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 Read more
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
Good Friday conjunctions
April 22, 2011 By Gene Veith 22 Comments
This year Good Friday falls on April 22, which is also the new environmentalist holiday of Earth Day. (It is also “89ers’ Day,” the anniversary of the Oklahoma Land Run in 1889, as all of my fellow Oklahomans should know.) Some churches, usually of the more liberal persuasion, are trying to honor Good Friday and Earth Day together, recommending ecological gestures to honor Christ and suggesting that Christ died for the Earth. He did die for the world. And the… Read more
Easter and Baptism
April 22, 2011 By Gene Veith 10 Comments
Did you realize that you were buried in the tomb with Jesus? And that on Easter morning when He rose from the dead, you did too? That’s what your baptism accomplished, according to the Bible: “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12). Read more
Was Easter originally a Pagan Holiday?
April 22, 2011 By Gene Veith 75 Comments
The charge is that the word “Easter” derives from the name of a pagan fertility goddess “Eostre.” It is said that Christians took over a spring festival devoted to this deity. But this article by British historian Anthony McRoy debunks that claim: Was Easter Borrowed from a Pagan Holiday? | Christian History. Briefly, the connection to Eostre was made by the Venerable Bede, the medieval church historian, but we can find no other mention of the goddess or any festival… Read more
The impact of Holy Communion
April 21, 2011 By Gene Veith 76 Comments
Today is Maundy Thursday, when Passion Week takes off. In particular, this is the commemoration of the Last Supper of our Lord with His disciples, at which He instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion. We Lutherans, of course, consider that the bread and wine convey the actual objective body and blood of the Risen Christ given for our salvation. So of course Holy Communion is a huge deal for us, the very center of our spiritual lives, the tangible manifestation… Read more
Preserving the Union
April 21, 2011 By Gene Veith 120 Comments
In a review of Robert Redford’s new movie The Conspirator, about the plot to kill Lincoln, Ann Hornaday makes an interesting point, that one of the major patriotic ideals for which many Americans died in the Civil War–namely, the Union–is nearly always denigrated in movies and has faded from the American consciousness: As University of Virginia history professor Gary Gallagher gracefully proves in his book “Causes Won, Lost and Forgotten,” about how popular culture has shaped ideas about the Civil… Read more
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