Well, I had a lovely few days away with the loveliest people in the world. The weather was charming and the food was delicious and whatever it was I said seemed to make sense at the time, which is a peculiar experience for me, given that the people I speak to most around here are my children, and to them, I seem wildly incomprehensible and probably speaking some other language entire. I left the golden breezes of the south and... Read more
What I was looking at while Matt was struggling along, podcasting alone, and being all things to all the children. I spent a very pleasant and restful weekend in South Carolina, suffering for the Lord as it were, and am really too tired to think about anything but how nice it was to be away from all the arguing and fractious children, so Matt did up a half podcast about what’s wrong with a lot of Anglican communiques. It’s very... Read more
My mother sent me this ages ago and I finally got around to reading it. It is utterly brilliant—the writing, the insight, the poking of a goodly sized hole through the thin paper veneer of something that looks clever but is really…just like everything else. It is a timely piece, for me, because already one of the nice things we acquired at Christmas time for one of our children is broken. All three of the younger girls wanted rocking chairs, for reasons... Read more
M. Michele should spend some time with these nice ladies. I bet their dresses even have pockets. Came across a curious assortment of words on twitter last night when I should have been doing something else—like anything. Also, there are pictures. I mostly understand neither the words, nor the pictures, but let’s do the best we can, shall we? A website called Dazed—an eminently suitable name, I feel—announces that Gucci rejects toxic masculinity with babydoll dresses and blouses for AW20.... Read more
Good Afternoon. We are all at sixes and sevenses. We had one failed podcast, and are trying to download and process the audio for a second, hopefully not failed one. In it, Matt talks all about Critical Theory and I sound off about the gospel. We have a good, if technologically frustrated time, and I hope you will too. Here is Matt’s article again, in case you missed it last week. Here is something brilliant. Here is something beautiful. Oh... Read more
My productivity is lately ruined because the miracle Christmas cat who is, yes, still with us, waits for me to wake up in the morning and then rushes in to sit on the keyboard. I have to wrestle with her for fifteen minutes to convince her that it would be nicer if she sat next to it, rather than on it. She is so friendly, and also so clear about what is really important in life (technology). Unlike the IFB... Read more
Is it Friday? It is. That means Takes. One Matt and I coincided in our blogging over at Stand Firm today. He wrote this about Critical Theory: The scriptures say much about protecting and providing for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. Those with wealth and authority are to use their power to lift up the needy from the ash heap. Generosity is not optional. There is no place in the New Testament for ethnic hatred or... Read more
I’m over at SF today. Enjoy! ******************************************************************************************* I never know if people love me or hate me when they send me interesting blog fodder in the early hours before the dawn. I’m going to go with love, but sometimes I wonder. This piece a few minutes ago would have been pretty shocking, but now, of course, is run of the mill Thursday, as boring and usual as the long “articles” “reporting” on what antics Instagram Influencers are even up to, the endless... Read more
I was halfway through a nasty post about Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and then the cat stood on my keyboard and deleted it all and I can’t figure out how to get it back. I’m taking it as a sign from God to stay out of the democratic primary, and to avoid the temptation to annesplain that the reason Hillary Clinton lost is not because she’s a woman, but because…oh never mind. Instead, how ‘bout two stupid things for... Read more
Matt pointed out to me yesterday that the death of Roger Scruton proves one of his major pastoral pet peeves. Many people (some of whom should know better) who lose someone they love, when they come bereft to face the horror of how to honor and grieve their dead, nevertheless recoil from the idea of a funeral. ‘Oh,’ they say, ‘we don’t want to mourn a loss, we want to celebrate a life.’ That’s always the phrase—‘celebrate a life.’ This... Read more
Preventing Grace
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