MBWR #134
. . . has been posted by Allan R. Bevere. I appreciate his efforts on this roundup–I regularly find thought provoking posts to read and/or respond to by that means.
Retelling and Rethinking the Unjust Judge
This week’s lectionary readings included Luke 18:1-8, the story of the unjust judge. One of the problems many people have with this story is relating the unjust judge to God, but as I pointed out in a devotional one thing we are supposed to hear from the story is how God is different from the…
Honourable Mention for Threads and Stuff to Read
This from An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution. Of course I use the honourable spelling for honourable in honour of Canadian connections. He links to my post Theisms, Creationisms, and Evolutionisms: An Exercise in Definition. I appreciate the mention and link. Since I have been writing a good bit on Dawkins, and linking to other material…
Lawmakers Apologize
. . . and well they should. MSNBC has the story. One interesting paragraph was this one: Legal experts say the case shows the United States has violated a 1998 law that specifically prohibits the government from turning a suspect over to a foreign country where the suspect might be tortured. U.S. authorities say they…
God Reducing Machine
Check it out here. Reduce your God to a manageable size! HT: 42.
Interesting Response to 5 Lies the Church Tells Women
Dave Warnock has an interesting response to 5 Lies the Church Tells Women which he titles 5 Lies the Church Tells Women: does not go far enough. Working with some principles derived from Karl Barth’s writings, he responds point by point, except to a couple of them that he says he can’t take seriously. I…
Agreement on Spying
I sometimes wonder precisely what the purpose was of electing a Democrat-led congress, considering their track record. I’ve gotten a couple of notes from the ACLU on this, and also got it from the Washington Post today. My problem here is not that [tag]surveillance[/tag] does not need to occur in some cases. Rather, my question…
John Wesley on 2 Peter 1:3-11
I wanted to post John Wesley’s notes on this passage as I’m studying it and presenting some devotional talks on it for the Running Toward the Goal podcast (first one here). I was started down the path of studying this passage by Laura Curtis’s post on Pursuing Holiness which is well worth reading. John Wesley’s…
Stupidity and Lack of Accountability in Enforcement
Because I’ve been blogging lately about how law enforcement can get out of hand and start to look very much like [tag]terrorism[/tag] itself when it is not accountable, I want to call attention to a couple of incidents in which I found at Aetiology (Mail harmless bacteria, go to jail). You can find further information…
Anthropology and Military Planning
It seems that some people in the military have noticed the fact that we don’t really understand the territories and the countries about which we so glibly pontificate. And much of the pontification is official, which makes the ignorance more egregious. In an BBC article received via e-mail, I read the following: But that is…
Any Military Connection Triggers Criticism
Sometimes I wonder if some of my liberal fellow-citizens really don’t like change, progress, innovation, and experimentation all that much. I really thought that conservatives were the ones who were supposed to look only at traditional solutions, while liberals were open to a variety of ideas. This afternoon I was doing some writing in my…
Mixed Emotions about Sweden
I read this news article from Sweden with mixed emotions (HT: Panda’s Thumb). My first reaction is negative. Since these schools are faith based, it seems appropriate to me that they teach from the perspective of the faith involved in sponsoring the school. I relate this to my own experience being home schooled and being…
Holy Heteroclite Playing Word Games
Why don’t you join him? The post is “I wanted to know Jesus, but you gave me a library”. It sounds like fun.
Predicting Hillary Derangement Syndrome
Jeremy Pierce is predicting that if [tag]Hillary Clinton[/tag] wins the presidency, some folks, particularly evangelical Christians, will be subject to Hillary Derangement Syndrome (HT: evangelical outpost). His note reminded me of a political science professor from whom I took a few classes. He would regularly tell us that if we felt that our lives would…
Sunday Afternoon Evolution Notes and Links
I’ve been reading a number of really good posts on the creation, evolution, and intelligent design, but I only have a very small amount to say about each one, so I’m going to combine them into a post. The first is from An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution, and is titled Does Evolution lead to Moral…
My Previous Looks at 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Since the texts for Proper 24C / Ordinary 29C / Pentecost +21 (October 21, 2007) include 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, which in turn includes 2 Timothy 3:16-17 on which I have written a considerable amount before I thought I’d simply provide links to some earlier material. First, there are two key articles on my Threads blog,…
Translation, Exposition, and Communication
Yes! I have found another pretentious title for a relatively simple post! I’ve been following the discussion around the blogosphere about literary translation, which has involved any number of blogs. I’ve been too busy to write about it. I was about to start last night, and then Doug at Metacatholic said part of what I…
Getting the Humor of the Story
OK, this post discussing daily [tag]lectionary[/tag] readings and particularly the story of Peter being released from prison (Acts 12), is just too good not to link. This retelling just gets the feel of the story, I think, and the humor of the situation, and like Jenn says, the “lectionary dudes” had fun putting it all…
For Thinking Women of Faith
. . . oh, and pardon me for stopping by to read and enjoying the blog! (HT: 42) For a break from white male Christianity, try Renita Weems’ blog Something Within, subtitled “For Thinking Women of Faith about matters of church, race, gender, sex, values, culture, justice, spirituality, and, oh yeah, God.” I particularly enjoyed…
The Potential of Secrecy without Accountability
I don’t know if the claims made by this CEO according to the Washington Post are true or not, but I suggest we would do well to give them due consideration. First, do you regard this kind of activity as impossible? Is it unlikely that the executive branch of the government would do such things?…
Responding to Richard Dawkins
There’s still a good bit of discussion of Richard Dawkins around the blogosphere, focusing on <a href=”The God Delusion, though not exclusively. This morning I encountered a post by The Christian Cynic that gives an interesting response to one point, and also lets me know that the Christian Cynic is posting again. The point to…
Wrap-up on the Jena 6
I was going to do a bit of a wrap up on my comments on the [tag]Jena 6[/tag] even though I haven’t yet had the time to read all of the documents that were provided by Laura Curtis. She has, however, and has written a wrap-up. She’s already said what I wanted to say, and…
Christian Carnival #193
. . . has been posted at Lingamish. Good job, pretty pictures, interesting stuff, nuff said!
Executive Accountability Loophole
. . . through which one could easily drive a complete tyranny. MSNBC.com reports: The Supreme Court on Tuesday terminated a lawsuit from a man who claims he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments that state secrets would be revealed if the case were allowed to proceed. Read the…