Lutheranism as the emergent church?
April 27, 2011 By Gene Veith 296 Comments
Set aside the pastor being a woman. Set aside the tattoos. Set aside the social justice stuff. Well, you’ll have to set aside quite a bit. But what’s striking here is that the latest star of the “emergent church” (congregations trying to reach trendy postmodernists by being trendy and postmodernist) employs traditional Lutheran theology and liturgy: Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber is a dichotomy wrapped in a paradox covered in tattoos. Creation, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Good Friday, Easter and Pentecost... Read more
The Royal Wedding
April 27, 2011 By Gene Veith 106 Comments
The future king of England, Prince William, is getting married to the future queen, presently the commoner Catherine Middleton. This will happen really early in the morning, American time, on Friday in Westminster Abbey. Now Republicans believe in a republic and Democrats believe in democracy. But do any of you still feel the primal tug of monarchy? If you are interested in this wedding, please tell us why. The Royal Wedding.
Atlas Shrugged, said, “whatever”
April 27, 2011 By Gene Veith 54 Comments
Christians sometimes sit around hoping that if we just had a hit movie that would communicate the Biblical worldview we would impact the culture and bring the secularists to Christ. Ayn Rand fans, despite their atheism, apparently have the same fantasies. The much-anticipated movie version of Atlas Shrugged, Rand’s novel on the virtue of selfishness, has come out. Apparently, like other “message films,” including those about Christianity, it doesn’t really work. So says conservative film critic Roger Simon, who then... Read more
This ugly blog
April 26, 2011 By Gene Veith 130 Comments
Redeemed Rambling is hating on this blog, criticizing our graphic design! This is what he says about Cranach: Ugly. Mixed web 1.0 and 2.0 graphics give the site a weird feel. The posts and comments sometimes display wrong. Definitely a content-centric blog, but that doesn’t give it license look uglier than a newspaper. via Redeemed Rambling: Christian Web Sites Worth Avoiding. Mixed web 1.0 and 2.0 graphics? (I don’t even know what that means, which is probably part of the... Read more
A Lutheran church & school before the Supreme Court
April 26, 2011 By Gene Veith 166 Comments
The Supreme Court is taking up what some are describing as the most important religious liberty case in decades. And it involves a Lutheran school whose church fired a called teacher. From Notre Dame law school professor Richard Garnett: In a nutshell, Hosanna-Tabor is a lawsuit brought by Cheryl Perich, a former teacher at a church-run Lutheran grade school who argues that the church violated a federal law against disability-based discrimination when it rescinded her “call” as a “commissioned minister”... Read more
“Fairness” and “Common sense”
April 26, 2011 By Gene Veith 22 Comments
Two articles take apart the language of political rhetoric: Arthur Brooks examines the way the Democrats invoke the concept of “fairness” and shows that there is more to justice than just taking from the rich: Obama says it’s only ‘fair’ to raise taxes on the rich. He’s wrong. – The Washington Post. Then, from the other side, Sophia Rosenfeld critiques the way Republicans are invoking the concept of “common sense”: Beware of Republicans bearing ‘common sense’ In a day when... Read more
Where your taxes go
April 26, 2011 By Gene Veith 38 Comments
President Obama, in his State of the Union Address, said that taxpayers would soon be able to access an online “receipt” to show what all your taxes are paying for. That site is now up, and it’s kind of interesting: Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt | The White House. HT: Mary J
A dying church
April 25, 2011 By Gene Veith 92 Comments
A pejorative term directed against some congregations is that they are “a dying church.” Either because most of their members are elderly or because they don’t get a lot of new members or because they don’t seem exciting enough. I have always thought that this is rather wicked to say, since we have no idea about the true spiritual life that may be pulsing inside of these Christians, however elderly or not-growing or unexciting they may be. Then our pastor,... Read more
How Democrats and Republicans amuse themselves
April 25, 2011 By Gene Veith 48 Comments
A study of political affiliation and use of media has found that, contrary to popular assumption, Republicans are more active online than Democrats. Republicans are also more likely to watch “The Office,” like sports, and watch the History Channel. Democrats prefer newspapers, “Ugly Betty,” Comedy Central, and basketball. At least in the Midwest, the focus of the study, though some of the results are thought to be transferable more broadly. Here are more details from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which takes... Read more
He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows
April 22, 2011 By Gene Veith 18 Comments
On this Good Friday I urge you to read and to meditate upon that astonishing prophecy of Christ’s Passion and His redemptive work in Isaiah 53. In doing so, consider these words: Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are... Read more
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