May 25, 2013

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

A Memorial Day Reminder:  I Drive Your Truck

NRO has a wonderful article about a brave man who gave his life in the service of his country.  A country songwriter heard the father telling his story on the radio and wrote a song. …

Persecution or Statutory Rape?

If you’ve opened a news page somewhere in the free world this week, you’ve probably read the headlines:  Teen Girl Arrested for Same Sex Relatonship;  Florida Teen Arrested, Expelled for Same…

Friday Palate Cleanser: Spectacular B&W Photos of New York City

From the Daily Mail, where there is more: Almost a million images of New York and its municipal operations have been made public for the first time on the internet.…

It’s the end of the world as we know it (and that’s great!)

1 More analysis on the future of the US, this time from Kevin Williamson over at the New York Post: Our key economic failings are in…

Reforming the Republic IV: Educate; Do Not Enstupidate[*]

Four interesting ideas on education reform, from Red State where there is more: Implementing a new Common Core of unenforceable and utterly ignored standards is not going…

Actions Still Speak Louder Than Words

1 When children get caught doing something they should not have done, most parents try to make sure the end result is that the child is actually sorry for the action and not simply sorry he…

Robert J. Samuelson Discusses Risk, Reality and America’s Future

Interesting analysis from Red State, where there is more: Back when I worked as an Operational Tester for Sam’s Army, I was at Ft. Campbell working in my data…

Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee

8 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

11 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

3 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…

Recent Comments

cennydd13 - Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee

Those immigration laws are there for a reason, and yet this administration has chosen to ignore them for reasons of political expediency.  I think the time is coming when the states will offer the administration…

Betty See - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography

It seems to me that those who are intent on leaving behind their Anglican Faith for the Roman Catholic Church should at least educate themselves on what they are leaving behind and at least read…

winslow - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography

Sarah Hey said:  “My acknowledging reality—that is, that Rome makes gargantuan claims about its own identity, claims that Protestants do not accept, and that *if Rome is wrong, as I believe it is*, that the…

Capt. Father Warren - Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee

When I first read that ++Duncan had signed the letter I went to visit the link I gave above and my jaw dropped.  Beyond all those groups arrayed at the top of the letter, read…

tdunbar - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography

The Catholic Church is more architecturally complex than Vatican City.

cennydd13 - Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee

I think we need to encourage our archbishop to reexamine his reasoning for signing that letter by taking the time to READ THE SMALL PRINT.

tdunbar - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography

Given the nature of language, there are two major strategies: reduce the amount of ‘slang’ and ambiguity ala lawyers and many philosophers or push human language to the utmost ala poets. The latter strategy requires…

Temple1 - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography

Even though the Roman church has maintained a claim to be the “one true ” church over the years, the emphasis has shifted a little since Vatican II. People once regarded as “protesting” Protestants are…

tdunbar - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography

Thanks, Sarah, for your clarity. Shortcuts and metaphors are, I think, embedded so deeply in any human language (but perhaps especially in English) that meaningful conversation must use them but at the same time remember…

Sarah - Jurgen Liias's Move to Rome: A Spiritual Autobiography

RE: “Clearly, it’s not about any “one true church” nonsense.” Of course, it is not nonsense at all, Words Matter, as anyone who has absorbed the words of your church’s catechism well recognizes. “One true…

Capt. Father Warren - Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee

Oh yes Sojourners; they have been very very busy on the Immigration front.  Why they even got the Archbishop of ACNA, ++Duncan to sign a letter FOR immigration reform that they are a part of…

St. Nikao - All is Well™ - Georgia Division

All that to say why (+?) Benhase didn’t respond….he couldn’t.  Any concession to the orthodox is unthinkable to these folks, so stuck and mired in their unbiblical cognitive paradigm are they. PC is truly a…

St. Nikao - All is Well™ - Georgia Division

If (+ a true bishop?) Benhase consulted with anyone about the concerns of orthodox clergy, it was likely with ‘herself’ KJS. Addle-brain ideologues cannot think past their agendas and belief-system which is not congruent with…

St. Nikao - Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee

We must resist and stand against these barbarian bullies!  Never, never, never give up.

St. Nikao - Actions Still Speak Louder Than Words

Why did Conyers apologize? Not because he disagreed with Farrakhan’s rants - but because of political repurcussions.  (Remember Obama distancing himself (sort of) from his friend and mentor Jeremiah Wright for political expediency?) Politicians make…

cennydd13 - Why Men Have Stopped Singing In Church

The great beauty of the Hymnal, whether we use the 1940 edition or the 1979 edition is the inclusion of some of the great hymns and service music of the Church, but the unfortunate thing…