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Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12
Can we really understand the suffering of another person or they ours?
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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Book: Hounded to Death
I like Rita Mae Brown, and especially the mysteries that involve Sneaky Pie Brown. This was my first time reading from her series written around fox hunting. I guess I’m a cat person much more than a dog person, but I never really warmed up to the background in fox hunting. It just doesn’t resonate…
Movie: War, Inc.
I rarely bother to review something like this, but this one annoyed me so much that I wanted to write about it. If this had been a production for YouTube by a bunch of teenagers, it might be regarded as good. I don’t mean production quality. There were some decent effects for the combat. But…
Book: Cat in a Sapphire Slipper
I’m a sucker for light reading that involves cats and mystery, so how could I possibly not enjoy Carole Nelson Douglas’s Midnight Louie mysteries? This latest book finds Max Kinsella missing and Temple Barr getting engaged to Matt Devine, while the Fontana brothers are all kidnapped, and generally all hell is breaking loose all over….
Note on Crossposted Reviews
I’m cross-posting several reviews and notes from my Jevlir Caravansary site where I will no longer be reviewing just to get things started. I will also occasionally cross-post from my other blogs where I occasionally review non-fiction. Normally, posts here will not be crossposted from elsewhere.
TV Series: Ballykissangel
This is another British (at least BBC, set in Ireland) show that I discovered recently and really enjoyed. It follows the adventures of a young priest from Manchester assigned to a parish in Ireland in the town of Ballykissangel. His supervisor is somewhat conservative and doesn’t always appreciate his approach to ministry, but the villagers…
TV Series: Campion
I love British mystery series, in just about any period. Over the weekend I discovered a new one, to me, though it’s been around for some time and I missed it. This is Campion, set in the 1930s, with another of those kind of standard eccentric aristocratic detectives, complete with slightly mysterious butler. I would…
Welcome!
This is the new Energion.com Book Notes Blog, which will be replacing my book reviews and notes posted on The Jevlir Caravansary. That blog was originally intended as a place to post my own fiction and poetry writing as well as links to other fiction and poetry available on the web. At first I added…
Adrian and Dave Warnock on the Atonement
So far as I know, no, they’re not related. Adrian is concerned with the suggestion that anything in the Bible might be culturally conditioned. Wake up and smell the coffee, Adrian! Practically all of Hebrew scriptures is about leading people from here to there. The narrative is built around the exodus, about physically moving from…
Idolatry of Theology and Liturgy
In a recent comment on my video Why I Hate the KJV, I received a comment that began thus: “You were saved by the KJV. . . .” A young man visited my home and discussed with me for more than an hour. At the end, he said he was concerned for my salvation because…
Psalm 100 – How to Meet YHWH
A Psalm of Thanksgiving1Shout to YHWH,all the earth.2Serve YHWH with rejoicing,Come before him with triumphant shouts.3Understand that YHWH is Goda,He made us and we are hisb.We are his people,The sheep in his pasture.4Enter his gates with thanks,And his courts with praise.Thank him, and bless his name.5For YHWH is good,HIs grace is eternal.His truth lasts from…
Nova: Buried Secrets
I had an unfortunate brain failure (probably need to reboot!) and missed the first part, then I was interrupted twice more, but what I did see of the Nova show The Bible’s Buried Secrets looked pretty good. Since for similar reasons (messed up time and all) I didn’t record, but it looks like the site…
Reading Psalm 100 Out Loud
One of my Bible study methods, though most important for devotional reading, is to read a passage aloud. Since the lectionary Psalm for this week is Psalm 100, which is very short, I thought I’d read it aloud in a number of versions and then write my subjective impressions. I chose to read it from…
Christ the King Sunday – Preliminary Thoughts
My pastor preached from the gospel lesson, Matthew 25:31-46 this past Sunday, and reminded me of something important. Though this is called a parable, it is really much more of an apocalyptic vision, presenting the scene of judgment day. Besides the differences in the way one would understand a vision and a parable, this provides…
Coolness and Complacency
OK, I’m going to try for three short notes at a time. In this case I’m helped by Dave Warnock, who already wrote on the topic. It seems that Adrian Warnock doesn’t like people to be “cool-headed” about the atonement. He says: To be honest, when I heard this book was going to be cool-headed…
Theodicy and Politics
This is another brief thought. As I was thinking about politics I also considered some of the questions that come up in theodicy. In politics, many of us look for protection from risk, from the consequences of our own actions. It seems to me that in theodicy many people prevent “consequences” as an example of…
Quick Thoughts on the Economy
As an exercise in brevity, some things that occurred to me while watching political TV and reading the blogs: An economic expert is one who provides the arguments that allow me to get what I want. An incompetent economist is one that says I can’t have it. The entire argument is based on need. The…
Headline Bias
While I’m at talking about the auto industry, how about the following headline from MNSBC.com: Republicans to Detroit: Drop dead Biased? Read the article yourself and see if that’s what the Republicans in question were saying.
Republican Role: Defend Capitalism?
In an MSNBC story today Senator Jeff Sessions, from our neighboring state of Alabama is quoted: Fellow Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions also opposes helping the auto industry. “Once we cross the divide from financial institutions to individual corporations, truly, where would you draw the line?” Just a second here. Line? What line? Look in…
One Talent Christians
Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30, especially 24-27. Partially cross-posted from Jody’s Devotionals. I’m interested in knowing just what meets God’s disapproval. We all have our ideas on this, which often involve truly despicable and perverted behavior according to our cultural standards. But sometimes the Bible will shock us and make us stop and think. This thought was…
Christian Carnival #250 Is Posted
. . . at Brain Cramps for God.
Measuring Media Fairness
A corollary of the fundamental idea of a free market is caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. I look at that from a slightly different angle than usual, not as an indictment of the free market, but rather as a statement of its driving force–the decisions of buyers. As a buyer, you vote every day…
Trashing Bible Translations is Trivial
. . . not to mention easy. In the just completed presidential election here in the U. S., were I to list all of the reasons why I might not vote for the candidate for whom I eventually did vote, the list would be fairly long, and might convince someone I thought that candidate was…
Matthew 25:14-30 (The Talents)
14[The kingdom of heaven] is like a man going on a journey. He calls his slaves and hands his property over to them. 15To one he gives five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each one according to his strength. Then he goes on his journey. As soon 16as he goes, the…
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
1Brothers and sisters, you don’t need me to write to you about the times and the seasons, 2because you yourselves are well aware that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. 3When people are saying “Peace and security,” then destruction will come on them suddenly, like labor pains on…