Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 159

We aren’t as busy as we think we are

Chaucer describes a bustling lawyer (the Sergeant of Law) like this: Nowhere so bisy a man he ther nas                                                                           [Read More...]

Online baptism

The Church of Scotland wants to increase membership by letting worshippers attend online.   The Presbyterian state church is also considering allowing “access to the sacraments” for people are not “physically present in the congregation.” It isn’t clear what this would look like.  I believe this has been done for communion in other “virtual churches” by [Read More...]

The brain is NOT a computer

Brain researcher Robert Epstein explains that, contrary to what we keep hearing, the brain is NOT a computer.  We don’t process information, we don’t retrieve memories, and we won’t be able someday to download our minds into the internet. From Robert Epstein,  Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays: [Read More...]

Sanders voters for Trump?

Many supporters of Bernie Sanders do not like Hillary Clinton and are vowing that they will never vote for her.  The more affluent of his supporters could always vote with the Green Party, though most will settle for Clinton after all.  But what about the white working class voters who are victims of the current [Read More...]

Vocation and Commencement Addresses

Mollie Hemingway has a great piece in the Federalist about vocation as a theme in commencement addresses.  So many of them miss the point of what vocation actually is.  But she corrects that, discussing three high-profile commencement speeches in light of the doctrine of vocation.  She even quotes yours truly. From Mollie Hemingway,  What Sheryl [Read More...]

A Christian Democracy Party for the USA?

The United States has a two-party system, and both parties seem to be cracking up.  Most of the other democratic countries of the world have a parliamentary system, with lots of parties.  They then must form coalitions to elect a Prime Minister.  One of the prominent parties in Europe and Latin America is the Christian [Read More...]

So what about the Constitution Party?

There is already a conservative third party:  The Constitution Party.  According to their website, they are on the ballot in 18 states, and are at various stages of approval for more.  They have a presidential ticket:  Darrell Castle and Scott Bradley.  I’m not familiar with either of these gentlemen, but they might be better than [Read More...]

Confessing the intolerance of progressives

Nicholas Kristof, himself a progressive, castigates the intolerance of his fellow progressives when it comes to conservatives and their ideas. From Nicholas Kristof,  A Confession of Liberal Intolerance – The New York Times: WE progressives believe in diversity, and we want women, blacks, Latinos, gays and Muslims at the table — er, so long as they [Read More...]

Garrison Keillor on kinds of Christianity

Garrison Keillor has written a humorous, yet touching column about Christianity.  He starts by lambasting some immoral Christians in the news.  But then he recalls his own less worldly evangelical upbringing.  And finally he writes about his current high church Anglicanism. Best line:  “I love my neighbor as myself, but only because I don’t much [Read More...]

Day Jobs

Scot McKnight has a post from an Australian source on the Day Jobs of 20 Famous Writers.  Most of these seem to be what the writers were doing before they were able to make a living just from their writing.  I could list more examples of day jobs that writers held even after they became successful: [Read More...]