Unnecessary Punctuation “Marks”

If bad punctuation leading to misunderstanding has ever annoyed you or made you angry, go here. Reminds me of the first book to make me laugh out loud in a long time: Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves. (You’ll never look at punctuation in the same way.)  [If such things make you laugh, see this.] [...]

Another Brilliant Exploitation of Popular Culture

After House, it was only a matter of time before Jack Bauer entered the Office of the Holy Ministry. I’m surprised it took this long. Timotheos

What Do Other Christians Believe About the Lord’s Supper?

I would have thought this would be clear by now, but I encounter people all the time who think that “we (Lutherans of the Missouri Synod variety) really believe the same things” about the Lord’s Supper as other Christians. May this post forever put that conception to rest (if only!). The reason for this post [...]

New Blog

I commend to you Chuck Finney’s Anxious Bench.  (Not for little children; my daughter was a little scared of the picture.)  And to think that I was critical of those Lutherans who thought Mr. Finney did some good things.  Like, he was good at evangelism, right? Timotheos

Muslim-Friendly Worship

I set out to write about Prof. Herb Hoefer‘s ideas for making worship more Muslim-friendly (which, I hesitate to say, I saw first in Something News–can’t quite recall its full title at the moment…), only to find out it had already been done, and probably better than I could have done it. See Father Hollywood’s [...]

Atheism and Morality

I’ve been watching Christopher Hitchens debate Dinesh D’Souza (the first part is here). There are a number of points on which Hitchens misunderstands the nature of Christian belief. But there is one that really misses the point, which is that Christians supposedly say that atheists have no basis for making moral judgments, and that without [...]

Goodbye Shaun

It’s been a good run, but you just weren’t doing it anymore.  No doubt you’ll have a couple, or a few, more good years with another team.  Good luck.  Go Seahawks! Timotheos

Chesterton on Drinking

I’m searching Chesterton for a particular quote (“Morality is always dreadfully complicated to a man who has lost his principles”; if you know where it is found, please, please tell me) and I found this in Heretics under “Omar and the Sacred Vine” (Chesterton quoters should be required to give attribution!): The sound rule in [...]

Sad, Sad Little Girl

I don’t really know what’s going on in the mind of Aliza Shvarts, but it’s sick and twisted. Her statements are a degenerate example of post-modernism (I know, I know, the bogeyman; but let me explain). Post-modernism is a slippery concept, but as I see it, it is the general loss of any overarching narrative [...]

Why Is Jimmy Carter Playing Stupid?

Or should that be a rhetorical question? Former President Carter said Monday that Hamas — the Islamic militant group that has called for the destruction of Israel — is prepared to accept the right of the Jewish state to “live as a neighbor next door in peace.” But Carter warned that there would not be [...]