Features
PB sermon turns silk purse into sow’s ear
I think that last Sunday’s lesson from Acts is one of the Bible’s best for preaching the liberating power of Christ. It is a passage that even progressives should find inspiring on several levels. Unless you are the Presiding Bishop, who sees the complete opposite. Instead of liberation, there is confinement. Instead of Christ’s glory, there’s just squalor.
Don’t Sign the Letter
Living in a condition of regular unrepentant sexual engagement with a person of the same sex is, according to 1 Cor 6:9-10, damnable. The best thing, the only thing, to be done is to repent, break off the relationship, and turn to Jesus Christ. For the sake of those engaged in this sin (and those who are tempted by it) there can be no pastoral or practical accommodation.
A Facebook Exchange with a COE Bishop
It’s sometimes unpleasant to have one’s rhetorical inconsistencies mocked and it’s sometimes unpleasant to have someone else in one’s organization point out that there’s no commonality on one’s faith.
How to Never Say Anything True About Jesus to Anyone Ever
The apostles did not wait, nor do they ever suggest waiting, until hearers might “receive the gospel as good news” before proclaiming it. The cross offends. It always will because it amplifies the sinfulness of human sin and the helplessness of humanity apart from the work of Christ.
Beware the Next Reichstag Fire
The American left probes for a Reichstag fire moment. There is a quest for an incident that will allow more centralization of emergency power in the federal government, the elimination of constitutional rights and, it would appear, the advent of a single party state.
Eichmann to Gosnell, Ragsdale on the Assist
I don’t think I’m violating any confidences to say that most of us at Stand Firm are finding it very hard to cover the Gosnell trial, as relevant and pointed as it is for the kinds of faith and culture issues we engage here. Monstrous as he is, he is but a microcosm of evil pervading the church and the world.
Once More into the Breach: The Silly Shellfish Argument Rises Again
If you’re a revisionist activist devoted to normalizing homosexual behavior in the church, Acts 10 isn’t a moving account of the gracious and merciful hand of God extending salvation to the Gentiles – it’s a threat that must be neutralized.
Burning Incense to Rosie O’Donnell
“Marriage equality” lets people stand on a cost-free moral high ground. You’re a good person just for holding the opinion, saying the slogan, burning the pinch of incense. You are an accepted member of the in group and can look down your nose at those on the outs.
Sexual Immorality is a Rejection of Jesus
What I want to do here is look at the specific way in which the New Testament equates false teaching about sexual ethics with false teaching about Jesus and outright denial of his Lordship.
The Duke, the Dauphin, and the Episcopal Bishop of Virginia
It’s such a crude and farcical fraud by now—like the Duke and the Dauphin capering across the stage in Huckleberry Finn—and yet our bishops still put on the play with nary a trace of embarrassment or self-awareness.
Learning the Right Lessons: No One Should be Surprised by Shannon Johnston
To promote the notion that two people of the same sex can be married and/or engage in sexual acts within the context of a union God has blessed is not simply to reject God’s revealed purposes for human sexuality, it is also to construct a false image of god, a distorted portrait of Christ.
Truro - the Crisis for the Communion
Simply put, Baucum/Truro have crystallised and provided validation to what is becoming increasingly clear is Justin Welby’s approach of non-discipline of heretics in the Communion
Truro - the Crisis for the ACNA
Truro’s position effectively demands that all former Virginia parishes revert to TEC.
The Devil, You Say
Was Adam Lanza, the Newtown gunman, the Devil’s agent? To put it another way, can the possibility be foreclosed? Because if it can be, the Prince of Darkness is off the hook, and we turn, necessarily, to the examination of purely human causes and motives
Mindy McCready and the New American Priesthood
One hopes that a real priest, pastor or somebody will come alongside McCready’s abandoned children, with a word more enduring than film scripts or pop lyrics.
Promises, Promises: What Now for the Loyal Opposition in Mississippi?
The Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi is on an irreversible path toward full-on celebration and normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism, and any other deviant sexual cause that becomes fashionable among the theological leftists who run the diocese.
What’s our message to those who aren’t having sex?
Just like there’s all kinds of sex going on, there’s all kinds of celibacy going on. Some celibacy is temporary, some is permanent. Some is planned, some is an intrusion. Some is honored, some is reviled.
The Week
Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee
Got an email from Sojourners today. Raising money for the latest crusade, naturally. This one is about immigration, and the pitch is: Sojourners wants to buy ads on Pandora to counter FAIR’s hateful rhetoric. Will…
Why Men Have Stopped Singing In Church
4 Interesting stuff from the Church for Men blog: First, a very quick history of congregational singing. Before the Reformation, laypersons were not allowed to sing in church. Sacred music was performed by…
Cranmer on Slaughter of British Soldier on Streets of London
1 The Muslim Council of Britain rushed out a swift statement, washing its hands of the murder, repudiating utterly any link with Islam: “A barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this…
Yet Another Reason to Support Second Amendment Rights
6 When seconds count, the police are only minutes away. “Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if…
How my mother’s fanatical views tore us apart
2 Although she won’t think so, this is a devastating indictment of both Alice Walker and her ideology. From the Daily Mail, where there is more: My parents met and fell…
Religion of Molech Defends Late-Term Baby-Killing
2 The priests of Molech from the Religious Coalition on Reproductive Choice have weighed in on a proposal that would ban abortion in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks.…
Awesome and Shibboleths of Community
1 More on community and church choices, this time from Red State: Again, this sounds a lot like deciding the grass is greener elsewhere because of what others say. I…
Capitalism and Community
I’ve skipped the great excerpt from Senator Lee’s speech, so make sure you hustle over to Red State to read it all: This is a significant point, and it…
The Art of the Non-Apology by Rachel Held Evans
7 Hey look, so I recognize that hypothetically speaking it is possible that I might potentially write something that might be construed by some people as “wrong”. And I want to apologize to…
Jurgen Liias’s Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography
12 Here’s another man’s thoughts about his church search. Obviously, I disagree with his foundational assumption which is that Rome’s assertions about its identity as “one true church”…
Adoption: Recipe for Virtually Automatic Audit
3 Have you adopted a child recently? Don’t look now, but the IRS will be knocking on your door soon, according to David French of National Review Online: As we get word…
May Madness: A Bracket for My Search of a Church Home (Miniblog #204)
1 This is a fascinating post on church searching—something which many Episcopalians in TEC [or out of it now] have undergone. [For a bit of background on this person’s…
All is Well™ - Georgia Division
26 A new chapter in the All is Well™ - Geogia Division saga. Word on the street is that a portion of the congregation at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church…
Homicide Rates Before Guns?
1 Interesting analysis over at Extrano’s Alley, where there is more: England is one of the few exceptions to the lack of records. Wide areas of England have excellent…
Mid-Week Refresher: Marine reunited with dog he handled in Afghanistan in surprise ceremony
2 Very sweet. From Fox News, where there is more: When Marine Sgt. Ross Gundlach served as a dog handler in Afghanistan, he told the yellow lab who was his constant…
Recent Comments
cennydd13 - Why Men Have Stopped Singing In Church
All of which makes a lot of sense. But, Pb, choral singing is not meant to entertain the congregation, but to help lead and lend beauty to the service.
B. Hunter - Yet Another Reason to Support Second Amendment Rights
It’s a measure of last resort - none of us want to kill another human being. But it is our responsibility to protect our family and our country…
B. Hunter - How my mother's fanatical views tore us apart
Her mother is selfish. Kids come first, period.
Undergroundpewster - Why Men Have Stopped Singing In Church
Congregational singing takes time and effort from the music director and sometimes means telling the rector “NO” when they suggest something unsingable. There are reasons why we have the oldies but goodies in hymnody and…
B. Hunter - Religion of Molech Defends Late-Term Baby-Killing
It’s a very selfish point of view. They KNOW they are killing their own baby. Don’t believe otherwise. So I have a question - if you are going to have an abortion - why in…
Pb - Why Men Have Stopped Singing In Church
I attend a blended worship service and everyone sings well. Performance worship is found at all points of the worship spectrum.
Pb - Why Men Have Stopped Singing In Church
I attend a blended worship service and everyone sings well. Performance worship is found at all points of the worship spectrum.
cennydd13 - Why Men Have Stopped Singing In Church
Introducing new religious music is one thing, but when we start losing people who prefer the magnificent old hymns, that’s something else again. All too often, we find this happening, and it doesn’t have to…
Betty See - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography
Words Matter, You said: “That promise about raising the children Catholic is gone, or so I’m told.” Who told you this? Was it someone in the Clergy or someone who had authority to speak for…
Words Matter - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography
I should clarify one thing: my use of “nut jobs” referred to the really bad people we have among us, as will as the revisionists, traditionalists who are more catholic than the pope, and clergy…
tdunbar - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography
“The Catholic Church is the church we mean when we say The Church” - attributed to Lenny Bruce
tdunbar - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography
And, if not…
Words Matter - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography
That promise about raising the children Catholic is gone, or so I’m told. Maybe it’s around in some places, I don’t know, but not here. I’m guessing, but I’ll bet it was a pastoral compromise…
cennydd13 - Cranmer on Slaughter of British Soldier on Streets of London
There is absolutely no doubt of the intent to intimidate, assassinate, and slaughter those who Islam says are “infidels,” meaning Christians, Jews, Hindus, or those of any others whose religious beliefs do not match those…
Betty See - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography
Words Matter, I don’t hang out around “people, blogs, or TV channels (think: EWTN) where you are likely to hear that sort of thing” either. In fact I don’t even know what “EWTN” is. Isn’t…
cennydd13 - Yet Another Reason to Support Second Amendment Rights
Most police officers whom I’ve known and associated with would prefer NEVER to have to draw their weapon if there were an alternative short of letting themselves or their partner or another person be shot…