists? — p. 291) before concluding that atheism played no part in their crimes.”
Posted by Veith at 05:45 AM
December 07, 2006
The Pragmatists’ solution for
The Iraq Study Group, hailed in the press as a bipartisan assembly of “pragmatists” and “realists,” has issued its recommendations for solving the Iraq War. They include resolving the Arab/Israeli conflict. What a good idea! That should be easy. Another is getting
Posted by Veith at 07:20 AM
Conservative Judaism OKs gay unions
It has been observed that every theological tradition tends to sort itself out into three strains: a liberal, a conservative, and a fundamentalist. (That latter term means in this context “even more conservative.”) Thus, in Lutheranism we have the liberal ELCA, the conservative LCMS, and the even more conservative and more separatist
Now Conservative Judaism has issued a ruling allowing rabbis to solemnize homosexual unions and to ordain gay rabbis. This is a seismic shift, suggesting that “conservatives” in these other traditions may not be immune from this moral and doctrinal slippage.
Here is how these Conservative rabbis, who profess to believe in the Old Testament and to uphold the Jewish Law, were able to come to this culture-pleasing conclusion: They formulated three official rulings, two of which condemn homosexuality and one of which is fine with it. Individual synagogues and their members are free to choose which interpretation they want to go with. But how did they get around those passages in Leviticus? The report quotes from one of the rabbis:
[The] third answer allows same-sex ceremonies and ordination of gay men and lesbians, while maintaining a ban on anal sex. It argues that the verse in Leviticus saying “a man shall not lie with a man as with a woman” is unclear, but traditionally was understood to bar only one kind of sex between men. All other prohibitions were “added later on by the rabbis.”
So Jews still may not indulge in one kind of gay sex, but they can. . . .The mind boggles. Notice how legalism leads to the finding of loopholes, which leads to lawlessness.
Posted by Veith at 07:02 AM
Jimmy Carter plagiarism charge
Scholar Kenneth Stein has resigned from the Carter Center, charging that former president Jimmy Carter committed plagiarism in his bestselling book “Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid.” He said that legal action was forthcoming so that he could not presently give the details, but stay tuned.
Posted by Veith at 06:57 AM
December 06, 2006
Of batsmen & bowlers
I had ignorantly considered the game cricket to be an aristocratic lawn game, on the order of croquet. But I was completely wrong. Cricket is a terrific sport, as absorbing as its cousin baseball. This I learned in
While over there a couple of weeks ago, I read a children’s book entitled “Understanding Cricket,” watched a school match in the cricket oval across from the parsonage (”the manse”) where we were staying, watched the first test match with the “poms” on TV, and watched my son-in-law play a match for his local team. (He also explained a lot.) I also watched a mini-series on DVD entitled “Bodyline” about a British team in the 1930’s who developed a technique of throwing the ball at the batter–fracturing one Aussie’s skull–a practice that was condemned as “not cricket.” Anyway, I got way into the game. For how the game is played and why it is so interesting, click “continue reading.”
Here is a bloke from the local club. (In
When he does and if he chooses to, he runs to a second wicket 22 yards away, where another batsman at that one will start running back to the first wicket, where he becomes the next hitter. Depending on how far the batsman hits the ball and how long it takes to field it, the two can keep running, going back and forth between the two wickets, scoring a run each time. If a hit ball goes all the way to the end of the field (cf. a double in baseball), that is worth 4 point. Knocking the ball out of the park (cf. a home run) scores 6.
Cricket requires great hitting, throwing, running, and fielding (without gloves). An “innings” consists of getting every player on an 11 member team out. A test match requires each team retiring the other side twice. On the level of the Ashes, this typically takes FIVE DAYS. And there is a lot of scoring. I watched Aussie captain (who calls all the shots, instead of a separate coach or manager) Ricky Ponting score 197 runs, almost a “double century.” The final score was
Posted by Veith at 06:48 AM
Bad language French-Canadian style
In our culture, bad language consists largely of sexual terms and other “bodily function” words. This is “obscenity,” referring to things that belong “out of the scene,” or out of sight. We do have religious bad language–profanity (taking something sacred and making it “common”), curses (consigning something or someone we are mad at to eternal damnation), and blasphemy (violating God’s holy name). But these are considered by most people to be much milder. Our really bad language has to do with the body.
In French-speaking
Here is an article on the subject. I think the French Canadians are right in the sense that profanity and blasphemy–taking the Lord’s name in vain–IS far worse morally than mere “dirty” words about the body. Right?
Posted by Veith at 06:40 AM
One in seven Mexicans work here
A new report has found that one in seven Mexican workers work in the
Posted by Veith at 06:30 AM
December 05, 2006
Statistics on the Religion of Peace
Is Islamic terrorism just an aberration in a peaceful religion, according to the politically-correct line? Or does this religion promote a culture of violence? Well, as think-tanker Danikel Allott reports, a study has been conducted:
In a recent survey on global conflict, Monty Marshall and Ted Burr of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management found that of the 24 major armed conflicts taking place worldwide in 2005, more than half (13) involved Muslim governments or paramilitary groups on one or both sides of the fighting. What’s more, among six countries with “emerging armed conflicts,” four are predominantly Muslim and another,
Messrs. Marshall and Burr also rated 161 countries according to their capacity to avoid outbreaks of armed conflicts. Whereas 63 percent of non-Muslim countries were categorized as “enjoy[ing] the strongest prospects for successful management of new challenges,” just 18 percent of the 50 Muslim nations included were similarly designated. In addition, Muslim nations (those with at least 40 percent Muslim population) were two-and-a-half times more likely than non-Muslim nations to be considered “at the greatest risk of neglecting or mismanaging emerging societal crises such that these conflicts escalate to serious violence and/or government instability.” This evaluation reveals the glaring reality that violence is a fact of life in many Muslim nations.
But the Muslim world’s support of faith-based violence is not limited to governments and their non-state proxies. Consider a June Pew Global Attitudes poll that showed a majority of Muslims in Jordan, Egypt and Nigeria, as well as roughly a third in France, Spain and Great Britain, felt violence against civilians can be justified in order to defend Islam. Worse, a July 2005 poll found 22 percent of British Muslims said last summer’s rush-hour bombings of
Some Muslims’ appetite for destruction is not surprising given the ability of prominent Muslim leaders to foment hatred of the West. Following Pope Benedict’s September comments, Imams across the Middle East and
There are bright spots, of course. Several thousand Muslims in
The most revealing aspect of the Islamic world’s reaction to Pope Benedict’s September remarks was that what enraged many of those who reacted violently was not the suggestion that Islam is violent, but rather the implied criticism of that violence. The West must recognize these violent outbursts for what they are: calculated acts of outrage meant not to refute but to intimidate non-Muslims into not speaking up at all.
Abortion and the English Language
Nat Hentoff is a liberal, but he is an honest one, whose convictions about standing up for the underprivileged lead him to oppose abortion. He is following the Supreme Court arguments over partial birth abortion on C-Span. In his latest column, he exposes how those who defend abortion–including some of the Supreme Court justices–must resort to an Orwellian distortion of language, speaking of “fetal demise” instead of killing half-delivered babies, and removing “intercranial contents” instead of sucking out their brains.
“Orwellian” refers to British essayist George Orwell’s classic “Politics and the English Language.” I cannot think of a more important work to read if you want to think clearly and cut through the false rhetoric that dominates much of our political–and moral–discourse. If you haven’t read it, you need to. For an online text, go here
Posted by Veith at 05:50 AM
December 04, 2006
Boomer Sooner
I couldn’t believe it when I realized that my alma mater, the University of Oklahoma, was playing in the Big 12 Championship. It had seemed to be a disastrous season. First, the starting quarterback got kicked off the team for taking a bogus job from an alumnus. Then, the Heisman-trophy running back, Adrian Peterson, broke his collarbone and was out for the season. The Sooners got beat fair and square by
But it turned out, after their big stars got injured, the Sooners pulled together and won 7 games in a row.
The
Anyway, the team’s unexpected comeback from adversity showed excellent coaching, by Bob Stoops, and good character all around.
As for the annual BCS national championship controversy, I don’t see the problem this time. Of course
Still, I would like to see a playoff system. The season could be shortened enough by dropping some of those soft non-conference, cannon-fodder games that many teams use as practice in the beginning of the season.
Posted by Veith at 06:04 AM
The good side of a Muslim civil war?
Columnist Diana West, more than most pundits, has seen the war on terrorism as part of a larger struggle between the West and Islam. Drawing on Saudi Arabia’s recent statement threatening intervention in Iraq to defend the Sunnis, should America abandon them to the murderous Shi’ites, she is bold to raise a provocative question: If Iraq degenerates into an intra-Muslim civil war, which then spreads throughout the Islamic world, would that necessarily be a bad thing? Of course it would for the people involved and those caught in the middle. But perhaps, she suggests, such a divided Islam would advance Western interests.
Posted by Veith at 05:45 AM
Unpleasant people
R. Emmet Tyrrell, Jr., editor of the madcap conservative magazine “American Spectator,” points out how some politicians–usually of the liberal variety–are just unpleasant.
It seems as if the same traits that can make a person successful–drive, ambition, ego–also can make that person insufferable, obnoxious, and uncaring of others.
Posted by Veith at 05:40 AM
Church report
A young couple in our church has been going to have a baby, on about the same schedule as our daughter Joanna. So for the past months, on Sunday mornings, I’ve been sort of tracking this other young woman’s progress in pregnancy, thinking of my daughter’s down in
This being the first Sunday of Advent, the pastor preached about Christ’s coming. How He still comes–for us–today. Just as He rode the ordinary donkey when He came into
Tell about your church experience and a good sermon your pastor preached.
Posted by Veith at 05:29 AM
December 01, 2006
A pro-Christ movie?
Continuing our positive movie theme, this weekend The Nativity opens, a supposedly faithful dramatization of the birth of Our Lord. I can’t see it this weekend, but I would appreciate hearing from people who can. I trust the taste and discernment of this blog’s readers. If you see this movie, please comment on how it is. Is it faithful to Scripture? Is it a good movie?
Posted by Veith at 07:19 AM
A pro-family movie
On the long flight to and from
It’s about an Aussie dad, a mum, and their four grown kids, whose home is their castle. Yes, its location is right by an airport landing field (the family loves to watch the airplanes come in), the property is broken up by huge power lines (”a testament to man’s ability to make electricity”), the decor is totally tacky (dad proudly points out to visitors how the trim and the chimney are all “fake”), and everything is ramshackle (but the property “is almost worth as much as when we bought it”), but it is a HOME, a place of love and good memories. The boys, even the one in prison, idolize their Dad, who treats his wife like a queen, always complimenting everything she does. (Such as her cooking: “Whoo-hoo! What is this dish?” “Chicken.” “But what is this you put on it?” “Seasoning.”)
Anyway, the government wants to expand the airport and exercise eminent domain on their house. So these ordinary folks take on the establishment, fighting to save their home.
The family is very funny, but this is an affectionate humor. As the Dad tries to explain to the judge, a home is “where people love and care for each other.” And they really do. The Dad’s speech on the occasion of his daughter’s wedding is perfect, saying of the groom, “we finally found someone who loves Trace as much as we do.”
The movie has some bad language–Dad cusses a blue streak when people try to take his home–but it is pro-family in the best sense.
I’m trying to think of other movies with such positive families. What are some?
Posted by Veith at 06:54 AM
Opponents of abortion lost a net total of 13 seats in the House, very likely dooming statutory limitations on that evil operation. But political action has accomplished little anyway against abortion since our culture is pro-death. Prolifers have to change not just the laws but the culture. So says Robert Novak, but he cites an example of a prolife cultural victory.
A new movie, entitled Bella, made by a group of conservative catholics from
The plans are to release the movie in April, but can it get a distributor? That remains to be seen. But the possibilities–a critically-acclaimed, entertaining, persuasive pro-life work of art–are intriguing.
Posted by Veith at 06:35 AM
November 30, 2006
Tall poppy syndrome
As you know, Koreans, Japanese, and other East Asian cultures value education very highly. Often, families from these cultures send their kids to after school programs, where they study even more. After American kids get home from school, they might go to soccer practice. After Korean kids get home from school, they go to a tutorial where they go deeper into calculus.
When I was in
Now here is a difference between Australian and American cultures. I would venture to say that virtually no American would begrudge Asian kids the fruit of their labors. Some of us may criticize so much schooling–”Let them be kids!”–or criticize our own or other ethnic groups for not making education such a priority. But, by the terms of the American dream, hard work does deserve to be rewarded. When someone studies extra hard and does extra work, it is precisely “fair” that they get into the best schools and otherwise succeed.
I was told that Australian culture is SO egalitarian–which is one of its strengths and charms–that it sometimes encourages was they call the “tall poppy” syndrome. The flower that grows taller than the rest needs to be cut down. American culture, on the other hand, encourages and admires individual success. Am I right?
Posted by Veith at 07:15 AM
From the Beowulf screenwriter
I am continually amazed at how discussions raised on this blog keep continuing week after week. While I was gone to
It was an unfortunate choice of words USA TODAY used in the description of “Beowulf: Prince of the Geats.” I did not ‘rewrite’ the story. In fact, more than likely, despite thinking what you might about a black Beowulf, we are sticking much more literally to the orginal story than any of our counterparts. Great care has been given to give the poem as much accurate visualization as we could, right down to the scop’s choreography of Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s mother.
Making Beowulf African actually answers several apparent inconsistancies in the poem to which I, as the screenwriter, struggled with. Primary among them; how it is that Beowulf, a leader of the savage Geat tribe, ruled in peace for 50 years, and how, during the course of the entire poem, he never raises his sword against another human being. There is ample evidence that such behavior is completely out of character for viking society and certainly a viking warrior hero of the period. Bringing Beowulf in from a different culture with different values on human life allows ther narrative to flow without this inconsistancy.
BPOG is an all volunteer motion picture with 100% of all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. For more information [www.princeofthegeats.com].
Posted by Veith at 07:00 AM
Cloak and Dagger. And Polonium
Have you been keeping up with the case of ex-Russian spy and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko? He suddenly came died a horrible death, which, it turns out, was caused by his having ingested the deadly radioactive polonium, the tiniest bit of which will kill you. Who would even have access to such a substance? Who would have the motive to use it? Who but the remnants of Litvinenko’s and Putin’s own KGB? For a helpful summary of this James Bond-like case, go here.
Now Scotland Yard is using a geiger counter to trace a radioactive path of Mr. Litvenenko’s movements, and possibly that of his killer. This includes polonium radiation on British Airways planes that had flown to and from
Posted by Veith at 06:58 AM
November 29, 2006
Luke and St. Sam at St. Luke’s
My son-in-law Adam is the pastor, with one other, of
Then, inside, in a beautiful service, Sam was baptized. The Rev. Greg Pietch (sp?), at whose church I had worshipped the first time I was there and who is now the District President of the state of
Posted by Veith at 05:03 AM
November 28, 2006
48 hours of Monday
I’m back from my week in
I shall attend to my duties at the college the best I can. And when I have time to blog, I will tell you about my sojourn in the
The best part, family-deprived as I have been in the transition to this new job, was being with my wife, my two daughters (my son was the only nuclear family member not present)–my son-in-law, and my brand new GRANDSON. Or, as they say down under, my “grandy.”
Posted by Veith at 09:21 AM
November 17, 2006
Thanksgiving
This person is my new grandson, Samuel Clive Hensley. Tomorrow I fly to the other side of the world to
November 16, 2006
Word of the Year
The New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year is (drum roll, please) “carbon neutral.”
Being carbon neutral involves calculating your total climate-damaging carbon emissions, reducing them where possible, and then balancing your remaining emissions, often by purchasing a carbon offset: paying to plant new trees or investing in “green” technologies such as solar and wind power.
I will resist making a joke about calculating your carbon emissions to the point of taking Bean-o. But I know I have never used the word “carbon neutral.” And I cannot recall ever hearing an actual human being using it in conversation. It sounds like the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have been watching Al Gore movies and are trying to do their bit for global warming. Linguistics and dictionaries are supposed to be descriptive, scholars keep telling us, rather than prescriptive, but here we are again with lexicographers instructing us as to what is proper.
Can anyone think of better candidates for “word of the year”?
Posted by Veith at 07:32 AM
Them phat, player Episcopalians
An official publishing arm of the Episcopal church has come out with The Hip Hop Prayer Book. Reasoning, in the words of the Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam that “If Jesus walked the earth today, he would be a rapper,” the book translates Psalms, prayers, and liturgies from the classic Book of Common Prayer into black street slang. This is thought to result in “a powerful evangelism tool” that will “draw in the young and speak to those not generally spoken to by the Church.” Here is the 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is all that, I need for nothing. He allows me to chill. He keeps me from being heated and allows me to breathe easy. He guides my life so that I can represent and give shouts out in his Name. And even though I walk through the Hood of death, I don’t back down for you have my back. The fact that you have me covered allows me to chill. He provides me with back-up in front of my player-haters and I know that I am a baller and life will be phat. I fall back in the Lord’s crib for the rest of my life.
The responses are not “Yo!” but “Amen! Word!” It may come as a surprise to the Right Reverend and her fellow culturally-sensitive theologians, but black people go to church at a higher rate than upper class white people, and those churches have not found it necessary to make these sorts of translations. Black people do not speak a different language. They speak English. They do have their colorful slang. But here is a linguistic fact: Slang works only with informal oral discourse, and by its nature it goes in and out of fashion very quickly. By the time a book with the latest slang gets in print, the slang will be out of date. And there is no quicker way of making slang go out of date and seem ridiculous than when a middle aged white person tries to use it.
HT: Susanna Smith
Posted by Veith at 07:00 AM
Just one more Supreme Court justice
Christians and social conservatives who voted for Democrats to teach the Republicans a lesson should contemplate what the new Senate powerbroker Chuck Shumer (D, NY) has to say:
More than the inability to influence Iraq policy or the President’s tax cuts, Chuck Schumer says that the single greatest failure of the Democrats as an opposition party was allowing Samuel Alito to join the Supreme Court. “Judges are the most important,” said Mr. Schumer, who orchestrated the implausible Democratic takeover of the Senate last week. “One more justice would have made it a 5-4 conservative, hard-right majority for a long time. That won’t happen.” From now on, all the President’s judicial appointments will need to meet the requirements of Mr. Schumer, the Park Slope power broker who has happily accepted the mantle of chief architect for the Democrats’ effort to build a majority for the 2008 elections and beyond.
Conservatives came within one justice of controlling the Supreme Court. Now, as Shumer says, “That won’t happen.”_
Posted by Veith at 06:34 AM
November 15, 2006
The most influential fictional characters
A new book has come out with the 101 most influential fictional characters. Here is the list:
1. The Marlboro Man_2. Big Brother_3. King Arthur_4. Santa Claus (St. Nick)_5. Hamlet_6. Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster_7. Siegfried_8. Sherlock Holmes_9. Romeo and Juliet_10. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Click “continue reading” for the rest of them. How the authors picked these characters and ranked them in this order is obscure and lacks scholarly validity, but they say they ranked the Marlboro man as the most influential because in making cigarettes seem manly he allegedly killed the most people. But by any standards, like the list of evangelical leaders’ most influential books we blogged about some weeks ago, this is a pretty sad list.
We can do better. What fictional characters have been influential to YOU?
_11. Uncle Tom_12. Robin Hood_13. Jim Crow_14. Oedipus_15. Lady Chatterly_16. Ebenezer Scrooge_17. Don Quixote_18. Mickey Mouse_19. The American Cowboy_20. Prince Charming_21. Smokey Bear_22. Robinson Crusoe_23. Apollo and Dionysus_24. Odysseus_25. Nora Helmer_26. Cinderella_27. Shylock_28. Rosie the Riveter_29. Midas_30. Hester Prynne_31. The Little Engine That Could_32. Archie Bunker_33. Dracula_34.
Posted by Veith at 06:48 AM
Cultural churches
The Church of England has issued statements indicating that it is morally acceptable to kill handicapped babies. Read this.
State churches, in theory, give moral guidance to a nation. What what they tend to do instead is to give sacred sanction to what the state wants to do anyway.
This is also the problem of every kind of cultural religion. When churches follow the culture, what they end up doing is presenting that culture as sacred.
Posted by Veith at 06:47 AM
November 14, 2006
The return of the ethnic joke
I am interested in comedy, so when I read a critic who said that “Borat” was the funniest movie ever made, I had to see it. I had also caught comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s act on the “Ali G” show, in which he plays a British rapper who interviews real dignitaries with dumb questions. (My favorite Ali G moment: When a flummoxed Andy Rooney got sick of him and started to walk out, whereupon Ali G, who is white, said, “It’s because I is black, in’t it?”
Anyway, I can report that “Borat,” the number one movie for weeks, is over-rated. Yes, it is funny, but it is not a good funny. It is rude, crude, unspeakably vulgar and tasteless. I know, that might recommend it these days. But it represents the rebirth of the rude, crude, vulgar, tasteless ethnic joke. We are laughing at eastern Europeans, Jews, rednecks, Southerners, and other people made to seem below us. It is humor that is cruel and degrading, both to the targets and to those of us who laugh at it.
And now, due to the success that movie, we get lots, lots more of the same.
Posted by Veith at 07:31 AM
The Man Without a Face
I am always amazed at the ingenious ways human beings devise to sin. Markus Wolf, the spymaster of communist
Wolf gloried in his own amorality, shrugging his shoulders at the crimes of his society, bragging that he had perfected the art of psychological manipulation. He wrote of East German “Romeo agents” (his phrase) who successfully seduced lonely secretaries in West German ministries. To keep their victims happy, Wolf arranged “Potemkin weddings” (also his phrase) with phony priests — though if anyone grew suspicious, he swiftly arranged for the “husbands” to disappear back to
Such tactics — combined with a liberal use of bugging devices — did, it is true, help the East Germans infiltrate the very highest levels of West German society. One of Wolf’s agents rose through the West German political hierarchy to become a senior aide to the much-loved chancellor, Willy Brandt. The East Germans were also expert at discrediting West German politicians and institutions: They would listen in on sensitive conversations, note the gaps between what was said in public and private, and then slip the information to journalists who could be relied upon to follow up.
And yet for all his preening, Wolf and his comrades did not win the Cold War. Nor, for all the CIA’s ham-handedness, did the agents of communism even win the intelligence war. Invariably, Western agents received their best information not through psychological manipulation and complex schemes but through Soviet and East European defectors who offered themselves up voluntarily. Col. Ryszard Kuklinski, the Polish Warsaw Pact liaison, passed 35,000 pages of mostly Russian documents to the West because he’d seen plans for a Russian invasion of the West, during which
In the end, what Wolf liked to call his comrades’ “professionalism” — and what might more accurately be called cynicism, opportunism or cold calculation — wasn’t even persuasive enough to win the allegiance of most East Germans. Like the rest of the Soviet bloc, East Germany eventually fell apart not so much because of Western military pressure but because the loyalty of its people evaporated. As soon as they could leave their country, East Germans left. And no wonder: Who could feel affection for a regime led by men such as Markus Wolf?
November 13, 2006
Veterans Day tribute
On Veterans Day, the president awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously to Cpl. Jason Dunham, a Marine fighting in Iraq, who in the midst of hand-to-hand-combat with the enemy, jumped on a grenade and smothered the explosion with his body to save the lives of the other men in his unit.
Posted by Veith at 06:59 AM
Church
We had a great service again on Sunday, helped with finally having a choir! The chorale at
And they could not have failed to appreciate the sermon. In these last days of the church year, we reflect on the last days. Pastor Douthwaite preached on Mark 13, in which Jesus tells us of the terrible troubles that will come as His return approaches, but that these are only “birth pangs.” The sermon vividly pointed to our trials and sufferings today, saying that they will get worse. But these are the “contractions” of labor. In birth (in imagery close to my consciousness, new grandfather that I am), the contractions get harder and harder and closer and closer together, but the worse it gets the closer the baby is to coming and the joy of the new life. He then segued into reflections on the baby Jesus and His life, death, and resurrection for us: “In the cross, death throes have been transformed into birth pangs.”
Please tell about good things from your church service.
November 09, 2006
A complete rout
So the Democrats took the House, the Senate (apparently), and got rid of Donald Rumsfeld. Do you think Osama bin Laden is congratulating himself for bringing down another government?
Posted by Veith at 09:26 AM
Another battleground at
My friend from
Could that be THE Charles Porterfield Krauth, we wondered, the godfather of confessional Lutheranism in
The professor with the
So he probably did eat on that china himself. And the seminary on Seminary Ridge was the site of a battle that is still raging.
founded by Samuel Schmucker
Posted by Veith at 07:23 AM
Lyle Lovett, churchgoer
I stumbled across this old interview with Lyle Lovett, which answered a questions I was curious about:
Unlike your average young person, growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, Lyle says he never had any interest in drugs - didn’t then, doesn’t now. He always went to church with his family - Trinity Lutheran, back in Klein. When I ask him if he ever felt the typical teenage need to rebel against his roots, he looks a little surprised. “Oh,” he says, “I may have had my backsliding periods where I’d miss a few Sundays. But I never felt compelled to rebel against God.”
. . . . . . . . .
_Sundays, when he’s home, he still attends services at Trinity Lutheran, same as he always did.
November 08, 2006
Grandfatherhood!
Actually, I don’t care that much about the elections right now. I just found out that I am a GRANDFATHER! My daughter Joanna just had a baby! Samuel Clive Hensley, 8 pounds 13 ounces._Some of you know Joanna as the former editor of World’s blogs. She got married to a Lutheran pastor down in
I cannot get the “images” feature in this blog software to work, but to see some pictures, go here.
Posted by Veith at 09:29 AM
The end of Christian political influence?
The Democrats have won big time. Notice how some Republicans, such as Dick Armey as well as the conventional wisdom from the media, are scapegoating Christian and social conservatives as the scapegoat for the Republican debacle.
Indeed,
So will Christian activists have to go into exile, or is there hope for this particular camp of voters?
Posted by Veith at 08:14 AM
Country music says, “I believe”
Brooks & Dunn’s explicitly Christian and Bible-praising single “Believe” cleaned up at the Country Music Awards last night, winning Single of the Year, Song of the Year, and Music Video of the Year. The song’s success was no doubt also instrumental in Brooks & Dunn winning Vocal Duo of the Year (though the two nearly always win that award). The Musical Event of the Year was Brad Paisley singing with Dollie Parton another explicitly Christian song, “When I Get Where I’m Going. Not only that, American-Idol winner Carrie Underwood won BOTH the Horizon award for new artists AND female vocalist of the year for her explicitly Christian hit “Jesus Take the Wheel.”
Posted by Veith at 06:48 AM
November 07, 2006
Good Shepherd Institute
Organshoes alluded to the Good Shepherd Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary in
I was one of the 25% of Americans who voted with an absentee ballot. After I speak, I fly to
If anyone has seen or used the LSB, I’d be curious to hear how you like it.
Posted by Veith at 07:15 AM
Either vote or don’t
Remember to vote–if, that is, you care about the races, are informed about the issues, and have a clear preference about the candidates, one way or the other. If you are apathetic, are not conversant with the issues, and do not know which candidate is which, please DON’T vote. It would be nice of you not to cancel the vote of those who do care and keep up with the issues.
Is this a bad attitude? Is it better to have a big voter turnout no matter what? Or am I right?
Posted by Veith at 06:59 AM
Appease or defy?
Here is a scenario, a mental experiment: What if Osama bin Laden came on Al Jazeera and said that his jihad is against the satanic George W. Bush and his party. If the American people vote him and his people out of office, we will call off the jihad. Islam will go back to being a religion of peace, and Americans will be able to carry large tubes of toothpaste onto airplanes and stop worrying about Islamic terrorism. How should American voters react?
Posted by Veith at 06:55 AM
Evangelical leader confesses
So, Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals admits his homosexual liasons and his buying crystal meth:
“The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There’s a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life.”
What can we say about this?
Posted by Veith at 06:35 AM
November 06, 2006
Archpriestess of the new pantheon
The Episcopalians now have a woman serving as the archbishop over the whole church body (one that is no bigger than the LCMS but that gets all the attention). What I want you notice, though, are the details of Katherine Jefferts Schori’s consecration service in the National Cathedral, as well as the theology this represents:
Native American “smudgers” — incense-bearing tribal leaders, mostly from Episcopal missions in Jefferts Schori’s
A barefoot Chinese-style dancer waved aquamarine streamers. An African American gospel choir from
. . . . . . . . .
Jefferts Schori, who is married to a theoretical mathematician and has a 25-year-old daughter serving as an Air Force pilot, voted in 2003 to confirm the election of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Anglican prelate. She has also supported blessings for same-sex couples, and she has said that, although she believes in salvation through Jesus, she does not think Christianity is the only path to God.
Posted by Veith at 07:56 AM
Political moralism
Our pastor made another striking point in his sermon. He pointed out how the political candidates in all of these election ads say, “I am a saint.” All holy, totally righteous, selflessly helping everyone, able to work miracles. And they also say, “My opponent is a sinner.” Totally depraved, selfishly hurting one and all, corrupt, and just evil.
The ads are remarkably moralistic, self-righteous, and black-and-white for a bunch of relativists. Our level of political discourse is shameful. And these politicians are so cynical in thinking they can manipulate us voters in this way. And maybe they can, which does not speak well of us voters.
At any rate, tomorrow we vote. Many of us are so frustrated with the Republicans for their ineptitude and ideological waffling that we will vote in a party that will cancel the tax cut, fund pro-death research, and install leftwing judges.
Any predictions or last-minute campaigning?
Posted by Veith at 06:58 AM
Church report
Another good service at St. Athanasius, celebrating the Festival of All Saints. Interesting point from the sermon, on Matthew 5: “Those who are blessed in the Beatitudes are those who in this world would seem cursed [those who mourn, the poor in spirit, the persecuted, etc.].”
Any interesting points from your church worship or Bible class?
Posted by Veith at 06:49 AM
November 03, 2006
And now, the baby killer slander
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh, another liberal revelling in the retro-Vietnam War climate, says that if Americans only knew how our troops were really acting, we would treat them with revulsion, as we did Vietnam veterans:
“In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation,” he said. “It isn’t happening now, but I will tell you – there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in
Posted by Veith at 07:02 AM
Marriage IS under attack
In an op-ed piece, Leah Ward Sears, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, points out some sobering facts:
For the first time in history, less than half of
In family law, as in the rest of American society, there is an intensifying debate about how we should respond to this kind of news. Should law and society actively seek new ways to support marriage? Or should family law strive to be marriage-neutral by providing more rights and benefits to its alternatives, such as cohabitation and single parenthood?