I can’t accurately or justly be described as panicked.  I’m a pretty calm, Type-B sort of personality.  But I do take note of such things, and I regard them as worth monitoring:   http://allenbwest.com/2015/06/that-was-fast-yesterday-it-was-gay-marriage-now-look-who-wants-equal-rights/   And, if you say it’s unthinkable, remember what else was unthinkable just a few short years ago.  (President Obama and President-Elect Clinton themselves ostensibly opposed it just a relatively few months back.)   And shouldn’t such relationships as this — entered into by... Read more

    There aren’t all that many of these:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/top-church-leaders-counsel-members-after-supreme-court-same-sex-marriage-decision   Posted from Newport Beach, California   Read more

    I assume that John Gee intended this little essay to be relevant to the discussion between Phillip Jenkins and William Hamblin:   http://fornspollfira.blogspot.com/2015/06/types-of-evidence.html   Whether or not he intended it to be so, however, it is.   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    Luke 11:29-32 Compare Matthew 12:38-42; Mark 8:11-12   Some have argued that, because Jesus cites the story of Jonah, that means that he believed the story of Jonah to be historically true.  And, because Jesus was the Son of God, his believing  the story of Jonah to be historically true proves that, in fact, it is historically true.   I myself am disposed to believe that there is a historical core, at a minimum, to the little story... Read more

    “I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.”  (Roger Ebert, d. 2013)   I think I can see why he would have said that.   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    Luke 11:24-28 Compare Matthew 12:43-45   This is a very striking passage.   On one level, we see it fulfilled all the time.  People who return to the sins that they had once forsaken often sink lower than they had been before.  They surrender.  They give themselves over to the “dark side.”   Relapsing addicts not infrequently die.  Relapsing dieters binge.   Some apostates — I don’t say all — become more hostile and more vicious than those who’ve... Read more

    Gabriela Walther-Bleck kindly shared with me a link supplied by Johann Jennemann.   It has a distinctly Israeli-Jewish point of view, and it’s pretty overtly propagandistic.  Still, though, it’s an interesting historical summary.  Well done.   And don’t worry.  It’s in English:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMr-J2_p3c   Posted from Newport Beach, California   Read more

    My brother called me twelve years ago today.  In the early afternoon.   “Dad died,” he said, simply.  Trying, I’m sure, not to break down.   I was downstairs, working in my office.  “You’re kidding,” I said, stupidly.   I’ve thought about that a lot.  Why did I say that?  I don’t know.  It made no sense.  I guess I was in a kind of shock.   I walked upstairs, blurted the news out to my wife, got... Read more

    I’ve been asked, given my disagreement with the 5-4 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, what can be done now that it’s history.  Here’s one take on that question:   https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/06/26/supreme-court-marriage-equality-decision-unadulterated-judicial-activism/S3w8eDx94vIJ01Yd7JijUI/story.html   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    http://thefederalist.com/2014/04/09/bait-and-switch-how-same-sex-marriage-ends-marriage-and-family-autonomy/     Read more