We’ll be taking off today to travel to Ft.Wayne for our new grand-daughter Elizabeth’s baptism. In honor of the occasion, I post here a link toLuther’s Sermon on Infant Baptism, wherein he shows that babies too can have faith in Jesus Christ, which is never the same as mere head knowledge that adults sometimes assume but a gift of God; that in baptism a child is brought to Christ and Christ comes to the child; and that infant baptism is thus a believer’s baptism (in the sense that the baptized child believes in Christ).

On September 28, some pastors are planning to endorse a candidate from the pulpit, in defiance of the nation’s tax laws that forbid tax-exempt non-profit organizations from getting involved in partisan politics. The pastors hope to provoke the IRS to take action against them, thus making a test case that they hope will make it to the Supreme Court. They hope for a ruling that the tax laws constitute an unconstitutional infringement of the freedom of speech and of religion.

See Ban on Political Endorsements by Pastors Targeted . What do you think of this action? Isn’t an out-and-out defiance of the law a violation of Romans 13? Isn’t it true that churches should keep the ministry of the gospel separate from politics? But should the state be forcing them to do that?

We might consider too the propriety of churches not paying taxes, which is one obligation to the state that the New Testament lifts up as appropriate, at least for individuals. Often communities resist the building of new churches because that takes property off the tax rolls. If churches were to pay taxes, wouldn’t that free up its ministry? But would we laypeople give as much to the church, if we couldn’t deduct it from our taxes?

How should a Green Bay Packer fan react to Brett Favre now playing for the Jets? Part of me wished he would be a bust with New York so that he would just retire again, and yet part of me was glad he played so well for the Jets in his first game. I was definitely glad Aaron Rodgers did well against Minnesota. And yet some Packer fans are still bitter over Favre not being there.

One’s loyalty should be to the team, right? Rather than to individual players? My wife exemplifies that team-first loyalty. “He is dead to me,” she said of Favre. But I can’t go that far.

I need sports counseling.

Hurricane Ike is aimed straight at Texas, and it isn’t weakening. I was just in that area last weekend speaking at a conference. The people there were kind enough to initiate a prayer for my family during Tropical Storm Hanna, which hit during my absence but really turned out to be not that big of a deal. This storm looks like it will be, so I want to return the favor. Pray for Texas!