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Showing posts from February 20, 2011

Saturday Grace

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I was searching for something about Saturday and found this music video from the Fall Out Boy band and their song "Saturday." Interesting lyrics: I'm good to go, And I'm going nowhere fast...t hough the motions I've been going through have failed... And I'm coasting on potential towards a wall, At a 100 miles an hour.... In the wake of Saturday (Saturday) Saturday... When these open doors were open-ended Saturdays... When these open doors were open-ended... And I r ead about the afterlife... But I never really lived & I read about the afterlife... But I never really lived There is a decidedly Ecclesiastes-like "All is vanity" vibe to the lyrics. The video and song seems to be the human equivalent of a gerbil on a wheel. Run faster to get to nowhere sooner ...not exactly worth the effort. Now, that my studies are finished, I love the open-ended nature of Saturdays. I take care of all of those issues that are like untied shoes...I cook, I c

Denominational Blues II (Catholic)

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Luke 11:28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. The largest schism in the Christian Church, testified by the about the amount of blood shed historically, is the divide between Catholic and Protestant. Not really that mainline Protestantism is an adversary anymore because it really does not believe in orthodoxy these days. I ran into a guy one time down on Temple University's campus who had a Mother Mary button on his shirt and we got into a bit of a discussion about the Catholic/Protestant divide. Little did he know that I was raised a Catholic and know more about Catholicism than most Catholics, not to mention my evangelical brethren. I think it fair, if the Bible was the standard for determining Truth, that I won the debate. Hence, the rub. Since he did not attest to the final authority of Scripture for all of Faith, he probably saw it as a draw. Or, that he burned me at the stake intellectually. Our discussion was cordial though. Bu

Presidents Day

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I know that Presidents Day is a great day to get a new washer and dryer on sale, but if you could hold off for a few minutes and read this, I think you will be happy to have done so before charging off to the appliance store. Or in my case, Starbucks, to meet a buddy for coffee. My wife Lina has an uncle who lives in a picturesque farmhouse Western Massachusetts close to Worcester, a city whose name has to be the biggest difference between how it is spelled and how it is pronounced, in the world. For the record, it sounds like Wooster...an Elmer Fudd reading of Rooster. The town Uncle James actually lives in is Sterling, a town that was the place where "Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow." There is a statue of her and her lamb in the town square. Interesting factoids, nothing more. Uncle James has a nice-sized library and one time while on a visit, I grabbed this book about JFK off the shelf and started to read it. I made a pretty substantial dent in it

Denominational Blues

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The classic Christian rock band the 77's did a rendition of the song "Denominational Blues" nearly 30 years ago. Still sounds great and the words still ring true. 30 years...gee, I am well on my way to AARP membership, Bingo, and driving like a menace. Stands to reason that division in the Church is a reality...it was in the Early Church where the Apostle Paul had to ask, "Was Paul crucified for you?" But , a s Matthew Henry noted in the falling out of Paul and Barnabas, "The best of men are still yet men." Seemingly, we are not the only era that has made human personality more important than fidelity to Christ. Multiplication of Disciples, Divisions of Denominations, a theological mathematical conundrum. Addition and subtraction writ large. However, I have to think for all the negatives of denominational loyalty at the expense of Christian unity is, it is not all bad. Do we really think that the Church would really be better off if it was all in th