Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen.† Read more
Remember Andre Agassi’s commercial? Here’s proof: 10:24AM EST November 19. 2012 – When it comes to body image, large, lean and muscular is in, and it’s “extremely common” for teenagers to turn to diet, exercise, protein powders or steroids in hopes of bulking up and enhancing muscle development, a study finds. Although these techniques are most often seen among boys, in some cases they are nearly as widespread among girls, says the study published Monday inPediatrics. Asked about methods they... Read more
From Robert Krulwich: There are people (and I hear from them constantly) who think if a subject is sophisticated, like science, the language that describes it should be sophisticated, too. If smart people say torque, ribosome, limbic, stochastic and kinase, then the rest of us should knuckle down, concentrate and figure out what those words mean. That’s how we’ll know when we’ve learned something: when we’ve mastered the technical words. I beg to differ. Fancy words are nice if you’re... Read more
A recent book in the excellent “Guide for the Perplexed” series is by Helen K. Bond, a notable New Testament historian at the University of Edinburgh. Her book is called The Historical Jesus. Raising this topic means we need to get a few ideas straight again. The historical Jesus is the reconstruction, by an individual scholar, of what Jesus was really like (a) on the basis of historical methods and (2) over against what the church has said about Jesus in the... Read more
If any two branches of the church should not be political it’s these two, yet they have both become profoundly politicized, one to the Right and one to the Left. It’s easy to see why Catholics are politicized — think of Rome and Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. Politics is part of the Catholic’s DNA. Think, too, of Eastern Orthodoxy — think of Constantinople and Moscow and Alexandria and the Eastern Orthodox’s implication in the politics of those Eastern... Read more
From UK Guardian: The Church of England has been plunged into its gravest crisis in decades after legislation that would have allowed female clergy to become bishops, and swept away centuries of entrenched sexism, was rejected by just six votes. In dramatic scenes at Church House in Westminster, a long-awaited measure that was the result of 12 tortuous years of debate and more than three decades of campaigning was defeated by lay members, prompting one bishop to warn that the... Read more
Mercy, see this? What have you seen as a new holiday “flavors”? 8:46PM EST November 18. 2012 – Every year, before the Thanksgiving turkey hits the platter, America’s food giants decide that consumers want to celebrate the holidays with something they can’t get the rest of the year: weird flavors. Not only is holiday 2012 no exception, but things appear to be getting even weirder. Like candy cane-flavored Pringles. Like Gingerbread shakes at Red Robin — with a shot of Jim... Read more
From the NYTimes, opining about the electoral college as defective, even if in some important ways it now favors Democrats: The Electoral College remains a deeply defective political mechanism no matter whom it benefits, and it needs to be abolished. We say that in full knowledge that the college may be tilting toward the kinds of candidates we tend to support and provided a far more decisive margin for Mr. Obama earlier this month than his showing in the popular... Read more
Among other things lately, I have been reading from Christian letters to a post-Christian world, a selection of essays by Dorothy Sayers, unfortunately out of print now. C. S. Lewis has a broad readership among Christians – and well deserved. But Sayers deserves a far broader readership than she receives. She was much more than just a writer of detective stories. Her insights (not to mention her incredible power with the pen) still speak today. The opening section of this... Read more
You Prove God’s Existence (Argument #4 for God’s Existence) Most people think they exist. Even Descartes, who set out to doubt everything, found he could not rightly doubt his own existence. But some stories, like Materialism, make believing in one’s self problematic. This may seem ridiculous at first, but notice: Materialism tells us a story of how things are, yet if Materialism is true “where” are “you”? Are “you” your physical body? If you cut off an arm are “you”... Read more
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