After 10 days of deliberation, the jury found abortionist Kermit Gosnell guilty of capital murder for killing babies a few moments after they were born, as opposed to his usual practice of killing them a few moments before they were born, which is legal. [Read more…]
The IRS plot thickens
May 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
More information is coming out about how the IRS harassed groups critical of the government. Allegations are coming out that the agency audits businesses whose owners have questioned government actions and that it has leaked confidential tax records. Also, the Washington Post is reporting that the initiative to target conservative organizations came not from rogue agents in Cincinnati, as the IRS has claimed, but from a task force in Washington.
What the IRS did to the conservative organizations, going back to 2010, is in their handling of their tax exempt applications as non-profit organizations. They inundated the groups with paperwork, including the request for detailed information about donors and even volunteers. In addition, the agency would take up to 2 years to process the application! This effectively kept the new groups from functioning. After the jump, an organization’s spokesman tells what his group went through. [Read more…]
“The assumption of the humanity into God”
May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday was Ascension Sunday. (The actual Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter, the time the risen Christ remained on earth, was last Thursday.) It commemorates something important and profound: the now-and-still Incarnate Son of God, His work of redemption complete, returning to His Father and assuming His eternal place in the Holy Trinity.
Some people think Ascension Day means that Jesus isn’t here anymore. (I have heard that put forward as a way to deny His presence in Holy Communion!) But what it really means is that now He can be present in all times and places (particularly Holy Communion!) because the Ascended Christ fills all things (Ephesians 1:20-23).
Christ’s Ascension has to do with His Incarnation, which, according to the Athanasian Creed, was “not by conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by “the assumption of the humanity into God.” Think of that! Our human nature, taken on by Christ, has been taken “into God.” This is why, in connection to Holy Communion, Christ’s body and blood, elements of his and our physical human nature, can be distributed to us human beings in our own times and places. What are some other implications of “the assumption of the humanity into God”?
What is a nation?
May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As college classes, including my own, conclude for the Summer, I will reveal an academic secret: professors often learn from their students. Being an audience of one for all of those papers has its rewards. In my Shakespeare class, several students wrote about some aspect of the emerging view of nationhood in Shakespeare’s history plays. The nation-state, after all, was a fairly recent development in the 1590’s when Shakespeare wrote his histories, with England transitioning from the feudal system, with its personal loyalties to local lords, to a highly-organized central government commanding citizens with a strong sense of their “Englishness.”
But, as Shakespeare’s plays suggest, there are different understandings of what constitutes a nation: (1) a geographical locality; that is, a land, a place (“this sceptered isle”); (2) a people (“we band of brothers”); (3) a government; that is, a sovereignty embodied in the monarch (“Henry V”); (4) a distinctive spirit or ideology (not so evident in Shakespeare, except for perhaps hints of English liberties and differences with France).
It occurred to me that these same different views of nationhood are still with us today and that we Americans have not really arrived at a consensus about it, resulting in some of our confusions. [Read more…]
IRS targeted conservatives
May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The IRS targeted conservative organizations–and admits it! And is now apologizing for it! Investigations are underway. This is an egregious case of the abuse of governmental power and may turn into a major scandal. From the Associated Press:
The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.
Organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.
In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said. [Read more…]
This new commenting system
May 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As you have seen, the new “Disqus” commenting system being implemented on all Patheos blogs that I said was coming has gone into effect. I’m still figuring it out myself. One thing I learned: “Disqus” is pronounced “discuss.” (Get it? I know, I know. . . ) Here are a few features that might have benefits for our discussions on this particular blog: [Read more…]
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