Let me clarify that my earlier Protestant protest against the notion that the forgiveness of sins is exclusively available through the mediation of church officials shouldn’t in any way be taken as an objection to the practice of priests hearing confession. I love the idea of confession. Whether via the Catholic model or the AA model, confessing to somebody else — some-body else — helps us humans accept that we’ve been heard. Such confessions can also help to free us... Read more
National Public Radio’s Morning Edition presented an interesting report today on the U.S. Army’s internal debate: “Army Focus on Counterinsurgency Debated Within.” NPR’s Guy Raz interviewed a series of leading military strategists to provide a useful description of this focus on counterinsurgency: The counterinsurgency doctrine emphasizes the use of minimal force, with the intent of winning the hearts and minds of a civilian population. … “I would say that Gen. Petraeus’ promotion is an affirmation of the fact that the... Read more
I spent Saturday morning at a confirmation ceremony, sadly confirming what I’d read here in comments about “contemporary” worship music in Catholic churches. The word contemporary is in quotes there because, as with the evangelical species of “contemporary Christian music,” the word there doesn’t quite mean what it usually means. It shouldn’t be hard to be contemporary. One would think that writing music that sounds like it comes from another time and place would require additional effort, but that writing... Read more
Good piece in Sunday’s paper on the PPR — the poor people’s rate, or the premium that poor and working classes are charged over and above what the rich charge one another for the same goods and services. If that sounds to you like contentious rhetoric that overstates the case, then please read the article: “Lower income can mean higher rates.” Insurers often factor in a driver’s occupation and/or education level when setting rates. The practice is legal in Delaware... Read more
Left Behind, pp. 431-435 Buck spent Saturday holed up in the otherwise empty Chicago bureau office, getting a head start on his article on the theory behind the disappearances. His mind continually swirled, forcing him to think about Carpathia and what he would say in that piece about how the man seemed to be a perfect parallel to biblical prophecy. Fortunately, he could wait on writing that until after the big day on Monday. Reading Left Behind can be a... Read more
Hey remember this? I think we were on the letter C … Now it’s hard to say now if he’s only stupid or smartWhen he crawled through the doorAnd poured out moreof his creeping-Jesus heart “Creep,” Radiohead “Crescent City,” Emmylou Harris “Cricket,” Thee Spivies “Crimes of Paris,” Elvis Costello & The Attractions “Criminal,” Fiona Apple “Criminal World,” David Bowie “Crimson and Clover,” Tommy James & The Shondells “Crimson and Clover,” Joan Jett “Criticism as Inspiration,” Pedro the Lion “Cross That... Read more
A couple of stories of people getting it right: 1. “Nun offers mercy, but robber gets jail“ Sister Muriel Curran faced the man who shoved her to the ground and ripped away her purse three years ago. She quoted Scripture. She thanked him for the guilty plea that spared her a trial. And she asked a Baltimore County judge not to send him to prison. “There is possibility and hope — I believe in it, it’s what I’m about —... Read more
Os Guinness has popped up on my screen here twice in the past week, so I suppose we should see what’s going on with him. I first encountered Guinness through his entertaining and insightful little book, The Gravedigger File. In that book Guinness shamelessly borrows the mirror-image, devil’s eye view of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters (if you’re gonna steal, steal from the good stuff) for a breezy discussion of what he calls there “the subversion of the modern church.” I’d... Read more
Identity theft is, at best, an enormous hassle for the victim. At worst it can be devastating. Victims’ “credit rating” can be destroyed, forcing them to pay the PPR (poor person’s rate) for everything from credit cards to insurance. For the life of me, though, I can’t imagine a circumstance in which being the victim of identity theft would force one to don a pirate costume and sing for tourists in a bad theme restaurant. That’s not how it works.... Read more
(That’s Thursday Flamewar Open Thread, of course.) So who said the following, and in response to whom? “It is not probably prudent … in today’s world to threaten to obliterate any other country and in many cases civilians resident in such a country.” Read more
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